View allAll Photos Tagged Problems
This is a concept I dreamed up about people that solve problems all day, people issues, technical issues. Spending your whole day solving problems! This is how I feel most days! hence the epitome of puzzles.. behold the Rubix breakfast! Solving problems from the moment you wake!
"Chocolate? Chocolate?" That's what they said to me, little hands outstretched. Apparently, trekkers starting into feeding candy to the local children, and they've learned to beg for it. It's become a real problem, actually. I didn't have any sweets for them, but they did enjoy posing for a picture and seeing on the camera afterwards.
Spoonbill seemingly investigating a stick. It may be thinking about becoming a vegetarian, but more probably it thought it had found an eel...
:V So troll.
Thanks to Eclipse because this wouldn't not be possible without his help LOL.
45. I'll most likely end up doing some sort of Scene or something that uses all 45 and it will be legit.
Me....all through school!
CHEF clabudak wants us to have fun with math and geometry!
➤ Your image must have an overall abstract quality
➤ It must include at least one human body part
➤ Also at least one geometrical shape
➤ And a mathematical or geometrical diagram and/or equation
➤ NO MONOTONES
Well, of course, I was wrong! I HAVE used math quite a bit in my lifetime. All the items pictured were from Pixabay. Text from Picsart.
Hi Folks,
I just published a new imaging project on my website.
Messier 101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy with the recently discovered supernova - SN2023ixf!
This target is located 21 Million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major.
This was about a 3-hour exposure in LRGB using my widefield Askar FRA400 Platform.
Everybody and their brother seems out there shooting images of this galaxy with its supernova.
And who's to blame them? Supernovae are amazing events. At the end of its life, a star explodes, releasing as much energy in one second as our Sun will emit in its entire lifetime!
This does not happen every day, and to have one in a galaxy as beautiful as the Pinwheel is worth shooting.
But with so many images of this out there - why should I shoot it tool. Do I think I can do better than everyone else? Hardly!
This is such a cool event that I did want to have one captured in my portfolio.
But during my last imaging session, my widefield Askar FRA400 Platform was the only scope that was untasked. During galaxy season, there are relatively few large targets to shoot. So I pointed it at M101 and decided to go for it!
My expectations were very low, though:
- A widefield scope shooting a galaxy - that will be a problem!
- I was only able to get 3 hours of integration - my last shot of M101 had 11 hours - so that's going to be a problem
- I am shooting with some thin smoke from the Alberta Wildfires in the air - that IS a problem.
So why shoot it at all?
- Supernovae are one the coolest events in our night sky - I wanted to capture an image of that - even a poor one!
- I saw this as an opportunity to dive into what supernovae were all about and describe that in my web write-up
- I have the twisted part of my personality that likes the challenge of getting a better image out of compromised data
I drizzle processed, then cropped like mad, and took advantage of BlurXTerminator and NoiseXTerninaor to help improve a dicey image.
The final result is not wonderful, but it is not horrible either!
The full story of this imaging project, and some cool info on supernovae, can be found here:
cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/m101-sn2023xif
Thanks,
Pat
A surprise to see these birds can turn their heads pretty much like owls, while in flight. When it comes to survival, extraordinary things happen. Nature is amazing!
This image was re-uploaded due to the Activity Feed problem by Flickr. Apologize to some Flickr friends who had already faved and commented.
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Thank you to those who have made me their contact. Due to poor health, eye problems and low energy I regret I can't take on any new contacts but nearly always manage to reply to your comments. Please no more than 1 invite.
Eddie was a great diver and had gotten himself out of tight spots before but this had to be one of the worse spots he'd ever been in...
2nd Place Winner dA Gallery Challenge 107
Created for dA Users Gallery Challenge 107 – Clock/s
Clock/s with thanks to JEricaM
Background: WavebreakMediaMicro www.dollarphotoclub.com/64984271
Texture: SkeletalMess Cracked Mask
A man walks in the dank underbelly of Philadelphia, on his way to fix what no one else had the courage to.
Part of a series of images I hope to collect these next few months.
On Wednesday 14th June 2023 I spent the day on the MGB line between Dieni and Disentis in splendid Alpine weather. However, I had to content myself with the hourly Regio services as all of the Zermatt Glacier Express services had been cancelled that day following an OHL problem near the Valais mountain resort town.
