View allAll Photos Tagged SharpFocus
"What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade."
Gertrude Jekyll
"Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it."
Russel Baker
Velvet Red: A Study in Tension (B&W) - A magnetic play between warmth and cool. The intensity of the red backdrop amplifies the poise of the subject, creating an atmosphere of sophisticated grace and understated intensity.
Lara Croft: Interview Hotseat- This Lara Croft cosplay brings the Tomb Raider spirit to life with 3D-printed prop guns that turned out way better than I expected. Flashpoint XPlor 600 for the primary spotlight, Godox AD200 or V1P in 120×30mm soft boxes for fill, and a Godox AD200 with a 3D-printed gobo to add that dramatic backlight.
"Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being...."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
* Best seen in larger size on black (click image above or this line)
Noir Ego: Defiance: No color needed when the attitude is this loud. A monochrome exploration of confidence and high-fashion defiance. Monochrome or Cobalt? Which version captures the tension more effectively?
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”
Nikola Tesla
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/panga_ua/
"Gifts have ribbons, not strings."
Vanna Bonta
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”
William Shakespeare
"Needlepoint: the delicious art of filling in holes with wool."
Carole Berman and Jennifer Lazarus
"Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again."
Dorothy Day
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
Striped Confidence: Teal and white stripes meet natural light-inspired studio shaping for a portrait that feels effortless and inviting. The forward pose creates intimacy without overpowering the frame, just a confident moment, captured simply and cleanly.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I had better news for you but we are facing a storm that most of us have feared. This is a threat that we've never faced before."
Ray Nagin
"It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."
Frederick Douglass
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
The garmon (Russian: гармо́нь; from garmonika (Russian: гармо́ника), which means "harmonics") is a kind of Russian button accordion, a free-reed wind instrument. A garmon has two rows of buttons on the right side, which play the notes of a diatonic scale, and at least two rows of buttons on the left side, which play the primary chords in the key of the instrument as well as its relative harmonic minor key.
..............................................................
Gzhel is a style of ceramics which takes its name from the village of Gzhel and surrounding area, where it has been produced since 1802. About thirty villages located southeast of Moscow produce pottery and ship it throughout Russia. The name Gzhel became associated with pottery in the 14th century. Gzhel pottery was originally created by potters in their homes, however fairly early on these potters started to organize into workshops to increase production. The workshops eventually became a factory with pieces being formed in moulds and potters being responsible for separate pieces, a specific style, or decoration. The earliest pieces were created of earthenware. The pottery was painted solid white with distinctive blue designs. Pottery was also produced using a tin based white glaze and coloured glaze designs in blue, green, yellow, and brown, rather than just blue on a white background, in a style that is referred to as Maiolica. The body colour of earthenware varies depending on the raw materials used, and can range in color from white to brown.
(from Wikipedia)
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"A something in a summer’s Day
As slow her flambeaux burn away
Which solemnizes me."
Emily Dickinson
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"A tuft of evening primroses,
O’er which the mind may hover till it dozes;
O’er which it well might take a pleasant sleep,
But that ’tis ever startled by the leap
Of buds into ripe flowers."
John Keats, I Stood Tiptoe Upon a Little Hill.
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the multitude. And I would not have the tears that sadness makes to flow from my every part turn into laughter. I would that my life remain a tear and a smile.
A tear to purify my heart and give me understanding of life's secrets and hidden things. A smile to draw me high to the sons of my kind and to be a symbol of my glorification of the gods.
A tear to unite me with those of broken heart; a smile to be a sign of my joy in existence."
Kahlil Gibran
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
This fluffy companion flashes a grin, as if plotting a mischief-laden day filled with treats and tail wags.
"And with the new light there was young hope
To underline the meaning
And carve our names in
At the end of August
The end of
At the end of August
The end of..."
36 Crazyfists Lyrics
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"Memory is a strange Bell—Jubilee, and Knell."
