This is an Announcement of the “Chester County (PA) Photography” Fan Page on Facebook!
The Group is primarily devoted to the Chester County (PA), a South Eastern part of Pennsylvania
We are also working in association with several area Flickr Groups:
Please feel free to join us!
It was a cold early morning with a steady wind blowing across the area, but the night sky was crisp and cloud free!
While waiting for the event to start, I was reading various Facebook posts from friends talking about how the clouds in their area where making in nearly impossible to see the moon.
I was also using “The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE)” software program to figure out a particular capture I had in my mind.
Finally, at about 1am, I packed up my car with my camera bag, tripod and extra clothing, and set off to my secret location.
Driving to my location was very easy, and I was surprised not to see many people out looking into the sky.
After getting to “my” location, and setting up, I realized, “my shoot” was not going to happen with the event occurring nearly straight over head.
Oh well, I was going to get some picture no matter what.
What really surprised me was how bright the moon was!
I did take a few early shoots from “my secret location”, but then packed up and headed back home because the wind was cutting right through me.
At home, I setup again, but used the garage to block some of the wind, and I was able to go inside to warm up a little between captures, and have a beer!
Initially, I was able to shoot at ISO100 at 1/15-1/80 in the ƒ8-11 range, but by the full eclipse, I had to push the CCD sensory speed up to ISO1600, and focusing was becoming very difficult.
By 3am, I packed up for the morning, and went inside.
I was too tired to download my images, and went to bed.
After a night to recover, I finally transferred my 150+ images my computer, and used Adobe Lightroom to sort though all of them.
Even with a tripod, I was able to notice, the wind moved the camera just enough to cause many rejects.
I ended up shooting a 50:1 ratio, which is not very good, but if I had been using traditional film, I would have gone broke with processing charges!
Yeah Digital!
I did spend some time looking on Flickr to see what others had captured before I created my final composite, and finally posted everything to my “2010 Winter Solstice – Lunar Eclipse” Flickr set.
NASA – “Eclipses During 2010”
Flickr group – Lunar Eclipse December 21 2010
Yesterday was the Annual Downingtown Good Neighbor Christmas Parade, and once again, it appeared to be a big success!
The weather was definitely warmer than last year, with the temperatures in the low 40s, and mostly overcast. (Several members from the Flickr groups I belong to, also expressed delight with the warm weather!)
Madison and I were the only ones from our family that were able to go. Logan was coughing way too much for Mom to allow him to stand around outside. (Our whole family, plus many other folks I know, have been fighting this dreadful lingering cold…)
We headed downtown around 2:15pm, with the thought of trying to avoid the hassle of trying to find parking, and to get a good viewing spot.
As we got closer, there did not appear to be much of a crowd, which made parking a breeze.
We walked from our spot at the Downing Center lot, and headed over to the center of town.
As we arrived, there were some people already there, with unfolded chairs and blankets, but not as many as I would have expected with the parade starting so soon.
We decided to walk around, and ended by stopping into the Minquas Fire House, where the Christmas Committee was hosting an Open House with Cookies and Hot Drinks.
After a few minutes of warming up inside, and some cookies, we talked back down town, and eventually staked our claim in a little spot near the Rt. 322 intersection, almost the same spot as last year.
As we waited and watched, we noticed a group of parents and kids gathering to the right of us, in front of the Coffee Cup, getting ready to perform.
They started a little after 3pm, after they introduced themselves as “The Touch of Class Dance Studio“.
As the instructors started to move the littlest members onto the street and into position, things started to get a little strange.
To the left of us, you could see that the police had already stopped the Rt. 322 traffic from turning on to the main parade route, but several Township vehicles and Police cars were still driving up and down Rt. 30.
At one point, a fast moving township pickup truck seemed as if it was going to run right into the little performers sitting in the street!
Needless to say, the spectators were getting a little agitated with what they were seeing, causing one parent from across to street to yell out: “Guess they did not get the memo!”.
The little dancers were easily cleared from the street without problems, and one of the adults from the Studio, did walk down the street, and confront an Official to confirm that it was okay to continue, and she was assured that is was.
Several minutes later, another unmarked gray police car drove back down the street, causing the kids to once again to scamper of the street, sparking an even more satirical comment “One more time!” from the same parent as earlier.
Finally, the Studio was able to continue without incident, and thrilled the crowd with their various dance routines.
On several occasions, with the music playing and the dancers jumping and spinning, children from the crowd entered the street and joined the performing Dancers.
As the performances continued, proud parents and children moved to the street to get a better view of the action, including one child, who seemed to just want to take a nap!
After about 30 minutes, the whole Troop gathered on the street to finish their performance.
Now it was time for the Main Event!
