What to Photograph in January

Brrr!  It’s cold out!  I don’t walk outside as much except when the weather is pleasanter and not cold and windy.  I even walked in the rain the other day, just because it wasn’t as cold.  This limits my photography a little.  

Here are some ideas I’ve tried for those of us in rural environments.  

1. Do still lifes indoors.  Experiment with colors, shapes and odds and ends around your house like books and shells.  
2. Buy flowers to photograph indoors.
3. Photograph interesting tree shapes and branches.
4. Try ICM, intentional camera movement with long exposures and move your camera or lens to create abstracts.
5. Photograph birds and wildlife that are easier to see in the cold weather.
6. Photograph sunrises and sunsets and clouds.  Somehow they often seem prettier in the colder weather.
7. Learn more about photography from a good book.
8. Photograph snow scenes if you have snow nearby.
9. Try indoor or outdoor portraits.
   
   
   Some roses that a kind woman gave me from church.
   
   
   
   Recent huge flocks of robins.
   
   Intentional camera movement.
   
   

Sunset with a Fun Filter

There was another nice sunset in January that I liked across the creek.  I tried a fairly new filter I got for a birthday gift that adds some magenta to the photo.  I liked them as silhouettes.

Colorful Sunset from Jan 2nd

There was a recent gorgeous sunset in early January that I particularly liked on my daily walk.  The colors were beautiful.

Lexington Park Cityscape

We are having a cityscape theme competition for our camera club this month.  But I don’t have access to a city easily, except Lexington Park and Leonardtown.  For fun, I took photos of some of the most interesting buildings I could find in Lexington Park in one afternoon with round or unusual shapes and mirrored windows.  My Photoshop skills need more work, so this was a learning experience.  I put the photos in a panorama and imported them into my tiny planet app.  It didn’t quite work.  So, I tried it again in Photoshop after looking up how to do it.  It still needs work, and didn’t make it in time for the competition.  I wanted to add in something about the water, so I added the Dove ship and anchored the buildings on sand.   All the building blocks of the story are my own photos.  It was a little blah, so I added a cloud and reshaped it.  Any suggestions besides fixing the background of the ship? Could I add water anywhere?

Any ideas for unusual buildings in Leonardtown to try again?

#LexingtonPark #cityscape

#Please share.

Tiny Planet App with the stretched photos

Photoshop “planet”

Holiday Lights in St. Mary's County Part 3

 I took a few more Christmas Light photos before people shut off their lights.  It is nice that folks turn these on for the all of us to enjoy and celebrate the holidays.  These were mostly taken in the Lexington Park area.