View allAll Photos Tagged Variance
Macro Mondays theme: Fictitious
Alligator Loki in the Void
In his timeline, Loki was either born or turned into an alligator. One day, he reportedly ate a neighbor's cat and was detained by the Time Variance Authority for creating a nexus event which caused a detour from the Sacred Timeline as he was supposed to eat another neighbor's cat. He was then subsequently pruned and sent to the Void, where he met Kid Loki, Classic Loki, and Boastful Loki.
Limited edition hand painted 3D printed alligator Loki variant (3.5 inch long)
HMM
Pato de la Florida, Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors)
Status Migrante Comun (Mc)
pato de Florida o yaguasa aliazul, también conocida como pato media luna, pato de alas azules, barraquete aliazul, es una especie de ave anseriforme de la familia Anatidae nativa de América.
Es pardo manchado y punteado de negro, con diseño alar como el del pato pico cuchara sudamericano, cabeza y cuello ceniciento oscuro, notable medialuna en la cara y mancha blanca en los flancos, en los machos. La hembra no tiene la medialuna en la cara, pero tiene una leve ceja loreal clara.
sta especie de pato vive en lagunas, lagos y pantanos de agua dulce. No teniendo preferencias durante el invierno habita aguas salobres. Se alimenta de vegetación, insectos, y crustáceos acuáticos. Complementa su dieta con semillas, incluyendo las de campos cultivados.
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The blue-winged teal (Spatula discors) is a small dabbling duck from North America. The scientific name is derived from Latin Anas "duck", and discors, "variance", which may refer to the striking face pattern of the male
The adult male has a greyish blue head with a white facial crescent, a light brown body with a white patch near the rear and a black tail. The adult female is mottled brown, and has a whitish area at base of bill. Both sexes have sky-blue wing coverts, a green speculum, and yellow legs
Blue-winged teal inhabit shoreline more often than open water and prefer calm water or sluggish currents to fast water. They inhabit inland marshes, lakes, ponds, pools, and shallow streams with dense emergent vegetation.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Anseriformes
Family:Anatidae
Subfamily:Anatinae
Genus:Anas (disputed)
Species:S. discors
Binomial name
Spatula discors
a pileated woodpecker with a variance of color, known as aberrant... She does look well, not so shy and posed for a few pictures
To purchase this picture or one of my many other photos, on a variety of products, visit my shop on RedBubble - www.redbubble.com/people/WesleyBarr/shop?asc=u
Was lucky enough to be in Northridge at Warner center when the Mustang car show was going on, as well as Old Colorado City with Territory Days. I was using my M5, with 35mm Nikkor and the last of the stash of Arista Ultra 100. I hadn't used Diafine with it in a long time, and I was pleasantly surprised on how well the combination was sharp and captured good tonality despite the variance of light intensity. Have to start using Diafine much more. Gratitude to those flickeranians who continue to inspire - always makes me want to get out and capture images.
FRONT PAGE Explore #4. Thank You
A lousy sunrise ! Wee hours...My daughter decided to join me and said "Dad, I'll pose for you " ....Initially I had only this tyre (my tyre is intact ;-)) ............so I said "Why not" !!!!!!!
I decided to do something different ....A bit of Progressive Stage Blending ......here's how.
SKY - Two long exposures at different times of the morning blue zone.
WATER - One long exposure from the blue zone.
PSB: Progressive Stage Blending (Technique here)
SAND/BEACH - Wet /Damp Sand picking up the light post the blue zone for a reddish hue.
Left the tyre picking the blue hue of the sky - blue zone
I know it's a bit of a mix n match....preferred some variance against the all blue .
Hope you like it . apologies if it is a bit harsh. NO FILTERS/ NOISE REDUCTION/SHARPENING
Just look at the way this zone map allows for geographical variances. It reminds me a bit of political jurisdictions fudged here and there to gain the desired result...straight lines are not the objective! TIME is bent/relative to the needs of beginning/closing the day uniformly within a geographic region.
Time marches on.
I realize this is a similar shot to several others I have published but I found the variance in the sky and weather can give it a completely different feel. This one was one of my favorites and I have saved it for last. I love the difference between the warm tones on the left, the cooler blues on the right, and the bright appearance of the vanishing point, like a door that only needs to be reached and opened.
A closer look at this jumble of emerging basalts reveals detail and interest among the varied molten, and recently molten, forms in the streams of cooling lava near the Pu'u 'O'o eruption site in Kilauea National Park, Hawaii.
Like many in recent months, I've been seeing the pictures and stories about the ongoing effusive eruption in Iceland, and I have to say I developed a bit of lava envy, which prompted me to go back to my old pics from a fortunate and amazing visit to Kilauea a few years ago. The small area of flow here was one of my favorites because it brought together so many intriguing formations (this image captures an area little more than a few meters/yards wide), along with memories of the heat radiating from the lava and the thrill of the whole experience.
Time and again, as in the left center of this image, we saw these amazing, jagged sawtooth or claw patterns at the boundary between the still glowing lava and the slightly cooler lava beginning to harden to a silver-gray surface that was almost a bit metallic in its initial appearance. Coarse rope-like forms then looped upstream from the sawtooth, and a bright globule of lava bubbled up from among the braids. And further below (toward the lower right in the frame) is a familiar "nautilus" form where the rope-like braids curl about ahead of an elegant reaching finger of still-incandescent lava.
Still other areas nearby appeared to have much finer structure, like thinner yarn moreso than rope, and visible here and there beneath it all is the darker, more-weathered and broken slag of earlier flows. Needless to say, I've yet to learn what slight variances in mineral composition, temperature or topography, among innumerable other possible factors, gave rise to these different forms in such a small area of the same flow. Yet more examples of the ceaseless wonders of our natural world.
