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This is a framing of the rich starfield in Sagittarius and Serpens containing several prominent Messier objects and a wonderful mix of bright star clouds, glowing nebulas, and dark dust clouds in the Milky Way.
At bottom is the bright "Small Sagittarius Starcloud," aka Messier 24, bordered by the dark nebulas, the larger and very opaque B92 and the smaller B93 above it, and the red nebula IC 1284 below M24 embedded in a dark elbow-shaped lane of dust. Left of centre is the bright emission nebula Messier 17, aka the Swan or Omega Nebula. Below it is the star cluster Messier 18. At top is the nebula Messier 16, aka the Eagle Nebula. Above it is the small star cluster Trumpler 32. A faint patch of red nebulosity to the right of M17 at centre is Sharpless 2-44, aka Gum 77.
The white Starcloud contrasts with the starfields around it that are yellowed by interstellar dust.
The field of view is about 8.2° by 5.5°.
Technical:
This is a stack of 20 x 4-minute exposures with the Founder Optics Draco 62 astrograph with its f/3.9 Reducer, and the astro-modified Canon EOS R camera at ISO 800. No filter was employed here. On the Star Adventurer GTi mount autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguider. Taken at the Southern Alberta Star Party in the Cypress Hills in September 2024.
The rising Full Moon of June, dubbed the “Strawberry Moon” in the media, as seen rising over a prairie pond in southern Alberta, on June 9, 2017.
This is a single exposure stack, from a time-lapse sequence of 1100 frames, with images taken at two second intervals. Shot with the Canon 6D and 200mm lens.
Mors was a French pioneer car manufacturer from 1895 until its absorption by Citroën in 1925.
Cars 'n' Coffee Oldtimers Zuid-Kennemerland
Kopje van Bloemendaal, 3 augustus 2022.
This was an experiment to demonstrate the transmission of living tissue in a spectral window between approximately 600 and 1,300nm wavelength. This "window of transparency" is bounded at the long wavelengths side by the harmonics of the stretch and bend vibrations within a water molecule and, at shorter wavelengths below 600nm, by the rapidly increasing absorption of blood and, basically, most living tissue including plants.
With the exception of some X-rays and km-length radio waves, this is the only spectral band where light can penetrate deep into components of the biosphere. From a growing number of experimental investigations, it is becoming apparent that light at these wavelengths — coming mostly from the Sun — plays essential roles in maintaining the health of most life on the planet Earth (including us!)
For close to 3.5 billion years, life on Earth has evolved to exploit light from the Sun to power itself, either directly (cyanobacteria and plants) or by stored food and fossil fuels generated by photosynthesis.
Only in the last few decades have energy-efficient sources of artificial light appeared that produce copious visible light but little or no far-red or near-infrared light within this transparency window. These lights, especially the ubiquitous white LEDs, have broken these billions of years of adaptation of life to 'thermal' light sources (light produced as a result of the hight temperature of the emitter) which are rich in near-infrared light.
Living, as many of us do, under these white LEDs for large fractions of our lives without exposure to sunlight has starved us of this near-infrared light that can penetrate our bodies. This is needed to protect us from such afflictions as type 2 diabetes, obesity and a number of 'diseases of ageing' which result from the diminishing ability of the mitochondria (the energy generators in cells) to produce enough energy as we age.
The image above was obtained using a 'full-spectrum' adapted Sony alpha camera with a filter that passes light above about 750nm. The light source, behind a hand-shaped alu-foil covered cardboard mask, was a "Candeer 54W Red Light Therapy" LED lamp that has diodes emitting 660 and 850nm light. Only the longer wavelength LEDs pass through the filter to produce this image which is the combination of three exposures each separated by 2.5 stops and combined using Photomatix Pro software to result in the high dynamic range.
De-oxygenated haemoglobin has a spectral absorption band around 750nm which results in the veins (but not arteries) being seen as dark in this image. The image shows that this long wavelength light can penetrate deep into our bodies where it appears to perform a number of beneficial functions.
It has been estimated that around 60% of cells in non-obese human bodies are reached by this light where it appears to enhance the efficiency of metabolism by oxidative respiration and produce cellular energy for immediate use before diverting metabolised food to storage as fat.
[Note: bones are relatively transparent to 850nm light, resulting in this looking quite different to an X-ray image of the hand.]
The American makeup artist, beauty blogger, entrepreneur and the founder of beauty line Huda Beauty, Huda Kattan has recently revealed her most amazing detoxifying bath ingredients and we are not surprised.
Huda recently took to her official Instagram and posted a video of making her favorite bath. She added bubble bath, lots of Epsom salt, French cream clay, powdered coconut milk powder and Himalayan pink salt. She also lit up scented candles to spice up the whole environment. She called the entire bath her favorite detoxifying bath for all the right reasons. All the bath ingredients that the beauty blogger added are quite common except for Himalayan salt which is quite underrated.
Himalayan Salt:
Himalayan pink salt is proved to be healthiest and purest of the sea salt family because it is finally refined without any addition of preservatives. It is full of nutrients and mineral traces like iron, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, phosphorus and others. Its anti-bacterial and detoxifying properties make it absolutely healing for humans and animals as well. It’s a perfect ingredient for skin because its minerals make it smooth, prevent scaring, remove dead cells, help in fighting off acne and much more. Let’s dig deep into why Himalayan salt should be added in every bath.
Detoxifying Properties:
The pink salt has extraordinary detoxifying properties which help in extracting harmful toxins from skin and tissues. The salt crystals penetrate through the skin and leave it nourished and refreshed. They also trigger self purifying abilities of the skin in a miraculous way. For the very reason the salt is recommended to be added in every bath especially after a long hectic day or whenever the body needs it.
Exfoliating Properties:
The Himalayan pink salt is highly recommended natural body scrub for its mineral contents and exfoliating texture. It not only removes the layer of the dead cells from the skin but also makes a protecting layer inside the skin to prevent dryness. It’s super easy to make a salt scrub by mixing only three ingredients: pink salt, olive oil and essential oil. Use the scrub on the whole body to make it naturally smooth and glowy.
Bath Soak:
When the Himalayan salt is added in the bath and the body gets soaked in it, the process of dermal absorption starts. Though this heavenly process, the body starts soaking minerals from the salt such as zinc (which prevents scaring), magnesium (which helps in relieving cramped muscles), sulphur (which makes the skin soft), chromium (which fight off acne) and others. This bath soak is highly recommended for nourishing the skin.
Start adding Himalayan pink salt to your bath and have a great skin.
The rising Full Moon of April 23, 2024, with the April Full Moon called popularly the "Pink" Moon or the Frog Croaking Moon.
Here it is rising over the yet-to-be-planted bare field near home in southern Alberta. Some thin clouds do add the pink tones, but the Moon is yellow from atmospheric absorption, as it usually looks when rising or setting. This was the Full Moon following the April 8 New Moon and total solar eclipse.
