Greg Molyneux Photography

Category: Blog

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

  • Born of the Purple

    Born of the Purple

    35mm out of focus photograph of a bunch of purple coneflowers backlight by a striking sunset and smooth bokeh. The echinacea blossoms are set glowing in powerful pastel pink and purple tones.
    Born of the Purple — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/13

    Last night’s sunset was a certified banger. A powered up sky show raining down pastel hues upon the green land in every direction. The pinks and purples filtering down from the 360 degree sky dome looked the work of angels. A moment in time to take your breath away and leaves your heart to skip a beat. Without question one of the best sunsets of 2020. A stunner, full stop.

    Of course I was home cooking. Instead of getting bent and pouty, the sky faeries shared with me a boon. My front yard purple coneflowers were straight glamor posing in heaven’s pastel glow. The ethereal infusion amplifying the already magnificent colors of these flowering beauties. Excited and inspired, I dashed inside, opened my camera bag, and swapped my 14mm lens for my 35mm. With aperture set wide open at f/1.4, I squatted close to my subject and went to town making frames of my echinacea friends.

    This had me amped. Ignoring the missed landscape potential, I popped off shots left and right. My muse looked a wonder under this light and she knew it. So I set about making frames with the intense glow of sunset backlighting the whole scene. It was sublime. One of those flow moments where time sits still—fostering maximum internal focus and presence.

    A brief word on the not so intentional making of this photograph. There is another happy accident worth mentioning here: It does not take a keen observer to note this picture is out of focus. Low on light I had a sluggish shutter speed set at 1/13 of a second. As a general rule it’s a safe bet to keep your shutter speed denominator north of your focal length. In this case, sitting over 1/35 or so would be the play. That said, I am of a mind the lack of focus plays right into the strength of the scene. With light cast from a usually unseen parallel universe bleeding into our world if only for a moment. It adds something of a fishbowl effect and it is the perfect accoutrement to the tableau. It conveys the mood in a far truer way than I could have intentioned. Too often we do not see the world as it is. Sometimes sharp focus leaves us blind.

    The lesson—missing out on a thing does not mean we lose a thing. Instead it gifts opportunity to see a thing in a different, more diffuse and loving light. We work with what we’ve got, and that is where we create the real magic to capture our forever.

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  • Reflection Point

    Reflection Point

    14mm wide angle sunset photograph featuring blue skies with orange, yellow, and pink pastel colored clouds reflected over mirror calm water of Cedar Run.
    Reflection Point — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    I made this photograph with my tripod set upon the swim platform of my parents’ pontoon boat. They have kept their boat at Cedar Run Dock Road since September 2015, yet it was not until July 2020 I began shooting on location. A definite miss on my part. Their slip affords a wide view of Cedar Run creek making an ideal spot for mirrored reflections in still water.

    This watery mirror has me thinking on my own life. It also affords an opportunity to share some quick reflections about myself with you. So here goes—I:

    • am 37 years old, and I live alone in Manahawkin, NJ
    • have lived in New Jersey my entire life
    • grew up in East Brunswick until uprooting to Manahawkin in summer 1993
    • earned a B.S. in Business Administration at The College of New Jersey
    • began making photographs in 2012
    • work for Johnson & Johnson
    • have a younger brother and sister still living and rocking in their 20s
    • struggle with insecurity, anxiety, and depression
    • use Oxford commas
    • insist we normalize therapy as OK
    • practice yoga, make time for long walks daily, and jog when my back allows it
    • had a catheter ablation in 2016 to correct atrial fibrillation
    • had melanoma removed behind my right ear the same year
    • am blessed with an amazing core of friends
    • value trust, loyalty, and integrity in high honor
    • am layered and take a good long while to open up—think peeling back an onion
    • practice patience
    • am captivated and awed by individuals who perform any task at a high level
    • find inspiration in passion
    • enjoy writing
    • use a dictionary on the regular
    • listen to audiobooks
    • make silly song parodies
    • cannot carry a tune
    • am awkward, shy, and weird
    • allow fear to guide the ship too often
    • am afraid of small talk
    • teach myself new things
    • am learning to cook
    • strive to generosity
    • believe in peace
    • hide from conflict
    • nurture introversion
    • flex to extroversion
    • honor nature
    • marvel at space
    • seek spirituality in the universe
    • know dissent is patriotic
    • will never stop chasing sunsets
    • support #YankeesOnly

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  • Set

    Set

    14mm wide angle sunset photo with intense pastel colored mammatus clouds smoldering over Cedar Rund Dock Road's salt marsh and still, reflective water.
    Set — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    It is no secret I’m on team Winter Sunset™, but my goodness summer is bringing it this year. 2020 is, well, you know, but at least it’s allowed us big time heat and humidity, comets, and sky fires. Right! Right? Sunset at the salt marsh has delivered big time the past few months; and that’s with me missing several stellar sunsets and thunderstorms. Sunsets come in bunches and summer 2020 stands testament.

