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Described by the manufacturer as All new except for reconditioned trucks using a Cat 3512 engine and Kato generator .Seen at West Colton and headed for thr Pacific Harbor Lines in the ports of LA and Long Beach. Apologies for the floodlight out of the roof I don't have photoshop
Pygmalionism, (from the myth of Pygmalion) which describes a state of love for an object of one's own creation.
Pygmalionism is a love attraction to a statue, doll, mannequin...
Pygmalion was a legendary figure of Cyprus. Though Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton, he is most familiar from Ovid's Metamorphoses, X, in which Pygmalion is a sculptor who falls in love with a statue he has made.
In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. He called that statue Galatea ("she who is milk-white") According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves, he is 'not interested in women', but his statue is so realistic that he falls in love with it. He offers the statue presents and eventually prays to Venus (Aphrodite). She takes pity on him and brings the statue to life. They marry and have a son... happy end...
It was commonly rumored in Roman times that Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Knidos, the cult image in her temple was so beautiful that at least one admirer arranged to be shut in with it overnight...
In a human life sometimes the love has no happy end: John loves Mary, Mary loves Steve, Steve loves Kathy, and...
long line in an end of which may be somebody loves John... may be in a next life...
So... be creative. Make an art. Pray to God, look for your Galatea in your creations and... be happy.
Thanks to:
57mannequins from deviantart.com for this "little man"
tarnishedhalo from deviantart.com for the "fashionable man";
x_xLithiumx_x from deviantart.com for the "torso mannequin";
DarkBorder from deviantart.com for the beautiful woman's hat.
The middle mannequin - from last Christmas window decoration of Bergdorf & Goodman store in New York.
Created for The Dictionary of Image
Better viewed large
Explore front page, #73, 02/12/09
When I think about the kind of person I really am at heart, I'd describe myself first and foremost as an introvert. Some people laugh at this because my work suggests otherwise but the reality is that it took me years to find the courage to model. It's something I'd always wanted to do but it also terrified me because I am *definitely* the kind of person who is most comfortable with a good book by the pool.
It usually takes me a long time to feel comfortable around someone and even longer to start to really be myself. This passion of mine forces me to push myself outside of my comfort zone regularly and I do it because I think it makes me the best version of myself; even when I struggle sometimes with the need for privacy vs the need to do what I love.
Ultimately this is my dream. I'm not really 'model material' in so many ways but I love it to bits and it pushes me outside of my comfort zone regularly - which I think is the secret to finding fulfilment in your life. Not all risks are worth the reward but if you don't push yourself every so often, you'll never know if that one decision could have been the one to change your life.
Photography & Retouching: Dave Lucas
Hair & Makeup: Mish Bratsos
Described as being numerous but I have only seen a few at any given time and they seem shy.I just love the beauty of doves and this one especially.
I describe it as, "Hussaini jigra chahiye Hussaini bridge cross karne k liye". It needs to have the Hussaini courage to cross the thrilling Hussaini bridge.
I could simply not go beyond the 5th step. My local guide, himself won't dare cross the third step and strictly prohibited me to attempt any dare. To our jaw dropping surprise, we saw a local 14-15 year old boy almost running on the bridge making it to the 40 something step in no time. He went to the middle of the bridge for a photo I guess. The locals “Hussaini” hunzai use it on daily basis. For them, it is an unavoidable means of connection.
One step into Hussaini bridge starts the smallest of the tensions in the suspension system. A micro sin wave has started. And your feet and your body can feel them. Every step multiplies the last effect. Imagine, just imagine the experience, keep in mind that the ice cold “Hunza river” water awaits to feast on you. Worst…. Like every bridge, it has two ends. And as I said, locals “RUN” on it. Their cat walks can surely make you jump into the river :P
I met brother Ali and Faheem from Islamabad who were travelling on bikes to explore the valley side. Ali told me back at Kamran hotel that he crossed 80% of the bridge. Ali definitely has it what it takes to cross this death daring, thrilling bridge.
Described by Pevsner guide as "The most compact and arguably the most visually pleasing of Edward I's Welsh castles" shown to good effect by early morning sunlight.
Description of L.A.'s wonderful and famed Bradbury Building in the heart of downtown! Where Blade Runner was filmed as well as 500 Days of Summer among others!
some are describing the brands they wear - I do it for the first time now and I will exercise :
printed blouse from BiBa, the skirt is "vegan" leather (oh I don´t know) and the shoes are from tamaris (100 mm heel, not vegan leather).
Something I forgot ? - I´m sure ?
Tell me ... I love your comments
Euplagia quadripunctaria, the Jersey Tiger, or Spanish Flag, is a diurnal moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus in 1761. The adult wingspan is 52–65 millimetres (2.0–2.6 in), and they fly from July to September, depending on the location.[1] They tend to fly close to Eupatorium cannabinum.[citation needed]
The larvae (caterpillars) are polyphagous, feeding from September to May on nettles (Urtica) and raspberries (Rubus),[2] dandelion (Taraxacum), white deadnettle (Lamium), ground ivy (Glechoma), groundsel (Senecio), plantain (Plantago), borage (Borago), lettuce (Lactuca),[3] and hemp-agrimony (Eupratoria).[1] The insect overwinters as a small larva.[1]
Large groups of adults of subspecies E. q. rhodosensis can be found on occasion aestivating (sheltering from the summer heat) in Petaloudes, on Rhodes, in a place that has become known as the Valley of the Butterflies.[4]
Distribution
Euplagia quadripunctaria is widely distributed in Europe from Estonia and Latvia in the north to the Mediterranean coast and islands in the south.[3] It is also found in western Russia, the southern Urals, Asia Minor, Rhodes and nearby islands, the Near East, Caucasus, southern Turkmenistan, and Iran.[5] Individuals are known to migrate northwards from their regular breeding grounds during the summer.[1]
British Isles
Aside from being frequent in the Channel Islands (whence its common name comes), this species was rarely seen in the British Isles in Victorian times.[3] It was described by William Forsell Kirby as, "a great rarity in the South of England, except one locality in Devonshire."[2] Since then however it has spread more widely in Devon and Cornwall,[1] and has recently been seen more frequently in southern England, especially on the Isle of Wight, in northern Kent,[6] and south London.[7] They have been seen regularly and in numbers every year in London first discovered at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve in Forest Hill since 2004, so it is probable that they have established a breeding colony.[8]
Mothrecording.org shows a string of connected sightings on the South Kent coast from Dover to Rye in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. These are disconnected from the block of sightings in South-West England and so probably came from the Continent directly. wikipedia
The 1960 Directory of Belfast and NI describes Telephone House:
“Telephone House, Belfast's central telephone exchange, is a mamoth building of six stories standing at the corner of Cromac Street and May Street. It has a base of granite quarried in the Mourne Mountains, the superstructure is of silver grey bricks. Over four hundred concrete piles were sunk on the site under pressure to an average depth of forty two feet. Above these a concrete raft was constructed in order that the building should have secure foundations. The piling work started in 1931 and the building was completed at the end of 1934. By the end of November the following year the apparatus had been installed, and the city's telephone system was changed over from the manual to the automatic system. On November 25th, Lord Tyron, the Postmaster General, made a formal visit to Belfast to open the Exchange. He mentioned that the change over had involved the replacement of 20, 000 telephones and 950 branch exchanges. The cost of Telephone House was £154,000 and the apparatus and cables £500, 000”
Described from the Malaysian state of Sarawak, Borneo and also known from Peninsular Malaysia.
The population inhabiting the Batang Hari river drainage, Sumatra was formerly identified as P. doriae but described as P. bitaimac by Tan and Kottelat (2009). Kottelat and Lim (1993) had previously noted that the Sumatran fish had a more slender body shape and more caudal-fin rays than those from Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak.
Description
Most of the tribe's species are solitary, though a few are communal, or exhibit simple forms of eusociality. There are about 200 described species, distributed in five genera: Euglossa, Eulaema, Eufriesea, Exaerete and the monotypic Aglae. All exclusively occur in South or Central America (though one species, Euglossa dilemma, has become established in the United States). The genera Exaerete and Aglae are kleptoparasites in the nests of other orchid bees. All except Eulaema are characterized by brilliant metallic coloration, primarily green, gold, and blue.
Females gather pollen and nectar as food from a variety of plants, and resins, mud and other materials for nest building. Some of the same food plants are also used by the males, which leave the nest upon hatching and do not return.
Fragrance collection
Male orchid bees have uniquely modified legs which are used to collect and store different volatile compounds (often esters) throughout their lives, primarily from orchids in the subtribes Stanhopeinae and Catasetinae, where all species are exclusively pollinated by euglossine males. These orchids do not produce nectar, and hide the pollen on a single anther under an anther cap; they are not visited by females. The whole pollinarium becomes attached to the male as it leaves the flower. Several flowers from other plant families are also visited by the bees: Spathiphyllum and Anthurium (Araceae), Drymonia and Gloxinia (Gesneriaceae), Cyphomandra (Solanaceae), and Dalechampia (Euphorbiaceae) contain one or more species that attract male euglossines.
The chemicals are picked up using special brushes on the forelegs, transferred from there by rubbing the brushes against combs on the middle legs, and finally these combs are pressed into grooves on the dorsal edge of the hind legs, squeezing the chemicals past the waxy hairs which block the opening of the groove, and into a sponge-like cavity inside the hind tibia.