This is a single 0.5-second exposure at f/8 with the RF100-400mm lens at 400mm, untracked, on the Canon R5 at ISO 100. Noise reduction and sharpening with ON1 NoNoise AI. A mild Classical Soft Focus effect added with Nik Collection Color EFX. Taken from home on a night that did not look promising for seeing the rising Moon due to clouds.
National Museum, Beijing
July 2012
China
Urban life
Canon 550D
Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.
If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!
If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.
Please contact me!
Please no glossy awards, scripted comments and big thumbnails back to your own work.
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The Milky Way and its core region in Sagittarius and Scorpius is here low over the Badlands landscape of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. This was the night of May 31/June 1, 2024, when from this latitude of 50° 45' N the sky is not fully dark even in the middle of the night, here about 2:30 a.m. MDT. So the sky retains a blue tint.
Adding to the sky colours are bands of green oxygen airglow and perhaps yellow sodium airglow. Plus some light pollution from nearby Brooks, Alberta.
The mass of stars toward the galactic centre also glow with a combined yellow light, in part due to absorption of shorter wavelengths of starlight by interstellar dust in the spiral arms of the Galaxy.
But the most striking colours are the red and magenta from glowing hydrogen gas in star-forming nebulas toward the galactic core. I emphasized those through the use of a filter that isolates that red wavelength of "hydrogen-alpha." The most obvious H-alpha feature is the large round nebula, Sharpless 2-27, around the star Zeta Ophiuchi above Scorpius. The red nebulas in the Milky Way to the left are mostly Messier objects (M8, M16 and M17), but the little Cat's Paw Nebula, NGC 6334, just sneaks in an appearance above the horizon, in the tail of Scorpius, as do the star clusters Messier 6 and 7. They all scrape the southern horizon from this latitude.
The bright mass of stars below the main collection of red nebulas is the Sagittarius Starcloud. The actual direction of the galactic centre is just to the right (west) of the Starcloud. Above it is the smaller, whiter Small Sagittarius Starcloud (aka M24), and above it is the Scutum StarCloud. Yellow Antares in Scorpius just peaks out to the right of the hoodoo. The Dark Horse of interstellar dust prances at centre.
So this is a particularly colourful sky, constrasting with the earth tones of the Badlands landscape of eroded bentonite clay hoodoos, iron-rich rocks, and sagebrush.
However, it takes long exposures and special techniques to bring out the colours in what to the eye would be a dim black-and-white scene.
TECH DETAILS:
This is a blend of 5 exposures with the red-sensitive Canon Ra camera on the MSM Nomad tracker, and with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 20mm and wide open at f/2.8:
- A tracked single 2-minute exposure at ISO 1600 with no filter, taken immediately after ....
- A tracked single 2-minute exposure at ISO 6400 with a 12nm bandwidth Astronomik H-alpha filter installed in front of the sensor (a "clip-in" filter).
- A final stack of untracked 2 x 2-minute at ISO 1600 and one 4-minute at ISO 800 exposures for the ground. (I could have shot just 1 or 2 at ISO 800.) For the ground shots I lowered the framing to include more ground than what was in the sky shots.
All were stacked, blended and masked with Photoshop. The H-alpha image contributes just the red nebulas, via BlendIf and masking. I also used the StarXTerminator plug-in to eliminate the stars from that frame. Nik Collection Color EFX filters enhanced the sky and added an "Orton" style glow effect. Adobe DeNoise AI applied to the ground and unfiltered raw sky images.
I took this shot because the moment was so composed, almost staged, yet entirely candid. This man, dressed immaculately in earthy tones, becomes the calm eye of the urban storm. His posture is deliberate, his concentration absolute, and the pop of red from the phone draws the eye like a beacon in a subdued palette. The scene is full of quiet contrasts: movement in the background, stillness in the foreground; digital absorption set against classic tailoring. What makes it interesting to me is the harmony between the geometry of the bench, the cross of his legs, and the casual elegance of someone fully immersed in their world.
Leiden
June 2012
The Netherlands
Urban life in the Netherlands
Ricoh GRD IV
Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.
If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!
If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.
Please contact me!
Please no glossy awards, scripted comments and big thumbnails back to your own work.
I will remove them...
The Hague
April 2012
The Netherlands
Urban life in the Netherlands
Ricoh GRD IV
Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.
If you ask nicely i will probably say yes, just ask me first!
If you happen to be in one of my frames and have any objections to this.
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All rights reserved
Featured Image from Sonata Series
Sonata concentrates on seeing rather than looking. In our waking-state, we look at things all the time but consciously unless chosen to do we make the effort to see. This on-going series concentrates on the elements of design ; color, line, shape texture form and pattern. Each image composes of a singular point of interest to achieve photographic satisfaction. Here the visible, mundane & overlooked has its moment.
Nkosi.artiste@gmail.com
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chance Nkosi Gomez known initiated by H.H Swami Jyotirmayanda as Sri Govinda walks an integral yogic path in which photography is the primary creative field of expression. The medium was introduced during sophomore year of high school by educator Dr. Devin Marsh of Robert Morgan Educational Center. Coming into alignment with light, its nature and articulating the camera was the focus during that time. Thereafter while completing a Photographic Technology Degree, the realization of what made an image “striking” came to the foreground of the inner dialogue. These college years brought forth major absorption and reflection as an apprentice to photographer and educator Tony A. Chirinos of Miami Dade College. The process of working towards a singular idea of interest and thus building a series became the heading from here on while the camera aided in cultivating an adherence to the present moment. The viewfinder resembles a doorway to the unified field of consciousness in which line, shape, form, color, value, texture all dissolve. It is here that the yogi is reminded of sat-chit-ananda (the supreme reality as all-pervading; pure consciousness). As of May 2024 Govinda has completed his 300hr yoga teacher training program at Sattva Yoga Academy studying from Master Yogi Anand Mehrotra in Rishikesh, India, Himalayas. This has strengthened his personal Sadhana and allows one to carry and share ancient Vedic Technology leading others in ultimately directing their intellect to bloom into intuition. As awareness and self-realization grows so does the imagery that is all at once divine in the mastery of capturing and controlling light. Over the last seven years he has self-published six photographic books, Follow me i’ll be right behind you (2017), Sonata - Minimal Study (2018), Birds Singing Lies (2018), Rwanda (2019), Where does the body begin? (2019) & Swayam Jyotis (2023). Currently, Govinda is employed at the Leica Store Miami as a camera specialist and starting his journey as a practitioner of yoga ॐ
The waning last quarter Moon rises in conjunction with the Pleiades star cluster, aka Messier 45. here just having risen out of a band of clouds at the bottom of the frame that was just above the northeast horizon. The Moon was only 2 or 3 degrees above the horizon when I shot this.
This was the evening of August 25, 2024. Earthshine is just visible on the "dark side of the Moon." And yes, the sky really was this colour, as this field was so low and it was lit by moonlight reddened by atmospheric absorption.
Taken from home in Alberta at latitude 51° N.