Thanks for viewing!
This miiight be an "Anvil of Darkness" Iris, which is fitting as this is a night photo. :) But I'm not sure -- I planted 4 or 5 different bulbs, and a couple didn't bloom this year.... This one looked very dark as a bud, and so I figured it would be the AoD variety I'd gotten, but then it opened fully and it's more of a dark purple. I don't know anything about variance in individual iris colors -- wondering if variability might occur as a result of sun/soil conditions as with other plants?
- Eric Hoffer.
While trying to find a suitable location to shoot the beautiful Bailey falls, I noticed the view from the Cedar Creek Bridge. The recent rains had caused the creek to swell up, and it resembled a mini lake. However, due to the tree cover and the surrounding hills, the lakebed was not affected much by the wind. So I had perfect mirror reflections. There were terrific details in the sky and a slight warm tinge to the light coming through the forest. It was one of those scenes where it looked too pretty to be true.
So on my way back, I decided to find a composition that worked here. The best viewpoint was from the bridge. Thankfully not much traffic here, and I managed some quick shots of the beautiful lake and the waterfall. The challenge this time was dynamic range, too much even for the great D850. An ND grad would be great to use when there is a variance in lighting conditions, but the lack of a defined horizon meant that they would do more harm than benefit. So exposure blending was the only option. Thankfully I am past my HDR days, and with luminosity masks, it's a matter of few seconds. I am pleased with how the results turned out, and it’s a lot more natural than anything an HDR software usually spits out.
It meanders through the minutes
that quickly turn the hours
passed a sluice of 'regulation'
that stems the flow of our freedoms
banked up inside us all
is the childhood of yore
freeflow need not be damned
but respected in all it's variance
if we are what we truly believe we are,
and that has become debatable,
then we should restore balances
as nature has always overidden our faults
nonsensical laws made by despicable fools
need no adherance by the free
and the free, the child in us all
is the adult from our very next step.
by anglia24
19h55: 03/09/2007
© 2007anglia24
☀
sometimes I take so many images with small amounts of variance that I almost miss a good one in the post processing time. This was a good wide shot of the valley showing the Far Niente driveway and mountains behind.
Valley of the Moon, La Paz, Bolivia.
Valley de la Luna (Moon Valley), isn’t actually a valley at all, but a maze of canyons and giant spires. The formations, composed mainly of clay and sandstone, were created by the persistent erosion of mountains by the area’s strong winds and rains. What remains is a serene setting, full of wonder and intrigue.
One of Valley de la Luna’s most breathtaking features is its varied pallet, ranging from clear beige tones to sections of red and dark purple. This natural phenomena is due to the great variance in mineral content between each individual mountain, creating colorful compositions and impressive optical illusions on the eroded hillsides.
For video, please visit youtu.be/SWuXnwAdfrY
This is an image comprising of 35 subs at 8 minutes (480 seconds) each. I am amazed at how many subs I had to take in order to get significant detail - I can just about see the faint galaxy arm on the right, which I would have loved to have captured more fully. Admittedly, on examination, even though the sky was clear 'on the eye', the last 5 subs of the run had a lot more detail than the other 30 - so I may well have got a far better detailed image had all of them been the same as these. The initial 30 were not particularly good either with a lot of variance between them. Once again it has been a struggle to process the background. I am at the limit of my skies and having assessed my light pollution using the Bortle Scale, I believe I am at about the worse level of 8-9. I used the Atik 4120EX for this with my Skywatcher 8" f4 Quattro.
Sometimes the best fall color venues are down the street. This place looks different each year and its fun to see the variance.
Explore at 4
Canna (or Canna lily, although not a true lily) is a genus of approximately twenty species of flowering plants.[1][2] The closest living relations to cannas are the other plant families of the order Zingiberales, that is the gingers, bananas, marantas, heliconias, strelitzias, etc
Canna is the only genus in the family Cannaceae. Such a family has almost universally been recognized by taxonomists. The APG II system of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, 1998) also recognizes the family, and assigns it to the order Zingiberales in the clade commelinids, in the monocots.
The species have large, attractive foliage and horticulturists have turned it into a large-flowered, brash, bright and sometimes gaudy, garden plant. In addition, it is one of the world's richest starch sources, and is an agricultural plant
Although a plant of the tropics, most cultivars have been developed in temperate climates and are easy to grow in most countries of the world as long as they can enjoy about 6 hours average sunlight during the summer. See the Canna cultivar gallery for photographs of Canna cultivars.
The name Canna originates from the Celtic word for a cane or reed
he plants are large tropical and subtropical perennial herbs with a rhizomatous rootstock. The broad, flat, alternate leaves, that are such a feature of this plant, grow out of a stem in a long narrow roll and then unfurl. The leaves are typically solid green but some cultivars have glaucose, brownish, maroon, or even variegated leaves
The flowers are composed of three sepals and three petals that are seldom noticed by people, they are small and hidden under extravagant stamens. What appear to be petals are the highly modified stamens or staminodes. The staminodes number (1–) 3 (–4) (with at least one staminodal member called the labellum, always being present. A specialized staminode, the stamen, bears pollen from a half-anther. A somewhat narrower, 'petal' is the pistil which is connected down to a three-chambered ovary
The flowers are typically red, orange, or yellow or any combination of those colours, and are aggregated in inflorescences that are spikes or panicles (thyrses). Although gardeners enjoy these odd flowers, nature really intended them to attract pollinators collecting nectar and pollen, such as bees, hummingbirds and bats. The pollination mechanism is conspicuously specialized. Pollen is shed on the style while still in the bud, and in the species and early hybrids some is also found on the stigma because of the high position of the anther, which means that they are self-pollinating. Later cultivars have a lower anther, and rely on pollinators alighting on the labellum and touching first the terminal stigma, and then the pollen
The wild species often grow to 2-3+ meters but there is a wide variation in size among cultivated plants; numerous cultivars have been selected for smaller stature.
