This is the resulting image from my wading into the flooded property to get an image. It was at least two feet deep where I put my tripod and the water was barely moving but when I saw the footbridge behind me go from dry to 6 inches under water in a short time, I made my way to dry land rather quickly..

It has been quite some time since I shared any stories related to my photography adventures but things got a little dicey this past week, so I thought this was worth sharing. This location was once a private home but the local township purchased it for a public park and many restoration projects have been undertaken to get it back to its former beauty. I went this particular evening to try and capture the newly installed cobblestone walkway and the closer I got to arriving, the more I began noticing the creeks were overflowing?  There is a small creek on this property and as I parked my jeep in a marked space, I could see the creek was well over its banks and had flooded the picnic area on the right but the water was at least  40-50 feet away and it had not rained for hours as far as I knew so I assumed we were going to see the water start to recede?

I gathered my gear, took my shoes off because I had plans to walk through the portion of the driveway that had about a foot and a half of non flowing water covering it. I know the layout here and what to expect with depth, so I made it halfway across the road to the area I wanted to photograph, and set my gear down on the dry wooden bridge that was above the water line. I grabbed my tripod, mounted the camera and extended the tripod legs into the same foot and a half of water and began shooting. I was shooting around 20 minutes there when I looked at the dry bridge and it was now 6 inches under water. That was a real kick start to get back to dry land and the water was up past my shorts now as I walked back out. When I got in sight of my Jeep, the once dry parking area had filled and the water was about 8 inches deep all around my jeep. I still had 4-6 inches till it got to the frame but lets just say we stepped up the pace a bit. There were two passenger cars near me and the water was minutes from their doors. The one gentleman asked me if I was going back in the water to shoot more, and if so he warned me that there were two decent sized water snakes that swam right by his family when they were walking in the water near my location, so that was all I needed to hear.

It turns out they had 6 inches of rain in less than an hour just a few miles away and the runoff was still coming when I assumed the exact opposite. When I arrived here I drove through about 9 inches of standing water but when I left the water was 24-30 inches deep and Even though I was tempted to test the door seals on my jeep, I just could not bring myself to do it, even though it was not moving at all.

Half the flock is inquisitive and the other half could care less.

I happened upon these four kids at a small local event and thought it was a good representation of life on the farm in Lancaster county, Pa.  They saw me standing nearby with my camera and just kept staring my way and I knew if I tried to get a shot, they were going to scamper. I patiently waited and not long after another child distracted them by climbing a tree. I think they are siblings but I am not certain.

A friend on mine bought this 2017 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350, so I told him about a place I thought would make a great background for a photo. This old farm building with its rusting walls and broken windows turned out better than I could have imagined and the owners were very gracious to let us do this shot on their property. This car sits so low that even though the grass only had a few very minor low spots, I was really worried he would bottom out or rip the front splitter right off, but we got it in and out fine. This car has a lot of features for performance, from carbon fiber wheels that are several thousand a piece to replace, to tires that are almost a foot wide, to an engine putting out over 500 horsepower. Never stand behind one when its starting because it will blast your senses as I unwittingly found out.

This Church is about an hour or so away and I passed it on an excursion I went on. This view is from below in a small valley looking up and I couldn’t stop thinking how great a spot this would be to shoot lightning.

Actually it is the middle of the day and the sun kept popping in and out of the clouds,so I opted for this more ominous feel to the shot.

Three young Amish fisherman stand transfixed as they wait to hear the wise old fisherman speak of the knowledge he has to share about catching the elusive foe.

This image was taken on Easter Monday, a time when I usually see a lot of Amish out relaxing with family and friends. This group went fishing and was working a small area beneath this bridge but there were multiple twisted fishing lines that mom had to constantly unravel, not to mention dodge as hooks whipped by faces in a very care free way. The one thing you might notice is the toddler looking over the ledge on the left and at one point she started to climb but thankfully got told no right away. It is maybe a 12 foot drop onto some rocks and thank goodness all went well. The other thing is it is a main road right behind them and tractor trailers were going by every couple of minutes and they are literally feet from them flying by. I am not criticizing their methods but merely sharing what I see because I know from personal experience how quickly things can go sideways.

