2023 Year in Review: Josh Friedman's Photographs

"And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make." Paul McCartney and John Lennon

2023 has been an exciting year for my photography. It continues to provide me with moments of peace and creativity in our world's difficult and frightening times.  In addition to numerous photo excursions throughout Bucks County, Pennsylvania, this year I photographed waterfalls in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains; The magnificent Eiffel Tower in Paris, France; historic, honey-colored cottages in England's Cotswolds region; the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C.; the "Marginal Way" trail in Ogunquit, Maine; the Philadelphia skyline; the sun setting over the ocean in the Bahamas, an historic bridge in York County, Pennsylvania; and a breathtaking sunrise in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. As much as I love the history and natural beauty that surrounds me in Bucks County, my travels have provided new and gratifying opportunities for creativity.

Additionally, 2023 has been exciting in terms of a several photography-related projects.  I gave a presentation on HDR (high dynamic range) photography for Allen's Camera. Actor and former theater professor Gary Sloan and I collaborated on two video projects. First, we completed our tribute to Washington's historic crossing of the Delaware River, using his poem, narration and bagpipe with my photographs of Washington Crossing Historic Park and the Delaware River. We also collaborated on a video for the St. Andrew's Church, in Yardley.  I was honored to have one of my photographs of Lake Afton and the Old Library featured as a wall-size mural at the ShopRite store in Yardley. Finally, I continue to sell prints of my photographs through my online ETSY shop. I have now shipped prints to about 45 states in the U.S., as well as multiple other countries. 

What follows are 40-ish of my favorite images from 2023. I had asked a few friends and family for feedback in narrowing down my collection (from my initial list of about 65 images). Whenever I do this, I end up being struck by the subjectivity of art. One person's absolute favorite is completely ignored by someone else.  While one person is moved by a dramatic black and white image, another person is drawn to the emotion of rich color.

In addition to my gratitude to family and friends, and am tremendously thankful to folks who follow my photography. I genuinely appreciate your support and positive feedback, and I hope your 2024 is filled with peace, contentment, good health, laughter and creativity. As always, I am eager to hear which are some of your favorite photographs from my 2023 collection. 

Lower Slaughter, Early Morning Reflections, The Cotswolds, England. September.

New Hope (Bucks County, PA) and the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge, Reflected in the Delaware River, Lambertville,
New Jersey. June.

West Trenton Railroad Bridge, Yardley,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. April.

Bushkill Falls, Boardwalk and Cascade,
The Poconos, Pennsylvania. April.

Fonthill Castle with Fall Foliage, Doylestown,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. November.

Lincoln Memorial in Early Morning,
Washington, D.C. December.

Delaware Canal and Thompson Neely Bridge Sunrise,
New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. November.

Apache Pier Sunrise, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. March.

Delaware Canal and Towpath in Morning Fog,
Yardley, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. July.

"Marginal Way", Tree at Sunrise, Ogunquit, Maine. July.

Delaware River and West Trenton Railroad Bridge Before Sunrise, Yardley, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. April.

Eiffel Tower and Seine River Before Sunrise,
Paris, France. September.

Cabin Run Covered Bridge with Fall Foliage,
Pipersville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. October.

Core Creek Park, Langhorne, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. March.

Philadelphia Skyline Reflected in the
Schuylkill River (from the South Street Bridge),
Philadelphia Pennsylvania. April. 

Bucks County Playhouse Sunrise, New Hope,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. November.

Shohola Falls, The Poconos, Pennsylvania. April.

Veteran's Memorial Bridge (officially the Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge), Wrightsville, York County, Pennsylvania. July.

New Hope and the Delaware River with Fall Foliage,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania (seen from Lambertville,
New Jersey). November.

Continental Tavern at Night with Light Trails, Yardley,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. December.

Sudeley Castle Stairs and Flowers, Winchcombe,
The Cotswolds, England. September.

Cuttalossa Road with Fall Foliage, New Hope,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. October.

Shady Brook Farm Fireworks, Yardley,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. September.

Spring Sunrise on the Delaware Canal and Towpath, Solebury, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. May.

West Trenton Railroad Bridge Reflected in the Delaware River at Sunrise, Yardley, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. October.

"Big Ben," the Palace of Westminster, the Westminster
Bridge and the River Thames, Seen Through a 
Pedestrian Tunnel, London, England. September. 

Lumberville-Raven Rock Bridge with a Foggy Sunrise, Lumberville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. August.

Washington Crossing Historic Park with Durham Boats on the Delaware River, Before Sunrise, Washington Crossing, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. December.

Thompson Neely Farm and Bowman's Hill Tower,
New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. October.

New Hope Railroad, New Hope, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. December.