Canna grow from swollen underground stems, correctly known as rhizomes, which store starch, and this is the main attraction of the plant to agriculture, having the largest starch particles of all plant life.[3]
Canna is the only member of the Liliopsida Class (monocot family) in which hibernation of seed is known to occur, due to its hard, impenetrable seed covering.
The genus is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the New World, from the southern United States (southern South Carolina west to southern Texas) and south to northern Argentina
Although all cannas are native to the New World, they have followed mankind's journeys of discovery and some species are cultivated and naturalized in most tropical and sub-tropical regions.
Canna cultivars are grown in most countries, even those with territory above the Arctic Circle, which have short summers but long days, and the rapid growth rate of Cannas makes them a feasible gardening plant, as long as they get their 6 hours of sunlight each day during the growing season and are protected from the cold of winter.
The first Cannas introduced to Europe were C. indica L., which was imported from the East Indies, though the species originated from the Americas. Charles de l'Ecluse, who first described and sketched C. indica indicates this origin, and states that it was given the name of indica, not because the plant is from India, in Asia, but because this species was originally transported from America: "Quia ex America primum delata sit"; and at that time, one described the tropical areas of that part of the globe as the Western Indies;[8] English speakers still call them the West Indies.
Much later, in 1658, Pison made reference[9] to another species which he documented under the vulgar or common name of 'Albara' and 'Pacivira', which resided, he said, in the shaded and damp places, between the tropics; this species is Canna angustifolia L., (later reclassified as C. glauca L. by taxonomists).[1]
Without exception, all Canna species that have been introduced into Europe can be traced back to the Americas, and it can be asserted with confidence that Canna is solely an American genus. If Asia and Africa provided some of the early introductions, they were only varieties resulting from C. indica and C. glauca cultivars that have been grown for a long time in India and Africa, with both species imported from Central and South America. Canna is an American genus, as pointed out by Lamarck were he argues that "Cannas were unknown to the ancients, and that it is only after the discovery of the New World, that they made their appearance in Europe; Since Canna have very hard and durable seed coverings, it is likely that seed remains would have survived in the right conditions and found by archaeologists in the Old World. If the soils of India or Africa had produced some of them, they would have been imported before the 1860s into European gardens.
* Some species and many cultivars are widely grown in the garden in temperate and sub-tropical regions. Sometimes, they are also grown as potted plants. A large number of ornamental cultivars have been developed. They can be used in herbaceous borders, tropical plantings, and as a patio or decking plant.
* Internationally, cannas are one of the most popular garden plants and a large horticultural industry depends on the plant.
* The canna rhizome is rich in starch, and it has many uses in agriculture. All of the plant has commercial value, rhizomes for starch (consumption by humans and livestock), stems and foliage for animal fodder, young shoots as a vegetable and young seeds as an addition to tortillas.
* The seeds are used as beads in jewelry.
* The seeds are used as the mobile elements of the kayamb, a musical instrument from Réunion, as well as the hosho, a gourd rattle from Zimbabwe, where the seeds are known as "hota" seeds.
* In remoter regions of India, cannas are fermented to produce alcohol.
* The plant yields a fibre - from the stem - it is used as a jute substitute.
* A fibre obtained from the leaves is used for making paper. The leaves are harvested in late summer after the plant has flowered, they are scraped to remove the outer skin and are then soaked in water for 2 hours prior to cooking. The fibres are cooked for 24 hours with lye and then beaten in a blender. They make a light tan brown paper.
* A purple dye is obtained from the seed.
* Smoke from the burning leaves is said to be insecticidal.
* Cannas are used to extract many undesirable pollutants in a wetland environment as they have a high tolerance to contaminants.
Wild Canna species are the Cannas unaffected by mankind. There are approximately 20 known species, and in the last three decades of the 20th century, Canna species have been categorised by two different taxonomists, Paul Maas, from the Netherlands and Nobuyuki Tanaka from Japan. Both reduced the number of species from the 50-100 that had been accepted previously, and assigned most to being synonyms.
The reduction in numbers is also confirmed by work done by Kress and Prince at the Smithsonian Institution, however, this only covers a subset of the species range.
Cannas became very popular in Victorian times as a garden plant and were grown widely in France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
As tender perennials in northern climates, they suffered severe setbacks when two world wars sent the young gardening staff off to war. It took many years for the frugalities of war and its rationing subsequences to change to the more prosperous times of the late 20th century. We have recently experienced a renewed interest and revival in popularity of the Canna genus.
There were once many hundreds of cultivars but many of these are now extinct. In 1910, Árpäd Mühle, from Hungary, published his Canna book , written in higher German. It contained descriptions of over 500 cultivars.
In recent years many new cultivars have been created, but the genus suffers severely from having many synonyms for many popular ones. Most of the synonyms were created by old varieties re-surfacing without viable names, with the increase in popularity from the 1960s onwards. Research has accumulated over 2,800 Canna cultivar names, however, many of these are simply synonyms.
See List of Canna hybridists for details of the people and firms that created the current Canna legacy we all enjoy.
In the early 1900s, Professor Liberty Hyde Bailey defined, in detail, two garden species (C. x generalis and C. x orchiodes) to categorise the floriferous Cannas being grown at that time, namely the Crozy hybrids and the ‘orchid-like’ hybrids introduced by Carl Ludwig Sprenger in Italy and Luther Burbank in the USA, at about the same time (1894) The definition was based on the genotype, rather than the phenotype, of the two cultivar groups. Inevitably, over time those two floriferous groups were interbred, the distinctions became blurred and overlapped, and the Bailey species names became redundant Pseudo-species names are now deprecated by the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants which, instead, provides Cultivar Groups for categorising cultivars
The Canna Agriculture Group contains all of the varieties of Canna grown in agriculture. Canna achira is a generic term used in South America to describe the cannas that have been selectively bred for agricultural purposes, normally derived from C. discolor. It is grown especially for its edible rootstock from which starch is obtained, but the leaves and young seed are also edible, and achira was once a staple foodcrop in Peru and Ecuador
Many more traditional varieties exist world-wide, they have all involved human selection and so are classified as agricultural cultivars. Traditionally, Canna 'edulis' has been reputed to be the variety grown for food in South America, but there is no scientific evidence to substantiate the name. It is probable that edulis is simply a synonym of C. discolor, which is grown for agricultural purposes throughout Asia.
Cannas grow best in full sun with moderate water in well-drained rich or sandy soil. Cannas grow from perennial rhizomes but are frequently grown as annuals in temperate zones for an exotic or tropical look in the garden.[2]
The rhizomes are marginally cold hardy but may rot if left unprotected in freezing conditions. In areas which go below about −10 °C in the winter, the rhizomes can be dug up before freezing and stored in a protected area (above +7 °C) for replanting in the spring. Otherwise, it is recommended that Cannas are protected by a thick layer of mulch overwinter.
Cannas are largely free of pests but in the USA plants sometimes fall victim to the Canna Leaf Roller and the resultant leaf damage can be most distressing to a keen gardener.
Slugs and snails are fond of Cannas and can leave large holes in the leaves, preferring the tender young leaves that have not yet unfurled. Red Spider Mite can also be a problem for Cannas grown indoors or during a very hot, long summer outdoors. The Japanese Beetles will also ravage the leaves if left uncontrolled.
Canna are remarkably free of disease, compared to many genus. However, they may fall victim to canna rust, a fungus resulting in orange spots on the plant's leaves, caused by over moist soil. Cannas are also susceptible to certain plant viruses, some of which are Canna specific viruses, which may result in spotted or streaked leaves, in a mild form, but can finally result in stunted growth and twisted and distorted blooms and foliage.
The flowers are sometimes affected by a grey, fuzzy mold called Botrytis. Under humid conditions it is often found growing on the older flowers. Treatment is to simply remove the old flowers, so the mould does not spread to the new flowers.
Seeds are produced from sexual reproduction, involving the transfer of pollen from the stamen of the pollen parent onto the stigma of the seed parent. In the case of Canna, the same plant can usually play the roles of both pollen and seed parents, technically referred to as a hermaphrodite. However, the cultivars of the Italian Group and triploids are almost always seed sterile, and their pollen has a low fertility level. Mutations are almost always totally sterile.
The species are capable of self-pollination, but most cultivars require an outside pollinator. All cannas produce nectar and therefore attract nectar consuming insects, bats and hummingbirds that act as the transfer agent, spreading pollen between stamens and stigmas, on the same or different inflorescence.
Since genetic recombination has occurred a cultivar grown from seed will have different characteristics to its parent(s) and thus should never be given a parent’s name. The wild species have evolved in the absence of other Canna genes and are deemed to be ‘true to type’ when the parents are of the same species. In the latter case there is still a degree of variance, producing various varieties or minor forms (forma). In particular, the species C. indica is an aggregate species, having many different and extreme varieties and forma ranging from the giant to miniature, from large foliage to small foliage, both green and dark foliage and many different coloured blooms, red, orange, pink, and yellow and combinations of those colours.
Outside of a laboratory, the only asexual propagation method that is effective is rhizome division. This is done by using material from a single parent, and as there is no exchange of genetic material such vegetative propagation methods almost always produce plants that are identical to the parent. After a summer’s growth the horticultural Canna can be separated into typically four or five separate smaller rhizomes, each with a growing nodal point (‘growing eye’). Without the growing point, which is composed of meristem material, the rhizome will not grow.
Micropropagation, or tissue culture as it is also known, is the practice of rapidly multiplying stock plant material to produce a large number of progeny plants. Micropropagation using in vitro (in glass) methods that produce plants by taking small sections of plants and moving them into a sterile environment were they first produce proliferations that are then separated from each other and then rooted or allowed to grow new stem tissue. The process of plant growth is regulated by different ratios of plant growth regulators or PGRs, that promote cell growth. Many commercial organizations have attempted to produce Canna this way, and specifically the “Island Series” of Cannas was introduced by means of mass produced plants using this technique. However, Cannas have a reputation of being difficult micropropagation specimens.
Note Micropropagation techniques can be employed on specimens infected with Canna virus and used to dis-infest plants of the virus, it is possible to use a growing shoot tip as the explant, the growing tip is induced into rapid growth, which results in rapid cell division that has not had time to be infected with the virus. The rapidly growing region of meristem cells producing the shoot tip is cut off and placed in vitro, with a very high probability of being uncontaminated by virus, since it has not yet had contact with the sap of the plant which moves the virus within the plant. In this way, healthy stock can be reclaimed from virus contaminated plants.
