On my recent visit to this location (see first comment box), there was a raging torrent coming over the waterfall - this (plus the strong breeze) gave so much spray that doing a long exposure would have been very problematic. I waited until the first calm day in ages to go back - less water this time but that meant less spray as well, although it was still necessary to keep wiping off the lens. A nice bonus was that by now there have been enough autumn leaves to give a colourful foreground, so shot the image as a vertical panorama.

Explored (Number 14) October 8, 2021

Just found:

Bull (Taurus) corresponds to intermediary zone between the Elements of Fire and Water..

[J. Cirlot, Dictionary of Symbols, Second Edition, 1995, s. 34]

This rings my bell.

My OneOnly L8ve, not seen since 2004,

was born bull (May).

Me, as born 8.8, Lion, say half - lion, had always tremendous problems with Element of Earth, say pragmatism.

Fellines (Lions) are based on Elements of Fire [Creativity) and Earth.

Humans on Elements of Water (Feelings) and Earth.

Half man half inherit very problematic: Fire & Water marriage. That's why so little tries Earth.

That's why my l8ve was, as That Love, Bull, to balance by intermediary.

;-)

L8ve TSls are polarized to harmonize&balance, but complete as hologram both.

In Bortle 4 skies under perfect (no moon), This Comet Lemmon appeared brighter than the Andromeda Galaxy naked eye. However, used an ISO of 3200 proved problematic because there was considerable red airglow. I was able to render 10x25s @ f/2.8 with my Fujifilm X-T5 and Nikkor 180mm lens where the stars and comet are essentially without drift. However, if you look closely, you can see bands of mostly red airglow.

Note the split ion tail and dust tail.

Picture of the day x 2

House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) Thomson Brook, Kelowna, BC.

This is just the introductory image. The best one, IMHO, is further into the series....

I began watching for a small family of finches near the beginning of the last week of September. While I observed them a couple of times, I didn't get good shot opps until the beginning of October. Was very fortunate to catch this one in a couple of different situations. Finding the branch (in the middle of the series) both inviting and problematic, I played with different ways of using it in the composition of the image....

The fresh young seedlings of winter barley glowing in the afternoon sun of Aberdeenshire Scotland. Will this been the batch you'll be drinking in 13 years or so.

Whisky in the making?

When I shot this I included our local mountain Bennachie but the sky was problematic during editing so I cropped it. Rule No 1 Never be afraid to try a crop of your shot, it may look better.

Clouds were problematic but I managed to get 30 subs exp 10s at iso 500, F/4 with my 180mm telephoto lens. Transparency was a 2 of 10. Stacked and post process in PixInsight.

The green nucleus is a new feature and the comet is around 4.5 magnitude. The anti-tail is barely visible at the lower right in this 7.5x5.0 degree field of view image.

Picture of the day

Camera: Holga 135BC

Film: Ilford HP5 Plus 400

Exposure: ca. 1/100 sec and f/8, hand-held

Film developed and scanned by Foto Brell, Bonn

Edited under Adobe Lightroom

Whether 35mm or medium format, you can use the Holgas as toy cameras and eagerly anticipate the results, or as serious cameras, like any high-quality classic camera. I prefer the classic approach. I've gotten used to the viewfinder parallax, and the film advance on the 35mm version works without overlap (I use 24-exposure film instead of 36-exposure). I cover the notoriously problematic areas with gaffer tape to prevent light leakage. I use the Holgas to achieve the typical look of the plastic lens: soft rendering of details in the center, a drop in sharpness towards the edges, vignetting, and color saturation in the case of color film. Not all subjects are suitable for this. But when it works, you get impressionistic, painterly images. Sharpness isn't everything in photography, and sometimes too much sharpness can be distracting. Reduced sharpness can downplay unimportant details, thus focusing attention on the essential elements. Sharp or soft reproductions are not mutually exclusive for me, but rather complementary approaches in photography.

While the head-end slowly negotiate this notorious and problematic area of the Lac St-Jean subdivision in dynamic brake mode, the two mid-train distributed power units are notched in forward position, keeping the slack bunched on this 80 cars, 5800ft/10600tons manifest loaded with almost everything the Saguenay/Lac St-Jean part of Québec province can produce.

CN A46921-16

3813 3374 2872 4792 DP 2913 2960

Milepost 37.8 Lac St-Jean subdivision

Rivière à Pierre,QC

October 16th 2024

The iconic Point of Ayre lighthouse lights up the darkness on a crystal-clear late summer night. This shot is a five-image vertical panorama captured with my Nikon 20mm 1.8 Z lens, which is an absolute beauty of a lens. The rotating beams of the lighthouse make panoramas extremely problematic to get seamless stitching between all the frames. So the only real solution is to ensure that each frame is captured at exactly the same time, thereby freezing the beams in the same positions.

