View allAll Photos Tagged LiftOff
My final trip of 2023 saw me heading west away from the rain at home to help fill in the gap between Christmas and New Year.
The target was a drake Smew (Mergellus albellus) that has taken up winter residence on a loch near Glasgow. I have seen plenty of the red head females but only previously seen a couple of the black and white males and none for over a decade so didn’t have any decent photos of one of my favourite ducks ever since I got given a bird book as a kid.
The vivid white helping it stand out amongst the other ducks.
A winter visitor to the UK in ever decreasing numbers as the warming winters mean like a lot of our winter visitors they are not having to migrate as far west as they used to.
The only member of the Mergellus family which is linked to the Mergus group of sawbills, albellus derived from the Latin for white. Where the common name Smew comes from is uncertain and first appears way back in the seventeenth century.
While climbing repeats on Craigowl Hill the sun set spectacularly! I stopped at the summit to catch my breath and enjoy the spectacle... The golden rays touching the snow speckled mountains of the north.
Just moments after snapping this shot, I was hurtling back down the hill at what, on a bike, felt like escape velocity!
Osprey finished her dinner at the top the dead tree's branch and after her usual routine of cleaning her talons, stretching, preening and pooping finally decided: it's time to go... @ Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve
For anyone who has tried to get pictures of a Great Blue Heron knows if you get too close they will take off very fast. I had already got some nice pictures of him so I was ready for that. I put my Canon 40D on 5 shots per second and my 100-400 L IS Zoom lens on panning mode and said go ahead big guy take off. When I saw he was going to Liftoff I started clicking and got these pictures as he flew away barking loudly at me. I shot these pictures at 320th of a second at f/s 8 with an ISO of 250.
To see more amazing birds of Northern Wisconsin visit our website: www.lifeinthenorthwoods.com/
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The liftoff of Soyuz flight VS11 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana took place as scheduled on 21:46:18 GMT (22:46:18 CET) on Friday 27 March 2015. The launcher was carrying Europe’s seventh and eighth Galileo navigation satellites, due to separate from their Fregat upper stage into their assigned orbit on 3 h 47 min after lift-off.
Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Optique Video du CSG-G.Barbaste
On 30 July 2021, Ariane 5 flight VA254 lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites Star One D2 and Eutelsat Quantum into their planned transfer orbits.
Flight VA254 was the 110th Ariane 5 mission.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace - Optique video du CSG - P.Prion
This American bittern allowed me to get within about 15 feet from him. Being so accustomed to watching these beauties remain motionless for long periods of time, I do believe I suffered a cardiac infarction when he suddenly launched skyward.
Brazos Bend State Park, TX
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A Dickcissel that just happened to notice that I had my camera in hand and made a VERY hasty exit. Story of my life......
This is not the shot I was looking to take - but when I saw what I had inadvertently captured it put a smile on my face.
Love when stuff like that happens.
Point Molate, Richmond, CA. This osprey fledgling is still trying to get the hang of flying. After spending several minutes practicing short hovering maneuvers, it flew back to the nest.
With 20+ MPH (30+KPH) winds running from the North, the kite surfers were out in force. In this shot, you can see this kite surfer cutting into a wave as he lets the action lift him up. At the apex, he reached about 10 feet (3 meters) in height. Some of the surfers reached as high as 25 feet, (7 meters).
Liftoff of Sentinel-2B on a Vega launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 01:49 GMT (02:49 CET) on 7 March 2017.
Sentinel-2B is the second satellite in the Sentinel-2 mission for Europe’s Copernicus environment monitoring programme.
Designed as a two-satellite constellation – Sentinel-2A and -2B – the Sentinel-2 mission carries an innovative wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands for a new perspective of our land and vegetation. This information is used for agricultural and forestry practices and for helping manage food security. It also provides information on pollution in lakes and coastal waters. Images of floods, volcanic eruptions and landslides contribute to disaster mapping and help humanitarian relief efforts.
Credit: ESA-S.Corvaja
Europe’s 13th and 14th Galileo satellites lifted off at 08:48 GMT (05:48 local time, 10:48 CEST) on Tuesday, 24 May 2016 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Soyuz launcher.
Credit: ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE-Optique Video du CSG, P. Piron
Captured in: Cape Hatteras National Seashore,
Dare, NC.
Pictured here is an eastern willet leaving his perch along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The willet is basically a heavily built shorebird that has greyish legs and a shortish, straight bill.
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"We Have Lift Off" is a non-HDR image that was processed using a combination of ACR, Photoshop and various Topaz Labs Plugins (Adjust, AI Clear, Denoise, Glow, Impression and LensFX).