In a chapter called "A Poet's Alphabet", Mark Strand shares this in his book ""The Weather of Words" (Knopf 2000):
“D is for Dante, who has not influenced me, which is too bad. On the other hand, I am not sure what the influence of Dante might be, and I would think it quite strange to read somewhere that one of my contemporaries had been influenced by him. How very grand, I would think. But death, being so much more approachable– either here or just around the bend–has always been an influence. What I mean to say is that death is common. If you are having a good time and you conceive the possibility that the good time will end, then you are concerned with death, though in a mild and unremarkable way. But what I want to get to is something else: that death is the central concern of lyric poetry. Lyric poetry reminds us that we live in time. It tells us that we are mortal. It celebrates or recognizes moods, ideas, events only as they exist in passing. For what meaning would anything have outside of time? Even when poetry celebrates something joyful, it bears the news that the particular joy is over. It is a long memorial, a valedictory to each discrete moment on earth. But its power is at variance with what it celebrates. For it is not just that we mourn the passage of time but that we are somehow isolated from the weight of time, and when we read poems, during those brief moments of absorption, the thought of death seems painless, even beautiful.”
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Isaiah 65:17-21
Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13
John 4:43-54
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture: You may go; your child will live. (John 4:50)
Throughout Lent we have been encouraged to practice self-denial. Often we mistakenly see this only as an exercise in giving up things that give us pleasure. In truth God is calling us to do "spring cleaning," to rid our lives of worldly clutter to make room for Christ, the One sent to cleanse us of sin and create us anew in His image.
Many limit God's act of creation to His original formation of the cosmos with earth as humanity's home; but creation is ongoing, for God's Spirit constantly renews our world through its seasons and propagates life—plants, animals, and man—from seeds energized by God's life. Humans require most of His attention, since He created us to be spiritual creatures made in His likeness, able to commune with our heavenly Father and enter into a loving relationship with Him. Through this, God lifts us from our mire of sin to participate in His goodness so that we may also live at peace with one another.
Today's Gospel narrates one example of Christ's infinite power to create life anew, His healing of a dying child. In doing so, He prompted a renewal of the parents' lives and possibly that of all those to whom they would tell of God's healing mercy. This "good" was set in motion by the father's faith in Christ, his immediate obedience in going home, fully believing his child would be well; this fact was affirmed when he learned that the healing coincided perfectly with the time that Jesus had pronounced its taking place.
Blessed Lord, may this Lenten season commit us to allowing Your Spirit of love and truth to create us anew that we may share Your blessed life with others. Amen.
- Marie Bocko, OCDS | email: mlbocko@twcny.rr.com
EXPLORE # 309 at initial list on Monday, March 3, 2008.
No visit to Elk island would be complete for me without a stop alongside what I call Loon Lagoon, named because for a couple of years if I waited long enough I would have a good chance of seeing a couple of Loon, but only at quite a distance.
On this day I brought two cameras, both fullframe. On the older 6D I had my 100-400mm and on the newer R6 I had the 16-35. I never expected to see wildlife and I didn't. Not even a Raven.
Here the 16-35 was way too short, and the 100-400 was too long, so shooting at 100mm I have combined two shots to make this pano. It is indeed in colour, of which on this day there was very very little.
I did actually give some added contrast boost by adding both Clarity and Dehaze in Adobe Camera RAW. Without , the scene was so very flat because of the bit of fog.
I have to say that getting colour balance correct, or near correct with these shots is very difficult for me. I find that giving the same colour balance in each shot still ends up looking varied. And processing each shot individually is easy to get major differences. Even if looking away or taking a break and coming back to the computer I find it difficult. Even a very small correction seems to give a colour cast, so please forgive the variances of these shots, as in the end I have processed each to taste.
EDIT: I replaced my original upload with the full res image I kept, as details in the trees at anything but full resolution really suffers, so again, two clicks to the best view.
Valley of the Moon, La Paz, Bolivia.
Valley de la Luna (Moon Valley), isn’t actually a valley at all, but a maze of canyons and giant spires. The formations, composed mainly of clay and sandstone, were created by the persistent erosion of mountains by the area’s strong winds and rains. What remains is a serene setting, full of wonder and intrigue.
One of Valley de la Luna’s most breathtaking features is its varied pallet, ranging from clear beige tones to sections of red and dark purple. This natural phenomena is due to the great variance in mineral content between each individual mountain, creating colorful compositions and impressive optical illusions on the eroded hillsides.
For video, please visit youtu.be/SWuXnwAdfrY
In the Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park are a number of natural formations that the local indigenous community used in their stories. These two represent two dogs.The are lying down facing to the right of the image. The nose of the left white dog is resting on the tail of the right browndog who has a brown tipped nose.
The color variance in the area is stunning, as to are the stories by the Antakirinja Matuntjara Yankunytjatjara people.
Excerpt from www.stcatharines.ca/en/building-and-renovating/resources/...:
525 Ontario Street
Mayholme House
Mayholme is a two-storey brick house, rectangular in plan with a single storey wing attached to the rear. The house is capped by a medium pitch gable roof. The foundation is composed of sandstone rubble work mixed with liberal amounts of mortar and the exterior walls are red brick with a variance in type and design. The style of the house is a vernacular form of Classic Revival which was popular from the 1830 ́s until Confederation, and has such features as; moulded cornices, friezes, and short eave returns. The house has experienced damage at the hands of tenants over the years; the upper floors were sagging because one tenant had used the second floor to store grain. Hardwood floors were installed, the ceilings were repaired and the house was repainted. The house was electrified in 1927 and connected to the sewer system in the 1960’s.
Hi Everyone!
Another image from my trip: This youngster is perched on a bed of pine needles. Here in Winnipeg, I might find the same species, but more likely to be perched on fallen leaves. Always interesting to see variances in species and/or habitat, don't you think?
Location: Spokane WA
As always, I truly appreciate your comments and views. THANK YOU! Have a wonderful day!
©Copyright - Nancy Clark - All Rights Reserved
LOTD 070
Featuring: Queenz
Outfit: .Q. Variance set Fitted for:
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Exhibition "Anders" (Different, At Variance), held in old Synagogue Buren NL from July 19 till August 4, 2019, with Petra Senn (photographer, Germany), Jeanine Keuchenius (NL, paintings / graphics), and Drager Meurtant (NL, Assemblage, collage, graphics)
Some of the about 50 artworks.