The new Orion EMUs would be officially 'launched' by MGB on the following day at an event at Oberalppass, so at least the services operating on this section of the network were still loco hauled. In this view, refurbished MGB HGe 4/4” 104 was crossing Bugei Viaduct with an Andermatt to Disentis/Mustér R45 Service.
All images on this site are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed written permission of the photographer. All rights reserved – Copyright Don Gatehouse
Nikon Df / 50mm f/1.8D
Picked up this camera on eBay recently. It's still young to me, but I'm not as impressed by it as I thought I'd be. The image quality is ok, but what my problem is, is that the camera isn't very easy to use -- pales in comparison to my Fuji gear.
Or maybe I'm just a Fuji fanboy.
After a busy day and thinking that I wouldn't get to upload this week I had a look through the games that we have and came across one of my wife's birthday presents.
As I was struggling for ideas on how to present it I decided to go for diagonal lines and curves.
We did have a Trivial Pursuit box bit unfortunately all the pieces with exception of the cards are missing.
A problematic situation at one of the restaurants at Khao San Road in Bangkk, Thailand.
Street photography - www.maciejdakowicz.com/street-photography/
The problem of paper waste is SO BIG it may seem magnified but I'm sad to say it's not...
Used paper towels create 254 million tons of trash every year.
Once used, paper towels cannot be recycled.
As many as 51,000 trees per day are required to replace the number of paper towels that are discarded every day.
A problem, I think you'll agree!
ODC: Magnify
Last December I bought myself a flash for my camera, as it didn't have one. It arrived just before I left for California, and I stuck it in my camera bag and forgot I had it. But today was dark and rainy, so I decided to try it out. I found out I could adjust the amount of light coming from it, even to minus values. That's great, as the problem with on camera flash pictures is that they provide too much light. So, playing around with different settings, I was able to get a fill-light photo in front of a window, without losing the background. The problem is, the background was a dirty window. So I had to try different textures to make the dirt go away!
92043 passes Preston with the 3Z15 Polmadie to Wembley stock move conveying Caledonian Sleeper Mk5 stock, the introduction of which has been beset by numerous problems, Sunday February 2 2020
My friend has problems with winter and autumn
They give him prescriptions,
They shine bright lights on him
They say it's genetic,
They say he can't help it
They say you can catch it
But sometimes you're born with it
My friend has blight
he gets shakes in the night
And they say there is no way
That they could have caught it in
Time takes its toll on him, it is traditional
It is inherited predisposition
All day I've been wondering
What is inside of me,
Who can I blame for it?
I say
It runs in the family,
this famine that carries me
To such great lengths
To open my legs
Up to anyone who'll have me
It runs in the family,
I come by it honestly
Do what you want
'Cause who knows
It might fill me up
Fill me up
My friend's depressed,
She's a wreck, she's a mess
They've done all sorts of tests and
They guess it has something to do
With her grandmother's grandfather's grandmother
Civil war soldiers who
Badly infected her
My friend has maladies, rickets, and allergies
That she dates back to the 17th century
Somehow she manages, in her misery -
Strips in the city
And shares all her best tricks with
Me?
Well, I'm well.
Well, I mean I'm in hell.
Well, I still have my health
(At least that's what they tell me)
If wellness is this, what in hell's name is sickness?
But business is business!
And business
Runs in the family, we tend to bruise easily
Bad in the blood, I'm telling you 'cause
I just want you to know me
Know me and my family
We're wonderful folks but
Don't get too close to me
'Cause you might knock me up
Knock me up
Mary have mercy.
Now look what I've done
But don't blame me because
I can't help where I come from
And running is something that we've always done
Well and mostly I can't even tell what I'm running from
Run from their pity
From responsibility
Run from the country
And run from the city
I can run from the law
I can run from myself
I can run for my life
I can run into debt
I can run from it all
I can run till I'm gone
I can run for the office
And run from the 'cause
I can run using every
Last ounce of energy
I cannot
I cannot
I cannot
Run from my family
They're hiding inside me
Corpses on ice
Come in if you'd like
But just don't tell my family
They'd never forgive me
They say that I'm crazy
But they would say anything
If it would shut me up
Shut me up
The events that night in the parking lot changed me forever.
I used to look at things as so much more 'black and white.'
'The police were good' I thought.
