Sunsets and Buildings

The other day, on our way back from the adventure in Jim Thorpe, I noticed the sun hitting this church in an awesome way.  It helps too that the church itself is a rare site for me.  Apparently this area has a high number of Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, which if you've seen them, aren't the traditional steeple churches you might see on Main Street.  Instead of jabbering on about it, I'll show you:

I Love sunsets!  Every night is completely different than the last, and there are literally innumerable possibilities with what you can capture in front of a gorgeous sunset.

The detail on these doors is amazing!  True craftsmanship here, kudos.

A close up of one of the doors.

The spires are what caught my eye in the first place.

Next up, when I have internet access again: sunsets on top of a mountain and the Dragonfly Cafe!

As always, check out my facebook page for albums: https://www.facebook.com/#!/timothywilliamlawrence

Hmmm...I think we're lost...

From what I've seen so far, this area of PA amazingly beautiful.  The place we are staying is nestled in a valley surrounded by a huge ridge.  The surrounding towns hide in between dramatic hills, ridges, and mountains.  The best part for me...everywhere you look there's green.  Kayla and I have always loved the Adirondacks in NY and would have loved to live there someday.  This is every but as beautiful as the Adirondacks, yet its closer to all those little conviences that we enjoy too.  Dream. Come. True.  Or more aptly, God. Answers. Prayers.  But for one caveat...getting around is confusing!

You might have noticed the new title...here's why:
For the move we rented a 10' truck and squeezed every inch of space out of it.  Note to self, get a bigger truck next time.  The return address seemed simple enough for a naive New Yorker such as myself; drive 30 minutes to the next town and live happily ever after.  Not so sir...not so. More like drive through town on bumpy road and play chicken with construction cones and oncoming traffic, climb a mountain, traverse said mountain, go down the mountain at breakneck speed whilst manuvering a giant, top heavy beast around corners, kill the phone battery (my only source of navigation), wing it, go through a tiny town with 9 feet wide streets, turn around, explore some more, THEN drip it off in town.  Did you get all that?  Run-on of the century!!  Point is, Kayla was following me and totally stressing, I was trying my hardest to not run over pedestrians in a crowded "historic, artsy disctrict" (read: tiny roads complete with curves and parked cars), and I have no idea were I was or where I was going.  So it was fun!  After an hour we figured it out and got the truck safely to the garage.  All that made us hungry and that tiny town we blundered through actually looked nice and ripe for my camera.  Chinese food and some exploring proved a very fun night after all. 

Segway into photography...

This place is saturated with photographic opportunities!!  Tiny towns nestled in the hills, history out the wazoo, and all the little details plus giant landscapes I could ask for!  You shall be my town and I shall love you and squeeze you and...wait wrong movie.  I'll spend a lifetime photographing the area if I'm lucky.  I'm done rambling and stuff, so here's some photos of the town called Jim Thorpe, rated one of the best small towns in America!  No really, go look it up...you know why?  Cuz they have awesome old trains and you can ride them!! Woohoo!!

On weekends the train in the background runs all throughout the county.  I cannot wait to do it!

I love trains...they remind me of the model train sets I had as a kid :D

 This place is very patriotic, I love it!

 I think I sense a color scheme going on here...

Why thank you, I feel welcome!  Can I have some fresh baked cookies while I'm here?







The rest of the photos can be viewed on my facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/timothywilliamlawrence#!/media/set/?set=a.10150966892634347.437939.500654346&type=1...there's sure to be more in the future so stay tuned.

Schenectady: The lost city

I know, I know...it's not Monday!  Sorry to keep ya'll waiting, it's been amazingly busy and I've fallen behind on my editing.  I started using RAW files instead of JPEG and that's a whole new learning curve to overcome, hence why I haven't done much uploading anywhere lately.

Well here it is, or they rather...

There is a wonderful little article that I found explaining the origins of this sign, here's the link.  This guy does a much better job explaining it than I would so I step back into the role of information liaison.                                                           >>http://www.lostlandmarks.org/cokeschenectady.html<<

This photo is possibly the start of my first " personal project".  I assigned myself the task of finding, photographing, and writing about all of the little things in Schenectady, NY that has been lost to history.  There is a wealth of knowledge and history in this old city and I've always loved history (my grandmother has always been a history buff and passed that on to me), but I've never taken the time to explore my own city.  I'm not going to be posting a whole ton of photos constantly, as I want this project to take time, lots of time.  In this digital world and instantly attainable (and subsequently just a instantly forgettable) information, I'd like to slow down a bit and make something lasting.  Wish me luck :)