View allAll Photos Tagged BLACKS
Taken in Yellowstone National Park near Lamar Valley. This bear was walking in a grassy area not far off the highway. I hiked down a little way to get a closer perspective and the next thing I knew he was right in front of me! I snapped a couple shots and backed away carefully. As they say, If it's brown...lay down, if it's black, fight back. Black bears are known to be more aggressive than brown bears...I had already taken enough chances...time for me to leave!
Oh yeah! FINALLY!!! A properly exposed, eye-level, reasonably sharp, reasonably close view of a Black Oystercatcher. Only took me two years to learn how. :-)
I'm reading the book Art & Fear. A section from it seems pertinent to me now. To get out of my rut, I have to just keep shooting...
"The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -albeit a perfect one - to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."
In my eyes, in disposed,
In disguise, as no one knows
Hides the face
Lies the snake, the sun
In my disgrace
Boiling heat, Summer stench
Beneath the black, the sky looks dead
Call my name
Through the dream
And I'll hear you
Scream again
Black hole sun
Won't you come
And wash away the rain
Black hole sun
-Soundgarden
1772. Dangerously close to the Diamond Shoals off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the sloop Thunderbolt, battered by a fierce storm and rough sea, catches fire from an overturned cook stove. All aboard scrambled to put out the flames while trying to keep from being tossed overboard. The shoals, sand dunes just below the water’s surface, reach out some 18 miles past Hatteras Point. Hundreds of ships have run aground here, miles from shore, to be pulverized by the relentless waves... and often, all aboard drown.
On this day, a terrified 17-year-old orphaned boy from St. Croix, on his way to an American education, is among those fighting to save the ship... he is Alexander Hamilton, who would get that education and become the first U. S. Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington. Resting against the rails of the saved ship, he watches as the shoals recede away... and vows to do something so that others would not know such fear.
There was a reason ships were drawn near the shoals... wind-driven ships also relied on ocean current, which at times can move better than 40 mph. The Labrador Current sweeps down from the north and hugs this coast to about two miles off the beach. Beyond that is the Gulf Stream that moves up from the south toward the upper tier states. Often, it was faster for ships coming to Boston or New York from Europe to work their way south to catch the Gulf Stream than it was to come straight across the Atlantic. Even back in the day, folks in the shipping business knew that time is money. The confluence of the cold Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream also set up perfect conditions for violent storms and ocean swells. Add to that the shoals, which extended beyond sight of land amid that confluence, and many an unwary ship’s captain left “money” to shift among the sands of these underwater dunes. Only jetsam and flotsam found on the beaches along the Outer Banks gave evidence of the fate of the ship.
As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton finally has the power to make good on his vows, and the U. S. Lighthouse Service, and eventually the U. S. Coast Guard fall under the auspices of the Treasury Department. The first lighthouses along the east coast were functional, if just barely, and were not constructed to the exacting standards you see here... there’s something to be said of building your house on shifting sand, as many of the early lighthouses here in North Carolina toppled shortly after construction. Under the supervision of Dexter Stetson, Hatteras Lighthouse rose up 210 feet from a foundation of granite, rubble, and entire lengths of pine pushed to the bedrock... and stayed up, as it has since 1870. With a focal plane at 187 feet, its light could be seen for 28 miles, well before a ship reached the shoals at night. Its conical tower is painted in black and white spirals to make it distinctive from other local lighthouses.
After his success at Hatteras, Stetson turned his attention to Bodie Island. The name of the island is in contention, largely due to revisionist historians... the name is pronounced “body” and is likely an archaic form of that word. Legend has it the name comes because of bodies washing ashore after some ship found its resting place in the of the Graveyard of the Atlantic. According to some historians, however, the name comes from a family that once lived here, though that has never been proven... the legend may not be so legendary, as such things did happen. A lighthouse would save lives here too.
There were two lighthouses located here before the one you see here. The first one leaned toward the sea shortly after it was built. That was in the day before electrical power, so the lighthouse had to be tended to every day... could you imagine having to climb up a structure so unstable that it might topple any second, at least twice a day? Me neither. It failed and was replaced, but Confederate troops blew the second one up in 1861 during a series of skirmishes as Yankee troops descended on Fort Fisher. The third installment of Bodie Island Lighthouse projected light from its first order Fresnel lens for the first time in 1872. At a height of 165 feet, its beam can still be seen 21 miles out to sea.
