Maryland

2011 In Pictures

These are a sampling of pictures I have taken this year.  I selected them based on how representative they were of the month I took them in.

January

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This was the most snow I can remember.  6.5″ to 7″ total depending on where I measured.  Duke and Daisy had fun in it.

February

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I didn’t have alot of photos from February.  This was one of the few.  I took it from the shore of Woods Reservoir.

March

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I got a few flower pics for March along with pictures of the Supermoon on March 19.

April

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April was the month mainly remembered for the Southeast tornado outbreak (more).  The next to last picture was of the clouds that day near sunset.  Other than that, Daisy liked it.  I liked the hummingbird photo I took with the strange lens flare.  I also liked that last sunrise photo for the colors.

May

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Didn’t have a whole lot of notable pictures for May.  I thought this carved figurine was pretty neat.  Its just a solar light.

June

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June was a very good month for lightning.  On the 15th, there was a massive electrical storm.  I captured lots of lightning strikes that day.  One of the composites I created from that day is above.  You can find more here and here.

July

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July was another month I didn’t have a lot of photos from, but I did get one of Duke.

August

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I started off August with a trip to Solomons, Maryland.  I’ve selected a few photos from the trip but more can be found here.  Towards the end there was some lightning and I tried my hand at some star trail photography.

September

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Photos from September consist primarily of ones taken from Sewanee.  The photos I selected were taken near the end of the month at sunset (or just after).

October

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October was a mixed month.  It started off with a bit of a fiery sunset, had some lightning, had a double sundog near the middle, and ended with another trip to Sewanee.

November

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November was a pretty good month for photos.  I got some pretty good sunrise, mud hen, abstract, and star photos.  The star photos I’ve included here were taken with a new lines I got, a Nikon35mm f/1.8.

December

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I was able to get some pretty good sunrise photos at the beginning of December.  I toyed around with that new lens I mentioned earlier along with some exposure settings.  I think I liked the results.  Around the middle, I went to see Tornado Alley 3D at the Chattanooga IMax.  I was able to get a decent shot after sunset of Lookout Mountain.  The month ended with trip to Huntsville to see the Galaxy of Lights at the Huntsville Botanical Garden.  I didn’t have many photos from the Galaxy of Lights so I just included one of the Rocket Center.

 

Posted by Chad Dotson in Featured, Misc, Photography, 0 comments

Solomons, Maryland Trip

Back at the beginning of August, I took my first flight to Baltimore, Maryland for a trip down to Solomons, MD.  The flight up there was a little bumpy.  I didn’t know “average” turbulence could be so rough.

Its quite a drive from Baltimore to Solomons.  I was kind of surprised how fast you can get out of the larger cities into more rural areas.  Also, traffic circles seem to have been the favorite traffic management device.  Went through two on the way down practically in the middle of nowhere, relative speaking.

The area around Solomons apparently is very tightly zoned.  What used to be the island part (Solomons Island) is very nice.  There are a few light houses and natural areas in the vicinity, I did not make it to those however.  I did make it to the Patuxent River NAS Museum, those photos are included below.

We ate at Stoney’s Solomons Pier Restaurant first night, Digiovanni’s Dock of the Bay second night, and Boomerangs third night; all were pretty decent.  I’ve included two videos I took on the flight back, more videos can be found at the link at the end of the post after the two best videos and the photos.

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You can find a few more videos of Solomons, MD on the playlist I created for this trip: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL149F074C018EE34B

Posted by Chad Dotson in Misc, Photography, 0 comments