Malvern, PA

Am and I headed to Malvern, Pennsylvania this weekend with Am's mom, "Momma Breen", and Am's brother, Kevin.  The mission:  attend the first birthday party for Henry, Am's godson.  You may recall that our last trip up in this direction was to attend Henry's Christening.  It was fantastic to see the family again and to get to hang out at Dave & Noreen's absolutely breathtaking new house!  We arrived Saturday evening and I was treated to a geniune Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.  All I can say is...AWESOME!  We had a great time visiting with the fam and watching some college football.

Sunday was the big day for Henry.  We spent the morning playing with the kids and socializing.  People started arriving for the party after lunch and we kicked things into high gear.  Great food and great family and friends are a fantastic combination.  Big thanks go out to Dave and Noreen for their hospitality.  We had a great time!

Here are Am and Kevin hanging out at the party:



And here are Thomas and Drew (Henry's brothers) who we had a great time hanging out with:

And here's the birthday boy pumped up about his Sesame Street themed 1st birthday:

And here are the amazing Sesame Street themed cupcakes:

Far too soon it was time for us to hit the road.  Unfortunately I had to work on Monday so we had to head back for Richmond Sunday evening.  When we walked out of the house to head for the car, we were greeted by a beautiful Pennsylvania sunset.  What a great way to end the trip!

Jersey Shore, PA

Am and I headed for the Keystone State for a roadtrip this weekend to visit friends and family.  We left Friday morning and headed 6 hours north to Jersey Shore, PA to visit the Ulmer clan.  Rebecca Ulmer was Am's roommate at New Tribes Bible Institute, is my grandmother's sister's granddaughter, was one of Am's bridesmaids in our wedding, and, most importantly, is responsible for Am and I ending up together.  Needless to say, I am one of Becca's biggest fans.  She has been down to visit us multiple times in the past few months and we felt it was time to return the favor.

The Ulmers live on an amazing farm in central PA.  The Ulmer family has been on this land since the mid-1800s and I could quickly see why they didn't want to leave.  It was absolutely beautiful and brought back many fond memories of my years living in that area of PA.  I actually lived with Becca's grandmother (my Great Aunt Jo) on her farm 5 minutes away when I was in the 5th grade.  I learned to love the smell of cow manure and there was plenty of that on the Ulmer farm so I was in heaven.

We had a great visit Friday evening and then headed to my Great Aunt Jo's for Pudgie's Pizza.  Am had been building up how great Pudgie's was so I was looking forward it!  We picked up our huge sheet of pizza on the way and I was definitely not disappointed.  While I would still argue that Pizza Express in Richmond is the best pizza on earth, Pudgie's was definitely good!  We talked until late and then hit the sack.

Saturday morning we headed to visit my sister, Gina, and her family who live just 30 minutes from Jersey Shore in Muncy.  Am and I had the chance to meet Liam, my nephew Bill's baby for the first time!  That was a pure delight.  Liam was adorable and we had a blast playing with him.  We also had a great time catching up with Gina, Gaby, & Tessa.  They moved back to their hometown of Muncy from Richmond a few months back and we really miss them!  Here is Gina, Gaby, & Tessa with Liam sitting on their front porch and a picture of Am with Liam:

We stayed through noon and then headed back to Jersey Shore.  We hooked up with Rebecca and went out to drive around and enjoy the fall foliage throughout the countryside.  Unfortunately the sun that the weatherman promised never showed but the leaves were still magnificent.  We stopped to get a picture of a neat old firetruck that Am loved.  Right as Am and Becca hopped up on the truck for a picture, we heard a tractor coming down the dirt road.  Sure enough, it was the farmer coming to see what we were doing on his land!  What are the chances?  Luckily he was very nice and let us take all the pictures we wanted.  Here is a pic of Am and Rebecca on the truck:

Once we finally gave up on the sun, we picked up some groceries and headed back to the house.  We spent the evening visiting some more and eating some absolutely delicious shrimp alfredo that Becca's mom, Susan, made.  It was awesome!

We slept at Aunt Jo's again Saturday night and had a chance Sunday morning to talk to my Uncle Ron who just returned from a missions trip to Russia.  We headed back to the Ulmer farm and ate the most amazing cinnamon rolls that I have ever had.  Yep, Becca's cinnamon rolls are way better than Cinnabon's or Cinna Monster's!  I have now eaten four of them!  Before the Ulmer's headed for church, we captured a family picture.  Here we are with the Ulmers on the Ulmer Homestead:

We spent our last two hours at the Ulmer's up on "The Hill" above their farm.  The Ulmer farm consists of 130 acres on a hillside.  From the top of that hill, you can see miles and miles of countryside.  This is obviously a favorite spot for the Ulmer's and for Am.  It quickly became one for me too.  We finally had some sun show up and it started to burn off the fog.  Here are some pictures from "The Hill".

