Category: Blog

Greg Molyneux’s latest photographs and words presented in reverse chronological order.

  • Woven Blossom

    Woven Blossom

    Is it any wonder growing things return us to our roots? To that first moment when a seed quickened. Spreading roots so deep as to bend the arc of life.

    I like this one. It is my kind of photograph—a dreamy macro with a focus so soft you could fall asleep in it. I’ve gone on about it many times before, but macros are my origin story. Back in 2012 spraying and praying one flower photograph at a time. A brute force attack that brought learning through trial, error, and repetition. Maybe not the sexiest approach however elegant in its simplicity. It sure worked for me.

    This purple coneflower used to be an orange coneflower. It’s somewhere around four-ish seasons old, and it’s changed its tune, so to speak. My shot in the dark guess is it that there is some association to pH levels of the soil. Emphasis on the guess and shot in the dark part. I am not complaining, however, as the purple is proper upgrade.

    Irrespective of color, coneflowers make an outstanding subject. Sturdy, shapely, symmetrical, and with great hues and tones, it’s a surefire hit for a solid shot. I encourage you to get out there and frame one up for yourselves. Put that smartphone camera to work!

    Photo details

    • Photographed: 1 July 2025
    • Lighting: Mid-morning
    • Weather: Partly cloudy
    • Location: Ocean Acres, New Jersey
    • Time: ~1000
    • Tripod: No
    • Exposure: One at 1/125 of a second

    Purchase

  • Burning Heart

    Burning Heart

    It took a cool minute but Ocean County summer open and ready for business. And you know what? So am I. It’s a hazy, hot, and humid Sunday in the six-oh-nine, and I am glad I got my run and walk in early. It’s been a lounge around kind of afternoon vibing to the beat of rain drops on the windows and Stick Figure on the aux. Sure there’s yard work to be done, but there is also the perils of heat stroke to consider . . .

    Anyway, I digress. Here’s a motion blur photograph I captured on 10 June, executed with the usual left to right panning motion to create the horizontal motion blur flowing across the frame. A coal fired sunset, a burning heart, and the power to change the world. A muse unmatched—within and without. Thankful and blessed does not even begin to tell this story.

    Photo details

    • Photographed: 10 June 2025
    • Lighting: Sunset
    • Weather: Partly cloudy
    • Location: Cedar Run, New Jersey
    • Time: ~2030
    • Tripod: No
    • Exposure: One at 1/25 of a second panning left to right

    Purchase

  • Delicate Sounds

    Delicate Sounds

    Costco impulse buy never looked so good.

    Let’s hear it for petunias and flower baskets in need of a good hook.

    I’d like to say three weeks later these beauties are thriving. Alas I cannot. I suspect a mix of two much water and not enough sun has wrought havoc on my latest C02 splitting machines. In lieu of their recent suffering, I am glad I made a bunch of photographs when I had the chance.

    In the meantime, let’s see if I can nurse these two back to life.

    Photo details

    • Photographed: 3 May 2025
    • Lighting: Late afternoon
    • Weather: Partly cloudy
    • Location: Ocean Acres, New Jersey
    • Time: ~1835
    • Tripod: No
    • Exposure: One at 1/250

    Purchase

  • Heart of Rebellion

    Heart of Rebellion

    4 May 2025. May the Fourth. Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you. Etc. Etc. Etc.

    Chat, anyone out there watching Andor season two? Two arcs deep—six episodes in total—and this political thriller keeps me on edge. Unsettling in the best way possible, it’s a welcome, if not uncomfortable, treat to be dropped into the early world of the rebellion olds like me grew up on with a story centered around—and explicitly intended for—olds like me. Andor picks at the raw under belly of the nascent rebellion’s leadership, exploring the insidious loss of humanity that corrodes slow and sure in the darkest corners of dying souls. A cause may be righteous; its effect on its people is not. And yet some fights must be fought—irrespective of the costs.

    Photo details

    • Photographed: 3 May 2025
    • Lighting: Late afternoon
    • Weather: Partly cloudy
    • Location: Ocean Acres, New Jersey
    • Time: ~1835
    • Tripod: No
    • Exposure: One at 1/200

    Purchase

    Hey ChatGPT

    Riffing on the theme of the day, the thing that was hiding in the bleeding heart’s shape slapped me right in the face. The Rebel Alliance starbird is made to fit tattooed onto this flower. Brain gears begin to churn—let me see what ChatGPT can do. My suggestions proceeded as follows:

    Me: Yo chat, happy Sunday. If I send you a jpg of a bleeding heart can you embed the Star Wars rebellion logo inside the heart-shaped flower?

