To end the month of August, I spent a day trip in the far corner of Massachusetts in the Berkshires. I drove to Mount Washington State Forest, not to confuse you with Mt. Washington, and hiked a few hours up a mountain. The view was breathtaking the view was clear for miles and the weather was perfect to go hiking in. I have not climbed many mountains, but I would definitely come back to this trail again in the future. 

Spent another day on Cape Cod visiting Falmouth, MA. This town is known for an unique trail called The Knob. Here you walk a few miles passing a few mini beach areas and a forest to reach this destination. This place has amazing views of the sunset and a calming walk along the beach with not many waves in the bay. While I was walking along the beach, I discovered someone left a trail of rose petals to a romantic heart on the beach for their lover. The petals and roses were still fresh at 10am, so someone took the time preparing for this surprise early in the morning. There are plenty of outdoor trails, a famous lighthouse spot and fun activities for children in the area to explore. I focused on photos from The Knob below. 

West Island, Fairhaven, MA.

I attended a Milky Way photoshoot meetup with the Whaling City Camera Club last week. On my bucket list, I have always wanted to photograph the stars. Earlier this year I upgraded my equipment and during the last few months I have been studying photography. Every week, I spend a few hours reading a book or search a topic online in order to learn more about my career. I tried out my new skills visiting West Island where I spent some time photographing the area before sunset. Two hours after the sun went down, I shot a bunch of photos of the milky way at different angles. This meetup was a great experience for me and taught me how to better photograph the stars.

Many people enjoy Cape Cod to spend their vacation on the beaches and enjoy the towns. I have lived in Massachusetts for 25 years and the one place I only visited a few times is the Cape. 
I decided to have a Cape Cod photography trip and visit a few places on my bucket list. I got up at 5am and drove 2 hours to my first stop, Eastham. I wanted to take photos of the Nauset Lighthouse with the early morning light and capture some unique clouds above. I then explored the nearby beach to take photos of some birds and objects that caught my eye. Before leaving, I did not forget to check out the Three Sisters Lighthouses before running away from all the mosquitoes that lingered in the early morning.
I took a detour to a nature trail down the road called Red Maple Swamp Trail. Once I parked, I tried to catch up to a group of kayakers leaving for their morning swamp tour on the cape. I felt like those photos did not come out that great because they were already too far away to photograph, but I looked around me to capture the area such as a person unloading kayaks off his car. 
Last stop, I drove to Chatham to capture another lighthouse in the area. I arrived with fog around the lighthouse and took a long walk to a place on the beach called Ship Skeleton off Cape Cod. I stayed for only a little while since I arrived when the sun was almost at its peak in the sky. 
All the lighthouse photographs I entered in a Cape Cod Lighthouse photography contest by the Whaling City Camera Club.

Eastham, MA

Red Maple Swamp Trail, Eastham, MA

Chatham, MA

 A few weeks ago I drove to Jamestown for the day. Here I was meeting up with a few Whaling City Camera club members for a photography meetup. I made it my goal for 2020 to explore places in New England that I have on my bucket list. Jamestown has been on my bucket list for awhile and joining a few club members made the adventure more interesting.
One place is called Beavertail Lighthouse that is located in south Jamestown. Here I not only explored the park area next the ocean, I had special privileges to visit the top of the lighthouse. Currently the top of the lighthouse is closed to the public because of the current pandemic, but the person in charge of taking care of the lighthouse allowed us few photographers to see the breathtaking view from the top. While walking around the park, I focused on capturing other people visiting the area and what is unique about Beavertail. On top of the lighthouse, I took a few photos of the area from above and the lighthouse light.
After visiting Beavertail, I drove down the road towards the center of Jamestown where a stopped at Windmill Historic District. The windmill is also closed for the season, but I had a chance to take a few photos from the road before heading home.

​My latest photography project involved experimenting with a more artistic view. I got this idea from Jordi Koalitic, a photographer who tells creative stories through his use of props and people. His work inspired me to apply my own ideas to create a similar storytelling atmosphere in my photos. For this project, I focused on the complementary colors orange and blue and incorporated a floral theme into the images.
I edited these photographs using Photoshop to apply the skills I have learned from taking online courses about Photoshop editing. When editing my photos, I touch up only minor areas of photographs as needed, to keep them as close as possible to how I shot them.

Jordi Koalitic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordi.koalitic/

Hello Everyone! I am back with some new updates!
During last few months, I have been taking a few photography classes online, reading up on some information regarding photography and taking a few photos close to home. The classes I took were learning about lens for different types of photography settings, lighting outside for portraits and a few skills in photoshop. While taking these courses, I focused on a few projects close to home. Through my Camera club, I was challenged to take photos on how the pandemic is affecting my area. So I captured some bikers on a trail I often walk on showing them riding six feet apart and/or wearing masks. Like most people in Massachusetts, I wasn't able to go too far or to visit populated places, but this gave me free time to focus on learning new information before going back to my portrait photography and photojournalism! 

Full portfolio of the botanical garden photoshoot in the link below:
www.discoveringmagicinpixels.com/nature.html

Feb. 20, 2020
The first day, I drove to Barre, MA to visit a coworker that owns several horses. I got a tour of her ranch, where I observed how the horses behaved. I never got a chance to be near so many horses before, and this was a fun experience to photograph them a bit. I did not spend too much time photographing them, instead I wanted to experience what it is like to be around horses.This  summer I plan to go back and photograph the horses when the weather gets nicer.
Feb. 21, 2020
Second day I drove to a Botanical Garden at Roger Williams Park Zoo. Here I meet up with a few of my photography club members and photographed the plants inside 80 degree greenhouse. I focused on the flowers, how the plants grew, details of garden and some animals, such as koi fish, in the facility. I usually photograph nature landscapes and traveling, but this practice on specific plants was new to me.  
Feb. 22, 2020
Third day I attended a Wedding Style photoshoot at the Blithewold Mansion, Bristol, RI. I worked alongside a Rhode Island videographer, 1Kwordsmedia, and Rhode Island's top Wedding Photographer, Allan Millora. Here I photographed a male model, Michael Scanlon, and  a female model named Joanna Alonzo. During this session, I photographed the bride and groom getting ready, both of them in there outfits after changing, and of course the first look. Not everyday I get a chance to photograph models that look stunning in their wedding outfits. I posed each the bride in groom in different areas of the mansion to capture the moment before becoming Mr. and Mrs. This was not a real wedding, but a photoshoot to capture the moments of the a couple about to be married.