This past weekend was a marathon in many ways.

Big Weekend part 1

Friday, I helped set up at  the Jefferson County Photography Club competition and exhibition. This is a print competition and I was a judge for it last year.  The quality of work is off the chart. The competition has grown to just under 600 images and it draws a good size crowd.

This year Molly and I entered several images as new competitors. After the set up and other stuff, Betty and Paul Fisher, Leah and Scott Villmer met Molly and I at our house and  had Lancito’s pizza. Lancito’s is a must when you are in New Haven–great pizza.

Then it was off to the New Haven Balloon Glow. The glow is held in the city park and the balloon “captains’ are warm and friendly allowing some up close and personal interaction.  Molly and I have a ton of images and we are in the midst of major home project, so post processing is essentially “on hold’. This one shot will have to do until I get off my posterior and get with the program.

Big Weekend Part 2

Saturday was award day at the Jeffco Photography Club. Molly won a first place in Wildlife and a 3rd in Transportation. The club takes all of the 1st place images and picks the best of the 1st place, same for 2nd and 3rd. Each place has a ‘best’ overall. I was fortunate enough to be awarded the 2nd Overall and 3rd Overall winner.

For a list of winners and the Overall images go here

6th Annual Jefferson Photography Club Competition.

Big Weekend Part 3

The Battle of Pilot Knob Reenactment

Every 3 years they have a reenactment of the Battle of Pilot Knob (Google is your friend for further knowledge)

Molly has always had an interest in the Civil War and has wanted to attend for several years but we were either too late or it was not one of the years they have the reenactment. This year, all the stars aligned. We spent the night in Farmington and got an early start arriving as the camp opened for visitors. We took our nephew Zachary and spent the day photographing all the activities. We joined up with  Scott Villmer and Will Solomon from the JeffCo club and swapped stories and settings for capturing the action. Again— way toooooooo many images but I am going to share this one with everyone. Molly was essentially adopted by the reenactors as you can see. One of the reenactors used her camera and did a pretty good job as well.

Congratulations to Wayne Sheridan for being chosen as the Grand Prize Winner in the St Louis Post Dispatch Eclipse Photo Contest.  Link to StlPD article

Wayne’s image was chosen as the Best of the Best out of 900 images. Carolyn Schleuter alerted me to Wayne’s win and I sent him an email asking if I could post his image on the blog. He graciously said yes. I also asked him about where he took the image and equipment and settings. Here is his reply.

Hi Bill, sure. I went to my moms house in Millstadt, Il. Because in St Charles we weren’t quite in the totality path. I made a filter from a thin ND sheet i bought on eBay and superglued it onto an old UV filter. I was really not expecting too much just wanted to enjoy it with wife and mom. I mounted the filter on my 40-150mm Olympus Zoom with a 1.4 extender and tried to capture the diamond ring. I used the old trick of stopping down the f stop to f22 to increase diffraction artifacts and got a real nice star effect. Lucky! It was a wonderful experience just observing the eclipse. Hope all is well with you and yours!
Wayne

 

Wayne, who refers to himself as a ‘persistent photographer’  has shown himself to be quite ingenious developing the improvised filter as well as a talented photographer.

Join me in congratulating Wayne on his well deserved award.

(used with Wayne’s permission)

Normally, this blog is to promote Molly’s photography but every once in awhile, I accomplish something worth tooting a horn about.

I recently had an image that was used as the cover for a regional hunting magazine. The magazine is published by Scott Gordon and is a labor of love that promotes the people that love duck hunting. Scott and I both have a love for the stories written by Gordon MacQuarrie, Labrador Retrievers and wild windy mornings in a duck blind with friends.

You can read more about Take’ Em magazine here:

http://duckmagz.com

Take’em Face Book Link/ and here Take’Em Website

Photo by Carolyn Schlueter (taken with an IPhone while visiting New Haven)