The 20mm is a very wide-angle lens but still didn’t give me enough to capture the belt of the Milky Way extending high up into the pitch black above. I felt the beams of light lost their impact if the darkness of the surrounding night couldn’t be captured too, so the panorama delivered the results I was looking for. Keeping my fingers crossed for more clear nights in the days and week ahead ✨

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can be as problematic as taking one:-)

Alex Webb

Public Education Matters! Resist the Ignorant Orange Clown and his Cabinet of Stooges and Buffoons!

bearded iris, 'Double Your Fun', j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina

Curious Owlet craning its neck to look down directly at me as I pointed my camera skywards because that was the only opening I had amidst the thick canopy of leaves.

An old shot taken with Olympus OMD E-M5 and Lumix 100-300mm f4.0-5.6 OIS, handheld at full extension 300mm, wide opened, 1/80s and +1.3EV.

Less than ideal conditions and sensor limitations but the camera+lens setup weighed under 1kg and allowed me to record this encounter on a hike.

Portrait orientation crop of a shot taken originally in landscape format.

The SOOC JPEG was terrible; the auto WB was way off, couldn’t rely on the metering (+1.3EV in shot) either and the colors were washed out (loss of contrast) from shooting skywards into the shaded canopy (heavily backlit) made worse by strong color cast.

Post-processing from RAW rescued the shot and helped made it borderline presentable. Took the extra step to remove nasty purple fringing as well.

As it is, there’s still much fundamental misunderstanding about post-processing;

1. SOOC JPEG is NOT WYSIWYG!

=============================

People who believed that JPEG represents WYSIWYG are misguided. Some of these folks will tell you they prefer SOOC JPEG because it’s pure and unadulterated, representing what their eyes saw. Nothing can be further from the truth and frankly such belief is no different from those of Flat-earthers! Fact is, JPEG is instantaneously converted from RAW data within the camera and different camera models even from the same brand can produce different looking JPEGs. Just as our human visual system is not solely based on our eyes since 50% of our brain is also involved in visual processing. Metering, WB and all other in-camera processings are far from perfect because cameras lack the brains (processing power) to deal with the extremes and specific problematic areas within each image.

2. Selective vs global adjustments

==============================

Most casual photographers lack a proper understanding of what post-processing can really do and hence end up with the mistaken notion that SOOC JPEG will suffice. Always boggles the mind how some folks can arrive at the notion that SOOC JPEG is sufficient when they have never delved into proper post-processing? Many more cling on to thinking that post-processing will alter the image too much because they are clueless as to how the various little things that can add up to really improve on the overall image quality. Cropping, adjusting exposure, highlights/shadows or saturation are just scratching the surface, of the surface! Fundamentally there is global adjustments and then there's the all important selective adjustments, good luck with relying on the camera’s JPEG engine to perform the latter! On the flip side, there are also those who tend to mess up post-processing so bad that they are better off sticking to SOOC JPEG. Overwrought HDR can be such travesty and stuff like Sky Replacement is pure fakery, not post-processing.

3. Post-processing ability thumps new gear

======================================

Post-processing is a most worthwhile skill that takes time to acquire and refine. A good knowledge of post-processing can also influence us to shoot better to obtain a better RAW file. Once we get the hang of it, it is in fact quite quick to do, even for more troublesome/complicated shots. Personally it’s much more important than the gear we use which some tend to worship like tribal totems.

When I got started in this hobby years ago, I was a pure JPEG shooter and hence know what it means to get it right as far as possible in shot but my photos were seldom satisfactory even on the rare occasions when conditions were perfect. I had little clue of the full potential of post-processing because if I did, I would have shot RAW from Day 1. I wished cameras did not come set to default for JPEG only out of the box.

I sincerely hope that others don’t have to go through the long period of photography mediocrity like I did!

Learn to post-process better because it will make a much greater difference to our photos than that newer camera or lens ever will!

Onigawara are decorative features found most often on Buddhist temple roofs, though sometimes also on shrines or residences. Kawara is the word for ceramic roof tiles that were introduced into Japan along with Buddhism and temple architecture from the Korean Peninsula in the 6th century during the Asuka Period of Japanese history.

The word oni is somewhat more problematical to translate, with the word demon most often used, but in English the word demon has connotations of evil, whereas the Japanese oni does behave in evil ways, it is also capable of acting for good, so the word ogre is perhaps better.

Sometimes the word goblin is also used, though that word is often associated with another class of mythical creature called a Tengu. The simplest translation though is probably "demon tile".

Onigawara are found at the ends of the main roof ridge, the Ohmune, and at the ends of the descending ridges, the Kudarimune, and their practical purpose is to protect against weathering, and though primarily made of ceramic, stone or wood is not unknown.

Up to the Heian Period (794-1185) they were decorated with designs of flowers or animals, but from the Kamakura Period (1185-1332) the Oni design came to prominence.

Their spiritual function is to ward off evil, and so they have sometimes become associated with the European gargoyle. While onigawara are almost always Oni, there are some of other creatures, including Tengu and Kappa.

As well as Onigawara there are other types of decoration on temple roofs, the most well known being the Shachi, or Shachihoko, the mythical creature with the body of a fish and the head of a tiger.

