On April 17, 1945, in the final days of World War II, General Devers of the United States Army gave the order for the city to be attacked by artillery. The city was saved by John Jay McCloy, who asked permission to request the unconditional surrender of the city before the attack. McCloy's mother had visited Rothenburg before the war and told her of the town's medieval beauty, so McCloy was reluctant to destroy it. The German regional commander refused the offer, but Major Thömmes, commanding the German troops in the town, ignored this order and surrendered the town.

ne'er was struck before that hour

With love so sudden and so sweet,

Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower

And stole my heart away complete.

My face turned pale as deadly pale.

My legs refused to walk away,

And when she looked, what could I ail?

My life and all seemed turned to clay.

John Clare

Taken @ Chesapeake Bay

I've been crushed beaten down

And I'm frozen to the ground

Like a fool I've trusted you

Still I'm hopelessly in love

I do appreciate you all ❤️

Non Migratory Mallard Ducks @ Montreal, Canada

No, I just refuse to believe my eyes

In front of me something I can't recognize

You stood beside me all my life

The heart machines are ticking

I can hear the life support pumping

The line between life and death doesn't become any clearer than this

Covered with an oxygen mask

These words will be his last

With the energy he has got left

He turns to me and say

I can not stand by you

Till the end of the world like I said I would do

No, I won't be able to

Help you carry the weight of the world

My time has come

Silent as a butterfly

I'll be flying beside you

Watching above you

Silent as a butterfly

All of a sudden I've lost my strength

Isn't it scary how things can change

Mm, in an instant just like that

Whenever I had questions

You always had the answers

You taught me about life

And the importance of being yourself

And to highly value honesty

How not to lose grip of reality

With both your feet on the ground

I can not stand by you

Till the end of the world like I said I would do

No, I won't be able to

Help you carry the weight of the world

My time has come

Silent as a butterfly

I'll be flying beside you

Watching above you

Silent as a butterfly

You weren't suppose to see me like this

And I'm sorry, sorry

I must leave, it's my turn

But I will see you soon (soon)

I cannot stand by you

Till the end of the world like I said I would do

No, I won't be able to

Help you carry the weight of the world

My time has come

Silent as a butterfly

I'll be flying beside you

Watching above you

Silent as a butterfly

As A Butterfly - Dead By April

A huge thank you to Abigail Brewer for posing for me in this shot. It wouldn't have felt right to me if I did it without you. ♥♥

Photo taken at Lux Aeterna. Please go check out the beautiful SIM.

Taking photos of Cleo is beginning to get more difficult again. September arrived and she thought it was time to switch to hibernation mode although during the day it has still beeen summery warm. Hibernation mode means that she moves even less than usual and prefers to sleep in the darkest corners of the house. She hasn't moved into the basement yet but that is likely to happen in the near future. When I took this photo she was lying on her cushion in the living room and refused to move to a place with more light.

There was another donkey but it refused to be in the picture :(

Stuck between the seasons.

More small Post Offices face closure as officials cut costs: Hundreds set to be moved into supermarkets and other shops

Hundreds of town and village post offices are being closed to cut costs

Bosses are demanding sub-postmasters move their shops to other stores

If they refuse, their post office could be forcibly moved to another venue

JFS

Pentax-DA* 55/1.4

OLYMPUS EM-1 Mark II

shot with a fujifilm x-s10 and a tamron adaptall 2 sp 80-200mm f/2.8 (model 30A) lens

I couldn't even see the property the collection was for! As seen in Essex.

Refuse to let the darkness win. Just keep being brave.

The community garden on my walking route is refusing to completely give in to late fall / winter just yet.

