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The face of 2020 will haunt us for a long time to come. We were true to these times of fear and courage, despair and hope, helplessness and help. But above all it has been a time when we had nothing to prove but fidelity to the spirit of holding on. Kipling could not have been more proud.
“If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
As the priority of privileges goes, she and her family may be a long way from getting immunised. But then may be as nature’s priorities go, they may develop herd immunity sooner than science comes to their rescue.
I have seen several such faces, some of them I have shared on Flickr. I am thankful to you for showing support, encouragement and hope.
I have received heart warming responses to my rather scattered gallery of nature and birds and streets.
Fabulous work from Francesc Candel, www.flickr.com/photos/141453264@N07/, Pascal Reiemann, www.flickr.com/photos/95566715@N08/, Nancy Charlton , www.flickr.com/photos/32927502@N07/, has kept me inspired. If it was not for the generosity and kindness of @Leon Van Kemenade, @Jeanne @Paul Gallagher @RavenXXIII @Jean-Marc Depreux Raven, @Laszlo Bacs @James R. Page, @ Eduardo Vales, @robert moushi I would have been but a dull photographer. Your own work is so wonderful, I have learnt many a line and light from you.
With hope in my heart and a little mist in my eyes, my heart-felt thanks to all of you my dear Flickr friends for showing me how to hold on!
Die Barrikade auf dem Michaelerplatz in der Nacht vom 26. auf den 27. Mai 1848
Anton Ziegler
1848
Wien Museum
"The demonstration of the students on March 13, with which they demanded freedom of speech, teaching, and learning, was the starting note for the revolutionary events of 1848. From then on, the “Academic legion”, an armed formation of students, was at the forefront of all revolutionary actions. When the government resolved to dissolve the Legion, the students, supported by workers from the periphery, erected roughly 160 barricades in Vienna’s city centre from 26 to 28 May, with which they forced the government to repeal the decree." sammlung.wienmuseum.at/en/album/a2ciemencqh4v4gpf-barrica...
www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Mairevolution
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848_in_the_Austrian...
depth of field enhanced the beauty of the flower. the flower seems like floating.
thanks for every one for views, faves, and comments.
Season of Touit - picture 13
Week 39 - Wednesday
Today's picture is something that was already shot some time ago. And it was actually taken by Sari, Aura's mother, while me and Aura were playing in the lake. One of my favorites of this summer for sure. There are two reasons why I wanted to include this picture in to 'Season of Touit'. First of all it's a good example how nice the Touit 2.8/50M can be shooting in standard range. Even though it is labeled as a macro lens, many times it works very nicely in standard photography too. The second reason is that the picture also exemplifies the optical quality of this lens: taken straight into sun the Touit 2.8/50M delivers very good colors but also almost non-existent chromatic aberrations. With a SEL50F18 the lake and it's reflections would have screamed of purple and green edges. I understand that it is relatively easy to get rid of it in Lightroom for example, but it doesn't substitute real optical excellence (no corrections done for this picture). The Touit 2.8/50M having a very little chromatic aberrations, almost apochromatic by its nature, means of course better edge contrast and color accuracy.
But what about the compromises regarding the Touit 2.8/50M? As I've already dealt with the Touit 2.8/12 and I didn't found much that would compromise it, I feel I should also write about the compromises regarding the Touit 2.8/50M. Being a makro-planar design the Touit 2.8/50M is very versatile lens that does macro and standard photography very well. However, this versatility comes with couple of compromises which are good to know if you planning to get it for your Sony Alpha system. First of all being able to focus at both macro and standard range means that the focusing system needs to move quite a bit inside the lens barrel. While this doesn't bother much in good light, it makes the Touit 2.8/50M very slow to focus in dim light. If the camera doesn't find the focus immediately it usually moves through the whole focus range and it takes time. For me this is a limitation of this lens that needs to be considered when using it. Another characteristic of the Touit 2.8/50M, which could be seen as a compromise, is the bokeh it delivers. When working in the macro range, the bokeh is superb and there is no question about it. However, in standard ranges it might sometimes turn out to be a bit nervous, depending how far the background is and its characteristics. Don't get me wrong, the Touit 2.8/50M can certainly deliver a nice bokeh in standard use too and I've used it with good results. But if it would be my only option for shallow depth of field pictures, I would certainly crave for more. Part of this relates to maximum aperture being 'only' f/2.8 , but from time to time there is also a bit of nervousness bokeh character.
Year of the Alpha – 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: www.yearofthealpha.com
Well… I returned home safely this morning from my two week photographic workshop on the Isle of Skye… with 68 Gigabytes worth of images!!
