A Beautiful Sunny Sunday at Fort Roberdeau

Fort Roberdeau was built during Revolutionary War times as a storage depot for munitions and supplies. It also provided safety for local settlers against war raids.

The fort is now a local historical attraction whose gates are open to visitors between May and October. It is located on a back road mid-way between Tyrone and Altoona, PA, near Sinking Valley, an area famous for its underground caves and caverns.

We visited the fort on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, and it was just perfect for picture-taking. The fort had not yet opened to visitors for the season, so we walked all around the outside of the fort, around the big barn with the red roof, and up the trail along the creek bed. Obsessed with and delighted by the lines of the fort and the barn and the gorgeous light and sky, I took more than 200 photos.

I shot them in 3:2 aspect, in 1:1 aspect; in "toy camera" mode; in vivid, posterized, and monochrome. This photo is one of the few taken without any effects.

It was difficult to leave. As the afternoon wore on, the little white puffy clouds thinned out, leaving behind a jewel-blue sky. The light, which started out gorgeous, got even better and better; and finally there was what I call the "sweet spot," the good light you often get at day's end that yields its own special blessing for photographers, as it brings perfection to everything it touches, turning the whole world beautiful.