October 2010. I recently found out that I was very fortunate to have one of my images chosen as Highly Honored in the 2010 Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards competition. The image of Queen Anne's Lace silhouetted against a full moon appears below. It will be featured in the 2010 Fall/Winter issue of Nature's Best magazine along with all of the other winners. Here is the caption description that will appear with the image:
"My goal was to photograph the full moon rising over a pond at a nearby nature center. While I was returning to my car, I noticed Queen Anne’s lace growing along the trail. It occurred to me that the round shape of the plant might fit perfectly into the disk of the full moon. I set up my equipment, being careful to keep my camera back parallel to the plane of the flower. I made the image when the flower was centered and I could balance the exposure between the moon and the sky.”
Canon 5D Mark II; 70-200mm ƒ/4L at 200mm; 1.4x teleconverter; 0.5 sec at ƒ/5.6; ISO 100; Induro C213 tripod; Induro DM23 ballhead.
August 2010. I recently spent the weekend of August 27-29 in Lake Placid, NY as an instructor at the "Adirondack Photography Weekend." It was sponsored by the Adirondack Photography Institute and Adirondack Life magazine. We stayed at the Northwoods Inn, where we had excellent meals and lively indoor sessions ranging from how to make panoramic photographs to nighttime shooting to making submissions to Adirondack Life magazine. In addition, we took the 15 participants on early morning and late afternoon field trips to beautiful locations near Lake Placid. Below is an image of the MacKenzie Mountain Range I made at sunrise at a viewpoint north of Saranac Lake. A great time was had by all. What a way to spend a weekend!
