This colorful store in Lake Placid caught my eye as I headed toward the countryside for sunrise shooting. It was raining at the time,so the walkway was shimmering in golden street light which added to the appeal. I added some flash to the store fronts for added kick and enjoyed the stillness of the lonely street.
This Vermont farm is accented by autumn color,and the reflection in the pond just adds to the scenic appeal. A stone wall runs along the dirt drive and seems to be a very common attribute at many Vermont farms.
The sun peaks through clouds at the train collectors museum. I always liked the peak on this structure and this stormy morning inspired me to give it a shot.
This is a wall mural on the side of a small shop in a local town. I have no idea why this subject was painted but the artist is Wayne Fettro,who seems to do a lot of this type of work. I decided some light painting was in order to showcase the work.It took about 10 different flash pops to do everything.
I noticed these scooters parked at a one room school the other day, and contemplated shooting them.As I drove up the road to turn around,I noticed a youngster about a quarter-mile up the road heading toward the school on yet another scooter. I imagined the possibility of him passing by the scooters and me getting a shot,but lo and behold he actually stopped right at them and I quickly snapped the shot.
The Amish farmers have been busy in the last month harvesting thousands of acres of corn. Wet weather has delayed the work slightly,but it doesn’t take them long once they get going. I usually like to find a nice farm in the background,so the viewer can see the whole setting,instead of just the wagons.
Fall is the time when the annual street fair comes to town and this carousel was calling to me to do a little light painting. Both myself and my good friend headed out before sunrise to do some shooting at the empty fair and I settled on this particular horse with its cool color scheme as my subject. The first glitch I ran into was the street lights were pretty bright,so my longest exposure was around 8 seconds,which limited my flashlights ability to be the strongest light source. I went to plan b,which utilized flash with a snoot attached and that puts the light beam in a very narrow area across the subject. The flash was attached to an extendable pole to allow positioning it wherever I needed without standing on the carousel and having it move . This shot is the result of maybe 30 flashes throughout the scene,including the ice cream stand on the left. Carousels seems to have a magical quality that captivates the imagination and transports you to another world.
This is the interior of a local covered bridge that has been closed for over a year due to damage from tropical storm Lee last year. Not sure exactly what the problem is,but if you look at the exterior,the bridge has a slight bow to it. This bridge sits approximately eighteen feet above the creek,but last years flood was an extreme one that hopefully wont be seen for another hundred years.I used flash to light the interior in an attempt to show the intricate construction that goes into these beautiful structures. This bridge was built in 1867 at a whopping cost of $4,500 dollars. The arch design is credited to inventor Theodore burr,who lived around the early 1800s and was a cousin to Vice President Aaron Burr.
I photographed this old relic at the rough and tumble event a few weeks ago. It reminds me of something the Clampetts drove on the Tv series,the Beverly Hillbillies. It has a strange wooden bed on the back which is something I have never seen before.
If you think farmers are busy this time of year,you should try working at the local feed mill where many of the harvested items arrive for processing. This telephoto shot includes two tractor trailers dumping their loads,while two feed trucks head out to service customers.
Another old piece of equipment from the past chugs along at rough and tumbles annual event.
Another image from the rough and tumble gathering held recently. Obviously these machines were made in an era when things were built to last,unlike todays throw away society.
Have you ever seen so many cobwebs,you thought you were on the set of some science fiction thriller? Well this was the case as both myself and a fellow photographer spent an evening shooting in a local feed mill. I walked around looking for a shot and came across this corner of the mill that seemed lost in time. It’s no wonder spiders have laid claim to this place as flies were a real nuisance while we shot. I light painted this with an off camera flash trying to bring out the webs and dust and dirt as best I could. At least no mice ran by me on this visit. I have no idea what the machine does but it must not get used very often.
Call me crazy, but this reminds me of some wild set of wheels from the movie Thunderdome. If you look closely in the middle underneath you can see a machine gun mounted,or maybe its just a muffler? Put some muscle-bound maniac on top going down the road at 100 mph and you have your own futuristic movie in the making. Shot this at the rough and tumble event, which showcased old farm equipment.
The end of summer is rapidly approaching and farmers are busy beginning to harvest everything from corn to tobacco. This Amish family was busy putting freshly cut tobacco onto lathe, which then gets hung on the wagon and then it will move to the barn for drying. This scene includes at least three generations carrying on the tradition.
