In 1985 an excellent three part video series was released entitled “The Treasure Houses of Britain.” This entertaining and informative series presented the history, architecture, furnishings, art pieces and decor of some of the great houses of Britain from as early as the 15th century. In the same year the National Gallery staged a $5.3 million exhibition entitled “Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art.” which was accompanied by a book of the same title. While not on the same scale as these magnificent offerings, the Delaware Valley enjoys seven houses from the 18th and early 19th century, all located within Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, and all worth seeing.

They are decorated for the holidays as a part of the annual Holiday Tours program and I went through five of them last Saturday.  The holiday program continues through the 13th but they can be visted at other times of the year as well.  It is a well worthwhile trip.

The house to the left is Mount Pleasant, built in the early 1760’s by Captain John McPherson, and once described by John Adams as “the most elegant seat in Pennsylvania.”  It is certainly a magnificent example of Georgian or Palladian architecture with its external and internal balances of architectural features.  Note the Palladian window in the lower right picture.

In the 1984 TV series about George Washington which started Barry Bostwick, Mt. Pleasant was seen as Washington’s headquarters in…Boston.   Artistic license.  It was also owned at one time by Benedict Arnold.

Here are two views taken inside.  The punch bowl looks to be a piece of very finely decorated Chinese Export Porcelain.

More to follow.

I found out about the center through two acquaintances who have been involved there.  So, I put in on the list, and today was a good day to do it.  I walked along both the Blue and Orange Trails.  It was quiet and pleasant.  On the Blue trail I went through an extensive stand of white pines which were either planted in rows, or thinned to leave rows.  It appealed to me as a good scene for a technique presented in a lecture to the camera club last Tuesday by Brien Szabo, encouraging creativity through moving the camera or moving the zoom.  My Vermont workshop leader, Joe Rossbach, had also suggested this technique.  Anyway, on the left is a row of pine trees, and on the right is the effect of zooming out during the exposure.  Pretty neat.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Here are two interesting scenes encountered along the trails:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Finally, I came across this scene on the Rancocas.  The terrain was marshy and slippery and I fell twice but managed to stay out of the water.

It’s been a long time since I visited Strasburg, PA to watch the action on the Strasburg Railroad.  The railroad was chartered in 1832, probably started hauling freight about 1851, and is still hauling some freight but mostly railfan families since its revitalization began in 1958.  A group of investor-enthusiasts bought it and commenced its restoration, thus saving it from the “Fallen Flags” category of so many other American railroads.  We first visited it about 1966, taking the girls on a train ride into the Lancaster County farmland, to a picnic lunch while we waited for the train to return for us.  Here, #475 is being oiled and polished in preparation for a day’s run of fan trips.

This so-called 4-8-0 (referring to the wheel arrangements: four lead wheels, eight drivers, and no trailing wheels) a Consolidation class engine, lived much of its life  in service on the Norfolk & Western.  Here she has steam up, waiting to be called into service.

I have a vivid childhood memory of standing next to a large steam locomotive when the engineer, having just brought his passenger train into the old original Atlantic City train station, released some of his steam pressure.  It scared the hell out of me.

Across the road from the Strasburg Railroad complex is the splendid Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.  Here are maintained many examples of engines and passenger cars that have served Pennsylvania over the years.  There are also lots of well done, informative educational  displays.

Here’s the classic GG-1 electric locomotive, the most distinctive locomotive design in the world.  These 79′ long engines were built in the PRR’s Altoona shops between 1934 and 1943, and some remained in service into the early 80’s.    Twelve axles were each driven by a 385-hp motor. 

While it is commonly said that the unique body design was by the industrial designer, Raymond Loewy, he simply improved on the basic design by converting it from a riveted assembly of panels into a continuous welded sheet, and streamlining the pin-striped paint scheme. 

 After their work on the PRR they continued to serve Penn Central, Amtrak, Conrail, and NJ Transit.

I continued across Pennsylvania to Altoona, for many years a major center for the PRR.  Here I’m on the road up to the Horseshoe Curve, passing Altoona Lake, part of Altoona’s water supply system, accumulating water coming down from the Allegheny Mountains through the Kitanning Gap over which the Horseshoe Curve was built.  The curve was built in 1854 as a part of the efforts of the PRR to link east and west.  It was a means to cross the Kitanning Gap at a lower slope than would have been required in a bridge directly across the gap.  While photographing this I could hear mighty diesels pounding their way down the curve above me in the hills, and their freight cars screeching.

Up at the curve there is a visitor center where one can observe the frequent east-west traffic.  This old diesel, a GP7, is a monument to all of the trains that have passed here for a century and a half.  The visitor center also includes displays on the construction of the curve and how it facilitated crossing the gap.

My patience was rewarded as here came a mixed freight headed downhill towards Altoona, led by two massive Norfolk Southern diesels.

The Reading Terminal Market (in Philadelphia for you out-of-area readers) is a great place to visit any time but it seemed busier, warmer, and more colorful on this chilly Saturday afternoon.  Here were some Halloween decorations that one could take home.

For a borderline vegetarian this is all very tempting.

Some yellow peppers stacked up.  They looked like off-color miniature pumpkins.

A pumpkin, some pumpkin spice, and Indian corn.  Must be fall.

My October 2nd Journal post reported my arrival in Vermont for a four day photography workshop.  It was sponsored by Mountain Trail Photo with whom I visited Charleston and the Lowcountry plantations last March (see my April 6th post).   This workshop was under the direction of Joseph Rossbach, an accomplished nature photographer whose work has appeared in a number of national and regional magazines and galleries.  He was an “Energizer Bunny” who kept us moving from pre-dawn to past dusk, providing lots of advice along with his knowledge of locations in which to photograph.  There were eight of us and it was a great experience. 

