View allAll Photos Tagged Variance
The beautiful Bay of Fires along the east coast of Tasmania. If you are going to visit this little island, make sure you see the east coast. via 500px ift.tt/1CtWnZD
Water on a window screen, looking out into my backyward. Yes, that's a ficus tree. I know, you've only seen ficus plants, but really, they grow as trees here.
This image also incorporates a new technique I am trying, using the wide angle lens in macro mode.
The title is close to that of one of my favorite music pieces, Beethoven's 32 Variations in C Minor. Not oft heard, but for those of obsessed with variation as I, it is a masterpiece.
www.amazon.com/Glenn-Gould-Beethoven-Ludwig-van/dp/B00000...
(Explore 1.11.2008--Thanks friends!)
Although a few have departed, what's left of the twelve apostles is simply stunning. A must see destination if you are traveling to Australia. via 500px ift.tt/1rDnufe
After settling for so long with “Satele Shan” I decided the figure just wasn’t good enough to represent Bastila, from the brilliant (I loved it anyway!) game KOTOR. I’m really pleased with the decal I made, but yes, I do need more variance of faces!
original painterly feel from camera settings + wind ... thiny flowers ^.^
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part of "Variance Collections - Pi" (variation of colors)
Prints available
Urbex Benelux -
Property is titled according to one of three basic concepts: sole ownership, joint ownership, or title by contract. Assets can only be titled in one of these three ways, but each can include one or more variances.
Pato de la Florida, Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors)
Status Migrante Comun (Mc) NoIG
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
The Polish capital looking very colourful on this cold winter morning. You can see the Palace of culture in the background and the road in the foreground leads to the Royal Palace. via 500px ift.tt/1xgnNv4
This is me taken before my speech at the China Development News Conference 2011-09-28 - Beijing ; PRC.
I did the editing myself!
I have been ill since 2011-07, but I still made my trip by train to Beijing to give speech at the said conference. After the speech, the next day; I am completely unable to stand, walk or seat for long.
Can you see I still put up the smiling pose for the portrait. This is taken by the professional photographer's of the China Government admin. press office.
I must thank you all for the support even I am out of action in flickr.
Lives have not been easy for me at home and here. I have not given up to advocate my visions & speak-up for our generation's & our siblings generation's.
Since, the 80's I already foresaw how our generation's creating wealth & then when we aged, our wealth that built have been long gone.
In my much earlier post, I had said that, we all don't want to be failure in business, being lay-off; broken family; our home become toxic home; even our life-line of $3000 have been taken by the IRS; Credit Cards & Financial Institutions slap high financial charges to forced bankruptcy. Robbing the Middle Class & Aids to the Rich is where the world governing Economy System by and large today! Thus putting all of us into poverty.
But in reallity these are all forced on us. All of US are hard working & the pioneer's of the Knowledge Based economy. However, we have been written off by the so call "Financial Economy System".
You may heard again & again China is depriving the rights of our opportunities & thus we goes into the situations that we are today. That is not the actual facts.
As in my post www.flickr.com/photos/charliebrown8989/4170746564/ I had single out to the press then that when an organization collapse of the middle class; like what IBM; Philips does in the mid- late 80's, that would cause the critical issue of harmony of the hierarchical structure of the people nature.
At the Information Technology for the World Future Conference, Aug --1989 Nagoya; Japan. I said that the hierarchical structure of top-middle-lower cannot be wape-out of any layer in order to maintain the structurer harmony. The same facts were written in my paper to Philips Supervisory Board & Philips Board of Management entitle " Creating An Excellence New Philips Corporate Culture".
1998 I was the Chairman of the Global e-Commerce Council's, I had said that beside "Digital Have & Have Not ", We will be facing the future of "Widening Gap Between The Rich & the Poor."
Our 2003 .COM became .Bomb; then the administration still using the Landbase Economy to perk-up the economy that is the major cause of our big bang on economy, during 2007-2009.
In between 2007-2008 I was involved in EDU, I have met people who are ex- director of IBM, NASA, MIcrosoft, Boeing, CitiBank..HP, CA, CISCO, Oracle, ..I have even lower myself applying job as technical support, plumber, Electrician, PC Technician, Security, Safety Officer at the Casino...but there are no job.
