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Another year has elapsed since I last photographed the tango dancers gathering on Pier 45 (where Christopher Street runs into the Hudson River in New York City's West Village), on the weekend before Labor Day, late-August 2014. But the sun was shining one weekend in early June of 2015, and I decided to venture down to Greenwich Village once again...
As I've mentioned in other Flickr sets, I have now met a few of the dancers at previous tango event over the past several; years, and I used to make a point of introducing myself to some of them, handing out business cards with my Flickr address so that people would be able to find these pictures without too much difficulty. But the dancers have good reason to be more interested in the music, and the movement of their partners, than a guy on the sideline with a camera -- so most of them have simply ignored me…
Altogether, I've now taken a dozen sets of tango-related photos, and you can see a thumbnail overview of them in this Flickr collection. And if you'd like to watch some other examples NYC tango dancing, check out Richard Lipkin's Guide to Argentine Tango in New York City.
Even though the dancers seem fresh and enthusiastic each time I come down here to Pier 45, I have a definite sense of deja vu: arguably, I’ve seen it all, I’ve photographed it all, I’ve heard all the tango music several times before. So I decided to do something different this time: I took all of the photos with my iPhone6+ camera. I used the “burst mode” feature on the camera-phone, so even though I took some 4,000 separate images, there were only about 400 “bursts,” and the iPhone hardware was kind enough to tell me which one or two images were reasonably sharp in each burst. From that smaller subset, I was eventually able to whittle things down to 50 images that I thought were okay for uploading to Flickr; that’s what you’ll see here.
Actually, the reason I was motivated to do all of this was not Flickr, but Instagram: for reasons that I can only assume are a stubborn testament to the “culture” of its community, Instagram insists on a “square” format, rather than the 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratio favored by most DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras. Even worse, it insists that the photos be uploaded one-at-a-time from a mobile device. Ironically, this last restriction may prove to be too much; I’m uploading the photos to Flickr from my desktop Mac, but I don’t know if I’ll have the patience to upload them individually to Instagram…
Aside from that, I’ve concluded that the iPhone6+ is a handy little device for casual, ad hoc photos and videos; but it really doesn’t have the features I’ve come to depend on for the photos I want to publish. I won’t go into all of the technical details; chances are that you either don’t know, or don’t care, about those details. And if you do, chances are that you’ve made up your mind one way or another. As for me, I will definitely keep using the iPhone for some of my photos — especially the ones that really are casual, unplanned, ad hoc photos when I’ve got no other equipment that I can use. But with sophisticated little “pocket cameras” like the Sony RX-100 and Canon G7X, those moments are pretty rare for me … still, it was an interesting experiment.
As I've also pointed out in some previous Flickr albums, you can see a video version of the tango dancers from 2011, complete with music (which isn’t really tango music, but that’s okay), on my YouTube page; it’s here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqmnTQuwn54&list=UUUXim5Er2O4...
Iluminación de escaleras de plantas sótano. El separar 1 m el descanso de la escalera de los muros permite que la luz natural llegue hasta la segunda planta bajo la rasante.
This is a phosing photo. Katja was on the Photokina to offer National Geographics to visitors. As she saw me trying to make a portrait of her, she smiled kindly to me. I went to her and asked or she permitted me to make some portraits of her. She told me she was half German and half Russian. Thanks Katja for offering me your lovely and beautiful appearance. Hope to honour you with this photo.
(more details later, as time permits)
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When we first arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota for a family reunion in July 2015, we stayed at the main downtown “Alex Johnson” hotel; and we walked along Sixth Street to dinner that evening with two of our family members. On the way back after dinner, I happened to notice the garish glow of graffiti on a side alley next to the hotel, and I took a couple of quick photos in the twilight, thinking that it might be worth exploring in more detail the next day.
Indeed, I did go back for a quick second look the next morning, but then we had to pack up and check out of the hotel, in order to drive to the rendezvous point near Spearfish (near Deadwood and Sturgis, and in the general vicinity of Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills) where dozens of members of our extended family were planning to meet us. But when the reunion was over a few days later we drove back to Rapid City, and changed our hotel plans in order to stay at the Alex Johnson for one last night before our early flight back to New York City the next morning.
As a result, I had time for a much more thorough walk-through of the alley and its rich display of art on my final afternoon. I asked the front-desk clerk at the hotel if she knew anything about it, and she pointed me to a young man at the valet parking desk near the front entrance; there I learned that Rapid City is one of only three such spots in the country, where artist-inspired graffiti is not only tolerated, but legally allowed. Here is the website that explains more:
www.visitrapidcity.com/things-to-do/arts-culture/art-alle...
The Website provides much more detail, and in much more cogent form, than I could in these notes; so if you’re curious, I urge you to click on the link. But if you would like to see what the art looks like, in all its vivid colors, take a look at the images in this album.
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A couple years ago, I created Flickr album for photos that I had started taking with my iPhone5s, which I then followed up with a Flickr album of photos that I had taken with my iPhone6 and iPhone6+. This is a new vintage-2015 album for the ongoing photos and videos that I’m shooting with my iPhone 6/6+ … until the iPhone7 comes out this fall (drool, lust…)
In my first such album, I wrote, "Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, it’s hard to walk around with a modern smartphone in your pocket, and not be tempted to use the built-in camera from time-to-time. Veteran photographers typically sneer at such behavior, and most will tell you that they can instantly recognize an iPhone photo, which they mentally reject as being unworthy of any serious attention.
"After using many earlier models of smartphones over the past several years, I was inclined to agree; after all, I always (well, almost always) had a “real” camera in my pocket (or backpack or camera-bag), and it was always capable of taking a much better photographic image than the mediocre, grainy images shot with a camera-phone.
"But still … there were a few occasions when I desperately wanted to capture some photo-worthy event taking place right in front of me, and inevitably it turned out to be the times when I did not have the “real” camera with me. Or I did have it, but it was buried somewhere in a bag, and I knew that the “event” would have disappeared by the time I found the “real" camera and turned it on. By contrast, the smart-phone was always in my pocket (along with my keys and my wallet, it’s one of the three things I consciously grab every time I walk out the door). And I often found that I could turn it on, point it at the photographic scene, and take the picture much faster than I could do the same thing with a “traditional” camera.
"Meanwhile, smartphone cameras have gotten substantially better in the past few years, from a mechanical/hardware perspective; and the software “intelligence” controlling the camera has become amazingly sophisticated. It’s still not on the same level as a “professional” DSLR camera, but for a large majority of the “average” photographic situations we’re likely to encounter in the unplanned moments of our lives, it’s more and more likely to be “good enough.” The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have with you” is more and more relevant these days. For me, 90% of the success in taking a good photo is simply being in the right place at the right time, being aware that the “photo opportunity” is there, and having a camera — any camera — to take advantage of that opportunity. Only 10% of the time does it matter which camera I’m using, or what technical features I’ve managed to use.
"And now, with the recent advent of the iPhone5s, there is one more improvement — which, as far as I can tell, simply does not exist in any of the “professional” cameras. You can take an unlimited number of “burst-mode” shots with the new iPhone, simply by keeping your finger on the shutter button; instead of being limited to just six (as a few of the DSLR cameras currently offer), you can take 10, 20, or even a hundred shots. And then — almost magically — the iPhone will show you which one or two of the large burst of photos was optimally sharp and clear. With a couple of clicks, you can then delete everything else, and retain only the very best one or two from the entire burst.
"With that in mind, I’ve begun using my iPhone5s for more and more “everyday” photo situations out on the street. Since I’m typically photographing ordinary, mundane events, even the one or two “optimal” shots that the camera-phone retains might not be worth showing anyone else … so there is still a lot of pruning and editing to be done, and I’m lucky if 10% of those “optimal” shots are good enough to justify uploading to Flickr and sharing with the rest of the world. Still, it’s an enormous benefit to know that my editing work can begin with photos that are more-or-less “technically” adequate, and that I don’t have to waste even a second reviewing dozens of technically-mediocre shots that are fuzzy, or blurred.
"Oh, yeah, one other minor benefit of the iPhone5s (and presumably most other current brands of smartphone): it automatically geotags every photo and video, without any special effort on the photographer’s part. Only one of my other big, fat cameras (the Sony Alpha SLT A65) has that feature, and I’ve noticed that almost none of the “new” mirrorless cameras have got a built-in GPS thingy that will perform the geotagging...
"I’ve had my iPhone5s for a couple of months now, but I’ve only been using the “burst-mode” photography feature aggressively for the past couple of weeks. As a result, the initial batch of photos that I’m uploading are all taken in the greater-NYC area. But as time goes on, and as my normal travel routine takes me to other parts of the world, I hope to add more and more “everyday” scenes in cities that I might not have the opportunity to photograph in a “serious” way."
In September of 2014, I got the iPhone 6 and the 6+. They say that the camera is better, and that the internal camera-related hardware/firmware/software is better, too. Obviously, I’ve got the newer iOS, too, and even on the “old” phones, it now supports time-lapse videos along with everything else.
I’ve still got my pocket camera (an amazing little Canon G7X, which was an upgrade/replacement of an equally amazing Sony ERX-100 Mark III), and two larger cameras (Sony RX-10, and Sony A7), but I have a feeling that I won’t even be taking them out of the camera bag when I’m out on the street for ordinary day-to-day walking around.
Like I said last year, “stay tuned…"
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I'm spending the winter months of 2014-2015 in a warm spot on the beach in Indialantic, FL (if I have Internet access, it doesn't matter too much where I'm physically located).
I'm trying to get up about an hour before sunrise every morning, and be out on the beach for a morning walk just as the sun peeks up above the horizon.
On the very first morning, and every morning thereafter, I've immediately noticed that I was not the only person on the beach. There are joggers and walkers out getting their exercise, and *lots* of fishermen casting their lines out into the surf. But down by the 5th Avenue boardwalk -- where you can park your car and get a cup of coffee/latte/whatever from the local Starbucks -- there are lots and lots of people who clearly come down here just to watch the sunrise
These are some of the people... and some of the birds ...
An Air Force Lockheed Martin F-22 "Raptor" assigned to the 3rd Wing flies over Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Feb. 27, 2018. The Lockheed Martin F-22 "Raptor" is the U.S. Air Force’s premium fifth-generation fighter asset.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lockheed Martin F-22 "Raptor" is a fifth-generation, single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). The result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but also has ground attack, electronic warfare, and signal intelligence capabilities. The prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, built most of the F-22's airframe and weapons systems and conducted final assembly, while Boeing provided the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and training systems.
The aircraft was variously designated F-22 and F/A-22 before it formally entered service in December 2005 as the F-22A. Despite its protracted development and various operational issues, USAF officials consider the F-22 a critical component of the service's tactical air power. Its combination of stealth, aerodynamic performance, and situational awareness enable unprecedented air combat capabilities.
Service officials had originally planned to buy a total of 750 ATFs. In 2009, the program was cut to 187 operational production aircraft due to high costs, a lack of clear air-to-air missions due to delays in Russian and Chinese fighter programs, a ban on exports, and development of the more versatile F-35. The last F-22 was delivered in 2012.
Development
Origins
In 1981, the U.S. Air Force identified a requirement for an Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) to replace the F-15 "Eagle" and F-16 "Fighting Falcon". Code named "Senior Sky", this air-superiority fighter program was influenced by emerging worldwide threats, including new developments in Soviet air defense systems and the proliferation of the Su-27 "Flanker"- and MiG-29 "Fulcrum"-class of fighter aircraft. It would take advantage of the new technologies in fighter design on the horizon, including composite materials, lightweight alloys, advanced flight control systems, more powerful propulsion systems, and most importantly, stealth technology. In 1983, the ATF concept development team became the System Program Office (SPO) and managed the program at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The demonstration and validation (Dem/Val) request for proposals (RFP) was issued in September 1985, with requirements placing strong emphasis on stealth and supercruise. Of the seven bidding companies, Lockheed and Northrop were selected on 31 October 1986. Lockheed teamed with Boeing and General Dynamics while Northrop teamed with McDonnell Douglas, and the two contractor teams undertook a 50-month Dem/Val phase, culminating in the flight test of two technology demonstrator prototypes, the YF-22 and the YF-23, respectively.