    A little inside baseball: The color in this photograph is potent. Storm clouds breaking and intense coloration running up the high level mammatus clouds. An ‘X’ pattern sends deep pastel hues in four diagonal directions. Bisected latitudinally, deep green salt marsh cuts across.

    When I make my landscapes I begin with seven bracketed exposures, each one stop apart. Running -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3. After migrating to Lightroom I pop the seven brackets into Photomatix to merge them into one image file. Then bang, back into Lightroom. From there edits happen quick—delivering a photograph ready for showtime. Well this little buddy took some wrangling. There was so much color to reign in. After over an hour of jostling I’m satisfied; deep, intense, and smoldering.

    Let’s keep this set rolling and catch another one tomorrow?

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  • Peace and Pilings

    Peace and Pilings

    14mm square format photo of a potent pastel sunset reflecting over a glassy Cedar Run creek. Two vertical pilings mark the mid ground.
    Peace and Pilings — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Mark the horizon to find your way. Where two uprights cleave your life in thirds. Pastels flare to set the world anew afore darkness pulls it under. Serenity finds the seeker. Framed in peace and pilings. Draped in sheer joy. Reflecting hope and purpose. The mirrored worlds are yours.

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  • Safe Haven

    Safe Haven

    14mm wide angle sunset photo made over the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh creek. The photo is intentionally blurred to create a streaked, painterly effect moving left to right.
    Safe Haven — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 0.3 sec

    Last night proved a stunning evening on the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh. Absolute idyllic mid-summer magic on the wetlands. Serene and sublime, a pristine atmosphere intent on peeling back layers of stress and worry. You would be hard pressed to put a price tag on this kind of therapy. Always look to nature when in times of great healing. She stands ever ready to render big magic into our lives. We must but take a moment to look and see.

    I am blessed to have Dock Road. Long has it reigned as a safe haven. My go-to destination whenever I my heart, mind, and soul needs a respite. I have faithfully kept a COVID-19 journal daily since my first entry on 19 March 2020, which happened to be Day 4 of isolation. Last night marked Day 121 where I shared the following:

    Tuesday, 14 July 2020

    Day 121 — The Salt Marsh

    Location: [redacted address] Manahawkin, NJ
    Time: 9:48 p.m.

    Visiting the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh has been an essential go-to for the entirety of my adult life. Whether for storm chasing, leisure cruising with friends, or a solemn place to cleanse the mind palate. The later has been especially true since I began my landscape photography journey back in 2012. This is my spot to take a mental reset and make beautiful photographs. It truly is a place of wonder mere miles from my home. Trust me, the salt marsh wetlands will lift any mood—especially so in summer.

    Tonight proved stunning on the marsh. Absolute mid-summer perfection. Temperatures were mild, humidity at bay, with a slack breeze barely palpable. Pastel sunset colors danced about the lower third of the sky, and the waters of Cedar Run laid flat, creating a pristine mirrored reflection. In ambient aural beauty birds and bugs sounded in the distance, completing the tableau. This is how I will always remember the mid-Atlantic summers on the salt marsh of coastal New Jersey. Such an underrated—and under appreciated—ecosystem.

    Get out there. Find yourself a safe haven. Pull your shot and streak the sky!

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  • Working Class Hero

    Working Class Hero

    100mm low key macro photo of a single honey bee pollinating purple coneflower pistils. A strong single light source creates stark contrast of highlights and shadows. A deep blue monochrome treatment drives a dark, serious mood.
    Working Class Hero — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1250

    Dutiful honey bee plying her trade. Drinking her nectar and loading her pollen basket, she works with intent. With energy and purpose she minds her craft. Even alone the hive is on the mind. Her community needs her; needs her singular focus to feed and to provide. To sustain the group. Bounding atop pistils by day, she works the land spending hours at the harvest. Undaunted she holds fast to her task. Mindfulness dams distraction. Even the focused lens of the observer matter little to our indefatigable worker bee. She need not pay us any mind—she strives for the hive.

