Tag Archives: travel

Calling All Snowblowers!

Posted by reesephoto on

For those who enjoy my little stories, this one may be one for the record books! Our region got hammered with about thirteen inches of snow, some sleet and brutal cold temperatures from last weekend to currently. I headed out last Monday to look for photo opportunities after my work closed due to the bad conditions. I drove around for a while catching some general snow photos but I was still hoping for something that would be unlike most Winter photos. Well I started down this hill out in the rural countryside and off in the distance I could see snow being launched but was not sure what was going on. I slowed to a stop and with my longest lens I could see there was a project underway as shown in the top image. Now this is an Amish farm so I figured there was no way I would be welcome here to snap photos.

So I had just turned into the lane when I see a Bobcat headed my way figuring I was about to be told, hit the road buddy! As he stopped to talk to me, I gingerly asked if there was any possibility I could go down to the pond to snap some photos of the snow blower crew in action? To my absolute surprise he said sure your welcome to head on down. There was snow flying in every direction but there was a methodical approach that was well orchestrated. in the long distance photo there are five guys following each other to progressively clear the pond. The second image is my personal favorite because of the sheer number of teens and men at work throwing snow and the two in the middle doing a criss cross pattern were icing on the cake. Something else I started to notice was the younger boys were starting to move in front of me and they would watch where I was pointing my camera so they could slip into as many shots as possible. At one point it was starting to ruin many good shots so I would point my camera one way and as they were moving I would swing toward the real subject and capture the real subject.

I was here well over an hour snapping away and at one point, one of the snow blowers found a thin spot so they backed away and basically created a no go zone. The water started slowing flowing onto the ice and at one point a young man about mid twenties got my attention and asked me to move away from the wet area. I had seen some potential shots with the farm reflecting in the water so I was looking for cool shots. The third photo shows the watery area on the right where I was standing in the water. So as you look at the photo, that patch of snow eventually had water around it on the left side as well so it literally looked like an island as you can see from the actual on my stomach shot before I got reprimanded. So as usual I am focused on potential photos and when the water covered the left side I ended up crawling on my stomach across the snow to get the farm reflecting shot. It was at this point I heard a serious SIR, would you please move off that section, SIR, this is the second time I had to tell you to stay off and I do not want you to fall in and have to be rescued! That section you are on is starting to slowly sink. In his defense, he was wearing a fire fighting jacket so he probably has been trained in potentially dicey situations. I honestly did not have any fear of going through the ice but when he noted it was slowly sinking, I made a hasty retreat. All in all one of those photo memories that I will remember for a long time

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It actually Happened!

Posted by reesephoto on

Hello again, I finally captured a few new photos to share. I had a scheduled evening photo shoot at a township park here in Lancaster county and I had just completed the shoot. As I got to my vehicle, a van pulled in beside me and out climbed 6 exuberant young Amish girls who headed toward the back of the park. Now out pops the driver, who is an older gentleman carrying a camera headed where they were last seen. I can’t remember in all my time in Lancaster county ever seeing Amish having what appeared to be a photo session? I watched from a distance as they each posed for photos in several locations.

My wheels were turning wondering if it’s possible they may head to the opposite side of the park where there is a nice covered bridge? I decided I was going to go there and wait and see if I might get lucky. I had envisioned getting brave and asking them to walk holding hands through the bridge and perhaps do a simple silhouette of them if they ever came to the bridge? I grabbed my camera and went and sat on the concrete abutment at the entrance to the bridge. Fifteen minutes went by and I started thinking this isn’t happening when all of a sudden I hear voices from the other end of the bridge. They could not see me sitting there but Trust me this next part blew my mind! There was some giggling and chit chat when all of a sudden I hear one say “why don’t we hold hands and walk side by side to the other end? Tell me what the odds are that they literally spoke my idea into existence as I was sitting there? I made up my mind I was going to wait out of sight till they were in the middle of the bridge and then pop out and get the shot I wanted! Well of course my camera decided to miss focus and every single one was fuzzy!

So they hung around deciding what to do next so I said any chance you will repeat the walk? They hesitated but said sure and I got them walking, then they came back to the photographer and an impromptu piggy back session started which I also captured! The only thing I could think of was maybe it was Rumspringa time which as I understand it is a time of seeing what the world has to offer with little restraint from the elders. Years ago I watched beer cans get tossed by the dozens out of a buggy and that I know was Rumspringa time.