I noticed this barn on Yellow Springs Road as I drove into Valley Forge National Park, and I almost stopped, but decided to investigate it later.
After driving around the park, up to the Arch and back down to Knox-Valley Forge Covered Bridge, I decided to head home.
As I drove back out on Yellow Springs Road, I had to stop and get some images because the clouds were just adding to much energy not to be captured!
I parked on the road side, grabbed my gear, and headed back to the barn, and was able to quickly capture these two images:
Lord Stirling's Barn hdr 19Lord Stirling's Barn hdr 23
I am very happy to say, I did little post processing on these images, namely because, I did NOT have to!
I was also lucky enough to have the sun pop out at just the right time for these images. If you could see the frames just seconds before…
These images were captured as a series of HDR images, but I was able to single out the best “key” image with the clouds in mind using Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro. (One of my favorite new features!)
Growing up in the area, I had been by and through this covered bridge countless times.
In my teenage years, it was a ritual to meet at the National Memorial Arch in the middle of Valley Forge National Park after the Prom, hang out, and maybe watch the sun rise. (At least that was the stated goal…)
With that in mind, why was this bridge so late in my project?
Don’t know, but I FINALLY got to it!
But when I first got there, my shot looked like it was in jeopardy because there was a repair crew looking over the bridge.
So I drove through the bridge from the Yellow Springs Road side, and turned left on Rt. 252.
I was headed toward the Arch. I had stopped by with Madison on July 30th, but was not happy with what I had gotten that day.
What was also adding to the day, was the weather!
There was a front coming through the area, with a great range of dark and light clouds.
I drove around, stopped a couple of places, took some pictures, and finally headed back to the bridge.
When I got there, I was happy to see the Repair Crew had gone, and there no cautionary signs, so I drove back through the bridge on Yellow Springs, and park in the little lot on the right.
I gathered my gear, and started to walk back to the bridge, crossed the road, and hopped over the guard rails to setup for my first shot.
Knox-Valley Forge Covered Bridge (Exterior Long View) hdr 01
From here, I moved down the embankment toward the creek, and what I really found striking, was all the flatted tall grass leading to the creek. Tropical Storm Nicole had moved through less then a week before.
It was a little unnerving to see clumps of grass in the tree limbs at eye level…
I got to the creek, and tried to find a good water shot, and captured this:
This shoot, actually took about ten minutes to capture because of all the traffic coming from three different directions, and with the sun popping in and out… It was allot if fun!
I walked through the bridge, and setup and captured this.
