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Took a wonder around the newly cleared inclines of Ben A'an this morning. Lots of new vantage points and a hugely different landscape. Just need to wait about 20 years until it's all looking grand again :)
This was just for fun today. I drove past and spotted this field of dandelions this morning when returning from the golf course. You can see that I had to go back because it wouldn't be around much longer, all those seeds were going to blow away soon.
Crab spider (Mecaphesa spp.) vs. skipper with the Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) as the battleground. There are battles everyday, everywhere you look.
The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley are a harsh environment for plants of all kinds. In this picture, the five bushes stand together to survive the wind-driven sand that makes life difficult, as witnessed by the sticks standing in the background. I took this photo on our visit to Death Valley National Park in 2017.
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This is Second Life, but there are still a few things you can do here if you're so inclined.
1. Support Ukrainian SL Creators and Shops by getting a list of them here. This is a way to directly support your fellow SL citizens.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//136/131/2009
2. Attend the fundraiser event today, March 12. Contributions go to the UN fund to help Ukrainian refugees. They tell you exactly how and where donations will be made and transparency of the process.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//205/233/23
3. Go visit a photo wall depicting what's been happening, similar to the one behind me.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Venus/175/46/21
4. Discuss the invasion with your fellow SLers from around the world at the Stop War Meeting Space.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//153/25/3820
5. Say a prayer for the Ukrainian people at St. Andrews Orthodox Mission
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ZI%20Mystic%20Moonlight/23...
6. Zebra Gallery for Relevant Art has a beautiful piece of street art at its landing point.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Serena%20Pontypridd/196/11...
You can also buy flags, tattoos, clothing, etc to show your support in game.
The best deal on any flag is a 12 flag fatpack at 100% off for awhile on the MP. Normally 500L and has flagpoles, hand helds, banners, etc. Grab it while you can! Thank you Lupinia Studios!
marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Ukraine-Flag-Fatpack-12-Vers...
March 10, 2022
"Photographic Stand"
Opéra de Hanoi (Vietnam)
Website : www.fluidr.com/photos/pat21
www.flickriver.com/photos/pat21/sets/
"Copyright © – Patrick Bouchenard
The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained here in for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved."
Up on the Dragons Back on Chrome Hill looking out to Parkhouse Hill 2 weeks ago.
Asking Kevin to stand still for a few seconds :)
Great morning
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Please pop by my website at www.jamespictures.co.uk
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All images are Copyright © James Pictures. For full details please see www.jamespictures.co.uk/copyright
Stand Still @2021 Zapalo Bay , Cyprus
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f/9 | 30 sec | ISO 100 | 22 mm
KASE Variable ND Filter
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Theme : Seascape Photography
Series : Reload
Location: Zapalo Bay, Cyprus
Website: etilavgis.com
Instagram : www.instagram.com/estjustphoto/
Flickr : flickr.com/photos/estjustphoto/
500px : 500px.com/etilavgis
YouPic : youpic.com/photographer/etilavgis
African Jacana Chick
This little fellow is approximately 2 weeks old and stands about 125mm (5 inches) high. He is all toes!
These chicks are hatched from eggs laid in a nest built on floating vegetation and spend their lives in fresh-water margins. They favour water surfaces covered by water-lilies. Interestingly, the male incubates and takes over all parental duties once the last egg is laid.
This image was captured on the Chobe River, near Kasane, Northern Botswana, Southern Africa.
Sony a7IV | Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD
Click the link, there is a selection of my photos for sale waiting to become photo panels or paintings!
I took this image in the water meadows of the Narew River just before the sunset. Covered with water, the meadows look dreamy, especially in spring.
Der Grazer Uhrturm ist ein 28 Meter hoher Uhrturm. Er steht auf dem Schloßberg und ist mit seinen im Durchmesser über 5 Meter großen Zifferblättern und den vergoldeten Zeigern das Wahrzeichen von Graz.
Die neue Uhr ging genau genug, um auch Minuten anzeigen zu können. Anders als heute üblich, ist jedoch der Stundenzeiger der größere Zeiger, da es wichtiger war, aus der Entfernung die Stunden richtig ablesen zu können.
The Graz clock tower is a 28 meter high clock tower. It stands on the Schloßberg and is the landmark of Graz with its dials with a diameter of more than 5 meters and the gold-plated hands.
The new clock was accurate enough to show minutes. However, unlike today, the hour hand is the larger hand because it was more important to be able to read the hours correctly from a distance.
... Downpatrick Head and Me
Downpatrick Head is a majestic heritage site found about 5 km north of Ballycastle village. Jutting out into the ocean and rising almost 40m above the waves, it provides unparalleled views of the Atlantic, including the unique collection of islands known as the Staggs of Broadhaven. You can also spot the nearby Dún Briste sea stack, with its different coloured layers of rock and nesting seabirds. In addition to the natural scenery and wildlife, Downpatrick Head is home to the ruins of a church, holy well and stone cross, which together mark the site of an earlier church founded by St Patrick.
