©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 42.310+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on Monday 23rd May 2022

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1397013864 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 5,580th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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**** This frame was chosen on Tuesday 24th May 2022 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #240. This is my 214th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 42.328+ Million people who have visited, favorited and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Seven metres at 11:36am on Thursday May 12th 2022 off the Mall and Horse Guards Road within the grounds of St James's Park in Central London, one of the Royal parks of London situated in South West London.

  

THE EASTERN GRAY/EASTERN GREY SQUIRREL (SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS)

  

By Paul Williams

  

The Grey (or Gray) squirrel, you either love 'em or you hate 'em. Cute and fluffy little funsters or destructive critters who ruin trees, kill bird chicks and trees and damage our homes... oh and it's their fault we lost our native Red squirrels as well!

  

OK

  

I get it and I see both sides of the story of course. For my part, I am a nature, wildlife and landscape photographer who prefers the company of animals and natural beauty to fellow humans who are systematically plundering Mother Earth's resources and killing off her beautiful creatures at an alarming rate! I believe there is a natural order of things, creatures kill other creatures to survive, they adapt to situations and when mankind encroaches on their territory to make a fast buck, those animals sometimes adapt to survive and the order changes. That is the balance of nature which is ever changing and affected by us..... the dumbest of the great apes. Some species are driven out by others, some may be destined to become extinct, the fittest will survive, and sometime a species will need intervention and help from mankind in order to survive... usually as a direct consequence of mankind's own actions in destroying the animal kingdom's natural habitat of course.

  

I adore these little fellas and at almost sixty years old, I never grew up knowing red squirrels at all. I've seen reds in Scotland and black squirrels in Stanley Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, but in my beloved home country of England I have always known and loved the cute little Greys. They visit my garden and give me hours, days, weeks of happiness and wonderful photographic opportunities, and I see them in Parks and forests all around me, so it's time to offer up an insight into the Grey squirrel, much loved, much hated... a sort of Marmite rodent if you will.

  

WHAT EXACTLY IS A SQUIRREL?

  

The word 'Squirrel', was first recorded in 1327 and hails from the Anglo-Norman word 'Esquirel', from old French 'Escurel', which was a reflex for the Latin word 'Sciurus'.The Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is also known as the Eastern Grey squirrel or simply grey squirrel depending on the region of the world it is found. It is a tree squirrel, of the squirrel family Sciuridae including over one hundred arboreal species native to all continents of the world other than Antarctica and Oceania. Tree squirrels live mostly in trees, apart from the flying squirrel. The best known genus is Sciurus, containing most of the bushy tailed squirrels which are found in Europe, North America, temperate Asia as well as central and south America.

  

The scientific classification for the Eastern Grey is:

 

KINGDOM: ANIMALIA PHYLUM: CHORDATA CLASS: MAMMALIA ORDER: RODENTIA FAMILY: SCIURIDAE GENUS: SCIURUS SUBGENUS: SCIURUS SPECIES: SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS

  

They were first noted by German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist - Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788.

  

A mammal and rodent, predominantly herbivorous they are none the less an omnivore with a life span of between two and ten years. They can grow to 70cm in length and weigh up to 8kg. There are more than two hundred and sixty species of worldwide squirrel, the smallest being the African pygmy squirrel at just 10cm in length, whereas the Indian giant squirrel is three feet long! The oldest fossil of a squirrel, Hesperopetes, dates back to the late Eocene epoch period Chadronian period of 40-35 million years ago. The tree squirrels rotate their ankles by 180 degrees, so that the hind paws pointy backwards gripping tree bark which enables them to descend a tree headfirst.

  

Originally native to Eastern and Midwestern United States of America, they were first introduced into the United Kingdom in 1876 in Henbury Park, Macclesfield in Cheshire when Victorian banker Thomas V. Brocklehurst released a pair of Greys that he brought back from a business trip to America after their attraction as pets had waned. Victorians had a penchant for collecting exotic animals and birds of the world, but trends came and went and subsequently animals were simply discarded into the wilderness. There are early records of greys released near Denbighshire in north Wales from private collections. Later introduced to several regions in the UK, they quickly settled and spread, colonizing an area of three hundred miles in a quarter of a century between Argyll and Stirlingshire in Scotland.

  

Introductions of the Greys between 1902 and 1929 (the year of the last recorded introduction), included: Regent’s Park in London, Berkshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Hampshire. Grey Squirrels spread into Gloucestershire and eastern Wiltshire with animals coming directly from the United States or from Woburn. One hundred greys were released in Richmond Park in Surrey in 1902, Ninety one into Regent’s Park between 1905 and 1907 and a further ten New Jersey imported greys were introduced into Woburn Park in Bedfordshire.

  

Predators include hawks, weasels, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, domestic and feral cats, snakes, owls, and dogs, African harrier-hawks in Africa and... oh yes, Mankind pretty much everywhere who despise, mistreat, cull or eat it .

  

FACTS, MYTHS AND THAT POXY PARAPOX!

  

The massive decline in native red squirrels blamed upon the spread of the invasive greys has always been perhaps a little harsh as reds were already in a steep decline due to loss of habitat and disease and thus the greys simply took over the areas where the reds were dwindling. It's also a fact that reds were also seen as a plague, branded as pests who killed birds and damaged trees and the culling of reds almost brought them to the brink of extinction. Licenses to kill reds could still be obtained up until the seventies!

  

Reds suffered at the hands of mankind thanks to a combination of agricultural deforestation also linked with war and fuel needs which caused extinction in Southern Scotland and Ireland by the early eighteenth century, way before greys had been introduced. Harsh winters killed off the less hardy red population in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

  

Greys are more adept at finding food and adapting to locations and environments, but also carry the squirrel poxvirus (SQPV) which although not particularly harmful to them, is a serious infection for the reds.

  

Parapox in red squirrels causes swollen lesions around the mouth, eyes, ears and nose also the front paws and sometimes genitals and skin ulcers and kills a red within fifteen days. There is no definitive correlation between the spread of the virus and the spread of the Greys, it actually arrived in several areas before the greys began to colonize there. An epidemic virus was observed in Red squirrels from at least 1900 with isolation attempts failing, and the first case of Parapox in the UK was in 1980 in the county of Norfolk. Greys cannot transmit the virus to reds via saliva or faeces, but reds can between each other from bodily secretions and at animal feeders in gardens. The transmission from greys to reds is though to come from parasites. Eight to ten per cent of reds survive the virus, and there is some evidence that reds are slowly building an evolved resistance.

  

Greys are seen as pests to forest land, stripping bark from trees during May and June, and are also capable of destroying household bins, water pipes, causing roof damage not to mention taking eggs and killing young chicks of ground nesting and songbird populations. They also take from bird feeders and there is a whole industry for creating squirrel proof feeders these days.

  

THE CULLING OF GREY SQUIRRELS

  

Grey squirrels have limited legal protection and can be legally controlled all year round by a variety of methods including shooting and trapping. Methods of trapping and killing include Drey poking and shooting, Tunnel trapping using spring traps set in accordance with BASC’s trapping pest mammals code of practice. They can also be shot using a shotgun or powerful air rifle or up until September 30th 2014 poisoned by Warfarin (Now outlawed).

  

Whilst professional trapping and extermination is hopefully done as humanely as possible, there have been cases, many of them where cost savings have been gained by battering the squirrels to death! Grey squirrels are trapped in ghastly metal contraptions for hours and hours, wearing themselves out frantically trying to escape by gnawing at the metals bars. They bite the floor and scratch at them with their claws and do not get a moments peace or rest through absolute fear. Once the traps are retrieved, each squirrel, terrified will be thrown into a sack and smacked on the head countless times with a blunt instrument. When a mother is slaughtered, her babies who are totally dependent on her, will die a slow death of thirst and starvation.

  

There is an argument for the control of Greys on many grounds but also a counter argument that Culling does not work, and has not on countless times where, once a population of greys have been culled, the nearest group will move back in and claim the land. The university of Bristol concluded that there was little evidence that culling greys to save red squirrels was effective, and that perhaps finding a way of boosting red squirrel immunity to the poxvirus or planting areas of yew trees where reds are known to thrive and spending money on research into positive moves might be a better option.

  

In Ireland, the re-introduction of the Pine marten, a species made extinct originally by the very same land owners who also wish to do the same to the grey squirrel, has seen the rapid demise of the grey and the reintroction of the native reds. Red squirrels are smaller and more nimble than their grey counterparts, and as such can get to the very ends of tree branches where neither the pine martins, nor more importantly the heavier greys can, thus surviving and thriving. As a result in Ireland, the grey squirrel population has crashed in approximately 9,000 km2 of its former range and the reds has become common once more after a thirty year absence... oh and Pine Martens are protected again!

  

In Scotland, Pine Martens exist in areas where Red squirrels thrive, and greys do not. So perhaps there is a lesson here, as in England where there are no pine martens, the greys are prolific breeders. So there is an argument against the barbarity of shooting and poisoning greys, and if, as so many believe, the greys MUST be controlled, how about a more humane and natural method that nature intended.. with re-introduction of predators. Just a thought!

  

So a few facts and figures on the greys and to wrap up, from a purely personal perspective I love these little guys, as I do almost every creature in nature other than those eight legged beasties that shall not be named and for which I have a deep and powerful phobia that borders on paranoia!

  

I could no more harm an animal deliberately than eat a McDonald's McRib (Once saw how they are made and let me just say... eeeuuuuuwwwww!!).

  

They are small, cute, cuddly, furry, they photograph beautifully, have great personality and make me smile. They trust me enough to take food from my hand in parks, and I can't bare the though of ugly, hairy land owners sticking a shotgun in their face and blowing them away! I appreciate they can be a pest, a problem, a menace, that their PR managers might have a bit of a problem winning you over when they flay small chicks alive on your lawn or decimate the songbird population by stealing their eggs.... and perhaps there is a need to keep the population under control and try and re-establish the red population.....

