Nov. 14, 2012

Perfect timing for this American Bald Eagle to glide through my shot just as the sun was peeking over the edge of the horizon at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge.

Glen Hope Covered Bridge on a sleepy, early summer morning.

Here’s a shot of it over at my Flickr site.

This is a pairing of two of my favorite things….my faithful K9 companion, Sully…and a set of old rail lines that provide the ulitimate setting for early morning photography.  I’ve been shooting in this spot since I began my journey as a photographer. 

Sadly, I haven’t captured a single shot of Sully that was worthy of a frame in all of this time.  Oh…a random snap shot now and again…but nothing that I spent any time with…worked for…something to be proud of.  Lately I found myself thinking about getting some nice shots of him.  I mean, you never know what tomorrow holds…and I would regret having not taken a nice photograph of him if something were to happen.

I was heading out one morning to  shoot a covered bridge with some early morning fog.  As I drove past my favorite local haunt and admired the fog and light I turned in to grab a few frames since I was there.  After all, a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, and I didn’t know what the conditions were going to be like out on the edge of Lancaster and Chester county where the bridge was waiting.  I fired off a few frames.  After reviewing them on the LCD I was disappointed.  The shots were fine…really pretty actually.  But…it wasn’t anything that I didn’t already have at home…and I mean…like…by the hundreds!  That’s when it hit me…this scene needs my big white dog.  Today, I’m gonna make a ’wall-hanger’, or two, with my boy.  Why didn’t I ever think of this sooner?  The light was changing…and the fog was lifting…so I drove like a mad-man the two miles to my house to pick up the pooch.  We made it back in time to grab a handful of shots before the conditions started to deteriorate.  Here’s another shot on my Flickr site.   Success!

I had a fantastic photo shoot with sisters Kara & Kristen Zagorskie of the country pop duo, Born Sisters.  The girls are up and coming singer/songwriters who are getting a lot of traction and attention from the music folks in Nashville, TN.  It’s been a privilege, as well as exciting, to witness their progress throughout the years first hand.  Their upcoming summer release, Two, is turning a lot of heads in the industry.  The two of them are living a shared dream…Too cool!

The honor was bestowed upon me to shoot the images for their new CD, promo material, and to strengthen their portfolio.  We had a lot of ground to cover, but, it only took me about a nanosecond to know exactly where I wanted this journey to begin.   I’ve been hoping for the opportunity to shoot the girls at this location for a couple of years now and have thought about it for just as long.

The elements lined up perfectly on this morning…the photography gods were smiling.  From the quiet solitude of the morning, the soft diffused light from slightly overcast skies, to the slow crawl of the ground level mist that made it’s way up from the wetlands onto the rail lines.  It’s all I asked for!  And for this image, the perfect moment.  I shot this scene from 7:12:06 to 7:12:46.  Forty seconds, fourteen shots in all.  It was this fraction of a second at 7:12:39…just 1/250th of a second in time, sandwiched between thirteen other fractions of seconds…when it all came together perfectly.

It’s the fractions of seconds that we as photographers make our life in.  Captured forever, a moment in time.

An Amish farmer gathering up some goldenrod.

Had a great morning shooting the heavy fog and dew covered webs at the ChesLen Preserve.  I have hundreds of ‘dew covered web’ images and was hoping to get something a little bit different.  Tough looking into the brightness of where the sun is coming up, through the lens.

A frequent haunt of mine in the small local village of Embreeville, Pennsylvania. 

The mid-morning fog was just clearing as the sun rose above the treeline and lit the landscape with brilliant light.