This property has always been a favorite of mine and as I drove by last week, I noticed the barn was illuminated with spotlights and the trees were wearing a heavy coat of fresh snow so I turned around to try this shot. I have my tripod on the sidewalk across the street and despite traffic being fairly light, I had several motorists drive by who were maybe a foot from the curb and were so kind as to splash slop at me. I quickly countered by getting a golf umbrella and used it to completely shield myself from their pitiful driving abilities. I did use their headlights to my advantage to help light the snow in the middle of the road. This night was very calm and was a night to remember.

The old Victorian home and mill remind me of the simpler times in the past and the less frantic way of life that folks enjoyed.

This is another image I captured during last weeks storm and till I was done shooting at 11pm, my feet were numb and my fingers not much better. The reason for freezing was not because of bitter cold but the fact that I had no real intention of shooting anything, so when I headed out to get a photo for a local church activity, I had on two light sweatshirts and my choice of shoe that night was none other than a loafer. Well after finishing up my photo shoot and heading toward home, I started seeing great shots here and there and was basically too lazy to drive several miles to get warmer clothes. My jeep has an awesome heater and that helped between locations but the above image was one of several I took here and I was basically standing in about 5 inches of snow for close to an hour, in loafers no less. The cool result is thanks to pure white LED’S in a parking lot on the left and clouds blowing by rather quickly during a couple second exposure.

I found this snow covered scene just in the nick of time because about 10-15 minutes after I shot this I noticed the sun starting to get covered by fast moving clouds yet it was totally calm around this gazebo. It was shortly thereafter the wind came whipping through here and blew two thirds of the snow off everything and that was all she wrote for photos. I can’t complain because the snow did hang on for a good 12 hours, which I thoroughly enjoyed shooting. This scene is located atop a high spot near here that affords a great view of the surrounding countryside in all directions.

This past week we experienced our first snow of the season here in Lancaster county and even though it was only 4 or 5 inches, it clung to trees nicely and provided around 12 hours of opportunity for great photos before the wind and warm temps obliterated it. I sit typing this tonight after we had temperatures in the mid-sixties today and while it was nice to wash the truck, I would rather have more snow.

Here is a little slide show of some of my winter images that I made for a Christmas post here. click on the link below. Merry Christmas, Don

Christmas slide show

I passed this farm last week and the sheer number of round bales sitting in the fields was probably the most I have seen on one property over the years. This shot is okay but because the farm sits in the valley, it was next to impossible to get a good vantage point. The hill in the background had even more than this field but after I hiked up there thinking I was going to get this amazing shot from the hill top, I quickly realized looking down the hill was a huge let down because the upper bales blocked most of the lower bales. I think I need a drone for shots like this.What you see in the photo is maybe a quarter of the fields with bales.

This is a lovely Christmas display in the town of Lititz that is Known as the Laurel Avenue lights because it is located on Laurel Ave. Its interesting how I ended up here doing this photo and it all started when I was at a community carol sing in the town park over the weekend and the bandshell there had some Christmas trees set up which I thought looked nice. It was very full and I thought I would try after everyone left, so that is what I did. I hate to admit it but I had unbeknownst to me, bumped a switch on the camera that turned vibration reduction on. Normally thats a good thing but on a tripod, the thing tries to activate and what happens is the image moves from one frame to the next. With some serious effort, I might have been able to use it but I decided I would return the following night.

So the following day was Saturday and I arrived well before sunset to get the angle and make sure everything was plugged in, but as I get to the bandshell, I see it now has a chain with no trespassing signs attached running around the whole perimeter. I had talked to the park coordinator the night before so I hoped for the best and carefully took the chain down. At one point I notice a guy that seems to be watching me and he is on his cellphone and I start thinking here we go, there is going to be trouble. No more than 5 minutes later a van comes driving right up to the bandshell and no cars are supposed to be in this area normally. I basically wait to get yelled at but to my surprise the gentleman actually helps me get the lights turned on, and he is in charge of coordinating this. We chat a bit and he says he needs to get home to get his display ready for the visitors. He invited me to come see it and I said I will swing by and when I pulled up, I knew immediately I wanted to do a shot.

Everything is on controllers with music playing and there is a screen that plays Polar Express and another movie that slips my mind. The owner Rich told me of the challenges that the local wildlife has been putting him through with chewing wires completely in half. With all the miles of cord, he had one critter that chewed the same wire twice after it was repaired. In the short time I was there, it was a constant flow of appreciative visitors.

This is one of my favorite local Churches, but its very hard to get a great shot because there is a hideous telephone pole with transformers just to the left and they are nearly impossible to avoid and the other tough part is the steeple is so high above the rest of the structure it requires a very wide shot which ends up with too much empty sky. I rarely cut a building like this but did so to keep the ginkgo visible.