Emily Dickinson (a beautiful line in a letter to one of her sisters)
"...as I get older, I’m more interested in memory. One of my favorite poets, Miss Emily Dickinson, wrote this beautiful line, “Memory is a strange bell, both jubilee and knell,” and when I discovered that several years ago, it just overwhelmed me."
William Christenberry
(Since the early 1960s, William Christenberry has been making work about the American South. His photographs, paintings, drawings and sculptures form an interconnected account of the Alabama of his childhood—and particularly Hale County, where he spent his summers.)
This sophisticated studio portrait captures a compelling intersection of timeless textile and modern editorial styling. The subject is featured in a low-angle composition that lends a statuesque and commanding presence to the frame.
She wears a meticulously crafted dark-wash denim halter top, characterized by a deep plunging neckline and a cinched, peplum-style waist.
The garment’s architectural silhouette is further defined by functional tie-front detailing and delicate topstitching, offering a refined nod to Y2K-inspired aesthetics while maintaining a contemporary, high-fashion edge.
The lighting is expertly executed to highlight the high-contrast textures of the indigo denim against the subject's soft, luminous skin tones.
Her upward gaze conveys a sense of serene contemplation, while the minimalist background ensures the viewer's focus remains entirely on the interplay of form and fabric.
Complementary styling, including a subtle gold pendant and a natural, dew-focused makeup palette, enhances the overall sophistication of the look. This image serves as a masterclass in modern portraiture, blending casual materials with an elevated, professional execution suitable for high-end fashion editorials and lookbooks.
"Waes Hail", the term itself is a contraction of the Middle English phrase wæs hæl, meaning literally "good health" or "be you healthy" and to the drink of wassail which is a hot mulled cider traditionally drunk as an integral part of the wassail ceremony.
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
“In order to exist just once in the world, it is necessary never again to exist.”
Albert Camus
"“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”
William Cullen Bryant, American writer, 1794-1878)
"I shall tell you a great secret my friend. Do not wait for the last judgement, it takes place every day."
Albert Camus
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread."
George Herbert
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
The Pietà (pl. same; Italian for pity)
"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing."
Anais Nin
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
""Pick the day. Enjoy it - to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come... The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present, and I don't want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future."
Audrey Hepburn
“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.”
Ashley Smith
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."
John Muir
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
Don Quixote, fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha), is a novel written by Miguel de Cervantes.
"Remember that there are two kinds of beauty: one of the soul and the other of the body. That of the soul displays its radiance in intelligence, in chastity, in good conduct, in generosity, and in good breeding, and all these qualities may exist in an ugly man. And when we focus our attention upon that beauty, not upon the physical, love generally arises with great violence and intensity."
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Follow me on: Facebook Flickeflu Flickriver Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
A Christmas carol (also called a noël) is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.
"And so I'm offering this simple phrase,
To kids from one to ninety-two,
Although its been said many times, many ways,
A very Merry Christmas to you ."
(The Christmas Song)
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
Cooper's Hawk flying from nest to get food for young. The food I have seen brought into the nest looks like it is about the size of a dragonfly so I think the chicks are very small and very young. The birds do not seem too upset by my presence and seem to prefer I wear the full gilly suit vs. just plain camouflage clothing. They let me know their opinions by a chicken like clucking, which I am learning to imitate. One morning there was not activity for about 15 or 20 minutes and I made the clucking sound and immediately saw a tail rise up! Off in the distance I can hear a red-shouldered hawk very loudly proclaiming that this is his territory. It would be nice to find their nest also. Does anybody know how long it takes for them to build a nest?
This image is much much better at large size and you will better feel what it is like to have one of these birds almost directly over your head.
Today is International Children's Day
"Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity."
Kay Redfield Jamison
"The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child."
Joe Houldsworth
Follow me on: Facebook Flickeflu Flickriver Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"There are always flowers for those who want to see them."
