Thomas Point Park in Annapolis

We visited Thomas Point Park in Annapolis after a doctor visit, since I had never seen the Thomas Point Lighthouse.  I knew it would be a good distance away, so I brought my very longest lens, up to 600mm and still had to crop the photo alot.  The fall foliage was looking good and there was a cute dinosaur statue in the woods by the side of the road.  The day was mostly cloudy, so I spent most of the time waiting for the fog to get interesting and the sun to show itself.

The park was named after Philip Thomas, an English merchant who owned the nearby land in the mid 1600s.  It is popular for fishing, biking, walking, birding and picnicing.  The park is so small that you must make an advance reservation with a fee to visit except during the colder months.  There is hardly any parking.

Thomas Point Lighthouse

Fall Foliage

Dinosaur

William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bay Bridge Glowing

Piney Point Sunset

It was a nice night for sunset at Piney Point Lighthouse, but kind of windy.

Keepers cottage

Sunset at Piney point lighthouse

Cupula

A Spring Visit to Point Lookout State Park

I spent a lovely few hours at Point Lookout State Park to see if there were any birds around and found access to the beach and Fort area.  I visited the redoubt (panorama) and prison re-creation with a few tents and a guard house.  There were 2 occupied osprey nests.

Lighthouse with Cormorants

Guard Post No. 9 Prison of War Display

Redoubt

Cape May B September 12, 2018

     Cape May Point beach Sep 12th

     Old bunker WWII

     Cape May Point Lighthouse

     St Peter's by the Sea

Visiting Point No Point Lighthouse

We tried out our new used Wellcraft boat for a short distance on the bay.  It was getting cooler, but we wanted to see how it runs before storing it for the winter.

It rocked and rolled some, but seemed fairly sturdy with winds less than 10 mph.  We drove around the lighthouse twice in the late afternoon.

     A little reflection

     Backlighting

     The outhouse

     What is it?  It reminded me of a bear with paws up.

     Some type of iron support, but I wasn't quite sure.  A davit to pull boats up?  You can see it on the first photo too.

     Time to return.

Redbuds are A'Bloomin'

In St. Mary's County the parking lots are full of beautiful flowering trees.  The cars in the background usually turn the photos into snapshots, so I just enjoy the flowers with my eye instead of a camera.  I tried my best to keep the cars out of these particular photos.  I especially liked the parking lot in Callaway where the Redbud trees were everywhere.

 

 The reflection is from the moon roof of my car!

The shadows on the wall were interesting.

Honor photos from February Competition

Another eagle photo won 2nd place in last week's February competition in the St. Mary's County Camera Club.  I get so excited when I see more than one eagle out on the osprey nest!    I feel so lucky to be able to see them in the wild nearby.  Amazing!  I suppose my next challenge will be to catch both Mom, Dad and baby eagle in one photo.  The osprey will be showing up in a few weeks, so it gets less likely by the day.

I also won two honorable mentions one for Advanced and one for theme competition (long exposures).

St. Clement's Pier was taken on a gray day after a fair amount of rain.  We had planned to take the shuttle launch to the island to photograph the osprey, but it wasn't running due to the inclement weather.  I asked Jim to walk out on the pier to add a subject to the photo.  I liked the subtle light in the image.

My honorable mention for a long exposure was taken right after the Calvert Marine museum closed.  It is actually a composite of two photos.  The Cupola of the lighthouse needed a long exposure to show up in the darkness, but the moon was too bright and overexposed in the photo.  I took several moon photos with correct exposures at the time, hoping I could add them together.  We went to the museum hoping to photograph the lighthouse with the moon rising near it, but the two subjects were too far apart.  More advanced planning on our part would have told us where the moon would be.  The Photographer's Ephemeris or a similar app or program would have given us the information we needed in advance.  Live and learn!

Lighthouse Water Tour

Lighthouse Water Tour, a set on Flickr.

We took a tour of several lighthouses on the Chesapeake Bay on Phil Langley's Lisa S in late September. There were several camera clubs invited. The day was quite windy, so I didn't get an award winning photo of Point No Point with a lovely reflection, but we had lots of fun and had lunch together afterwards.