Sixty years ago toward the end of July each summer, my folks packed me into our faithful dark green 1951 Buick Special and dropped me off for a week long Bible Camp at Lake Koronis near Paynesville, Minnesota. The week was a great respite from the drudgery of farm work that filled my days on the farm.
The camp was where many aspiring young people eagerly met to sort through a pool of potential mates from several surrounding states while innocently using Bible study as a method of approach.
Each morning except for closing day on Sunday, an amateur trumpet player would irritate us campers as he pierced the early morning hour waking us up for a day of festivities.
The first order of the day called for everyone to groggily assemble on an open part of the campgrounds where we were led by a dear man, Jay Walden from Minneapolis, who had a great voice he used to lead the campers in calisthenics that he exuberantly started off with jumping jacks while atop a picnic table.
There was a great variance in enthusiasm from his audience. There were a few compliant campers that were like this swan but for the most part the majority were more similar to the half dozen ducks directly behind the swan to the right who are quite content to sit and watch and probably make murmured comments.
(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)
Produced from 5, one stop exposure variances processed in Photomatix Pro.
© Andrew Fuller. This image remains the property of Andrew Fuller, and as such, may not be used or reproduced in any form, in part or in whole, without my prior, express permission.
This picture was added to the photo pool of the group, Macro Monday, for the theme - Multicolor.
#HMM
#MacroMonday
#Multicolor
Pato de la Florida, Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors)
Status Migrante Comun (Mc)
pato de Florida o yaguasa aliazul, también conocida como pato media luna, pato de alas azules, barraquete aliazul, es una especie de ave anseriforme de la familia Anatidae nativa de América.
Es pardo manchado y punteado de negro, con diseño alar como el del pato pico cuchara sudamericano, cabeza y cuello ceniciento oscuro, notable medialuna en la cara y mancha blanca en los flancos, en los machos. La hembra no tiene la medialuna en la cara, pero tiene una leve ceja loreal clara.
sta especie de pato vive en lagunas, lagos y pantanos de agua dulce. No teniendo preferencias durante el invierno habita aguas salobres. Se alimenta de vegetación, insectos, y crustáceos acuáticos. Complementa su dieta con semillas, incluyendo las de campos cultivados.
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The blue-winged teal (Spatula discors) is a small dabbling duck from North America. The scientific name is derived from Latin Anas "duck", and discors, "variance", which may refer to the striking face pattern of the male
The adult male has a greyish blue head with a white facial crescent, a light brown body with a white patch near the rear and a black tail. The adult female is mottled brown, and has a whitish area at base of bill. Both sexes have sky-blue wing coverts, a green speculum, and yellow legs
Blue-winged teal inhabit shoreline more often than open water and prefer calm water or sluggish currents to fast water. They inhabit inland marshes, lakes, ponds, pools, and shallow streams with dense emergent vegetation.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Anseriformes
Family:Anatidae
Subfamily:Anatinae
Genus:Anas (disputed)
Species:S. discors
Binomial name
Spatula discors
Baya weavers are social and gregarious birds. They forage in flocks for seeds, both on the plants and on the ground. Flocks fly in close formations, often performing complicated manoeuvres. They are known to glean paddy and other grain in harvested fields, and occasionally damage ripening crops and are therefore sometimes considered as pests. They roost in reed-beds bordering waterbodies. They depend on wild grasses such as Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) as well as crops like rice for both their food (feeding on seedlings in the germination stage as well as on early stages of grain) and nesting material. They also feed on insects (including butterflies), sometimes taking small frogs, geckos and molluscs, especially to feed their young. Their seasonal movements are governed by food availability. Their calls are a continuous chit-chit-... sometimes ending in a wheezy cheee-eee-ee that is produced by males in a chorus. A lower intensity call is produced in the non-breeding season.
They are occasionally known to descend to the ground and indulge in dust bathing
The nest construction pattern at different stages of nest and variations in the nest microclimate, i.e., temperature and light intensity were assessed in different nests of Baya weaver (Ploceus philippinus) between November 2002 and March 2003 in Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur District of Tamil Nadu, India. The Baya weaver constructed nests in palm (Borassus flabellifer), coconut (Cocos nucifera) and date palm trees (Phoneix psuilla) and majority of the nests were found in the solitary palm. The male bird only involved in the construction and took 18 days to construct a single nest. The birds spent different amount of working hours (in terms of days) for completing various stages of nests viz., wad, ring and helmet stage and in which the 'helmet stage took a maximum of eight days. Furthermore, totally eight active nests were selected and once in a week the variations in the nest microclimate was investigated with reference to atmospheric temperature and light intensity (two active nests) across day throughout the study period. The mean temperature of the nests ranged from 25 degrees C to 29 degrees C and light intensity varied between 25 Lux and 625 Lux. The analysis of variance (ANOVA and ANCOVA) indicated that the nest microclimate varied among the nests in different hr of a day.
A widespread folk belief in India is that the baya sticks fireflies with mud to the nest walls to light up the interior of the nest at night. Clay, however is known to be used in the nests of baya weavers. Males alone have been seen to add blobs of mud and dung to the nest chamber prior to pairing with a female. It has been suggested that the clay may help to stabilise the nest in strong winds.
In earlier times, the baya weaver was trained by street performers in India for entertainment. They could pick up objects at the command of their trainers. They were trained to fire toy cannons, string beads, pick up coins and other objects. According to Edward Blyth "the truth is, that the feats performed by trained Bayas are really very wonderful, and must be witnessed to be fully credited. Exhibitors carry them about, we believe, to all parts of the country; and the usual procedure is, when ladies are present, for the bird, on a sign from its master, to take a sweetmeat in its bill, and deposit it between a lady's lips, and repeat this offering to every lady present, the bird following the look and gesture of its master. A miniature cannon is then brought, which the bird loads with coarse grains of powder...." Robert Tytler noted demonstrations where the bird would twirl a thin stick with fires at the ends over its head. These uses have been noted from the time of Akbar.
Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge is located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
In partnership with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, as well as the Fort Peck Tribes, new signs have recently been installed at this refuge, as well as at the Pablo and Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuges in Montana that reflect the languages of the first people who once roamed the Americas.
I made this photographic capture in the springtime, late in the afternoon, with the warm low-lying sunlight casting its golden spell on the grasses, the trees and the shrubs of both the refuge grounds as well as the very impressive Mission Mountains, which make up the background here, the latter still sporting some winter snow on their peaks in early May. With weather variances as they relate to specific summers, that snow will often last until mid-July, sometimes early August. Then, in September and October, the cycle begins anew.
Each time I visit this gorgeous location I am imbued with the great calm and beauty of the refuge grounds. This vast wetlands is emblematic of what is called Big Sky Country. It is still fairly easy here in Montana to find yourself alone with Mother Nature on a regular basis and for extended lengths of time if you know where to look. And, yes, correct. Summertime in Glacier National Park is not an example of this type of place. Stunningly beautiful, yes. But there you understand that you will be sharing the environment with many, many folks, unless you are backcountry camping. And if you intend to do that, you would be very wise to take along a can or two of bear spray, just in case.
Ninepipe is located in the area of Ronan, Montana, roughly in
the area between Missoula and Polson, Montana. The iconic Flathead Lake, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, lies just to the north of the wetlands. The town of Polson sits on its southern shoreline.
Although I have taken a number of captures of the Helipad near the hospital I don't recall ever posting a photo of it, so I chose this one to post. Hillside Park is seen in the background, but this image was not really about the land, but is about the sky.
I had been taking pictures at the park under some really great golden hour light, and when the light was no longer on the park I started heading home. Walking past the helipad I noticed that some really nice colours had formed in the sky so I took this shot.
It really is amazing how quickly the light changes. "Golden Hour" should really be termed as "Golden Minutes". This is looking to the East, and the setting sun was likely just dipping below the horizon in the west. I am not sure if this would technically be called the blue hour or not. While the land looks uninspiring, the sky sure looked great. I tried to process so that detail in the land looked approximately as I remember it, beginning to get dark without much contrast or saturation.
After processing so many images in my lifetime, I still find images with such great variances of brightness hard to process to get a balance that approximates what I saw with the limited brightness values of a digital capture. I guess I have to accept that some images will always be a compromise.
An exposure nightmare, this one.
I'd decided that the preservation of most of the snow detail was paramount; but you can clearly see the drawbacks elsewhere.
I'm pretty sure there's all sorts of ways of dealing with huge variances in light, these days; unfortunately, I'm downright enept at getting my head round Photoshop & the like, & I've sparingly used the dodging feature on Elements without 'pushing' it so far as to produce a rash of noise.
I'm naturally wary of excessive darkness when there's clearly sunlight involved, so I'm not sure whether this is just a downright mess or not. It needs a fresh pair of eyes on it for an objective assessment, I think. Permission to speak freely!
twilight sometime , someplace close to home....
see my stream on black~
www.fluidr.com/photos/21491133@N02/
maybe a surreal blue fog moment~
www.flickr.com/photos/21491133@N02/3775013483/in/set-7215...
or maybe a stark bridge in fog and traffic~
www.flickr.com/photos/21491133@N02/2910443580/in/set-7215...
maybe a spell bound moment~
www.flickr.com/photos/21491133@N02/3486430785/in/set-7215...
Going back into the 2014 vaults to revive a photo from my favorite hotel in which to photograph - the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
• The Atlanta Marriott Marquis is a 50-story Marriott hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.
• The building was designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman, Jr.
• It was completed in 1985, with an enormous atrium; it was the largest in the world upon its completion in 1985, at 470 feet (143 m) high.
• The atrium spans the entire height of the building and consists of two vertical chambers divided by elevator shafts and bridges. The record was later broken by the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
• Although the 42nd floor features a concierge lounge that I've utilized, I prefer the lounge on the lobby level from which you can view the atrium above.
• In the films The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, some scenes of the Capitol's tribute center were filmed here.[5] Some scenes of the 2012 movie Flight were shot in the hotel as well. The atrium is also seen briefly in the 1986 movie Manhunter. It was also used as the Time Variance Authority headquarters in the Disney+ series Loki.
Should you be interested in another scene with a rich 'film' background, please click the photo in the comment below -->
Number 937 rolled through Camden Place in Minneapolis on July 1 1985 with three locomotives wearing three different paint jobs, but it takes a SOOaholic to recognize the difference. GP40 732 wears a variance of the original Soo scheme applied by Shoreham. GP38-2 4417 wears a similar dress but has a "more pronounced red color stripe in front," or "hockey stick." GP38-2 4407 carries the experimental red SOO lettering.
for 20Twenty
starting the 20th of April at mainstore, original create bunny print full height tights with little 'rubbed' patches in the thigh and buttom cheeks. Demo available in blue for test. Patches less visible lighter colour than darker. These patches not exact uniformity , slight variances as each tights was colour and shade individual not just recolour from original creation design.
20% off during event
mainstore link; maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Polentina/77/203/3135
Messier 94 is also known as NGC 4736 and has at least two common names: "The Cat' Eye Galaxy" and "The Croc's Eye Galaxy", with the later of which seems more popular this days. This galaxy is located 16 Million Light Years away in the Constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs).
This galaxy is classified as barred-spiral and is known to have two rings systems. Messier-Objects.com describes them like this:
"A popular target for astronomers, the brighter inner part of the face-on galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across. Traditionally, deep images have been interpreted as showing M94’s inner spiral region surrounded by a faint, broad ring of stars. But a new multi-wavelength investigation has revealed previously undetected spiral arms sweeping across the outskirts of the galaxy’s disk, an outer disk actively engaged in star formation."
I recently had two nights where the skies were clear and I was available. Given that my driveway is surrounded by trees and that I can only see an object at most for 3 hours on a given night, I would have typically done at least three nights on this. However, weather and the Moon were limiting me to these two nights.
These were shot with my Astro-Physics 130mm Starfire f/8.35 APO Refractor. This has the longest focal lengths of all of my scopes and it tends to get used for small targets like galaxies. I also have the new ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera mounted on the scope. The larger sensor and the higher resolution, are again, helpful with small galaxies.
Knowing my time would be limited, I shot more Lum filter images than R,G,or B filter images. The Lum filter is very broadband - letting light in from the edges of infrared all the way to the edges of UV. This means the Lum filter just collects more light. So I ended up with 72@90 second frames for L, and 40@90 second frames for R,G, & B. When processed, my Lum image is setup to be the main image that captures fine and faint details. The color images are setup to manage noise and bring in the color without needing driving the greatest detail. When combined, I can get an image that has the detail and contrast from the Lum image along with the color of the RGB images - the best of both worlds!
This is a very unusual galaxy in that there seems to be the compact core, a bit of a gap, and then a faint shell of gas and stars around it. The outer shell is very faint and I really wished I had at least double the number of exposures to maximize the quality of this faint structure.
I kind of like that fact that this galaxy looks a little different than many others I have shot. It's fun to read more about your target and learn what is known about it - or even better - seeing an image of it taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (which I would grudgingly admit *might* be just a shade better than mine….8-)…..
Thanks for looking,
Pat
Here are the image details:
*note:
The first night the gain used was 0.0
The Second night the gain used was 100.0
I could say this was done as an experiment to blend the superior dynamic range of the 0 gain setting with the greater sensitivity of the 100.0 gain setting. But the truth is that I just screwed up (SAA: Stupid Astrophotographer Actions) . I used the Grouping Keyword feature of WBPP2.1 in Pixinsight to apply the right calibration files for each night.
Light Frames
72 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, ZWO Gen II L Filter
40 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, ZWO Gen II R Filter
40 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C,, ZWO Gen II G Filter
40 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, ZWO Gen II B Filter
Total of 4.8 hours
Cal Frames
30 Darks at 90seconds, bin 1x1, -15C, gain 100
30 Darks at 90 seconds, bin 1x1, -15C, gain 0
30 Dark Flats at Flat exposure times, bin 1x1, -15C, gain 0
30 Dark Flats at Flat exposure times, bin 1x1, -15C, gain100
Flats done separately for each evening to account for camera rotator variances:
30 L Flats @ gain 100
30 R Flats @ gain 0
30 R Flats @ gain 1000
30 G Flats @ gain 0
30 G Flats @ gain 100
30 B Flats @ gain 0
30 B Flats @ gain 100
Capture Hardware:
Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO refractor
Guide Scope: Televue 76mm Doublet
Camera: ZWO AS2600mm-pro with ZWO 7x36 Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,
and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Camera Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera
Software:
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, editor regret and much swearing…..
Lilium Longiflorum x Asiatic hybrid 'tirreno', growing in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.
This was a new discovery for me, which is always exciting! It was in an area holding no other interst at this time of year, and hence why I've never spotted it. I like to vary up my walks a bit or I only see the same things year after year - and they are always adding to the collection (and yes uprooting/destroying some of my old favourites at times), and different trees find different levels of favour with birds from one year to the next (I'm no expert, but I put it down to variance of other food sources / populations / competition with other birds and vermin).
This is straight out of camera, not edited / cropped or sharpened for low-res social media platforms.
UBERAWESOMEISM is a revolution in your pants and/or skirt. Its fundamental uniqueness — an intellectual-yet-groovy synthesis of preexisting artforms to create a newness more new than any new experienced before — is a testament to the perfunctionary variance of expressive artistic mediums as channeled through the virtual world of Second Life, a 3D space where people sometimes sit in camping chairs and have intimate pixel relations (sometimes simultaneously!), but can do other things too — such as this.
The brainchild of "digital burlesque" artists Torley & Ravenelle (aka Ravi), UBERAWESOMEISM draws upon preestablished interpretive tropes and neophysical concepts employing avatar body language and the totality of one's AWESOME SELF contained within the parameters of a vibrant GLOW field, and unleashed via a quota of sheer asskickology.
One does not understand UBERAWESOMEISM. One never will. One can only shake thy booty and dance like a flower making love to itself, a self-indulgence which increases the smile factor present in one's sometimes humorless Second Life.
In this first act, we present, for your consideration, the symbolism of such a flower, emphasized in the colors of PINK + GREEN. Observe as Ravi parts her supple columns of artificial meat and spins into the air, a ripe, gorgeous blossom. Her enthusiastic companion in this mixed-pair performance, Torley, suddenly thrusts onto the floor and rolls in the non-existent dirt of this simulacrum, beholding strong overtones reminiscent of humility and grace. These spontaneous lesbians are not meant to titillate your carnal urges; rather, they are here to provoke your thoughts at partytime and induce (re)action, as all great and crap art does.
There can be no more meaningful message than this, my friends. This is not just art. This is... UBERAWESOMEISM.