Great Falls Virginia on the Wild Side

We visited Great Falls National Park in the morning recently after lots of rain.  It is a wonderful place to photograph the sunrise.  The current was strong and exciting.  I'd never even heard of Great Falls before moving to Maryland.  There is a quite interesting history behind the falls if you are curious, including a time when they tried to use it for a canal and it more recently had a carousel amusement.

 

 

The park is on the border between Maryland and Virginia in Fairfax County, near Washington DC.  It is a great place to visit anytime in the year.  It is also very popular for walking your pet (on a leash of course) and hiking.

Fun things to photograph at Great Falls include the C and O Canal, birds (like great blue herons, geese, turkey and black vultures), deer, kayaks and the falls themselves.

I am also including a photo of a rainbow in the falls.  How many colors can you see in my photo?

St. Mary's County Camera Club Photographer of the Year & End of Year Competition for 2012

I have been crazy busy in the last two weeks.  During the week before Christmas, I suddenly found myself in a full week computer security course called Security +.  I passed with a lot of hard work and no free time before spending the week with my family for the holiday.

This is a little late, but I wanted to congratulate the winners of the St. Mary's County Camera Club end of year competition, especially my friend Theresa Ford, who won the Advanced Digital Photo of the Year.  Way to go Theresa!!  Bravo everybody!

I still put my 2 cents in and won the prize for the most number of competition points for the year in their respective classes, called Photographer of the year, as well as first prize for the Theme photographs for the St. Mary's County theme with my Orange Pier Sunset photo.

Here are all the winners:
Advanced Photographer of the Year: Joanna Macaulay (177)
Intermediate Photographer of the Year: Stefie Bartley (169)
Novice Photographer of the Year (2-way tie):  Dennis Preus & Emily
Baldwin (129)
Runners up: 
Advanced: Sandy Robbins (123), BJ Ramsey (116), Al Scheungrab (114)
Intermediate: Matt Rhinehart (107), Jon Tom (103)
Novice:  Jim D'Intino (124)
 
ADVANCED DIGITAL:
1^st Place – Theresa Ford – “Plants 3474”
2^nd Place – Al Scheungrab – “Clingmans Dome Sunrise 1”
3^rd Place – Sandy Robbins – “Reflection”
HM – Al Scheungrab – “Clingman Sunrise”
HM – Jim Macaulay – “Turn Over a New Leaf”
HM – Joanna Macaulay – “EScreechOwl”
HM – Joanna Macaulay – “Old Boat”
INTERMEDIATE DIGITAL:
1^st Place – Matt Rhinehart – “Holy Reflection”
2^nd Place – Jon Tom – “Spiral”
3^rd Place – Stefie Bartley – “Auditorio de Tenerife”
HM – Jon Tom – “Overlook”
HM – Jon Tom – “Sunset”
HM – Stefie Bartley – “Teno Point Sunset”
NOVICE DIGITAL:
1^st Place – Scott Cote – “White Lily”
2^nd Place – Emily Baldwin – “KL Monkey”
3^rd Place – Jim D’Intino – “U S Grant Memorial”
Honorable Mention (HM) – Dennis Preus – “Ducks”
HM – Dennis Preus – “Spring Colors”
HM – Emily Baldwin – “Lord Murugan”
THEME DIGITAL:
1^stPlace – Joanna Macaulay – “OJ Pier Sunset”
2^nd Place – Stefie Bartley – “Sunset Photographer”
3^rd Place – Theresa Ford – “Alisa 2015”
HM – Dennis Preus – “Light”
HM – Emily Baldwin – “Hollywood”
HM– Joanna Macaulay – “Tree at Sunrise”
HM – Jon Tom – “Brunelleschis Dome”
NOVICE/INTERMEDIATE PRINTS:
1^st Place – George Taylor – “Egret”
ADVANCED PRINTS:
1^st Place – Al Scheungrab – “Glass Water Bottle”
THEME PRINTS:
1^st Place – Leslie Steinback – “Aimless Wandering”

 

My favorite autumn tree on the base

And everyone else's too! Every year I drive by a little picnic area on base with a gorgeous red leaved tree in the fall. It doesn't remain beautiful for long before the leaves fall off. Most years it rains or I can't find the time to take a picture of it. This year I finally managed to photograph it. I laid on the grass, viewed it from beneath and from afar. As I took the time to do that, every few minutes another person came to photograph it too. Amazing!!
Let me know if you recognize it.

