This buggy being pulled by two horses is not a very common sight in Lancaster county but occasionally I come across it. Images like this are the result of observation and awareness of your surroundings. I saw this buggy heading into town and quickly decided what might make a nice background. I drove ahead till I found my background and simply waited for them to come into the composition and rattled off a sequence which allows for me to have options. There was a car parked in the driveway that was noticeable in half the shots, but a select few were just right!
A Mennonite buggy passes by a snow covered Lancaster county farm scene with temperatures in the single digits. When you complain about your car heater taking too long, imagine yourself driving this! I had a couple shots with the horse having all 4 feet off the ground at once which no one thought possible till it was captured on film in a test setup long ago.
We finally received a measurable snow and with it came some rather bitter temperatures. What you are seeing here is not snow but Hoarfrost. Hoarfrost Needs certain conditions to develop and these include brutal cold down in the single digits, very little if any wind and water vapor to freeze on objects already cold. I headed out this morning before sunrise and as I started my Jeep the temperature read 14 degrees and I thought to myself that’s not as cold as they had predicted? A mile down the road it had dropped to 9 degrees and I realized 14 degrees was in my garage! So I traversed the back roads looking near creeks and streams and only found very light Hoarfrost. I kept driving and thinking about spots in low lying valleys and this location came to mind. It was 10 miles away but I decided to see if by chance it might and boy was I happy when I came down the hill and all around the creek was coated in a thick layer of hoarfrost and no wind at all to destroy the beauty! I crawled under an electric fence and was waiting for the Amish farmer to yell at me to get out of his pasture but I think he knew I was just trying to capture this unique opportunity plus I kept shaking my frozen hands trying not to scream at the intense pain I was in, so he may have been enjoying my misery from his warm living room. I plan to give them a large print for being understanding. Oh and by the way when I got back in my Jeep I noticed two things, one the temperature was now minus 7 and when I went to put the vehicle in drive, it was already in drive! In my excitement I had pulled off the road, left the Jeep running for the heat when I was done and I never put it in park! Thank goodness I had pulled into a small pile of snow which held everything in place while I was preoccupied shooting for at least a half hour! The crazy thing is if it would have started rolling it was pointed directly at the creek embankment which dropped off 20-30 feet to the creek below.
With temperatures in the teens and single digits these brave souls decided it was time for a sleigh ride through the country. The horses and their passengers all were creating vapor trails as they exhaled their warm breath into the frigid air. I heard the bells jingling in the distance long before I saw them but I knew it meant only one thing was heading my way.
Recently I referenced a snowy night where I stayed out till three in the morning because it was so pretty everywhere. This old farm was owned by a nice guy named Wayne who passed away last year. He had left me photograph the property a time or two and he was always very accommodating. Thirty years ago a photography friend of mine captured this place with an old sleigh in the front yard and that image has lingered in my mind how it was captured and the feeling of it being a place for family to gather. I usually don’t like to do shoot under pitch black skies but this evening had kind of a magical feel and the sky was very luminous!
This is another image from the light snow we got in late December. It is the research library at our local historical society. I noticed the lead research leader was working late and the warm light caught my attention. After I captured the basic shot I knocked and to my surprise she opened the door! We know each other and she kindly allow me to go upstairs to light up the one room and also blast my flash out the front window to create the light Ray’s on the snow!
This old truck has been placed at the entrance to a local park for the last few holiday seasons and serves as a photo spot to capture the season with family and friends. The snow was light but it clung to trees in an awesome show. This little dusting caught me off guard with it’s beauty and I set a new late night shooting record by staying out till three in the morning. To be honest I actually should have shot till the sun came up because there were tons of opportunities but I am not exactly the young stud I used to be!
I photograped this church that is celebrating it’s 275th anniversary. I captured this a week before the actual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, which was most certainly even more beautiful than this!
Donald Reese Photography 