2025 Lititz Community Choice Calendar

Captured January 7th, 2022 at 6:12 AM. I captured this just 11 minutes before the January image on the very same early morning photo adventure in the snow.

This caboose sits near the Welcome Center and is open for tours and a history lesson! It’s definitely eye-catching and it sits along the old rail track that is now the endpoint of the line, merely used for turnarounds. Things like this are what makes Lititz so uniquely scenic and appealing.

For this shot, I really wanted to include the Wilbur store there in the background, and if you look closely you can see it peaking through behind the trees. I really like the pine tree in the foreground, and excited whenever I can include it in my shots of the park, as it often gets overlooked but really does add a lot of life to that scene.

The yellow glow here from the included light also adds warmth and coziness when combined with the framing of the caboose.

Captured March 16th, 2024 at 6:50pm. Last year, the Moravian church also appeared as the image representing March, and I knew that when I captured this photo. This time of year, it can be quite difficult to show Spring in action. After doing photography for awhile though, I’ve learned to lean into and use what nature gives me. And that’s what I tried to do here.

I captured this just 20 minutes before sunset and opted to accentuate the contrast and moodiness of that evening light to bring out the colors in a scene that was otherwise brown and dull. The goal was to emphasize that Spring isn’t about everything being all bloomed and colorful, but rather that it’s a time a growth out of an otherwise dormant landscape.

And the setting of it being a church really adds to that essence of a “new beginning”. This church campus will always be one of my favorite places to capture in town and expressive images like this are the reason why.

Captured April 18th, 2020 at 7:01am. This image was captured on the Butterfly Trail leading to what is now Sixth Street Park. During this time, we just started the COVID lockdowns, and I went one morning walks at sunrise to get some nature RX without encountering too many people.

I actually look back on this walk, and these walks in general, as being not only quite peaceful, but quite beautiful. The colors here really show how dynamic Spring is, and the morning sunlight kissing the robin both come together to make the scene ethereal and full of whimsy.

For this shot, as with most wildlife shots, its about preparation, patience, and luck. I had been on a few walks through here at the time since I moved from across town a year prior, so I had some little scenes for bird photos along this path. Typically, I’d frame up a scene if birds happened to be in the particular tree in the scene, so that’s what I did here. After that, it’s all about waiting until the right time and making sure I get the shot.

As I stood near the longer wooden bridge, in the grass, waiting and standing as still as I could, a single robin flew into frame. Initially facing the other way and on the lower part of the branch, he lingered for about 10 seconds before he turned to face the sunrise and hopped up onto the little raised section of branch.

This is one of those images that after I capture it, I just call it done and go home. So that’s what I did. It’s one of my favorite bird photos I’ve ever captured.

Captured June 1, 2024 at 6:00pm. Sometimes I get requests from business owners in town asking for use of my images. Parkview Hotel reached out the day before asking if I had photos showing off their fresh coat of paint from a year before, complete with American flags and Moravian stars. And while I did have some images, most of them weren’t of the Parkview Hotel, but rather just had the building included.

I already had an idea of a photo of Parkview that I’d been wanting to do for awhile, so I used this an an excuse to do it. The image required overcast and cloudy skies, and luckily that’s exactly what the weather was the next day.

This photo (as you can tell by the name) is an illustration of the name - Parkview. I wanted distinctive elements of the park to visible in the image without being distracting. The fountain is a perfect element for that. I also love the framing of the Town of Lititz Historical marker on the left side of the image. In shots like this, I like to use little details as well, like the ducks sitting on the bottom of the frame, or the Moravian stars being framed be trees at the front of the park.

Captured May 27th, 2024 at 8:39pm. A violent storm that later spawned EF 1 tornadoes near New Holland passed over Lititz just after sunset. And while most people would make sure to stay inside, I drove downtown to capture some unique stormy photos of Lititz.

After the rain slowed down and the storm was mostly over, the sky began to change. This image is part of a series I took along Broad street, and all of them were captured within three minutes of each other. That’s how long I had to until this sky went away.

Seeing the sky change into this amazing canvas, I knew I didn’t have much time. I reached into the scene catalog in my head and pulled out a few that were just waiting for this moment. To me, all of the images from that series are great. But this one is iconic. A colorful sky facing away from sunset like this is rare, but the clouds in this scene are almost perfectly places, and the colors and contrast of the scene work together to create such a strong connection, I can literally smell the ozone from this storm. It’s one of my favorite shots I’ve ever captured of Lititz.