  

Yep I get that....

  

I just hope we can solve the problem more humanely to create a peaceful coexistence of the reds and greys in different areas. A man can dream can't he.

  

Paul Williams June 18th 2021

©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams).

 

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Nikon D850 Focal length 150mm Shutter speed: 1/640s Aperture f/6.3 ISO160 Hand held with Tamron VR Vibration reduction enabled on setting 1. Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (8256 x 5504). (14 bit uncompressed file) Focus mode AF-C focus. AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled AF-Area mode: 3D-Tracking Exposure mode: Manual mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1, 0, 0 (4770K). Colour space: RGB. High ISO NR: ON (Low) Active D-Lighting: Auto Vignette control: Normal Picture control: (SD) Standard with sharpening +3 and clarity +1.00

  

Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 11.41s

LONGITUDE: W 0d 7m 59.86s

ALTITUDE: 6.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.9MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 42.20MB

      

PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 35.323+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 25th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1071322424 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,107th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on March 12th 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #176. This is my 172nd photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.300+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Sixty eight metres at 17:35pm on Wednesday 7th November 2018, off Varmahlid and Bustadavegur from in front of Perlan (Pearl), a futuristic revolving glass domed building looking out over Nautholsvik Geothermal beach in Iceland.

  

Originally designed by Ingimundur Sveinsson, Perlan is located on the hill Öskjuhlíð, built during Davíð Oddsson's time as Mayor of Reykyavik. It was updated in 1991 to it's current design with a rooftop panoramic 360 degree observatory.

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length 120mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. Shutter speed 1/640s (Electronic front-curtain) Aperture f/14.0 iso200 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 64d 7m 44.10s

LONGITUDE: W 21d 55m 5.80s

ALTITUDE: 68.0m

  

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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 89.5MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 19.00MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on April 7th 2015

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/547165949 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

 

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****This frame was chosen on March 9th 2015 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #327. This is my Sixty ninth photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

  

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to everyone who visited, favourite and commented on the frame*****

  

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Photograph taken at 12:31pm at an altitude of Seven metres, on Wednesday 24th September 2014 off the West Coast Road 14, on the shoreline of French Beach Provincial Park.

  

The park is a Fifty nine Hectare provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Located on Vancouver Island, between Sooke and River Jordan, the park has spectacular views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

 

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Nikon D800 15mm 1/2500s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Handheld AF-S Single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 23m 33.44s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 56m 44.42s

ALTITUDE: 7.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 18.444MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

 

 

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 37.540+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 9th 2020

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1284689937 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,645th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on 9th November 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #478. This is my 192nd photograph to be selected.

  

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 37.543+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Sixty three metres at 12:10pm on Sunday 8th November 2020 off Heron Hill and New Road in the grounds of Lesnes Abbey Woods, close to Abbey wood open space in the London Borough of Bexley, England.

  

Abbey wood joins to Lesnes abbey wood and Abbey wood open space as well as Bostall Heath and woods.

  

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Nikon D850 Hand held with Nikkor VR Vibration Reduction enabled on normal setting. Focal length 35mm Shutter speed: 1/125s Aperture f/4.0 iso250 Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (8256 x 5504). NEF RAW L (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus. AF-S Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. AF-S Priority selection: Focus. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points.AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode: Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto ISO sensitivity control on (Max iso 800/ Minimum shutter speed 125). White balance on: Auto1. Colour space: RGB. Active D-lighting: Normal. Vignette control: Normal. Nikon Distortion control: Enabled. Picture control: Auto (Sharpening A +1/Clarity A+1)

  

Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4.0G IF ED VR. Lee filters SW150 holder. Lee filters SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee filters Circular Polariser Glass filter. Lee filters SW150 filters field pouch. Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.

     

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LATITUDE: N 51d 29m 8.18s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 8.97s

ALTITUDE: 63.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 91.3MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 50.70MB

    

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, and having moved from professional Nikon equipment to consumer bodies and lenses, I travel light less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 22.893+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on March 7th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/925773952 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,019th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on August 7th 2018 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #80. This is my 103rd photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 17.950 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty seven metres at 10:29am on Wednesday February 28th 2018 off Woolwich Road and Treetops Close in the grounds of Abbey Wood open space in Bexleyheath, Kent, England.

  

'The beast from the East', a Siberian cold front and weather phenomenon, has swept across the United Kingdom duringh the past few days, and last night was Kent's turn to brace herself for the deluge of snow.

  

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Nikon D7200 10mm 1/40s f/11.0 iso100 Exposure Compensation +1.3EV RAW (14 bit Lossless compressed) Image size 6000 x 4000). Colour space RGB. Handheld. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance. Auto Active D-lighting. Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control on.

  

Nikkor AF-S DX 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED DX. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL battery. Hoodman H-EYEN22S soft rubber eyecup. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 32GB Class 10 SDHC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 29m 9.90s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 14.60s

ALTITUDE: 57.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 69.10MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 38.40MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D7200 Firmware versions A 1.10 C 2.015 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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**** This frame was chosen on August 10th 2016 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #294. This is my 90th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 15.97 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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This photograph was taken at an altitude of Nine hundred and twenty eight metres, at 13:16pm on Thursday 12th May 2016 off Alaska Highway route 1 between Upper Liard and Swift River, beside Rancheria River at Rancheria Falls, Yukon territory, Canada.

  

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/1600s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14Bit)Handheld with Nikon VR vibration reduction on. Nikon back focus button enabled. AF-C Continuous point focus with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance. Nikon AF Fine tune on (+5).

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. Nikon DK-17M 1.2x Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC card. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW Photo/ 15.4" Notebook Backpack camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 60d 4m 40.65s

LONGITUDE: W 130d 49m 33.32s

ALTITUDE: 927.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 34.17MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

A squirrel's prayer (A message to Mankind)

  

Thank you for the life you give

The air to breathe, the drey to live

For the land around in which we roam

My wife and kits who call it home

  

Thank you for my ears that hear

The sounds of nature through the year

My eyes to see, my nose to smell

My bushy tail and lips to tell

  

Thank you for the food received

For love and hope and dreams believed

For every breath each day I take

For the little things that big things make

  

Thank you for the seasons all

For Spring and Summer, winter, fall

For happiness, contentment also

The birds and bees and flowers that grow

  

Thank you for the clouds and sky

The trees that offer shelter high

For rain that feeds the land I love

The earth below, the stars above

  

If I could ask for one small favour

Please watch over man's behaviour

I fear that dreadful changes may

Create a world of dread one day

  

Ignorance is bliss they say

But blinkered eyes can't turn away

From lies, deceit and mass destruction

Brokered deals and sad corruption

  

Creation has a place for each

A reason we should teach and preach

From tiny wings to huge blue whale

They must not die, man cannot fail

  

The need to breed and feed and greed

Erode the hope and kill the seed

Blinkered thoughts of exploration

Forests felled, extermination

  

Species dying at the hands

Of thoughtless folk as man expands

Pesticides and chemicals

Decisions in the hands of fools

  

Mankind please hear me, stop and think

You're hunting species to the brink

Wings and beaks, the large and small

In God's great plan they feature, all

  

Contentment, peace and harmony

Strangled by the powers that be

Full of hate and selfishness

Which masks the good that all possess

  

A planet pale and suffocating

Dwindling hope, excruciating

It's not too late if man could see

Responsibility lies with he

  

A squirrel, I, a chain and link

Like all who dwell on Earth I think

Thank you for my life, it's great

And Man take note... It's not too late!

  

Slow down, step back and think please do

For time she will not wait for you

Admit your faults, where you went wrong

Else bye, ta-ta, goodbye, so long!

  

Written by

Paul Williams 22nd May 2021

©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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**** This frame was chosen on Friday May 23rd 2021 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #479. This is my 201st photograph to be selected.

  

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 38.997+ Million people who have visited, favorited and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Forty seven metres at 09:17am on a cold morning Saturday 22nd May 2021, off Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent.

  

Here we see, Sciurus Carolinensis (Eastern Gray Squirrel or Grey Squirrel), a tree squirrel native to North America and first introduced to the UK in the 1870's. Though it was largely resonsible for the decimation of our own native red squirrel population, those are now on the increase and found in certain parts of the UK including Scotland. The Greys are still an ecologically essential natural forester regenerator.

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length 600mm Shutter speed: 1/400s Aperture f/6.3 iso500 Tripod mounted with Tamron VC Vibration Control set to position 3. Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (14 bit uncompressed) Size L (8256 x 5504) Focus mode: AF-C AF-Area mode: 3D-tracking Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1 (4880k) Colour space: Adobe RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)

  

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.

  

Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto MT057C3-G Carbon fiber Geared tripod 3 sections. Neewer Carbon Fiber Gimble tripod head 10088736 with Arca Swiss standard quick release plate. Neewer 9996 Arca Swiss release plate P860 x2.Jessops Tripod bag. Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 28.17s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 10.52s

ALTITUDE: 47.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF FILE: 91.3MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 32.90MB

   

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.

    

PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 32.047+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 25th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1071373138 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,610th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

**** This frame was chosen on July 9th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #361. This is my 133rd photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 32.075+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and thirteen metres at 11:35am on Thursday 8th November 2018, off Biskupstungnabraut 35 and Haukadalsvegur F333 at Gesir, a geothermal location where a geyser erupts every eight to ten minutes. The location is in an area formerly known as Hverasandar at the northern edge of the southern lowlands in Haukadalur, Iceland.

  

The geothermal field has a surface area of around 3 km² and the former spouting Geyser here, named Hvitamelur is dry. To the south are two small spouting Geysers known as Marteinslaug and Gufubadshver, and the current oldest spouting Geyser Northernmost is Geysir itself.

