The Defining Touch
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One of the winning Dahlias at the Iowa State Fair contest for this class/specie of flower. (about a 5-6 inch (15 cm) wide)!
This was one of my favorites as well!
Cat-a-lyst (kat'l-ist) noun: A feline who observes, analyzes and evaluates human behavior without itself being affected.
Here, a familiar figure attentively but placidly regards autumn activities without so much as raising a paw.
"Sometimes it's very simple things that are very beautiful" ~Francois Nars
Macro Mondays: Defining Beauty
Thank you all for your views, faves and/or comments! It’s greatly appreciated! Happy MM! :-)
"If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere."
- Vincent Van Gogh
I'm late with my photo today (late for me, not for the rest of you!). Since it's almost 1.00am here in the east of the great southern land, I must bid you goodnight and postpone my pleasure in looking at all your BEAUTIFUL MM photos until tomorrow (which is already today). HMM to you all!
This was taken in Reber, in the new York North Country, which I thought a very, very small farming town. Research on-line finds that it is designated only as a “populated place” incorporated within the more defined and substantial (2000 inhabitants!) town of Willsboro (no pretentions at elegance with an “ugh” on that) of revolutionary war vintage. Here, aging farmland, and farmland newly rejuvenated by Amish or new age organic enterpreneurs, mixes with maturing forests and views that are honey on the heart.
The subject of this landscape is Mt. Poko-O-Moonshine, modest in elevation but with two fine trails, a vintage fire tower (zoom... it's there), famed rock climbing routes, and excellent summit views of Lake Champlain, Vermont, and higher Adirondack peaks nearby. It’s a treasure in its own right, along with the varied and rich country that surrounds it. It's handsome in any season, but invites "Another Autumn View"
This is processed from RAW in LR, PS and gently textured with an offering in Topaz. The result is as close to the eye's imagination as possible.
The fledgling robin jumped from its nest for the first time and landed on our deck railing as seen in my recent post "Restrictions Lifted". The next stop was our window ledge where Maggie greeted him. The baby bird's Dad was below squawking at him to get down. I'm certain he was giving him his first life lesson - "stay away from cats!"
See my "About" page on Flickr for the link to support my efforts... just the price of a cup of coffee is appreciated. Thank you. www.flickr.com/people/jax_chile/
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© Fotografias de John B
© John Edward Bankson
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Gloria de la Magnolia - 061021
The image you see is actually three separate images woven together using Photoshop cs5. Ones of a beautiful beach near my old home, the other my new home, the city (the other is the star trail). The image portrays two different worlds and two different homes to me.
There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection.
~ James Salter
Now sure about the name of this flower. They are tiny blooms and this one is less than 2". It is a bush plant and a lot of tiny flowers. I checked each one of them and found this one a little different. We find something beautiful in imperfect flower and can be interesting too if we really take a closer into it.
NOTE: Found the ID of this flower. (Plant)
It is called Coreopsis verticillata
Macro Monday: Defining Beauty
Have a wonderful new week everyone. HMM!
Thank you for your visits, kind comments and faves. Always greatly appreciated.
Copyright 2018 © Gloria Sanvicente
Photography techniques to help define your style! irvingphotographydenver.com/defining-your-photography-style/
Macro Mondays - Defining Beauty
"We're finding the beauty
In what you've ignored/
We are far from perfect
But perfect as we are"
Lynx rufus rufus (aka Bobcat). It is one of 2 lynx kittens noted to be roaming the 34,000 acres of Anahuac National Wildlife Preserve (not a zoo), Texas. Defining features: black ear tufts and a short, bobbed tail. This one looks like it may have been fishing.
Dirty Princess's newest release can only be defined as sweet and sassy. The skirt ties at the side wrapping about the hips and the top comes together in a knot in the middle. The Hollywood Dreams Princess outfit is simply adorable and a must have for all you sexy girls out there. Made for maitreya, freya, and v-tech Hollywood Dreams Princess fits so well that you can dance and move freely without any clipping issues. So while your out shopping stop in at Frou Frou and try out Dirty Princess's Hollywood Dreams Princess for yourself.
