The Cottage Life Photo Contest

On Friday I entered The Cottage Life Photo Contest. I entered a few years ago and I am not sure why I don't enter every year but none the less here we are. There are 4 categories, of which 3 I was able to enter, one of them involved me being under the age of 16, which I am far from and makes me feel old, thank you Cottage Life! I was allowed to enter 5 photos which was stressful, as I had selected about 12 photos. Then began the strenuous hours of flipping through and staring at the photos on the screen until I went cross-eyed.

My eyes managed to uncross and I finally cut the sixth photo and called a press conference to announce the final team.
The number one draft pick was this photo from Thanksgiving 2013. I laid right down on the dock to get this shot of the fishing rod resting on the dock in between lure changes.

My next selection was another photo from last year, taken of my dogs paws perched on the side of our boat during a boat ride. My dog Will, has all black fur which always makes it difficult to get a photo of him because it usually ends up looking like a giant shadow because you can't see his eyes. On top of that he rarely stays still, unless his is sleeping. When we go on boat rides Will is either napping up front with me or
perched on the front of the boat leading the way and testing fate with how close he gets to the edge - so far fate (and my fathers driving) is on his side. We saw some ducks ahead so I switched to my 55-300mm f4.5 and Will switched from the front of the boat to the side ledge for a better view of his duckies. The light was hitting his black paws so perfectly I took the shot. I am very fond of this photo and find that it portrays him perfectly.

Another oldie but a goodie from last year, was this sunset shot at a friends cottage. We arrived late the one evening and as we pulled up I could see the sun setting across the lake. I grabbed my camera and jumped out of the car, no time for hellos! I loved that dock was a little wet for reflections and the colour. I love me some sunsets and it's always nice to see them from new places!

Just recently I was at the cottage, I was moving around and cleaning up some firewood around the cottage when I spotted green! It was a chrysalis or cocoon as I kept calling it. I eventually looked up the proper term before I submitted the photo which is in fact, chrysalis - for a monarch butterfly. It was so beautiful! I had seen them before but something about it attached to the cut piece of wood made it stand out so nicely. Again I laid down flat on the ground, received a "WHAT are you doing??" before I got this shot.

That same weekend I spent most of my time on the dock soaking up the sun, maybe a little too much actually. Our neighbours have a float plane which they rarely fly, sometimes they just take the thing out for a spin on the lake like a boat, yes I am confused as well. This weekend however I don't know if he had guests he was showing off for or if he started up a float plane tour business but he was out in that thing all day. Out, up, down, in (rinse, lather) and repeat! I had my camera down at the dock with my 55-300mm on and was taking photos of the take off but it's when he started flying over top of our cottage to land when became fun! I got a few shots of him approaching and passing overhead but this one of the under belly was definitely a different angle that I really enjoyed!

The contest ended today, so I will patiently await the results!

In the meantime I have 1131 photos (plus 157 on my iPhone) to go through and edit from my recent trip to Amsterdam, that should keep me busy!

Happy Monday?
G'day!