Fence posts

I shot this at the lighthouse at Turkey Point.  I believe these were fenceposts for the stable that was part of the lighthouse keepers home.

Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM lens

Exposure 1/4000 sec @ f1.4

ISO 100

Curves adjusted for contrast

Knecht's Covered Bridge

This is Knecht's Covered Bridge, shot last spring.  It's about 15 miles from my home.  Looks like it leaning a bit :-( 

This post gets a triple bill.  Monochrome Weekend, Sunday Bridges, and Shadow Shot Sunday #110!!

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
60mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/50sec @ f4.0
ISO 100

I took this shot of the inside.  I liked it so much that I printed it 11 by 14 on metallic paper.  I don't know why it took me so long to post this, it ranks as one of my most favorite shots. 

 Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
49mm Focal Length
Exposure 1.0sec @ f5.6
ISO 100

Window Reflections

A very subtle reflections from this window.  The house attached to this window is some 160 years old and the property is preserved land in Bucks County.

Submitted for Weekend Reflections #40

Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM lens
Exposure 1/800 sec @ f2.2
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

Bridge Reflections 1.1

Some time ago, the Pennsylvania Department Of Transportation (PennDOT) released a list of bridges and their status.  The status reflects the condition of the bridge and it's ability to handle traffic.  Several bridges near me were identified as 'Structurally Deficient' which means "the bridge has deterioration to one or more of its major components ".

When returning to work from lunch the other day, I noticed there were police and construction people all over one of these 'Structurally Deficient' bridges.  They changed the traffic pattern so traffic only flows in one direction to reduce the load on the bridge.  The bridge also has some nasty curves leading to it which contribute to many accidents.


I did some investigation on the PennDOT website and discovered this bridge was constructed in ... 1838!!!  (I'm not sure if I believe that date)


The website has lots of other information on the condition of the bridge (wait a few seconds for Google Maps to switch to street view), but I was fascinated to learn that it was built so long ago.  Since this is a major road, I'm assuming the bridge will be demolished and replaced with a boring, ugly modern structure, so I decided to get up close and personal and get some shots.  I hope you enjoy it. Too bad no one was around to video tape my approach to the bridge.  It was very overgrown with lots of poison ivy and I was doing all kinds of funky steps to avoid it.

Submitted for Weekend Reflections #37 and Shadow Shot #108 (I actually try to get multiple themes in my photos)

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.4-3.5 USM lens

10mm Focal Length

Exposure 1/80 sec @ f5.6

ISO 200

Curves adjusted

Lonely

I shot this at the Hilltown Baptist Cemetery late on a Sunday afternoon in March (I'm just a tad behind).  I thought the late afternoon lighting offered some solitude to a poor lost soul who obviously perished a long, long time ago.  The headstone was unreadable.  There were many very old headstones, still standing, but unreadable.

A Submission for Shadow Shot Sunday #106

Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM lens
Exposure 1/2500 sec @ f2.8
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

Stadium Reflections

My son's 6th grade class trip was a tour of Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles, followed by a Phillies game at Citizen Bank Park.  These two are conveniently located across the street from each other :-)

You can see there plenty of reflections, though they are not spectacular.This is my submission for Weekend Reflections #35

The Phillies won :-)

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
24mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/125 sec @ f8.0
ISO 100
Curves adjusted for contrast

Railroad tracks

Again, my apologies for not regularly visiting everyone's blogs.  It's baseball season and I help coach my oldest son's team, so that will keep me plenty busy for the next several weeks (we have games Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday this week).  Fortunately, we have several coaches, so if time permits, I take photos :-)

Just a down low shot on the tracks.  I know the train schedule and the Philly inbound has just passed, so there would not be an outbound for about an hour.  You can see a bridge just a few feet up the track.  I shot this from under that bridge a few moments earlier.  See that railing on the bridge?  I have some killer shots that I'll hopefully post this week.

It was a very cloudy day, so monochrome was the ticket.

Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM lens
Exposure 1/320 sec @ f4.0
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast
I did go a little heavy on the black fill, but I think it looks cool. 

Bridge Reflections

I was on a ride through Montgomery County in the vicinity of Green Lane reservoir and I go past this sign.  I made a u-turn so I could go back and take a photo.  Evidently, between January and September of 2009, 7  motorcyclists crashed on this stretch of road.  After taking the photo, I continued down the 'treacherous' road and was really disappointed.  I expected a nice twisty road and the road didn't live up to the expectation set by the sign.  I've ridden much more challenging roads. 

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
70mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/100 sec @ f5.0
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

As I approached the end of the twisty part, I came across this bridge, which is my submission for Weekend Reflections #31.  

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
35mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/60 sec @ f5.6
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

Bridge to ?

This is a pedestrian bridge over the Neshaminy Creek on Dark Hollow Road.  There was a vehicular bridge here at some point that was replaced with a pedestrian-only version.  There's a lovely old stone farm house adjacent to this bridge. 

This link shows the location on Google Maps. I plan on returning to this place now
that the snow has melted.  Maybe tomorrow, since we've received 3.5+ inches of rain today :-0 

This is about 15 minutes from the Bridge of Eight Arches. 

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
28mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/160 sec @ f9.0
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

Spring, what else?

Spring is definitely on it's way.  A big pile of snow that buried some of our landscaping finally melted and look what I found - minature daffodils getting ready to get serious. 


Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM lens (new toy)
Exposure 1/500 sec @ f5.0
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

First

I'm feeling much better and cautiously optimistic that my current batch of kidney stones are behind me.  On my last ER trip, the doc informed me that I still have one in my right kidney, but it should not bother me for months.  Am I supposed to thank him for that information?  Thanks for all your kind words, I am feeling much better!!

I'm sure everyone is sick of snow, but I've been saving this one.  Not that it's anything spectacular, but as I was hiking through my favorite part of Peace Valley Park after a show storm, I came upon this bridge.  It was late in the afternoon and I was the first to arrive!

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
28mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/80 sec @ f6.3
ISO 200
No adjustments

Trail in the snow

Many people treck to Peace Valley Park to get in some cross country skiing after a good snow storm.  I came across these tracks late in the afternoon and thought the reflections was interesting with the setting sun hidden behind the trees. 

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
47mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/000 sec @ f6.3
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

Solitude

I shot this at Peace Valley Park the day after a snowstorm (one of the 'early' ones this year).  For such a simple shot, there's a bunch going on there.  I like, I hope you do too. I was wrestling with monochrome for this, but I really like to color in the leaf. 

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
100mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/160 sec @ f5.6
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast
1/3 right crop

Wooden Horses

There's a small playground at Peace Valley Park. Adjacent to the playground is this water fountain. I though these horses looked particularly interesting with the wide angle effect.

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.4-3.5 USM lens
10mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/60 sec @ f5.6
ISO 200
Curves adjusted

Fall Reflections

I'm in a funk these days.  I've seen many others in the blogosphere commenting about this as well.

I haven't felt well this last week, mostly self-induced.  My family and I spent last Friday evening and all day Saturday removing our Kitchen floor in preparation for installing a new one.  I insisted on doing this project rather than paying someone to do the work.  Installing the new floor is easy, removal of the old is the really hard part.  It was quite a lot of work and it kicked my butt, so much so that I had a brief visit to the ER last evening :-o  I'll be fine, I need to take it easy. 

As I was 'relaxing' after the floor removal, the words to my favorite Little Feat song, "Old Folks Boogie", came to mind.  I like the live version of the song from Waiting for Columbus, which came out when I was in college.  Back then, I used to laugh at these lyrics; I'm not 25 anymore and they've become reality.  