Dem/Val was focused on risk reduction and technology development plans over specific aircraft designs. Contractors made extensive use of analytical and empirical methods, including computational fluid dynamics, wind-tunnel testing, and radar cross-section calculations and pole testing; the Lockheed team would conduct nearly 18,000 hours of wind-tunnel testing. Avionics development was marked by extensive testing and prototyping and supported by ground and flying laboratories. During Dem/Val, the SPO used the results of performance and cost trade studies conducted by contractor teams to adjust ATF requirements and delete ones that were significant weight and cost drivers while having marginal value. The short takeoff and landing (STOL) requirement was relaxed in order to delete thrust-reversers, saving substantial weight. As avionics was a major cost driver, side-looking radars were deleted, and the dedicated infra-red search and track (IRST) system was downgraded from multi-color to single color and then deleted as well. However, space and cooling provisions were retained to allow for future addition of these components. The ejection seat requirement was downgraded from a fresh design to the existing McDonnell Douglas ACES II. Despite efforts by the contractor teams to rein in weight, the takeoff gross weight estimate was increased from 50,000 lb (22,700 kg) to 60,000 lb (27,200 kg), resulting in engine thrust requirement increasing from 30,000 lbf (133 kN) to 35,000 lbf (156 kN) class.
Each team produced two prototype air vehicles for Dem/Val, one for each of the two engine options. The YF-22 had its maiden flight on 29 September 1990 and in flight tests achieved up to Mach 1.58 in supercruise. After the Dem/Val flight test of the prototypes, on 23 April 1991, Secretary of the USAF Donald Rice announced the Lockheed team as the winner of the ATF competition. The YF-23 design was considered stealthier and faster, while the YF-22, with its thrust vectoring nozzles, was more maneuverable as well as less expensive and risky. The aviation press speculated that the Lockheed team's design was also more adaptable to the U.S. Navy's Navalized Advanced Tactical Fighter (NATF), but by 1992, the Navy had abandoned NATF.
Production and procurement
As the program moved to full-scale development, or the Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) stage, the production version had notable differences from the YF-22, despite having a broadly similar shape. The swept-back angle of the leading edge was decreased from 48° to 42°, while the vertical stabilizers were shifted rearward and decreased in area by 20%. To improve pilot visibility, the canopy was moved forward 7 inches (18 cm), and the engine intakes moved rearward 14 inches (36 cm). The shapes of the wing and stabilator trailing edges were refined to improve aerodynamics, strength, and stealth characteristics. Increasing weight during development caused slight reductions in range and maneuver performance.
Prime contractor Lockheed Martin Aeronautics manufactured the majority of the airframe and performed final assembly at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia; program partner Boeing Defense, Space & Security provided additional airframe components as well as avionics integration and training systems. The first F-22, an EMD aircraft with tail number 4001, was unveiled at Marietta, Georgia, on 9 April 1997, and first flew on 7 September 1997. Production, with the first lot awarded in September 2000, supported over 1,000 subcontractors and suppliers from 46 states and up to 95,000 jobs, and spanned 15 years at a peak rate of roughly two airplanes per month. In 2006, the F-22 development team won the Collier Trophy, American aviation's most prestigious award. Due to the aircraft's advanced nature, contractors have been targeted by cyberattacks and technology theft.
The USAF originally envisioned ordering 750 ATFs at a total program cost of $44.3 billion and procurement cost of $26.2 billion in fiscal year (FY) 1985 dollars, with production beginning in 1994. The 1990 Major Aircraft Review led by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney reduced this to 648 aircraft beginning in 1996. By 1997, funding instability had further cut the total to 339, which was again reduced to 277 by 2003. In 2004, the Department of Defense (DoD) further reduced this to 183 operational aircraft, despite the USAF's preference for 381. A multi-year procurement plan was implemented in 2006 to save $15 billion, with total program cost projected to be $62 billion for 183 F-22s distributed to seven combat squadrons. In 2008, Congress passed a defense spending bill that raised the total orders for production aircraft to 187.
The first two F-22s built were EMD aircraft in the Block 1.0 configuration for initial flight testing, while the third was a Block 2.0 aircraft built to represent the internal structure of production airframes and enabled it to test full flight loads. Six more EMD aircraft were built in the Block 10 configuration for development and upgrade testing, with the last two considered essentially production quality jets. Production for operational squadrons consisted of 37 Block 20 training aircraft and 149 Block 30/35 combat aircraft; one of the Block 35 aircraft is dedicated to flight sciences at Edwards Air Force Base.
The numerous new technologies in the F-22 resulted in substantial cost overruns and delays. Many capabilities were deferred to post-service upgrades, reducing the initial cost but increasing total program cost. As production wound down in 2011, the total program cost is estimated to be about $67.3 billion, with $32.4 billion spent on Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) and $34.9 billion on procurement and military construction (MILCON) in then year dollars. The incremental cost for an additional F-22 was estimated at about $138 million in 2009.
Ban on exports
The F-22 cannot be exported under US federal law to protect its stealth technology and other high-tech features. Customers for U.S. fighters are acquiring earlier designs such as the F-15 "Eagle" and F-16 "Fighting Falcon" or the newer F-35 "Lightning II", which contains technology from the F-22 but was designed to be cheaper, more flexible, and available for export. In September 2006, Congress upheld the ban on foreign F-22 sales. Despite the ban, the 2010 defense authorization bill included provisions requiring the DoD to prepare a report on the costs and feasibility for an F-22 export variant, and another report on the effect of F-22 export sales on U.S. aerospace industry.
Some Australian politicians and defense commentators proposed that Australia should attempt to purchase F-22s instead of the planned F-35s, citing the F-22's known capabilities and F-35's delays and developmental uncertainties. However, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) determined that the F-22 was unable to perform the F-35's strike and close air support roles. The Japanese government also showed interest in the F-22 for its Replacement-Fighter program. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) would reportedly require fewer fighters for its mission if it obtained the F-22, thus reducing engineering and staffing costs. However, in 2009 it was reported that acquiring the F-22 would require increases to the Japanese government's defense budget beyond the historical 1 percent of its GDP. With the end of F-22 production, Japan chose the F-35 in December 2011. Israel also expressed interest, but eventually chose the F-35 because of the F-22's price and unavailability.
Production termination
Throughout the 2000s, the need for F-22s was debated, due to rising costs and the lack of relevant adversaries. In 2006, Comptroller General of the United States David Walker found that "the DoD has not demonstrated the need" for more investment in the F-22, and further opposition to the program was expressed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England, Senator John McCain, and Chairman of U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services Senator John Warner. The F-22 program lost influential supporters in 2008 after the forced resignations of Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force General T. Michael Moseley.
In November 2008, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that the F-22 was not relevant in post-Cold War conflicts such as irregular warfare operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in April 2009, under the new Obama Administration, he called for ending production in FY2011, leaving the USAF with 187 production aircraft. In July, General James Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated to the Senate Committee on Armed Services his reasons for supporting termination of F-22 production. They included shifting resources to the multirole F-35 to allow proliferation of fifth-generation fighters for three service branches and preserving the F/A-18 production line to maintain the military's electronic warfare (EW) capabilities in the Boeing EA-18G "Growler". Issues with the F-22's reliability and availability also raised concerns. After President Obama threatened to veto further production, the Senate voted in July 2009 in favor of ending production and the House subsequently agreed to abide by the 187 production aircraft cap. Gates stated that the decision was taken in light of the F-35's capabilities, and in 2010, he set the F-22 requirement to 187 aircraft by lowering the number of major regional conflict preparations from two to one.
In 2010, USAF initiated a study to determine the costs of retaining F-22 tooling for a future Service Life Extension Program (SLEP). A RAND Corporation paper from this study estimated that restarting production and building an additional 75 F-22s would cost $17 billion, resulting in $227 million per aircraft, or $54 million higher than the flyaway cost. Lockheed Martin stated that restarting the production line itself would cost about $200 million. Production tooling and associated documentation were subsequently stored at the Sierra Army Depot, allowing the retained tooling to support the fleet life cycle. There were reports that attempts to retrieve this tooling found empty containers, but a subsequent audit found that the tooling was stored as expected.
Russian and Chinese fighter developments have fueled concern, and in 2009, General John Corley, head of Air Combat Command, stated that a fleet of 187 F-22s would be inadequate, but Secretary Gates dismissed General Corley's concern. In 2011, Gates explained that Chinese fifth-generation fighter developments had been accounted for when the number of F-22s was set, and that the U.S. would have a considerable advantage in stealth aircraft in 2025, even with F-35 delays. In December 2011, the 195th and final F-22 was completed out of 8 test EMD and 187 operational aircraft produced; the aircraft was delivered to the USAF on 2 May 2012.
In April 2016, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee proposed legislation that would direct the Air Force to conduct a cost study and assessment associated with resuming production of the F-22. Since the production halt directed in 2009 by then Defense Secretary Gates, lawmakers and the Pentagon noted that air warfare systems of Russia and China were catching up to those of the U.S. Lockheed Martin has proposed upgrading the Block 20 training aircraft into combat-coded Block 30/35 versions as a way to increase numbers available for deployment. On 9 June 2017, the Air Force submitted their report to Congress stating they had no plans to restart the F-22 production line due to economic and operational issues; it estimated it would cost approximately $50 billion to procure 194 additional F-22s at a cost of $206–$216 million per aircraft, including approximately $9.9 billion for non-recurring start-up costs and $40.4 billion for aircraft procurement costs.
Upgrades
The first aircraft with combat-capable Block 3.0 software flew in 2001. Increment 2, the first upgrade program, was implemented in 2005 for Block 20 aircraft onward and enabled the employment of Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). Certification of the improved AN/APG-77(V)1 radar was completed in March 2007, and airframes from production Lot 5 onward are fitted with this radar, which incorporates air-to-ground modes. Increment 3.1 for Block 30 aircraft onward provided improved ground-attack capability through synthetic aperture radar mapping and radio emitter direction finding, electronic attack and Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) integration; testing began in 2009 and the first upgraded aircraft was delivered in 2011. To address oxygen deprivation issues, F-22s were fitted with an automatic backup oxygen system (ABOS) and modified life support system starting in 2012.
Increment 3.2 for Block 35 aircraft is a two-part upgrade process; 3.2A focuses on electronic warfare, communications and identification, while 3.2B includes geolocation improvements and a new stores management system to show the correct symbols for the AIM-9X and AIM-120D. To enable two-way communication with other platforms, the F-22 can use the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) as a gateway. The planned Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) integration was cut due to development delays and lack of proliferation among USAF platforms. The F-22 fleet is planned to start receiving Increment 3.2B as well as a software upgrade for cryptography capabilities and avionics stability in May 2019. A Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Joint (MIDS-J) radio that replaces the current Link-16 receive-only box is expected to be operational by 2020. Subsequent upgrades are also focusing on having an open architecture to enable faster future enhancements.
In 2024, funding is projected to begin for the F-22 mid-life upgrade (MLU), which is expected to include new sensors and antennas, hardware refresh, cockpit improvements, and a helmet mounted display and cuing system. Other enhancements being developed include IRST functionality for the AN/AAR-56 Missile Launch Detector (MLD) and more durable stealth coating based on the F-35's.
The F-22 was designed for a service life of 8,000 flight hours, with a $350 million "structures retrofit program". Investigations are being made for upgrades to extend their useful lives further. In the long term, the F-22 is expected to be superseded by a sixth-generation jet fighter to be fielded in the 2030s.
Design
Overview
The F-22 "Raptor" is a fifth-generation fighter that is considered fourth generation in stealth aircraft technology by the USAF. It is the first operational aircraft to combine supercruise, supermaneuverability, stealth, and sensor fusion in a single weapons platform. The F-22 has four empennage surfaces, retractable tricycle landing gear, and clipped delta wings with reverse trailing edge sweep and leading edge extensions running to the upper outboard corner of the inlets. Flight control surfaces include leading-edge flaps, flaperons, ailerons, rudders on the canted vertical stabilizers, and all-moving horizontal tails (stabilators); for speed brake function, the ailerons deflect up, flaperons down, and rudders outwards to increase drag.
The aircraft's dual Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 augmented turbofan engines are closely spaced and incorporate pitch-axis thrust vectoring nozzles with a range of ±20 degrees; each engine has maximum thrust in the 35,000 lbf (156 kN) class. The F-22's thrust-to-weight ratio at typical combat weight is nearly at unity in maximum military power and 1.25 in full afterburner. Maximum speed without external stores is approximately Mach 1.8 at military power and greater than Mach 2 with afterburners.
The F-22's high cruise speed and operating altitude over prior fighters improve the effectiveness of its sensors and weapon systems, and increase survivability against ground defenses such as surface-to-air missiles. The aircraft is among only a few that can supercruise, or sustain supersonic flight without using fuel-inefficient afterburners; it can intercept targets which subsonic aircraft would lack the speed to pursue and an afterburner-dependent aircraft would lack the fuel to reach. The F-22's thrust and aerodynamics enable regular combat speeds of Mach 1.5 at 50,000 feet (15,000 m). The use of internal weapons bays permits the aircraft to maintain comparatively higher performance over most other combat-configured fighters due to a lack of aerodynamic drag from external stores. The aircraft's structure contains a significant amount of high-strength materials to withstand stress and heat of sustained supersonic flight. Respectively, titanium alloys and composites comprise 39% and 24% of the structural weight.
