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Without giving license to youngsters through the land, this is a photo taken years ago of one of the few sports that ESPN II hasn't yet covered.

Pumpkin jumping is the ability to jump from one pumpkin to another without squashing, breaking, cracking or otherwise destroying the season's most famous person, Jack O. Lantern.

This boy's parents ran a pumpkin farm and didn't seem to mind him hopping from one pumpkin to another. Appparently, he's become good enough at it that he knows which can be jumped and which ones will become mush.

Notice the angle at which the photo was taken. The background has been simplified, and the viewer's eye goes to what's important, not a busy background of trees, farms and fences. Bend your knees, give the viewer a scene other than what he'll see as he drives past.

We've all seen signs like this. With apologies to comedian Bill Engvall, this is a "Here's Your Sign" entry.

As if a driver wouldn't notice that this road was closed. Duh.

Splashing through the creek at York College could have been so much fun this summer; and you wished you could just forget about mortgage payments, gas prices, your job-- just for a moment.

Newspapers once used a lot of what we at the YDR call 'free art', that is, just photos that are fun, pretty, or unusual. Generally, however, newspapers have now steered away from this type of photo unless it goes with a story. By itself, it's too much 'fluff'. People want news, and photos that are linked only to those stories.

This photo was shot years ago on one of those miserable hot days in summer, when kids were finding ways to cool off. You see some interesting things just cruising around town...

Silhouettes are relatively easy to shoot, and often, especially with point and shoot cameras, you'll get a silhouette even when you don't want it. The light meter will read all the strong light from behind the subjects and adjust accordingly, giving the silhouette. Many cameras have a backlight mode which will allow more light into the camera, and put more detail in the subjects.

York Fair week is, in my mind, one of the best times of year, for a carload of reasons. It signals the end of a usually hot, miserable summer (my least favorite season), football season begins, autumn and all its color may be just a month away, depending which part of the country you visit.

But of course, it's Fair time. Photographs are everywhere-- kids joyfully fighting with a stick of cotton candy, the animals, the carnival workers and of course, the rides. I wouldn't pay the high prices they ask to just enjoy the ride, but to get a picture, now that's another story.

Instead of getting the usual off-ride, blurry night action picture of a ride, take a camera on the ride, hang on tight and start shooting. If you are traveling the same speed as the rider, you might get a blurry background (that's a good thing) and some terrific expressions, as in this photo taken years ago.

I'll be at the fair every chance I get. It'll be over too soon.

Normally, when we think of contrast in a photo, it's lightness or darkness.

But use other kinds of contrast--big and small, short and tall, fat and thin, old and young or black and white --to create an interesting picture.

This picture of York's Matthew Dorgan, taken in 1981, shows Matt sitting in his grandparents' pool on a floating chair. His aunt, who was watching him, swam up behind and stuck her feet up. It created a kind of head-scratcher moment. It's kind of comical, the size difference.

It was unrehearsed, candid and funny. Have your camera to catch moments of contrast. It's more than light and dark.

As our Mommy-in-Residence blogger Amy Gulli points out, the first day of school can be traumatic. And for the four-year old in this picture, maybe meeting someone just a few steps away from God in a Catholic school is even more intimidating.

While Sam (Amy's little doll) is finally understanding that school is indeed a good place to be, this kindergartner in the photograph wasn't so sure about his strangely-dressed teacher, a nun. He wanted to be anywhere but where he was.

Terrified.

This photograph was taken 30 years ago. By now, this little boy probably has kids of his own, battling the same kind of terror he did. Somehow, we survive.

To read more about Sam's last few days, click here.

While it might not be the world's most dangerous job, washing windows must be one of the most interesting.

This photograph, taken 20 years ago in downtown York, shows a washer hard at work, taken from an angle different than most people would see as they pass on the streets below. Maybe this picture's interest is the soap suds trails, but maybe it's more of a "wish I could try that for about a day."

Myself, I prefer a job where both feet are planted on the ground, with only an occasional fling in the air, under water, or upside down.

For a few years now, I've been shooting a Family Night slide show for The Arc of York County's Camp Pennwood. It takes some time, a few mornings for a couple weeks during camp. Then I run to work to shoot for the YDR. During camp, organizations like the York County Sheriff's Department and McGruff the Crime Dog (above) present programs. The York Alliance Church youth group brought a carnival to camp last week.

One of my favorite quotes says "It's only work if you'd rather be doing something else." So, shooting photos for The Arc isn't work. It's a pleasure seeing young people-- generally high school and college age-- spending the summer as camp counselors. And of course, it's a pleasure photographing some of my favorite people-- the campers.

In fact, there is only one photograph of mine hanging in my house. And it's a photo of a Camp Pennwood camper named Timmy from many years ago. It's a very special photo.

If you have some spare time or spare change, The Arc is a great place for both. For its website, click here

Photographing fireworks is incredibly easy, and it impresses the daylights out of your friends when it works. If they only knew how easy it was. You point the camera, and open the shutter. Fireworks (the explosion) is easy. But strong composition and showing the crowd which is there is another problem entirely.

Of course, the people in the foreground will all be facing away from you. And they'll be backlit, just a fraction of the light in the sky reaching the crowd on the ground.

