Spring is continuing to unfold day by day and being observant helped me get this shot. You see this is located on a dead end road in the country and as I was driving on a connecting road I caught a glimpse of a dash of pink in the distance. I made my way to this road and was treated to not only the tree in full bloom but the old barn and the patch of daffodils! I maximized the impact of the small patch of flowers by getting in close with a wide angle creating what I thought was a well balanced spring composition!
This property has what I think is a pretty porch and also a barn/garage on the left. I am standing in the middle of a two lane highway to shoot this but since practically no one else wanted to go out for a drive in this snowstorm, I had almost the entire road to myself to meander about. On a regular day this would be a real undertaking to achieve.
A little wider view of the Historical Society research library. This was a private home years ago and the owners saw my photo here and dropped me a line. They mentioned it was built in 1929, so it’s 100 year milestone is only a few short years away. I hope I look this good at 95 but since I will be below ground at that point its not likely!
This is the research library for our local Historical Society. The flurries were blowing pretty hard and just about every 5 frames or so I had to clean my lens. The Museum is next door and that is where I walked by a room that had a mannequin dressed that no one told me about. This was during an evening shoot there and my mind was already imagining the possibilities! The big clock on the left used to be just up the street at a bank.
We have only had a couple snowstorms this Winter but the ones we were blessed to get have been the clingy pretty type. This Gazebo actually has a copper roof but covered or not this serene scene has lots of appeal. I would have loved to get this at dusk with those lamp posts lit up but this is more than satisfactory I feel!
I was walking one evening around Christmas when I happened upon this festive porch that had what I thought was a pretty nice doorway entrance. I knocked and they obliged and here you go.
I finally got to give this new found angle a try at this old homestead. I mentioned this in the past but there is a main road just behind the stone wall, but thankfully the property owner I am shooting from is related to the house in my photo so I got a nice clean view without the ugly road!
This local Chapel is so pretty and makes for a good subject almost anytime. We have not exactly been overwhelmed with snow this year but I made the extra effort to capture some scenes while it hung around. The lamp posts came on as soon as the sun set but at that point the ambient light was way too bright yet. So with that being the case all I could do was keep waiting for the light to drop and of course this foreground light kept intensifying by the minute. It got so bad when everything else was perfect that I ended up using my pole with a square piece of foamcore attached to block the horrendous flare this thing was putting on my lens. Pretty much all the light you see on the vegetation and snow was done by me with my flash. When I got here the sun was maybe ten minutes from setting but since I could not decide my angle, I missed that. The thing I did notice was the suns rays were skimming across the snow and plants and although I missed capturing it, I gave my best attempt at recreating what I saw! If it wasn’t for that light skimming across the snow you may never have even noticed there was a path going through the scene.
This looks like a good spot to enjoy a relaxing night with friends, but you may want to bring a set of warm clothes and some blankets! This is at the Lititz Springs inn, which was formerly known as the General Sutter.
I do a fair amount of shooting in the nearby town of Lititz, PA around the holidays. If you have ever enjoyed the sweet chocolate treat known as a Wilbur Bud, you may have either picked some up here or ordered them from here. The Wilbur chocolate plant was a fixture in the downtown forever but a few years ago the old plant was deemed outdated and so manufacturing moved away. The old factory was completely renovated into luxury condos and an upscale hotel called as you may have guessed, The Wilbur! I stopped in one day after I noticed their lovely Christmas tree to ask if there was any chance to photograph it? They agreed but I could not be in the way of any guests and that basically boiled down to me being about 5 feet from this tall tree with my 17mm wide angle! It was not the ideal setup but I got the shot and before I left I also captured this little festive decor arranged to catch your eye. The Wilbur company thankfully still maintains a store nearby where visitors can sample their sweet creations.
The shops in downtown Lititz get all decked out for the Christmas season creating a nice environment. I was just about done capturing this store image when this couple came walking by and I blurted out “any chance you two would pose in my shot”? Surprisingly they did agree so I snapped three quick frames because it was raining and they were on their way. I lit them from behind with my flash to silhouette them and you can see that helped illuminate the rain drops coming down.
Poole Forge is an old iron making site located in Eastern Lancaster County. The township now owns the property and it has been lovingly restored over many years. The old Iron masters Mansion there hosts a Christmas tree decorating event every two years and this year was the on year. This room had two participants trees on display with one being a peacock theme and the other focused on a wedding theme. I am graciously given a key and have been allowed to come in the pre-dawn hours to shoot any that I find appealing. Various stories about the place being haunted have circulated over time, so being there alone gets my overactive imagination set in motion. Years ago I arrived early one morning and I went room to room to decide what I liked, and as I rounded the corner to check out the last room I gazed upon a large decorated tree that was laying on it’s side with decorations strewn all over the floor! First thought was some mischievous spirit had been at work, then that changed to oh crap they are going to think I knocked it over! Thankfully I got the organizer to stop by and after some analysis we noticed the tree stand screws were barely turned into the trunk and that was the cause!
This barn was one of several I was asked to shoot for a historical society barn book driving tour. The owner is an accomplished artist who does beautiful work and as soon as I saw the barn in the distance I knew it would be an awesome subject in the snow! The owners were extremely nice and said I could come back anytime to capture its beauty. Well the finished barn book did not impress me in the slightest, because I spent hours shooting various angles at a bunch of barns only to have them use a single shot sometimes. I guess the positive side was getting to meet the owners of some barns I had never come across before and being given the opportunity to revisit them. I talk about what it takes for some of my images but until you actually see it visually you might not grasp it. The top image is my final result and in the lower shot you can see me with both arms raised over my head and that big square over my head is the barn window,not my gear! I am holding things high to hopefully help the signal from the tablet in my right hand reach my camera which is a hundred yards away and that in turn sends the signal back to fire the flash that is in my left hand as I pray that it works! Sometimes I get no response, sometimes the camera fires and not the flash etc etc.
The bottom image is my first exposure as I try to get my flash to light up the snow on the roof to give it some dimension. So basically I move around lighting things I want to bring out more. In this image you can see how little detail the flat evening light reveals but by pointing my flash toward my camera with a big blast, I now have contours showing in the landscape giving it dimension! I often mention how I like a cold snowy landscape with a warm inviting structure that suggests refuge from the elements. When I arrived here the first thing I did was knock to say hi and it appeared to me as if they were home but there was no answer so I assumed they were enjoying dinner. I then went about finding a good view and started shooting as it got darker. I kept thinking how great lights on in the barn would be but hated to bother them again. I had been in the barn once for the book and knew the light switch was right inside the door! I noticed the barn door was hanging wide open so I simply hit the light switch on and that warm interior illumination transformed the shot completely in my opinion. hopefully that helps explain a little of the technique I use
I should have posted a bunch of upcoming shots in December but I was so busy shooting that posting these got put on hold. This image was captured on a rainy evening just before Christmas in the nearby town of Lititz, Pa. It is a close knit town that has a very strong sense of community and has a charming downtown with neat little shops. My heading is a little deceptive in the fact there were so many cars going by that I barely had openings to capture this image. My truck is parked along the curb/sidewalk with my tripod and camera at the front drivers side corner of my Jeep literally 3 feet from the cars whizzing by with an umbrella over it to keep it dry! Capturing an image like this can be practically impossible to get with one frame so one option is to do it in parts. So for example there were cars constantly on different areas of the road but not on the other areas, so I shoot till I know I have frames with no cars on one half of the frame and then do the other half till both sides are clear of cars! Then I must light the buildings which helps to make their wet reflections more visible on the road, and that requires me to physically be on the other side of the road with my flash and then I have to not only aim my flash correctly but I must watch to make sure there is no car passing between me and my camera as I fire the flash or all I get is a passing car blur. While I think of it I must apologize for my sentences that seem to go on forever. My mother writes the same way and can go from one thought to another in a seemingly endless sentence, so maybe it’s a genetic defect. I wish I could make sense of it but I have no clue?
The building on the corner with the arched window used to be a church but it went up for sale and thankfully a member of the community stepped up to purchase it and it now functions to host events periodically. The real shame is the previous owner took out all the stained glass just to make a quick buck! Take note of the house on the left which has these amazing carved embellishments over each window! One point of frustration is my wifi setup is supposed to be able to remotely fire my camera and transmit the image to my tablet at almost a football fields distance but for some reason rain wreaks havoc on the signal transmission distance. Essentially the result of that is me walking up to the church numerous times only to find I lost connection or can’t get my camera to fire and have to walk back closer to get my signal back!
