The Haines mill was built by John George Knauss in 1760 on land he purchased from his Father In-law Joseph Bishop. Bishop had aquired the land from William Penn’s sons, Thomas and Richard in 1738. The Knauss family operated the mill until 1853. Solomon Lichenwalner took over the mill in 1867, and then sold it to Jacob Haines in 1906. After a fire left nothing but the outside walls, the mill was rebuilt in 1909. The Haines sold the mill in 1952 and operations ceased in 1956.

The Lehigh County Commissioners bought Haines Mill in 1972 and it was restored as working grist mill museum. As part of Lehigh County’s park system, visitors can watch a water turbine and rolling equipment operated by water power supplied from a mill race in the same way as when it was a thriving commercial venture. The museum is administered by the Lehigh County Historical Society. For information on visiting the Haines Mill Museum, vitis this web site. The mill is located at the intersection of Haines Mill Road and Dorney Park Road in Allentown, PA, a stones throw from the Dorney Park Amusement Park.

Nikon D7000 with a Nikon 28-70mm F2.8 AFS lens, manual focus, 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 Wenger Mill was built in 1785 and replaced an earlier 1748 Mill that was destroyed in a fire. The Ephrata Cloister, a local religious group of German settlers, built the four story tall mill and continued to operate it through the 1850′s. After the Ephrata Cloister, ownership passed to P. W. Royer in 1864, then to B. E. Wenger in 1875 and then to Jacob Buck in 1899. Samuel Mentzler closed the mill in 1915 and the mill switched from grinding grain to producing electricity for the W. W. Moyer Upper Mill on the Cocalico. The mill sat idle from 1970 through 2001. The mill went through a refurbishment on a monumental scale between the years 1999 through 2004 and today stands a beautiful structure that future generations can appreciate for years to come. The Miller’s house sits about 300 feet to the left and slightly uphill from the Mill and is equally as impressive in appearance.

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

This one-room schoolhouse was built in 1892 and classes were held here up until 1952. It was superseded by the building of a new Green Park Union High School in 1953. The Historical Society of Perry County owns and maintains the schoolhouse and took ownership in 1970 from the West Perry School District. The building is located on Green Park Road in Green Park, PA.

Nikon D300 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens, manual focus, aperture priority mode, exposure bracketing for seven brackets @ F11, ISO 200. HDR and tone map post-processing completed with NIK HDR Efex Pro.

This is the renovated one room school house in the tiny village of Stillwater Pennsylvania which resides along route 487 in Columbia County Pennsylvania. The school house was renovated and re-sided within the last few years. It is located right next to the Stillwater Covered Bridge. According to the year 2000 census, the population of Stillwater was 194 people in 85 households.

Nikon D7000 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens, manual focus, aperture priority mode, exposure bracketing for three brackets @ F16, ISO 100. HDR and tone map post-processing completed with Nik HDR Efex Pro. Some post processing touch up work in Photoshop CS5 with Tiffen DFXv2 plugins.

This one-room schoolhouse was named after Lindley Murray who was a famous grammarian and textbook author who was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania in 1745 and later forced to flee the colonies after the Revolutionary War because he was loyal to the English Monarchy. Murray’s textbooks sold an estimated sixteen million copies in America and another four million in Britain. The schoolhouse was built in 1850 and used as an active school up until 1944. It is now privately owned and the owner has done a great job in maintaining the structure’s historical accuracy. Wooden outhouses also adorn the property’s edges.

I shot this as three bracketed RAW frames at 2 stop increments and then combined them into an HDR and tone mapped it with the HDR Efex Pro plugin from NIK Software.

This bridge was built in 1887 and is located on Erb’s Bridge Road in Rothsville, PA, a remote farming community in Lancaster County. It crosses the Hammer Creek at a length of 80 feet and utilizes the Burr-Arch design in its construction. The bridge is open to daily vehicular traffic and is in great shape. The surrounding grounds are immaculately kept and groomed by the land owners making this a very beautiful bridge to visit. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 12-10-1980. An average of 380 vehicles use this bridge daily according to a 2006 road survey.

I shot this 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. I blended several textures from Shadow House Creations which gave it a nice painterly on canvas look I wanted. Thanks Jerry !

I shot this on July 4th during a five hour blitz through Lancaster County which included shooting eight Grist Mills, four Covered Bridges and one Amish Schoolhouse.

This mill was built in 1820 and was most active between 1820 and 1860. There was a saw mill attached to the right of the grist mill. The grist mill portion occupies a footprint of about 32′X 40′. The mill was fed by the waters of the Mill Creek which is an offshoot of the Tulpehocken Creek. The structure is located on Sheridan Road in Marion Township just south of the town of Stouchsburg.

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.

I was out shooting with a friend of mine last Saturday and she had never seen the Star Barn before and I knew on a day like we had on Sunday, the reflection of the barn in the pond would be really nice. We had to wait out the wind a few times but once it stopped we were left with a nice reflection in the water. It seems every time I have visited the Star Barn in the past, it was either a stormy or extremely windy day so this was a nice break.

The Star Barn is located in Middletown, PA just off route 283. It was built in 1872 and there have been recent fund raising drives and organizational activities centered around moving the entire Star Barn complex to a new home in Grantville, PA where it will act as a museum and agricultural outreach of sorts. For more information on the Star Barn and its rich heritage, visit www.thestarbarn.com

This school was built in 1865 and is located in what is now East Hanover Community Park in Grantville, PA. There is a walking trail that takes you through the park and past this schoolhouse with its outhouse and belfry and bell.

Shot as two sets of bracketed shots, 3 shots per set with the first set varying one stop and the second set varying two stops to compensate for the D7000′s maximum of three bracketed shots per series. I combined them into an HDR and tone mapped it with HDR Efex Pro from NIK Software.

Stoffel Wagner built this Mill in 1767 and several generations of the Wagner family operated it over the span of 200 years. The Mill is located on West Walnut Street just off of Route 412 in Lower Saucon Township which is near Hellertown, PA in Northampton County. The Hellertown Historical Society uses the Miller’s house, on the opposite side of the mill, as their headquarters and is responsible for the renovations and upkeep of the mill. The footprint of the structure is 35′x55′ with the mill being constructed of fieldstone. It is 2.5 stories high with a 2.5 story, 25′x35′ addition that forms the mill in an “L” shape. There is a park setting surrounding the mill with two mill ponds and a creek, a baseball field and park benches to watch the ample waterfowl population.

Shot as Nine 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. The soft, golden afternoon sun is at your back as you shoot across the smaller of the two mill ponds and it makes for a beautiful reflection. This mill is a “must see”.