Exploring Bottrop #10

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

This is an image I took a while back of part of an artwork in a sculpture garden featuring the creations of local sculptors.

The composition of the single image relies entirely, I guess, on the focus, the texture and the simple graphic quality of the shadow. I rather like the abstract minimalism of the result.

But then I was distracted by a little-used filter in Affinity, the Affine adjustment. When I was using the software with this image on the iPaddle, it kept suggesting a possible result using this filter. And so I thought I would try to produce something with a little more graphic impact than the original minimalism. The Affine filter allows you to replicate the underlying image horizontally and vertically, and also to rotate the result.

Rather than make a decision (!) I thought I would publish both and see which one you prefer. They say different things...

Thanks for looking. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Donnerstagsmonocrom :)

Exploring Essen #104

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

2022-09-01, Day 6

The milky, turquoise waters of the Moose River transport glacial flour through the backcountry of Mount Robson Provincial Park beneath the ramparts of Trio Mountain, British Columbia.

We descended Upright Creek west toward the Moose River, which runs from north to south. The 1990s-era maps we carried suggested three points of note: 1) The Moose River was likely not easily fordable, as our experience on the Snaring River suggested it would be large, swift, cold, and filled with enough suspended rock flour that gauging depth and seeing one's foot placement would be impossible; 2) the Great Divide Trail was routed on the western bank of the River, and finding the trail would therefore require a crossing; and 3) our intended route up Colonel Creek to Colonel Pass would begin on the east side of the River, requiring another crossing. Additionally, the more recent digital maps showed the Great Divide Trail firmly on the eastern bank of the Moose. Fording the Moose twice in one morning thus seemed both unnecessary and foolish, though just how foolish would depend on the number and density of downed logs on the eastern bank, and whether the digital map was correct or not.

As it so happened, either the 1990s-era map makers did not hew particularly closely to reality, or the Great Divide Trail was never routed on the western bank of the Moose River along this section, or the Trail right-of-way changed sometime in the last 30-odd years. Whatever the underlying reason, we were thrilled to discover the Trail was clearly in front of us on the eastern bank of the Moose. Blessedly, there would be no treacherous aquatic shenanigans. An hour or so after I made this photograph, we happened upon a recently visited horse camp at the confluence with Colonel Creek, and we paused to eat lunch and soak in the warmth of the noon-day sun. The river seemed to deftly navigate a sea of 8,000 to 10,000 ft peaks that crested skyward in all directions. Although the body felt somewhat abused by the previous trail-less four days, a full belly and a clear trail sent the spirits aloft.

Ex-JAL, Evergreen & SuperTanker 747 now flying for National Airlines carrying 30th anniversary titles.

The underlying colours were from its time operating as the SuperTanker.

Seed - The Eden Project

Peter Randall-Page

"Peter Randall-Page was born in the UK in 1954 and studied sculpture at Bath Academy of Art from 1973-77. During the past 25 years he has gained an international reputation through his sculpture drawings and prints. He has undertaken numerous large-scale commissions and he has exhibited widely. His practice has always been informed and inspired by the study of organic form and its subjective impact on our emotions.

In recent years his work has become increasingly concerned with the underlying principles determining growth and the forms it produces. In his words "geometry is the theme on which nature plays her infinite variations, fundamental mathematical principle become a kind of pattern book from which nature constructs the most complex and sophisticated structures."

Peter and his team spent more than two years at De Lank Quarry on the edge of Bodmin Moor painstakingly sculpting Seed. They began by reducing a 167-tonne block of granite into a giant ovoid, then carving 1,800 nodes in Fibonacci spirals, representing the extraordinary growth pattern found across the natural world in sunflowers, pine cones and daisies and integral to the design of the Core building in which it sits. At 70 tonnes the finished work is larger than any sarsen at Stonehenge and weighs the equivalent of ten African bull elephants."

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Francesca Albaneze on the 'peace' plan initiated by Trump:

"The only road map to peace is about ending the root causes of violence, ending the occupation now, ending and remedying the genocide and then ending apartheid. I don't see that there is another way forward. The peace plan has continued to keep the Palestinians under occupation and in fact doesn't take into account international law at all and creates the conditions for an occupation in disguise... We must be honest about what we are confronting. What Israel has built is not at all exceptional. It's the colonial order... This is racial domination and possession updated for our century and enforced with the weapons and technologies of this century."