The F-22's aerodynamics, relaxed stability, and powerful thrust-vectoring engines give it excellent maneuverability and energy potential across its flight envelope. The airplane has excellent high alpha (angle of attack) characteristics, capable of flying at trimmed alpha of over 60° while maintaining roll control and performing maneuvers such as the Herbst maneuver (J-turn) and Pugachev's Cobra. The flight control system and full-authority digital engine control (FADEC) make the aircraft highly departure resistant and controllable, thus giving the pilot carefree handling.
Stealth
The F-22 was designed to be highly difficult to detect and track by radar. Measures to reduce radar cross-section (RCS) include airframe shaping such as alignment of edges, fixed-geometry serpentine inlets and curved vanes that prevent line-of-sight of the engine faces and turbines from any exterior view, use of radar-absorbent material (RAM), and attention to detail such as hinges and pilot helmets that could provide a radar return. The F-22 was also designed to have decreased radio emissions, infrared signature and acoustic signature as well as reduced visibility to the naked eye. The aircraft's flat thrust-vectoring nozzles reduce infrared emissions of the exhaust plume to mitigate the threat of infrared homing ("heat seeking") surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles. Additional measures to reduce the infrared signature include special topcoat and active cooling of leading edges to manage the heat buildup from supersonic flight.
Compared to previous stealth designs like the F-117, the F-22 is less reliant on RAM, which are maintenance-intensive and susceptible to adverse weather conditions. Unlike the B-2, which requires climate-controlled hangars, the F-22 can undergo repairs on the flight line or in a normal hangar. The F-22 has a Signature Assessment System which delivers warnings when the radar signature is degraded and necessitates repair. While the F-22's exact RCS is classified, in 2009 Lockheed Martin released information indicating that from certain angles the aircraft has an RCS of 0.0001 m² or −40 dBsm – equivalent to the radar reflection of a "steel marble". Effectively maintaining the stealth features can decrease the F-22's mission capable rate to 62–70%.
The effectiveness of the stealth characteristics is difficult to gauge. The RCS value is a restrictive measurement of the aircraft's frontal or side area from the perspective of a static radar. When an aircraft maneuvers it exposes a completely different set of angles and surface area, potentially increasing radar observability. Furthermore, the F-22's stealth contouring and radar absorbent materials are chiefly effective against high-frequency radars, usually found on other aircraft. The effects of Rayleigh scattering and resonance mean that low-frequency radars such as weather radars and early-warning radars are more likely to detect the F-22 due to its physical size. However, such radars are also conspicuous, susceptible to clutter, and have low precision. Additionally, while faint or fleeting radar contacts make defenders aware that a stealth aircraft is present, reliably vectoring interception to attack the aircraft is much more challenging. According to the USAF an F-22 surprised an Iranian F-4 "Phantom II" that was attempting to intercept an American UAV, despite Iran's assertion of having military VHF radar coverage over the Persian Gulf.
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Merops apiaster
El abejaruco europeo o abejaruco común (Merops apiaster) es una especie de ave coraciforme de la familia Meropidae que
vive en Eurasia y África.
Se caracteriza por la policromía de su plumaje. Mide entre 25 y 29 cm de largo, y una envergadura alar entre 36 y 40 cm. Pesa entre 50 y 70 gr. Ave inconfundible por la multitud de colores que presenta: pecho azul, vientre verdoso, cabeza canela, cuello amarillo y la lista negra que adorna su ojo, pico típico de insectívoro, largo, fino y algo curvo.
En el año 1890 el naturalista Edward Wright realizó un estudio sobre la coloración de esta ave,5 llegando a la conclusión de que todos los colores excepto el rojo estaban presentes en su plumaje, el rojo no estaba presente en su plumaje pero sí en el iris de los ojos de los ejemplares adultos.
Su voz es un "priurr" o un "riiuup". Viven entre 5 y 10 años.
Descrito por Linneo en 1758 como Merops apiaster. Es una especie monotípica, es decir, sin subespecies reconocidas.
Alimentación
Posee un agudo sentido de la vista que le permite distinguir una abeja a aproximadamente veinte metros.[cita requerida] Suele escrudiñar los alrededores desde una atalaya sobre la que se posa en busca de insectos. Cuando divisa alguno que pasa cerca, se lanza sobre el y lo
pinza con el pico.
Sus presas preferidas son sobre todo abejas, pero no le desagrada ningún otro insecto volador: mariposas, libélulas, tábanos, avispas y abejorros. A estos últimos, una vez pinzados con el pico, los mata y después los golpea hasta que el aguijón se desprende para poderlos engullir.
Distribución y hábitat
Es un ave migratoria que cría en Europa, el norte de África y el oeste de Asia y que se desplaza al África subsahariana en invierno. Está presente en la península ibérica en época estival, desde finales de marzo y hasta finales de septiembre. No está presente en alta montaña por encima de los 1.500 m .
Existen teorías de que es una especie de origen tropical,[cita requerida] debido sobre todo a la variedad de colorido, puesto que las aves de las zonas templadas presentan coloraciones más discretas adaptadas a una función de camuflaje, con algunas excepciones como el martín pescador, la urraca o la oropéndola. Esto habría sido posible gracias a su facilidad para colonizar nuevos territorios como cortes en el terreno de vías ferroviarias, carreteras, autovías, etc.
Vive en zonas abiertas: cultivos, pastizales, con vegetación dispersa; que tengan cortados en las que pueda anidar.
Comportamiento
Es un ave gregaria y sociable. Suele posarse a descansar en los cables de tendido eléctrico, casi nunca en el suelo. Posee un vuelo acrobático, con aleteos rápidos y planeos.
Reproducción
Nidifica en los taludes del curso medio de los ríos y muy comúnmente en los taludes y terraplenes de las carreteras. Horada un agujero en la pendiente, de trayectoria oblicua de unos 20-30 grados respecto de la horizontal, que puede llegar a los 2 metros de longitud. Al final de dicho agujero acondiciona una pequeña cámara donde pone de 4 a 6 huevos blancos directamente en el suelo y que incuba entre 19 y 21 días.
Yesterday, 15 April 2015, my parking lot was going to be spring-cleaned, which meant that all cars had to be out of the lot by 7:30 am. I don't have a 2015 street parking permit, so I had to leave home at 7:30 and find something that would use up the few hours before my volunteer shift. I didn't want to risk being late for that, so decided to stay within the city rather than go driving some backroads. The owls in Fish Creek Park ended up being my destination. I had only been there twice in many weeks and seen Mom on my first visit and then Mom with two of her three owlets on the second. When I arrived yesterday morning, there was no sign of the "paparazzi" - I had been expecting there to be at least a few photographers and people out for a walk. This time, I was able to see all three owlets as well as Mom and Dad. Late afternoon, after my volunteer shift, I called in again for a while on my way home.
The strong shadow in this image was unfortunate, but at least most of this adult female Great Horned Owl's face is lit by sunshine. Not sure if her right eye is completely closed or, as is so often the case with an owl, one eye or both could be just the tiniest bit open.
This is a busy Mom with three young ones. Dad sits in one or other of the nearby trees, keeping careful watch over his mate and owlets. He hunts at night and brings food to the rest of his family.
"With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. This powerful predator can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also dines on daintier fare such as tiny scorpions, mice, and frogs. It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics.
Great Horned Owls are nocturnal. You may see them at dusk sitting on fence posts or tree limbs at the edges of open areas, or flying across roads or fields with stiff, deep beats of their rounded wings. Their call is a deep, stuttering series of four to five hoots." From AllAboutBirds.
Please take your time... to View it large on black
Few cities in the world fire the imagination like Bangkok. Ornate palaces that host royal processions, Buddhist temples that witness monks chanting ancient sutras, canals that lead to a maze of water markets, night bazaars that never sleep - have long proved a powerful magnet for travellers. In this sprawling metropolis, Banyan Tree Bangkok, a 5-star luxury hotel in Sathorn road, offers a spectacular rooftop restaurant and bar - Vertigo Grill & Moon Bar on the elevated 61th floor. The hostess Suritawa welcomes us with the hospitality Thailand is famous for.
Photo taken on the 62th floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel- Sathorn road in Bangkok at Vertigo Grill opening hours: 6.30pm - 11pm (weather permitting). Hostess Suritawa welcomes us.
De Moon Bar is de bar van het al fresco openlucht Vertigo-restaurant van het Banyan Tree Hotel, op de 62e topverdieping van de Thai Wah II Tower. Het is de op één na hoogste bar van Zuidoost-Azie en u heeft er een prachtig uitzicht over Bangkok. Als u romantisch wil cocktailen moet u hier zijn; bovendien liggen de prijzen van de drankjes hier rond het normale hotelbar-niveau. Je kunt er vanaf 17.00 uur terecht. Mooi, want dan maakt u de zonsondergang tussen 17.30 en 18.00 uur mee, als de miljarden lichtjes van Bangkok gaan fonkelen -een fascinerende aanblik. Je kunt in deze bar gerust aanschuiven om alleen iets te drinken. Het eten in de aanpalende Vertigo Grill is goed, naar Thaise maatstaven wel behoorlijk aan de prijs. Een diner voor twee kost zo'n 200 EUR inclusief de wijn. Maar ja, zo'n ambiance mag ook wat kosten!
Thx Burt Youngers for this Bangkok tip!
Our Daily Challenge ... weather permitting.
Another lovely relaxing evening walking along "The Spit" with Zeppy and another gorgeous sunset. Weather permitting we will do it again tomorrow!
This was the highlight and reason for my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024. This is stage 8 of 9.
I was lucky to secure permits for the once monthly photography tour of Kartchner Caverns. Kartchner Caverns State Park strictly forbids any cameras or cellphones in the Caverns. Except for one trip per month for 12 to 15 photographers currently $125. I planned a 4 day 3 night road trip around Southern Arizona anchored by my Kartchner Cavern permit.
I was expecting dark conditions. The State Park turned on all the lights in the Big Room. They don't like turning on all the lights since it can cause an increase in algae. This is the reason they only have one photography tour a month.
I found myself adjusting my histograms to not clip the highlights. Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome. Next time I am going to bracket my shots. I almost wish I had brought a ND filter or tried a handheld GND filter.
I don't know speleothems so I won't even try to identify. If anyone can help me with the identification, I will appreciate it.
www.nps.gov/subjects/caves/speleothems.htm#:~:text=The%20...)%20when%20needed.
The features that arouse the greatest curiosity for most cave visitors are speleothems. These stone formations exhibit bizarre patterns and other-worldly forms, which give some caves a wonderland appearance. Caves vary widely in their displays of speleothems because of differences in temperature; overall wetness; and jointing, impurities, and structures in the rocks. In general, however, one thing caves do have in common is where speleothems form. Although the formation of caves typically takes place below the water table in the zone of saturation, the deposition of speleothems is not possible until caves are above the water table in the zone of aeration. As soon as the chamber is filled with air, the stage is set for the decoration phase of cave building to begin.
The term speleothem refers to the mode of occurrence of a mineral—i.e., its morphology or how it looks—in a cave, not its composition (Hill, 1997). For example, calcite, the most common cave mineral, is not a speleothem, but a calcite stalactite is a speleothem. A stalactite may be made of other minerals, such as halite or gypsum.
Classifying speleothems is tricky because no two speleothems are exactly alike. Nevertheless, speleologists have taken three basic approaches: classification by morphology, classification by origin, and classification by crystallography. All three of these approaches have their problems (Hill, 1997), so cavers often take a more practical approach that primarily uses morphology (e.g., cave pearls) but includes whatever is known about origin (e.g., geysermites) and crystallography (e.g., spar) when needed.
nocache.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/southern/articles/20...
The Kartchner Caverns, rated one of the world's 10 most beautiful caves, is an eerie wonderland of stalactites and stalagmites still growing beneath the Whetstone Mountains 40 miles southeast of Tucson.
The limestone cave has 13,000 feet of passages and hundreds of formations built over the past 200,000 years, including some that are unique and world-renowned. It's a "living cave," with intricate formations that continue to grow as water seeps, drips and flows from the walls and slowly deposits the mineral calcium carbonate.
The caverns were discovered by amateur spelunkers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen in 1974 on land owned by the Kartchner family. They kept the cave a secret until 1988, when the Kartchners sold it to the state to become a state park.
