This is a restaurant in the small town of Lititz, Pa called the Tomato Pie Cafe and I actually was shooting a different shot across the street in the rain. I finished the shot I was after and as I turned to head to my truck I noticed the usually busy street was practically bare.I rushed to get set up and the one lone car that was parked to the left of the tree pulled away and I knew everything was coming together. It was pouring the entire time and although my camera had an umbrella protecting it, I was not so lucky as my second umbrella broke as I tried to open it, so I had to run around in the rain using my flash to light the trees which gave nice reflections on the road. I got drenched but it was worth it to get the final result.

Well my title is what the digital sign out front read, so I decided to add my lighting touch to a wonderful rainy sunset already in progress. When I was almost done shooting this, I was doing a few long exposures to get the color on the road and a car starts to pull in the empty space in front of my tripod and in the short 5 seconds he hesitated and decided to not pull all the way in the spot, some knucklehead slows down and rolls the window down to yell a bunch of wicked remarks at the guy and then I see its like a 65-year-old woman who was so worked up I thought she might blow a vein. I stuck up for the guy and told her to go take a chill pill.

I have a mental list of places I drive by and wonder if I could get a neat shot sometime and this home is one of them. It is always well maintained and the porch details are very nice. The good old days had real craftsmen who took pride in creating something and the scroll work on the porch is an example of that. Of course I picked a bad day to try this shot but I managed to have enough good frames to make it work. I tried out my new ladder setup to do this and it basically uses a long aluminum pole that slides through the top of the ladder and becomes a huge tripod. I do not have all the bugs worked out yet, and making sure the pole does not rotate is on my list. I started shooting and you can see what the clouds started looking like and long before the light was perfect, it started to rain. I held an umbrella over the camera but it still got drops on the lens, so I had to climb the ladder to wipe it off and that guarantees the camera will shift ever so slightly. So at that point I started shooting a new set and realized my tablet had changed the lens opening on its own, which has happened a few times before when it is raining and I have no idea how the wi-fi gets messed with but it is frustrating. So I start my third series with the settings fixed and thankfully it worked. The owner was very helpful with turning on lights which always helps to get my signature look. Oh and yes there was the occasional lightning bolt which is always great when you have a 16 foot aluminum pole and your camera on top. The second photo shows the setup I used to get this shot. I am considering getting a motorized head to put on top so I can move the camera for proper framing up or down and left to right all from the tablet on the ground.

This adorable home has always intrigued me because of its unique exterior and its placement in relation to other homes on the street. I decided to ask if I could capture a shot with all the flowers currently blooming and they said sure. After speaking with the owners I found out they love the beach and that is reflected in the exterior styling. The house is over a hundred years old and after a small tour I could see they put their heart and soul into the home. I actually had a few obstacles this night and choosing to do this on a night with 15 mph winds was not my best move, but the real problem I had was the depth between the foreground and house. First I started shooting by focusing on the house but then the flowers were not sharp, so I switched focus to more in the front which left the house questionable. I shot a ton of images lighting the bushes and what not but they would not register after I changed focus, so even though I had better shots, without the house sharp it would have not worked. The following evening was calm as could be and I wondered why I could not have waited 24 hours?  In my defense it was supposed to rain for two days and I worried the flowers would get beat.

Since this photography related I thought I would share a couple of shots of my latest vehicle. I had my last truck for 22 years so it was definitely time to get something newer. Obviously it is a Jeep Wrangler and I love it. Already used the winch to save someone stuck in the snow this winter and taking the roof off is a blast. The reflection shot was done at a car lot I passed and I noticed some of the cars there were reflecting in the puddle after heavy rains passed through, so I went home for my gear and did this photo. The funny thing was I took my muck boots along to stay dry and at first I pulled right in the middle of the small lake and stepped out into water that I thought was maybe 4 inches but it was at least a foot deep! I decided I wanted to see most of my wheels so I moved to the edge and the ripples were captured after I walked through the water. The other shots are at a train station after closing.