One of the difficulties at the Bisti Badlands is that there are no developed trails. One of the benefits of no trails is that - if you see something in the distance - you simply hike to it. Unless you arrive after a night of 2 inches of rain and minor flash-flooding that causes significant detours.

I saw this feature in the distance, approached, and stood amazed as it towered above me.

All of my images have copyright protection. Do not use, copy, or reproduce my photos in any format for any purpose without my written permission.

This message especially applies; but not limited to, Reddit.com, socialsavanna.com, reddpipe.com, Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, and Tumblr.

In my opinion members of these groups appear to have difficulty understanding the concept of copyright infringement or fair use.

Just a poor, fun photo...we stopped in for a visit and Cammy needed some water. Ginger had to find out what she had - she gently pushed her face into the container as Cammy was drinking!

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

My first post in some time. I will admit to having some difficulty finding personal inspiration amid the current chaos.

This is a repost of a photoshop project I did a few years ago. A digital manipulation of a vintage WWI photo of a brigade of soldiers from Brown County, Wisconsin USA. My maternal grandfather (William) is seated front row, one o'clock (I have tagged him with a yellow dot). The original photo was taken at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, KY USA. The map is from a vintage US Government book on the war showing the world battlefronts in the year 1918 (I sphereized it in PS to make it look like a globe).

My reasons for this repost are two-fold:

1) to take advantage of the more recent upload size - zoom in to see the faces. The photographer did a great job with the original photo.

2) ALSO going on in the world at the time was the LAST pandemic - the "Spanish Flu". As it happened, my grandfather entered late in the war. He contracted the flu while at Camp Taylor. As such he did not travel overseas with his unit. By the time he was well, the war was over. Had he traveled with his unit, he may not have come back. THUS, I may owe my existence to the flu pandemic of 1918-19.

Another interesting bit about the photo - I shared it with the local historical society. In doing so, I came to find that the uncle of a friend/neighbor is seated to the immediate right of my grandfather. An incredible coincidence. My friend and I have shared many laughs about that and hope that they were friends too.

They got through their trials and I guess we will too, one way or another.

Stay safe out their Flickrinos and keep posting your insprirational photos. I know I need them right now.

It wouldn't surprise me if Great Carolus Linnaeus had difficulty in pronouncing the English 'th'. His tongue like that of many non-native speakers was not subtle enough - hairy, as it were - for that sound. There is of course a story to why I think this...

It has everything to do with how Linnaeus first describes this pretty Common Fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica. In the Flora suecica (1745) his description includes the interesting observation that our Fleabane saved the lives of many Russian soldiers in the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723). They used it as a medicine against dysentery. How exactly it's not said: it might have been through oral ingestion or else by way of its smoke; whatever the case, either the fleas (Pulex) or their effects - bacillary dysentery caused by transmitted Vibrio cholerae - were stymied in their run.

Whence Linnaeus's knowledge? Well, from one James Francis Edward Keith (1696-1758), a Scottish mercenary who fought for Prussians and Russians and anyone who'd have him. You get the picture: 'Keith' must've been a problem for Linnaeus to pronounce; perhaps he never met the man and only corresponded with him. In any case, his Flora suecica prints the General's name as 'Keit.

As far as I know, Keith did not take part in that Russo-Persian War; but he did play a heroic role in the Russo-Turkish War of 1741-1743. I wouldn't be surprised if his experience with our Pulicaria derives from that exercise and not from the earlier one. Possibly Linnaeus got that wrong as well, or otherwise Keith told him what he'd himself heard about the Persian expedition.

Here in the peaceful Hortus Botanicus this afternoon I saw this pretty Lasioglossum - Hairy- or Rough-Tongued Bee - calceatum on Bright Yellow Fleabane. Look at it's pretty reddish abdomen (and let's not be reminded of the less than savory sanguinary effects of dysentery).

The greatest difficulty spiritually is to

concentrate upon God, and His bles-

sings are what make it so difficult.

Troubles almost always make us look

to God, but His blessings tend to divert

our attention elsewhere.

~Oswald Chambers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Something about these words of Os-

wald Chambers seem to ring so true

much of the time.....do you see it too?

When I read them, I immediately knew

they were written for me!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wishing all My Friends a Sunday filled

with good things from Above! Love You

All!"

~Mary Lou

Not so sure that I like the processing :/

Also, does anyone know how to post picture thumbnails like for an sooc in the new flickr? I couldnt find how to anywhere and had to switch to the old flickr so that I could :S

Hope you all have an amazing weekend!!

Im done school for the summerl! :D

In the early years, difficulties with maintaining local roads and securing adequate water supply for the town lent weight to Winton's application to become a local authority with power to levy rates and charges for services.

The Shire of Winton was proclaimed a local authority in September 1886. On the 12th of January 1887 the first meeting of members from the three divisions of the Winton Divisional Board was held, and J B Riley was appointed Chairman.

When the passing of the new "Local Government Act of 1902" created Shire Councils, the Winton Divisional Board became Winton Shire Council. Members met for the first time under the new name on the 8th of April 1903.

At the height of the Depression, government relief measures were instituted in the form of day labour and local councils began to take a major role in supervising relief work. Relief schemes which usually took the form of building roads and bridges continued for many years and were responsible for maintaining employment and promoting economic activity in many shires.

The concept of a permanent day labour force to undertake council responsibilities became entrenched and accounted for a sizeable proportion of the population of remote area towns. These developments also contributed to the towns' long term economic survival as construction and service centres.

The first Shire Hall and Council Chambers were completed in 1914. The hall was the centre of social activity and public functions until 1956 when it was partially destroyed by fire.

The current offices were constructed in 1959, with an extension completed in 1987, incorporating chambers and additional office facilities. The Supper Room was completed in 1960 and the present Shire Hall opened on the 22nd of October 1964. The hall foyer houses the Roll of Honour of the 1914 - 18 and 1939 - 45 wars. The Cenotaph opposite the hall contains three pieces of Rockhampton granite and weighs over 12 tonnes.

Winton, Queensland:

Winton, in Central West Queensland, is 750km west of Rockhampton on the Landsborough Highway between Longreach and Cloncurry.

The Winton district was traversed by three exploration parties to search for members of the Burke and Wills expedition during 1861: Frederick Walker, in the Aramac district and the headwaters of the Thomson River; John McKinlay, along the Diamantina watercourse, west of Winton; and William Landsborough, along the Flinders and Barcoo watercourses, also west of Winton. Their reports led to pastoral occupation during the mid and late 1860s. By the mid-1870s, pastoral stations occupied most of the district, necessitating a postal delivery system for regular communication.

A former police sergeant from Aramac, Robert Allen, opened a hotel/store in 1876 at ‘Pelican Waterhole’, a convenient transit point for mail deliveries. He renamed the place Winton, probably after a village 3km north of Bournemouth, England. Another hotel, the North Gregory (the name of the pastoral district) was opened in 1878. The Winton town reserve was gazetted in 1879. With a population of about 150 and numerous pastoral employees in the district, Winton established a hospital in 1882. Three years later a primary school was opened, and a newspaper, the Winton Herald, began publication in 1886. The Winton local-government division was proclaimed in 1886.

During the mid-1890s Winton's outback remoteness lessened. The railway out of Townsville reached Hughenden in 1887, and the line out of Rockhampton reached Longreach in 1892. Cobb and Co coaches ran services further west. In 1895 Andrew Barton 'Banjo' Paterson was a popular poet. He visited the outback Dagworth Station, 100km northwest of Winton where he heard Christina Macphearson play the tune 'Craiglea'. Impressed with its rhythm, Paterson wrote words to accompany it, basing the verses on a story told locally about the misadventures of a swagman. Thus was 'Waltzing Matilda' written and performed at country gatherings before its first public performance at the North Gregory Hotel on the 6th of April 1895.

With a population approaching 1000 at the end of the 1890s, Anglican and Catholic churches were opened and the railway extended from Hughenden (1899). Reticulated bore water was laid on in 1902.

Winton's economy was dependent on pastoral prosperity, which went in step with drought periods and good seasons. Some droughts were severe, in 1902 and later in the 1930s. During better times improvements were made: a Catholic school (1911), the town's first moving picture show (1913) and an attractive shire hall (1914, but damaged by fire and replaced by a utilitarian structure in the 1960s). Remoteness was still significant when youthful aviators and local promoters registered Qantas in Winton and held their first company meeting in the Winton Club in 1921. Qantas later moved to Longreach, to which Winton was connected by another railway extension in 1928.

Pastoral traffic then had a choice of either Townsville or Rockhampton for port facilities. Whilst the 1930s were hard times for both seasons and wool sales, war time, and postwar sales brought unprecedented prosperity.

Fire had destroyed two North Gregory Hotels, and the third burnt down in 1946. Although there were three other hotels, the town's people wanted the "first class" hotel replaced. The shire council got special powers to build and run a fourth new Gregory, and the 1950s wool cheques supplied the loan funds for a modern all brick and masonry building (1955). Wool cheques also funded a swimming pool (1956) and town sewerage, and the 1950s ushered in a CWA students hostel, a bowling green, an RSL hall and three new motor garages. Winton's "golden age" lasted until the mid-1960s, when there was drought and a fall in wool prices. A tourist promotion association was formed in 1966, and the Qantilda Folk Museum was opened in 1972, just as wool needed rescuing by the reserve price scheme.

Winton has a showground, racecourse, golf, bowls club, and swimming facilities, two churches, a hospital, a combined primary-high school, a Catholic primary school and an aerodrome. Its tourist attractions include the Waltzing Matilda (severely damaged by fire in June 2015) and Qantilda museums, an open air picture theatre, the Matilda country races and a mineral collection in the former Corfield and Fitzmaurice Emporium (1916); a heritage-listed building. The Elderslie homestead (1882), 60km west of Winton, is on the Queensland Heritage Register.

Source: Winton District Historical Society & Museum, Winton Shire Council, & Queensland Places (queenslandplaces.com.au/winton).

In the early 1800's, many thoughtful Americans believed that isolation and the difficulties of communication would force the Mississippi Valley settlements to form a separate nation. Hoping to hold the frontier, Congress, in 1800, established a post route from Nashville (TN) to Natchez (MS). The Trace, then a series of Indian Trails, had drawn from the Secretary of State the bitter comment, "The passage of mail from Natchez is as tedious as from Europe when westerly winds prevail." To speed the mail, President Jefferson ordered the army to clear out the trail and make it a road. Postriders, carrying letters, dispatches, and newspaper helped bind the vast turbulent frontier to the republic. However, their day passed by the mid-1830's when steamboats, running from New Orleans to Pittsburg, robbed the Trace of its usefulness as a main post route.

The markers shown above read:

This early interstate road building venture produced a snake-infested, mosquito-beset, robber-haunted, Indian-traveled forest path. Lamented by the pious, cussed by the impious, it tried everyone’s strength and patience.

When the trail became so water logged that wagons could not be pulled through, travelers cut new paths through the nearby woods.

Here you see three cuts made to avoid mud into which oxcarts and wagons sank, making progress slow, dangerous, or even impossible.

Take 5 minutes to walk this sunken trail and let your imagination carry you back to the early 1800's when people walking 500 miles had to put up with these discomforts and where a broken leg or arm could spell death for the lone traveler.

Both of the markers above were placed by the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service

Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6 including the combination of all 3 photos into one image seen above.

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

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

Over the course of the next session, I learned that Sally and Jack met on the set of a major production that propelled them both to a moderate degree of fame. Things took a downward turn after that, it seems, with both of them having difficulty getting any follow-up work. When talk of a 2001 sequel fell through, Jack began to drink heavily. The producers' subsequent announcement to protect the film from commercialization, and that the characters would not appear in any further works, only fueled Jack's addiction and downward spiral.

Sally turned to modeling and whatever small bits of work she could get to pay the bills. Her dream is to someday break-free of the role she's been so firmly typecast in - and that she now feels smothered by. She wants, more than anything, to experience the world in a different way... to sort of 'recreate' herself. She says she ended things with Jack. But I wonder - will she truly escape her past? I hope that someday, she will, finally, find what she's been looking for.

Le Louvre , Paris.

The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.

Jim Rohn

Thank you all so much for the very generous comments on my last post...I really appreciated your words ...

I don't usually post pics of myself but it's Christmas Eve tomorrow and I'm done working till New Year! Seems like the perfect excuse to wear a celebratory stuffed turkey on my head. (Not that I even needed an excuse really.) Bummer is, I fell last night and it seems I have a hairline fracture in my right elbow and can hardly move it so sadly I won't be able to take photos nor post any, nor will I be able to comment or reply to comments, so this is your "we are experiencing technical difficulties" picture while I'm somewhat out of commission :-( But I wish all of you the most wonderful Christmas - or however you might choose to call the holidays - and thank you dearly for another year of your amazing inspiration and generous support.

Hugs, Tinsel and Quality Street, Katrina x

(Oh how strange, I see this photo is somehow from the future - it has a date of Jan. 15, 2018! Who knew photos could come from the future? Not sure how that happened when it was actually taken at our company Christmas Party last weekend. Parallel universe?)

THE DIFFICULTY OF SHARING THE SAME TOOTHBRUSH / FINAL / CHRISTELLE GEISER & AEON VON ZARK / NAKED EYE PROJECT BIENNE / ALTERED STATE SERIE / THE WEIRD DREAM .

