Monday, January 28, 2013

Great Falls Virginia on the Wild Side

We visited Great Falls National Park in the morning recently after lots of rain.  It is a wonderful place to photograph the sunrise.  The current was strong and exciting.  I'd never even heard of Great Falls before moving to Maryland.  There is a quite interesting history behind the falls if you are curious, including a time when they tried to use it for a canal and it more recently had a carousel amusement.

 
 
The park is on the border between Maryland and Virginia in Fairfax County, near Washington DC.  It is a great place to visit anytime in the year.  It is also very popular for walking your pet (on a leash of course) and hiking.

Fun things to photograph at Great Falls include the C and O Canal, birds (like great blue herons, geese, turkey and black vultures), deer, kayaks and the falls themselves.

I am also including a photo of a rainbow in the falls.  How many colors can you see in my photo?

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

St. Mary's County Camera Club Photographer of the Year & End of Year Competition for 2012

I have been crazy busy in the last two weeks.  During the week before Christmas, I suddenly found myself in a full week computer security course called Security +.  I passed with a lot of hard work and no free time before spending the week with my family for the holiday.

This is a little late, but I wanted to congratulate the winners of the St. Mary's County Camera Club end of year competition, especially my friend Theresa Ford, who won the Advanced Digital Photo of the Year.  Way to go Theresa!!  Bravo everybody!

I still put my 2 cents in and won the prize for the most number of competition points for the year in their respective classes, called Photographer of the year, as well as first prize for the Theme photographs for the St. Mary's County theme with my Orange Pier Sunset photo.



Here are all the winners:
Advanced Photographer of the Year: Joanna Macaulay (177)
Intermediate Photographer of the Year: Stefie Bartley (169)
Novice Photographer of the Year (2-way tie):  Dennis Preus & Emily
Baldwin (129)
Runners up: 
Advanced: Sandy Robbins (123), BJ Ramsey (116), Al Scheungrab (114)
Intermediate: Matt Rhinehart (107), Jon Tom (103)
Novice:  Jim D'Intino (124)
 
ADVANCED DIGITAL:
1st Place – Theresa Ford – “Plants 3474”
2nd Place – Al Scheungrab – “Clingmans Dome Sunrise 1”
3rd Place – Sandy Robbins – “Reflection”
HM – Al Scheungrab – “Clingman Sunrise”
HM – Jim Macaulay – “Turn Over a New Leaf”
HM – Joanna Macaulay – “EScreechOwl”
HM – Joanna Macaulay – “Old Boat”
INTERMEDIATE DIGITAL:
1st Place – Matt Rhinehart – “Holy Reflection”
2nd Place – Jon Tom – “Spiral”
3rd Place – Stefie Bartley – “Auditorio de Tenerife”
HM – Jon Tom – “Overlook”
HM – Jon Tom – “Sunset”
HM – Stefie Bartley – “Teno Point Sunset”

NOVICE DIGITAL:
1st Place – Scott Cote – “White Lily”
2nd Place – Emily Baldwin – “KL Monkey”
3rd Place – Jim D’Intino – “U S Grant Memorial”
Honorable Mention (HM) – Dennis Preus – “Ducks”
HM – Dennis Preus – “Spring Colors”
HM – Emily Baldwin – “Lord Murugan”

THEME DIGITAL:
1stPlace – Joanna Macaulay – “OJ Pier Sunset”
2nd Place – Stefie Bartley – “Sunset Photographer”
3rd Place – Theresa Ford – “Alisa 2015”
HM – Dennis Preus – “Light”
HM – Emily Baldwin – “Hollywood”
HM– Joanna Macaulay – “Tree at Sunrise”
HM – Jon Tom – “Brunelleschis Dome”

NOVICE/INTERMEDIATE PRINTS:
1st Place – George Taylor – “Egret”
ADVANCED PRINTS:
1st Place – Al Scheungrab – “Glass Water Bottle”
THEME PRINTS:
1st Place – Leslie Steinback – “Aimless Wandering”