Although we had plenty of rain and loads of midges… that certainly didn’t prevent us from exploring every corner of the island… and shooting all the most iconic locations… in the best possible light!!
Here is one of my favourite shots from my most favourite iconic location of all… the Old Man of Storr… reflected in a tiny loch… and captured just as the clouds, light and reflections were looking at their very best.
I’d like to thank Jenny, Anne, Peter, Tom and Steven for sharing all these unforgettable experiences with me… I had an absolute blast shooting Skye with you guys (and girls)!!
Nikon D800, Nikkor 14-24mm at 14mm, aperture of f14, with a 1/200th second exposure.
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Another five photos from my last drive, on 28 April. Harsh light and windy.
On 28 April 2023, I had to go for a day’s drive because everyone had to remove their vehicle out of the parking lot (again!) for the day. We were told to remove by 8:30 am, ready for the guys coming at 9:00 am. Well, the guys who used blowers to remove all the dust and loose gravel, etc. started working at 7:00 am. The painters arrived at 8:30 am, just as I was ready to leave home. The lot was cleaned and the yellow lines between cars were repainted. The whole day was spent driving the roads SW of Calgary, all of them familiar, but a couple only driven a few times.
I very recently decided to buy a new camera, the Canon SX70 HS. I found it concerning that I had been using my Canon SX60 since May 2017 - at least, the earliest photo I can find on my Flickr page was taken on 6 May 2017. The camera has been used a lot! I was very undecided about the Canon SX70, as my daughter has had this camera for quite a long time and finds that the photos tend to be rather blurry. For many months, I have read up about the Canon SX70 and never felt completely happy with everything I read. I have researched other similar cameras and there really isn't anything much out there. I already have the Nikon P900 (totally lousy/useless/ viewfinder) and the Panasonic FZ1000 (far less zoom). Both these cameras are heavy and I need a much lighter camera, especially now because of my damaged right shoulder, which makes holding and using a camera both painful and awkward. Things I read these days seem to say that phone cameras are kind of replacing point-and-shoot cameras and companies are producing very few point-and-shoot models. No telling how long it could be before they stop making them altogether. So, I wanted to be prepared for if/when my faithful and much used Canon SX60 eventually dies.
So, I took both cameras with me, though I did take more shots with the SX60. I can't say that the photos from either camera came out as sharp as I would have liked - very bright out, and windy. Now I have to compare the quality of the images. I found the SX70 a nice, light camera to use, I must say. I had changed a few of the most important (to me) settings, but I’m sure there are others that need checking and tweaking. Some of my Bluebird photos came out better with the SX70. I saw my first Wilson's Snipe of the season and the SX70 did well, as did the SX60, though the colour is very different between the two cameras. I need to compare a lot of images in the next while. The five photos posted this evening have all been edited.
He stood on the edge of the world, a lone figure suspended between sky and stone. Before him sprawled New Zealand's Southern Alps, their peaks — Poseidon, Sarpedon, Amphion — rising like silent arguments carved from light and ice. The glacier unfurled its pale tongue, an ancient current arrested mid-sentence, its surface rippled with the memory of motion. The air shimmered, crystalline and unrepentant, a cold clarity that cut to the marrow.
Lake Agnes lay below, a still pool, dark and sharp as polished obsidian. It absorbed the landscape without a ripple, the reflection a perfect inversion—mountains upside down, the sky swallowed by earth. The scene was a paradox: immensity caught in a whisper, time paused on the brink of collapse. He felt the grass brittle beneath his boots, the wind threading through the crevices of his jacket—a touch neither warm nor cruel, merely indifferent.
For three days he had wrestled through the entrails of the land. The rainforest had closed around him with a suffocating lushness, roots coiling like serpents beneath the moss. Streams foamed with a glacial bite, the waters quick and thoughtless, bruising his ankles as he waded through. Thorned thickets tore at his skin with the intimacy of old grudges. He climbed slopes slick with rain, his body folded into painful angles, the horizon always receding. When he reached this place, the fog had been thick enough to erase the contours of the world. His tent had trembled in the night winds, the cold seeping in like an unwelcome thought.
But then dawn came, unburdened and lucid. The veil lifted, and the mountains revealed themselves in their raw articulation. They did not posture or proclaim—they simply were, immutable and unscripted. The glacier’s silence was more profound than any roar; the peaks did not loom so much as exist beyond scale.
Here, in this distilled emptiness, the trivial machinery of the world he had fled seemed absurd. The restless striving, the ceaseless revolutions of ambition and vanity—all of it shrank to the size of a pebble lost in a chasm. There was no wheel here to turn, no circuit to complete. Only the landscape, bare and relentless in its honesty.