Exploring Gelsenkirchen #4

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If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

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Heterogéneas/2 - ROJO - 2. GEOMETRIA SUBYACENTE.

Heterogeneous/2 - RED - 2. UNDERLYING GEOMETRY.

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Exploring Bottrop #15

Football and doves---the essentials of the Ruhrgebiet

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

After Lower Antelope Canyon, we stopped at the iconic Horseshoe Bend. I remember when nobody knew about this place. Now with the improvements to the parking and trail it gets over 2million tourists a year.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_Bend_(Arizona)

Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River located near the town of Page, Arizona, United States.[1] It is also referred to as the "east rim of the Grand Canyon."[2]

Horseshoe Bend is located 5 miles (8 km) downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, about 4 miles (6 km) southwest of Page.[1][3]

It is accessible via hiking a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) round trip from a parking area just off U.S. Route 89Â within southwestern Page.[1] The land south of the Bend's parking area, trail, and overlook are on the Navajo Nation territory.[4]

GEOLOGY

Horseshoe Bend is a superb example of an entrenched meander.[1] Six million years ago,[6][7] the region around Horseshoe Bend was much closer to sea level, and the Colorado River was a meandering river with a nearly level floodplain. Between six[8][9] and five[1] million years ago, the region began to be uplifted. This trapped the Colorado River in its bed, and the river rapidly cut downwards to produce Horseshoe Bend as we see it today.[1]

The cause of this uplift is still a matter of research.[10][11]Â One hypothesis is that arose was a result of delamination, where the lowest layer of the North American tectonic plate below the Colorado Plateau detached and sank into the underlying mantle. This would have allowed hotter rock from the asthenosphere, the part of the Earth's mantle that underlies its tectonic plates, to rise and lift the overlying crust.[9] Another possibility is that the uplift was the result of heating at the base of the crust. This transformed the lowest crustal rock from eclogite, a relatively dense rock (3.6 g/cm3) to garnet granulite, which is significantly less dense (2.9 g/cm3). This would have produced the buoyant forces needed to uplift the region.[12]

Navajo Nation 2025

Tram - G0823 hair @ Collabor88

Mimikri - Lurex Sweater / Yves kismet @ Très Chic

Kunst - Dragonfly necklace & bellychain @Kustom9

Le Poppycock - School days pose & pencil @ ULTRA

Exploring Oberhausen #14

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

Exploring Gelsenkirchen #3

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If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

For Sliders Sunday today, I thought I would have another go at the wobblies I took of the West window at St John’s College chapel in Cambridge. You’ve already seen one of these which rather amusingly made it into Explore the other day.

I’m posting two versions :

Strained Glass is the ‘proper’ edit, over-sharpened as usual to capture the textures created by the movement. On a good day you can see some saints lurking in the picture amidst the wobbles.

Riddled Glass is based on this for Sliders Sunday.

When I was messing about with the last image I noticed that inverting it was … interesting. So I thought this time I would mess about a bit with layers and blend modes (and reflections and everything else in the usual toybox). The trouble I found was that the image was quickly reduced to a blobby mess. Now I have long felt that the boundary between blobby messes and fine abstract modern art is a delicate one, but I clearly wasn’t in an art mood this weekend.

So plan B. Riddled Glass is quite a simple edit using a Box Blur adjustment. Both versions are made just using Affinity Photo (in this case for the iPaddle), and last time I checked the software offers a larger range of blur tools than Photoshop. Box blur is one of these.

Box blur creates the blocky look (there is a circular option too, a bit like bokeh) and it only remained to add a 3D effect. This was done using the lighting filter (also available in Photoshop) with a single white spotlight top left and then adding some texture in the filter options (using the underlying image as a source) to give an embossed look.

