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This is an example of the Hibiscus Syriacus Blue Chiffon (Rose of Sharon). The double Rose of Sharon blooms are very similar to many other varieties of hibiscus.[...]. One example of a hardy species is the Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus).
[...] the Rose of Sharon is simply one specific type of hibiscus. So, to put it quite simply, all Rose of Sharon flowers are hibiscus, but not all hibiscus flowers are Rose of Sharon. dengarden.com/gardening/The-Planting-and-Care-of-Varietie...
Blooming in my Vancouver balcony garden
Bar tailed Godwit - Liomosa Laponica
Norfolk
The bar-tailed godwit is a long-billed, long-legged wading bird which visits UK shores for the winter. Most usually seen in its grey-brown winter plumage, birds in spring may show their full rich chestnut breeding plumage. In flight it shows a white patch stretching from the rump up the back, narrowing to a point. It breeds in the Arctic of Scandinavia and Siberia and hundreds of thousands of them pass through the UK, on their way further south, or stop off here for the winter.
The bar-tailed godwit breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra mainly in the Old World, and winters on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of the Old World and of Australia and New Zealand. Its migration includes the longest known non-stop flight of any bird and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal.
The bar-tailed godwit migrates in flocks to coastal East Asia, Alaska, Australia, Africa, northwestern Europe and New Zealand.
It was shown in 2007 to undertake the longest non-stop flight of any bird. Birds in New Zealand were tagged and tracked by satellite to the Yellow Sea in China. According to Dr. Clive Minton (Australasian Wader Studies Group): The distance between these two locations is 9,575 km (5,950 mi), but the actual track flown by the bird was 11,026 km (6,851 mi). This was the longest known non-stop flight of any bird. The flight took approximately nine days. At least three other bar-tailed godwits also appear to have reached the Yellow Sea after non-stop flights from New Zealand.
One specific female of the flock, nicknamed E7 flew onward from China to Alaska and stayed there for the breeding season. Then on 29 August 2007 she departed on a non-stop flight from the Avinof Peninsula in western Alaska to the Piako River near Thames, New Zealand, setting a new known flight record of 11,680 km (7,258 mi).
During an unusually mild November day on my NC property, intuition led me to a specific place by the water. I discovered a dozen newts swimming about (emerged from dormancy beneath leaves at the bottom.)
Warm, sunny winter days are an idyllic time for newts. All snakes and frogs are in deep hibernation and they can frolic in the water without fear.
Die Wasseramsel ist wegen ihrer guten Tarnung nicht leicht zu finden, aber sie ist ortsgebunden und deshalb immer wieder an den selben Stellen zu sehen.
The dipper is not easy to find because of its good camouflage, but it is tied to a specific location and can therefore be seen over and over again in the same places.
Thank you very much for all your visits, faves and
kind comments! Much appreciated!
@algonquinoutfit : RT @Swift_Canoe: "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your element in each moment." -… t.co/8cyUKvsiLj (via Twitter twitter.com/algonquinoutfit/status/799614503964930048)
Kleiner Feuerfalter (Lycaena Phaeas)
Lycaena phlaeas, the small copper, American copper, or common copper, is a butterfly of the Lycaenids or gossamer-winged butterfly family. According to Guppy and Shepard (2001), its specific name phlaeas is said to be derived either from the Greek phlego, "to burn up" or from the Latin floreo, "to flourish".
Merci pour la visite, les favoris et les commentaires!
Muchas gracias por su visita, favoritos y comentarios.
Thank you All for the nice comments and the feedback.
✌
The Canada Place Sails of Light are illuminated each evening from dusk to dawn, with seasonal vibrant colours. They also offer local charities and non-profit groups the opportunity to build awareness for their cause or organization by illuminating the Sails of Light in colours themed to the specific cause. May 3, 2022, the colour red puts the focus on Asian Heritage Month
#MacroMonday
#Sound
For "Sound" it had to be my violin. If I don't play it (and I know I should, but, oh dear, the overcoming!), I can at least honour it with a bit of Flickr sunshine from time to time. Maybe I should work on my "scratch resitance" (sound-wise), it might help me to get over the first caterwauling hours of exercise after so many years of not practicing ;-)
This, you've guessed it, is a small part of the F hole, about 2 cm / 0,78 inches wide. I decided to go for a slightly more "obscure", kind of vague low key look with a very shallow DOF, because when it comes to music, sound in general, it often is not very clear at all why we like a song, a specific sound, or why we positively hate it. Sound, music moves us, either way.
