Its power enhanced by a flathead V-8 engine, this beautifully restored Model 8N With a road grader attachment was on parade at the 2016 California Antique Farm Equipment Show in Tulare, California.

A. Fuji S5 body #1 with battery pack

B. Nikon 35-70mm f/2.8 lens (later replaced by 28-70mm f/2.8)

C. Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 lens

D. Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens

E. Space reserved for teleconverter or a prime macro lens (such as Nikon 55mm f/3.5 or Nikon 105mm f/2.8) or a fast prime lens (such as a Nikon 24mm f/2, Nikon 35mm f/1.4, Nikon 50mm f/1.4, or 85mm f/1.8).

F. Fuji S5 body #2 with battery pack

G. Nikon 20-35mm f/2.8 lens

Items stored in an outside pocket of the 400 AW Lowepro backpack:

White balance tool

White balance instructions on 3x5 index card

Remote camera trigger

Spirit leveler

Extra camera batteries

Extra CompactFlash memory cards

One or two S5 battery chargers when needed

Speed lights, light stands, umbrellas, tripod or monopod, remote speed light triggers and receivers, and extra batteries for speed lights are carried separately.

Vanitas Symbolism (October 31, 2019)

A vanitas still-life painting or photograph represents an old genre that goes back at least to the 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painters (with some notable contributions as well from the Spanish). It’s moralistic through and through, its message deriving ultimately from passages in the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments, stressing the fragility and impermanence of life and life’s pleasures both intellectual, cultural, hedonistic, and artistic. From the Hebrew Bible: “Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher; all is vanity” (12: 8). From the Gospel of Matthew: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (6: 19-20). I hasten to add that I am not a religious person—but I find the vanitas genre fascinating and I already have a few vanitas photos in this gallery. Here, I tried to represent as many vanitas symbols as I could. What follows, for those academically inclined, is a brief explanation of the 5 categories covering the typical icons.

Category 1: Items representing hedonistic indulgence

- musical instruments: the gold clock behind shows a woman playing a lute. Also representing music, of course, is the sheet music, bottom right (Beethoven’s Für Elise).

- alcohol and wine goblets: I omitted the decanters this time but have a beautiful wine goblet shipped from the UK—it is, in fact, a hand-blown replica of a goblet often seen in the hands of the wicked Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones. (It was hand-made in the Czech Republic for the Merchant Venturers.) It’s about half empty, which symbolizes how quickly life’s pleasures disappear (see also Category 2).

- food: the lemon to the left of the goblet. The lemon is understood to be beautiful to the sight and smell but bitter, just like life can be.

- objects of art: paintings, busts, statues, and the like. Here we have a bust of the Greek poet Homer and behind him a small replica of a statue sculpted by Michelangelo in 1533 for the Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici. As well, at the left, middle, we have a paint brush leaning against an obvious symbol of art, a paint palette.

- jewelry: we have some gold rings about in the middle of the photo just in front of the long knife. We also have what appears to be a heart-shaped blue diamond and, yes, it’s a replica of the Heart of the Ocean, the famous stone in the movie Titanic and which I purchased for my wife (“she who must be obeyed”) at the Titanic exhibit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, when we were there a few years ago. It’s hanging just below the blue butterfly in the case.

- perfume: we have two small bottles in front of the sheet music

- items of revelry or sinful living are represented here by the hookah beside the helmet, as well as the dice and playing cards. Four of the five cards have an added, more modern, symbolic significance: two black aces and two black 8s comprise the famous Dead Man’s Hand, allegedly held by American gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot down while playing poker. (This idea was suggested by my dA friend David—“Okavanga.”) The red mask with feathers—I can’t pretend to have seen one in a classic vanitas painting—was my idea as another symbol of revelry and reminds me of Poe’s story “The Masque of the Red Death,” which is a vanitas painting in prose.

- expensive items (“conspicuous consumption”) are represented here by the exotic red rug. It’s a prized possession of mine all the way from Turkey.

- seashells (two in the picture) are exotic and hard to acquire

- a terrestrial globe, such as we see on the far right, is a meta-symbol of the world’s wealth and vanity (and is made, in this case, of semi-precious stones)

- portraits sometimes appear in vanitas paintings—paintings within a painting! Of course, a portrait is perhaps the most obvious indicator of vanity but if the picture is of a beautiful man or woman, we get the added meaning of beauty as transient. Here I have a photo—yes, a selfie—of my beautiful wife (who’ll kill me when she finds out I included a photo of her in a vanitas picture).

Category 2: Items representing life’s transitory nature and the decay of all earthly things

- music and instruments, while Cat. 1, also belong to Cat. 2 because music is transitory

- coins, as represented here by the gold pieces flowing out of the (barely visible) black pouch, are also transitory, never staying with us but moving from hand to hand

- bubbles, smoke, candles, butterflies: flame from candles eventually expires, as do we; its smoke recalls Psalm 102:3: “For my days are consumed like smoke.” Note that one of the two pewter candlesticks is overturned, again suggesting the fragility of life. Bubbles, like life itself, are short-lived, fragile and easily broken; butterflies are beautiful but fragile and easily killed—as dramatized by the case with several colourful butterflies pinned under glass.

- flowers symbolize beauty and so might belong to Cat. 1 but they are short-lived and soon wilt and die. The Book of Job may have provided the inspiration: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days. . . . He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down” (14: 1-2). In fact, I headed to the backyard during a heavy rain storm to bring in a few of these impatiens, almost dead from the cold of a late October.

- clocks, watches, hour-glasses are centrally significant because they measure and record time passing: with every second, we move closer to death. Here we have three kinds of time pieces: an hourglass, a normal clock, and a little pocket watch in front of the books. This photo is a 30-second time-exposure: you can actually see the sliver of sand running from the top to the bottom of the sand-clock.

- the skull is the central symbol in a vanitas illustration, symbolizing our inescapable death and decay. We’s all gonna die!

Category 3: Items representing human achievement and culture

- books, for instance, represent the delights of reading. They also contain human knowledge but it’s only of this world, typically, and won’t endure. (Note that one of the books—the one on which sits the skull—is a collection of Poe’s works: he illustrates vanitas themes in “The Masque of the Red Death” and a few other tales.)

- weapons and armor are products of human culture as well (military culture), but even these can’t protect us from death. The knight’s helmet on the far left is here to remind us of that grim truth. Death is a great leveler: even the wealthiest and most powerful among us will come to the same end as the poorest and weakest. The long knife below the helmet, along with its scabbard, serve the same symbolic function. (Thanks to my buddy Bill for lending me these weapons. They go nicely with the helmet!) Note how both knife and scabbard are pointing to the skull on the far right, sitting by itself, biding its time.

Not only do the knife and scabbard work, visually, as leading lines but the entire composition is designed to slant from the top left of the photo to the bottom right. Visually, we’re led inexorably to the skull, to death.

Category 4: Items representing the permanent in the Christian context

- religious icons such as crucifixes, rosaries, angels, saints, certain types of flora (carnations, ivy, wheat, laurel): these remind us of or symbolize life after death—in other words, what’s truly important in the Christian context, as illustrated by a line from the Gospel of Matthew: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (6:19-20). Life in Heaven is eternal as opposed to the transient pleasures of Earth, which we should scorn. I have none of these symbols here because I don’t swing that way, baby. Not all vanitas paintings, even the classic ones, contain religious images.

Category 5: Written messages to clarify the moralistic meaning of the illustration

- for those viewers who can’t figure it out on their own, some painters provide messages, typically in Latin, explaining it all with well-known epigrams or quotes from the Bible. I have provided perhaps the most famous: Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas. “Vanity of vanity, all is vanity.”

The dark backdrop, as typically seen in classic vanitas illustrations, reinforces the somber mood and meaning of the scene. Here the left of the backdrop is more brightly lit than the far right side, where the final symbol, the skull, sits in relative darkness.

