Photo time for the photo weekends at Pennyrile Park is split into two days.  For most people, that is about five hours of afternoon and evening light on Friday and the same of morning light on Saturday, around 10 to 12 hours total, unless you have a penchant for night photography which could potentially extend your time to a full 24 hours.  Personally, I am not partial to wandering the lake trails in the dark.

Since one of the categories for my Intermediate class this session is photos of the Lodge, I did try some night shots around the grounds, but I felt the lighted windows were too blown out, so I wound up not using them.  That’s not unusual.  We are allowed to turn in only one picture for each of four categories.  I had a total of 274 images on my card when we stopped shooting to come in and eat lunch today.  Picking four out of all that is time consuming, so we didn’t go back out afterwards.

The weather wasn’t very cooperative this time.  It rained Friday afternoon and evening without any dramatic storm clouds or lightening to make up for it.  The weather forecasts promised clearing skies today, but the cloud cover is just beginning to break up and all entries had to be turned in by 5pm so it’s really too late for the competition.  Of course, we shoot a lot that isn’t suitable for the contest.

One of my favorite things to shoot is wildflowers (well flowers in general, they don’t have to be wild) and I shot several even though they didn’t fit any of my assigned categories.  I’m a flower dilettante, I don’t know the names of very many, I just enjoy them.  Wildflowers were a category for the Master’s class because the “season” is nearly over.  Supposedly they peaked a couple of weeks ago, but I saw them everywhere I went.  Maybe not the rare ones that all the “flower people” seek out and brag about, but the shy little “Plain Janes”  make for some very nice pictures.

Our dawn foray to Fisherman’s Rock after only about four hours of sleep was something of a disappointment since there was no sun or mist.  The lake is very low due to a lack of rain after they drained the water level down to survey the beach area in the hope of being able to restore it.  We all remember swimming there every summer as kids and no one was too upset about the lack of water because we’d like to see it open again.  It does seem very strange to be able to walk across what’s always been the lake bottom and Jim couldn’t resist the opportunity to get closer shots of the cliffs across from the beach.  He claims he “forgot” about the admonitory signs painted on the rocks he was climbing.  I guess he’s been “press” so long he thinks he’s above worrying about such things.  😉

There’s a program with a guest speaker tonight.  WM. Gross Magee of Murray University will speak on “Seeing the Light” at 8pm.  Then tomorrow morning he and Lowell Mendyk, the park Naturalists assistant who has more than 20 years of photojournalism experience will have the joyous task of judging all the photos.   Awards will be announced and critiques given around noon.  Plan on joining us next year.  Even when the weather is crappy and the categories more challenging than we’d like, we have lots of fun and make new friends along the way.