He filled his lungs, the air sharp enough to taste. It was an act of quiet rebellion, this deliberate witnessing. In that breath, he found not freedom, but a dissolution of need. The lines between man and mountain wavered, softened by the sheer scale of indifference. If he stayed long enough, perhaps he too would become part of this tableau—his form dissolving into lichen and shadow, his presence no more than a pause in the wilderness’s endless thought.
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To explore more of these captured moments and woven words, visit the artist and writer at their sanctuary of creation: www.coronaviking.com
Festival Of Lights: Berliner Stadtschloss / Berlin City Castle
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Eruption of clouds
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©2014 Rafa Irusta, All Rights Reserved
Greenhouse table of Ipheion uniflorum again...who all bloomed early at Smith's Lyman Conservatory. So they've been relegated back into the work room. Wonderful to begin thinking of fields of flowers again! Really challenging to get everything to bloom at once for the upcoming bulb show...and have it stay in bloom for two weeks. Although the Lyman team are old hands at this there are always some wild ones... 💛
This picture was added to the group photo pool of Flickr Friday for the theme - "A Stroke of Luck" - reflecting how difficult it was to take such a shot.
#FlickrFriday
#AStrokeOfLuck
Well, the weather forecast for Kananaskis for yesterday, 24 September 2019, was not exactly accurate - sun, with cloud in the afternoon. They kind of forgot to mention the strong wind, light rain .... and SNOW! For a few minutes, it was one kind of weather, then a few more minutes of a different kind, repeated throughout the afternoon.
Our temperatures are falling - forecast for rain tomorrow, rain and snow the next day, then two days of snow with temps down to 0C and -1C. What a way to celebrate the first few days of fall. The expected snow will probably remove quite a few of the golden leaves, so I wanted anther chance to see and photograph them while I had the chance.
The sky was blue when I set out yesterday morning and I felt quite hopeful. When I go to Kananaskis, I always go south from the city. I had no idea where I would be going, but I knew that it wouldn't be as far as I would have liked. As it turned out, I had a few surprises along the way, so it was a real mixed day of photo opportunities - my favourite kind of day.
After stopping to take a few scenic shots on the way to the main highway through Kananaskis, I eventually reached the area where the American Pikas live. I really lucked out almost straight away, as the only few photos I took were when one Pika showed itself, and that was within maybe ten minutes. By this time, the wind was strong and it was snowing, and it was cold! Time to get out of there, as the scree slope is treacherous enough on a calm, clear day.
Driving further north, I was delighted to see a convoy of maybe a dozen beautiful old cars heading in my direction. Couldn't resist, so I followed them when they turned off into a small picnic area. I asked if I could take a few quick photos and they were happy enough for me to do that. One car owner did comment about blurry photos because of the falling snow, but surprisingly my photos came out sharp enough.
Further on, I made a quick stop at another pull-off and was happy to notice a few mushrooms. When I turned around to head for home, I was even happier. I pulled over to take a photo of one of the mountain peaks. One tiny white speck in the distance, just off the road, caught my eye. When I went to check it out, I found myself staring at a little group of Shaggy Mane/Ink Cap mushrooms. The largest one had already started the process of curling up the rim of its cap and dripping a black ink. So much rain this year has resulted in such an amazing fungi season.
Much closer to home, I decided to take a side road that has such beautiful hill and mountain views. An old wooden barn was a welcome surprise - I don't remember seeing this one before.
So, a lovely day out, driving 320 km, with such a mixture of weather and sightings. So glad I did decide to go - as usual, a very last minute decision, but basically, I just need to grab my cameras and go : )
The wall of the Alps rises 1400m above the coastal town of Makarska.
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The area that was to become West Palm Beach was settled in the late 1870s and 1880s by a few hundred settlers who called the vicinity "Lake Worth Country." These settlers were a diverse community from different parts of the United States and the world. They included founding families such at the Potters and the Lainharts, who would go on to become leading members of the business community in the fledgling city. The first white settlers in Palm Beach County lived around Lake Worth, then an enclosed freshwater lake, named for Colonel William Jenkins Worth, who had fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida in 1842. Most settlers engaged in the growing of tropical fruits and vegetables for shipment the north via Lake Worth and the Indian River. By 1890, the U.S. Census counted over 200 people settled along Lake Worth in the vicinity of what would become West Palm Beach. The area at this time also boasted a hotel, the "Cocoanut House", a church, and a post office. The city was platted by Henry Flagler as a community to house the servants working in the two grand hotels on the neighboring island of Palm Beach, across Lake Worth in 1893, coinciding with the arrival of the Florida East Coast railroad. Flagler paid two area settlers, Captain Porter and Louie Hillhouse, a combined sum of $45,000 for the original town site, stretching from Clear Lake to Lake Worth.
