Yep, you´ve seen it a million times before - figured I´d just contribute mine to the trash heap

View larger here: www.dterryphotography.com/gallery/6596384_oPYaW

On camera 580EXII used as master - but NOT contributing to the exposure.

Off camera 580EXII used as main light on a light stand to the left, shooting through an umbrella.

Off camera 580EX used as fill light straight back behind the camera, shooting through a softbox.

Off camera 420EX used as accent light, to the right and in back of the model.

Light ratio was set so that the main light was set to a 4:1 ratio to the fill light.

When I started paying serious attention to photography a few years ago, I began to notice how powerful repetition could be. Even a mundane object - or for that matter an unattractive one - when repeated could contribute to a compelling composition. This arc of Wheels sit-down e-scooters at Peachtree and Fifteenth caught my eye as I was biking by this afternoon and called out to me to be used as an example.

Excerpt from historicplaces.ca:

Description of Historic Place

Victoria Public School, located at 25 Joseph Street, is situated on the south side of the street, at the southern terminus of Ontario Street South, in the City of Kitchener. The three-storey, red-brick building was designed in the Edwardian Baroque style by the architectural firm Munro and Mead, and was constructed between 1910 and 1911.

The property was designated, by the City of Kitchener, for its historic and architectural value, under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act (By-law 88-154).

Heritage Value

Victoria Public School is associated with the Hamilton architectural firm of Munro and Mead, who designed the original block. The architectural firm of Munro and Mead, is credited with playing a significant role in the development of architectural style and design in southern Ontario, at the turn of the century. Mr. Pequegnat, who presided over the planning and building of the school as the Chairman of the Board of Education, was also a prominent Kitchener businessman. Furthermore, the building is important to the history of the community, as it opened the same year Berlin, now Kitchener, became a city, and was likely the only large-scale public building erected at the time.

Victoria Public School is one of the finest school structures in Ontario and is still considered a key public landmark. Its hybrid of styles is reminiscent of the stately houses of Europe. The school combines features of the Jacobean, Baroque and Edwardian styles. The addition of the east and west wings by Kitchener architect Charles Knechtel completed the U shaped form as seen in the present building. These additions conform exactly to the original design, and enhance the overall grandeur of the building.

Victoria Public School's commanding presence at the end of Ontario Street provides a strong link to downtown Kitchener. The building is an important landmark in the progression from downtown to the historic Victoria Park heritage conservation district. The grand scale of the building on its prominent site marks an important reference point from all directions.

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements that contribute to the heritage value of the Victoria Public School include its:

- spatial layout and detailing by the architectural firm Munro and Mead

- three projecting frontispieces (Joseph Street façade) which include the rusticated entrance way with radiating voussoir, double-leaf door and fanlight, and broken segmented arched pediments supported by Doric columns

- original 6 over 9 double hung sash, muntins and frames

- Tudor window over the main entrance with centre crest

- cylindrical lamp standards on either side of the front steps

- pyramidal finials atop the front entrance way

- all moulded fascia and soffits

- red glazed brick laid in a Flemish Bond pattern

- raised stone foundation with rock-faced finish laid in broken courses

- slate roof

- location at the edge of downtown and in close proximity to the Victoria Park heritage conservation district

- elevation and grand scale

Im so happy, the man on Craigslist sold me all these vintage dolls for an extremely good price. Ive been blown away all weekend, and it just contributes to the love I have for dolls. Better yet, these are investments into my happiness!!! I just had to share my joy!!!☺☺☺☺☺

In Flickr Explore January 8, 2024

This photo was chosen for The Top Of the Month Gallery January 2024 in the Group "This Is Magic!" www.flickr.com/groups/flickrphotosharing/discuss/72157659...

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The historic urban canal district of Amsterdam was built at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. It served as a reference throughout the world until the 19th century.

The Canal Ring area were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site, contributing to Amsterdam's fame as the "Venice of the North".

The Singel is one of Amsterdam's oldest and most scenic canals.

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Singel Canal, Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Happy New Year 2024! May the New Year bring you happiness, peace, and prosperity

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See my new photos in the "My Travels" album:

On the other side of the fence, Mr. Zoom and I crossed the street to get a better look at the building from which we'd just escaped. I was happy to see that Mr. Z's eyes were clear again. He asked if I still had the paper I'd pulled out of the one-fingered hand. I patted the pockets of my pants. Yes! But only part of it.

We stood huddled together, trying to find a clue in the words. If we were to believe the Statue of Liberty, Demi only had to look for the signs to find her other half. Originally we were just humoring Demi, helping her with her quest. But now we felt that if we followed the signs we might find her.

Part of a headline remained. We read it together at the same time...out loud.

ines Contribute to City's Demi (and the paper was torn here)

Huh? City's Demise was a good guess as to the rest of the headline. But what about the beginning?

A bit of wind ruffled the paper in my hand and my eyes were struck by the words etched in the sidewalk.

IN DIRECT LINE WITH ANOTHER and THE NEXT.

Mr. Zoom and I looked at each other, puzzled, and in a way, more frightened than we were with the Bruce Lee look-alike bearing down on us. Could the partial headline and these odd words have a connection to each other....and to Demi?

(L)ines Contribute to City's Demi(se?)

In Direct Line With Another And The Next

Does anyone else's head hurt?

This is the continuing story of Demi Less and her quest to find her other half. The quest has led her...and us, from Virginia to New York City. If you are just joining us, you might want to read Part 1. Start at the last photo and move forward.

Part 1 of the Demi Story) www.flickr.com/photos/zoom-in-tight/sets/72157607664503789/

Sculpture contributed by the University of Waterloo

School of Architecture and

the Department of

Architectural Engineering

Original capture on Rollei 200 ISO B+W film shot at 100 ISO on a Mamiya 645 Pro S.

Excerpt from www.insidehalton.com/news/burlington-history-part-of-natu...:

Simon Frank brings together the natural environment with the history of the Mountainside community in a new public art piece inspired by the expansive forest surrounding the Burlington recreation centre.

The Hamilton resident’s installation of several large-scale stainless steel tree slices – each with laser-etched growth rings – was unveiled in a ceremony Sunday.

“I’m really interested in connecting the things that we do as people, and our history, our culture, with nature,” Frank told the Post.

Displayed in two parts on the exterior laminate faux wood walls, one large tree slice includes words representative of the area’s history that were contributed by local residents.

“In this case the text is just part of addressing the human history and for me I think human history should never be separated from the sort of natural history,” Frank said.

More than a dozen other smaller pieces near the front entrance reflect Frank’s own reflections about the space.

Excerpt from burlingtonculturalmap.ca:

Log

Simon Frank, 2016

Etched stainless steel

Log is a site-responsive artwork that takes its inspiration from the forest that surrounds Mountainside. The idea for Log grew out of the artist’s time spent exploring the network of trails on the property and consulting with residents about the site. The artwork attempts to make important connections between the human and natural histories of the place. In the same way that the growth rings of a cut tree act as a clear record of the age of the tree, the tree’s rings can also be linked directly to the events of history, as a kind of concentric timeline. The stainless steel tree sections that comprise Log represent just such a connection - making visible some of the important moments in the history of both Burlington and the Mountainside community.

Honfleur is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. Its inhabitants are called Honfleurais.

It is especially known for its old port, characterized by its houses with slate-covered frontages, painted many times by artists, including in particular Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur (Honfleur school) which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement. The Sainte-Catherine church, which has a bell tower separate from the principal building, is the largest wooden church in France.The first written record of Honfleur is a reference by Richard III, Duke of Normandy, in 1027. By the middle of the 12th century, the city represented a significant transit point for goods from Rouen to England.