About 9 years ago when our daughter was just getting her feet under her as a toddler, I was in charge of watching her one Saturday. I put her in her crib for a nap and she quickly fell asleep and so did I on the couch 5 minutes later. A while later I was awoken by what I can only describe as a metallic clanging sound, so I jumped up, ran to the kitchen and there was my daughter with the utensil drawer open and she was holding 3 of our longest/sharpest carving knives! So to summarize, she climbed out of her crib, opened a drawer she could barely reach, and then pulled out the most dangerous knives we own to play with! I remember thinking just one trip with those three butcher knives and no one would have believed a toddler could do all that because to this day even I am puzzled how she pulled it off. After that I became a little crazy with buying safety latches for drawers, door knobs and anything a little explorer might get into. A few years ago I went outside to find someones toddler out walking alone on our sidewalk, which blew my mind but then I see mom running in a panic after she realized her little one had left himself out the front door.

Ever notice how pretty many cemeteries are in the spring or fall?

This telephoto shot includes two farmers planting in the field and another farm in the distance.

Wisteria has always been a spring favorite with me,not only for its beauty but its scent. The only thing I might like better are hyacinth blooms.

These two trees provided a peaceful entrance to this cemetery.

This image was captured right before Easter and it has a funny twist to it. I was heading home from work and this old truck which had been sitting in this pasture for a couple of weeks usually did not draw my attention. Well out of the corner of my eye, I saw something on the hood and did a quick u-turn to hopefully capture it before he jumped down. I think I must have taken photos for an hour hoping he would do something funny and there were a few opportunities.

First he laid down right in the middle of the hood becoming  a rather large hood ornament, then he started trying to eat the new buds on the trees and he was having a great time till his reach had consumed them all. He brainstormed a bit and inched ever closer to the edge of the rounded sides and despite almost slipping off several times, his sure-footed abilities prevailed. The entire time I was capturing him, I only saw two baby goats roaming, that is up until he went to the next level, which was the roof and started eating those branches. He did that for 5 minutes and then decided it was time to get down,so he jumped into the bed of the truck and to my surprise there were more goats that were there sleeping the whole time. The one on the left jumped out immediately, the brown one looked confused by the sudden awakening and the big one hopped back up to show who the king of the mountain is. The truck has since been absent from the field and I just wonder if someone out there has seen three goats cruising the back roads in an old ford. Too bad it wasn’t a Dodge Ram.

I always seem to pick the wrong time to go out, and this was shot the other night as rain started moving into the region. I started shooting about 30 minutes before and then it started raining ruining the reflection. Then I noticed there was a circulating pump that came on and rippled the water even more. I thought to myself I can outlast that pump and sure enough 30 minutes later it stopped and a nice reflection emerged. I added light to make the trees pop in the water.

Came across this old rusty truck, which may have been a fire truck and could not resist capturing what looks like an artists canvas.

An old caboose is illuminated by a lamp-post while freshly fallen snow blankets the surroundings.

I was a little nervous shooting this because it was darker than this shot portrays and I was literally on the ground looking through my tripod mounted camera to capture it. One speeding driver and a slide and I would have been diving for cover.

Even though it was sixty degrees today, I am still posting winter scenes. Everyone will be complaining how hot it is before too long so just keep this image in mind.

I came across this unusual scene the other week and felt it was worth stopping to get a shot. The farmer had laid out a long narrow strip of hay and feeding time began. The only logical thing I could come up with to explain all of them lined up in profile was perhaps the hay was warmer under foot,so they stayed on the narrow strip while they ate.

One more image from my trip to the Historic Ephrata Cloister during this most beautiful snow storm.

This was the first photo I took when I walked around our block to check the snow out. It includes the rail trail behind my house and heavy snow was still falling.