Colorful petunias brighten the garden at the local Historical society.

For some strange reason, this is one of my favorite infrared images ever. A storm just passed and the sun was directly to my right and there must have been plentiful infrared this evening because the trees look great I think.

I spotted this crew working on potting fall mums and they were quite productive I might add. After a little break was called, the guy kneeling on the right grabbed a pot and stuck it on his head, which brought a mixed bag of expressions. I pass this place every fall and they have row upon row of mums in every color yet I can hardly believe they get started this early but summers moving right along. Yes it was approaching 90 degrees this day so a black plastic pot would make you a hothead or even a pothead now that I think about it.

Infrared can be a tricky challenge and I always thought the best results were when the sun was fully shining, but I ventured out this past week on an evening I thought might be good for storms. Well the storms never really left loose but I thought this infrared shot turned out nice in overcast conditions.

The owners of this lovely home called me to get a shot of their home for a 4th of July event the town is holding. The car is a 1930 ford and their is a matching pedal car as well. The fact that I got the headlights to show up on the sidewalk is a minor miracle because they are so dim compared to todays headlights.The owner said they are not allowed to drive at night because of the poor output.

Another infrared image. I actually had a set that was visually better but every one was out of focus. Infrared focuses on a different wavelength and occasionally I miss some shots because of this.

These are the same Amish kids from a few days ago but this was after they started goofing around. I have no idea what the girl on the left is doing and if you look close her hands are on the handle bars but her body is completely off it and she is making a goofy face.

This tree really popped on this day when the infrared spectrum must have been strong.

I started out this rainy evening by asking the owners of this home if I could set my tripod up a couple of feet into their yard to shoot a flowering tree across the street and they kindly agreed. I worked on my original shot for a little while and then decided to pack it in and as I turned to go get my tripod, I saw there was potential to get a nice shot of their home as well, complete with a glowing rain soaked street. I did remove one obnoxious telephone pole but left the street sign stay. Adding some flash to the red maple and the big tree added a little more reflection on the road.

This was a day that had on and off showers and of course it was all dry when I got here, so I set up and started lighting the trees and praying it would start to rain before it was dark. Without the wet macadam to reflect the lights, this scene did not excite me but sure enough rain arrived just in time to add some shimmering reflections of light to the beautiful local library.

The owners of this property were kind enough to let me try and capture this spring scene,  complete with a magnificent pink flowering tree at center stage and a lovely old inn in the background. The current owners have taken what was once a neglected property and transformed it into a real gem that now stands as an example of what can be done when the effort is put forth.

Hello again from Lancaster county, Pa.  I have been battling depression for a while again and my desire to do much of anything enjoyable is practically zero.  This image is the first in a long time that I was actually glad I made the effort to go shoot. I envisioned shooting this in the rain to get the colors reflected on the wet street but at first there was barely a trace showing up. So I decided to start lighting things with my flash and after my first shot, I knew I was going to create something nice. You have to get the angles just right to get the colors reflecting on the wet street from the flash but what a difference after doing that. It was raining the whole time so I had an umbrella over my tripod/camera and another trying to keep the flash dry.

The weather provided all the elements for a great shot of this old victorian home.

I was shooting the opposite direction here and at the last minute I heard the horse trotting up the farm lane behind me. I had no time to think about composition or exposure and fired away hoping I got something before they were out of sight. This frame was decent thanks to the horses breath being backlit by the sun

This is the last shot of the night from the last snowstorm and was taken around 11pm. I am actually standing with my tripod in the lane of travel on a busy highway and had to keep my eyes open for the occasional car. I noticed a janitor looking out the windows wondering who was driving the vehicle in the lot, so I ran up to the window and asked if there was any chance of turning on the sanctuary lights and he was more than happy to do so.

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