We spent a weekend at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to attend Balls XXX, the biggest experimental rocket launch event in the world. The camp is in the middle of a dry lakebed, also called playa, the same place where Burning Man takes place. The playa is big, about 200 sq mi (520 km2). The night sky is very clear because there is no light pollution, you can see the Milky Way and millions of stars with your bare eyes.

I processed a photographic and a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposure, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/2.8, 12 mm, 8 sec, ISO 3200, Sony A7 II, Rokinon 12mm F2.8, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC0258_hdrj1bal1ori1d.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

Spent a very windy night at the Grand Canyon

One's best puglife is often spent relaxing at home, enjoying a good library book, or board game with a friend. 🐾

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I am currently obsessed with Anthology (no, I don't blog for them, but I love what they do and want them to do well) so go check them out!

Thank you to my sponsors (and RiffRaff), I appreciate you! 🙏💕

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Credits

∘ [Rezz Room]

[Rezz Room] @ Equal10 Pug Adult Animesh (Companion)

∘ MINIMAL

MINIMAL @ Kustom9 - Terra Backdrop

MINIMAL @ Kustom9 - Terra Bed

∘ Pitaya

Pitaya @ Anthology - Ceramiche di Caltagirone (blue)

Pitaya @ Anthology - Ceramiche di Caltagirone (green)

Pitaya @ Anthology - Ceramiche di Caltagirone (mix)

Pitaya @ Anthology - Ceramiche di Caltagirone (red)

∘ Bricolage

Bricolage Pillow Spring Set Two - Dianthus

Bricolage Spring Pillow Set Three - Folk Art

Bricolage Spring Pillow Set Three - Tulips

∘ Dead Unicorn

Dead Unicorn - End Table (Beachy)

∘ Lagom

Lagom @ Anthology - Nerdy Planters [ Books ]

Lagom @ Anthology - Nerdy Planters [ Camera ]

Lagom @ Anthology - Nerdy Planters [ Chair ]

Lagom @ Anthology - Nerdy Planters [ Computer ]

Lagom @ Anthology - Nerdy Planters [ Game ]

Lagom @ Anthology - Nerdy Planters [ House ]

Lagom @ Anthology - Nerdy Planters [ Lamp ]

∘ .spruce.

.spruce. @ Anthology lunar floating shelves {light}{lg}

.spruce. @ Anthology lunar floating shelves {white}{lg}

∘ floorplan.

floorplan. @ Anthology library card print / DND

floorplan. @ Anthology library card print / chapter

∘ Venture

[ Venture ] @ Anthology Luna Moth Enclosure

[ Venture ] @ Anthology Luna Moth Speciman Frame

[ Venture ] @ Anthology Moonflower Speciman Frame

∘ DaD

DAD "Daisy in oval metal pot white" c/m

DAD "Daisy in round metal pot white" c/m

DAD - Blowing Curtain A - m/c -

∘ Misc

[Merak] - Summer Fling Chair - decor

brocante. @ Anthology faux turtle shell / Anthology ALL

Camdem - Season Change - 2.Devil's Ivy Short RARE

[Eternus] @ Cosmopolitan Event Butterfly Sunglasses

[Aleutia] @ Anthology Hello Summer Pinwheel

*ionic* spring coffee!

. aisling . NINO Cafe (Say Hi!)

Apple Fall Pug Ceramic Decor

Little Branch @ Anthology_WildPinkFLowersField

Nutmeg. French Cafe Watering Can

FOXCITY. Decor - Sunset Lamp (Prism EDT) (Wearable Example)

I spent a little time in wine country and came across this field of Mustard flowers... and yes... this is me... out standing in the field. My girlfriend who was traveling with me took the photo. I must say that it was exhilarating to stand in a sea of yellow and green... yes... I was happy... and covered in pollen. :-)

Spent four hours by the river today photographing three Juvenile Kingfishers and their parents ...

It got quite lively at times and proved difficult to know what to shoot first but eventually they settled down ...

Had to go to f/29.0 to get these two in focus, something I have never done before ...

Stay safe out there ...

Press L and then F11 to view full screen

Thanks to all who take the time to view and comment on my photos.

AS6I8962

17-6-2021

Having spent almost an hour to built up some air pressure on it's 81-car train in Richmond Yard, SLR 520 is finally on the move toward Canadian National Southwark Yard located on the south shore of Montréal island with a diminutive two-engine consist on this quite cold winter day.

Here, the locomotive engineer aboard SD70MAC 4022 have just engaged its dynamic brake in anticipation of the momentum Danby hill will starting to built in a few hundred feet.

SLR 520-22

4022 3047

Milepost 83.3 Sherbrooke subdivision

Durham-Sud,QC

January 22nd 2025

E' facile sai averti, se chiudo i miei begli occhietti spenti.

Spent yesterday in court.

With a couple of bad guys.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD4RyLt_FbE

I spent a couple of hours walking up and down the Sweet track on Shapwick heath yesterday looking for White admirals, I did see three, none of which would sit for me and came home with four times as many mosquito bites, which are now driving me crazy :@[

Spent some time mucking about with spiders and strong sunlight yesterday. There's certainly more that can be done with webby tunnels and refraction/diffraction(?) of light

Spent a night in the city of Orleans on my way back to England. Though I have visited before I went back to see the wonderful cathedral of Sainte-Croix.

There have been cathedrals on this site since 600AD however earlier versions were destroyed either in war or by fire. The current cathedral is relatively modern when with the signing of the Edict of Nantes in 1598 the Wars of Religion were brought to an end. Three years later, in 1601, the building of a new cathedral began, principally in the Gothic style.

The building of the cathedral took until almost the end of the 17th century to be completed. In the 18th century the last remaining part of the original roman cathedral, the main entrance to the west, was demolished to make way for the imposing facade that we see today. The Revolution interrupted the work before the two towers were built, and these were only completed between 1817 and 1829.

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

Spent an enjoyable and also frustrating few hours trying to photograph the peregrines at Malham. Not sure which side of the cove to set-up I think I chose wrong for the light, and of course they can be a long way off. I'll be back.

Many thanks to all who comment, fave or just enjoy looking, it really is very much appreciated!

Spent a little time at Weedon Island this morning. The highlight was this little raccoon family by the boat launch. The little one peeking back through the mangroves looking for mom was too cute.

Spent the night up here at 12,000 Feet Elevation sleeping in the rear area of my Xterra.

Spent a sunny day at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Washington state and picked up some tulips. This was a good year for tulips from the previous years.

Spent a little time today near BWI Airport and with the wind direction, I ended up in the flight path during some takeoffs ... This Southwest Plane filled the frame nicely.

Spent the weekend in Ohio visiting family. While driving to my sisters house the sunset was too much to pass by.. The two cars that passed stopped and asked if we needed help. You gotta love Ohio people.

Spent a day with these fantastic owls yesterday. At times the light was superb!

Good to meet up with a few other guys - Phil Johnson and Mark Bend.

Take a look at www.markmedcalf.co.uk

www.facebook.com/markmedcalfwildlife

Spent the day trying to locate some Red Squirrel and when I did eventually catch up with one it was being chased by an over eager family who probably wanted to pet it. Only managed one shot before it disappeared into the undergrowth.

Spent a week in the mountains of northern Utah with no internet last week. It was not bad at all!

We spent the weekend in a nice historical hotel on Lago Maggiore (Lake Maggiore) in northern Italy. The Grand Hotel Majestic was built in 1870 in a classic Italian style, all golden and red. The service and food was excellent. Inspired by Stanley Kubrick's iconic one-point perspective, I took this shot of the stairways.

Can you guess how I took this shot?

