May 2013 winners from St. Mary's County Camera Club

Here are my winners from May.  You might have seen the first place winner before, my Pink Mist photo from February.  On rare occasions the water gets misty and creates a lovely mood.  There was frost on the ground too.  The photo was taken around 7am.  As most serious photographers know, the best times of day to photograph are early in the day within an hour or so of sunrise and close to sunset.  Photographing in the middle of the day often creates harsh short shadows that tend to be less complimentary to a subject and make the image look flat.

I also received an honorable mention for this unique photo of  weeping cherry blossoms.  I have tried taking cherry blossom photos from all different angles and even held a branch over the water last year.  I thought this shot was unique, shooting straight up from beneath the buds.  I particularly liked the way the blurry flowers framed the subject with a nice curve.  It was taken in my yard at around 5:40pm.

I've been very busy lately.

I finally posted a little album of photos of the Cherry Blossoms in April 2013 in Washington DC on my Calm Reflections Photography Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/CalmReflectionsPhotography.  Please check it out!  I was practicing some unique techniques, panoramas and focus stacking in Photoshop.

I want to share two of my recent favorite photos.  Neither of them won the April competition at our local camera club, but I liked them.  Maybe you will too!

The pier photo was taken on an early special morning in February when the mist was lovely and the sky became pink.

The squirrel was outside my window.  He/She was running up and down a maple tree looking for nuts.  He almost looks like he is smiling.