These are placed on top of the main ridge and are to ward of fires. Big Shachi often covered in gold leaf will be found on top of Japanese castles. Other than the shachi there are various other figures found on roofs including komainu, phoenixes, monkeys, doves, etc.

Being ceramic, onigawara will often survive the periodic fires that tend to burn down temples and other wooden buildings in Japan and so older examples can often be found on display around the grounds of a temple or in the temple's treasure house.

Near Sensoji Temple | Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo

... just grab a camera.

It went like this. Today's Smile on Saturday theme is the rather nice one of camera.

So what to do? Ideally, it had to be either a good photo or something different. Well, good photos aren't really me... What then?

Eeek. I had a Bright Idea... never a good thing; it really needs a health warning :) What about doing one of my axial rotation ICMs of the camera in the mirror?

The theory was that the camera would take itself and, if done well, the hapless photographer's image would spin around, suitably obfuscating (lovely word! :) ) their selfie imagey thingy...

As ever, the shortest word in that last sentence proved the most problematic.

If anyone tells you ICMs are hit and miss they lie. They are all miss unless both the wind, the stars, magic and serendipity are all going your way, and about as likely as an azurine moon in a month of Sundays.

So 90 shots later this is what we have. Thank goodness I was wearing a check shirt. I'm actually standing upright with the camera held out in front.

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Smile on Saturday :)

[(Two) hand held in mixed lighting.

Developed in Photolab trying to rescue the camera from the blacks and the check shirt too while keeping smooth blurriness. Also colour work to get rid of the tungsten + daylight issue.

In Affinity sharpened with USM; white vignette.]

* Another image from my trip to Borneo I am fairly confidant that the pretty flower is an Hibiscus the butterfly is rather more problematical it might be an Black and White Helen, Papilla nephews according to my contact MariaUK

Thanks Maria

THANKS FOR YOUR VISIT AND FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE A COMMENT IT’S MUCH APPRECIATED AND SO MUCH MORE INTRESTING THAN JUST GIVING A FAVE

This shoot with Dinara was a little problematic. It was a cold day, and it got colder as the shooting went on. As it was a sunday, many places were closed, so we had to make the shooting outdoor. That was not so pleasant for the model, and noticing that fact gave me frustation. Dinara is a " deadpan" model, it is not easy to understand how she feels, she did not show much emotion, or at least not much as I have expected. It was only AFTER the shoot when I try to select and edit the images, where I realized that she was a deadpan model and her emotions were exactly how it should be- her soft and tender way of emotions was not something I have realized during the shoot.

They tell us the Whirlpool Galaxy is 31 million light years away! Isn't that crazy!

4 hours shot. 3 hours integrated. Used the problematic Edge HD 8 with 0.7 focal reducer for 1400mm and F7. Problems were with the guiding and focus routines=stars could be way sharper/I focused by hand.

I'l try again at another date, so this image can be a reference for hopefully something better down the road.

Equipement-

ASIAIR Plus

Celestron Edge HD 8 scope

William Optic Uniguide guide scope

AM5 mount

ZWO 294 mc Pro camera

A somewhat problematic camera setting, with bright reflection off egret vs. the dark habitat situation. Got it best I could in the short time afforded.

This was taken on the streets of Sherborne, Dorset (Southwest England). I saw this young lady walking by as I was taking wobblies and, knowing that people and red were both Good Things for ICMs I snapped off a few attempts.

I was trying out a new variable ND filter (effectively two crossed polarisers stacked in one unit). This means I can set the shutter speed to be fairly long (one second here I think) and take time to try several movements or a more considered movement each take. It seems to work OK.

In this case, using a single vertical movement, probably with a pause, has served to emphasise the vertical lines in the buildings and Scarlett’s hair. That’s resulted in some interesting textures and anonymised the people while still creating something of a story.

This street scene was problematic as the sunny day gave it high tonal contrast. It was not ideal but I still liked it :)

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy Scarlett’s hair and the wobbly image. Happy 100x :)

North Antrim - December 2022. Sea Buckthorn is ecologically problematic here, but makes an amazing backdrop for some winter colour.

One of the grotesque figures of the "Fountain of Shame" on the Piazza Pretoria in Palermo. This would be Faunus or Pan or a Satyr, well-known for their uninhibited pursuit of carnal desire. This was somewhat problematic in this particular location: opposite stood the Dominican convent of Santa Caterina - and the story goes that the nuns took hammer and chisel in order to remove certain offending parts. Palermo's centre is dominated by baroque architecture, but the fountain is one of the rare pieces of Renaissance architecture from the middle of the 16th century.

It's Sunday, 2nd April 1989 and spring has well and truly arrived in Somerset.

50048 'Dauntless' blasts away from Sutton Bingham, between Yeovil and Crewkerne with the 1100 from Waterloo to Exeter St Davids.

In the spring of 1989 the majority of Exeter St Davids to Waterloo trains looked like this: a uniform rake of early Mark 2 coaches in Network SouthEast livery with a matching class 50 at the helm.

3 class 47/4s we're on trial at the time but the trial remained exactly that, the 47s being considered problematic due to their lower range than the class 50s.