Heard a bull frog croaking loudly then walked to the other side of a back pool and found this one hiding in the heavy shade as shown in next photo, but a ray of sunlight finally broke through to light it up. Waited several minutes but it never moved and refused to croak while I was watching so left. I'm sure it wanted to continue call for a mate and didn't want to give up its place. Still wanting to get a photo of one croaking, maybe someday. :)

Leica MP. Ilford HP5+ @800 developed in XTOL (1:1)

It was supposed to be a calm, simple wash… or so she thought when she grabbed the hose! But things quickly spiraled: a rebellious spray of suds, a shirt wetter than expected, and a hose with a mind of its own. Between splashes, she swears the car winked at her, as if mocking her efforts! In the end, it turned into an epic battle between her, the hose, and that old car that refuses to stay clean for more than ten seconds. She finished laughing, soaked to the skin, but proud to have won… well, almost!🚗💦

shot with a fujifilm x-s10 and a tamron adaptall 2 sp 90mm f2.5 macro lens and a 2x teleconverter

© Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved

Street photography from Glasgow, Scotland.

I see street photography as a privilege. The right to photograph anyone and anything in and from a public place for the purpose of art and documentary is not universal around the world. Rights can be taken away at any time, especially when abused.

I shoot courteously and always respect my subjects right to refuse to be photographed. I have always deleted shots when asked to do so.

On Thursday in Glasgow I was harassed by another street photographer. I don't have to justify why I turned my back to them as they tried to photograph me and I am not a hypocrite for doing so despite their protestations that I 'had a nerve'.

However, if someone indicates or tells you that they do not want to be photographed, if you continue to photograph them over and over again what you are doing can be classified as harassment, a criminal matter. Don't be a jerk and don't bully people.

I reacted out of a place of trauma and I am not proud of that but, as you all know, harassment formed a major part of causing my trauma in the first place. The point is that we, as street photographers, have a responsibility to treat people respectfully. This is deeply important if we want our 'rights' to continue in a world becoming increasingly wary of photographers and 'surveillance'.

This is why I take one shot and move on.

You don't follow people, chase them, take multiple shots or feel affronted if they refuse to be photographed.

Take care my Flickr friends. Take photos. Be kind to one another and I wish you a wonderful week in this crazy world.

After being shut out the night before by a stubborn storm that refused to break up over Jasper National Park, we had our fingers crossed as we headed back to Maligne Lake the following morning. We all seemed pretty happy with our blue hour shots, but as sunrise approached, it really began to look like we might not see the sun at all that day. I think we had all resigned ourselves to the fact that we were looking at another completely gray day when I glanced up an noticed the faintest wisp of pink on one of the clouds. Sure enough, the sun broke through just enough to throw some fleeting color across the the clouds that were continuing to roll in from the West. I think Tom and I are the ones in our group who really have a problem standing still during moments like this. Both of us went off in all directions at once, and both of us had two camera bodies for just such an occasion. Leaving my D800 on the tripod, I took off running with my D750 and cranked up the ISO a bit while I looked for other comps in addition to what I was getting down at the lakeside.

As I was racing back to my spot in front of the boat house, this puddle caught my eye and I spent the next few minutes trying to shoot if from several different angles with the 14-24. There have been times where I have doubted my run and gun approach, but I usually reserve it for situations where I feel like I've got a decent shot on the tripod before setting of to see what I might be missing maybe just a few steps away. If I had stayed camped out where I was I would have missed this particular shot along with quite a few others. We ALL gave in to temptation two nights before when we had a perfectly good view of the late afternoon sun up at the Opabin Prospect, but curiosity got the better of us and we full out RAN back up the trail to get more shots of the larches behind us. So I think there is something to be said for making sure you KEEP MOVING once you believe you have a decent shot...especially when you might only have another few minutes of good light.

This being said, it helps to be able to TRUST the guys who you are shooting next to. Maybe leaving the camera on the tripod while you run like a maniac in all directions should be reserved for those times when you actually know the people around you...or you might not have a camera when you get back. :)

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

Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions 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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refusing to look at me with a camera aimed at her

Parkes Street Refuse Collection Point

Kowloon

040-8893

Spider-Silk unseen,

Old leaf refuses to fall,

Waiting to ascend.