Last week we got several more inches of snow added to what the previous storm had given us. It was late Friday afternoon when I headed to a farm I had on my list of potential good subjects if we ever got snow again. I went to the farm at 4:00 and found my vantage point and set up waiting for dusk to arrive to get my shot. It was snowing and blowing so I had my tripod set up with a bag of weights attached and I also had my no hands umbrella setup covering the camera. I basically took a monopod, added a pvc tube that an umbrella handle slides down in and I simply velcro that to my tripod. The weights insure the tripod stays put even in fairly strong winds. I got the shot I had envisioned and noticed two hours had blown by already. I basically was feeling I wanted more snow shots so I drove around snapping here and there. I ended up deciding to drive through a local park as it was already after 9:00pm. I took a quick look through the park and realized I was the only one there except for one car with no one in it?
I was excited to know I had the place to myself and not worry about people interrupting me so I commenced to look for my shot, which you see here. It was not full moon, yet the whole area seemed fairly bright and you would barely guess this is around 10:30 at night. The contrast between the warm park lights and the cold snow created a sort of fairy tale look with the bridge leading to the gazebo! This shot was transformed by me adding light to the gazebo and the snow to bring out the texture. I really enjoy taking a scene and transforming it with light to create images that are uniquely my vision.
Getting back to that other car, I could see it across the park and noticed it start up, and then proceed in my direction. I watched as it stopped near my vehicle and it seemed the person inside was watching me? My radar was now on full alert and then I see what I thought was a big guy get out and start walking through the snow toward me. To my surprise it was a woman who was curious about what I was doing lighting up the landscape. We had a brief conversation about how pretty the snow was and then she left, but I couldn’t help but wonder how many women would venture out alone to a park at 10:30 at night and then approach the only other person there to see what they are doing? I did make one rookie mistake here and that was when I walked through pristine snow while doing another shot only to realize I wanted to shoot the snow I just walked through.                 
A couple other shots of the Sleigh ride I captured. These do not show the dogs as well but I like seeing the two modes of transportation in the one shot! Maybe the buggy was hauling the hot chocolate for when the adventure ended?
My apologies for not posting for quite some time because I have a good number of shots, just setting time aside to do it can be a challenge. With that said here is a shot I took this past week after our area got 4-5 inches of new snow. I will drive the backroads scanning for anything with potential and as I looked in the distance I wondered if what I saw heading my way might be a sleigh? Sure enough it was and it is these special moments that strike a chord with me and get filed away in my memory as yet another blessing in my photography career. It is not just the sleigh, or the bells jingling, or the snowflakes flying, or the horses in perfect synchronization, but if you look closely there are at least eight dogs snuggled in enjoying the ride as well. You got the captain up front, the white one peeking around the corner, there are three in the ladies lap, two in the arms of the rear passenger, and my personal favorite is the one nestled in under the front seat where all you see is his white nose peeking out. For all I know there may have been more under the seats. Sometimes the simple things in life are the most special.
A recent foggy evening provided the opportunity to have fun in the fog. I blasted my flash up into the gazebo to get the light rays both on the ground and through the foggy air!
Another and perhaps my personal favorite shot from the farm visit. This is now going up the lane above the bridge and stream. The conditions were perfect with the thick fog starting to relinquish it’s hold and at the same time the sun was slowly starting to break through. It was basically illuminating this one tree so it stood out in brilliant color.
Continuing with this location, here is the stream that leads to the stone bridge. The tree on the left had literally dropped the majority of it’s leaves the day before but I still like the various progression of trees and leaves changing.
This is the same location as yesterday and this is at the bottom of that image and you can now see the lane heading toward the other connecting farm. I thought the bridge was kind of impressive being that it is on private property.
This particular location is actually down a long farm lane owned by an Amish family. Eons ago I drove through here from a second farm that the lane connects to and I stopped and asked if I may take a photo. They said sure, I got a shot, they got a print and everyone was happy. Fast forward 10-15 years and I could see off in the distance what appeared to be fall foliage from the main road so I stopped to ask again and to my surprise they actually remembered me coming and giving them a print all those years ago! The lane on the left goes over a small stream down at the bottom and then heads up to the right where those trees are. I think I was here from like 5:30 am till almost noon shooting this fall foliage spot and will sprinkle those in as the calendar moves on. This is one of the first I captured as a good layer of frost and somewhat dense fog combined for a great morning. It took a little waiting till the sun finally broke through but it was worth the wait!
Same Church but taken about a week apart. I was lucky enough to happen to be going by when things looked nice each time. By getting on my stomach I was able to use the low vantage point to hide the road located between the leaves and the Church. I also was somewhat forced to go low so the branches and leaves would not block the steeple.
