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.
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!
Kimberton – Phoenixville, Chester County [38-15-13]
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.
Kennedy Covered Bridge 001 (Sign)
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.
Kennedy Covered Bridge hdr 05 (Underneath)
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.
Kennedy Covered Bridge (Long Side-view)
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.