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length 24mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. Shutter speed 1/50s Aperture f/7.1 iso200 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 64d 18m 39.70s

LONGITUDE: W 20d 18m 6.00s

ALTITUDE: 118.0m

  

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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 91.0MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 42.70MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 41.448+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on April 16th 2021

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1312588742 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 5,492nd frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

 

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**** This frame was chosen on Friday 25th February 2022 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #481. This is my 212th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 40.448+ Million people who have visited, favourited and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Thirty one metres at 10:18am following a Southeastern Network train from Bexleyheath to London Bridge station at 07:53am on Tuesday 13th April 2021.

 

Here we stand, where several great roads collide, A3 The Strand, The Mall, A4 Cockspur Road, Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall, in Trafalgar Square, looking upwards towards William Railton's iconic statue of Lord Horatio Nelson, built between 1840-1843. Central London, England.

  

Nelson, born 29th September 1758, became 1st Viscount and 1st Duke of Bronte KB and was killed on 21st October 1805 in his final victory in the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He is buried with honours in St Paul's Cathedral.

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length: 28mm Shutter speed: 1/80s Aperture: f/13.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Nikkor VR Vibration Reduction enabled on Normal setting. Colour space Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Metering: Centre weighted metering. White balance: Auto 1 white balance (4930K). Colour space: Adobe RGB. Nikon Auto Distortion control on. Picture control: Neutral with +2 sharpening

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.3 (1 stop) Neutral density graduated soft resin filter. Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1a GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 25.73s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 7m 39.40s

ALTITUDE: 31.0m

   

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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 92.6MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 43.40MB

  

PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.20 (14/01/2021) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 R3 Series graphics card (26/03/21). 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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**** This frame was chosen on April 18th 2016 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #259. This is my 86th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 15.0 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Four metres at 15:57pm on Tuesday 19th May 2015 off the A835, on the rocky shoreline at Elgol, a village on the shores of Loch Scavaig towards the end of the Strathaird peninsula in the Isle of Skye, in the Scottish Highlands

  

In the background we see the Black Cuillin mountain range. And from this beach you can catch a boat ride with 'Misty Isle Boat Trips'. The Black Cuillins (Gaelic: An Cuilthionn or An Cuilthean), consists of twelve munros and reaches a height of 992m (3255ft) with Sgurr Alasdair. Composed of Gabro, the Cuillins consists of: Sgurr nan Gillean, Am Basteir, Bruach na Frithe,Sgurr a'Mhadaidh,Sgurr a'Ghreadaidh,Sgurr na Banachdaich,Sgurr Dearg,Sgurr MhicChoinnich,Sgurr Alasdair, Sgurr Dubh Mor, Sgurr nan Eag and Bla Bheain.

  

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Nikon D800 24mm 1/1600s f/2.8 iso100 Hand held. RAW (14-bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Centre weighted metering. Auto white balance.Auto Active D-lighting.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. Digi-Chip Speed Pro 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC card. Nikon DK-17a magnifying eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft eyepiece cup. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 57d 8m 46.29s

LONGITUDE: W 6d 6m 28.25s

ALTITUDE: 4.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 21.02MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 34.966+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on February 8th 2020

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1204640806 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,050th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on February 9th 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #280. This is my 161st photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 34.970+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Five hundred and fifty five metres, at 09:24am on Friday 13th September 2019 off Trans Canada Highway 1 at Six mile hill protected area,Thompson-Nicola, in British Columbia, Canada.

  

Nikon D850. Focal length 27mm Shutter speed 1/80s Aperture f/16.0 iso160 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Nikon Image stabilization VR enabled on Normal mode. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.6 (2 stops) ND Grad soft resin. Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.

  

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LATITUDE: N 50d 45m 12.18s

LONGITUDE: W 120d 42m 54.69s

ALTITUDE: 1279.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.1MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 34.60MB

    

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

 

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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on August 9th 2015

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/569563129 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 969th frame to be selected for inclusion and sale in the Getty Images 'Moment' collection, and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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****This frame was chosen on August 10th 2015 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #175. This is my 75th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to everyone who visited, favourite and commented on the frame*****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Two hundred and fifty two metres, at 12:44pm on Monday 18th May 2015 above the shoreline of Loch Garry, twenty five kilometres north of Fort William, Lochaber, Scotland. This beautiful loch is Eleven kilometres long and Fifty metres deep. It is fed by waters from Loch Quoich Ten kilometres upstream on the River Garry, and drains into Loch Oich in the Great Glen just Five kilometres downstream

  

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/125s f/14.0 iso100 Hand held with Nikkor VRII vibration reduction enabled. RAW (14-bit) AF-S single point focus. manual exposure. Centre weighted metering. Auto white balance. Auto Active D-lighting.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. Digi-Chip Speed Pro 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC card. Nikon DK-17a magnifying eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft eyepiece cup. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 57d 4m 54.14s

LONGITUDE: W 4d 57m 10.85s

ALTITUDE: 252.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 28.06MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

    

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****This frame was chosen on June 18th 2015 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #179. This is my 72nd photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

  

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to everyone who visited, favourite and commented on the frame*****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and forty two metres at 12:17pm on Saturday 16th May 2015 off the A9 and B8019, past Pitlochry,at Loch Dunmore nestled within Faskally Wood. All around us is the Tay Forest Park and beyond this body of water lies the River Tummel.

   

Pitlochry, is a burgh in the council area of Perth and Kinross in Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. Its population according to the 2001 census was 2,564.

  

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Nikon D800 16mm 1/160s f/8.0 iso100 Hand held. RAW (14-bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Centre weighted metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. Digi-Chip Speed Pro 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC card. Nikon DK-17a magnifying eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft eyepiece cup. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 56d 42m 45.00s

LONGITUDE: W 3d 45m 58.08s

ALTITUDE: 142.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 29.77MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

     

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.

**** This frame was chosen on July 29th 2016 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #222. This is my 89th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 15.5 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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This photograph was taken at 13:06pm on Wednesday 18th May 2016 off Park Drive on the shoreline of Fraser Lake, close to Cheese Point , in Northern British Columbia, Canada.

  

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Nikon D800 230mm 1/160s f/5.6 iso100 RAW (14Bit) Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction ebanled. Nikon back focus button enabled. AF-C Continuous point focus with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 200-700mm f/2.8G ED VR. Power Up 95mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. Nikon DK-17M 1.2x Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC card. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW Photo/ 15.4" Notebook Backpack camera bag.

  

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RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 2.84MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 35.435+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on December 16th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1081870902 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,118th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on March 21st 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #223. This is my 176th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.435+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Thirty eight metres at 14:25pm on Friday 9th November 2018, off þorsmerkurvegurat Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall on the South Coast of Iceland part of the river Seljalandsá with it's origins underneath the glacier Eyjafjallajökull (the Volcano which erupted in 2010).

  

The waterfall drops two hundred feet and can be viewed from inside and behind with a walkway and legends of elves and treasures in Icelandic culture.

 

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Nikon D850 Focal length 32mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. Shutter speed 1/10s Aperture f/7.1 iso100 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 63d 36m 56.80s

LONGITUDE: W 19d 59m 24.10s

ALTITUDE: 38.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.8MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 43.80MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 35.253+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on January 16th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1090841458 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,104th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on March 9th 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #41. This is my 166th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.268+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Three hundred and fourteen metres at 08:50am on Friday 24th August 2018, having paid twenty five euros for a trip on the East wing lift up to the highest viewing platform on the Tour Eiffel located at Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 in Paris, France. Here we look over part of Paris including the fountains in Jardins du Trocadero towards Place du Trocadero and Esplanade du Trocadero in Paris, France.

  

The Eiffel Tower was originally designed by Gustave Eiffel and constructed between 1887-1889 as the entrance to the worlds fair in that year. It is now the worlds most visited paid monument, standing 324 metres tall (1,063ft) with three floors and eight lifts and was the tallest building in the world from 1889 to 1930.

     

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Nikon D850 Focal length 46mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. shutter speed 1/60s Aperture f/10.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 51m 30.00s

LONGITUDE: E 2d 17m 40.00s

ALTITUDE: 314.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 94.7MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 21.20MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 32.599+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on December 16th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1081897394 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,681st frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on August 9th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #33. This is my 139th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 32.615+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and forty seven metres at 15:23pm on Thursday 8th November 2018, off Þingvallavegur 36 in the Thingvellir National Park looking over towards Þingvellir church in Þingvallakirkja, Southern Iceland.

  

This is the location where the Alþing (Althing) parliamentary general assembly met between 930 CE and 1798. It has been home to a church for over One thousand years.

The church seen here, dates back to 1859.

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length 70mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. Shutter speed 1/40s Aperture f/13.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 64d 15m 19.40s

LONGITUDE: W 21d 7m 41.30s

ALTITUDE: 147.0m

  

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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 92.0MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 33.30MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 34.384+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on December 11th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1193262373 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,936th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on December 13th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #155. This is my 153rd photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 34.390+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at 13:12pm an altitude of Six metres, on Thursday 5th May 2016 off Beach Drive close to Kitty Islet in Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. A pair of very much in love Canada Geese (Branta canadensis), stood patiently together, swaying bodies and necks, occasionally touching beaks, clearly long term partners and a joy to watch.

 

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Nikon D800 Focal length 70mm Shutter speed 1/3200s Aperture f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Uncompressed. Size L (7360 x 4912) FX. Handheld . Nikon back focus button enabled. AF-C Continuous point focus with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.Nikon AF fine tune enabled (+9).

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter.Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 24m 38.00s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 18m 24.90s

ALTITUDE: 6.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 20.45MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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**** This frame was chosen on February 15th 2018 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #310. This is my 96th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 17.950 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Nine metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:41am on Saturday 6th September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Every morning around sunrise, the gathering of Canada Geese resting upon the water, take to the wing and fly East to West across the Bay. Each squadron of V formation Gese is known as a Skein, and the flight is reversed around the same time each eavening around sunset. An absolute joy to behold.

