Blog Comments

Hi Everyone. I just wanted to mention that if you post a comment to one of my posts that is more than 3 days old, your comment won't be posted right away. In order to limit spam, I have the blog set up that I have to moderate comments on the older posts. Even if I don't post for a while, I do try to check in to see if there are comments awaiting moderation. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I figured it will help with the spam. Blogger does a great job in filtering spam because so far I haven't had any. Let's hope it stays that way!

While I'm posting, I thought I'd share this photo with you.  My brother Mike made this when we were teenagers. We made some fancy ornaments and Mike decided to do his own design. My mom (I think) nicknamed it Sputnik. Since my brother died in 1987, it has been a very special ornament. I got it a couple years ago when my parents stopped putting up a tree. They both passed away this year so I got all the special ornaments.

Maryland Mountainside

It's a beautiful day to travel today. I drove home from all the Christmas festivities and the weather was magnificent. It's windy but sunny and clear. The mountains looked beautiful. It was a lot better than yesterday when I had to deal with snow on my trip home from visiting my brother. The forecast was for a "slight chance of snow showers" but no one told the snow that and we wound up with about 3 inches. Nasty for traveling! Today was much more relaxing

Sideling Hill

view from Sideling Hill

Rocky Gap State Park

Holly in the snow

Thought this photo was appropriate for the Christmas season. Merry Christmas to all!

Winter Wonderland!

There was some nasty weather in many parts of the country the past few days. The mountains of Western Maryland got their share. I'm just glad I didn't have to drive in it. Here are some photos of the beautiful sights I got to enjoy this afternoon.

Martins Mountain

 

Sideling Hill

Town Hill

(Sideling Hill is in the background)

Another moon photo

I went back out with my new 500mm zoom lens this evening. The full moon was yesterday but the weather was lousy here so I didn't get a chance to take pictures. Today was really windy but I managed to get some decent shots. I think this one is my favorite:

The Moon

I bought a new lens for my camera this week. I decided to splurge on a 500mm zoom lens. It's huge! It came today and it was perfect timing because the moon was almost full. Here's how the moon looks through a 500mm zoom lens:

2014 Photo Calendars

I enjoy sharing my photos in many different ways. One of those ways is through yearly calendars. Each year, I make a 5x7 calendar with 13 different 4x6 photos. Each month has its own actual photograph. Below are the photos from the brand new 2014 calendar. I sell these through my web site, so if you're interested, you can go to www.faithproductionsofcumberland.com/onlinestore.php to order the calendars. You can order through PayPal and if you don't have a PayPal account you can use a credit card through PayPal without needing an account.

 Here are the photos for 2014 (actual photos in the calendars will not have the watermark on them):
 

Cover

                                       

                    

 

Cover, January, March, April, November: Rocky Gap State Park
May: Swallowtails at Shad Landing State Park, Snow Hill, MD
July: Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Cambridge, MD
August: View from Sherwood's Landing, Inn at Perry Point, St. Michaels, MD
September: Martins Mountain, Allegany County, MD
October: Casselman River Bridge State Park, Garrett County, MD

(This formatting on Blogger is not cooperating and I couldn't get the titles to match up with the photos. The winter photo with the boat house is January, then the bird is February, and so on.)

Rocky Gap State Park--One last autumn trip

I took one last trip out to Rocky Gap State Park to take fall foliage photos. The colors were hit and miss this year but it is still a beautiful place.  Here are a few of my photos from last week:

(this one was actually from Sunday)

Another visit to Rocky Gap State Park

A few weeks ago I posted some early fall foliage photos from Rocky Gap State Park. Well, I went back there after work yesterday to see how the foliage looked. The colors really weren't too exciting this year but Rocky Gap is beautiful no matter what.  Here are a few late afternoon photos.

Beautiful Moon

It's been a while since I posted anything. Sorry about that. It was nice and clear tonight for some moon viewing. Here are a couple photos of the moon rising over the mountain.

Autumn in Garrett County, MD

I took a drive out to Garrett County, MD last week but the weather wasn't too cooperative. On my way home, the sun did come out when I was at the Casselman River Bridge State Park. They recently finished some repairs to the bridge and I must say it looks mighty fine.

More from Rocky Gap State Park

There isn't a whole lot of fall colors yet at Rocky Gap in Western Maryland but it's still a beautiful place. The photos below are just 2 of the many I took the other day. The weather was absolutely perfect.

The Battle of Antietam

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to visit Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, MD. When I planned my trip, I didn't even realize that September 17 is the 151 anniversary of the battle. We tend to forget a lot of the history we learned in school. I wanted to share a few of my photos I took on Sunday.

Soldiers along the Sunken Rd. (Bloody Lane)

Burnside Bridge

Soldiers along the Sunken Rd.

view from near the Visitors Center

near Poffenberger Farm

Poffenberger Farm

View from High Rock

One of my favorite places to visit in Maryland is High Rock, in Washington County. It overlooks a valley where you can see Hagerstown, MD to the south and Waynesboro, PA to the north. It was a little hazy when I was up there so it was hard to see things too far to the west. What beautiful farmland!

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

I love steam engines so I'm so happy I have one close to where I live. This is the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in Cumberland, MD. I just took this photo a couple days ago. It didn't turn out the greatest since the sun was at a bad angle, but after I photoshopped some color into the sky, it doesn't look too bad. If you want to check out more of my steam engine photos, as well as some CSX trains, visit my web site at http://www.faithproductionsofcumberland.com/imagegallery.php?view=thumbnailList&category=17.