View allAll Photos Tagged Refuse,

The mist slips under the door of my house, stretches its tentacles and reaches my bed, slipping under the covers. It whispers in my ear, "Come and join the dawn, deep in the deserted woods." I refuse to listen to this delicious chant and escape to the land of dreams. "Come on, get up and follow me! Β» it insists. Reluctantly, I stagger out of bed, eyes still drowned in sleep. However, I know the sun will not shine. And fog without sun always makes dull pictures. But the mist makes itself more convincing. And soon enough, I find myself plunging into the yawning forest. One by one, my sensors kick in. I don’t manage to see yet, I feel. My Nikon is on but on my shoulder. Suddenly, my heart rate accelerates. The real world drifts away, engulfed in fog. I feel I’m getting close to the witching hour. I slide along a slope next to a singing stream. I throw a big stone into it, to test its reality. I wonder : am I still in bed dreaming about this scene or really present in the blurred forest ? The answer doesn’t take long. I lose balance and find myself on all fours, butt in ice water, the laughing stock of the forest wild birds.

 

La brume se glisse sous la porte de ma maison, étend ses tentacules et atteint mon lit, se glissant sous la couette. Elle susurre aΜ€ mon oreille Β« Viens te joindre aΜ€ l’aurore, au creux des bois désertés. Β» Je refuse d’écouter ses mélopées délicieuses et cours me réfugier au pays des reΜ‚ves. Β« Allez , leΜ€ve toi et suis moi ! Β» insiste-t-elle. AΜ€ contre-coeur, je titube hors du lit, les yeux encore noyés de sommeil. Je sais pourtant que le soleil ne sera pas au rendez vous. Le brouillard sans soleil, c’est la garantie d’une photo plombée. Mais la brume se fait plus convaincante et me voilaΜ€ bientoΜ‚t m'enfoncΜ§ant dans la foreΜ‚t qui baΜ‚ille. Un aΜ€ un mes capteurs se réveillent. Je sens, je ne vois pas encore. Je ressens, je n’arme pas encore mon Nikon. Soudain, mon rythme cardiaque s’accéleΜ€re. Le monde réel s’éloigne, englouti dans le brouillard. Je sens que j’approche de l’instant magique. Je glisse le long d’un talus ouΜ€ chante un ruisseau. J'y jette une grosse pierre comme pour en tester la réalité. Je ne sais plus si je suis encore dans mon lit aΜ€ reΜ‚ver ce décor, ou bien réellement présente dans cette foreΜ‚t estompée au buvard. La réponse ne tarde pas. Je perds pied et me retrouve les fesses dans l’eau glacée sous la risée des oiseaux sauvages.

  

Marbled white butterfly - Melanargia galathea.

 

Refusing to come out of the shelter of the long grass. This is a first for me, never actually come across this beautiful butterfly before and it is an absolute stunner! I do hope I get to see one again and get a better shot of it, the upper wing pattern is a work of art.

Wise up ...rise up

 

Pix'd @ Fabulous Hangars Liquide

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hangars%20Liquides/175/124...

 

AZOURY - Ephese Arm

Bri Bodysuit Leather Clear Maitreya

:BAMSE: VA Headset - Caution

AZOURY - Conception Flat Leg

.SHI Eirene Hair

Non Migratory Mallard Ducks @ Montreal, Canada

  

Later in the morning and still dark in another part of the Borough (Leyton this time), the clean up continues.

I Defy Inhibition

I Escape Definition

I Refuse, I Refuse

  

She Drew the Gun - PLAY

   

**All photos are copyrighted**

Every morning I leash up Kenzie the pup and we take a walk along a trail that's just down the road. Along the way we pass Hirschman's Pond. There is very short path that leads down to the bank. Kenzie always stops at this junction and refuses to budge unless I take her down to the water. Once there she sits and stares at the view for several minutes, as do I. After several minutes of this, we return to the main trail and finish our walk. I truly believe she loves the beauty of this spot, but more likely she's looking for the geese, ducks, or the occasional otter that inhabit the pond. None were present on this morning--just the quiet lush reflections of the forest on the still water.

 

Nevada City CA

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. β™₯β™₯

 

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

Mientras la luna se negaba salir

 

Pont del Petroli

Badalona

 

Working hard to fill another truck with rubbish.

 

As seen Out & about in Woodford.

Macro Mondays 'stack' theme.

 

I tried several stacks for this theme, some were too big and some simply refused to stay stacked! I ended up with these little containers from the Trivial Pursuit game.

