Taken this Christmas eve in the courtyard of Lititz Moravian Church. Merry Christmas

The shot of the square in Lititz,Pa is probably the most peaceful you will ever see it. Normally cars are flying all directions but visiting on a sunday morning found next to nobody else out. I lit everything with my flash and had my camera on an elevated ladder setup.

This is a local courtyard in a town nearby and the building on the left is an old train station that currently houses Santa for visiting children. I tried something new for this shot because I wanted to include the old painted wall of the long closed hardware store,and what I did was brought a twenty-foot extension ladder,which I leaned against a tall building. I then mounted my Bogen superclamp to the ladder and put my camera on it for an elevated perspective. I crossed my fingers that no batteries would die because I knew there was no going back up the ladder because that would move the camera and cause registration issues. I lit the hardware wall with my flash on a painters pole and it just cleared the top of the red brick wall behind Santa.I asked Santa himself to come out and pose for a frame between visitors and he gladly obliged. A rainy evening helped with reflections to round out the shot.

A large teddy bear relaxes outside this toy store in downtown Lititz,Pa.

a simple yet carefully designed store window harkens back to days gone by.

Another shop window decorated for the season.

A very inviting store front greets patrons to this pharmacy in Lititz,Pa. McElroys is the name and the folks here are extremely helpful and friendly. The owner even left me shoot the flash out the front window to put some shadows on the sidewalk.

Steamed up windows add to the dreamy feel in this image from downtown Lititz featuring Cafe Chocolate. I wanted to ask for two steaming mugs of hot chocolate to put on the table out front but I chickened out.I think that would have been a nice extra touch.

Will the real Santa Claus please step forward?  The town of Manheim hosted the first annual jingle bell five-mile run recently and each entrant was given his or her very own santa suit for the event. The occasional reindeer, fairy and elf were also seen as well as the Grinch in the front. I shot this a few minutes before the race started and it was a sight that was quite unique.

Santa and Mrs Claus arrive by horse-drawn carriage in downtown Lititz.

A rainy evening provides an extra touch of beauty to this photo of a local business. The stars in the windows were particularly difficult to capture during this shoot. Whenever it is rainy and misty,my camranger device experiences problems sending the signal from my camera to the tablet,so while I was across the street lighting this,the equipment kept dropping the signal.The other problems I had were whenever I went into the shop to blast a flash out the window,it would fire one out of ten times because the signal was not reaching inside very well,and the glass seemed extra thick because it was causing glare at almost any angle I used the flash at. I tried high,low,and everything in between and the majority had flare on the glass. Add a non stop stream of cars going by on the road and you get a feel for how tricky it is to pull a shot like this off when some of your exposures are 4-8 seconds and you are standing in the rain with no umbrella. My camera had an umbrella over it but not me.

This Christmas window was taken in the small town of Marietta,Pa.  I headed over to look for scenes because they had a home tour last weekend and I came across this business adorned in fine decor.Music was emanating from the entrance the entire time I was shooting this,making for a nostalgic shoot. The folks who decorated this put their heart into it and it was worth all the effort in my opinion.

I really like the result I got with this shot. The mix of warm and cool hues combine for a wonderful glimpse of small town shops.

This Lititz business sells custom made metallic items among other things. Santa and the snowmen are popular items right now.

A Christmas tree comprised of books welcomes visitors to Aaron’s Book store in downtown Lititz.

Another shop window in downtown Lititz. This one features wonderful soaps, candles and other unique items,all tastefully displayed throughout the store.The window has a small sample of items for sidewalk shoppers to see.

Another window scene from main street in a local town.

This is one small section of a very lovely Christmas window in downtown Lititz,Pa. Whoever decorates this window has an incredible talent for layering items from front to back and utilizes different heights and spacing. It looks very cohesive but I am sure it is very difficult to make it so beautiful.

This is an image from my Christmas series on shop windows in downtown Lititz. The owner hand painted the Snoopy scene on the window,which will certainly catch the attention of children looking for their favorite sweet treat inside of this store called Candyology. I lit the rubber balls that are made to look like Christmas ornaments from inside the store to give them a little glow and then light painted everything else outside.

The warm glow of these wall lanterns welcomes patrons to the Bulls Head Tavern in downtown Lititz,Pa. The community bank is across the street and my title comes from the fact that this community really supports each other and the downtown is like no other.

Well we are slowly getting into the Christmas season and there is no better place to enjoy the sights and sounds of the season than in the town of Lititz,Pa. Shop windows get decorated in a variety of ways and each one has its own unique beauty that keeps me returning year after year to capture them. I light all the parts of the scene in a rather complicated undertaking but folks really seem to enjoy the feel I impart in my shots.

Two contrasting colors battle it out in this fall scene. I was actually standing in the middle of a busy highway to get this shot and had to retreat countless times till I got the shot.

A little light painting in the Lititz park rendered this lovely scene reflecting in the small stream flowing by.

In the quaint town of Lititz,Pa, even the park maintenance building looks attractive contrasting with the fall color.Yesterdays post included the crew cleaning up this area just one day after this was shot.They have their hands full keeping up with that task.

These hard-working men help clean up the local community parks fallen leaves using blowers on wheels. The tree on the right will actually be included in my post tomorrow showing this scene just the day before they cleaned up. Thank goodness I got my shot a day earlier. The dust kicked up helped catch the sunlight for this very cool result.

Not my typical photo posting, but wanted to share this interesting creation from a local one room school. The kids took leaves and created a message on the chain link fence.