On November 5, 1894, 78 people met at the "Calaboose" (the first jail and police station located at Clematis St. and Poinsettia, now Dixie Hwy.) and passed the motion to incorporate the Town of West Palm Beach in what was then Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). This made West Palm Beach the first incorporated municipality in Dade County and in South Florida. The town council quickly addressed the building codes and the tents and shanties were replaced by brick, brick veneer, and stone buildings. The city grew steadily during the 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century, most residents were engaged in the tourist industry and related services or winter vegetable market and tropical fruit trade. In 1909, Palm Beach County was formed by the Florida State Legislature and West Palm Beach became the county seat. In 1916, a new neo-classical courthouse was opened, which has been painstakingly restored back to its original condition, and is now used as the local history museum.
The city grew rapidly in the 1920s as part of the Florida land boom. The population of West Palm Beach quadrupled from 1920 to 1927, and all kinds of businesses and public services grew along with it. Many of the city's landmark structures and preserved neighborhoods were constructed during this period. Originally, Flagler intended for his Florida East Coast Railway to have its terminus in West Palm, but after the area experienced a deep freeze, he chose to extend the railroad to Miami instead.
The land boom was already faltering when city was devastated by the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. The Depression years of the 1930s were a quiet time for the area, which saw slight population growth and property values lower than during the 1920s. The city only recovered with the onset of World War II, which saw the construction of Palm Beach Air Force Base, which brought thousands of military personnel to the city. The base was vital to the allied war effort, as it provided an excellent training facility and had unparalleled access to North Africa for a North American city. Also during World War II, German U-Boats sank dozens of merchant ships and oil tankers just off the coast of West Palm Beach. Nearby Palm Beach was under black out conditions to minimize night visibility to German U-boats.
The 1950s saw another boom in population, partly due to the return of many soldiers and airmen who had served in the vicinity during the war. Also, the advent of air conditioning encouraged growth, as year-round living in a tropical climate became more acceptable to northerners. West Palm Beach became the one of the nation's fastest growing metropolitan areas during the 1950s; the city's borders spread west of Military Trail and south to Lake Clarke Shores. However, many of the city's residents still lived within a narrow six-block wide strip from the south to north end. The neighborhoods were strictly segregated between White and African-American populations, a legacy that the city still struggles with today. The primary shopping district remained downtown, centered around Clematis Street.
In the 1960s, Palm Beach County's first enclosed shopping mall, the Palm Beach Mall, and an indoor arena were completed. These projects led to a brief revival for the city, but in the 1970s and 1980s crime continued to be a serious issue and suburban sprawl continued to drain resources and business away from the old downtown area. By the early 1990s there were very high vacancy rates downtown, and serious levels of urban blight.
Since the 1990s, developments such as CityPlace and the preservation and renovation of 1920s architecture in the nightlife hub of Clematis Street have seen a downtown resurgence in the entertainment and shopping district. The city has also placed emphasis on neighborhood development and revitalization, in historic districts such as Northwood, Flamingo Park, and El Cid. Some neighborhoods still struggle with blight and crime, as well as lowered property values caused by the Great Recession, which hit the region particularly hard. Since the recovery, multiple new developments have been completed. The Palm Beach Mall, located at the Interstate 95/Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard interchange became abandoned as the downtown was revitalized - the very mall that initiated the original abandonment of the downtown. The mall was then redeveloped into the Palm Beach Fashion Outlets in February 2014. A station for All Aboard Florida, a high-speed passenger rail service serving Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, is under construction as of July 2015.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
Some of my long-time flickr friends know how much i love the ocean and the sand on the beach.
There is almost nothing better than taking a walk on the beach and smell the salty air. ♥
Thank you all for your always lovely, sometimes very funny and always so thoughtful comments.
I appreciate every single comment very much.
Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
Philadelphia :Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,1817-1918.
2023 appears to be the last year of existance for the De Wadden.
National Museums Merseyside plan to deconstruct this auxiliary vessel by the end of the year.
This will be the second preserved ship to be deconstructed (Why don't they use the word scrapped?) by the Merseyside Maritime Museum a decade or so ago the Weaver Packet WINCHAM was broken up.
The Museum appear to be planning a "contemplation space" which resembles a peculiar mausoleum in the bottom of the Graving Dock as part of a redevelopment of the area!!