Located on the estuary of one of the principal rivers of France with a safe harbour and relatively rich hinterland, Honfleur profited from its strategic position from the start of the Hundred Years' War. The town's defences were strengthened by Charles V in order to protect the estuary of the Seine from attacks from the English. This was supported by the nearby port of Harfleur. However, Honfleur was taken and occupied by the English in 1357 and from 1419 to 1450. When under French control, raiding parties often set out from the port to ransack the English coasts, including partially destroying the town of Sandwich, in Kent, England, in the 1450s.

At the end of the Hundred Years' War, Honfleur benefited from the boom in maritime trade until the end of the 18th century. Trade was disturbed during the wars of religion in the 16th century. The port saw the departure of a number of explorers, in particular in 1503 of Binot Paulmierde Gonneville to the coasts of Brazil. In 1506, local man Jean Denis departed for Newfoundland island and the mouth of the Saint Lawrence. An expedition in 1608, organised by Samuel de Champlain, founded the city of Quebec in modern-day Canada.

After 1608, Honfleur thrived on trade with Canada, the West Indies, the African coasts and the Azores. As a result, the town became one of the five principal ports for the slave trade in France. During this time the rapid growth of the town saw the demolition of its fortifications on the orders of Colbert.

The wars of the French revolution and the First Empire, and in particular the continental blockade, caused the ruin of Honfleur. It only partially recovered during the 19th century with the trading of wood from northern Europe. Trade was however limited by the silting up of the entrance to the port and development of the modern port at Le Havre. The port however still functions today.

Honfleur was liberated together by the British army – 19th Platoon of the 12th Devon's, 6th Air Landing Brigade, the Belgian army (Brigade Piron) on 25 August 1944 and the Canadian army without any combat.

NASA image acquired July 12, 2011

If you have never been north of the Arctic Circle, it is easy to imagine that the “ice cap” at the top of the world is a uniform sheet of white. The reality, particularly during the spring and summer melt, is a mottled landscape of white, teal, slate gray, green, and navy.

The sea ice atop the Arctic Ocean can—as shown in this photograph from July 12, 2011—look more like swiss cheese or a bright coastal wetland. As ice melts, the liquid water collects in depressions on the surface and deepens them, forming melt ponds. These fresh water ponds are separated from the salty sea below and around it, until breaks in the ice merge the two.

Researchers on the NASA-funded ICESCAPE mission—Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment—have been examining melt ponds, the ice around them, and the waters below for three weeks, with three more to go. Carried by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, a team of oceanographers, marine biologists, and glaciologists are investigating how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean’s chemical and biological makeup.

The science team collects water samples to examine water chemistry and to observe the colonies of plankton growing in the water and on the surfaces of the ice. Other instruments are used to assess how much and how far sunlight is penetrating into—and warming—the Arctic Ocean. Still others are measuring the current systems that move water from the depths to the surface, as well as horizontally across the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

Incidentally, the crew members in the photo are not harvesting data; they are collecting supplies. A C-130 airplane flew by earlier in the day, dropping a parachuted canister of hardware for fixing instruments and other machinery on the icebreaker.

NASA science writer Kathryn Hansen is blogging daily from the ICESCAPE cruise. Click here to learn some science, see what people are eating, and sample life on an Arctic icebreaker. You can also get a daily glimpse of the ice in the Arctic by clicking on the MODIS Rapid Response page.

NASA photograph by Kathryn Hansen. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.

Instrument: Photograph

To view other images from the Earth Observatory go to: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

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The Menindee Lakes is a natural series of lakes that fill with water when the Darling-Baaka River floods. In the 1960s, a series of engineering projects augmented the Menindee Lakes, allowing water to be directed into the lakes and held back or released. This ensured a reliable water supply for the city of Broken Hill, the township of Menindee and secure supply of water for the Lower Darling River and supply to South Australia.

The Menindee Lakes system provides important habitat, nursery and recruitment for native fish, such as the Murray Cod and Golden Perch. It is important habitat for a huge variety of native and migratory bird species. The Menindee Lakes system is vital to the communities of the Far West, providing recreation and amenity, as well as attracting tourism, recreational fishing, horticulture and viticulture.

The Darling-Baaka River is central to the cultural, spiritual and economic lives of the Barkindji people.

The health of the Menindee Lakes and the Darling-Baaka River are intimately linked. The lakes fill from the Darling-Baaka River and water stored in the Menindee Lakes keeps the Lower Darling flowing during dry times. The Great Darling Anabranch is a series of ephemeral creeks, billabongs and lakes that wind their way to the Murray River to the west of the main Darling-Baaka River Channel.

Irrigation expands:

There has been a rapid expansion of irrigation along the rivers in the Northern Basin of the Murray Darling Basin, particularly cotton. Irrigation of cotton has expanded by 4,000% since the 1970s. In 1971 Australia grew 81,000 bales of cotton. By 2012 Australia grew 5.3 million bales. Irrigation dams - Wee Waa

Much of the cotton is grown along the rivers of the Murray Darling in very large irrigation enterprises, with most of the cotton grown on tributaries of the Darling-Baaka River.

Large private storages were built to hold water and other structures were built to capture flood waters. Water licences and water sharing plans allow irrigators to suck huge quantities from the tributaries of the Darling-Baaka even when flows are modest.

The result has been that low and medium flows have virtually stopped flowing down the Darling-Baaka River. Only the largest floods that cannot be captured upstream, or specially protected environmental flows, now make it down to the Menindee Lakes and Lower Darling-Baaka River.

An easy target?

After the Millennium Drought exposed just how over-allocated the river systems of the Murray-Darling Basin were, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was agreed between the Commonwealth and the states. The Plan aimed to make the Murray-Darling Basin system more sustainable by returning more water to the rivers through buying back water licences and other measures to recover water for the environment.

Menindee Slogan Bus:

The irrigation industry views the water flowing into the Menindee Lakes as wasteful and unproductive (not growing crops). They would prefer water to be taken from the Menindee Lakes to meet the targets under the Basin Plan rather than for the irrigation industry to be compelled to use less water. The industry points to the volume of water that evaporates from the Menindee Lakes each year as a key reason to reduce the amount of water flowing into and being stored in the lakes. The amount of water that evaporates from shallow private storages in equally hot and dry climates is rarely mentioned.

Scientists and environmentalists view the water that flows down our rivers, fills wetland and billabongs, and spills over floodplains as highly productive for nature and vital for sustaining complex ecosystems that have evolved over eons. These flows are also vital for replenishing underground aquifers and for sustaining downstream communities and Indigenous cultures.

Some politicians view the Menindee Lakes as an easy target. The population around Menindee is sparse, without much economic or political clout. The birds, fish and wildlife can not vote, lobby or protest. Taking water from the Menindee Lakes system is seen as politically easier than seeking to recover water from loud, well-connected and politically savvy irrigators. The location of the Menindee Lakes in a remote part of NSW that is out of sight and out of mind for many citizens located on the eastern seaboard also makes it hard for the issue to gain political traction.

A plan to decommission the Menindee Lakes:

After the Menindee Lakes filled from a major flood event in Queensland and NSW 2012, they were rapidly emptied by the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the NSW Government. Usually the lakes would hold water for many years after they filled, but by 2014 they were emptied. As a consequence, Broken Hill was in danger of running out of water and the government announced a plan to drill bores to supply the city with low-quality bore water. Locals were outraged at this plan and were concerned that the Menindee Lakes had been deliberately drained so quickly as part of a plan to justify the decommissioning of the lakes.RIP Menindee Lakes

Another flood filled the Menindee Lakes in late 2016, but again they were rapidly drained, almost inexplicably into a flooding river. By then end of 2017 they were again dry just as drought started to bite and Broken Hill was facing another artificial water shortage.