  

Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

  

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/1000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Size 7360 x 4912 FX. Mirror up. AF-S Single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance. Auto active D-lighting on. Distortion contol on.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.77s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.83s

ALTITUDE: 9.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 29.61MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.4 24/11/2016). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on April 26th 2015

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im550936059/ MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 545th image to be selected by Getty Images for sale and inclusion in the 'Moments' collection, and I am very grateful to them for such an amazing opportunity.`

  

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****This frame was chosen on March 26th 2015 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #183. This is my 70th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

  

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to everyone who visited, favourite and commented on the frame*****

  

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Photograph taken at 10:42am at an altitude of Thirteen metres, on Thursday 18th September 2014, off the West Saanich Road 17A and Iverness Road, within the grounds of Coles Bay Regional Park, on the shoreline of Coles Bay, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Coles Bay is a nine acre park Located on the West side of North Saanich, in the Ardmore Area, a location that I love to visit where driftwood and decaying trees are set against the beauty of the still water within the bay. I often encounter Great Blue Herons here, and love to relax whilst losing myself to the natural beauty that abounds.

  

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Nikon D800 32mm 1/2000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Handheld AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 37m 50.33s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 28m 4.27s

ALTITUDE: 13.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.11MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

   

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**** This frame was chosen on Sunday 18th June 2021 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #229. This is my 204th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 39.441+ Million people who have visited, favorited and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty one metres at 15:54pm on an beautiful summer afternoon on Saturday 17th July 2021, off Woolacombe Road and Broad Walk in a garden in Blackheath, South East London.

  

Here we see an adult female Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), munching on some kitchen scraps.

  

The Grey (or Gray) squirrel, you either love 'em or you hate 'em. Cute and fluffy little funsters or destructive critters who ruin trees, kill bird chicks and trees and damage our homes... oh and it's their fault we lost our native Red squirrels as well!

  

OK

  

I get it and I see both sides of the story of course. For my part, I am a nature, wildlife and landscape photographer who prefers the company of animals and natural beauty to fellow humans who are systematically plundering Mother Earth's resources and killing off her beautiful creatures at an alarming rate! I believe there is a natural order of things, creatures kill other creatures to survive, they adapt to situations and when mankind encroaches on their territory to make a fast buck, those animals sometimes adapt to survive and the order changes. That is the balance of nature which is ever changing and affected by us..... the dumbest of the great apes.

  

Some species are driven out by others, some may be destined to become extinct, the fittest will survive, and sometime a species will need intervention and help from mankind in order to survive... usually as a direct consequence of mankind's own actions in destroying the animal kingdom's natural habitat of course.

  

I adore these little fellas and at almost sixty years old, I never grew up knowing red squirrels at all. I've seen reds in Scotland and black squirrels in Stanley Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, but in my beloved home country of England I have always known and loved the cute little Greys. They visit my garden and give me hours, days, weeks of happiness and wonderful photographic opportunities, and I see them in Parks and forests all around me, so it's time to offer up an insight into the Grey squirrel, much loved, much hated... a sort of Marmite rodent if you will.

  

WHAT EXACTLY IS A SQUIRREL?

  

The word 'Squirrel', was first recorded in 1327 and hails from the Anglo-Norman word 'Esquirel', from old French 'Escurel', which was a reflex for the Latin word 'Sciurus'.The Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is also known as the Eastern Grey squirrel or simply grey squirrel depending on the region of the world it is found. It is a tree squirrel, of the squirrel family Sciuridae including over one hundred arboreal species native to all continents of the world other than Antarctica and Oceania. Tree squirrels live mostly in trees, apart from the flying squirrel. The best known genus is Sciurus, containing most of the bushy tailed squirrels which are found in Europe, North America, temperate Asia as well as central and south America.

  

The scientific classification for the Eastern Grey is:

  

KINGDOM: ANIMALIA PHYLUM: CHORDATA CLASS: MAMMALIA ORDER: RODENTIA FAMILY: SCIURIDAE GENUS: SCIURUS SUBGENUS: SCIURUS SPECIES: SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS

  

They were first noted by German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist - Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788.

  

A mammal and rodent, predominantly herbivorous they are none the less an omnivore with a life span of between two and ten years. They can grow to 70cm in length and weigh up to 8kg. There are more than two hundred and sixty species of worldwide squirrel, the smallest being the African pygmy squirrel at just 10cm in length, whereas the Indian giant squirrel is three feet long! The oldest fossil of a squirrel, Hesperopetes, dates back to the late Eocene epoch period Chadronian period of 40-35 million years ago. The tree squirrels rotate their ankles by 180 degrees, so that the hind paws pointy backwards gripping tree bark which enables them to descend a tree headfirst.

  

Originally native to Eastern and Midwestern United States of America, they were first introduced into the United Kingdom in 1876 in Henbury Park, Macclesfield in Cheshire when Victorian banker Thomas V. Brocklehurst released a pair of Greys that he brought back from a business trip to America after their attraction as pets had waned. Victorians had a penchant for collecting exotic animals and birds of the world, but trends came and went and subsequently animals were simply discarded into the wilderness. There are early records of greys released near Denbighshire in north Wales from private collections. Later introduced to several regions in the UK, they quickly settled and spread, colonizing an area of three hundred miles in a quarter of a century between Argyll and Stirlingshire in Scotland.

  

Introductions of the Greys between 1902 and 1929 (the year of the last recorded introduction), included: Regent’s Park in London, Berkshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Hampshire. Grey Squirrels spread into Gloucestershire and eastern Wiltshire with animals coming directly from the United States or from Woburn. One hundred greys were released in Richmond Park in Surrey in 1902, Ninety one into Regent’s Park between 1905 and 1907 and a further ten New Jersey imported greys were introduced into Woburn Park in Bedfordshire.

  

Predators include hawks, weasels, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, domestic and feral cats, snakes, owls, and dogs, African harrier-hawks in Africa and... oh yes, Mankind pretty much everywhere who despise, mistreat, cull or eat it .

  

FACTS, MYTHS AND THAT POXY PARAPOX!

  

The massive decline in native red squirrels blamed upon the spread of the invasive greys has always been perhaps a little harsh as reds were already in a steep decline due to loss of habitat and disease and thus the greys simply took over the areas where the reds were dwindling. It's also a fact that reds were also seen as a plague, branded as pests who killed birds and damaged trees and the culling of reds almost brought them to the brink of extinction. Licenses to kill reds could still be obtained up until the seventies!

  

Reds suffered at the hands of mankind thanks to a combination of agricultural deforestation also linked with war and fuel needs which caused extinction in Southern Scotland and Ireland by the early eighteenth century, way before greys had been introduced. Harsh winters killed off the less hardy red population in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

  

Greys are more adept at finding food and adapting to locations and environments, but also carry the squirrel poxvirus (SQPV) which although not particularly harmful to them, is a serious infection for the reds.

  

Parapox in red squirrels causes swollen lesions around the mouth, eyes, ears and nose also the front paws and sometimes genitals and skin ulcers and kills a red within fifteen days. There is no definitive correlation between the spread of the virus and the spread of the Greys, it actually arrived in several areas before the greys began to colonize there. An epidemic virus was observed in Red squirrels from at least 1900 with isolation attempts failing, and the first case of Parapox in the UK was in 1980 in the county of Norfolk. Greys cannot transmit the virus to reds via saliva or faeces, but reds can between each other from bodily secretions and at animal feeders in gardens. The transmission from greys to reds is though to come from parasites. Eight to ten per cent of reds survive the virus, and there is some evidence that reds are slowly building an evolved resistance.

  

Greys are seen as pests to forest land, stripping bark from trees during May and June, and are also capable of destroying household bins, water pipes, causing roof damage not to mention taking eggs and killing young chicks of ground nesting and songbird populations. They also take from bird feeders and there is a whole industry for creating squirrel proof feeders these days.

  

THE CULLING OF GREY SQUIRRELS

  

Grey squirrels have limited legal protection and can be legally controlled all year round by a variety of methods including shooting and trapping. Methods of trapping and killing include Drey poking and shooting, Tunnel trapping using spring traps set in accordance with BASC’s trapping pest mammals code of practice. They can also be shot using a shotgun or powerful air rifle or up until September 30th 2014 poisoned by Warfarin (Now outlawed).

  

Whilst professional trapping and extermination is hopefully done as humanely as possible, there have been cases, many of them where cost savings have been gained by battering the squirrels to death! Grey squirrels are trapped in ghastly metal contraptions for hours and hours, wearing themselves out frantically trying to escape by gnawing at the metals bars. They bite the floor and scratch at them with their claws and do not get a moments peace or rest through absolute fear. Once the traps are retrieved, each squirrel, terrified will be thrown into a sack and smacked on the head countless times with a blunt instrument. When a mother is slaughtered, her babies who are totally dependent on her, will die a slow death of thirst and starvation.

  

There is an argument for the control of Greys on many grounds but also a counter argument that Culling does not work, and has not on countless times where, once a population of greys have been culled, the nearest group will move back in and claim the land. The university of Bristol concluded that there was little evidence that culling greys to save red squirrels was effective, and that perhaps finding a way of boosting red squirrel immunity to the poxvirus or planting areas of yew trees where reds are known to thrive and spending money on research into positive moves might be a better option.

  

In Ireland, the re-introduction of the Pine marten, a species made extinct originally by the very same land owners who also wish to do the same to the grey squirrel, has seen the rapid demise of the grey and the re-introduction of the native reds. Red squirrels are smaller and more nimble than their grey counterparts, and as such can get to the very ends of tree branches where neither the pine martins, nor more importantly the heavier greys can, thus surviving and thriving. As a result in Ireland, the grey squirrel population has crashed in approximately 9,000 km2 of its former range and the reds has become common once more after a thirty year absence... oh and Pine Martens are protected again!

