Ron Longwell is a nature photographer and writer based in Abilene, Texas. Ron grew up roaming the hills and creeks of Pennsylvania's Allegheny Plateau. It was there that he fell in love with the serenity and beauty of the natural world, and at the age of 16, he began trying to capture that beauty with a camera.
Ron went on to earn a wildlife degree from Penn State. While a student, he worked on a project to reintroduce snowshoe hares to north-central Pennsylvania and spent part of a summer assisting a biologist trapping and tagging black bears in the Poconos. He went on to study forestry at the University of Montana, and worked for a time with the U.S. Forest Service in Washington and Montana. Later in life, he earned advanced degrees in ministry and theology.
Drawing on his background in wildlife, forestry, and ministry, Ron has come to some strong convictions about the intersection of people and nature. To be completely whole and healthy people, we must maintain a life-connection with the natural world and its inhabitants. Simply put, we become better people by allowing nature's beauty and rhythms to recalibrate us.
When we take a walk in nature, we are surrounded with beauty. We inhale the acrid smell of fall leaves, we hear the singing of birds and stream's gentle gurgling, we feel the chill of a frosty morning against our faces, and touch the gnarled bark of trees older than ourselves. And in the peaceful quiet of a listening walk, our problems don't seem quite as intimidating, and our souls become quiet enough to hear God's whisper. This is what the natural world freely offers each time we respond to her invitation to come, and this is what Ron tries to capture and share in his images.
Although his first love and specialty is nature photography, Ron also enjoys shooting what he has come to call Arcadian Portraits. The term Arcadia grows out of Greek mythology and basically refers to living close to and in harmony with nature. Many of us have special places in nature that we return to time and time again, spaces that are deeply personal to us and in which we feel fully at rest. Photographing people in the natural settings that mean the most to them, and showing that connection is an Arcadian portrait. Ron would love to photograph you in your special corner of creation.
Ron's images have been published in Texas Highways Magazine, the Abilene Reporter-News, and Professional Bowhunter Magazine. In addition to his own blog, his writing has also been published on the site Black Star Rising. In addition, Ron is the current President of the West Texas Photographic Society.
Ron went on to earn a wildlife degree from Penn State. While a student, he worked on a project to reintroduce snowshoe hares to north-central Pennsylvania and spent part of a summer assisting a biologist trapping and tagging black bears in the Poconos. He went on to study forestry at the University of Montana, and worked for a time with the U.S. Forest Service in Washington and Montana. Later in life, he earned advanced degrees in ministry and theology.
Drawing on his background in wildlife, forestry, and ministry, Ron has come to some strong convictions about the intersection of people and nature. To be completely whole and healthy people, we must maintain a life-connection with the natural world and its inhabitants. Simply put, we become better people by allowing nature's beauty and rhythms to recalibrate us.
When we take a walk in nature, we are surrounded with beauty. We inhale the acrid smell of fall leaves, we hear the singing of birds and stream's gentle gurgling, we feel the chill of a frosty morning against our faces, and touch the gnarled bark of trees older than ourselves. And in the peaceful quiet of a listening walk, our problems don't seem quite as intimidating, and our souls become quiet enough to hear God's whisper. This is what the natural world freely offers each time we respond to her invitation to come, and this is what Ron tries to capture and share in his images.
Although his first love and specialty is nature photography, Ron also enjoys shooting what he has come to call Arcadian Portraits. The term Arcadia grows out of Greek mythology and basically refers to living close to and in harmony with nature. Many of us have special places in nature that we return to time and time again, spaces that are deeply personal to us and in which we feel fully at rest. Photographing people in the natural settings that mean the most to them, and showing that connection is an Arcadian portrait. Ron would love to photograph you in your special corner of creation.
Ron's images have been published in Texas Highways Magazine, the Abilene Reporter-News, and Professional Bowhunter Magazine. In addition to his own blog, his writing has also been published on the site Black Star Rising. In addition, Ron is the current President of the West Texas Photographic Society.
© Ron Longwell Photography. No reproduction of any kind without prior written permission.