Class 50s continued to dominate operations through 1989 and 1990, but declining class 50 availability led to regular inroads from newly arrived class 47/7 in early 1991.

This tree is very productive. Based on last year, some of these apples will be touching 500g in October. I have another Bramley's in the garden that is on a bigger rootstock and it produces more than 10 times as many apples but never produces big apples.

we are having a poor summer - cool and wet but that suits the apple trees. Not so good for the honey crop - i will probably get about 25% of the honey that I harvested last year. Four weeks ago in the sunny warmth it seemed to winding up to be a bumper year for honey. Then the rainy weather started and the bees had to consume stores rather than store honey. But i am happy to go with the flow, none of it is important to me economically, and any mood effects can be put into perspective by listening to the news on the radio.

My one annual beekeeping stat that I remember for years each year is colony winter survival ....anything less than 90% is problematic to my conscience. This year I will have a lot of nucs (small, half sized, colonies) overwintering so may need to reduce my conscience threshold to 75% but still hope for 90%

phone picture

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Nine Million Rainy Days

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrZ-Q7p5pBg

Our shoot with Dinara was a little problematic. We were speaking in different frequences. Or at least I thought so. I thought that she was seeing my ideas worthless or meaningless. That created a tension. Later I realized that, Dinara did actualy what I wanted from her- it was me who could not understand that.. She was trying to get into the role, in her ''own way'', which was something I could not see during the shoot, but understood later. That gave me a good lesson--of ''seeing'' not only from my side but seeing also from the other side..

The title comes first from this. Our ''divergence'' during the shoot. Our missunderstanding and being ''divergent'' to each other-although we were saying the same things but in different frequencies. Secondly, the ''feel'' in the image-how Dinara gave the emotion of being ''divergent'' to the outside world when she tries to get into her own soul- or how her inner world is divergent with what she lives outside of her world.

I love to give titles. As I see my images as songs, I like to add titles in order to fullfill the story and emotion.

After uploading nothing for the best part of 6 months, I thought I best get this image from January finished !!!

After what was a problematic morning at the GC operations wise, an unusual northbound plan for the day provided some different scenes. Here 48305 passes Swithland loops with a rake on windcutters.

Taken on pole, pylons removed.

Speyside, Ontario

The village appears to comprise of about a half dozen homes in the middle of nowhere. It sits at the junction of a side road and the main hwy going to Milton, the nearest town of any size. It was always a bit odd in that it was clearly not a purpose built gas station but with its closure it has become all the more intriguing to my eye. It has been closed for quite some time now and I suspect that redevelopment has been delayed as wrangling over who pays the cost of cleaning up the old underground tanks proceeds. That has always been hugely problematic with these types of sites as the cost of clean up can exceed the commercial value of the property.

North Antrim - December 2022. Non native Sea Buckthorn is ecologically problematic here, but makes an amazing backdrop for some winter colour.

Merry Christmas to all on Flickr.

I really don't remember why I happened to be in Shingleton on May 5, 1995 but finding 820 and 2401 sitting on the main without a crew was a lucky thing. By the looks of all the clouds catching them in action in the sun would have been problematic no doubt. The Marquette line in the WC era sure could be counted on for great power to shoot, just to bad the trains remained rather sparse.

Pauvre vieux bonhomme. Finies les longues promenades, il n'y arrive plus. Il a 3 pattes sur 4 qui posent problème, alors imaginez.

Je vais faire au mieux, mais pour un chien de sa taille 14 ans 1/2 c'est beaucoup, alors on va prendre les choses au jour le jour

Poor old guy. No more long walks, he can't do it anymore. He has 3 out of 4 legs that are problematic, so imagine.

I'll do my best, but for a dog his size 14 1/2 years is a lot, so we'll take things day by day.

With M306 rapidly approaching on the #3 track in background as seen from an almost empty Coteau yard, the crew of L536 job is at work retrieving an lone "Trudeau hopper", set out earlier in track QO67 by train G874 with an overheated bearing issue.

The problematic car will be promptly moved toward the assigned B/O track before 536's engines will be shut down in track QO44 and the crew head for the office to call it a day.

CN 7512, an GP38-2 modified back in 1978 from road to hump service, is now back on the mainline jobs with inside and outside cab cameras, microwave, fridge along with an IDU box, enabling train operation with a TIBS. It was still configured for long hood operation and lacking a cow catcher on either end giving a 25MPH restriction any time it was in leading position.

7512 was delivered new to Canadian National as their 5547 back in early 1973.

CN L53621-21

4724 7512

Milepost 38.3 Kingston subdivision

Coteau-du-Lac,QC

September 21st 2024

When you have butter on your head, you blame others, but that is not fair at all because you yourself are also guilty of a certain problematic situation. Blaming others is therefore hypocritical.

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

Als je boter op je hoofd hebt, maak je anderen verwijten, maar is dat helemaal niet eerlijk omdat je zelf ook schuldig bent aan een bepaalde problematische situatie. De ander verwijten maken is dus hypocriet.

onzetaal.nl/schatkamer/lezen/uitdrukkingen/boter-op-je-ho...