  

In Scotland, Pine Martens exist in areas where Red squirrels thrive, and greys do not. So perhaps there is a lesson here, as in England where there are no pine martens, the greys are prolific breeders. So there is an argument against the barbarity of shooting and poisoning greys, and if, as so many believe, the greys MUST be controlled, how about a more humane and natural method that nature intended.. with re-introduction of predators. Just a thought!

  

So a few facts and figures on the greys and to wrap up, from a purely personal perspective I love these little guys, as I do almost every creature in nature other than those eight legged beasties that shall not be named and for which I have a deep and powerful phobia that borders on paranoia!

  

I could no more harm an animal deliberately than eat a McDonald's McRib (Once saw how they are made and let me just say... eeeuuuuuwwwww!!).

  

They are small, cute, cuddly, furry, they photograph beautifully, have great personality and make me smile. They trust me enough to take food from my hand in parks, and I can't bare the though of ugly, hairy land owners sticking a shotgun in their face and blowing them away! I appreciate they can be a pest, a problem, a menace, that their PR managers might have a bit of a problem winning you over when they flay small chicks alive on your lawn or decimate the songbird population by stealing their eggs.... and perhaps there is a need to keep the population under control and try and re-establish the red population.....

  

Yep I get that....

  

I just hope we can solve the problem more humanely to create a peaceful coexistence of the reds and greys in different areas. A man can dream can't he.

  

Paul Williams June 18th 2021

©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams).

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length: 600mm Shutter speed: 1/400s Aperture: f/8.0 iso400 Hand held with Tamron VC Vibration control set to ON (Position 1) 14 Bit uncompressed RAW NEF file size L (8256 x 5504 pixels) FX (36 x 24) Focus mode: AF-C AF-Area mode: 3D-tracking AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual exposure mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1 (4860k) Colour space: RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)

  

Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

    

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LATITUDE: N 51d 27m 58.33s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 1m 53.65s

ALTITUDE: 51.00m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF FILE: 90.4MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 37.50MB

    

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PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 31.613+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 18th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1067753930 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,550th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on June 17th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #58. This is my 127th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 31.700+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred twenty five metres at 11:52:32am on Thursday 8th November 2018, off Biskupstungnabraut 35 and Haukadalsvegur F333 at Gesir, a geothermal location where a geyser erupts every eight to ten minutes. The location is at Hafnartún, Selfoss, Iceland.

  

This is the main Geyser in the field which erupts approximately every six to ten minutes or so. This series of 9 photographs captures the split second (actually 0.03 of a second)that it takes for the Geyser to erupt and subside. The water is sucked slighlty back down into the ground before suddenly climbing back out under pressure and then exploding into the sky.

 

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Nikon D850 Focal length 24mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. Shutter speed 1/1000s Aperture f/4.5 iso1000 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 (FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 64d 18m 46.20s

LONGITUDE: W 20d 18m 3.10s

ALTITUDE: 125.0m

  

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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.6MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 42.70MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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.

  

I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 26.610+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 4th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1062025116 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,507th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

**** This frame was chosen on May 26th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #80. This is my 125th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 28.700+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Four metres at 07:04am on Monday 15th May 2018 off Saxon Shore Way, at the dead boat graveyard, part of Hoo Marina, in Hoo St Werburgh, Kent.

  

Some of the derelict old sailing barges lying here were built over a century agao, as transportation for locally sourced clay to the cement works. Some would have ended up in later life as houseboats before being left to rot in the surrounding salt marsh. The mud is incredibly thick at low tide and it's easy to become lodged if you are not careful.

    

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Nikon D850 Focal length 95mm Shutter speed 1/500s Aperture f/4.5 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held. Colour space Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 24m 47.40s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 34m 19.00s

ALTITUDE: 4.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 91.6MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 32.70MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

'' Nature is not a place to visit, it is home ''

  

Ten years into my enjoyable time here on Flickr and I wanted to take a few moments of reminiscence, a trip down memory lane to look at a few of the photographs that have meant the most to me along the way. They might be commercial successes, personal favourites or images that evoke for me great memories or a turning point of some sort. Each has a few words about the events behind the frames.

  

(15) MISTY SUNRISE OVER FOOTS CRAY MEADOWS

  

This photograph represents to me the moments in time in which I am at one with Mother Nature, Nikon in hand doing the thing that I have since I was a small boy back in the 1970's. Landscape and wildlife were always at the top of my list for favourite subject matter, and loving Science and the Universe, with childhood recollections of vacations in the then dark sky areas of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, it seemed a natural progression to turn my lenses to the Golden hour.

  

Technically, when you get right down to it, there are blurred lines between what is actually dusk and dawn, first light, the blue hour, the golden hour. There are four times each and every day when the light is just about perfect for outdoors photography and these are known as the golden hour and the blue hour. They occur during the hour before the sun rises (blue) and the hour after (golden) and then the opposite in the evening, an hour before the sun sets (golden) and the hour after (blue). The lines blur when you have a blue coloured golden hour through cloud cover or weather conditions or a golden coloured blue hour.

  

It's always been mind blowing to me that the sun is 93 Million miles away from Planet Earth and Sunlight travels at the speed of light at around 186,000 miles per second and Photons emitted from the surface of the Sun need to travel across the vacuum of space to reach our eyes, taking on average 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth. In real terms then, if we were watching a sunrise or sunset at any point, without knowing it, the sun might just have exploded already and we wouldn't know for another eight minutes! Back to reality and to make things simple, I tend to call my shots taken in the early morning before and as the sun rises, the golden hour. I'm incorrect but it's simpler that way.

  

I love to take photographs during the early morning when the first light is breaking through and the sun is beginning to make it's presence felt, rather than after the sun rises as that can be much harder to control in terms of flaring and ghosting across a seascape where I shoot a lot of the time. My whole working life from a young age saw me having to rise each morning from 2am to 4am and so it has never been a problem for me to set an alarm, get up and shower and head out into the darkness. A drive to the coast in the wee small hours, timing things so that you arrive with a low tide and the light just beginning to form always give me a buzz, and setting up on a beach or shoreline in the glorious fresh air with the waves lapping around you, the smell of the salty water and seaweed and the sound of the gulls above as they swoop and swirl can make you feel glad to be alive.

  

I also love the challenge of low light golden hour photography and the discipline it takes to set up correctly, nail your settings and then change them constantly with the coming of the sun rays. To me each and every sunrise is individual, unique, and even shooting in some of my familiar locations in Kent and over in Canada and the USA, each morning brings a uniquely different hue and light, and the results can be so different. I learned as a younger man that the rules of photography are that there are no rules of photography. They are there as guidelines for you to study and learn and then make work in a way which suits your own preferences and style of shooting. I personally do not favour high ISO photography, and tend to try and keep my ISO as low and close to the camera sensor's base unit as possible. In film days it was generally 200 ASA (and I stored my 35mm roll film in the fridge as it made a difference to the colours), nowadays with my Nikon D850 I try to shoot at 64 ISO even in the darkest light.

  

Shooting on a sturdy Manfrotto tripod (Italian designed and made and the best I've ever used) with a Nikon MC-DC2 remote wired shutter release going through my Nikon GP-1 GPS module is my method, and at 64 ISO I can preserve the quality of the RAW file and shoot at thirty seconds for example to allow light or movement. I've always owned and used filters and in more recent years made the move from Lee filters 100 to their flagship SW150 range with a dedicated ring kit for the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF starting things off before they made the brilliant decision to expand the possibilities by making a range of adapter rings in a range of sizes, 77mm and 95mm meeting my current needs. That means I can now use one range of Lee SW150 adapters and filters for all of my lenses including the Nikkor 14-24mm and the Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4 G ED IF VR, my Nikkor AF-S 24-120 f/4G ED VR and even my Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 as I tend to use a Circular polarizer glass filter for wildlife shots.

  

I am currently in consultation with Lee filters excellent technicians in trying to come up with a special one off adapter for the Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS as it such an important lens to me, and currently I am using my own custom made fitment to take the Lee SW150 system which I would like to improve on. Currently with a custom made one sided sticky velcro ring inside the Lee SW150 filter holder, I can mount that directly onto the Sigma lens barrel. The moulded end of the lens makes itself impossible to fit a standard Lee adapter and so I've been sending photographs to them of the lens and they are working hopefully on a solution.

  

Using filters on golden hour shots also opens up a world of possibility and I tend to carry them whenever on a low light shoot. Reverse neutral density glass filters are essential kit, the downside of filters being their cost initially. My Lee SW150 kit runs into the thousands, so they will be with me forever now! For me after an early shoot, I return home feeling content in so many ways, having been in the open air, hopefully watched a beautiful new day beginning, the exercise which can never hurt and the anticipation and hope that I got my settings and focus, especially manual focus shots, just right.

  

My processing system is old fashioned and simple, using a very old copy of Adobe Photoshop elements 8 from about 1925 I think, I send the RAW file as a NEF to the programme, and use as little processing as I can to release the colours, tone and contrast in the RAW file and perhaps a touch of sharpening when necessary. That's it. Convert to a JPeg and send to my desktop and the resulting files can be anything up to 60MP JPegs ready for my agents or Flickr.

  

This photograph was taken on a stunning morning in June after getting up at around 02:30am and making the twenty five minute journey down to a favoured location in Kent. On what used to be my daily commute to work every morning for seventeen years until I retired in July 2019, just down a steep, narrow cut through off Rectory Lane in the grounds of Foots Cray Meadows, over the River Cray in Bexley, Kent, England. It's a lovely spot next to All Saints a small church courtyard that opens up into a beautiful recreational park and on to a lake and an arched bridge where bats fly and birds gather. Being low in the valley when conditions are right there is often a low forming or all encompassing mist that sweeps around and envelopes you, and perfect for atmospheric, ethereal photography. Again that discipline of the ever changing light, mist cover and shapes within it created by the forest and the sun rising through it, are a joy and a challenge to capture. I NEED to come here every so often to show me the beauty of a new morning.