Whilst there has been no money forthcoming for the restoration and maintenance of the DE WADDEN and also the WINCHAM millions of pounds have been poured into the Slavery Museum over the past two decades and the Museum of Liverpool was constructed a decade ago even though there was a perfectly adequate museum of Liverpool in William Brown Street.
More photographs of DE WADDEN can be found here: www.jhluxton.com/Shipping/Historic-Ships/De-Wadden/
The following notes are from Historic Ships:
DE WADDEN is a three-masted auxiliary schooner built in the Netherlands in 1917. She was built by Gebr Van Diepen of Waterhuizan, Netherlands, for the Nederlandsche Stoomvaart Maatschappij (Netherlands Steamship Company). This company commissioned DE WADDEN and her two sisters in order to take advantage of the very lucrative trading conditions created by Dutch neutrality in the First World War, and it is vessels like her which provided the foundation for the continuing Dutch strength in the European short-sea trades.
The world-wide shipping slump in the early 1920s forced her sale to Richard Hall of Arklow in the South of Ireland, and it is as an Irish Sea schooner that she is best remembered. From 1922 to 1961, DE WADDEN carried bulk cargoes such as grain, pit-props, china clay, mineral ores, and especially coal from the River Mersey to various Irish ports. Victor Hall, her longest serving Captain, commanded her from 1933 to 1954, and her finest hour was probably during the Second World War when she was one of a small handful of vessels which provided the vital lifeline of supplies to the Irish Republic, after many other ships had been taken up for the British war effort. Her crew consisted of only five men and a boy, and since she could sail, a qualified marine engineer was not required. She carried a motor winch in the forward deckhouse to allow the cargo to be handled without extensive shoreside facilities.
The motor was used almost all the time when she was under sail. This allowed the motor schooner to be built with a flat bottom and shallow draught for maximum cargo capacity together with the ability to enter small harbours. Without the push of the motor, this hull shape does not sail very well. Her original 125 hp 'SteyWal Dutch engine gave her a speed of five knots, but after a major failure was replaced by an 80hp Bolinder engine purchased from the Admiralty. In addition a 50 hp Kelvin engine was fitted on the port quarter to give additional power. These were both removed in January 1942 and replaced with a sic cylinder 150 hp Crossley DR diesel which was only replaced in turn by a 450 hp Caterpillar Diesel in 1980.
This combination of sail and motor remained economical up to the early 1960s when she finally had to retire in favour of a modern motor coaster. She was therefore sold in Dublin to Mr McSweeney who took her to Scotland for a new and varied career. Her tasks ranged from carrying sand to taking out fishing parties, and she even appeared in a number of films, including The Onedin Line for the BBC. She was eventually put up for sale by her last owner, Kenneth Kennedy of Dunoon, and purchased by the Merseyside Maritime Museum in 1984. In 1987 she was drydocked to allow an extensive program of conservation and restoration. In the early 1990s the Museum briefly ran some onboard tours and education sessions, before this was withdrawn to allow further necessary conservation work to take place.
In 2022, options were reviewed for De Wadden's future and in November a declaration of intent to deconstruct was formally published by National Museums Liverpool in conjunction with NHS-UK. For further details visit www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/news/nhs/declaration-int...
Update, May 2023:
National Museums Liverpool’s Board of Trustees has approved the recording and disposal by deconstruction of DE WADDEN. A team is now reviewing the various options to record the vessel, from photogrammetry, to exploring what elements of DE WADDEN might be suitable to retain as part of the Maritime Museum’s collections or for other potential use. National Museums Liverpool is also committed to the recycling of as much of the vessel’s materials as possible. Deconstruction, which will follow a programme set out by National Historic Ships for the responsible disposal of ships, is due to take place towards the end of 2023. Full statement: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/de-wadden
The Basilica of St. Lawrence, completed in 1905 is of a distinctive Catalan style with the tallest freestanding elliptical dome in North America. Asheville is a city and Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the most populous city in Western North Carolina. Print size 13x19 inches.
Known as the “City of the Two Seas”, Trapani is a port city in Western Sicily. Trapani has the shape of a sickle, Drepanon in Greek, and an enviable geographic location: between the two seas, at the foot of Mount Erice, in front of the Egadi Islands and the salt marshes (which you can see in the left of the foto).
Walking through the old town, the signs of the passage of various civilizations over the centuries are immediately evident, and all left architectural, artistic and monumental evidences. A distinctive Arab influence is seen in the white buildings of the city’s historic centre, just behind the port.
