The Sumatran tiger is a population of Panthera tigris sondaica on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is the only surviving tiger population in the Sunda Islands, where the Bali and Javan tigers are extinct.

Quick Facts Scientific classification ...

Sequences from complete mitochondrial genes of 34 tigers support the hypothesis that Sumatran tigers are diagnostically distinct from mainland subspecies. In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the Cat Specialist Group revised felid taxonomy and recognizes the living and extinct tiger populations in Indonesia as P. t. sondaica.

Evolution

Analysis of DNA is consistent with the hypothesis that Sumatran tigers became isolated from other tiger populations after a rise in sea level that occurred at the Pleistocene to Holocene border about 12,000–6,000 years ago. In agreement with this evolutionary history, the Sumatran tiger is genetically isolated from all living mainland tigers, which form a distinct group closely related to each other. The isolation of the Sumatran tiger from mainland tiger populations is supported by multiple unique characters, including two diagnostic mitochondrial DNA nucleotide sites, ten mitochondrial DNA haplotypes and 11 out of 108 unique microsatellite alleles. The relatively high genetic variability and the phylogenetic distinctiveness of the Sumatran tiger indicates that the gene flow between island and mainland populations was highly restricted.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatran_tiger?wprov=sfla1

so i made a new years resolution... finally...

i'm conquering my fears this year. starting with yesterday.

my number one fear was needles... i took 4 yesterday in my gums without crying.

i know it sounds funny as hell because i'm almost 20... but needles used to be the scariest things... ever ever ever to me. but now?

i'm a big kid now!!

=) next step : airplanes.... this one might take a while. hahah

ps. seriously, join my fb group. it's awesome.

www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=234234534009&ref=nf

Thank you for the texture Þórunn Þorsteinsdóttir

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Use without permission is illegal.

Please, don't fave my photos and run

Those peculiar dormer windows are typical for Sibiu. They were used for ventilation as the roofs were used to store grain and hay during winter.

Those houses look small, don't they! :)

Caught a moment on Main Street, a candid fall moment, sidewalk conversations.

Tenaya lake shines in the sun reflecting that high Sierra blue sky

I have always had a bit of envy for those who can sit with a pencil or paint brush and create true art. I intentionally use the word true as a disseminator reflecting that I am only referring to art that I like. My oldest son Jeremy taught me years ago that all art presented is someone else’s art, not mine. It is an expression of what they see, feel or are trying to express. It all impacts someone in different ways. I believe much of it to be trash!

In this shot, while editing I just couldn’t stand the thought of yet another color shot of a raptor in flight. I have taken and retained hundreds and shared just a few. The raw file of this shot reflects near perfect focus of this top-lite Rough-legged hawk hovering above the tundra just north of Nome Alaska. As one who strives to take only the sharpest photos…nobody sees the hundreds-thousands I get wrong, sometimes blowing blessed encounters all together!

In this case, I may have crossed the line as when editing started on this particular file, it screamed to me to be in black and white…and to be grained up a bit. Maybe the knowledge of knowing the species name, a Rough-legged hawk, subliminally spoke to me. It wasn’t until writing this account this morning that I realized that there might just be much more of a reason.

This shot was taken on 19 August. On the morning of the 20th at daybreak I was on the same road in the same area as this shot was taken. I noticed a Rough-legged hawk laying in the road. It apparently flew into a vehicle…and it’s Nome…not too many vehicles running around, sometime the evening before. I stood over it, wondering if it was the beautiful specimen who allowed me a photo session just hours before, or its mate. With respect, I folded it wings and moved it off the road so that it would not be destroyed by traffic and could be harvested by other creatures who needed it and not waisted.

Then the voice inside of my head simply said “Honor it.” So, I gathered a few dozen feathers from the area and plucked a few more…yes plucked…try not to judge! Maybe another line was crossed here as I do not know the law on harvesting feathers from a dead hawk on an Alaskan roadside. But I authorized myself as I realized that I and others could utilize them in making fishing flies, continuing his/her participation in the cycle of life.

I plan on printing and framing this shot for my office. It will join the other 192 other framed photographs that are mostly there as just a good memory, its addition will be a final aspect of honoring its life.

Those Eyes!

Mom with the two babies doing OK in the backyard. The two babies were born in the front yard but moved early on. I have been trying to get some group shots but this mom doesn't like to hang around and the babies run pretty quick. On this morning they let me approach and get pretty close.

Textures by Lenabem-Anna.

For the Slider Sunday Group - HSS!

"Look at all those movie stars

They're all so beautiful and clean

When the housemaids scrub the floors

They get the spaces in between

I wanna live a life like that

I wanna be just like a king

Take my picture by the pool

'Cause I'm the next big thing

Beverly Hills

That's where I want to be

(Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)

Livin' in Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills

Rollin' like a celebrity

(Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)

Livin' in Beverly Hills"

Weezer - Beverly Hills

Video

Head: LeL Evo X

Body: e-Body Reborn

Hair: *S.E LELUTKA X FELL IN LOVE L BLONDE 18

Outfit:

Gown::Dernier: "Karol" Gown - White

Purse: *SF* Rubix Kube Purse

Earrings: from [Alternative] Selena Fatpack

Necklace: :Dernier: "Amber" Necklace

Shades: :Dernier: "Jordyn" Shades - FATPACK

Made at "The Continental Club"

Continental Teleport

this one is taken and edited almost a year ago.

explored, thank you!