Captured July 2nd, 2022 at 9:59 PM during the annual Lititz Springs Park 4th of July Celebration fireworks! July in Lititz means fireworks, and my L3C is no different. Each year the community chooses their favorite of my Lititz Springs Park 4th of July fireworks images.

If you notice, the road is wet here. That’s because it had rained earlier in the day. Regardless of how wet it is, the Lititz Fire co is always in attendance to keep an eye on the fireworks in case things get out of hand. Hence the title of this image.

The July 4th Celebration is not only a huge event for Lititz as a whole, but its a huge event for me. I spend countless hours in the lead up planning out fireworks photos and more. This scene is no different. Having seen this crew parked here a year before, I’d planned this shot. And while the fireworks are a bit out of frame here, I think it actually adds to the grandiosity of the image, making the fireworks seem contained - matching the uncontained excitement of the event as a whole.

Captured August 1st, 2023 at 6:13pm I started capturing photos of Lititz more as a way of relaxing rather than any specific purpose. And while nowadays much of the work I do downtown is for a specific project, or even a paid contract, I still like to walk around town from time to time. And not just down Main Street, Broad, or the at the park, all around town.

And this image was captured on one of those walks.

Lititz is home to tons of gorgeous historic buildings. This one is Called Kemp Cottage, and it’s right next to Linden Hall School for Girls on Main. I’m a sucker for old stone buildings, and the flower boxes, shutters, and red door on this one just sing to me.

I wanted this to feel like a nice Summer walk around town, so I kept it nice and bright and included the sun shining through the trees. A nice simple shot of an old building on Main is hard to beat, and you folks thought so too!

Captured August 1st, 2023 at 6:13pm This shot of the Lititz Square Fountain is definitely a unique one. To start, it’s impossible. If you were to try and replicate this shot the first thing you would notice is the light pole and signs right behind the fountain and the utility posts in the background in front of Bull’s Head.

This scene had been on mind for awhile, and while I love the beauty if the square fountain, those distractions made me just not want to do it. But, after the fountain had been recently repaired, I decided to give it a try. So I framed and composed the shot to cut out as much of the distracting and ugly elements as I could, then edited the rest out in post by using samples from the same scene at a slightly different angle. And this image is the result.

I love how the water looks here, as I used a longer exposure to make it misty. And the slight golden glow of the sky makes it clear that this is definitely golden hour in Lititz. The new patio at Lititz Springs Inn had just opened as well, and made sure I framed the path to their patio to fill the space between the plants on the left center of the shot.

Captured October 31st, 2023 at 3:53pm I say it all the time, but shooting Lititz Springs Park in the Fall is like photography on easy mode. This scene, like many of my others, isn’t something that’s usually captured. That’s because not only is it hard to frame and compose, it requires specific lighting for it to look its best.

The shadows of the trees in this scene really add on element of depth and texture to the scene. But its the Fall leaves that steal the show here. Even as Late as the last day of October, the leaves still looked this good.

Because the location of the sun changes in the sky across a year, this specific scene is really only possible in the Fall to begin with. And I used the contrast the sun and shadows created to add emphasis to the texture of the leaves on the ground, the bridge on the left, and path of to the distance on the right. I also really like how the diverging paths are framed here, and my goal was to create a welcoming feel with the composition.

Captured November 5th, 2023 at 5:27pm as I was enjoying a relaxing walk on the WERT. The rail is one of my favorite gateways to nature without needing to drive anywhere. And, while I do live across town from the Lititz trail access, I’ll always look for an excuse to walk through Lititz.

This section of the trail is incredibly photogenic, and the curve of the path here along with the lighting from that setting sun makes it appear to fade away.

Of course the leaves here were quickly evacuating from the trees at this point in the season. But I used that to my advantage in this scene and composed this image with the horizon 2/3 of the way up the frame. This let me hide the barren tops of the trees in the foreground, while allowing for the gaps in the trees further to create a window into the sunset yellow sky.

To me, this image just scream NOVEMBER, and I’m glad I got to include it in this years calendar for that month.