If you have the time and an appropriate device it's fun to look at this up close :)

Thanks for looking. I hope you enjoy the images. Happy Sliders Sunday and 100x :)

The theme for “Looking Close on Friday” for the 27th of May is “blue and green”. This was a wonderful challenge as there were so many possibilities. I contemplated pieces of blue and green porcelain, blue and green glass, blue and green fabric, but in the end I settled on blue and green guilloché enamel. I chose an English guilloché enamel and sterling silver button made in 1911 and a French guilloché enamel and pearl gold stick pin. Guilloché is a decorative technique in which a very precise, intricate and repetitive pattern is mechanically engraved into an underlying material via engine turning, which uses a machine of the same name, also called a rose engine lathe. This mechanical technique improved on more time-consuming designs achieved by hand and allowed for greater delicacy, precision, and closeness of line, as well as greater speed. Translucent enamel was applied over guilloché metal by Peter Carl Fabergé on the Faberge eggs and other pieces from the 1880s. I hope you like my choice for the theme this week, and that it makes you smile.

This peacock blue guilloché enamel and sterling silver button was made in Birmingham by James Fenton and Company in 1911. It is one of six small buttons, two long hatpins and belt buckle, all made of silver with the same peacock blue guilloche enamel, presented in a blue leather presentation box with gilt tooling. James Fenton and Company, was a Birmingham silvermakers between 1854 and 1956. They were well known for their manufacture of silver and gold thimbles and later silver and enamel jewellery.

This French made Art Nouveau (circa 1905) lapel stick pin of flowers and leaves is made of 18 carat rose gold, and features seven seed pearls and six beautiful vibrant green guilloché enamel leaves on rose gold backings in a dainty filigree setting measuring just over a centimetre in diameter. With its curling foliage, it represents the delicate and elegant style of the Belle Epoque. The maker is unknown.

Intolerant of squishy spirituality, he finds “the notion of redefining the deity into something that works for you” nothing short of “grotesque” (p. 46).

-How (Not) to Be Secular Reading Charles Taylor James K. A. Smith

“But why should God do that for His son and not for the rest of us?” “Because He’s God, for Christ’s sake” (p. 77),

“in a religion which is merely a weekly social event (apart, of course, from the normal pleasures of a weekly social event), as opposed to one which tells you exactly how to live, which colours and stains everything” (p. 64).

“What’s the point of faith unless you and it are serious — seriously serious — unless your religion fills, directs, stains and sustains your life?” (p. 81).

“Missing God is focused for me,...by missing the underlying sense of purpose and belief when confronted with religious art” (p. 54).

“The Christian religion didn’t last so long merely because everyone believed it” (p. 53)

-Julian Barnes, Nothing to Be Frightened Of

Exploring Bottrop #9

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions."

- Steve Jobs

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Thanks to all for the visits and kind comments ...!

Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

A PIN (Personal Identification Number) should be easier to remember than a password - but still when you have two or more cards it can still be a problem.

PIN (Personal Identification Number) technology was invented by James Goodfellow in the mid-1960s and patented in 1966 to secure Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). The first ATM system that used a PIN was introduced by Barclays Bank in London in 1967, though it initially used cheques instead of cards. The concept of a PIN being stored on a bank card and used with a magnetic stripe was patented by Goodfellow in 1970, which influenced the development of modern self-service banking.

We forget PINs, even simple ones, due to factors like stress, fatigue, poor sleep, and information overload, which can impair memory recall. Forgetting can also be a temporary retrieval failure, where the memory exists but isn't accessible, sometimes leading to a "forgetfulness loop" where failed attempts to recall the PIN reinforce the failure. Underlying health issues such as thyroid problems, depression, or even conditions like dyslexia can contribute to general memory issues.

Cafe Nero, Taunton, Somerset, UK.

Banff National Park, Canada

From Wikipedia:

"Hoodoos typically form in areas where a thick layer of a relatively soft rock, such as mudstone, poorly cemented sandstone, or tuff (consolidated volcanic ash), is covered by a thin layer of hard rock, such as well-cemented sandstone, limestone, or basalt. In glaciated mountainous valleys the soft eroded material may be glacial till with the protective capstones being large boulders in the till. Over time, cracks in the resistant layer allow the much softer rock beneath to be eroded and washed away. Hoodoos form where a small cap of the resistant layer remains, and protects a cone of the underlying softer layer from erosion."

When I saw this seat sculpture in a park in Berlin, I got the idea of this photo series. I asked my son to sit on the underlying chair on the ground, as if he were sitting normally and looking as relaxed as possible.

Fishermans Beach is located between Collaroy point and the northern base of Long Reef Point. The 500 m long beach begins amongst the rocks on the south side of Collaroy rock pool, and curves round to face north against the rocks and wide rock platform of Long Reef. The beach has been used by fishermen since the 18th century when it was also used as a small port for loading cattle for the Sydney market. The fishers both store the boats at the eastern end of the beach and use the boat ramp to launch their small tinnies off the sand. Beachfront houses back the western side of the beach, with a road, boat ramp and car park running behind the southern side, together with Long Reef golf club and headland reserve. The Warringah Surf Rescue Radio room is located at the eastern end of the beach. It maintains year round communication with all surf clubs and emergency services. Fishermans is a quieter but not popular swimming spot owing to the often brown colour of the water; a result of clay eroded from the underlying clays and shales, in addition to the seaweed that often covers the beach, and the coming and going of fishing boats. Out on the tip of Long Reef Point is a ribbon of sand running at the foot of the cliffs, for the most part fronted by the wide rock platforms. In two places the platform retreats and the waves reach the sand producing steep, narrow reflective beaches. On the north side of the point there is a small 50 m long beach sometimes called Little Makaha, while on the southern side there is a smaller gap, which lead to the reef break called Butterbox. These beaches are little used and while waves are usually low at the shore they are unsuitable for safe swimming.

The reefs around Long Reef provide a few breaks during big east and southeast swell. Just south of the Collaroy pool is a short peaky left reef break called Brownwater, after the colour of the water that usually accompanied heavy rain and big seas. On the northern side of the rock platform a right, called Fishermans, runs along the side of the rocks and a little further out a right hander runs towards the rock, called White Rock. Little Makaha, a big wave break is located off the northern tip of the point, while Butterbox on the south side of the cliffs is a popular summer site. 56549

Climbing up a little higher, this train of hoodoos, some with hats, some with lost hats, opened up long after sunset. A geologist (or Bill in this case) will probably explain the genesis of these four musketeers that happened to be more resilient to erosion than the surrounding rocks. Regardless of the underlying science, it was a nice, warm, and peaceful evening to meditate.

Leica M8, Elmar 4/135 at F8 (or F11). I have occasionally addressed the veracity of the old adage "the camera can't lie" [of course it can't, but we can]. From time to time, there were follow-up comments about the small matter of truth in general - usually with an underlying assumption that we can't know the truth and that all we can rely on is our own existence and our self. Myself, I would answer the question of whether there is any certainty with a resolute "I don't know".

The reason is this: if we make an exclusivist claim about truth it would require a method of verification we all can subscribe to. For example, taking my own religion, the notion that Jesus Christ is Lord is such an exclusivist claim. But I can't verify it and most people wouldn't. The same issue would arise if somebody gets up and claims that "there is no certainty". It is not simply that many people would contradict. The problem is much deeper. "There is no certainty" is an exclusivist claim assuming a position of privileged knowledge (that is, a position of certainty - exactly contradicting the claim) and, like other exclusivist claims about truth, it can't be verified. So, is there any certainty? I am not sure, but we can talk about it.

To view more of my images, of Malham, Gardale Scar & Malham Cove, please click

"here" !

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Malhamdale is one of the most visited areas in the Yorkshire Dales. This isn’t surprising because it has some of the most spectacular examples of limestone scenery in the whole of the National Park and beyond, including Malham Cove, Gordale Scar and Janet’s Foss. Magnificent Malham Cove can be seen from miles away. The 70m high rock face draws people for the limestone pavement and magnificent views from the top as well as the peregrine falcons that regularly nest there. It is also a magnet for rock climbers. Gordale Scar, however, comes as a complete surprise – as you round a corner you are suddenly met with the soaring limestone cliffs which tower nearly 100m above you. On a smaller scale, Janet’s Foss is a delightful little waterfall with tales of fairies in a magical location. All of these natural attractions are easy to visit along good quality footpaths. For those wanting to stride out further the Pennine Way runs the length of the valley. Malham village is the location for one of our National Park Visitor Centres and also has cafés and two pubs, the Lister Arms and the Buck Inn. Further down the valley is Airton and Town End Farmshop. The dale has been the source of inspiration for generations of artists from James Ward in the eighteenth century to John Piper in the twentieth century and more recently David Hockney. Wordsworth wrote two poems as part of a group of poems called ‘Pure Elements of Water’. John Ruskin referred to the area in ‘Prosperina’ of 1875. The scenery of Malhamdale also inspired Charles Kingsley to write ‘The Water Babies’.

