Took A Short Road Trip To Do Some Wandering; Rain, Rain, Rain!

Trees, roots and rocks detail from the top of Little Round Top on the Gettysburg Battlefield National Park (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1, Panasonic 7-14mm f/4 @ 7mm; ISO 400; 1/125th sec. @ f/ll

My wife and I just returned from a short, four day, road trip to the Lancaster County region as well as Gettysburg of southeastern Pennsylvania.  We have been taking care of our granddaughters, for the most part, over the past few months due to a family emergency, and we had an opportunity for a break.  Seizing that opportunity, we decided upon a short road trip to one of my favorite places.

Lancaster County, if you are not familiar with it, is the home of many of the Amish.  The Amish are a traditional religious sect that, in most cases, shun the use of modern amenities.  They don't use electricity, tractors, modern appliances, etc.  All over the countryside are horse drawn buggies, teams of mules pulling plows, clothes hanging out on lines, covered bridges, one room schoolhouses spread out around beautifully rolling farmland.  I'm sure, if you haven't been there, you have seem images of them.  They don't like their photographs taken so one has to respect that.  But, if they are out and about in public....   Additionally, there is a steam locomotive pulled tourist train operation and many, many more interesting and photogenic sights.  All in all, there is plenty, photographically, to see and do in the area.

Old carriage house wall (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-T1, 18-55mm @ 19.6mm; ISO 400; 1/90th sec. @ f/5.6

Unfortunately for us, it rained most of the time.  Both drizzle and heavy rain peppered our stay so I was limited in what I could photograph.  There was no one out in the fields plowing in the red mud.  There were a few buggies traveling down the sides of the roads. I guess what I am trying to say is there were limited opportunities for making any decent images.  But, that was okay.  We had a nice time away and broke our routine to re-energize ourselves for the remainder of the spring.

Hinge detail (click to enlarge
E-M1, 12-40mm lens @ 21mm; 1/100th @ f/5.6; ISO 400

After a couple of days in Lancaster, we drove over to Gettysburg, another one of my favorite places. Although it was not raining in Gettysburg, the day was very, very dreary.  With digital photography, one has the opportunity to somewhat boost saturation and contrast to counteract the dreariness and make images look a little better, if desired.  In the old days with film, you were stuck as you had no choice in saturation, color or contrast.  Under or overdeveloping color film didn't work very well and color print paper was only one contrast at the time. Isn't digital nice?

In Lancaster, Intercourse, PA and the surrounding area as well as Gettysburg, I made a few unremarkable images.  I thought I would share some of them with you.

Rain, rain, rain on our recent road trip.  So make rainbows out of rain and find something to photograph. (click to enlarge)
I was sitting in my car in a parking lot in Intercourse, Pa waiting for my wife to come out of a store.  As I sat, I noticed the patterns of rain on the windshield and the brief interludes of color of passing vehicles.  So, why not make a few images?
Olympus E-M1, Panasonic 35-100mm lens @ 35mm; ISO 200;1/400th @ f/3.2 (motion added in PS CC2014)

Warm tone black and white version of above image (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-T1, 18-55mm @ 19.6mm; ISO 400; 1/90th sec. @ f/5.6; warm toned coversion to BW in PS CC2014

Dual hinges for split door (click to enlarge)
E-M1, 12-40mm lens @ 21mm; 1/100th @ f/5.6; ISO 400

Canon, stone wall and Civil War era farmhouse, Gettysburg Battlefield National Park, PA (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-T1, 18-55mm @ 25.4mm; ISO 1600; 1/420th sec. @ f/11

Muddy path on rainy day running through field before the spring planting of corn, near Denver, PA (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1, Panasonic 35-100mm lens @ 100mm; ISO 200;1/40th @ f/8

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.

All content on this blog is © 2013-2015 Dennis A. Mook.  All Rights Reserved.  Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution.  Permission may be granted for commercial use.  Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.