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)

Fun with Peppers!

 I wanted to try a still life of peppers, but I don't even like to eat them!  I gave a few away afterwards. They have such bold colors and fun shapes.

                       This LaRouge pepper looked like a little family at the right angle.

Same pepper, different angle.

                                      I used a light box for this one, shot from above.

                    I shook the camera a little for this one to make the glow.

The Clematis Bloomed This Week

Tulip Still Lifes

I bought some tulips from the grocery store, not knowing what color they would be from curbside pickup.  Tulips don’t grow well in our yard, so I thought it would be fun to photograph some.  I played with still lifes using 2 flashes and a flashlight on black velvet.

This was about shapes.

I shined a flashlight on the tulip and tried to get a reflection in the lens ball.

I used a red flashlight pointed at the bowl.

And played with black and white.

Just playing with 3s. 3 groups, 3 books

Exotic Water Lilies

I recently photographed some gorgeous water lilies. It was a little too early in the day, but I liked them anyway, even with strong shadows.
I have photographed water lilies 3 or 4 times in recent years. I find that I usually need a long lens to get good "closeup" photos of these lovely flowers, rather than a macro lens. I used a 70-300 zoom for these images. The flowers never seem to be near the edge of the pond!
If you know the names of these beautiful lilies, please comment. 😊