A Spring Visit to Point Lookout State Park

I spent a lovely few hours at Point Lookout State Park to see if there were any birds around and found access to the beach and Fort area.  I visited the redoubt (panorama) and prison re-creation with a few tents and a guard house.  There were 2 occupied osprey nests.

Lighthouse with Cormorants

Guard Post No. 9 Prison of War Display

Redoubt

Camellias in Bloom

There are some beautiful pink Japanese camellias nearby.  Unfortunately, they probably won’t grow in my yard, which has more of a limestone soil.  The local Native Americans used our property to toss their used oyster shells, sort of a garbage dump.  So I find other places to photograph them.  They are quite beautiful and delicate looking, with heart shaped petals.

Cherry Blossom Time in St. Marys County

The cherry blossoms were quite early this year.  The ones in my yard still haven’t bloomed yet.  I found plenty on display at the Lexington Manor Passive Park, and in parking lots everywhere in Lexington Park and Leonardtown.  The headquarters for St Marys County Schools had some gorgeous ones with lamp posts and reflections.  Generally, the photos are enhanced by having something else as the subject with the flowers used like a lovely frame.  The blossoms themselves or several trees are pretty too.

Reflections

Lamp post

Backlighting

Framed with a Tree

Delicate 

Frame a Cloud

Arrival of the Osprey

It's that time of year again.  The osprey almost have an internal biological clock, possibly the length of the day or environmental changes.  They arrive within a few days of March 15th to our area every year.  I thought I saw one at the neighbor's house on March 16th and quite a few more on the 17th.  There are sometimes haggles over who gets which nest.  I briefly saw 3 osprey at the nest, and later I thought there was some arguing going on.  The geese have been getting more agressive in recent years too and sometimes decide it is their nest.  At the moment, there are a pair of ospreys.  We enjoy watching them, even though we make them nervous when they see us.

Not a good photo, but you can see there were three.  The left one was obviously afraid and I believe the middle one was the agressor.

Heart Bokeh Experiment

I wanted to try a technique to make differently shaped bokeh (pronounced bouquet), little specular highlights (bright spots) made by the camera lens.  I cut a heart shaped black paper and held it directly on the lens after watching an online video.  At first, I tried leaving it about an inch from the lens and that didn’t work.  I used some bright shiny Christmas ornaments for bright objects.  It is certainly different and might be fun to play with again with different flowers or objects.  It is certainly different.  Usually the bokeh is in the background, not as often in the foreground.

Playing With Tulips

I bought some tulips at the grocery store, not knowing what color they would be.  I like pink, as it was a color that goes well with my skin tone, so I had quite a few items to play with for still lifes.  I even tried the live setting to make a blur.  These were all photographed and edited with my phone, since I still have to work on the Nikon photos.  (I expect the osprey to show up this week to add to my photographic interests.)

Easter bouquet

Spring is Here

That poor groundhog must have been confused.  It is Spring here and winter for much of the country.  There are buds everywhere in Southern Maryland.

Hyacinth




Daffodils 




Weeping willow

Winter iris