The accumulated "fragrances" are evidently released by the males at their display sites in the forest understory, where matings are known to take place. The accumulated volatiles were long believed to be used by males as a pheromone to attract females; however, female attraction to male odors or to orchid fragrances has never been demonstrated in behavioral experiments. Instead, it is now thought that the function of the male odors is to signal male 'genetic quality' to females, because great effort must be expended by males to collect orchid fragrances and thus only the most fit males could gather complex odor mixes. This would constitute an unusual example of Zahavi's handicap principle, analogous to the male peacock's tail.[8] The relationship between male euglossine bees and volatile chemicals is essentially unique in the animal kingdom.
Single synthetic compounds are commonly used as bait to attract and collect males for study, and include many familiar flavorings and odors considered appealing to humans (e.g., methyl salicylate, eugenol, cineole, benzyl acetate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate), and others which are not (e.g., skatole).
It is also important to note that resource 'hot spots' wax and wane throughout the year as plants bloom and die, largely due to temporal changes, particularly between the changing of seasons. This often shifts euglossine bee preferences for certain chemicals over others. For Euglossa imperialis, studies have shown that there is a significant trend in chemical preference for cineole during later times in the year as opposed to methyl salicylate. In the local fragrance environment, a shift in the wind direction is another factor which may also cause another fragrance 'hot spot' to be included in the odor plume for euglossine bees.
Neotropical orchids themselves often exhibit elaborate adaptations involving highly specific placement of pollen packets (pollinia) on the bodies of the male orchid bees; the specificity of their placement ensures that cross-pollination only occurs between orchids of the same species. Different orchid bee males are attracted to different chemicals, so there is also some specificity regarding which orchid bees visit which types of orchid. The early description of this pollination system was by Charles Darwin, though at the time, he believed the bees were females. Not all orchids utilize euglossines as pollen vectors, of course; among the other types of insects exploited are other types of bees, wasps, flies, ants, and moths.
The male of Eufriesea purpurata is highly unusual in actively collecting the insecticide DDT in huge amounts from houses in Brazil, without suffering any harm from it.
Although described as imperial, the palace was rebuilt by the architect Gabriel on the orders of King Louis XV.
There is no way to describe the sound of 4 radial engines roaring overhead; you must hear it for yourself. Even as the aircraft approaches, there is very little sound.
This Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is flying within sight of where she was built -- 65 years ago..
Update 10/2/2019: Tragically, '909' today crashed. They had engine trouble and were attempting to land at a Connecticut airport; of the 13 aboard there were 5 with injuries and loss of 7 lives, including the co-pilot and the pilot 'Mac', who I'd flown with over a dozen times while volunteering as crew with the Collings Foundation on the annual Wings of Freedom Tour of over 100 United States cities. www.cfdn.org
History and Specs www.mapsairmuseum.org/Collings/CollingsB17.asp (courtesy MAPS Air Museum)
The Collings Foundation's B-17 Flying Fortress is named in honor of a 91st Bomb group, 323rd Squadron plane by the same name. The 91st included the famous "Memphis Belle" and "Nine-O-Nine"..... which completed an incredible 140 missions without an abort or loss of a crewman. The original Nine-O-Nine was assigned to combat on Feb. 25, 1944. By April 1945 she had made eighteen trips to Berlin, dropped over half a million pounds of bombs and flown over a thousand hours.
She had twenty-one engine changes...
she also suffered from considerable flak damage.
While the rigors of the war never stopped her, the original 'Nine-O-Nine' succumbed at last to the scrapper's guillotine, along with thousands of other proud aircraft.
Here's an article about the Collings Foundation's '909' B-17 when she was used in atomic bomb tests; she was called Yucca Lady, and after tests were stopped she was pushed-off with the rest of the debris. But a new life as an air tanker was to come www.warbirdsintlnow.com/issue-spreads/2017/sep/WIsep17Yuc....
3952.34.26in72Gadd10G2.3.2024
“THE WET” AND “THE DRY” IN THE NORTHERN AUSTRALIAN TROPICS
The Northern Tropics of Australia in the Darwin region are described as having only 2 seasons – the “wet season” (or simply “The Wet”)(broadly November to April) and the “dry season” (or simply “The Dry”) (May to October). There is no local designation of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, although it should be noted that some ancient local indigenous calendars describe up to 8 seasons, categorised by not only weather but also flowering and fruiting of edible plants, appearance of migratory animals as food sources, river heights, etc.
While Europeans settled Darwin in the 1860s, indigenous Australians have occupied the area for at least 40,000 years.
In broad terms, the main differences between the Wet and the Dry relate to humidity levels, prevailing wind direction, and (as the names imply) rain, or the absence of rain.
Darwin has no frost, no snow and no hail. Darwin is also largely flat and unelevated, with few locations exceeding 30 metres above sea level.
THE WET – NOVEMBER TO APRIL
During the Wet, temperatures range from a minimum of 27 – 28C overnight (sometimes not dropping below 30C) and 34 – 36C during the day. Humidity levels are in the range of 75 – 95%.
The prevailing wind direction is from the North West (i.e. from the Timor Sea), except during the frequent storms, which normally come from the South East.
Cyclones (the local name for a typhoon or hurricane) also form during the Wet as part of monsoon trough activity. The wind from a cyclone can come from any direction, depending on the relationship between the cyclone’s eye and the observer’s position.
Rainfall during the Wet approaches 2,000 mm; with the record for a 6 month Wet season period being 3,000 mm. It should be noted that due to quite obvious climatic changes these totals have not been reached in recent years and this may herald a permanent change to the local climate.
Sea temperature during the Wet is around 32C.
THE DRY – MAY TO OCTOBER
During the Dry, temperatures range from a typical minimum of 20 - 21C overnight (on rare occasions dropping to 16C) and 30 -31C during the day. Humidity levels are in the range of 10 - 30%.
The prevailing wind direction is from the South East (i.e. from the direction of the Great Australian Desert); with an occasional light North West sea breeze rising in the late afternoon.
The sky is largely cloudless, with the occasional cumulus cloud rising above wetlands or generated by bushfire smoke.
There is virtually no rain between April and October.
Because of the absence of rain, a high bushfire danger exists throughout the area during the Dry, with the highest risk occurring in August and September, before the next Wet season storms occur. During these months, the humidity is very low and the South East winds are at their strongest – up to 30 knots (around 55 km/hr).
Bushfire smoke blows out to sea and causes spectacular sunset effects.
The term dominatrix is mostly used to describe a female professional dominant (or "pro-domme") who is paid to engage in BDSM play with a submissive. Professional dominatrices are not prostitutes, despite the sensual and erotic interactions she has. An appointment or roleplay is referred to as a "session", and is often conducted in a dedicated professional play space which has been set up with specialist equipment, known as a "dungeon". Sessions may also be conducted remotely by letter or telephone, or in the contemporary era of technological connectivity by email or online chat. Most, but not all, clients of female professional dominants are men. Male or t-girl professional dominants also exist, catering predominantly to the t-girl market.
Some professional dominatrices set minimum age limits for their clients. Popular requests from clients are for dungeon play including bondage , spanking and cock and ball torture , or for medical play using hoods, gas masks and urethral sounding . Verbal erotic humiliation , such as small penis humiliation , is also popular. It is not unusual for a dominatrix to consider her profession different from that of an escort and not perform tie and tease or " happy endings ". Typically professional dominatrices do not have sexual intercourse with their clients, do not become naked with their clients and do not allow their clients to touch them. Bondage itself does not necessarily imply sadomasochism . Bondage may be used as an end in itself, as in the case of rope bondage and breast bondage . It may also be used as a part of sex or in conjunction with other BDSM activities. The letter "B" in the acronym "BDSM" comes from the word "bondage". Sexuality and erotica are an important aspect in bondage, but are often not the end in itself.
That title describes the colors on this shot and the roundhouse area at Escanaba in 1984. The CNW would soon be moving to the crane plant on the other side of town and minimal money was being spent on the old roundhouse area. With all the different types of lighting on this I've probably wasted a couple hours trying to get some semblance of the right color but finally just gave up and posted it as a b&w. 6728 rests on one of the rough tracks at the Escanaba roundhouse in a rain storm on the night of April 28, 1984. Why I was out in that weather in the middle of the night 130 miles from home still leaves me wondering if maybe my railfanning big Alco;s had crossed a line somewhere into an obsession:). The smells of the oil soaked facility along with the exhaust from the rumbling beasts really stick with you. I can almost look at this shot and feel like I am still there.
The National Churches Trust describes St Mary's in Potterne as a “an Early English church of exceptional purity and austerity.”
A priest, and land held by the Bishop of Salisbury, was recorded at Potterne in Domesday Book of 1086, and in Victorian times, a 10th Century font was found on the site of the present day Church of England parish church of St Mary. It was built in the 13th century and has survived with little change, beyond work to the tower in the 15th century and restoration by Ewan Christian. Pevsner describes it as, “An Early English parish church of exceptional purity and indeed classicity” and linked this to the Bishops’ ownership of the manor.
The church is cruciform, with a substantial tower over the crossing, and original lancet windows. It is built of rubble stone, with ashlar to the upper tower. The south porch was added in the 14th century, and in the 15th the tower was made higher and given an elaborate battlement. Restoration in 1870–2 included re-roofing and the removal of galleries, and the stained glass is from various dates in that century.
