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Father’s Day 2011 – Daddy’s Day

Feather Light
Feather Light

It’s Dad’s Day and I don’t need to do anything!

Well, within reason.

After all I have two kids…

But that is the best part!

When I was woken up, I was presented with Father’s Day cards, and a special banner that Amy, Madison and Logan had worked on just for me!

What a nice way to start the day!

From there, I was allowed to watch my Sunday morning programs with a hot cup of coffee and an omelet in peace!

So far so good!

And peace was a relative term…

I could hear the kids up stairs running back and forth in the upstairs hallway, screaming and giggling…

It was also not hard to realize, they needed to get out and burn off some of the energy that is perpetual when the two of them are together!

Since it was Daddy’s Day, I got to say where we were going! Yeah!!

I did not have to compromise or negotiate, especially when the kids heard that Mommy was going to come with us!

Marsh Creek Reservoir looking North (Panorama 01)
Marsh Creek Reservoir looking North (Panorama 01)

My plan was slowly taking shape!
(Insert “Mad Scientist” Laughter)

Now the hard part… Where?

I wanted to try some place that I have not been to before, but keep it close by.

I knew because of the heat and humidity, I wanted to be near water.

Based on that, I looked up Marsh Creek State Park.

Am I suggesting that I have never been to MCSP before? – NO

Along the trail (20110619 Marsh Creek 107)
Along the trail (20110619 Marsh Creek 107)

I have been to the Pool and Water Park area on the east side several time, and I have been Mountain Biking before in the south-west part near the Brandywine before, but I did not think anyone but me would be interested in that adventure.

So I had to figure out some place new, so I took to Google Earth to fly around a little to scope out a trail, and in doing so, I remembered the damn in the southern park.

So I gather up the troops, jumped into the car, and headed out, and about 30 minutes later, we were parked and heading down the trail.

There are many small coves that surround the lake, and as we approached the first one, there were some folks fishing and a dog that was having a grand time in the water.

Not to be out done, Logan and Madison pleaded with us to be allowed to go in the water and play with the dog.

Who am I to say “No”?!

We let them play for a little bit, and then called for them to join us on the rest of the walk, and all we got was “Awww…”, but finally we were off again!

I should have figured that as soon as we were on “open” trail, Logan would be running down the trail, and the parents calling out to him to slow down and be careful! Soon to be followed by his sister, trading back and forth who would be our guide, calling out rocks and roots so we would not fall.

Very cute, but after the first 50 “obstacles ‘… Well, what do you say as a parent…

We finally got to the over-flow drain, and the kids were having fun walking on the grate, looking down into the rushing water as it fell in, but Amy was a little more apprehensive about the whole situation.

Butterfly on the Damn (20110619 Marsh Creek 095)
Butterfly on the Damn

Then we crossed over the main damn, where we were pasted by several Mountain Bikers as they headed to the trails on the far side. I reminded both kids, that we needed to work on getting them off of training wheels so that we could start doing the same thing.

At the edge of the meadow, we stopped and rested, saw a Red-Winged Black bird, and agreed that it was time to head back.

Tree Stump and Ferns (20110619 Marsh Creek 110)
Tree Stump and Ferns (20110619 Marsh Creek 110)

On the trip back, Madison made sure that we all knew she was the guide, but after some time, she relinquished her lead, and Logan scampered to the front.

As we returned the swimming cove from earlier, both the kids just ran into the water without evening asking, and happy played until it was time to leave once again.

On the car trip home, there were talks of baths and then fun that we had on our Father’s Day Nature Walk.

– Andrew

Andrew (SDC) - View my 'Marsh Creek ('11 Father's Day)' set on Flickriver

Additional Information

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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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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
Announcements Blogging Covered Bridges HDR Lancaster County Photo Essay Photography Projects Published

Covered Bridges of Lancaster – Featured

Destinations Travel Magazine - June 2011
Destinations Travel Magazine – June 2011

The June issue of Destinations Travel Magazine has just been released!

In this issue, you will find the Eastern most Covered Bridges of Lancaster County that I have been able to photograph, which include:

This concludes the third and final installment of Covered Bridges of South Eastern Pennsylvania.

I would like to thank the folks at Destinations Travel Magazine, especially Darlene Perrone for taking the time and effort to include my photography work in this wonderful publication!

Looking into the future, it is my hope, that this summer, I will get the time to further find and explore the Covered Bridges in Lancaster County, as well as those in Delaware and Maryland!

Thanks again for all the support that I have received and I look forward to bring you more images of these wonderful Covered Bridges!

– Andrew
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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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