This Chapel is one I always thought was so pretty and having the dogwood in bloom added a nice extra touch. Their is a hideous small structure that covers a set of stairs going to the basement near the front three windows that I could not let stand so I removed it. Whoever built this obnoxious addition should be run out of town as it has no visual appeal!

This is a farm I photographed months ago and the owners were very friendly and said stop back anytime! Well I happened past last week and noticed the flowering trees so I took a couple shots. I would prefer overcast for these but the sun did not want to relent for me.

This flowering tree has a very graceful flow to it!

This property used to be run down and neglected but a few years ago it was sold and the new owners have transformed it into a real gem within the community. The wife takes much pride and joy in decorating the porch for various times and events taking place through the year and her husband is right there to help insure things go as planned. The gorgeous flowering tree only added to the beauty.

A local funeral home had this lovely patch of tulips in bloom.

A red barn is framed by a patch of mustard and a flowering tree.

This is a small town Church that is somewhat of a challenge to get a decent shot of. I noticed this small patch of tulips across the street so I snapped a quick shot. There are about a million power lines that I removed to end up here. This is a very busy road as well so its hard to get a no car shot.

I have been a little busy this spring doing mulching and spring cleanup and subsequently I have not had time to look for spring scenes. This last week has been popping with color so I did manage to capture a few to share! This is a local cemetery where my Grandma is buried and last week her daughter, my Aunt was laid to rest here. I happened to glance at the cemetery while driving by and noticed this one section seemed to be alive with color. It is not my favorite view of the church but since this section was the only one with the spring display, I had no other option. For all I know these are all gone by now as I heard a mower somewhere on the back side of the hill.

This is the Square in Lititz, Pa after a fluffy coating of snow created a lovely scene.

Believe it or not this is actually a color photo taken after a fluffy snow covered everything in a picture perfect coating the night before. I shot this as I headed to work after being out for most of the night and being totally exhausted from lack of sleep.

This beautiful property is the home of a local therapeutic Horse riding Facility. I was given permission one bitter cold morning to go into this pasture to capture the sun coming up behind these magnificent trees. The Horses were all comfortable inside the stable while I was outside freezing to capture this shot. We had a nice coating of shimmering ice on top of the snow for a week or so and one warm day took the shine away slightly but this will do.

When you are the only one out at 3am you get the benefit of solitude in a Winter Wonderland!

This was the last little snowstorm we got and it stuck to everything quite nicely. I went to bed at 11:00pm, got up two hours later and looked out and just felt like I had to go out and shoot something. By 7am I felt like I was going to drop over from lack of sleep which reminded me I am no spring chicken anymore! This is Lititz, Pa which they hang these edison lights along the shopping district sometimes in the winter. They are tough to shoot because they are so bright and everything else is so dim. Waiting for the morning ambient light to climb helps but they always seem to have a glow around them that makes it tricky to use a different exposure to blend them in.

I shot this scene after it caught my attention because it had a look that seemed a little bit different than regular storms. Just a simple peaceful winter scene.

After a week of milder temperatures, the snow started to melt in earnest till this past weekend when we got another four to six inches of fluffy sticky snow. I went to bed at 11pm on Sunday Night, Got up at 1:30 to use the bathroom and looked out and despite only having an hour and a half of sleep at that point I just felt like I needed to head out. Very close to 2:00 AM I loaded up and headed out. I got several good shots in the wee hours and was getting close to work at daybreak when this scene caught my eye. All the details from the fence to the gorgeous porch to the barn just made for a nice shot. after 5 hours out shooting I was like a walking zombie with a serious desire for some shut eye. Old Faithful is the title because I have gotten several good shots of this property over the years thanks to the owners being very welcoming. I returned the same evening thinking the snowy fence would be intact but high wind cleared it completely but I did a shot anyway which you will see coming up.