  

This frame was chosen on February 12th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #47) becoming my 116th to be on Explore. It was published in the Shutterstock Commercial Collection on February 7th 2019. Whilst I am grateful to them and it has sold, I no longer submit to Shutterstock thanks to artistic differences. They believe that any image that is not taken at f/14 with everything in focus is 'Out of focus', and having returned dozens of my photographs shot at f/2.8 focussing on close objects with a creamy depth of focus as 'Out of focus', I decided it wasn't worth my time and effort bothering with them. Versions of this image and others from the same shoots made it into one of my published books, have been published online and also published by my agents Getty Images. It is also symbolic of a location I've loved for decades and a time of day that is pure heaven to my eyes.

 

It was also selected for a second time on FLICKR EXPLORE on Thursday 19th August 2021 with a highest position of 460th and became my 206th photograph to appear on Explore.

  

It was a great little team of Nikons used to capture this frame in the utterly superb Nikon D7200, the third in the 7000 that I owned, and the amazing and versatile Nikkor AF-S 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED, a true gem of a lens that I managed to talk two photographers I used to work with and teach to purchase. The Nikon D7200 introduced in February 2013 was a cracking little high end APS-C crop factor DX gem offering the same 24.2 megapixel quality that the once fully professional Nikon D2x and D2Sx offered, and improvements in low light performance improved auto focus and a larger buffer than it's predecessors all in a lightweight package here with loads of features. The little 10-24mm, oh what a lens, giving me an ultra wide dx equivalent to my full frame 14-24mm Nikkor, in a 2.4 times zoom with an angle of 109 degrees to 61 degrees or 15-36mm in 35mm format. Three aspherical and two ED glass elements, a silent wave motor, quiet autofocus and tiny 460 gramms weight made it a must have companion and it worked so well with the D7200. That was a dream team of equipment in my opinion, coupled on this occasion with my Manfrotto 055Xprob Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections, Manfrotto 327RC2 Magnesium Ball Head, Manfrotto quick release plate, Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release, Hoodman H-EYEN22S soft rubber eyecup. Matin quick release very soft and comfortable neckstrap and my Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

This photograph was taken at an altitude of Twenty nine metres, in the height of a misty and ethereal golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:59am on Tuesday 20th June 2017, off Rectory Lane in the grounds of Foots Cray Meadows, over the River Cray in Bexley, Kent, England.

  

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Nikon D7200 Focal length: 20mm Shutter speed: 1/400s Aperture: f/4.5 iso100 RAW (14Bit) Size L (6000x4000) Focus mode: Auto focus AF-C with 3D-tracking enabled Exposure mode: Manual exposure Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance: Auto white balance Auto Active D-lighting

  

Nikkor AF-S 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED. Phot-R 77mm UV filter.Nikon MB-D15 Battery grip pack. Nikon EN-EL battery (2). Manfrotto 055Xprob Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections. Manfrotto 327RC2 Magnesium Ball Head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Hoodman H-EYEN22S soft rubber eyecup. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 32GB Class 10 SDHC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Expert Shield screen protector for D7200. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 25m 20.50s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 7m 15.80s

ALTITUDE: 29.0m

   

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 69.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 22.50MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D7200 Firmware versions A 1.10 C 1.02 (9/3/17) L 2.015 (Lens distortion control version 2)

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.4 24/11/2016). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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.

  

I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 31.762+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on December 16th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1081892418 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,571st frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on June 23rd 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #267. This is my 130th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 31.900+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and forty seven metres at 15:39pm on Thursday 8th November 2018, off Þingvallavegur 36 in the Þingvellir National Park (Thingvellir National Park) in Iceland. Situated East of Reykjavik, this is the location where the Alþing (Althing) parliamentary general assembly met between 930 CE and 1798. It has been home to a church for over One thousand years.

The park sits in a rift valley caused by the separation of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates with cliffs and fissures such as the Almannagjá fault.

  

Here we are looking over a body of water known as Þingvallavatn (Þingvallavatn lake). The lake has a surface area of 84 km² and a depth of 114m and lies partially with the national park.The only outflow from lake Þingvallavatn is the river Sog.

 

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Nikon D850 Focal length 95mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. Shutter speed 1/160s Aperture f/14.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 64d 15m 19.40s

LONGITUDE: W 21d 7m 43.80s

ALTITUDE: 147.0m

  

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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.0MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 21.30MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 35.310+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 12th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1187104892 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,106th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on March 11th 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #324. This is my 171st photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.268+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of three metres, at 06:37am on Tuesday 3rd September 2019 around sunrise off 1st Street and Bevan Avenue, bewteen the boat jetty and Bevan Avenue Fishing Pier in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

In the distance we see Mt Baker in Washington State, USA . Known to the Lummi First nation people ( Lhaq'temish ) as Kwelshán ('Shooting place' in Nooksack), to the Halkomelem as Kwelxá:lxw, to Lushootseed speakers along the Skagit River as Teqwúbe7 “snow-capped peak'', to the Nooksack language as Kweq’ Smánit (“white mountain'') and also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’), the name for the Middle Fork which originates from the glaciers such as Deming and Thunder on the western slopes, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792.

 

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Nikon D850. Focal length 110mm Shutter speed 1/25s Aperture f/11.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E. Hoya UHC 67mm UV(C) filter.Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod 3 Sections (Payload: 5.6kgs). Manfrotto 327RC2 Light Duty Grip Ball Magnesium Tripod Head (Payload: 5.5kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release cable.

    

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 51.88s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 29.58s

ALTITUDE: 3.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 89.2MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 31.20MB

     

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 35.375+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on January 31st 2020

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1203129692 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,113th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on March 17th 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #325. This is my 174th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.385+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fourteen metres at 11:28am on Friday 9th November 2018, off Reynishverfisegur 215 and bjodvegur at Reynisfjara black sand beach and Reynisdranger Basalt columns on the south coast of Iceland, close to the fishing village of Vík í Mýrdal.

  

Reynisfjara boasts several enormous basalt stacks and powerful, roaring waves off the Atlantic Ocean, and was voted as one of the top ten non-tropical beaches to visit on the planet by National Geographic. The Reynisdranger basalt stacks are named Langsamur, Landdrangur and Skessudranger or Háidrangur.

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length 120mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. Shutter speed 1/80s Aperture f/4.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 63d 24m 9.86s

LONGITUDE: W 19d 2m 31.13s

ALTITUDE: 14.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 91.5MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 36.00MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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.

  

**** This frame was chosen on December 24th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #167. This is my 154th photograph to be selected.

  

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 34.485+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

 

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 34.479+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on December 23rd 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1195448904 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,960th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty two metres, at 13.46pm on Sunday December 22nd 2019, off Great Cross Avenue in the grounds of Greenwich Park, in Blackheath, South East London, One of the Royal Parks of London.

  

Here we see a Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula spermologus), a sub species of the Western Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula). It is also referred to as the Eurasian jackdaw, European Jackdaw or simply the Jackdaw and is a passerine bird in the Crow family.

 

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Nikon D850 Focal length 320mm Shutter speed 1/320s Aperture f/5.6 iso1000 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Sigma OS Optical stabilization enabled . Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. AF Area mode single. Exposure mode - Manual exposure. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Manually set. Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal. Active D-lighting on Automatic. High ISO Noise Reduction: On. Picture control: Auto with Sharpening A+1.00.

  

Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 32.13s

LONGITUDE: W 0d 0m 25.78s

ALTITUDE: 52.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.0MB NEF: 94.1MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 48.90MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

.

.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 34.288+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on October 31st 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1184361329 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,913th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on December 3rd 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #379. This is my 152nd photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 34.297+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Three hundred and fifty six metres, at 11:16am on Monday 9th September 2019 off Crowsnest Highway 3 close to Osoyoos Lake in Osoyoos, British Columbia in Canada.

  

This is part of the South Okanagan grasslands, four protected sites in the area which are designated for the protection of plant, mammal, reptile and bird species.

  

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Nikon D850. Focal length 70mm Shutter speed 1/60s Aperture f/14.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Nikon Image stabilization VR enabled on Normal mode. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee 100 67mm adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.9 (3 stops) ND Grad soft resin. Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.

  

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LATITUDE: N 49d 3m 1.09s

LONGITUDE: W 119d 30m 50.32s

ALTITUDE: 356.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 94.1MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 49.40MB

    

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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.

  

I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 32.733+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on June 10th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1154965144 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,691st frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

**** This frame was chosen on August 14th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #254. This is my 140th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 32.750+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

     

Photograph taken at an altitude of Three metres, at 12:35pm on Monday May 20th 2019, on a beautifully warm and sunny morning off Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Road in the grounds of St James's Park. Situated in the City Of Westminster, the Park spans twenty three Hectares and is the oldest of the Royal Parks of London, with a variety of visiting and nesting birds that include Ducks, Canada Geese and Pelicans.

  

Here we see two very common and beautiful members of our native Beed family, the biggest being Bombus Terrestris or Buff-tailed Bumblebee, the largest of the UK's native Bees and the first to emerge each year. The smaller of the two is Apis mellifera (Honey bee).

  

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Bombus Terrestris (Buff-tailed Bumblebee) and Apis mellifera (Honey bee) in St James's Park, Central London

  

Nikon D850 Focal length 120mm Shutter speed 1/60s Aperture f/4.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Nikkor VR Vibration Reduction enabled. Colour space Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (4690K). Nikon Distortion control on.

  

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.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 3.70s

LONGITUDE: W 0d 8m 21.00s

ALTITUDE: 3.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 94.1MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 41.40MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

.

.

  

I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 32.319+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on January 7th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1089303508 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,644th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

.

.