Technical:
This is a blend of 10 exposures taken in quick succession, from 15 seconds for the stars and base sky, to as short as 1/30-second for the lunar disk, blended with Lights1 luminosity masks created with Lumenzia extension panel in Photoshop. The exposure blending results in an image that better resembles what the eye could see in the scene with such a high dynamic range in brightness.
The Canon R5 was at ISO 1600 and on the Astro-Tech 90CFT refractor telescope at f/4.8 for a focal length of 430mm. It was on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount tracking the sky at the sidereal rate. Thus the blurred clouds. Finishing-touch Orton-style glow and stellar diffraction spikes added with Nik Color EFX and AstronomyTools actions.
Italien / Lombardei - Bellagio
Bellagio (Italian: [belˈlaːdʒo]; Comasco: Belàs [beˈlaːs]) is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Como in the Italian region of Lombardy. It is located on Lake Como, also known by its Latin-derived name Lario, whose arms form an inverted Y. The triangular land mass at the base of the inverted Y is the Larian Triangle: at its northern point sits Bellagio, looking across to the northern arm of the lake and, behind it, the Alps. It has always been famous for its location It belongs to a mountain community named Comunità montana del Triangolo lariano (Larian Triangle mountain community), based in Canzo.
Geography
Bellagio is situated upon the cape of the land mass that divides Lake Como in two. The city centre occupies the tip of the promontory, while other districts are scattered along the lake shores and up the slopes of the hills. The great Pleistocene glaciations with their imposing flows coming from the Valtellina and Valchiavenna modelled the actual landscape of Lake Como: at least four times the glaciers went as far as Brianza to the south. From the ancient glacial blanket only the highest tops emerged, one of them Mount St. Primo, which obliged the glaciers to divide into two arms.
Nowadays, a luxuriance of trees and flowers is favoured by a mild and sweet climate. The average daytime temperature during winter is rarely below 6 to 7 °C (43 to 45 °F), while during summer it is around 25 to 28 °C (77 to 82 °F), mitigated during the afternoon by the characteristic breva, the gentle breeze of Lake Como.
The Borgo
The historic centre of Bellagio shelters 350m southwest of the promontory of the Larian Triangle, between the Villa Serbelloni on the hill and the Como arm of the lake. At the far tip of the promontory are a park and a marina. Parallel to the shore are three streets, Mazzini, Centrale and Garibaldi in ascending order. Cutting across them to form a sloped grid are seven medieval stone stairs ("salite") running uphill. The Basilica of San Giacomo and a stone tower, sole relic of medieval defences ("Torre delle Arti Bellagio"), sit in a piazza at the top.
History
Before the Romans
Even though there are signs of a human presence around Bellagio in the Paleolithic Period (about 30,000 years ago), it is only in the 7th to 5th centuries BC that there appears on the promontory a castellum, perhaps a place of worship and of exchange which served the numerous small villages on the lake.
The first identifiable inhabitants of the territory of Bellagio, from 400BC, were the Insubres, a Celtic tribe in part of Lombardy and on Lake Como up to the centre of the lake, occupying the western shore (the Orobii had the northern arm of the lake and its east bank). The Insubres lived free and independently until the arrival of the Gauls, led by Belloveso, who, around the year 600 BC, undid the Insubres and settled in Milan and Como, occupying the shores of the lake and creating a garrison at the extreme point of their conquest, Bellagio (fancifully Bellasium, named after their commander Belloveso). The Gauls thus became Gallo-Insubres, merged with the primitive inhabitants and introduced their customs and traditions, leaving traces in local names: Crux Galli (now Grosgalla), on the side of Lezzeno, and Gallo, a small chapel on the old road of Limonta which marks today the border between the two municipalities.
The Romans
In 225 BC, the territory of the Gallo-Insubres was occupied by the Romans, in their gradual expansion to the north. The Romans, led by consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus, defeated the Gallo-Insubres in a fierce battle near Camerlata, occupying Como and the shores of the lake. Insubre hopes of independence were raised by an alliance with Hannibal during the Second Punic War, but dashed by defeat in 104 BC and absorption into a Roman province in 80 BC.
Bellagio became both a Roman garrison and a point of passage and wintering for the Roman armies on their way through to the province of Raetia and the Splügen pass. Troops wintered at the foot of the present Villa Serbelloni, sheltered from north winds and the Mediterranean climate. Such variant Latin names as Belacius and Bislacus suggest Bellagio was originally Bi-lacus ("between the lakes").
Between 81 and 77 BC Cornelius Scipio brought 3,000 Latin colonists to Lake Como. From 59 BC Julius Caesar, as pro-consul, brought up another 5000 colonists, most importantly 500 Greeks from Sicily. Their names are still borne by their descendants. Bellagio became a mixture of races which became more and more complex in the following centuries. Also it increased its strategic importance because, as well as a place for wintering, it sheltered warships especially at Loppia, where the natural creek made it easy to repair them. Around Loppia there formed one of the first suburbs of Bellagio.
The Romans introduced many Mediterranean crops, including the olive and bay laurel; from the name of the latter (Laurus) derives the Latin name of Lake Como (Larius). Among the other plant species introduced were the chestnut, already widespread in southern Italy, the cypress, so well naturalised today as to be considered native, and many kinds of herbaceous plants.
In the early decades of the Empire, two great figures brought fame to the lake and Bellagio: Virgil and Pliny the Younger. Virgil, the Latin poet, visited Bellagio and remembered the lake in the second book of the Georgics, verse 155 ("or great Lario"). Pliny the Younger, resident in Como for most of the year, had, among others, a summer villa near the top of the hill of Bellagio; it was known as "Tragedy". Pliny describes in a letter the long periods he spent in his Bellagio villas, not only studying and writing but also hunting and fishing.
Through Bellagio passed, in 9 AD, the Roman legions (partly composed of soldiers from the Bellagio garrison) led by Publius Quinctilius Varus, which had to cross the Splügen pass into Germany against Arminius. They were annihilated in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
The Middle Ages
At the time of the barbarian invasions, Narses, a general of Justinian, in his long wanderings through Italy waging war, created along Lake Como a fortified line against the Goths. The line included the fortress of Bellagio, the Isola Comacina and the Castel Baradello.
Nevertheless, around 568 the Lombards, led by Alboin, poured into the Po Valley and settled in various parts of Lombardy, in the valleys of the Alps and along the lakes. Even the fortress of Bellagio was occupied. In 744 King Liutprand settled there.
With their arrival in Italy, the Franks of Charlemagne descended on Piedmont and Lombardy and, through the high Alps, defeated the Lombards in the battle of Pavia of 773. The Lombard territory was divided into counties — thus the beginning of feudalism. Bellagio found itself in the county of Milan under the suzerainty of the Frankish kings.
