RadiantView PhotoBlog

1st place in 2009 Claude Moore Park Photo Expo, Youth 12 and under category

We just found out this evening that my daughter Sarah’s picture of a Lotus blossom won 1st place in the Claude Moore Park 2009 Photo Expo for the Youth 12 and under category!  Needless to say, she was very excited and I was very proud of her.

I submitted two photos.   One for the “Roots & Buds” category and one for the “winged wonders.”  While they were selected to be shown in the expo, I didn’t win any ribbons.   Oh well.

The Photo Expo is this coming Saturday,  September 26th, from 10 am to 4 pm if you are interested in attending.  It’s a free event.

My two photos are shown below.

Lotus on Canvas by Tim Pennington

Gyro Falcon by Tim Pennington

As promised, here is a panoramic of VMI’s Barracks.  As mentioned in my previous post, this was taken in the evening while I was waiting for the moonrise.  I’m not sure this will replace by original panoramic as I hoped — I think I’ll need to go back when the light is better and there aren’t so many orange cones and cars in the scene.

Panoramic of VMI Barracks, Sept 2009

Click on the image for a “zoomify” version.

Full Moon rising over VMI Old Barracks

Full Moon Rise over VMI Old Barracks

My family decided to take advantage of the long Labor Day weekend and visit special friends in Lexington, Virginia.  Since this would cause me to miss the full moon rise over DC, I did some quick research on Google Maps and figured out where I needed to stand so I could capture the full moon rising over the Old Barracks of the Virginia Military Institute.

My daughter and I got to post about 30 minutes before moonrise to allow us plenty of time to setup.  I used the time to capture a series of images to create a panoramic of Old Barracks, New Barracks and the “New New” Barracks which was completed this past year.  Once I get it the series of images processed into a panoramic, it will replace the image currently in the panoramic gallery of my web page.

Full Moonrise over VMI Old Barracks

As it turned out, we had a 15 minutes or so longer than I expected.  When you capture the moonrise over DC from the US Marine Corps Memorial, you are essentially looking down on the city.  So, you see the moon almost immediately when it breaks the horizon.  At VMI, the moon came up behind Old Barracks, so we had to wait another 15 minutes before we could actually see it from our position on the Parade Ground.

Full moonrise over VMI Old Barracks

Capturing the full moon over Barracks proved to be a little more challenging than in DC for a couple reasons.  One, the front of Barracks is not as well lit as the monuments in DC.  Two, this combined with the 15 minute delay between moonrise over the horizon and moonrise over Barracks further increased the intensity range between a good exposure of the moon and a good exposure of barracks.  Nevertheless, I was pleased with a few of the captures.

VMI Parade

VMI’s 1st Parade of the 2009-2010 year

Another photographic opportunity presented itself when I learned that the 1st parade of VMI’s 2009-2010 school year was scheduled for the morning after the full moonrise.  My wife and youngest daughter joined me to watch the parade.  They seemed to enjoy it and I was glad to be a  spectator taking pictures rather than standing in the ranks as I was many years ago.  A few more images from the parade can be seen on my Flickr page.

Any guesses why this image is titled "five demerits"

I chose my last image for a couple reasons.  One, you will not find another image like it from a parade by any other military school, including West Point.  Why?  Because VMI, being the only military school in the U.S. to fight as a unit during combat, is the only school authorized to “fix Bayonets” during a parade.  It’s also interesting for another reason.  One of the cadets in this image deserves five demerits.   Any guesses why? You can click on the image for a larger view.  I hope to hear from you.