The celebration of the Holidays, is to look back to the past…
as well as what we have today…
as well as trying to remember the innocent’s of youth…
and good food! (Think these pretzels are big enough??)
and our animal friends…
as well as the music of the season…
and the array of colors!
or the First Family of the Holiday’s, that help to bring it all together!
Happy Holidays to all!
Had a late in the day flurry of activity!
After posting my latest Japanese Maples studies images to Flickr, I got a Flickr-mail from “RealtorKimWood” say that she was the Admin for the Downingtown Flickr group, and would I like to become to help out with the group!
As we continued with our Flickr-mail exchanges, and as I started to investigate her Profile and Links, I found out that Kim also runs the “365 Things to do in Chester County” on Facebook, which I have been a Fan of for a long time, and have used the suggestions to figure out stuff to do with the kids!
Kim and I agreed to talk more after the Holidays, but hopefully, sometime soon, you will read about my suggestions of what to do!
For more information, you can also check out the “Chester County PA and Beyond” website!
Finally, it seems that my project to photograph the Covered Bridges of Chester County is done!
It was a wonderful trip down to the “Southern Most” Covered Bridge in Pennsylvania.
I approached the bridge from the North side, and immediately knew I wanted to capture the windy road heading into Maryland.
Driving through the bridge, I parked on the small hill on the South side, and got out of the car.
While unpacking my gear and surveying Glen Hill, I really had to question myself on the location!
I thought I was back at Linton Stevens CB!
I did check the GPS, just to make sure…
I missed this bridge the last time I was down here in September by ‘fat fingering’ the GPS coordinates and driving into a townhouse area without any creeks, streams or rivers!
Waking into the bridge, I looked for the plaque, which is located on the Northern side of the bridge.
While taking my images of the plaque, a truck pulled up to the Southern entrance, and I signaled it go continue.
As the man passed me, he stopped, and we began to talk, and after a minute or two, he pulled over, and we began to talk more.
He introduced himself as Jamie Crouse of Crouse Auto Body in Elkton MD, and had lived in the area all his life.
As we walked and talked around the bridge, he keep telling me more about its history, such as the over weight truck being stuck inside the bridge during the 1960s.
Jamie also pointed out the char marks from the arson fire that destroyed the bridge in 1987.
Jamie continued to explain that a great of effort was made to recover as much of the original wood as possible for the rebuilding, which included Bongossi wood from Africa.
If you look closely at the floor in this picture, you will see large indentations, which were caused by the burning bails of hay and gasoline used to start the fire.
Some of the vertical posts still show charring from the fire.
He continued to say, that the two men responsible for the bridge fire are still in jail, and had also been linked to other arson attacks in the area.
On a more humorous side, he recalled that during his teenage years, two local girls visited Glenn Hope and other local covered bridges of the area, and carved “Boobless Wonder Strikes Again” on the down-creek side and “Woogie” on the up-creek side of the trusses.
We chatted a little more, and thanked him for the background info, and then he was off.
So now, where do I start my images?
The lighting was bouncing all over the place!
There was a stormy cold front passing over the area.
Short bursts of direct sun light, followed by various types of clouds, dark ones with rain and white fluffy ones.
Exposure nightmares!
But since I was doing HDR images any way, it really was not an issue.
In this image, you can see the Sun light popping in some areas, but not others.
HDR and ‘Mother Nature’ work wonders some times!
What I find most striking in this image, this the different layout of the support beams.
This was the first time that I saw the short ‘horizontal’ support beams instead of the long full-length ‘vertical’ beams of the other bridges, and certainly makes for a different visual capture!
I moved West up the Little Elk creek, and was able to capture this image looking East.
Featured Image and Photographer (November 2010) – Pennsylvania Covered Bridges
I did move further up the creek and managed to rip my Domke jacket… My first rip in the 25+ years I’ve owned the vest!
Bummer… Not a bad rip, but…
I went up about another hundred feet or so, and took some more images of the rocks surrounded by flowing water.
I still need to process those, and post them in another entry.
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10/25/2010 – Finally posted the HDR images to PhotoShelter, Flickr, RedBubble and Panoramio accounts. Also updated the Google Maps.
10/18/2012 – Notes from a talk given at the Citadel Credit Union about the Covered Bridges of the Oxford area.
After my presentation, I got to chat with several folks about the bridges, and during one conversation, I was introduced to Joe Chamberlain, who was tasked with removing and repairing the bridge after the cement truck damaged the bridge in 1968.
He not only confirmed the story, but went on to tell me, that the truck had started over the bridge, got about halfway, when the rear of the truck fell through the decking. He also questimated that there were about 8 yards of cement in the truck, at +/- 4400 pounds/yard, or 17.6 tons on a maybe 10 ton limit bridge!
Mr. Chamberlain went on to tell me, that the top of the cement truck was still above the deck level, and that he and his crew had to dig into the creek bed to lower the truck enough for them to get it out.
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