 

The image measures 2.75" in width

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

Lyon

Refuser la corruption

Created for the macro group, "Looking close...on Friday!"

This weeks theme is "Bicycle."

How could I refuse?

 

Thanks for any likes and comments. I appreciate your support!

Those last few, stubborn leaves refuse to give up.

In which my garden robins refuse to indulge in Christmas spirit and share.

 

We're Here: Christmas Dysfunction

One of my attempts at the "Macro Mondays" theme "iSpy"

 

I = Ink

 

Shot with a "Tomioka-Copal 71 mm F 4" (enlarging) lens on a Canon EOS R5.

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

I refuse to let this cold take hold. Hot toddies are in order.

 

5 / 365

It was the day Winter Holiday ended. Rya sat outside one of the Shadoan estates in the starry-grass field with Kulaan. Her aunt had greeted them at the Hogsmeade house then they arrived back the day before. Since then they had been traveling around with her. Later they would travel to Hogsmeade to meet the other students before they all made the trip back up to the castle.

 

β€œDuncha t’ink et tis a lil bit odd t’at nae one came looking for us?” She pondered, looking out into the distance. β€œI mean, we were gone fer days. S’e β€˜ad tae β€˜ave noticed. T’en.. w’en we got back, t’ere were nae questions?”

 

Kulaan took a breath in and remained silent for a moment. It was rather strange, that could not be denied - and the kindness of the people could be questioned, as his experience at Hogwarts had taught him. Still, the trip had been a welcomed trek down memory lane and he refused to spoil it with a hypothesis. "It's odd . . . " He begun, placing his hand on her knee. The action drew her attention to him and she smiled.

 

" . . . but I don't really care right now." The boy lifted his free hand and let it hover above the grass. "We did what we wanted.”

 

Credits . . .

 

A beautiful Sunflower refusing to admit it's officially Autumn. They self seed everywhere in the polytunnel and I'm happy to let them grow amongst the vegetables. Goldfinches (and Field mice) appreciate the bounty of seeds in Winter too. This one was about 8ft tall, nearly touching the top of the polythene.

 

Photo 88/100 for the 100 Flowers 2020 group.

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

Again it was a lot of fun to play with this MM theme! Paper seems to be all around us, and there would be many more ideas to choose from.

I wanted to stay simple this time but couldn't refuse a little touch of colour and Bokeh balls πŸ˜‰.

 

HMM to all participants πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™

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

This was a man who not only wished to be remembered, he also wanted to tell us how. And the Anglican Church, St Andrew's in Wimpole (Cambridgeshire) in this case, totally agreed and offered its services, as she always used to do, to the self-importance of an overbearing noble family. These were people who automatically, without being voted in, were members of Parliament and representing interests no other than their own. So, I will not give the name of this person (d. 1834) who made sure that he was depicted in the robes and with the paraphernalia of the Knights of the Garter. The hard work of real memory, however, must include all those whose presence and contribution is excluded from this monument of political narcissism. Fuji X-E2.

 

(Warning: this is a long one, so grab some popcorn and settle in.)

 

Photographing landscapes has provided me with countless opportunities to have my mind blown over the past few years. From summits in the Canadian Rockies, to countless sunrises in the Sierras to spectacular night skies in remote corners of Utah to beautiful coastlines in Oregon....so many incredible moments. Of all of these experiences, the one I endured last Friday was truly special. It was a personal triumph and one that I have literally been working toward for the past two years.

 

Tom Bricker was the first one to mention the Diving Board to me. I had seen the shot by Ansel Adams, of course, and had always wondered where he took that shot from, but I figured you would just...you know. Get closer. I was sure that the location must be just beyond Curry Village. What was the big deal?

 

The big deal is that the diving board is a location in Yosemite that cannot be reached by taking one of the major, well maintained trails. Back in Ansel's day you just took some ropes and charged up the Leconte Gully. But the gully has long been deemed unstable due to frequent rockfalls. The standard route nowadays begins on the mist trail and winds around behind Lost Lake before heading steeply straight up the side of base of Half Dome. From what we were able to gather from scouting online, this would be a 16 mile round trip hike and the word "strenuous" was being thrown around by some very hard core hikers and climbers. My heart sank as I first heard these reports. After all, the hike up the Upper Falls trail had nearly finished me off a few years before. How in the world could I expect to haul my camera gear up the Mist Trail let alone the nearly vertical sections of this crazy trail to the foot of Half Dome?