“The room itself is in messy disorder. On the table is a dish of fruit, which is real but appears artificial. Around it are grouped an ominous assortment of decanters, glasses, and heaped ash-trays, the latter still raising wavy smoke-ladders into the stale air—the effect on the whole needing but a skull to resemble that venerable chromo, once a fixture in every ‘den,’ which presents the appendages to the life of pleasure with delightful and awe-inspiring sentiment.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned)

It's amazing how much info can be derived from this Photo:

Flying at 110mph (good cross-country climb)

Straight and balanced

Climbing through 4300' at 150 foot per minute

Heading 060

Broadcasting on TIBA with Stellenbosch frequency ready

Squawking 2000

Mixture fully Rich

Less than 1/2 throttle

Carb Heat off (cold)

2400 rpm

15Gal in Right fuel tank, 20 in Left (yeah, right!)

Fuel Pressure slightly low, but still acceptable

Oil Temp and pressure in the green

Savour this delicious illustration by Miss May Rivers digitally enhanced from our own vintage edition of The Fruit Grower's Guide by John Wright (1891).

Free download under CC Attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit the artist and rawpixel.com.

Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/50751/fruit-growers-guide

Date and Time of capture: 4/8/2024 from about 2 to about 5 pm EDT.

Location: Washington D.C.

Gear: Seestar S50 "smart telescope" equipped with a Seestar-supplied solar filter. Cavix LP-64 camera leveler interposed between the Seestar and a tripod.

This single panel view shows a chronological sequence of some of the eclipsed images from my still shots of the partial solar eclipse of 8 April 2024 from Washington DC.

The original still images were edited in Adobe Lightroom Classic (LR) as follows:

Applied the same 1:1 aspect ratio crop to the selected images.

After masking the background, I pushed the Blacks slider in LR's Basic Panel all the way to the left (i.e. -100) to get the same black background for each image.

Finally, using LR's Print module I created a chronological arrangement of the above edited images.

"Lucky Strike, France, June 17, 1945 - The Company led by Lt. Carty, waits their turn for mess."

From www.skylighters.org/special/cigcamps/cmplstrk.html

Camp Lucky Strike was situated in the town of Saint-Sylvian, 5 kilometers from Saint-Valery-en Caux. Its location was not selected by chance, but rather because the occupying German troops had constructed an airfield there in 1940 with a landing strip 1800 meters long and 50 meters wide. This airfield was one of the defensive elements of the Atlantic Wall: surveillance and coastal defenses were also a perfect starting point for attacks on southwest England. V-1 rocket launching ramps were installed at the beginning of 1944 in the woods surrounding the airfield. It was heavily bombed by the British throughout the war, but especially during the fighting which followed the June 1944 landings. In September 1944 American Engineer Corps troops took control of the area, repairing the landing strips and constructing the camp.

The camp became the most important military camp in Europe. It extended over 600 hectares (1 hectare = approximately 2 ½ acres). It was a mandatory port of entry for practically every American soldier, and 1½ million spent from a couple days up to 18 months there. It was the principal camp used for repatriated soldiers and liberated POWs, but also as a reception station for soldiers on leave. It was also a staging area for the Pacific Theater and — until August 10, 1945 — for the invasion of Japan. There were 100,000 men in the camp each day — 100,000 men to lodge, feed, train, and entertain. (Regarding repatriation, there were 6,000 daily departures by plane or boat from Le Havre, the only port liberated on the western coast that could accommodate large ships.)

The camp, where the 89th Infantry Division managed the reception of troops, was a veritable American city for 18 months. Life was therefore rhythmical with this enormous hub of military personnel, short stopover for some, several months for others. One could find, like in any American city, a hospital, church, movie theater, post office, police station, barber shop, and a supermarket. There were also concerts and shows with famous celebrities (Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney, among others). And around the camp, there were the usual prostitutes and easy access to the local black market.

The first American troops arrived around Christmas 1944. They consisted of engineer units composed in large part of black soldiers. The local population discovered with much amazement the equipment used by the Americans (Harley Davidson motorcycles, Jeeps, Dodges, bulldozers, levelers, GMC trucks, etc.). It was impressive to see such machinery that up to this point was unknown in France. A large part of the landscape was covered in a blanket of cobblestone measuring 30 centimeters in thickness. The cobblestone was brought ashore from the beaches of Veulettes by the sea, St. Valery-en-Caux, and also Veules les Roses. GMC trucks assured an uninterrupted shuttle between the beaches and the plateau that was covered by thousands of tents.

The bomb craters on the German airstrip were repaired with cement. This airstrip became the principal boulevard of a virtual tent city. Sometimes, the traffic on the airstrip was interrupted to allow airplanes to land. One had to worry less about the police than about the trucks, tanks, bulldozers, Chryslers, Cadillacs, or Jeeps! The traffic was as bad as in New York and controlled apparently, like they do there. It was also very dangerous to those pedestrians that would risk crossing the street without paying attention to traffic signals. They would be flattened like a pancake.

The city was divided into four sections: A, B, C, and D. Each section was made up of 2,900 tents under which were housed 14,500 men. These virtual neighborhoods even had public parks, and in certain places, statues of pretty women. The Red Cross also had offices in the neighborhoods: nurses and girls who would serve hot coffee, cake, and newspapers day and night. A little further down were the bars: one for officers; another for NCOs and soldiers. One could drink everything they used to in pre-war France: the best liqueurs, good champagne, cognacs, and water of life (aqua vita), as well as Coca-Cola, whiskey, gin, and American beer. The bars were only open from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., which was not enough time to satisfy the customers. Each sector aslo had its own auditorium, which served as a theater, cinema, and chapel all in one.

More permanent structures with ceilings, floors, and direct lighting began to appear. There was a PX and several gift shops. The PX carried everything — one could find handkerchiefs, electric razors, chocolates, condoms, cigarettes, cigars, toothbrushes, lighters, watches, and knives. In the gift shops GIs could find items from Paris which they usually sent to their mothers, wives, and girlfriends such as perfume, scarves, lace, and jewelry. In each section of the camp there was also a hospital, shot clinic, and, just about everywhere, VD clinics. Condoms were available everywhere and the soldiers really needed them, since the camp was assaulted, day and night, by an army of women! They came from everywhere: Paris, Dijon, and Marseilles. The MPs worked hard. In 15 days during the summer of 1945 more than 300 arrests were made.

As for medical care, aside from the hospital there was a dental clinic in each section. In each clinic there were ten dentists!

The heart of the post was situated near the Janville Chateau and not far from there was a small factory which produced 200 liters of ice cream per day.

A military tribunal was located in the Chateau and was presided over by a Colonel. And very near that, behind the bars, was a prison composed of a tent without heat and the guard shack. Each sector had a repair shop with thousands of repair parts and a gas station which received fuel from the harbor via tanker trucks carrying millions of liters. The lifeline of the city was assured by an administration housed in the Anglesqueville Chateau in the city of St. Sylvain. Potable water was pumped from the Durdent River, after which it was sterilized and carried by pipeline into the camp.

The winter of 1944-1945 was very cold, and, at first, the organization of the camp was poor. The quality of the food left a lot to be desired. Soldiers came from faraway America and were greeted as liberators (which they were) by the locals who gave them bread and accepted them in their homes for warmth. The soldiers ate jams and jellies almost exclusively and often demanded onions (which they ate raw) to avoid scurvy. Afterwards, things began to change. Provisions arrived in abundance from the United States and the locals discovered the riches of the U.S. Army (chocolate, tobacco, cigarettes, blankets, shoes, clothing, soap, etc., everything that had become scarce during the German occupation). The American soldiers' uniforms (which were very informal, with rank insignia hardly apparent on the officers) shocked the locals, along with their weapons, notably the M-1 carbine. Relations with the local population were very limited due to the language barrier, but it was very good with the French civilian workers employed in the camp. The living conditions in the camp were very hard for the GIs, especially because of the cold, but it was infinitely more comfortable than for the French civilian population, who lacked everything, particularly food, medicine, and clothing. There was a certain feeling of bitterness on the part of the population due to the wastefulness of certain goods by the GIs.