Here is another image from the thresher reunion at rough and tumble.For this image I mounted the camera on my tripod and shot several exposures utilizing a hand-held flash off camera. There is no way to get a result like this on one shot,unless you set up a bank of flashes to fire simultaneously. The exposure for the setting sun put everything in silhouette,so after capturing that piece of the puzzle, I moved to illuminating the tractor. As you can see from the smaller images, The starting shot with the sun was where I started and then lit each area as the example of lighting the front shows. A small detail worth mentioning is the use of a wireless remote to fire the camera from anywhere I need,so I can position the flash at the proper angle and then fire when ready.
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.
Another shot of he E-M-F group touring the farm country.
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.
This past week I came across a group of car enthusiasts that were touring the countryside throughout Lancaster county. The group spent five days navigating the scenic back roads and also spent time visiting several county sites of interest. The group included owners of what are known as E-M-F cars, which are early 1900 vehicles built by Byron Everitt, William Metzger, and Walter Flanders. This image is the result of some planning, and a dash of luck, which I will explain.
I got the itinerary for the day from the organizer and decided on a spot to shoot them as they drove by. I took a few images at the location I picked and then decided I was going to get ahead of the group for a second attempt. The second spot included a covered bridge, but as I got to the road, it was closed for repaving,so I tried to find another road to access the planned route. Thankfully one lane was still open,and it allowed me to get this image of the cars coming through the bridge and a buggy waiting his turn as well. This image would have been all but impossible if the road were not closed to traffic for the road work. Usually cars file down this road one after another, but I actually set up my tripod on the road and shot a series as they all came through the bridge. These cars are full of character and draw a crowd wherever they go. If you want to learn more about them, check out E-M-F Company on the net. I may post another shot or two in the coming weeks.
I headed out to do some photography with a good friend on sunday morning,and We headed out at 430am in the hopes of a great sunrise,but that was a total flop. As we made our way home, we came across these colorfully dressed members of the local Amish community heading to church. I took this photo from the car using a 400 mm telephoto.
An old model-T sits in a backyard waiting for someone to take it for a ride. I thought it looked nice with the well and sandstone home in the background.
When the weather is as hot as its been lately and you get an opportunity to hitch a ride,you take it. These two Amish gentlemen were enjoying whatever breeze they could catch as they rode along on their makeshift perch on the buggy.
I am fairly sure that’s what these Amish boys were thinking as they exercised their leg muscles while following mom and dad in the buggy. Perhaps even the Amish teens would rather Rollerblade than sit next to their parents at that age just like most adolescents.
As promised, here is another image taken at the Watt Mansion featuring hydrangea in bloom.Recent severe hot weather has taken its toll on these lovely plants and we are in need of a good soaking rain again. A few flash pops helped light the shaded blooms.
Sorry for the error on calling these hyacinth in my original post. Thankfully a friend pointed out my brain freeze.
This Amish farm was the location for some sort of get together last weekend, and this image was actually taken near dusk. Usually the Amish community is heading home at this point on a sunday evening, but this farm was still going strong and new arrivals were still coming. The really confusing thing was that every so often, a souped up car like a mustang would fly up the lane and park in the back, so perhaps we had a little spring party action going on. There is a term in the Amish world called Rumspringa,and that basically is a period of time when the adolescent kind of sows his wild oats and adults kind of ignore the behavior.
This image was taken at the feed mill that I had photographed and featured on my blog a few days ago. I met Brad the owner, and he graciously allowed both myself and fellow photographer Larry the chance to look around inside. After the mill shut down for the day, we broke out our gear and we each selected an area to light paint. Admittedly it has been a while since I gave this technique a try, so I struggled a bit as I worked to light the room with my spotlight. The mill is a real labyrinth of metal and wood, and left me wondering how such a place is designed. The inside also included numerous cats roaming about, which surprised me with all the machines at work, but after I had witnessed a cat catch a mouse three feet in front of me, it all became clear very quickly. The area I chose included the old scale with the two feed bags on it, along with another scale facing the opposite direction with the number 122 on it. The blue light is coming from window light that was shining in at dusk. We usually work in the dark, but time constraints had us shooting earlier.
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.
I photographed this local feed mill this past weekend as storm clouds were on the increase. The soft light was just gorgeous on the old facility and the numerous shapes and lines throughout the scene made for a dynamic shot.
This group of Amish children were jockeying for position as they made their way toward home on a recent spring day. These scooters are very popular with the Amish community and one can cover a good amount of distance in a relatively short time span with just leg power.
Donald Reese Photography 