St. Mary's County Camera Club End of Year Competition

 On Oct 20th, the St. Mary’s County Camera Club had the end of year competition including all of the winning photographs from the monthly competitions.  I had entries in the Advanced Digital photos, 1 entry in advanced prints and 2 in Theme.  I was almost embarrassed to win Advanced digital 1^st place (Point No Point Lighthouse) and 2nd (Osprey Landing) and 3rd (kitten 2) and both honorable mentions, (St. Mary’s College of MD Sunset and Gladiolus) plus 2^nd place in advanced prints (Butterfly and Bee).  Several of the clubs best photographers spent a lot of time teaching and judging the club members at meetings, instead of competing.  I think it made it a lot easier for me to win.

Bluhaven Piers in St. Mary's County

Bluhaven Piers, a 50 slip marina in South County is 6 miles from the Chesapeake Bay at 48409 Smith Drive in Ridge MD.  It’s an excellent location for fishing, sailing or just meandering in the creeks.  I took this lovely photo with its’ peaceful reflections last autumn on a calm clear day. (Bluhaven photo and photo merchandise available here) Bluhaven offers covered slips, a ship’s store, Hobie kayak sales and rentals and the usual marina services like bath and shower facilities, electric power, mechanic service, internet and a boat ramp.  It is located on Jutland and Smith creeks, home to bald eagles, great blue herons, deer and osprey.  Nearby attractions include Point Lookout State Park and Historic St. Mary’s City.  Several good restaurants like Sheible’s, Spinnaker’s, Courtney’s and the Brome Howard Inn are in easy reach.  The staff I have met from Bluhaven have always been friendly and courteous.  For more information about Bluhaven, visit their website at http://www.bluhavenpiers.com or call them at 301-872-5838.

Pet Photography Practice

I try to find time to practice pet photography when I can.  I recently read a book I would recommend called "Pet Photography 101:  Tips for Taking Better Photos of your Dog or Cat" by Andrew Darlow.  The book has 101 tips for taking good pet photos.  He also has a companion pet photo tip website and a flickr site.

The first thing I concentrated on was trying to be at the same level as the pet.  For some of these photos I put my sister's Westies on a chair.  The chair was a fairly nice backdrop and I didn't have to lie on the floor to photograph them.  I moved the chair so that there wasn't a lot of extra things in the back and sides of the photos to distract your eye.

I also looked around for helpful props that we could use and found a dog leash, a Fire Chief hat and a silly martian headband.  The dog leash looked the best.  I am especially interested in humorous pet photography, so I also tried putting a dog in the little bathroom sink.

It was helpful to have my husband there to get the dog's attention.  Even with help, it still takes patience to get good photos.

I am gathering ideas for humorous photos.  Please send me any inexpensive ideas you have!  I plan to visit Target to see if they have any cute costumes.  I also got some useful props from the dollar store.

Solomon's Offshore Boat Races

Near St. Mary's County, we were happy to ride the short distance North to Calvert County to view the Solomon's Offshore Grand Prix.  We viewed the boat's on land before the race.  Even though the dreary weather probably reduced the crowd considerably, the race was still exciting. Miss Geico was one of the winners.  There were two races.  The first race had several groups of boats separated by varied starting times and the category 5 boats were limited to 75 mph.  The second race didn't have speed restrictions and included the famous Miss Geico (can't miss that yellow color!)

St. Mary's County Fair Photo Winnings

We had a lot of fun at the St. Mary’s County Fair this weekend.  Jim and I helped out the camera club by accepting entries and returning entries on 2 different days at the Photography competition.  Jim also helped out during the judging session by putting up photos.  We both won prizes this year.  I got a big purple ribbon for Best Photo in “Life in St. Mary’s County” for my picture of “St. Mary’s College of Maryland Sunset”.  First place for “Mishka”, (a Siberian Husky on my Apr 20^th blog), 2^nd place for” a Marionette with Balloons” from last year’s Mitchell Marionettes, 2^nd prize for an “Osprey Landing”, and honorable mention for a “Great Blue Heron” and a “Waterfall with Ferns”.  Jim’s 3^rd prizes were “Two Geese Arguing” and a “Tunnel Abstract” made with a red torchlight.  I was pleased with the prize for Mishka, because I am learning pet photography.  I also had fun telling Nancy Mitchell and her husband, Jack Gebhardt, from Mitchell Marionette Productions that a photo of their mouse marionette won a prize from last year’s fair.  When Nancy saw me in the crowd, she announced that an award winning photographer was in the audience and they might want to go and view the photo.  Other highlights at the fair included trying a fried milky way bar on a stick made with funnel cake dough, the flowers on exhibit, the horse pull, watching horse jumping, the Mitchell Marionettes, watching the Queen of Tolerance win and visiting the goats , sheep and Clydesdale horses.

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http://www.nyip.com/ezine/holidays/halloween.html

Here are some nice tips for Fall Photography and Halloween from the online school where I am taking an Adobe Photoshop course, The New York Institute of Photography.  It's a wonderful website to pickup good tips for free even if you aren't taking a course.

New York City visit

Last week, we visited the Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It is wise to plan what you carry with you in advance when visiting. Our visit began in Jersey City, New Jersey at the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. If we hadn’t been with a tour group, I would have stopped to explore this old station with greenery growing along the tracks. The station apparently has a long history dating back to 1838.


You will go through a rather involved security check on your visit. Hand carry your camera, since backpacks and cases aren’t allowed. The best shots of The Statue of Liberty were either from the ferry with a long lens or from the shore beneath the statue. It was also interesting to look up at the statue from the Pedestal and there is a nice skyline view of New York City from the ferry.

There was a giant face and foot inside the Pedestal museum for fun photos. We didn’t go up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Only a limited number of visitors can take the stairs to the crown and it must be reserved in advance (up to a year). I read that it can also get quite hot in the crown area in summertime.

Food was available at both locations and I found the café staff at Ellis Island to be very friendly. We only spent a few hours at each location, but it would be easy to spend most of a whole day at each historical spot. There were lots of photographs and stories at Ellis Island and the museum about the Statue of Liberty showed a fascinating history.