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2011 Chester County Balloon Festival

Tethered Balloon Ride - 2011 Chester County Balloon Fest 034
Tethered Balloon Ride

Back in May, on the Chester County (PA) Photography Facebook page, Daniel Potter posted the first link for the “Chester County Balloon Festival“.

To be honest, I had never heard of this event before and over the next couple of weeks, I tried to help keep the topic alive in my “social” network.

That being said, when Saturday arrived, the kids were very eager to go, and were having a hard time understanding that we were going to be leaving later in the day.

Our plan was to be there for the “Mass Ascension Hot Air Balloon Launch”, which was scheduled to start at 6pm.

Getting there was a breeze, and parking was the typical off-road and on to the grass arrangement.

We got there early enough that the real crows had not gathered, so we were able to leisurely walk around and check up the some of the vendors and get some food.

As we relaxed and ate some dinner, we sat in the field that was allowing folks to walk into semi-inflated interior, and watched as some people climbed into another tethered for a quick ride into the sky..

The starting time for the “Mass Ascension Hot Air Balloon Launch” neared, and we headed toward the viewing area, and managed to squeeze into a small spot.

Both Madison and Logan stretched their necks to see the balloons slowly gaining size as the handlers blew up the balloons with hot air.

Handlers adding hot air to the balloon
Handlers adding hot air to the balloon

We watched as each colorful balloon gained its final shape, and lifted into the air.

Balloons being launched into the air
Balloons being launched into the air

The last few balloons were taking much longer then the traditional ones to fill with air, and kept may new comers guessing what they were, but it was apparent that they were something complex.

Finally the Clown Head and Haunted Halloween House had taken shape, and in the spirit of the balloon, the crew added a little extra touch to the moment!

Skeleton in the Haunted House balloon
Skeleton in the Haunted House balloon

The kids had a great time, and we do plan to go back next year!

Andrew (SDC) - View my '2011 Chester County Balloon Fest' set on Flickriver

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Categories
Blogging Chester County Events Exton Photography

Exton Square Mall Carnival Panorama 01

A view from the Ferris Wheel at Exton Square Mall Spring Carnival
A view from the Ferris Wheel at Exton Square Mall Spring Carnival

I finally got time to stitch these panoramic together, and I am actually surprised at how well it came out, considering that it was hand-held in a moving Ferris Wheel!

I have also gotten a chance to post my entry for that Mother’s Day event with the family.

This is a VERY LARGE IMAGE (6000 px x 4500 px)!

– Andrew
Andrew (SDC) - View my '110508 Exton Square Mall Carnival' set on Flickriver
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Chester County Downingtown Google Earth Google Maps HDR Panoramio Pennsylvania Phoenixville Photography Web West Chester West Pikeland

22 Images Submitted to Panoramio

Andrew Seymour on Panoramio
Andrew Seymour Panoramio/Google Earth

It has been several months since I have had a chance to sit down and pull a collection of images to submit to Panoramio for Google Earth.

So this morning, while I was drinking my coffee, I slowly went back through my catalog of images, and pulled together a series of 22 images that I thought would be a good selection for submission, including late Fall, Winter and Spring images from:

If you care to see what I have selected, as well as my other images that have been accepted, they can be found on my Panoramio (Google Earth) account.

As always, please feel free to add comments!

– Andrew
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Update on Panoramio submissions

6/6/2011 – Wow! The folks that monitor submission seem to be working overtime!

Normally, or at least from my past experience, it usually takes 3-5 days for any news on images being accepted, but by late Sunday night, ALL 22 of my images have been approved! (I now have 135 images on Google Earth!)

Categories
Blogging Chester County Nature West Chester

Stroud Reserve by Madison

110501 Stroud Preserve 075 tm
110501 Stroud Preserve 075 tm

I would like to welcome my newest Blogger, Madison!

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Logan, Daddy and I wanted to go for a walk, and Daddy happened to bring up Stroud Preserve. When we got there we saw a horse and a bunch of yellow fields like in the picture to the left. We went on a horse trail up really high,I was really scared. If you were to look down you would see a  part of Brandywine creek and lots of trees. When we were done that trail we went home.

– Madison
– Andrew
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Related Posts

Daddy’s Original Post from that Sunday

Categories
Blogging Chester County Downingtown HDR Nature Photo Journal Photography Streams

Norwood Road Creek with Logan

It started just like any other morning around the house.

The scramble of breakfast, then off to the bus stop and on to Day Care.

But today, there was going to be a twist.

When Logan and I got to Day Care, we were told that there were electrical issues, and the second floor was without power.

The refrigerators were down and the indoor temperature was already in the 80s, and if I left him, I might be getting a ‘pick-up’ call shortly.

110531 Norwood Road Creek hdr 01
110531 Norwood Road Creek - Follow-Up

So what to do…

After a phone call or two, it was going to be a “Boy’s Day”!

After grabbing donuts at Wawa, we headed home, and spent some time catching up on some cartoons.

As lunch time rolled around, we began to prepare for our walk, and eventually head out.

Finding parking along the road was a breeze, and from there we gathered our gear and head down to the creek, which called for some bush whacking.

Once we where down in the creek, Logan began to explore, and I was able to set up for my first shoot.

Almost…

I left my Neutral Density filters in my bag…

Thankfully, we were still close enough to the car that I could dart back and grab them!

Back at my tripod, I attached my 1.2ND, and started to frame my follow-up shot to my January picture.

In January, this was my last scene of the day, because I had started further downstream.

What made this shoot easier, was the temperature, which was totally opposite. Today, it is in the low 90s with high humidity!

After doing a series of HDR exposures, I called Logan and we started upstream. This was new territory for the both of us.

As we walked up the stream, one could look by the sides and see debris that had washed down through the months. It wasn’t that bad, but it was still sunny to see three beach balls sitting on the side of the stream.

110531 Norwood Road Creek 034 tm 01
Norwood Road Creek - Water Fall 034

I stopped a few times and set up for some small waterfall shots, which served two purposes.

The most obvious being to capture the scene, the second was to stand in the nice cool water!

We also noticed in the many pools of water filled with small little schools of fish swimming away from us as we continued walking upstream.

Logan made many attempts to crack catch them to little avail.

The creek split several times, and we continued to the left all the way up to the exposed manhole, which stood out from the creek bed a good 6 feet.

As we got closer, Logan very excitedly and insistently asked me to put him on top.

The grin on his face when he finally felt secure enough to stand, was ear to ear.

Looking at my watch, we had about a half hour before Madison got home.

I had Logan jumped from the top of the manhole cover into my arms, giggling on his flight down.

Heading downstream, we veered to the right and ventured into more new territory.

As we walked, I asked Logan if he thought Madison would also enjoy this little creek, and he nodded his head in approval.

We splash your way down the stream and finally found where we had started and headed up the little hill back to our car.

Once we were at home, we unpacked our things minutes before Madison walked in the door.

She was bombarded by Logan with “Sissy! Sissy! Guess where we went!”

 

Additional Images

As I was processing my images, the waterfall detail, struck me as a potential candidate for some additional post processing work of dropping out the color and turning it into pure black-and-white image:

110531 Norwood Road Creek 034 tm 01 bw 01a
Norwood Road Creek 034 bw 01a

Here is an additional overview shot of the same scene:

110531 Norwood Road Creek 028 tm 01
Norwood Road Creek 028 - Waterfall Overview

Thanks again for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed what you have seen!

– Andrew
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