For a full list of credits check out my blog:
Character defining elements that contribute to the heritage value of Victoria Park Square include its:
- shape and size, laid out as the Union Jack
- elaborate granite drinking fountain
- Joseph Brant Memorial, including the bronze casts of Brant, the Six Nations, and four totems
- proximity to the adjacent local churches
- its proximity to the Victoria Park Square Heritage Conservation District. 167
"Its not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me." ~ Batman
Blog: aurora0skye.blogspot.com/2020/04/defines-me.html
Sponsored Item: Simply Saddii Trouble Dress
“We define: ‘sepia’ means the colour of the standard sepia which is there kept hermetically sealed. Then it will make no sense to say of this sample either that it is of this colour or that it is not.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Dahlias are exuberant flowers,
Defining their joy with bright colours,
Dazzling petals of ravishing pink, yellow and white,
Dauntless flowers that look straight into the Sky bright!
Dahlias are flowers of hope and confidence,
Dolly, bold and jolly flowers of flamboyance,
Dreamy, creamy petals of coloured exuberance!
- Geeta Radhakrishna Menon
I have often wondered if anyone reads the context to the photos posted on Flickr.
I have definitely had defining moments in my life that has made me who I am, those moments that make you glad to be alive, doing something and looking back without any regrets. This song for me is about wanting to be loved, it's about wanting time to never end, loving someone and being loved back.
It's about trust, companionship and closeness, and reaching out to those around you, and how that can just make you feel like you “just don't care” — “the thunder before the lightning” represents the seconds of doubt/worry before a defining moment and just having the guts to do it — “there you are sitting in my garden, clutching my coffee, calling me sugar” for me, represents that after taking the risk to reach out to someone, they may reach out to you too, and become part of your life, like you had never been apart, and now they are casually sitting in your garden sharing your coffee. This song makes you think twice about everyone around you and how much they mean to you in the past and present.
Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili...
If you're interested, you'll find a more detailed closeup here (it's the 8th photo from the top): www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (it's very brief but pretty unusual: a tiny wall lizard attacks two young great tits): www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqkSsyrm7E
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: MY LONG AND ARDUOUS JOURNEY TO BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
If you've set yourself the challenge of exclusively shooting the wildlife in your own back yard, you might find - as I did - that bird photography is really, really hard.
It's not that reptiles are easy to photograph either, mind - but at least the ones in my garden stay (for the most part) on the ground, and one can learn how to carefully approach them with a camera. They're also clearly egoists, which from a photographer's point of view is is a great character trait: if a lizard detects a human in its vicinity, it's only interested in saving its own skin, and it won't alarm its buddies.
But birds... oh man. Over the years, my feathered friends and I have developed a lovely routine that now defines our peaceful co-existence. As soon as I as much as open a window (let alone the door), I'm instantly greeted by an eruption of panicky fluttering and hysterical shouts from my garden: "SAVE YOUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND FLY FOR YOUR LIVES: THE HAIRLESS, PINK MONSTER IS COMING!!! (Yes, I speak bird, and I know that this is exactly what they are shouting 😉).
Needless to say, with the exception of the redstart I already showed here, all my efforts to get the kind of detailed shots I usually strive for with my nature photography ended in complete failure and utter disillusionment. I was ready to give up on stalking the winged misanthropes in my garden altogether, but then winter came - and changed everything.
One day this past January I observed my neighbor Signora P - a kind, elderly Italian lady - putting something on the low garden wall in front of my house. At first I thought she was just putting some treat there for her cat Romeo; the young tom patrols that wall constantly (it's his favorite spot in the garden, and during the warmer months he usually lurks in the thick foliage next to it to prey on lizards).
But once I detected a lot of movement on that wall through my window, I understood she had put a little pile of bread crumbs there; she was feeding the birds who soon arrived in flocks. This was certainly well-intended on my neighbor's part, but her noble action came with a catch, and I'm afraid quite literally.
When I took a stroll through my garden the next day I discovered a suspicious amount of feathers on the ground next to the wall. Romeo had apparently switched from his low-calorie summer diet (lizard) to more energy-rich meals consisting of "fowl" (it was winter after all, so from a nutritionist's point of view this made sense).
I would find fresh traces of Romeo's victims (mostly feathers, but also the odd wing) in my garden over the following days; so my first intuition that my neighbor was feeding her cat hadn't been that far off after all, as Romeo was now clearly being "served" fresh birds on a daily basis. And although the hungry visitors seemed to be aware of the danger and became slightly more prudent, they just couldn't resist the tasty snacks Signora P put on that wall - and neither could Romeo.
