This is a pair of Common Blue Damselflies 'in the wheel' forming a heart shape. Damselfly sex is complicated, so pay attention!

The (blue) male initiates the reproductive process by depositing some sperm from his primary genitalia near the tip of his tail onto secondary genitalia under the 2nd segment of his abdomen (just below his 'chest') . Grasping a female by the back of her head or 'prothorax', they fly around in tandem until she is ready to collect the sperm, which she does by looping around so she can collect the sperm with her genitalia located near the tip of her tail - which is what is happening in this picture. They can remain like this for a few seconds or a few minutes, and can even fly around conjoined like this. At some point, she will straighten out, and then they fly in tandem to a nearby stretch of slow flowing water where she will deposit her eggs. I believe that the eggs are not fertilized until they are laid, so it is important the male keeps hold of her until the eggs are deposited to prevent other males from mating with her. The damselflies play no role in caring for their offspring and, in fact, only live a matter of weeks in the winged form. The eggs hatch and develop over a few weeks and the nymphs grow, shedding their skins several times over at least one year, some species multiple years, until, when the time is right, the final 'instar' climbs up a plant stem and sheds its skin to emerge as the final, flying adult form - transitioning from water breathing to air breathing in the process. The adult forms only live for a few weeks, spending that time eating and breeding. Odonata (damselflies and dragonflies) are amongst the most successful animals on earth, surviving virtually unchanged (apart from size) for hundreds of millions of years, being found in fossil records. No species has evolved from them - it seems any mutation makes them less successful.

All these mentions of sex, mating, copulation, sperm and genitals will get lots of hits by people searching for porn on Flickr!

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***Thank you for your visit and comments :)

I love the challenge, the buzz of 'complicated'... and beyond the obvious. Bring out the mirrors, the Pneu-Air shutter cable release... prepare for running and mutter the odd swear word...

LOL!

Here I set up the Hasselblad on a tripod, my Nikon F4 with polaroid back!(I resisted digital for a long time, till I was satisfied with the quality) On another, looking into the mat glass of the Blad, you still with me?

It wasn't until the film was developed that I realised my feet were in... now I could have 'cropped', but I preferred it like this, an added touch in my view, and anchored the image, serendipity he?

thank you for ALL your faves and comments, M, (* _ *)

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

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Lady Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge

New York, NY

August 3, 2016

ellosblogsecondlife.blogspot.it/2017/09/blog-post.html

Foro di Augusto

Buon compleanno, Roma! Il 21 aprile, come di consueto, viene celebrato l’anniversario della fondazione della città, anticamente conosciuto anche come Dies Romana, oggi più semplicemente “Natale di Roma“. La leggenda dietro questa suggestiva celebrazione venne resa popolare da Marco Terenzio Varrone, scrittore e militare della Roma antica, che raccontò come Romolo avesse fondato la città il 21 aprile del 753 a.C., una data a cui giunse attraverso complicati calcoli astrologici l’amico Lucio Taruzio. Furono poi i grandi imperatori a creare clamore e curiosità intorno a questa data, iniziando a celebrarla come una sorta di propaganda imperiale. Il primo a festeggiare il Natale di Roma fu l’imperatore Claudio, nel 47, a ottocento anni dalla presunta fondazione della città: dopo di lui, in molti seguirono il suo esempio, e per il millesimo compleanno della di Roma vennero addirittura stampate delle monete celebrative. Da allora, tra alti e bassi nel corso dei secoli, i festeggiamenti continuano.

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Happy Birthday, Rome! On April 21, as usual, it is celebrated the anniversary of the founding of the city, formerly also known as Dies Romana, simply today "Christmas in Rome." The legend behind this evocative celebration was popularized by Varro, writer and military of ancient Rome, which told how Romulus had founded the city on April 21, 753 BC, a date that came through complicated astrological calculations friend Lucius Tarutius Firmanus . It was then the great emperors to create hype and curiosity about that date, starting to celebrate it as a kind of imperial propaganda. The first to celebrate Christmas in Rome was the Emperor Claudius, in 47, to eight hundred years after the alleged foundation of the city after him, in many they followed his example, and for the thousandth birthday of Rome coins were even printed celebrative. Since then, with ups and downs over the centuries, the festivities continue.

Quite a weak sea with no drama - but still enjoyable

I wasn't sure wether to post this image or not. It's a bit like looking at social media during the Corvid 19 pandemic, in that there is just too much information, some of it good, some of it distracting. But as president Trump notes, "people are dying who have not died before!"

It's been a bit of a while since my last upload so thought I better post something before my stream gets too dusty. :-)

You know, girl, I'm a bit complicated 👣

Inspiration Music

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CREDITS:

POSE & ANIMATION POSE:

FEMALE HUD: OMY Women's "J'AIME" HUD

POSE MALE: OMY FOX, HUNTER OR ALEX

Mainstore

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❤

HER FLICKR

AliMuza

(Somewhere in Zuid-Limburg)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl8CVYeV1Fk

I'm so scared that the way that I feel

Is written all over my face

When you walk into the room

I want to find a hiding place

We used to laugh, we used to hug,

The way that all friends do

But now I smile at a touch of your hand

Just makes me come unglued,

Such a contradiction,

Do I lie or tell the truth,

Is it fact or fiction,

Oh the way I feel for you

It's so complicated

I'm so frustrated

I want to hold you close

I want to push you away

I want to make you go

I want to make you stay

Should I say it

Should I tell you how I feel

Oh I want you to know

But then again I don't

So complicated.

Oh, just when I think I'm under control

I think I've finally got a grip.

Another friend tells me that

My name is always on your lips.

They say I'm more then Just a friend,

They say I must be blind.