Malham Cove is a natural limestone formation 1 km north of the village of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. A well-known beauty spot, it is a large, curved limestone cliff at the head of a valley, with a fine area of limestone pavement at the top. Describing the cove in 1779, Thomas West said, "This beautiful rock is like the age-tinted wall of a prodigious castle; the stone is very white, and from the ledges hang various shrubs and vegetables, which with the tints given it by the bog water. & c. gives it a variety that I never before saw so pleasing in a plain rock." On the west side of the 80 metre (260 foot) high cliff face are about 400 irregular stone steps: these form part of the route of the Pennine Way and lead to an uneven limestone pavement at the top. Originally, a large waterfall flowed over the cove as a glacier melted above it. The remnant of a stream which once fell over the cliff now flows out of the lake of Malham Tarn, on the moors 2 km north of the cove. That stream now disappears underground at the aptly named 'Water Sinks', 1.5 kilometres (one mile) before its valley reaches the top of the cove. A stream of a similar size (Malham Beck) emerges from a cave at the bottom of the cove. It used to be assumed that the two streams were one and the same. However, experiments with dyes have now shown that two separate streams go underground at different locations, cross paths without mixing behind the cliff, and re-emerge a couple of kilometres apart. This shows the complexity of the system of caves behind the cliff, which is thought to be around 50,000 years old. Divers have so far explored over 1.6 km of cave passage entered from the base of the cove. The lip of the cove has been more heavily eroded than the sides, creating a curved shape. A colossal amount of water used to flow over this waterfall, which measures 80 m (260 ft) high and over 300 m (1000 ft) wide. Nowadays the underlying cave systems have a large enough capacity to swallow any flood waters before it reaches the fall. The last record of water flowing over the fall in any kind of volume dates back to a period of heavy rain in the early 19th century. The valley was formed at the end of the last ice age when the ground was frozen. The frozen ground meant that meltwater from the melting ice sheet formed a large river flowing over the surface, eroding the valley that we see today. The water from this river flowed over Malham Cove to form a huge waterfall. When the climate warmed around 12,000 years ago the ground thawed and the river in the valley disappeared underground leaving the valley dry as we see it today. The cove, along with nearby Gordale Scar, was featured in an episode of the BBC TV series Seven Natural Wonders as one of the natural wonders of Yorkshire. Gordale Scar is a limestone ravine 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. It contains two waterfalls and has overhanging limestone cliffs over 100 metres high. The gorge could have been formed by water from melting glaciers or a cavern collapse. The stream flowing through the scar is Gordale Beck, which on leaving the gorge flows over Janet's Foss before joining Malham Beck two miles downstream to form the River Aire. A right of way leads up the gorge, but requires climbing approximately 10 feet of tufa at the lower waterfall. William Wordsworth wrote in the sonnet Gordale, "let thy feet repair to Gordale chasm, terrific as the lair where the young lions couch". James Ward created a large and imaginative painting of it that can be seen in Tate Britain. J. M. W. Turner also painted a picture of it in 1816, also to be seen in Tate Britain.

The Cove was also featured in the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) as one of the places Hermione and Harry travel to. The scenes were filmed in November 2009.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I puzzled over why all the peaks of ice in this old iceberg were outlined in black. Maybe some dirt deposited at the glacier edge protected the underlying ice from erosion in an effect amplified by time? (as shot, no image manipulation). Rodefjord, Scoresby Sund, East Greenland.

12/06/2020 www.allenfotowild.com

📌 Carmine Superiore (Lago Maggiore)

A1270720EN3

2023:01:27 16:52:30

© Marco Laudiano Photoart 2023 - All rights reserved

www.marcolaudiano.com

✏ Carmine Superiore is a tiny village of medieval origin, reachable only on foot from the underlying hamlet of Carmine Inferiore. Consisting of a small number of stone houses, it stands on a rocky outcrop overlooking the western shore of Lake Maggiore.

Its evocative alleys, dominated by ancient stone and the silence of a late January afternoon, reminded me of the charm of the magical village of Hogsmeade.

Underlying hope

Exploring GelseExploring Gelsenkirchen #2

Cheer up!

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If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.nkirchen #2

Cheer up!

Exploring Essen #93

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

This small collection is made of different interpretations of the same image. I was experimenting with arty looks.

The source image is an in-camera multiple-exposure of beach loungers at Koukanaries Beach on Skiathos in Greece. This subject gave me a lot of fun when we were there earlier in the year. The beach is very popular with the tourists as you can tell from the loungers, but rather than having row upon row of tourist hotels behind it, it has some protected pine forests. I just hope they haven’t burnt down in a wildfire!

The multiple exposure is made of two ICMs using horizontal and vertical swipe movements. The colour version of the scene is the closest to the original. It’s only been lightly processed with Nik Color Efex.

The monochrome version is for the Donnerstagsmonocrom group today and was created using black and white solarisation, also in Color Efex. It’s been lightly toned in deep blue (selenium). Quite a lot of work went into it (messing around and tweaking this and that) trying to get some interesting arty textures from the underlying image.

The third is a triptych using Nik Analog Efex. I’ve never really used this particular filter before (multi-lens) so it was a bit of an experiment. It was quite interesting to try and create a balanced composition with the rotations and stretches - I’m not sure I made it there but this is where I abandoned the endeavour. You can play spot-the-original-source with each of the blocks I guess .

Thanks for taking the time to look and read. I hope you enjoy the images. Happy Thursday :)

(Brown’s Tract Inlet, Raquette Lake NY)

When you are broken, goals are a healing thing. They range from great ones beyond your ability to small ones that are attainable. At some mid point you travel farther afield than local parks and brave small hikes, but getting to them puts me near favorite vantage pointsa that I will visit when I am in their neigbborhood, just because they are always pleasing to this photographer’s eye. Such is the view down one of Raquette Lake’s inlets, a spot of openness from the bridge that crosses the mouth of the stream, a teasing view way back into the wilderness it emerges from. It’s autumn again, and a damp mist settles downward. The main channel carries the oppression of fog and cloud, but darker and deeper, sliding through wetlands on either side. There is a vertical testament to what can grow out there, but underlying it all is water and more water , and to walk into that meadow would be a wet, spongy proposition. Longer nights have slowed the chlorophylls of summer, rusted the low bush, bleached the reeds, and flamed the hillsides. I wish I had a canoe to paddle into the polychromasia. I’d let the full color of it soak into me like an infusion after my forced inactivity of late, the by product of a rebellious body. We think we’re invincible, that nothing is wrong with us until something is wrong. Long ago I was baptized in wilderness, and longer ago than that, in faith. For both I have little fear, but a deep respect. Until our faith is tested, it is an abstract, a theory. And perhaps testing the wild is a test of faith in one’s self. At times, both have caught me off guard. Either one will heal me, and maybe I need each of them these days, while I wander to reconnect to stronger times, drinking deep until my soul is recovered.

Exploring Essen #94

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

Jasper Nationalpark / Alberta / Canada

Deutsch/German:

Das Wasser hat sich durch eine Schicht harten Quarzits und den darunter liegenden Kalkstein gegraben und dabei eine schmale, kurze Schlucht und einige Potholes gebildet. Die Fälle sind nicht wegen ihrer Höhe bekannt, sondern wegen der Kraft, mit der das Wasser über den zweigeteilten Fall fließt.

English:

The water has dug through a layer of hard quartzite and the underlying limestone, forming a narrow, narrow ravine and some potholes. The falls are not known because of their height, but because of the force with which the water flows over the two-part case.

By Eckhart Tolle

There are two dimensions to who you are. The first is what I sometimes call the “surface I”—the person with a past and a future. This is your historical identity, which is relatively fragile because the past and future only exist as thought forms or concepts in the mind. Most people on the planet are completely identified with the “surface I.”