The truth is that the knowledge Based jobs'; such as software production, system programming; professional services; customer Service Center;.. R & D had gone to countries like India; Phillipines; Vietnam; Malaysia; South Africa, Kenya, West Africa, the industries that stay in China are still those smoke stack industries! For those R & D & Software jobs that in China mainly are for the China Market only because of the Chinese Language National variance issue.
Being almost over 1.5years in China, I have found that China have even facing the greater issues & risk of the collapse of the Landbase Economy. Currently there are 25% of the 1.5B people are considered as middle class which inclusive of the 5% are rich class, the rest of the 75% are in poverty. In additions to the Chinese Brain Drain! There are strong facts & figures shown that there are an extrodus of the Chinese middle class & the rich out flow to Europe; Australia; Singapore; Malaysia,Canada & more so to our country USA!!
I have reasons to believe that It is not China interest to see the failure of Euro & our Economy system. If that happened, then it would lead to the total collapse of the China's own economy.
To continue...
Historically, even before IQ tests were invented, there were attempts to classify people into intelligence categories by observing their behavior in daily life. Those other forms of behavioral observation are still important for validating classifications based primarily on IQ test scores. Both intelligence classification by observation of behavior outside the testing room and classification by IQ testing depend on the definition of "intelligence" used in a particular case and on the reliability and error of estimation in the classification procedure.[citation needed]The English statistician Francis Galton made the first attempt at creating a standardized test for rating a person's intelligence. A pioneer of psychometrics and the application of statistical methods to the study of human diversity and the study of inheritance of human traits, he believed that intelligence was largely a product of heredity (by which he did not mean genes, although he did develop several pre-Mendelian theories of particulate inheritance). He hypothesized that there should exist a correlation between intelligence and other observable traits such as reflexes, muscle grip, and head size.He set up the first mental testing centre in the world in 1882 and he published "Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development" in 1883, in which he set out his theories. After gathering data on a variety of physical variables, he was unable to show any such correlation, and he eventually abandoned this research.French psychologist Alfred Binet was one of the key developers of what later became known as the Stanford–Binet test.French psychologist Alfred Binet, together with Victor Henri and Théodore Simon had more success in 1905, when they published the Binet-Simon test, which focused on verbal abilities. It was intended to identify mental retardation in school children,but in specific contradistinction to claims made by psychiatrists that these children were "sick" (not "slow") and should therefore be removed from school and cared for in asylums.The score on the Binet-Simon scale would reveal the child's mental age. For example, a six-year-old child who passed all the tasks usually passed by six-year-olds—but nothing beyond—would have a mental age that matched his chronological age, 6.0. (Fancher, 1985). Binet thought that intelligence was multifaceted, but came under the control of practical judgment.In Binet's view, there were limitations with the scale and he stressed what he saw as the remarkable diversity of intelligence and the subsequent need to study it using qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, measures (White, 2000). American psychologist Henry H. Goddard published a translation of it in 1910. American psychologist Lewis Terman at Stanford University revised the Binet-Simon scale, which resulted in the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (1916). It became the most popular test in the United States for decades.The many different kinds of IQ tests include a wide variety of item content. Some test items are visual, while many are verbal. Test items vary from being based on abstract-reasoning problems to concentrating on arithmetic, vocabulary, or general knowledge.The British psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904 made the first formal factor analysis of correlations between the tests. He observed that children's school grades across seemingly unrelated school subjects were positively correlated, and reasoned that these correlations reflected the influence of an underlying general mental ability that entered into performance on all kinds of mental tests. He suggested that all mental performance could be conceptualized in terms of a single general ability factor and a large number of narrow task-specific ability factors. Spearman named it g for "general factor" and labeled the specific factors or abilities for specific tasks s. In any collection of test items that make up an IQ test, the score that best measures g is the composite score that has the highest correlations with all the item scores. Typically, the "g-loaded" composite score of an IQ test battery appears to involve a common strength in abstract reasoning across the test's item content. Therefore, Spearman and others have regarded g as closely related to the essence of human intelligence.Spearman's argument proposing a general factor of human intelligence is still accepted in principle by many psychometricians. Today's factor models of intelligence typically represent cognitive abilities as a three-level hierarchy, where there are a large number of narrow factors at the bottom of the hierarchy, a handful of broad, more general factors at the intermediate level, and at the apex a single factor, referred to as the g factor, which represents the variance common to all cognitive tasks. However, this view is not universally accepted; other factor analyses of the data, with different results, are possible. Some psychometricians regard g as a statistical artifact.