The highlights of the Big Room tour are a stretch of strawberry flowstone, which has been colored red by iron oxide (rust) in the water, and a maternity ward for 1,800 female cave myotis bats, with black grime on the ceiling where the bats hang and piles of guano on the floor. Visitors who look closely will see a bat's body embedded in one of the cave's formations.
Though not all are available on the tours, the caverns' unique features include a 21-foot, 2-inch soda straw that's one the world's largest (Throne Room), the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room), the first reported occurrence of "turnip" shields (Big Room), the first cave occurrence of "birdsnest" needle quartz formations (Big Room) and the remains of a Shasta ground sloth from the Pleistocene Age (Big Room).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park
Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages.[1] The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.
The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains.
The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance, initially established by founder Dr. Bruce Randall "Randy" Tufts, geologist, were designed to protect and preserve the cave system throughout the park's development, and for perpetuity.[3]
The two major features of the caverns accessible to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest (21 ft 2 in (6.45 m))[5] soda straw stalactites and a 58-foot (18 m) high column called Kubla Khan, after the poem. The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk. Big Room cave tours are closed during the summer for several months (April 15 to October 15) each year because it is a nursery roost for cave bats, however the Throne Room tours remain open year-round.[8]
Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage. Approximately 60% of the cave system is not open to the public.[9]
Many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include cave bacon, helictites, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites and others.[12] Cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years.[13]
Haiku thoughts:
Beneath earth's cool veil,
Stalactites in silence grow,
Whispers of stone deep.
Kartchner
Southern Arizona Adventure 2024
Spain, a Catholic nation, controlled Florida prior to 1821, and did not permit open congregations of Protestantism. The transfer of Florida to the United States in 1821 opened the door for Protestant churches to establish a presence in Pensacola.
On December 7 of that year, the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Church, in session at Washington, Mississippi, established a mission to Pensacola; the Reverend Dr. Alexander Talley was appointed as the mission's first pastor. Talley served for about a year before being relieved by Rev. Ashley Hewett, who in turn was succeeded by Rev. Dr. Henry P. Cook. Without a permanent home, church services were held in public buildings as well as in a theatre. The March 20, 1824 issue of the Pensacola Gazette mentions a service held at the courthouse.
Rev. Dr. Cook died of yellow fever in the fall of 1825, and was replaced by Rev. Dr. John R. Lambuth, but Rev. Lambuth's tenure did not last long, for the mission was transferred to the South Carolina Methodist Conference in 1826. It was during the service of the next pastor, Rev. Dr. Charles Hardy, that the South Carolina conference approved funds for construction of a permanent home for the church.
Stephen Fagin Fulghum was chosen to build the new sanctuary; the cornerstone was laid on October 14, 1908. Services were held at Hannah Hall on Romana Street until the current building was completed in 1910. The first service was held at the completed church on October 30, 1910.
Between 1997-99, the sanctuary was renovated; its roof was replaced, its sandstone walls were cleaned with acid, and restoration work was carried out on its stained glass windows. Due to damage from Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the sanctuary roof was once again replaced in 2005.
In 2002, a new pipe organ was dedicated; the organ is "the largest and most comprehensive pipe organ in [the] area with 73 ranks of pipes and weighing some 50,000 pounds. This organ consists of a four-manual and pedal ebony console, a solid white oak case plus 4,153 pipes."
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) patiently listening and waiting for some rustling of the grasses at the base of the perch by a rodent. This is in the boreal fringe near Thorhild, Alberta, Canada.
30 October, 2018.
Number 1 - Explore May 2, 2019
Slide # GWB_20181030_5568.CR2
Use of this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission is not permitted.
© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
This was taken at the northwest corner of Broadway and 92nd Street
(more details later, as time permits)
*********************************
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...
The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is also known as Clochán an Aifir or Clochán na bhFomhórach in Irish and tha Giant's Causey in Ulster-Scots.
It is located in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a national nature reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places.
Much of the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is today owned and managed by the National Trust and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland. The remainder of the site is owned by the Crown Estate and a number of private landowners.
Geology
Around 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleogene Period, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled, contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillarlike structures, which are also fractured horizontally into "biscuits". In many cases the horizontal fracture has resulted in a bottom face that is convex while the upper face of the lower segment is concave, producing what are called "ball and socket" joints. The size of the columns is primarily determined by the speed at which lava from a volcanic eruption cools. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today. The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau which formed during the Paleogene.
Legend
According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he. Fionn's wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the 'baby', he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this.
In overall Irish mythology, Fionn mac Cumhaill is not a giant but a hero with supernatural abilities. In Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) it is noted that, over time, "the pagan gods of Ireland [...] grew smaller and smaller in the popular imagination, until they turned into the fairies; the pagan heroes grew bigger and bigger, until they turned into the giants". There are no surviving pre-Christian stories about the Giant's Causeway, but it may have originally been associated with the Fomorians (Fomhóraigh); the Irish name Clochán na bhFomhóraigh or Clochán na bhFomhórach means "stepping stones of the Fomhóraigh". The Fomhóraigh are a race of supernatural beings in Irish mythology who were sometimes described as giants and who may have originally been part of a pre-Christian pantheon.
Tourism
The discovery of the Giant's Causeway was announced to the wider world in 1693 by the presentation of a paper to the Royal Society from Sir Richard Bulkeley, a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, although the discoverer had, in fact, been the Bishop of Derry who had visited the site a year earlier. The site received international attention when Dublin artist Susanna Drury made watercolour paintings of it in 1739; they won Drury the first award presented by the Royal Dublin Society in 1740 and were engraved in 1743. In 1765 an entry on the Causeway appeared in volume 12 of the French Encyclopédie, which was informed by the engravings of Drury's work; the engraving of the "East Prospect" itself appeared in a 1768 volume of plates published for the Encyclopédie.[15] In the caption to the plates French geologist Nicolas Desmarest suggested, for the first time in print, that such structures were volcanic in origin.
The site first became popular with tourists during the nineteenth century, particularly after the opening of the Giant's Causeway Tramway, and only after the National Trust took over its care in the 1960s were some of the vestiges of commercialism removed. Visitors can walk over the basalt columns which are at the edge of the sea, a half-mile walk from the entrance to the site.
Visitors' centre
The Causeway was without a permanent visitors' centre between 2000 and 2012, as the previous building, built in 1986, burned down in 2000. Public money was set aside to construct a new centre and, following an architectural competition, a proposal was accepted to build a new centre, designed by Dublin architectural practice Heneghan Peng, which was to be set into the ground to reduce impact to the landscape. A privately financed proposal was given preliminary approval in 2007 by the Environment Minister and DUP member Arlene Foster. However, the public money that had been allocated was frozen as a disagreement developed about the relationship between the private developer Seymour Sweeney and the DUP. It was also debated whether a private interest should be permitted to benefit from the site – given its cultural and economic importance and as it is largely owned by the National Trust. Coleraine Borough Council voted against the private plans and in favour of a public development project, and Moyle District Council similarly signalled its displeasure and gave the land on which the previous visitors' centre stood to the National Trust. This gave the Trust control of both the Causeway and surrounding land. Ultimately Mr. Sweeney dropped a legal challenge to the publicly funded plan.
The new visitor centre was officially opened by First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in July 2012, with funding having been raised from the National Trust, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, the Heritage Lottery Fund and public donations. Since opening, the new visitor centre has garnered very mixed reviews from those visiting the Causeway for its pricing, design, contents and placement across the causeway walk descent.
There was some controversy regarding the content of some exhibits in the visitor centre, which refer to the Young Earth Creationist view of the age of the Earth. While these inclusions were welcomed by the chairman of the Northern Irish evangelical group, the Caleb Foundation, the National Trust stated that the inclusions formed only a small part of the exhibition and that the Trust "fully supports the scientific explanation for the creation of the stones 60 million years ago." An online campaign to remove creationist material was launched in 2012, and following this, the Trust carried out a review and concluded that they should be amended to have the scientific explanation on the causeway's origin as their primary emphasis. Creationist explanations are still mentioned, but presented as a traditional belief of some religious communities rather than a competing explanation for the causeway's origins.
title.
Unnamed street. Morning.
Several pieces from tomorrow.
I will return to Italy. They are 2005.
:)
It is unpublished.
:)
Paris. France. 2012. shot … 6 / 6
(Today's picture. That's unannounced.)
( ( Lumix G3 shot ) )
Images.
Zepherin Saint & Miranda Nicole … Butterflies (Tribe Vocal Mix)
Do you want to hear my voice?
:)
I updated Youtube.
It is only in Japanese.
I explained comments on photos etc.
If your time is permitted, please look.
:)
1
About the composition of the picture posted to Flicker. First type.
2
About the composition of the picture posted to Flicker. Second type.
3
About when I started Fotolog. Architect 's point of view.
Four
Why did not you have a camera so far?
Five
What is the coolest thing? The photo is as it is.
6
About the current YouTube bar. I also want to tell, I want to leave.
7
About Japanese photographers. Japanese YouTube bar is Pistols.
8
The composition of the photograph is sensibility. Meet the designers in Milan. Two questions.
9
What is a good composition? What is a bad composition?
Ten
What is the time to point the camera? It is slow if you are looking into the viewfinder or display.
11
Family photos. I can not take pictures with others. The inside of the subject.
12
About YouTube 's photographer. Camera technology etc. Sensibility is polished by reading books.
13
About the Japanese newspaper. A picture of a good newspaper is Reuters. If you continue to look at useless photographs, it will be useless.
14
About Japanese photographers. About the exhibition.
Summary. I wrote a novel etc. What I want to tell the most.
_________________________________
_________________________________
Profile.
In November 2014, we caught the attention of the party selected to undertake the publicity for a mobile phone that changed the face of the world with just a single model, and will conclude a confidentiality agreement with them.
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/03/tokyo-big-s...
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Interviews and novels.
About my book.
I published a book in old days.
At that time, I was uploading my interview on the net on the net.
That Japanese and English.
I will make it public for free.
Details were explained to the Amazon site.
How to write a novel.
How to take pictures.
Distance to the work.
They all have a common item.
I made a sentence about what I felt, and left it.
I hope that my text can be read by many people.
Thank you.
Mitsushiro.
1 Interview in English
「interview_eng.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
2 novels. unforgettable 'English version.(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
「novel_unforgettable_eng.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
3 Interview Japanese version
drive.google.com/file/d/1w5l2hrV5a6lraDiC_Lz2tG_HqatqUCO5...
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
4 novels. unforgettable ' JPN version.
「novel_unforgettable_jpn.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
5 A streamlined trajectory. only Japanese.
「streamlined_trajectory.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
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iBooks. Electronic Publishing. It is free now.
0.about the iBooks.
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2017/03/about-digit...
1.unforgettable '(ENG.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216576828?ls=1&...
2.unforgettable '(JNP.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216584262?ls=1&...
3. Streamlined trajectory.(For Japanese only.)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/%E6%B5%81%E7%B7%9A%E5%BD%A2%E3%8... =11
_________________________________
_________________________________
My Novel >> Unforgettable'
(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
Mitsushiro Nakagawa
All Translated by Yumi Ikeda .
images.
U2 - No Line On The Horizon Live in Dublin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related
There are two reasons why a person faces the sea.
One, to enjoy a slice of shine in the sea like children bubbling over in the beach.
The other, to brush the dust of memory like an old man who misses old days, staring at the shine
quietly.
Those lead to only one meaning though they do not seem to overlap. It’s a rebirth.
I face myself to change tomorrow, a vague day into something certain.
That is the meaning of a rebirth.
I had a very sweet girlfriend when I was 18.
After she left, I knew the meaning of gentleness for the first time and also a true pain of loss. After
she left, how many times did I depend too much on her, doubt her, envy her and keep on telling lies
until I realized it is love?
I wonder whether a nobody like me could have given something to her who was struggling in the
daily life in those days. Giving something is arrogant conceit. It is nothing but self-satisfaction.
I had been thinking about such a thing.
However, I guess what she saw in me was because I had nothing. That‘s why she tried to see
something in me. Perhaps she found a slight possibility in me, a guy filled with ambiguous, unstable
tomorrow. But I wasted days depending too much on her gentleness.
Now I finally can convey how I felt in those days when we met.
1/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24577016535/in/dateposted...
2/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24209330259/in/dateposted...
3/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/23975215274/in/dateposted...
4/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24515964952/in/dateposted...
5/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24276473749/in/dateposted...
6/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24548895082/in/dateposted...
7/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24594603711/in/dateposted...
8/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24588215562/in/dateposted...
