Monthly Archives: January 2024

The Wilbur

Posted by reesephoto on

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 The Wilbur chocolate plant was a fixture in the downtown forever but a few years ago the old plant was deemed outdated and so manufacturing moved away.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.

Romance is in the Air!

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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 Tree Event

Posted by reesephoto on

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!

Beautiful Unique Barn

Posted by reesephoto on

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

Quiet Night in Lititz

Posted by reesephoto on

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!

Almost Alone?

Posted by reesephoto on

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.                 

Sleigh Ride Worth Howling About

Posted by reesephoto on

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.