At my age I was wondering if I should really be skootching down on to slippery rocks in moving streams in order to get a better waterfall angle.  One of our group, however, a lovely older  lady named Eva, an active photographer for some twenty years shamed me with her participation.  In addition, while driving between locations, she was fascinating, a child whose father foresaw the Nazi  tyranny and got the family out in the 30’s and into South Africa.  Then, with the advent of Apartheid, she and her family emigrated to the US in the 60’s and created a life here.

I arrived a day early and took the opportunity to visit some favorite spots from earlier years.  (Did I refer to my age?  Well, I realized that I was visiting up here before our guide,Joe Rossbach, was born?!?)  Anyhow, here’s a different Weston view.  Everyone (me included) shoots the waterfall behind the Weston Playhouse (and I did too) but here’s a shot of the stream that’s headed for those falls around the distant bend.  I have great memories of the antique show at the Playhouse which was going on while I was there.

As I have said in this Journal before, one of the values of these workshops is in the drilling in good practices.  All too often it’s grab the camera and shoot a scene.  The workshops provide the time to take time and practice.  The things that I will remember to take the time to do  from Joe’s drilling are: (1) use the mirror-up capability of the camera.  With this the mirror which reflects a scene into the viewfinder is pulled up and stable seconds before you shoot; hence its movement doesn’t induce vibration into the image.  This is particularly important with the slow shutter speeds we were using in the low light levels (the weather could have been a little brighter.)  (2) Use the live view capability of the camera to better frame your image.  It provides a more accurate view of the scene than does the view-finder, and I found that I re-composed several scenes as a result of seeing them in live view rather than just in the view finder.  (3)  Leave your circular polarizer on at all times.  Of course, it helps in reducing glare and reflections but it also makes the colors “pop.”  Yes, it costs you a couple of stops so you’ll have longer exposures but you’d better be shooting on a tripod anyway.

Here’s a calendar or picture-book farm called Sleepy Hollow.  It’s on Route 12 north of Woodstock.  I discovered this on my own in 2002 and photographed it at that time.  Only later did I learn that it’s an iconic scene for Vermont photographers.

There is a gallery of more images on my gallery web site.  Click here.  Meanwhile, here are some samples:

Above is the creek which drove the 1882 Kingsley Grist Mill near Clarendon.

To the right is along the shore line of the Chittenden Reservoir at dawn.

Below is a spider web at sunrise with droplets from the low hanging clouds that had been here earlier.  Click on the picture to see a larger version with the drops more visible.

And, finally, the Chittenden Reservoir at sunrise as the clouds lifted.

Off on a sunday afternoon drive looking for some fall color.  What’s with this image?  Am I back in Vermont?  Noooo, just along the Perkiomen Creek in the Central Perkiomen Valley Park at Collegeville, PA.  This was a nice place to sit and enjoy a packed lunch.

They say that weeds are just flowers in the wrong place.  Here are some in the right place to be photographed.

Then to my main destination, the annual chrysanthemum mountain at Ott’s Nurseries in Schwenksville, PA.  This was a family Sunday afternoon trip for years, way back…..when?

Whoops! Back in Vermont again?  Nope.  Just a waterfall in Ott’s conservatory.

          And, a greenhouse specimen.

It’s the first weekend in October and Bergie’s in Vermont, seeing my breath on a cold morning for the first time since early spring.  I’ve been coming up here for about forty years but one forgets how  beautiful a place it is.  Driving yesterday up route 100 was a sensory experience as well as a memory jogger: driving through Londonderry; picking up my winter jug of maple syrup from the Vermont Country Store; passing the Weston Playhouse where the antique show is being held this weekend; being pulled to a stop by yet another small lake with gorgeous reflections of the mountainside foliage.

I’m here with a small group for four days of field trip photography under the leadership of the renowned Joe Rossbach of Mountain Trail Photo.  Should be a great experience.  More later.

Not only have I moved back from the shore house but it’s been sold so I can’t go there on a weekend.  What to do?  How about a colorful restored car show in Pennsauken?  It was fun.  Lots and lots of beautifully restored cars and motorcycles. 

After all of that color I drove down to the Franklin Parker Preserve (see my June 10th post).   This time I walked in the entrance from the Chatsworth-Tabernacle road, about 0.7 mile west of Chatsworth. 

Yes, it was barren but here and there were touches of color.

And a Piney Fairy’s shelter

For a few more images of the afternoon, click here.

Last weekend we exhibited at the 27th annual Wings ‘n Water Festival of the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ.  This is largely a wood carvers’ show but they also jury-in photography, oils and watercolors, all of which is to be associated with coastal life and animal and bird life.

Barbara and our friend, Tom, decide which pictures go where on our display panels. 

I find it most peaceful to stay out of this phase.

Here’s the finished result.  Not bad.

Here’s an overview of part of the show.  No watercolors here as they were in another building.

Lots of exquisite carving.  I noticed that many booths had magnifying glasses so that connossieurs could study feather detail.  It’s a good thing that people don’t want a magnifying glass to look at pixel detail.

I was pleased and honored to have one of my images selected for a Third Place Ribbon for Coastal Scenics. 

Entitled “Sunrise On The Jetty”, here it is.

It has been a few days of unpleasant weather.  Starting with high wind and drenching rains, we are now beginning to see some sunshine, a typical September nor’easter.  The sea has been angry.

One can see the spray and the brown spume blowing through the air, and the waves, gradually giving up as they climb the beach’s slope but still strong  enough to undermine my tripod legs.  Such storms always bring watchers (and here I am), drawn to the drama of the pounding waves. 

 My late friend, LeRoy (a psychoanalyst),  once told us that we are drawn to the sea because we have a deep memory of the sloshing waters of the womb.  Whatever.