Flush with cash from privatising the electricity networks, the NSW Government spent $500 million building a 270 kilometres water pipeline from the Murray River at Wentworth to Broken Hill. This ended the city’s reliance on the Darling-Baaka River and Menindee Lakes for water supply. Cotton Australia applauded the construction of the pipeline saying in their Annual Report, "The pipeline is a win for the community, the environment and irrigating farmers, and a solution Cotton Australia and its allies have long lobbied for." Meanwhile the local community was concerned that the pipeline would allow the NSW Government to decommission the Menindee Lakes without worrying about Broken Hill's water supply.

Sure enough, plans to reconfigure the Menindee Lakes are back on the table as a project to 'recover water from the environment' under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan's Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism. The NSW Government wants to save up to 100 gigalitres of water each year by reducing the volume water stored in Menindee Lakes by up to 80%. A range of proposals have been put forward for consultation.

The Darling River Action Group has labelled the plans as 'ecological genocide.' They strongly oppose the huge reduction in habitat that will occur if reconfiguration plans go ahead. They worry that changing the times between and length of inundation in the lakes will have a major impact on fish breeding and birdlife. The Barkindji native title holders are also strongly opposed to the plans, with significant concerns about the impact on their culture, community, environment and sacred sites.

Fish kills and dry rivers and lakes:

Fish Kill Menindee In the teeth severe drought, predictions of environmental catastrophe on the Darling River came true as millions of fish floated dead on the surface. Hot weather and a lack of flows led to a blue-green algae bloom that stripped the water of oxygen when it died, suffocating many millions of fish along a length of the Darling-Baaka River. Images of giant Murray Cod many decades old floating on the surface of a stagnant, bright green river shocked Australians. If water had been stored in the Menindee Lakes, a flow of water in the Darling-Baaka River could have been maintained and millions of fish and other creatures would have survived. It was noted that the very large mature Murray Cod that had died would have survived numerous previous droughts, so what had changed?

A report by the Australian Academy of Science concluded:

The conditions leading to this event are an interaction between a severe (but not unprecedented) drought and, more significantly, excess upstream diversion of water for irrigation. Prior releases of water from Menindee Lakes contributed to lack of local reserves.

A small flow in mid-2019 led to a partial revival of the Darling-Baaka River and water in the upper lakes of the Menindee Lakes system. However, the Menindee Lakes and Darling-Baaka River face three major threats:

1) The proposed re-configuration of the Menindee Lakes system;

2) The continuing overallocation of water extraction licences in the Northern Basin of the Murray-Darling system;

3) The extent and proposed licencing of floodplain harvesting, which is capturing huge quantities of water before it can even reach the waterways of the Darling-Baaka River.

Source: Save Menindee Lakes (www.savemenindeelakes.org.au/the_history)

Look up "SL5B" and see all the different exhibitions people made for SL. I contributed a voice message in the bottle one by Dizzy Banjo, and left a message for SL. Look for it!

Anyone notice that my flickr seems to die when I'm without ColeMarie?

She's like vitamins for artistic effort.

This past holiday season the Providence and Worcester Railroad once again provided their passenger train and crew for the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council's extremely popular Polar Express trains with trains running and 3:30 and 6:30 PM Fri-Sun for a total of 42 sold out trips in 2024.

The train consist has just arrived from Worcester after deadheading south for the last time to begin the final weekend of performances. Bringing up the rear is PW 4007, a GE B40-8W blt. Apr. 1992 as Santa Fe 582, and one of three of the model on the roster acquired from BNSF by the then independent P&W in 2010. Above the train can be seen the historic depot built in 1882 by the original Providence and Worcester Railroad replacing one dating from the 1847 opening of the railroad. This view looks across aptly named Railroad Street at about MP 16.5 as measured from Providence Union Station.

The depot is contributing structure to the Woonsocket Main Street Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. From the NRHP nomination form:

Providence & Worcester Railroad Station 1882, John W. Ellis, architect: The original 1847 railroad depot burned and was replaced in 1882 with what was considered the most impressive depot on the P&W line. The new station is a rectangular, one-and-one-half-story, red brick Queen Anne building housing the main waiting room with a similarly designed baggage handling and service extension at the north end. The jerkin-head gable roofline is oriented parallel to the railroad tracks, and the building faces onto Depot Square with one end abutting Main Street.

Prominent features include a protective overhang integrated into the roof slope and supported on large, curved brackets, which runs around three sides of the main building and extension. The central entrances on both sides are located below a large cross gable with elaborate decorative brickwork and terra cotta ornamentation, stained-glass and ocular windows, and terra cotta finials. A square clock tower with a tall, pyramidal hip roof topped with a distinctive locomotive weathervane rises from the roof ridge between the gables. The narrow Main Street elevation has now-altered storefronts on the first floor and brickwork, stained-glass windows, and a large central oriel window on the upper floor. The east end of the Depot Square elevation is sheathed in modern vertical wood siding and has no openings, reflecting the fact that this was originally a party wall shared with the Edwards Block, a Second Empire building that was demolished in the 196Os. The former building site is neatly landscaped with terraces and evergreen and deciduous plants.

The P&W really was Rhode Island's own railroad. Chartered in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 1844 it opened for business on 43 miles between its namesake cities in 1847. Built along portions of the Blackstone Canal that was opened in 1828, the P&W replaced the waterway as the main artery of transportation in the historically significant Blackstone River Valley - the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.

The New Haven leased the P&W for 99 years in 1892 and that lease passed to the Penn Central in 1969. The PC intended to abandon the middle of the P&W and sever it as a through route when a group of dissident independent shareholders wrested control away from the giant carrier and began independent operations again. The P&W thrived on it's own for 43 years as a publicly traded company (I held a small equity position for many years) until being sold to Genessee & Wyoming in 2016. It's hard to see the P&W I loved and grew up with turn orange, but at least the rails remain and continue to thrive.

Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Friday December 20, 2024

I checked on my sales thread at tib today - and it was locked! Welcome in the new era: tib launched it's new "buy.sell.contribute" site to take over from the old sales forums.

Part of me wants to stamp my feet and toss my hair: the old sales forums were free. But the tib community has grown so amazingly, it must cost Gina et al a bomb to run. So more power to them, and if it helps underwrite the tib forum, I'm for it. ^^

It's at www.tib-x.com. Looks like there's a bit of teething, but I like it already. Check it out. :D

[ CPP Project example - Winter 1997 II ]

This is a part of an ongoing & experimental photo project of mine entitled "Corpse Photo-Poetics." (This was composed by myself & Melina, my former fiance.) It was conceived as a sort of abstraction of the Surrealist game, "Exquisite Corpse."

I can't locate my formal description of the project, but I'll try to succinctly state its simplicity:

With E.C., partipants divide a piece of a paper into thirds or quaters, choosing, for instance, the human form. Each participant chooses a section of the form to complete, covering their work, leaving only lines to give the next player a starting point for the next section of the piece. The result can be something quite surprising and, sometimes even good! ;)

This is a randomly chosen example -- I have very few digital copies at this time, but will try to change that soon. I'm working on new methods and am always looking for new collaborators.

Let's see, thank you for taking a look, reading about this crazy project & LMK if you are interested. ;)

OK. Here's further description that I e-mailed to one recent participant, the amazing Ms. LaDonna Chaos:

Let’s see… I'll do my best to b-r-I-e-f-l-y describe the project off the top o' my chaotic head here.

