Three Great Egrets fish and preen in Raymond Pool at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge back on 8-1-2009.

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

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

B&W Conversion via Topa B&W Effects.

The Rothville Mill was built in 1793 by Johannes Pfoutz. It replaced an earlier mill on the same location that had been built in 1786. Pfoutz and his Sons owned the mill through 1814. In 1814 Peter Hall purchased the mill and operated it until 1824 when he sold it to Henry Becker. The Becker family operated the mill for nearly 50 years, selling it to J.K. Krantz in 1870. Krantz operated the mill until 1883 when it was sold to Ben Flory who operated the mill until 1911 when it was sold to John Herman who turned around and sold the mill a year later to John Zook who then sold the mill to Isaax Bushong who operated the mill until 1927. The mill remained dormant until 1973 when it became part of the Warwick Farms operation. As late as 2005, the mill was being used as studio and office space after having been renovated. Today, the mill is known as “Wetlands Farm Mill”.

The mill is located on Rothsville Road at the intersection with Heck Road just outside of Lititz Pennsylvania in Lancaster County.

Nikon D7000 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens, manual focus, aperture priority mode, exposure bracketing for three brackets at 2 stops variance @ F18, ISO 100. HDR and tone map post-processing completed with NIK HDR Efex Pro. B&W conversion done using the newly released Topaz B&W Effects plugin. I like the level of control that the new Topaz B&W Effects gives me when controlling contrast and tonality. It offers a lot of the same features as NIK Silver Efex Pro does plus a few more at a fraction of the price.

This is an old barn that is nestled in a valley that my Parent’s new house overlooks in the very small town of Virginville, PA. The people who sold the house to my Parents were telling me they think there used to be a wordworking shop setup in the barn.

Nikon D7000 with a Nikon 28-70mm F2.8 AFS lens, aperture priority mode, exposure bracketing for three brackets at 2 stops variance @ F13, ISO 100. HDR and tone map post-processing completed with Nik HDR Efex Pro.

The Stillwater Covered Bridge is located in the small town of Stillwater, Pennsylvania. The bridge was built in 1849 by James McHenry and runs 151 feet across the Fishing Creek. It features a burr-arch design and is open to only foot traffic, with vehicular traffic being disallowed since 1949. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 1979 as ref # NRHP 79003177.

Nikon D7000 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens, manual focus, aperture priority mode, exposure bracketing for three brackets at 1 stop variance @ F11, ISO 100. HDR and tone map post-processing completed with Nik HDR Efex Pro.

I went down to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania on Sunday to try some new things. I knew they were undergoing construction on a new geothermal heating and cooling system and that there would be a few things that would be cordoned off but when I got there I found that most of the locomotives and artificts had been either cordoned off, had a tarp over them or had signage or construction things within the frame or were things I had already shot a million times. The air conditioning was also disabled which meant it was close to 100 degrees heat inde especially at the back of the building. So I decided to go in close and try shooting some of the teture to be found on some of the old boxcars like this open top car.

For more information on visiting the museum, visit their web site at www.rrmuseumpa.org.

Nikon D7000 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens, manual focus, aperture priority mode, exposure bracketing for three brackets @ F8, ISO 100. HDR and tone map post-processing completed with Nik HDR Efex Pro.

A line of the many antique Model “A” Fords on display at the 48th annual Das Awkscht Fescht classic car show in Macungie Park, Macungie, PA. The show runs August 5,6,7th and includes just about every conceivable type of classic car you can imagine. For more information on visiting the show, check out their web site at www.awkscht.com.

I shot this one as a single exposure, hand held. D7000 with Tamron 28-300mm F3.6-6.3 LD lens, aperture priority mode, F14, 1/125th shutter speed, ISO 640.

My Sister’s birthday was today and I set a goal of getting a nice portrait of my Grandmother while at the family gathering. I had posted on a previous portrait I did of her that she is 86 but she corrected me. She is 88 years young. When they made my Grandmother, they broke the mold. You have to love that Paddington Bear hat.

Strobist Info:
Nikon SB-900 @ 1/2 power in Westcott 60″ convertible umbrella in reflective umbrella configuration camera right. Westcott 46″ Silver reflector on the left for fill. SB-900 triggered by PocketWizard Plus II.

Nikon D7000 manual mode. F13 @ 1/125th second shutter speed and ISO 200. Nikon 28-70mm F2.8 AFS lens.

Lessons learned from this shot: I should have added another flash for fill behind my Grandmother so that I could light the underside and rim of her hat in the back and side a bit more. I don’t like the transition and separation between her hat and the window and wall area. I learn something with every shot that I can take to the next

A campfire scene from the Union encampment during the annual Civil Ware Re-Enactment at Pennypacker Mills in Schwenksville, PA on Sunday 6-5-2011.

Strobist info:
Nikon SB-900 in TTL mode in a Westcott 46″ shoot through umbrella camera right triggered via Pocket Wizard Mini-TT1 transmitter on camera and Flex-TT5 transceiver on the flash. .

Nikon D7000 aperture priority mode. F4.5 @ 1/125th second shutter speed and ISO 100. Sigma 10-20mm lens.

This one-room schoolhouse is located on Mahoning Drive West in Lehighton, PA in Carbon County. The school was built in 1900 and stopped functioning as a school in the midi 1950s. After it closed, the Mahoning Valley Fire Company, which is located next to the school, purchased the building to be used for storage. In recent years, deterioration of the structure forced a decision by the fire company. They needed to either decide to tear the building down or solicit feedback from the community about restoration efforts. The community gave the fire company much support including offers of labor and materials. Boy Scout Troop 145 decided to rent the building as their new headquarters in exchange for helping with the restoration work. It still needs a good paint job but the building seems to be well on its way towards restoration.

Shot as three bracketed RAW frames at 2 stop increments and then combined them into an HDR and tone mapped it with HDR Efex Pro from NIK Software. B&W conversion done with onOne Software’s Photo-Tools.

This one-room schoolhouse is located on Route 946 in Moorestown, PA which is a suburb of Bath, PA in Northampton County. It stands across the road from the Salem U.C.C. Church and is currently used as the headquarters for Boy Scout Troop 50. I haven’t been able to find out much on the history of the school but I am still looking.

Shot as five bracketed RAW frames at 1 stop increments and then combined them into an HDR and tone mapped it with HDR Efex Pro from NIK Software. B&W conversion done with onOne Software’s Photo-Tools.