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Covered Bridges of Chester County – Featured

Destinations Travel Magazine - May 2011
Destinations Travel Magazine – May 2011

The new May issue of Destinations Travel Magazine has just been published and is now available!

Once again, Darlene Perrone has done a great job of putting this issue together, which also includes Day 2 of the “Covered Bridges of Chester County“!

The Covered Bridges featured in this months issue include:

I encourage you to take a look at this wonderful issue!

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Categories
Chester County Covered Bridges HDR Photo Journal Photography Projects

Mercer Covered Bridge (1860)

Mercer Covered Bridge (1860)

Christiana, Chester county [38-15-19, 38-36-38]

Mercer Covered Bridge HDR 02 (Low Point of View)
Mercer Covered Bridge HDR 02 (Low Point of View)

On the way to Mercer, I tried to find another small private bridge that I had read about, but after driving by the reported location, I could not find it and continued on.

I was easily able to find Creek Road, and continued through the park until the road split. Bearing left on Bailey Crossroads Road, I finally came upon Mercer covered bridge, which was built in 1860.

There was parking lot for the shots that I was planning I had to drive through the bridge and parked on the corner of Walter Road.

I grabbed my gear and headed back towards the bridge. Unfortunately the sun was shining directly into my face as I approached the entrance. There was just going to be too much lens flare for me to take a decent picture so I continued through the bridge and found my first acceptable location.

I took two different scenes, one from the road as if you were in the car, and the second on left side of the bridge, just below the road grade looking up.

While setting up for the second shot, I kept on being poked by thorns as I moved the tripod around trying to get a good frame on the bridge.  Just one of the minor hazards, of working with nature.

After the second shot was complete, I moved back up the bank, across the road, and down the other side, but this time little more into the woods.

Mercer Covered Bridge HDR 03 (Reflections)
Mercer Covered Bridge HDR 03 (Reflections)

It was from this viewpoint, that I saw my shot of the day.

One of the great things about doing picture in HDR, is that water becomes “glass-like” because of the long exposures and multiple shots.

Finishing these HDR captures, I moved back to the road and through the bridge, down another small bank and was finally able to get to a suitable location from underneath the bridge.

From this vantage point it was easy to capture the geometric shapes of the wood beams, and in the background you can also see the location of the three previous shots.

Mercer Covered Bridge HDR 04 (Underneath)
Mercer Covered Bridge HDR 04 (Underneath)

Once I was done with this capture, I looked at my watch and new I had to pack up and start heading home.

I was very thankful that I had the GPS, because I really had no clue where I was.

It was a very pleasant drive home the temperature had dropped a little and felt good as I drove with all the car windows down and my music blaring.

All in all, it was a good day of shooting!

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Tech Talk

Updates

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Categories
Chester County HDR Photo Journal Photography

Have GPS… Will travel!

Today is my first day using a GPS for this project, and boy, what a difference it makes! (Thanks Margie!)

After spending some time programming coordinates into the unit via Google Earth and CoveredBridgeMap.com, I was off!

After a beautiful drive down Rt. 82 south of Coatesville, I tried to find Speakman #2.

After getting to the end of Highland Dairy Road, talked with a gentleman that said that the surprise bad storms from couple of weeks ago, had made it impossible to get to the bridge. I had already read that one needed to contact the own for permission to visit, but with this info, I decided to continue on, and find Speakman #1 Covered Bridge.

– Andrew
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