I admit that I've seen you watch

But from the corner of your eye

Oh it's so confusing

Yeah I wish you'd just confess..

But think of what I"d be losing

If your answer wasn't yes.

It's so complicated

I'm so frustrated

I want to hold you close

I want to push you away

I want to make you go

I want to make you stay

Should I say it

Should I tell you how I feel

Oh I want you to know

But then again I don't

So complicated.

I hate it, 'cause I've waited

So long for someone like you.

Oh what do I do?

Oh should I say it? should I tell you how I feel, oh I want to you know, but Then again I don't.

It's so complicated.

It's so complicated.

It's so complicated.

...or just a mess.

Zeiss 50/1.4 Planar

A pole I found interesting along SR 35 in Wisconsin, near the airport.

Dreams are as simple or as complicated as the dreamer.

~BRIAN HERBERT

“Don’t wait for things to get easier, simpler, better. Life will always be complicated. Learn to be happy right now. Otherwise, you’ll run out of time.”- unknown.

To know the history of how the Blackfoot people were treated at the time the whiskey traders came into their lives and the Northwest Mounted Police were established to try to keep the peace between all people, is to appreciate that life has always been turbulent for many generations. In this place now, you reflect on things that you can loose over time , so you are grateful for the good things you have today.

This image shows one of three main sections in the park with the Milk River winding through the coulee and Hoodoos lining parts of the river banks.

Thanks for all of the well-wishes. My brother is out of surgery and everything went as planned. He still has a long road to recovery, including 8 weeks before he can have solid foods again (the first three weeks will just be clear liquids). We're heading out to the hospital shortly. I thank you again for all the prayers and notes of concern. What a great flickr family I have! :D

The old world/new world thing gets to me.

Port of New Bedford, MA

A black and white version from Brownsham Wood, Hartland

Crew members at work on a tanker in a Freeport, Texas ship terminal.

Liége train station

What could I say? For many it has been a very complicated year. As I already said in a previous publication, I have had to face my greatest fears and gradually get out of the dark hole in which I was stuck. Throughout this year there have been many times when I have been on the verge of giving up. "I can't do it", "I'm not enough", "I deserve whatever happens to me" and "I'm never going to get it" have been my most recurring thoughts, and I would be lying if I said that I have never felt tempted to pay attention to them, to leave everything and simply go with the flow.

But somehow I have managed to move forward. Whether by embracing anger, despair, or hope itself, I have achieved things that others, or even myself, believed I could not achieve. I managed to stop crying because of my grief, I managed to get my driving license (and I haven't run over any grannies in the process, we can be proud) and I have started studying Pharmacy and Parapharmacy, a complicated area (especially for someone who was never of science, but of literature), and I have managed to pass the first trimester with one of the best grades in the class after a lot of effort and perseverance.

2024 will be very complicated for me. I still have a long way to go to be able to love myself, accept all the bad things that happened and show the world and myself that I am worth it. I am going to continue fighting for it and to achieve my dream of being free from my dementors.

I'm still broken, but maybe I'll be able to conjure my own Patronus after all.

I wish you all a prosperous and happy new year. May you also fight for yourselves and achieve all your goals ♥

These guys were just amazing. Roy already playing a complicated piece on his guitar but he had to watch Glen to see when he could pick up his part again.

I heard Roy Clark in an interview say he learned to play the guitar because he didn’t want to break his back working.

Glen Campbell started as a studio player till they notice how well he played and could sing also.

Dresden, Germany

This Animated line is a labor or fragile love. Great concept, but terrible, terrible execution. The plastic they used so far has been garbage. If you get'em, handle only with care.

In Mathematics, if two lines are PARALLEL, they do not meet each other, or do NOT TOUCH each other.

If we defined "ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP" as "touching someone's heart," then there wasn't such a relationship when a couple's hearts were not touching. So, can we say "the relationship is parallel?"

If it is so, this image represents a COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP with THREE people.

Complicated Perching. Trees felled fertile fields lost and water sources grabbed. Adapting for survival.

fine art prints | workshops | tutorials

www.teokefalopoulos.com

Dyrtholaey maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aride%20Isle/186/104/41

Edamiers Secret, Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Utah

JAX was Obby’s friend although theirs was a complicated relationship. Without his friend, Obby has become very attached to me. And it dawned on me while puzzling this theme that I am indeed Obby’s best friend. Besides grooming and feeding him, he sleeps with me and on me every night. That certainly must be what BFF’s do, right? Happy Caturday everyone.

A long-exposure photo taken with my big camera on a tripod and 16 stops of stacked ND filters. I'm sure you'll agree that it's a complicated set-up with lots of different components.

For comparison look at the version below that I snapped instantly with my iPhone 11 using it's inbuilt 'long exposure' mode.

On the iPhone the camera does this trick by automatically taking multiple photos and then electronically combining them into a single image. The iPhone image took just an instant but this one from the big camera took about 10 minutes to set up including the 4 minute initial exposure time and the 4 minute in-camera long exposure noise reduction time.

The iPhone image was processed and posted via the phone's software and the one from the big camera was processed using Photoshop (needs a click on each to see the difference).

It's a quiet Sunday morning in December, around 10 am, I had been awake for a few hours, I looked out the window to see what the day looked like, when I saw a mixture of fog and interesting sunshine I thought, you should go out with the camera..... so I did, with little to do, I went into "work" mode and took a walk among these beautiful trees ... that soft side light, coming through a fine mist, presented a wonderful scene before me ...

Many times, photography does not do justice to the reality of what you see, this is the most difficult and complicated part, trying to reflect in the best way, what my eyes see through the viewfinder ... I hope I succeeded and not disappoint mother nature!

I hope you like this scene.

Thank you very much for your visits, faves and kind comments.