I was headed out to do an event photo when I drove past this feed mill and thought to myself I need to try a shot there some day. Fast forward 45 minutes in time and I am heading back home as the sun was setting so I decide to grab a shot. Pretty sure they all felt like I did in the sense they all wanted to get home and relax after a hard days work.

What you see here is a sea of gold thanks to the beautiful Ginkgo tree. The Ginkgo is a very unique tree and it has been said to have the most synchronized leaf drop of any tree and I have witnessed this myself many times were the tree is completely golden one day and the next day all the leaves are on the ground. This tree was at Linden Hall in Lititz,Pa and I literally shot the tree in complete foliage on a Friday and it looked like this on Saturday. I literally got them at their best color long before any fading could occur. I will have a couple angles from this location this week. Unfortunately one thing I could do nothing about was the banner tied to the pillars. The light shining toward the camera was from a street light that I hid with a pillar.

Another image of one of my favorite properties in the area. This angle would be good in winter with a sleigh going by.

I took this image last week and all the leaves are gone now but there was a real chill in the air that hinted at Winter’s impending arrival. On this night,this solid old farmhouse with it’s thick walls and a warm fireplace crackling in the background would be a great place to just snuggle up with a book, the family dog, or your spouse perhaps?  I suggest you stock up on your favorite tea, hot chocolate or cider now because old man Winter is chomping at the bit. If we are lucky, maybe it will be a brutally cold winter that kills all the stink bugs and lantern flies and their eggs.

In a world of ever increasing gadgets and technology, I find that there seems to be more and more of a disconnect between people and simply saying hello to your neighbors has now been replaced with mind numbing texts and social media postings about absolutely nothing of significance. The term social media is about as far from reality as you can get. Their are a lot in the latest generation that will grow older realizing they have wasted much of their life accomplishing nothing of any substance.

Todays post reminds me of when I was young and instead of wasting time on the phone, my grandpa would take me to the farm shown above and we would cut and load firewood together on weekends. I have heard it said that most people will not remember you for what you accomplished, but rather how you made them feel and I believe that is true. This image resonates simplicity and calm, and I fear the generation coming up will never have those personal interactions that create memories for a lifetime.

This group of trees provide a nice relaxing welcome home feeling for the homeowners who live at the end of this path. I imagine the cares of the day just melt away as they leave the main road and head back the lane to their little corner of paradise.

Cold air moves in from the north as this combine unloads another corn harvest into an awaiting wagon. Those combines are very good at their respective tasks and make getting the job done a fairly simple procedure.

This photo was taken last week as I was driving around in search of autumn images. This image was 30-50 feet off the road and what appears to be a large pond in the foreground is actually a 15 foot puddle of rain runoff. To further complicate things, there were two discarded orange traffic cones tossed in the middle of the “pond” that were impossible to reach without getting soaked. I decided it had enough potential to shoot and I would try to clone the cones out in photoshop if possible. Well it was easier than I envisioned and it turned out lovely, but without a keen eye and the ability to see the potential in a small puddle, it would never have come into being. Looking at your subject from different angles and heights, wether high or low can really bring an image to the next level.

Not much surprises me these days but being given the finger by this Amish boy who was hauling pumpkins with his younger sister made me do a double take. I was simply driving the backroads when I rounded this bend and saw a wagon of pumpkins headed my way. I pulled over to watch it pass and we each nodded to the other and I snapped a few frames as it climbed the hill. As I was ready to leave, in the rear view mirror I see another wagonload heading my way. Once again I waited and took a few shots of this crew heading up the hill,and all of a sudden he turns and flips me off. I wondered what pop on the first wagon might have thought about that. Times, they are a changing. Maybe its the new welcome to Lancaster,county gesture?

I drove by this spot and saw there might be potential if I could get down in the water itself. I gingerly crawled down the hill on the right and stepped in wearing only muck boots which are about a foot high and on my 9th or 10th step I was in water that was 12.5 inches deep, so I walked faster, got a little wet and that was that. I slapped a polarizer on the lens which brought out the blue sky and also helped the ripples to show as well. I like the way the ripples kind of fade away were the warm reflection begins.

Morning sun illuminates a pair of trees that have reached peak color along a country road in Lancaster county. When I first saw this, there was a nice big circle of fallen leaves on the road as well, but till I turned around to try and park off the road, the family was already hard at work with backpack blowers cleaning up.

This is the front entrance to Cafe Chocolate in Lititz, Pa. They had some blue lighting mixed in the scene and I added some blue flash to match. The big pumpkin was on a turntable so I had to freeze him with flash. They were closed or I would have gotten a cup.