Ryan Zipp Photography

Ryan Zipp Photography Photographer Ryan Zipp adventures around New England & beyond with his camera capturing the best of what the natural world has to offer.

“Milky Lupine” After my first trip up to Sugar Hill in 2019 I imagined how amazing it would be to capture the Milky Way ...
06/04/2026

“Milky Lupine” After my first trip up to Sugar Hill in 2019 I imagined how amazing it would be to capture the Milky Way over one of these stunning fields. So during the day on my next visit back there for them in June 2021 we drove around the area to a number of locations to scout out the best spot to return to after sunset. This particular field was the stand out perfect option with a full field of these standing flowers and the Kinsmans in the background, with a bit of Cannon & its slopes to the left.
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We arrived a little bit before sunset to capture the field with beautiful golden hour light hitting everything in sight from over our shoulders. Then waiting until close to 10pm to take the shots of the foreground during “blue hour”, with two separate images here that I focus stacked to get the near & far lupine in focus. The Milky Way began to appear above the mountains around 10:45pm with some lower clouds in sky, but luckily they cleared in time to capture it in all her glory.
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I used my Skyguiger Pro tracker to take a 90 second exposure of the sky at ISO 1600 and then stacked 6 of them to reduce noise. Then blended my focus stacked blue hour foreground with the tracked & stacked sky for the final image you see here. We didn’t get any dramatic colorful skies for sunset or sunrise on this trip, but to come home with an image like this makes all of the close to 1,000 miles put on my car worth it!
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“Fields of Coastal Blooms” After an unsuccessful trip to Midcoast Maine in June of 2021 to shoot lupine I headed back up...
06/03/2026

“Fields of Coastal Blooms” After an unsuccessful trip to Midcoast Maine in June of 2021 to shoot lupine I headed back up again in 2022 for a chance for redemption. This time around there would be no shortage of these amazing displays in fields by the water and sides of what seemed like every backroad we cruised down.
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For most of the first full day the lighting was incredibly harsh, so I used the time to enjoy the amazing scenery and scout for where to come back to. Later in the day several fields by the shore became much more inviting for my camera and I loved snapping away as many different compositions possible with this much improved lighting.
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This carousel post includes a number of favorites I chose to edit, but the lead one caught my eye early on as a favorite with its layers of depth. Midcoast Maine is one of my favorite areas in all of New England throughout the entire year, but it was amazing to experience it with the added element of colorful lupine in peak bloom all around me.
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“Sugar Hill Sunset” For many years the tiny town of Sugar Hill, NH held a small festival every June to celebrate the blo...
06/02/2026

“Sugar Hill Sunset” For many years the tiny town of Sugar Hill, NH held a small festival every June to celebrate the blooming of their magical lupine fields. In 2020 it did not occur due to the pandemic and then subsequently didn’t end up materializing again. A few years back several land owners started mowing some of the largest and most known lupine fields after tiring of some disrespectful visitors, apparently with 2023 being the worst.
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Grateful for the amazing experiences I was able to have there during 3 years of visits in capturing some incredible scenes there before the vibes changed. I actually returned last June for a quick visit and respectfully enjoyed the blooms that were still there. In honor of all these trips I will be posting my favorites mixed in with other lupine scenes around New England over the next few weeks.
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This image here was from my first Sugar Hill lupine experience back in 2019 with the bros & . The weather forecasts leading up to leaving showed rain for most of it but luckily they were completely wrong and we had perfect conditions. Although I fired off well over 2,000 frames over this long weekend I knew for sure which one that I would be editing first as soon as I snapped it.
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On our last night there we waited at the edge of a farm field staring at the setting sun covered by thick cloud cover when all of the sudden the sky began to change color. Quickly hopping into my car we headed back over to the beautiful St. Matthews Chapel to get into position for the changing light.
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Barely getting my tripod in place and composition set I was able to get the image I had in my head as the perfect scene before leaving for New Hampshire. I was even able to get the iconic Sugar Hill Sampler barn building to provide a photo bomb in the background. It’s not often that everything lines up perfectly but when it does I’m extremely grateful.
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06/01/2026

