I noticed this barn on Yellow Springs Road as I drove into Valley Forge National Park, and I almost stopped, but decided to investigate it later.
After driving around the park, up to the Arch and back down to Knox-Valley Forge Covered Bridge, I decided to head home.
As I drove back out on Yellow Springs Road, I had to stop and get some images because the clouds were just adding to much energy not to be captured!
I parked on the road side, grabbed my gear, and headed back to the barn, and was able to quickly capture these two images:
Lord Stirling's Barn hdr 19Lord Stirling's Barn hdr 23
I am very happy to say, I did little post processing on these images, namely because, I did NOT have to!
I was also lucky enough to have the sun pop out at just the right time for these images. If you could see the frames just seconds before…
These images were captured as a series of HDR images, but I was able to single out the best “key” image with the clouds in mind using Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro. (One of my favorite new features!)
Growing up in the area, I had been by and through this covered bridge countless times.
In my teenage years, it was a ritual to meet at the National Memorial Arch in the middle of Valley Forge National Park after the Prom, hang out, and maybe watch the sun rise. (At least that was the stated goal…)
With that in mind, why was this bridge so late in my project?
Don’t know, but I FINALLY got to it!
But when I first got there, my shot looked like it was in jeopardy because there was a repair crew looking over the bridge.
So I drove through the bridge from the Yellow Springs Road side, and turned left on Rt. 252.
I was headed toward the Arch. I had stopped by with Madison on July 30th, but was not happy with what I had gotten that day.
What was also adding to the day, was the weather!
There was a front coming through the area, with a great range of dark and light clouds.
I drove around, stopped a couple of places, took some pictures, and finally headed back to the bridge.
When I got there, I was happy to see the Repair Crew had gone, and there no cautionary signs, so I drove back through the bridge on Yellow Springs, and park in the little lot on the right.
I gathered my gear, and started to walk back to the bridge, crossed the road, and hopped over the guard rails to setup for my first shot.
Knox-Valley Forge Covered Bridge (Exterior Long View) hdr 01
From here, I moved down the embankment toward the creek, and what I really found striking, was all the flatted tall grass leading to the creek. Tropical Storm Nicole had moved through less then a week before.
It was a little unnerving to see clumps of grass in the tree limbs at eye level…
I got to the creek, and tried to find a good water shot, and captured this:
This shoot, actually took about ten minutes to capture because of all the traffic coming from three different directions, and with the sun popping in and out… It was allot if fun!
I walked through the bridge, and setup and captured this.
From the Linton-Stevens bridge, I headed across Hickory Hill and was easily able to find Camp Bonsai Road.
As I drove down the twisty road, and got to the bottom, and spotted Rudolph & Arthur in front of me. I slowed to a stop, looking for a place to shoot and also park my car.
Crossing the bridge from West to East, I parked on the side of the road, grabbed my gear, and headed back towards the bridge, all the while as a large dog barked in the background from a nearby house.
Rudolph & Arthur (1886) – East Entrance (HDR 01)
As I approach the bridge, I noticed the little shack on the other side of the road, so I set up in the middle-of-the-road framing the red shack in the center of my image.
Moving forward some more, and keeping in mind the red shack, I did my detailed interior view of the bridge.
Looking through Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (1886)
Once my detail picture was completed, I started through the bridge looking for a sign or plaque, my eye was beginning to see some interesting tones deep within the bridge, which I made a mental note of and continued to the other side.
From the East side of the bridge I started upstream. After about 75 feet I looked over my shoulder and set up for the following shot.
The dog was still barking and I was surprised that nobody had surfaced to see what the dog was barking at. I could hear somebody inside crashing about which made it even more odd that no one had investigated.
Rudolph & Arthur (1886) South-side View, Full (HDR 08)
I continued up the backside looking for a place to easily enter the water, and finally found a spot and carefully waded in. Towards the middle of the creek, there was a shallow sandbar and a place to set up for my next shot.