And 'our government existed to serve and protect the people.'
There was a certain bliss in living with that ignorance.
One night shattered that and life itself would never be so simple again.
I knew that anyone could go bad.
I'd seen that before.
But the systematic coverup I was witness to...
that whacked my reality big time.
Since then I've made quite a few friends who happen to be cops.
I'd say that in my experience about half of them are an honor to the badge.
The other half...
you'd be shocked that they're nothing but another street gang bunch of thugs...
only they hide behind those badges and blue uniforms.
And they're authorized by the state to carry guns and use deadly force.
I don't think anything's ever offended me so much as seeing that bullshit up close.
It was like some fog was lifted and I saw what went on 'behind the curtain.'
That shit really shook me up.
I'm talking about people who've not only got no problem murdering someone...
but they've got the understanding and the means to get away with it.
There's more than a few people in prison who've been sent there wrongly convicted of crimes these guys have done.
They know how to pull it off.
The only thing that they really fear are the half of the cops who wouldn't tolerate that stuff.
The problem is that in some departments the ratio's pretty skewed.
Like Deadwood.
The whole place is filled with bad apples.
The stories I started to hear were unbelievable.
Witness intimidation.
Planting drugs.
Lying on police reports.
Giving false testimony.
And of course...
firebombing the garbage dumpster in front of my office.
I saw that one with my own eyes.
Or that phone call I got about the Police Commisioner's federal conviction for selling a couple of kilos of the white stuff.
The same guy that owned the bar that installed the illegal poker machines.
The ones that were all gone when the county went to raid his place because Iron Fist supposedly got tipped off and told him he'd better get rid of those things fast.
And I heard Iron Fist was pissed.
Not because his Police Commissioner had an illegal gambling operation going on in his town...
but because he'd kept it a secret from him.
Iron Fist kept secrets.
You didn't keep secrets from him.
There's some dark shadows on the other side of that 'thin blue line' and I'm telling you that I hope you never see them.
They get away with way too much.
They get away with murder.
The corruption is so endemic to the system that I have no faith at all that it can ever be eliminated.
There's a secret code.
If you've ever gotten a ticket and the cop thought you were an asshole all he had to do was to make sure that when he stapled your drivers lisense to the paperwork was that he put the staple through your picture.
The next cop that pulled you over knew right away that some other cop had a problem with you.
Because you had staple holes there on your license.
On your face.
That's the kind of shit that they do.
That's the 'code.'
One thing that they do better than anything though is to stick together.
'Professional courtesy' they call it.
In Chicago givin' another cop a ticket for DUI is an instant career dead end.
The older cops with more experience know how it works.
The young guys get sucked into it in order to prove themselves.
And to survive.
You gotta tow the line if you want backup to help you out in a timely manner when you call for it.
It's almost a rite of passage.
You don't pass the test...
you're gonna get your ass kicked on the streets or worse...
and no one's gonna drive really fast to help you out.
You'll be on your own.
Over the years the cops have developed an 'us or them' mentality.
They become jaded about the way it all works...
they socialize amongst themselves and the women who they call 'holster sniffers.'
They start to hate the legal system...
the judges and the prosecutors...
and then all of the sudden they're one of the 'bad apples.'
You hear about them every once in a while...
either they're busted by the feds or they're turned on by the guys around them because they pissed someone off.
You got no idea how bad it is really.
Not until you start hearin' what's going on 'off the record.'
You'll never sleep as well as you did before you heard the stories.
What makes it all worse is when corrupt politicians start to use the police as a 'personal army.'
That only makes everything dirtier.
The cops know that they're gonna get away with so much more when the guys above them are corrupt too.
That's the way it went in Deadwood.
Iron Fist used the police like they were his own little militia.
If he had a problem with you then you had yourself a problem with the cops.
And keepin' Iron Fist happy took precedence over 'law and order' any day of the week in Deadwood.
You got old Iron Fist pissed off at you that'd be a real quick end to your career in 'law enforcement.'
While Iron Fist ran the place the town was known as a really desirable place to live.
You didn't put a 'for sale' sign in front of your house if you wanted to sell it when he was in charge.
The old man would never tolerate that.
He had a list of people who wanted to live there and him and his cronies would figure out who they were gonna let buy your house.
They didn't want any 'undesirables' moving in.
