Fresh snow hangs on every tree as far as the eye can see in this image which includes a lovely red covered bridge.

Fresh fluffy snow adorns everything in this church scene from rural Pennsylvania.

Snow clings to the trees surrounding this rural church.A clearing sky reveals a touch of blue adding a dash of welcome color.

This local home decorates for Valentines day and I decided to try a shot after the storm this week. It was hard to get a good angle with the snowy trees and still see the tree with a heart on the side porch so this was the best I could come up with.

A local farm sits amidst the freshly fallen powder of another snowstorm.

These three shots are all of the same spot in my hometown and were taken after the storm this week. This storm was particularly beautiful as the snow stuck to everything and hung around for a day. The top image was tough because the sun was starting to shine at its strongest but I managed to capture it before it got too overpowering.

This was taken yesterday after the snow storm was drawing to an end. It is a small area set aside to display a caboose in town and has a walkway with warm lights which is where the warm glow came from. The cool is a different type of street light and I had to try to hide the warm lights or they would overpower the shot.

This image was taken on a recent foggy morning at a church that had this carving done from an old dead tree. The sun was starting to burn through but was still subdued enough to not blow out. I had to light the angel with flash to avoid it being a complete silhouette. the difference in the suns size in the two images comes from choosing different lens focal lengths.

The honeymoon cottage sits atop the hill and looks like a sweet place to spend your honeymoon. All three buildings have their fireplaces going in the cold winter landscape at RLPS architects 2015 gingerbread display.

This is one small section of the spectacular gingerbread display that was done by RLPS architects of Lancaster. This years theme was ”The Adirondacks”, and there was countless amazing creations done by the employees. Each year they open the display to the public on certain nights and it is always a big hit with both young and old.

This is one store window that I shot this past holiday season in downtown Lititz,Pa

Santa flys his wine bottle sleigh over the quaint village as his cork reindeer pull for all they are worth.

I was shooting across the street from this church when I noticed a couple of people setting up luminaries. I walked over and found out a young man was proposing getting engaged to a young lady and this was his idea. I offered to do a shot with them in it and then did this shot after they were done.

A window detail features a star with lit interior in downtown Lititz,Pa.

A local historical society incorporates an old mail cart in their porch display.

This gorgeous room welcomes visitors to experience a Victorian Christmas and the detail was simply amazing. I photographed the exterior in the fall and as I spoke to the owners, I mentioned I do a lot of photographing around Christmas and she told me she hosts a drop in every year for neighbors and friends and usually has around eight trees decorated throughout the house. That’s all I needed to hear and consequently they invited me in to do a shot of my choosing. I quickly settled on this room because the lovely wooden alcove with the tree and windows made such a great statement. This home is located in a tiny little town but the original owners built such a special home that includes features like this that one rarely sees anymore and the current owners have done an outstanding job in their care of it. Special thanks to the Martin family for allowing me to capture this setting and the homemade cookies.

This winter has been a huge let down and temperatures have been in the sixties a lot of the time,which is ridiculous but I have been taking advantage of the warm rainy nights when I get the chance. You have no idea how tricky it is to do a shot like this when the road in the foreground has a constant barrage of cars going by. I had my camera on a tripod,another tripod was holding an umbrella over my camera and I was across the street lighting the scene. The hard part is not being able to see the cars passing by till the exposure is already started because the house was in the way,and shooting at between 2 and 6 seconds means you have to get real lucky to find a break in the traffic that long. There was many times when cars were lined up the length of a football field and I had to hope no one would be brave enough to try and take my camera from the sidewalk, so I had to be on my toes throughout the shoot. For anyone who shoots in the rain, I have found using the clear photo sleeves used to display matted prints works well to protect my tablet and flash from wet weather. I wear a rain coat and find an umbrella causes too many problems with trying to operate the tablet and the flash,so I just cover the equipment instead. For me, the rainy reflection just takes this image to the next level. The tree on the left was a bit of an issue compositionally so I cropped the house slightly but I think it urned out to be a very cool shot.

The local merchants association organizes the arrival and subsequent stay of Santa for children to visit and give their wish list,and this room was done up very nicely for this season of young visitors. I brought a few of my fake packages from home because I knew they had shimmering colored paper on them and would hopefully reflect their color across the wood floor. Lighting things at the correct angle allows the items to bath the floor in lustrous color which adds to the dreamy atmosphere. I wanted to do a tighter shot,but the town sign and lanterns on the wall lead me to go wider to capture everything. Special thanks to Shawn Lindberg who has personally known Santa for twenty plus years and he helped make sure the jolly old man was here this evening. Santa is shown packing up a toy steam train up as he made last minute preperations this year.

This lovely home is a retirement home for seniors and it is decorated exquisitely both inside and out, and the addition of the color changing lights that wash the exterior in a blanket of hues drew me to capture it. The santa was actually inside and I asked the owner if I could bring it out to add to the shot, which he gladly agreed to. While there was an old ugly mailbox there,I decided to drop another cool mailbox in that I had just shot the same week. Those that are familiar with my escapades know I do some crazy things to get my images, and for this one it involved dumping a case of bottled water on the road to get some reflection. It had rained earlier but the road was rapidly drying so anyone driving by must have thought I was nuts as they saw me with my water bottles soaking the street. I light painted the area were the wreath was to showcase the detail that was hidden in the darkness. This is located right at a red light and the white line on the road is where cars are supposed to stop but almost everyone pulls ten feet forward,putting the car in my shot till the light turns green.

This local shop has all kinds of creative items for sale and this dress made of pine branches catches your eye when you pass by. If you notice there is also a very unique creation against the wall that was custom-made by a local artist. It is a tree with windows,doors and little areas that capture the imagination of young and old alike. The store is called squeeze spot and it has been drawing many to participate in their art night events.

This store window was part of my photo from two days ago and it is the building that had the lights in the upper windows. It is a huge display area and I thought it was nicely done so I did this image.

Another angle from the local downtown courtyard all decked out for Christmas. I brought the luminaries and used colored gels on my flash to light the building in the background.

This scene is located in a nearby town and the tall store in the middle used to be a well-known hardware store but it closed a few years ago and is now home to a home furnishing store. The new owners gave the community a Christmas treat by decorating the large windows on the upper two floors. For the last few weeks I struggled to come up with an angle that would showcase it but after it rained the other night and the road turned reflective,I knew the shot had just revealed itself. Sometimes I can be a bit obsessive about trying to get the perfect shot and because this is a main thoroughfare , it rarely is ever car free, so when I saw the shot without cars, I immediately went to work capturing it.

As I mentioned one of my character flaws is aiming for perfection all the time and it can be something that drives people crazy but I always thought, do it right or don’t bother. Anyway the reason I bring this up is because the sky was pitch black the night I first tried this shot and as I lay in bed that night,all I could think was how nice it would have been with a blue sky? So as you guessed I got up the following morning before dawn and figured there was going to be cars parked there and my one chance was passed to get it,but lo and behold the street was still bare and as a bonus it was even wetter than the night before.I lit all the buildings while it was dark and captured the sky color as daybreak arrived. The hardest part was getting my flash on a pole high enough to illuminate the hardware sign on the wall.

Found this stunning life-size nativity on display at a country farm, and it included music and a stable. A very beautiful set unlike any I have ever seen before.