This image was taken on Tuesday Evening and two days later I still can’t shake the experience! This farm is one that has been on my radar for a while and I like it because of the long lane leading in and the multitude of structures that stack up in a long lens shot. I headed here because I thought the sun would be a big subdued orange circle due to the misty air resulting from snow melt. Shortly after this shot the sun faded behind heavy clouds and never showed itself again. So all was well and good and their is a house to the right just out of frame. A Mother, father and their young daughter came out and walked up the lane to get their mail which was right in front of me by the road. I snapped a few shots of them walking toward me because they were all holding hands and I thought it added a nice touch to the shot.

We had some casual conversation, they asked what I was shooting for and I said just myself and off they went back to the house. I am terrible at self promotion so I never mentioned my website if they cared to look at my work and possibly the shot I was taking at that moment. So the husband leaves in an RV, we wave to each other and I am killing time till the farmhouse lights start recording on the farm. I decided that I might as well go knock and tell her my website while I am waiting. I knock two or three times, wonder why no one is answering and back to my camera I head. Now mind you I am out in the country and sound travels for miles, so in the distance I hear a police car siren screaming on the roads and wonder What might be going on? An accident, a fire, a car chase, it’s anyone’s guess until just up the road I see the flashing lights coming my way and I do mean coming “my way”. The cruiser pulls up right in the middle of the road and out springs the officer, only to be backed up by a second officer a minute later?

They proceed to start questioning me what I was doing, why am I here, asking for I.D., taking my license plate and I am completely taken aback and to be honest getting more defensive as the minutes rolled by! I am pro law enforcement but put yourself in this situation, you are just enjoying photographing the local landscape, not parking on anyone’s property and suddenly being accosted like you just committed the crime of the century! So one officer stands with me while the other goes to the house where the friendly family lives. He must have been in there 10 minutes and all the while I have no clue what is up and getting more frustrated as the minutes pass. Finally that officer returns to us and tells me the woman was scared out of her mind when I knocked so she called 911! He goes on to tell me that the dispatch call came across as a home invasion in progress, hence the screaming sirens!

I get some people scare easy but after talking personally with them for a few minutes at the mailbox, I was a little confused how she made the jump to me being some nut job. When the officer was speaking with me I just kept thinking how did we get to this moment? The thing that really bothers me is wondering if the officers even believe my side of the story and how something so innocent has the potential to tarnish a reputation. I plan to request all bodycam footage from initial incident to after I left the scene to see if any malicious comments were made concerning me or the facts of what actually happened!

I understand the tough job police officers deal with daily but me being put on the defensive like I was just keeps being replayed in my mind and wondering if my reaction was understandable in the way a persons character gets called into question undeservedly? For me it is hard to just move on to the point I can’t think of much beside this and feel out of sorts so to speak.

With temperatures starting to warm up, the snow is disappearing quickly so I have been trying to capture what I can before Winter fades. It was around twenty degrees this evening and the sun sets pretty quickly if you don’t have a spot already planned. The snow in the field behind me had multiple little drifts that were catching the sun on the edges so I grabbed my tripod, put the camera and lens on it and started out across the snow. You could walk ten feet and not break through, then the next ten every step went through. this seemed to alternate over and over until of course I was in a rush and when I expected to break through, instead I got the solid ice and immediately went down with my tripod mounted lens going straight into the snow. the lens hood is like 6 inches long and was filled solid with snow but it was primarily fluff so a quick cleaning of the hood and lens glass and all was well! this sunset was very nice but I think I counted at least twelve contrails at one point, so this must be a popular route. I wish the farm was a little more prominent but it is what it is!

I have driven past this local College Chapel several times thinking I want to try a shot sometime. Well with the frigid temperatures our area has endured the pond here was frozen nice and thick and despite wishing it were clear ice I can’t complain. I arrived early hoping to get a sunset shot but that fizzled out. Since I was warmly dressed I decided to plop down in the snow surrounding the pond and set up my tripod and sit and wait. I sat in the snow unfazed by the cold for at least a half hour and the only thing stopping me from leaving was I could just begin to see the room inside the chapel was lit. As it got progressively darker, obviously the light in the chapel started to record more nicely in the ice. I was not completely satisfied that the image I captured was nice enough and was debating heading home when all of a sudden all the lamp posts around the chapel lit up and all the streaks of yellow lit up the ice! I did return the next night and have a second view I will post soon.