And by 'undesirables' I mean black people.
Iron Fist thought that 'for sale' signs on people's homes made him look bad.
Dude should have been a cult leader the way he operated.
If you went around 'the system'...
and some people did because they felt that Iron Fist's little policy was cutting their profits on the sale of their homes...
Iron Fist would send the cops out late at night and snatch that 'for sale' sign right out of your front yard.
The guys I talked to said 'Secret Squirrel' was always up for the job.
He was the guy that drove around with the trunk full of machine guns.
The Village was sued in federal court for the practice by real estate agents and the Village lost on First Ammendment grounds...
but they still kept doing it.
Iron Fist reduced the police to commonon thievery.
For a lot of them I think that was the line that they'd first crossed into the corruption that soiled the place.
Kind of like a little 'initiation' into the way things were done in Deadwood.
They wanted to make damn sure no 'undesirables' were ever hired on to the police department too.
They asked applicants to provide a picture of themselves with their applications.
You better not have a dark complection if you wanted to get a job there.
The thing that really made everything so corrupt was that the Chief would always end up with a big old bag of dirt on Iron Fist...
just as much as Iron Fist'd end up with a big old bag of dirt on the Chief.
The relationships never seemed to last too long because Iron Fist knew the game better than any of the clowns he'd make Chief.
He'd take 'em down before they really became a threat.
When Skeevy left there to run another department it wasn't too long before the feds were all over his ass.
It was Skeevy who'd installed the guy that'd become the next Chief...
'Chief Hotdog.'
The one I sent the 'nutcracker' letter to.
Where I told him 'I was gonna squeeze his balls until they popped.'
The letter I had to read in front of the jury with all the good stuff blacked out.
Man I really thought I was gonna be charged with some serious felonies for that action.
Even my lawyer said he was worried about it.
'You don't go around writing that kind of stuff down' he said 'say whatever you want but you don't write letters like that and send them to the Chief of Police signed with your name.'
Fortunately the statute of limitations has run out on that one and I ain't got no problems that way.
I really tortured poor Chief Hotdog...
got inside his head and fucked with him big time.
The way I saw it he deserved it.
I mean... he was the boss... and he coudda done something to make things right for me and my family.
He was given the chance to do the right thing.
They all were.
But when he came out lying to the media about what happened that night and defended the actions of his street thug cops I knew I was goin' after his ass any way I could.
Right after the case against my wife was thrown out Chief Hotdog resigned.
Of course The Kid said it had nothin' to do with the bungling of that case...
and insiders said it was because he didn't do really well at fundraising for The Kid politically...
but I didn't care.
He was just one more corrupt motherfucker that I had in my crosshairs that went down in flames.
Whatever it was it ended his career.
The department went without a Chief for a few months and everyone speculated on who was gonna be named Chief Hotdog's successor.
I was shakin' the place up with allegations about the use of the contaminated well but that was all kinda behind the scenes...
the media or the feds hadn't picked up on it just yet.
When The Kid appointed the new Chief, me and The Mole both let out a collective gasp at the same time.
He appointed a woman who used to run the water department.
Terry Stewbauer.
I couldn't believe it.
It was such an obvious payoff and anyone in the know could see that right away.
It was blatant.
The Kid wasn't just 'ball-less' he seemed to be brainless too.
That was the first time I knew I really had those assholes and I knew I had them good.
They knew the feds were comin' sooner or later because I wasn't letting up and appointing Stewbauer as the new Chief of Police was a sort of premptory strike.
They wanted to keep her quiet and they wanted to keep her loyal...
put her on the 'short leash.'
I think she was scared shitless about what was comin' down the line and thinkin' about makin' a deal herself with the federales.
The Kid appointing her as the new Chief was probably a confidence builder for the woman.
She was working part time as a detective for the department before she was appointed Chief and I'd heard she wasn't a bad cop.
But she knew the truth about the use of the contaminated well and I knew that in appointing her that The Kid was hoping she'd never tell that truth to anyone.
Especially the feds.
I heard that her husband was a convicted drug dealer who was sitting in prison at the time she was appointed as the new Chief too.
She couldn't have been a very good detective if she didn't know that the old man was dealin' drugs out of her house.
Or she was a very corrupt detective.
Take your pick.
She was working as the Chief of Police in Deadwood when she was indicted on something like twenty three felony counts by the US Attorney.