Tokyo Tower is a communications and observation tower located in the Shiba-koen district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 332.9 metres (1,092 ft), it is the second-tallest structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations.

Built in 1958, the tower's main sources of revenue are tourism and antenna leasing. Over 150 million people have visited the tower since its opening. FootTown, a four-story building located directly under the tower, houses museums, restaurants and shops. Departing from there, guests can visit two observation decks. The two-story Main Observatory is located at 150 metres (490 ft), while the smaller Special Observatory reaches a height of 249.6 metres (819 ft).

The tower acts as a support structure for an antenna. Originally intended for television broadcasting, radio antennas were installed in 1961, but the tower is now used to broadcast signals for Japanese media outlets such as NHK, TBS and Fuji TV. Japan's planned digital television transition by July 2011 was problematic, however; Tokyo Tower's height, 332.9 m (1,092 ft) was not high enough to adequately support complete terrestrial digital broadcasting to the area. A taller digital broadcasting tower, known as Tokyo Skytree, was completed on February 29, 2012.

We portray our self on what we want to be,

who we want to be,

and how we are to be.

We live in a world where judgement is a big thing

but its our choice to take it or to listen

to our self conscious and decide whats best.

everyone is a good person.

Its the choices we make that makes us bad.

we can either pick a good choice,

or we can pick a bad choice.

Over all what choice are we to make

when there’s a life at stake.- Bleu

Outfit Details: guccirellaww.tumblr.com/

Crail... is a former royal burgh, parish and community council area (Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The civil parish has a population of 1,812 (in 2011). The name Crail was recorded in 1148 as Cherel and in 1153 as Karel. The first element is the Pictish *cair (c.f. Welsh caer) meaning "fort", though this word seems to have been borrowed into Gaelic. The second element may be either Gaelic ail, "rocks", or more problematically Pictish *al; no certain instance of this word exists in P-Celtic. However, if the generic element were Pictish, then this is likely of the specific. Quoted from Wikipedia

The parasitic jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus), also known as the Arctic skua, Arctic jaeger or parasitic skua, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae.

It is a migratory species that breeds in Northern Scandinavia, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, Northern Canada, Alaska, and Siberia and winters across the southern hemisphere.

Kleptoparasitism is a major source of food for this species during migration and winter, and is where the name is derived from.

The parasitic jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus), also known as the Arctic skua, Arctic jaeger or parasitic skua, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae.

Identification is complicated by similarities to long-tailed jaeger and pomarine jaeger, and the existence of three colour morphs. Small for a skua, the parasitic jaeger measures 41–48 cm (16–19 in) in length, 107–125 cm (42–49 in) in wingspan and weighs 300–650 g (11 oz – 1 lb 7 oz).

The tail streamer of the breeding adult accounts for about 7 cm (3 in) of their length. Light-morph adults have a brown back, mainly white underparts and dark primary wing feathers with a white "flash". The head and neck are yellowish-white with a black cap and there is a pointed central tail projection. Dark-morph adults are dark brown, and intermediate-phase birds are dark with somewhat paler underparts, head and neck. All morphs have the white wing flash.

Identification of juveniles is even more problematic, and it is difficult to separate parasitic jaegers from long-tailed jaegers. Parasitic jaegers are bulkier, shorter-winged, and less tern-like than long-tailed jaegers. They are usually warmer toned, with browner shades, rather than grey. However, they show the same wide range of plumage variation. The flight is more falcon-like. The parasitic jaeger is the most common of the three jaeger species seen from shore.

The typical call of these birds is a nasal mewing sound, repeated a few times in display. Their alarm call is a shorter sound.

This image was taken in Longyearbyen in Spitsbergen.

Allard Motor Company Limited was a London-based low-volume car manufacturer founded in 1945 by Sydney Allard in small premises in Clapham, south-west London. Car manufacture almost ceased within a decade. It produced approximately 1900 cars before it became insolvent and ceased trading in 1958. Before the war, Allard supplied some replicas of a Bugatti-tailed special of his own design from Adlards Motors in Putney.

Allards featured large American V8 engines in a light British chassis and body, giving a high power-to-weight ratio and foreshadowing the Sunbeam Tiger and AC Cobra of the early 1960s. Cobra designer Carroll Shelby and Chevrolet Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov both drove Allards in the early 1950s.

Using its inventory of easy-to-service Ford mechanicals built up during World War II and bodywork of Allard's own design, three post-war models were introduced with a newly designed steel chassis and lightweight body shells: the J, a competition sports car; the K, a slightly larger car intended for road use, and the four seater L. All three were based on the Ford Pilot chassis and powered by a fairly stock 85 hp (63 kW; 86 PS) 3,622 cc (221.0 cu in) side valve V8 with a single carburetor and 6:1 compression, driving a three-speed transmission and low-geared rear-end, for superior acceleration.[4] Front suspension was Ballamy swing axle, rear Ford solid axle.[4] They were bodied in aluminum by Allard's friend Godfrey Imhof. Sales were fairly brisk for a low-volume car, and demand was high for cars in general, which led to the introduction of several larger models, the drophead coupe M and P.