U.S. soldiers bound for the camp landed at Le Havre (which was taken on September 12, 1944 by the British after an intense bombardment which destroyed 85% of the city — 12,000 tons of bombs were dropped in 12 days, with a large number of victims in the civilian population) and were carried to Camp Lucky Strike by trucks and trains to the station at St. Valery-en-Caux.ST VALERY EN CAUX STATION A terrible train accident occurred there on the morning of January 17, 1945. The train's brakes failed and the locomotive hit the station (see photo at left). The cars derailed one after another and 53 GIs were killed and over 200 injured. Very few spoke of the accident in 1945, because Army Headquarters did not want this bad news to fall into the hands of the German army, even if the end of the war was near. The incident is still vivid in the memory of the local inhabitants, and a plaque telling of the accident is mounted on the front of the station, which can be viewed today.

Camp Lucky Strike was a transit camp where troops never stayed very long. After several days of rest, the GIs moved out for the front. Others came back, but not with the same names… German and Italian prisoners of war who were also interned there. Some of these prisoners were used as truck drivers.

A large parade, which the local population was invited to, took place on the airstrip on July 14, 1945. The parade was greatly appreciated. After the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, the camp was used for the return of troops to the United States. Before their departure, the soldiers were given new uniforms and their old ones were burned or buried. Likewise, other worn-out equipment was either burned or buried.

Camp Lucky Strike was also made up of several satellite camps in the neighboring countryside. The civilian buildings housed various army offices (MP, administration, etc.). It was as though the region had become a small part of America. The troop movements were numerous and the contacts with the soldiers remained mostly superficial. The soldiers' units did not concern the locals. They were more concerned with their names and addresses. Sometimes photographs were exchanged, but the relationships, which grew during this period, have faded with time. Towards the end of the demilitarization period little of the camp remained, except for some German prisoner barracks, which housed some 1,500 prisoners and 50 guards. The guards did not actually guard anything and kept busy with other work. The prisoners were free to come and go as they pleased. (There was either no guard or if there was one he was German!)

Tanker trucks were at their disposition. They came and went in all directions — Lee Havre or Rouen. They also delivered wood, blankets, shirts, shoes, and cigarettes (and pistols!). The headquarters of the black market, open all the time, was situated on the coast of Janville, not far from the small Chapel of the Virgin, designated an historical monument.

Camp Lucky Strike remained active until the end of 1945, and was officially closed in 1946. After its closure, it was necessary to clear the countryside and remove the cobblestone in order to return the fields to the farmers. This work was done by hand by numerous workers and lasted over a year. The French did not possess the same enormous mechanical means that the United States Army did. The cobblestone that was reclaimed was returned to the beaches and also served to fill in the many holes and trenches made by the German troops during occupation. Thousands of cubic meters were also used to construct the Cany-Barville Stadium (Cany-Barville, with a population of 3,500, is located four kilometers south of the site of Lucky Strike).

With the completion of the clearing of the camp proper, a section of terrain approximately 150 meters wide, which comprised the old landing strip, was handed over to a French aeronautical association, who put on an air exposition every two or three between 1946 and 1995. This airfield, along with its buildings, was named the St. Valery-Vitte Fleur Airport and covered a little more than 35 hectares. Closed in 1995 due to old age, the only thing that remains of the airfield is the guard shack that was at the entrance of the original camp at the intersection of the roads leading toward St. Valery-en-Coax and Cany-Barville.

Substantial traces of what was once the most important Allied military camp in Europe during WW II no longer exists, except perhaps in the memories of a few hundred thousand surviving American veterans and as footnotes in a few history books.

On Thursday March 22, 2018, my Railfan Friend Jim and I visited Kirby Farm in Williston, Florida to witness the beginning of a Place for Critically ILL and Disadvantage Children. - Kirby Family Farms is Focused on Railroad and Agricultural History !

Kirby Family Farm will not open officially open for at least a full year, since there is much work to be done. They have assembled a great number of discarded Carnival Rides, Narrow Gauge Locomotives, 18 Ringling Brothers Circus (Passenger) Cars, a few Circus Wagons, a former USAF End Cab Switcher and various Surplus Trucks donated by US Government Agencies. Some of the former Steam Locomotives have been converted to Diesel-Mechanical and were formerly used by various Theme Parks such as OpryLand and Bush Gardens Williamsburg.

This photograph shows a two former Military Vehicles, that Daryl Kirby acquired for his new enterprise. The ride folds up for storage if it needs to be moved to another location. There are other Rides and Attractions in the background.

Daryl was very cordial with us, allowing us to roam freely taking photographs. We spoke with him and his employees about the monumental amount of worked to achieve an grand opening in 2019. He has acquired many discarded carnival rides through donations and purchases and he needs Volunteers.

The Kirby Family Farm has hosted "6 Gun Territory Re-Enactments" during through the 1960's. aka: "Six Gun Territory" featuring Sam Huston. They also feature Christmas and Easter Celebrations and Fund Raisers. He is looking for Volunteers and additional acquisitions.

The Kirby family Farm is located at: 19650 Northeast 30th Street, Williston, Florida 32696. They can be reached at 352-812-7435.

The Kirby Family Farm Website is at: kirbyfarm.com

Big thanks to my buddy Rob O for stitching these two shots to make this one. I did not have my Nodal Ninja and EZ Leveler...used my geared head and the nodal point was off. He is a PS master!!!

Captured with the Fujifilm X-T2 and Fujinon XF14MMF2.8R

Explored Jul 21, 2012 #414

120 degree panorama of Casa Loma, Toronto, Canada.

Casa Loma, located in midtown Toronto, was originally a residence for millionaire financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt. However, Sir Henry lost his fortune - and Casa Loma - during the depression after World War I. Since then, the Gothic Revival castle has served as a luxury hotel and nightclub during prohibition, a top-secret World War II military research lab, and since then, as a museum operated by the Kiwanis Club.

Casa Loma has been used for many movies. Most recently, as the interior of Dr. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-Men films. Watch the movies and you'll see Casa Loma in all the hallway scenes, Dr. Xavier's study, the conservatory where mutant children learn to channel their skills, and the old stables, where Cyclops keeps his bike.

The building was also in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers and doubled as Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Image details:

Camera: Fujifilm X10

Panorama gear: Nodal Ninja 5 panorama head, EZ Leveler II, Manfrotto 055MF4 Carbon Fiber tripod

Focal length: 7.1mm

Exposure: M4:3, A, ISO100, 1/90th, F/9, nine vertical JPG exposures

Processing: Microsoft Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) panorama software, Photoshop CS3 (color correction, cropping)

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

■ Please don't use my images for any purpose, including on websites or blogs, without my explicit permission.

■ S.V.P ne pas utiliser cette photo sur un site web, blog ou tout autre média sans ma permission explicite.

© Tom Freda / All rights reserved - Tous droits réservés

Website I Flickriver I 500px l Twitter l Facebook

Perishable delivery waiting to be unlaoded and distributed to the different departments. The orange divider separates the refrigerated section from the frozen.

"They look with respect and long remember", said Superior, and you "insure that respect with a brilliantly-styled Superior Side Service Coach". They further proclaimed the "silent flawless magic of the Super-Matic Table, the practical efficiency of the Lev-L-Matic leveler", along with "the dramatic beauty of your Superior Coach".

ICCD 2019

Zorki-1e, Industar-22 50/3.5, Ilford Delta 100

Lost among the road levelers.