Lupine season doesn’t last long in Midcoast Maine, but I was lucky to catch some amazing displays of them back in June of 2022, 2024 & 2025 on trips up there. Get up there in the next few weeks to enjoy them before they’re gone until next year!
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Areas to check out:
~ Owl’s Head
~ Bristol / Round Pond
~ Pemaquid Point
~ Harpswell
~ Whitefield
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“Stony Creek Blue Moon” Despite its namesake a full Blue Moon has nothing to do with the actual color blue, but the fact...
05/31/2026

“Stony Creek Blue Moon” Despite its namesake a full Blue Moon has nothing to do with the actual color blue, but the fact that it is the second full moon in a calendar month. This event is a once every few years type of thing so it is not common and fits with the old phrase “once in a blue moon”. May’s first full moon, the “Flower Moon” rose on May 1st and the month’s second full moon officially occurred this morning as it set at 4:45am. The next monthly blue moon won’t arrive until New Year’s Eve (12/31/28) leading us into the year 2029, which gives you an idea of the infrequency of it.
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With clouds threatening parts of New England last night during moonrise I decided to stay close and take my camera to what is my favorite local area. The historic Stony Creek neighborhood has coastal vibes that can compete with anywhere in New England and is most know for the iconic Thimble Islands. There wasn’t a particular subject to catch the moon rising over, but I had a general area in mind that I headed to a bit before sunset.
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I got into position to see a layer of low hazy clouds out over the water and crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t obstruct the rising moon. Not long after the 99.5% full moon showed itself, although a bit more right than I had originally anticipated. So I had to adjust quickly to head down the road to find a composition before it made its way higher into the sky.
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I continued this pattern moving myself around capturing a number of different scenes as the sky became darker. A kind local told me to get closer to the water on their property and it allowed me to get into better position for several of the shots featured in this carousel post. Always grateful for that and meeting new people on my adventures all around New England.
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It was hard to pick a singular favorite so I included all of those I chose to edit. Make sure to swipe through them all and let me know which is your favorite! Hope Mother Nature allowed most of you to get a glimpse of this always amazing display of nature last night.
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“Saybrook Supermoon Throwback” I am currently out along the coastline in my home area of Connecticut waiting to see if t...
05/30/2026

“Saybrook Supermoon Throwback” I am currently out along the coastline in my home area of Connecticut waiting to see if the moon will make an early appearance over the horizon. While I wait I thought it would be fun to share a favorite lunar throwback scene from this same moon from five years ago.
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I had been wanting to shoot Lynde Point Lighthouse from a distance and the moonrise back in late May of 2021 gave me the perfect opportunity. As I walked down the road to get into position I hadn’t even realized another Old Saybrook icon, The Maggie P, would be in the composition as well. This old houseboat broke free over 100 years ago and ended up in its current location you see here.
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The lighthouse as it stands today was constructed in 1838 and originally used whale oil to light the lamp until 1879. It became fully automated in 1978 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The lower portion of the sky was super hazy and I initially had my doubts that a shot would even happen.
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As the moon first broke over the horizon it was super faint and in the frame here there isn’t much detail of the moon’s surface because of it. But I could only work with the conditions I had and ended up liking the moody vibes it provided, almost making for a watercolor sky.
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The sun was setting on the other side on the road and the warm end of day glow came from over my shoulder to light up everything on the shore. The mated pair of swans swimming by in front of the large driftwood was the cherry in top of this amazing scene that came together even better than I had imagined.
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“Little Miss Magic” Photographing the full moon rising in all different locations around New England has become a favori...
05/29/2026