Allard used "J" for the short-wheelbase two-seaters, "K" for two- or three-seat tourers or roadsters, "L" for four-seat tourers, "M" for drophead (convertible) coupes, and "P" for fixed-head cars. As models were replaced, subsequent models were numbered sequentially

Sydney Allard soon saw the potential of the economically more vibrant – but sports car starved – U.S. market and developed a special competition model to tap it, the J2. The new roadster, weighing just 18.5 cwt,[5] was a potent combination of a lightweight, hand-formed aluminium body fitted with new coil spring[4] front suspension, fitted with inclined telescopic dampers,[6][7] and de Dion-type rear axle,[3] inboard rear brakes, and 110 hp (82 kW), 267 cu in (4,375 cc) Mercury flathead V8, with the option of an Ardun hemi conversion.[4] The J2 had a disturbing tendency to catch fire when started.[5]

Importing American engines just to ship them back across the Atlantic proved problematic, so U.S.-bound Allards were soon shipped engineless and fitted out in the States variously with newer overhead valve engines by Cadillac, Chrysler, Buick, and Oldsmobile. In that form, the J2 proved a highly competitive international race car for 1950, most frequently powered by 331 cu in (5.4 L) Cadillac engines. Domestic versions for England came equipped with Ford or Mercury flatheads. Zora Duntov worked for Allard from 1950 to 1952 and raced for the factory Allard team at Le Mans in 1952 and 1953.

Available both in street trim and stripped down for racing, the J2 proved successful in competition on both sides of the Atlantic, including a third place overall at Le Mans in 1950 (co-driven by Tom Cole and Allard himself at an average 87.74 mph (141.20 km/h), powered by a Cadillac V8.

J2s returned to Le Mans in 1951, one co-driven again by Cole and Allard, the other by Reece and Hitchings; Reece jumped an embankment, while the Allard car broke. They had no more success in 1952, both cars failing to finish.

Of 313 documented starts in major races in the 9 years between 1949 and 1957, J2s compiled 40 first-place finishes; 32 seconds; 30 thirds; 25 fourths; and 10 fifth-place finishes.[10] Both Zora Duntov and Carroll Shelby raced J2s in the early 1950s. Ninety J2s were produced between 1950 and 1952.

The K2 (the car seen in the photos above) is a 2-seater sports car produced from 1950 to 1952. It was offered with Ford and Mercury V8s in the home market and with Chrysler and Cadillac V8s in the USA. 119 were built.

Source: Wiki

Eichhornia crassipes, commonly known as water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin, and is often a highly problematic invasive species outside its native range. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Eichhornia crassipes

Rank: Species

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---Eyebrows: MAENA – Lydia Eyebrows – Find it @ Wasteland Event

---Lipstick: HEXOLOGY – Soft Skin Lips – Find it @ Wasteland Event

---Dropped Earrings: OPALITE – Feral Drops – Find it @ Wasteland Event

OTHER CREDITS:

---Hair: VILLENA

---Top: LITTLEFOX

---Tattoo: DEATH INK

Problematic EMD SD90"H" Mac former UP 8539 is enjoying a short lease on life working for EMLX leased to Wheeling and Lake Erie, seen here working through Plymouth, Michigan on CSX working coke empties back south - September 22, 2007

- William Penn.

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Although a quick detour to Mesa Arch made us slightly late for the sunset at Green River Overlook, I didn’t find it problematic since I captured some excellent sunset shots at the main overlook. However, as I moved away from the primary viewpoint, I realized it was a mistake. There were many foreground elements—such as large boulders and beautiful pine trees—that I could have used to compose my shot. Despite trying to capture as many compositions as possible, the rushed attempts limited my chances of finding great images. Additionally, the setting sun behind the mountains made it difficult to balance the intensely bright sky with the dark valley below.

Some years ago, I said that I love these curious critters, that the male is called a "Blue Belly" because his belly can be a brilliant blue when he's staking out territory or courting another lizard. And I lamented that I never got a shot showing a blue belly.

Well, I went all the way to 2009 to find this image, the only one with one ... in bloom. I remember where I took this, and I remember that he had hopped onto the log to check me out, but I didn't remember anything else except I was just hoping that I hadn't cropped out that problematic tail. Whew. Just made it.

The Western Fence Lizard can drop its tail when in danger, in the jaws of a predator, or when he gets the hell scared out of him. He'll actually drop two inches or a little more and the tail would move on the ground which usually catches the one intent on a meal. Unfortunately, a male who has dropped his tail will have a tough time interesting a female, and it can take 18 months to grow it back. Life ain't easy in the wild.

Wind power, as an alternative to burning fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, and uses little land. The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of nonrenewable power sources.

Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network. Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electricity, competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants.

In the Upper Palatinate, the farmers use their relatively poor soil to grow rape and additionally to establish wind farms. This one is located near Titting.

Text adapted from Wikipedia.

