This is a hibiscus bloom that got bent over in a recent storm. I only noticed the unique star shape on the underside after the storm passed. I thought the colors contrasted nicely.
Tag Archives: Glow
Steam Powered Past
Machines from the past fascinate me, and these old steam-powered contraptions are no exception. Rough and Tumble located in scenic Lancaster county held their 64th annual threshermans reunion last week, and the event included all kinds of steam,gas and kerosene powered machines. This old steam roller with its massive iron wheels was one of many unique pieces I saw at this event.
Steel Wool Spectacle
I finally gave my steel wool spinner device a test run this past weekend, and it was more impressive than I expected. After a rainy friday and a quick shot from the garden hose before I did it, the yard was ready to handle the flaming steel wool. To accomplish this effect, I set up my tripod and waited till the ambient light dropped and my exposure was around 8 to 15 seconds at f11.At that point, I put on long pants,a long sleeve shirt,a hat, a face shield,and gloves and grabbed the steel wool device. This is nothing more than a steel kitchen whisk with steel wool stuffed inside, connected to a steel cable on a handle and then it gets lit and rapidly spun. You light the steel wool by touching a 9-volt battery to it and then spin it quickly to give the burning steel wool as much oxygen as possible.
The top image features me spinning the contraption all around me and you can see the steel wool even bounced on the grass a bit,and the bottom image was spun in just a circle,but the bright area shooting up to the right is actually a piece of steel wool that broke loose and landed in our tree.If you are brave enough to try this, do it in a safe setting,keep water nearby and protect yourself and camera.There was a fellow on the internet that had a flaming ember land on his eighteen hundred-dollar lens and fuse fast to the front element,which would not be good. Each ball of steel wool burns about 30-60 seconds and then you load a new piece. Also the real fine stuff works better than coarse steel wool.
The Marvels of Transportation
This is the second image I am posting from the E-M-F car tour through scenic Lancaster county. The group made a planned stop at the Strasburg Railroad were they were treated to a special tour of the working railroad shop. The railroad welcomed the entourage of drivers and their antique cars with open arms and provided them Vip parking near the station. This image is the result of me climbing on the roof of my truck, setting up my tripod, and waiting for the train to pass behind the cars as it returned to the station.Passengers returning on this particular train not only enjoyed a tour through the scenic farmland but they also had an opportunity to walk around these special cars after they disembarked from the train. Sometimes gaining a little height can make all the difference in getting a shot and this was one of those times.
Heritage days celebration
This is not something you see in Amish country very often, but this past weekend was heritage days in a small town named Intercourse. How the town came to be named as such is not exactly known, but there are several possible suggestions if one searches the net. The Fireworks display ended a day long celebration of the areas heritage, and featured live music,volleyball,good food and much more. This image was captured from a vista across the fields with about a 200mm lens and my first or base image was captured while it was still light enough to see the farms,and then after it was pitch black, I recorded the fireworks explosions from the same tripod mounted angle, and then simply brought those layers on top of the first, and put them on lighten mode, which allows the fireworks to show up against my blue sky instead of black nothingness. When I first set up, there was an Amish family having a picnic across the street, I asked what time the fireworks launch, and he says sometime between 9 and midnight. Did not expect the bit of humor but with fireworks you never quite know.
I never do this, but I am adding the two smaller pictures of some kids getting a wagon ride. Not sure if the Amish guy is a neighbor or what,but the riders were dressed in regular clothing. they might have been going to heritage days up the road. neither shot is super sharp, which irritates me.Hope they dont have to stop fast, because they are all bare foot.
Shaft of light
This image was taken this past weekend as I drove around in search of scenic shots. The day started with clear blue skies and ended in grand fashion under dramatic clouds, which caught my attention and had me heading out to peruse the back roads. The sun stayed hidden most of the time, but as I stopped to debate shooting this farm scene, it suddenly burst forth illuminating this farm with a shaft of light, which had me scrambling for the tripod. It lasted maybe two minutes, lighting up the farm against the brooding sky.
Working late
This is the same mill I posted a few days ago,but this time I lit the scene with my spotlight at dusk. I was out shooting in the area and decided at the last-minute to give the location a test try with the light. My light was low on battery power, so I did not get as much use out of it as I had hoped, but it was a good chance to practice a bit.
Super moon Disappointment.