The grandson of Charlemagne, Lothair, having deposed his father in 834, invested as feudal lords of the territory of Limonta and Civenna the monks of Saint Ambrose of Milan (together with the territory of Campione d'Italia). The inhabitants of these two places, which later belonged ecclesiastically to the parish of Bellagio (St. John), were obliged to hand over some of their produce (olive oil, chestnuts ...) to the monks, an obligation preserved for several centuries.
There followed the rule of the Ottonian dynasty of Germany. During the reign of Henry V began a long war over the succession to the bishop of Como between Milan, supporting a bishop imposed by the German Emperor, and Como, which had already designated as bishop Guido Grimoldi, consecrated by the Pope. The war lasted ten years (1117–1127), with a series of small victories and defeats on land and water. Bellagio participated with its fleet as an ally of Milan, Isola Comacina and Gravedona. The war ended with the destruction of Como and its subjection to Milan, from which it took decades to recover. It is thought that by 1100 Bellagio was already a free commune and seat of a tribunal and that its dependence on Como was merely formal. However the strategic position of Bellagio was very important for the city of Como, and Bellagio had therefore to suffer more than one incursion from Como and fought numerous naval battles against its neighbour. In 1154, under Frederick Barbarossa, Bellagio was forced to swear loyalty and pay tribute to Como.
In 1169, after the destruction of Milan by Frederick Barbarossa (1162), Como attacked Isola Comacina, devastating it and forcing the inhabitants to flee to Varenna and Bellagio, at that time considered impregnable fortresses. The Lombard League was formed, in which Bellagio also participated as an ally of Milan, intervening in the Battle of Legnano (1176) against Barbarossa and Como.
The Renaissance and the Baroque
Towards the end of the 13th century, Bellagio, which had participated in numerous wars on the side of the Ghibellines (the pro-empire party), became part of the property of the House of Visconti and was integrated into the Duchy of Milan.
In 1440, during the lordship of the Visconti, some Cernobbiesi attacked the prison of Bellagio in which the inmates were political prisoners. Liberated, they took flight into mountains of Bellagio, settling in a town that took the name of Cernobbio in memory of the country of origin of their liberators.
With the death of Filippo Maria, the House of Visconti lost power. For a short time the area was transformed into the Ambrosian Republic (1447–50), until Milan capitulated to Francesco Sforza, who became Duke of Milan and Lombardy. Bellagio, whose territory (and especially the fortress) was occupied by the troops of Sforza in 1449 during the war of succession, was one of the first towns on the lake to take sides and adhere to Sforza rule.
In 1508, under Ludovico il Moro (1479–1508), the estate of Bellagio was taken from the bishop of Como and assigned to the Marquis of Stanga, treasurer, ambassador and friend of il Moro. Stanga built a new villa on Bellagio hill, later ruined in a raid by Cavargnoni.
In 1535, when Francesco II Sforza (the last Duke of Milan) died, there started for Lombardy and the land around the Lake of Lario two centuries of Spanish rule (the period in which Alessandro Manzoni's novel The Betrothed is set). The so-called Derta steps that lead from the neighbourhood of Guggiate to that of Suira were built under the Spanish.
In 1533, Francesco Sfondrati, married to a Visconti, had acquired the fiefdom of Bellagio and for more than 200 years the Sfondrati family, from the highest rank of Milanese society, ruled Bellagio. The ruins of the sumptuous Stanga building were restructured by Francesco and, successively, by Ercole Sfondrati, who spent the last years of his life in pious religious passion in the villa. On the same peninsula he built the church and convent of the Capuchins (1614), investing enormous capital in the setting, where appeared cypress trees and sweet olives.
Favoured by Bellagio's ideal position for transport and trade, various small industries flourished, most notably candle-making and silk weaving with its concomitant silk worms and mulberry trees. With the death in 1788 of Carlo, last of the Sfondrati, Bellagio passed to Count Alessandro Serbelloni, henceforth Serbelloni Sfondrati.
The 18th and 19th centuries
During the brief Napoleonic period, the port of Bellagio assumed military and strategic importance. A decision, apparently of secondary importance, was to guide the destiny of Bellagio for the two succeeding two centuries: the decision of Count Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Duke of Lodi and Vice President of the Cisalpine Republic to establish here his summer home. Count Melzi proceeded to build a villa on the west bank near Loppia. That brought to the area the flower of the Milanese nobility and the promontory was transformed into an elegant and refined court.[citation needed] Roads suitable for carriages were built, first of all to link the villas and the palaces and then towards the town centre; finally the provincial road Erba–Bellagio was completed. The fame of the lakeside town became well known outside the borders of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia: even the Emperor Francis I of Austria visited in 1816 and returned in 1825 to stay in the Villas Serbelloni, Trotti and Melzi.
The Romantic discovery of landscape was changing how the Italian lakes were seen. Stendhal had first visited in 1810:
What can one say about Lake Maggiore, about the Borromean Islands, about Lake Como, unless it be that one pities those who are not madly in love with them ... the sky is pure, the air mild, and one recognises the land beloved of the gods, the happy land that neither barbarous invasions nor civil discords could deprive of its heaven-sent blessings.
At Bellagio he was the guest of the Melzi d’Eril, from whose villa he wrote:
I isolate myself in a room on the second floor; there, I lift my gaze to the most beautiful view in the world, after the Gulf of Naples ...
Franz Liszt and his mistress Comtesse Marie d'Agoult stayed for four months of 1837 on their way from Switzerland to Como and Milan. In Bellagio he wrote many of the piano pieces which became Album d'un voyageur (1835–38), landscapes seen through the eyes of Byron and Senancour. These works contributed much to the image of Bellagio and the lake as a site of Romantic feeling. D'Agoult's letters show they were sadly aware of drawing an age of motorised tourism in their train.
In 1838, Bellagio received with all honours the Emperor Ferdinand I, the Archduke Rainer and the Minister Metternich, who came from Varenna on the Lario, the first steamboat on the lake, launched in 1826. Bellagio was one of the localities most frequented by the Lombardy nobility and saw the construction of villas and gardens. Luxury shops opened in the village and tourists crowded onto the lakeshore drive. Space was not sufficient and it was decided to cover the old port which came up as far as the arcade in order to construct a large square.
Gustav Flaubert visited Bellagio in 1845. He told his travel diary:
One could live and die here. The outlook seems designed as a balm to the eyes. ... the horizon is lined with snow and the foreground alternates between the graceful and the rugged — a truly Shakespearean landcape [sic], all the forces of nature are brought together, with an overwhelming sense of vastness.
The Risorgimento
In 1859, as part of the Second Italian War of Independence, Garibaldi's Hunters of the Alps defeated Austrian troops at San Fermo, entering Como and bringing the province under Piedmontese rule. Bellagio thus became part of the Kingdom of Italy under the House of Savoy until Germany created in 1943 the puppet Italian Social Republic under Benito Mussolini.