"So you know, that you're over the hill
When your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill"

Enough of my self-pity,  we're here to see some weekend reflections!  This was shot at Delaware Valley College (link on the sidebar) from a small basin on the side of the road back in November.  It was shot the same day as this.  Something with some COLOR, not this white nonsense (we're currently having our 3rd major snowstorm of this Winter, highly unusual for this part of the world)

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
32mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/30 sec @ f5.6
ISO 200
White balance adjusted

Circular Polarizer

After posting a complex shot that involved the sun and fog and the sun was a bit overpowering, a friend recommended that I get a Circular Polarizing filter.  I research them a bunch before buying one.  I've used it a bunch and it's saved my butt several times.  When I mention them to fellow photographers, either they love them or have never heard of them.  A CP filter has two elements, one is fixed and the other can rotate.  You look through the viewfinder and rotate the outer ring until you get the desired effect. 

Some CP's take down the light a stop or two, depending on the manufacturer.  Some CP's come with their own lens cover.  I think using a different lens cap is a deal breaker for me.  The last thing I want is another thing to keep track of. 

Here are two identical shots, one taken with the CP in 'normal' mode and one taken in maximum blocking mode.  A much simpler way to think about this is, I took the first shot without sunglasses and the second shot, I had my Ray-Ban's on.  Check out the footprints.  In the first shot, they're lost. 

No CP

CP

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.4-3.5 USM lens
10mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/320 sec @ f11
ISO 200
Curves adjusted

But wait, there's more!  Here are two more shots same deal, shot with the 24-105.

No CP

 

CP

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens

24mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/60 sec @ f5.6
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

Burger anyone?

So, it's been snowing here for 24 hours.  We're currently have received about 20" and it's still snowing like mad.  I took a shot of our grill completely entombed in snow.  Behind the grill is a hot tub that is currently not used.  I completely cleared the snow from the hot tub a few hours earlier.

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
24mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/60 sec @ f4.0
ISO 400
Flash used

This is a shot out the laundry room door.  This leads to a fenced in area for our dog.  Since she's a small dog, I've already cleared this area TWICE today with the snow blower and it's up to her belly AGAIN. 



Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
24mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/60 sec @ f4.0
ISO 400
Flash used

My oldest son, Nick, clearing the driveway after the township plow cleared the street and blocked our driveway.

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
96mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/200 sec @ f5.6
ISO 200
curves adjusted for contrast




These shots were taken 3 hours apart. 

 

Bad photo

We all have them. We don't like to talk about them and we certainly don't post them on our blog for our friends to view
 
or do we?


Our local township recycles Christmas trees. They grind them up and make mulch, which is good for Mother Earth. What you can't see is the sign behind the pile of trees that tells you to "Drop Christmas Trees here". Forgive the out of focus. I didn't check the camera LCD.  Shame on me. 

I love taking these shot - things that contradict themselves or just don't make sense.  Here's a link to one I posted last summer, but it's a bit more subtle.  

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
55mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/15 sec @ f4.0
ISO 800
Curves adjusted for contrast

Help!

 We have a troll in out landscaping.  He seems to be having a bit of difficulty after our recent snowstorm.  The black thing in front of him is an  LED landscaping light.


Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
47mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/380 sec @ f5.6
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

Snow!

Well, we got a bunch of snow last night and this morning.  I measured 12 inches this morning, but the snow did not stop falling for several more hours.  I think we finished with ~16 inches (~40cm).

I shot a bunch more later in the day.  The sun came partially out and cast a beautiful, orange shade on the snow.  I'll post them some other day. 

Here's Zephyr up to her ears (literally) in the white stuff.  Silly me, the camera was in aperture priority mode at f10, and she was moving like a rocket, but your get the idea.

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
45mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/50 sec @ f10
ISO 500
Curves adjusted for contrast

My oldest son has only been driving for one year and being the overprotective parent, I drove him to work today.  On the way, I noticed that the train tracks were covered, indicating that the trains were not running. 



Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
24mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/320 sec @ f13
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast

Near my home, we have a one lane bridge that crosses the Reading creek.  The bridge is thought of as a nuisance in this modern, hurry-up world, but I find it the be almost charming - a throwback.  Here's a shot of the creek.


Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
35mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/160 sec @ f10
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast