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Flickr-users from the US will be familiar with those legendary commercials for BUD(WEISER) beer, some years ago.
Curious Germans who are wondering now what it is all about
can easily find endless clips on youtube...
Für die deutschen Fotofreunde:
In der englischsprachigen Welt assoziiert man mit "bud"
nicht nur eine Biermarke, sondern eben auch "Knospe".
["So sorry!" an alle, die gerade genervt aufgestöhnt haben...]
Die Sammlerinnen fliegen gezielt Pflanzen mit einem reichen Pollenangebot an. Pollen ist die wichtigste und erste Tracht im Frühjahr. Auf den Außenseiten der Hinterbeine gibt es jeweils eine Struktur, das Körbchen, um den Pollen sicher zu transportieren.
The bee on the blue-asterisk
The foragers fly specifically to plants with a rich supply of pollen. Pollen is the most important and first forage in spring. On the outside of each hind leg there is a structure, the basket, to transport the pollen safely.
For good Flickr buddies New Yorkled and m dee, who just couldn't leave me alone in my own little macro world and had to drag me screaming and shouting back to the water!
I'm grateful, bokeh and happy Wednesdays just ain't my kinda thang!
So, Mac, Luis, here's hoping y'all like this shot created with my bucket and spade and a good ole pile of Samui sand (but shot on my D80, and over 12 months ago ;-D
IMPORTANT: for non-pro users who read the info on a computer, just enlarge your screen to 120% (or more), then the full text will appear below the photo with a white background - which makes reading so much easier.
The color version of the photo above is here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO:
So far there's only been one photo in my gallery that hasn't been taken in my garden ('The Flame Rider', captured in the Maggia Valley: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/53563448847/in/datepo... ) - which makes the image above the second time I've "strayed from the path" (although not very far, since the photo was taken only approximately 500 meters from my house).
Overall, I'll stick to my "only-garden rule", but every once in a while I'll show you a little bit of the landscape around my village, because I think it will give you a better sense of just how fascinating this region is, and also of its history.
The title I chose for the photo may seem cheesy, and it's certainly not very original, but I couldn't think of another one, because it's an honest reflection of what I felt when I took it: a profound sense of peace - although if you make it to the end of this text you'll realize my relationship with that word is a bit more complicated.
I got up early that day; it was a beautiful spring morning, and there was still a bit of mist in the valley below my village which I hoped would make for a few nice mood shots, so I quickly grabbed my camera and went down there before the rising sun could dissolve the magical layer on the scenery.
Most human activity hadn't started yet, and I was engulfed in the sounds of the forest as I was walking the narrow trail along the horse pasture; it seemed every little creature around me wanted to make its presence known to potential mates (or rivals) in a myriad of sounds and voices and noises (in case you're interested, here's a taste of what I usually wake up to in spring, but you best use headphones: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfoCTqdAVCE )
Strolling through such an idyllic landscape next to grazing horses and surrounded by birdsong and beautiful trees, I guess it's kind of obvious one would feel the way I described above and choose the title I did, but as I looked at the old stone buildings - the cattle shelter you can see in the foreground and the stable further up ahead on the right - I also realized how fortunate I was.
It's hard to imagine now, because Switzerland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world today, but the men and women who had carried these stones and constructed the walls of these buildings were among the poorest in Europe. The hardships the people in some of the remote and little developed valleys in Ticino endured only a few generations ago are unimaginable to most folks living in my country today.
It wasn't uncommon that people had to sell their own kids as child slaves - the girls had to work in factories or in rice fields, the boys as "living chimney brushes" in northern Italy - just because there wasn't enough food to support the whole family through the harsh Ticino winters.
If you wonder why contemporary Swiss historians speak of "slaves" as opposed to child laborers, it's because that's what many of them actually were: auctioned off for a negotiable prize at the local market, once sold, these kids were not payed and in many cases not even fed by their masters (they had to beg for food in the streets or steal it).
Translated from German Wikipedia: ...The Piazza grande in Locarno, where the Locarno Film Festival is held today, was one of the places where orphans, foundlings and children from poor families were auctioned off. The boys were sold as chimney sweeps, the girls ended up in the textile industry, in tobacco processing in Brissago or in the rice fields of Novara, which was also extremely hard work: the girls had to stand bent over in the water for twelve to fourteen hours in all weathers. The last verse of the Italian folk song 'Amore mio non piangere' reads: “Mamma, papà, non piangere, se sono consumata, è stata la risaia che mi ha rovinata” (Mom, dad, don't cry when I'm used up, it was the rice field that destroyed me.)... de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaminfegerkinder
The conditions for the chimney sweeps - usually boys between the age of 8 and 12 (or younger, because they had to be small enough to be able to crawl into the chimneys) - were so catastrophic that many of them didn't survive; they died of starvation, cold or soot in their lungs - as well as of work-related accidents like breaking their necks when they fell, or suffocatig if they got stuck in inside a chimney. This practice of "child slavery" went on as late as the 1950s (there's a very short article in English on the topic here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spazzacamini and a more in depth account for German speakers in this brief clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gda8vZp_zsc ).
Now I don't know if the people who built the old stone houses along my path had to sell any of their kids, but looking at the remnants of their (not so distant) era I felt an immense sense of gratitude that I was born at a time of prosperity - and peace - in my region, my country and my home. Because none of it was my doing: it was simple luck that decided when and where I came into this world.
It also made me think of my own family. Both of my grandparents on my father's side grew up in Ticino (they were both born in 1900), but while they eventually left Switzerland's poorest region to live in its richest, the Kanton of Zurich, my grandfather's parents relocated to northern Italy in the 1920s and unfortunately were still there when WWII broke out.
They lost everything during the war, and it was their youngest daughter - whom I only knew as "Zia" which means "aunt" in Italian - who earned a little money to support herself and my great-grandparents by giving piano lessons to high-ranking Nazi officers and their kids (this was towards the end of the war when German forces had occupied Italy).
I never knew that about her; Zia only very rarely spoke of the war, but one time when I visited her when she was already over a 100 years old (she died at close to 104), I asked her how they had managed to survive, and she told me that she went to the local prefecture nearly every day to teach piano. "And on the way there would be the dangling ones" she said, with a shudder.
I didn't get what she meant, so she explained. Visiting the city center where the high ranking military resided meant she had to walk underneath the executed men and women who were hanging from the lantern posts along the road (these executions - often of civilians - were the Germans' retaliations for attacks by the Italian partisans).
I never forgot her words - nor could I shake the look on her face as she re-lived this memory. And I still can't grasp it; my house in Ticino is only 60 meters from the Italian border, and the idea that there was a brutal war going on three houses down the road from where I live now in Zia's lifetime strikes me as completely surreal.
So, back to my title for the photo above. "Peace". It's such a simple, short word, isn't it? And we use it - or its cousin "peaceful" - quite often when we mean nice and quiet or stress-free. But if I'm honest I don't think I know what it means. My grandaunt Zia did, but I can't know. And I honestly hope I never will.
I'm sorry I led you down such a dark road; I usually intend to make people smile with the anecdotes that go with my photos, but this one demanded a different approach (I guess with this latest image I've strayed from the path in more than one sense, and I hope you'll forgive me).
Ticino today is the region with the second highest average life expectancy in Europe (85.2 years), and "The Human Development Index" of 0.961 in 2021 was one of the highest found anywhere in the world, and northern Italy isn't far behind. But my neighbors, many of whom are now in their 90s, remember well it wasn't always so.
That a region so poor it must have felt like purgatory to many of its inhabitants could turn into something as close to paradise on Earth as I can imagine in a person's lifetime should make us all very hopeful. But, and this is the sad part, it also works the other way 'round. And I believe we'd do well to remember that, too.
To all of you - with my usual tardiness but from the bottom of my heart - a happy, healthy, hopeful 2025 and beyond.
A dragonfly 'rescued' after work today, Cambridge - 18th August 2005.
ケンブリッジ ２００５年０８月１8日。
(He/she then proceeded to rest on my finger for a few minutes, kindly letting me take a few photos before flying out the window :) )
P.S. Thanks Ed !!
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My website : www.3amfromkyoto.com
People who complain that software engineers build unwieldy, unfriendly and outright mindboggling user interfaces need to look back in history to realize that hardware engineers have not always been much better in that respect. A good place to do that is the Railway Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
A l'arrivée de la neige les paysages sont métamorphosés: les chemins et les épicéas chargés de neige nous transportent dans une véritable féerie.Tout est silence ,nos pas glissent sur les étendues blanches. Montagne , toi seule peut nous apporter ce sentiment de plénitude et de liberté...
Photo dédicacée à mes amies de l ' hémisphère sud...
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Musique : " Vois sur ton chemin " By Les Choristes .
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Chapotet - Massif de Belledonne - Savoie - France .
To view more in this series, please click here !
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A challenge to my Flickr Friends:
Now what can you create for me; perhaps a World of Roses!
If you have Photoshop CS3 onwards, it is quite simple; take a look at Gavin Hoey's video here !
If you find Gavin Hoey's video interesting, you can view more here !
A5-RGE - BritishAerospace BAe-146-100 - Druk Air (Royal Bhutan Airlines)
at Bangkok Don Muang Airport (BKK)
c/n E1199 - built in 1991 -
final user was StarPerú -
retired and stored
scanned from Kodachrome-slide
original photo by user name, opensim - flickr.com/photos/149590820@N02/
background image Spiral Silverstar - flickr.com/photos/spiral_silverstar/with/53077249317/
Sept 13, 2015 - Kearney Nebraska, US
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I rarely take pictures of the sunset, but when mother nature presents herself with a rare opportunity, I don't ever miss a beat.
This mid September sunset had some phenomenal color. I wasn't going to miss this opportunity!
*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***
Copyright 2015
Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography
All Rights Reserved
This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.
#ForeverChasing
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Telle était la devise d'un jeune homme de cent ans que j'ai connu il y a quelques années, à qui je demandais son secret de jeunesse et de vitalité...
March 28, 2025 - Kearney Nebraska
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Watch that night's photo op Video (on Flickr) Click Here
Prints Available...Click Here
All Images are also available for...
stock photography & non exclusive licensing...
Dark storm clouds loom over a vast field, illuminated by flashes of lightning. A small line of lights marks the Village of Odessa Nebraska on the horizon under the dramatic sky.
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Copyright 2025
Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography
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This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.
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Will just let myself get swept away by this beautiful day
47848 rolls down through Settle Junction with 1Z57, the 09.35 Oban to Middlesbrough, a charter operating on behalf of the Saltburn Rail Users Group (SLUG).
Mount Seymour Provincial Park
www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/mt_seymour/
My video on youtube www.youtube.com/user/sofarsogut/videos
© All rights reserved. This image is copyrighted to Tim Wood; Any users, found to replicate, reproduce, circulate, distribute, download, manipulate or otherwise use my images without my written consent will be in breach of copyright laws. Please contact me at woodrot147@aol.com for express permission to use any of my photographs.
All of my images can be purchased...... Visit my website, coastal and countryside images at......
Facebook...
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May 7, 2016 - Hwy 365 North / North of Wray Colorado
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It has been an excellent start to the 2016 chase Season. Bonus was, that I had the day off and no commitments except for storm chasing. I was set for an Epic Day!
I ended up with well over 700 pic from this storm chasing event, but I've skimmed it down to about 100+. Truly this will become some of my best severe weather photography to date...
I was seriously late the game on this storm. But I was never out of the game. I had now positioned myself just to the North of Wray Colorado.
Strategically, you want to be to the south east, southwest for the best light... It's all about timing, and I thought it wouldn't produce till it was well west of my location. Giving me that perfect view of the backside rotation of the storm.