Tourism in the Kingdom of Italy had now become the principal economic resource of the people of Bellagio and from this period on the history of Bellagio coincides with that of its hotels. The first was the present Hotel Metropole, founded in 1825 from the transformation of the old hostelry of Abbondio Genazzini into the first real hotel on the Lario, the Hotel Genazzini. Following this example in the space of a few years came several splendid hotels many of which are still operating, frequently in the hands of the same families who founded them: the Hotel Firenze, built on the old house of the captain of the Lario opened in 1852; the Grand Hotel Bellagio (now the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni) opened in 1872. In 1888 the three largest hotels (Genazzini, Grande Bretagne and Grand Hotel Bellagio) first replaced gaslight with electric, and only after this were they followed by many patrician houses. Bellagio was one of the first Italian tourist resorts to become international, but it has never degenerated into a place of mass tourism.
The 20th century
Bellagio was part of the Italian Social Republic (RSI) from 1943 to 1945. The Futurist writer and poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, a Mussolini loyalist who had helped shape Fascist philosophy, remained in the RSI as a propagandist until his death from a heart attack at Bellagio in December, 1944.
Luchino Visconti put Bellagio in a scene of his film Rocco and His Brothers (1960). The scene is on the Europa Promenade, between the pier and the half-derelict Hotel Grande Bretagne. Rocco implies that the old hotels are fading along with the empires they served. The fact that working-class Rocco and his girlfriend are there to make the observation implies in turn the new world of mass tourism replacing them. Ironies lie beyond the scope of the film: the new American empire would find uses of its own for Bellagio.
In 2014, Bellagio merged with the town of Civenna: the new municipality retains the name of Bellagio.
Buildings
Churches
Basilica of San Giacomo [it], in the Piazza della Chiesa; Lombard-Romanesque 1075–1125. The base of the bell tower incorporates ancient town defences; the top is 18th century. Inside, a 12th-century cross, a 1432 triptych by Foppa, a 16th-century altarpiece. The Bar Sport across the square occupies a former monastery.
Church of San Giorgio, next to the town hall. The church was built 1080–1120. Inside, a statue and fresco of Our Lady of the Belt. The Genazzini Stairs run under the bell tower to the public library.
Church of San Martino, in Visgnola;
Church of Sant'Antonio Abate, in Casate;
Church of San Carlo Borromeo, to Aureggio;
Church of San Biagio, in Pescallo;
Church of Sant'Andrea, in Guggiate.
Villas
Along the banks of the promontory of Bellagio are many old patrician houses, each surrounded by parks and gardens of trees. Some like Villa Serbelloni and Villa Melzi d'Eril are open to the public.
Villa Serbelloni
Just behind the hill of the promontory into the lake, protected from the winds, is the building complex of Villa Serbelloni. The villa dominates the town's historic centre. It can be reached from Via Garibaldi. It was built in the 15th century in place of an old castle razed in 1375. Villa Serbelloni was later rebuilt several times. In 1788 it came into the possession of Alessandro Serbelloni (1745–1826) who enriched it with precious decorations and works of art of the 17th and 18th centuries. Today you can visit only the gardens. The trails, as well as the villa, lead to the remains of the 16th-century Capuchin monastery and the Sfondrata, a residence built by the Sfondrati family indeed, overlooking the Lecco branch of the lake.
On the inside, elegant halls with vault and coffered ceilings follow one another accurately decorated in the style of the 17th and 18th centuries. All around, the park develops along most of the promontory of Bellagio with vast tracts of thick woods where the Serbelloni gardeners had traced paths which nowadays still lead the way amongst the small clearings and English style gardens.
As noted by Balbiani, rather than being a garden, it is a real "wood, opened by spacious and comfortable paths, and plants with all generations of high trunk trees"; amongst which, oak trees, conifers, fir trees, holm oaks, osmanti, myrtles and junipers, "but above all trees, here situated is the pine tree, which, with its gnarled trunk acts as a screen against the storms".
Occasionally, the vegetation thins out at panoramic points which overlook the two branches of the lake, offering a prospect from the slopes of the hill, where the rose bushes flower during the season with their varied colours. The roughness of the rocky plane along the winding path which goes up to the villa has not stopped the construction of terraces and flower beds with yews and boxes trimmed geometrically. Along the upper part of the park is a long row of cypress trees and some palm trees of considerable dimensions.
In 1905, the villa was transformed into a luxury hotel. In 1959 it became the property of the Rockefeller Foundation of New York at the bequest of the American-born Princess of Thurn and Taxis (wife of Alessandro, 1st Duke of Castel Duino), who had bought it in 1930. Since 1960 the Bellagio Center in the villa has been home to international conferences housed in the former villa or in the grounds. In addition, outstanding scholars and artists are selected for one-month residencies year-round.
Quite different is the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni on the water's edge. A luxurious neo-classical villa built in the 1850s for an aristocratic Milanese family became the nucleus of the (then-called) Grand Hotel Bellagio, opened in 1873. The hotel retains its original Belle Époque fittings.
Villa Melzi d'Eril
This significant building overlooking the lake was built between 1808 and 1815 by the architect Giocondo Albertolli for Francesco Melzi d'Eril, created Duke of Lodi (the city of Lodi, Lombardy) by Napoleon for whom he filled the role of vice-president of the Italian Republic from 1802. From 1805, with the advent of the short-lived Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, he was its Chancellor.
Even after his political career had ended, since this was a Melzi residence, the construction, which he wanted as elegant as the Royal Villa of Monza and the other villas around Lake of Como, was decorated and furnished by famous artists of the period: painters Appiani and Bossi, sculptors Canova and Comolli, and the medalist Luigi Manfredini. The duke had a collector's passion which, in the region on Lake Como, had no rival except that of Giovan Battista Sommariva, owner of the villa bearing the same name (nowadays Villa Carlotta) who, politically defeated by Melzi himself (preferred by Napoleon as vice-president), tried to regain lost prestige by assembling an extraordinary art collection.
Villa Melzi is set in English style gardens which develop harmoniously along the banks of the lake, the last reaches of the view from Bellagio towards the hills to the south. Making such a garden required notable changes to the structure of the land and outstanding supporting walls. In such surroundings, enriched by monuments, artefacts (amongst which are a Venetian gondola transported to Bellagio expressly for Napoleon, and two precious Egyptian statues), rare exotic plants, ancient trees, hedges of camellias, groves of azaleas and gigantic rhododendrons, the villa, the chapel and the glass house constitute an ensemble in which the neoclassical style reaches one of its highest peaks.
Sport
Rowing
Rowing is based at the Bellagina Sporting Union, a club specializing in football and especially rowing: world rowing champions Enrico Gandola, Alberto Belgeri, Igor Pescialli, Franco Sancassani and Daniele Gilardoni were born in Bellagio and began their racing careers with Bellagina.
Cycling
From Bellagio starts the climb to the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of cyclists, and therefore an important destination for fans of the sport. The ascent covers a total distance of about 4 km and has a vertical rise of about 500 meters; professional cyclists can do it in 20 minutes. You can also make the climb from Onno to Valbrona on the eastern shore of the lake, and the Wall of Sormano on the road to the western shore. These two climbs, with the ascent to the Sanctuary, are part of the Tris del Lario competition.