Off the Wall Art Market Coming Dec 7th

I am participating in the first "Off the Wall Art Market" at the Leonardtown Art Center on the upcoming First Friday in downtown Leonardtown MD. Please stop by if you come out for First Friday. Maybe you will find a good Christmas present. I have some lovely unique framed prints, coasters, mousepads and mugs that you won't find anywhere else.

I like the clever title of the art show.

Friday Dec 7th 5-8 pm
22660 Washington St, 2nd floor

WARMTH Art Show and Silent Auction supports Three Oaks Center

I am participating in the WARMTH (Working Artists Raising Money for The Homeless) Art show and silent auction benefiting the Three Oaks Homeless Shelter in Lexington Park MD. It will be held at Camalier House in Leonardtown 22635 Washington St., next to the courthouse, 2-7p.m on Saturday, November 24th.

Some of my artistic friends showing their work and/or assisting include James Antone, Candy Cummings, Margie Haney, and Carol Wathen. Each artist donates a work of art and also gives 30% of any sales to Three Oaks Shelter.  Thirty artists are sharing their work.

When I used to work at the library, the first building housing the library before October 2002  (now the Theater for the Newtowne Players) was next door to the homeless shelter, so we often interacted with a lot of the men living there.  We continued to have homeless visitors in the current location as well.

Please stop by to enjoy the art, or perhaps buy something to help Three Oaks.

Show Us Your Moves Contest Photo

I had some excitement on Friday night.  I got a phone call that I won one of the 6 prizes for a local photography contest with Fit and Healthy St. Mary’s, sponsored by St. Mary’s Hospital called “Show Us Your Moves”.  The photos of friends and family were about people doing healthy activities to encourage the local community to live a healthy lifestyle.  The category for my winning photo was called Nature and Fitness (which wins a park entry pass for summer 2013 to Myrtle Point/Elms Beach County Parks and a full day kayak visit to Colton’s Point Marina near St. Clements Island).  My winning photo was sort of an afterthought, since I thought my other photo was better.

The photo was taken on Black Rock summit trail on short hike we love to take in Shenandoah National Park.  This trail used to be easy for my husband, but it was quite challenging for him this last June, especially with all those rocks!

I read a little about Fit and Healthy St. Mary's.  Some of the statistics in the Community Health Assessment from 2010 were eye opening.  It seems that an estimated 29.5 % of St. Mary's County residents exercise for 30 minutes 5 days a week and we have one of the highest death rates for stroke in the state, Age-Adjusted Death Rate due to Cerebrovascular Disease (Stroke) were 44 per 100,000.   They are trying to reduce the numbers.

Scott Kelby's Worldwide PhotoWalk at Flag Ponds

On October 13^th, we participated in Scott Kelby’s Worldwide PhotoWalk at Flag Ponds in Lusby, MD. Thirty three people signed up to participate on a pleasant sunny day.  Participants were encouraged to submit one photo to the world contest and 13 people shared a photo.  I wasn’t too impressed by my pictures that day, but Jim and I each submitted a photo. Jim worked especially hard on his panorama made of 12 images of one of the ponds and we practiced proper Photoshop techniques with my photo.  Imagine our surprise to learn that Jim received the winning photo for our walk.  It was just amazing, since just holding a camera can be difficult and challenging for him.  We were both thrilled. 

 

To see more Flag pond photos, visit my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CalmReflectionsPhotographyor my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/75311362@N08/

If you are interested you might want to read more about the PhotoWalk