Fall in Cranbury, NJ

My wife and I recently moved out to Cranbury, NJ this past Summer. I've been meaning to get out with my camera for quite some time. After the move, however, we soon found ourselves in Greece for the remainder of the Summer, and I didn't have much time to explore the area. Thankfully, as we've started to settle in and learn more about our new surroundings, I've been keeping tabs on spots that would photograph well. Luckily, there's a ton of them!

In Cranbury, we are not lacking in farms and stables.

In Cranbury, we are not lacking in farms and stables. There are all over as you drive around town, as most of Cranbury is actually comprised of farmland. My wife and I often take a route through the NJ Pinelands to visit my parents in South Jersey. On that route, you pass by flower nurseries, sod farms, stables, vineyards, and just about anything else that needs plenty of wide open space. This past week, after work I had the opportunity to shoot a bit at sunset - something I haven't been able to prioritize since the move. I chose to drive out to a stable nearby that I spotted on that drive down to South Jersey.

As expected, the horses were happily grazing before being brought in for the night, and were gloriously backlit. For most photos, I was going for a silhouette style look, exposing for the highlights in the sky, and underexposing the subjects - I was able to pull just a bit of shadows to give a hint of detail in the horses' faces. I only had a few minutes before I ran out of light, and was also dodging an electrified fence, but was happy with how some of these came out.

I also enjoyed the cool weather and crisp air of an early Fall evening. After working in the city all week, it's a welcome change from taxis honking at you in cross walks, and the endless sea of concrete. When running simple errands like heading to the store to pick up some eggs, or simply starting the commute to work, I'm thankful that this is the view when turning out of my driveway

It was officially the peak of the Fall foliage color explosion

Last week was officially the peak of the Fall foliage color explosion. As I write this today, all the trees have had most of the leaves that you see in these pictures blown off by really strong winds and rain last night. I'm lucky I had the opportunity to go out and shoot when I did.

There was nothing fancy in terms of shooting some of these trees in my neighborhood - mother nature and magic hour did most of the work of lighting the leaves up and exposing the colors perfectly.

My wife and baby were outside playing on the lawn and I ran out to join them with the camera. As my wife said before she stepped out, the day was too beautiful to pass up being outside for a bit before the sun went down. It was a wonderful break from the chilly weather we had earlier in the day.

The clouds cleared, the sun popped out, and the weather became beautifully mild in a matter of a few minutes. Who can resist capturing some wonderful memories in these types of conditions? I switched to a mid-range zoom to capture some more of the yard and the tall shadows being cast across the lawn, and got down low to clearly focus my daughter as the subject.

So far, so good, with my first attempts at photographing Cranbury. I'm looking forward to learning our surroundings better, finding more areas to shoot, and seeing how the town changes with the seasons. We'll hopefully be here for a long time to come 🏡