The second dimension to who you are is what I like to call the “Deep I.” The most vital realization in your lifetime is to see that in addition to being a historical person or a “surface I,” you are more fundamentally the “Deep I.” This realization frees you from looking only to the “surface I” for your ultimate sense of identity—where it can never be found...

...So, how do you realize it? You realize it in the gap between two thoughts, the space in which the historical person of the “surface I” momentarily subsides and disappears. What’s left of you is nothing that you could talk about or even understand conceptually. All you know is there is an underlying sense of presence, of being-ness, that is at once still, alert, and vitally alive. This is what it means to become aware of awareness. The practice is to invite moments of presence into your daily life so that you don’t spend your entire day dragged along by the stream of thought in the mind.

It’s important to recognize that the “surface I” and the “Deep I” are ultimately not separate. The “surface I” is a manifestation of consciousness in the same way that the ripple on the surface of the ocean is a manifestation of the ocean. It’s only when the ripple is unaware that it is the ocean that a sense of separateness arises—which of course is an illusion.

This realization of yourself as the “Deep I” is so freeing, so liberating, because you’re being liberated from the burden of knowing yourself only as the “surface I” and its so-called “drama.” When you realize yourself as the “Deep I,” it enables you to have a compassionate attitude toward everything that makes up the “surface I”—your physical form, your personal identity (or the historical person), the thoughts and emotions you experience, and so on. It also gives you access to true creativity and true intelligence—both of which are rooted in the formless dimension.

Image of Bridge to Nowhere, Belhaven Bay, Scotland.

... by the suspension monorail isn't possible.

But I had to be careful for this photo shoot on the underlying street.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertaler_Schwebebahn

© All rights reserved.

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It would please me if you "like" my Facebook page!

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Murphy's Haystacks, South Australia

Murphy's Haystacks are inselberg rock formations located at Mortana, between Streaky Bay and Port Kenny on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

They are of a 'tumulus' form of weathered granite outcrop. They are made of a pink, massive, coarsely equigranular rock consisting mostly of quartz and orthoclase. Their appearance may be due to a combination of erosion by underground rainwater and then by subsequent weathering after they were exposed. Most of the pillars emerge without a break from the underlying granite. Their structural base may be of orthogonal or vertically-aligned sheet jointing.

They obtained their name because a traveller in a coach saw the formation in the distance. He asked how a farmer could produce so much hay. As the farm was on a property owned by a man called Murphy, the rocks became known as Murphy's Haystacks.

The site is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.

Source: Wikipedia

When I originally took this shot in January I was interested in the flowing shapes of the leaves all tessellated together. The colours were nice too... if you liked variations on brown.

This was in one of the beds in my front garden. I've taken this sort of image in the same place before and I liked the patterns then. I thought this time I would have a play with Topaz Studio and see what came out for Sliders Sunday.

The leaves are a mixture - mainly pear and cotinus, with a bit of Forest Pansy I think. There are some dried verbena flowers too just to add interest :)

This one started from a preset look called Soft Stained Glass, which is one of the ones that uses AI Remix. Remix is a restyling filter that reinterprets the image in the style of well-know artists (apparently lol).

I liked this one because of the patches of colour that it introduces based on the underlying tonality of the source image.

Then, as ever, it was a matter of tweaking from there. A bit of colour work, Detail and Micro Contrast, served with a slight dark vignette...

In Affinity Photo I sharpened everything a bit more with Hih Pass/Linear blend and a bit of Unsharp Mask.

I think if I'd had more time I think now I would have gone back and increased the contrast a bit.

I'll post a link to the original in-camera shot (actually a baseline jpg conversion from the raw) in the first comment, so you can see how far we came :)

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image! Happy Sliders Sunday :)

[Handheld in soft daylight on a frosty morn...

Developed in Photolab3 for a full colour range. And then into Topaz Studio as already described.]

Exploring Essen #106

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

The American celebration for Halloween is much different than that of some of the European countries. Here there is a dark underlying of the holiday coated with whimsical fun things, in Europe it is more a Memorial day of remembering the dead and lighting candles in the cemeteries or gardens to remember loved ones that have past on.

