View allAll Photos Tagged December2018
Christmas Lights on the Samuel Beckett Bridge and lights of the National Convention Centre, Dublin Docklands, Ireland
This maple tree seed is still waiting for the best wind for its flight. December 2018.
I've been testing my "new" old lens - Omega lens for film enlarger. Enlarger lenses don't have focusing helicoids since enlarger has focusing mechanisms. So, I have M39 enlarger lens with M39-M42 adapter ring, sitting on M42-M42 focusing helicoid, adapted to M42-microFourThirds short-flange adapter. Sounds complicated, but it's not. :)
Taken with Panasonic GX7 camera and EL-Omegar 50mm F3.5 enlarger lens wide-open, on focusing helicoid and M42-microFourThirds adapter with minimal flange.
A brief drive to the tip of Holgate hoping for a sunset through the clouds. Instead we got a little show from a snowy who seemed to be stalking a great blue heron! All the ducks were a bit further north and far from sight. It flew to within about 80 feet of the heron, perched, and waited. But when the light really got low, the heron took a bow and left the show. The heron would seem a rather mighty opponent but there's definitely an advantage when you can see in the dark.
Leaving Kumejima under a cloudy sky and the morning light silhouetting the cliffs at the southern coast of the island and the Tonbara rock offshore.
Very similar to an earlier upload I took of this fence, but, not the same.
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"Surrounded by sparkling hedges, follow the path towards the Palace House Panorama. The grand country house, home to the Montagu family for centuries, is brought to life by beams of light that dance in time to much-loved Christmas classics."
Another photo from 2012, but I can't get out to find any green. :0(
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Raiding the external hard drive for some photos. No chance of getting new ones at the moment.
Taken in 2012 in Méréville, Essonne.
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Visitors walking in the tunnels of the Former Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters near Naha, Okinawa, Japan.
Managing to gaze into the open eyes of a snowy in daylight can be difficult, at best. Their sensitive retinas leave them squinting throughout most of the day… that is when they are not actually sleeping. But in the minutes before sunrise, when its rays lazily find their way above the horizon, the beaches and bays are eerily blue and the golden iris of the snowy glows with pupils as large as saucers. It takes luck! Luck finding a bird in a suitable place, luck having a cloudless sunrise, and luck finding an owl motionless enough to allow for a photograph in such low light. As luck would have it, we were -- quite lucky. It was a brief but memorable moment at twilight dawn, indeed. #SnowyOwls
Doubling up again this week. Have chronic backache and can't move a great deal.
Balancing on its tail.
Will be back when I can sit down in comfort.
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The view from the cape at Oganzaki, the westernmost point of Ishigaki island and a popular place to watch the sunset. It was here though that in 1952 the Yaeyama-maru a ship from Naha, Okinawa, sank and killed over 30 passengers, in whose honor a memorial was built next to the lighthouse.
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. Originally known as Boulder Dam from 1933, it was officially renamed Hoover Dam, for President Herbert Hoover, by a joint resolution of Congress in 1947. Since about 1900, the Black Canyon and nearby Boulder Canyon had been investigated for their potential to support a dam that would control floods, provide irrigation water and produce hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress authorized the project. The winning bid to build the dam was submitted by a consortium called Six Companies, Inc., which began construction on the dam in early 1931. Such a large concrete structure had never been built before, and some of the techniques were unproven. The torrid summer weather and lack of facilities near the site also presented difficulties. Nevertheless, Six Companies turned the dam over to the federal government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule. Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume (when it is full). The dam is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on the construction project, about 30 mi (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dam's generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction; nearly a million people tour the dam each year. The heavily traveled U.S. Route 93 (US 93) ran along the dam's crest until October 2010, when the Hoover Dam Bypass opened. As the United States developed the Southwest, the Colorado River was seen as a potential source of irrigation water. An initial attempt at diverting the river for irrigation purposes occurred in the late 1890s, when land speculator William Beatty built the Alamo Canal just north of the Mexican border; the canal dipped into Mexico before running to a desolate area Beatty named the Imperial Valley. Though water from the Imperial Canal allowed for the widespread settlement of the valley, the canal proved expensive to maintain. After a catastrophic breach that caused the Colorado River to fill the Salton Sea, the Southern Pacific Railroad spent $3 million in 1906–07 to stabilize the waterway, an amount it hoped in vain would be reimbursed by the Federal Government. Even after the waterway was stabilized, it proved unsatisfactory because of constant disputes with landowners on the Mexican side of the border. As the technology of electric power transmission improved, the Lower Colorado was considered for its hydroelectric-power potential. In 1902, the Edison Electric Company of Los Angeles surveyed the river in the hope of building a 40-foot (12 m) rock dam which could generate 10,000 horsepower (7,500 kW). However, at the time, the limit of transmission of electric power was 80 miles (130 km), and there were few customers (mostly mines) within that limit. Edison allowed land options it held on the river to lapse—including an option for what became the site of Hoover Dam. In the following years, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), known as the Reclamation Service at the time, also considered the Lower Colorado as the site for a dam. Service chief Arthur Powell Davis proposed using dynamite to collapse the walls of Boulder Canyon, 20 miles (32 km) north of the eventual dam site, into the river. The river would carry off the smaller pieces of debris, and a dam would be built incorporating the remaining rubble. In 1922, after considering it for several years, the Reclamation Service finally rejected the proposal, citing doubts about the unproven technique and questions as to whether it would in fact save money.
When temperatures plummet, little birds find themselves struggling to stay warm. Leeward bayberry branches become ideal places for tree swallows to cozy up and capture a few degrees from a rising sun. Mighty raptors and the majesty of owls can wait, while I take the time to absorb some warmth from some of nature’s most precious little jewels. #TreeSwallows
A family returns from the tiny Yubu island, arriving on the eastern shore of Iriomote on a water-buffalo-drawn cart.
Looking down the road at a fence, taken in October.
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17th December 2018:
For once it didn't rain today. Amazing! So this evening Graham and I walked down to the town centre to see the Christmas lights.
On our way to the Christmas Fête our friend had driven us through town for a quick look see.
This tree is a new addition this year, and rather a pleasant one. Or I think so. It changes colours, but not that many different ones.
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. . . This Four Point Buck is a newcomer to my feeder, and has so far, avoided any arrows and/or bullets from hunters. I think I should put him in the witness protection program!
Have a great weekend Facebook, Flickr, and 500px friends!
. . . This room used to be a drafty, cold, 3 Season room, basically unusable in the winter. Now it is the central focus of the Christmas season here! The days are short, the nights are long, but that just means the lights stay on longer!
Have a great week Facebook, Flickr, and 500px friends!
Sunset from Kaanapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii, December 2018. Dug this photo from out of the archive to give me a visual break from this long, cold winter.
I liked this decoration as it is so different from the normal ones we see.
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25th December 2018:
Full to the brim, but we're managing to find room for a few Christmas chocolates while we relax in front of the TV.
We had roast chicken with boiled potatoes and sprouts, with gravy. Then after a nap had a small slice of Christmas pudding and cream along with 2 mini mince pies.
A lovely quiet day, delicious food and no rain!!
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