Trekking
Treks of all degrees of difficulty are possible around and above Bellagio on the Larian Triangle. Bellagio Lifestyle gives the major treks with maps and route descriptions.
Cuisine
The traditional Bellagino feast day dish is the Tóch. Eaten with a wooden spoon, it is composed of polenta mixed with butter and cheese and accompanied with dried fish from the lake, cold, stuffed chicken or home-made salami. Red wine is shared from a communal jug. For dessert, miasca—cake made with cornflour and dried fruit; Pan meino—made with white and yellow flour, eggs, butter, milk and elder flowers; or paradèl —a wafer of white flour, milk and sugar.
(Wikipedia)
Bellagio (auch Bellaggio) ist eine italienische Gemeinde (comune) mit 3577 Einwohnern (Stand: 31. Dezember 2022) und eine Kleinstadt am Comer See. Die Gemeinde gehört zur Provinz Como in der Lombardei. Seit dem 21. Januar 2014 umfasst die Gemeinde Bellagio auch das Gebiet der vormaligen Nachbargemeinde Civenna.
Geographie
Der Ort ist bekannt für die malerische Lage mit Blick auf die Alpen an der Spitze der Halbinsel, die die zwei südlichen Arme des Sees trennt. Como, Lecco und Bellagio bilden die Eckpunkte des Triangolo Lariano. Das bedeutendste Fließgewässer im Gemeindegebiet ist der Torrente Perlo, der in der Fraktion San Giovanni in den Comer See mündet.
Die Nachbargemeinden sind Griante, Lezzeno, Magreglio, Oliveto Lario, Sormano, Tremezzina, Varenna, Veleso und Zelbio.
Verwaltungsgliederung
Die Gemeinde gliedert sich in einen See- und einen Bergbereich auf. Zu letzterem zählt das ehemalige Gemeindegebiet von Civenna. Zum Seebereich um Bellagio gehören die 21 Fraktionen Aureggio, Begola, Borgo, Breno, Brogno, Cagnanica, Casate, Crotto, Guggiate, Loppia, Neer, Oliverio, Pescallo, Regatola, San Giovanni, San Vito, Scegola, Suira, Taronico, Vergonese und Visgnola. Zum Bergbereich zählen die 14 Fraktionen Cascine Gallasco, Cassinott, Chevrio, Civenna, Costaprada, Cernobbio, Filippo, Guello, Makallé, Paum, Piano Rancio, Prà, Rovenza und San Primo.
Sehenswürdigkeiten
romanische Basilika San Giacomo
Villa Melzi mit ihrem Garten und dem berühmten Denkmal von Dante Alighieri und Béatrice und Villa Trivulzio-Gerli des Architekten Giuseppe Balzaretti
Kirche Santissima Annunciata mit Polittico
Kirche San Giovanni Battista in der Fraktion San Giovanni
In der Villa Serbelloni hat das Bellagio Center der Rockefeller-Stiftung seinen Sitz. Das Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni liegt an der Uferpromenade am Comer See.
Das frühere Hotel Britannia steht seit Jahren leer und verkommt immer mehr zu einer Bauruine.
Verkehr
Wer aus Richtung Lugano oder Porlezza kommend den Ort besuchen will, benutzt in der Regel die Autofähre, die von den am Westufer liegenden Orten Menaggio und Cadenabbia fährt und auch Varenna am gegenüberliegenden Ostufer bedient. Alternativ kann man auch die Uferstraßen über Como oder Lecco benutzen, was aber einen Umweg von über 60 Kilometern darstellt. Ferner kann der Ort von Erba aus auf einer kurvenreichen Bergstraße erreicht werden.
Bellagio war die Inspirationsquelle für das Hotel Bellagio am Las Vegas Strip.
Persönlichkeiten
Seit Jahrhunderten ist der Ort infolge seiner pittoresken Lage immer wieder Anziehungspunkt für Prominenz. Belegt sind unter anderem Besuche von John F. Kennedy, Charlie Chaplin und Konrad Adenauer. Auch Plinius der Jüngere schätzte den Ort. Nach ihm ist eine Straße sowie der Raddampfer «Plinio» benannt, der 1963 aus dem Betrieb genommen wurde, aber vom Komitee «Amici del Plinio» wieder restauriert werden soll. Zudem wurde in Bellagio 1837 Cosima Wagner geboren, die Tochter Franz Liszts und zweite Ehefrau Richard Wagners. Teresio Olivelli (* 7. Januar 1916; † 17. Januar 1945 in Hersbruck), ein Dozent und Partisan, Goldmedaille für militärische Tapferkeit, ist hier geboren (Gedenktafel an seinem Geburtshaus). Der Holzschnitzer Antonio Pini, tätig in Sessa TI und Gandria, ist hier geboren.
(Wikipedia)
Sanlitun, Beijing
July 2012
China
Urban life
Ricoh GRD IV
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The low Full Moon of July 20, 2024, seen here through forest fire smoke dimming and reddening the Moon. This was from a location along Highway 564 in soutthern Alberta. The Moon was at a particularly low and southerly declination this year and month, being near a major lunar standstill. This was also the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing!
This is a blend of 6 exposures from long (for the sky) to short (for the lunar disk), blended with luminosity masks, not HDR. With the RF70-200mm lens at 171mm and f/4 on the Canon R5 at ISO 400.
Amsterdam
June 2012
The Netherlands
Most likely not his actual name but he reminded me of the character Neil from the old British series "The Young Ones"..
Urban life in the Netherlands
Ricoh GRD IV
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A cute little girl in soft pink dress eats a chocolate-dipped ice-cream on a sunny day of summer. She is deeply focused on the sweetness of the dainty and seems to be far out of this world. She absorbs the ice-cream and is absorbed by the process. Candid street photo. Eat hearty!
Beijing, July 2012
China
Woodstorage
www.flickr.com/photos/d44n/7696991146/in/photostream (Explanation)
Canon 550D
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The Grand Canyon is a very wide and deep canyon in the north of the American state of Arizona. Over millions of years, the waters of the Colorado have created this gap in the landscape. This extreme erosion was made possible by the fact that the area in which the gap is located rose further and higher. The Colorado erodes about 16 cm every 1000 years. The canyon is about 435 kilometers long and has a width that varies between 15 and 29 kilometers. According to measurements, the rock that is now exposed is approximately 2 billion years old. The geological structure is part of the Grand Staircase.
From the age of the canyon itself, very different assignments were made in various published studies. A study published in Nature came to 70 million years. A very recent study comes to 6 million years.
Despite the great width, the other side of the canyon is clearly visible from almost every point. This is due to the extremely low humidity in the desert-like area, so that the light absorption here is extremely low.
The walls of the Grand Canyon are streaked reddish due to the different compositions of the layers in succession. The Grand Canyon's red rock is prized at its most beautiful just after sunrise and just before sunset. It is therefore often recommended to visit the Canyon around these times.