Henri Matisse
"Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Follow me on: Facebook Flickeflu Flickriver Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"Weep no more, lady, weep no more,
Thy sorrow is in vain,
For violets plucked, the sweetest showers
Will ne'er make grow again."
Thomas Percy
"What thought is folded in thy leaves!
What tender thought, what speechless pain!
I hold thy faded lips to mine,
Thou darling of the April rain."
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
“Be still.
Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity.”
Lao Tzu
Thanks a lot for your visits and comments, my dear friends!
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without
my explicit permission.
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved. EXPLORED November 28, 2013.
This collection presents a breathtaking cinematic journey through the avian world, capturing the raw essence of diverse species in their most iconic states. From the powerful, sun-drenched silhouette of a golden eagle perched in the highlands to the serene, minimalist grace of a grey heron standing in a morning mist, each image is a masterclass in light, texture, and composition.
The series explores various habitats: the dramatic snowy peaks where raptors soar, the tranquil pink-hued wetlands of wading flamingos, the intricate stick-nests of urban storks, and even the clandestine world of a peregrine falcon overlooking a bokeh-filled city night. Every feather is rendered with hyper-realistic precision, emphasizing the bridge between high-end wildlife photography and the limitless possibilities of digital creation. This portfolio serves as a visual tribute to biodiversity, stillness, and the predatory elegance of birds.
These images have been generated by Artificial Intelligence.
Self Portrait: Recalibrated (B&W): A quiet self-portrait captured after a year of steady progress and discipline. The physical transformation of losing 105 poinds is obvious, but the goal here was something more grounded, an honest, current self-representation.
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned by all four Canonical Gospels (Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19). In many Christian churches, Palm Sunday is marked by the distribution of palm leaves (often tied into crosses) to the assembled worshipers. The difficulty of procuring palms for that day's ceremonies in unfavorable climates for palms led to the substitution of boughs of box, yew, willow or other native trees. The Sunday was often designated by the names of these trees, as Yew Sunday or by the general term Branch Sunday.
In the Russian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Catholic Church, and Ruthenian Catholic Church, the custom developed of using pussy willow instead of palm fronds because the latter are not readily available that far north.
"Palm Sunday is like a glimpse of Easter. It's a little bit joyful after being somber during Lent."
Laura Gale
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"The art of an artist must be his own art. It is... always a continuous chain of little inventions, little technical discoveries of one's own, in one's relation to the tool, the material and the colors."
Emil Nolde
"There are infinite shadings of light and shadows and colors... it's an extraordinarily subtle language. Figuring out how to speak that language is a lifetime job."
Conrad Hall
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
Melting snowflakes on her hand...
(Alizbar(celtic harp), Christian Amin Varkonyi (hang drum))
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
Ukrainian Christmas Kutya (ingredients):
2 cups cleaned wheat berries
3 -4 quarts water
1 cup cleaned poppy seed
1/3 cup honey
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or 1/2 cup pecans
This dish should be prepared several days ahead of of time for flavour to develop. It keeps very well in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or so. Very high in vitamins.
Where’s Waldo: Closer Than You Think (B&W): Turns out Waldo isn’t that hard to find, just don’t blink. A tight portrait flips the usual game on its head, trading chaos for clarity while keeping the signature red-and-white attitude intact.
"Perhaps - I want the old days back again and they'll never come back, and I am haunted by the memory of them and of the world falling about my ears."
Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
"I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,
Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind.."
Ernest Dowson
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
"Well, I must say," said Margaret, when in course of time the baked meat was dished and set on the table, "that I think baked meat tastes quite as well as roast meat, and it is much less troublesome to cook."
Little Folks, A Magazine for the Young
“It's amazing how putting homemade in front of something makes it sound healthier..."
Answerbag
"Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste Snow-drop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!"
William Wordsworth, To a Snow-Drop
"The morning star of flowers."
James Montgomery, Snow-Drop
Follow me on: Facebook - Flickriver - Tumblr. - Twitter
© Copyright Natalie Panga - All rights reserved.
* Lightbox: Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)