**** This frame was chosen on July 24th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #284. This is my 136th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 32.335+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at 07:47am at an altitude of One metres, on Monday 23rd May 2016 off Island View Road and Homathko Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Island View Beach.

  

This beautiful stretch of golden sandy beach is located on the Eastern shore of the Saanich Peninsula, near to Victoria and beautiful Sidney by the sea, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

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Nikon D800 Focal length 14mm Shutter speed 1/400s Aperture f/4.5 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Handheld AF-C Continuous point focus with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag.

  

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.

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB (NEF 73.1MB)

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 16.84MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

.

.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 34.050+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 12th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1186945042 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,851st frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

 

**** This frame was chosen on November 14th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #47. This is my 150th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 34.050+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

  

Photograph taken at 10:41am on Sunday 10th November 2019, a beautifully sunny Autumn morning overlooking the Swale on the Isle of Sheppey, across the Kingsferry Bridge in Kent, England.

  

The mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck found in the Americas, Eurasia, Europe and many other parts of the world. This male Mallard is distinguished by it's glossy green head and Blue speculum feathers. They can reach tenty seix inches in length with a wingspan of up to thirty nine inches.

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length 600mm Shutter speed 1/2000s Aperture f/6.3 iso220 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Sigma OS Optical stabilization enabled . Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Exposure mode - Shutter priority mode. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Manually set. Active D-lighting on Automatic. Picture control: Standard with Sharpening A+3.00 and clarity +1.00

  

Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS (Firmware version 1.00 05/11/2019). Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

  

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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.0MB NEF: 92.3MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 26.50MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 35.637+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on April 2nd 2020

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1215676418 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,144th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on April 2nd 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #tbc. This is my 182nd photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.637+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken in the Golden hour around sunrise at an altitude of One hundred and fifteen metres at 07:02am on Thursday 26th March 2020, off Green Lane and Camer Park Lane, in the grounds of Camer Park Country Park, Meopham , Kent.

  

After weeks of self isolation due to the global pandemic that we know as COVID-19 Coronavirus, we are allowed to go out for exercise once per day and keep away from others. Today was Blkuebelle (my car's) MOT, something the government still allows, and so I headed out early and had the fortune of a beautiful sunrise... and Bluebelle passed it's MOT.

  

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Nikon D850 Hand held with Sigma OS Optical Stabilization on Normal. Focal length 60mm Shutter speed 1/60s. Aperture f/13.0 iso500 Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (8256 x 5504). NEF RAW L (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus. AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. AF-S Priority selection: Focus. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points.AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode: Aperture priority. Matrix metering. Auto ISO sensitivity control on (Max iso 800/ Miniumum shutter speed 125). White blance on: Auto1. Colour space: RGB. Actve D-lighting: Normal. Vignette control: Normal. Nikon Distortion control: Enabled. Picture control: Auto (Sharpening A +1/Clarity A+1

  

Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS. Lee SW150 MKI filter holder with MK2 light shield and custom made velcro fitting for the Sigma lens. Lee SW150 0.9 (3 stops) ND Grad soft resin. Lee SW150 Circular Polariser filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.

    

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 41.36s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 22m 31.55s

ALTITUDE: 115.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.4MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 38.90MB

   

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.

    

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 32.504+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on August 31st 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1027674184 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,671st frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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**** This frame was chosen on August 4th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #319. This is my 138th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 32.522+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Thirty five metres at 08:36am on Thursday 23rd August 2018, off Avenue de Suffren and Quai Branly of part of Piller Ouest of La Tour Eiffel located at Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 in Paris, France.

  

The Eiffel Tower was originally designed by Gustave Eiffel and constructed between 1887-1889 as the entrance to the worlds fair in that year. It is now the worlds most visited paid monument, standing 324 metres tall (1,063ft) with three floors and eight lifts and was the tallest building in the world from 1889 to 1930.

     

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Nikon D850 85mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR Vibration reduction enabled in Normal mode). 1/500s f/4.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 51m 27.30s

LONGITUDE: E 2d 17m 34.30s

ALTITUDE: 35.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.6MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 21.20MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 38.550+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on October 29th 2020

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1282461327 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,866th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

  

This Fifteen seconds long exposure was taken at an altitude of Three metres on a mist filled morning at 06:32am on Saturday 21st September 2019 around sunrise off 1st Street and Bevan Avenue, beside the boat jetty with the Bevan Avenue Fishing Pier to our right in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

 

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Nikon D850. Focal length 24mm Shutter speed: Fifteen seconds long exposure (Electronic front-curtain) Aperture f/16.0 iso1000 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.6 (2 stops) ND Grad soft resin. Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod 3 Sections (Payload: 5.6kgs). Manfrotto 327RC2 Light Duty Grip Ball Magnesium Tripod Head (Payload: 5.5kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release cable.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 53.76s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 36.40s

ALTITUDE: 3.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 91.3MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 30.10MB

     

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.20 (14/01/2021) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

.

.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 34.746+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on January 22nd 2020

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1200759983 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,008th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

 

**** This frame was chosen on January 22nd 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #tbc. This is my 158th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 34.754+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, at 13:29pm on Monday 20th January 2020, on a beautifully sunny afternoon off Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Road in the grounds of St James's Park. Situated in the City Of Westminster, the Park spans twenty three Hectares and is the oldest of the Royal Parks of London, with a variety of visiting and nesting birds that include Ducks, Canada Geese and Pelicans.

  

Here we see a Bar-headed goose (Answer Indicus), native to Central Asia from the Tian-Shans to Ladakh and Kokonor and breeding grounds in northern India, Assam and northern Burma. These are far from common in the UK, with only a handful of breeding pairs seen, and often alone as in this instance.

 

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Nikon D850 Hand held with Sigma OS Optical Stabilization enabled on Normal setting. Focal length 320mm Shutter speeed 1/640s Aperture f/8.0 iso400 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Exposure mode - Shutter priority mode. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Manually set. Active D-lighting on Automatic. Picture control: Standard with Sharpening A+3.00 and clarity +1.00

  

Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS (Firmware version 1.00 05/11/2019). Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 5.48s

LONGITUDE: W 0d 8m 13.12s

ALTITUDE: 21.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 92.8MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 34.90MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

 

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.

**** This frame was chosen on February 22nd 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #385. This is my 118th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 26.500 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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I was originally enrolled as a SHUTTERSTOCK contributor on January 28th 2019. Shutterstock is an American stock photography company with headquarters in New York City, founded in 2003 by Photographer Jon Oringer. With a library in excess of 200 million royalty free stock photographs, I am delighted, and most grateful to have been accepted into the fold.

 

Having been passionate about photography since the age of seven years old, with a box brownie and black and white 120 roll film, these days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK, and the 28.370+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the SHUTTERSTOCK COMMERCIAL COLLECTION Image ID: 1308858169on February 14th 2019.

  

This photograph became my 151st frame to be selected for sale on SHUTTERSTOCK, and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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Photograph taken at 08:03am on April 20th 2012 off Thorpe Road on the pebbled shoreline of Aldeburgh, on the North Sea in the county of Suffolk, England.

  

'The Scallop', by Maggi Hambling is a sculpture dedicated to Benjamin Britten on the beach at Aldeburgh. The edge of the shell is pierced with the words, 'I hear those voices that will not be drowned', from 'Peter Grimes', Brittens opera which premiered in 1945 and launched him to international acclaim.

  

Born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, Britten lived for thirty years in Aldeburgh, where this fantastic, tactile sculpture now resides on the stoney beach.

  

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Nikon D7000 Focal length 18mm Shutter speed 1/160s Aperture f/9.0 iso200 RAW (14 bit) Handheld. Manual focus. Matrix metering. Auto white balance. Adobe sRGB.

  

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM. Jessops 72mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D11 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. My memory 32GB class 10 20MB/s SDHC. Hoodman soft rubber eyecup. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bagNikon GP=1 gps unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 52d 9m 38.21s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 36m 20.57s

ALTITUDE: 6.0m

  

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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 46.20MB

PROCESSED FILE: 11.36MB

  

PROCESSING POWER:

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 33.833+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on October 11th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1180360690 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,745th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

 

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**** This frame was chosen on October 15th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #264. This is my 146th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 33.840+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Three hundred and forty five metres, at 15:06pm on Sunday 11th September 2019 off Island Parkway in the grounds of McArthur Island Park, located on the North bank of the Thompson River in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Canada geese (Branta Canadensis) of the Branta genus, can live for up to twenty four years with males weighing up to 6.5kgs and they fly in close formation often in a 'v' shape with the lower voiced females honking for the duration of the flight.

  

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Nikon D850. Focal length 70mm Shutter speed 1/800s Aperture f/16.0 iso500 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Nikon Image stabilization VR enabled on Normal mode. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150Con adapter for Lee 100 rings.Lee 100 67mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.

  

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LATITUDE: N 50d 41m 32.50s

LONGITUDE: W 120d 22m 22.70s

ALTITUDE: 345.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.1MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 34.60MB

    

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

.

.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 35.268+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on January 23rd 2020

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1200944671 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,105th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

 

**** This frame was chosen on March 10th 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #175. This is my 167th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.268+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, at 14:26pm on Monday 20th January 2020, on a beautifully sunny afternoon off Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Road in the grounds of St James's Park. Situated in the City Of Westminster, the Park spans twenty three Hectares and is the oldest of the Royal Parks of London, with a variety of visiting and nesting birds that include Ducks, Canada Geese and Pelicans.

  

Pelicans have existed at St James's Park for over four hundred years, originally a gift from the Russian Ambassador to King Charles II in 1664, (and subsequently referred to as 'Ambassadors Pelicans), nowadays six individuals including Louis, Vaclav and Gargi who are all Great White Pelicans (Pelecanus Onocrotalus), also known as Eastern Pelicans, White Pelicans or Rosy Pelicans, reside on Pelican Rock at one end of the lake. They eat fish from the lake and are also hand fed, and are a much loved attraction. They have the largest wingspan after the Great Albatross of up to three metres, have a body length up to six feet and males can weigh up to 15kgs.