I've been meaning to post a shot of this for a while, and finally got around to it this evening.

This is my dedicated panoramic tripod. If I plan to take panoramas, I lug this baby around with me in addition to my main pistol grip carbon fiber tripod.

I still have my Nodal Ninja 3, and it is configured to shoot with my XTi and 10-22mm lens, but it can't handle the weight of the 5dmkii.

This is configured to hold the 5DMkii with the battery grip, on a Manfrotto quick release plate.

The new EZ Leveler is great. With the two sets of knobs you can lock the head level and eliminate any residual flex. With the previos version of the EZ Leveler there was always a little bit of play in the head, which made it difficult to get perfectly consistant alignment between images.

The RD16 head makes it a snap to change the horizonal rotation, or lock rotation. However, if you are like me and really only use the head in a single configuration that may not be terribly important to you.

Modern truck loading bay with overhead door, dock leveler, dock seals, canopy, indicator lights.

Shot on location as part of the architectural series in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Post-processing done in Capture One 20.

Camera: CONTAX 645

Lens: Zeiss Distagon T* 3,5/35

Back: Phase One P45+

Head: Arca-Swiss Core Leveler 75

Tripod: Gitzo GT3532LS

Filter: LEE Landscape Polariser

~ Gear Stuff ~

Camera: Contax 645AF + MP-1 + MAM-1

Lens: Hasselblad C Sonnar 5,6/250 Superachromat

Tripod: Gitzo GT3532LS + Arca-Swiss Core Leveler 75

~ Strobist Stuff ~

Manfrotto C-Stand 30

Broncolor Siros 400 S

Broncolor BeautyBox 65 + Grid

Broncolor RFS 2.1

Hanwell Nouveau Brunswick, octobre 2013.

hanwell New Brunswick, October 2013.

Date and Time of capture: 3/25/2024 at about 10:34 pm EDT

Location: Washington D.C.

Gear: Seestar S50 "smart telescope" with a Cavix LP-64 camera leveler interposed between the Seestar and a tripod.

Processing details:

Using the Seestar I captured 09:11 mins of raw avi lunar video. This equates to 5970 frames.

Rather than stack the above frames using an option provided within the Seestar app, I loaded the above into AutoStakkert! 4.0.11 and processed the video as follows.

(Note that AutoStakkert has multiple stacking options among which is the choice of which frames to stack based on their quality. This is a very useful feature that I did not find in the Seestar app.)

1st step: Under Image Stabilization I selected Surface, Improved Tracking, Crop. Under Quality Estimator I selected Automatic which defaults me to local (AP). AP = Alignment Point. Under Analyse I selected Double Stacking Reference.

2nd step: Initiated Analyse. Upon completion I checked the quality of frames in the Quality Graph from which I decided to stack the top 35.5% i.e. 2119 frames out of the original total of 5970 frames. I then selected an AP size of 168 and an AP minimum brightness of 45. This generated 63 APs.

3rd step: Placed an AP Grid on the surface from which I saw that the above 63 APs fully covered the image surface. Selected Replace and Multi-Scale options.

Under Stack Options I chose TIF for file format and sharpen with 85% for Blend Raw. This will generate a TIF file which is only slightly sharpened due to a blend of largely (85%) unsharpened stacked image and a small amount (15%) of sharpened stacked image. This choice is quite subjective and was made after some experimentation. It opens up the option of applying if desired more sharpening downstream in postprocess.

4th step: Initiated stacking and obtained a TIF output file.

5th step: Imported the stacked output file into Lightroom and postprocessed it as follows:

* Cropped to 1:1 aspect ratio.

* Applied Preset Pop and increased its amount to 110 (default is 100).

* Applied Mask 1. Chose Contrast 14 and Blacks -4.

* Applied Mask 2. Selected Temperature -5 and Tint -20. This is to deal with the somewhat yucky color cast in the AutoStakkert image.

* Applied Mask 3. Selected Clarity 3 and Dehaze 3.

* Applied mask 4. Chose a Sharpness of 70.

(Note that using multiple masks helps me to evaluate the individual effect of different settings and decide how much of which setting is appropriate.)

Exported the Lightroom output as my "final" image.

Á Bao A Qu - A creature that lives on the staircase of the Tower of Victory in Chittor. It may only move when a traveler climbs the staircase, and it follows close at the person's heels. Its form becomes more complete the closer it gets to the terrace at the tower's top. It can only achieve this ultimate form if the traveler has obtained Nirvana, otherwise it finds itself unable to continue.

Abtu and Anet - Two identical fish that, according to Egyptian legend, swam in front of the prow of the sun god's ship on the lookout for danger.

The Alicanto - A mine shaft dwelling bird that feeds upon gold. It is pursued by miners.

The Amphisbaena - A two-headed snake, with one head being where its tail would normally be. It is venomous and, if chopped in half, its two parts can reunite.

An Animal Imagined by Kafka - A kangaroo-like animal with a flat, human-like face and a very long tail.

Singing Beast Imagined by C. S. Lewis - An animal that sits upon its haunches like a dog, but appears more like a horse. Its toes are camel-like, and, unable to produce its own milk, it raises its young by weaning them on the milk of other animals. It has an entrancing call that sounds almost like a glorious song. (from Perelandra)

An Animal Imagined by Poe - A small, flat animal with pure white fur and bright red claws and teeth. Its head is feline, except for its canine-like ears.

Animals in the Form of Spheres - At the time of its writing, some believed that planets and stars were actually living beings, and that the movement of the heavenly bodies was voluntary.

Antelopes with Six Legs - According to Siberian myth, these six-legged antelopes were far too fast for human beings to catch. A divine huntsman, Tunk-poj, cut off the animal's rear-most legs to make the animal easier for humans to hunt.

The Ass with Three Legs - This massive creature is said to stand in the middle of the ocean. It has three legs, six eyes, nine mouths, and one golden horn.

Axehandle Hound

Bahamut - A huge, measureless fish which is often used to describe the spaces between heaven, earth, and hell.

Baldanders - Also known as Soon-Another's, these creatures can assume many shapes. It appears to have a human head and torso, the tail of a fish, the leg of a goat, and the wings and claws of a bird.

The Banshee - The "woman of the fairies" does not have a distinct shape, but is instead described by her keening wails.

Barometz - This "animal" is actually a plant in the shape of a lamb with golden fleece.

Basilisk - The basilisk's appearance has changed over the ages, but it is most often considered a chicken-like serpent with anywhere from four to eight legs. It is extremely venomous, and its gaze can turn anyone into stone.

Behemoth - A massive creature that is often likened to an elephant or hippopotamus.

Brownies - Small brown colored men that often visit homes while the inhabitants are asleep to perform various chores.

Burak - A horse-like creature with long ears and the wings and tail of a peacock. It may also have a man's face.

The Calchona - A creature resembling a shaggy white Newfoundland dog, bearded like a billy goat, which attacks mountain travelers.

Carbuncle - This creature was alleged to be seen in Latin America. Legends say the Carbuncle has some sort of jewel on its head.

Catoblepas - Described as a black buffalo with a hog's head, this creature's head is so heavy that it constantly hangs low to the ground. It is also believed that, like the basilisk, looking into its eyes will kill you instantly.

Celestial Cock - The Celestial Cock, also known as the Cock of Dawn, has three legs and makes its home in the Fu-sang tree, a mile-tall tree that grows in "the region of dawn." It is said to crow three times each day: once at dawn, once at midday and once when the sun sets.

Celestial Horse - A winged, white dog with a black head.

Celestial Stag - No one has ever seen a Celestial Stag. They live in underground mines, searching for the light of day. They will attempt to bribe, speak to, and even torture miners in their quest to reach the surface, where they turn into a deadly liquid form.