I processed a balanced HDR photo from a RAW exposures, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/3.5, 16 mm, 1/4 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-P1650, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC2032_hdr1bal1g.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

It seems SO nice to post December shots that are so warm! New Orleans is great for that, though cold has come down to us all! Afraid the banana trees will be burned but the cold; even a few hours below zero is awful!

And in north Alabama? The prediction is for 7-9 inches of snow! That cannot be right! Can it?!!

I spent some time here one morning just relaxing after work waiting for something special. Since I was here anyway I took advantage of the sunshine and non stop action that is just varied enough to be interesting.

10 trains and 1 hour and 20 min after I showed up I finally got what I came for. Train number 11 is a Keolis/MBTA test train consisting of newly rebuilt 'heritage' GP40MC 1129 and Rotem Batch 3 (851, 852, 1832, 1833) which have been in Wareham for a year due to some delay with acceptance. 1129 began life in 1975 CN GP40-2W number 9565 and was rebuilt the first time in 1997 by AMF in Montreal. This scheme is designed to mimic the 'cranberry' image that was applied to some of the FP10s and at least one F40PH in the mid 1980s. The special is seen hustling west on Main 2 of Amtrak's New Haven Line just east of MP 197. Seeing a commuter train on Mains 1 or 2 is a bit unusual in its own right because they are always on tracks 3 or 4 to be able to access their respective platforms.

Obscured by the trees and catenary poles in the right center background, beyond the signal for BORO interlocking, stands the old wooden tower that was known as SS165 in NH days. Allegedly constructed in 1898, it was relocated here when the NH undertook their massive grade separation project through town and built their two new stations between 1903 and 1906. This tower also holds the distinction of being the last in service on the corridor in MA, not closing down until 1993. Amazingly it survives three decades later despite regular reports of its imminent demise.

Looking over the scene on the left side is the brick Second Congregational Church that was constructed on Park Street in 1904. The congregation dates from 1748 and is a daughter church of the First Congregational Church in the old town section of North Attleborough. This is actually the third structure in which congregants have gathered. Originally located in a meeting house on what is now the common, Second Congregational had a stately white clapboard building built in 1825 which was removed in the early 1950s to make way for the addition of a new Fellowship Hall and education rooms. The clock in the tower of this third building was owned originally by the city but now belongs to the church and seems to be keeping perfect time.

Attleboro, Massachusetts

Wednesday August 28, 2024

Spent the past two days at a resort with nine 7 year old girls for Alana's birthday party, more on that later. Swimming, swimming and more swimming. There were 7 adults too.

Will do the tour of duty later today. Have to get moving.

Have a wonderful day.

© All rights reserved

spent 3 days walking around the Nevada Northern Railway Museum. Photographed the trains, roundhouse, and all of the people working to keep all of the trains running.

I love the kind of light and shadow you find in the roundhouse. The first time I was there, I found myself fighting the light. This time out, I went looking for contrasting light.

Railway man working hard to maintain one of the many old trains.

you can buy my art at james-sage.pixels.com

Spent some time photographing a flock of Corellas on the Murray river this afternoon. They are real characters.

We spent an extended weekend in the Eastern Sierra mountains to see the fall colors. On the first day we went to see the tufa at Mono Lake - no fall colors there, nevertheless an interesting spectacle of nature in the late afternoon and after sunset. I took out my crystal ball and placed it on a tripod. Focusing on the scene in the crystal ball was a bit of a challenge.

Tufa are limestone towers, formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of underground spring water entering the very salty water of Mono Lake. The lake level dropped, therefore we can see now the tufa above the lake.

I processed a balanced and a photographic HDR photo from two RAW exposures, merged them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive feedback.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/6.3, 50 mm, 1/15 sec, ISO 400, Sony A6000, SEL-P1650, HDR, 2 RAW exposures, _DSC1515_6_hdr1bal1pho1g.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

Spent yet another lovely evening on Dungeness Beach.

Wandering around on the warm beach, waiting for the sun to drop low in the sky and cast its warm glow onto the old fishing boats...

Spent a lovely day down at the lakes yesterday with Mike.. we now have 5 Grebes all racing around after each other.. dancing...mating and generally doing what they love to do...avoid me!.. but a great days photography in good company

spent several early mornings sitting watching these fantastic birds in Fuertaventura. Their cryptic plumage allows them to completely blend in to their surroundings in the scrubland.

I spent a lovely couple of days in glorious South Devon.

On the first morning , it took all my will power to set my alarm for 04.00, leave the family in their cosy beds and drive to the nearest beach. Unfortunately, the sun rise was a bit disappointing, so I was really regretting my actions, but decided to take a detour to Brixham Harbour instead of going straight back to bed.

I was really pleased I did, as the early morning light illuminated the colourful buildiings beautifully, and the harbour was so peaceful with just the sound of the seagulls and the gentle hum of the occasional motorboat. Pure bliss! After that, I honestly didn't care if it tipped it down for the rest of the weekend!

So I spent the past hour (and an embarrassing amount of lindens lol) trying to win myself this "vintage" Gabriel furcoat gacha at the mainstore. After getting a thousand necklaces, homeboi finally got what he wanted! And although I wanted it in black, I made it work with this two-toned sweater I made myself! Watchathink?

Wearing:

::GB:: Fantasy Carnival 2015 Gacha Offshoulder Furcoat (White): maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/GABRIEL/128/127/23

Mood Denim Urban jeans by COX: marketplace.secondlife.com/p/COX-Denim-MOOD-Urban-Set/174...

CA Vega Boots by Caligula: marketplace.secondlife.com/p/CA-AESTHETIC-VEGA-COMPLETE-O...

Javier Hair (Browns) by Modulus: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Winter/187/184/2002

Custom Turtleneck Sweater by ME :D

Spent the better part of the day watching Great Blue Heron in hopes of getting a shot of one fishing. Took longer than expected, but finally got the shot!

IMG_4932-1

Spent the weekend in Llandudno for the Victorian Extravaganza, we go most years and it was great to back after missing 2 due to Covid.

Managed to take this shot on Friday before it got so busy.

Spent the better part of an afternoon decorating a rather sparse new Christmas Tree for the holidays. I had lots of decorations to make up for the sparse branches. I also hung some beads on the tree since this shot.

The print on the right was a gift from a cousin of my birth city of Freiburg i./Br.

The little painting belonged to my brother.

Spent last week in the N Yorks Moors to capture the last of the heather before it turns brown and horrible :) This is one of my favourite spots, just below my favourite road which goes to Ralphs Cross. I loved the deep pinks of the heather and the light seemed to fall really nicely!

Spent the morning at S'Albufera today where I was lucky enough to watch this beautiful greenshank. This sequence shows it hunting for and catching a worm (?) for breakfast.

Spent some time chasing this lone butterfly around the flower garden. Why is it still here? My first visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) in many many years. Was a good time to go during the week. Very quiet and had the place practically all to myself. Still some beautiful flowers around.

Spent all day painting the basement floor with this stuff, it works as a damp course.

Used 10 tins today and need about another 3 to finish off, at £90 per tin it's a damned expensive repair.

I spent a lot of time shooting moon rise during my few days in the southwest. I love it because you can get awesome light with some amazing color in the sky, plus stars and the darkness of night. I was too tired to get up at 3am for actual moon rise with this one, but still made it out to these rocks with just enough time to catch the moon starting to peak over the red sandstone. It is hard to grasp how tall the rocks are so I wanted to include some scale...AKA me. So, I set my self-timer to 20s and had my camera take 8 shots back-to-back...hoping I would get one where I was sharp. It was pretty tough to climb up there...I tried to do it as fast as possible so I was jumping around and trying to scramble up some steep areas. It took me about a minute to make it where I wanted and I stood still for about 5 minutes before climbing back down. I then took a long exposure for the landscape. The moonlight was so strong that I only need a few minutes at ISO 100. Seems like there was some planet floating around too as you can see some really strong light to the right of me, not sure what it was. I kept shooting until sunrise, which turned out to be awesome...I was tired, but it was a blast to shoot night stuff right up to an epic sunrise.