Thanks to its strategic position, ancient Drepanon (its original name) was initially the market outpost of Erice and subsequently a Phoenician trading port. It then became a Roman Province but the deepest imprint was left on the city by the subsequent three centuries of Arab domination.
The best way to savour the full charm of this city rich in art and history is to take a long leisurely walk.
The region of Trapani has a fascinating history: the Tyrrhenian and the Mediterranean sea meet right in front of the peninsula where the ancient “Drepanon” was founded – “drepanon” is a Greek word for “sickle”: the legend says that a sickle fell from the hands of Saturn and turned into the strip of land where the Elymians found Trapani. The city was once the port serving Erice, and became an important centre for the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and the Normans thanks to its strategic position.
The Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, Australia.
Sony FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS
16mm; 1/400 sec; f/8; ISO 100
On Day Seven of my Southwestern Adventure I had the pleasure of hiking out to The Wave! I got an early start before sunrise hoping I could at least get some alpenglow on some mountains...again the sunrise was uneventful. But this hike is killer with so many awesome things to see and shoot! I made a point to pick out spots to shoot on my hike back out.
They say it's only a three mile hike, but with some steep, rocky, and thick sand inclines, as well as some long, thick sandy trails, my little body felt it was more like six miles! It took me about an hour to get here as I stopped for a breakfast snack, to take a few shots, and simply enjoy the views. The weather was perfect...a bit chilly in the early morning and warming up for the day, but not unbearable.
The best part was that I had the hike in and the first 1/2 hour at The Wave all to myself! Then they came! There are only supposed to be 20 permits granted per day, but there seemed to be a few more and they all came nearly at the same time. There was a french couple with two kids who just didn't care what anyone else was doing or where! Their kids ran around climbing, slipping, and sliding on the rock faces getting in people's shots while the parents were oblivious. I hate that!!!
I didn't stay as long as I wanted or explore as much as I should have as I wanted to shoot on the way out and try to hike Wire Pass before dark. But I think I came away with a few nice comps and I'm already planning a return! :)
I promised myself that I would post one shot from each day of this trip before going on to something else. It's very hard to do especially since I have made three other trips since this one and have some nice shots to show for it, too! Only three more to go then I'll be all over the place again.
Thanks for stopping by for a look and a comment...as always it is much appreciated!
#157 in Explore ~ November 16, 2011
© Jean Day ~ Please see my profile page for prints and licensing.
Fox squirrels on campus at the University of Michigan. Taken on Thursday 11th, 2024, a cold and snowy day in Michigan. Wishing you joy, health, peace and warmth wherever you are.
Hestercombe House, Nr. Taunton, Somerset
Hestercombe House is nestled in the parish of West Monkton approx. 13 miles away from Taunton, Somerset. Originally built in the 16th century for the Warre family where it remained for approx. 400 years. The house was enlarged and changes were made, alas that work is no longer visible, due to extensive renovation work carried out in and around 1875. The house today is a mixture of different styles of architecture, Neoclassical, Italianate and French but pleasing to the eye.
Sometime in the 18th century a watermill was built, today this is now the visitor’s centre.
The garden when originally set out consisted of a grand cascade, a Gothic Alcove, a Tuscan Temple Arbour, several Ponds and a folly Mausoleum. A formal parterre was added in the 1870’s. Between 1904-1906, an Edwardian Garden was laid out by Gertrud Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens doyens of the Art and Crafts Movement.
Lutyens designed the Orangery (Grade 1 listed). The ‘Great Plat’ featured Gertrude Jekyll’s herbaceous planting. Unfortunately very little of this work exists today. By the early 1970’s the formal gardens were largely run down. It was then that Somerset CC along with the Fire Brigade that restoration work started. In 1995 a project to restore the Landscape garden, in 1998 The Great Plat was replanted. In the same year work on the Victorian Terrace commenced and the fountain repaired.
Another garden where each year more improvements have been completed to make it a great place to visit. This is the 1st of 2 postings.