9/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24100804163/in/dateposted...
Fin.
images.
U2 - No Line On The Horizon
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related
_________________________________
_________________________________
Title of my book > unforgettable'
Author : Mitsushiro Nakagawa
Out Now.
ISBN978-4-86264-866-2
in Amazon.
www.amazon.co.jp/Unforgettable’-Mitsushiro-Nakagawa/dp/...
_________________________________
_________________________________
The schedule of the next novel.
Still would stand all time. (Unforgettable '2)
(It will not go away forever)
Please give me some more time. That is Japanese.
_________________________________
_________________________________
An exhibition in 2019.
spring.
theme.
Silence Is the Way. (Tentative title)
place. Tokyo Big Site.
Sponsoring. Design festa.
2020.
Date unknown.
DIC Kawamura Memorial Art Museum attached gallery.
place. Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture.
theme.
From that day, forever ...
_________________________________
_________________________________
flickr.
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/
_________________________________
_________________________________
YouTube.
_________________________________
_________________________________
instagram.
www.instagram.com/mitsushiro_nakagawa/
_________________________________
_________________________________
Pinterest.
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
fotolog
_________________________________
_________________________________
twitter.
_________________________________
_________________________________
facebook.
www.facebook.com/mitsushiro.nakagawa
_________________________________
_________________________________
Do you want to hear my voice?
:)
I updated Youtube.
It is only in Japanese.
I explained comments on photos etc.
If your time is permitted, please look.
:)
1
About the composition of the picture posted to Flicker. First type.
2
About the composition of the picture posted to Flicker. Second type.
3
About when I started Fotolog. Architect 's point of view.
Four
Why did not you have a camera so far?
Five
What is the coolest thing? The photo is as it is.
6
About the current YouTube bar. I also want to tell, I want to leave.
7
About Japanese photographers. Japanese YouTube bar is Pistols.
8
The composition of the photograph is sensibility. Meet the designers in Milan. Two questions.
9
What is a good composition? What is a bad composition?
Ten
What is the time to point the camera? It is slow if you are looking into the viewfinder or display.
11
Family photos. I can not take pictures with others. The inside of the subject.
12
About YouTube 's photographer. Camera technology etc. Sensibility is polished by reading books.
13
About the Japanese newspaper. A picture of a good newspaper is Reuters. If you continue to look at useless photographs, it will be useless.
14
About Japanese photographers. About the exhibition.
Summary. I wrote a novel etc. What I want to tell the most.
_________________________________
_________________________________
Japanese is the following.
_________________________________
_________________________________
タイトル。
名前のない通りの朝。
明日から数枚。
僕はイタリアへ戻します。それらは２００５年です。
:)
未発表です。
:)
次の小説のイメージ。
Still would stand all time.(unforgettable'2)
（いつまでもなくならないだろう）
Paris. France. 2012. shot … 6 / 6
(Today's picture. That's unannounced.)
(( Lumix G3 shot ))
Images.
Zepherin Saint & Miranda Nicole … Butterflies (Tribe Vocal Mix)
あなたは僕の声を聞きたいですか？
:)
僕はYoutubeを更新しました。
日本語だけです。
僕は写真などの解説をしました。
もしも、あなたの時間が許されれば、見てください。
:)
1
フリッカーへ投稿した写真の構図について。１種類目。
2
フリッカーへ投稿した写真の構図について。２種類目。
3
Fotologを始めた時について。 建築家の視点。
4
なぜ、今までカメラを手にしなかったのか？
5
何が一番かっこいいのか？ 写真はありのままに。
6
現在のユーチューバーについて。僕も伝え、残したい。
7
日本人の写真家について。日本のユーチューバーはピストルズ。
8
写真の構図は、感性。ミラノのデザイナーに会って。二つの質問。
9
良い構図とは？ 悪い構図とは？
10
カメラを向ける時とは？ ファインダーやディスプレイを覗いていては遅い。
11
家族写真。他人では撮れない。被写体の内面。
12
ユーチューブの写真家について。カメラの技術等。感性は、本を読むことで磨く。
13
日本の新聞について。良い新聞の写真はロイター。ダメな写真を見続けるとダメになる。
14
日本の写真家について。その展示について。
まとめ。僕が書いた小説など。僕が最も伝えたいこと。
_________________________________
_________________________________
プロフィール。
2014年11月、たった1機種で世界を塗り替えた携帯電話の広告を請け負った選考者の目に留まり、秘密保持同意書を結ぶ。
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/03/tokyo-big-s...
_________________________________
_________________________________
インタビューと小説。
僕の本について。
僕は、昔に本を出版しました。
その際に、僕のインタビューをPDFでネット上へアップロードしていました。
その日本語と英語。
僕は、無料でを公開します。
詳細は、アマゾンのサイトへ解説しました。
小説の書き方。
写真の撮影方法。
作品への距離感。
これらはすべて共通項があります。
僕は、僕が感じたことを文章にして、残しました。
僕のテキストが多くの人に読んでもらえることを望みます。
ありがとう。
Mitsushiro.
１ インタビュー 英語版
「interview_eng.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
２ 小説。unforgettable’ 英語版。
「novel_unforgettable_eng.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
３ インタビュー 日本語版
drive.google.com/file/d/1w5l2hrV5a6lraDiC_Lz2tG_HqatqUCO5...
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
４ 小説。unforgettable’ 日本語版。(この小説は未来のアーティストへ捧げます)
「novel_unforgettable_jpn.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
５ 流線形の軌跡。 日本語のみ。
「streamlined_trajectory.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
_________________________________
_________________________________
iBooks.電子出版。（現在は無料）
0.about the iBooks.
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2017/03/about-digit...
1.unforgettable’ ( ENG.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216576828?ls=1&...
For Japanese only.
2.unforgettable’ ( JNP.ver.)(この小説は未来のアーティストへ捧げます)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216584262?ls=1&...
3.流線形の軌跡。
itunes.apple.com/us/book/%E6%B5%81%E7%B7%9A%E5%BD%A2%E3%8...
_________________________________
_________________________________
僕の小説。英語版
My Novel Unforgettable' (This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
Mitsushiro Nakagawa
All Translated by Yumi Ikeda .
1/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24577016535/in/dateposted...
2/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24209330259/in/dateposted...
3/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/23975215274/in/dateposted...
4/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24515964952/in/dateposted...
5/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24276473749/in/dateposted...
6/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24548895082/in/dateposted...
7/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24594603711/in/dateposted...
8/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24588215562/in/dateposted...
9/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24100804163/in/dateposted...
Fin.
images.
U2 - No Line On The Horizon Live in Dublin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related
_________________________________
_________________________________
Title of my book > unforgettable'
Author : Mitsushiro Nakagawa
Out Now.
ISBN978-4-86264-866-2
in Amazon.
www.amazon.co.jp/Unforgettable’-Mitsushiro-Nakagawa/dp/...
_________________________________
_________________________________
次の小説の予定。
Still would stand all time.(unforgettable'2)
（いつまでもなくならないだろう）
もう少し時間をください。それは日本語です。
_________________________________
_________________________________
２０１９年の展示。
春。
テーマ。
Silence Is the Way.(仮題)
場所。東京ビッグサイト。
Sponsoring. Design festa.
２０２０年。
日時未定。
DIC川村記念美術館付属ギャラリー。
場所。千葉県佐倉市。
テーマ。
あの日から、ずっと…
_________________________________
_________________________________
flickr.
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/
_________________________________
_________________________________
YouTube.
_________________________________
_________________________________
instagram.
www.instagram.com/mitsushiro_nakagawa/
_________________________________
_________________________________
Pinterest.
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
fotolog
_________________________________
_________________________________
twitter.
_________________________________
_________________________________
facebook.
www.facebook.com/mitsushiro.nakagawa
_________________________________
_________________________________
あなたは僕の声を聞きたいですか？
:)
僕はYoutubeを更新しました。
日本語だけです。
僕は写真などの解説をしました。
もしも、あなたの時間が許されれば、見てください。
:)
1
フリッカーへ投稿した写真の構図について。１種類目。
2
フリッカーへ投稿した写真の構図について。２種類目。
3
Fotologを始めた時について。 建築家の視点。
4
なぜ、今までカメラを手にしなかったのか？
5
何が一番かっこいいのか？ 写真はありのままに。
6
現在のユーチューバーについて。僕も伝え、残したい。
7
日本人の写真家について。日本のユーチューバーはピストルズ。
8
写真の構図は、感性。ミラノのデザイナーに会って。二つの質問。
9
良い構図とは？ 悪い構図とは？
10
カメラを向ける時とは？ ファインダーやディスプレイを覗いていては遅い。
11
家族写真。他人では撮れない。被写体の内面。
12
ユーチューブの写真家について。カメラの技術等。感性は、本を読むことで磨く。
13
日本の新聞について。良い新聞の写真はロイター。ダメな写真を見続けるとダメになる。
14
日本の写真家について。その展示について。
まとめ。僕が書いた小説など。僕が最も伝えたいこと。
_________________________________
_________________________________
Japanese is the following.
_________________________________
_________________________________
Alpine meadow and the remnants of fall colours at the top of the summit along Mt. Rose Highway 431 northwest of Incline, Nevada along the shores of Lake Tahoe.
19 October, 2017.
Slide # GWB_20171019_8551.CR2
Use of this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission is not permitted.
© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
This was taken Inside Tompkins Sq Park
(more details later, as time permits)
***************
This set of photos is based on a very simple concept: walk every block of Manhattan with a camera, and see what happens. To avoid missing anything, walk both sides of the street.
That's all there is to it …
Of course, if you wanted to be more ambitious, you could also walk the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. But that's more than I'm willing to commit to at this point, and I'll leave the remaining boroughs of New York City to other, more adventurous photographers.
Oh, actually, there's one more small detail: leave the photos alone for a month -- unedited, untouched, and unviewed. By the time I actually focus on the first of these "every-block" photos, I will have taken more than 8,000 images on the nearby streets of the Upper West Side -- plus another several thousand in Rome, Coney Island, and the various spots in NYC where I traditionally take photos. So I don't expect to be emotionally attached to any of the "every-block" photos, and hope that I'll be able to make an objective selection of the ones worth looking at.
As for the criteria that I've used to select the small subset of every-block photos that get uploaded to Flickr: there are three. First, I'll upload any photo that I think is "great," and where I hope the reaction of my Flickr-friends will be, "I have no idea when or where that photo was taken, but it's really a terrific picture!"
A second criterion has to do with place, and the third involves time. I'm hoping that I'll take some photos that clearly say, "This is New York!" to anyone who looks at it. Obviously, certain landscape icons like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty would satisfy that criterion; but I'm hoping that I'll find other, more unexpected examples. I hope that I'll be able to take some shots that will make a "local" viewer say, "Well, even if that's not recognizable to someone from another part of the country, or another part of the world, I know that that's New York!" And there might be some photos where a "non-local" viewer might say, "I had no idea that there was anyplace in New York City that was so interesting/beautiful/ugly/spectacular."
As for the sense of time: I remember wandering around my neighborhood in 2005, photographing various shops, stores, restaurants, and business establishments -- and then casually looking at the photos about five years later, and being stunned by how much had changed. Little by little, store by store, day by day, things change … and when you've been around as long as I have, it's even more amazing to go back and look at the photos you took thirty or forty years ago, and ask yourself, "Was it really like that back then? Seriously, did people really wear bell-bottom jeans?"
So, with the expectation that I'll be looking at these every-block photos five or ten years from now (and maybe you will be, too), I'm going to be doing my best to capture scenes that convey the sense that they were taken in the year 2013 … or at least sometime in the decade of the 2010's (I have no idea what we're calling this decade yet). Or maybe they'll just say to us, "This is what it was like a dozen years after 9-11".
Movie posters are a trivial example of such a time-specific image; I've already taken a bunch, and I don't know if I'll ultimately decide that they're worth uploading. Women's fashion/styles are another obvious example of a time-specific phenomenon; and even though I'm definitely not a fashion expert, I suspected that I'll be able to look at some images ten years from now and mutter to myself, "Did we really wear shirts like that? Did women really wear those weird skirts that are short in the front, and long in the back? Did everyone in New York have a tattoo?"
Another example: I'm fascinated by the interactions that people have with their cellphones out on the street. It seems that everyone has one, which certainly wasn't true a decade ago; and it seems that everyone walks down the street with their eyes and their entire conscious attention riveted on this little box-like gadget, utterly oblivious about anything else that might be going on (among other things, that makes it very easy for me to photograph them without their even noticing, particularly if they've also got earphones so they can listen to music or carry on a phone conversation). But I can't help wondering whether this kind of social behavior will seem bizarre a decade from now … especially if our cellphones have become so miniaturized that they're incorporated into the glasses we wear, or implanted directly into our eyeballs.
