My Winning End of Year photos from 2023 Camera Club Competition

We are a small camera club, but it was very nice to have some winning photos in the End of Year competition 2023 (competing winning photos from earlier in the year).  Frankly, I think everyone in our club is quite talented and they all deserve recognition for their photography and their hard work helping with club activities.  See our website, https://www.smccc.org for more information about the club.

Final Note (River Concert Series) First Place Open

Izamal (city in Mexico) Honorable Mention Open

Honolulu First Place Theme (cityscape)

Honorable Mention Theme (water droplets)

Award winning photos from St Marys County Camera Club End of Year Competition

 Advanced First Place Ballerinas Ballet Caliente at the River Concert Series

 Advanced Second Place Cactus

 Advanced Third Place Newfound Gap Great Smoky Ntl Park

Advanced Honorable Mention Abbott Lake Virginia

 Advanced Honorable Mention Odd Turtle

 Theme First Place (Industrial) Sewing Mabry Mill

 Theme Second Place (Wet) Wet Dog B

Theme Third Place (Blue) Blue Curves

 Theme Honorable Mention (Blue) Blue Bubbles

Also see page B1 of the December 28th Enterprise Newspaper in St. Mary's County for more details about this year's competition.  There were intermediate winners and more honorable mentions.

St Marys County Fair Photo Exhibit Winners

I was just at the County Fairgrounds with the St Mary's County Camera Club.  The club supports the Fair photography exhibit.  We are always excited to see all the talent from our neighbors.  Thank you to all participants and all helpers from the club.

This year's top purple ribbons went to:

Childrens ribbon Lillian Johnston for ballet shoes photo

Junior ribbon Jillian Waxman a colorful  peppers photo

Adult ribbon Lew Kosich for a Celtics photo

Last years County Fair Barbara Sue Nelson for flower exhibit photo

Life in St Marys County by ? for an Amish plow photo

(We made a judge's corner for those of us who don't get to share our photos)

Congratulations to the End of the Year St Marys County Camera Club 2016 Winners

All of the monthly winners for the year are competed in a final yearly contest.  Here are the results.  

Digital – Novice

1^st – Leon Smith – “St. Mary's Chapel"

2^nd – Leon Smith  - "Sunset over Potomac"

3^rd – Leon Smith – “Cardinal In Snow"

Digital – Intermediate

1^st – Katherine Norris – “Locomotion”

2^nd – Kimberly Tomlinson - "Factory Graffiti"

3^rd – Kimberly Tomlinson - "Flower on the High Line"

Digital – Advanced

1^st – Joanna Macaulay - "Michigan Sunset"

2^nd – Joanna Macaulay – “Gerbera"

3^rd – Joanna Macaulay - "Eagle Pair Flying"

HM - Kathy Weigel - "Sculpture Close Up"

HM - Warren Salmon - "Blue"

HM - Warren Salmon - "Life Boat"

HM - Warren Salmon - "Rusty"

Digital – Theme

1^st – Joanna Macaulay - "RoseWine"

2^nd – Scott Cote - "Train Arriving"

3^rd – Warren Salmon - "Old Glory"

HM – Warren Salmon - "Smashing"

HM – Warren Salmon - "Selfie"

HM - Roger Strickler - "No Worries"

HM - Emily Baldwin - "Scottish Squat"

Print – All

1^st –  Kathy Weigel - "Colorful Copenhagen"

2^nd – Kathy Weigel - " Two Sleepy Heads"

3^rd –  Leon Smith - "Eiffel Tower"

Photographer of the Year

*Determined by total 2016 points accumulated

Novice - Leon Smith

Intermediate - Katherine Norris

Advanced - Warren Salmon

My Winning photos from the End of Year St. Mary's County Camera Club

Last week we had our end of year competition.  The monthly winners are competed against each other.  I am still waiting for all the results because I prefer to congratulate everyone instead of just sharing my winners.  I will post all the winners names when I receive it.

For now, here are my winning photos.  

First Advanced Digital-Michigan Beach Sunset

Second Advanced Digital- Gerbera Daisy

Third Advanced Digital-Eagle Pair Flying

First Theme-Rosé Wine (Adult Beverage theme). All themes are competed together with advanced, intermediate, and novice all together). I can thank my sister for this one.  She gave me the black plexiglass for Christmas 2015.

October winning photos at St. Mary's County Camera Club

Theme- Harvest Third place Sunflower B

Advanced Digital Second place Michigan Beach

Both are available in cropped form at my Zazzle store.

Michigan Sunset beach 11x14 http://www.zazzle.com/michigan_beach_sunset_print_11x14-190757396358417360

Michigan sunset beach 8x10 http://www.zazzle.com/michigan_sunset_beach_8x10_photo_print-190560355578430376

Sunflower field 11x14 http://www.zazzle.com/sunflower_field_11x14_print-190064270312457504

Sunflower field 8x10 http://www.zazzle.com/sunflower_field_8x10_print-190209491937765869

On the Water

I haven't been to any interesting events lately, except for the Ridge Carnival.  I am posting those pictures on Calm Reflections Photography Facebook.