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An eastbound Baltimore & Ohio unit grain train claws its way up Cranberry Grade near Terra Alta, WV on Oct. 23, 1977 with a mix of five 4-axle EMD's. Four SD35's were shoving hard on the rear.. Unit grain trains were rare on the West End and from what I observed at the time, somewhat problematic.

Thanks to the situation of pandemic , the park is closed except plaza de España with only few people :-). I have spent one month in Andalusia and enjoyed it so much after a too long lockdown .

I fear that the situation is again getting problematic and hope to be able to travel soon doing a test if needed . Some new posts will come in the next days .

Le parc Marie-Louise est fermé pour des raisons sanitaires , seule la place d’Espagne est accessible .

Après avoir passé un mois dans cette somptueuse Andalousie, j’espère qu’un vaccin sera vite disponible pour pouvoir retrouver une totale liberté et découvrir de nouveaux horizons....D’autres photos suivront dans les semaines qui suivent , heureusement le rêve persiste ....

A pair of plant hoppers mating.

There are 10 species but they are based on wing color, not genitalia. This is problematic. [Bug Guide]

It seems like I say this a lot but when the conditions are right (cloudy/overcast) here in mostly sunny Southern California, there isn't a much better view than out to sea at sundown. Sure, there can be weeks or months where it doesn't rain or there isn't a cloud in sight and yet a single great sunset makes me forget about those less than perfect days. It seems that my perfect time to shoot here is in winter when the skies are filled more frequently with heavy clouds and the intense low light sunsets are about as vivid as I've seen anywhere. When the weather cooperates, there probably isn't another place I'd rather be than right where I am.

This past Tuesday, I got my typical late start for the sunset but had decided already I'd go to Venice anyway and at 3:40 or so when I left, traffic felt a bit lighter than usual in that direction. Unlike the awful but slightly predictable traffic back in DC where you just know it will be slow between 3-7 regardless of where you are, out here it's never that easy. My GPS said I'd arrive at 4:35pm which was about 15 minutes before sunset and I hit no traffic jams, arrived at Venice right when I expected to and had zero trouble parking. As I walked through the few alleys that lead to the boardwalk, I could see golden sunlight shining on the sides of some homes and buildings and knew before I stepped onto the beach that at least it wasn't as overcast as last time. What I didn't expect was that the tide would be the lowest I've seen and I'd also get to see a yellow sunset transition to orange, then pink and finally a deeper purple hue as night approached. The shoreline was so reflective that no matter how far I backed up, I still couldn't get as much into the frame as I wanted. Anyone watching me would've seen me move about 10 feet in every direction every few minutes trying to squeeze in the very best angle and view possible.

I started with some closer range shots of the reflections and sun over the horizon like I normally do and while there was still some light, captured some people walking through the scene. As usual, I felt mostly invisible out there crouched down over my tripod which was set up about a foot off the ground. I did catch the eye of a bouncy french bulldog who streaked across the reflections and wiggled next to me while I pet him. Normally I avoid interacting while I'm shooting and generally keep to myself as much as possible but a happy dog is always OK with me and was one of two really nice distractions on the evening. This dog spent most of the time I was there running back and forth along the shore while his humans kept an eye from a distance. It made me miss the days when Scotch was healthy enough to join me on my photography trips and just enjoyed being outdoors, sleeping between my feet and tripod, and hopefully he'll be able to join me again soon enough.

As I mentioned, once the sun dipped below the horizon, the pink and salmon hues took over and filled the sky. That color was mostly to the Southwest with the view facing the sea still showing a yellowish orange. I had the lens at 18mm most of the time during this segment of the shoot and kept moving to my left and right a bit or further back away from the surf in an attempt to capture the incredible sky and patterns above. I've seen a few sunsets out here of this color though none were as impressive or defined as this. There were even more onlookers for this sunset than usual and most lingered for a greater length of time as well. A lot of people stopped in their tracks and held their camera phones up to shoot or record the sky and it was fairly common for me to see people off in the distance pointing in astonishment and it was nice to know I wasn't the only one in awe. Even with the video clip I shot of this sky and all the images I have on my memory card from the evening, it's still hard to believe this is what I saw and what everyone else at Venice and the neighboring beaches saw if they happened to be facing the right direction.

I ended up taking about 200 shots in a relatively short amount of time and once I got home, I realized I had only been shooting with panoramas in mind. I didn't even realize it fully while there but I only took about 15 shots that were intended to be presented as a single frame and the rest focused on very wide panoramas of the 3 or 4 distinct color transitions and cloud patterns. I shot a series of the golden sunset, the orangish afterglow, the transition into the large pink clouds and finally the period just before dark when the purple/magenta colors filled the mostly dark sky.

Shooting just for panoramas proved a bit problematic actually because many of these shots aren't framed all that well individually since my focus was on getting the full cloud pattern across my view as far as I could. I did back up enough to make most of the waves small which I figured would help me match the frames better in post. Amazingly, they all fit together pretty flawlessly and none of the combinations I tried failed to merge in photoshop which was a first for me. However just being able to merge successfully is only the starting point. The main issue I had on this evening was perspective.

