A carpet of yellow from the maple tree welcomes visitors to this farm.

These horses got in the perfect alignment for a good compositional shot on this spring day.

This supposed invasive plant was all over the countryside this spring and perhaps the mild winter had a role in that? Still looked pretty in a lot of spots.

This roadside flower bed looks like it is going to wash across the road and take this buggy for a ride.

The rail trail behind our house was looking lovely with these patterns of tree droppings interspersed every so often and a light rain accentuated the color so I took a self-portrait as well.

This local cemetery was a patchwork of low growing flowers recently and I had to basically lay on the ground to get this shot. There were a ton of obnoxious power lines in the shot that I felt had to go,and removing them is one tedious exercise but I am glad I made the effort.

A pair of lovely pink trees provides the perfect complement for this beautiful old rural church. For some reason I thought I could improve on this shot by going back in the rain. Problem was it was pouring,blowing 20 mph winds and even with a huge golf umbrella,it was impossible to keep the lens dry.I had the umbrella bungeed to my tripod with a steel post attached to it,and I turned away for a moment only to see my umbrella take flight.Thank goodness my tripod and camera stayed upright. I was mumbling to myself how ridiculous this was to attempt,and it was an experience I won’t soon forget.

This is what you have to deal with on the back roads of Lancaster county. I will take this any day over the Schuylkill expressway.

A long lens in the 300 to 400mm range allowed me to shoot across the field and capture this vignette of spring blossoms on this local farm.

A flowering tree adds a  touch of color to this rainy evening shot

The subtle pastel dogwood is shown here in full bloom and includes pink and white versions.

A selection of nice trees look great on this overcast spring day.

I wish I could have ventured around this property because it looked gorgeous just past the tree,but I had to settle for this shot from the road.

Flowering trees in the spring are so amazing.

These three lamp posts made a nice framing element for the gorgeous spring tree.Unfortunately the lights were not working so I had to light everything with flash to get some light on the subject. This tree had a nice shape and wonderful color and the japanese maples on the edges added a touch of warmth as well.

I love tulips and Longwood has one of the best displays each year. The problem is trying to get a shot with no one in it,so I always take my tripod and shoot several duplicate shots with each section devoid of people. For example I watched the area with the trees and made sure I had a shot clear of any people,then I watched the center and then the left side with the bushes. Even using this technique,it still takes some waiting,but it is worth the effort. There were at least twenty people here with me in this area,and the worst was one guy who parked his scooter right in the middle while he walked as slow as a snail through the garden. He finally left and I could finish my shot.

A quiet evening in this cemetery reveals a lovely flowering dogwood,which is the perfect backdrop for this moss-covered Angel figure.

This statue is covered in a lovely green patina of moss.The detail on these creations is beautiful.