Since the 11th century, the church has been linked to All Saints at West Lavington as tithes from both churches endowed a prebendary at Salisbury Cathedral. From 1967 the benefice was held in plurality with Worton and since 2017 the parish has been part of the Wellsprings benefice, which extends to Seend, Bulkington and Poulshot.
This description incorporates text from the English Wikipedia.
Often described as being Impressive, Fast, Sleek and Aerodynamic, MD12 poses at Menzies Bus Depot Heathrow, after working down with the NX210 1030 Birmingham-Heathrow T5!!.........................
O yes, and the BA Boeing 747 behind is not too bad either!!
12 Aug 14
photo rights reserved by B℮n
Uthai Thani Province is described as an undiscovered destination in the southern part of northern Thailand, where few tourists venture. The area is characterized by mountains, pastoral nature, and an abundance of local attractions. One of the most remarkable attractions is Tham Hup Pa Tat. It was originally a cave that collapsed, forming a basin, pit, or crater among the massive limestone walls. After the collapse, the plants were covered, but they began to regrow in this basin. The decay of the limestone created mud and fine soil that retains more moisture. The result was a valley crowned by high limestone rocks, resembling a Jurassic Park, completely isolated from the outside world. The conditions of partial sunlight, high humidity, and absolute seclusion have led to the accelerated growth of ferns and unique palm trees that were once common in the prehistoric era but are now very rare. The main plant is Arenga Pinnata, also known as Tat or Tao in Thai, a palm species belonging to the Arecaceae family. In Thai, Hup Pa Tat means a basin, a large hole, or a small crater Hup, jungle or forest Pa, and an area of Arenga Pinnata Tat. Other trees such as Ficus benjamina and Firmiana colorata are also found in the area. This area is impressive due to its lush vegetation, expanding wildly around stalagmites and stalactites. During visits, rare animals such as elongated tortoises and the pink dragon millipede can be observed.
Hup Pa Tat was discovered by a Buddhist monk who climbed the limestone cliff. After this discovery, the Department of Forestry decided to drill a tunnel to access this unique crater. Hup Pa Tat is located in the Khao Plara Mountains area, and the geology of these mountains consists of gray dolomite limestone that appeared in the Permian era, approximately 245 - 286 million years ago. To go deeper into the valley, visitors must pass through a tunnel of about 100 meters. Although it is dark, visitors are provided with flashlights at the entrance. After passing through the dark tunnel, you suddenly find yourself in the special valley, as if you are time-traveling to another world. Walking paths guide visitors through the valley, surrounded by giant ferns and prehistoric palm trees, with massive limestone rocks framing the path. The experience is described as unique and magical, making it easy to imagine that dinosaurs once lived in similar natural settings in ancient times.
Uthai Thani Province wordt beschreven als een onontdekte bestemming in het zuiden van het noorden van Thailand, waar maar weinig toeristen naartoe gaan. Het gebied wordt gekenmerkt door bergen, pastorale natuur en een overvloed aan lokale attracties. Eén van de meest bijzondere attracties is Tham Hup Pa Tat. Dit was oorspronkelijk een grot die is ingestort en een bekken, put of krater werd tussen de enorme kalkstenen wanden. Na de instorting werden de planten bedekt, maar begonnen ze opnieuw te groeien in dit bekken. Het verval van de kalksteen creëerde modder en fijne grond die meer vocht vasthoudt. Het resultaat was een vallei gekroond door hoge kalkstenen rotsen, die lijkt op een Jurassic Park, volledig afgezonderd van de buitenwereld. De omstandigheden van gedeeltelijk zonlicht, hoge vochtigheid en absolute afzondering hebben geleid tot een versnelde groei van varens en unieke palmbomen die ooit gebruikelijk waren in het prehistorische tijdperk maar nu zeer zeldzaam zijn. De belangrijkste plant is Arenga Pinnata, ook wel Tat of Tao genoemd in het Thais, een palmsoort behorende tot de arecaceae-familie. Dit gebied is indrukwekkend vanwege zijn weelderige plantengroei, die wild uitbreidt rondom stalagmieten en stalactieten. Tijdens bezoeken kunnen zeldzame dieren zoals langwerpige schildpadden en de roze drakenmiljoenpoot worden waargenomen. Hup Pa Tat werd ontdekt door een boeddhistische monnik door de kalkstenen klif te beklimmen. Na deze ontdekking besloot het Ministerie van Bosbouw om een tunnel te boren om toegang te krijgen tot deze bijzondere krater. Om dieper de vallei in te gaan, moeten bezoekers door de tunnel van ongeveer 100 meter gaan. Hoewel het donker is, ontvangen bezoekers zaklampen bij de ingang. Na het passeren van de donkere tunnel bevind je je plotseling in de speciale vallei, alsof je tijdreist naar een andere wereld. Wandelpaden leiden bezoekers door de vallei, omringd door reusachtige varens en prehistorische palmbomen, met enorme kalkstenen rotsen die het pad omlijsten. De ervaring wordt omschreven als uniek en magisch, waarbij het gemakkelijk is om je voor te stellen dat dinosauriërs ooit in soortgelijke natuurlijke omgevingen leefden in lang vervlogen tijden.
Often described as the most photographed site on Mount Desert Island, I never realized where it was until I passed it by chance on the way to the Bass Harbor Light. This is my rendition, an early Spring version.
The jumping spider family (Salticidae) contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among invertebrates and use it in courtship, hunting, and navigation. Though they normally move quietly and fairly slowly, most species are capable of very agile jumps, notably when hunting, but sometimes in response to sudden threats. Both their book lungs and the tracheal system are well-developed, and they use both systems (bimodal breathing). Jumping spiders are generally recognized by their eye pattern. All jumping spiders have four pairs of eyes with particularly large anterior median eyes.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National Geographic described the reaction to the design as "love at second sight."[12] An article in Le Figaro declared "Paris has its own monster, just like the one in Loch Ness." But two decades later, while reporting on Rogers' winning the Pritzker Prize in 2007, The New York Times noted that the design of the Centre "turned the architecture world upside down" and that "Mr. Rogers earned a reputation as a high-tech iconoclast with the completion of the 1977 Pompidou Centre, with its exposed skeleton of brightly coloured tubes for mechanical systems. The Pritzker jury said the Pompidou "revolutionised museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city."[13]
Initially, all of the functional structural elements of the building were colour-coded: green pipes are plumbing, blue ducts are for climate control, electrical wires are encased in yellow, and circulation elements and devices for safety (e.g., fire extinguishers) are red.[14]
In 1842 Wilhem de Haan (1801-1853), a famous Dutch entomologist specialising in the insects of the East - especially the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia - described our wee Stunning Scarlet Jumper under the name Locusta (Xiphidium) melaena. Today its name - in the way of taxonomists - has been changed to Conocephalus melanus. 1842 was a sad year for De Haan for he was diagnosed with a spinal condition and soon was unable to walk let alone jump like a cricket. He had to give up his job as Curator of what is now Naturalis in Leiden. He continued to work, though, without complaint until his early death in 1853.
Scarlet here is savoring Burrhead's offering. Burrhead or Mexican Sword Plant or Amazon Sword Plant hails originally from South America. Today it is pantropical. Here it is much at home in Kuala Lumpur's wonderful Lake Gardens, the Taman Tasik Perdana where I walk almost daily to see what there is to see.
That about describes my feelings about the current rail scene in Atlanta, as well as the logo on Amtraks heritage 1 unit seen leading Amtrak 19 through CP Taylor in Temple, GA.
Space Science image of the week:
Maybe you’re reading this caption while drinking a coffee. As you stir your drink with a spoon, vortices are produced in the liquid that decay into smaller eddies until they disappear entirely. This can be described as a cascade of vortices from large to small scales. Furthermore, the motion of the spoon brings the hot liquid into contact with the cooler air and so the heat from the coffee can escape more efficiently into the atmosphere, cooling it down.
A similar effect occurs in space, in the electrically charged atomic particles – solar wind plasma – blown out by our Sun, but with one key difference: in space there is no air. Although the energy injected into the solar wind by the Sun is transferred to smaller scales in turbulent cascades, just like in your coffee, the temperature in the plasma is seen to increase because there is no cool air to stop it.
How exactly the solar wind plasma is heated is a hot topic in space physics, because it is hotter than expected for an expanding gas and almost no collisions are present. Scientists have suggested that the cause of this heating may be hidden in the turbulent character of the solar wind plasma.
Advanced supercomputer simulations are helping to understand these complex motions: the image shown here is from one such simulation. It represents the distribution of the current density in the turbulent solar wind plasma, where localised filaments and vortices have appeared as a consequence of the turbulent energy cascade. The blue and yellow colours show the most intense currents (blue for negative and yellow for positive values).
These coherent structures are not static, but evolve in time and interact with each other. Moreover, between the islands, the current becomes very intense, creating high magnetic stress regions and sometimes a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection. That is, when magnetic field lines of opposite direction get close together they can suddenly realign into new configurations, releasing vast amounts of energy that can cause localised heating.
Such events are observed in space, for example by ESA’s Cluster quartet of satellites in Earth orbit, in the solar wind. Cluster also found evidence for turbulent eddies down to a few tens of kilometres as the solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic field.