    As ever, thank you, John Lennon, for enriching our lives with joy. Thanks for your classic song connecting to this lyrically inspired photo. A working class hero is something to be(e).

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  • The Technician

    The Technician

    100mm high key macro photograph of a honey bee feeding and pollinating a purple coneflower blossom.
    The Technician — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/160

    Photo making is a task I invest significant time. 2020 marks year nine in my photography journey, and what an unexpected trip it has been. Beginning as a desperate distraction from depression, it has morphed into a real passion spanning the better part of a decade. I look back and ask myself what has changed since such a somber beginning? How has my perception shifted since my early days as a lost soon-to-be 30 year old with little clue how to use a camera?

    For years I thought of myself as a technician. An individual proficient in making appealing photographs. Something of a process driven camera operator churning out landscape and nature photos per the rules. Viewing myself as a proper photographer, let alone creator, took many years of inner wrangling. I was a guy who followed procedure and protocols to produce a good clean image. There was nothing more to it. Follow steps one, two, and three, and a good photo you will be. As ever labels and semantics tripped me up, and I refused to think of myself as something more than a well trained individual who executes a task list. Anyone can do this, and creativity is no factor.

    This view, pedantic and self-limiting, was a silly exercise. Over time I eased up on these pointless restrictions. Why put myself in a box? Or the better question, why exclude myself from other boxes? It’s foolish. After several years I grew inured to the photographer label. Being called a photographer didn’t leave me vexed and uncomfortable, with a furrowed brow looking over my shoulder for someone else with a camera . We must accept what is.

    Fast forward to the past few years, and I finding growing comfort traipsing into creator territory. Might I be creative? That’s all cool and artsy sounding, so can it be true of a self-professed technician? Here I submit my writing as evidence. Even though my clear renown, such as it is, is as a photographer, it is my writing that brings the most intrinsic joy. This creative act is far less natural to me than making photographs. There is no technical process for me to follow. No clear roadmap for success. This is a wholly feel-based enterprise, and I am certain that leaves learned readers with a proper taste for grammar cringing.

    English class was not my thing as a youngster, and this remained the case throughout high school and college. I showed neither promise nor interest in writing. And yet, for the past few years, it is far and away my favorite form of personal creative expression. The words I write to accompany each photograph I share means more to me than any photo I make. Do not get me wrong, it feels great to have a photo meet with broad community appeal. Those likes, shares, and thumbs up feel good! But nothing pleases me more than a person talking about what I wrote. This praise removed the technician from the uncomfortable box he placed himself in. So allow me a giant thank you to every one of you who takes time to read and resonate with my words. Your time and attention is a gift amidst this tripped up world, and I thank you all.

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  • Courage to Grow

    Courage to Grow

    100mm macro photograph of one purple coneflower with its blossom forming a crown. Processed in a low key blue hued monochrome.
    Courage to Grow — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/250

    Challenges move as a summer wind. Storm clouds smoke to the horizon. Roiling cloud tops bubble and push to the sky, a fierce beacon girded in unyielding white. It makes a stark contrast to the gray underbelly paved in turmoil beneath. An archetype of the inevitable, the storm will rise. The gust front heralds its great coming. A flush of wind and the onslaught gale meets to the crack of thunder, our souls left scoured in the windswept rain. Life and land buckles, the seas pick up, and our world holds fast.

    And then, as if in an instant, the power yields. The wind sits, the clouds break, and the late day sun works through, driving a shaft of light to chase off the din. Passed is the storm; subdued fear left in its wake. The world wakes up—resilient and renewed. Bathed in rich light all is brighter, thoughts are clearer with purpose resolving in sharp contrast. Our spirit tempered and charged. Battered by the storm and buttressed by a resolve before unknown, left purified in the waters of renewal we find the courage to grow.

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  • Of Land

    Of Land

    14mm wide angle sunset photo at Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh. Pinks, yellows, oranges, and blues color the sky over green marsh grasses.
    Of Land — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    I stand upon thee shaken and uprooted. Winds of change erode the tenets of false truths exposing past misdeeds naked and afraid. Rampant theft and wanton expansion laid bare. Am I up for it? Do I possess real strength? Am I worthy of the challenge? A force for good? Will I cling to comfort, run for cover, and drape myself in the familiar linens of false prophets? Or will I see Others, hear their pain and adapt? Land is stable, of this we know. Yet slowly, near imperceptibly it shifts and moves without stopping, transforming the long view into something new. Do I have the courage to grow? Of Land, surely He would know.

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