 

But I really wanted that shot. I hit the treadmill and began building up my endurance. (Of course the first night was only 10 minutes, but hey. It was a start.) I also began challenging myself with some more difficult hikes, the most recent of which was up to the Fern Ledge in Yosemite. As the Summer drew to a close, we finally had a chance of thunderstorms and the promise of a possible sunset, and I sent Tom an urgent message: Can we go for it on Friday?

 

So last Friday, Tom and I took off at 4 AM for Yosemite. By 10:30 AM we were taking off from the Mist Trail parking area. Man I was feeling good! No stops at all on the way up to the first bridge. I was blowing past old people and asian tourists like they were standing still. Then the REAL climbing began. By the time we made it to the top of Nevada Fall, I was wiped. But we hadn't started the tough section yet. Tom and I had found a short cut up from Emerald Pool and we had a GPS map with us on Gaia. We were all set. What could go wrong?

 

So up we went.

 

The trip from Emerald Pool to the regular bush trail junction was easily the hardest climbing I've ever done. The nearly 30 pounds on my back turned out to be a huge mistake as I nearly gave up several times. Between the steep terrain and the bushwhacking, I was toast. When we hit the junction, things only got worse. I was having to stop almost every 100 feet and poor Tom just sat there waiting for me. After clawing my way up another 700 feet or so, I finally collapsed, unable to continue. I told Tom to head up without me, but he refused. After a long break, it finally hit me: I could dump whatever I wasn't going to use at the top and grab it on the way down! So out came my 24-70 lens (way too hazy for a valley shot), the tripod, almost all of my food, two jackets and over a liter of water. I dropped by stuff in a neat little pile behind a tree reminding myself that it would be a bad idea to forget those items on the way down.

 

Suddenly the backpack was WAY lighter and even though it hurt, I continued to force my way up. For the final 500 feet, I hung back and sent Tom up ahead. After another 1/2 hour break, I lurched back onto my feet and with the soundtrack of Rocky playing in my head, I charged up the last 500 feet to the Diving Board...some EIGHT hours after leaving the parking lot.

 

The view was absolutely spectacular as Half Dome rose far more majestically than I could have ever imagined. Although we didn't get quite the epic sunset we were hoping for, we did get some color during the last few minutes, just enough to give some atmosphere. A goal I had set two years prior had just been achieved. I had made it all the way to the diving board!

 

Our smiles began to fade as it dawned on us that it was getting dark in a real hurry and my car was still 8 miles away. There would be no "short cut" on the way down as we were pretty sure we would not survive a hike back down the sketchy ravine we had just clambered up. So down we went on the long, normal route around past Lost Lake. About 45 minutes later, I said something like "Hey Tom....where's my stuff?" Both of us were convinced that it must still be below us, so we plowed on. After we had gone another 1/2 hour or so, it dawned on us that we must have passed it. We were both beyond exhausted and nearly out of water. But Tom, being the hero that he is, charged back up to look for it. But didn't find it. He had a quarter of a liter of water left and I had maybe a half. I wasn't even sure if I could make the hike out, so I took a deep breath and told Tom we just needed to leave my lens...and all of my other stuff up there, which would have been roughly $2500 to replace.

 

Ouch.

 

Okay...this is taking way to long. I'll skip to the end.

 

After we passed Lost Lake on the way down, we found water in a creek and used my filter to keep from dying on the way back. Tom made it back to the car around 2:30 AM and very kindly drove the car around to the trailhead as I had some severe blisters. I didn't make it back to the trailhead until 3:30 AM.

 

Fast forward to last Monday when I drove back to Yosemite to find my stuff. I stayed overnight in El Portal and set off the next morning, this time without the 30 pounds taking only water and food. I left at 4 AM and by 8 AM I found my stuff exactly where I had left it! I made it up there in HALF the time! My lens and gear were undamaged and I breathed a huge sigh of relief before heading back down.

 

For those of you who might be interested taking this hike, I'll have much more details for you including maps, etc on my blog in the very near future. Sorry for the ridiculously long story and THANK YOU for reading the whole thing if you are still with me! The Diving Board was truly a once in a lifetime trip for me....at least for now. I MIGHT try it again, but if I do, it will be with MUCH less gear and more water!

 

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

 

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:

 

Blog | Website | Facebook | Instagram | 500px | Twitter | Google +

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

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

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. :)

1 3 4 5 6 7 β€’β€’β€’ 79 80