Love these weird looking grass pads, so green, soft and sponge ;)
♥ Thank you very much for your visits, faves, and kind comments ♥
(repost)
That is what the California Highway Patrol officer said.
We were ensconced in an open garage waiting out an armed 211 suspect when those words were spoken.
My call came in at 2:30. A man was barricaded in his apartment after a shootout with police. At the time, I was home sick with a headache the size of the Rock of Gibraltar. But a barricade is a barricade and I threw on some clothes and rushed to the scene.
I stopped at the road closure and was waved through by one of the CHP guys that yelled, “Hey, I know you....go ahead.”
“OK”
After parking the car where the chippy said I should, I asked our esteemed parking enforcement officer (also known as the Parking Nazi) who was standing guard, where was everything happening and where should I go.
He motioned somewhere down the street towards some low-rent apartment complexes and told me to walk on the right side of the street through a vacant lot - nothing but dirt and a creosote bush.
“OK.”
I kept an eye out for what was going on and watched as the guys from the PD’s Special Response Team ( SRT) moved into place.
“Cool,” thought I and grabbed a few shots of one of the guys creeping across the roof, rifle in front of him, pack behind. I thought, “If I get nothing else this will be good art."
I heard people yelling at me and here comes the PIO from the Barstow Police running across the street telling me that hey, I was right in the line of fire and I should like move.
“OK.”
“Don’t go south of the palm tree,” he said, “that way you won’t be in the line of fire.”
“OK. Can I stand behind the palm tree?”
“Sure,” he said, “but I’m not responsible if you get shot.”
“OK”
Seemed to be my thought processes at the time, singular “OK’s”
I stood behind the palm tree for a little bit and then moved — I really wasn’t in the mood to get shot.
The reporter showed up, a radio guy showed up, a small TV station guy showed up and we all sat around in the heat waiting for something to happen....for a long time.
Negotiators were on the phone, relatives got on the phone to try and talk this guy out. The man had been wounded slightly in the first shootout — shot in the hand and the arm — and yelled out to his friends that he was afraid the cops were going to shoot him on sight.
We all knew that this would never happen, but the guy wouldn’t come out. The cops even brought him cigarettes when he asked for them - actually threw them up to him on the balcony. If they had wanted to shoot him, they could have at that time.
I got permission to wander a bit, down in parking area where the CHP rifle shooters were set up — watched them concentrate completely down their black gun sites. I was close enough that if I stuck my head out I could see the guy’s balcony — really, really well — with bloody curtains swaying in the wind.
Time wore on, heat got worse, men got shifted around so as to give the ones sitting in the sun a break.
We waited. Cops gave me Gatorade and water. It was hot.
As dusk set in I kept hoping this guy would come out with his hands up while I still had light to shoot by. Even with my new digital camera (YEA!) I was still a newbie at using the flash in low light situations so I wanted halfway good light.
I simply couldn’t figure out why this guy would NOT come out.
Was it the macho mentality of the whole gang banger personality? Was it that he knew he was facing some major jail time? He was already a loser in that department. What possibly could be worth prolonging this stand-off?
Time wore on some more. The apartment complex residents started getting restless. Hoots and hollers and jungle-like monkey noises came from the apartments and from those watching and waiting behind the lines. A bottle was thrown.
I have to admit, this made a me a tad nervous. I could just see this thing erupting into an all-out riot. Half the people in the complex were convinced the cops were going to gun the guy down and the other half were afraid of the first half.
Soon the cops had enough waiting and started firing tear gas canisters into the apartment. Oh my! Horrible sound those loud guns. Once that tear gas thing started I didn’t stick my head out any more. I crouched down behind a car. I could still see the CHP shooters but wasn’t in the line of fire.
Good thing.
Several minutes after the first rounds of tear gas were volleyed into the apartment there came three quick shots - pop - pop - pop — out the sliding glass door — over the balcony.
“Holy shit,” thought I, “that guy is firing at us.”
“Hey,” I yelled, “Was he shooting this way.”
“Yes, Lara, he was shooting this way.”
I crouched down lower. Just about fully dark now. The people that had come out to watch were yelling the guy was yelling babies were screaming and one Barstow cop remarked, “I can’t believe these people brought their kids out to a gunfight.”
Law enforcement did not return gun fire but more tear gas was used.
Still no sound, no reaction from the barricaded man.
One of the CHP guys came back down into our spot and said that after the three rounds fired by the suspect, one more shot was heard a few minutes later - muffled. Not aimed out the sliding glass door — inside the building.
He said quietly that he had heard _that_ sound before.