It was obvious that I had to act, but talking to my neighbor - who is as stubborn as she is kind - would have been futile, I knew that much. I pondered the matter long and hard - until a light bulb went off in my head. The idea was genius. If successful, what I had in mind would not only increase the birds' chances of surviving Romeo's appetite, but also greatly benefit my own photographic endeavors.
I started to enact my master plan the very next day by buying a giant bag of bird feed (consisting mainly of sunflower seeds) from the store. Then I dragged a huge piece of a tree trunk (approx. 120 cm in height) that we normally chop firewood on from the shed out into the garden and emptied almost half of the bag's content on top of it. Signora P's buffet for birds (and cats) was about to get some serious competition 😊.
My reasoning was as follows: not only would the birds be lured away from the fatally low garden wall to a place where they were safe from the cat - there was nothing around that tree trunk that provided cover for a predator, and the birds had a nice 360° view around it at all times - but I was also able to photograph them while hiding in the shed.
However, in order for my plan to work there was one little extra measure I had to take, and it was one that risked lowering my own life expectancy considerably once the owner of the property - my mom - discovered it. You see, our shed is completely windowless, so if I wanted to use it as a blind, I had no choice but to cut a hole into one of its wooden walls... which I promptly did (I figured all's fair in love - and photography 😉).
Granted, I have absolutely zero carpentering skills, and it showed. That hole was an ugly mess: the shed's wall seemed to have had an encounter with Jack Nicholson's ax-wielding lunatic character from the film 'The Shining'. Needless to say, I was incredibly proud of my work (I mean, come on: there now was a hole where before there wasn't a hole, and it was big enough for the lens of my camera to peek through, so it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned).
Now all I had to do was wait for the birds to discover the tree trunk. In the meantime I started to mentally prepare myself for the inevitable confrontation with my mom and go through possible explanations for that splintering hole in the wall (it was either gonna be a rabid woodpecker attack or an emergency rescue mission with a feeding tube for a little kid that had accidentally locked himself inside the shed - both seemed valid options, though I slightly preferred the locked-in kid due to the involved drama and heroism 😉).
A whole day went by, and not a single bird visited the sunflower seeds. I had expected that it might take a few hours until the first of the ever curious great tits or blue tits would show up, but given how tiny my garden is, an entire day seemed excessive. Then another day came and went: the birds kept flocking to the bread crumbs on the wall, and my tree trunk kept collecting dust. To add injury to insult, a few fresh feathers on the ground were proof that Romeo was still feasting.
It was incredibly frustrating: I provided my winged guests with a much better view - plus a higher chance of surviving the cuisine - than Signora P's place; I risked (almost) certain death at the hands of my own mother (OK, the act of vandalism on the shed I had committed for my own benefit, but still), yet the birds kept ignoring me.
Then, after three days, just before sunset, I spotted a single blue tit on the tree trunk picking away at the sunflower seeds.
When I got up the next morning I immediately realized that the loud noise that accompanies each and every tit activity had shifted from the wall to the shed. At last the dam had broken: there was a flurry of movement around the tree trunk, and I counted at least 5 different species of birds feasting on the sunflower seeds.
From day 4 onward my plan worked beautifully: the birds now indeed mostly ignored Romeo's "snack wall" and kept to the tree trunk. And yes, I was able to play peeping tom from behind the shed's wall and photograph them!! 😊
Thus, dear readers, I finally managed to produce some acceptable bird photos, and I had even saved my feathered friends from a deadly foe in the process. All through winter and spring I took advantage of my new bird hide, and in late May I started mixing some cherries with the sunflower seeds. The idea was to attract a Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), and as you can see, it worked!
It took me almost three weeks and more than a few tricks to capture that clever fella, but given how long I've been rambling here already, that's a story for another day. As for my mom, she still doesn't know about the hole in the wall, so please don't snitch! 😉.
I hope you like the photo and wish you all a wonderful weekend! Many greetings from Switzerland, and as always: let me know what you think in the comments 🙏 😊 ❤!
P.S. if anyone has their own funny tale about the obstacles we photographers are prepared to overcome for a desired photo, please write it in the comments: I love such stories 😊
Everything has Beauty, but not everyone sees it. - Confucius
Raking up the ashes from a big bonfire, I was struck by the Beauty of these natural elements...Defining Beauty, HMM
3 inch crop