    ChatGPT: Yo! Happy Sunday to you too. (Smiling sun emoji.) Yeah absolutely — send over the JPG of the bleeding heart flower, and I’ll embed the Star Wars rebellion logo.

    Me: Uploads above photo

    ChatGPT: Shares first image

    Me: Now try it with the logo inverted

    ChatGPT: Second image, which is the same as the first image

    Me: Abandoning the inverted starbird idea: Create the logo in the street art style of Sabine Wren

    ChatGPT: Third image

    Me: Nice job recreating the goated Sabine Wren. Now, can you have the spray paint logo follow the contours of the flower?

    ChatGPT: Final result below

    ChatGPT aided creation. AI added a Sabine Wren inspired Rebel Alliance starbird superimposed on a 100mm macro Greg Molyneux photograph of bleeding heart flowers.
  • Spin Cycle

    Spin Cycle

    I am overwhelmed. I struggle to keep up. It is hard to keep faith. If I had a towel I would surely throw it in. Signs of a well executed plan. Flood the zone. Drain the brain. Laugh whenever plebeians complain. 

    I am done laughing.I can no longer maintain.

    Photo details

    • Photographed: 23 February 2025
    • Lighting: Sunset
    • Weather: Partly cloudy
    • Location: Cedar Run Dock Road
    • Time: ~1735
    • Tripod: No
    • Exposure: One at 1/13 seconds panned left to right

    Purchase

  • Hulk On High

    Hulk On High

    You are stronger than you might think you are.

    —Hulk

    Photo details

    • Photographed: 23 February 2025
    • Lighting: Sunset
    • Weather: Partly cloudy
    • Location: Cedar Run Dock Road
    • Time: ~1740
    • Tripod: Yes
    • Exposures: Seven merged to HDR
  • No Focus

    No Focus

    Soothing pastel colors pop up at a bayside sunset. Photographed at 35mm with motion blur created by intentional handheld left to right movement.
    No Focus — 35mm | f/5.6 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/15 sec

    Place pastels upon your palette and cue the music the sunset show is begun. Grab a big old dry brush and move your paints across your canvas with speed. Be confident in your motion; haste, but don’t waste. It’s your heart and mind funneling down the arm and into your hand summoning magic unto the page. You are an artist, and you’re doing great.

    Photo details

    • Photographed: 18 January 2025
    • Lighting: Sunset
    • Weather: Partly cloudy
    • Location: Cedar Run Dock Road
    • Time: ~1650
    • Tripod: No
    • Exposures: One @ 1/15 seconds

    Purchase

  • For You

    For You

    My evening gift for you all to chase away the Sunday scaries—a Dock Road sunset from just over a week ago. A high quality winter burn. Enough of the deck painted up in pastel hues to really crank up the glow highlighting the sedge. For but five minutes time suspends as though weightless and the dormant brown super charges in a pink infusion. As if Goku himself were powering up. Palpable vibes. 

    Photo details

    • Photographed: 26 January 2025
    • Lighting: Sunset
    • Weather: Overcast
    • Location: Cedar Run Dock Road
    • Time: ~1700
    • Tripod: Yes
    • Exposures: Seven

    Purchase

  • Fractured

    Fractured

    Like the good keyboard warrior I have tried not to be, I came to the came to the computer tonight ready to pop off on our accelerating societal decline. Then I remembered I am a photographer, not a writer, and this photograph reflects the sad state of affairs far better than my forced words. 

    All day disqueit asking what can I do? I have little clue, but I am grown disgusted the cowards stance I’ve limply taken that’s long been thinly covered in silence. A passivity that can be seen as at best, aloof and neutral, but at worst complicit. What I will do is pledge further introspection into my own blindspots, weaknesses, limitations, and fear to speak out on the things I find righteously wrong. This self-improvement is solely in my control. I can also lend my photographs and my words to advocate for love, respect, and the personal dignity of all people and do my best to model that behavior. Lead from the front otherwise get out of the way.

    And now if you’ll excuse me I will be busy regrowing my spine. Thanks for reading, and go give somebody a hug and ask yourself, what can I do? Let’s lift each other up. Let’s be better together.

    Interested in buying? Purchase and ship direct through SmugMug.