Rudolph & Arthur (1886) South-side View, Full (HDR 08)
From my position in the center of the Creek, I moved downstream and towards the underside of the West entrance.
Once I finally got underneath the bridge, the water level had risen to about mid-thigh. I was able to set up my tripod and capture another undercarriage of a covered bridge.
Looking Underneath Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (1886)
This underneath was in stark contrast to the previous bridge, Linton-Stevens. The dark brown undercarriage did not reflect nearly as much light, but with the angle of the sun, light was reflecting off the water and illumining some the structural details of the underside.
From here I continued downstream, looking to do an upstream shot of the full side but with the sun at the current angle I would have been shooting directly into it and decided against.
Crossing over the creek, I got up on the East side bank and back to my car, where I started to pack up.
After I had removed the camera from the tripod, I noticed my battery was dying, so I decided to do some hand-held shots, finishing off the battery.
When I was back inside the bridge, the sunlight was reflecting off the water and up into the bridge, giving the wood a very warm tone.
With the final few moments on my battery I was able to capture this final image.
Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (Interior)
Now that my batteries were completely dead, and I had no extras with me, it was time to head home.
Linton Stevens Covered Bridge (1886) – Main Sign (HDR 01)
It was another beautiful day in Chester County.
I was able to get everybody out of the house early, so I could then spend down the road capturing more bridges.
This bridge is located in Hickory Hill, which is southwest of where I live, so I took Rt. 1 South and headed towards Oxford.
Once near Oxford, I let the GPS guide me through the various small back-roads as I wound myself towards the bridge.
As I started down a small little hill on Kings Row Road, I saw Linton Stevens in front of me.
About 100 feet above the bridge, I pulled off to the side of the road, parked and began to look for potential shots.
Grabbing my gear, I headed off in search of the main bridge sign to get further details.
I found the bridge plaque on the north side of the bridge.
Setting up my tripod, I took my first images.
From there, I remembered, that during my initial scouting and the walk towards the entrance, there was a shot I wanted to capture on the left side, so I moved the camera and tripod into position, and set up to do another series of HDR captures.
Long View of Linton Stevens Covered Bridge (1886)
While I was setting up the shot, I noticed on the far side, an older woman out walking her dog. I waited until she and her dog had entered the bridge and started my first captures. It was easy to locate them in the bridge by the echoing sounds of the dogs claws hitting the wood floor. Once they were through, we exchanged “Good morning”‘s, and they continue their walk.
I moved closer to the bridge, where I could exaggerate the length and also capture the reflection in the water.
Linton Stevens – Side View (HDR 03)
After that was done, I went back to my car and drove it through the bridge parking on the other side.
I setup my camera to do a long interior shot looking north. What surprised me at this stage of the game, was that some of my exposures were pushing 30 seconds, which seemed unusual for the brightness of the day.
Once I was done with the Interior shot, I moved around to the right side of the bridge to look for a way to crawl underneath, which was easy because of the small little path, that others had used before.
As I started my investigation, I was startled, to see a seemingly “fresh paint” on the iron beams that supported the bridge.
The light sand color of the paint was going to help reflect light into this very dark scene.
I also noticed some very fresh red graffiti painted on the side of one of the main girders, but unfortunately, I did not have a wide enough angle lens to capture the whole scene, but I was able to move easily to the center and capture the following image. (I do have an additional shot trying to show the graffiti, and the artist that left their mark, also dated their artwork as 7/20/2011, just a mere two months ago.)
From here, I started moving downstream to get along side view of the bridge.
As I waded through the water, there was a line of rocks acting as a small dam, that had caught a branch and leaves that were now blocking water from floating freely. I move the branch out-of-the-way, and then there was a sudden rush of water.
I finally set up approximately 150 feet downstream, and captured my final full-length view of the bridge.
Looking Upstream at Linton Stevens Covered Bridge (1886)
I took a few more shots as I headed back upstream towards my car, where I collapsed my tripod, and headed off to the next bridge: Rudolph & Arthur (1886).