“Little Miss Magic” Photographing the full moon rising in all different locations around New England has become a favorite never ending mission. Back in late May 2022 I took a quick trip to Provincetown, the eclectic seaside town at the very northern tip of Cape Cod. A visit here is welcome any time of year, but the main focus and photo target this time was the full moon on Sunday night. I had used PhotoPills ahead of time to choose my target of capturing the moon rising above Long Point Lighthouse and knowing exactly where I’d have to position myself to make it happen.
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Standing on the sand of “Dog Beach” near the end of Commercial Street I setup with the lighthouse out in front of me just about 1.4 miles away. The final condition to complete the mission was out of my hands and up to Mother Nature if she was going to hold off the cloud cover long enough. These coastal moonrise shots are always tough because hazy conditions along the horizon occurs regularly and can impede the moon’s visibility even if the sky overhead is clear.
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It’s always an incredible rush looking at the time and wondering if it will an appearance for me or not, and this night was no exception. Luckily right around 7:40pm the top of the rising full Flower Moon popped up above the horizon and I scrambled to get into perfect position. When using a telephoto setup on a moonrise it’s incredible how quickly it moves in frame and you don’t have much time to get the shot you want. There was a sailboat in the foreground that gave me another amazing element in the composition shown here aptly named “Little Miss Magic”.
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With all of the perfect planning, camera gear & travel expenses it still always takes a bit of luck & “Magic” to get these types of shots. I loved aspects of both images so decided to include them in the post with the second taken about 6 minutes later. For my Photog followers that like to see my settings on these shots both are single exposures taken on my Canon R5 with a Canon RF 100-500 lens + RF 1.4x TC. First image is at 700mm, ISO 400, f10, 1/125 and second is at 500mm, ISO 1600, f8, 1/640.
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“Momma and Her 2 Owlets” My last post featuring a more recent family of Screech Owls brought me back to one of my favori...
05/28/2026

“Momma and Her 2 Owlets” My last post featuring a more recent family of Screech Owls brought me back to one of my favorite wildlife images that I ever had the experience of capturing in early June 2018. A friend of mine told me about a Screech Owl family in his yard right in the middle of a busy suburban neighborhood so I had to go over with my cameras and check it out.
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After getting my tripod and rig setup the first owl to make an appearance was one of babies who popped up quick before disappearing back down into the nesting cavity. A few minutes later the mom made her first appearance and was shortly followed by one baby pushing up under her. As I started to get my camera ready to capture this amazing moment, the second baby began to wiggle its way up past its sibling and get into position above the parent.
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Not knowing how long all 3 would be up there together, I quickly fired off a number of shots and even got a video clip of the unique scene as well. This particular image stood out to me the most with their sharp talons on display in a perfect row and of course the fluff ball sandwich setup with 2 poofy owlets & rufous phased adult in the middle. Not long after they dipped back down one by one and luckily I had been there at the right time to capture this amazing family portrait.
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“Momma & Her 3 Lil Fluffballs” If you have been following me for a long time then you’ll know that my photography journe...
05/27/2026

“Momma & Her 3 Lil Fluffballs” If you have been following me for a long time then you’ll know that my photography journey started out by capturing wildlife, with hawks & owls being my favorites. Although I’ve shifted to focusing more on scenic/landscape images these days I still love to get back to these earlier subjects whenever the opportunity arises.
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Back in May of 2024 the timing worked out for me to check out a family of Eastern Screech Owls that had been nesting less than 15 minutes from my store so I headed over after I closed up one day. I arrived to first see one of the youngins poking their head out of a tree cavity up high and then saw the other 2 siblings off on a distant branch a few trees down.
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I was shooting at 700mm and they were still tiny in the frame, but I fired off a number of images as they were moving quite a bit. For my photographer followers due to lighting I had to boost up my ISO here to 12,800 which is crazy high, but the Canon R5 handled it well & paired with Lightroom’s new Denoise I was amazed at how they turned out.
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The first image here in this carousel was my favorite pose of the two and the next as you swipe over with the first fluffball I encountered still inside the cavity. Then I would see mom low to the ground looking for food for them and attempted some photos of her as she bounced around. The third image in the post was my favorite of her and I love her beautiful rusty color in contrast to the lush green foliage surroundings. Spring is such a magical season with all of the new growth, colorful blooms and so many new baby birds & critters entering the world.
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