I saw a similar shot of this Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn in Perkiomenville, PA that was taken back in 2007 and after researching the location and mapping it out, decided to take a trip down there today. I was hoping the rusting car would still be in the same place and the other shot I saw said this farm has been in exactly this same state for nearly 50 years. Luckily, the car was still there and it does not look to be going anywhere anytime soon.

I shot this as seven bracketed RAW frames at .7 stop increments and then combined them into an HDR with Photomatix Pro and finally, tone mapped that image. The new version 4 of Topaz Adjust was applied to bring out the old wood textures in the barn. I’m definitely coming back here some Summer morning when the light hits the barn properly to get a few more compositions.

The indoor station area at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.  Because of a very demanding work schedule, I haven’t picked up a camera in a month so I decided to go down to the Museum because it’s one of my favorite places to shoot and I wanted to try out some new techniques.

For more information on the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, visit their web site at <a href=”http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/index.shtml” rel=”nofollow”>www.rrmuseumpa.org/index.shtml</a>.

This self propelled diesel passenger rail car had a carrying capacity of 90 passengers. They were built by the Budd Company in Philadelphia between the years of 1949–1962. A total of 398 were built. The car features a stainless steel body, 85 feet in length, an air braking system and a hydraulic torque converter transmission. It was powered by twin GM 110 diesel engines manufactured by Detroit Diesel which was a subsidiary of General Motors. The cars were primarily adopted for passenger service in rural areas with low traffic density or in short-haul commuter service, and were less expensive to operate in this context than a traditional locomotive-drawn train. The Lehigh Valley Railroad owned two of these RDC-1 cars (#s 40 and 41).

More information on the Budd RDC-1 can be found on www.budd-rdc.org/.

Taken back on Saturday 8-22-2009 at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg, PA.

For more information on the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, visit their web site at www.rrmuseumpa.org/index.shtml.

I shot this as seven bracketed RAW frames and then combined them into an HDR with Photomatix Pro and finally, tone mapped that image to create the final product.

This Bedford County covered bridge was built in 1902 and utilizes a Kingpost truss design to run 138 feet over the Juniata River in Harrison Township just off of the intersections of state routes 4005 and 4007. It is one of the few Bedford county bridges painted the traditional red color. It is open to daily vehicular traffic and is in excellent condition. The bridge is owned and maintained by the State of Pennsylvania. The bridge has also been known as the “Kinton Covered Bridge”.

I shot this as seven bracketed RAW frames at 1/3rd stop variance and then combined them into an HDR and toned mapped them with Photomatix Pro before applying the “brown with muted edges” filter from PhotoTools Pro to a separate layer in order to give it an antique feel. The I erased the parts of that layer which consisted of the wooded parts of the bridge, revealing the color of the bridge. This is where that Wacom tablet and pen device I bought late last year really comes in handy.

A Great Egret takes short repositioning flight over Raymond Pool at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge outside of Smyrna, Delaware back on 7-18-2009. When they have too much competition for fish in one area they will often fly a hundred feet or so and start fishing again. When you get a couple hundred Egrets in the same water body, it often takes on the look of an strange ballet or sorts.

For more information on the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/bombayhook/.

For more information on Great Egrets, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Mallard drake sits on the edge of the ice on the pond at the Fleetwood Park.

Thanks to flickr member pareerica for the use of the texture.

Hot air balloons drift off over miles of adjoining farm fields after their early morning launch at the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning at the Airport in Readington, NJ back on 7-25-2009.

For more information on 2010’s New Jersey Festival of Ballooning, visit their web site.

Thanks to flickr member darkwood67 for the use of the free fields texture that I blended into this piece to give it a dreamy feel.

Humboldt penguin checks himself out at the Philadelphia Zoo.

In the wild, the Humboldt penguin is found on the west coast of South America along the coast of Chile and Peru in the region of the cold water Humboldt current.

Humboldt penguins nest on islands or on rocky stretches of mainland coast, especially in areas with cliffs. They average a ten year lifespan but Humboldts in zoos have been known to live up to twenty years. Humboldt penguins are intensely social and gregarious and are usually found in groups. They have superb swimming skills, which rivals seals and porpoises. In the wild, Humboldt penguins eat small schooling fish like anchovies and sardines. In the Zoo, they receive five types of fish. Their diet is based on the calories needed for different stages of life along with a variety of supplemental vitamins. They are fed three times a day at the Zoo. Trout and silversides seem to be their favorite fish, although their preferences do change at different times of the year.

From my Monday 1-18-2009 trip to the Philadelphia Zoo. For information on visiting the zoo, please visit their web site at www.philadelphiazoo.org

A snowy Egret takes flight and flies across my path. I had been watching this guy for an hour while he sat on a the edge of one of the water tunnels that allows water to move between the marshes and through the dike. He would take flight, circle around and come back to the same place, over and over again. I don’t think I ever did see him pull a fish out of the water that he was watching.

From my 7-3-2009 trip to Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ.

For more information on the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at www.fws.gov/northeast/forsythe/.

For more information on Snowy Egrets, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Train tracks from the former Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad that used to haul raw materials into the complex at the Lock Ridge Iron Furnace in Alburtis, PA. The Furnace opened in 1868 during the peak of the anthracite iron industry and operated until shortly after World War One.

Since 1970, the 59 acre site has operated as a community park while the original blast furnace # 7 now houses Lock Ridge Furnace Museum which is open on a limited basis during the Spring through Fall months. Ruins from blast furnace # 8 still stand on the site and areas of stone masonry throughout the area offer good opportunities for photography.

I shot this as seven bracketed RAW frames at .7th stop variance and then combined them into an HDR and toned mapped them with Photomatix Pro. Black and white conversion was then done with OnOne Software’s Photo Tools Professional and the track and tie areas erased from the black and white layer revealing the color layer in Photoshop CS4.

A Black-necked Stilt reaches for a tasty morsel of food in the Shearness Pool at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge outside of Smyrna, DE on Saturday 7-18-2009.

For more information on the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/bombayhook/.

For more information on Black-necked Stilts visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Adult Black-Crowned Night Heron stands on the edge of the marsh area at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ back on 7-11-2009. The BCNH is one of the most patient species I have watched fishing. They will stand in one place for an hour and not move if they think it will eventually get them a small fish or crab to eat.

For more information on the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at www.fws.gov/northeast/forsythe/.

For more information on Black-Crowned Night Herons visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Even when life’s troubles are nipping at your heals, you can always find refuge up in a tree.

Great Egret catching some early morning sunshine in a tree overlooking the Gull Pond at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ back on 7-3-2009.

For more information on the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at www.fws.gov/northeast/forsythe/.

For more information on Great Egrets, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Leather horse bridles in the foreground and seasonal storage for horse drawn sleighs in the background inside the main barn at HopeWell Furnace National Historic Site near Elverson, PA.

This was an experiment to see how much detail I could pull out of something that was completely in the shadows using HDR. I shot this as nine bracketed frames at 1/3rd stop variance and then combined them into an HDR and tone mapped the HDR using Photomatix Pro. The white spots on the wood are poop from the population of barn swallows that live in the barn. I really like the way the light from the window is subtlety hitting the sleigh in the background. HDR for the win.

From my Monday, 9-7-2009 trip to Hopewell National Historic Site.

For more information on visiting Hopewell Furnace, please visit their web site

The Father Osprey arrives back at the nest after a successful fishing run over the Manasquan Reservoir in Howell, New Jersey on 6-6-2009. It’s common for Ospreys to eat the head of the fish first before returning to the nest with the rest.

For more information on the Manasquan Resevoir, visit their web site at this web site.

For more information on Osprey, visit the Cornell Lab Of Ornithology.