Source: Wikipedia
Diergaarde Blijdorp (Zoo)
June 2012
The Netherlands
Finally home after a very busy weekend in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.
Shot a lot of nice frames and i have a lot of processing to do. Visited a Zoo for the first time in many years and had a blast, with the animals and with the visitors ;)
Urban life in the Netherlands
Ricoh GRD IV
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The Hague
June 2012
The Netherlands
This my street on Tuesday mornings, the garbage disposal services are always late, my neighbors are always too early with putting their trash out on the curb and the early birds (seagulls) get the worm (eh trash)
Urban life in the Netherlands
Ricoh GRD IV
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Temple of Heaven, Beijing
July 2012
China
Actually a very proud and friendly Temple of Heaven gardener! His colleagues were overjoyed that i also included them in my pictures. I guess most people are to pre-occupied with the beautiful surroundings to acknowledge them and the importance of their work.
Urban life
Canon 550D
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© All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal.If you do so you will be sued!!!
Early morning fog and low lighting produced the muted colors in this photograph. The trees have been due to the absorption of mineral rich water.
This Image was prompted by a friend's question about why some lunar features were brighter and lighter-toned than others. Yesterday another friend and I answered his question, stating that radiation from the solar wind and cosmic rays, along with bombardment by micrometeorites weathered material on the Moon's surface. These agents alter the reflectivity, the color and the absorption characteristics of small particles exposed on the lunar surface. The longer materials are exposed, the more effect these agents have on them. Younger craters excavate material from deep below the surface and scatter it across the surface. This newer material has been exposed to the effects of radiation and micrometeorite bombardment for less time, and therefore appears brighter than the older material it overlays.
My reading yesterday introduced me to a new concept - "lunar swirls". Lunar swirls are surface features that are lighter in color than material that surrounds them, yet have no crater or other geographic feature that might explain them. They are simply unusually light and reflective.
While there is no crater to explain them, there is magnetism. Lunar swirls show a localized magnetic field, perhaps residual from an earlier era when the Moon as a whole had a magnetic field (as does the Earth currently), perhaps due to some other cause. Whatever the origin, the magnetic field serves the same function in these small locations as does the Earth's magnetic field - they shield an area from the effects of the solar wind. Lunar swirls are small areas on the Moon enveloped by localized magnetic fields, shielded from solar wind, and protected from the changes that solar wind would otherwise have on them. Therefore, they are lighter-toned than areas not so protected.
Upon reading about lunar swirls, I went digging through my recent photo archive. I found this one. This photo shows one notable lunar swirl, known as Reiner Gamma. Above center in this photo there is an isolated crater, oval in appearance due to foreshortening. That is Reiner Crater (30 km diameter, 2.6 km deep). Reiner Crater has a nice central peak, but is not remarkable in any sense. However, to the left of Reiner Crater can be seen a lighter area, one that appears round in this photo, with a bar extending from its center outward beyond the perimeter towards the 2:00 position. Viewed from overhead, this area presents a light-colored fish shape. There is no surface geological feature other than the coloring. This is Reiner Gamma, an oddity that has spurred considerable ongoing research. Their interpretation and explanation has triggered lively debate.
Incidentally, this image shows three large craters, just within the illuminated area east of the terminator, in the center of the image. From the north, they are Cavalerius (59 km diameter), Hevelius (114 km diameter), and the lava plain, Grimaldi (173 km diameter). The indentation of darkness along the terminator northwest of Grimaldi is the crater Riccioli (156 km diameter). I like how the light just catches a sliver of Riccioli's western rim.
This is NGC 2170, also known as The Angel Nebula, located in the constellation Monoceros. Part of its beauty lies in the fact that it is a region bearing many different types of nebulae, including blue reflection nebulae, black absorption nebulae and a red emission region.
NGC 2170 is the orange cloud towards the centre, which is illuminated by the reflected light of nearby stars. Three beautiful blue reflection nebulae accompany NGC 2170, along with red emission nebulae, and several dark structures which are dark absorption nebulae.
hairy structures on the surface of plant leaves for water and nutrient absorption
Macro Mondays - Leaf
Processed using calibrated near-infrared methane absorption band (CB2, MT2) filtered images of Saturn, Tethys, and Mimas taken by Cassini on July 16 2005.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
For some reason this photo Rock formation near Exmouth and Orcombe from Paul, makes me think of another Giant's Exposed Roots...
Below some definitions of the Word ROOT:
Definition of root
1a: the usually underground part of a seed plant body that originates usually from the hypocotyl, functions as an organ of absorption, aeration, and food storage or as a means of anchorage and support, and differs from a stem especially in lacking nodes, buds, and leaves
b: any subterranean plant part (such as a true root or a bulb, tuber, rootstock, or other modified stem) especially when fleshy and edible
2a: the part of a tooth within the socket
also : any of the processes into which this part is often divided
b: the enlarged basal part of a hair within the skin
c: the proximal end of a nerve
d: the part of an organ or physical structure by which it is attached to the body
the root of the tongue
3a: something that is an origin or source (as of a condition or quality)
the love of money is the root of all evil
b: one or more progenitors of a group of descendants —usually used in plural
c: an underlying support : BASIS
d: the essential core : HEART —often used in the phrase at root
e: close relationship with an environment : TIE —usually used in plural
they put down roots in a farming community
4a: a quantity taken an indicated number of times as an equal factor
2 is a fourth root of 16
b: a number that reduces an equation to an identity when it is substituted for one variable
5a: the lower part : BASE
b: the part by which an object is attached to something else
6: the simple element inferred as the basis from which a word is derived by phonetic change or by extension (such as composition or the addition of an affix or inflectional ending)
7: the lowest tone of a chord (such as C in a C minor chord) when the tones are arranged in ascending thirds
8:computers : a level of access to a computer system that allows complete access to files on the system and complete control over the system's functions —usually used before another noun
root user
root directory
root verb
rooted; rooting; roots
transitive verb
1a: to furnish with or enable to develop roots
b: to fix or implant by or as if by roots
2: to remove altogether by or as if by pulling out by the roots —usually used with out
root out dissenters
intransitive verb
1: to grow roots or take root
2: to have an origin or base
root verb
rooted; rooting; roots
intransitive verb
1: to turn up or dig in the earth with the snout : GRUB
2: to poke or dig about
transitive verb
: to turn over, dig up, or discover and bring to light —usually used with out
root out the cause of the problem
intransitive verb
1: to noisily applaud or encourage a contestant or team : CHEER
2: to wish the success of or lend support to someone or something
Beijing
July 2012
China
Urban life
Canon 550D
Please do not reproduce or use this picture without my explicit permission.
If you ask nicely I will probably say yes, just ask me first!
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WARNING : these cheap scans do not reflect the real photograph
Nor do they reflect any outlined vision on my part.
I just take/make photographs.
They serve no purpose whatsoever.