She had to surrender her gun and her firearm owners identification card to the feds right after that.
Deadwood gave her a paid 'leave of absence' so now she gets paid for doing nothing.
Except takin' a fall for Iron Fist and his crew and keeping some serious secrets.
Of course they're paying her legal bills too.
I can't believe they get away with that shit but they do.
If I was a reporter I'd tear 'em a new one over that story.
I guess that made her the second Chief of Police that I'd end up takin' down in a row over this whole thing.
The Mole once pointed out that 'fucking with you doesn't seem to be a really good career move.'
We shared a good laugh over that one.
I was makin' enemies there almost as fast as I'm known to make friends.
And I was using the enemies of my enemy pretty effectively too.
That's why I'd reached out to Congressman Bobby Rush.
Krista'd made the introduction.
I'd read that when Rush was first elected to Congress that Iron Fist was pretty pissed off that now a black man would be representing Deadwood in Congress.
He was quoted in the newspapers saying that he wanted to secceed from the congressional district because 'there was no way that that man could represent the white ethnics of Deadwood.'
That comment really pissed off Congressman Rush and I don't think he ever forgot it.
Or forgave it.
I remember thinking 'this guy will really be a help in nailing Iron Fist to the cross' and I was right.
Congressman Rush and I are not the kind of guys who you'd ever accuse of seeing 'eye to eye' politically but we had a common enemy in Iron Fist and that's all it takes in Illinois politics... or politics in general to gain a strong ally.
I remember the Congressman pulling me out of a big meeting saying that he wanted me to get in front of the cameras with him and talk to the press.
Right after he'd given the best political speech I've ever had the great pleasure to witness.
I'm telling you I swear he channeled the spirit of a baptist preacher from the deep south of the seventies on that one.
I think the Congressman wanted Iron Fist to see him with his arm around me there smiling.
Kinda like twisting the knife if you know what I mean.
I also remember the Fox News reporter with that tight sweater and the most amazing pair of tits I'd ever seen...
I thought it was pretty funny that I'm standing next to a Congressman with about a half a dozen tv cameras in my face blowin' the lid on Iron Fist and his dirty and despicable deeds and I can't take my eyes off of this woman's rack.
I'm usually not like that...
but damn... the combination of that sweater and her upper body were a work of freakin' art...
a thing of incredible beauty.
That moment was the closest I'd ever come to feeling a woman up on live tv.
I'm glad the Congressman did most of the talking.
When I watched myself on tv that night I looked like a really honest guy lookin' right into the camera like that.
Only me and God knew where I was really looking though.
And I blame the whole thing on God anyway.
That was not the work of some plastic surgeon...
and if it was, then it was God that gave him that talent...
so I still blame God and I think he'd be honored that I do.
I felt like dirt for thinkin' that way there though.
Iron Fist and his shenanigans killed people.
Innocent people that had no idea that they were drinking that cancer water.
There were so many people with cancer there at that meeting.
I shook their hands and I hugged them.
I looked into their eyes and I listened to their stories.
And it all got me even more pissed off at what those assholes did.
Yeah... there was a certain selfish satisfaction in the imminent crucifiction of the people who'd hurt my family...
but more and more I was beginning to find myself taking up the crusade to bring these guys to justice not just for what they'd done to me and my family...
but for what they'd done to the people that trusted them.
They had to pay for what they'd done and it seemed like I was the only one with the balls and the motivation and the understanding of the situation to keep driving them towards justice.
And now I had some powerful people on my side.
Rush had called Eric Holder, the US Attorney General from the meeting and told him what was going on.
Shit was getting stirred up alright.
I was excited.
I'd seen enough in that parking lot and in the days after to know that they were soul-less and corrupt and I wanted to show everyone that.
I wanted revenge ever since that night.
There was a battle going on inside of my soul by this time.
And I found myself slowly letting the whole concept of revenge go.
More than anything...
I really wanted justice.
And I wanted it for the frail thirty eight year old woman I'd just hugged who had cancer all over her body and was sick right there from all of the chemo...
I wanted justice for her.
They had no right to do that to another human being.
Iron Fist and his whole crew hadda go down for this.
From the series 'There's Something in the Water' here on Flickr... www.flickr.com/photos/light_seeker/sets/72157627041317913...