Centaur - A well-known beast with the torso of a man and the hindquarters of a horse. Most are portrayed as savage beasts, but others can be well learned in many arts.

Cerberus - A three-headed dog known to guard the gates of the underworld in Greek mythology.

The Cheshire Cat - A rather mischievous cat with a large, grinning face. It can also make itself invisible, leaving behind only its disembodied smile.

The Chimera - Although it may have several different forms, the chimera is most often described as a three-headed beast. Sprouting from its back is the head of a goat, a lion's head at its front, and a snake's head as its tail.

The Chinese Dragon - Compared to the Western Dragon, this dragon is considered divine and holy. It is often seen with antler-like horns and protrusions running along its spine. The Chinese dragon is often pictured with a pearl: the source of its power.

The Chinese Fox - These foxes appear like average foxes, but may sometimes be seen standing on their hind legs to walk. They presumably live about a thousand years, and are bad omens for their mischievous ways. They are known to shapeshift and are able to see into the future.

The Chinese Phoenix - Two basic creatures are described as a symbol of eternal love: the male Feng and the female Huang. They are described as very beautiful birds similar to a peacock, have three legs, and live in the sun.

Chonchon

Ch'ou-T'i - A legendary Chinese creature with a head both front and back.

Chronos or Heracles - This dragon-like creature is often known by two names. Like the chimera, it is made of three heads: a bull's head at its front, a god's head at its middle, and a lion's head at its rear.

The Denizens of Ch'uan-T'ou - Creatures with human heads, beaks, and bat wings.

An Insect Imagined by C. S. Lewis - A strange, jointed insect consisting of a cylindrical body and many thin legs.

Crocotta and the Leucrocotta - The crocotta is described as a hybrid of a dog and a wolf, and may be able to imitate the voice of a person. The leucrocotta is similar, but described as an antelope and hyena hybrid.

A Crossbreed - An animal described by Kafka in "Description of a Struggle" that is half cat and half lamb. Its fur is woolly and soft, yet it has a cat's face and claws. It does not make any sounds, and refuses to chase after rats.

Dopplegänger - Also known as the Double, the Dopplegänger is best described as a man's exact counterpart.

Eastern Dragon - Quite similar to the Chinese dragon of the same region, the Eastern dragon takes roughly the same form, but may be lacking wings. The pearl is also the source of its power, and they can make themselves invisible if they so wish.

Eater of the Dead - Most commonly associated with Egyptian myth, the Eater attends to the "wicked". It is described as having the head of a crocodile, the midsection of a lion, and the hindquarters of a hippo.

Eight-Forked Serpent - A massive serpent with eight heads and eight tails. Its eyes are a deep red, and trees are said to grow along its back.

The Elephant That Foretold the Birth of the Buddha - A white elephant with six tusks that appeared in a dream to, as its namesake suggests, foretell the birth of Buddha.

The Eloi and the Morlocks - In the setting of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, it is suggested that humans evolve (or devolve) into two distinct species. The Eloi are thin and fragile artisans, living on fruits. The Morlocks are blind laborers, living underground and rising to the surface on moonless nights to feed on the Eloi.

Elves - Little is known about the actual appearance of elves, but they seem to be very small people, and are often portrayed as having pointed ears. They are known for causing all sorts of mischief, such as tangling hair and stealing cattle.

The Wonders of God's Creation Manifested in the Variety of Eight - A mysterious creature that lives in the world of Bliss. Allegedly, all sounds, sights, and smells to this creature are divine.

The Fairies - Fairies are described as beautiful, tiny people that like to meddle in the affairs of humans.

Fastitocalon - A massive whale that many sailors often mistake for an island.

Fauna of Mirrors - It was believed that another world existed behind all mirrors, inhabited by a wide amount of unknown and strange creatures. Luckily, our worlds are now cut off from one another.

Garuda - This beast is the mount of the god Vishnu. It is half man and half vulture, with a white face, deep red wings, and a golden body.

Gillygaloo - A bird which nests on mountain slopes and lays square eggs, which lumberjacks use as dice.

Goofang - A fish("about the size of a sunfish but much bigger") which swims backwards to keep the water out of its eyes.

Goofus Bird - A bird that builds its nest upside down and flies backwards.

Gnomes - Sprites of the earth and hills, gnomes are often shown as bearded dwarves, often with rough features. They often watch over treasure as well.

Golem - This creature was created for the purpose of doing menial chores, and was controlled by a magic tablet placed under its tongue. Normally apathetic and unaware, if uncontrolled the creature enters a wild frenzy.

Griffin - The griffin is best described as an eagle with the body of a lion, and it is very strong.

Haniel, Kafziel, Azriel, and Aniel - Sometimes referred to as angels, these four beasts also possessed four faces: a man's, a lion's, an ox's, and an eagle's. They also possessed four wings.

Haokah, the Thunder God - He appears as a man with large antlers, using the wind to beat his thunder drum.

Harpies - Creatures with a vulture's body, a woman's face, and an insatiable hunger. They are described as having filthy genitalia and a foul smell about them.

Heavenly Cock - Also known as the Bird of Dawn, this Chinese rooster has three legs and crows three times a day, to signal dawn, noon, and dusk.

Hide - A many-eyed octopus-like creature shaped like an animal's hide.

Hidebehind - A strong, nocturnal creature which feeds off the intestines of its prey. It captures and hides from wayfarers in the woods by sucking in its body so that it can hide behind the trunk of any tree, or the person trying to look at it. It is said they have an aversion to alcohol.

Hippogriff - A creature invented by Ludovico Ariosto in the 16th century in his epic Orlando Furioso, based on an expression of Virgil's denoting the impossible, "to cross griffons with horses"; the griffon [see above] being a cross between a lion and an eagle believed by Virgil's commentator Servius to loathe horses.

Hochigan - A long-ago bushman who stole the animals' gift of speech. Borges links this to Descartes' idea that monkeys stay silent to avoid having to work, and to a story by Argentinian author Lugones about a chimpanzee killed by the strain of learning to talk.

Hsiao - An owl-like creature with a man's face, an ape's body, and a dog's tail.

Hsing-T'ien - A headless creature with eyes on its chest and its mouth on its belly.

Hua-Fish - A flying snake-fish that foretells drought.

Huallepen - A swift-moving dog with a human head, which laughs maliciously.

Hui - An amphibious sheep-like animal, which can mate with cows to produce deformed offspring; if a pregnant woman sees one, her child will also be deformed.

Humbaba - A giant in the Assyrian epic Gilgamesh that guards mountain cedars, he is scaly, with vulture claws, lion paws, bull's horns and a tail and penis with snakes' heads at the ends. Men-scorpions from the poem, which guard the mountain Mashu, are also mentioned.

Hundred-Heads - The hundred heads was said to be a gigantic fish with many heads, each one that of a different animal. Legend holds that the fish was the reincarnated spirit of a monk who had often called others "monkey-head" or something similar. The karma of these insults had made him return as a monster.

The Hydra of Lernaea

Ichthyocentaur - from the waist up, this creature has the form of a man, but below the waist they have the fins and tail of a fish. Their forefeet are either in the form of a lion's or a horse's.

Jewish Demons- In Jewish tradition the world between those of the body and spirit is that of angels and devils, densely populated and including creatures from many other cultures. One of the devils is Keteb Mereri, Lord of the Noontide and of Scorching Summers.

Jinn- One of the three kinds of intelligent creatures created by Allah in Muslim tradition, Jinn are formed from smoke of fire, have five orders, can be good or evil and of either sex and can appear as clouds or in various forms or be invisible. Borges mentions various legends about them, as well as Victor Hugo's poem "Les Djinns", and the possible link between the Latin genius and Jinn.

Kami - this beast is said to be a giant cat-fish that lives beneath the surface of the earth, and causes earthquakes with its movements.

the Kilkenny Cats - These cats often fight with each other, devouring everything but the other's tail.