Recently I shared the story of the Mennonite boy I crossed paths with riding home from school. Well this is where he lives and where his parents allowed me to shoot their flower garden. The sun setting on the left was pure luck but I am pleased with my result as it balances nicely composition wise. This was just on the edge of getting hit by frost and a week later they were toast!
I got a little lazy last week so I missed posting. Anyway I shot this old mill a week or two ago and it took some work and co-operation from a couple people to pull off. I noticed this place while driving past in the morning and decided I was coming back in the evening. Now for starters the foreground area was littered with those huge ugly brown Sycamore leaves that are the size of your head, so my solution was simply bring my own! So I gathered up leaves from my front yard and brought them along for their moment in the spotlight. After dispersing my leaf collection I noticed the farmer heading my way to see what all the commotion was about? I told him my goal and asked if he wanted to help with the cause, which for his part was simply turning on his house lights because you all know I love illumination!
So part of my lights request was turning on lights in the mill, which I was told was impossible because all the wiring had been removed. Well not to deterred by this little glitch, I asked if we can go inside the mill and I will add light with my flash to bring it to life? He said sure and we moved from window to window as I blasted the interior with light. The big window on the right was not accessible, so he asked the tenant to turn that rooms lights on which he kindly did. This spot is one I am pondering if we get some snow this year. There is also an old covered bridge right behind my camera but its not used anymore and is not that photogenic. Oh and after I was inside the lower level to light the window, he mentions that skunks are fairly regular guests down there, so one flash and out I came!
Well I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving and time with your family. I figured I would share this little nugget of brilliance with you as your turkey induced sleep wears off. This is the oldest covered bridge in Lancaster county and it was fixed maybe two years ago after a box truck hit the entrance. So this past week a driver from Georgia was driving an 18 wheeler and seemingly has no clue what height is, decided it would be no problem to drive their rig through this bridge! The huge orange sign reads 10 ft 6 inches and this morons truck was 13 feet 4 inches so there was a slight issue here. So they decided to go ahead and upon hitting the entrance, their brain didn’t say stop, it said keep going, no problem! they ripped every cross brace but one off on one side and screwed up a lot of other structural things. You also see the weight limit sign which is 20 tons or 44,000 lb , and an unloaded rig starts at 35,000 lbs. So since they are not a quitter, they got as far as the other end and got stuck, so they then tried backing out destroying more of the bridge! In the end the fire company was called and they got the rig out of there. One last thing, if the tractor had gotten out the end, the road drops downward and the trailer would have pivoted up and torn the roof off! to see more photos visit the Farmersville fire co Facebook page.
This property is one I have always admired and when I saw the trees in full color, I knew it needed to be captured. There are some challenges here but with some effort greatness can be achieved. If I told you there was a busy road between the stone wall and the white picket fence, you might say no way but in fact there is and I think I finally cracked the code with this angle. The other thing I absolutely abhor is obnoxious power lines ruining a shot but I put in the time to remove all of them and trust me there was a multitude.
This was captured in my hometown park about a week ago and includes peak fall trees and Azaleas? I have no clue why Azaleas are blooming in the fall but these have been doing this the last several years. I always thought Azaleas were a late spring bloomer but what do I know. I don’t think these colors really work together but it is an interesting sight.
I snapped this in late summer as mom,pop and jr were meandering about the pasture. They should have named him spitfire, because every now and then he would just take off at full speed using every muscle he had available. They remind me they just came from the hair salon with their fancy hair.
Fall trees come in a wide variety of colors but few can match the wow factor that the Gingko brings to the Autumn table. It is a one trick pony but when it comes to grabbing your attention it delivers in grand fashion. The burning bush in the background is no slouch either.
While this image is not that amazing, the backstory is kind of funny. The day before I snapped this photo I had stopped at a Mennonite farm about two miles up the road to ask if I could try a shot of their garden which was on it’s last hoorah. They kindly agreed so I set up my tripod and waited for the sun to get near the horizon for my shot. I usually shoot a series of exposures every couple minutes because there is a point where everything is just right. While I waited a young boy came out to see what I was doing, so I showed him my tablet with my composed image displayed. He took a look and says “hey, thats not bad” which I found sort of humorous. His father came out near dark and I asked if I could go in the barn to light the inside,to which he gladly agreed.
