End of July on the Ocean

The height of summer mid-day in the pine dunes evokes drab colors and high contrast images. The digital grain adds some grit back to the elemental qualities. Although jovial, even the slice of a dolphin fin cuts and slashes. Light becomes dark, almost infrared. This is the end of July.




© 2015 Nate Metz

Road Trip

For Mother’s Day, my mum and I took a road trip to visit some family. I did bring my dSLR along, but snapping these images with my smart phone captured the pace of the trip much better. It was a quick trip, but still enough time for this photo journal:

Cape Henlopen – Tidal Patterns

The bay side of the park always reveals beautiful patterns with the changing tides. This day, the overcast skies helped diffuse the mid-day sun and really highlight these patterns.

As always, you can get an 8×10 $20, 11×14 $45, but also available in custom sizes like the square crops I post here! Please post a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like prints. I appreciate your continued support as an artist!

Cape Henlopen – Pine Dunes

A cursory glance through the dunes at the park can seem dull and drab: browns, grays, muted greens. Because I had all afternoon, I slowed my walk down into a meditative state so I could really experience the sights around me. The longer I lingered the more I saw and the more diversity my lens found.

As always, you can get an 8×10 $20, 11×14 $45, but also available in custom sizes like the square crops I post here! Please post a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like prints.

Cape Henlopen – Snow & Ice!

Somehow snow on the beach seems contradictory, smashing the idea summer fun with the harshness of winter. During the winter months, before migratory birds occupy the cape, the state park opens the outermost portion of Cape Henlopen Beach to foot traffic. On this particularly warm, sunny afternoon I captured some glimpses of nature’s elegant paradox between the snow and the sand. The patterns formed appear random, but a closer molecular study would show complex engineering of ice crystal formation. The delicate intricacies of the snow and ice slowly melting remind me of the beauty in the down cycle of life processes. The gentle shift of late winter to early spring speaks of patience and life reemerging.

Please post a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like prints. As always, you can get an 8×10 $20, 11×14 $45, but also available in custom sizes like the square crops I post here!

If you are already following my work, you’ll recognize one of these images as Beach Melts from the NAA “In the Abstract” exhibit in March.

Cape Henlopen

The Cape Henlopen State Park is one of my favorite places to hike and take photographs. Forests and mountains definitely feel like home to me, but I’m learning to enjoy the coastal landscape. The next couple posts are a series of photographs taken from late winter, early spring. Please post a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like prints. As always, you can get an 8×10 $20, 11×14 $45, but also available in custom sizes like the square crops I post here!

FARM

I recently had the pleasure of visiting and documenting a local farm that grows produce for several restaurants at the beach. While I prefer not to shoot in the middle of the day, I was able to tweak the settings on my camera to handle the harsh lighting and successfully document the fields and high tunnel. It is a little different style of shooting for me to do. I’m used to capturing subjects in unique and interesting ways, but my ways might distract the growers from their job. All of the images I captured are to be used in the record keeping and to plan for next year’s crops: sequencing, row spacing, and so forth. I definitely would like to go back periodically and have good product images of the produce grown that they would be able to use for marketing.

I really enjoyed my time out in nature surrounded by the life and abundance. It feels magical around so much thriving greenery. The energy really uplifts and revitalizes my own life force. Can you feel the love?

Gallery Talk – Summer Streets

About a week ago, I officially opened my first exhibit: SUMMER STREETS. During the reception, I conducted a gallery talk about my creative process and some of the key images from the show. The entire collection is 25 images of my original street photography taken during the summer months. I included some images from my yellow study last summer that overlapped with the street theme to create a well balanced solo exhibit. Be sure to watch the video above and let me know what you think! I truly hope you enjoy hearing about my work and look forward to sharing more videos soon.

All images shown are for sale, and I am taking orders for prints if you prefer unframed photographs. Click here for a full listing of images, sizes, and prices. All framed pieces are customs frames with conservation plexiglass to protect the full color photographs.

The exhibit is on display from June 4 – 29th in Newark, DE at the Terry Foreman Gallery in the Newark Arts Alliance (NAA).

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Newark, DE 19711
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And, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter to stay up to date on all events like this one! **The link is on the right-hand menu bar.** Many thanks to everyone who came out to show me support on the 7th and continued blessings. I am so grateful for all of your support!

Biltmore Conservatory

A month ago I toured the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. I brought my full kit (4 lenses, camera, and external flash) so that I could get some pictures, but was surprised upon walking in the front door that all photography was prohibited inside the main house, including cell phone cameras! I claim no expertise on historical preservation, but I’m pretty sure flash-less photography does not harm the subject in any way. My guess is that the Estate wants the tourists to purchase the official and professional photographs from the gift shops. While I may have taken a few of those style to document the trip, I’m more interested in colors, shapes, and textures and other more abstract pictures. I clearly disagree with the ban because I feel as though they misunderstood the type of photography that I wanted to do! So, I had to rebel just a little bit. I took this photograph in the basement with my cell phone:

I's © 2013 NATE METZ
I’s © 2013 NATE METZ

By the time the house tour was over, I caught a break in the rain and decided to check out the conservatory. I have been to Longwood Gardens several times and really enjoy taking pictures of the flora because of the soft lighting and near-perfect subjects. The conservatory at Biltmore is much smaller and had much less variety, I was able to take several interesting photographs. These all remain untitled for now. As I select a few favorites for prints, frames, entries, and so forth cleaner edits and titles will emerge! For now, enjoy an early look of spring: