View allAll Photos Tagged Featureless
Driving along a featureless road in Rutland, I had to pull over in a layby to take a call and was struck by this view from a gap in the hedge. Rolling fields, little fluffy clouds, farm in the distance. I love England for stuff like this, you never know what you are going to find, even when you think you know an area it always manages to throw in the odd surprise :)
I've seen a few night sky swaps over Edmonton past few weeks on Instagram. In the original photo, the black sky was featureless, with only three or four bright stars faintly making it through. What if I could replace the void with a country sky? I've never done a sky swap before, so I had a go. First, find a recent dark sky photo that is proportional to the foreground, check! Found a night sky photo in the catalog when Mark and I stopped in the middle of the night near Rosetown, SK to shoot night sky. Some of the darkest sky I've experienced, 4 points on the compass, horizon to horizon. Originally taken with a 15mm lens, by the time I aligned the MW to the right of the ICE District towers and horizon, I was close to 24mm that the foreground was taken with. The MW is out of position, but for artistic effect, replaced the black space nicely.
🔸◾️ U N T R U T H ◾️🔸
📍 Gunwalloe 🌊☀️🌊
As I took this shot a Jangye-Ryn, Gunwalloe, on the Lizard Peninsula - I was certain that I'd convert to black & white...
The sea was flat. So, instead of attempting to capture the motion of the waves (there was none!), I decided to emphasise the stillness with a 10 stop filter.
The sky was as flat as the sea. Grey and featureless. Which is why felt a monochrome conversion would be on the cards. But when I began editing in Lightroom, I found that I could tease out a little cloud definition and colour. On top of that, I injected a little colour with some orange & blue colour grading. (Again, on my new screen, colours are subtle. On my old screen, they're vibrant and contrasty. What are you seeing?).
This wasn't at all how the scene looked to my eyes, but who says the camera (and post processing) never lies? In fact, the camera can often lie... with distorted perspective, selective cropping etc...
Compositionally, I framed the feature rock in the centre, surrounded by the others. I wish though, that I had taken a step or two to the left to centralise it more. Schoolboy error!
(I might post the monochrome version at a later date)
Canon 6D MkII | 24-105mm lens at 24mm | ƒ/11 | 90 sec | ISO 100 | Tripod | 10stop ND & soft grad ND filters | Lightroom & Photoshop | Taken at the Gunwalloe on 03-09-2021
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Copyright Andrew Hocking 2021
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Aurorae are classified as diffuse and discrete. The diffuse aurora is a featureless glow in the sky that may not be visible to the naked eye, even on a dark night. It defines the extent of the auroral zone. The discrete aurorae are sharply defined features within the diffuse aurora that vary in brightness from just barely visible to the naked eye, to bright enough to read a newspaper by at night. Discrete aurorae are usually seen in only the night sky, because they are not as bright as the sunlit sky. Aurorae occasionally occur poleward of the auroral zone as diffuse patches or arcs
Palouse Falls, Washington State. Testing the small Leica D Lux Typ 109 to see how it would handle a big landscape photo. I had to crop most of the featureless, smoke filled sky and made a few post adjustments to the .raw file. Not bad overall considering the small sensor, middle of the day light and smoke from all the fires burning in Canada, Washington and Oregon.
I spotted this guy with the impressive chelicerae on Saturday and was very glad I had my camera. It seems he's a little outside his range, but when I checked iNaturalist, I see a few have been found even farther north.
Someone asked if spiders have teeth. I originally wrote "they don't", but have found the answer is slightly more complicated. Their "mouths" as we think of them are pretty much just an entry hole without other function. Breakdown of prey happens outside of this toothless hole. Similarly to flies, spiders spit digestive fluids out onto their prey so that it is broken down outside. They then use their chelicerae, which in this case are those long protruding dark things, to try to further soften the prey by mashing them together side-to-side.
This is where there is a difference in method among spider types. With hunting spiders that don't use webs, there may be some toothlike serrations on the inner edges of the chelicerae to aid in crushing. Because these spiders are often near a hard surface, such as the ground or a wall, they can apply force between the chelicerae and that surface, and do some effective chewing. Web-spinning spiders, however, don't have this advantage, and must rely more on the enzymes to do all the work.
As the spider slurps up what has become liquified, the prey goes from something recognizable to a dark featureless ball called a "bolus". Once the spider has extracted all it can in this manner, it discards the rest.
I was inspired to write about this on this photo because the chelicerae are so obvious here. All spiders have them, but they are usually less noticeable, and if the spider is fuzzy, sometimes they're hard to see. The fangs are attached to the chelicerae and kept folded up until needed.
25 Arachtober 2021, 1/2
Bagheera prosper
Chester Frost Park, Dallas Island, Hixson, TN
23 October 2021
This male kōlea in breeding plumage takes a bath before the long flight from the tropics to the nesting grounds on the Alaskan tundra. The next day, he somehow sensed it was time to congregate with other previously solitary kōlea and departed collectively. The trip spans 3,000 miles of open ocean requiring a rigorous, energy intensive effort of 3 to 4 days and nights of nonstop flight at elevation ranging from 3,000 to 16,000 feet. Superb navigators with territorial fidelity, kōlea, or Pacific golden plovers, use the stars and the earth’s magnetic field to find their way over the featureless ocean to the same small patch of territory every year. They may use the earth’s magnetic field visually with the magnetoreception molecules of cryptochrome in their retina.
Six bolt heads interrupt an otherwise smooth surface.
I shot this because I wanted to capture the way the bolt heads contrasted with the smoother surfaces around them. They stand as regular solids in a virtually featureless scene.
This beautiful Pacific golden plover, or kōlea, defends and enjoys its winter territory on Oahu. Kōlea migrate to Hawaii after a five-month summer breeding season in arctic Alaska. The trip spans approximately 3,000 miles of open ocean requiring an exhaustive 3 to 4 days and nights of nonstop flight. Incredibly, some will continue their marathon semiannual migration to oceanic islands of the southern Pacific resulting in an annual round trip total of about 15,000 miles. Their fledglings set off from the tundra searching for an island and a suitable territory a month or two after the adults have departed. Many first-year birds probably miss landfall and perish at sea. Survivors are superb navigators with territorial fidelity, using the stars and the earth’s magnetic field to find their way over the featureless ocean to the same small patch of land every year. Like most transoceanic migratory birds, they may use the earth’s magnetic field visually with the magnetoreception molecules of cryptochrome in their retinae.
Traveling the inland deserts of Oz I found a constant delight in the colours of a seemingly featureless landscape, the herbage rocks and grasses are the subtle colours of the spectrum. In this instance the sunset was beautiful with the sky reflecting the huge inland sea, full for the past three years, of Lake Eyre on the horizons. The pink and magneta glow brought out the colours of the rocks and herbage beautifully after the sun sunk below the western horizons where this is looking north east away from the sunset.
View Large in Lighbox
With the extended forecast showing a whole lotta gray featureless clouds in the region's future, I decided to make a run to the Oregon coast on Friday, thinking it could be my last opportunity for decent photography for a while.
Despite me zipping along at exactly 6 mph over the speed limit all the way to my first location, I missed sunset and had to settle for some twilight shooting. I was a little bummed at first, until I realized that I was seeing zodiacal light (also known as false dusk, in the evening, and false dawn, in the morning) for the first time in my life. (You can read more on zodiacal light here.)
The night turned into a real score, as the clouds stayed away until dawn and the temperatures were actually quite pleasant. Terence Lee (check him out) showed up a couple hours later to enjoy what turned into a productive night of shooting.
You're probably already aware of this, but I do offer workshops and private instruction of my photography techniques. Check out my website for more info.
UPDATE: This photo ended up winning second place in The World at Night's (TWAN's) Earth and Sky photo contest, 2014. This is a huge honor, as I've been admiring the photos in this contest for years now, and the competition represents some of the very best landscape astrophotography being produced.
This is taken from almost the same viewpoint as my previous shot and is aimed just to the right of where that first shot was taken. As you can see, the wind farmers have taken over, and in a big way. These are nine of a planned fifty that will extend up through to Port Augusta and are mostly situated on land between the highway and the incredibly beautiful and scenic lower Flinders Ranges. As much as I love the idea of clean energy, I was a little sad to see them plonked right here in this more picturesque area.
From a technical viewpoint, these new turbines are impressive. Each one can generate over 4 megawatts. They stand a whopping 185 metres tall to the tip of the blade.
I have always tried to think of them as being tall and graceful, but I'll admit I was sad to see them right here when there is seemingly much more featureless land not too much farther north.
I have to say that when I started my way over to this location it really didn't look like there'd be any mist at all. Not only that, it was a featureless sky, by having never been here before I thought I'd go have a look anyway, ready for next time. Just shows that if you make the effort you never know what might turn up.
Caithness is grey, fairly flat, empty and featureless. Grey slate buildings, stone walls and dykes. And heavy leaden grey skies and seas too around it. But I loved it for its space and freedom. I didn't yearn for the bright lights and colour of the cities, but inevitably made my journey there when I left home. I didn't like it.
And I still don't like city life. I can't see the beauty and attraction of places like Salford Quays. it may have lots of coloured lights, , yet I see more beauty in the grey slate quarries of North Wales which I love. Perhaps my eyes formed differently so that I could see the imperceptible difference between shades of grey, and shapes and form in the colourless landscape, and subtle adjustments of light. I went to Salford Quays looking for contrast, for a change, to stretch my brain to think more broadly about the environment and landscape around us. But I didn't like it. And nor did Darcy either.
Nope, we turned round sooner than planned and decided our next outing would be back out in the wilds, where we can breathe and run freely, far from the madding crowds. And admire the beauty of grey.
Now a hunting and "gunning" club. There was more gunfire than I heard in Vietnam.
This is one way to mask the featureless skies of the last few weeks.
White Sands......it does what is says on the label. In this seemingly featureless photo you can see the air above White Sands has a glow(light reflected off the silica sands, as well as super fine dust blown into the air) and is brighter than the air to the right of the photo.
Straight out of the phone, no post shot tweakage here
Cliches are fine, but its always more rewarding to come away with something original.
When we arrived at the quarry conditions were at best bright overcast with a featureless sky. I decided to work without it for a few images and concentrate on strong fore and mid grounds.
- Zhuangzi.
When I first heard about the Red Bluff Overlook on the Buffalo National River, I immediately thought about the Horseshoe Bend near Page, Arizona. It looked like the same scene in opposite settings. While the horseshoe bend showcases the turn of the river in a desert setting, at the Red Bluff overlook, the lush green of the Ozark mountains takes centerstage.
While the view from the overlook was terrific, the small trail had a very steep decline and no structures to break a fall, nerve-wracking. Since I visited at the peak of the summer, there was a bit of foliage blocking a clear view of the overlook, combined with a grey featureless sky. I’d say not the best conditions. I hope to return her once, hopefully in the fall, and take full advantage of the beautiful view.
On or near the southern Texas/New Mexico border a few days ago (Valentine's Day-2021), off US Highway 62.
Not exactly a typical February day around these parts. Mind you, I'm presently around these parts to get AWAY from weather like this. The day before saw everything covered in hoar frost, and then this day came snow, which collected on the hoar frost (and everywhere else). The result was strikingly beautiful, though the conditions were far from perfect for photography. For one, it was 12 degrees and BLOWING 45 MPH! My hands froze within a minute of being outside my car (and the rest of my body wasn't liking it much either. Second, it was totally overcast, and third, there was an icy fog that made the sky a featureless white void and kept visibility to perhaps 600 meters. So, all in all, contrast was a real issue, or rather lack of same. Nonetheless, though I despise cold, it was fantastically beautiful. Everything looked as if it were made of crystal.
I can only imagine what this scene would have looked like if the sun had come out and the sky behind it were blue. That's me, always wanting more/better. :-) It was a privilege to be there at that time. Alas, for many Texans, they are not feeling so privileged. :-(
BTW--this isn't a weeping willow, but the weight of the frost and snow bending the branches down make it appear that way.
The ACEAP 2019 team first saw this lovely crescent moon with brilliant earthshine as we headed down from the ALMA technical building to the residencia for dinner. I rushed up to my room for my camera & tripod. I thought that I'd missed the moment, but I couldn't head home without an image of the Moon from a world upside down. Dust near the horizon dimmed the earthshine. The Moon sank behind a featureless flat topped ridge, instead of a nearby volcano...
Without my tracker, only one set of earthshine exposures was clear. The Atacama has wonderful contrast between the foothills of the Andes and flat desert. With the HDR image put together, it captured the flatness of the desert and color of the dust. This almost monochromatic image captures the moment; I can almost smell the dust. This rendering is lightened a bit to show well on phone screens, if you print the full resolution image you will probably want to adjust the exposure.
Sony a6300 with Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 shot at 5.6 with a 1.4x teleconverter. Crescent data exposed 1/50 sec at ISO 1600. 88 frames 1.5x drizzle stacked in Autostakkert 3. Earthshine and ridgeline data exposed 30 sec at ISO 200 with 5 images stacked. Final HDR composite and crop in photoshop.
Astrophotographers, get yourself to the Atacama in Chile. With no forests to burn, humidity of 3% and 0.3 arc second seeing, the Atacama is second only to the Antarctic and low earth orbit for imaging possibilities. Chile has warm welcoming people, great food, and lots to see and do when you are not looking up. Thanks again to AUI, the NSF, and their partners in giving me this opportunity. For more about this trip, more images, and press articles see: astronomy.robpettengill.org/ACEAP-2019.html or #ACEAP2019 on social media.
#ACEAP2019 #AstroAmbassadors #NSFfunded
Although a well-known presence in German poetry, in English the pug (German: Mops) is rather underappreciated, which is regrettable. German comedian and film director Loriot famously said: »A life without pug is possible, yet pointless.« Somewhat surprisingly, or so it seems, Loriot didn’t leave us any pug poetry – maybe because he was kept busy by his real-life pugs?
Poetry without pug, while maybe not utterly pointless, lacks a certain zest. The case in point is the German poem that started it all (the Ur-pug, so to say). It goes back to an anonymous ditty with roots in the 19th century that, however, only found its purpose and pug in the early parts of the 20th century, as earlier version do not feature a pug and instead tell us about the fate of a wholly featureless, vapid dog.
-> More, including Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, Ernst Jandl, etc., plus the poems and translations are available here:
martin-bartholmy.net/2022/12/03/the-position-of-the-pug-i...
Class 40 no. 40012, once of 'Aureol' fame but here with the nameplates removed, passes through Rotherham Masborough station and takes the route to Sheffield Midland with an unidentified express from the north.
Other than tweaking the colour balance a bit (the original slide has a slight blue cast), a slight sharpening, and 10 minutes of spot removal, I've more or less left it as is to try retain the authentic 1970s look. It's a full-frame scan with the mount used to provide the black frame.
Railway interest aside, what really appeals to me are the black and almost featureless terrace houses that have been darkened by years of airborne pollution from the foundries and forges that were so abundant in the area - the place might be called Rotherham but it was arguably closer to the epicentre of the Sheffield steel industry than a good deal of the city of Sheffield was.
Good to know this class 40 was one of those that made it through to the preservation scene and it currently resides on the Midland Railway at Butterley, happily in working order.
Sadly, that's more than can be said of the station where the platform surfaces are now mostly bare serving only as a reminder of what used to be here. The main station building found a new lease of life though - it's now an Indian restaurant called, rather appropriately, 'The Orient Express'. The new station, Rotherham Interchange, lies just over half-a-mile away to the north-east on what's effectively a large passing loop.
There have been changes in the area with new roads since this image was taken but, after studying the map, I believe the terrace houses lie on Clough Road.
Agfa CT18
16th September 1977
A Pacific golden plover that has been probing the mud and leaf litter for earthworms, perches contentedly one-legged on a bolder to survey the area for additional provisions. This beautiful migratory plover, or kōlea, defends and enjoys its winter territory on Oahu. Kōlea fly to the Hawaiian Islands after a five-month summer breeding season in arctic Alaska. The trip spans approximately 3,000 miles of open ocean requiring an exhaustive 3 to 4 days and nights of nonstop flight. Incredibly, some will continue their marathon semiannual migration to oceanic islands of the southern Pacific resulting in an annual round trip total of about 15,000 miles. Their fledglings set off from the tundra searching for an island and a suitable territory a month or two after the adults have departed. Many first-year birds probably miss landfall and perish at sea. Survivors are superb navigators with territorial fidelity, using the stars and the earth’s magnetic field to find their way over the featureless ocean to the same small patch of land every year. Like most transoceanic migratory birds, they may use the earth’s magnetic field visually with the magnetoreception molecules of cryptochrome in their retinae.
This was taken at the head of the woodhead reservoirs near the entrance to the woodhead tunnel. I can't say how many times I've passed this place and never taken a look and it's less than 30 mins from home.
It's an immensely green oasis of oak and bracken surrounded by some of the most bleak and featureless moors of this area. I was so excited to find this rocky stream (more to follow) and can't wait to go back.
A silhouette is a view of some object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouette usually being black. The word is an eponym named after Etienne de Silhouette, a finance minister of Louis XV who in 1759 imposed such harsh economic demands upon the French people that his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply. (ref: Wikipedia.com)
:: One by One view on black!
My :: MOST INTERESTING images according to Flickr!
If you hae a few minutes, a slideshow......... :: For your eyes only!
:: Solitary Silhouette , St-Barthélémy, Québec, Canada
Copyright © 2008 Gaëtan Bourque. All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal.
With an expansive migratory range, the wandering tattler lives up to its common name. ‘Ūlili, the Hawaiian name, resembles this shorebird’s alarm call. ‘Ūlili were considered messengers and scouts of Hawaiian deities. On tropical islands it prefers probing crevices and crannies on intertidal shorelines, exposed reefs, and mudflats for invertebrates. This one prefers a muddy bank amidst the mangrove thicket of a brackish pond near West Loch. A magnificent navigator, the tattler annually migrates between Alaska and Canada to tropical Pacific islands on a high endurance non-stop flight of 3 to 4 days and nights. Using the stars and the earth’s magnetic field, perhaps visually with magnetoreception molecules of cryptochrome in its retina, ‘ūlili find a route over thousands of miles of featureless open ocean. Tringa incana, non-breeding plumage.
We have had a milder than usual winter this year, perhaps because of a weak El Niño, and that has resulted in endless days of low-hanging, grey and featureless valley cloud. Once in a while, the clouds lift and reveal the spectacular, snow-covered peaks of the Rockies. These precious moments are all the more beautiful at sunset, when the alpenglow bathes mountains and clouds in breathtaking hues of apricot and pink.
The Steeples, Hughes Range, Rocky Mountains near Cranbrook, BC, Canada.
Plains-wanderer (male)
Pedionomus torquatus
Critically Endangered in Victoria & Australia
Winter 2020
Patho Plains of Victoria, Australia
Canon EOS 1D X Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens
Canon 600EX II-RT flash
One of Australia's rarest & most quirky birds - the Critically Endangered Plains-wanderer. These tiny birds measure only 15-19cm tall, with the male (pictured) being noticeably smaller than the female.
As their name might indicate, Plains-wanderer habitat is sparse native grasslands, located on the Northern plains of Victoria & the Riverina region of NSW. They are very particular about their environment, & with much of their original grasslands no longer suitable due to over-grazing, they are now only found in a few remote locations.
There's something very special about an encounter with these rare creatures. Wandering around in these seemingly endless & featureless paddocks, with only a headlamp for light, the search for these tiny birds can seem like a fool's endeavour. But when you finally catch a glimpse of one of them, the hours of searching are very quickly forgotten! Such an amazing experience.
Wow. Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments and faves. This shot made Explore for 13th, November, 2011. Highest Position 29. And it's my first Front Page!! Yay!
For Round 13 of 'Get Pushed' I was given a very wide brief (pun intended!) from the wonderfully talented Paarma, who said:
"So to hit you with a challenge with a bit of "Nordic" twist I suggest you a theme by the name of sense of space. Or negative space or even vast space! This could be anything you associate with the word, with people or without."
I did two, naturally: one with my friend trapped inside a huge Lastolite softbox and one with a small globe resting on a featureless surface. Both of them conjure up a feeling of being lost in space to me - or at least as close as I'm going to get in the time allowed!
Thanks so much for the great 'push.' It really got me thinking.
Nabend is a rather featureless outcrop of gritstone north of Longnor. A bit of snow, fog and sunlight helps somewhat!
Nabend is in Staffordshire, the River Dove, which divides Derbyshire and Stafforshire, runs through the fields in the bottom of this shot.
Final three posts from last Sunday
This lovely lady has a rather ravishing silhouette, don’t you think? Her delicate nose, elegant jawline, high cheekbones, and pouting lips make her profile a delight to view. In truth, this beauty is in fact an early Twentieth Century German half-doll whom I recently acquired from a curios shop. You might just be able to make out her painted hair in the shadows of her silhouette. The day I brought her home, I was playing around with her profile against one of my Art Deco lamps and came up with this as an image quite by chance, which rather took my fancy. I like the way her elegant features cast in gleaming white glazed porcelain catch just a little in the light, alluding to her beauty hidden within the shadows. I hope you like her ravishing silhouette as well.
The "half-doll" is a dainty porcelain or bisque figurine, fashionable in the early Twentieth Century with an upper body, head, arms, but no legs. These dolls were produced in the thousands at the height of their popularity by German factories such as Dressel and Kister, Heubach, Goebel and Kestner. Later they were produced in France, America and later still, in Japan. They commonly served as handles and toppers for fabric covers made for powder boxes on ladies’ dressing tables and small brushes, however they were also made for jewellery boxes, pincushions, tea cosies and other covers. In this case, my German half-doll is stylised with an Eighteenth Century powdered Marie Antoinette wig and bodice (not that you can really see these details in this particular image), so she would have been made for a lady’s boudoir and was most likely the topper for a jewellery box or powder bowl. She is of the larger variety and stands at three and a half inches in height and has been hand painted.
A silhouette is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouette is usually presented on a light background, usually white, or none at all. The silhouette differs from an outline, which depicts the edge of an object in a linear form, while a silhouette appears as a solid shape. Silhouette images may be created in any visual artistic medium, but were first used to describe pieces of cut paper, which were then stuck to a backing in a contrasting colour, and often framed. In the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries silhouettes, then known as “shades”, were at the peak of their popularity. The earliest professional silhouettists were portrait miniaturists, for whom the shade was a simple outline profile filled in with black paint. They were considered the poor man's portrait. Silhouettes represented a cheap but effective alternative to the portrait miniature, and skilled specialist artists could cut a high-quality bust portrait, by far the most common style, in a matter of minutes, working purely by eye. Other artists, especially from about 1790, drew an outline on paper, then painted it in, which could be equally quick. The word silhouette is derived from the name of Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister who, in 1759, was forced by France's credit crisis during the Seven Years' War to impose severe economic demands upon the French people, particularly the wealthy. Because of de Silhouette's austere economies, his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply and so with these outline portraits. Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a person's appearance.
Portrait of a Masai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchii) against a bright sky. This somewhat distorted POV happened when the large giraffe loomed over our safari vehicle against the featureless sky and swung its head back towards the camera, Mabula Private Game Reserve, Limpopo, South Africa. I liked the semi-silhouette against the very over-exposed sky.
12/08/2019 www.allenfotowild.com
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As another wonderful day of hiking and enjoying the outdoors, trails, colors, and waterfalls approached its end it was time to enjoy another famous feature of the Shenandoah National Park. All along Skyline Drive one can get beautiful distant views both to the east and west. That makes the park great for both early morning sunrise visits as well as late sunsets after other park activities ... #etbtsy
We pulled over to one of the many pullouts along Skyline Drive that offered a nice distant view as well as plenty of foreground colors. I thoroughly enjoyed the clouds and light that nature had in store this evening. Unlike a featureless blue sky would have the clouds and haze darkened the background, diffused the light, and created shafts of light illuminating the land below. All of that combined helped the colors stand out boldly, whether the yellow ...
It can't all be ancient mesas, sweeping curves and endless horizons.....
It's getting close to the middle of the day as One Rail Australia's containerised export iron ore service #9102, from Rankin Dam to Port Adelaide, negotiates some modest undulations in an otherwise featureless landscape. The train is approaching the Wirraminna crossing loop on the Trans Australia Railway (TAR), managed by Australian Rail Track Corportaion, which links Western Australia with the eastern states.
The train has originated off the Darwin rail line and joined the ARTC network at Tarcoola.
80D_2_4_3274
Bathed in the afternoon light, a fellow photographer checks out her Nikon camera settings while sitting on a hilltop on the University's golf course.
I was thumbing through some old images and came across this one. It wasn't a particularly interesting image although the path leading the eye into the scene certainly had potential. The sky was featureless which gave me the idea of experimenting to see how it would look as a high key image. Playing with the Google Nik Collection, I processed the image using the Color Efex Pro plugin in Photoshop. To obtain the high-key look, I added a white vignette and then an ink color.
The result is above, which had turned out better than I had anticipated. The fog-like white vignette and overall brightness reminds me that light is what makes our photography possible. As we learn about it and how it affects our subject matter, we can dramatically improve our photography efforts.
_MG_1990
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Therese, living in this dank darkness, in this dreary, depressing silence, would see life stretching in front of her, quite empty, bringing her each evening to the same cold bed and each morning to the same featureless day.
Therese Raquin
Emile Zola
This morning while I was eating my breakfast and doing my daily New York Times (just the mini - I don't have that much time in the mornings) crossword, Victor asked me "Why is there a full moon in the morning... and why is it in our backyard?"
Not unreasonable questions, I thought.
Intrigued, I took a look - lo and behold, a soon-to-be-setting moon was descending over my neighbour's trees, all lit up in a featureless blue sky.
So I ran upstairs to my office, grabbed my longest zoom lens, slapped it on the X-T3 and voilà: today's POTD, done and dusted.
For the photo nerds: This is almost a SOOC image; it's actually two focus stacked SOOC JPGs. One JPG focused on the moon, the other on the trees. Otherwise, there is zero manipulation to anything else (colour, contrast, etc.).
Prato della Valle
is a 90,000 square meter elliptical square in Padova, Italy (Veneto region, northern Italy). It is the largest square in Italy, and one of the largest in Europe. Today, the square is a large space with a green island at the center, l'Isola Memmia, surrounded by a small canal bordered by two rings of statues.
Prior to 1635, the area which would come to be known as the "Prato della valle" was largely a featureless expanse of partially swampy terrain just south of the old city walls of Padova. In 1636 a group of Venetian and Veneto notables financed the construction there of a temporary but lavishly appointed theater as a venue for mock battles on horseback. The musical entertainment which served as prologue to the jousting is considered to be the immediate predecessor of the first public opera performances in Venice which began the following year.
In 1767 the square, which belonged to the monks of Santa Giustina became the public property of the city of Padua. In 1775 Andrea Memmo, whose statue is in the square, decided to reclaim and restructure the entire area. The entire project, which was never fully completed, is represented in a famous copper engraving by Francesco Piranesi from 1785. It seems that Memmo had commissioned this and other representations and kept them on exhibition at the Palazzo Venezia, the headquarters of the Embassy of the Republic in Rome. He did this in order to entice other important figures into financing the construction of statues to decorate the square. The project was approved by Domenico Cerato, professor of architecture at Vicenza and Padova.
The preliminary excavations done to install the plumbing system and reclaim the area were directed by Simone Stratico. These excavations brought to light the remains of an ancient Roman theater. These findings conferred a sense of historical dignity to the initiative, and transformed it into a project of reclamation for its natural public use. Andrea Memmo resided at Palazzo Angeli, constructed in the 15th century and located in Prato della Valle at an angle with the avenue Umberto I. Today, the monumental palazzo, the property of the city of Padova, hosts the Museum of Precinema, Minici Zotti Collection.
Of particular interest are the benedictine Abbey of Santa Giustina, the neoclassical style Loggia Amulea, and the many interesting palazzi constructed between the 14th and the 18th centuries that surround the square.
For more informations:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prato_della_Valle
For the Place:
wikimapia.org/#lang=it&lat=45.398491&lon=11.87667...
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“It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera…
they are made with the eye, heart and head.”
[Henry Cartier Bresson]
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Please don't use any of my images on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission.
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www.alexandraparkmanchester.org/
The Park was opened to the public in1870 and was designed by Alexander Hennell. The design of the Park was experimental in its use of oval shaped and curved pathways, which contrasted with the more rigid geometry seen previously in Victorian landscapes. It is located between the vibrant communities of Whalley Range & Moss Side, just off Princess Road and covers 60 acres.
The website has been developed to provide a range of information about the facilities within the Park, the various Groups that have been set up by Park users and the events and sporting activity that regularly take place.
The park has recently been re-developed with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Manchester City Council, the Lawn Tennis Association, English Cricket Board and Sport England bringing the original landscape and community facilities back to life.
Restoration Overview
£5 million has been invested in Alexandra Park to restore this beautiful community asset. The funding is provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Manchester City Council, Sport England, the English Cricket Board and the Lawn Tennis Association and has paid for improvements to the park landscape, buildings and sporting facilities. These improvements include:
Buildings
Chorlton Lodge has been restored to provide a useable community space downstairs and office space upstairs.
The Pavilion has been restored and extended on both ends to provide changing rooms for the cricket pitch, public toilets, a larger flexible community space and a community cafe.
Half of the depot buildings have been demolished to open up views into the park; the remaining buildings have been renovated including a room for community use. The current changing rooms in the depot have been renovated to serve the tennis courts and football field.
Sports facilities
There are now four new tennis courts which provide a mixture of community use, club use and coached sessions.
A new cricket field and an artificial pitch has been built on the southern oval in front of the pavilion.
Landscaping
The raised planters at the on the Demesne Road side of the park has been repaired and re planted along with the reintroduction of the flower garden near the pavilion.
The raised terrace area that runs alongside the Claremont Road boundary has had additional trees planted along the fence line and large formal flower beds running alongside the paths.
Trees has been planted around both ovals where there are currently gaps.
Footpaths have been replaced or repaired where necessary.
Street furniture such as benches and bins have been replaced.
The drainage across the park has been improved.
The drinking fountain and the flagstaff has been restored to their original design.
Park History
Alexandra Park is one of Manchester’s earliest and most intact Victorian Parks. In 1995 the park was listed Grade 2 on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens.
The 60 acre site for the Park was bought by Manchester Corporation and laid out between 1868 and 1870. The design was the subject of an architect’s competition which was won by Alexander Gordon Hennell of Chancery Lane, London.
Hennell’s winning design was ahead of its time integrating the provision of traditional ornamental features and sporting facilities, something we take for granted in parks today. The design exploited the flat and featureless site by creating a series of broad sweeping and curved footpaths, perfect for the Victorian fashion of park promenading, whilst defining the oval activity areas.
The heritage forum are a friendly volunteer group who are interested in the history of the park and the local area. If you want to get involved with research, planning and putting on events and bringing history to life in the park get in touch.
Here’s a shot from the Eastern Sierra Death Valley Experience Outing that I lead last month in March. There wasn’t much for clouds that morning Mono Lake just a few on the horizon so I used a mid range lens to fill the frame with what I found interesting. It was a weekday but there was still quite a few people on the shoreline so we were mainly shooting into the water to avoid the crowd. Some people might consider a lack of clouds or shooting crowded place a bad idea but you can always make something out of it and have a great time while photographing.
You might be surprised at many landscape photographers need clouds or will not take a shot. I’ve seen some throw fits, throw things and curse at the sky. Being from Southern California, I do not mind it one bit and am very used to it. You don’t need the sky, you can just minimize interesting subjects in the scene you are photographing. It’s best to take advantage of time out there and excercise your eye. In the shot here the colorful band on the horizon is interesting but it merely just background decoration that's why a featureless sky makes composing the scene so much more important.
During post processing I desaturated the cyans along with a few other color during the process to match my taste. This kept the color managed to avoid a garished look and feel. I also had to make adjustments for the polarization in certain parts of the image. It’s a single exposure since there was enough information on the histogram.
©This photograph is copyrighted and is not permitted for free use.
• You never see the same thing twice! Except Halley's comet if you're lucky.
• Always keep a master file before adding blur, glow, orton, type of techniques.
• Don't let your viewfinder or lcd limit how you see! We don't walk around in 2x3 vision.
Jupiter, Io, and Ganymede, shot from my backyard in Long Beach, CA. Ganymede is the larger moon above Io in this image.
Seeing was a bit unstable for this, and it took quite a bit of work to get the moons to look even this good. I couldn't manage any details on them, though.
30 s SER files were taken with a ZWO ASI120MM camera through Optolong CCD RGB filters on a Celestron Edge HD 925 telescope using FireCapture. The top 70% of frames went into 6 stacks of red and green images and 5 stacks of blue images. These stacks were made in AutoStakkert, then sharpened in PixInsight. Stacks were combined and derotated in WinJUPOS, and the resulting R, G, and B images were combined in WinJUPOS to make a de-rotated single color image. Color balancing in Registax, then final touches in Photoshop.
Autostakkert didn't seem to pick up Ganymede in these images, thus rendering it featureless.
CM longitudes:
System I: 332.6°
System II: 96.2°
System III: 21.6°
This appears to be a very wide bolt. It was about a mile away. I got inside after this one...!! When lightning arrives, the "fact" is the storm is present also. C.S. Lewis said this: "God is basic Fact or Actuality, the source of all other facthood. At all costs therefore He must not be thought of as a featureless generality. If He exists at all, He is the most concrete thing there is, the most individual, ‘organised and minutely articulated.’ He is unspeakable not by being indefinite but by being too definite for the unavoidable vagueness of language."—C.S. Lewis, Miracles
Curiously, these feature rich eroded ancient mudflats are hidden within a virtually featureless landscape, you don't see them until you are on top of them
This is the 1,300th railway picture I have scanned from Peter Shoesmith's legacy to John Whitehouse & myself. It is only fitting that the scene should be of Kings Norton station, a picture taken in Peter's style, not just a typical steam picture but one that includes much ephemeral detail.
The picture was taken in March 1963, 45667 'Jellicoe' has a 'C' headlamp code, express parcels. One of the enginemen is looking out of the cab as the train speeds through the station, on the platform a lady in a headscarf looks at the papers and magazines for sale at the book stall, her other half is more interested in the train! The door of the kiosk is open and the lad behind the counter selling newspapers is visible.
The station is still gas lit, a lamp is to the left of the telegraph pole, the fine glazed canopies are in place, this being the end of the vicious 1963 winter those canopies were probably very welcome. The day looks cold and grey, the loco exhaust stands out even agaainst that featureless sky, March is a grey month.
45667 was built at Crewe works, a Stanier Jubilee class loco, it entered service 25/11/1935. Jellicoe was withdrawn 04/01/1964 and scrapped in May 1965.
Peter Shoesmith 23/03/1963
Copyright Geoff Dowling & John Whitehouse: All rights reserved