In my opinion, I found a perfect view, looking due south southeast. I ended up on the northwest side of the rotation. Dangerous yes...but this will eventually give me one excellent view of this tornado and all her glory.
*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***
Copyright 2016
Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography
All Rights Reserved
This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.
#ForeverChasing
#NebraskaSC
June 17, 2015 - Kearney Nebraska US
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Mother nature gave South Central Nebraska a few days break from the constant rain. I shouldn't complain. We are close to the end of our rainy season. Though... this is Nebraska where we can have severe weather breakout anytime...as this storm cell did.
Late night, early morning cells were moving along a boundary. We only had a 30% chance of storms. Storms there were out in the Nebraska Panhandle died and the reformed about 1:00 am just to the west and northwest of Buffalo County in South Central Nebraska.
This was a photographic beast as I just a few miles to the east of Kearney. I wanted to use the city lights to illuminate the storm as it pushed to the southeast. It simply has got to be my favorite night chase of the year. Close to home and incredible structure!
*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***
Copyright 2015
Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography
All Rights Reserved
This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.
#ForeverChasing
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For the sake of completeness, here's my full lineup of Tales of the Space Age. I don't think there will be more in a foreseeable future - I'm very happy with the seven pictures as is and enjoy having them on the wall of my home office.
And just in case you'd like to build some of them, 21340 Tales of the Space Age is still available in LEGO S@H. For the additional ones, you can get the instructions from my Rebrickable page: rebrickable.com/users/john.carter/mocs/
Densely packed buildings in these districts lined up viewed from top of the rock with a setting sun painted sky over New Jersey
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www.youtube.com/user/thaicucsinhluongnghi#p/u/17/9XW_EiEbJ2I (CHU Y KI VAO NGUOI DANG LAM SLOWMOTION TRONG CLIP AY LA PIK NGAY) minh khong the nao nhin cuoi hon dk nua khi mot nguoi anh cua minh la popper kha noi tieng ngoai HA NOI lai co the co nhng tro dua nhu the nhi ??? noi that ra thi anh ay la D-MACHINE (du~ng) anh d~ung , có cả anh duy nữa :)) [XL~ MOI NG VI MINH DA PR ANH TRAI MINH WA NHIU ] va minh da hua la he nay se ra HA NOI tham moi ngoi : babyT ; A Duyyyyyyy (OMEGA crew) ; A Duy tu ki (lifestyle crew) va A trai cua minh D-machineeeeeeeeeeee. minh vs a du~ng hoi tra'i nguok . vi minh di theo dances con a di popping nhung noi chung thi 2ae minh deu iu nhay nhay .
* biet dang sau may ong dag dung la ai kg ??? nhung "thien than" va cung la " nhung ng anh" trong nhom GAMEON . sau khoi chup hinh ong ay con loi minh vao tu ki chung :s thoi thi hen a d-machine và anh DUY he nay 2ae minh lam lai nhung tro khi nharrrr . E LUN NHO CAC ANH :* :* :*
OI sao hinh nay minh ki waaaaaaaaaaaa :o
NOTICE
moi nguoi oi minh dang tim partner nen ai co kha nang dances haoc cam nhan minh co the dances thi lien he vs minh nhe
DJ : 01265519383
DJ'S YAHOO : dj_pjkopulu_spank
ok . mog hop tac nherrrrrrrr
www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ImCpNqbJw
minh rat ghien bai nay :)va say goodbye
moi ngay hay lam wen voi mot nguoi ma ban kg pik , de cuoc song nay luon moi nher
Created for dA Users Gallery Challenge #57 – Queen of the Night 38
Model with thanks to Valentine-FOV-Stock
Model: valentine-fov-stock.deviantart.com/art/Queen-of-the-Night...
Forest: northstar76.deviantart.com/art/Nice-and-quiet-341162110
Roses: yvaineglarestock.deviantart.com/art/4-Roses-stock-pack-19...
and inadesign-stock.deviantart.com/art/Rose-and-Petals-Pack-1...
Buddha: www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=4851258