Incidentally, this is the primitive, FUN technique, but I will soon move to enact some refinements to the process. In any case, I just thought that we could have some fun for now in this still early stage of things. What do you reckon?

I'm gonna made some prints of this photo on a 50x70 cm Baryte opaque paper. Limited copies (7), 70 euros CAD (shipping excluded).

This photo is part of a work I'm currently developing about my parents country and the relationship which indirectly connect me to my origins, which will continue with several travels in the continent during the current year and the next one, in particular covering the North-East region and the Uruguayan border, documenting gauchos rodeos and typical livestock markets, regions where my parents spent almost all of their life.

I pay by myself those travels but by buying this print you will contribute to this work which I really feel is leading to a great direction. More details in private

Cheers :D

View up the remains of the tower spiral staircase.

More photographs or Cymer Abbey can be found here: www.jhluxton.com/Wales/Gwynedd/Cymer-Abbey/

Cymer Abbey (Welsh: Abaty Cymer) is a ruined Cistercian abbey near the village of Llanelltyd, near Dolgellau, Gwynedd, Wales.

Cymer Abbey was founded in 1158-9 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the patronage of Maredudd ap Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd (d. 1212), Lord of Merioneth and grandson of Owain Gwyned and his brother, Gruffudd ap Cynan, prince of N. Wales (d. 1200). It was a daughter house of Abbeycwmhir in Powys.

The remains of the church and west tower are very plain, but substantial with walls surviving about nave archway height. It is a simple nave with aisles, lacking northern and southern transepts, and the choir and presbytery are incorporated into the nave. The abbey has buff sandstone dressings and some red sandstone carvings, but is primarily of local rubble construction. The foundations of the cloister and other monastic buildings are visible to the south. The abbot's house remain to the west of the site and have been extensively remodelled as a farmhouse.

Like other Cistercian communities in Wales, Cymer Abbey farmed sheep and bred horses, supplying them to Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Llewelyn the Great. Llewelyn gifted the Abbey mining rights in 1209. However, despite this the Abbey was not prosperous: it lacked much arable land and had limited fishing rights . In 1291 annual income was £28 8s 3d. The Welsh Wars of Edward I (1276–77 and 1282-3) probably contributed to the abbey's relative poverty, for instance the failure to build the usual Cistercian central tower is one indication of this. While Alun John Richards argues that the cooler climate of the 14th century unduly affected the Abbey's lands which were largely mountainous.

The Abbey was a base for the troops of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1275 and 1279. In 1283 Edward I occupied the Abbey and a year later gave the Abbey compensation of £80 for damage caused in the recent wars.

By 1388 the monastery was home to no more than five monks and it seems that there was a marked decline in the standard of religious observance. In the survey of 1535, the annual income of the house was valued at little over £51 and the abbey was dissolved with the smaller monasteries in 1536-7, most likely in March 1537. The monastery was small and relatively unimportant. However, Cymer did possess a fine, thirteenth century silver gilt chalice and paten (Eucharist plate), which must have been hidden at the Dissolution; rediscovered in 1898,under a stone at Cym-y-mynach, they are now in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.

A small stream runs south of the cloister, and the site is on the banks of the River Mawddach and lies just above the confluence of the River Wnion with the Mawddach Cymer; and therefore the monastery was given the full title of Kymer deu dyfyr, which means ‘the meeting of the waters’. It was sited at the lowest ford across the Mawddach.

It is now in the care of Cadw. As with other monastic sites in England and Wales, the abbey did not survive the Dissolution of the 1530s, and parts of the fabric were recycled for their dressed stone.

Built in 1808, this Federal and Greek Revival-style house was constructed by Philip Yeiser, with the central brick section being the original house, with two wings added later in the 19th Century, along with a two-story ionic portico on the front facade. Yeiser owned most of the land now occupied by the surrounding historic district and neighborhood, which was subdivided later in the 19th Century, and noticeably stands further back from the street than the other houses in the neighborhood. The house features a central wing two stories tall and five bays wide, capped with a side gable roof, with five eight-over-eight double hung windows on the second floor and four twelve-over-twelve windows on the first floor, flanking a central front door with a decorative pilaster and cornice surround, with a decorative transom, a two-story ionic portico with a decorated front pediment, with four circular columns in the middle and two square columns on the ends, and two one-story side wings with decorative balustrades on the roof, two twelve-over-twelve double-hung windows on the front facade, and dentils at the roofline, with the whole house being clad in stucco to unify the exterior appearance. The house is a contributing structure in the Lexington Avenue-Broadway Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

Cardiff Bay(Welsh: Bae Caerdydd) is the water area created by Cardiff Barrage in the south of Cardiff, Wales. It is also commonly referred to the areas of the city that surrounds the bay. The creation of Cardiff Bay is today widely regarded as one of the most successful regeneration projects in the Kingdom Unit

Cardiff Bay played an important role in Cardiff's development, being the means to export coal from the South Wales valleys to the rest of the world, helping to fuel the industrial age. The coal mining industry helped finance the Cardiff building in the capital of Wales and helped the third marquis of Bute, who owned the basins, became the richest man in the world at the moment.

While Cardiff's exports grew, so did its population; Employers and sailors around the world have settled in nearby quays, known as the Tiger Bay and the communities of 45 different nationalities, including Norway, Somalia, Yemen, Spanish, Italian, Caribbean and Irish contributed To create the unique multicultural character of the area.

After the Second World War, most of the industry closed down and became derelict. But in 1999, new life was injected into the area by the construction of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, one of the most controversial projects, but also one of the most successful

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La baia di Cardiff ( gallese : Bae Caerdydd ) è l'area dell'acqua creata dal Cardiff Barrage nel sud di Cardiff , la capitale del Galles. È anche il nome comunemente dato alle aree della città che circonda la baia. La creazione di Cardiff Bay è oggi ampiamente considerata come uno dei progetti di rigenerazione più riusciti nel Regno Unit

Cardiff Bay ha giocato un ruolo importante nello sviluppo di Cardiff, essendo il mezzo per esportare carbone dalle valli del Galles del sud al resto del mondo, contribuendo a alimentare l'età industriale. L' industria mineraria del carbone ha aiutato a finanziare l'edificio di Cardiff nella capitale del Galles e ha aiutato il terzo marchese di Bute , che ha posseduto i bacini, diventato l'uomo più ricco del mondo al momento.

Mentre le esportazioni di Cardiff sono cresciute, così ha fatto la sua popolazione; i datori di lavoro ei marinai di tutto il mondo si sono stabiliti nei quartieri vicini ai banchini, conosciuti come la Baia di Tiger e le comunità di 45 nazionalità diverse, tra cui Norvegia , Somalia , Yemen , Spagnolo, Italiano, Caraibi e Irlandesi hanno contribuito a creare il carattere unico multiculturale di l'area.

Dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale la maggior parte dell'industria si è chiusa ed è diventata derelitto. Ma nel 1999, la nuova vita è stata iniettata nella zona dalla costruzione del Cardiff Bay Barrage , uno dei progetti più controversi, ma anche uno dei più riusciti

Another shot of the evolving sunset posted 2 days ago:

One of the most dynamic sunsets I have ever seen. Wildfires and smoke out to the west contributed to the vivid colors. And not a soul left on the road---everyone had pulled over to take photos.

Wyoming, USA; October 2, 2012.

