The weather of the past couple of nights, has allowed for some fog to develop early in the morning, and on my way to a client, I was able to stop and take these images.
and as we know, fog is not that consistent, but when it is there, it can add to the scene.
I had photographed this scene a couple of weeks ago, when we finally had some snow, but as you can see, it has changed.
More horse with fog can also be seen here.
Finally got some of these done!
Details to follow…
I finally finished this MONSTER!
As I blogged before, this image is composed of 42 images stitched together in Photoshop CS5, and then some Tone Mapping.
NOTE – By Clicking on the Image Twice (2 Times) you can see the FULL image!
At one point, this file was 3.7GBs in size!
But I have been able to get it down to a little over 7MBs as a JPEG file.
It has been interesting to see which sites are having problems with the size…
Hope you enjoy!
About an hour ago, we finally got our power back!
We lost it Saturday night around 10:32pm during “Dr. Who”… I mean Hurricane Irene.
I was monitoring my various networks, watching for things related to the storm that was all around us.
The TV was nothing but an Emergency Broadcast transmissions for tornado warnings all over the area.
The first alert was described as strong storm, with possible circular rotation for areas to the south, starting in New Castle and heading towards Kennett Square.
About 5 minutes later, there was another warning that included the King of Prussia area.
We are right in the middle, and needless to say, I was a little nervous.
At 10:31pm, I posted to Facebook that our lights were browning…
Then the Power was gone…
I turned on the radio and listened as I paced the house, moving from the front to the back, and occasionally into the garage to look out into the night from one of the opened doors.
Sometime around 3:30am, I finally laid down and continued to listen to the radio before I falling asleep.
I was woken up by my wife, as she prepared snacks for the kids, who were upstairs watching a movie on the iPad.
They were happy.
Walking around the house, I surveyed out all the windows to see what the outside looked like, and how many branches would I be picking up later.
I also watched for cars to gauge how the roads were, and as I saw more, I wanted to go out to see for myself, and so did Madison.
We got down to Kerr Park around 11:30, and saw several other people already exploring what Irene had left.
After parking, both Madison and I walked across the water-logged grass, and headed toward the Brandywine creek, which was well over it’s banks.
The small little stream and bridge in the middle of the park were covered with several inches of water.
One could also see that one of the older trees and fallen over during the heavy winds from the night before.
After walking around some more, we headed back to the car, and off to the Dam along Struble Trail.
When we got to the small little parking area, there was another family already investigating the dam and all the water that was flowing over it.
We finished taking our pictures, walked back to the car, and on to home.
Once there, Logan was now ready to see the outside world also, so we jumped into the car, and headed to the Dowlin Forge Road entrance to the Struble Trail.
I was actually a little surprised to see as many folks walking the trail, but considering that the power was still out, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
As Logan and headed West, we found our little trail that leads down to the edge of the Brandywine, but were confronted with a large puddle from earlier flooding. Logan jumped on my back for a piggy-back ride across and we continued on.
It was loud and many of the ‘normal’ creek-bed features, were covered in several inches of deep water.
I wanted to find the “Creek Claw“, but with all the water, I knew that it was not going to be, but I was able to find the “Hobbit House” tree.
As I took several different angles, I reminded Logan that when the water was lower, he was able to stand inside.
He looked at me with disbelief, and then went back to lightsabering the tree branches.
We continued down the dirt trail, and back up to the main paved trail.
On the way back to the car, we only saw one tree laying across the trail, which was a surprise.
From the parking lot, we drove along Creek Road (Rt. 282) back into Downingtown, and on to Kerr Park for a quick stop, and no camera.
As we walked around, I pointed out where the water had been earlier and told him I would show him the pictures later, once we had power again.
As many locals will tell you, the past three days have been filled with some awesome looking clouds, and finally, I got a chance to go out and shoot some…
I had to stop at home to grab my gear, and I also jumped on Google Earth to get a quick idea of areas I wanted to check-out with the clouds being as inspiring as they were!
My first stop, was just East of Shamona Creek Elementary School, which is rather close to where I live, and having just photographed a similar scene just over two weeks ago, I knew that there was a nice overview both North and South.
The biggest thing that you notice missing, is the big bails of hay, which were one of the focus point in the previous Black and White image conversion.
From this scene, I walked across the street and up a small hill to capture the next image, and I am very happy to have been able to capture one of the birds that was out souring with the various up-drafts.
After this shot, I got back to my car, and headed toward the other side of the school, where I set-up and took some more shoots. (Note: I have decided to wait and HDR process those images when there is real snow on the ground!)
Backing up again, I continued West down Dorlan Mill Road to Creek Road (Rt. 282).
For those that have been following my blog closely, yes, this is the same Creek Road I explored on a Friday in the 101°F heat earlier in July, and very thankfully, it is much cooler this time!
As I drove North West on Creek Road toward Glenmoore, I looked at the Brandywine creek, making metal notes of how the water has risen some, and where I want to explore in the up coming months.
I continued through Glenmoore, and as I was driving and looking, I spotted the following cumulus thunderhead developing, and pulled over to the side as quickly as possible to capture this (7) image HDR capture:
I took a couple of different angles on this, and as I was, an adult heron fly from right to left in this image, and disappeared into the woods behind the cat-o-nine-tails.
Jumping back into my car, I continued toward Elverson on Creek Road, crossing Manor Road (Rt. 82), and as I started up the small hill, I noticed a group of cows, laying on the ground resting with wonderful clouds in the background.
I quickly turned around, pulled over, and grabbed my equipment.
My fear as I approached the fence, was that all the cows were going to get up and head toward me.
But alas, the cows seemed content to stay were they were, and I was able to click a few frames before my camera just stopped working.
Damn!
I wanted to continue, so I headed home to grab my AA battery pack, but by the time I got there, and back out my car, the clouds had changed into pending rain, which the area needs, but is no where nearly as interesting as it had been.
I called it a day, and started the process of transferring my images from the camera on to my computer for further processing.
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After working on the second image, “Cloud Hunting hdr 07 – North”, until 3am this morning, I woke up to find that it had been selected as “Image of the Day” by Parkesburg Today!