Check out my Getty Images Stock Gallery!
(Source: Wikipedia)
Gay pride or LGBT pride is the positive stance against discrimination and violence toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to promote their self-affirmation, dignity, equality rights, increase their visibility as a social group, build community, and celebrate sexual diversity and gender variance. Pride, as opposed to shame and social stigma, is the predominant outlook that bolsters most LGBT rights movements throughout the world. Pride has lent its name to LGBT-themed organizations, institutes, foundations, book titles, periodicals and even a cable TV station and the Pride Library.
Ranging from solemn to carnivalesque, pride events are typically held during LGBT Pride Month or some other period that commemorates a turning point in a country's LGBT history, for example Moscow Pride in May for the anniversary of Russia's 1993 decriminalization of homosexuality. Some pride events include LGBT pride parades and marches, rallies, commemorations, community days, dance parties, and large festivals, such as Sydney Mardi Gras, which spans several weeks.
Common symbols of pride are the rainbow or pride flag, the lowercase Greek letter lambda (λ), the pink triangle and the black triangle, these latter two reclaimed from use as badges of shame in Nazi concentration camps.
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ABT's Ballet Terms Word Tree™
How would this look on a T-Shirt, I wonder?
I checked the spellings in a ballet dictionary.
Composed in "Wordle" which is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
I am redoing it to recreate the steps...
Save your text in a text edit program so you can try it out against different settings in Wordie. Type in words you want to be larger more often.
Paste your text into Wordie at www.wordle.net/create and hit Go.
Click on Color in the menu line above and select the color palette you want to try. For example, I used Worldle(TM).
Also select the level of variance you like at the bottom of the Color menu. I like lots of variance so word colors do not repeat as often and you get different shades of the basic colors..
You can click repeatedly on Recolor in the color menu, until you like the colors it chose.
Click on Layout. I like "Mostly Vertical" or "Mostly Horizontal"
You can also keep hitting "re-layout" with current settings until you get a layout you like.
I then used "Grab" and selected my area on the window I wanted to save. Grab is a nice screen selector and save program on Mac's OS X. There are plenty of similar applications on Microsoft Windows too.
Actually you should select and save the image whenever you like it because selecting changes seems to lose what you had. For me anyway.
Here's A Different Way:
It's also fun and interesting, on the create page, to use the option of giving it your webpage URL and have it select the words for you. It selects word sizes on the frequency of occurrence on the page. Or in your text for that matter.
Hope that helps.
Oh, I should mention. The colors from Wordle are too mute for my taste, so I imported it into Apple's iPhoto to give it a little more vibrancy. You can do the same in Flickr's Picnic. Or, you can use Photoshop, which is the real powerhouse.
Vervet monkeys
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen
Hluhluwe–Imfolozi Park, formerly Hluhluwe–Umfolozi Game Reserve, is the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in Africa. It consists of 960 km² (96,000 ha) of hilly topography 280 kilometres (170 mi) north of Durban in central KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is known for its rich wildlife and conservation efforts. The park is the only state-run park in KwaZulu-Natal where each of the big five game animals can be found.
Due to conservation efforts, the park in 2008 had the largest population of white rhino in the world.
Throughout the park there are many signs of Stone Age settlements. The area was originally a royal hunting ground for the Zulu kingdom, but was established as a park in 1895. The Umfolozi and Hluhluwe reserves were established primarily to protect the white rhinoceros, then on the endangered species list. The area has always been a haven for animals as tsetse flies carrying the nagana disease are common, which protected the area from hunters in the colonial era. However, as the Zululand areas was settled by European farmers the game was blamed for the prevalence of the tsetse fly and the reserves became experimental areas in the efforts to eradicate the fly. Farmers called for the slaughter of game and about 100,000 animals were killed in the reserve before the introduction of DDT spraying in 1945 solved the problem. However, white rhinoceros were not targeted and today a population of about 1000 is maintained. On April 30, 1995, the then President Nelson Mandela visited the then Hluhluwe Game Reserve to celebrate the park's centenary. Hluhluwe–Imfolozi was originally three separate reserves that joined under its current title in 1989.
The park is located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal on the east coast of South Africa. The park is closest to the town of Mtubatuba , Hluhluwe village and Hlabisa village. The geography of the area differs from the north, or Hluhluwe area, to the south, or Umfolozi area. Hluhluwe–Imfolozi Park is partly in a low-risk malaria area.