“The Eye Moment photos by Nolan H. Rhodes”
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softly processed with one of my favorite and addictive texture brands, flypaper. Check out Jill's blog, stream, and group here:
flypapertextures.blogspot.com/
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Manufacturer: Imperial Division of Chrysler Corporation / Chrysler Group Limited Liability Company (LLC), Auburn Hills, Michigan - USA
Type: Crown Series YL43 4-door Hardtop Sedan
Production time: September 1969 - September 1970
Production outlet: 1,333
Engine: 7206cc Chrysler RB-series V-8 440 valve-in-head
Power: 350 bhp / 4.400 rpm
Torque: 651 Nm / 2.800 rpm
Drivetrain: rear wheels
Speed: 196 km/h
Curb weight: 2386 kg
Wheelbase: 127 inch
Chassis: Chrysler C-platform perimeter type ladder frame with 6 crossmembers and all-steel uni-body (by Chrysler)
Steering: integral power recirculating ball and nut PAS
Gearbox: Chrysler TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission / all synchromesh / steering column shift
Clutch: not applicable
Carburettor: Holley R-3918A 4-barrel downdraft
Fuel tank: 91 liter
Electric system: 12 Volts 70 Ah
Ignition system: distributor and coil
Brakes front: BUDD 11.7 inch hydraulic self-adjusting discs
Brakes rear: 11 inch hydraulic self-adjusting drums
Suspension front: independent upper triangular cross-bar, lower simple cross-bar with elastically mounted tension strut and chrome-steel longitudinal torsion spring bar, sway bar + Oriflow telescopic shock absorbers
Suspension rear: beam axle Hotchkiss type, rubber isolated semi-elliptic leaf springs + Oriflow telescopic shock absorbers
Rear axle: live semi-floating type
Differential: hypoid 2.94:1
Wheels: 15 inch steel discs
Tires: L78 - 15
Options: Bendix Anti-lock braking system (ABS), speed control device, Auto-Temp Air Conditioning, Dual Auto-Temp Air Conditioning, 6-Way power seats, leather bucket seats trimmed with vinyl, power vent windows, AM/FM Multiplex Stereo radio with Stereo tape player, AM/FM Golden Touch tuner radio, power antenna, power door locks, Tilt-A-Scope steering wheel, rear heater, defroster, tinted glass, automatic headlight dimmer, Safeguard Sentinel lightning, power trunk lid release, Sure-Grip differential, dual stripe whitewall fiberglass-belted tires, trailer-towing package,
two-tone colouring
Special:
- The Imperial name had been used since 1926, but was never a separate make, just the top-of-the-line Chrysler, until 1955 when it was launched and registered as a separate luxury marque.
- The new "Fuselage Look" with rounded "tumblehome" sides, bulging at the belt line, and tucking in down to the rocker panels was designed by Elwood Engel.
- This new styling made the cars look longer and wider and surrounded the passengers in a hull-like fashion, similar to an aircraft, hence the reference to "fuselage".
- The 1970 Imperial (Chrysler) Imperial Crown Series was available as this 4-door Hardtop and as 2-door YL23 Hardtop (254 units built).
- This fourth generation Crown (1969-1973) was assembled at the Jefferson Avenue Assembly, Detroit (Michigan - USA).
Recipe 1 of 50: Fireball Eggnog
I love a good eggnog, but mix it with some Fireball and you have yourself a winner.
I mix 1 oz of Fireball with 4 oz of eggnog, and it makes for a rather mild cinnamon and eggnog drink, just enough to give a little seasonal warmth but not enough to make your head spin.
But if you want a little more "warmth", just add a little more Fireball!
Nature gives us an amazing amount of wonders and within her bounty we find similarities upon which we decide to have reflections and those can lead us on to further investigation with wondrous revelations. The figure created by the silhouette of The Pentland Hills is an amazing sight and she can transform her image from different positions even appearing as if she is pregnant from one vantage. Here Mono and Colour are used to give a further insight into the Sleep Skyline Figure that may have been seen as a Goddess, as Geology in transition and also held so many regards that have been given and lost even as she is found in the landscape today and will with weathering and other developments over many, many years be seen as something vastly different than she appears today.
The Pentland Hills are magnificent and here is a share of their beauty.
I have been mentioning the weather lore of, “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight,” and now the mention is still reaching into the links below.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
Pentland Hills Regional Park
Red sky at night and other weather lore
www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/how-weat...
Matthew 16:2-3, King James Version
2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Gospel of Matthew 16:2-3, King James Version.
Making of a good shot - let down I think by the busy sky!
Still, like all things it was nice to go somewhere new, and Wimpole estate is fantastic. Nice trees and sweeping landscape. And a wonderful little folly hidden away at the back.
Going back without question.
Thanks to binliner for the tip.
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One of the phenomenal bronze sculptures sitting at the Delaire Graff Estate where we stayed a few nights. I will upload some other ones as well as his work is just breathtaking within the environment. This is the cheetahs pair with the Simonsberg mountains in the distance.
South African sculptor Dylan Lewis is forging the evolution of bronze. He was raised in a landscape of red soils rich in copper. His country offers some of the earliest evidence of man, such as the Cradle of Humankind, a Unesco world heritage site near Johannesburg. Here, hunters lived in caves, some of which contain bulbous, tumbling limestone stalactites — natural sculptures directly expressive of primeval forces, wrought through base material.