IMG 8497

St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral at 15 E97th St (not Russia ☺).It was built in 1901. Surprisingly,the first to contribute to the cathedral was the Russian Emperor,Tsar Nicholas ll who gave 5,000 rubles ($95.478) for its construction.In 1905,a month before "Bloody Sunday" (an event that sparked occurring revolutions in Russia),nihilists planted a pipe bomb at the cathedral protesting the funding of it by Tsar Nicholas ll.The czar and his family (seven total) were murdered during the Russian Revolution of 1917 led by Lenin.If you're like me and love history,you might find the link below quite interesting on these events starting at noxrpm..youtu.be/AE7BiNAsF8g noxrpm.com/post/65470055452/st-nicholas-the-romanovs-9-11...

Jizera Mountains (Czech: Jizerské hory) or Izera Mountains (Polish: Góry Izerskie; German: Isergebirge) are part of the Western Sudetes on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland. The range got its name from the Jizera River, which rises at the southern base of the Smrk massif.

(Wikipedia)

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I returned to my favourite mountain settlement of Jizerka during February for a short weekend stay; sunny weather and lots of snow both contributed to the beautiful winter atmosphere we enjoyed.

Hundreds of canine artists contributed to this image.

A metal covering at the bottom of a night light pole shows lovely colors of decay in part caused by dogs urinating on the base of the light fixture.

Three portraits of residents have been painted on the side of this large public housing estate in Wellington Street in Collingwood - inner north of Melbourne.

The public housing estates on Wellington Street in Collingwood, Melbourne, were established in the mid-20th century as part of the Victorian government's efforts to address housing shortages and provide affordable accommodation. Designed to cater to the growing population, these estates became home to a diverse community, reflecting the area's changing demographic over the decades. In recent years, the estates have undergone various redevelopment and renovation projects to improve living conditions and integrate public art, contributing to the ongoing revitalization of the Collingwood neighborhood.

This is from the north side of the bridge looking toward the fog-shrouded city of San Francisco. The wind was whipping shortly after moonrise which explains the smooth foreground grasses. I shot sunrise at Yosemite last month in 26 F degree weather and have to say that in San Francisco, the cold moist wind made for a more bone-chilling experience (wearing shorts may have contributed a bit too).

Canon 7D

EFS 10-22 @13mm

ISO 160, f/13 for 20 seconds

LEE 0.9 soft GND used to hold back the moonlight

It had rained all day a few days before to contribute to a rare waterfall where there would normally be only a trickle of water.

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2019 census, the city has an estimated population of 182,437. Fort Lauderdale is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people in 2018.

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control, operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

Last weekend, I spent in Warsaw. I was searching for new inspiration. Luckily, my host really contributed to it and brought me to one of the darkest and scariest districts of the city, Stara Praga. She showed me places she visited in her childhood which she explored while having lots of free time as a teenager. No idea how she could go there as a kid alone, but she did. Kudos for that! So here's the first picture of one of this district's staircases.

// snapshopped.com

// instagram: snapshopped

If you like my photograph, feel free to download it (for personal use only, no commercial, no print).

Just click the link down below in case you wish to contribute with a donation. That would be highly appreciated, thank you :)

Make a donation

If you want us it for print or commercial use, email me: andrea.mucelli@gmail.com

There are subjects that have been photographed thousands of times.

For me, the point is not to show once more what a place looks like,

but how it feels when I connect it with my own imagination.

Stuttgart City Library is a strong piece of architecture,

but in a purely documentary image it becomes interchangeable for me.

It’s the kind of picture you look at for a moment and forget the next day.

For the wall, I am looking for something else:

an interpretation that still inspires years later.

So this is not a classic documentary photograph.

I take the idea of the architecture and push it further –

into a calmer, clearer, futuristic version that still remains believable.

A smartphone could document this space perfectly well.

So why do we walk in with high-end cameras and lenses

only to produce yet another “correct” documentation?

I deliberately photograph in a way that turns a real location into a personal world.

Many architectural images are clean and technically correct – and still interchangeable.

One has a bit more sharpness, another a bit less noise,

but in the end it’s essentially the same picture.

You recognize the building, but not the person, the photographer, the artist behind it.

That’s where such images lose their impact, especially if you want to live with them on your wall.

Do we really want to contribute the ten-thousandth version of the same scene?

Creating your own visual worlds is much more demanding.

There is no template, nothing to copy, no guaranteed formula.

All you have is your inner idea of the place, and everything has to build around that:

colors that work together, light that carries a certain mood,

and the question of what this image is supposed to express.

That’s also why such a style is hard to imitate –

there is no preset for it, only the artist’s handwriting.

It took me a long time to understand this.

For many years I held back my own signature because I thought

photography had to be “correct” first and foremost.

But that way of working makes many images age quickly.

Photography becomes truly interesting when you dare to think a subject further –

not just to document, but to interpret.

That is what interests me today:

revealing the potential of a place, not just its surface.

If this image encourages other photographers to repeat less

and show more of their own signature, it has done its job.

There are far more possibilities than “natural colors” or “black and white”.

Once you allow your inner version of a subject to flow into the picture,

you start creating images you genuinely want to keep for a long time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

And if you notice a man from the future

in the glass door at the top —

don’t worry, that’s me. 😉

(At 100% zoom: unmistakably the Running Man.)

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Technical details

📷 Camera: Sony Alpha 7R V

🔭 Lens: Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM

📍 Handheld – tripods are not allowed at this location

🔍 Focal Length: 14 mm

🌞 Aperture: f/5.6

🌙 ISO: Auto

⏳ Exposure Bracketing (HDR-RAW): 5-frame series with 2.0 EV steps per image

📍 Location: Stuttgart City Library, Germany

For 2025, the RogueBricks community went westward and also took a trip back in time to create a bustling cityscape celebrating the City by the Bay in the late 1960s.

Rogue Francisco brought together 30 contributors who together created the iconic heights of San Francisco, including the infamous prison island Alcatraz and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge spanning the bay of San Francisco. The layout featured famous landmarks such as the Painted Ladies and the Transamerica Pyramid, captured districts such as Japan Town and Fisherman’s Wharf and working cable cars and more than 50 vehicles breathed life into the streets.

Exclusively displayed at Bricking Bavaria in Friedrichshafen, the collaboration was a hit with the public and the participants alike. We were honored receiving the third place in the Participant category.

The Streets of San Francisco

Rogue Francisco was designed around its streets, connecting the districts with one another, providing sight lines through the city’s buildings and skyscrapers. Visitors were treated to movie scenes from classics such as “Bullitt”, learned about the lively music and fishing history in the city, and were delighted by people escaping the Rock.

A mighty bridge, spanning more than 3m in length, crossed the bay of San Francisco and was an eye catcher with its reddish orange color. It also offered ample space for the many many classic vehicles that anchored the layout firmly in late 60s and early 70s America.

Much like Rogue Ronin the year before, this collaboration also bridged the gap between education and art:

Through detailed informational plaques, we invited the audience to learn about the sights and movies that made San Francisco famous, its counterculture and the hippie movement, the local industry or the many different ethnicities that give the city its unique character.

Rogue Francisco & its Residents

It takes a village to build a bustling city: This amazing display wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication of our wonderful collaborators!

