MUTH PHOTOGRAPHY

The Cloister

One of America's earliest religious communities, the Ephrata Cloister was founded in 1732 by German settlers seeking spiritual goals rather than earthly rewards. Gathered in unique European style buildings, the community consisted of celibate Brothers and Sisters, and a married congregation of families. At the zenith of the community in the 1740s and 1750s, about 300 members worked and worshiped at the Cloister.

This one is a four image panorama merged in Photoshop CC and finished off in Aurora HDR Pro. Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

Lime Valley Bridge

Here is a four image panorama of the Lime Valley covered bridge in Lancaster county, Pa.

Neff's Mill

One odd thing I found in Lancaster county was they don't really have a lot of areas around their covered bridges where you can stop, park and snap a few pictures. I saw lots of no parking and no trespassing signs near many of the bridges. To get this image I had to go on someone's property to shoot and didn't feel comfortable doing it so I just got the one shot and moved on. This could have been a tremendous image but the horses wouldn't co-operate in the short time I had, so for now it's just an image to say I was there once.

Long Horn

Impressive set of horns here. Some horns get to be six feet across. A truly magnificent animal. It took a bit of patience to get a good composition image but it was worth it.

Herr's Mill

Another covered bridge from Pennsylvania trip. This one is closed to traffic and needs to be restored. One of the longest bridges I have encountered as it double the size of most covered bridges. I am not sure if the doors are to keep people out at night or if they were part of the original bridge design.

Susquehanna Valley

I used eight images merged together in Photoshop CC to make this grand vista view of the Susquehanna valley near York, Pennsylvania.

Weaver's Mill covered bridge

Lancaster county, Pennsylvania has an abundance of covered bridges like the Weaver's mill bridge above. They are an interesting part of history and make great photography subjects. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members and flooring from the weather. Uncovered wooden bridges have a lifespan of only 10 to 15 years because of the effects of rain and sun. Wooden bridges with covers last for centuries. Bridges having covers for reasons other than protecting wood trusses, such as for protecting pedestrians and keeping horses or cattle from shying away from water, are also reasons for covers on the bridges.

Red & Yellow

Colorful lilies from my garden today.

WCM

Wallace-Cross Mill is beautifully restored. A great place for pictures. I got down into the creek to get this great reflection in the water. The day lilies were bursting in color and a great contrast on the red mill.

Old Mill

I decided to do a four image pano in infrared to Baumgardner's mill. I used a long exposure along with a R-72 red filter to get the infrared effect. The four images were then stacked,aligned and blended together in Photoshop CC. I then boosted the contrast and converted the image to black and white.

Giraffe Says " What? "

Animal pictures are always great but if you wait and get that eye connection with the camera you get an even better image. Give me your suggestions on what you think this giraffe is saying or thinking.

Haine's Shoe House

Located east of York in Hallam is the Haine's shoe house. It has been turned in to an ice cream parlor now and touts " The best ice cream this side of the Mississippi ". Wrong haha, but the building is cool. As I was photographing this shoe house the sky started getting ominous and a storm was approaching. Later I found out they had tornado warnings out for that evening and didn't know it. The clouds did add drama to my images and added some additional interest.

Baumgardner Mill

Great find here. Baumgardner Mill and covered bridge is a photographers playground. The property looks abandoned and very neglected which right now makes for really interesting pictures but I fear in the future this place will be lost forever if something isn't done soon. Vines, bushes and tall grasses are taking over the property. The pano in an earlier post ( old House ) is really the mill / house/ farm. The image inside the bridge looks out at the mill house. I wanted to show the trusses inside and the scene outside so I did three exposures at EV -1, 0, +1. I then processed them in Aurora HDR Pro.

Cave Man

Penns Cave Video ( Click Here ) I just want to mention this because sometimes your camera is over its head in ability. This is Penns Cave in Pennsylvania. I stopped just as they were opening for the morning. I had plenty of time to do a four image pano of their beautiful hotel at the entrance without tons of tourists in my image. When I went into the cave...oops maybe I have the wrong camera. I had my Canon Powershot sx50 hs and although its an excellent travel camera and has great lens versatility it's not a good choice for low light without a tripod. In the cave you ride a small narrow skiff through the cave. A little motion, a little rocking made it difficult to get sharp images. Now I am not a video guy but to save the day you may want to use the video on your camera just so you get something to take home. Usually the video will pick up the ambient light better than the camera will. I posted a short clip here just to give an example of what I mean. Be adaptable when in the field.

Big View

If you ever get to York county take some time to hike up High Point Park outside of York, PA. The park overlooks the Susquehanna valley and has spectacular views. I used a tripod to turn my camera vertical and panned eight images to make a panorama. The eight photos were then uploaded to Adobe Camera Raw and then into Photoshop CC. Once in Photoshop CC go to file > to scripts > to load files into stacks. Choose add files from desktop, check off the attempt to align files box. Once the files are stacked go to edit > to auto-blend layers, check off the content fill box. This does an incredible job of merging, aligning, blending your images. In many instances I don't have a tripod handy and you can do your shots hand held and still get great results.

Welcome to Pennsylvania

I merged five images in Photoshop CC to make this pano. A view of the water shed from the Tioga Pennsylvania Welcome Center on route 15 south.

Old House

While traveling through Lancaster county I found this abandoned farm house, mill and covered bridge and decided it would make an excellent pictures. I turned my camera vertical and made five images to use in a panoramic of this scene. I merged the five images in Photoshop CC. Correction, this is Baumgardner mill and barn, the old house is on the left outside the picture.

Hummingbird Series

This hummer is really feeding from a feeder. The leaves in the foreground were strategically placed to mask out the feeder.

An image from my summer hummingbird series. Shot with a Nikon D3, 70-200mm 2.8 lens. I am still desperately seeking to shoot a male ruby throated but I have yet to see one in my garden. I guess sometimes the challenge isn't operating the equipment but patience waiting for the right opportunity.

Automobile

My favorite car a 1996 Chrysler LHS with low milage. I chose to use a R-72 red filter to lighten the foliage on the trees to highlight the black car and give me some separation from the background.

This tree had bent over permanently and looked like it was just to darn tired to stand anymore.

I made an interesting discovery today. I took the three images below and stacked them and merged them in Photoshop CC and got the image above. I didn't realize I could do this with images of different focal lengths. This could open up a lot of new possibilities for my images. I will need to explore this further.

Hummer Season

I took some time to try my hand at shooting a few hummingbirds. I found that I need a long lens of 200mm or better to compress the background.

United States Marine Memorial at Fisherman's Park in North Tonawanda.

Always bring your Camera

I have my bicycle modified with a tripod head mounted on the handle bars and a small detachable camera case so I can do photography while out riding. On this particular ride across Grand Island I was passing through Buckhorn State Park when the skies turned ominous. I stopped and made this four shot pano.