I have a busy day today, so I can only stop by here today occasionally, I hope to catch up with you later! HMM, Everyone, and have a nice and safe week ahead!
Für das Thema "Sound" musste es meine Geige sein. Wenn ich sie schon nicht spiele (ich sollte, ich weiß, aber die Überwindung!), kann ich ihr wenigstens von Zeit zu Zeit ein wenig Flickr-Sonnenschein gönnen. Vielleicht sollte ich an meiner (klanglichen) Kratzfestigkeit arbeiten, um, nach so langer Zeit des Nichtspielens, die ersten Stunden des Katzenjammers zu überstehen, bis es wieder rund klingt ;-)
Dies ist, Ihr habt es schon erraten, ein Teil des F-Lochs. Ich habe hier bewusst auf geringe Schärfentiefe gesetzt, um den Charakter von Musik, von Klang generell zu verbildlichen. Wir können ja oft gar nicht definieren, warum wir ein Musikstück mögen oder einen bestimmten Klang geradzu hassen. Musik, Klang bewegt, so oder so.
Ich habe heute viel zu tun und kann hier nur gelegentlich reinschauen. Ich hoffe, heute Abend wieder mehr Zeit für Euch und auch den MM zu haben. Ich wünsche Euch eine schöne neue Woche, liebe Flickr-Freunde, passt gut auf Euch auf!
Sempervivum tectorum, the common houseleek, is a species of flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae, native to the mountains of southern Europe, cultivated in the whole of Europe for its appearance and a Roman tradition claiming that it protects buildings against lightning strikes.
The name Sempervivum has its origin in the Latin semper ('always') and vivus ('living'), because this perennial plant keeps its leaves in winter and is very resistant to difficult conditions of growth.
The specific epithet tectorum means 'of house roofs', referring to a traditional location for these plants.
The hairs that fringe the leaves can be seen on close inspection.
Gardens by the Bay is a nature park spanning on reclaimed land.
It is located in the Central Region of Singapore.
Gardens by the Bay is a tropical garden designed to celebrate the plants of the tropics
In January 2006, Gardens by the Bay began an international master plan design competition to get world-class ideas for the Gardens. The competition attracted more than 70 entries sent by 170 firms, from over 24 countries, including 35 from Singapore. Grant Associates and Gustafson Porter, both from UK, were awarded the master plan design for the Bay South and East Gardens in September 2006.
Bay East Garden is 32 hectares (79 acres) in size and it has a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) promenade frontage bordering the Marina Reservoir. An interim park was developed at Bay East Garden in support of the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. It is designed as a series of large tropical leaf-shaped gardens, each with its own specific landscaping design, character and theme.
Supertrees are uniquely designed vertical gardens ranging from 25 to 50 meters in height (82 to 164 feet), with emphasis placed on the vertical display of tropical flowering climbers, epiphytes and ferns.
Supertrees perform a multitude of functions, which include planting, shading and working as environmental engines for the gardens. They are home to enclaves of unique and exotic ferns, vines, orchids and also a vast collection of bromeliads such as Tillandsia, amongst other plants.
Last breath of a tulip this spring - a touch of red.
I am currently doing a "color of the month" photo project where I take a picture focusing on one specific color during the month. July is red...so this matched very well...HSoS!
First time I have seen, or photographed one of these, UKs most threatened butterfly. The male is on the left.
I decided to take a drive down to south Devon to camp for several nights, with the specific intention of spending a day on Aish Tor to see HBFs. So I spent 8 hours on Sunday on Aish Tor. It was exceedingly hard work, once I got up onto the hillside, having parked in my ignorance of the location, at Newbridge car park down on the River Dart; it was sultry and very hot and the butterflies had twin turbo boost full on: they simply never seemed to stop moving. Added to that, there were ticks everywhere in the sea of metre high bracken that covered the hillside, so long sleeves and trousers tucked into socks was de rigeur and made it even less comfortable!
Having spent much of the the morning, tagging along with a lady who had been before and seemed to know the best location, I branched off alone to search higher up the slopes where fritillaries seemed more frequent. It was 3 hours altogether before I had one settled on bramble flower in a less than ideal location, low down in a corner of a small area cleared of bracken. In mid afternoon another one showed up to investigate dog poo on the path where I was resting. Not long after that I had another male nectaring on bramble, but it was tight to photograph in a narrow path trodden through the bracken. Late in the afternoon I was shown these two mating specimens by a couple I spoke to, which probably saved the day!