This Imfolozi area is situated between the two Umfolozi Rivers where they divide into the Mfolozi emnyama ('Black Umfolozi') to the north and the Mfolozi emhlophe ('White Umfolozi') to the south. This area is to the south of the park and is generally hot in summer, and mild to cool in winter, although cold spells do occur. The topography in the Umfolozi section ranges from the lowlands of the Umfolozi River beds to steep hilly country, which includes some wide and deep valleys. Habitats in this area are primarily grasslands, which extend into acacia savannah and woodlands.
The Hluhluwe region has hilly topography where altitudes range from 80 to 540 metres (260 to 1,770 ft) above sea level. The high ridges support coastal scarp forests in a well-watered region with valley bushveld at lower levels. The north of the park is more rugged and mountainous with forests and grasslands and is known as the Hluhluwe area, while the Umfolozi area is found to the south near the Black and White Umfolozi rivers where there is open savannah.
The park is home to Africa's big five game: elephant, rhinoceros (black/hook-lipped and white/square-lipped), Cape buffalo, lion and leopard. It is home to 86 special species including: Nile crocodile, hippo, cheetah, spotted hyena, blue wildebeest, jackal, giraffe, zebra, waterbuck, nyala, eland, kudu, impala, duiker, suni, reedbuck, common warthog, bushpig, mongoose, baboons, monkeys, a variety of tortoises, terrapins, snakes and lizards. It is one of the world's top spots for viewing nyala. The park is a prime birding destination and is home to 340 bird species. The Hluhluwe River Flood Plain is one of the only areas in the whole of South Africa where yellow-throated, pink-throated and orange-throated longclaw species can be seen together. Bird life include night heron, Wahlberg's eagle, Shelley's francolin, black-bellied korhaan, Temminck's courser, Klaas's cuckoo, little bee-eater and crested barbet.
The park has a diverse floral community.
In 1981, the Natal Parks board (now Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife) attempted to reintroduce African wild dogs into the park. Twenty-three dogs were released in the reserve, most of which had been bred in zoos. However this met with limited success and by 2015, the population had fluctuated between 3 and 30 individuals.
The park is the birthplace of rhino preservation, breeding the species back from extinction. As the home of Operation Rhino in the 1950s and 60s (driven largely by the park's warden, Ian Player), the park became world-renowned for its white rhino conservation. The Rhino Capture Unit of the park helped save the endangered White Rhino from the brink of extinction. As of 2008 there are more than 1,600 white rhino in the reserve and hundreds of the animals have been moved from here to game reserves around the world. The success of this programme has recently been compromised by the increase in rhino poaching within the park. This recent threat has not only become a great concern for the park, but for rhino conservationists countrywide.
The reserve has a 300-kilometre (190 mi) road network.
Some controversy arose in 2014 over plans to build an open-cast coal mine right on the park's border, a plan that a growing coalition of organisations is fighting to stop.
(Wikipedia)
The vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus Chlorocebus. The five distinct subspecies can be found mostly throughout Southern Africa, as well as some of the eastern countries. Vervets were introduced to Florida, St. Kitts, and Cape Verde. These mostly herbivorous monkeys have black faces and grey body hair color, ranging in body length from about 50 centimetres (20 in) for males to about 40 centimetres (16 in) for females.
In addition to behavioral research on natural populations, vervet monkeys serve as a nonhuman primate model for understanding genetic and social behaviors of humans. They have been noted for having human-like characteristics, such as hypertension, anxiety, and social and dependent alcohol use. Vervets live in social groups ranging from 10 to 70 individuals, with males moving to other groups at the time of sexual maturity. The most significant studies done on vervet monkeys involve their communication and alarm calls, specifically in regard to kin and group recognition and particular predator sightings.
The vervet monkey very much resembles a gray langur, having a black face with a white fringe of hair, while the overall hair color is mostly grizzled-grey. The species exhibits sexual dimorphism; the males are larger in weight and body length. Adult males weigh between 3.9 and 8.0 kg (8.6 and 17.6 lb), averaging 5.5 kg (12 lb), and have a body length between 420 and 600 mm (17 and 24 in), averaging 490 mm (19 in) from the top of the head to the base of the tail. Adult females weigh between 3.4 and 5.3 kg (7.5 and 11.7 lb) and average 4.1 kg (9.0 lb), and measure between 300 and 495 mm (11.8 and 19.5 in), averaging 426 mm (16.8 in).
When males reach sexual maturity, they move to a neighboring group. Often, males will move with a brother or peer, presumably for protection against aggression by males and females of the resident group. Groups that had previously transferred males show significantly less aggression upon the arrival of another male. In almost every case, males migrate to adjacent groups. This obviously increases benefits in regard to distance traveled, but also reduces the amount of genetic variance, increasing the likelihood of inbreeding.
Females remain in their groups throughout life. Separate dominance hierarchies are found for each sex. Male hierarchies are determined by age, tenure in the group, fighting abilities, and allies, while female hierarchies are dependent on maternal social status. A large proportion of interactions occur between individuals which are similarly ranked and closely related. Between unrelated individuals, there is female competition for grooming members of high-ranking families, presumably to gain more access to resources. These observations suggest individual recognition is possible and enables discrimination of genetic relatedness and social status. Interactions between different groups are variable, ranging from highly aggressive to friendly. Furthermore, individuals seem to be able to recognize cross-group vocalizations, and identify from and to which monkey each call is intended, even if the call is made by a subadult male which is likely to transfer groups. This suggests the members within a group are actively monitoring the activity of other groups, including the movement of individuals within a group.
Vervet monkeys have four confirmed predators: leopards, eagles, pythons, and baboons. The sighting of each predator elicits an acoustically distinct alarm call. As infants vervets learn to make the variety of calls from observation alone, without explicit tutelage. In experimentation with unreliable signalers, individuals became habituated to incorrect calls from a specific individual. Though the response was lessened for a specific predator, if an unreliable individual gives an alarm call for a different predator, group members respond as if the alarm caller is, in fact, reliable. This suggests vervet monkeys are able to recognize and to respond to not only the individual calling, but also to the semantics of what the individual is communicating. It is believed that vervet monkeys have up to 30 different alarm calls. In the wild vervet monkeys have been seen giving a different call when seeing a human being approaching, leading researchers to believe that vervet monkeys may have a way of distinguishing between different land and flight predators.
Mothers can recognize their offspring by a scream alone. A juvenile scream will elicit a reaction from all mothers, yet the juvenile's own mother had a shorter latency in looking in the direction of the scream, as well as an increased duration in her look. Further, mothers have been observed to help their offspring in conflict, yet rarely aided other juveniles. Other mothers evidently can determine to which mother the offspring belongs. Individuals have been observed to look towards the mother whose offspring is creating the scream.
Siblings likely provide the prevailing social relationships during development. Within social groups, mother-offspring and sibling interactive units are distinct groups. The sibling interaction are heavily supportive and friendly, but do have some competition. Contests primarily involve postweaning resource allocation by the common mother. For example, siblings have conflict over grooming time allocated by their mother. Offspring are usually not born in extremely close proximity due to the interbirth period of the mother. This time can be reduced by use of an allomother. The clarity of the familial and sibships within a group may act as a form of alliance, which would come at relatively low cost in regards to grooming. Other alliances are shown through conflict with aggressive individuals that have acted against a closely related sibling.
Allomothering is the process when another individual besides the mother cares for an infant. In groups of vervet monkeys, infants are the source of a tremendous amount of attention. Days after an infant is born, every member of the group will inspect the infant at least once by touching or sniffing. While all group members participate in infant caretaking, juvenile females which cannot yet menstruate are responsible for the majority of allomothering. The benefit is mutual for the mother and allomother. Mothers that use allomothers are able to shorten their interbirth periods, the time between successive births. At the same time, allomothers gain experience in rearing infants, and had more success in raising their own offspring. Juvenile females discriminate in preference for the infant they choose to allomother, and will usually choose siblings or infants of high-ranking individuals. When a mother allows her juvenile daughter to become an allomother for a newborn sibling, the mother decreases her own investment in the infant, while increasing the chances of successful rearing of her immature daughter.
Grandmothers and grandchildren share one-quarter of their genes, so they should be more likely to form affiliative relationships than unrelated members in a group. Not only do infants approach their grandmothers more often than unrelated members, but they also prefer their grandmothers compared to other adult female kin, not including their own mothers. Additional research has shown grandmothers show no preference over the sex of their grandchild. Interest in the grandchild spurred from the rank of the grandmother within a group. Higher-ranking grandmothers showed more interest in caring for their grandchildren when compared to low-ranking grandmothers. The presence of grandmothers has been associated with a decrease in mortality of infants.