For this shot, I fed 6 horizontal images at 18mm into the photomerge which isn't ideal by any means, but it did seem like my only option if I wanted to get both a bit of the pier in on the left and the orange remnants of where the sun had set on the right. Traditionally, my best results have come from 2-3 frame panoramas since it's much easier to correct of the curve in the horizon and make it feel like a large single frame shot. With this one however, I not only got some of that curve but also realized that the view was slightly more skewed than normal since I was panning from the same spot. The further right and left I got from center, the more the perspective changed as the view got smaller and angled slightly more (I know this is obvious but it was never real noticeable in my 2-3 shot panoramas previously).

With those 2-3 panel panoramas, I generally can crop a bit off the left and right side to fix any perspective distortion but this shot wasn't like those. Even the full view in this picture had to be cropped a little to reduce some bend and about an inch of the pier and maybe 2 inches to the right had to be cut. I don't think I'll be making a habit of going for these larger scale panoramas of the sea at 18mm but I'm sure glad I did this time. I couldn't have gotten this full pattern without probably backing up a few hundred feet to the boardwalk and then I would've lost most or all of the reflections so this felt like my only option. I almost always shoot right above ground level so if the big sky and full reflection couldn't fit this way, it wasn't going to happen.

I'm sure I will post some of the individual shots soon along with the other panoramas, but this image represents the very best highlight of the evening. I won't be forgetting this sky for quite some time, regardless of what the winter weather might bring me. Colorful sunsets are far more common year round back in the Washington, DC area than out here but I suppose there's some degree of quality over quantity here around Los Angeles. While I remember a few specific sunsets back home, I can recall nearly every sunset I've witnessed here in great detail. If I can just average 2 cloudy days per week this winter, I will never complain about the weather again!

[Don't hold me to that last statement please]

WHEN & WHERE

Venice Beach

Venice, California

November 15th, 2016

SETTINGS

Canon T4i

cropped 5 frame panorama

EF-S 18-135mm IS STM

@18mm

ISO 100

f/8

1/10th second

CPL

Spanning the infant River Eden this is the first of many bridges over the river. It carries an old path called Lady Anne's Way. The route taken by Lady Ann Clifford when travelling between her many properties in the North o England; from Skipton to Penrith in the seventeenth century.. Like many early routeways in hilly country they avoided valley bottoms and clung to valley sides to avoid seasonal adverse weather conditions that could make travel problematic.

I first spotted this little one on Sept.8. It has not grown any larger feathers by the looks of it. This can be a bit problematic with "second" broods.

J.Poole wetland area, St.Albert, AB.

Downtown Omaha is pretty much the last holdout of searchlight signals in the state. An open container door would prove problematic getting out of CB for the train.

ZLCG2

I’ve been a fan of Roger Dean’s artwork ever since I was a young Yes fan back in the 1970’s. (Yes, I’m that old. ) I don’t know how many album covers I had seen while perusing the shelves of The Wherehouse and Licorice Pizza back then, but I could always spot Roger Dean’s work from across the store.

Why do I bring that up? As I glanced down at my LCD screen last Friday night at 3 AM in Natural Bridges Monument, a Roger Dean album cover was the first thing that popped into my head. I was in the middle of a 3 day shooting run in which I followed Eric Gail out across 5 states in order to catch up with nightscape guru Wayne Pinkston. This was our second stop of the night and after clambering down 6 billion steps and a wooden ladder or two, we were staring up at one of the most impressive arches I had ever seen.

Wayne immediately got to work setting his low level lighting while Eric shouted back to let him know if it was too hot, too low, or just right. It took about 90 minutes to get the lights set just right, and then all three of us began to look for compositions.

The Sipapu Bridge is problematic mainly in that it is just so darn huge. I tried shooting with my Nikon 14-24, but I couldn’t quite get the massive show of scale that I was after. So out came the Rokinon 12mm fisheye. After trying several ideas, I glanced up and noticed how the wall of the canyon we were in curved around nicely behind us. I pointed the fisheye directly up to the sky and the result is what you see here.

Full disclosure: The tree that you see on the bottom of the frame is actually a tree on the ridge behind me. As soon as I saw it I noticed that it anchored the shot. The Sipapu Bridge is actually the buttress in the upper left corner of the frame.

Over those three days, I drove well over 1000 miles through five states and scouted or shot Bisti Badlands, Ship Rock, Monument Valley, Bears Ears and Natural Bridges. I put my poor Toyota FJ through it’s paces and even though it has 160,000 miles on it, it was a champ as I beat the crap out of it on the “roads” surrounding Ship Rock. Between temps that hit 120 degrees at times and the plague of insects that descended on our campsite, it wasn’t a particularly easy weekend, but it was well worth it for a chance to shoot with Wayne Pinkston.

Wayne, by the way, is a madman. We started setting up for our first shot at ….at 10 PM and by 4 AM we were still shooting. Dawn was creeping across the sky as I limped up the six billion steps back to the FJ. The last thing I remember hearing that morning was Eric and Wayne continuing their discussion on post processing as I drifted off, too tired to make it back to our campsite.

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Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:

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