Thank you for your faves and comments.
My youngest son Shane asked me to take a picture of his Lego train, as if it really existed and functioned in the real world. Like it would have changed dimensions. It had to be an exciting photo in a specific atmosphere. I tried to realize that with this photo, and he told me that this is close to what he had in mind and he is happy with it.
Months after I've last been to the Cristei Meadow, many things have changed around.... including the appearance of many new birds. Yellowhammers, woodpeckers, greenfinches....but my eyes were locked on a specific bird; the Red-backed Shrike.
Badlands NP, Fall 2022. This specific place is where I showed up after dark, thinking I knew the correct direction for the rising Milky Way and I was SO wrong. This is pretty much ambient light except maybe for the warm tone at far right where my not-in-use LED panel spilled some light.
Some cool processing here for me. I actually used Lightroom's auto-mask sky, inverted it to the foreground, and increased the exposure. This of course adds noise. So I used Lightroom's latest tool, Denoise AI. It really cleaned up the foreground for me. Check it large - as high-ISO shadows go, this is pretty good. Thank you, Ken Krach for the tip.
The common reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific schoeniclus is from Ancient Greek skhoiniklos, a now unknown waterside bird.
Fungi are manifest in a multiplicity of folktales and fairy tales, and in folk remedies and rituals. They appear as foods, poisons, diseases, decorations, dyes or tinder, and even in insults, compliments, graffiti and video games. These and other impacts of fungi on folkways are here concisely reviewed under categories likely to interest professional and amateur mycologists and accessible to the lay reader. The evolution of popular perceptions of fungi is sketched from Shakespearean times through contemporary European and American cultures. Provided are specific instances of how different cultures utilized or avoided fungi, responded to fungal diseases of crops or humans, or viewed fungi in the context of popular belief, superstition or religion.
ᶫᵒᵛᵉᵧₒᵤ ᑉ³
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Makeup
Bella cosmetics - Lelutka Evo X/AK ADVX.
Eyeshadow Lipsticks and eyebrows
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Nails
Reves Sombres Stiletto Nails
@ The Darkness event opening August 5th
[*] Stiletto shape
[*] polish all nails or pick & chose which to color;
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Reborn, Signature, Slink & Tonic mesh bodies
[*] original mesh and textures
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A very specific cake for dinosaur
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Kaziranga National Park
State Of Assam
India
The barasingha (Cervus duvaucelii), also called swamp deer, is a deer species distributed in the Indian subcontinent. Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occur in southwestern Nepal. It is extinct in Pakistan and in Bangladesh.The specific name commemorates the French naturalist Alfred Duvaucel.
The swamp deer differs from all the Indian deer species in that the antlers carry more than three tines. Because of this distinctive character it is designated barasingha, meaning "twelve-tined." Mature stags have 10 to 14 tines, and some have been known to have up to 20.
In the 19th century, swamp deer ranged along the base of the Himalayas from Upper Assam to the west of the Yamuna River, throughout Assam, in a few places in the Indo-Gangetic plain from the Eastern Sundarbans to Upper Sind, and locally throughout the area between the Ganges and Godavari as far east as Mandla.
Swamp deer are mainly grazers. They largely feed on grasses and aquatic plants. They feed throughout the day with peaks during the mornings and late afternoons to evenings. In winter and monsoon, they drink water twice, and thrice or more in summer. In the hot season, they rest in the shade of trees during the day. - Wikipedia
When you just "drop into" a specific year's archive, you never know what your claws will surface with. (Like a penny arcade, remember?) Well, I didn't remember that my Dragonfly years went back to 2009-2010, but yes, and they coincided with my first wildflower foray.
What did surprise me was that ... I was good! The cameras were the SX10 and the SX20. I do remember that the lenses were excellent for closeup work. (It would be another year or two before I had a camera - the SX40 - with sufficient focal length for birding.) Composition was a real problem when I started with dragonflies and damselflies. Backgrounds could be just water but with the sun bouncing off. At other times, the backgrounds could be duck weed and all manner of acquatic fauna that made for messy shots and poor depth of field.
It was the SX40 that got me away from insects and flowers. After all, anyone with a digital camera could capture decent images of birds, but birds are far ranging (they fly) and, therefore, more time consuming than dragonflies or snapdragons.
Anyway, this was one of my first "pond-based" dragonflies, a Blue Darner near Heather Farm's larger pond. (After seven plus years of birding, I would return to odonates in 2017-2019.) My first dragonfly was, by the way, a female Variegated Meadowhawk found in tall grasses on the south side of Mt. Diablo, fairly distant from any water. But I got hooked. With the SX40, if it moved, I'd shoot so my photography was "all over the map," literally and figuratively.
Another of my many many shots of the recent sunrise at West WIttering. The clouds were all over the place with this one!
You do not have the right to copy, reproduce or download my images without my specific permission, doing so is a direct breach of my copyright.
Aloe arborescens, the krantz aloe or candelabra aloe, is a species of flowering succulent perennial plant that belongs to the genus Aloe [...]. The specific epithet arborescens means "tree-like". Aloe arborescens is valued by gardeners for its succulent green leaves, large vibrantly-colored flowers, winter blooming, and attraction for birds, bees, and butterflies.
Description
Aloe arborescens is a large, multi-headed, sprawling succulent, and its specific name indicates that it sometimes reaches tree size. A typical height for this species is 2–3 metres (6.6–9.8 ft) high. Its leaves are succulent and are green with a slight blue tint. Its leaves have small spikes along its edges and are arranged in rosettes situated at the end of branches. Flowers are arranged in a type of inflorescence called a raceme. The racemes are not branched but two to several can sprout from each rosette. Flowers are cylindrical in shape and are a vibrant red-orange color. Wikipedia
The other day a friend was commenting on the clouds that appear along the Sunshine Coast vs those in Alberta. Ostensibly, those that take shape over the ocean vs those that develop in the prairies. We both came to the conclusion that although the topic of clouds was the same, the resulting forms were often different yet unique to the landscape. (so to speak)
In this image there are two distinct clouds forming in the distance, both over the ocean and developing over a distant island. Pender Island to be exact. One, filling the sky at a higher level, while the other stretching for miles at a specific height catapillaring along the ocean.
After photographing Prairie clouds for the last 26 years, I have noted in my photos they are often quite wispy, or perhaps appearing like giant whipped potatoes in a thunder cloud, or just plain leaden, covering the sky. They too come in many forms, but for the most part, look distinctively different. And, isn't it fun to just watch them as they move inexorably across the sky creating their beauty for us to photograph.
I just found this a fascinating bird to watch. I don't know the specific species but I hope one of my flickr friends will enlighten me....
Those sideburns were spectacular!
Daffodil time. Lots of them in gardens, in the parks and forests, along the roads and canals, and also, of course, in Shaffy's Tuin where I saw this pretty double one. No doubt it's a hybrid, but the first description of which I am aware of the double Narcissus is by the famous London apothecary and horticulturalist John Parkinson (1567-1650). He writes about it an anecdote of plant collectors' intrigue and jealousy.
You can find it in his Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (1635). Parkinson relates: 'We first... had... it from Vincent Sion, borne in Flanders, dwelling on the Bankside..., an industrious and worthy lover of faire flowers, who nourished it in his Garden for many yeares, without being of any flowers until the yeare 1620...' This Mr Sion was delighted of course and showed it to many and gave them bulbs 'and Mr George Wilmot of Stratford Bowe Esquire, in his lives time having likewise received it of him (as my self did also) would needs appropriate it to himselfe, as if he were the first founder thereof, and call it by his own name Wilmot's double Daffodil'. In fact, you'll still sometimes see that name in use.
Down through the centuries, this Daffodil has generally been regiven its correct name, often as Van Sion's Double Daffodil or something similar. That 'Van' is apparently an incorrect rendering of the 'Vincent' (=V) of Sion's Flemish first name. After all, he hailed from Flanders and aren't they all there called by a 'Van' of some sort?
The scientific specific is given as 'telamonius plenus' or 'flore multiplici'.
CATALÀ
Flox (Phlox) és un gènere de plantes amb flors El nom del gènere deriva del grec: φλόξ "flama". Conté unes 67 espècies sovint de plantes ornamentals perennes i anuals. La majoria es troben a Nord-amèrica (una a Sibèria) en diversos hàbitats des del prat alpí a arbredes i praderies. Algunes espècies floreixen a l'hivern i d'altres a l'estiu o tardor. Les flors poden ser blau pàl·lid, viola, rosa, vermell brillant o blanc.