Photographers get plenty of silhouettes, a few people lit by a fill flash, or buildings lit up with enough existing light to show up in the frame.

The above exposure was about 30 seconds-- for the bottom of the frame. And maybe five or six seconds for the top. I used a black card to block out the top (fireworks) while keeping the shutter open for the bottom. No double exposures or computer manipulation is allowed.

I'm all for trying something new to get better photos. If your fireworks photos look terrific, and you'd like to share your expertise, let me (us!) know how you did it.

York Daily Record managing editor Jim McClure has said that there's not a road in York County that his photographers haven't driven. Maybe that's true. Paul Kuehnel and I have worked in York County for a long time, and sometimes the best way to find interesting photos is to drive through the county, watching for pictures. Reporters can find much of the information necessary for a story from behind a desk. For now at least, photographers and videographers still have to be in the field.

Sometimes, the most interesting photographs aren't connected to a big, headline grabbing story. Like this picture. Kathryn Heilman was just sitting in front of her grandparents' home in Manchester, trying to sell her old bikes and trikes and make a buck or two.

OK, it's not going to win the Pulitzer Prize. But it reminds us that we once probably did the same thing, or at least something similar when we were nine years old. And we're reminded that just sitting in front of the house, watching traffic buzz past with no worries about mortgages, gas prices or the stock market might not be all bad. And how can you not love that sweet, innocent face?

And isn't that better than looking at yet another fire, car crash or murderer's mugshot?

The York Revolution has arrived in Lakeland, Florida, and spring training begins today at the Detroit Tigers training camp. Fan favorite Matt Dryer was among the last off the bus-- returning pitcher Jason Olsen the first-- and already had a cell phone to call a cab. Matt and Shaun Boyd are staying in a hotel instead of the dorms because, as veterans here, they know how cramped the rooms are. And noisy.

We'll try to keep you updated on what's going on here as the week goes on.

Three Lancaster County fishermen were seen Friday afternoon standing up in their boat near Long Level on the Susquehanna River. As one of the men said, and as we've all seen on bumper stickers-- 'A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work'. Since the trio had caught only one fish in the three hours on the water, Friday probably qualified as a bad day fishing. But they were all smiling.

Water temperature was 43 degrees, and we're assuming they had life jackets somewhere in the boat, since I didn't see any being worn. In those temperatures, they wouldn't be swimming for long.

Lake Clarke Rescue does a terrific job, but I'd rather not get a shot of them working.

To accompany a "Here comes Spring" story, we needed a picture showing people working outdoors, preparing for the annual explosion of green leaves and lawns.

Generally, most folks are still huddled indoors, nervously expecting a late-season snow storm any day, squashing hopes of wildflowers and warm temperatures. But professional landscapers get a jump on things, cleaning up winter's mess (downed tree limbs, dead plant material, and other assorted cold weather yard maladies).

So, Dick Rishel and his crew are already hard at work, making their client's yards look like they came right out of HGTV's Gardening By The Yard. My yard, on the other hand, is a prime example of a 'before' picture on Desperate Landscapes, also on HGTV.

So, how do we make men spreading mulch look interesting to our readers?

At top, Leah Taylor, 8, donned a hat that said 'awesome' on the side during Clearview Elementary School's Read A Hat Day on Tuesday. Below, Sam Posey, 8, declared that he was, indeed, Sam, with his hat. The Red Lion district school allowed students to wear hats with appropriate messages to celebrate Read Across America Week.

We're always on the lookout for good news here at the YDR, despite newspapers' reputations to the contrary. Bad news is easy to find--just listen to the police scanner. Our living section feature writers do a terrific job finding the good news, as do the sports writers. As an old (and generally true) newspaper adage goes, the good news goes on the sports page-- the bad news on the front page.

So we depend on readers...

Some of my favorite people visited the office Friday. Amy introduced her new son Noah to the staff, and while all the women in the room drooled over her little munchkin, I was taking pictures of her ever-so-bubbly four-year old daughter Sam.
Kids are generally cute, full of energy and terrific for photos. So, please, never, EVER, have them say 'cheese'. They don't even have to look at the camera. Let them play with a favorite toy. They can stand on their heads, do somersaults, jump around, stick their tongue out, pout or laugh. Let them be themselves. Isn't that, after all, what we're trying to catch? Look at your favorite photos, and it's a good bet they aren't the ones of him/her sitting stiffly, staring glassy-eyed at the camera.

I simply showed Sam the chair and we spent the next 10 minutes shooting. It was that easy. Then we started taking pictures of all three for proud papa. But that's a totally different story...

Does this work while taking pictures of your kids?

How can we not smile ourselves when we see laughing, cute kids who remind us of how happy we'd all like to be? Tuesday, Mia and Jake Giglio and their mother, Holly, were looking for viola music at Menchey Music in Springettsbury Township.

As they banged happily on the bongos (I'm guessing they were bongos), I was thinking that the owners might have been nervous, the noise disturbing the other customers. But they didn't say anything. The kids were smiling, laughing and doing what kids do. To their credit, Menchey's let the music go on.

It made my day.