78th Annual Cumberland Valley Photographic Salon

Each year, in the winter of the year, the Washington County Museum of Fine Art holds a photographic Salon.  As near as I can tell, this is just a juried photographic exhibit.  Whoever feels they have worthy pictures can enter the salon.  There is a juror who reviews the pictures and chooses the ones he feels will make a good exhibit.

This year there were no categories; there were no criteria.  So it was up to the Juror's discretion.

In order to be prepared to display the images in January and February, the images must be submitted by Thanksgiving  or thereabouts.

Annette and I have entered in the past with some measure of luck.  We have each had some chosen to be hung in the exhibit.  Last year, we were not so fortunate.  Neither of us got a picture into the exhibit.

This year there was stiff competition.  There were 401 entries and only 65 were chosen. That means that 5 out of every 6 submissions were returned to the artist without being hung.

I was lucky.  My picture, entitled, Yellow House on the Hill was chosen for the exhibit.  I am tickled.

My other entry, Antique Car Remains, was not chosen for the exhibit.  Oh, well, I still enjoy this photograph. 

The exhibit will start on January 22 and run until early March.  There will be an opening reception and awards ceremony on January 23, 2011 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

If you get a chance, stop by the Washington County Museum of Fine Art in City Park, Hagerstown, Md. and see the exhibit.  I hear there will be a lot of very good images displayed.

Mabry Mill

Just a quick post this time.

On the way home from Florida, Annette and I did not want to spend the whole day in the car.  We wanted to have some kind of photo shoot on the way home.

So we took a detour.  We got off of the highway and drove about thirty miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Along the way we came across Mabry Mill (Mile 176).  The mill was fascinating because of two things for me.

1.)  The water was carried in the wooden troughs for quite a ways.
2.)  The water was used to power three distinct portions of the mill.  There was a grist mill, a sawmill and a workshop.

The light was very contrasty in the late afternoon.  The mill sat down behind the roadway in partial shadow.  So I didn't get many usable pictures.  Oh, well, I have to learn to quit making excuses!

Here are two pictures from the mill.  I hope you enjoy them.

Mabry Mill

Mill Stones from Mabry Mill

Atietam Battlefield Luminaries

 December 4, 2010 was the occasion of the lighting of the luminaries in the Antietam Battlefield National Park.  There were approximately 23,000 luminaries placed and lit!  I can't even imagine the amount of effort and coordination that went into that!

When we arrived there about 4:00 p.m., we were very excited to get out and take pictures.  In retrospect, we should have just walked the area pre-planning our shots and then went back to the car until it was dark enough for the luminaries to glow.  That way we would have been warm.

It wasn't all that cold; probably around freezing.  But standing out on the damp ground is a slight breeze made it feel much colder.

Oh, well, at least we were able to chat with other photographers.  I love to chat with other photographers.  I want to see how they see things; how they approach their shots.  Who knows, I might learn something useful.

After darkness descended, the auto focus did not work.  Even when I tried to focus, there was not enough light to see if the focus was good.  So I had to guess at the focus.  I just rotated the focus ring to infinity and backed off a wee bit.  Pretty crude!  Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.

Anyway, here a four pictures from the shoot.  I hope you enjoy them.

This first one was shot near the park headquarters building looking down towards the Dunker Church.

 The shot above and the shot below are of the Maryland Monument.  I lucked out in the photo above.  I didn't know that the other photographer was going to light paint the monument.  It just happened during my 30 second exposure.

This was my last shot of the evening.  As we were walking toward the car, I stopped and climbed up the bank in front of the Dunker Church and planted by tripod.  Since the tripod was already collapsed, I got down on my knees to frame this shot.  I was really cold at this point, so I was in a hurry.

I told the guys that I was with that this Luminary shoot would be great fun...in June!

Thanksgiving in Daytona Beach

Our son has the perhaps enviable opportunity of living in Florida for a year while attending school.  He is experiencing something different that good old, small-town Pennsylvania.  But that also means that Annette and I had the opportunity to travel to Daytona Beach for Thanksgiving.  We drove down two vehicles and came back in one.  Our son is tickled to have his car.

On Friday morning, before our son eve thought about opening his eyes, Annette and I headed for the beach.  Unfortunately, it was an overcast morning.  But that didn't stop us from taking pictures!

These first three pictures were taken under the Daytona Beach Pier.  The building on the pier, which I believe was once a restaurant, is in very poor repair, which in my opinion makes an interesting photograph!

 Annette is my "fixer".  She can talk to anybody.  She has such a great, happy, personality that people instantly like her.  (I don't know how she got stuck with a stick-in-the-mud like me.)

Anyway, she walked up to the fisherman in the pictures below and struck up a conversation, the outcome of which was that he allowed her (and me) to take pictures of him as he surf fished.  His yellow rain gear made a great contrast to the overcast day.

When took a break from fishing, he brought out the bird feed.  He obviously had a history and a rapport with the birds.  He got them to eat out of his hand and then he got them to sit on his head!!!

 A little later, I noticed a family come out onto the beach.  Two little boys from the family had their sand buckets and went looking for...for...I don't know!  They went looking for whatever little boys go looking for at the beach.  Anyway, I thought they made a great picture as they walked side-by-side along the edge of the water.