Eiffel Tower Before Sunrise, from Place du
Trocadéro, Paris, France, September.

Bahamas Sunset Over the Atlantic Ocean,
New Providence, The Bahamas. December. 

Delaware and Raritan Canal, Lambertville,
New Jersey. August.

Fonthill Castle Before Sunrise, Doylestown,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. November.

Snowshill Cottages, The Cotswolds, England. September.

St. Andrew's Church at Sunrise, Yardley,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. October.

Patterson Farm Before Sunrise, Yardley,
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. October.

New Hope Lambertville Bridge in Morning Fog,
New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. November.

Princeton University Sunrise (seen through Holder Hall), Princeton, New Jersey, September.

Calhoun Street Bridge Before Sunrise, seen from
Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. August.

Cuttalossa Farm, New Hope, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. October.

"Here Comes the Sun": How to Create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photograph of a Sunrise

"Little darling

It's been a long, cold lonely winter

Little darling

It feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun..."

George Harrison

(The Beatles)

Perhaps it was our "long, cold" winter in Bucks County, Pennsylvania that had me itching to take a sunrise photograph. I took the Delaware River and Train Bridge photograph just a few days ago, about a mile from my house.  A beautiful sunrise somehow combines wonderful drama and color with sense of peacefulness. Its the literal and symbolic beginning of a new day. A fresh start. 


Photographing a sunrise can be tricky business.  Once the sun starts to come up, you are faced with a subject with both very bright areas and very dark areas.  While our eyes magically sort this out, the camera has a harder time.  If you take an image with a correct exposure for darker parts of the scene, the sun will be overexposed and washed out.  If you get a correct exposure for the sun, the rest of the image may be nearly black.

There are a few ways to photograph a sunrise in a manner that replicates what our eyes see.  If there is a clear line between the bright area and the dark area, a graduated neutral density filter can be handy. However, often situations are more complicated than that.  For example, in the first image below (Delaware River and Train Bridge) the areas of relative dark and light are juxtaposed throughout the scene.  Its not a simple matter of the top being bright and the bottom being dark.  For situations like this, I like to create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image from multiple separate exposures. For the Delaware River and Train Bridge photograph, I took eight separate exposures (you can see each of these exposures under the photograph).  If you would like to learn more about the process of creating an HDR photograph, please skip to the bottom of this post.  


Here is a sampling of my sunrise photographs from the past few years.  In addition to a few images near my home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, I have included iamges from The Bahamas, Acadia National Park (Maine), Myrtle Beach (South Carolina), Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C.  To see more of my photographs or to purchase an image, click HERE.

Delaware River and Train Bridge
Yardley, Pennsylvania (Bucks County)
March, 2015

Here are the eight separate exposures used to create the above
HDR photograph.  These all have ISO 200 and Aperture of f/16.
The shutter speeds range from 1/2 second (upper left)
to 1/200th of a second (bottom right).

Old Chevrolet Truck
Hopewell, New Jersey (Mercer County)
April, 2013

Delaware River from Lumberton Footbridge
Lumberton, Pennsylvania (Bucks County)
December, 2014

View from "The Cove"
Atlantis, The Bahamas
December 2014

Acadia National Park, Maine
View from Cadillac Mountain
August, 2011

Cherry Grove Pier
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
April, 2014

Cherry Grove Pier
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
April, 2014

View from Mount Washington,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
February, 2014

U.S. Capital
Washington, D.C.
August, 2014

CREATING A HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) PHOTOGRAPH:  For 99% of my images, I prefer to shoot in manual mode.  When I want to create an HDR photograph of a particular scene, I usually place my camera on a tripod. This avoids any blur in your image (i.e. if you are using a slow shutter speed). Also, it insures that each of your exposures has close to the exact same content.  You then take a series of exposures (holding constant the "aperture" - the size of the opening of the shutter), and changing the exposure speed in regular increments.  You want to make sure that you have a correct exposure for each part of the scene - from the darkest part to the lightest part.  

As an example, let's look at the Delaware River and Train Bridge photograph.  To create this, I took eight separate exposures.  For each of them, the aperture  was f/16 (because I wanted a pretty wide depth of field). For the darkest parts of the scene (i.e. the bridge and the ground in the lower right) the correct shutter speed at f/16 was 1/2 second.  I then shot a series of exposures at regular intervals ("full stop" increments) until I reached the brightest part of the scene (the sun needed a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second). I then had eight separate images (you can see each of these exposures above, under the Delaware River and Train Bridge image). Once I returned home, I uploaded all of my images onto my computer. Then I used HDR software (I use "Photomatix") to merge the eight exposures into one image.  This final image has the correct exposure for each part of the picture.  I then used Photoshop and OnOne software to put the "finishing touches" on the image.