Hawaii blog 1 Maui

I haven’t shared much for a few weeks, with good reason. Jim and I went to Hawaii with 8 days notice to 4 islands to fill in places we hadn’t seen. We had some wonderful adventures and saw some lovely beaches, colorful flowers, friendly folks, rare birds and awe inspiring cliffs. I have lots of photos to share. We visited several of the beaches in West Maui. I just love palm studded beaches! It is hard to find a beach with the palm trees where you want them.

Pet photography

On our trip to Great Falls I met a beautiful Siberian Husky named Mishka, the Russian equivalent of Teddy Bear. I asked her owner if I could take some photos. The dogs fur was sooo soft. I’m learning that it takes a lot of patience to photograph pets, but I usually come up with something worthwhile. I also need a lot of help from the owner to help keep the pet interested or still enough to photograph.

Great Blue Heron at Great Falls

I saw several Great Blue Herons at Great Falls National Park this weekend. I’m determined to get some good photos of them. They hang around our yard from time to time making noisy comments to the world. Grooonk! They are such graceful birds, with such a nasty voice. To see the bird with a fish, visit my facebook page. Just look for Calm Reflections Photography.

Buy Local video on YouTube

I attended the Small Independent Business Round Table on April 12th a met a few more local business people. A few local business people shared ways they became creative to attract new business, such as selling lower priced affordable items, going out of their way to buy what people want with good customer service and creating a new service (boat tours to see lighthouses).

I was surprised to learn that Maryland has the highest median household income in the country, even though places like New York and Los Angeles are far richer. St. Mary's County has the second highest growth rate in the State (after Calvert County) and the youngest population. We may be spending less here, but a lot of other places are worse.

We were encouraged to put a Buy Local sticker on our car. (See my previous blog.) Here is a link to the new Buy Local video.

Southern Maryland Give Camp Volunteers

I took some photos about Southern Maryland Give Camp as a favor to my friend, Theresa. Then I wrote an article for The Bay Net to spread the word since it seemed like a worthwhile cause. They had 102 technical volunteers donate their weekend to make new websites and fix existing sites for 19 non-profit organizations. Do you have any idea how much money it saved those nonprofits? (roughly $393,000 according to Jim Pendarvis organizer of the weekend event) And the volunteers had a blast. To view Give Camp pictures and read my article visit my website special page.

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.