This cascade of energy may contribute to the overall heating of the solar wind, a topic that ESA’s future Solar Orbiter mission will also try to address.
In the meantime, enjoy studying turbulent cascades of vortices in your coffee!
More information: Perrone et al. (2013) ; Servidio et al. (2015) and Valentini et al. (2016).
Credit: D. Perrone et al
Recently described in 2018, the name spongicola (from the Latin word spongia, meaning sponge, and the Latin suffix cola, meaning dwelling) refers to the sponge-dwelling habit of the new species.
Rainting is a word I coined describing a painterly effect, achieved by photographing the subject through glass that is being rained on, like a windshield or other. It achieves an oftentimes pretty or soft flowing effect, and sometimes other-worldly. It is usually creative, fun, and fluid, seldom harsh in my opinion. I have an album of them on Flickr.
(20180308_165738SAMRaintingStorageUnitsTallTreeflickr031118)
If you like my word "rainting" I would appreciate it if you would go to Urban Dictionary and vote in the square for thumb's up. Even if it only got 5 or 10 thumb's up and no thumbs down, I would appreciate it. I don't think it has any certain amount it has to get to be in their dictionary. In fact, if I read it correctly, it already got approved and is in.
I don't like to put live links too often but here is a link you can use, I think. There is no prize either, just bragging rights to have a word I coined make it into a dictionary. ;o)
<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rainting&utm_source=search-action
Describing the correlation between two objects, by delineation the nature of an object through an other object being contained.
Aquarell
The ingredients required for making enough Caffenol-C for the development of ten 120 films
The developer mixture described below seems to work with both black and white films (gives, obviously, black and white negs) and for colour films films that normally require a C-41 process (which results in a copper-toned negative. Note that Caffenol-C does not work for old colour films that require a C-22 process...
© Dirk HR Spennemann 2009, All Rights Reserved
========================================
CAFFENOL-C
Standard receipe, taken from various sources on the net.
INGREDIENTS:
Instant Coffee (not decaf)
Washing Soda (Sodium carbonate, Na2CO3)
Ascorbic Acid Powder (Vitamin C)
Dishwashing liquid
FORMULA
12oz water
3 1/2 teaspoons washing soda (Sodium carbonate, Na2CO3)
1/2 teaspoon ascorbic acid
PREMIXED INGREDIENTS
Premix solutions can be set up. But do not premix the whole developer as it (reputedly) has a short shelf-life. For ease, create premix solutions of required strength for each of three developer ingredients so that in the end all that needs to be done is to mix equal amounts of each of the three premixes
Strength for premixes:
Instant Coffee: 10 teaspoons / 12 oz
Washing Soda: 7 teaspoons / 12 oz
Ascorbic acid:1 teaspoons / 12 oz
when ready to develop, mix required quantity in three even parts.
Small Patterson Tank
120mm roll film requires 550 ml (20 oz)--ie 3 x 7 oz for the development of a roll of 120 film (which gives 21 oz, but makes life easier).
SET UP for 120 roll:
Premix 21 oz developer (see above)
Premix 20 oz fixer
Premix 20 oz final wash (with one drop of dishwashing liquid)
DEVELOPING
Developing 16 mins (initially worked with 12 min, whch proved to short, then moved to 16 minutes)
Continuous agitation first minute
thereafter agitate 3 x / minute
Rising
3 rinse baths @ 6 x agitation each (first bath can contain some vinegar to act as stop bath)
Fixing
5 mins @ 3 agitation /minute
Final Rinse
Fill, agitate 3x
Refill, agitate 6x
Refill, agitate 12x
Refill with soapy water, agitate slowly 24x
Dry
“Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring?”
― Neltje Blanchan
“Every intoxicating delight of early spring was in the air. The breeze that fanned her cheek was laden with subtle perfume and the crisp, fresh odor of unfolding leaves.”
― Gene Stratton-Porter
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Thanks a lot for visits and comments, everyone...!
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without
my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
Our Hoverfly was first described by that indefatigable Swedo-Dutch industrialist and entomologist Baron Charles de Geer (1720-1798). He amassed his fortune through his iron-works industry and was thought to be the richest man in the Sweden of his day. So he had lots of money to pursue his hobby of entomology and to carry on his feud about nomenclature with great Carolus Linnaeus as well. Enormously productive, he published extensively on the taxonomy of insects. He gave this Hoverfly the name Musca balteata in 1776. 'Balteata' is from the Latin and means something like 'girdled' or 'belted'.
The history of entomology continued of course, and classifications became more precise. In 1917 the scientific name by which we know Marmalade Hoverfly was established by two Japanese entomologists, Shônen Matsumura (1872-1960) and Tusmanitsu Adachi (1901-1981) in 1917. Matsumura worked on the Great Northern Island of Japan, Hokkaido, as an agricultural entomologist. No doubt he would have been delighted that Beautiful Marmalade was also very useful. Its larvae feed on plant pests such as aphids... This Hoverlady herself seems to be after the pollen of Dwarf Morning Glory. Soon there'll be her larval offspring to keep the plants of the Botanical Garden free of aphid pests.
Yes! It was a very bright morning!
Describes the way this trip went, absolutely...Beautiful painted on a stone train, Westbury. September the 24th 2021.
Unashamedly I will shout it from the rooftops.
I LOVE CARRION CROW.
There, I've said it. Words I use to describe these amazing birds would include stunning, beautiful, bold, magnificent, intelligent and fantastic, loving, tender, victimized...... oh yes, and sometimes they can be brutal (Let's face it, Mother nature often is).
Recently I had a resident pair of Carrion crows who decided that my garden was theirs, playing a game of cat and mouse with a pair of cheeky Magpies (Pica pica) for dominance and food rights. The male crow actually flew in and 'winged' the magpies to make them leave, an incredible sight to witness. It was an honour and a privilege to be able to win their trust and they have given me so much pleasure this year being able to get within a few feet of them, and their three youngsters, to photograph and feed them, and they have reinforced my already deep admiration for a bird that is brimming with beauty, intelligence, confidence and also surrounded by myths, legend and prejudice.
So let's begin with a look back over history.
LEGEND AND MYTHOLOGY
Crows appear in the Bible where Noah uses one to search for dry land and to check on the recession of the flood. Crows supposedly saved the prophet, Elijah, from famine and are an Inuit deity. Legend has it that England and its monarchy will end when there are no more crows in the Tower of London. And some believe that the crows went to the Tower attracted by the regular corpses following executions with written accounts of their presence at the executions of Anne Boleyn and Jane Gray.
In Welsh mythology, unfortunately Crows are seen as symbolic of evilness and black magic thanks to many references to witches transforming into crows or ravens and escaping. Indian legend tells of Kakabhusandi, a crow who sits on the branches of a wish-fulfilling tree called Kalpataru and a crow in Ramayana where Lord Rama blessed the crow with the power to foresee future events and communicate with the souls.
In Native American first nation legend the crow is sometimes considered to be something of a trickster, though they are also viewed positively by some tribes as messengers between this world and the next where they carry messages from the living to those deceased, and even carry healing medicines between both worlds. There is a belief that crows can foresee the future. The Klamath tribe in Oregon believe that when we die, we fly up to heaven as a crow. The Crow can also signify wisdom to some tribes who believe crows had the power to talk and were therefore considered to be one of the wisest of birds. Tribes with Crow Clans include the Chippewa (whose Crow Clan and its totem are called Aandeg), the Hopi (whose Crow Clan is called Angwusngyam or Ungwish-wungwa), the Menominee, the Caddo, the Tlingit, and the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico.
The crow features in the Nanissáanah (Ghost dance), popularized by Jerome Crow Dog, a Brulé Lakota sub-chief and warrior born at Horse Stealing Creek in Montana Territory in 1833, the crow symbolizing wisdom and the past, when the crow had became a guide and acted as a pathfinder during hunting. The Ghost dance movement was originally created in 1870 by Wodziwob, or Gray Hair, a prophet and medicine man of the Paiute tribe in an area that became known as Nevada. Ghost dancers wore crow and eagle feathers in their clothes and hair, and the fact that the Crow could talk placed it as one of the sages of the animal kingdom. The five day dances seeking trance,prophecy and exhortations would eventually play a major part in the pathway towards the white man's broken treaties, the infamous battle at Wounded knee and the surrender of Matȟó Wanáȟtaka (Kicking Bear), after officials began to fear the ghost dancers and rituals which seemed to occur prior to battle.
Historically the Vikings are the group who made so many references to the crow, and Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons used this species in his banner as well as appearances in many flags and coats of arms. Also, it had some kind of association with Odin, one of their main deities. Norse legend tells us that Odin is accompanied by two crows. Hugin, who symbolizes thought, and Munin, who represents a memory. These two crows were sent out each dawn to fly the entire world, returning at breakfast where they informed the Lord of the Nordic gods of everything that went on in their kingdoms. Odin was also referred to as Rafnagud (raven-god). The raven appears in almost every skaldic poem describing warfare.Coins dating back to 940's minted by Olaf Cuaran depict the Viking war standard, the Raven and Viking war banners (Gonfalon) depicted the bird also.