A King of Fire and his Steed - These were beings formed completely of the constantly changing flames of fire.

Kraken

Kujata - A giant bull with thousands of eyes, nostrils, mouths, and feet, which helps to support the world(perched atop Bahamut).

The Lamed Wufniks - there are precisely thirty-six Lamed Wufniks in existence. It is said that, without knowing it, they support the universe and affirm god. If one comes to realize their purpose, they immediately die and are replaced by another unsuspecting man.

Lamia - Half woman and half serpent, these creatures are said to have sprung from one of Zeus's varied love interests. They are thought to be sorceresses, and although they cannot speak they whistle sweetly.

Laudatores Temporis Acti

Lemuri - The Lemuri were the souls of the evil dead, created by Romulus to subdue the restless spirit of his brother Remus.

The Leveler - Reputed to live on the planet Neptune, this creature is 10 times the size of an elephant, and looks quite a bit like it. Its most remarkable features are its conical legs (which are flat on the bottom). Bricklayers employ the leveler to flatten hilly areas for construction projects. It is herbivorous and has few enemies.

Lilith - A woman created before Eve, according to a Hebrew document. Dante Gabriel Rossetti imagined her as a snake in Eden Bower and the similarity of her name with the Hebrew layil or night produced the Middle Age idea of her as a creature of the night.

The Lunar Hare - Ideas of the shapes seen in the moon range include the English "man in the moon", the legend of Cain eternally carrying thorns there, and the Chinese legend of the Lunar Hare: It jumped into a fire to feed the Buddha, who sent its soul to the moon, where it mixes the elixir of life.

Mandrake

Manticore

Mermecolion - An ant/lion hybrid which inevitably starves because it cannot eat either meat or grains, although its lion half craves the former and its ant half craves the latter.

Minotaur

The Monkey of the Inkpot - an extract from Wang Tai-Hai describes a small creature with black fur and scarlet eyes that sits by writers and drinks their leftover ink.

The Monster Acheron - A giant, taller than a mountain, with three mouths and all of Hell in his stomach, described in the Vision of Tundale.

The Mother of Tortoises - A giant tortoise made of water and fire, on whose shell is written the "Universal Rule", a divine treatise.

Musical Serpent - A four-winged serpent which makes sounds similar to those of the "Musical Stone".

Nāga - a half human half snake creature

Nasnas - A creature shaped like half a man, with one leg, one arm, one eye, and half a heart.

The Norns

The Nymphs

Odradek

An Offspring of Leviathan - A creature of medieval legend, "a dragon that was half beast and half fish".

Ocean Men - Merman - like creatures of Chinese legend, who cause storms.

One-Eyed Beings

The Ouroboros

The Panther

Peryton

The Phoenix

Ping Feng - A black pig with a head at each end.

Pinnacle Grouse - Has only one wing, and flies in a continuous circle around the top of a mountain.

Pygmies - 27-inch dwarfs mentioned by Pliny and Aristotle who inhabited the mountains beyond India, waging war on the cranes that attacked them for three months a year. The Carthaginians also had a god called Pygmy who was used as figurhead on warships.

Queer Arm People - People with a single arm and three eyes, who build flying chariots.

The Rain Bird - Also called the shang yang, this bird creates rain by carrying water from rivers in its beak.

Remora

Roperite - A pony-sized animal which uses its lariat-like beak to ensnare rabbits.

Rukh

Salamander

The Satyrs

Scylla

The Sea Horse - An aquatic horse, which sometimes surfaces to mate with land horses.

The Shaggy Beast of La Ferte-Bernard

Simurgh

Sirens

The Sow Harnessed with Chains - Also called the Tin Pig, this creature is heard rattling its chains on railroad tracks by night, but is never seen.

Sphinx

Squonk

Strong Toad - Distinguished from other toads by its turtle-like shell, the Strong Toad glows like a firefly, cannot be killed except by burning, and can attract or repel anyone nearby with its stare.

Swedenborg's Angels - The perfected souls of the blessed and wise, living in a Heaven of ideal things, each reflecting the perfection of this realm.

Swedenborg's Devils - these are people which, after dying, choose to go to hell rather than to heaven. They are not happy there, but they are reputed to be more content in hell than they would have been in heaven.

Sylph

Talos

The T'ao T'ieh - a dog with one(often monstrous) head attached to two bodies, which symbolizes the sins of gluttony and greed.

Teakettler

Thermal Beings - Entities composed solely of heat, from an earlier stage of the world's creation.

Ti-chiang - A faceless, supernatural bird with six feet and four wings.

The Tigers of Annam - Tigers who rule over the four cardinal directions, with the Yellow Tiger commanding them from the world's center.

The Trolls - Due to the arrival of Christianity in Scandinavia, pagan giants were diminished into small, malevolent, stupid, mountain-dwelling elves. The Elder Edda states that the giants would cross Bifrost, a great rainbow, at the Twilight of the Gods, breaking it with their weight and so destroying the world. Trolls figure in Ibsen's Peer Gynt as 'nationalist' creatures that view their squalour as luxury and suggest putting out Peer Gynt's eyes so he can avoid seeing the ugliness he is confronted with.

Two Metaphysical Beings - Condillac's sensitive statue inhabited by a new-formed soul which becomes human through sensory perception(starting with smell); a creature that can only sense the outside world through a moveable feeler.

Unicorn

The Unicorn of China

Upland Trout - Flying fish which nest in trees and fear water.

Valkyrie

The Western Dragon

Youwarkee - The half-bird half-woman heroine of the 1751 novel Peter Wilkins by Robert Paltock, Youwarkee is one of the winged glumms that inhabit an Antarctic island. Peter Wilkins is a shipwrecked sailor who marries her and converts them to Christianity.

Zaratan

The marvels of the HSBC building - truly a splendid piece of architecture. The architect was Lord Norman Foster, and there is an absence of an internal supporting structure. Basically, Foster put all the guts of a building on the exterior and left a large atrium in the middle of it. I think he did the MoMA in Paris as well.

I took a 3 shot HDR of the foyer before - This is a 3 shot HDR of the fire escapes situated outside the building. You can see the reflections of the Cheung Kong and Citibank buildings in the glass.

3 shot HDR: processed in photomatix, photoshop, topaz. I hate the noise in the 50D - lassoed the sky and gaussianed the hell out of it (thanks Suziqb for the tip), cloned out halos, upped sats on reds and toned down yellows. Oh - image is as is - no crop. (trick is to illuminate the AF points and then use that as a leveler).

Can't wait for the 7D's auto leveler. Still torn between selling my EF-S lenses and going full frame 5DmkII, or just getting the 7D for the flash trigger/leveler/awesomeness.

View On Black

I think this might just survive a DMU.

Shot on location as part of the photowalk series at Maurach, Lake Constance, Germany.

World Heritage Site stilt house museum in the background to the left.

Camera: Hasselblad 500C/M

Lens: Hasselblad F Planar T* 2/110

Film: Ilford Ortho+ @ ISO80

Filter: Hasselblad ProShade 6093 + Hasselblad B70 ProShade Adapter + LEE Big Stopper

Tripod: Gitzo GT3532LS + Arca-Swiss Core Leveler 75

Developer: Ilford DD-X 9m40s inversion @ 21ºC

Stop: Ilford Ilfostop

Fixer: Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+9

Tank: JOBO 1510

Scanner: EPSON Perfection V700 Photo

Yes 21st March is the first day of Spring but I think we in the UK will be greeted by much less endearing weather than I enjoyed here when I stayed at the private enterprise Kabbutz at Neviot on the Red Red Sea just south of Eilat. The Sun and sea is great leveler as Arabs and Jews enjoyed the beach alongside one another with no animosity.