Alexander Progl (Dogma54) & Feli (fefi_cos) – Alex and Feli collaborated on buildings for Japantown, featuring beautiful Japan-inspired facades

Andrea Rollbühler (Andrea) – Andrea built all the roads and fishing boats (designed by Gerrit and Kevin, respectively)

Christian Rau (Rauy) – Christian’s white skyscraper, the Shell Building, was looming over the layout

Daniel Bodky (dbodky) – Daniel filled in houses for both the Presidio & Nob Hill districts

Elias Hübner (Brickleas) – Elias built some beautiful houses for the Haight Ashbury district, complete with interior and lighting

Eugen Sellin (colognebrick) – An imposing school bus made its way across the bridge, sent in by (sadly absent) Eugen

Filippos Tsialidis (Phil_DeLaGhetto) – Fili contributed a garage and other businesses in Chinatown along with a fleet of cars

Gerrit Gottschalk (gGhost) – Gerrit was busy celebrating Hitchock’s Vertigo all across the layout, and built modules covering the Mission District and Nob Hill as well as numerous vehicles for our layout

Gino Lohse (YgrekLego) – What would San Francisco be without Gino’s infamous Alcatraz Island?

Hannes Tscharner (Marshal_Banana) – Hannes’ fishing trawler was an imposing centerpiece and brought friends from a well-known Belgian comic franchise with it

Jakob König (Jakob) – A bustling harbor, with warehouses and a boat were Jakob’s contributions

Johannes Haimann (Vaionaut) – Johannes built San Francisco’s financial district, complete with the Transamerica Pyramid and the Columbus Tower / Sentinel Building

Jonas Kramm (Legopard) – Jonas arrived in a speedboat, a humble but beautifully shaped contribution

Jule Wondra (Steinchenwunder) – Jule’s green thumb filled the Presidio with a beautiful park and imposing trees

Kevin Walter (Kevin J. Walter) – Kevin rounded out the Presidio, designed a fleet of boats and brought humpback whales to the bay

Luca Schlücking (Lego-Luca) – Luca brought bustling street life to the waterfront with his Fisherman’s Wharf district

Marcel (marcel.crafts) – Marcel showed off his rockwork skills and brought the cliffs of Marin County

Marcel Arlt (Wochenender) – Marcel contributed some beautifully colorful buildings to the district of Haight Ashbury

Marcel Veit (Marcel V.) – Marin County needed even more cliffs, so a second Marcel flexed his rockwork skills

Marion Weintraud (Brixe) – Marion built the iconic winding road in San Francisco’s heart, Lombard Street

Markus Rollbühler (rolli) – Completely colored in the recently introduced reddish orange and more than three meters long, Markus’ Golden Gate Bridge rooted the collab unequivocally in San Francisco

Michael (Felix-the-Builder) – Michael not only contributed colorful houses to Haight Ashbury, he also brought a mechanical masterpiece: His motorised cable car drove up and down the hills of San Francisco

Nadine Schmidt (BrickheXe) – What would San Francisco be without its iconic Painted Ladies masterfully built by Nadine?

Pascal Zimmermann (Plf_Bricks) – Overlooking the bay, Pascal’s Cliff House brought the iconic diner to our collaboration

Patric Gnepf (Petric_G) – Patric contributed the harbor at the center of the layout as well as a module to the Presidio

Rudi & Willi (Brickbrotherzz) – Chinatown wouldn’t have been the same without Rudi’s and Willi’s imposing building and iconic archway

Tobias Keim (BrickiboT) – Tobias contributed the iconic Coit Tower and the district of North Beach to the layout, complete with a crime scene and drunkards

Tobias Schmidt (RevierLoewe) – A bustling city can never have enough vehicles, so Tobias helped with that

Valentin Köberlein (Skalldyr) – A tranquil oasis at the corner of the city, Valentin’s Buena Vista Park was a botanist’s delight

On July 23, 1999, the Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center carrying the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In the two decades that have passed, Chandra’s powerful and unique X-ray eyes have contributed to a revolution in our understanding of the cosmos.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is commemorating its 20th anniversary with an assembly of new images. These images represent the breadth of Chandra’s exploration, demonstrating the variety of objects it studies as well as how X-rays complement the data collected in other types of light.

Stars come in different sizes and masses. Our Sun is an average-sized star that will have a lifespan of some 10 billion years. More massive stars, like those found in Cygnus OB2, only last a few million years. During their lifetimes, they blast large amounts of high-energy winds into their surroundings. These violent winds can collide or produce shocks in the gas and dust around the stars, depositing large amounts of energy that produce X-ray emission that Chandra can detect.

In this composite image of Cygnus OB2, X-rays from Chandra (red diffuse emission and blue point sources) are shown with optical data from the Isaac Newton Telescope (diffuse emission in light blue) and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (orange).

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Drake et al; H-alpha: Univ. of Hertfordshire/INT/IPHAS; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Spitzer

Read more

More about the Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

"What a privilege to be here on the planet to contribute your unique donation to humankind. Each face in the rainbow of colors that populate our world is precious and special" - Morris Dees

This is very similar to this photo from my last 365 project, and for good reason. The evenings before and after I took that photo I was assisting the students that I work with in a theatrical performance, much like I will be doing tonight.

The students that I work with are incredible, they are diverse and talented in many ways and have had to overcome challenges their entire lives. They aren't the students that get asked to dances or get picked to play on teams during gym although it's something that they desperately want. They are students with Autism, the ones with Downs Syndrome, the ones who typically get labeled as different or weird or many other terrible terms.

But, in this theatre class, they are actors. They are set designers, they are collaborators, they are students. For the past 3 years our school has developed a theatre program designed specifically to showcase inclusion and diversity and to celebrate the talent and accomplishments of ALL our students, regardless of ability levels. In the play tonight the cast is made up of students and adult supports that are putting aside diagnosis or disability and focusing on theatre and the chance to show the community what people can achieve when given the opportunity.

I go into work each day, yes because it's my job, but moreso because I look forward to interacting with these students, helping them learn and accomplish their goals and help them to feel like they belong in the school community. Tonight I'll be standing behind them, watching them step forward into centre stage and I know that I'll be beaming with pride and admiration for what they're doing and what they're achieving.

MFIMC: Emulation #88

Excerpt from www.quebec-cite.com/fr/quoi-faire-quebec/fresque-des-queb...:

This huge trompe-l'oeil mural tells the story of Quebec and pays tribute to the illustrious figures of its history.

Inaugurated in 1999 and produced by 12 French and Quebec artists over a period of 9 weeks, the fresco fascinates with the realism of its details. The characters who marked the different eras of Québec are displayed side by side with numerous characteristics related to architecture, geography, the seasons and cultural communities.

The mural, close to the Place Royale, adorns a wall of the Soumande house on Notre-Dame street, at the foot of the Côte de la Montagne. It is one of the essential stops on traditional city tours on foot.

Exploring the Continent and Founding the First Settlements:

You will have recognized the portrait of Jacques Cartier (1) (1491-1557) and Samuel de Champlain (2) (circa 1580-1635). The two explored and mapped the northeast of the continent. They also laid the foundations of colonies: Champlain in Quebec and Cartier, less fortunate, in Cap-Rouge. Note also the presence of Louis Jolliet (3) (1645-around 1700), a native of Quebec and explorer of the Mississippi River.

Administering and organizing the territory:

The fresco depicts two people who devoted themselves to the development and protection of New France. Intendant Jean Talon (4) (1626-1694) made a particular effort to intensify the settlement of the young colony and to diversify its economy; his contemporary, Governor Louis de Buade (5) , Comte de Frontenac (1622-1698), promoted the expansion of New France and organized the defense of Quebec. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Louis-Joseph Papineau (6) (1786-1871) and Thaïs Lacoste-Frémont (7)(1886-1963) proposed reform ideas: the former led a struggle to increase the autonomy of political institutions, which led to the rebellions of 1837-1838, and the latter campaigned for the political and legal rights of women in Quebec.

