Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

 Jim and I spent a lovely day in Washington DC photographing the beautiful Cherry Blossom Trees at the Tidal Basin on the Potomac, the circular basin surrounding the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and the nearby Washington Monument.  I hoped to be there just after sunrise, by getting up a 5AM, but that was much too late. 3AM might have worked or an overnight in town.  The weather was gorgeous and I tried to capture some of the curves of the basin and the trees, as well as the paddleboats.

Most of the Cherry trees along the Tidal basin are single white flowered Yoshino Trees, with some single flowered pink Akebono trees.  We took a $1 shuttle to East Potomac Park to view the many other Japanese Cherry trees:  Weeping Cherries, Kwanzan, Autumn Cherries (double flowered), Takesimensis, Afterglow, Sargent, and Okame.  The park has a golf course and picnic area.  The West Potomac Park also has some different cherry trees along the water.

Here's a few photos from our memorable day.

             Tidal Basin Panorama

                          Japanese pagoda

     Washington Monument with Paddle        Boats

                       Looking up!

Easter cards

Check out my Easter cards on Zazzle from the top of the page or http://www.zazzle.com/calmreflectionsphoto  

I have a cute Easter dog a gorgeous pink flower and cherry blossoms.  You've got to be quick though!  

An Unexpected Visitor

Imagine my surprise when two daring geese decided to check out the view from the osprey nest, after the osprey had returned for the season.  These two were keeping an eye out in both directions.  Beneath the nest, two friends kept watch for dangers below.  So far I have seen osprey, eagles, great blue herons, geese and various little birds on the nest.  Popular place!!

My Osprey in snow just got posted on the Bay Net

See my little annoyed osprey in the snow, (similar the the well known "angry bluebird") on the Bay Net at "State gives Schools a Spring Break".  The photo was taken in Tuesday's flurries.  Here's the link.  

http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/36195

Please comment if you like.

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

Red Cardinals

One of my most popular prints and Holiday cards uses a photo of a cardinal in snow taken in January of 2010.  So, each time we have a snow fall during the day, I take my camera out, hoping to get another great shot of a red cardinal.  I finally got a shot with a nice glow after the snow storm this week, even though this time you can't see the ice crystals on his face. 

Cardinal After Snow

I liked this one too, but it doesn't have the extra glow.

Here is the cardinal in Snow that is popular as a Holiday card and as a print taken in 2010.  The first and last photos are available for sale on Zazzle.com.

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!