Reseda, CA - Sometimes no matter how much you try it's not quite perfect, and that's OK.

Modern truck loading bay with overhead door, dock leveler, dock seals, canopy, indicator lights.

Date and Time of capture: 3/25/2024 at about 10:34 pm EDT

Location: Washington D.C.

Gear: Seestar S50 "smart telescope" with a Cavix LP-64 camera leveler interposed between the Seestar and a tripod.

I generated this short video by animating frame numbers 2786 to 2792 extracted from my 5970 frames-long video of the full moon.

This short is the consequence of an accidental observation while I was prepping my video frames for stacking. The stacked and postprocessed result is shown in my Seestar S50 album.

The image in each frame was cropped to 1:1 aspect ratio and processed in Topaz DeNoise AI and Gigapixel AI only.

(Note that due to lack of any full-scale processing, such as one involving stacking and postprocessing, the lunar image is itself structurally somewhat nebulous. Its purpose is merely to provide a background against which one can watch the movement of an airplane.)

Shot on location as part of the architectural series in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Post-processing done in Capture One 20.

Camera: Contax 645

Back: Phase One P45+

Head: Arca-Swiss Core Leveler 75

Tripod: Gitzo GT3532LS

Filter: LEE 0.6 G S

Northside area of Cincinnati, Ohio. This rather beat up Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck is beginning to sag under the load. With the way things are being stacked into it, I know I certainly wouldn't want to be following it closely.

HTT

Canon EOS M camera with a Really Right Stuff camera body plate BEOSM on a Really Right Stuff lever release clamp B2 40 LR on a Nodal Ninja 3 MKII with Advanced Rotator RD16-II mounted on a Really Right Stuff TVC-23 Versa Tripod.

Accessories include Canon EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens with B+W 52mm 010 UV-Haze MRC Nano XS-Pro Digital and Canon GPS Receiver GP-E2

My next accessory would be a Leveler.

And yes, I know about the leveler on the tripod! This was a happy little accident!

Advice - Turn The Volume Down!

Very solid setup. Notice the power supply charging the battery I installed inside the pier. A 14ah gell cell battery fits nicely on the top alloy stanchion inside the pier. Unplug the charger connection, plug in the mount connector and you're ready to go 12 hours on a charge.

Equirectangular photos panorama panoramic 360 180 www.puzzledreams.ro

Ambrogio Lorenzetti,

Allegoria del Buon Governo [1338-39]

detail personification of Concordia

Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Two ropes start from the waistline of the two angels, which come together at the hands of Concordia, a direct follower of Justice and also seated on a chair and with a planer in her lap, a symbol of equality and "leveler" of the contrasts.

Name: Mortality

Size: A3

Medium: Charcoal on paper

Influenced by the sketch by Christopher Ryan, I sketched this skull. I find skulls very interesting as they are always smiling, and one possible reason I find behind it is that, it is only after death that they realize there was no point in living the way they did. Only a thin layer of covering changes the skull's expressions drastically to a sadness, depression or a happiness. God had created us all happy, which is evident from the smile on the skull, but it is the way of life that we lead that makes a difference, and after all death is a great leveler. This sketch is an easy one as it does not require any blending but at the same time it also requires confident strokes that mark the definite shape of the skull. The irony of the sketch is that, it deals with death and happiness at the same time and surprisingly fits in well. Anyways, who knows how it feels after dying.

A member of the species known as the Nameless, these creatures appear in the High Republic era of Star Wars. I have been wanting to make one for a while, and I’m happy with how it turned out!

Also featuring Marda Ro.

“The Force will be free.”

What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

Equirectangular photos panorama panoramic 360 180 www.puzzledreams.ro

Get the low-down HERE

This was made with a Nikon D2x, 14mm 2.8, Manfrotto 303SPH, Kaidan Quicktilt Leveler Base, Manfrotto 190 Tripod, Kaiser Double Bubble Fishfart hardwares and Photomatix HDR and Realviz Stitcher Express 2 software.

Installed on 2 iEQ45 tripod leg. Easy install, just unscrew metal stud and replace it with the adjustable leveler. The leveler has a 2mm vibration damper in the base also.

What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

I have not been to this beach in many years, so I was not sure what to expect, this is the first set of images from this mornings shoot.

All my images are created using $500 worth of gear (camera, kit lens, tripod, remote trigger and bubble leveler) I'm hoping to purchase a better camera for Christmas but my low end gear has forced me to really push my post-processing abilities.

If you are starting out, save your money where you can and concentrate on producing better images with what you have - those skills you pick up will stay with you as you out grow your equipment.

3 exposures process with Photomatix and post-processed with Photoshop and Lightroom

Date and Time of capture: 4/8/2024 from about 2 to about 5 pm EDT.

Location: Washington D.C.

Gear: Seestar S50 "smart telescope" equipped with a Seestar-supplied solar filter. Cavix LP-64 camera leveler interposed between the Seestar and a tripod.

This is a capture of a partial eclipse from my vantage point in Washington DC which is outside the path of totality. I generated this short video by animating some still shots of the solar eclipse of 8 April 2024.

(Note that the still shots are jpegs exported directly from the Seestar. Clouds intermittently screened the eclipse. This resulted in uneven exposure values between different images. I made no correction for that. Additionally, for some of the images, the Seestar camera seemed to have difficulty centering the target image.)

The iOptron stock levelers are too short for my location, with not enough range to compensate for angles.

This is my solution. Drill out the blind holes all the way through, then tap with a 10 x 1.5 mm tap.

Installed a padded leveler and alloy knob on stainless theaded rod. The plastic knob tightens down against the pier leg to lock everything in place and eliminate motion.

The large 80mm padded levelers installed on the Z 1.5" tripod.

A view looking up the boom from behind the crane.

An Automobile Patrol to ensure Order in the Camps.

Harper's Weekly May 19, 1906

The Human Drama at San Francisco

by Herman Whitaker — author of The Probationer

From the Contra Costa hills I saw a fiery cloud, miles high, rising over San Francisco. Eight miles away men were fighting one of the greatest fires of history without water. At the end of the first day word came that the powder supply was exhausted; later a supply was obtained somehow and for three days thereafter the sullen roar of the blasts went on unceasingly. It was a fine thing to hear: it stirred one’s blood, filled one with a sense of the indomitable resources that did not flinch in the face of the most fearful odds. Along the bay, San Francisco lay like a huge giant in a purgatory flames, —a giant tormented yet still unconquered. Above the roar and crackle rose his great voice, the growl and thunder of the blasts. And now that the smoke pall has lifted from San Francisco one may observe ruin so vast and complete that the mind registers only an impression of the common place. It is to immense, too comprehensive, to be appreciated until, after hours of wondering amid calcined brick piles, one returns to the flowers and gardens of Oakland across the bay. These Seem strange, unfamiliar; and so, by negation, appreciation is gained of the great lime kiln that was once a suburban city. Overlooking it from an eminence, the streets may be traced only by long brick piles that cross blackened and tottering walls. Closer inspection shows that this fire stone actually burned like coal : bricks are calcined, and cobblestones burned in places to sand and dust.