Serving the community:

The presence of François de Laval (8) (1623-1708), first bishop of Quebec, and Marie Guyart (9) (1599-1672), co-founder of the Ursulines of Quebec, recalls their educational work in New France , one at the Séminaire de Québec and the other with the girls of the colony. Alongside Marie Guyart on the fresco is Catherine de Longpré (9) (1632-1668), who continued the hospital mission undertaken by the Augustinians in Quebec. Marie Fitzbach (10) (1805-1886) and Marcelle Mallet (11) (1805-1871), respectively foundress of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and the Sisters of Charity of Quebec, devoted themselves to helping the poor and the marginalized of the society. At last,Alphonse Desjardins (12) (1854-1920), set up a savings and credit cooperative which today bears his name.

Constructing identity:

François-Xavier Garneau (13) (1809-1866), is considered our first national historian for the publication of his Histoire du Canada. Félix Leclerc (14) (1914-1988) was acclaimed in the French-speaking world for his pen and his songs of a new genre. Finally, we note the figure of Lord Dufferin (15) (1826-1902), who, through his campaign to safeguard and enhance the fortifications, contributed to giving Old Quebec its distinctive character.

One of the many images I got this year of the Reds at the two displays when I saw them ,such a terrible year for them to have lost two pilots since.

Thanks for all you visits and kind comments and contributing to this image being here, Explore Highest position: 190 on Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Highest position: 100 on Thursday, November 24, 2011

For 1965, the styling of Chevrolet’s full-size model such as the Impala changed significantly. “Coke Bottle” styling in which the fender line was arched over the wheel wells was introduced as was curved side window glass. Its popularity contributed to a phenomenal 10 million car sales year n the US for 1965.

This one apparently shows an emblem for the 327 cu. in. V-8 engine.

“According to Detroit 1701, in 2000, the Michigan Labor History Society formed a non-profit to create a landmark for the labor movement, to which many labor organizations contributed. David Barr, an artist from Livonia, designed the 63 foot steel arcs, while Sergio de Guisti, an Italian artist from Redford, designed the base of the monument. The monument was dedicated in August, 2003.

Two steel arcs (which weigh 30 tons) almost form a circle in the landmark, but there’s a break at the top. This represents the work that still needs to be done in the movement. Around the circle are 14 Vermont granite boulders, each six feet tall. Also at the base of the monument are plaques with quotes that speak to the labor movement throughout the years.”

Source: detroit.curbed.com/2016/9/2/12719394/transcending-detroit...

Explore 23 Mar 14

Never met a train track I didn't fall in love with!

A pit stop at Porteau Cove Provincial Park on the return trip to Vancouver BC after a day in Squamish and Brakendale.

Porteau Cove is located on the Howe Sound fjord, 38 km north of Vancouver on the Sea-to-Sky Highway, 20 km south of Squamish, 8.5 km south of Britannia Beach. Other nearby communities include Brackendale and Lions Bay.

The park is 50 hectares in size, and offers picnicing, camping, swimming, windsurfing, and a boat launch. Porteau Cove is a very popular area for scuba diving, with a series of artificial reefs including two sunken vessels. It has 44 drive-in campsites and 16 walk-in sites. 80% of the campsite may be reserved through Discover Camping, April through September. The park is maintained and operated by Sea To Sky Parks, based in Mount Seymour in North Vancouver, BC.

On July 29, 2008, a large rockslide took place at the Porteau Bluffs, just north of Porteau Cove. No one was injured, however access to Whistler was hampered.[1][dead link] The highway and the rail line run tightly together at the base of the bluffs, which is composed of slab-like chunks of granite, which formerly overhung the highway until scaling reduced some of the mass of the bluff. The slide has renewed concerns about the geotechnical safety of the route, and was a security issue during the 2010 Olympics events in Whistler. Communities north of the slide, including Whistler, are often isolated by such slides, but a "back door" paved route exists via Lillooet and the Fraser Canyon.

A ferry terminal exists at the park for emergency use. If ever a landslide or avalanche occurs between Porteau Cove and Vancouver or Porteau Cove and Squamish, the BC Government could send in a ferry to detour cars around the slide to Darrell Bay Terminal in Squamish or to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. Since slides occur so rarely on the Sea-to-sky Highway, the dock is open to the public as a promenade wharf.[2] The pier is owned by BC Parks, but the ferry ramp and accessories is owned by Department of Highways.

Rail History: Vancouver to Prince George line.

Chartered in 1912, the railway was acquired by the provincial government in 1918 after running into financial difficulties. A railway that ran "from nowhere, to nowhere" for over 30 years, neither passing through any major city nor interchanging with any other railway, its southern terminus was at Squamish and its northern terminus at Clinton during that period. It expanded significantly between 1949 and 1984. Primarily a freight railway, it also offered passenger service, as well as some excursion services, most notably the Royal Hudson excursion train. The railway's operations only reached profitability in 1980, due to large capital and operating debts, which were intended as subsidies to develop and sustain mining and timber economies and employment in the regions it accessed, though during the 1980s it regularly posted significant profits, contributing to the public treasury significantly, and maintained a lower operating debt than any of the continent's other major railways. The railway's operations and management, as one of the province's largest crown corporations, were at the centre of public debate since its takeover. Notably, the Social Credit governments of WAC Bennett and his son Bill Bennett forgave the railways' capital debts in 1954 and 1979, respectively, with bookkeeping matters related to that bringing much criticism. The current provincial government has been accused of fabricating falsehoods about the state of its debts and viability in order to justify a deal to sell it to with CN, claiming the railway was in disarray Other participants in the bidding process withdrew their bids, saying that CN had unfair access to confidential information about their own operations, provided by the government, and at least one bidder (Canadian Pacific) privately stating in a communications that the bid was "rigged". Controversy over CN's management of the line has focused on layoffs, toxic spills and other safety concerns, and cuts in service to some regions. The line has generated profits for CN in the range of $25 million per year since its takeover of the railway's operations.

Han and Leia will join Creations for Charity this year!

Thanks lucbyard for allowing me to offer those two.

About Creations for Charity:

Creations for Charity is now accepting donations of custom Lego creations for our 8th annual fundraiser. Any Lego fan can contribute a custom Lego creation to our online store opening from October 15th to November 30th. Sales will be used to buy Lego sets for children in need across the world. Participation is easy! Simply submit a donation form and we will notify you when your creation sells and where to ship it. Learn more at our about us page!

15" x 14" - Italian Smalti, dinnerware, stained & vitreous glass, gold mirror, sea urchin spines & millefiori, on a hand built substrate.

Julia for Julia Kay's Portrait Party!

6 years ago this week I contributed my 1st JKPP portrait, of our wonderful leader, Julia, Out of the Blue".

Here's to continued "Fun @ The Party"!

Happy Sixth Anniversary Julia & JKPP!!!

I hope you'll enjoy the my images as much as I enjoyed taking them.

5 Goose gosling huddled to keep warm after getting out of the water. They often bite each other little wings and feet. Sometimes they wrestled among themselves.It was the first time I watched them chasing and fighting each other. Greylag Geese was following the family around made the father very uneasy. The sun emerging through the clouds this morning contributed to the colours on my photos from time to time.

Quick note - Sorry I know a little too much for the 15 Goose gosling photo series.

Canada goose gosling - The baby geese, called goslings, take about a month to hatch. Hatchlings are covered with yellowish down and their eyes are open. They leave the nest when 1-2 days old, depending on weather, and can walk, swim, feed, and even dive. They have enough energy remaining in their yolk sac to survive 2 days before feeding. Babies are covered with soft feathers called down. They hatch with their eyes open and will leave the nest within 24 hours, following their parents. Goslings can swim right away. In less than two months, the goslings grow adult feathers and learn to fly.

