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| We spotted these three young men were enjoying a cool swim in this creek on a hot summer day. By the time we found a place to park and walk back to the creek, they had already gotten out and dried off. Nevertheless, animated and wrapped in towels, you can infer where they just have been. (click to enlarge) Olympus E-M1 Mark III; 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 70mm; 1/640th sec. @ f/7.1; ISO 200 |
The heart of any area is the people who live, work, raise their children and visit. Whenever the opportunity arose, I made a few "snapshots" of the people I saw going about their ordinary lives, enjoying the mundane and making the most of their limited ability to get out of their homes during this pandemic.
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| We were actually sitting in our vehicle in a line to go through a drive-up ice cream shop window. We had already eaten our ice cream but were not able to get around the buggy to leave so we waited behind them until they moved forward. What I first noticed was the Wyoming riding cowboy/bucking bronco symbol that we see on Wyoming license plates. I was wondering how in the world that got stuck to the back of an Amish buggy in Pennsylvania? I wanted to make a photo of the irony. Seeing these two young ladies in the buggy and wanting to be respectful of their culture, I picked up my camera, preset it so all I would have to do was quickly raise it to my eye, compose and push the shutter button. I was doing my best not to intrude into their lives. At the bottom, in the black area of the buggy, you can see blurry spots which were, in reality, dead bugs on our windshield. Even though the one girl is looking backward, I don't think she actually saw me make the image. She was looking at her sister (?) until a fraction of a second before I pressed the shutter. (click to enlarge) Olympus E-M1 Mark III; 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 57mm; 1/600th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200 |
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| I think you could call this the "sports car" of Amish buggies! (click to enlarge) Olympus E-M1 Mark III; 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 56mm; 1/640th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200 |
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| Although there are about 30 covered bridges in Lancaster County, this one is one of the best if you want to photograph a buggy and bridge together. I believe it was Belmont Road. From either direction, you can see a buggy approaching from a distance and have time to get into position. My original conception for this image was to capture the buggy inside the bridge itself, but as soon as I saw the buggy inside the bridge, I realized that it was much too dark and not much detail would be recorded. In other words, the buggy would be more or less a silhouette. I then quickly moved my position, zoomed the lens out and captured the buggy as it exited this covered bridge. (click to enlarge) Olympus E-M1 Mark III; 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 41mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/5; ISO 200 |
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| I had been photographing the farmer walking up into his field carrying his hoe when I heard the familiar "clop, clop, clop" of an Amish horse and buggy approaching. As I waited, I moved my position so I might be able to successfully use both the farmer and the buggy in one image. As I had been photographing using aperture priority, I quickly switched to shutter priority and set my shutter speed to 1/500th sec. to freeze the motion of the buggy as it passed. I was able to capture the two subjects juxtaposed in a way that is pleasing to my eye. The serendipitous bonus is the two boys in the buggy waving and smiling. My good fortune! (click to enlarge) Olympus E-M1 Mark III; 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO lens + MC-14 1.4X tele-converter @ 105mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200 |
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| We did spend some time in downtown Lancaster as well as passed through the downtown in our journeys around the countryside. During one of those passes through, we spotted this man scraping paint on the barber pole. My friend Dave was driving and quickly pulled over. As Dave rotated around to shoot backwards out of the driver's window, I jumped out the passenger's side of the vehicle, and made a few quick "snaps." He saw me with the camera but I didn't want for him to stop or be influenced by my presence so I feigned photographing down the street adjacent to his shop. He would scrape for about 15 seconds, stop and stand up, rest, then scrape again. During one of the active times, I was able to make some images as he continued his work unfettered by my presence. (click to enlarge) Olympus E-M1 Mark III; 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO lens @ 73mm; 1/400th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200 |
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| We took a ride up to the small town of Lititz, Pennsylvania. It is a quaint town that has a lot of tourist shops but, even better, they have their own chocolate factory! Yes, we did buy chocolate. And...it was very good! As Dave's and my wife shopped, we walked over to a small city park and looked for subjects that would make interesting photos. I found this grandfather with his granddaughter feeding the ducks so I made a few images. After the first couple of images, the grandfather spotted me and, either consciously or unconsciously, moved between the camera and his granddaughter. Seeing that there may be some anxiety, I saw the grandmother sitting at a nearby picnic table. She had also spotted me making images. I walked over to her, introduced myself and explained who I was and what I was doing and that I wasn't some old pervert photographing children. It turned out she and her husband are from the UK but had moved to Lancaster County several years before. We had a very nice conversation and she assure me there was no problem taking all the photos I wanted. In fact, she yelled to her husband to get out of the way! But by that time, the spontaneity was gone and I thanked them and walked on. (click to enlarge) Olympus E-M1 Mark III; 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 100mm; 1/250th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200 |
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| Olympus E-M1 Mark III; 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 47mm; 1/250th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200 |
A few more images of the land, the animals and then my three favorites from the entire week.
Join me over at my website, www.dennismook.com.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Really nice series Dennis.
ReplyDeletePointing my lens at children makes me nervous, unless I'm asked to. What exactly did you say to put the grandmother's mind at ease?
Thanks, Jim. Frankly, I walked over to the grandmother, introduced myself and told her I was not an old pervert photographing children for spurious purposes. I told her we were visiting the area and that I've been photographing for 50 years and I like to capture the simple, ordinary things in life, like her granddaughter feeding the ducks. I pointed out my friend, who is also a photographer, and told her our wives were shopping and we were wandering around looking for things to photograph. In other words, I was open, up front, honest and presented a friendly and trustworthy picture for her. If she would have asked me not to photograph her granddaughter, I would have complied with her request. I suspect, if asked, I would have deleted the images I had already made. We ended up in about a 5 minute conversation and she opened up about her and her husband being from York in England. I replied that I followed several UK YouTube landscape photographers and would love to travel to the Peak District, the Lake District, Snowdonia and other UK places to photograph. That reinforced to her that I was, indeed, a photographer as I knew the UK landscape.
DeleteNow, I have to add that with more than 35 years in law enforcement, I kind of know how to engage with people, "allow" them to open up and feel comfortable telling me things. One technique I use is to approach someone and remark (or ask them a question) about something positive I noticed about him or her. People love to talk about themselves and most of the time, if they think you are complimenting them, they will engage in a conversation with you. My wife jokes that when we eat in a restaurant, that by the time we leave, I'll know everything about our server. True.
Just a knack I have. You must be sincere, however. If any manipulation or dishonesty or insincerity is detected, conversation over.