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

T.S. Eliot

*edited with Christy's Sugar&Cream action

www.flickr.com/photos/9777484@N05/

Love doesn’t always have to be a shout-from-the-rooftops kind of passion. Sometimes love is simple. Sometimes love is a holy feeling — a quiet moment...

And is those quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest an extra special meaning.

Have you ever felt, that flowers are smiling to you, whenever you take their portrait in the Summer season?In your garden? Because I have! Such a joyful, bright, tender smile!! ❤️!!!!!Such a heartfelt emotion in my body!

Therefore, I am going now to share with you, some blooming smiles of my garden, in my current photos! Enjoy!!! ❤️

Well - my favourite beach breakfast spot "Duckies" turned out to be "closed on Mondays until further notice" so "Chapples" it was instead.

Chapples was a suitable alternative - and it didn't rain in the end.

Deer, Devon, UK.

Those eyes! Kyle's Langton swan song.... Two years ago, and he was still thin. Not now: his Mom has been overfeeding him, and ignoring me when I point out that both cats are now FAT.

We just sold our house in Cambria, and signed a lease on a smaller house in Morro Bay. So more changes in store for our kitties. And their humans. If there's something more stressful than moving, well. Cancer? Oh, wait....

(to those who look up from below)

Three early fifties models ..

GreazeFest

Brisbane

I do not know if this image looks as if the temperature were hot or not, but it was 33 degrees celsius that day. The cars air-conditioning was all there was between me and the elements. But, the photo bug needed to be entertained, so off through a very thick patch of weeds I went. When I returned, my socks were covered in the tiny thorns that do natures best at spreading their progeny.

It was that low flying cloud, and its reflections that caught my eye. That made it a matter of waiting for the clouds to sit in the valley, and between the opposing hills for balance. Like an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence, the clouds made the image emphatic.

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

― Roald Dahl

Soundtrack : www.youtube.com/watch?v=mer6X7nOY_o

SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW – LILY ALLEN

AGENT OF GOOD FORTUNE

Like a muse you came to me

the news was so very good to read

I saw the writing on every wall

and in every mirror reflections of your soul

shadows whispering round my heels

soft, floating wishes; an agent of good fortune

marching your feet so very tirelessly

and though I am quite an effort

I am so happy you think I'm worth it

for I've never met another man like you

and I don't suppose I ever wanted to

because you are truly one of a kind

the kind of man who gets me so completely

that I feel whole instead of a jumbled puzzle

a broken plaything that someone else grew tired of

and abandoned me to myself,

like a discarded toy high up on a dusty shelf

but what a gift; a treasure they left so far behind and never knew

like in a fairy tale you woke me from my endless reverie

A Prince that listens to all my tales of woe and misery

and never fails to make me smile

who listens to my nonsense

and levels it with such good advice;

someone who's prepared to go that extra mile

I hear you laughing now, so at least in equal measures

a pinch of sarcasm amid our hidden pleasures

but I can take it; my shoulders broad

even if only metaphorically

but then metaphysically my poetry

doesn't need to rhyme

because the emphasis is on the words

the meanings and not beating time

I know you like it to be simpler

and you pretend to misunderstand

but I know you're smarter

than the average bear Boo-Boo

I can sometimes wax lyrical if you prefer

but I can't always tell how it will end

because I write in a stream of consciousness

and when I read it back

it's often the first I've heard of it

there's no accounting for what's hidden in our minds

but what I do know is what is in my heart

and you captivated a part of me right from the start

it's as though somewhere in the universe

a split appeared and then I fell to Earth

but you'd already been here for a little while

and never knew until one day you saw me smile

and it hit you that I was the other half of you

but there's nothing to be done about it

at least not in this incarnation

even if we had the right inclination

we cannot mess with divine intervention

but be patient because we already

waited several lifetimes

so what's another one or two

and this time round I have a photographic memory

so I will remember and not make the same mistakes again next time

and when the portal to our dreams opens up it's doors once more

I will wait for the perfect moment

and then I will be yours

and we will go to that special place

that special somewhere that only we can know

where there's no other place we want to go

you know the place I mean

it looms so large in both our dreams

I think that you will be my rock

the anchor that weights me down

for in this world I'm only floating

round and round trying hard to never be found

because I don't want to be with anyone else

I'm holding out for another lifetime

when you and I can dance around

and we will be forever bound

together ...

- AP – Copyright remains with the author

My artwork is a compilation of 4 of my photographs

Copyright © protected image please do not reproduce without permission'

Those American beech leaves never fall off, that's the way it is.

"American Beech leaves are elliptical. They have pointed tips and many straight, parallel veins and coarse teeth. The leaves are green during the summer. They turn golden yellow or lustrous brown, then pale brown in autumn. American Beech leaves remain on the tree well into winter, with some persisting into early spring, so if you are in the woods in winter and see a tree with brown leaves still hanging on to the tree, it probably is an American Beech."