For duration, intensity, area, destruction, the San Francisco fire is one of the greatest in history: yet, when it is said, but half has been told. The quality it called forth— dogged courage, tenacity of purpose, cheerfulness, sympathy, hope —equal it’s stupendous proportions as a tragedy. History records no superior instance of a stricken people rising superior to a calamitous occasion. To earthquake and fire the Californian turned and still turns a cheerful visage. Though, in these days, millionaires have become paupers and business men bankrupt, once he scarcely a sober face upon the street. For the buoyancy is general, or becomes sympathetic sobriety only when the wearer comes in contact with some mourner. Of these, of course, there are many, and besides those who perished by earthquake or fire are those who died of wounds or exposure. The saddest cases of all were those poor women who died while bringing children into the world. The second night of the fire 23 babies were born on the grass of Golden Gate Park. 11 other unfortunate women bore children out in the Berkeley hills. And of these mothers nine are said to have died. For this, no one is to blame: it was inevitable to the situation. Almost equally sad is the case of children who have been separated from parents by death or confusion. Under any circumstances, of course, sympathy naturally flows to the orphan, but how much more is it needed when the bereavement comes in such terrible form. What could be more awful than the thought of the helpless child wondering without help or guidance through the perilous streets of a wrecked city. In all of Oakland’s many relief camps these may be found, and today they are being gathered together by the Salvation Army and taken to Beulah Park. Besides such inevitable suffering the situation developed a tragic side. Always when calamity interferes with established order, the beast crops out in man, and that San Francisco escaped raping, incendiarism , assault, and robbery is due to the inflexible administration of martial law. Not only were looters shot on sight, but all others who persisted in defying authority or in any way molested the peace of the people. The following cases a typical example: Out towards North Beach a refugee camp was situated at the foot of some cliffs, which fact suggested to some Barbary Coast hoodlums the amiable sport of rolling rocks down upon the women and children gathered there. Warned by the sentry on duty, one man dared him to fire. The word had hardly passed his lips before a bullet took him through the heart. There was no more rock rolling.

The soldiers, nevertheless, knew how to be kind. They shared their rations with starving men and gave up their tents to women and children. They stood between the people and would-be extortionists, confiscating the stocks of merchants who unduly raised prices. An instance of this was related to me by an eyewitness. In one of the relief camps, a sergeant heard an aged woman saying that she had been asked $.75 for a loaf of bread that morning. “What!” he exclaimed; and upon her repeating her statement he marched a squad of men to the store she showed him, and began to distribute the stock among the crowd.

“But these are my things!” the grocery protested.

“You charged this woman $.75 for a loaf of bread,” the sergeant answered.

“But I can charge what I like,” the grocery protested; “get out of my store!”

Without answering, the sergeant went on distributing the stores until the angry man laid a hand on his shoulder, then he turned.

“Do you think we are joking?” he asked. Then, turning to his men, he said, “Take him out.”

They shot him against the walls of his own store.

It is creditable to human nature, however, to know that cases of extortion were the exception. On the second day of the fire, I myself made a tour of the Oakland groceries and found only one man who evinced a disposition to advance prices. If there were others, they were deterred by an editorial published in the Oakland Tribune that very morning. “Cursed be he,“ finished the indignant editor, “who at this juncture tries to trade on the necessities of his fellows.” It is lamentable that such a warning should have been necessary; yet when one contemplates the violence, suffering, and bloodshed which have attended similar catastrophes in the past, when one remember set under such circumstances wrongdoing is the rule instead of the exception, the conclusion is forced upon one that man has progressed far in humanity.

Concerning the pervading cheerfulness of which I have been speaking, no report of the situation would be complete without some mention of it’s humorous aspects. For instance the young man whose modesty overcame his fear of death. Running out into the street at the first shock, he observed two young women of his acquaintance leaning out of the window, and was so afflicted with a certain sense of his pajamas that he ran back into the building. Now closer observation or less scrupulous modesty would have shown him the folly of his act, for he was clad in the very latest fashion. Indeed men in pajamas impressed others more lightly clad very much as a tailored youth regards a hand me down. Then there was the dignified gentleman of my acquaintance who put sleeve links into clean cuffs, shaved, washed, and packed a suitcase before merging upon the street. But not until he had walked a block down Market Street did he discover his utter lack of trousers. On Nob Hill, the city’s aristocratic section, two well known society women were observed dragging a trunk between them: and surely panic is a great leveler, for just then a man with a vegetable cart came along, offered his conveyance and drove off with a star a fashion on either side of him.

After the fire had burned itself out, the humor evolved into a sort of grim practical joking. Soldiers and police pressed every man they could lay hands on into service for clearing the streets of bricks, wherefore many a sight-seer who had obtained a pass to cross the bay and see the sights remained to heave brick. One police sergeant remarked with a grin, “I’ve got a bank president, a traffic manager of the Southern Pacific Railway, and a Chief of Police all in the gang. They didn’t like it at first,” he added, tapping his boot with the muscle of a long pistol, “but now they’re doing fine.” Then there was an English man, in immaculate traveling suit, parading ferryward with a suitcase. “But I can’t heave bricks,” he answered when impressed; but he did – five hours with that gang, and five with another which caught him further down the street.

Yet on the whole such things were accepted philosophically, and out of the tangle and trouble were born innumerable acts of sympathetic kindness. Late this morning I met a printer who, until then, had held steady employment. “Chucked my job,” was his answer to my question; “do you think I’d hang onto it while hundreds of married men are hunting for work?” And in an Oakland restaurant a similar case occurred. A man applied for work, and, when the proprietor refused, he said, “I must have it, for I have a wife and children to support.” Unwillingly enough, the proprietor repeated that he could not employ any more man, whereupon a waiter who was passing set down his tray of dishes, whipped off his apron and handed it to the applicant. “I have nobody but myself to look after,” he said; “take my job.”

These are but two instances from among thousands that might be cited, which go to show the quality of the public spirit. While the fire was yet burning, plans were being evolved for the building of a greater city. “Going to rebuild?” one hears constantly in the ferry, trains, and cars; and always comes the ready answer: “sure, just as soon as the ashes are cold.” A man was treated for burned hands at a local hospital because he could not wait for the bricks to cool. Cheerfully, bravely, San Franciscans are facing their problem, and their attitude may be summed up in the answer given me by a man this morning. He is 106 years old and when meeting him on the street, I put the question, “well, Captain, did you save anything?” he answered: “Only what I stand in. I’ve got to begin all over again.” Yet it must not be imagined that there is anything flippant about this attitude. The men who laugh and joke do so with the full knowledge of the gravity of the situation. This morning, Secretary Metcalf placed the property loss at $500 million and the jokers are the men who suffered the loss. Another misunderstanding should be avoided. The money reported subscribed is said to be sufficient to tide San Francisco over her crisis. This is not the case. Of the three million and a half that Congress appropriated, all but $300,000 is already spent. Indeed that is all of the appropriation which the relief committee of San Francisco has seen, the bulk of the appropriations having been spent by the War Department for provisions and supplies. The Rockefeller gift of $200,000 was handled entirely by the Standard Oil agents; and this morning Mr. Phelan, chairman of the Central Relief Committee, stated that many of the other subscriptions had not been paid. At the time of writing, the committee has only $600,000 to its credit, and most of this sum is preempted by debts already occurred. It should be distinctly realized that the business part of San Francisco has been swept from the face of the earth; that months must elapse before paralyzed business is reestablished, lines of trade reopened, and the great mass of laborers reemployed.

Six months is a low estimate for the length of time during which a quarter of 1 million of homeless and houseless people require assistance. It would be safer to say that a year will pass before all are reabsorbed into industry. At this juncture therefore it behooves every American to bestir himself for the benefit of San Francisco, which in the past has herself so often extended a helping hand to those in affliction. It would be dastardly to allow actual want to touch men and women who are facing bitter calamity with so brave a front. Surely this will not be. It may be safely be predicted that, once the facts of the case are clearly known, a generous response will meet all needs; so let there be no slacking in the good work. If this be rightly done, the San Francisco conflagration will be remembered not so much for its enormous losses of life and property, its vast areas of distraction, but rather because it furnished the world with proof that, in our time, “brotherhood of man” was not an empty phrase. The lesson it teaches is not that such and such a style of building is earthquake or fireproof, but that no calamity can exceed or quench the courage of man. As the Israelites of old were led to brighter and more beautiful lands by the clouds of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night, so San Francisco’s mounting flames were landmark on the road to a greater humanity.