October’s Competition was Nature.
Emily Carter was our judge
Advanced Projected
- 1st Place: David Terao ~ The Spider and the Fly
- 2nd Place: Wendy Kates ~ Dancing Tulips
- 3rd Place: Ilona Linnoila ~Total Eclipse with Blood Moon in 2025
- HM: Karen Finkelman ~ Leaf Buddies
- HM: Larry Gold ~ Mind Your Beeswax 2
David Terao ~ The Spider and the Fly
I shot this image at the Agricultural History Farm Park in Derwood, Maryland this summer where they have a public, trial dahlia garden. While shooting the dahlias, I found a jumping spider in a white dahlia. While I was shooting the spider, a hover fly landed on the petal above the spider. I quickly focused on the fly’s eyes and got one shot before it flew away. I focus-stacked the image with the one I took moments before that was focused on the spider’s eyes to get the final image.
Intermediate and Novice Projected
- 1st Place: Gerry Woods ~ Butterfly
- 2nd Place: Thomas Allen ~ Gulls on the Rocks
- 3rd Place: Will Rabinovich ~ Fall Surprise
- HM: Cathy Faughnan ~ Harvestmoth
- HM: Tanya Riseman ~ Teen and Parent Yellow-Crowned Night Herons
Cathy Faughnan ~ Harvestmoth
This is a Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos), a small North American butterfly in the Nymphalidae (brush-footed) family. It rests gracefully on a marigold in my backyard patio planter n Chevy Chase, MD.. Its intricate orange-and-black wings blend seamlessly with the flower’s fiery petals. The photo was taken handheld with a Nikon Z7 camera with a macro lens at ISO 1000, f/9.0, and 1/1000 second shutter speed.
Advanced Print
- 1st Place: Sherm Edwards ~ Birch Reflections, Maine
- 2nd Place: David Terao ~ Great Southern White
Sherm Edwards ~ Birch Reflections, Maine
This reflection shot was taken in Acadia National Park, Maine, where I was attending a NANPA workshop the week before the competition. The original includes the trees themselves, but the more I cropped, the better I liked the image. While there wasn’t a lot of foliage color at the time, this was one of the better spots. Taken with my Canon R5, RF 70-200 f2.8 lens, 153 mm, 1/160 sec. at f11.
Intermediate and Novice Print
1st Place: Will Rabinovich ~ Confluence
Will Rabinovich ~ Confluence
This image was taken while at an Out of Chicago Workshop in the Smoky Mountains. It was in the Tremont area are along the stream there. I was drawn to the meeting of water at this point, and I took many different compositions at different shutter speeds. This one was at 70mm and 1/5 seconds. The processing was pretty basic, and was done in Lightroom. I printed the image with an Epson P800 printer on Red River Ultra Pro Satin Paper