National Aquarium at Twilight

The Australia Wing of the National Aquarium in Baltimore is a nightime gem on the Inner Harbor waterfront.

As usual with "night" photography of buildings and skylines, it's often best to take a photo like this before the sky gets completely black. During the winter in Baltimore, I find that about one-half hour after sundown works out best. Check sunset time in your area and be ready about 15 minutes after sunset - then start shooting and keep shooting for the next half-hour or so - you'll be able to pick a favorite from somewhere in that time frame.

Dragon Boats...Again!

Constellation Silhouette

Baltimore Inner Harbor Meetup

This past Wednesday evening, our meetup.com group assembled once again for a photo shoot at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We've become quite an active group, as this is our fifth event since we first started in early August. It was a good turnout as well, with 10 photographers along for the fun.

Catch some of the great photos by our members at our group pool on Flickr.com

Also, click on the image above to check out my latest attempt at panoramas, this one stiched together from five photos to produce a 33MP final result, using Canon's PhotoStich software. PhotoStitch comes free with every Canon camera these days, even the least expensive. It's dead simple to use and works great.

This time, I used a tripod to pan for the five exposures, and it worked perfectly. To get this view, we clibed up Federal Hill, an historic site adjacent to the south side of the harbor. My only regret is that these photos were taken a little too long after sunset, and the sky was going black. I'll have to go back to Federal Hill another time to get some "dark-blue-sky" photos of this same scene.

Constellation Duck

The corner of Harborplace formed by the two main pavilions is a hangout for these dabbling ducks. They're always looking for a handout from us humans, and they're worth it, as they provide a lot of free entertainment.

This one didn't seem bothered by me at all as I took over a dozen photos up close and personal, down on the deck with my Canon A620 - the articulated LCD is great for this sort of thing.

The green in the background is the historic frigate USS Constellation.

By the way, I can't quite figure this duck out. It looks like a female Mallard, but the beak is yellow, rather than orange and black, and I didn't think the females had any green on their heads. If you know from ducks, please enlighten me.