Spiteful actions are extremely rare in the animal kingdom. Often, there is an indirect benefit to the individual acting 'spiteful' or to a close relative of that individual. Vervet monkeys have been observed to destroy a competitor's food source rather than consume or steal it themselves. While energy is being lost on destroying the food, a competitive advantage is given to the individual due to an increase in competitive gain. This would be pertinent for a male which could be displaced within his group to immigrating males.
Female vervets do not have external signs indicating a menstruation period, thus there are not elaborate social behaviors involving reproduction. Typically, a female gives birth once a year, between September to February, after a gestation period of about 165 days. Usually only one infant is born at a time, though twins can occur rarely. A normal infant weighs 300–400 g.
The vervet monkey eats a primarily herbivorous diet, living mostly on wild fruits, flowers, leaves, seeds, and seed pods. In agricultural areas, vervets become problem animals, as they will raid bean crops, peas, young tobacco plants, vegetables, fruit, and various grain crops. Carnivorous aspects of their diet include grasshoppers and termites. Raids of cattle egrets and weaver bird nests have been observed where the vervets will eat the eggs and chicks.
The vervet monkey ranges throughout much of Southern and East Africa, being found from Ethiopia, Somalia and extreme southern South Sudan, to South Africa. It is not found west of the East African Rift or the Luangwa River, where it is replaced by the closely related malbrouck (C. cynosuros). The vervet monkey inhabits savanna, riverine woodland, coastal forest and mountains up to 4000 m (13,100 ft). They are adaptable and able to persist in secondary and/or highly fragmented vegetation, including cultivated areas, and sometimes are found living in both rural and urban environments. Annual home range size has been observed to be as high as 176 ha with an average population density of 54.68 animals/km².
In spite of low predator populations in many areas, human development has encroached on wild territories, and this species is killed by electricity pylons, vehicles, dogs, pellet guns, poison, and bullets, and is trapped for traditional medicine, bush meat, and for biomedical research. The vervet monkey has a complex and fragile social system, and persecution of the monkeys is thought to have affected troop structures and diminishing numbers. Many people living in close proximity to vervet monkey colonies see them as pests as they steal their food. There are heavy fines in some cities to discourage the killing of vervet monkeys.
Its status according to the IUCN is "least concern".
This species was known in ancient Egypt including the Red Sea Mountains and the Nile Valley. From fresco artworks found in Akrotiri on the Mediterranean island of Santorini there is evidence that the vervet monkey was known to the inhabitants of this settlement around 2000 BC; this fact is most noted for evidence of early contact between Egypt and Akrotiri. Excavations dated to the end of the 1st century AD from Berenike, a Roman-Egyptian port-town on the Red Sea coast, demonstrate that vervet monkeys must have been kept as pets at that time.
Introduced vervet monkeys are naturalized in Ascension Island and Cape Verde. Dania Beach, Florida, is home to about 20 introduced vervets.
(Wikipedia)
Der Hluhluwe-iMfolozi-Park (früher Hluhluwe-Umfolozi-Park), 280 km nördlich von Durban gelegen, ist eines der ältesten Wildschutzgebiete Afrikas. Er umfasst 960 km² meist hügeliges Gelände und liegt im zentralen Zululand in der Provinz KwaZulu-Natal in Südafrika.
Die vielfältige Vegetation bietet Lebensraum für viele Säugetiere, Vögel, Reptilien und Amphibien. Die „Big Five“, Elefant, Nashorn, Büffel, Löwe und Leopard sind ebenso im Park vertreten wie Geparde, Wildhunde und Giraffen und Nyalas. Hluhluwe und Imfolozi wurden 1895 als getrennte Wildreservate gegründet, als die Population dieser Tiere durch übermäßige Jagd gefährdet war.
Anfang der 1960er Jahre war das Breitmaulnashorn (Ceratotherium simium) vom Aussterben bedroht, in Imfolozi existierte das weltweit letzte bekannte Vorkommen in freier Wildbahn. In der Operation Rhino, die vom KwaZulu Nature Conservation Service durchgeführt wurde, fing man Exemplare ein und schickte sie an Reservate und Zoos in der ganzen Welt, so dass sich inzwischen die weltweiten Bestände erholt haben. Heute finden ähnliche Bemühungen mit dem Spitzmaulnashorn (Diceros bicornis) statt. 1999 wurde ein Projekt zur Erhaltung der Löwenbestände gestartet, die an Inzucht litten, so dass die Bestände durch neue Tiere ergänzt wurden.