So the very next day I am going down the road and I notice these 4 kids had just left the one room school and headed up this farm lane which connected to another road. I knew they were eventually going to come up this hill so I sat in my car and waited with a long lens. I took a few as they approached and when they were about 30 yards away I heard the one in the front yell “hey Don”? I thought did I really just hear my name called out? Well it turns out this was the boy from the night before who gave me his analysis of my shot and he had the biggest smile on his face as he got closer. So to get even crazier, the oldest boy in the yellow shirt asks “are you Donald Reese” which was mind blowing. We have a little running joke at work because in the last month I have had at least 5 different Mennonite people meet me and When I say hi my name is Don, they say are you Donald Reese? The most recent one happened when I saw a nice barn and fall trees and pulled off the road to take a shot. As I snapped away I noticed the farmer walking out towards me so I prepared for trouble. I said hi can I help you? and he said “well there are some questions”. I told him I was local and was getting some fall photos and guess what he asked me, “Are you Donald Reese”? I said as a matter of fact I am, and this 40 or so year old man puts his hand by his knee and said I have been admiring your photos since I was this tall! I guess people have been taking note of my images over the years and I am honored by that!
This image was taken at the Lebanon V.A hospital and it is the second year in a row that I was blown away by the color in this grove of trees meant as a place to rest and just enjoy the quieter things in life. It’s as if every leaf is shouting “thank you” for all you have given for us!
The inside of one of Lancaster Counties numerous covered bridges and on the outside some colorful fall foliage around a small old building awaits anyone strolling through! This was shot on a tripod with one exposure capturing the dark interior and a second exposure capturing the bright exterior. An overcast day would possibly allow a single shot to capture the dynamic range of both inside and out but there usually is some part that just falls apart in deep shadows or bright highlights. As a side note, I actually got permission like 10 or 15 years ago to string Christmas lights up on the exterior roof edge, but that was when I was young and nimble. It drew a lot of people to see the lit bridge. I still have huge totes full of icicle lights I purchased to do that. Just another fond memory of my many endeavors to do something special with my photography. I should write a book detailing my adventures including a few times I almost paid the price for what I will call my momentary loss of common sense..
Believe it or not this is a shot I have been hoping to capture for the last four years! Fall is a favorite time of year for me and I enjoy everything from the crisp cool nights and frosty mornings to the dazzling array of autumn colors! This location in particular is one I happened to drive past each of the last 3 years and every time it was when the inventory was anywhere from half gone to three quarters gone. Well fast forward to this year and for once I caught the field full of rich color. I stopped and snapped a quick shot and asked if I could stop by in the evening to do a tripod mounted shot under softer lighting? The young lady said sure and all day all I could think about was how awesome this opportunity was going to be to capture such beauty! Well evening finally rolled around and I arrived to notice that during the day hundreds of the most vibrant plants had been taken to the auction? This minor setback was never even considered as a possibility but as the owner told me once they get to full color it is time to move them out. Well I ended up shooting a little lower angle to hide empty areas and the owners thankfully allowed me to move some plants to fill in random holes. I was just settling in with my final composition and the light was getting more appealing by the minute and low and behold here comes a tractor with a wagon down the lane to remove even more? Not knowing what they were going to grab sent me into hustle mode capturing as many exposures from light to dark before my subject potentially might disappear in front of me. They did grab a couple dozen but mostly from the area out of my shot so in the end I finally was blessed to get the shot!
As a side note I wanted to mention that the owner and his family were very appreciative of the framed print I gave them and were extremely pleased with the final image. I must say it is very gratifying when someone acknowledges your abilities and the effort put forth to rise above mediocrity. I think both shots are great but I always lean toward the images that have that “alive” with light look that is one look I love because it imparts more than beauty as you can imagine yourself getting up for morning chores or maybe getting ready to turn in after a day of hard work. Most people are more than happy to hit a few lights on so I can go the extra mile.
I happened to drive by this porch of carved pumpkins during the day and decided to come back that evening. I had no idea if they would be lit or not but as I came up the road I could see the glow so I knew we were in business. This scene is about 10 feet off the road so getting a shot was very easy. What would a Halloween photo be without a little scare in the story? I parked in a field, grabbed my gear and headed across the road and that’s when I noticed a few were not lit? Other than the glowing pumpkins, it was very dark around them and as I set my tripod up a voice suddenly came from the dark porch saying I will have them all lit in a minute! Well after that unexpected surprise, they went inside and I commenced to adding a touch of light for that cool moonlit shot I had envisioned! It seems that creative endeavors done for the enjoyment of others are becoming increasingly scarce in a world of self absorbed people who have very little desire to do anything positive requiring the slightest effort! I know I am getting old when I feel the need to share what I see happening in society and maybe it runs in my genes because I did have some ancestors who were Preachers!
Donald Reese Photography 