If you have any suggestions about places that I should definitely visit to get some good photos, or if you'd like me to photograph you in your little corner of New York City, please let me know. You can send me a Flickr-mail message, or you can email me directly at ed-at-yourdon-dot-com
Stay tuned as the photo-walk continues, block by block ...
A man holding shell fragments found in Girvan Terrace, off Throston Street in West Hartlepool. This was the result of the bombardment of the Hartlepools by Germany, which took place on the 16th December 1914. It was the first time British civilians were in the line of enemy fire during a World War. HAPMG : 240
Images from Hartlepool Cultural Services that are part of The Commons on Flickr are labeled 'no known copyright restrictions' indicating that Hartlepool Cultural Services is unaware of any current copyright restrictions on these images either because the copyright is waived or the term of copyright has expired.
Commercial use of images is not permitted. Applications for commercial use or for higher quality reproductions should be made to Hartlepool Cultural Services, Sir William Gray House, Clarence Road, Hartlepool, TS24 8BT. When using the images please credit 'Hartlepool Cultural Services'.
This was taken Inside Tompkins Sq Park.
I've restarted my photography blog on Tumblr. To see the latest blg posting, click on this URL:
eyourdon.tumblr.com/post/126054181003/photographing-thing...
(more details later, as time permits)
***************
This set of photos is based on a very simple concept: walk every block of Manhattan with a camera, and see what happens. To avoid missing anything, walk both sides of the street.
That's all there is to it …
Of course, if you wanted to be more ambitious, you could also walk the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. But that's more than I'm willing to commit to at this point, and I'll leave the remaining boroughs of New York City to other, more adventurous photographers.
Oh, actually, there's one more small detail: leave the photos alone for a month -- unedited, untouched, and unviewed. By the time I actually focus on the first of these "every-block" photos, I will have taken more than 8,000 images on the nearby streets of the Upper West Side -- plus another several thousand in Rome, Coney Island, and the various spots in NYC where I traditionally take photos. So I don't expect to be emotionally attached to any of the "every-block" photos, and hope that I'll be able to make an objective selection of the ones worth looking at.
As for the criteria that I've used to select the small subset of every-block photos that get uploaded to Flickr: there are three. First, I'll upload any photo that I think is "great," and where I hope the reaction of my Flickr-friends will be, "I have no idea when or where that photo was taken, but it's really a terrific picture!"
A second criterion has to do with place, and the third involves time. I'm hoping that I'll take some photos that clearly say, "This is New York!" to anyone who looks at it. Obviously, certain landscape icons like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty would satisfy that criterion; but I'm hoping that I'll find other, more unexpected examples. I hope that I'll be able to take some shots that will make a "local" viewer say, "Well, even if that's not recognizable to someone from another part of the country, or another part of the world, I know that that's New York!" And there might be some photos where a "non-local" viewer might say, "I had no idea that there was anyplace in New York City that was so interesting/beautiful/ugly/spectacular."
As for the sense of time: I remember wandering around my neighborhood in 2005, photographing various shops, stores, restaurants, and business establishments -- and then casually looking at the photos about five years later, and being stunned by how much had changed. Little by little, store by store, day by day, things change … and when you've been around as long as I have, it's even more amazing to go back and look at the photos you took thirty or forty years ago, and ask yourself, "Was it really like that back then? Seriously, did people really wear bell-bottom jeans?"
So, with the expectation that I'll be looking at these every-block photos five or ten years from now (and maybe you will be, too), I'm going to be doing my best to capture scenes that convey the sense that they were taken in the year 2013 … or at least sometime in the decade of the 2010's (I have no idea what we're calling this decade yet). Or maybe they'll just say to us, "This is what it was like a dozen years after 9-11".
Movie posters are a trivial example of such a time-specific image; I've already taken a bunch, and I don't know if I'll ultimately decide that they're worth uploading. Women's fashion/styles are another obvious example of a time-specific phenomenon; and even though I'm definitely not a fashion expert, I suspected that I'll be able to look at some images ten years from now and mutter to myself, "Did we really wear shirts like that? Did women really wear those weird skirts that are short in the front, and long in the back? Did everyone in New York have a tattoo?"
Another example: I'm fascinated by the interactions that people have with their cellphones out on the street. It seems that everyone has one, which certainly wasn't true a decade ago; and it seems that everyone walks down the street with their eyes and their entire conscious attention riveted on this little box-like gadget, utterly oblivious about anything else that might be going on (among other things, that makes it very easy for me to photograph them without their even noticing, particularly if they've also got earphones so they can listen to music or carry on a phone conversation). But I can't help wondering whether this kind of social behavior will seem bizarre a decade from now … especially if our cellphones have become so miniaturized that they're incorporated into the glasses we wear, or implanted directly into our eyeballs.
If you have any suggestions about places that I should definitely visit to get some good photos, or if you'd like me to photograph you in your little corner of New York City, please let me know. You can send me a Flickr-mail message, or you can email me directly at ed-at-yourdon-dot-com
Stay tuned as the photo-walk continues, block by block ...
"... Se Deus me permite,
vou alçar a perna
já pedi bolada
nesta pataquada
da estampa grongueira,
das voltas de peão...
O sorriso franco,
o jeito singelo
de fazer amigos...
Pra cada perigo,
um gesto, um abrigo
um aperto de mão ..."
Fragmento de "Graças a Deus", repertório de César Oliveira e Rogério Melo
Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil
(more details later, as time permits)
*****************************************
I’m not sure what I expected when I walked out of my hotel one morning during my vacation visit, jumped into a taxi, and asked the driver to take me to the Berlin Wall — but not this.
My driver patiently explained, in English that was far superior to anything I might have dreamed of attempting in German, that there was really one one section of the wall (also known as the East Side Gallery) that remained intact — on Mülenstraße, which was only a few kilometers from my hotel. So off we went, and my driver smiled as I got out of the cab, with a pleasant request to “Enjoy yourself!”
I’m not sure “enjoy” is how I would characterize this experience … but it was one that I’m certainly glad that I had. The section of the wall along which I walked was separated from the Spree River by a grassy knoll about 50 yards wide (though I subsequently learned that the border itself, back in those days, was the river) … so I could get some distance and perspective as I looked at some of the vivid artwork. And that was on the “back side” of the wall; there was more street art on the “front side” that ran along Mühlenstraße. I walked both sides, several times, and did my best to photograph everything…
I don’t think there’s much point in my translating, explaining, or even commenting on the photos you can see here; there are 105 altogether, and they speak for themselves, with messages that are pretty self-explanatory. There may be a few phrases in German that you don’t understand; but Google will help you out.
One of the signs commemorated the 25th anniversary of the reunification of Germany—which, of course, was an almost immediate consequence of the collapse of East Germany, and the dismantling of the wall. But it made me wonder: how long will any of this last? It’s obviously meaningful to me and my generation; and if my parents were alive, I’m sure it would take their breath away. As for my children’s generation, and their children’s generation … well, who knows?
And a hundred years from now, will any part of this one small stretch of the old wall, which runs for only 1.3 kilometers, still be standing?
Soon after Trump took office – he spearheaded the Republican war on our climate, our health and our lives. One of the first steps that he took was to silence the National Park Service on social media. I follow them on Facebook and almost immediately after they were silenced a Alt National Park Service Facebook page popped up. I follow them too. Yesterday they published an overview of the Trump administrations 2017 acts against the environment and wildlife. The list is not yet complete and doesn’t mention things like the Bonn Climate Conference that was an absolute debacle. The list is difficult to read - they are working on a timeline for their website that will be launched next week. The list is breathtaking in scope and the intent is astonishing. Try to have a good day.
1.On January 20th, Trump silenced the National Park Service from using social media.
2.On January 20th, National Park Service starts a “resistance” movement on social media accounts.
3.On January 24th, Trump issues several memoranda aiming to hasten permitting from the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines.
4.On February 1st, U.S. Senate confirms ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.
5.On February 16th, Trump signs a joint resolution passed by Congress revoking the U.S. Department of the Interior’s “Stream Protection Rule.” The stream protection rule, which prevented mining companies dumping their waste into streams, is axed under the Congressional Review Act.
6.On February 17th, U.S. Senate confirms Scott Pruitt as the head of the U.S. EPA. In his prior role as Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt frequently sued the EPA over its regulations, notably leading a 27-state lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan.
7.On February 28th, President Trump issues an executive order formally asking the EPA to review the “Waters of the United States” rule.
8.On March 2, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke spends his first day on the job rescinding an Obama-era prohibition of lead ammunition on federal lands and waters. Also, the EPA, Scott Pruitt, canceled a requirement for reporting methane emissions.
9.On March 7th, EPA’s Office of Science and Technology removed the word “science” from its mission statement.
10.On March 9th, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt that carbon dioxide’s role in the Earth’s changing climate remains unclear.
11.On March 13th, White House releases its first preliminary budget under Trump. The budget outlines deep cuts to U.S. science and environmental agencies.
12.On March 16th, the Trump administration proposed a 13 percent budget cut to the Park Service funding. These budget cuts would lose 1,242 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, leading to significant challenges at almost every park.
13.On March 28th, Trump issued an executive order charging the DOI with reviewing rules for oil and gas drilling inside the boundaries of our national park sites. Trump's executive order also made the EPA start the process of rewriting the clean power plan.
14.On March 29th, Against the advice of the EPA’s chemical safety experts, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt rejects a decade-old petition asking that the EPA ban all use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos. Research suggests that chlorpyrifos may be associated with brain damage in children and farm workers, even at low exposures.
15.On March 29th, Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, revoked the freeze and review on new coal leases on public lands.
16.On April 3rd, Overturned a ban on hunting of predators in Alaskan wildlife refuges. Including the hunting of bear cubs in and around their dens.
17.On April 5th, the trump administration withdrew guidance from federal agencies to include greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews.
18.On April 7th, staff members at EPA’s headquarters who specialized in climate change adaptation have been reassigned. Rolled back limits on toxic discharge from power plants into public waterways.
19.On April 16th, Trump issued an executive order calling on the DOI to reopen its five-year plan for offshore drilling.
20.On April 19th, An Interior Department official updates the department’s climate change website, deleting much of its content in the process.
21.On April 22nd, Scientist March on Washington, voicing support for science’s role in society.
22.On April 26th, Trump instructs Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review as many as 40 national monuments created since 1996 to determine if any of Trump’s three predecessors exceeded their authority when protecting large tracts of already-public land under the Antiquities Act of 1906.
23.On April 27th, the EPA delayed a lawsuit over a rule regulating airborne mercury emissions from power plants.
24.On April 28th, EPA scrubs climate change from their website.
25.On May 5th, the EPA dismisses several members of the Board of Scientific Counselors.
26.On June 1st, the U.S. pulls out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
27.On June 8th, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday ordered a review of an Obama administration conservation plan to protect the greater sage-grouse to determine if that plan interferes with Trump administration efforts to increase energy production on federal lands.
28.On June 12th, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended that Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah’s red rock country be shrunk by President Trump.
29.On June 26th, the administration called for the repeal of the Clean Water Rule.
30.On July 6th, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit that would allow Dominion Energy, to build 17 enormous transmission towers near Colonial National Historical Park, the site of the United States first English colony.
31.On July 19th, the DOI called for a reexamination of rules that protect bears and wolves in national preserves in Alaska from egregious hunting methods, including baiting bears with grease-soaked donuts and killing mother bears with their cubs.
32.On August 7th, The DOI relaxes aspects of sage grouse protection to help with the Trump administration’s efforts to increase energy production on federal lands.
33.On August 22nd, the trump administration has suspended a study of health risks to residents who live near mountaintop removal coal mine sites in the Appalachian Mountains.
34.On October 9th, Trump EPA works on scrapping the Clean Power Plan(CCP). Scott Pruitt gave a speech in Hazard, Kentucky and declared that he will sign a proposal on Tuesday that would eliminate the CCP.
35.On October 23rd, The Department of Interior proposed the largest ever gas and oil lease auction of 77 million acres of federal waters within the Gulf of Mexico.
36.On October 24th, A small Montana company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown has signed a $300 million contract to help get the power back on in Puerto Rico. Whitefish Energy Holdings, LLC had only two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.
37.On November 1st, Trump administration proposed a rule Tuesday to federalize regulation of drift gillnets used to catch swordfish on the West Coast. The rule would end California's right to prevent the deadly entanglements of sea turtles, whales, and dolphins in these underwater, mile-long nets.