Our time had finally come and we had to hit the road to head back for Richmond.  We made one more pit stop just outside of Harrisburg, PA to have lunch with my brother and sister-in-law, Dave & Shelley, at Applebees.  We chatted for an hour and half, snapped a picture, and hit the road again for the final leg back to Richmond.  This was definitely a fantastic roadtrip!  Here we are with Dave and Shelley:

Citylypse 2010 Summary

After 2,200 miles, $42.25 in tolls, $237.23 in gas money, $41 in cab rides, and 8 hotel rooms, Citylypse 2010 is officially over.  I am back in Richmond recouping after a very long trip.  8 cities in 9 days was quite the ambitious challenge but we proved it was possible. 

I now have cityscapes up on iStock from Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, & Louisville.  Cincinnati & Columbus will follow.  Now we just have to wait for the sales to kick in.  That generally takes a month or so and it will take a year or so to find out whether or not the shoot was profitable.

Thanks to all for following along and for the feedback.  Here is a summary of the cities I visited:

Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh turned out to be a really great city - so much so that I almost forgave her for being home to the Steelers...almost. We walked what felt like a marathon in Pittsburgh but what actually clocks in at around 12 miles according to Dave's pedometer. My feet and legs definitely tell the tale this morning.

In the end, we chose the West End Bridge for our dusk shots. I was a little concerned about shooting 30 second exposures from a bridge - has never worked for me in the past - but we set up near a pillar and the bridge was quite sturdy and my pictures came out sharp.

The biggest challenge was several tug boats who seemed to think it appropriate to repeatedly make trips through the middle of my shot. I understand that it is their job but I definitely think they should have spotted me off in the distance on the bridge and made the decision to call it quits for the day so as to not ruin any of my shots. But since they didn't see it that way, I had to do my best to shoot around them. I ended up with two shots that I can't decide between. They both need some work but here is any early look:

I broke away from Dave and Shelley this morning to take some shots closer in to the city. I haven't had a chance to really look at them so you will have to wait on your first look.

I am off here in a moment to head down to the Flats in Cleveland. Dave and Shelley have already set out for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We are going to be shooting from completely different sides of the city. The weather looks good so hopefully we will both nail some good shots tonight!

Harrisburg, PA

Arrived in Harrisburg yesterday just in time to take off with Dave and Shelley for some dusk shots.

Do you ever feel like a rookie in an area that you should be an expert? Believe it or not, I do know my way around a camera but you wouldn't have guessed that last night. I picked my spot down by the river and set up my tripod. My routine is always to pick my shot and then literally take the same shot over and over again looking for the perfect light.

I found that shot and locked my tripod but then hesitated. I decided to get in a little closer so I changed lenses. So on went my 70-200. I started taking test shots only to find that every shot was either shaky or out of focus. I cleaned my filter, same result. I removed the filter, same result. I played with my focus, same result. I cleaned both ends of the lens, same result. I threw a tantrum, same result. After what felt like an hour (but was probably 5 minutes), it dawned on me that I had thrown a vibration reduction lens on a tripod and forgotten to turn off the vibration reduction. My lens was expecting some camera shake and was auto correcting - but my camera was on a tripod and didn't have any shake. Rookie mistake.

I then proceeded to take nice crisp shots but couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the shutter speed I was looking for. In this case I probably went 20 minutes before it dawned on me that I was in aperture priority mode (you can change the aperture but the camera picks the shutter speed) instead of in manual. AHHHHH! How did I managed to miss that? I cannot even begin to express how much this has me baffled. I have taken these night cityscape shots hundreds of times. I am going to have to blame it on the massive head cold that has me in misery (gotta blame something, right?).

"So you messed up for a couple of minutes, what's the big deal?", you ask. In the world of night cityscapes, you have a 10 minute window to nail the perfect shot. With 1 day per city, that leaves us 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening - if we have perfect weather both times. There is no time for mistakes. You must bring your "A-game" every time you are out and need to maximize every shot during those 10 minutes. Hopefully I have managed to get my mistakes out of the way on day 1!

Anyway, despite the mistakes, I did manage to land a usable shot. Here is my first quick attempt at post production. Presenting Harrisburg: