Entitled by Rich Levine

 

I want to be the wind, in a poetic way.

As a little breeze, dancing to the sound of drizzle ...

As a bright shade, which is separated from the body it inhabits.

 

My Deep Biophilia

Our secret language

 

Project "The Traveler"

skinsoul.carbonmade.com/

 

"The Traveler" Photo Book/Store

www.blurb.com/b/6600290-the-traveler-skin-soul

 

Instagram Projects:

www.instagram.com/skin_soul_projects/

 

FB.

www.facebook.com/SofiaCameiraAfonso/

  

another piece in my new body of work entitled "A Slender Thread"

 

une autre oeuvre de mon nouveau projet entité "Un Fil Maigre"

 

________________________

 

Archival pigment prints on bamboo washi paper, hand-torn, hand-embroidered, hand-painted with coffee. 6"x9"

Cockatoo landing on my fence. Late afternoon sun was no help at all.

Just testing new camera as all my Lenses and camera were stolen when the house was broken into in the middle of the day while we were out for a short time.

To say I have been despondant would be an understatment. Anyway things are looking up now and once I get the hang of the new gear should be back into the swing of things..Looks better viewed large...

After heavy rain (and Snow on the Eastern hills!), the Hutt River is running a little higher and faster than usual as it tumbles over the weir at Silverstream.

 

After 'firing' off a few Shots, I stumbled on a Camera Setting that I hadn't used before. Entitled "Creative Shot", each Frame automatically creates multiple Images with "effects" (or so the Viewing Screen said...!).

 

It sounded interesting, so I tried it - and was pleasantly surprised with the results. This is one of at least five frames that the Camera rattled off in quick succession (and each one of them was slightly different...!).

 

Incidentally, this was the Track I was supposed to walk when I drained Mrs Lance's Battery on Friday! I had my car today - and I made sure the headlights were "Off" before setting out. :-)

 

In spite of the slightly unpredictable weather, it was a very pleasant 4km brisk walk through the Taita Gorge - not an especially long hike but the longest I've managed over the last week! The Taita Gorge, incidentally, is not an especially rugged gorge, but it's rather pretty never-the-less...

  

Click on Image to enlarge; click again to return to normal).

Mural entitled "Shining Tulips" by Congo Art aka @congo.art, Htown Ink aka @htownink, and Kevin Burdick aka @kev_scraps14, seen at 175 East 19th Street in Holland, Michigan.

 

Drone photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Mural entitled "Wolfberries" by Key Detail aka @keydetail for Kotis Street Art, seen on the wall of the Family Dollar Store at 1318 Lees Chapel Road in Greensboro, North Carolina.

 

Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee.

This is a bronze artwork entitled "Ikaro fallen" (...or loosely translated as Fallen Angel) created by the Polish contemporary artist Igor Mitoraj. It is displayed at the foot of the even more famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, as part of the exhibition ANGELS, among the events celebrating the 950th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the Cathedral of Pisa. It's the first time a contemporary artist is hosted in the Square of Miracles.

 

The exhibition "ANGELS" (May 17, 2014 - April 12, 2015) includes about a hundred pieces of work: monumental works, bronzes, iron casts and marble sculptures, as well as fifty plaster casts and some paintings, a lesser known side of the artist’s production, created in recent years.

 

This angel sculpture was facing the Leaning Tower, and it was somewhat challenging for me to get both the angel and the Leaning Tower into one single image, without sacrificing some of the important details. Eventually I decided to skip the Tower and instead took this photo of the front of this angel, which shows the exquisite details of Igor's artwork.

 

Taken next to the Leaning Tower at The Square of Miracles, Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, as part of a series of shore excursions during my Mediterranean cruise in 2014

 

Mural entitled "El Sembrador" by Ivan Roque aka @ivanroque and El Changuri aka @el_chan_guri, seen at 318 NW 23rd Street in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Mural entitled "Walkin' This Road by Myself" by Ryan Stalsby aka @ryan_stalsby_art for 42 murals, seen at 2642 Main Street in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas Texas.

 

Photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee.

A haiku entitled "Rendezvous" (after Shiki), by Philip Appleman:

 

Once more as I wait

for you, night and icy wind

melt into cold rain.

 

The person he waits for must have warmth—she can transform night and icy wind into cold rain. You may be thinking cold rain isn't exactly a warm transformation, and you'd be right. But a rendezvous is a rendezvous, and the expectation warms him. Not a bad way to think of it.

 

(for Poetography, Theme 151—Cold; Literary Reference in Pictures)

Mural entitled "Freedom" by Karel Garcia aka @karelgarcia.fineartist, seen at 3041 7th Avenue South in St Petersburg, Florida.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Or I could entitle this image making an HDR image from a single RAW image. As my comment for the image title indicates, there were really two things on my mind with this image. The first was just composing this image, using some of the ridges and valley to kind of funnel the view to that one mountain peak of the Eldorado Massif off in the distance. I felt funneling the view best highlighted the setting with the clouds seemingly surrounding and hugging the mountainside. The second part was the large dynamic range when capturing this image and metering it properly with the highlighted areas in the clouds caught in the morning sunlight and the more shadowed in midtone areas across the mountainside off in the distance as well as the valley below. As initially processed the image the RAW image, I was kind of disappointed in trying to bring out the dynamic range captured. It was then I remembered how Aurora HDR Pro could use one single RAW image and bring out an HDR one that I could then export as a TIFF image. I then finished the final processing in Capture NX2

Mural entitled "Abiding Light" by Taylor "Dreamweaver" Smith aka @dream.weavin, seen at 696 1st Avenue North in St Petersburg, Florida.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Once a week I try and get out and shoot the diverse

wildlife here in Florida (not just the eagles). I spent three months working on a series of local nature and wildlife shots which I have turned into a five minute video:

 

www.youtube.com/user/andreapicoestrada

 

The image above is one of the ones in the show entitled "Florida's Symphony of Fauna and Flora".

I watched a Heron take down a three foot long snake in a ten minute battle not far away, after the snake was mostly dead the heron flew off and ate the snake a bit further away.

Mural entitled "Seven Sharks" by Hilton Aves aka @artisthiltonaves, seen at 710 NW 5th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

The mysterious place into which you must step if you want to get hold of yourself does exist. Take the step and you will know it. It is not merely a place; it is a center of power; it is something quite distinct from that realm of your being which is constantly changing, fleeting, and dissolving. It is substantial and everlasting. It is you: your self, your proper being. From there and through it you can still your unrest. There you can take root and be present; from there you can gather in all that is dispersed; you can lift the weight off your mind and lighten your darkness.

-The art of praying : the principles and methods of Christian prayer : formerly entitled Prayer in practice / Romano Guardini.

Bricolage mural entitled "Telepath" by Olga Ziemska aka @olgaziemskastudio on the wall of the 78th Street Studios at 1300 West 78th Street in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Somewhere in Georgia.

 

with thanks to Olive Sax for texture entitled "Painterly Summer Sky Texture" found here:

Snow in Ipiccy

  

I really appreciate your visit and kind comments.

 

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Use without permission is illegal

Seen in the Roger Raveel Museum in Machelen (close to Ghent, - BE). Not so many painters in Belgium have their own museum. The work is entitled ‘Thuis’, which is ‘at home’ (the usual place where you can take off your shoes). It is made in 1973 of oil paint and ‘mixed media’. This mix is true because the shoes –most likely from Raveel himself, are for real. They are integrated in the painting by some added blue in exactly the right tint. So the shoes are also a little bit painted. The black line, overstepped by the right shoe, is a typical Roger Raveel line; if you see a rather rudimentary painted work in Belgium with not too many details and with somewhere a clear solid line in it, it is probably a Raveel. This overstepping shoe is another reason why I like this painting; it somehow depicts the desire to enter into a new space, which could be ‘home’. As you can see, there is an excess of daylight pouring into the museum, but the light in the room of this painting is more tempered. This provides momentum to the optimistic blue paint, which somehow seems to flow from the painting into the museum’s interior; this is no coincidence, this painter wants his painting to do just that. The environment was always very important for his work. He even used his artworks to make people aware of local environmental issues like pollution or the replacement of rivers by canals (‘Club of Rome’-issues which became more prominent in the nineteen seventies and –eighties). His art was sometimes the tool of an activist with a different kind of looking at things. Thus, even an artwork called ‘at home’ has this interaction between home and the surrounding space.

Mural entitled "The Birds Always Come Back" by Emily Ding aka @_emilyding and Helena Martin aka @helenapaints for Hue Fest 2017, seen at 1230 Maury Street in Houston, Texas.

 

Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee.

(Continuation of story which begins with the first upload entitled Portugal)

 

We took the ferry across the Straits of Gibraltar and when we entered the city of Tangiers, a whole new exotic world opened before our eyes. I had first seen Moorish architecture in the Algarve. In the beginning, this landscape can appear foreboding and menacing. Later it becomes mysterious and welcoming.

 

The street signs were all in French and Arabic. Not really a surprise, but I was once again reminded of my poor language skills. Helping Marvin navigate would be difficult for me, but I conjured up some bold confidence that worked for a short while.

 

It was still early in the afternoon so we decided to press on to Fez and spend the night there. Soon we were in the middle of an open road with no towns in sight. That was a rather welcome sight. Navigation was easier I thought but then remembered that we had no local currency. I mentioned this to Marvin and he brushed off the fact saying that surely a town would appear soon where we could exchange money.

 

The day went along and no towns appeared on the horizon. The sun was quickly going down in the sky. The arrow of the fuel gauge had also dipped dangerously low. In the age of no international credit cards this was a very serious problem as we had read that the Moroccans would only do business in dirhams.

 

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man on a motorcycle pull up along side our car. He was smiling and waving. He began to speak and when he did his first question was, “Are the two of you Americans?” I was dumbfounded. We were in a Volkswagen with Portuguese license plates. We had been away from America so long we had almost forgotten that we were Americans. How did he know?

 

He continued to yell and screamed that he loved Americans because his brother had gone to school in America and we were very kind to him. He asked where we were staying and we shook our heads. I then blurted out that we had failed to get dirhams and that we were low on gas.

 

He screamed back to follow him and he would help us. Soon we were pulling into a gas station and we could talk in a normal tone. His brother owned the gas station but our new friend would pay for our tank to be filled up. We could repay him the following morning after we exchanged currency. We then followed him to a lovely hotel and said good-bye until the morning. It was our first of many warm experiences with Muslim hospitality.

 

The image is of the oldest medina in the world at Fez. It was named a United Nations World Heritage site just before we visited there.

 

Mural entitled "The Ascension" by Candy Kuo aka @itscandykuo for Paint Memphis 2021, seen at 660 South B.B. King Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

Drone photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

 

This the best rendition of the painting I have at this time even with hours of photoshopping. If I get a better image, I'll update this. Here are the Emails we exchanged:

  

I received this Email 051609

 

Dear Mr. Strain,

 

My name is Elizabeth R. My mother had one of your paintings entitled "There Is A Boy Who Loves Me". When she passed away in 1996, the painting was given to her sister who lives in Dallas, Texas. She has the painting hanging in her den and I told her I would do some research regarding the artist. And I looked you up on the internet.

 

The painting was done in 1968. You have signed it on the front and there is a letter attached to the back of the painting. I think my mother may have purchased this piece of art while she was living in Corpus. She had it on an easel for as long as I can remember. She lived in Victoria, Texas and that is where I was born. She loved the painting and I can just see it right now.

 

I thought maybe you could tell me something about the painting. My aunt is 85 years old and is not able to remove it from the wall unless she has help.

 

I would like to know if the painting is an original or a print? there is not a number in the right hand corner of the painting; just your signature.

 

I will do more research on the painting but if you could email me any more information regarding this piece of art, I would surely appreciate it.

 

Thank you so very much. I surely did enjoy enjoy reading your biography. I am presently living near LG, Texas.

 

Elizabeth R.

 

The same day, I got another Email from Elizabeth:

 

Dear Strain,

 

I just spoke with my aunt and she did tell me the contents of the letter that came with the watercolor and ink painting.

 

It says that you came upon a young lady in the road and all she said was that there is a boy who loves me. She is wearing a white dress and she is barefoot and she has long hair and there is a house in the background.. I am sure you will remember this painting and maybe give me more information.

 

Thank you again.

 

Elizabeth R.

 

The same day, I sent this response to Elizabeth:

  

Hi Elizabeth ... I just don't remember the picture. I do remember the title. I traveled a lot into Mexico when I was working in the Rio Grande Valley and I was much intrigued with the responses of the more primitive poverty stricken people of La Frontera. I do remember a little girl saying that to me in Spanish. I smiled and thought she didn't know what to say to a stranger, so she just said the most important thing in her life that day. I did a number of versions as I recall. The actual incident took place as I was driving south from Mier toward Reynosa on the Mexican side. The little girl (grade school, perhaps third grade) was standing on the school ground of a most unusually shaped school building. I stopped to sketch and she came up to watch. That was the only thing she said, although I tried to talk to her. Later I used her as a person standing in front of an unusual home I sketched in Falfurrias, Tx.

 

I think if I could see even a poor grade photograph of the watercolor, I'd be able to tell you all about it. What your aunt has is an original, because I never went into the print business. If it's the watercolor I did of the little girl in front of the original school where I met her, I think it's one of my better watercolors and your mother paid a whopping price for those years probably as much as $60 to $75 ... LOL ... If I could get a good resolution photograph of it, I'd love to put it on my sebsite.

 

I'm doing almost entirely computer art now and having a ball. As you probably know, my website is www.billstrain.com and my main thing going now is the first selection on that site with the word Flickr in it. That's where I do a daily blog of art, humor and narrative. I have as many of my old originals on the Flickrsite as anywhere under the set name of "Blasts from the Past."

 

I look forward to hearing from you. You might want to change my Email to bill.strain@yahoo.com. That's where I get most of my mail. This address is the old original one that we set up with the old website. Thanks for you inquiry and ..

 

Best wishes from Sherry and Bill in Kerrville

 

Still on the 16th, this Email from Elizabeth:

 

Hi Bill,

 

Thank you so much for your reply. I read your email to my aunt, who does not own a computer and never will, and she gave me a more detailed description of the painting. there is a one story house in the background and to the left of the house appears some black crosses maybe 5; look like crosses. then the little girl is standing on some stones and there appears to be more stones that could have been from a stone wall. She says the colors are magnificent!!! she just loves the painting.

 

She has a friend who will be returning to town around the 25th and he will come over and take a picture of it digitally and he can email you a picture. Then perhaps you will remember the painting. She is thrilled that I heard from you and will be glad to have her friend take a picture. I am thrilled that it is an original.

 

My aunt had it put into a different frame and she sees it every day all day when she is in her den. She acquired the painting about 11 years ago.

 

Thank you so much for the information and you will be hearing from me when her friend can send you the photo.

 

Have a great weekend.

 

Elizabeth R.

  

Then this Email came from Paul, actually 3 Emails each with a different JPEG of the watercolor. It was from these three JPEGs I got the image posted. I'll keep this updated until we get the best results we're going to. So another magic "BLAST FROM THE PAST" ... lol

  

From Paul: Sorry for the reflection. I couldn't see it until I got home and downloaded them onto my computer.

 

I'm sending the three best. Will try again, but am traveling till next week.... Have Jean remind me when I get back.

 

Sending them separately.

  

Paul

 

Here's my Email to Elizabeth after I saw the painting and was able to remember it:

 

Hi Elizabeth,

 

I got three photographs from Paul and he will try for more quality when he returns from a business trip. I worked a couple of hours trying to restore the color and detail, but the reflections were too strong.

 

That IS the primary painting I remember. I conisder it one of the top twenty paintings I've ever done. And that's the school I told you about and a caricature of the young gangly girl I talked to that day. I felt pretty special that she had shared with me something she probably didn't even share with her parents ... LOL ... for fear they'd cut off the possibility of a friendship with the boy.

 

I have an 13 x 18 inch scanner and could scan that watercolor without taking it out of the frame, if anyone is ever in the Kerrville area. I can't remember the size of the actualy painting, but I could do it in two or three scans and then patch it together and provide you with a CD and the potential for having prints made for the family or anyone you wanted to give them to.

 

If Paul is able to get a better quality photograph, I'll put it on my Flickrsite and add it to the "Blasts from the past" set and that one really is a blast from the past. On my website with my conventional art I have a publication "Nueces District Clerk's Journal" or something to that effect and a similar composition is in black and white on the cover. Also from the same era is one I called "Coronado's Child" of a little boy sitting on the edge of where a sidewalk ends in front of an abaondoned old church in Mier, Mexico. During those years I did a lot of sketching up and down the Rio Grande, Camargo, Mier, Rio Grande City, Roma, San Ignacio and even up to Laredo.

 

Well, it's been a hoot and I thank you for making it possible...grin. I'll wait for Paul's next effort and we'll talk some more.

 

Best wishes and ...

Love from Sherry and Bill

A very, very long time ago I posted a shot entitled Emergence (flic.kr/p/2hWPoqh). In it I gave a brief overview of the South Chicago and Indiana Harbor Railway. I haven't paid hardly any attention to the Short Line since then, inflicted with yet another case of "don't pay attention to what's in my backyard" syndrome. But recently I've been realizing how much I've missed out on by not paying much attention to the railroad.

 

Flash forward to about a month ago, I heard the strangest claim that these guys had stored all their power with little chance of taking them out, which led me to investigate them around the same time I started looking for B09, another recent way-late-to-the-party instance.

 

Thankfully, it didn't take very long to realize that my assumption was correct in this certainly NOT being the case.

 

These guys are the absolute last thing I'd expect to see moving around on a Saturday morning, but to prove me wrong, here is the railroad's own #31 dropping down to street level with three coil cars for eventual forwarding to the BRC right across the NS from here. It goes without saying that the lead pictured here, which heads west into the railroad's dinky yard and shops in the East Side neighborhood of South Chicago, has become quite jungly as of late.

 

With all of that being said, I've began looking for these guys as much as I humanly can with daylight rapidly dwindling day to day. Expect much much more of them, along with some very long descriptions of the history and operations of this fascinating railroad.

I like to pursue the experience of seeing Horsetail Fall each year. A client of ours not long ago dismissed it as something to the effect of "everyone pursuing the same shot". That's fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but it got me wondering why I disagree, and what has driven me to pursue the event maybe 80-90 times over the past couple of decades. It's never the same twice, but it's more than that. A lot more.

 

A lot of people pursue the sight of Horsetail Fall each year. The phenomenon requires a lot of variables to line up, so it may only be dramatic on one or two nights each year. Sometimes there's only a wet spot on the rock illuminated with sunset light, other times there's a small amount of water, but it only gets a weak glow of color as the sun fades behind thin haze as it sets.

 

On the best of nights there's a strong flow cascading over the lip or El Capitan, and the full force of the sun lights up the water through clear skies to the west. The waterfall becomes a shining beacon of sunlight, shimmering as it cascades down the granite surface. It looks white hot at first, difficult to look at when the water catches and transmits enough of the sun. Then there's an increasing amount of color, as the sun sets through thickening atmosphere and blue light is scattered, leaving warmer tones. Yet as the coloration starts, the intensity is still very high, like vigorously splashing molten copper. Water splashes as it cascades, and the droplets create a scintillating effect of liquid molten sunlight. This is the part that's utterly spectacular, leaving witnesses with jaws agape, oohs and ahhs coming from the spectators below. The effect is most analogous to the shimmering corona present for a few minutes during a total solar eclipse, something that many people travel the world over and over to see and experience again. On one hand seeing the sun's corona revealed is a combination of coincidence and physics, but it can trigger awe with a healthy dose of dopamine, endorphins, and who knows what else, an intense natural high that may be unmatched in the viewer's prior life experience. So it's little wonder that many people with the means pursue that experience over and over again. At its best and most intense, Horsetail Fall, if you're in the right place to get the full force of intense transmitted sunlight, produces that effect.

 

The next phase is when the color peaks in Horsetail Fall, the sun is in its final orange phase, and the water resembles hot lava in color. If someone unmasked you in that spot in exactly that moment, you could be convinced that it IS hot lava, the eruption spewing droplets of red hot Pele's tears as it falls. It's awesome, but if you were waiting for color and didn't pay attention to the prior phase because your neighbor was chatty, you missed the main event. Clever photographers will go to great lengths to try to get an unusual angle on the waterfall, to capture a unique composition. If you're standing at a right angle to the light going through the waterfall, getting some reflected color but not the scintillating light coming through small droplets, sure, you may have captured a pretty picture, but sorry, if it happened at all, you may have missed the most intense part of the experience.

 

The final phase is when the color starts to fade, and the setting sun might cast a more magenta to red tone on the water. In some years, especially when there's low water flow, this is the best that it gets in five nights of trying.

 

In later dates in February, the sunlight will have a shadow creeping up from below, leaving intense light mainly on the upper portion of the waterfall.

 

The event typically ends in the spectators cheering and clapping, a release of energy they accumulated during the various phases of the spectacle.

 

There are probably multiple reasons why someone might not get why Horsetail Fall is something to experience. One category is people who chased it and either it didn't happen, or it wasn't that great. Fair enough, sorry you missed it. It's a bit like chasing a solar eclipse that ends up impeded by clouds. It could feel like a waste of time, and you may wonder why people put themselves through the hassle.

 

Another category of unimpressed people may be photographers who flit around the country or world like butterflies, collecting places but never stopping to truly experience them. Lori and I traveled to Turkey in 2010, but we spent over 3 weeks there and spent a lot of time driving around the countryside staying with locals. We wanted to experience the country and meet the people, not just blow through it collecting postcard shots. Our favorite experiences are from when we left a hole in our itinerary and had locals recommend where we should go. And the time when no one spoke English while our rental car broke down for several hours. Travelling the country and photographing/seeing many sites was great, the people and experiences were priceless.

 

Similarly for many of the most spectacular moments we experience, often with little warning, it's most compelling to remember to experience the full impact, not just photograph the pretty colors or the unusual weather. Often we run into conditions that boggle the mind, and contain a range of light that the photographic process, without the full intensity of the sun, will never fully contain or convey. Moments that we never could have possibly anticipated, when nature is just showing off how it can exceed what we've experienced before. The first thing I do in these circumstances is to observe, "No one will ever believe this!" Because it's true. And I point out the when they're post-processing the images, if they upload an image and at least some people don't reply with "fake", "over-processed", "oversaturated", or now "AI", then they've failed to convey even a fraction of what they've seen. We also try to encourage people to learn how to automate their exposures with an interval timer, so they can experience the moment as well. Or take lots of different compositions at various times as conditions evolve, but also pause, look up, and notice, and experience the awe.

 

For me that's the draw. The experiences. The photographs are just a way to share some small fraction of what we experienced.

 

Back to Horsetail Fall... one of the biggest challenges is trying to post-process the results to reflect the full range of light, to try to include as much of the extreme contrast as possible, without washing out the intense color. I'll probably have to take several passes at the images, and gradually improve them over time. And they probably won't have an appropriate impact without a searing light source, a very bright and high contrast display, or a massively bright light shining directly on a metal print (does someone print on copper?). It'll never match the original event. You can't contain the sun, and re-emit it on command. But perhaps some fraction of the awe can be communicated, and even if not, we'll always have the experiences. And that's what I'm in this for... the doing, the experiencing, and sharing what I can to people who perhaps can't get out as often as we do and see as much of the ridiculous beauty that occurs, whether there's anyone there to see and record it or not.

 

See you in 5-6 weeks, Horsetail Fall!

Painting entitled "My Lebanon" at an exhibition in Cambridge earlier this year. The note by the artist said, "The woman is crying 'Lebanon, my beloved country'. Her hair is the colour of the national flag -- green, white and red. And her tear is the word word Lebanon in Arabic". Very smart work, I thought.

Mural entitled "Gilded Lady" by Tristan Eaton aka @tristaneaton seen at 27th and Fifth Avenue in New York, New York.

 

Flickr member Trish Mayo has an interesting insight into the subject of this mural. See www.flickr.com/photos/obsessivephotography/52778363320

 

Drone photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee.

Mural entitled "Winter in Utah" by D A A S aka @daas, seen in the mid-concourse tunnel at Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee.

rules don't apply to us.

AIM IM with Chris .

11:28 PM

(ty) hey bra' got a sec

 

(chris) sure, homestyle

 

what do you think of this idear ok - im thinkin of a group. small, invite only,

 

ok

 

where each week the moderator posts an image file and the members each photoshop it their own style

and then folks can discuss how they get certain effects and such

 

yeah, I remember us talking about that

I think it sounds great

 

see how many interpretations of the same image you can get

 

i want to call it

the Chris Owens Experience

you mind?

 

lol not at all

 

thanks i know your name is trademarked

 

hell yeah it is

I have pending lawsuits against many people

www.chrisowensclub.com

www.votechrisowens.com

 

lol

 

www.chrisowens.com

 

lol

 

do you own chrisowens.com?

 

votechrisowens is gone

that was a guy running for senate

that was priceless

no, I don't own chrisowens.com

some photographer does

 

i do want to make a group dedicated to spamming spammers

on flickr

 

ahh sweet

 

everytime you get the same invite from the same ass, you send him an invite to this group

 

HAHA

 

you only get invited if youre a spam bloated ass

that could be its motto

 

nice

 

mebbe call it Spamaholics Anonymous

 

LOL

 

and then when they join

kick them out

so i can resend them invites

 

right

 

mebbe i could use my secret account

 

cool

 

and have people nominate the spammer of the week. sidebar, you use 1001 for flickring?

 

nah

 

really?

 

I would if my main machine were a Mac

 

dang

 

I have it loaded

 

its the shit

 

but I don't do photos on my powerbook

 

i should make a set called 'everyone hates you' and just put dark evil shit in there

 

sweet

 

I love your dark stuff

 

i want to be happy

i really do

 

too bad

 

but ive seen too much

attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, for example

 

... I miss childhood sometimes

 

Mural entitled "Electric Paradise" by Nate Dee aka @miaminate, seen at 2200 NW 1st Avenue in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Hats off to the special and entitled for whom collective benefits are a concept unknown.

Leake Street Halloween Graffiti

Mural entitled "Tres Reinas" by Lola Goce aka @lulagoce for Blkout Walls 2023, seen at at 2501 Cass Avenue in Detroit, Michigan.

 

Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee.

Mural entitled "Dadstrength" by Joe Miller aka @thejoemiller seen on the wall of the North Flats Apartments at Honore & North Avenue in the Wicker Park area of Chicago Illinois. The mural depicts the artist's brother and niece.

 

Drone photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Mural entitled "Ta Tanka" by Wes Abarca aka @wes7svn, seen at 7662 South Main Street in Midvale, Utah.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Mural entitled "Here or There" by Erick Dominguez aka @tutodartist, seen at the RC Cola Bottling Plant at 2308 NW 5th Avenue in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida.

 

Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Statue entitled ‘Kanklininkas’ near the castle in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city, of a man playing the kanklės, a traditional Lithuanian plucked string musical instrument, of the zither family. It was sculpted by Robertas Antinis. I cannot find a date of completion.

Let's move from Prague to Munich :)

After Prague we went to Munich on short notice

  

Station Georg-Brauchle-Ring of the U1 line.

 

Info

 

Georg-Brauchle-Ring is an U-Bahn station in Munich on the U1. It is located below the Georg-Brauchle-Ring, part of Munich's Mittlerer Ring ring road system. It opened on 18 October 2003. Artist Franz Ackermann produced two coloured walls for the station entitled The Great Journey and consisting of 400 panels, each wall weighing 30 tons

  

Technique/Processing

 

Handheld - only 1/15s this time - so no problem at ISO 1000 - i really love the ISO Auto function of the D700 - you can concentrate on the subject instead of having to adjust your exposure/ISO every time.

 

Developed from RAW in Photoshop - one exposure for the lights (especially the clocks - they were completely white out of cam) and one for the rest and then combined them by layer masking.

 

A little contrast added, by applying a slight S-curve.

 

After that i added some 'glamour glow' to the lights on the ceiling and their reflections to make them look softer.

From my set entitled ‘Sumac”

www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157607186471302/

In my collection entitled “The Garden”

www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760718...

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac

Sumac (also spelled sumach) is any one of approximately 250 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. The dried berries of some species are ground to produce a tangy purple spice often used in juice.

 

Sumacs grow in subtropical and warm temperate regions throughout the world, especially in North America.

 

Sumacs are shrubs and small trees that can reach a height of 1-10 meters. The leaves are spirally arranged; they are usually pinnately compound, though some species have trifoliate or simple leaves. The flowers are in dense panicles or spikes 5-30 cm long, each flower very small, greenish, creamy white or red, with five petals. The fruits form dense clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs.

 

Sumacs propagate both by seed (spread by birds and other animals through their droppings), and by new sprouts from rhizomes, forming large clonal colonies.

The drupes of the genus Rhus are ground into a deep-red or purple powder used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a lemony taste to salads or meat; in the Turkish cuisine e.g. added to salad-servings of kebabs and lahmacun. In North America, the smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), and the staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina), are sometimes used to make a beverage, termed "sumac-ade" or "Indian lemonade" or "rhus juice". This drink is made by soaking the drupes in cool water, rubbing them to extract the essence, straining the liquid through a cotton cloth and sweetening it. Native Americans also used the leaves and berries of the smooth and staghorn sumacs combined with tobacco in traditional smoking mixtures.

 

Species including the fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), the littleleaf sumac (R. microphylla), the skunkbush sumac (R. trilobata), the smooth sumac and the staghorn sumac are grown for ornament, either as the wild types or as cultivars.

 

The leaves of certain sumacs yield tannin (mostly pyrogallol), a substance used in vegetable tanning. Leather tanned with sumac is flexible, light in weight, and light in color, even bordering on being white.

 

Dried sumac wood is fluorescent under long-wave UV light. Mowing of sumac is not a good control measure as the wood is springy resulting in jagged, sharp pointed stumps when mowed. The plant will quickly recover with new growth after mowing. See Nebraska Extension Service publication G97-1319 for suggestions as to control.

 

At times Rhus has held over 250 species. Recent molecular phylogeny research suggests breaking Rhus sensu lata into Actinocheita, Baronia, Cotinus, Malosma, Searsia, Toxicodendron, and Rhus sensu stricta. If this is done, about 35 species would remain in Rhus. However, the data is not yet clear enough to settle the proper placement of all species into these genera.

 

What’s with this recent entitlement-culture and dilution of artist recognition across social media?⠀

⠀

I can attest to the effort, time and hardship invested by photographers to capture the images they do. It’s not a bad thing, we do it because we love it and because it challenges us but the images we share don’t come easy. This is why it’s hard for us when we see our carefully shot and carefully finished image somehow becoming someone else’s image. To re-edit and use however they choose.⠀

⠀

Finding a photo online, dropping it in a bucket of saturation then warming up your keyboard ready to thank everyone for admiring your ‘new image’ isn’t photography and it’s not ok.⠀

⠀

“I’m a skilled connoisseur and I’m just as entitled to use the photo as you are”. I’m sorry but, no. You’re not.⠀

⠀

Let’s shift the culture back to what’s right, stop supporting the cheaters and go back to encouraging talented artists to continue creating amazing work for the rest of us to enjoy. ⠀

⠀

⠀

⠀

#Photography⠀

A model locomotive by Hornby entitled 'Queen Elizabeth II'. This was a Hornby Collectors' Club special edition model from a few years ago. I chose this to be a little different as I suspect there will be a large number of chess pieces, playing cards, coins and stamps this week. The portion of the locomotive shown is exactly 3" long.

 

A focus stack of 23 images lit by natural window light and processed in Helicon Focus. Global adjustments in Lightroom. Dust and speck removal in Photoshop. Conversion to mono using Silver Efex Pro.

 

Many thanks to everyone who views, faves and comments on this image and the others in my photostream. HMM to everyone!

The Arch of the Triton is one of the most enigmatic architectonic features of the Palace of Pena. Entitled the “Allegoric Gate to the creation of the World” right in the 19th century, its most prominent facet is its Triton, a mythological monster, half-man and half-fish. Similarly, all of the arch is divided between the aquatic world below and the terrestrial world above. On the ground floor, the canopied Neo-Gothic arch, with its scaled small columns, is framed by corals bearing three shells, with the Triton sitting on one. This is the domain of the water. In the upper floor are the plants that convey the terrestrial world: the head of the Triton emerges out of a tree, framed by the vines that cover the entire bow-window that the monster appears to be holding aloft. The transition is made by water weed, with these aquatic plants growing on the border between the two worlds with the Triton visible behind them.

 

The decodification of this arch has led to a series of different theories and many of them entirely unfounded. In all likelihood, King Ferdinand proceeded in the design of this archway in the same fashion that he applied to almost all of the other decorative arts in the Palace of Pena: he attempted to recover features of Portuguese culture and there are two corresponding possible origins for this Triton, both literary. One is a work by Damião de Góis dated 1554, which mentions how a Triton had been spotted singing sat on a shell on a beach near Colares. However, Luís de Camões also makes reference to a Triton in Canto IV of the Lusiadas, whose description certainly recalls the monster of Pena:

 

“This was a big beast, black and ugly, (…)

With a hairy beard that fell downwards

From the head to the shoulders, they were all

Some water weeds soaked with water, and well it would seem

That no smooth comb had ever met”.

 

[from www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/pontos-de-atracao/the-arch-of-t... ]

 

EXPLORE

Mural entitled "Access2Excess III" by Bond Truluv aka @bondtruluv for the aWall Mural Project, seen at the Jose Diego Middle School at 3100 NW 5th Avenue in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida.

Mural entitled "The Path We Came" by 蔡陈林 (Chenlin Cai) aka @chenlin.cai for Shine on St Pete, seen at 1975 3rd Avenue South in the Palmetto Park area of St Petersburg, Florida.

 

Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.

 

Edit by Teee

Our latest piece entitled 'Busy being lazy' came about as we were taking part in a battle on stencil forum Cut n Spray and the theme for the battle was 'lazy'. Since this is a theme that is close to my heart i thought i'd try to muster the necessary effort to take part. The theme could be interpreted however you liked as long as there was a stencil on the final design.

 

After sitting around thinking/playing Black Ops for a while inspiration finally struck. From there it was a question of motivation and logistics. Thankfully i managed to save myself from terminal apathy and get myself to the hardware shop to buy the necessary bits and pieces. Working with plywood is quite fun although perhaps i should have got something slightly thicker than 4mm as problems started to arise when i was knocking the nails in as some of them would go straight through the wood. After a little trial and error i managed to get all the nails in and then came the thread...

 

Threading the nails was certainly something of a challenge (especially considering my earlier problems with anchoring the nails properly) but after the appropriate amount of swearing I finally managed to get it all attached properly. Now i just need somewhere good to get it installed and transport it there safely...

 

Hopefully we'll be in with a chance of winning the competition with 'Busy being lazy' as surely it's a truly inspirational piece? I'll keep you updated as to the outcome...

 

Cheers

 

id-iom

billbarber.blogspot.com/

From my set entitled “Boats and Ships”

www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/3206986832/in/set-7215...

In my collection entitled “Transportation”

www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215761271...

In my photostream

www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/

 

Cordova Lake in the City of Kawartha Lakes is about two hours northeast of Toronto. Karen the kids, the grandkids and I rented a cottage at Cordova Lake for the first week of August. This is the second year we've been there.

 

Condensed from "History of Cordova Village and Cordova Mines"

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=...

It’s unsure just who discovered gold at Cordova Mine, but the property eventually came into the hands of H. Strickland. In 1897 it was acquired by The Cordova Exploration Company, in 1897, and was worked between 1898 and 1903. In 1911, it was purchased by Cordova Gold Mines Ltd. The mine site included housing as well. Its head office was in Toronto. The mine shut again in 1917 when it was again reopened under the ownership of Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (COMINCO). It remained open only until 1940, and has been closed since

 

www.clrm.ca/cottages_haliburton_kawartha/cordova_cottage....

Cordova Lake is just 15 minutes north of Highway 7 so is very easily accessible. Explore the surrounding area and visit the delightful riverside town of Campbellford to the south, take a drive to Bon Echo Provincial Park or visit the ‘rocks that speak’ in Petroglyphs Provincial Park. And if you haven’t visited Kingston or Ottawa, it’s an easy day trip to both.

 

From Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawartha_Lakes,_Ontario

The City of Kawartha Lakes (2006 population 74,561) is a city in east-central Ontario, Canada. Although designated as a "city", it is a largely rural area. The municipality is named for the Kawartha lakes ("Kawartha," shortened from Gaa-waategamaag, means "shining waters" in the Ojibwe language).

 

The main population centres are:

 

* Omemee

* Lindsay

* Fenelon Falls

* Woodville

* Bobcaygeon

 

The municipality was created in 2000 by the Progressive Conservative government of Ontario through the amalgamation of the constituent municipalities of the former County of Victoria, and officially came into effect on January 1, 2001.

 

In a close vote (51% for, 49% against), the citizens of Kawartha Lakes voted to de-amalgamate in a November 2003 local plebiscite, but the provincial and municipal governments have not taken any steps since the vote to initiate de-amalgamation.

 

I've included links to Cordova Lake cottage rentals, not because I want to rent you cottages, but because the ads feature great pictures of the lake and of cottage exteriors and interiors.

www.atthecottage.com/forrent/cordova/index.html

www.clrm.ca/cottages_haliburton_kawartha/cordova_cottage....

www.start.ca/users/mharris/waterfalls/cordova-falls.html

toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/vac/843395047.html

 

www.imagekind.com/member/image.aspx?IMID=b2b84f4b-3a9a-40...