So, here are are a few winning photos from our recent St. Mary's Camera Club August themed competition "On the Water"

     Whoa-2nd place from the Summer Regatta by the Southern Md Boat Club 

     Pink Waterlily-3rd place from Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

Winning photos from St. Mary's County Camera Club

I had several winning photos last week in March Camera Club competition.  There was a theme contest of close up and macro photography.  I had photos of flowers, but the subject didn't seem too creative.  I thought my photos had impact at least and I am very much into color, although black and white can be fun too with the right subject.  I really liked the color combination of the water lily.  Here are my winners. 

 First Place Macro-Exotic Purple Water Lily

 Second Place Macro-Sunflower and Bee

I also won first place in the advanced category in March for a photo from last year.  This owl had a damaged wing, couldn't fly, but did flap his/her wings.  An interesting fact about Long-Eared owls is that their ears are uneven, the left one is higher than the right.  This helps them locate their prey.  To learn more about Long-Eared Owls, visit http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/long-eared_owl/id

First Place Advanced-Long-Eared Owl

February winning photo

We saw this really cool blue orchid in the grocery store and bought it to photograph it.  It was kind of disappointing when we figured out that they had just added some sort of blue dye (a fancy patented process they say) into a white Phalaenopsis orchid.  (sort of like those colored carnations you can get for special holidays but a little fancier)   If it blooms again it will be white.

It still made a nice photo and it won second prize in the Advanced category for the February competition at the St. Mary's County Camera Club.  If you want to read more about the orchids, here is the website for Silver Vase about their blue mystique orchid. http://silvervase.com/w/blue-mystique.php

More Winning Photos at SMCCC

We had a fairly difficult new photo judge last week for April’s St. Mary’s County Camera Club competition.  At the last minute, he tossed out one of my favorite dog photos, but kept my Eastern Screech Owl for Advanced Digital First prize and my photo of an Old Boat at St. Mary’s College of Maryland for third prize.  I liked the reflection of the autumn trees in the boat photo and the big eyes of the owl, the way its’ ears waved in the wind in front of the bokeh(BOH KAY or BOH KA) background (out of focus blur that sometimes looks like circles).  The 8 or 9 inch owl kept closing his eyes from the wind making it challenging to photograph.

Next month’s competition theme is St. Mary’s County.  Maybe I should have kept the photo for next month, but I have some others I can use.

St. Mary's County Fair will be held Sep 22-25, 2011

Visit the St. Mary's County Fair Sep 22-25, 2011, or better yet, enter one of the competitions.  If you have a beautiful flower in your yard, a photograph, art or craft item that you think is exceptional, enter it in the County Fair Wednesday afternoon or evening.

The full program is available at the St. Mary's County Libraries.  There are lots of things to see and do from visiting the animals, watching a competition, sampling the food and riding a Ferris Wheel.  Some of my past favorites included watching the Mitchell Showboat Marionettes (the kids are so cute) and viewing the chain saw wood carver.  There are lots of things to photograph at the fair too.  The official St. Mary's County Fair website is easily found.  And you can't beat the price, $5 for adults!


I am also excited and honored to be one of the photography judges this year, so I won't be posting any winning photos this year, but I plan to take photos of this year's Fair for fun.

St. Mary's Camera Club July Competition

As I get ready for the Camera Club competition this evening, I realized that I hadn’t sent some of my St. Mary’s County Camera Club competition winners from last month to my blog. Enjoy some lovely photos from Hawaii taken in May, a pink Hibiscus (Advanced Digital 1st place) and a beach on Molokai (Advanced Digital 2nd place).

We really enjoyed taking flowers with a new micro lens that can take sharp close up details. The beach was so lovely that I am currently using it as a background on my computer at work. It is such a relaxing photo. Molokai is very laid back and there aren’t a lot of tourists there. There is very little night life. We enjoyed talking with the local folks and visiting the quiet beaches.

New York Institute of Photography Competition results

I’ve been taking a Photoshop course at the New York Institute of Photography. They posted the results of a contest for their 100 year anniversary this month and the photos are marvelous! Unfortunately, I didn’t know about the contest, so I didn’t enter. Maybe next time. Have a look on YouTube if you are interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48LfXC17_bc

St. Mary's County Camera Club Third Prize

At the St. Mary’s County Camera Club competition last week my Barn Wall photo received 3rd prize in the Advanced Digital completion. The same photo won 1st prize in the Black and White Abstract category at the St. Mary’s County Fair last September. I even was asked if the Fair could borrow my photograph temporarily to demonstrate photography technique. I liked the wall because of its fascinating textures. I rarely do black and white these days, but the original was very monochrome in color, just right to accentuate the old look of the ancient curling rough wood. The photo was taken in the late afternoon, which increased the shadows and added depth to the wood shingles.