Very tough, especially the air intakes on the bonnet, in the end I got some ideas after tinkering with my Miura's bonnet, because fitting a 3-studs detail into a 4-studs space is always going to be awkward, and I'm glad there aren't too much visible gap in the end.

Overall I'm pleased with the result considering the level of difficulty.

Instructions:

rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-99780/KMPMOCS/ferrari-250-gto/#d...

Thanks for dropping by =)

My Instagram - www.instagram.com/kmpmocs

Facebook - www.facebook.com/kmpmocs

I am truly delighted to be a transvestite despite some of the difficulties and angst that inevitably come with being a man that enjoys spending time as a woman. I do think it an amazing experience to enjoy time as the opposite gender, it holds great appeal for me and I always enjoy myself.

I do love the commitment and physical preparation one has to engage with to try and look female and I really enjoy getting into the persona and acting the part. It is illusionary, a form of impersonation and performance yet part of me feels so right presenting as a woman. I often joke that despite being a boy I was born to wear a dress; there is I feel a girl within me I like to set free now and again.

I increasingly I find my ambitions as a transvestite growing within me though I rarely get an opportunity to try and fulfil them. Such is the reality of life and ensuring I remain grounded and maintain my commitment to my wife, family and work and not get too carried away with my passionate desire to spend time as a woman.

This is a self portrait I took a few years ago during one of my cross-dressing sessions and seeing it again today has rather filled with me with joy and comfort and a fair degree of excitement simply recalling how thrilled I was to dress up and pose in female clothing and make-up. I do genuinely love to call myself a transvestite as it is such a taboo in our society yet as a man it is a true thrill and adventure to go through with it. I also want to do it on a deeper level a well as I would have liked to have been a girl though I now realise not strongly enough to go for a full transition. I enjoy the whole illusion as well as the emotional need. I am aware many who cross-dress despise the word but it is a word that saved me as a teenager and gave me hope and a sense of not being alone. I embraced it and knowing I am one fills me with happiness.

I do feel it is the rarity of my cross-dressing that provides such a big rewarding experience when I do go through with it. I thrive on the anticipation and the euphoria afterwards can last for months. This rare high is one that is well worth waiting for. It is great to walk around with shaved legs, skirt, have breasts and be wearing make-up and a wig, even the dressing up side is appealing. It is a cocktail of various elements that makes transvestism such a delightful and truly exhilarating experience. I love it!

“Simplicity and difficulty are twin sisters” said famous Japanese … no no nobody said this, I made it up, what I am saying is these ocean rocks are slippery bastards, the guys who balance river rocks are having it so so easy, river rocks are funky, irregular , they have grip …. Ocean rocks are egg shaped and have no grip, to balance a straight stack of them is like balancing .. well stack of eggs, go on try it, eggs I mean, let me know how it went. Anyway, it took a few collapses and trying various things before some agreeable shape been achieved and agreed to stay. When finished I went back to our shady spot under the tree to get my camera and I saw a kid walking along the beach approaching the thing. That was the ultimate test of how zen I am. Do I run back and shoo the kid away? Do I leave the thing in the hands of fate ? Well, I am very very zen I appears. I have left it to fate and the kid passed the thing without knocking it down. Would I get upset if he did? No, because I am very very zen you see.

Something zen to play me out;

youtu.be/pA9q6uwcBio?si=i1ksJ4PDawnEY5gg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoyoymtWXyg

Location: Coruscant Underworld, Night Life District

Objective: Delivery of supplies.

Difficulty: Well, it should have been easy.

—LOG ENTRY—

After dodging Admiral Jud’s hunters, I escaped the cold atmosphere of Orto Plutonia and headed to meet my old friend Jahk Duran. I guess after our split he found a group called The Survivors to take refuge with. He told me of their fearless leader Zach, as well as their missions on Tatooine and Zeffo. More recently though has been the outbreak of riots all throughout Coruscant. Since they’ve started to die down he’s been tasked with bringing in supplies and rebuilding the city. I’ve gotta say being away from the action has gotten to me; I miss it, but I’m glad to get back to it.

Entering the Coruscant sky gave me a real idea of what we were up against. Scattered spots of destruction and fire as far as I could see. Im not sure what the riots didn’t touch. I was given coordinates to Coruscant’s Fine Arts District, which is located next to the Night Life district. Cant land there because to my understanding the place is crawling with Imps which makes it a real hot zone. Soon after touching ground in the arts district I met up with Jehk, I felt overwhelmed after not seeing him for so long. We talked shortly on whats been keeping us busy and the such, but with short time we had to get situated with The Survivors and make it over to the Night Life District to start moving supplies.

—END LOG—

“Cray get a move on brother we got quite the walk ahead of us, we have to meet up with group leader.”

“Whats exactly our plan here Jehk?”

“We need to rebuild this city in the end and get rid of the remaining Imperial scum that crawls the underworld. There shouldnt be too many Imps left but watch yourself. Plus you were telling me about that Admiral Jud and his plot to defeat you. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of his men. Just stay on your toes, watch for anything out of the ordinary, and stick with the group... if you do that you’ll be fine.”

The two men made there way into a large hub, there meeting Jehk’s group leader Clern Ido. (Pronounced: Slern I-Dough)

“I take it you’re the Cray I’ve been hearing rumors about?”

“Yes sir, that would be me, at your command!”

“Well rest easy, we are pretty easy going around here, but when its time to get the jobs done we do it! And thats what will happen concerning these supplies.”

Clern turns to address the group.

“Hey!! We will be moving in small groups. Taking a few crates each to 6 locations. My group will be Jehk and our new blood Cray Schaf, need to see what this mans made of. As for the rest of you keep your same groups as we had for controlling the riots. Watch your back for Imperial Scouts or just some lowlife thugs looking to ruin your day. You have valuable items here. A lot of people want this stuff but we have a job to do... so lets get to it. Each of your crates should already have the destinations locked in, all you gotta do is escort it.”

The group scurries to get their cargo and move out. In the midst of the chaos Cray finds himself looking up into the vast city planet of Coruscant. There spotting an old Imperial astro mech droid moving across a walkway... Cray lets Jehk know but he assures him there aren’t any Imps in the immediate area.

Cray moves over to the crates and checks the destinations. Theres a nightclub by the name “Clúb Ice” located in the heart of the Nightlife District.

“Lucky us”

He turns on the hover mode and punches the destination into the AGS. Now? Well all they gotta do now is make sure the supplies get there. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right?

“Its awfully quite around here” Jehks uneasy voice is sure a cause for concern. For having riots not to long ago the roads are extremely calm. Only the occasional bit of rubble or dumpster fire. Moving deeper into the heart of the district the men started spotting people on binoculars looking down at their convoy, talking through communication holograms or to each other about the goods the men were traveling with.

After a cautious stroll they make it to the club, typing in the codes to drop the crates and then getting an update through high command that the people picking up the supplies were running a tad late and now they are going to have to sit with the supplies until they arrived.

“Well thats just great!” Exclaims Clern. Clearly not his first time dealing with this type of situation. The men take watch. Each glaring a different direction... it’s almost nothing for 20 minutes. The men are starting to become uneasy.

“Can anyone hear that” Clern asks. The sound of metal clanking sends shivers down the spines of both Cray and Jehk.

“Well whatever it is its getting closer, who’s picking up these supplies anyways??” Cray questions as he holds his gun in the direction of the metal clanking.

“Ha, you act like we are supposed to know, they just gave us this mission, with the location. They don’t tell us anything else.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me” Cray is in disbelief, but theirs no time to sit and ponder, whatever is making noise is right around the corner. He gets ready.

What rounds the corner stuns all the men.

“An Imp Medical droid? I haven’t seen one of those in ages!” Cray sets his weapon down. He asks the droid what its doing here.

“Just going for a walk”

And no later as it says that a scout trooper and Imperial Bounty hunter make their way out of the Nightclub’s balcony accompanied by the astro mech droid Cray saw earlier. He takes out his staff and makes quick work of the medical droid while Clern and Jehk take care of the enemies on the roof. With one of Jehks shots sending the astromech’s head flying.

With the supplies still secured the men end up waiting another 2 hours before anyone arrives. It was a quick and quiet transaction. Tired from the day and ready to head back the men make their way to get some rest because this is just one of 5 supply running missions. And they can be sure to see many more foes along the way.

A free Spirit

Mirit Ben-Nun was born in Beer- Sheva in 1966. Over the years she has presented in solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world.

When she was six, her father was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and two daughters, Mirit and Dana.

Ben-Nun had difficulty concentrating on studies, which caused behavioral problems, and at the age of fourteen she dropped out of the education system and went to work. The colors and writing tools gave her a quiet private space and her own way of surviving. Creativity eased her tumultuous soul.

Until her early 30’s she worked as a telemarketer and for the next fourteen years she doodled and doodled. While talking to customers she filled thousands of pages with lines and dots that resembled hundreds of compressed eggs and seeds which she threw away.

In a large portion of each page she would pick a random word and would write it down over and over while concentrating on her hand movements.

Even then she noticed the rising of her need and obsession as she practiced the endless doodling and writing.

Ben-Nun testifies that the lack of artistic training to paint "correctly" freed her from adhering to the rules of painting and allowed her freedom and spirit of rebellion.

In 1998, she received a bunch of canvases and acrylic paints as a gift from her sister.

She brought the acrylic into her world of lines and dots; she went back to painting women and masks that appeared in her childhood paintings and flooded them with lines and dots without separating body and background.

This is also the moment when Ben-Nun began to refer to herself as a painter.

and when art became the center of her life.

The intense colors in Ben-Nun's paintings sweep the viewer into a sensual experience. The viewer traces the surge of dots and lines formed in packed layers of paint. The movement leads to a kind of female-male hormonal dance within the human body and to a communion with an artistic experience of instinct, passion, conceiving and birth.

Contributing to this experience is the wealth of characteristics reminiscent of tribal art. Ben-Nun merges these with a humorous and kicking contemporary Western Pop art. In the language of unique art, Ben-Nun creates an unconventional conversation between past and present cultures.

It is evident that the paintings emerge from a regenerated need and desire, a force that erupts from her soul, a subconscious survival instinct to which she cannot or does not want to resist.

Ben-Nun places women at the center stage where they are her work focus. The paintings obsessively deal with the existential experience of being a woman in the world. A few of the women's paintings carry feminist slogans stressing the women's struggle in society, a critique for being held to perfection and being required to perform as a model of "beauty, purity and motherhood". Feminism pulsates in Ben-Nun's psyche, through her diverse female images and the play between beauty and unsightliness; Ben-Nun assimilates the consciousness of feminine possibility, of not being "perfect", of being powerful, influential, and outside social norms. This mandates a departure from acceptable limitations where Ben-Nun creates a new world of free spirit for women.

Mirit Ben-Nun is a mother of three and the grandmother of three grandchildren.

Mirela Tal

I have great difficulty composing images for Iron Photographer challenges. Take, for example, the elements of challenge 205:

1 - three similar things

2 - a thing not like the others

3 - shot from ground/floor level

The framing of the challenge has me fixated on things: Thing 1 and Thing 2 (from Dr. Seuss), Thing from the Addams family, Ben Grimm (Thing from the Fantastic Four) and so on. I usually start by looking for the elements in my environment.

Second attempt

Here I reinterpret the first image and crop out the traffic control cones. Emphasizing the three houses and the person running towards them made it better but the image is now undermined by the traffic control elements that initially drew my interest. Not to mention those pesky power lines.

We had little difficulty to find time for each other but when Alice come to the shoot she had those wonderful hair blue and purple i was very excited to work on , wonder if i could keep the magic and the light , I had so much fun working on her portrait , so much out of my comfort zone . so light tan and special subtitle and strong makeup. si i did push on the softness feeling I had.

if you dont know she is, model, wonderful photographer her self, designer doing those special flowers accessory you see around , events maker, fashion blogger , she publish also Inovar magazine and I am sure I forget things =)

April 23, 2015 on our trip to the blipmeet at Wanaka, Central Otago in New Zealand. www.polaroidblipfoto.com/browse/me

Our first morning in Cromwell. We woke to heavy fog which took a while to lift. We have arrived at Mt Difficulty Estate Winery so John can do some tasting.

The unique microclimate of the Bannockburn area is partially created by the presence of Mount Difficulty which overlooks the southern Cromwell basin, and is the namesake of Mt Difficulty Wines. Mount Difficulty is integral in providing low rainfall and humidity for the region. Bannockburn enjoys hot summers, a large diurnal temperature variation and long cool autumns; conditions which bring the best out of the Pinot Noir grapes. These conditions, along with soils which are ideal for viticulture, provide an excellent basis not only for Pinot Noir, but also for Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay. The soils are a mix of clay and gravels, but all feature a high pH level; grapes produce their best wines on sweet soils.

For More Info and photos: www.mtdifficulty.co.nz/aboutus/ourstory.html

"The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity."

(Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy - Russian Novelist and Philosophe, 1828-1910)

Anand is holding a throw which has a desing inpsired by the Lodhi gardens in Delhi.

This Aari embroidery is on a woolen throw.

This picture was shot at the upper terrace of our office in Varanasi (Benaras) with natural light.

(Throw style "LODHI" - col Plum - 150x200 - 100% wool - Collection RED HALO)

RED HALO is a collection of household linen based in Benaras (Varanasi - India) providing work to people living with difficulties and education to children.

Our icon model shows his body for the purpose of the brotherhood chain we have settled as this is a way to catch the attention on the fight we are supporting for Human Rights and human dignity.

"Like" the RED HALO page on Facebook, www.facebook.com/redhalo.in

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Join the photographer at

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© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.

Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).

The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

A free Spirit

Mirit Ben-Nun was born in Beer- Sheva in 1966. Over the years she has presented in solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world.

When she was six, her father was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and two daughters, Mirit and Dana.

Ben-Nun had difficulty concentrating on studies, which caused behavioral problems, and at the age of fourteen she dropped out of the education system and went to work. The colors and writing tools gave her a quiet private space and her own way of surviving. Creativity eased her tumultuous soul.

Until her early 30’s she worked as a telemarketer and for the next fourteen years she doodled and doodled. While talking to customers she filled thousands of pages with lines and dots that resembled hundreds of compressed eggs and seeds which she threw away.

In a large portion of each page she would pick a random word and would write it down over and over while concentrating on her hand movements.

Even then she noticed the rising of her need and obsession as she practiced the endless doodling and writing.

Ben-Nun testifies that the lack of artistic training to paint "correctly" freed her from adhering to the rules of painting and allowed her freedom and spirit of rebellion.

In 1998, she received a bunch of canvases and acrylic paints as a gift from her sister.

She brought the acrylic into her world of lines and dots; she went back to painting women and masks that appeared in her childhood paintings and flooded them with lines and dots without separating body and background.

This is also the moment when Ben-Nun began to refer to herself as a painter.

and when art became the center of her life.

The intense colors in Ben-Nun's paintings sweep the viewer into a sensual experience. The viewer traces the surge of dots and lines formed in packed layers of paint. The movement leads to a kind of female-male hormonal dance within the human body and to a communion with an artistic experience of instinct, passion, conceiving and birth.

Contributing to this experience is the wealth of characteristics reminiscent of tribal art. Ben-Nun merges these with a humorous and kicking contemporary Western Pop art. In the language of unique art, Ben-Nun creates an unconventional conversation between past and present cultures.

It is evident that the paintings emerge from a regenerated need and desire, a force that erupts from her soul, a subconscious survival instinct to which she cannot or does not want to resist.

Ben-Nun places women at the center stage where they are her work focus. The paintings obsessively deal with the existential experience of being a woman in the world. A few of the women's paintings carry feminist slogans stressing the women's struggle in society, a critique for being held to perfection and being required to perform as a model of "beauty, purity and motherhood". Feminism pulsates in Ben-Nun's psyche, through her diverse female images and the play between beauty and unsightliness; Ben-Nun assimilates the consciousness of feminine possibility, of not being "perfect", of being powerful, influential, and outside social norms. This mandates a departure from acceptable limitations where Ben-Nun creates a new world of free spirit for women.

Mirit Ben-Nun is a mother of three and the grandmother of three grandchildren.

Mirela Tal

I captured the two photographs that make up this Vertorama... with extreme difficulty!

Although the south-easterly wind was blowing quite strong on Friday afternoon, fortunately Cosy Bay was protected by the mountains and was quite calm. After spending a couple of hours watching the kids splashing around in the water, Jenny and I decided to drive to Hout Bay to grab a bite to eat in one of the local restaurants. The road to Hout Bay follows the coastline and offers a number of quite spectacular views... so I was really hoping to capture one or two more shots along the way. While driving along this road, we came around a corner and out of the lee of the mountain... and suddenly we felt the full force of the howling gale!!

Having lived in Cape Town for most of my life, I know how strong the wind can sometimes blow here. But this was unprecedented... the wind was so strong that it was almost impossible to get out of the car without the door ripping off and blowing away! I held on to the door with both hands and carefully squeezed myself out. Then I staggered over to the edge of the parking area and held the camera up to my face to get some shots of the wild ocean... but no matter how hard I tried... I just couldn't keep the camera (and myself) still enough to get anything sharp. Shooting from a tripod was out of the question (even a heavy camera bag hanging underneath it wouldn't have held it down), so I hunched myself behind the low barrier wall, set the aperture to f8 (for a fast shutter speed)... and hoped for the best.

Although I decided to include the trig-beacon in the lower right-hand corner of the frame to add a sense of scale... I'm afraid that this shot doesn't come close to capturing the moment as I experienced it!!

I've been quite busy these past few days with a million-and-one things, so unfortunately I haven't had much time for Flickr. However, I promise that I will catch up with all your latest photographs as soon as I have a few moments.

Nikon D300, Sigma 18-200mm at 44mm, aperture of f8, with a 1/640th second exposure.

Click here to view this one large.

Click here to check out my Vertorama tutorial.

Knowing firsthand the difficulty that lesser known artists have in finding a venue to display their work, Marion reopened the Little Gallery to visiting artists after her husband’s death. Today the DeGrazia Foundation continues this legacy during the winter months. We are happy to announce our 2017/2018 Little Gallery application is now online until February 28th! All applications must be filled out and submitted to the gallery by March 31st. Good luck! Please click on the link for more information degrazia.org/exhibitions/little-gallery/.

The proces of dying, to transform, the never ending change

Difficulties Reveal Hardy Holiness

Matthew 4:1–11; 1 Corinthians 10:12–13; Hebrews 12:11

True holiness does not make a Christian evade difficulties, but face and overcome them. Christ would have His people show that His grace is not a mere hothouse plant, which can only thrive under shelter, but a strong hardy thing which can flourish in every relation of life.

Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church (Pastorum Series; Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).

A free Spirit

Mirit Ben-Nun was born in Beer- Sheva in 1966. Over the years she has presented in solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world.

When she was six, her father was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and two daughters, Mirit and Dana.

Ben-Nun had difficulty concentrating on studies, which caused behavioral problems, and at the age of fourteen she dropped out of the education system and went to work. The colors and writing tools gave her a quiet private space and her own way of surviving. Creativity eased her tumultuous soul.

Until her early 30’s she worked as a telemarketer and for the next fourteen years she doodled and doodled. While talking to customers she filled thousands of pages with lines and dots that resembled hundreds of compressed eggs and seeds which she threw away.

In a large portion of each page she would pick a random word and would write it down over and over while concentrating on her hand movements.

Even then she noticed the rising of her need and obsession as she practiced the endless doodling and writing.

Ben-Nun testifies that the lack of artistic training to paint "correctly" freed her from adhering to the rules of painting and allowed her freedom and spirit of rebellion.

In 1998, she received a bunch of canvases and acrylic paints as a gift from her sister.

She brought the acrylic into her world of lines and dots; she went back to painting women and masks that appeared in her childhood paintings and flooded them with lines and dots without separating body and background.

This is also the moment when Ben-Nun began to refer to herself as a painter.

and when art became the center of her life.

The intense colors in Ben-Nun's paintings sweep the viewer into a sensual experience. The viewer traces the surge of dots and lines formed in packed layers of paint. The movement leads to a kind of female-male hormonal dance within the human body and to a communion with an artistic experience of instinct, passion, conceiving and birth.

Contributing to this experience is the wealth of characteristics reminiscent of tribal art. Ben-Nun merges these with a humorous and kicking contemporary Western Pop art. In the language of unique art, Ben-Nun creates an unconventional conversation between past and present cultures.

It is evident that the paintings emerge from a regenerated need and desire, a force that erupts from her soul, a subconscious survival instinct to which she cannot or does not want to resist.

Ben-Nun places women at the center stage where they are her work focus. The paintings obsessively deal with the existential experience of being a woman in the world. A few of the women's paintings carry feminist slogans stressing the women's struggle in society, a critique for being held to perfection and being required to perform as a model of "beauty, purity and motherhood". Feminism pulsates in Ben-Nun's psyche, through her diverse female images and the play between beauty and unsightliness; Ben-Nun assimilates the consciousness of feminine possibility, of not being "perfect", of being powerful, influential, and outside social norms. This mandates a departure from acceptable limitations where Ben-Nun creates a new world of free spirit for women.

Mirit Ben-Nun is a mother of three and the grandmother of three grandchildren.

Mirela Tal

On a ride one of our riders swallowed a bee or wasp, and got stung in his month. Being allergic to their sting, he swelled up and had difficulty breathing. We phone the paramedics and they gave him epinephrine intravenously. I guess this paramedic wasn’t too good at inserting the needle, hence the grimace of Denis. He was admitted to the hospital as for observations as he was still having a hard time breathing. He was release later that evening and is doing fine.

He usually carries his Epipen, but it was in his other bag. He vows to be make sure next time to have it with him.

Always liked this type of photography and wanted to give it a try. The difficulty is keeping the shot still to eliminate camera shot, and having turned off the flash wanted to maximise the light. Taken in Bartestree Hereford UK

#leshaines123 #Flickr #Hereford

Mimic Poison Frog (Ranitomeya imitator) - Cordillera Escallera, Peru

If you like poison frogs you're in luck. because I plan to post an almost absurd amount of photos of this and other species that I encounter during my time in Peru. By now those of you that follow my photostream might know that I'm in Peru working with Ranitomeya imitator, a fantastic little frog. The first thing that surprised me about these frogs when I joined the lab was their size, they're truly tiny! Much smaller than the other species I have encountered in Central and South America. The other difference is that they're primarily arboreal, they really seem to try hard to avoid the ground and are most often seen hanging out on vegetation and often hopping around on vines and tree trunks, only rarely do I actually see them on the ground and its usually when I have disturbed them and they are fleeing. These frogs are also extremely skittish which combined with their small size and arboreal nature as well as their densely vegetated homes makes photography an (enjoyable) challenge. So despite seeing many of these nearly everyday, which in itself is an accomplishment as during my first few days here I had real difficulty finding them, times when I can get an actual photo set with these frogs are not that common. This individual was a fantastic frog that was rather placid when compared to its compatriots and actually allowed me to get a bit creative with its photos. Not one of my study frogs but a frog from an adjacent territory, based on the size I suspect this to be a female. Females are slightly larger and fatter than males but other than that they are completely similar in appearance. Hope you enjoy this photo, many more to come!

Some of my work that I have on k-i-d--a.deviantart.com/

Difficulty 10/10.

The wasps are constantly moving, never rest. The only moment to catch him this close is when he is a bit "drunk" because of the flower juices, so he moves a little bit slower than usually.

What a mess Flickr was the night before last! I had difficulty adding titles to my uploaded images, comments didn't save and, after I had added a description to each of the 20 photos, the descriptions all disappeared. When I opened Flickr next morning, there was still no sign of them. Then, suddenly, they re-appeared. I also discovered that all the hundreds of photos from this trip that I added to the map are no longer on the map!!! Someone on the Help Forum told someone else to refresh a page and the map will appear again - and it works. Now, I can't add photos to albums - it looks like they are added, but when I check the album, some of yesterda's photos had not appeared. Suddenly, now appeared. Also, my descriptions appeared in duplicate! Today, 13 May 2019, everything I try to do on Flickr takes a long time to do.

My photos taken at the National Butterfly Centre, Mission, South Texas, have now come to an end, so you can sigh a huge sigh of relief : ) Today I added 22 photos taken at another place that we called in at later in the afternoon, the Valley Nature Centre. Unfortunately, we only had an hour there before closing time, but how glad we were that we found this place. The highlight there was watching 25 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons coming in to roost for the night in the trees, right where we were standing! What a great sight this was, and we were lucky enough to have a good, close view of these gorgeous birds, though in very poor light. We also saw some Purple Martins and their circular, hanging nesting "gourds".

On Day 6 of our birding holiday in South Texas, 24 March 2019, we left our hotel in Kingsville, South Texas, and started our drive to Mission, where we would be staying at La Quinta Inn & Suites for three nights. On the first stretch of our drive, we were lucky enough to see several bird species, including a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Hooded Oriole, Red-tailed Hawk, Crested Caracara, Harris's Hawk, Pyrrhuloxia male (looks similar to a Cardinal) and a spectacular Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. This stretch is called Hawk Alley.

We had a long drive further south towards Mission, with only a couple of drive-by photos taken en route (of a strangely shaped building that turned out to be a huge, deserted seed storage building). Eventually, we reached our next planned stop, the National Butterfly Centre. This was a great place, my favourite part of it being the bird feeding station, where we saw all sorts of species and reasonably close. Despite the name of the place, we only saw a few butterflies while we were there. May have been the weather or, more likely, the fact that I was having so much fun at the bird feeding station. We also got to see Spike, a giant African Spurred Tortoise. All the nature/wildlife parks that we visited in South Texas had beautiful visitor centres and usually bird feeding stations. And there are so many of these parks - so impressive!

Tomorrow, I will be able to start sorting and editing images taken on Day 7 of our 13-day trip!

Count the sheep!

All Rights Reserved

© Angela M. Lobefaro

© RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA

2nd one for my 100 x series.

Difficulty by KT Tunstall on YouTube

Difficulty in reading.

« If you appreciate my work and would like to support me becoming an independent photographer, become a Patreon supporter at www.patreon.com/alexdehaas, or buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/alexdehaas :) »

These are the baseboards from upstairs, which are laying downstairs in the living room waiting to be put back where they belong. Unfortunately, my house repairs (from the ice dam water damage that happened right before Christmas) have turned into an utter nightmare. From an insurance perspective, neither the Association insurance nor my personal homeowner insurance wants to pay for anything and until somebody does, the repairs are on hold. I'm trying to remain optimistic but my patience is waning. I'm afraid this may turn into a legal battle, which I really don't want to deal with.

Just thought I would provide an update since so many of you have sent me notes with well wishes and inquiries as to how things are coming. I really do appreciate your kindness. :-)

© All rights reserved.

The Raygun Gothic Rocketship having major launch difficulties.

unstable : (Adj) 1. not firmly fixed and likely to wobble or fall

2. likely to change suddenly and create difficulties or danger

3. (of a person) having abrupt changes of mood or behaviour

No this isn't a photoshop trick, and (#$^%&) my foot hurts from standing like this. Consider that my rant for the day.

(unless you have prior proof I've already ranted. In that case...Shhhhhh.)

I have been tagged yet again for 16 things, so anyone who isn’t intrigued by useless babble might find it pertinent to move along now…………

Once I started it all just flowed out...therapeutically perhaps?

No obligation to read whatsoever. It's just there.

Consider yourself warned. :)

I will never do it again.

Goodnight.

****************

1. I am an avid bookworm. I am currently reading 3 books at the same time. I don’t know how I separate them in my head, but it’s not nearly as hard as you would imagine.

2. I despise my 365 because I feel that 99% of the time I rush through it and post absolute rubbish simply to achieve the “one-a-day” rule. I have literally only posted a handful of pictures (handful being 5-8) that I am actually proud of. The rest of them, I could really care less about and would disown them if my name wasn’t so blatantly attached to them.

3. I am ridiculously self-conscious. It actually makes me uncomfortable when people tell me I’m beautiful because my initial response is to believe that they are lying to me. I never have, and never will, truly think that I am pretty. I am and always will, however, be content being who I am.

4. I am perfectly satisfied being unsocial and alone. (a byproduct of my self consciousness?) I would take a good book, a cup of coffee and a blanket over a night out on the town any day. I like myself, and I prefer company I trust.

5. One of my biggest irritations is when people underestimate me for my age or appearance. I can change a tire in less than ten minutes and I can drink a full grown man under the table. I am a customer service manager of an entire office and I can play Mozart’s ‘Rhondo Alla Turca’ from beginning to end without looking at sheet music. Neither my face nor age defines any of these things, the rest of my character withstanding.

6. I want to be a mother more than anything in this entire world, and I am not the least bit frightened or apprehensive about it. I just simply feel that my life is incomplete, and it always will until my husband and I have a family that is solely ours.

7. I cannot tolerate immaturity or mistrust. I very recently had an incident that involved being backstabbed and slandered, and consequently lied to. I have firmly resolved to disown these people in the highest level comfortable based upon our relationships. I am a forgiving person, but I refuse to allow myself to be a victim. I also have no desire to be associated with people who constantly make themselves the victim.

8. If I could go back in time, I would do everything differently. I know it isn’t traditionally inspiring for someone to say that, but in my case, I regrettably blundered through a good 3 years of my life in a way that I am forever scarred for how I harmed myself and damaged others.

I would unhesitatingly accept a chance to try it all again.

9. I have numerous acquaintances whom I know well and who know me half as well. The amount of people in this world that I sincerely call friends is only three. (my sister, my husband, and one friend.) It is not that I do not have frequent opportunities to enter into friendships, but I rarely trust people enough to open up to them, nor do I wish to waste my time trying only to be sorely disappointed.

10. I adjust myself based upon the company I keep and the situation I am in. Likewise, I rarely utilize my full vocabulary on Flickr. It is not that I believe anyone is improperly educated and would be confused. It is because when I am on Flickr I am just simply me and there is no reason to appear to be pretentiously showing off by tossing out five-syllable words unnecessarily. I also rarely reveal anything in my facts. Today I am.

11. I spent many years despising my childhood and using it as a scapegoat for the things I had done detrimentally wrong. Now, as I’ve finally matured I realize that any and all somewhat traumatizing instances from my childhood did not in any way disrupt my development but rather strengthened and prepared me to become the person I am today. For which I am thankful.

12. I hate change. It throws me into a chaotic state of discomfort when I am compelled to attempt things that are unfamiliar or unknown to me. For as long as I can consciously remember, I have had anxiety issues when I feel out of place or exposed. Therefore, I often force myself into such situations in attempt to widen my comfort bubble…..I have been doing it for years.

13. I am violently opposed to dependency. I am of the firm opinion that after a certain point in your life you need to learn to rely upon yourself alone to handle your existence, finances, and emotions. I am not referring to the desire to have someone in your life (obviously). I am more specifically determined that one should not ‘need’ anyone else to survive in the world.

14. I abhor my own contradictions. As much as I hate dependency, I am admittedly a mess without caffeine or nicotine. I vow to rectify it, but somehow the first step evades me. I will do it eventually.

15. Rather than being a person who knows a lot about a small amount of things, I know a small amount about a lot of things. I’ve rather disliked this over the years and wished that I had a better depth into certain subjects. Simultaneously, there have been numerous times in which my brief understanding or knowledge of a range of subjects has been incredibly useful. I’m indeterminate.

16. There are a great many crevices and cracks to my personality that I seldom reveal. It’s not that I’m embarrassed or reluctant to be myself, I simply attribute it to my private nature. I dislike revealing things that make me appear to be pretentious or proud, and most everything else is typically unnecessary information for anyone to associate with me. For example; saying that I completed Calculus my Sophomore year in high school merely makes me sound arrogant, and the fact that I can fold my tongue in half towards the back of my throat is simply worthless information.

Point proven.

| Buy this photo on Getty Images |

***************************************************

El Parque Tagua-Tagua es un Área Protegida Privada (APP) de aproximadamente 3.000 ha., que está ubicada en la cuenca del río Puelo, en específico, a orillas del Lago Tagua Tagua. Administrativamente, el parque pertenece a la comuna de Cochamó, Provincia de Llanquihue, Región de Los Lagos. El área corresponde a una concesión otorgada por Bienes Nacionales a la Universidad Mayor, para el desarrollo de un proyecto de conservación de la biodiversidad y de turismo en intereses especiales, donde el énfasis de la experiencia es el conocimiento y la ciencia. El Parque se encuentra bajo la administración y operación de Sociedad Miralejos Chile Adventure y abrio sus puertas al publico en el 2013.

