Bay Front Park in Chesapeake Beach

I had a craving to visit a beach before the weather got cold, even for just a day.  So we drove to Chesapeake Beach and went to Bay Front Park with the dog.  The weather was gorgeous and we walked around and talked with lots of other dogs.

I posted the dogs on my Facebook page, so here is the beach.  It was quite interesting with some logs, cliffs, shark's teeth, small horseshoe crabs, a little wildlife, a boardwalk and a bridge.  It was more of a walking beach than a swimming beach, since the water cleanliness was poor earlier in the summer.  There were no showers or flush toilets.  In the summer, it would have cost $10-$18 each to visit as a non Calvert resident.  We had lunch and walked around and took pictures.  Later we had a lovely outdoor meal at the Chesapeake Beach Resort and Spa and drove to North Beach for the sunset and ice cream.  It was a very memorable day.

     Cliffs

 

     Jim suggested photographing the cliff through the hole in the log.  It was a little tricky to get the right angle and I had to walk in the water to access the spot.

      Tidal inlet

     Little bridge over the inlet.  The creek was bigger on the right side.

     The boardwalk to the historical area was on the left.

     Small horseshoe crab

     Tiny horseshoe crab

Award Winning photo from St Mary's County Camera Club in August 2017

I forgot to post my 1st place Eagle Nesting Photo from the Wildlife theme in last month's competition.  This bald eagle was building up a nest in October 2016 when I caught it flying around with a stick.  I prefer to use more recent photos in competition.

I have been spotting an eagle nearby lately, since the osprey have left for the season.  Last year we rarely saw any.  A neighbor put up several bird blinds for hunting and the eagles disappeared.  I expect the same thing will happen this year.  I need to enjoy seeing them while I can.

Southern Maryland Balloon Festival

I promised more photos of the Balloon Festival from Spider Hall Farm in Prince Frederick.  I just can't resist all those colors!

     You can just make out the balloon on the ground that you could walk into!

     Inside a balloon.

      My reflective clip on sunglasses looked interesting!

    Tethered rides

Petting zoo calf

      Free climbing wall

     Musician friends: Don Stapleson

     Jennifer Cooper

     The glow

     The Fireworks

     A flower?

Southern Maryland Balloon Festival Aug 26th

Just a few photos to share from the balloon festival in Prince Frederick, MD.  I have lots more, but I'm busy getting ready for the Artwalk in Leonardtown square tomorrow 5-8 pm.  More later.

     Inside a balloon

      Tethered hot air balloons

     Jennifer Cooper, singer

      Don Stapleson, saxophonist

Another Eclipse Photo

One more eclipse photo, the first one I took.  A little overexposed, but I liked the star effect.

Eclipse Photos from St. Mary's County, MD

My husband had a solar filter for his telescope.  It was bigger than my 150-500 mm lens, so we just let gravity hold it down.  We had a scary moment, when I almost let it fall off the end.  Yikes!  The eclipse was about 80 percent or so here.

Jim remembered seeing interesting crescents on the ground through the trees when he was younger, so I photographed that too.

Winning Photos for July from Camera Club

I had two honor photos from July 2017 at the St Marys County Camera Club.  The special theme was Destruction.  I'm not too keen on photos of destroyed cars and buildings, so I used a little creative thinking.  I asked Jim to make me some huge bubbles with a bubble wand.  Using a fast shutter and my hand holding a gadget to pop the bubble, I finally caught a half popped bubble.  It won first theme digital.

I also got Advanced second place for a sunset reflection in my new neighbors window.  The judge liked the interrupted pattern.