In Scandinavian legends, crows are a representative of the Goddess of Death, known as Valkyrie (from old Norse 'Valkyrja'), one of the group of maidens who served the Norse deity Odin, visiting battlefields and sending him the souls of the slain worthy of a place in Valhalla. Odin ( also called Wodan, Woden, or Wotan), preferred that heroes be killed in battle and that the most valiant of souls be taken to Valhöll, the hall of slain warriors. It is the crow that provides the Valkyries with important information on who should go. In Hindu ceremonies that are associated to ancestors, the crow has an important place in Vedic rituals. They are seen as messengers of death in Indian culture too.
In Germanic legend, Crows are seen as psychonomes, meaning the act of guiding spirits to their final destination, and that the feathers of a crow could cure a victim who had been cursed. And yet, a lone black crow could symbolize impending death, whilst a group symbolizes a lucky omen! Vikings also saw good omens in the crow and would leave offerings of meat as a token.
The crow also has sacred and prophetic meaning within the Celtic civilization, where it stood for flesh ripped off due to combat and Morrighan, the warrior goddess, often appears in Celtic mythology as a raven or crow, or else is found to be in the company of the birds. Crow is sacred to Lugdnum, the Celtic god of creation who gave his name to the city of Lug
In Greek mythology according to Appolodorus, Apollo is supposedly responsible for the black feathers of the crow, turning them forever black from their pristine white original plumage as a punishment after they brought news that Κορωνις (Coronis) a princess of the Thessalian kingdom of Phlegyantis, Apollo's pregnant lover had left him to marry a mortal, Ischys. In one legend, Apollo burned the crows feathers and then burned Coronis to death, in another Coronis herself was turned into a black crow, and another that she was slain by the arrows of Αρτεμις (Artemis - twin to Apollo). Koronis was later set amongst the stars as the constellation Corvus ("the Crow"). Her name means "Curved One" from the Greek word korônis or "Crow" from the word korônê.A similar Muslim legend allegedly tells of Muhammad, founder of Islam and the last prophet sent by God to Earth, who's secret location was given away by a white crow to his seekers, as he hid in caves. The crow shouted 'Ghar Ghar' (Cave, cave) and thus as punishment, Muhammad turned the crow black and cursed it for eternity to utter only one phrase, 'Ghar, ghar). Native Indian legend where the once rainbow coloured crows became forever black after shedding their colourful plumage over the other animals of the world.
In China the Crow is represented in art as a three legged bird on a solar disk, being a creature that helps the sun in its journey. In Japan there are myths of Crow Tengu who were priests who became vain, and turned into this spirit to serve as messengers until they learn the lesson of humility as well as a great Crow who takes part in Shinto creation stories.
In animal spirit guides there are general perceptions of what sightings of numbers of crows actually mean:
1 Crow Meaning: To carry a message from your near one who died recently.
2 Crows Meaning: Two crows sitting near your home signifies some good news is on your way.
3 Crows Meaning: An upcoming wedding in your family.
4 Crows Meaning: Symbolizes wealth and prosperity.
5 Crows Meaning: Diseases or pain.
6 Crows Meaning: A theft in your house!
7 Crows Meaning: Denotes travel or moving from your house.
8 Crows Meaning: Sorrowful events
Crows are generally seen as the symbolism when alive for doom bringing, misfortune and bad omens, and yet a dead crow symbolises potentially bringing good news and positive change to those who see it. This wonderful bird certainly gets a mixed bag of contradictory mythology and legend over the centuries and in modern days is often seen as a bit of a nuisance, attacking and killing the babies of other birds such as Starlings, Pigeons and House Sparrows as well as plucking the eyes out of lambs in the field, being loud and noisy and violently attacking poor victims in a 'crow court'....
There is even a classic horror film called 'THE CROW' released in 1994 by Miramax Films, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee in his final film appearance as Eric Draven, who is revived by a Crow tapping on his gravestone a year after he and his fiancée are murdered in Detroit by a street gang. The crow becomes his guide as he sets out to avenge the murders. The only son of martial arts expert Bruce Lee, Brandon lee suffered fatal injuries on the set of the film when the crew failed to remove the primer from a cartridge that hit Lee in the abdomen with the same force as a normal bullet. Lee died that day, March 31st 1993 aged 28.
The symbolism of the Crow resurrecting the dead star and accompanying him on his quest for revenge was powerful, and in some part based on the history of the carrion crow itself and the original film grossed more than $94 Million dollars with three subsequent sequels following.
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK
So let's move away from legend, mythology and stories passed down from our parents and grandparents and look at these amazing birds in isolation.
Carrion crow are passerines in the family Corvidae a group of Oscine passerine birds including Crows, Ravens, Rooks, Jackdaws, Jays, Magpies, Treepies, Choughs and Nutcrackers. Technically they are classed as Corvids, and the largest of passerine birds. Carrion crows are medium to large in size with rictal bristles and a single moult per year (most passerines moult twice). Carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (Carl Von Linne after his ennoblement) in his 1758 and 1759 editions of 'SYSTEMA NATURAE', and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone, derived from the Latin of Corvus, meaning Raven and the Greek κορώνη (korōnē), meaning crow.
Carrion crow are of the Animalia kingdom Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Genus: Corvus and Species: Corvus corone
Corvus corone can reach 45-47cm in length with a 93-104cm wingspan and weigh between 370-650g. They are protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in the United Kingdom with a Green UK conservation status which means they are of least concern with more than 1,000,000 territories. Breeding occurs in April with fledging of the chicks taking around twenty nine days following an incubation period of around twenty days with 3 to 4 eggs being the average norm.
They are abundant in the UK apart from Northwest Scotland and Ireland where the Hooded crow (Corvus cornix) was considered the same species until 2002. They have a lifespan of around four years, whilst Crow species can live to the age of Twenty years old, and the oldest known American crow in the wild was almost Thirty years old. The oldest documented captive crow died at age Fifty nine. They are smaller and have a shorter lifespan than the Raven, which again is used as a symbol in history to live life to the full and not waste a moment!
They are often mistaken for the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), a similar bird, though in the UK, the Rook is actually technically smaller than the Carrion crow averaging 44-46cm in length, 81-99cm wingspan and weighing up to 340g. Rooks have white beaks compared to the black beaks of Carrion crow, a more steeply raked ratio from head to beak, and longer straighter beaks as well as a different plumage pattern. There are documented cases in the UK of singular and grouped Rooks attacking and killing Carrion crows in their territory. Rooks nest in colonies unlike Carrion crows. Carrion crows have only a few natural enemies including powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the Eurasian eagle-owl and the golden eagle which will all readily hunt them.
Regarded as one of the most intelligent birds, indeed creatures on the planet, studies suggest that Corvids cognitive abilities can rival that of primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas and even provide clues to understanding human intelligence. Crows have relatively large brains for their body size, compared to other animals. Their encephalization quotient (EQ) a ratio of brain to body size, adjusted for size because there isn’t a linear relationship is 4.1. That is remarkably close to chimps at 4.2 whilst humans are 8.1. Corvids also have a very high neuronal density, the number of neurons per gram of brain, factoring in the number of cortical neurons, neuron packing density, interneuronal distance and axonal conduction velocity shows that Corvids score high on this measure as well, with humans scoring the highest.
A corvid's pallium is packed with more neurons than a great ape's. Corvids have demonstrated the ability to use a combination of mental tools such as imagination, and anticipation of future events. They can craft tools from twigs and branches to hook grubs from deep recesses, they can solve puzzles and intricate methods of gaining access to food set by humans., and have even bent pieces of wire into hooks to obtain food. They have been proven to have a higher cognitive ability level than seven year old humans. Communications wise, their repertoire of wraw-wraw's is not fully understood, but the intensity, rhythm, and duration of caws seems to form the basis of a possible language. They also remember the faces of humans who have hindered or hurt them and pass that information on to their offspring.
Aesop's fable of 'The Crow and the Pitcher, tells of a thirsty crow which drops stones into a water pitcher to raise the water level and enable it to take a drink. Scientists have conducted tests to see whether crows really are this intelligent. They placed floating treats in a deep tube and observed the crows indeed dropping dense objects carefully selected into the water until the treat floated within reach. They had the intelligence to pick up, weigh and discount objects that would float in the water, they also did not select ones that were too large for the container.
Pet crows develop a unique call for their owners, in effect actually naming them. They also know to sunbathe for a dose of vitamin D, regularly settling on wooden garden fences, opening their mouths and wings and raising their heads to the sun. In groups they warn of danger and communicate vocally. They store a cache of food for later if in abundance and are clever enough to move it if they feel it has been discovered. They leave markers for their cache. They have even learned to place walnuts and similar hard food items under car tyres at traffic lights as a means of cracking them!
Crows regularly gather around a dead fellow corvid, almost like a funeral, and it is thought they somehow learn from each death. They can even remember human faces for decades.Crows group together to attack larger predators and even steal their food, and they have different dialects in different areas, with the ability to mimic the dialect of the alpha males when they enter their territory!
They have a twenty year life span, the oldest on record reaching the age of Fifty nine. Crows can leave gifts for those who feed them such as buttons or bright shiny objects as a thank you, and they even kiss and make up after an argument, having mated for life.
