Sometimes I head out to photograph one thing and end up seeing something totally different that intrigues me. Such was the case a few days ago when I headed out in search of hoar-frost on trees near streams,but instead found this lovely set of three trees adorned for Christmas near a local church. Brutal cold had the region all set for a hoar-frost appearance and I did get a few images later this morning of that but this scene was beckoning to be captured first.

I left the house at 5am with the temperature registering 12 degrees,and as I headed across the landscape I watched the temperature go from 12 to 7 to 4 and bottom out at 1 degree.Even with hand warmers I still found my hands hurting pretty bad a few times. Often I will go glove less to operate the camera better and merely touching metal for a few seconds drains the heat out of you.

I have always enjoyed intense cold that makes you appreciate summer more and being prepared helps insure you get your shots and stay safe. The same morning this was taken,I actually saw an elementary age kid walking to school in shorts and short sleeves,and the temperature in my truck read 18 degrees. Common sense is not so common apparently.

A row of Amish buggies sits lined up at a hilltop church in Lancaster County. I liked the perspective which included farms in the distance.

Title says it all.

An old tractor sits surrounded by huge pumpkins in this field in Massachusetts.

This is an image I shot this summer at an Amish roadside stand and I just got to it this week. As I opened the image,I was suddenly reminded of a terrible tragedy that occurred in our county this past week.The flowers,numbering eight bouquets reminded me of seven children and a young wife who are without a father and husband after an accident at an Amish farm. The little sign was posted with the flowers at this stand. Anyone who follows my blog,knows I capture Amish life and this farm is in an area I often shoot,so my heart aches for the family,but I know their faith and close-knit ties will carry them through. A link to the story here.

Colerain Twp. manure pit incident claims father of 7 – News

This 4 shot series may help some grasp the whole light painting thing. The top image is my first basic shot, and then the second shot was me lighting the pumpkins to create an effect of being backlit by the barn lights, and then number three was shot only to light the corn shocks,and I also used that file to darken the lights under the barn,and number four is the result of those files. It does not matter one bit that I am in the shots,because I am only using the highlights from the flash. Key things are using a tripod for registration,wireless remote to fire the camera and the flash and a desire to have fun doing it. The flash shot layers are put on lighten mode in Photoshop and the only thing that shows through are things lighter in the shot,so you need to keep your ambient light below your base shot. good luck

Another farm wagon loaded with seasonal goodies.

Amish children play on the wagon carrying tobacco lathe sticks,while their parents are busy in the field. As with all children, mischief ensued and before you knew it, the sticks were being wielded as swords. All in good fun.

Fog creates layers in this farm scene as the rising sun begins to illuminate the day. A cold front moving in quickly on this morning eliminated this great fog in a matter of minutes,much to my chagrin.This was shot with a 400mm from across the valley.

A foggy morning in a local cemetery provided an opportunity for me to try some light painting. Shooting my flash through the tree created rays of light in the atmospheric conditions.

Demolition crews pulverize a building in preparation for new construction. Not my standard photo subject for posting here, but figured I would share it anyway.

This was the rising full moon coming up behind a grain facility last night. I used the photographers Ephemeris I have listed under my blogroll here to check the location of the moonrise and despite knowing it would work, I was off slightly when I used my compass to align the shot before the moon appeared. I was tight on the silos and expected the moon to appear between the gap in the two sets of silos,but I forgot the moon moves to the right as it climbs and till it came into view,it was barely in my frame. A quick recompose and I got it,but it was getting to the point of extreme dark and too bright a moon.

Another scene shot in infrared.

This is yet another experiment in light painting. I will elaborate a bit for anyone wanting to add this technique to their bag of tricks. The top image is my end result and your own creativity will dictate what you want in your results. The bottom two images are just two of many frames I shot to create this and you may drag them to your desktop to follow my simple instructions to visually grasp the concept.

In Photoshop start with the dark image and drag the flash added image on top so they are aligned,and then go to the layers palette and put the top layer on lighten mode.When you do that,you will see the lighter sections show up. I always apply a layer mask to hide the lighter version and then I use a brush to paint in only the lighter areas I want to show up,so in this example I might brush the building in but leave the grass dark. I continue on with each additional lighted frame I shot till I am happy with the result.

A wireless flash and camera remote are key to being able to move about the scene as needed and a laptop with software to control shutter speeds insures the camera remains fixed and does not shift while shooting. One important note is to remember you are adding highlights only,so when you light things with your light,you are not using shutter speeds that let ambient light mess you up. In other words if you have flash along with a bright scene,you will have everything lighter showing up when you brush in,so for example the tree trunk is lit against the dark roofline and if I had shot at a shutter speed that showed the roof detail, it would show up as well as a highlight.This is really a simple technique but you need to keep your wits about you while you do it.