How many goslings can Canadian geese have?

Gang broods may range from 20 to 100 goslings following just a few adults. Gang broods are more common in areas of high nest density. Family groups of parents, that year's offspring, and sometimes 1 or 2 of the previous year's goslings stay together well into the winter.

How long before baby geese can fly?

Eggs hatch after 25 to 30 days of incubation. The young, called goslings, can walk, swim, and feed within 24 hours. Both parents (especially the gander) vigorously defend the goslings until they are able to fly, which is at about ten weeks. The young geese remain with their family group for about one year.

Do Canadian geese return to the same place every year?

Nest sites are chosen to offer some protection from exposure to wind while giving the incubating female a clear line of sight to detect approaching predators. Female Canada Geese always return to nest in the same area where their parents nested and often use the same nest site year after year.

In spring and summer, geese concentrate their feeding on grasses and sedges, including skunk cabbage leaves and eelgrass. During fall and winter, they rely more on berries and seeds, including agricultural grains, and seem especially fond of blueberries. They’re very efficient at removing kernels from dry corn cobs. Two subspecies have adapted to urban environments and graze on domesticated grasses year round.

Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.

I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.

© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.

Lens - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f5.6 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.

I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -

Thanks for stopping and looking :)

The McDermott Motors Building (seen in the photograph above) was built in 1928, and designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by noted Waco architect Milton Scott. The building has served as an upscale automobile dealership, a National Guard Armory, and an assembly plant for warplanes during World War II. The building also embodies a method of construction and an architectural style that are distinctive of an era, reflecting the community, its economic climate and progress. As McDermott Motors (opened as a new building on November 1, 1928), Fort Fiske Wright (leased from McDermott in 1931 as the National Guard Armory until all units were activated for WWII in 1941 and named for a revered local officer who had died a hero's death on the battlefields of France during the Great War, and North American Aviation (leased in 1943 to aid in production of the B-24 "Liberator", sometimes known not so affectionately as the "Flying Boxcar", making it the site of one of Waco's most significant contributions to the country's industrial war machine), activities at this site contributed substantially to the commercial and military history of this area of Waco, Texas.

After the most noteable tenants as described above, this building was once again used as an automobile dealership selling Plymouths and DeSotos, Hill Printing and Stationery which kept arge printing presses and bookbinders upstairs while maintaining a showroom of

office supplies and commercial furniture downstairs, and a brief period as an outlet for unclaimed and damaged freight after the very destructive tornado of 1953. McDermott's building then languished vacant for nearly 20 years until it was finally sold to Homer Owen who soon opened "Rhema The Way", which manufactured and distributed 'inspirational gift items' for gift shops, department stores and religious bookstores. This business remained in the building through a couple of ownership's until 1988 when it became Caritas of Waco, a new local second-hand store. During the night of April 10, 2000, a very destructive fire engulfed the thrift shop and ended its time in the building. Since that time (2001), the building underwent renovation and today serves as the home of Hole in the Wall, a full-service printing, apparel and marketing company.

The McDermott Motors Building was nominated for and listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on January 14, 2004 under criterion A in the areas of Commerce and Military, and under criterion C in the area of Architecture, at the local level of significance. All of the information above (and much more) was found on the original documents submitted for listing consideration that can be viewed here:

catalog.archives.gov/id/40973007

Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11

The best way to view my photostream is through Flickriver with the following link: www.flickriver.com/photos/photojourney57/

Putting the finishing touches to the shop front of 6 Shambles, the retail base of the York Ghost Merchants. The shop opened in 2019, "under the sign of the inverted torches" to sell miniature ghost figures. These are hand made, in two sizes and many colour schemes and, thanks to a large social media following, become something special. In autumn 2021 it has been common to have queue for up to an hour to go inside. The shop front was built in the 1980s, replacing older timber work as the building has been used as a shop, including several butcher's and a bread shop, since the early 19th century. The owner of York Ghost Merchants regularly organises charity ghost hunts, including one to which I was invited to contribute. The success of the ghost business led to long queues of visitors in the autumn of 2021. Drawn with a Pentel GraphGear 0.3mm pencil and Tombow Mono Zero eraser in an A4 cartridge paper sketchbook.

Soothe your nerves with a nice tall mug of crabuccino. It is both a beverage and a little friend!

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It is officially Time for Crab!

Time for Crab 2025 kicks off today, spanning July 1 - July 31, everyone is invited to contribute their crustacean creations on Flickr and Instagram with the "timeforcrab" tag. All participants enter a raffle, and one lucky winner will receive a copy of 40781 Badnik: Crabmeat signed by the designer, Maxx Davidson.

Get crabbing!

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More images: www.instagram.com/p/DLkcgQlt3p3

If you like my photograph, feel free to download it.

Just click the link down below in case you wish to contribute with a donation. That would be highly appreciated, thank you :)

Make a donation

The Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) in Portsmouth, Virginia, is a key facility for the U.S. Navy, focused on maintaining, modernizing, and repairing naval vessels, including aircraft carriers and submarines. It is one of the oldest and largest shipyards in the United States, and its activities are crucial to maintaining the Navy's operational readiness. Work at the NNSY often involves dry-docking, overhauls, and routine maintenance to ensure that ships remain in top condition.

Nearby private shipyards, such as BAE Systems, and Huntington Ingalls Industries (Newport News Shipbuilding), support similar operations. They also work on both military and commercial vessels. Newport News Shipbuilding is notably involved in constructing and refueling nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. These private yards provide critical support to military contracts while also handling commercial shipping needs. Together, these shipyards create a significant hub for maritime industry, employment, and military readiness in the Hampton Roads area, contributing to the region's economic stability and strategic military importance.

I was attempting to photograph the larger Female Two-striped Jumping Spider (Telamonia dimidiata, Salticidae) on the left on the topside of this leaf when she backed away and ducked around to the opposite side. When I turned the leaf over, I found she had retreated into the grasp of another female. My guilt at contributing to her demise was quite profound (it is easy to anthropomorphise the jumping spiders), but after being locked together for around a minute, they sprang apart and returned to their respective sides of the leaf.

I can only assume it was a territorial scuffle rather than an opportunistic predator/prey encounter.

Pu'er, Yunnan, China

see comments for additional image (another individual)...

Driving down a small country road we both saw an old rickety sign for a stone church which was not visible from the road and so Anita did a U-turn (she's getting really good at that!) and we went back to find a small one track gravel path leading off into the fields. At one point we had to stop and open a gate to go through but what a treat when we finally rolled up to this church. Being of an inquisitive and adventurous spirit Anita tried the door and found it to be unlocked and in we went!

So beautiful on the inside and part of it had been sectioned off for a school at one point. The pews are not facing the pulpit but sitting on the sides of it with a center aisle leading to it. You can see a corner of a desk that was used in the school room that looks like 3 pupils at a time would have used it. Here's is what I found out about this place:

Old Stone Church, also known as Green Spring Church and Stone Church, is a historic Lutheran church located at White Hall, Frederick County, Virginia. It was built about 1820, and rebuilt in 1838 after a fire. It is a one-story, gable-roofed, cut stone church. Also on the property is a contributing cemetery with many headstones dating from the early to mid-19th century and two stone gate pillars. It is the second oldest stone church surviving in Frederick County.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit there and explored the cemetery and grounds also. There was such a sense of peace and serenity in that place! It is located at the most northern and western part of the state and right after that we were in West Virginia.

And now we are off adventuring again and I think in a northerly direction..... but that is Always subject to change! LOL Have a great Sunday everyone and if you get the chance, go do some adventuring but don't forget the cameras! :D