38.On November 2nd, Trump administration is targeting for review a uranium mining ban that former President Barack Obama instituted in the watershed of the Grand Canyon.
39.On November 7th, French President Emmanuel Macron's Cabinet said Trump not invited to climate change summit for the time being.
40.On November 16th, The Trump administration has reversed the ban on elephant trophy imports. They have agreed to allow the remains of elephants killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia to be brought back to the U.S.
41.On November 16th, The Keystone pipeline has leaked and spilled about 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota. TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone pipeline has been temporarily shut down.
42.On November 24th, Tucked away in the Senate report accompanying the funding bill for the Department of the Interior is a directive to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to end the Red Wolf recovery program and declare the Red Wolf extinct.
43.On November 25th, Oil drilling in a vast Alaskan wildlife refuge moved a step closer to reality after the U.S. Senate energy and natural resources panel voted 13-10 to open part of the reserve.
44.On November 28th, The Cause of Action Institute (a group aligned with GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch) have filed suit accusing EPA employee of using an encrypted messaging services to protect their jobs. They report that EPA employees were using an encrypted messaging app to determine how to respond to a feared purge of climate science from the new Trump administration.
45.On November 28th, the Trump administration has approved an oil company’s request to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean.
46.On December 4th, Trump gave a speech in Salt Lake City announcing his intentions to reduce two Utah national monuments Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Bears Ears would be reduced by 1.35 million acres (-85%) and Grand Staircase Escalante would be reduced by 1.88 million acres (-50%).
47.On December 7th, Trump administration drops rule requiring mining companies to have money to clean up pollution, despite an industry legacy of abandoned mines that have fouled waterways across the U.S.
48.On December 8th, the Trump administration will suspend a rule to limit methane leaks from oil and gas operations on federal land.
49.On December 14th, Trump administration removed net neutrality. This now allows broadband providers to block websites like ours. The Internet has played an increasingly vital role in political expression and organizing. Groups like ours have used social media to share information, plan events, and motivate participation.
50.On December 15th, It was reported that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke brought David Smith the superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park to his office to reprimand him for climate change-related tweets the park sent via Twitter.
51.On December 16th, Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using a list of words, including "fetus," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "vulnerable," "evidence-based" and "science-based."
52.On December 18th, Trump announced the US will no longer regard climate change by name as a national security threat.
53.On December 19th, EPA has ended a contract with a group (Definers Public Affairs) that had been investigating any EPA employees who disagreed with the Trump administration agenda.
54.On December 19th, in the emergency supplemental funding bill language was hidden that would exempt Federal Emergency Management Agency(FEMA) from following requirements set by the Endangered Species Act.
55.On December 20th, Toxic chemical bans were indefinitely postponed for methylene chloride, N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and trichloroethylene (TCE).
56.On December 21st, Independent studies were halted that would improve the safety of offshore drilling platforms and another to look at health risks of mountaintop-removal coal mining in central Appalachia.
57.On December 21st, Revoked the Obama-era Resource Management Planning Rule (Planning 2.0 Rule), which advocated new technologies to improve transparency related to mining on public lands. A Federal Register filing said this rule "shall be treated as if it had never taken effect."
58.On December 22nd, The Republican “tax reform” bill was signed and included opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
59.On December 22nd, Ruled that "incidental" killings of 1,000 migratory bird species are not illegal under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
60.On December 22nd, Reversed a previous Obama-era Interior Department decision to withdraw permits for a proposed $2.8 billion copper mine in Minnesota.
61.On December 23rd, It was reported that hundreds of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists were barred from attending an industry conference this month.
62.On December 27th, A plan was announced to consider increasing the use of neonicotinoid insecticides known as thiamethoxam, which is proven to be deadly to bees.
63.On December 27th, Allowed oil and gas leasing and development near and even inside greater sage-grouse habitat management areas.
64.On December 28th, Announced a plan to repeal an Obama-era rule that governed fracking standards on federal and tribal lands. The rule would have required companies to disclose chemicals used in their fracking fluids, set standards for well construction, and required surface ponds holding fracking fluids to be covered.
65.On December 29th, Trump administration proposed to remove offshore-drilling safety regulations put in place after the deadly Deepwater Horizon disaster.
This was a slight deviation from the usual holiday pursuits enjoyed by tourists to Cornwall - a quick visit to the preserved railway line in the Duchy. It was a permitted event although I am not sure if the railway was allowing visitors mid week.
However, here I was and this tank engine was gently simmering in the good weather which seems to follow me when I visit down here.
Said tank engine might have the British Railways logo on its sides but there is no hiding its true origins. Green livery, distinctive dome on the boiler and also distinctive number plate on the cab side. The GWR tended to do it in style even on a relatively humble engine like this one. The employees also seemed to have been more loyal to the Company and smartly turned out than the "others" that formed the Big Four.
Come nationalisation - not the current version but the one in 1948 - the same pride lingered but was slowly obliterated as BR had no apparent interest in regional pride and loyalties. It may have been that the old order was a constant thorn in the side of the new order and that the other three ex company brands could be easily absorbed and covered up.
It probably didn't help that not only did the trains retain the GWR colour, but the new order of diesel locos for the now Western Region were out of step with the plans for a rationalised diesel fleet.
Such was the ongoing influence of ex GWR men in management positions. The obvious cure was to send them elsewhere and it was certainly the case that one of the chief architects of WR policy was soon on his way and that WR was on its way to being pushed into national compliance.
History is a curious subject at times and the reversion to privatisation of sorts saw GWR emerge in a new format. So did LNER in a way but Southern Region didn't and the LMS stood no chance with part of that brand now being Scot Rail.
It does raise the question as to how much has been wasted in this activity which seems to me like an expensive game of Musical Chairs.
As for 5552 it was built in 1928 and is a 4575 class loco - a type generally used on branch line work. It is currently under restoration according to the society site with completion due this year.
For a while D1048 Western Lady resided on this line - a loco that has had something of a varied career in the days since withdrawal. On one visit I tried to find said loco but the nearest I got to her actual location was down the sidings at Bodmin Road which I couldn't access.
Cornwall has a wealth of history with all sorts of railway operations. It makes interesting reading when tracking down books on the subject.
(As a footnote, I am aware that Bodmin's main line station has been re-branded, but I prefer the original version.)
The Prayer of the 5 Widows
In Memory of Elizabeth Eliot
www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1957/january-7/prayer-of-fiv...
The Prayer of the Five Widows
An account after the Auca ambush in Ecuador, from CT's seventh issue.
Elisabeth Elliot/ JUNE 15, 2015
This article originally appeared in the January 7, 1957, issue of Christianity Today—less than three months after the magazine's launch. It was posted June 15, 2015, to commemorate the death of Elisabeth Elliot.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon a year ago, five young women were asking God for two things regarding their husbands: that they might be permitted to contact the Auca Indians again, and that they might be protected. As we sat in our jungle homes here in Ecuador, two in Arajuno, one in Shandia and two in Shell Mera, we little dreamed of the answer God was then giving. He answered both of those prayers, but, as is often the case with him whose thoughts are as far above ours as the heavens are high above the earth, his answer far transcended what we had in mind.
Silence on a Sand Strip
The second contact was given. Probably at about two-thirty in the afternoon at least ten Aucas arrived at the strip of sand where the men had set up their little camp. Having seen them some time earlier from the airplane, approaching the beach, the pilot had reported to his wife the anticipated contact. We can imagine the five, then, as the forest rang with their praises. They sang hymns together, committed themselves to the Lord once more and eagerly prepared for their longed for visitors. It was not long before savage yells, instead of hymns of praise, echoed through the forest, polished wooden spears slashed through the air and five young men lay dead on the Rio Curaray. Silence closed once more over the stand strip, and those beloved Indians returned nonchalantly to their thatched homes, to recount another killing to their waiting families.
The asked-for contact had been given. But what about the protection?
Protection from Disobedience
When the Lord Jesus prayed to His Father, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, he asked, too, for protection for those whom the Father had given him. For what purpose? “. . . that they may be one, as we are.” Protection from what? “. . . that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.” Each one of our five men, years before, had asked for the whole accomplishment of Gods will in him at any cost, to the end that Christ be glorified. The Evil One is determined, however, that Christ shall not be glorified. But, in making them obedient men, God had answered the prayer of his Son, the prayer of the men themselves and the prayer of their wives. The adversary did not succeed in turning them aside from Gods highest purpose. They were protected from that most fearful of all dangers, disobedience. They loved God above all else. “Herein is the love of God, that ye keep his commandments.”
The prayer of our hearts today, of the widows who remain, is the same, that Christ may be glorified.
Christ’s Glory in Some Aucas
First of all, we continue asking for that which motivated the men from the beginning of the project—that Christ may be glorified in some Aucas. The contact God gave to the five was only one step in the opening of the fast-closed doors to that tribe.
Nor was it the first step. Others had thought and prayed for years about them, asking for an entrance, flying over the territory in search of their whereabouts, seeking a way to carry to them the Word of Life.
Some of the five men had long borne them before the Lord, asking for their salvation and committing themselves to God for them.
Now, thousands of Christians in all parts of the world have learned of them and are praying.
For us who have been most closely touched by the death of the five, there could be no greater joy than to know at last that the blood of our husbands has been the seed of the Auca church. Our hearts go out to the very ones whose strong brown arms sent flying the lances that killed our loved ones, for we know that they walk in darkness, knowing not even the name of Him who is more than life to us. And how shall they hear without a preacher?
So we ask for those whom God has prepared to be sent to the Aucas and only those. A well-meaning but misguided effort could ruin further opportunities to enter the tribe. But because God has done a tremendous thing in taking five of His choicest servants in this incipient stage, we are bold to expect tremendous answers to prayer in the future. We believe He will send the Light to the Aucas and have given ourselves anew for that, if He should care to choose any one of us to go. We were wholly at one with our husbands in their desire to reach the Aucas and had it been possible, would gladly have accompanied them. The last thing on earth we would have wanted would have been to hinder them in obeying the command of Christ, which was as clear to us as it was to them. He was directingthe only issue at stake was obedience. Jesus made the conditions of discipleship unequivocal—“Forsake . . . Deny . . . Follow.” This is the price we are asked to pay.
Many speak of the five men as having made the “supreme sacrifice.” We do not think of it in that way. They would not have called it that. One of them wrote in his diary years ago, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jesus promised that whoever loses his life preserves it. Can we call this sacrifice? When we make a purchase, we pay the price, of course, but no one thinks of this as a sacrifice. How much less, then, when our lives, already paid for by Christ at tremendous sacrifice on his part, are offered to him? We lose nothing. We gain everything. Hence, we ask that God may choose those whom He wishes to carry the gospel to the Aucas, that they may be prepared by his Spirit, that they may not count their lives dear unto themselves, and that thereby the Aucas may be brought out of their bondage to know Jesus Christ, that he may be glorified in them.
Christ’s Glory in Us
We ask, further, that Christ may be glorified in us. “For we know that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Our hearts are filled with gratitude for the privilege He gave us in being the wives of men who were chosen to be slain for His sake. None of us is worthy. It is all of His grace, but we know that the Lamb is worthy, a thousand times, the lives of our husbands and of us. He chose to glorify himself in their death—may He now glorify Himself in our lives.
During those harrowing days when the rescue party was on its way to the beach, when we did not know what the next radio report would bring, we were conscious that whatever the outcome, God was determined to bring us to himself. He had promised, “When thou passest though the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God. . . . Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee.” How could we have proved the truth of that promise if there had been no waters? And what rivers could overflow but deep ones? And so, to show us that he meant what he said, to prove to us his love, this was what he sent, this thing which each of us had been sure she could never endure, the loss of the one who was as her own soul.
Purpose in the Stab of Pain
And how, then, can Christ be glorified in us through this experience? By our responding with thanksgiving to his dealings with us, by our declaration of our love to him in utter obedience, by our believing that his judgments are right, that he in faithfulness has afflicted us. We ask that we may go on in peace, as he has mercifully permitted us to do thus far. In talking together, we have often said that we did not want to miss one lesson which our loving Father would teach us by this thing. To us, the loss of our husbands is not a tragedy in itself—it is one more of our Father’s right judgments. But it would indeed be a tragedy if, in our failure to respond to him with love, trust, and praise, we should miss what he intended for us through it. We ask that we may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. If, through the loss of our husbands, we may cause Christ to rejoice, to see in us the travail of his soul and be satisfied, we shall never call it sacrifice. Each day, when little things remind us, with a new stab of pain, that our husbands are gone, we turn these things into prayer—“Lord, by this, too, glorify thyself. For this, too, I thank thee and trust thee, knowing that there shall be glory, as thou has promised, through this suffering.”