This is a shot of the so-called super moon from this past saturday. Went out with two friends to shoot this thing, and due to haze, we never saw it in the sky till it was too high and slightly smaller looking. It’s an okay shot,but nothing like it might have been at the horizon, and zoomed tighter. This moon was supposedly 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter as it made its closest approach to earth. The key to getting the biggest moon is to find a subject far away,so you can use your strongest telephoto to include the moon and something interesting together. Had the conditions been crystal clear, and the moon had risen between the silos,I could have zoomed much tighter and had a much larger moon.
The fog shrouded village
This early morning shot was taken on one of our recent foggy mornings. I arrived just in time to take a series of exposures before the ambient light got brighter than the lamp posts.
The Abrasive Machine
This is another image from the machine shop series, and I do not have the foggiest idea what it does.It was very cramped quarters to shoot this,so I was forced into cropping the shot like this.Used several flashlights to light paint it.
Grain Silo Sunset
Today both myself and my good friend Larry did some more shooting in the machine shop, but for some reason my decision-making was a bit out of whack, because it took me nearly an hour to pick something to shoot. Because of that indecision, I stayed at the machine shop till right near sunset, and then as I began heading home, the sky started to look promising. I decided to head to these grain silos in the hopes of a good sky, and it turned out to be an alright shot I guess. I like the varied hues of the old and newer silos and the warm vs cool tones. Once again I climbed on top of my truck roof to shoot this, and todays winds of 40 mph plus made for some tricky shooting up there.
Speed Graphic & Remington
Every day I struggle over what photo I will post and what I might say that will be interesting enough that someone will actually read it. I recently purchased this old typewriter, a Remington model seven from 1897 for 3 dollars at an auction. I picked it up with the sole purpose of photographing it, and decided the old speed graphic camera from 1947 would look okay in the shot as well. The old dresser is sitting in our basement and I threw the flower arrangement in there to soften things a bit. I lit the items once again with flashlights and am fairly happy with my attempt. I am always impressed with the quality and design that things from the past seem to have, and while I would not want to work with this camera or typewriter, they are really cool to look at. The idea behind my composition was one of what tools a reporter from the past might have used.I did this shot sunday morning and it took maybe two hours start to finish. The following are a few quotes about writing, which I am terrible at, but I enjoy trying anyway.
You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. ~Arthur Polotnik
Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. ~Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 19 August 1851
This last quote is so true and hopefully those who are kind enough to follow me here, will see that I try to live an active life, and realize that my photographs are an extension of who I am. Thanks to everyone who hits the like button on my site, but to be honest, I am not sure exactly how some of these site features work, or how many of you found me to begin with? I don’t even show up on any of the photo pages, which frustrates me, but not sure how to change that.
Antique Biscuit Box & Tins
Once again, thanks to the generosity of many people I meet, I am lucky enough to be allowed to photograph items that are a part of their lives, and at the same time, express my creative side through my photography. Sometimes these people own things that are so cool, I just have to ask if I can photograph them. The antique biscuit box and old tins shown here are one such example. Owners Margi and Dan have quite a selection of quality antiques they sell, and they were more than happy to let me capture some that have a personal connection. The grained wood box supporting everything is a family heirloom from the 1800s, many of the tins are early 1900s and were found in old general stores. Margi’s great great uncle was Newton Graybill who operated an old general store until the mid 1900s in Richfield,Pa, and in the late 1980s, a huge public sale was held featuring countless new merchandise items from the 1900s. Margi was able to buy several items from that sale. The old calendar reads 1922, and the american lady shoe sign is early 1900. finishing off the image is a door that is original to the house from around 1790. I light painted the whole scene with deer spotlights that have snoots and diffusion that I added to control the power they have. I use many types of flashlights and flash to do this,but I favor my spotlights the most. small items need more subtle flashlights, so its good to have a variety.
A Life Well Lived
This photograph is one in a series I am doing at an old mill that is literally frozen in time. I picked the title because the man who ran this mill had very conservative beliefs, and knew the value of working hard and saving money. He was so diligent with his finances that he established a foundation that still oversees this mill for tourists to visit to this very day. What you are looking at in this photograph is the mill office/post office that served residents in the small surrounding community for decades. I placed a pair of shoes at the chair to allow the viewer to imagine the man who once sat there, wonder at the tales he could tell, and appreciate how simply he lived, and most likely more fulfilled than the majority of people today. Picture yourself sitting down after a hard day in the mill, snow blowing outside and a warm fire in the stove, as you turn on the old radio, you sip some tea, and rock yourself to sleep by lantern light. A little imagination can take you to great places.