Spent some time this morning playing around with the Lee 10 Stopper and I think I have now arrived at a way to calculate the correct exposure times.

This shot had the shutter open for 176 seconds and I think it came out just right.

Let me know what you think.

Spent a nice long weekend in Belgium the past few days, where I love coming, the food is good and the beers are delicious, people are friendly and the old cities are beautiful to see....Tournai is one of the oldest cities in Belgium.

Quite a bit to see there and one of that list is without a doubt the beautiful Belfry. It is one of the 56 belfries in Belgium and France that are on the UNESCO World Heritage List

spent 3 days walking around the Nevada Northern Railway Museum. Photographed the trains, roundhouse, and all of the people working to keep all of the trains running.

I love the kind of light and shadow you find in the roundhouse. The first time I was there, I found myself fighting the light. This time out, I went looking for contrasting light.

Railway man working hard to maintain one of the many old trains. monochrome black and white

you can buy my art at james-sage.pixels.com

We spent the last few days of our road trip around Slovenia in its pretty little capital Ljubljana. Our first day there we took a picnic lunch with us and headed into Tivoli Park which is just a short walk from the center.

It's funny how you become aware of the presence of another living creature without actually seeing it. At some point I became aware of something sitting beside me, I looked down and there was this little squirrel. I said "hello there" very quietly at which point it jumped onto the picnic bench and proceeded to explore my camera bag looking for food.

My wife loves wildlife so she was beside herself and started to feed it apple and nuts. It came so close to me I had to lean back to keep it in focus.

We went back the next day hoping to see her again but she didn't show up, probably sleeping off a food coma 😄

Spent this morning chasing the Lackawanna Heritage motor on the point of NS train 20T. Got clouded at Berkley, and then upon arrival at Luther Yard to do some work, the nose door remained open until He got across the river and picked up His conductor.Here he is running along Broadway in St. Louis.

I spent Friday evening puddle hunting in Seattle. The storm was still heavy when we arrived but I didn't mind the free shower. It felt nice to see rain again, it's been too long.

This was a night of unfortunate events. I locked my keys in my trunk. That moment when you stare at your keys while the trunk is closing..... only a $75 fee to unlock it....after his first offer of $169 + $20 service fee. I asked if that price included oral favors! To top it off we were recording an R&B show in which I forgot to press record during the first half of the show....doh!

In the end, I got my puddle shots. That made me happy.

I spent the weekend in KC with friends going to the ISU-KU game at Arrowhead. Three of them were from Altoona and rode together, my girlfriend took Amtrak to Omaha Thursday night, worked her normal half-day Friday at a coffee shop, and we headed down Friday afternoon. The game didn’t go as we wanted, it went had a great time. And since I have Veterans Day off, I drove her back to Ottumwa. Since we had to go through Albia, I obviously had to sneak by Relco.

Among other things, I saw a new-to-me model on the CPKC and it was the first I’ve seen in the new rebrand. These showed up to Albia earlier this year in all red and one was released a few weeks back all wrapped up. I never saw what became of that one, but I can’t imagine they’d wrap a new-standard paint job… the other two motors I saw here today in the new scheme were 8108 and 8128.

YOU REALLY HAVE TO VIEW IT ON BUHLACK! please? :o3

again the title is from Tom Felton's song.

uhh, Time Well Spent. LOL

nice song as usual 8D

one of my favorites.

yay i painted my toesies red!

and my flipflops are green.

so, Happy Christmas? lol.

okay i am corny.

hope ya'll like deez one 8D

i have to go to sleep.

EXAMS TOMORROW.

GEOMETRY and one of the most complicated and misunderstood, MUSIC.

HAHA

pray for me! i'll need it. so bad T_T

night flickr! *hugss*