Newtowne Neck State Park

 After a long wait, I had the time to visit Newtowne Neck State Park and St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in St. Mary's County, MD.  It was bad timing on my part, even though it was a beautiful day.  The tide was high, so I couldn't visit all of the many coves without walking in the water, and the biting flies were nasty.  Please check out my post from 2023 to see more beaches.

I did a focus stack of 3 photos for the first beach photo to add in the white bush on the left.

For once, I actually went inside the church.  The door was open and someone had used incense in there.  It is the oldest Catholic Church in the 13 colonies and was renovated in 1967.  See their website for more information.

Newtowne Neck Beach

St Francis Xavier Catholic Church

Sunflowers in Vases

 I photographed a few flowers in vases using a technique called Focus Stacking, creating multiple shots at with different focus points combined to make a sharper image.  It is easier with certain cameras that have a special feature.  Nikon calls it focus shifting instead.  I still need to learn more about light placement to make the photos prettier.  I do prefer vases that aren't shiny or reflective.  I tried to play with my collection of vases to make nice color combinations.

I liked red, yellow, and green even though they aren't contrasting or analogous colors.  It looked like Autumn.

 

Yellow and purple are contrasting colors

All red shades and green is the opposite of red.

St Marys County Fair

 Just a few fun shots from the Fair on Sep 22nd.

Painted Lady Butterfly

Sunflowers 2024

I visited Goldpetal Farm on a lovely late summer day to stay until sunset.  I thought it was an unusually nice one, mostly orange with a little pink.  Early on, I even got to see a sundog in the sky.  (It was very tricky to edit it so that it could be seen with the flower beside it). I enjoyed the fresh air and peacefulness and had fun cutting a few flowers in many colors to photograph later. (white, red, almost pink, orange and yellow sunflowers, plus a few zinnias)  The many bees were busy pollinating, but they ignored me completely, as I navigated a few paths in the mild sunshine.  There were a few pretty cast iron benches scattered around the cutting garden, making it nice for a nearby photographer to take pretty portraits.  The only thing I had missing, was someone else to carry around my bucket of flowers while I played with my camera!  This time, I tried to use the extra flowers as a prop to add to a few photos.

Sundog Sunflower

Path to the barn with my bucket of flowers and the moon

An old Ford Convertible was just leaving as I arrived. Possibly a roadster.  I wish I had written it down.  They kindly stopped to pose for me.

Almost pink

My favorite shot for the evening, with the pretty bench and sunset

Budds Creek BMX practice

St. Mary's County Camera Club/Southern Maryland Special Interest Group and Bowie-Crofton Camera Club had a joint outing to Budd's Creek Motocross Park to watch the BMX practice.  Beth Fabey set up the special trip.  I didn't know anything about it, except that it wasn't the type of thing I usually watched.  It was quite exciting to watch all those crazy thrill seekers go flying over the hills.  Lots of mud and dirt everywhere!  I learned quickly that it was best to get out of their way if you wanted to stay safe.  It took a little practice to find a good photographic technique.  I tried panning, but didn't have any luck, since it takes a lot of practice.  I tried a whole lot of different locations.  Some places were partially blocked or had lots of distractions in the background.  I kept trying places until I found a spot where I could see their faces or at least the front of their heads.  I tried a variety of places and angles.  I did bring a long lens, but by the time I found a good spot, I knew I couldn't go all the way back to get it due to recent leg pain.  These are mostly heavily cropped. 

High Flyer.

In the turn.

On top of the hill

Loved the shadow

High twisty hop!

Removing the dust.

 

Point Lookout State Park Beach Trip

 We wandered down to Point Lookout to hear the surf and view the Bay from a different perspective.  

I grabbed a shot of a bird over the causeway and realized it was an osprey with a fish later. Many of the osprey have already flown south.

Nearby, someone had a sun umbrella disaster.  I don't know if it was fixable.  

We sat down to enjoy lunch and I spotted a few boats.  I didn't realize the fishing net posts had a bird on every post till later. 

We had a nice lunch and I walked down to the beach to see the Lighthouse from a distance.

Near the beach I spotted a songbird I didn't recognize.  Maybe a Vireo?

  

Drayden African American School House

We visited the Drayden African American School House on Cherryfield Road in Drayden, MD. It was built around 1890 and used until around 1944. We were greeted by two pleasant docents on one of the Saturdays it was scheduled to be open, September 7th, 2024. The next opening is September 21st (the first and 3rd Saturday's April-October I believe, but check before you go. It was still in the original location and was used during segregation in the 40s. (Although I am not sure some schools are not still somewhat segregated) The building and contents were nicely preserved. The teachers were underfunded, the children's supplies were less than caucasian students received and school started late, so the children could work on the farm earlier in the day. About 30-40 students were cared for in grades 1-7. See also my blog post on July 26, 2022. For more information: https://www.stmaryscountymd.gov/Recreate/Museums/Drayden

Nice children's desks

Lunch boxes

Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass are on the blackboard.

Bowling pins and toys