En su interior, se encuentran ecosistemas propios del sur de Chile, destacando sus bosques prístinos dominados por especies milenarias como el alerce, y otras centenarias como el mañío y el coihue. Todas estas especies son características de los climas templados fríos de la Patagonia del sur de Chile. En el parque también existen lagunas cristalinas, ríos, cascadas y una red de humedales que albergan una rica biodiversidad de fauna y flora, entre la que destacan una gran variedad de hongos.

El parque cuenta con dos refugios de montaña para visitantes, el acceso es restringido para solo 44 personas por dia y requiere reservacion previa. Hay unos 9 kms de senderos bien demarcados y señalizados aptos para caminatas de nivel de dificultad medio. A la fecha hay solo dos areas para ser visitadas: el sector de Laguna Alerces con un refugio para 22 personas y el sector de Lago Quetrus con una cabaña privada para 12 personas. Ambos sectores con servicios basicos. Se puede visitar durante todo el año. Sin duda el mayor atractivo del parque esta en su impresionante belleza escénica y recorrer bosques intocados donde destacan gigantescos Alerces de mas de 3.000 años.

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

The Tagua Tagua-Park is a Private Protected Area (APP) of approximately 3,000 ha. located near Puelo River on Lake Tagua Tagua banks. Administratively the park belongs to the Cochamó Llanquihue Province Los Lagos Region. The area corresponding to a concession granted by The National Heritage goverment department to Mayor University to develop a conservation of biodiversity and special interest tourism where the emphasis of the experience is the knowledge and science. The park is under the management and operation of Miralejos Chile Adventure Company and opened its doors to the public in 2013.

Inside are own ecosystems of southern Chile, highlighting its pristine ancient forests dominated by species such as larch, and other millenian species as mañío and coihue. All these species are characteristic of cold temperate climates of southern Chilean Patagonia. In the park there are also crystalline lagoons, rivers, waterfalls and a network of wetlands that are home to a rich biodiversity of fauna and flora, among which include a variety of fungi.

The park has two mountain lodges for visitors, access is restricted to only 44 people per day and requires prior reservation. There are about 9 kms of well-marked trails and signposted suitable for walks of medium level difficulty. To date there are only two areas to be visited: the Laguna larches a shelter for 22 people and the area of Lake quetrus with a private cabin for 12 persons. Both sectors with basic services. It can be visited throughout the year. Undoubtedly the biggest attraction of the park is in its amazing scenic beauty and go through untouched forests whith more than 3,000 years old giant larches.

First test runs of hybrid H-alpha-continuum solar imaging system :)

Left - the setup in operation. The shot is Photomatix-fused HDR of three subexposures of 1/250, 1/60 and 1/15 seconds taken with Canon 60D through EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM @17 mm f/14.

Right - full-disk image of the Sun @07.06.2015 11:15 MSK taken through Meade 6000 (EFR = 960 mm, f/12). 6 panels of 180/1000 frames, stacked, deconvolved, wavelet-sharpened and manually stitched in PS using difference blending. ICE failed :(

Inset right - H-alpha fulldisk taken through piggy-backing PST with DMK23 (400 mm, f/10). 180/1000 frames, deconvolution, high-pass filtering. Orientations of images are matched.

Some considerations and observations.

1) I thought QHY5L-IIm would be good for white-light imaging of the Sun. Nope. The images show distracting vertical banding of obviously electronic nature. I'll give it yet another chance but I have doubts.

Upd: defocussed flat-field image clears the stripes very effective.

2) All these look imposing but it is effectively 20 kg so I have dismounted PST and gave it personal mounting plate. Advantage: now both tubes work with the same small counterweight - I just need to move it along the shaft when remounting.

3) Use of 2x Barlow lens gives 2,1 pixels per the unit of resolution - 1,75 arcseconds here.The use of 2,5x lens would be just fine for Nyquist sampling.

4) Cameras have difficulties reaching the focus without use of Barlow lens on 6000. Even with the diagonal. But I think that the empty casing of Meade Barlow would make a good extension tube.

Upd: proven!

The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.~Jim Rohn

Hello ladies! I would first like to apologize for the delay, technical difficulties aren't fun. Since this happened, I decided to save time by NOT judging your creepy close ups, but instead of getting rid of 6 of you like planned, I will keep all of you. But, that means next week 2 MODELS will be eliminated from the competition. Don't worry, in the future themes will go up at the right times.

Now, for your first theme, I picked something relatively easy.

"Karma's A Bitch...And Death Is Her Sister."

In this theme, you will be victims of the lovely Karma. If you already don't know, Karma is the result of your actions. It could be good or bad, but is usually referred to as bad. So, in the spirit of Karma each of you lovely models will be portraying a different death, that resulted from doing something bad. It could be anything from stealing to a catfight in the house. It's up to you.

Requirements:

~Full body shot

~Fierce and fashionable outfits

~Death must be easy to see

~Try not to make this a bloodbath.

~A small story of what happened in the photo will be appreciated!

~Tag me in photos please

**YOU CANNOT USE STRANGLED AS A DEATH. I'M USING IT AS AN EXAMPLE. BUT YOU CANNOT USE STRANGLED.**

Photos will be due the 31st. That's 2 weeks. Anyone who doesn't turn in a photo will be eliminated.

Be fierce, be creative, but most of all...BE CREEPY.

MODELS WHO TURNED IN A PHOTO: (in no order)

1. Jinkx Pidgen- www.flickr.com/photos/bratzjaderox/9533522305/in/contacts/

2. Lucy Hale- www.flickr.com/photos/94274459@N07/9535715862/

3. Lou- www.flickr.com/photos/mramerica2011/9566343458/in/contacts/

4. Lorelei Sin- www.flickr.com/photos/fabulousdolls/9595123368/

5. Marie-Andre Mothee-

6. Victoria Van Hartog- www.flickr.com/photos/malaysianbarbiecollector/9607155096...

7. Rose Lee-

8. Angel Jade-

9. Jade Nicole West- www.flickr.com/photos/93220200@N07/9547396978/

10. Okiku- www.flickr.com/photos/72298509@N05/9569918363/

11. Sweetie-Regina Green- www.flickr.com/photos/reginia/9636788928/

12. Katy Daly- www.flickr.com/photos/bratzboymax/9557593264/

13. Jemima Grey- www.flickr.com/photos/52629305@N07/9611950863/14.

14.Penelope Delis- DROPOUT

15. Ashlee Smith-http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashlee_bitch_fashion4/9593241430/

16. Zoé A- www.flickr.com/photos/87049656@N06/9574104823/in/contacts/

17. Sweettina Dágwood- www.flickr.com/photos/diva3tina/9633885387/

18. Spencer Grey- www.flickr.com/photos/happydollplace/9640969420/

19. Jamlia Blossom-

20. Spencer Martinéz-