Tag Archives: Spring

Heritage days celebration

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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.

The long road home

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Some of the images that I capture in my photographic endeavors excite me more than others, and this image is one of those. This location is about twenty miles or more from my home, so I must commit a certain amount of time and effort to go there and then hope something happens while I am there. I have been there many times and never seem to get any local activity on the road, partly because it’s a big hill, and secondly because there are many connecting roads that are easier to navigate , so many people simply bypass this hill. I decided to go this past sunday, and I arrived shortly after sunrise to pick my angle and wait. Almost an hour went by with no traffic of any kind passing by, and just as I was considering leaving I saw the closest two buggies coming out from the farm in the distance. I sat in my truck waiting for the buggies to be in the best spot and then simply activated my wireless remote to fire the camera. Because the hill is so steep and long, a third buggy had slowly been catching up in the distance. To capture this image, I mounted my tripod with camera attached on my truck roof, hooked my laptop to it to remotely adjust camera settings as needed from my driver’s seat and then used my wireless remote to fire the camera. Pre-focusing on a spot in the foreground allowed the closest buggy to be sharp as it reached my predetermined spot. Between the red barns,the winding road and the buggies, I am very pleased with my end result on this shot. If you notice the first buggy is going around me on the right because the horse was not happy about my rooftop tripod, but the next horse went right by my truck without hesitation. An Amish man told me once that horses don’t like anything higher than themselves, but for the life of me I cannot understand why trees or buildings or even large trucks don’t seem to bother them. My tripod was even set up at its shortest height with no leg extension, so maybe I should try a blanket over it to camouflage it? This would make an awesome sledding hill in winter,so lets hope the local Amish kids are feeling adventurous.

The tree lined lane

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This tree-lined lane is the entrance to a lovely property located along a rural road in Eastern Pennsylvania. The property has an iron gate at the entrance, but I got lucky, as the owner noticed I had stopped to look at it while he was mowing. He pulled up and asked if I wanted to walk in through the gate and shoot a few photos in exchange for a print. Obviously I jumped at the offer and hope to revisit it in the fall or winter perhaps. I could see an old classic car or perhaps a horse-drawn carriage coming up the lane.

Hey Alvin, seen any seeds?

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Had the pleasure of photographing a local home being featured on a garden tour and on the way out I noticed these active little chipmunks feeding on sunflower seeds. The one on the left kept shoving more in his cheeks as the one on the right kept looking for seeds. It got to the point where I almost had to burst out laughing as the little guy had his mouth so full, that I could almost hear him say, no I didn’t see any seeds around here, as seeds trickled out in the process.

The Car Port

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This is the side entrance to the Watt mansion. Late evening light streaming in from the right illuminates the splendid property, complete with ivy climbing the walls. An ornate car port provides a perfect place for guests or family to arrive and unload vehicles while being sheltered from the elements. They don’t build them like this anymore.

From Rags to Riches.

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A little while back I posted an image of a home called the Watt mansion, which was built by The founder of Watt and Shand back in the late 1800s. This home is still for sale, and the current asking price is one million two hundred thousand, down from the original four million starting price. What you see here is not the home,but the carriage house in the back of the property. I contacted the realtor for permission to shoot, and he gladly obliged. I light painted this with a Sunpak 622 flash controlled by radio poppers and my friend yelling some feedback to me on my flash output as he sat in a lawn chair watching the laptop images appear from the camera. This home is a steal at its current price and is a gorgeous property, and I will be sharing numerous shots from here over the next weeks.

The story behind the title is kind of funny, so here it is. The evening I shot this image, my friend and I were packing up our gear across the street in the late evening light and I noticed a man walking up the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. He seemed to be lugging some items and I jokingly said he was probably looking for a place to sleep. I headed home for the night and went to bed  around 11pm, and tossed and turned most of the night as I thought about all the beauty the property had, so at 430am I headed back in to do more light painting. I set up tripod, laptop etc and began to shine my spotlight on the back of this carriage house, and out of the dark archway comes the gentleman from the night before. He was very polite, asked if I was the owner, and told me he wanted a job as a security guard on the property. I told him I did not care if he was sleeping there, and told him he should go back to bed so the security lights would stay off, to which he obliged. To see a homeless man sleeping in such an amazing place left me wondering how he got where he is in life, and what he thought about his sleeping quarters. In all reality ,it was a rather good choice of places to find safety and solitude for the night. I think the upstairs of the carriage house is over 2000 square feet alone and the real estate taxes each year are supposedly $36,000 on the property. What a dream location, and as you can see from the thumbnail image showing the starting shot, adding some flash can really bring the shot to life.