  

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Nikon D850 Hand held with Sigma OS Optical Stabilization enabled on Normal setting. Focal length 170mm Shutter speeed 1/100s Aperture f/16.0 iso500 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Exposure mode - Shutter priority mode. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Manually set. Active D-lighting on Automatic. Picture control: Standard with Sharpening A+3.00 and clarity +1.00

  

Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS (Firmware version 1.00 05/11/2019). Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 11.65s

LONGITUDE: W 0d 7m 46.52s

ALTITUDE: 6.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 94.2MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 38.20MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

     

  

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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.

 

**** This frame was chosen on March 19th 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #206. This is my 175th photograph to be selected.

  

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.500+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Five hundred and fifty four metres, at 09:28am on Friday 13th September 2019 off Trans Canada Highway 1 around thirty kilometres West of the city of Kamloops, looking out over Kamloops lake as it narrows into the Thompson River from a viewpoint in Savona, British Columbia, Canada.

  

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.

  

Nikon D850. Focal length 24mm Shutter speed 1/100s Aperture f/16.0 iso250 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Nikon Image stabilization VR enabled on Normal mode. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.6 (2 stops) ND Grad soft resin. Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.

  

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.

  

LATITUDE: N 50d 45m 1.88s

LONGITUDE: W 120d 43m 33.60s

ALTITUDE: 554.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.5MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 34.90MB

    

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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.

**** This frame was chosen on September 18th 2018 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #472. This is my 108th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 17.950 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres at 09:03am on Friday March 30th 2018 off Beachy Head road and South Downs Way at Birling Gap, looking along the Seven Sisters cliffs, East Dean in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England.

  

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Nikon D850 46mm 1/40s f/9.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space Adobe RGB. Handheld with Nikkor VR Vibration (Normal) selected . AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Area mode single. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance. Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm F4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 32GB Class 10 SDHC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 50d 44m 35.30s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 12m 1.70s

ALTITUDE: 6.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB (NEF 94.2mb)

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 47.50MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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.

  

I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 30.306+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on September11th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1031832354 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,447th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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.

  

**** This frame was chosen on April 4th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #358. This is my 121st photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 30.350+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

    

Photograph taken at an altitude of Forty metres at 12:40pm on Wednesday 22nd August 2018, off Place Joffre and Avenue Emile Acollas, in the grounds of Champ de Mars, looking towards the Tour Eiffel located at Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 in Paris, France.

  

The Champ de Mars (Field of Mars), is a large park located in the Seventh arrondissement between the Eiffel Tower to the Northwest and Ecole Militaire to the Southeast. It was named after Campus Martius in Rome, Italy. It originally measured 42 hectares, but was reduced by architect Jeran-Camille Fromige for the 1890 World Exposition.

  

The Eiffel Tower was originally designed by Gustave Eiffel and constructed between 1887-1889 as the entrance to the worlds fair in that year. It is now the worlds most visited paid monument, standing 324 metres tall (1,063ft) with three floors and eight lifts and was the tallest building in the world from 1889 to 1930.

     

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Nikon D850 24mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal mode. Shutter speed 1/125s f/14.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 51m 27.60s

LONGITUDE: E 2d 17m 49.60s

ALTITUDE: 40.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.9MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 37.00MB

  

.

.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

.

.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 35.346+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 12th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1187105688 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 4,108th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

.

.

 

**** This frame was chosen on March 14th 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #229. This is my 173rd photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 35.346+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Zero metres, at 19:05pm on Friday 20th September 2019 around sunset off the 17a West Saanich Road, from the shoreline of Patricia Bay near beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Patricia Bay is a body of salt water that extends East from the Saanich Inlet and forms part of the North Saanich shoreline in British Columbia. The bay was named after Princess Patricia of Connaught, daughter of the Duke of Connaught who was Governor General in 1912.

  

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.

  

Nikon D850. Focal length 120mm Shutter speed 1/160s Aperture f/16.0 iso160 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.6 (2 stops) ND Grad soft resin.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod 3 Sections (Payload: 5.6kgs). Manfrotto 327RC2 Light Duty Grip Ball Magnesium Tripod Head (Payload: 5.5kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release cable.

  

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.

  

LATITUDE: N 48d 39m 46.25s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 27m 5.21s

ALTITUDE: 0.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 89.9MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 29.20MB

     

.

.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

 

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

.

.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 33.758+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on October 9th 2019

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1179816087 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,736th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

.

.

**** This frame was chosen on October 10th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #234. This is my 145th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 33.778+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

     

Photograph taken at an altitude of Two metres, at 18:30pm on Saturday 18th September 2019 standing on the breakwater off Thieves Bay Marina within Thieves Bay Park on North Pender Island in British Columbia, Canada.

  

Pender island is divided by a small bridge and nestles between Moresby Passage and Captain Passage, part of the Southern Gulf Islands.

  

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.

  

Nikon D850. Focal length 105mm Shutter speed 1/250s Aperture f/14.0 iso160 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Nikon VR vibration reduction enabled. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.9 (3 stops) ND Grad soft resin. Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.

  

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.

  

LATITUDE: N 48d 46m 14.16s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 18m 51.11s

ALTITUDE: 2.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 95.5MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 29.60MB

     

.

.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

.

.

  

I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 31.668+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 1st 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1060886740 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,500th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

.

.

**** This frame was chosen on May 15th 2019 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #300. This is my 124th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 31.700+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

     

This photograph was taken at an altitudeof Fourteen metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 06:26am on Friday 27th August 2011 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

  

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Nikon D800 Focal length 60mm Shutter speed 1/30s Aperture f/4.0 iso200 RAW (14 bit) Size L (4256 x 2832) FX. Mirror up. AF-C Single point focus mode. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance. Adobe RGB.Autp Active D-lighting. Auto distortion control on.

  

Nikkor AFS 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 54.50s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.50s

ALTITUDE: 14.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB NEF 34.7MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 28.36MB

  

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.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB DATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.4 24/11/2016). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

.

.

  

I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 34.549+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on October 6th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1049223120 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,974th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

.

.

 

**** This frame was chosen on January 1st 2020 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #264. This is my 155th photograph to be selected.

 

I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 34.485+ Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

     

Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and two metres at 08:46am on Wednesday 9th May 2018 off Green Lane and Camer Park Lane, in the grounds of Camer Park Country Park, Meopham , Kent.

     

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.

  

Nikon D850 Focal length 24mm Shutter speed 1/60s Aperture f/4.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held. Colour space Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 42.30s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 22m 35.80s

ALTITUDE: 102.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 94.0MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 55.10MB

  

.

.

  

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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.

**** This frame was chosen on September 28th 2018 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #285. This is my 108th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 17.950 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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.

     

This Two and a half seconds long exposure was taken standing in the River Cray at an altitude of Twenty one metres at 05:46am on Thursday 22nd March 2018, in the golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 05:59am),off Rectory Lane in the grounds of Foots Cray Meadows, over the River Cray in Bexley, Kent, England.

  

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.

  

Nikon D850 24mm 2.5 seconds long exposure f/6.3 iso100 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Area mode single. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance. Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.Manfrotto 055Xprob Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections. Manfrotto 327RC2 Magnesium Ball Head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm F4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 32GB Class 10 SDHC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

.

 

.

  

LATITUDE: N 51d 25m 35.90s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 7m 51.20s

ALTITUDE: 21.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB (NEF 91.8MB)

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 23.00MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

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**** This frame was chosen on September 8th 2018 to appear on FLICKR EXPLORE (Highest Ranking: #345. This is my 107th photograph to be selected, which for me is both amazing and exciting, as I never view my images as worthy compared to some of the awesome photography out there. EXPLORE is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

 

Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!..... so I am really thrilled to have a frame picked and most grateful to every one of the 17.950 Million people who have visited, favourite and commented on this and all of my other photographs here on my FLICKR site. *****

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty two metres at 13:27am on Saturday 25th August 2018, off Rue Auguste Comte and Boulevard Saint-Michel in the grounds of Le jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, France.

  

Situated in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the twenty three hectare gardens were created in 1612 by Marie de' Medici, widow of King Henry IV of France. In the background you can see Luxembourg Palace which was built in the seventeenth century.

     

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Nikon D850 24mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR Vibration reduction enabled in Normal mode). Shutter speed 1/1250s f/4.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 50m 44.90s

LONGITUDE: E 2d 20m 15.40s

ALTITUDE: 52.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.4MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 30.20MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

This is a montage of the best bits from my images of the transit of Mercury on 9 May. My local area was generally clouded out so I'd gone on a two and a half hour trek with all the kit to a relative in Lincolnshire, where the Sun was predicted to be at good visibility for most if not all the transit.

 

Top left is a photo of the kit all in action, I'm standing next to the Quark and 70mm refractor on my modified iOptron camera mount carrying the 70mm refractor. The Canon 7D and zoom lens fitted with a solar filter used for the lower left image are to the left in the photo. Also in there somewhere are two laptops, various power cables and adaptors and a mono USB3 CCD. One of the more important bits of kit turned out to be the umbrella, both for seeing what the cameras were tracking by shielding the laptops and keeping me from turning to a crisp under the strong sunlight!

 

The three timed images spaced diagonally are the best upside down refractor images filmed through the USB3 CCD of the transit. The first image is my earliest one and I did try to get further images as late as 18:04 UT, 37 minutes before the transit was due to end, but thin cloud and local trees defeated my attempts to capture a clean stackable image at that point. The middle image is a linked mosaic working my way in from the right hand edge of the Sun until reaching Mercury. Each image in the mosaic is a stack of around 600 best frames from a ten-second burst at 100-125 frames per second.

 

Peter

Old parallel printer connector and USB 3 for Macro Mondays evolution