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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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It still just amazes me.
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.
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:
I then headed down the creek, and setup for this shot:
Pivoting to my left, I headed back up the embankment, and setup for this shot:
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.
Again, this image took some time, and in both cases, I was helping to direct traffic.
From here, I jumped over the guard rail on the left, and captured this:
If you look carefully, you can begin to see the flatted tall grass on the left, but it does not approach what is just 10-15 feet further left!
Again, I climbed back up the embankment, crossed over the road, over another guard rail, and down the right side for an up creek view:
From here I headed back to the car.
Another Chester County Covered Bridge captured!
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The temperature was warm, but not to bad, and the skies were a deep blue with a few puffy white clouds.
It was another beautiful day in Chester County.
I started today’s adventure near the intersection of Route 100 and Route 113.
From there I took Pike Springs Road North (Rt. 113) towards Phoenixville, and was able to find Hares Hill Road on my left.
Turn on to Hares Hill Road, I immediately began to see signs that indicated that there was a bridge out in front of me.
My heart began to sink, thinking that this was going to be a wasted trip.
I ventured forth, continuing to see bridge close signs, and finally made it to Mill Lane.
Turning down Mill Lane, which is a small bumpy unpaved back-road, I reached the end , and was delighted to see a small little parking area.
Once I was parked, I noticed that the Closed Bridge signs had disappeared.
I gathered my gear, and headed down West Seven Stars Rd. towards the bridge, and was very happy to see that there was no construction visible anywhere!
At the entrance to the bridge, I stopped and began to assess the traffic situation.
I could see the bridge sign, just inside, and knew that I was going to have to do my dance with the oncoming cars and trucks.
With some quick timing, I was able to capture some hand-held bridge images, shot at ISO 1600.
On the sign, one can read, that the bridge had been destroyed by fire in 1986, but was rehabilitated a year later.
From there I moved back outside and to the base wall of the bridge and began to set up my tripod for my first exterior images of the entrance.
I knew this was going to take a long time, because the traffic seem to be increasing.
As I sat there, waiting for the cars, it was interesting to note how people responded to me and my camera.
Some folks, just wanted to make sure they didn’t hit you and continued along very quickly. Others would smile and wave and occasionally you would get a beep of the horn as a sign of encouragement.
With the way the sun was hitting the bridge, I decided to walk through, and shoot back for my long interior capture, but in doing so, I had to set up my camera just at the edge of the traffic lane.
During my captures, I played a policeman with the ongoing traffic.
This was by far the most time-consuming image and nerve-racking of the day so far.
I got my captures and begin to look for my next shot.
Seeing that there were no easy ways to get under the bridge from the school side, I crossed back over, and down the opposite side I had shot from earlier.
This was nice because there was a little grass area where I could easily set up my low angle view of the bridge.
From here I moved upstream and look for an easy entrance into the water.
I found a spot, and started in, finally finding a spot on the far side of the Creek.
This was going to be another timings shot.
As I was setting up, I noticed that the school was having the lawns cut and large red mower kept on moving in and out of the shot, all the long kicking up dust clouds.
From there, I moved back down the Creek, crossing over the middle again, and towards the underside of the bridge.
Climbing over some rocks and up into the concrete area of the undercarriage, I was able to see that the underside for the first time.
The bridge had a light tan paint which was going to help to illuminate the support structure, and there was a nice contrast between the tan iron beams and the dark wood of the bridge itself, but I had to wait as red lawnmower continued to move back and forth off to the right.
From the middle of the undercarriage I continued to my right and up the side of the bridge.
As I scrambled up, I looked back and saw this long low view of the bridge.
This was my shot of the day.
But again I had to wait for Mr. Red lawnmower and the dust clouds…
Finally finished with the shot, I headed back to where I had started about an hour ago.
I started to head back to my car, got there, and decided to walk up the Creek a little bit more looking for another long view shot.
Heading back to the Creek, I found another easy entrance to the water and searched around for an appropriate view.
Finding one, I was able to capture this final image of the Kennedy covered bridge.
During my processing of my images, especially HDR 07, I ran into a number of issues with ghosting and color aberrations.
Initially I posted to Flickr my first attempt of HDR 007, but after being too frustrated with what I was looking at, I re-released the image after spending some more time with it, and that is what is posted her. If you wish to see the original, it can be found on my Flickr PhotoStream.
Destination Travel Magazine (June 2011) – Covered Bridges of Lancaster County
Destination Travel Magazine (May 2011) – Covered Bridges of Chester County
Destination Travel Magazine (April 2011) – Covered Bridges of Chester County
From the Linton-Stevens bridge, I headed across Hickory Hill and was easily able to find Camp Bonsai Road.
As I drove down the twisty road, and got to the bottom, and spotted Rudolph & Arthur in front of me. I slowed to a stop, looking for a place to shoot and also park my car.
Crossing the bridge from West to East, I parked on the side of the road, grabbed my gear, and headed back towards the bridge, all the while as a large dog barked in the background from a nearby house.
As I approach the bridge, I noticed the little shack on the other side of the road, so I set up in the middle-of-the-road framing the red shack in the center of my image.
Moving forward some more, and keeping in mind the red shack, I did my detailed interior view of the bridge.
Once my detail picture was completed, I started through the bridge looking for a sign or plaque, my eye was beginning to see some interesting tones deep within the bridge, which I made a mental note of and continued to the other side.
From the East side of the bridge I started upstream. After about 75 feet I looked over my shoulder and set up for the following shot.
The dog was still barking and I was surprised that nobody had surfaced to see what the dog was barking at. I could hear somebody inside crashing about which made it even more odd that no one had investigated.
I continued up the backside looking for a place to easily enter the water, and finally found a spot and carefully waded in. Towards the middle of the creek, there was a shallow sandbar and a place to set up for my next shot.
From my position in the center of the Creek, I moved downstream and towards the underside of the West entrance.
Once I finally got underneath the bridge, the water level had risen to about mid-thigh. I was able to set up my tripod and capture another undercarriage of a covered bridge.
This underneath was in stark contrast to the previous bridge, Linton-Stevens. The dark brown undercarriage did not reflect nearly as much light, but with the angle of the sun, light was reflecting off the water and illumining some the structural details of the underside.
From here I continued downstream, looking to do an upstream shot of the full side but with the sun at the current angle I would have been shooting directly into it and decided against.
Crossing over the creek, I got up on the East side bank and back to my car, where I started to pack up.
After I had removed the camera from the tripod, I noticed my battery was dying, so I decided to do some hand-held shots, finishing off the battery.
When I was back inside the bridge, the sunlight was reflecting off the water and up into the bridge, giving the wood a very warm tone.
With the final few moments on my battery I was able to capture this final image.
Now that my batteries were completely dead, and I had no extras with me, it was time to head home.
All in all, it was a good day of shooting.
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10/18/2012 – Notes from a talk given at the Citadel Credit Union about the Covered Bridges of the Oxford area.
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