Algunes espècies com P. paniculata (Flox de jardí) creixen erectes, altres com P. subulata creixen com una mata curta.
ENGLISH
Phlox paniculata is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family (Polemoniaceae). It is native to parts of the eastern and central United States. It is extensively cultivated in temperate regions as an ornamental plant and has become established in the wild in scattered locales in other regions.Common names include fall phlox garden phlox, perennial phlox, summer phlox, and panicled phlox.
Phlox paniculata is an erect herbaceous perennial growing to 120 cm (47 in) tall by 100 cm (39 in) wide, with opposite, simple leaves on slender green stems. The flowers are 1.5–2.5 cm (0.6–1.0 in) in diameter, often strongly fragrant and borne in summer through fall (autumn). The flowers are grouped in panicles (with many branching stems), hence the specific epithet paniculata. Typical flower colors in wild populations are pink or purple (rarely white).
CASTELLANO
Phlox paniculata es una especie de angiosperma de la familia Polemoniaceae. Es originaria de partes del este y centro de los Estados Unidos. Está extensamente cultivada en regiones templadas como planta ornamental y se ha establecido en la naturaleza en lugares dispersos en otras regiones. Los nombres comunes incluyen phlox de otoño, phlox de jardín, phlox perenne, phlox de verano, y phlox en pánico.
Phlox paniculata es una planta herbácea perenne que crece hasta 120 cm de alto por 100 cm ancho, con hojas opuestas y simples en tallos verdes esbeltos. Las flores tienen un diámetro de 1.5 a 2.5 cm, a menudo son muy fragantes y nacen desde el verano hasta otoño. Las flores están agrupadas en panículas (con muchos tallos ramificados), por eso el nombre paniculata. Los colores típicos de las flores en las poblaciones silvestres son el rosa o el violeta (raramente el blanco).
WIKIPEDIA
White Stork migration has changed over time. For years, these birds stayed in Europe for the winter.
In the past, most of them flew thousands of miles each year after breeding. During white stork migration, these birds spent almost a month crossing half of Europe, to the Strait of Gibraltar, and over the Sahara desert, a dry and inhospitable place.
Most of the European White Storks today travel south-east across Europe over Turkey and Egypt.
On these migration routes the birds get together at specific locations to rest and feed in large groups. On the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt at least 500,000 storks pass through Egypt (or 80% of the European population), the majority flying through Eastern Sinai.
In the beginning of February they return to Europe.
White Stork(Ciconia ciconia) evening meadow_w_0666
It has not been a great summer for butterflies in this area. I don’t know how much of a role an early blast of heat played, but species that I am used to seeing were either not around or were around much earlier than expected, in smaller numbers.
This was a late day lucky find. Like birds, butterflies have species-specific ways of flying: wing movement and arcs of flight tend to be tied to a species. This Black Swallowtail was moving around in the sun, looking for a perch, and I saw it pretty quickly. The question, as always, was getting close to it without flushing it.
Again like birds, they seem to notice they are being chased, so I use an adapted bird-focused strategy: I walk away from the butterfly, and then find where the best line and sun is and approach. I look for a camera position in an oblique way, taking a casual walk as if I had not noticed the creature. You lose some this way, but direct approaches have not panned out well for me.
This butterfly set down for a couple of minutes on this less than photogenic wildflower, which was, it turns out, in a small sea of poison ivy. And the butterfly was about a foot off the ground. I wear clothing and knee-high rubber boots for ticks and poison ivy, so I was able to set up my monopod at the right height while doing the goofy circuitous walk and then approach and kneel down. As always, I went to where I thought I could get a decent image, secured two, and then crawled a bit forward on my knees. Two images and crawl again.
The Swallowtail was not feeding, as is evident in the image. It was resting, and likely on its way to find a secure location for the night time.
In a summer of very infrequent opportunities this was a pretty fun half hour. And by crawling on my knees backwards I was able to leave the Swallowtail on this very plant, images secured.
Der Seidenbaum (Albizia julibrissin) (auch Seidenakazie oder Schlafbaum, weil er nachts oder bei Trockenheit seine Blätter zusammenklappt, also „schläft“) ist eine Pflanzenart aus der Gattung Albizia, die zur Unterfamilie der Mimosengewächse (Mimosoideae) innerhalb der Familie der Hülsenfrüchtler (Fabaceae) gehört.