Kai Iwi Lakes - Northland, New Zealand.

Located north of Dargaville, the Kai Iwi Lakes are basin-type dune lakes created during the Pleistocene Epoch, which began more than 1.8 million years ago. They were formed by the accumulation of rainwater in depressions of sand. Underlying ironstone prevents the water from leaking away. Each of the three lakes is fringed with pure white sand and there are shallow areas that are ideal for swimming; you can also fish for rainbow trout or paddle a kayak. Pine forest gives the air a delightful tang.

Kelp and Patterned Rocks. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Kelp on patterned rocks at the high tide line along the Central California coast.

Almost everything about this day followed no plan at all. I knew I wanted to photograph along the coast, but wasn’t sure where. I headed toward the upper Big Sur coast, but as I passed Point Lobos I thought, “Maybe here.” But I kept going, until a couple of miles later when the answer came to me: “Yes, Point Lobos.” I turned around and headed back to the reserve. I drove in and made a habitual first stop at Whalers’ Cove, then stopped at Weston Beach. Thought I’d take a quick look. That quick look lasted well over an hour.

The conditions weren’t ideal for photographing big landscapes and seascapes. It was fairly gray with what Californians sometimes call “high fog” or “coastal clouds.” While these conditions aren’t great for long views, the soft light can work well for more intimate subjects. And in this particular spot there’s no end of little things to attract my attention: kelp, shells, colorful rocks cast up onto the underlying rock patterns of folded layers, reflections, and more. At one point someone asked what I was photographing, and when I answered “whatever I can find” they just looked at me like I was nuts.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Hogback ridges run along the west flank of Sheep Mountain Anticline in Big Horn County near Greybull Wyoming. The sedimentary rocks that make up the hogbacks shown here are Jurassic abd Triassic in Age.

A hogback or hogback ridge is a physical feature that has a steep cliff or escarpment on one side and a gentler dip or back slope on the other. This landform occurs in areas of tilted strata and is caused by the differential erosion of the hard capping, cliff forming layer and the soft rock underlying the cliff maker that erodes more rapidly. These types of geomorphological features are generally called cuestas. Hogbacks are cuestas with a dip slope of over 30°-40. The ridges are often found in parallel groups separated by valleys underlain by soft erodible rock, often shale, These valleys between the hogbacks are called strike valleys because they run along the strike of the dipping beds. (The strike direction of a tilted bed is perpendicular to its dip direction.)

Underlying essence

Flow of time

Beneath the surface

Exploring Gelsenkirchen #4

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If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

Exploring Bottrop #2

If you are interested in the underlying concept of this series please read the description of the album.

With its Lindavista caprock eroded away (remnants in lower right hand corner), the underlying softer Torrey sandstone, a remnant of sandbars from ~ 50 million years ago, weathers away easily, producing lovely fluted patterns accentuated here by the angle of sunlight hitting it.

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve (only 3 square miles in area) is mostly surrounded by exurban development, a major golf course, and the Pacific Ocean. The reserve’s namesake is one of the rarest pines in the world- the Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana), which occurs in scattered patches in the reserve (two trees of the total ~9000 in the wild seen here) and on Santa Rosa Island, although they are also planted as ornamentals. Torrey pines are named for the 19th century American botanist John Torrey, who provided many of the first scientific descriptions of plants of the southwestern US. Torrey pines are classified as an endangered species, threatened by habitat loss and climate change coupled with bark beetles (outbreak in the early 2000's) and fire.

Leica M8, Voigtlaender NC 1.4/35. A wooden sculpture of a peregrine falcon among the gravestones of St Leonard's, Flamstead, Hertfordshire. There are other such sculptures here (owl, bat). They certainly create a degree of interest though the underlying motivation is the protection of nature. It is, of course, pure coincidence, that a falcon recently attacked several villagers in Flamstead. The story went viral and became national news. A falcon is "nature", but nature is not always kind.

Despite looking random, I suspect there is some underlying structure behind these hand-drilled holes. Do you see them aligned horizontally, vertically, something in between – or do you consider me a victim of pareidolia?