Christ and the Little Ones
Not only do we ask that Christ be glorified in the Aucas and in us, but also in our children. Most of them will have no recollection of their fine fathers. But our Lord gave his word, “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.” We ask for his wisdom in training them, for his Spirit in us, that they may be as obedient as their fathers. How wonderful it would be if he should prepare one or more of them to go to the Aucas! We would give them to him for his use, asking that they come to know him as Savior and Lord at an early age. Far be it from us to withhold from the Lord the lives of these little ones, children of the men who did not withhold their own lives. May they sing from true hearts,
Faith of our Fathers, Holy Faith,
We would be true to Thee till death.
Wherever the Spirit Speaks
Finally, we ask that Christ be glorified in the lives of those to whom the Spirit of God has spoken because of the death of the five men. We have received letters from all over the world, telling of the impact of the event on one and another. But we have heard of few who have actually done anything about it, who have been changed by it. We pray earnestly that those who have heard the voice of the Lord may be obedient. We pray that young men who have been attracted by the “opportunities to use their talents for the Lord in the United States” may abandon themselves, with their talents, to Christ, for his use wherever he wants them. We pray that if any young wife is hesitating to commit her husband and family to God, through fear of loss, she may believe the words of our Lord Jesus, “Truly I say to you, there is no man who hath forsaken . . . who will not receive.” We have proved beyond any doubt that he means what he says—his grace is sufficient, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ We pray that if any, anywhere, are fearing that the cost of discipleship is too great, that they may be given to glimpse that treasure in heaven promised to all who forsake.
And all our supplication is “with thanksgiving”— for his great love, for the high privilege of serving him with all of our hearts, for having given us as husbands men who were true soldiers of Jesus Christ, men to whom we could look up in every respect, men who set for us a great example of faith that acts on what it believes. We look forward with joy to that day when God will reveal to us his complete plan, knowing that we shall see clearly that every step of the way was ordained to the end that Christ might be glorified. Our husbands already walk with him, their joy complete. We, too, shall see him face to face, and be satisfied.
This hath He done, and shall we not adore Him?
This shall He do and can we still despair?
Come let us quickly fling ourselves before Him,
Cast at His feet the burden of our care,
Flash from our eyes the glow of our thanksgiving,
Glad and regretful, confident and calm,
Then through all life, and what is after living,
Thrill to the tireless music of a psalm,
Yea, through life, death, through sorrow and
through sinning,
He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed:
Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning,
Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ.
(From St. Paul, F. W. H. Myans)
(more details later, as time permits)
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I'm spending the winter months of 2014-2015 in a warm spot on the beach in Indialantic, FL (if I have Internet access, it doesn't matter too much where I'm physically located).
In addition to my sunrise walks along the beach, I’m also shooting various other afternoon scenes that look interesting — especially during the “golden hour” that extends from roughly an hour before sunset to an hour afterwards. The view in all of these shots is basically eastwards (sometimes northeast or southeast), so the sun is always setting behind me in the west. Thus, I’ll sometimes see some pink skies, or some interesting mixtures of late-afternoon sunlight and blue/purple colors — but not the fiery red/yellow/pink skies that accompany the sunsets in the west ...
These are some of the shots that I thought were somewhat interesting ...
This was taken at the 96th Street IRT subway station.
(more details later, as time permits)
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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...
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(more details later, as time permits)
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Another year has elapsed since I last photographed the tango dancers gathering on Pier 45 (where Christopher Street runs into the Hudson River in New York City's West Village), on the weekend before Labor Day, late-August 2014. But the sun was shining one weekend in early June of 2015, and I decided to venture down to Greenwich Village once again...
As I've mentioned in other Flickr sets, I have now met a few of the dancers at previous tango event over the past several; years, and I used to make a point of introducing myself to some of them, handing out business cards with my Flickr address so that people would be able to find these pictures without too much difficulty. But the dancers have good reason to be more interested in the music, and the movement of their partners, than a guy on the sideline with a camera -- so most of them have simply ignored me…
Altogether, I've now taken a dozen sets of tango-related photos, and you can see a thumbnail overview of them in this Flickr collection. And if you'd like to watch some other examples NYC tango dancing, check out Richard Lipkin's Guide to Argentine Tango in New York City.
Even though the dancers seem fresh and enthusiastic each time I come down here to Pier 45, I have a definite sense of deja vu: arguably, I’ve seen it all, I’ve photographed it all, I’ve heard all the tango music several times before. So I decided to do something different this time: I took all of the photos with my iPhone6+ camera. I used the “burst mode” feature on the camera-phone, so even though I took some 4,000 separate images, there were only about 400 “bursts,” and the iPhone hardware was kind enough to tell me which one or two images were reasonably sharp in each burst. From that smaller subset, I was eventually able to whittle things down to 50 images that I thought were okay for uploading to Flickr; that’s what you’ll see here.
Actually, the reason I was motivated to do all of this was not Flickr, but Instagram: for reasons that I can only assume are a stubborn testament to the “culture” of its community, Instagram insists on a “square” format, rather than the 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratio favored by most DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras. Even worse, it insists that the photos be uploaded one-at-a-time from a mobile device. Ironically, this last restriction may prove to be too much; I’m uploading the photos to Flickr from my desktop Mac, but I don’t know if I’ll have the patience to upload them individually to Instagram…
Aside from that, I’ve concluded that the iPhone6+ is a handy little device for casual, ad hoc photos and videos; but it really doesn’t have the features I’ve come to depend on for the photos I want to publish. I won’t go into all of the technical details; chances are that you either don’t know, or don’t care, about those details. And if you do, chances are that you’ve made up your mind one way or another. As for me, I will definitely keep using the iPhone for some of my photos — especially the ones that really are casual, unplanned, ad hoc photos when I’ve got no other equipment that I can use. But with sophisticated little “pocket cameras” like the Sony RX-100 and Canon G7X, those moments are pretty rare for me … still, it was an interesting experiment.
As I've also pointed out in some previous Flickr albums, you can see a video version of the tango dancers from 2011, complete with music (which isn’t really tango music, but that’s okay), on my YouTube page; it’s here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqmnTQuwn54&list=UUUXim5Er2O4...
(more details later, as time permits)
Note: I've blogged about these cars in Rapid City, as well as other photography-related topics, on my Tumblr photography blog at
www.tumblr.com/blog/yourdonphotography/drafts
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In early July, we ventured out to Spearfish, SD for a family reunion with a large contingent of my extended family.
When the reunion ended, we drove back into Rapid City to spend a final night at the Alex Johnson hotel … and were taken by surprise when the streets surrounding the hotel were blocked off, forcing us to park a couple blocks away and haul our suitcases down to the hotel’s front entrance. It turns out that the streets had been blocked for a vintage car show — which consisted of dozens of brightly-painted, highly-buffed and polished old cars parked along the streets all around the hotel. After we had checked in, I went out to photograph the artist’s alley in more detail than had been possible when we first arrived a couple days later; and then, for good measure, I walked around the block a couple times,and photographed all of the fancy cars.
Eastern Sierra - Mt Agassiz
"Heart of the Sierra"
The Palisade Glacier beats likes the heart of the Sierra. It is the largest glacier in the Sierra Nevada and possibly the rest of California besides the Shasta glaciers.
One of my last posts here was a shot of view of Bishop Pass as I was trying to summit Mt. Agassiz (13,891ft) by sunrise but didn't make it up in time. I tried it again and this time I made it. Camped up there without a tent or sleeping bag, yes it was cold but there will always be other ways of keeping warm w/ out starting a fire, there is no wood up there anyways. My lightweight film body's batteries died so no long night exposures for me this time . That was supposed to keep me occupied for a little while up in the dark with no moon but it wasn't pitch black up there. There was plenty of reflected starlight so I could actually see in the dark pretty well. This is a shot from just below the summit looking at Thunderbolt peak and the rest of the palisades. Sad to say but the Sierra's largest glacier looks more like a large snowfield to me. More or less it was a memorable experience for me that I won't forget for quite some time.
©This photograph is copyrighted and is not permitted for free use.
(more details later, as time permits)
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Another year has elapsed since I last photographed the tango dancers gathering on Pier 45 (where Christopher Street runs into the Hudson River in New York City's West Village), on the weekend before Labor Day, late-August 2014. But the sun was shining one weekend in early June of 2015, and I decided to venture down to Greenwich Village once again...
As I've mentioned in other Flickr sets, I have now met a few of the dancers at previous tango event over the past several; years, and I used to make a point of introducing myself to some of them, handing out business cards with my Flickr address so that people would be able to find these pictures without too much difficulty. But the dancers have good reason to be more interested in the music, and the movement of their partners, than a guy on the sideline with a camera -- so most of them have simply ignored me…
Altogether, I've now taken a dozen sets of tango-related photos, and you can see a thumbnail overview of them in this Flickr collection. And if you'd like to watch some other examples NYC tango dancing, check out Richard Lipkin's Guide to Argentine Tango in New York City.
Even though the dancers seem fresh and enthusiastic each time I come down here to Pier 45, I have a definite sense of deja vu: arguably, I’ve seen it all, I’ve photographed it all, I’ve heard all the tango music several times before. So I decided to do something different this time: I took all of the photos with my iPhone6+ camera. I used the “burst mode” feature on the camera-phone, so even though I took some 4,000 separate images, there were only about 400 “bursts,” and the iPhone hardware was kind enough to tell me which one or two images were reasonably sharp in each burst. From that smaller subset, I was eventually able to whittle things down to 50 images that I thought were okay for uploading to Flickr; that’s what you’ll see here.
Actually, the reason I was motivated to do all of this was not Flickr, but Instagram: for reasons that I can only assume are a stubborn testament to the “culture” of its community, Instagram insists on a “square” format, rather than the 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratio favored by most DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras. Even worse, it insists that the photos be uploaded one-at-a-time from a mobile device. Ironically, this last restriction may prove to be too much; I’m uploading the photos to Flickr from my desktop Mac, but I don’t know if I’ll have the patience to upload them individually to Instagram…
Aside from that, I’ve concluded that the iPhone6+ is a handy little device for casual, ad hoc photos and videos; but it really doesn’t have the features I’ve come to depend on for the photos I want to publish. I won’t go into all of the technical details; chances are that you either don’t know, or don’t care, about those details. And if you do, chances are that you’ve made up your mind one way or another. As for me, I will definitely keep using the iPhone for some of my photos — especially the ones that really are casual, unplanned, ad hoc photos when I’ve got no other equipment that I can use. But with sophisticated little “pocket cameras” like the Sony RX-100 and Canon G7X, those moments are pretty rare for me … still, it was an interesting experiment.
As I've also pointed out in some previous Flickr albums, you can see a video version of the tango dancers from 2011, complete with music (which isn’t really tango music, but that’s okay), on my YouTube page; it’s here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqmnTQuwn54&list=UUUXim5Er2O4...
Well, weather permitting golf day could be everyday ... but not for me, today ~ golfed twice this week so that's not too bad!!
Stay Safe Everyone!
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... Thanks to you all!
(more details later, as time permits)
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When we first arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota for a family reunion in July 2015, we stayed at the main downtown “Alex Johnson” hotel; and we walked along Sixth Street to dinner that evening with two of our family members. On the way back after dinner, I happened to notice the garish glow of graffiti on a side alley next to the hotel, and I took a couple of quick photos in the twilight, thinking that it might be worth exploring in more detail the next day.
Indeed, I did go back for a quick second look the next morning, but then we had to pack up and check out of the hotel, in order to drive to the rendezvous point near Spearfish (near Deadwood and Sturgis, and in the general vicinity of Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills) where dozens of members of our extended family were planning to meet us. But when the reunion was over a few days later we drove back to Rapid City, and changed our hotel plans in order to stay at the Alex Johnson for one last night before our early flight back to New York City the next morning.
As a result, I had time for a much more thorough walk-through of the alley and its rich display of art on my final afternoon. I asked the front-desk clerk at the hotel if she knew anything about it, and she pointed me to a young man at the valet parking desk near the front entrance; there I learned that Rapid City is one of only three such spots in the country, where artist-inspired graffiti is not only tolerated, but legally allowed. Here is the website that explains more:
www.visitrapidcity.com/things-to-do/arts-culture/art-alle...
The Website provides much more detail, and in much more cogent form, than I could in these notes; so if you’re curious, I urge you to click on the link. But if you would like to see what the art looks like, in all its vivid colors, take a look at the images in this album.