In mythology they are associated with good and bad luck, being the bringers of omens and even witchcraft and are generally reviled for their attacks on baby birds and small mammals. They have an attack method of to stunning smaller birds before consuming them, tearing violently at smaller, less aggressive birds, which is simply down to the fact that they are so highly intelligent, and also the top of the food chain. Their diet includes over a thousand different items: Dead animals (as their name suggests), invertebrates, grain, as well as stealing eggs and chicks from other birds' nests, worms, insects, fruit, seeds, kitchen scraps. They are highly adaptable when food sources grow scarce. I absolutely love them, they are magnificent, bold, beautiful and incredibly interesting to watch and though at times it is hard to witness attacks made by them, I cannot help but adore them for so many other and more important reasons.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PAIR IN MY GARDEN
Crows have been in the area for a while, but rarely had strayed into my garden, leaving the Magpies to own the territory. Things changed towards the end of May when a beautiful female Carrion crow appeared and began to take some of the food that I put down for the other birds. Within a few days she began to appear regularly, on occasions stocking up on food, whilst other times placing pieces in the birdbath to soften them. She would stand on the birdbath and eat and drink and come back over the course of the day to eat the softened food.
Shortly afterwards she brought along her mate, a tall and handsome fella, much larger than her who was also very vocal if he felt she was getting a little too close to me. By now I had moved from a seated position from the patio as an observer, to laying on a mat just five feet from the birdbath with my Nikon so that I could photograph the pair as they landed, scavenged and fed. She was now confident enough to let me be very close, and she even tolerated and recognized the clicking of the camera. At first I used silent mode to reduce the noise but this only allowed two shooting frame rates of single frame or continuous low frame which meant I was missing shots. I reverted back to normal continuous high frames and she soon got used to the whirring of the mechanisms as the mirror slapped back and forth.
The big fella would bark orders at her from the safety of the fence or the rear of the garden, whilst she rarely made a sound. That was until one day when in the sweltering heat she kept opening her beak and sunning on the grass, panting slightly in the heat. I placed the circular water sprayer nearby and had it rotating so that the birdbath and grass was bathed in gentle water droplets and she soon came back, landed and seemed to really like the cooling effect on offer. She then climbed onto the birdbath and opened her wings slightly and made some gentle purring, cooing noises....
I swear she was expressing happiness, joy....
On another blisteringly hot day when the sprayer was on, she came down, walked towards it and opened her wings up running into the water spray. Not once, but many times.
A further revelation into the unseen sides to these beautiful birds came with the male and female on the rear garden fence. They sat together, locked beaks like a kiss and then the male took his time gently preening her head feathers and the back of her neck as she made tiny happy sounds. They stayed together like that for several minutes, showing a gentle, softer side to their nature and demonstrating the deep bond between them. Into July and the pair started to bring their three youngsters to my garden, the nippers learning to use the birdbath for bathing and dipping food, the parents attentive as ever. Two of the youngsters headed off once large enough and strong enough.
I was privileged to be in close attendance as the last juvenile was brought down by the pair, taught to take food and then on a night in July, to soar and fly with it's mother in the evening sky as the light faded. She would swoop and twirl, and at regular intervals just touch the juvenile in flight with her wing tip feathers, as if to reassure it that she was close in attendance. What an amazing experience to view. A few days later, the juvenile, though now gaining independence and more than capable of tackling food scraps in the garden, was still on occasions demand feeding from it's mother who was now teaching him to take chicken breast, hotdogs or digestive biscuits and bury them in the garden beds for later delectation. The juvenile also liked to gather up peanuts and bury them in the grass. On one occasion I witnessed a pair of rumbunctious Pica Pica (Magpies), chasing the young crow on rooftops, leaping at him no matter how hard he tried to get away. He defended himself well and survived the attacks, much to my relief.
Into August and the last youngster remained with the adults, though now was very independent even though he still spent time with his parents on rooftops, and shared food gathering duties with his mum. Hotdog sausages were their favourite choice, followed by fish fingers and digestive biscuits which the adult male would gather up three at a time.
Corvus Corone.... magnificently misunderstood by some!
Paul Williams June 4th 2021
©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®
No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)
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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 39.582+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.
***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on July 19th 2021
CREATIVE RF gty.im/1328463856 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**
This photograph became my 5,142nd frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.
©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)
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**** This frame was chosen on Tuesday 3rd August 2021 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #394. This is my 205th photograph to be selected'
I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 39.597+ Million people who have visited, favourited and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty five metres at 11:01am on a beautiful summer afternoon on Tuesday 8th June 2021, off Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent.
Here we see a large adult female Carrion crow (Corvus corone), a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Raven (Higher classification: Corvus), which is native to western Europe and eastern Asia. It can grow to twenty inches in length with a wingspan of up to thirty nine inches. This one keeps the magpie's and Jackdaw's in their place, as top of the food chain, afraid of nothing.They can reach a length of 47cm with a 104cm wingspan and a weight of up to 650g, and in the UK they are in the Green conservation list status with over one million breeding territories.
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Nikon D850 Focal length 340mm Shutter speed: 1/500s Aperture f/8.0 iso200 Hand held with Tamron VC Vibration control set to ON in position 1 14 Bit uncompressed RAW NEF file size L (8256 x 5504 pixels) FX (36 x 24) Focus mode: AF-C AF-Area mode: 3D-tracking AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual exposure mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1 (4680k) Colour space: RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)
Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 28.39s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 10.58s
ALTITUDE: 55.00m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF FILE: 91.1MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 53.60MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
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**** This frame was chosen on Saturday 26th June 2021 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #325. This is my 203rd photograph to be selected.
I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 39.330+ Million people who have visited, favorited and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****
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So, let's get one thing straight from the outset.
I LOVE CARRION CROW.
There, I've said it. Words I use to describe these amazing birds would include stunning, beautiful, bold, magnificent, intelligent and fantastic, loving, tender, victimized.
Right now I have a resident pair of Carrion crows who have decided that my garden is theirs, and are playing a game of cat and mouse with a pair of cheeky Magpies (Pica pica) for dominance and food rights. The male crow actually flies in and 'wings' the magpies to make them leave, an incredible sight to witness. It's an honour and a privilege to be able to win their trust and they have given me so much pleasure this year being able to get within a few feet of them, to photograph and feed them, and they have reinforced my already deep admiration for a bird that is brimming with beauty, intelligence, confidence and also surrounded by myths, legend and prejudice.
So let's begin with a look back over history.
LEGEND AND MYTHOLOGY
Crows appear in the Bible where Noah uses one to search for dry land and to check on the recession of the flood. Crows supposedly saved the prophet, Elijah, from famine and are an Inuit deity. Legend has it that England and its monarchy will end when there are no more crows in the Tower of London. And some believe that the crows went to the Tower attracted by the regular corpses following executions with written accounts of their presence at the executions of Anne Boleyn and Jane Gray.
In Welsh mythology, unfortunately Crows are seen as symbolic of evilness and black magic thanks to many references to witches transforming into crows or ravens and escaping. Indian legend tells of Kakabhusandi, a crow who sits on the branches of a wish-fulfilling tree called Kalpataru and a crow in Ramayana where Lord Rama blessed the crow with the power to foresee future events and communicate with the souls.
In Native American first nation legend the crow is sometimes considered to be something of a trickster, though they are also viewed positively by some tribes as messengers between this world and the next where they carry messages from the living to those deceased, and even carry healing medicines between both worlds. There is a belief that crows can foresee the future. The Klamath tribe in Oregon believe that when we die, we fly up to heaven as a crow. The Crow can also signify wisdom to some tribes who believe crows had the power to talk and were therefore considered to be one of the wisest of birds. Tribes with Crow Clans include the Chippewa (whose Crow Clan and its totem are called Aandeg), the Hopi (whose Crow Clan is called Angwusngyam or Ungwish-wungwa), the Menominee, the Caddo, the Tlingit, and the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico.
The crow features in the Nanissáanah (Ghost dance), popularized by Jerome Crow Dog, a Brulé Lakota sub-chief and warrior born at Horse Stealing Creek in Montana Territory in 1833, the crow symbolizing wisdom and the past, when the crow had became a guide and acted as a pathfinder during hunting. The Ghost dance movement was originally created in 1870 by Wodziwob, or Gray Hair, a prophet and medicine man of the Paiute tribe in an area that became known as Nevada. Ghost dancers wore crow and eagle feathers in their clothes and hair, and the fact that the Crow could talk placed it as one of the sages of the animal kingdom. The five day dances seeking trance,prophecy and exhortations would eventually play a major part in the pathway towards the white man's broken treaties, the infamous battle at Wounded knee and the surrender of Matȟó Wanáȟtaka (Kicking Bear), after officials began to fear the ghost dancers and rituals which seemed to occur prior to battle.
Historically the Vikings are the group who made so many references to the crow, and Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons used this species in his banner as well as appearances in many flags and coats of arms. Also, it had some kind of association with Odin, one of their main deities. Norse legend tells us that Odin is accompanied by two crows. Hugin, who symbolizes thought, and Munin, who represents a memory. These two crows were sent out each dawn to fly the entire world, returning at breakfast where they informed the Lord of the Nordic gods of everything that went on in their kingdoms. Odin was also referred to as Rafnagud (raven-god). The raven appears in almost every skaldic poem describing warfare.Coins dating back to 940's minted by Olaf Cuaran depict the Viking war standard, the Raven and Viking war banners (Gonfalon) depicted the bird also.