Infact, I could just as well not photograph anymore and start doing something really useful.
oh, and by the way...flickr lies...this photograph was not taken on the 16th of october àt all.
Processed using calibrated near-infrared methane absorption band (MT2, CB2) filtered images of Saturn taken by Cassini on August 15 2011. Applied strong sharpening in Topaz Sharpen AI.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Mors was a French pioneer car manufacturer from 1895 until its absorption by Citroën in 1925.
Cars 'n' Coffee Oldtimers Zuid-Kennemerland
Kopje van Bloemendaal, 3 augustus 2022.
SO MANY OCs! Also, this will be a really long post, so just sit tight and relax.
Left-Right:
Goop:
Real Name: Unknown
Powers/Abilities, Can shapeshift into any shape at will and power absorption.
Weaknesses: Weighs one pound and a small gust of wind can easily blow him away.
Equipment: Rainboots
Backstory: A cosmic rock hit Earth's surface causing a hunk of goop to explode out. The goop would soon get into a school and mutated into a child's art project making Goop. Goop would soon go into the Saviors' Headquarters by accident and gets recruited by showing his powers.
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Botanist:
Real Name: Jerry Cruz
Powers/Abilities: Plant Empowerment (gives strength and durability after getting some life force from plants.) and Plant Growth
Weaknesses: Has a soft side for animals.
Equipment: Uniform and fertilizer.
Backstory: Jerry's parents were botanists. They converted their garage and backyard to plant research facilities and Jerry was tired of unable to be in certain rooms, so he decided to start destroying the plants. However, he accidentally broke a shelf and an experimental plant fell and hit his head causing a concussion. A few years later, Jerry learned about his powers and joined the Saviors. Soon after the Saviors hired Goop, Jerry took care of Goop and even decided to adopt it.
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Firestarter:
Real Name: Robby Hildebrant
Powers/Abilities: Fire Generation, Temperature Manipulation, and is Fireproof
Weaknesses: Water can extinguish his fires, needs to drink water in order to stay hydrated in the heat, and is heavy due to his Flamethrower.
Equipment: Flamethrower, uniform, grapple hook, and foldable hatchet
Backstory: Robby had an average childhood and life. Nothing really happened until his family’s home started burning with flames. Robby was the only one home and he knew he had to do something to stop it. He tried all of the things expected to stop a fire, but it kept burning. It was only until he stepped in the fire that he learnt that he had superpowers. After turning 18, he set out to become the superhero he thought of as Firestarter.
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Blackhawk
Real Name: Frank Willis
Powers/Abilities: Smart Engineer with Superhuman Strength and Durability.
Weaknesses: Frank is an alcoholic.
Equipment: A specially designed pistol (Taser and grapple-hook), a lasso, and a variety of grenades.
Backstory: A former professional pilot and actor that needed to have some fun. Life was boring for him so Frank decided to start stopping small crimes. Apparently he got praise from it and decided to fight more. The people also agreed, so Frank started the Saviors group. After a few superheroes joined, Frank bought out a small area of an office building and converted it into a tourist attraction and the Saviors' Headquarters. Sadly, during the first phases of the Saviors Group, the superheroes that joined were killed during a mission causing Willis to become an alcoholic. He would have the same charm during a mission, but he ain't what he was after. A few years later, he reopened the Saviors group and he hired 6 heroes, Firestarter, Phaser, Streak, Titan, Botanist and Goop.
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Titan:
Real Name: Chandler Timberland
Powers/Abilities: Size Manipulation (Strength and Durability when he grows)
Weaknesses: Slower the bigger he gets, also, Chad has a tendency of not planning ahead.
Equipment: Uniform
Backstory: Chandler used to be a bully at school. He would get people to do his homework until one day, the bully victims decided to teach him a lesson. They made him a pill that would supposedly make him fat, instead it made Chandler grow in size. Realizing what happened, Chandler tried to say sorry, instead he crushed 5 people. He ran off into an alleyway and got help from a fellow student, Autumn Hendricks. Chandler soon joined the Saviors with his new girlfriend, Autumn Hendricks and they are known as Titan and Streak.
-----------------------------------
Streak:
Real Name: Autumn Hendricks
Powers/Abilities: Super-Human Speed and Durability
Weaknesses: Motion Sickness while running at fast speeds
Equipment: Uniform
Backstory: Autumn who was born in a family with lots of health issues. She was the only lucky one with an issue that would be useful. She was born with superhuman speed. Autumn would grow up always knowing that she had powers and she is extremely skilled with them. During her high-school years, she met someone in an alleyway. His name was Chandler (Titan). She taught him how to use his powers for good. Chandler and Autumn soon joined the Saviors as Titan and Streak.
-----------------------------------
Phaser:
Real Name: Clark Jenkins
Powers/Abilities: Can phase through any object
Weaknesses: Often works alone and has no super-human strength whatsoever.
Equipment: Uniform and Pepper-Spray
Backstory: Clark has been lifelong friends to another hero, Firestarter (Robby Hildebrante). When Clark was a little boy, his parents were desperate for money and needed to feed Clark. They got a job from a scientist and Clark’s parents were supposed to make a formula that would grant the powers of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, Clark as a young child accidentally drank the formula. Clark had no idea that he had powers until a fight happened at school where Clark phased through a bully’s punch and threw him (Buckshot) through a window injuring his arm and messing up his face. Clark would soon be expelled from school and spend some time in jail. After being released, he realized he needed to use his powers for good. Clark would go back to his parents’ home and ask them to make a costume for him that was made of unstable molecules so he can stay in his costume and phase through objects at the same time (his parents lost the science job and got money from buying stocks.) Clark finally knowing his powers would go out into the world fighting small crimes as Phaser.
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Schiphol
March 2012
The Netherlands
Candid shots in and around the Public Transport in The Netherlands
Ricoh GRD IV
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Delivered April 2009, and after the absorption of JAL Express by JAL is now carrying “Japan Airlines” titles in the revised livery featuring the iconic crane back.
Tussock in the vicinity of Mount Ngauruhoe.
Exclusion plot on Island Saddle in the South Island of New Zealand. The enclosure prevents herbivory by introduced mammals resulting in a higher recruitment of tussocks within the plot.
Tussock grasslands form expansive and distinctive landscapes in the South Island and to a lesser extent in the central plateau region of the North Island of New Zealand. Most of the plants referred to as tussocks are in the genera Carex, Chionochloa, Festuca, and Poa.
Many species have long roots that may reach 2 meters (6.6 ft) or more into the soil, which can aid slope stabilization, erosion control, and soil porosity for precipitation absorption. Also, their roots can reach moisture more deeply than other grasses and annual plants during seasonal or climatic droughts. The plants provide habitat and food for insects (including Lepidoptera), birds, small animals and larger herbivores, and support beneficial soil mycorrhiza. The leaves supply material, such as for basket weaving, for indigenous peoples and contemporary artists.
(Source: Wikipedia)