Lewis claims to be a man of not many spoken words but he communicates a great deal through his work, enlivening inanimate materials by pinch, smear and cut as he moulds clay models to be cast in bronze. “Clay is a highly malleable material that allows me to express emotion through my hands; clay is my voice. I can explain concepts and ideas in words but I seem only able to express emotion through my hands,” he says. Solid stone has a different resonance for him as, he adds, “it requires a slow steady struggle with a very resistant material, whereas clay, because it is so soft, allows me to scream, sob, smile and laugh”.
Each of his clay figures is translated with the use of a silicone rubber mould into a hollow wax copy. The wax model is then encased in a refractory ceramic and heated in a kiln, whereupon the wax oozes from the mould and leaves a cavity into which the molten bronze is poured. When the bronze has cooled the ceramic coat is chipped off to reveal a metal replica of the original clay sculpture, with Lewis’s marks and imprints intact. The possibilities for this ancient “lost wax” technique are as infinite as an artist’s imagination. That is, except for scale: molten bronze can only travel so far within a mould before it cools and hardens. The larger the mould, the more difficult, and expensive, it gets.
All of my images, unless marked otherwise, are available to buy.
If you like my work, you can enjoy it at a price you can afford.
You can buy any of my images as a high-quality print or for a small price as a background for your computer or mobile device.
Also available for commercial use.
Please contact me for details.
walksonwallsphotography@gmail.com
The copyright for all images belongs to me and permission must be obtained for use or modification of any kind.
Christmas mouse truffles. This year’s mice come with red tails. Black string Liquorice which I like to use for tails cannot be found.
The growth end of a kelp stalk shows how the floats and fronds emerge from very simple tabs of growth. The base of the fronds develop into a bulb and the frond itself differentiates from a smooth-plate of kelp into one with a mottled texture and spikes along the edges - had you ever wanted to know this.
This was taken at the northwest corner of Broadway and 98th Street.
Note: I chose this as my "photo of the day" for Aug 10, 2015.
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This is the continuation of a photo-project that I began in the summer of 2008 (which you can see in this Flickr set), and continued throughout 2009-2014 (as shown in this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set)), this Flickr set)), and this Flickr set)): a random collection of "interesting" people in a broad stretch of the Upper West Side of Manhattan -- between 72nd Street and 104th Street, especially along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. These are the people in my neighborhood, aka "peeps in the 'hood."
As I indicated when I first started this project six years ago, I don't like to intrude on people's privacy, so I normally use a zoom telephoto lens in order to photograph them while they're still 50-100 feet away from me; but that means I have to continue focusing my attention on the people and activities half a block away, rather than on what's right in front of me. Sometimes I find an empty bench on a busy street corner, and just sit quietly for an hour, watching people hustling past on the other side of the street; they're almost always so busy listening to their iPod, or talking on their cellphone, or daydreaming about something, that they never look up and see me aiming my camera in their direction.
I've also learned that, in many cases, the opportunities for an interesting picture are very fleeting -- literally a matter of a couple of seconds, before the person(s) in question move on, turn away, or stop doing whatever was interesting. So I've learned to keep my camera switched on, and not worry so much about zooming in for a perfectly-framed picture ... after all, once the digital image is uploaded to my computer, it's pretty trivial to crop out the parts unrelated to the main subject. Indeed, some of my most interesting photos have been so-called "hip shots," where I don't even bother to raise the camera up to my eye; I just keep the zoom lens set to the maximum wide-angle aperture, point in the general direction of the subject, and take several shots. As long as I can keep the shutter speed fairly high (which sometimes requires a fairly high ISO setting), I can usually get some fairly crisp shots -- even if the subject is walking in one direction, and I'm walking in the other direction, while I'm snapping the photos.
With only a few exceptions, I've generally avoided photographing bums, drunks, crazies, and homeless people. There are plenty of them around, and they would certainly create some dramatic pictures; but they generally don't want to be photographed, and I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of them. There have been a few opportunities to take some "sympathetic" pictures of such people, which might inspire others to reach out and help them. This is one example, and here is another example.
The other thing I've noticed, while carrying on this project for the past six years, is that while there are lots of interesting people to photograph, there are far, far, far more people who are not so interesting. They're probably fine people, and they might even be more interesting than the ones I've photographed ... unfortunately, there was just nothing memorable about them. They're all part of this big, crowded city; but for better or worse, there are an awful lot that you won't see in these Flickr sets of mine...