Cows....

Hey everyone,

Hope you all are doing well. These were taken from a very recent visit to Chocolate World in Hershey PA. We took Wyatt as he enjoys the ride that shows how the chocolate is made, but he really loves the singing cows.

Have a great week!

Happiest Place In South Central Pa...

Good morning everyone,

Hope you all are having a great week so far. These two photos were shot at Dutch Wonderland Amusement Park down here in Amish Country. Right along Route 30.

The park has kind of a special meaning to me as this was my very first job I ever had(I've only ever had two, this one and where I work now at the 911 center) so it was cool to take my son and nephews here for the first time. Quite a few different changes since I worked here, but I was still able to navigate my way through without having to look at the park map.


Back when I worked there, Dutch Wonderland sort of had a black cloud to it. The department I belonged to, Lafayette Fire Company had responded to several major incidents over the years at the park. When it was donation time, the park was always very good to us and when my boss found out I was a member of the FD, If I wanted to leave on a call, I could and get paid for it. I only ever did that twice in the years I worked there, and both were for second alarm fires in my companies first due and both happened in the daytime when manpower was low.

Some of the incidents over the years;

-The Dutch Wonderland Sign Burned, 1.5 Million Fire Damage(Just to the sign)
-The Castle Burned Twice-Both 2nd alarm fires
-The Monorail Station Once-2nd alarm
-The Riverboat ride burned at dock-local alarm

I want to say that one of the monorail cars burned as well but I can't remember...

I hope you enjoyed your brief Lancaster County History Lesson..

Thanks for visiting my blog and feel free to leave any comments...


Have a great week!

Aerial View Of Hershey...

Hey everyone,

I know I said this was going to be a week of photoshop. After playing around with this photo for awhile, I decided that it would be best left untouched except with some minor color adjustment, sharpening etc...

This was taken from the Hershey Kissing Tower. This first photo is looking east towards the factory and part of the town. The Nikon did not too bad as I was not sure how it would work with shooting inside. I was happy with the overall results.


Hope your having a great week!!


Woody

More from the boardwalk...

Day 3 of photoshop week, this is a different part of the same water ride. Major cropping was done to alot of the photos. I cropped in to what I thought was the best parts or coolest to look at...

Thanks for the feedback so far, keep it coming!!

Boardwalk at Hershey...

Hey everyone,

Day 2 of photoshop week. These photos were taken just this past Saturday at HersheyPark. The county held it's annual picnic up there this year. So I decided to go up for the day. Out of the 5/12-6 hours, I was there, I only got on two rides and both were roller coasters. I really wanted to get on a few of the water rides since thats what I enjoy the most, but the lines were just nuts and I refused to stand in line for an hour to wait for a locker to secure my things(camera included) I had the camera with me, so I had fun just walking around shooting things.

This is in the Boardwalk section of Hershey, they have two very large buckets in some water ride contraption, not really sure what it was. Once they fill, they tip and dump the water down onto you.


Let me just say, that people watching up there is almost as enjoyable at times. There were some rather interesting folks up there thats for sure.

Hope you all are having a great week. I want to say thanks also to Brad Myers and HFD60 for their feedback yesterday. That is what I am looking for, so please feel free to comment and not hold back..


Stay Safe,

Woody

Anyone up for the Amazing Corn Maze??...

Hi All,

Hope you are all had a great weekend!!

Todays picture was taken this past Friday. Wyatt would not go down for a nap, so I loaded him up in the car and away we went. Those of you who have kids understand what I am talking about and I am sure have done it.

This photo is east of the Strasburg Railroad. This is the entrance to the corn maze, a well known summertime attraction here In Lancaster County. For the fire guys who come to this site, about nine or ten years ago. I worked a brush/field/vehicle fire here in the middle of summer. It was a very dry spell and a hot exhaust from a vehicle actually ignited corn that was underneath it. Well, long story short, about 20+ vehicles caught fire and a large area of the cornfield burned, while the place was packed full of tourists. Fortunatley, no serious injuries occured and no damage was done to the maze.


I was driving on Strasburg Road when I glanced over and saw the wording in the field. I thought it would be a cool photo to take, so I pulled over onto Cherry Hill Road where the maze actually is and took the shot.

Wyatt slept the entire time and never knew a thing...


Hope you all have a great Monday!!

As always, feel free to leave any type of comments...


Stay Safe,

Woody

More From ChocolateTown...

Hi All,

This will be brief as I don't have a whole lot to say, mainly because I'm tired and it was one of those days at work..


This is a shot taken between Chocolate World and The main entrance to Hershey Park. This is the lighthouse that once sat in the pool area which at one time If I remember correctly, was just for Hershey Park Employees and then it was for the regular public. I believe the pool also was in this area of the park.

I have a history book on HersheyPark, I will look this up and post any corrected info.

With that said, I hope you all have a great weekend and feel free to leave any comments at all on these or any of the photographs I've taken, that are posted here.

The only way I can improve and get better is by your feedback...


Stay Safe All,

Woody

More Hershey...

Hi All,

This will be brief as I need to get to bed. More Pictures from Hershey.

The first one is a side view of Wyatt, we were sitting on a park bench in Tudor Square and I was checking something with the camera when I looked up and saw him like this, so I quickly snapped a shot off before I lost it..I think he's checking out a pretty blonde that was walking by us...


The second one was at the top of the entrance to Chocolate World. I spent about 30 minutes doing some photoshop work. I usually never have a game plan in mind when I work on a photo. For me, it's basically trial and error and I just keep trying stuff till I see something I like.

Hope everyones week is going well so far...Feel free to leave any comments/suggestions...


Stay Safe,

Woody