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!)
When we finally got up to start the new day, we were greeted with a phone message announcing that the Downingtown area Schools were to have a (2) hour Opening Delay, and the local television news reports were showing segments on Road Closures and Flooding Damage in the surrounding areas.
Needless to say, traffic was BAD!
By 11am, I had Madison on the bus and off to school, and Logan dropped off at Day Care.
I was on my own!
Now to my Daily “Online Check-In” to catch-up…
On the “Chester County, PA” Flickr group, I noticed Brian Cox’s photo that he had taken at Hibernia Park, which gave me the idea.
Fungi DOF by Brian Cox
So I fired up Goggle Earth and Maps, and plotted my course into my GPS, and off I went…
I got there and tried to find a Trail Map, but was thwarted because there did not seem to be folks in the Offices, even though there were cars around. (When I got home, I was able to find a PDF Trail map)
Oh well… on with my adventure!
After watching some other cars drive by, I drove down a dirt road toward the “Old Dam” area, parked, and gathered my gear…
Shooting Vest, Lens, extra Memory cards, Tripod, etc…
I was off!
What struck me the moment I turned off the car, was the loud sound of water rushing!
Just by the loud sound, you could tell there had been some rain lately!
I looked around the “Old Dam” ruins, and saw some water, but nothing really worth photographing, and started down the “Forge Trail”, toward that sound.
As I got to the first opening on the trail, this is what I saw:
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 038
Notice the the line of leaves on the right side of the image, to get an idea of how far up on land, the flood line is!
Walking a little further down the trail, and turning around, I got this the view, looking back up the creek:
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 060
Again, notice how far up the leaves are on the left side!
And from this picture, you can CLEARLY see how high the water is from all the rain!
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 059
I raised the ISO to 1600, and was able to capture these images, trying to illustrate the movement of the water as it barreled down the creek.
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 207Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 146
You have to LOVE the ability to change ISO in mid “film”!
One funny moment during this shoot.
I was setting up my tripod to take a picture, and felt something hit my foot.
When I looked down, I saw several scared fresh water cray fish jumping around, and then they were off into the creek!
“Someone” was not happy I was there!
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 041
This actually happen twice!
On my trip down and then back up!
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 283
I continued my walk down creek, past the little pond in the “Lower Damn” area, following Lions Head Drive.
About midway between “Cottage #3” and “Cottage #2”, there is a little hill, that has a barbecue stand and a picnic table, and from the top of the hill, I was able to get this view point, and take this image:
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 067
I then moved to in front of the tree to capture, these:
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 086Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 163
My last capture before “Cottage #2”, was this tranquil little image:
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 225
Looking at my watch, I started back to the “Old Dam” parking lot, and was able to take a few moments to capture these images:
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 291
and finally…
Hibernia Park (10/1/2010) – 315
As you can see, there was allot of “action” on the river!
When I got to the Parking lot, there was another gentleman just getting ready to begin his adventure in photographing the creek!
I got home with about 15 minutes to spare before Madison got off the bus.
Yeah!
As she did her home work, I was able to begin processing the 318 images that I took.
Again, you have to LOVE the Digital Age!
Update – 4 Oct 10 – Since originally taking these images, I have managed to publish two (2) different galleries of digital pictures related to this adventure, and I invite you to take a take a look!
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.
Rudolph & Arthur (1886) – East Entrance (HDR 01)
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.
Looking through Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (1886)
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.
Rudolph & Arthur (1886) South-side View, Full (HDR 08)
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.
Rudolph & Arthur (1886) South-side View, Full (HDR 08)
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.
Looking Underneath Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (1886)
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.
Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (Interior)
Now that my batteries were completely dead, and I had no extras with me, it was time to head home.
Linton Stevens Covered Bridge (1886) – Main Sign (HDR 01)
It was another beautiful day in Chester County.
I was able to get everybody out of the house early, so I could then spend down the road capturing more bridges.
This bridge is located in Hickory Hill, which is southwest of where I live, so I took Rt. 1 South and headed towards Oxford.
Once near Oxford, I let the GPS guide me through the various small back-roads as I wound myself towards the bridge.
As I started down a small little hill on Kings Row Road, I saw Linton Stevens in front of me.
About 100 feet above the bridge, I pulled off to the side of the road, parked and began to look for potential shots.
Grabbing my gear, I headed off in search of the main bridge sign to get further details.
I found the bridge plaque on the north side of the bridge.
Setting up my tripod, I took my first images.
From there, I remembered, that during my initial scouting and the walk towards the entrance, there was a shot I wanted to capture on the left side, so I moved the camera and tripod into position, and set up to do another series of HDR captures.
Long View of Linton Stevens Covered Bridge (1886)
While I was setting up the shot, I noticed on the far side, an older woman out walking her dog. I waited until she and her dog had entered the bridge and started my first captures. It was easy to locate them in the bridge by the echoing sounds of the dogs claws hitting the wood floor. Once they were through, we exchanged “Good morning”‘s, and they continue their walk.
I moved closer to the bridge, where I could exaggerate the length and also capture the reflection in the water.
Linton Stevens – Side View (HDR 03)
After that was done, I went back to my car and drove it through the bridge parking on the other side.
I setup my camera to do a long interior shot looking north. What surprised me at this stage of the game, was that some of my exposures were pushing 30 seconds, which seemed unusual for the brightness of the day.
Once I was done with the Interior shot, I moved around to the right side of the bridge to look for a way to crawl underneath, which was easy because of the small little path, that others had used before.
As I started my investigation, I was startled, to see a seemingly “fresh paint” on the iron beams that supported the bridge.
The light sand color of the paint was going to help reflect light into this very dark scene.
I also noticed some very fresh red graffiti painted on the side of one of the main girders, but unfortunately, I did not have a wide enough angle lens to capture the whole scene, but I was able to move easily to the center and capture the following image. (I do have an additional shot trying to show the graffiti, and the artist that left their mark, also dated their artwork as 7/20/2011, just a mere two months ago.)
From here, I started moving downstream to get along side view of the bridge.
As I waded through the water, there was a line of rocks acting as a small dam, that had caught a branch and leaves that were now blocking water from floating freely. I move the branch out-of-the-way, and then there was a sudden rush of water.
I finally set up approximately 150 feet downstream, and captured my final full-length view of the bridge.
Looking Upstream at Linton Stevens Covered Bridge (1886)
I took a few more shots as I headed back upstream towards my car, where I collapsed my tripod, and headed off to the next bridge: Rudolph & Arthur (1886).