I'm doing a pair of SNS's this week for the simple fact I have to many slides scanned and I want to move them. Both will feature EMD covered wagons. This view has BN 826 leading a B-unit and a C636 at Fisher in July 1979. Photo by Greg Stadter, Chuck Schwesinger collection.

Is there any wonder why mule deer have such good hearing? Their gigantic ears help them to hear predators. There's no sneaking up on a muley!

Those supercute Lamps will hit Novembre´s Fluffy Kawaii Round. I´ll add the SLURL as soon as it´s open ;) Stay tuned!

Those antlers can't be as heavy as they look otherwise this Fallow Buck would never be able to raise his head from grazing!!😁

Many thanks to those who comment on my photo's and/or add them as favourites.

Yesterday was one of those banner days where everything just works out. In the morning I recieved a heads up about a ballast train loading in Nieder-Ofleiden bound for Wiesbaden with two Ludmillas, so I took my camera to work incase the timing worked out. Sure enough, come mid afternoon the train was underway so I headed out of work to Eddersheim to try to catch it. The line between Frankfurt and Wiesbaden is spectacularly unscenic, but I knew here atleast the sun should stay out till last light. Forty minutes before sunset, a deep rumble to the east announced the arrival of the Soviet beasts. WFL 232 356 with 232 182 dead in tow head towards Wiesbaden into the setting sun. Grüße an der Lokführer!

This is another one of those waterfalls where the sheer force of nature will amaze you. The power of the water falling is so great here it seems to generate a constant cloud rising up from the bottom. The mist never really dissipates, just always changes shape and form in constant movement. I suppose one of the only constants in life is change.

This is taken from the edge, and by edge I mean I shouldn't be standing here, and will never stand there again. I couldn't help but think to myself, one little extra surge of water... But no surge came. I took a few quick careful shots as downward facing as comfort would allow and stitched them together with great difficulty as I didn't have 40% coverage. No auto-stitching for me. Such is life, this place is worth the extra effort.

The ‘old barn’ down the road, dressed in an inverted color + zero saturation grayscale

This male lion had just woken up and the look in his eyes was very intense! A few minutes later, he got up and roared right next to us! What an experience!

those moments when our love for others, and their need for us, feels so unexpectedly overwhelming, and life so very fragile and temporary...

Thank you so much for the group cover!

Group - www.flickr.com/groups/4614909@N21/

Original - www.flickr.com/photos/158305412@N06/51301070491

"I love those J-I-N-G-L-E bells

Those holiday J-I-N-G-L-E bells

Those happy J-I-N-G-L-E B-E, double-L-S

I love those J-I-N-G-L-E bells

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh, oh"

Frank Sinatra - Jingle Bells

Video

Outfit: Dernier

Made at: *80Days* FIRITH GALAD - an abandoned Elven realm

Teleport

After spending time with great horned owls and owlets earlier this year, now it's my turn to enjoy watching this cute little pair of burrowing owls! Hope there will be owlets!

Norfolk

Many thanks to all those who fave or comment always very much appreciated

The view ahead as one walks along Smith Rock's Crooked River urges one on to see the wonders that lie around each corner. Multiple memory cards are recommended.

I just returned from a camping trip to Idaho's Sawtooth mountains. The Sawtooths don't receive the attention of their neighbors, the Tetons, but are similar. Not quite as high as those iconic peaks, but there are many more peaks in the Sawtooths to admire.

Think I got some good shots.

Weather was challenging, as usual. Looking forward to processing and sharing the Sawtooths with you.

Hope your July is off to a wonderful start.

View On Black

Visit this location at Grauland in Second Life

For those that are confused by my title, Don McCullin is a British photographer famed mostly for his war images. He was on the front line of many global conflicts, from Cyprus to Vietnam to Syria and many more besides. There are photos he took that I'm sure everyone will remember when they see them but perhaps do not know he was the author of.

The very first picture that McCullin ever sold was a shot of a gang of boys spread across the first floor of a bombed out building in north London in the late 50s. This image is nothing like his original image which frankly is one of my favourite images of all time for the way it so brilliantly tells the story of a time and a place. But there is something in my photo which immediately reminded me of McCullin's famous composition but in a VERY different way. Here's a link to McCullin's shot for those that may be interested:

rps.org/news/journal/2021/october/don-mccullin-the-pictur...

And for anyone who truly admires photography it is worth looking up McCullin's work. It is often disturbing because of the subject matter he depicts but it is always exceptional. He is now in his 80s and lives in the quiet English county of Somerset. Instead of wars he now prefers to shoot the landscapes of his adopted county in the most beautiful way. Perhaps an antidote to the terrible things he's witnessed throughout his career.

That time you trusted me to do your eyebrows and i left you with half a brow..... or when I made you bleed XD

Thank you for putting up with me.

Visit this location at Tails and Zaria's Home in Second Life

olympus omd - lightroom - photoshop (beta) - silver efex pro - lightroom