In Scandinavian legends, crows are a representative of the Goddess of Death, known as Valkyrie (from old Norse 'Valkyrja'), one of the group of maidens who served the Norse deity Odin, visiting battlefields and sending him the souls of the slain worthy of a place in Valhalla. Odin ( also called Wodan, Woden, or Wotan), preferred that heroes be killed in battle and that the most valiant of souls be taken to Valhöll, the hall of slain warriors. It is the crow that provides the Valkyries with important information on who should go. In Hindu ceremonies that are associated to ancestors, the crow has an important place in Vedic rituals. They are seen as messengers of death in Indian culture too.
In Germanic legend, Crows are seen as psychonomes, meaning the act of guiding spirits to their final destination, and that the feathers of a crow could cure a victim who had been cursed. And yet, a lone black crow could symbolize impending death, whilst a group symbolizes a lucky omen! Vikings also saw good omens in the crow and would leave offerings of meat as a token.
The crow also has sacred and prophetic meaning within the Celtic civilization, where it stood for flesh ripped off due to combat and Morrighan, the warrior goddess, often appears in Celtic mythology as a raven or crow, or else is found to be in the company of the birds. Crow is sacred to Lugdnum, the Celtic god of creation who gave his name to the city of Lug
In Greek mythology according to Appolodorus, Apollo is supposedly responsible for the black feathers of the crow, turning them forever black from their pristine white original plumage as a punishment after they brought news that Κορωνις (Coronis) a princess of the Thessalian kingdom of Phlegyantis, Apollo's pregnant lover had left him to marry a mortal, Ischys. In one legend, Apollo burned the crows feathers and then burned Coronis to death, in another Coronis herself was turned into a black crow, and another that she was slain by the arrows of Αρτεμις (Artemis - twin to Apollo). Koronis was later set amongst the stars as the constellation Corvus ("the Crow"). Her name means "Curved One" from the Greek word korônis or "Crow" from the word korônê.A similar Muslim legend allegedly tells of Muhammad, founder of Islam and the last prophet sent by God to Earth, who's secret location was given away by a white crow to his seekers, as he hid in caves. The crow shouted 'Ghar Ghar' (Cave, cave) and thus as punishment, Muhammad turned the crow black and cursed it for eternity to utter only one phrase, 'Ghar, ghar). Native Indian legend where the once rainbow coloured crows became forever black after shedding their colourful plumage over the other animals of the world.
In China the Crow is represented in art as a three legged bird on a solar disk, being a creature that helps the sun in its journey. In Japan there are myths of Crow Tengu who were priests who became vain, and turned into this spirit to serve as messengers until they learn the lesson of humility as well as a great Crow who takes part in Shinto creation stories.
In animal spirit guides there are general perceptions of what sightings of numbers of crows actually mean:
1 Crow Meaning: To carry a message from your near one who died recently.
2 Crows Meaning: Two crows sitting near your home signifies some good news is on your way.
3 Crows Meaning: An upcoming wedding in your family.
4 Crows Meaning: Symbolizes wealth and prosperity.
5 Crows Meaning: Diseases or pain.
6 Crows Meaning: A theft in your house!
7 Crows Meaning: Denotes travel or moving from your house.
8 Crows Meaning: Sorrowful events
Crows are generally seen as the symbolism when alive for doom bringing, misfortune and bad omens, and yet a dead crow symbolises potentially bringing good news and positive change to those who see it. This wonderful bird certainly gets a mixed bag of contradictory mythology and legend over the centuries and in modern days is often seen as a bit of a nuisance, attacking and killing the babies of other birds such as Starlings, Pigeons and House Sparrows as well as plucking the eyes out of lambs in the field, being loud and noisy and violently attacking poor victims in a 'crow court'....
There is even a classic horror film called 'THE CROW' released in 1994 by Miramax Films, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee in his final film appearance as Eric Draven, who is revived by a Crow tapping on his gravestone a year after he and his fiancée are murdered in Detroit by a street gang. The crow becomes his guide as he sets out to avenge the murders. The only son of martial arts expert Bruce Lee, Brandon lee suffered fatal injuries on the set of the film when the crew failed to remove the primer from a cartridge that hit Lee in the abdomen with the same force as a normal bullet. Lee died that day, March 31st 1993 aged 28.
The symbolism of the Crow resurrecting the dead star and accompanying him on his quest for revenge was powerful, and in some part based on the history of the carrion crow itself and the original film grossed more than $94 Million dollars with three subsequent sequels following.
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK
So let's move away from legend, mythology and stories passed down from our parents and grandparents and look at these amazing birds in isolation.
Carrion crow are passerines in the family Corvidae a group of Oscine passerine birds including Crows, Ravens, Rooks, Jackdaws, Jays, Magpies, Treepies, Choughs and Nutcrackers. Technically they are classed as Corvids, and the largest of passerine birds. Carrion crows are medium to large in size with rictal bristles and a single moult per year (most passerines moult twice). Carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (Carl Von Linne after his ennoblement) in his 1758 and 1759 editions of 'SYSTEMA NATURAE', and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone, derived from the Latin of Corvus, meaning Raven and the Greek κορώνη (korōnē), meaning crow.
Carrion crow are of the Animalia kingdom Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Genus: Corvus and Species: Corvus corone
Corvus corone can reach 45-47cm in length with a 93-104cm wingspan and weigh between 370-650g. They are protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in the United Kingdom with a Green UK conservation status which means they are of least concern with more than 1,000,000 territories. Breeding occurs in April with fledging of the chicks taking around twenty nine days following an incubation period of around twenty days with 3 to 4 eggs being the average norm. They are abundant in the UK apart from Northwest Scotland and Ireland where the Hooded crow (Corvus cornix) was considered the same species until 2002. They have a lifespan of around four years, whilst Crow species can live to the age of Twenty years old, and the oldest known American crow in the wild was almost Thirty years old. The oldest documented captive crow died at age Fifty nine. They are smaller and have a shorter lifespan than the Raven, which again is used as a symbol in history to live life to the full and not waste a moment!
They are often mistaken for the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), a similar bird, though in the UK, the Rook is actually technically smaller than the Carrion crow averaging 44-46cm in length, 81-99cm wingspan and weighing up to 340g. Rooks have white beaks compared to the black beaks of Carrion crow. There are documented cases in the UK of singular and grouped Rooks attacking and killing Carrion crows in their territory. Rooks nest in colonies unlike Carrion crows. Carrion crows have only a few natural enemies including powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the Eurasian eagle-owl and the golden eagle which will all readily hunt them.
Regarded as one of the most intelligent birds, indeed creatures on the planet, studies suggest that Corvids cognitive abilities can rival that of primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas and even provide clues to understanding human intelligence. Crows have relatively large brains for their body size, compared to other animals. Their encephalization quotient (EQ) a ratio of brain to body size, adjusted for size because there isn’t a linear relationship is 4.1. That is remarkably close to chimps at 4.2 whilst humans are 8.1. Corvids also have a very high neuronal density, the number of neurons per gram of brain, factoring in the number of cortical neurons, neuron packing density, interneuronal distance and axonal conduction velocity shows that Corvids score high on this measure as well, with humans scoring the highest.
A corvid's pallium is packed with more neurons than a great ape's. Corvids have demonstrated the ability to use a combination of mental tools such as imagination, and anticipation of future events. They can craft tools from twigs and branches to hook grubs from deep recesses, they can solve puzzles and intricate methods of gaining access to food set by humans., and have even bent pieces of wire into hooks to obtain food. They have been proven to have a higher cognitive ability level than seven year old humans. Communications wise, their repertoire of wraw-wraw's is not fully understood, but the intensity, rhythm, and duration of caws seems to form the basis of a possible language. They also remember the faces of humans who have hindered or hurt them and pass that information on to their offspring.
Aesop's fable of 'The Crow and the Pitcher, tells of a thirsty crow which drops stones into a water pitcher to raise the water level and enable it to take a drink. Scientists have conducted tests to see whether crows really are this intelligent. They placed floating treats in a deep tube and observed the crows indeed dropping dense objects carefully selected into the water until the treat floated within reach. They had the intelligence to pick up, weigh and discount objects that would float in the water, they also did not select ones that were too large for the container.
Pet crows develop a unique call for their owners, in effect actually naming them. They also know to sunbathe for a dose of vitamin D, regularly settling on wooden garden fences, opening their mouths and wings and raising their heads to the sun. In groups they warn of danger and communicate vocally. They store a cache of food for later if in abundance and are clever enough to move it if they feel it has been discovered. They leave markers for their cache. They have even learned to place walnuts and similar hard food items under car tyres at traffic lights as a means of cracking them!
Crows regularly gather around a dead fellow corvid, almost like a funeral, and it is thought they somehow learn from each death. They can even remember human faces for decades.
Crows group together to attack larger predators and even steal their food, and they have different dialects in different areas, with the ability to mimic the dialect of the alpha males when they enter their territory!
They have a twenty year life span, the oldest on record reaching the age of Fifty nine. Crows can leave gifts for those who feed them such as buttons or bright shiny objects as a thank you, and they even kiss and make up after an argument, having mated for life.