Albizia julibrissin (Persian silk tree, pink silk tree) is a species of tree in the family Fabaceae, native to southwestern and eastern Asia.[1]
The genus is named after the Italian nobleman Filippo degli Albizzi, who introduced it to Europe in the mid-18th century, and it is sometimes incorrectly spelled Albizzia. The specific epithet julibrissin is a corruption of the Persian word gul-i abrisham (گل ابریشم) which means "silk flower" (from gul گل "flower" + abrisham ابریشم "silk").Its leaves slowly close during the night and during periods of rain, the leaflets bowing downward.
(Wikipedia)
This is the view towards Lulworth as seen from Kimmeridge. Worbarrow Bay is in the distance with Portland off to the left.
You do not have the right to copy, reproduce or download my images without my specific permission, doing so is a direct breach of my copyright.
After Eric Gail and I decided on shooting the North Window for sunrise, we grabbed a couple of hours of sleep and headed back from the campsite in the dark. (Eric, by the way, has some serious mojo when it comes to getting campsites at the last minute on busy weekends. I think this was the third time in a row he just rolled up to a site that was marked "full" and somehow a got campsite.)
As soon as we parked, I made a bee-line for this particular spot as I knew it would fill up early. I need to thank Eric for tipping off to this location the day before. When you see photographers perched up in this position from below, it really does look intimidating. You can't really see the ledge or for that matter any possible way to crawl out there without using some serious rock climbing skills. But once you actually begin claiming up to this spot, there are only a couple of sketchy spots to negotiate before you arrive at one of the most stunning locations in Arches National Park. The arch within an arch is immediately visible as you look through the North Window to the Turret Arch directly behind.
And so I crawled out there in the dark and set up on a little outcropping of rock and dug in for the long haul. And sure enough, an army of photographers began to arrive 20 minutes later. By sunrise entire van loads of photographers were now milling around the window. It was interesting to watch several of them asking "WHO in their right mind would climb out there?" initially before their curiosity inevitably got the better and up they came.
For this particular shot, the "glow" behind the rock is actually light pollution, presumably from Moab, but I liked the way it played off of the early morning burn that was beginning to set up off to the East. I spent most of my time shooting up there with the Rokinon 12mm as I wanted to pull in as much color off to the East as possible while shooting through the window.
I finally gave up my spot to several other photographers who were circling like vultures behind me after the sun finally came out from behind the clouds. It was truly a spectacular morning and one has since become one of my favorite mornings of shooting to date. I can't wait to get back there!
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(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!
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After watching the habitual pattern of this superstar, I followed it one outing. He came to this specific tree in the background that had a cavity filled with sow bugs. He had cleaned out this honey hole as it was a great source of fuel for his migration journey. He stayed for 5 days and has finally moved on. Click for large view.
In 1847 William Herbert (1778-1847) writes that his friend Muzio Giuseppe Spirito de Tommasini (1794-1879), one-time mayor (1839-1860) of Trieste but also a botanist, found this crocus on the mountain range of Biokovo (now in Croatia). It's an early bloomer and is notable for its quite narrow leaves as compared to other Crocuses. Incidentally, Hebert or his printer missed out an 'm' in the specific name.
The specific alpestris is Latin and means "of the high mountains", from Alpes, the Alps.
The horned lark was originally classified in the genus Alauda.
The horned lark Is suggested to have diverged from Temnick's lark around the Early-Middle Pleistocene, according to genomic divergence estimates.[3][4] The Horned lark is known from around a dozen localities of Late Pleistocene age, including those in Italy,[5] Russia, The United Kingdom and the United States. The earliest known fossil is from the Calabrian of Spain, around 1–0.8 million years old. In 2020 a 46,000 year old frozen specimen was described from the Russian Far East.
Recent genetic analysis has suggested that the species consists of six clades that in the future may warrant recognition as separate species. A 2020 study also suggested splitting of the species, but into 4 species instead, the Himalayan Horned Lark E. longirostris, Mountain Horned Lark E. penicillata, Common Horned Lark E. alpestris (sensu stricto), alongside Temnick's Lark..
The trail to this specific look off is called Gibraltar Rock Loop.