Brief interruption in the Croation chronology. I know there was spider silk, but I didn’t see it. 5-image median stack with 2.0 linear sharpening.

Happy Sliders Sunday!

09:00 CDT

2998 2020 03 24

Leaf study in Ambrosia Springs Park (Oklahoma)

Refused - New Noise

So Anita and I came to Chincoteague Island yesterday, arriving mid to late afternoon and after an initial tour of the island headed over to Assateague Island in the hopes of spotting some wild ponies. They proved to be as illusive as the black bears we hunt for! But we did spot this turtle trying to cross a very busy loop road. We stopped, put on the four way flashers and hopped out to give him a hand. Anita, having previous experience picking up Snapping turtles refused to touch him and I was photographing the event. Traffic was backing up. Finally he recognized us for his guardian angels and hiked himself up and started trundling across the highway. He got to the oncoming traffic lane and kept going but a car was coming at him and I stepped up and motioned to the car to stop.... he kept coming! I stepped another step into the lane thinking surely the guy would stop but he kept coming! That inconsiderate driver missed me by Inches and the turtle by less! But in the end, the turtle was safe on the other side of the road and we went on our way. Later in the day we watched 3 young men do the same with another turtle with much boisterous good will and waving some bottles of... I don't know, Beer maybe? LOL And so today, who knows what wild adventures await. We are off pony hunting which may involve electric go-carts, bicycles or boats. Who knows???

Bank Holiday working, up in the clouds.

Another unwanted leader refusing to stand down: one of the two old DCs that seem to still be active down here was leading a decent Train 934 today.

This news warranted a picture, but the sun is still pretty high in the sky until about 4:30pm these days, so instead of going south, I figured there might still be some nose sun on the Waitaki. And there almost was.

The plan was to get another pic before the crossing with 925 at Studholme and then follow that back south.

Unfortunately, predicted cloud from the south at this time was materialising, so having dodged it at the Waitaki bridge and effectively missing the crossing because of road works, I passed on 925 and pressed on to Scarborough after getting a shot at Hook, knowing the chances were slim.

Indeed as I neared the railway the train was ahead of me, but it slowed down considerably, such that I was alongside the locos by the end of the road. Within seconds of stopping, the flying camera was away, flipped into Speedy Mode and it made it along the beach before the train did.

One more short wait and I closed off the day with the train departing Timaru. A productive few hours indeed....

Train 934 10 Dec 2020, DCP 4801 DXB 5120, departing Timaru with the port in the background, SIMT NZ

Very hot and humid again today and we have a severe weather warning of possible thunderstorms. Sethi was only outside in the early morning (until I let him in through the backdoor as he refuses to use the cat flap). In the afternoon he and Tofu disappeared in the basement where it is cooler than anywhere else in the house.

You could buy me diamonds

You could buy me pearls

Take me on a cruise around the world

Baby you know I'm worth it

Dinner lit by candles

Run my bubble bath

Make love tenderly to last, to last

'Cause baby you know I'm worth it

Wanna please wanna keep wanna treat your woman right

Not just dough but to show that you know she is worth your time

You will lose if you chose to refuse to put her first

She will if she can find a man who knows her worth

'Cause a real man, knows a real woman when he sees her

And a real woman knows a real man ain't afraid to please her

And a real woman knows a real man always comes first

And a real man just can't deny a woman's worth

If you treat me fairly

I'll give you all my goods

Treat you like a real woman should

Baby I…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMUIwOE2ss

I don't wanna die alone I don't wanna live forsaken I refuse to let this go

Because my soul is breaking I don't wanna let you know That my heart is just so jaded

I refuse to let it show I refuse to let it go

Wake me up when this is over

Odd that at the end of January, this remains liquid. A small bay sheltered from the current of the St. Lawrence without a trace of ice.