Though built on a land that shifts with the wind and tide, Bodie Island Lighthouse has withstood hurricanes, nor’easters, floods, lightning, heat, and humidity, but 148 years of such conditions had taken its toll. After much determination, restoration of the lighthouse began in 2010. The last of the project was the installation of the refurbished Fresnel lens... after a re-lighting ceremony, the lighthouse was returned to service April 18, 2013. Seen here in morning light 11 years since, Bodie Island Lighthouse is still every bit the historical standout with its alternating bands of black and white.
Weather in the last week flooded roads and breached dune berms in the area… lucky me. It also provided unusual circumstances for me to shoot the lighthouse, magnificent as it has been for 152 years.
A Welsh Black, part of one of the few Welsh Black herds in East Anglia, on Herringfleet marshes, Suffolk.
The Welsh Black is a native British breed descended from cattle of pre-Roman Britain in the rough mountain and hill country of Wales. There is evidence that the breed, or its forerunners, existed in Roman times and it has been suggested that the breed is based on cattle from the Iberian Peninsula. It has been speculated that the extinct black cattle of Cornwall was a breed closely related to the Welsh Black.
Certainly black cattle have been bred in Wales for well over 1,000 years and, as in Scotland and many other parts of Britain, were often used as currency. This gave rise to the description of the Welsh Black as 'the black gold from the Welsh hills'.
Up until the early 1970's the Welsh Black was regarded as a dual purpose breed for both dairy and beef production. There were two distinct strains of the breed, the stocky North Wales beef type and the more dairy like South Wales or Castlemartin animal. The successful intermingling of these types over the past 90 years has resulted in an optimum sized animal with an emphasis on beef production. The unique traits of the breed are a result of this heredity and environment.
Welsh Black cattle are large sized animals with the average body weight of a mature cow being about 1,325 to 1,760 lb. (600 to 800 kg) and a mature bulls weighing on average about 2,100 to 2,535 lb. (950 to 1150 kg), and sometimes more. The majority are black, varying from rusty black to jet black. Red individuals occur occasionally, red and other colours were more common in the past. They generally have white horns with black tips, but these may be removed, and there are also naturally hornless (polled) animals, both black and red.
The Welsh Black's formidable reputation has been built on the breed’s capability to thrive on marginal and upland areas. There, its foraging habit makes it ideal for rough pasture such as heathland and moorland, and for conservation grazing. The breed is hardy and adaptable, neither cold or rain seem to worry them, as the experience of Canadian and New Zealand breeders have confirmed. It is common to see them grazing happily in the open in driving rain or snow when other types of cattle have gone in search of shelter. They develop a thick winter coat, which is usually shed in spring.
In the past Welsh drovers would drive their herds to English markets. Herds from south west Wales travelled towards Hereford and Gloucester up the Tywi Valley to Llandovery. Herds from South Cardiganshire reached Llandovery through Llanybydder and Llansawel. The drovers would then return to Wales with large amounts of money, which made them targets of bandits and highwaymen. The result was the formation in 1799 of the Banc yr Eidon in Llandovery, the Bank of the Black Ox, which was later purchased by Lloyds Bank.
Today Welsh Blacks found throughout the UK, however they are on the list of endangered native breeds in Wales. Over the past 30 years they have travelled to Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Uganda and Jamaica.
Saw this small bird at the pond recently, and was lucky to get a few images of it.
The Black Phoebe is a dapper flycatcher of the western U.S. with a sooty black body and crisp white belly. They sit in the open on low perches to scan for insects, often keeping up a running series of shrill chirps. Black Phoebes use mud to build cup-shaped nests against walls, overhangs, culverts, and bridges. Look for them near any water source from small streams, to suburbs, all the way to the salt-sprayed rocks and cliffs of the Pacific Ocean. www.allaboutbirds.org/
My computer is now back, though the program I wanted still will not work!
I can however upload the short video from yesterday of a black hairstreak. It then turned to face me head on!
I bought a used fujifilm natura black back in January, but just recently got the roll developed and scanned. This was taken at the night market at Chinatown just before the Lunar New Year
Cassie looks so cute in every single hat that I put on her (I wish I was like that ;) And I think Black might be her color!