Gibraltar Rock Loop is located along the incredible Musquodoboit Trailway, in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Crocoite
4x3 inch
Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Dundas District, Tasmania
Australia
Crocoite is a mineral consisting of lead chromate, PbCrO4, and crystallizing in the monoclinic crystal system. It is identical in composition with the artificial product chrome yellow used as a paint pigment.
Crocoite is commonly found as large, well-developed prismatic adamantine crystals, although in many cases are poorly terminated. Crystals are of a bright hyacinth-red color, translucent, and have an adamantine to vitreous luster. On exposure to UV light some of the translucency and brilliancy is lost. The streak is orange-yellow; Mohs hardness is 2.5–3; and the specific gravity is 6.0.
The light was falling in a wonderful manner into this old building.
It was shot at the Beelitz Heilstaetten near Berlin.
This specific room used to be the sports hall.
Just finished a big week of concerts and spent yesterday racing from a sunrise in Laguna Beach out to Death Valley for a sunset attempt. I was tempted to get right into processing those shots, but I thought I would pause and take a look back first at my ever growing backlog of photos. I still have quite a pile from my trip up to the Columbia River Gorge from last May, and Spirit Falls was definitely one of the big highlights of the trip. A big shoutout again to Ryan Engstrom without whom we would have never found this particular set of Falls. To this day, I have no clear idea where these falls were located other than they were on the Washington side of the gorge. We were racing against the clock as our daylight was disappearing fast and suddenly Ryan yelled for us to pull over at a non descript pullout. From where we pulled over, we could hear no sound of running water, and off to the side of the road there was simply a jumble of boulders and scraggly looking trees. We all thought Ryan had lost it at that point. But trusting Ryan, (who had been pretty reliable so far), the four of us plunged over the ravine, and the spot Ryan led us to was easily one of the most gorgeous locations I've ever seen.
Our time shooting down there was very short, but I definitely want to return there soon. I just hope I can find it again on my next visit.
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Seen in San Rafael, Antioquia, Colombia.
Bamboo Orchid is a terrestrial orchid native to tropical and subtropical Asia.
The genus name "Arundina" is derived from the Greek word, "Arundo", in reference to the reed-like stems of the plant, while the specific epithet "graminifolius" comes from the Latin "gramineus" and "folius", which refer to the grass-like leaves.
florafaunaweb.nparks.gov.sg/special-pages/plant-detail.as...
It was built in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1912 by C.W. Parker, an amusement company founded in 1894 by a man named Charles Wallace Parker.
This specific attraction was the 119th carousel built by the company and in 1913, it was sold to a man in Houston, Texas, named F.K. Leggett for $5,886.
According to Heritage Burnaby, the carousel travelled with the Lone Star Circus in Texas until 1915.
One of the CN/IC Dash 8s and an SD75I head east through Durand with M396. IC #2465 was built as LMSX #738.
Interested in purchasing a high-quality digital download of this photo, suitable for printing and framing? Let me know and I will add it to my Etsy Shop, MittenRailandMarine! Follow this link to see what images are currently listed for sale: www.etsy.com/shop/MittenRailandMarine
If you are interested in specific locomotives, trains, or freighters, please contact me. I have been photographing trains and ships for over 15 years and have accumulated an extensive library!
I had a specific hope from this sunrise shoot of the Buttercross in Brigg, North Lincolnshire, and that was to capture the sun rising at the end of the street on the left (Wrawby Street). But unfortunately there was an annoying slither of cloud on the horizon and by the time it cleared, the sun had moved too far to the right. Maybe I’ll be luckier another time.
Shot as a 5 shot panorama (each bracketed) with my Tilt Shift, and stitched in Lightroom. The highlights on the front of the building are due to spotlights above the upper windows.
The Buttercross, historically was the Brigg Town Hall, but is now used as a tourist information centre and as an events venue.
*** Featured in Explore 27th September 2022, many thanks to all 🙏 ***
The amazing Cormorant is primarily found in North America. This specific bird was very unafraid and allowed me to get close enough to get some good pictures. This picture was taken near Lake Lewisville, Texas. I hope you enjoy! Have a great day!
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The Ferrari "Prancing horse" is not a specific breed of horse. It's the Cavallino Rampante, a black stallion that was the Personal emblem of Italian fighter ace Francesco Baracca. Barracca's family suggested that Enzo Ferrari adopt the horse as a good luck charm for his racing team, which Ferrari did in 1932.