In mythology they are associated with good and bad luck, being the bringers of omens and even witchcraft and are generally reviled for their attacks on baby birds and small mammals. They have an attack method of to stunning smaller birds before consuming them, tearing violently at smaller, less aggressive birds, which is simply down to the fact that they are so highly intelligent, and also the top of the food chain. Their diet includes over a thousand different items: Dead animals (as their name suggests), invertebrates, grain, as well as stealing eggs and chicks from other birds' nests, worms, insects, fruit, seeds, kitchen scraps. They are highly adaptable when food sources grow scarce. I absolutely love them, they are magnificent, bold, beautiful and incredibly interesting to watch and though at times it is hard to witness attacks made by them, I cannot help but adore them for so many other and more important reasons.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PAIR IN MY GARDEN
Crows have been in the area for a while, but rarely had strayed into my garden, leaving the Magpies to own the territory. Things changed towards the end of May when a beautiful female Carrion crow appeared and began to take some of the food that I put down for the other birds. Within a few days she began to appear regularly, on occasions stocking up on food, whilst other times placing pieces in the birdbath to soften them.
She would stand on the birdbath and eat and drink and come back over the course of the day to eat the softened food.
Shortly afterwards she brought along her mate, a tall and handsome fella, much larger than her who was also very vocal if he felt she was getting a little too close to me. By now I had moved from a seated position from the patio as an observer, to laying on a mat just five feet from the birdbath with my Nikon so that I could photograph the pair as they landed, scavenged and fed. She was now confident enough to let me be very close, and she even tolerated and recognized the clicking of the camera. At first I used silent mode to reduce the noise but this only allowed two shooting frame rates of single frame or continuous low frame which meant I was missing shots. I reverted back to normal continuous high frames and she soon got used to the whirring of the frames as the mirror slapped back and forth.
The big fella would bark orders at her from the safety of the fence or the rear of the garden, whilst she rarely made a sound. That was until one day when in the sweltering heat she kept opening her beak and sunning on the grass, panting slightly in the heat. I placed the circular water sprayer nearby and had it rotating so that the birdbath and grass was bathed in gentle water droplets and she soon came back, landed and seemed to really like the cooling effect on offer. She then climbed onto the birdbath and opened her wings slightly and made some gentle purring, cooing noises....
I swear she was expressing happiness, joy....
On another blisteringly hot day when the sprayer was on, she came down, walked towards it and opened her wings up running into the water spray. Not once, but many times.
A final observation came with the male and female on the rear garden fence. They sat together, locked beaks like a kiss and then the male took his time gently preening her head feathers and the back of her neck as she made tiny happy sounds. They stayed together like that for several minutes, showing a gentle, softer side to their nature and demonstrating the deep bond between them.
Corvus Corone.... magnificently misunderstood by some!
Paul Williams June 4th 2021
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No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Sixty three metres at 11:05am on a beautiful morning on Saturday 29th May 2021, off Hythe Avenue and Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent.
Here we see a large adult female Carrion crow (Corvus corone) patrolling a garden and gathering up food scraps in front of a red Azalea, a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Raven (Higher classification: Corvus), which is native to western Europe and eastern Asia.
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Nikon D850 Focal length 600mm Shutter speed: 1/800s Aperture f/6.3 iso400 Tripod mounted with Gimbal head. Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (4128 x 2752). JPeg basic (14 bit uncompressed) AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. AF-S Priority selection: Focus. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual exposure mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1 (4550K) Colour space: RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)
Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS. Lee SW150 MKI filter holder with MK2 light shield and custom made velcro fitting for the Sigma lens. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto MT057C3-G Carbon fiber Geared tripod 3 sections. Neewer Carbon Fiber Gimble tripod head 10088736 with Arca Swiss standard quick release plate. Neewer 9996 Arca Swiss release plate P860 x2.Jessops Tripod bag. Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 28.23s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 10.45s
ALTITUDE: 63.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF FILE: 91.2MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 38.40MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
Described by some as 'gentrification' there is no doubt that Stokes Croft has undergone some changes in recent years. this building and the one next door had been left derelict for a number of years and the panels have hosted a wealth of street art in that time. More luxury apartments offering " contemporary living in the heart of vibrant Stokes Croft " as the sales blurb puts it
As I described in an earlier post, I didn't have a ton to work with in terms of compositions when it came to my shoot from the Tribune Tower Veranda, but one way of creating unique photographs was re-using this composition with various light. I've already posted a blue hour shot of this same location, this shot was actually taken about 45 minutes earlier, with overcast daytime lighting.
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The website for Malibu Creek State Park describes the park like this in its opening paragraph:
Considered the recreational crown jewel of the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu Creek State Park has over 8,000 acres of rolling tallgrass plains, oak savannahs and dramatic peaks. It's no wonder many call it "The Yosemite of Southern California".
The park was owned by 20th Century Fox from 1946-1974, and portions of classic movies like Planet of the Apes, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, M*A*S*H, and have been filmed in and around here.
Century Lake Dam is a nice rest stop on the way to the old M*A*S*H TV series set.
I can't describe my feelings when I put my feet on sands of Empty Quarter at the first time in my life !
It looks like an endless of a gold land which takes all breaths and mind.
I wished that I met some clouds that day but may be I'll have some in future. And I'm really wish that you like this composition in black and white.
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The jumping spider family (Salticidae) contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species,making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species.Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among arthropods and use it in courtship, hunting, and navigation. Although they normally move unobtrusively and fairly slowly, most species are capable of very agile jumps, notably when hunting, but sometimes in response to sudden threats or crossing long gaps. Both their book lungs and the tracheal system are well-developed, and they use both systems (bimodal breathing). Jumping spiders are generally recognized by their eye pattern. All jumping spiders have four pairs of eyes with one pair being their particularly large anterior median eyes.
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Often described as New Zealand's greatest day walk, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a challenging journey across a remarkable volcanic landscape.
In previous posts I've already described two of my photographic goals regarding this project ('the dark frames' and the family photo documentary stuff). The third waypoint is 'Sunday photography'. With this term, the Sunday photography, I mean a playful and creative approach to photography, which is common to all of those who love photography – we just snap coincidental things, uncommon moments and other odd subjects, not to capture or build masterpieces of them, but just because of the love of it and to see how they look when photographed. It is a way of playing and feeling good about your photography – without preset goals.
So, I have access to this superb Zeiss & Sony camera setup and I'm just going to wander around and shoot random subjects, you may ask. Well, the answer is a kind of yes – because I believe that sometimes good photography experiences asks for a playful approach. To refresh one's visual imagination one must sometimes leave the target orientated ways and start playing, experimenting and exploring with the subjects. I believe this kind of playful approach can be beneficial to anyone's photography and I would love to come to a point where I can enter into any place or situation and always come up with some interesting images (a relative expression really). It takes a certain kind of creative eye to see the different possibilities and I believe the possibilities exist in any place. While I exercise this kind of approach far too little in my photography, the Sunday photography is my way of changing this and developing my photographic eye with the aid of play.
So these are the three waypoints that are going to guide my photography during the year 2016. At least this is how I see it today at the start of the project and one, of course, never knows what the year will actually bring. The three waypoints also share a common denominator which is the need of finding and making my own photography guided by my own photographic eye. While there are many genres and common visual motifs to master in the world of photography, I feel that photography is most pleasing and meaningful when it reflects the life and vision of its maker. Therefore I want to spend this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, not to stress too much about taking the full advantage of the equipment I'm using, but to photograph things that (1) reflects my inner vision (the dark frames), (2) are important to me in my life (family photo documentary stuff) and (3) make photography fun and playful (the Sunday photography). With these goals I want to use the photography to attach myself deeper into my life and perhaps to see better what makes it good and meaningful. What could be better way to start a year than this.
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World War III (abbreviated WWIII), or the Third World War, is a term used to describe a hypothetical conflict on the scale of World War I and World War II, or even larger, such as a nuclear holocaust. Most usages of the term assume the use of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. On rare occasions, actual events, such as the Cold War or the War on Terror, are referred to as World War III.
The term "World War" has only been officially used once during a conflict, and that was World War II. The first World War was known as the "Great War" rather than the "World War"; in the aftermath it was called the "World War" (although the Germans called it a Weltkrieg, or "World War", throughout). Therefore, it may take years before another major time of tension, such as the Cold War or the current War on Terror could be officially recognized as a World War III (or if both are the case, World War III and World War IV). It should also be noted that serious wars, before and after 1914 and 1918 are not included as part of World War I despite international attention, such as the Balkan Wars from 1912 to 1913 and the Polish-Soviet War from 1919 to 1921. The same is the case for World War II, as previous serious conflicts in the world were occurring from 1931 to 1939 such as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and later China, the Spanish Civil War, the German annexation of Austria (Anschluss), and the occupation of Czechoslovakia, but these events are not considered part of World War II, but only a prelude, despite the severe political instability. Therefore, determining a specific point of where a world war begins is difficult, but usually occurs when a conflict affects large areas of the world, especially through alliances.
During a press conference soon after the start of the 1991 Gulf War, King Hussein of Jordan directly referred to the conflict between the United States and its coalition of allies against Iraq as "the Third World War" but there was no indication of any other world leaders accepting the definition.
Also, the first two World Wars were characteristically total wars involving war economy, massive mobilization, food rationing and tremendous casualties on both sides. World War III might thus be expected to follow that pattern. If so, this would rule out the Cold War and the War on Terror as candidates for the "distinction".
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To describe our growing up in the lowcountry of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, 'There. That taste. That's the taste of my childhood.'
- Pat Conroy