Time was starting to lose meaning. Amidst the noise and chaos I had been on the phone relaying the latest developments to the reporter who had gone back to write his story. More tear gas was lobbed into the building but the feeling was that the man had offed himself with that final fourth shot.
My deadline to leave was fast approaching — close to 9 p.m. I had the images from the afternoon’s deployment and some close-ups of the guys close to me. But no resolution. No closure.
The crowd up the street was really starting to turn ugly and I debated going up to photograph that, but figured that a camera flashing would trigger the already riotous behaviour that was growing.
Two guys threw bottles at the sheriff’s SWAT team. Ooooh, not a good idea. Those SWAT-dudes are bad-asses with attitudes and guns. They do NOT take kindly to being pelted with bottles. The bottle-throwers were arrested and the crowd scene cooled after that.
No lights were on in the apartment, no movement was seen and all negotiations had long since broken off. The man’s last words and comments to the negotiator were pretty much that the only way he was going to leave was in a body bag.
I still hoped not, but I left to file my art. Before I left the center of the action, which is where I had been allowed to stay (don’t ask me why, I was just allowed to stay.) I made sure the police chief and one of the LT’s knew I was returning and wanted to be back close to where things were happening.
“Sure.” they said, “Just show your press pass, tell whoever we said it was ok and come on back - stay out of the line of fire.”
“OK”
I left, filed the creeping-across-the-roof pic and one of two officers and a bullet proof shield and came back.
Things were as I left them — no more noise, no more nothing.
About 11 p.m. the sheriff's office took over. The Barstow PD SRT and CHP back-ups had been on duty squinting down their sites for almost 8 hours, it was time for a relief team.
I watched the camouflaged SWATs come in, dash about the courtyard smashing out the remaining lights that would put them in danger and get into place, covering each other with guns pointed toward the apartment as they ran across the courtyard.
I couldn’t help myself, I thought “Jeez, this is just like in the movies.” Only this time it was for real — surrealistic, but real.
When the Barstow guys and CHP left I was still standing there all by my lonesome. One of them yelled back at me, “You probably ought to come out too.”
“OK.”
That seemed like a good idea to me — it was dark and I didn’t like being alone.
I came up out of the garage hole and plopped down on the front of a fire truck. Sheriff’s homicide detectives were wondering who the hell was I and why was I there. I smiled, introduced myself and sat back quietly on the fire engine, hoping that no one would actually notice me. I even put my camera down.
The sheriff’s Captain saw me, smiled and let me stay. I was now considered a “friendly.” Cool.
I had kept in contact with the night editor at our sister paper, even after the Dispatch went to bed, did some interviewing, got the correct on-the-record-quotes that supported the police’s version of what happened and waited — and waited.
For almost an hour after the SO took over a deputy called out over a loud speaker. “Aaron. Come out with your hands up. The building is surrounded.” Every few minutes for almost an hour. Over and over. The same tone of voice. No emotion. It could have been a computerized recording it was so precisely repeated, but it wasn’t.
Aaron didn’t come out.
Talking time was up and the SWAT team started in with more powerful tear gas. Volley after volley. No Aaron. He was either immune to the gas or dead.
Soon the team took out the doors and entered the building using flash-bang devices before going into each room - “auditory and visual distractions” they call them.
Hell honey, those are bombs.
Every time they said over the radio they were setting off another one, all the law enforcement guys, suits, SWAT dudes, everybody around me, put their fingers in their ears. I wish I had photographed that, but it is hard to hold a camera with your fingers in your ears.
Time moved faster, soon after the SWAT guys entered they called for the SO medics that had flown in on a chopper. Word came out fast that it was over, Aaron was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
It was one o’clock in the morning. There was almost a palpable sigh, a slumping of the shoulders when it was over. I had been at the scene for almost ten hours.
It was not a good resolution. Not the one that everyone; law enforcement, medics, firefighters, friends and family had hoped for.
I remembered what the CHP shooter said after word came in about the fourth shot — “We are in a stand-off with a dead man.”
He was right.
•••••••••••••
Rest in Peace Aaron
Group - !SL UNCENSORED 18+!
Stands on the podium March 14th 2023 tall and proud 🏆
Looks around smiling mischievously left, right and center with hands on hips
Accepts kisses 💋 💋 and a French bottle of Champagne 🍷 from the hostesses, poses with a grin for a quick photo 📷
Undoes the wire cage, shakes the bottle, pops the cork in the crowds direction, sprays the judges, hostesses, contestants, media, front row admirers and fans 😇 😇
Tilts my head back and drinks from the bottle as the bubbles massage my face, champagne dribbles down my neck and all over torso
Wide eyed, raises my hands in the air fist pumping and declares yelling 'ITS PARTY TIME' w00t fucking w00t 🎉
'Ive got a bottle of Tequila Ive been saving for you'