From Dawn to Dusk
Winter has once again relinquished its icy grip, and today temperatures climbed to the high forties. I personally enjoy a good hard winter, with lots of snow and intense cold, but this winter season has been a real let down thus far. Thank goodness a good batch of fog rolled in overnight to envelop the landscape in an atmospheric wonderland, full of opportunities for photography. Once again, I had every intention of sleeping in, but looking out at 5am, I saw the fog building and figured I better get moving. As I dressed, my mind rapidly ran through all the locations I could think of and I finally decided to head to this church which sits on a hill overlooking a valley. Floodlights at the church backlit the fog, and as I worked the possibilities, I kept thinking, boy it would be great to have the sanctuary lit, and to my delight, a car pulled in and a member of the congregation agreed to turn them on. While I am pleased with my result, I must say the shot was taken at the very edge of where the ambient light starts to overwhelm the interior light and I literally got a few shots off till the balance tipped too far.If the interior had been lit a half hour earlier, the result would have been even better. Thanks to Glenn Buffenmyer for helping to make this church shot possible. The second image is an afterthought that I added tonight after shooting it on the way home this evening. I luckily had my camera with me to capture this colorful sunset. The best part is the images took only a few minutes on the computer instead of the hours I invest in the light painting photos here. If anyone cares to click on my gallery pages at the top of my page, you can see a couple other church location images under the fog gallery.
Unlock your Imagination
I chose the title of todays post after my wife and I went out to eat on friday. The restaurant walls had several quotes stenciled on them, and one by Albert Einstein caught my attention. The full quote reads like this, “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my own imagination.Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited.Imagination encircles the world”. As an artist, I am constantly looking for inspiration all around me, whether its music, photographs, art, or in this case an inspirational idea, one can enhance their own artistic expression by unleashing their imagination.
Whenever I read a quote like this, I think to myself, I sure wish I could say something so profound, yet so simple, but you can’t have it all I guess. On the topic of creativity, I have always been intrigued by how some people are seemingly born with the gift of creativity, others seem to learn it along the way, and others do not have an artistic bone in their body. Personally I don’t like to even say I am artistically blessed, because I am a small blip in the creative world, but I do feel I have been given a gift from God to capture the beauty around me. I know this because every time I see a gorgeous sunset or scene, I can feel something inside me stir, and am so grateful to have that feeling.
My image today features old locks and was made possible by the Burkholder family who have an antique business. They allowed me into their home to do two shots I had envisioned in my mind. One of the two images was this old group of keys and locks, and I wanted to photograph them in a way to accent their aged quality. I decided to use some old barn wood I had, and put some old lanterns in there as well. I light painted the scene to bring out the textures and shapes, and to make the lanterns glow,I held a lit match near the wick to simulate the glow, simply because these old antiques could not be fired up. The door in the photo is from an old prison and provided the background to complement my shot.
So in conclusion, I wholeheartedly believe that imagination is more important than knowledge, and I encourage anyone that follows my blog to imagine the possibilities you have each day to photograph what you love, and do it in a way that pushes your photos to the next level, and as you do so, may you find great satisfaction in producing something you are proud to put your name to.
Winter Wonderland
I am hoping the image that I shot tonight will be the last Christmas related image I post for the season, but who knows? This old sleigh is part of the Christmas decor at the Foxchase golf course banquet facility in Lancaster County. Each year the owners bring the old classic sleigh out of storage to brighten the season for all the events held in their Palmer room. I have seen it for several years, imagined what I might do with it, and finally decided to ask permission to shoot it. I shot it with a small flashlight, and went so far as to shoot through the branches of the tree to cast the shadow on the back corner. the blue cotton comes from using my flashlight on its cooler blue light setting and then shifting my white balance to something in the 4000 kelvin range, to give the blue snow effect. I also brought the packages in the right corner to hide carpeting that I felt hurt the image. My wife wrapped the fake packages a few years ago for my escapades each year. The owners say the sleigh dates from about 1902.Now just imagine traversing the countryside on a cold winters night, full moon illuminating the landscape, and fresh snow whipping around you, as you hold the reins in this classic ride.
Christmas Memories
This lovely scene includes the Christmas tree of Claire de Perrot, a very kind and caring lady, who granted access to both myself and good friend Morrie to allow us to photograph this Christmas tradition that goes back many years in her family. Each Christmas Eve, the tree is lit with real candles as Worshipers leave the service at the Moravian church, which can be seen through her picture window in the quaint town of Lititz,Pa.
Donald Reese Photography 