Great blue heron

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Went for a bike ride through a local park recently and noticed this heron by the pond. I slowly walked to within forty feet and thought to myself, maybe I should ride home and get my 500 mm, so that’s what I did and amazingly he was still there 25 minutes later. Started out getting a long distance record shot and progressively inched closer till he allowed this tight shot.

Synchronized Driving

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I photographed this crew this week harvesting what I think is wheat, but I could be way off. They have to work in close proximity to one another and their driving was spot on. This was taken with an 80-400 zoom and I could actually see them in the cab talking on two-way radios,most likely about the guy taking their photo. At one point,there were three tractors lined up to catch the crop, but they never went across the field with more than the two shown here.

Run for the hills

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I went out in search of lightning photos the other night, and even though the skies looked pretty threatening, no lightning ever materialized. As I headed home I passed this piece of farm equipment sitting at a local business and decided to light paint it with a flash. I named the photo ”run for the hills” because between the sky ,and the front end of this contraption, I thought it looked pretty menacing. Its called a forage harvester,and I think it does corn but it may have other uses for all I know.

The Wrap around porch

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This lovely home is known as the Gonder Mansion, and is included on a local ghost tour in the area. It is a Victorian era Queen Anne style mansion built in 1905 by big wheel Benjamin Gonder, and was the home for him and his wife mary. It’s said to be haunted by the spirit of a woman who committed suicide – Annie, Benjamin’s loco sister who lived on the grounds but was shunned by the rest of the family because of her mental condition.  It’s reported that the sounds of music and crazed laughter can be heard throughout the home, and her misty form has been reported haunting its corridors. She moved into the mansion in death after being forbidden to step inside the home during life. I did a small bit of light painting to highlight the gate,wall,and bushes at dusk to add my own touch to the beautiful home. The wrap around porch looks like a great place to sip cold lemonade on a summer day. I shot this from my truck roof using my laptop in the hopes of offering a better perspective.

Double trouble

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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.

Giddy up

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While I admit this is not the greatest image, it still shows the simple fun that Amish children have with the most basic items. This image was taken from a good distance away, and the girls were totally unaware that I was taking a quick photo as the one girl gave a tug on the reigns and the other reacted like a horse. It was comical to watch these two enjoying this imaginative horse-drawn game. I am not exactly sure but it appears they have added two red reflectors to the back of the buggy for safety.

Shaft of light

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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

Posted by reesephoto on

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.

Opposing viewpoints

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This is an infrared image taken when there was absolutely no sunlight around. Admittedly, I still am not sure what produces great infrared conditions, but sometimes overcast seems to have infrared to work with. I still struggle processing these shots, because I usually shoot raw, and adobe camera raw cannot handle the infrared data because Nikon wont share the decryption info needed, so it’s either shoot jpg or shoot raw and desaturate everything,or use Nikon software,which I despise.

The mysterious road

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This is one of those images that frustrates me as I try to get it to look like it did when I shot it. The road was glowing from the previous night’s rain and the rising sun, and the sun was a nice ball through the  fog,yet I could not get it to reproduce exactly like it was, so this is as close as it gets. I was hoping for an Amish buggy or some cool subject to be a silhouette in the opening, but unfortunately I was all alone on this foggy back road.

Thunderhead Building

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This image was taken the night before last as unsettled air moved across our region. All day long I watched the skies transform from one cloud formation to another and decided I better head out in the evening to look for possibilities. This farm provided the perfect location as it sits on a small hill,and the setting sun provided the touch of warmth on the massive cloud formation. Later that evening, lightning started to make an appearance, so I set up my tripod with an umbrella protecting it, and I use a laptop to fire it from within my truck. After a few sharp bolts, I decided that even though I was somewhat safe in my vehicle, perhaps being at the highest point on the hill was not the best idea so I packed up.