Im Laufe der Zeit wurden den Parks weitere Gebiete zugeordnet, 1964 Schutzzäune errichtet und 1989 die beiden Hauptgebiete mit dem trennenden Korridor zum heutigen Park vereint. Heute verwaltet die Naturschutzbehörde der Provinz KwaZulu-Natal, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, das Schutzgebiet, das trotz seiner Größe und bedeutenden Wildbeständen nicht den Status eines Nationalparks Südafrikas besitzt.
(Wikipedia)
Die Südliche Grünmeerkatze (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) ist eine Primatenart aus der Familie der Meerkatzenverwandten (Cercopithecidae). Sie ist eine der sechs Arten, in die die Grünen Meerkatzen in jüngeren Systematiken unterschieden werden.
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen erreichen eine Kopfrumpflänge von 40 bis 60 Zentimeter, der Schwanz wird bis zu 70 Zentimeter lang. Ihr Gewicht beträgt 4 bis 6 Kilogramm, wobei die Männchen deutlich größer und schwerer als die Weibchen werden. Das Fell dieser Tiere ist an der Oberseite graugrün gefärbt, die Unterseite ist heller, die Hände und Füße sind schwarz. Auch das Gesicht ist schwarz, es wird von hellen Haaren an den Backen und an der Stirn eingerahmt. Wie bei allen Grünmeerkatzen haben die Männchen leuchtend gefärbte Genitalien: das Skrotum ist blau und der Penis rot.
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen sind im östlichen und südlichen Afrika beheimatet. Ihr Verbreitungsgebiet reicht von Äthiopien und Somalia über Kenia und Tansania bis nach Südafrika. Sie kommen in einer Reihe von Habitaten vor, bevorzugen aber offene Wälder und Savannen. Allzu dichte Wälder meiden sie aber ebenso wie völlig baumlose Gebiete. Auch in der Nähe des Menschen können sie sich aufhalten.
Diese Primaten sind semiterrestrisch (das heißt, sie halten sich sowohl am Boden wie auch auf den Bäume auf) und wie alle Altweltaffen tagaktiv. Zur Nachtruhe ziehen sie sich auf Bäume zurück. Sie leben in Gruppen von bis zu 50 Tieren, die sich aus mehreren Männchen, vielen Weibchen und den dazugehörigen Jungtieren zusammensetzen. Beide Geschlechter etablieren eine Rangordnung, die beispielsweise beim Zugang zu Nahrungsquellen und bei der Fortpflanzung zum Tragen kommt. Sie kommunizieren miteinander mit einer Reihe von Lauten, Gesten und Körperhaltungen.
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen sind Allesfresser, bevorzugen aber Früchte. Daneben verzehren sie auch Blüten, Blätter, junge Triebe, aber auch Insekten, Würmer und andere Kleintiere.
Nach einer rund 165-tägigen Tragzeit bringt das Weibchen ein einzelnes Jungtier zur Welt. Dieses wird im zweiten Lebenshalbjahr entwöhnt und mit 2 bis 3 Jahren geschlechtsreif – wenngleich sich Männchen aufgrund des Gruppenverhaltens selten vor dem fünften Lebensjahr fortpflanzen.
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen sind weit verbreitet und können sich besser als die meisten Primatenarten auf die Nähe des Menschen einstellen. Sie kommen teilweise auch in Städten vor und dringen in Plantagen ein. Mancherorts werden sie deswegen als Plage betrachtet und verfolgt, hinzu kommt die Bejagung wegen ihres Fleisches. Insgesamt dürfte die Art nicht gefährdet sein, die IUCN listet sie nicht gesondert.
(Wikipedia)
Silica - a public artwork that incorporates a bus shelter and kiosk in its base. The structure's spire contains thousands of glass bulbs which are lit by LED lights.
I loved the design and its modern appearance seemed at variance to the buildings around it.
Highest position at #197 in Explore.
(Shortlisted for Digital Camera Photographer Of The Year 2011 - landscape category)
(Honourable Mention in the 2012 International Photography Awards landscape category, as part of my 'Sand, Sea & Silence' set of five photographs)
I had one attempt at this exposure before a fisherman came and perched next to the marker. In fairness he did ask first, and although I'd have felt more comfortable being able to take a couple more to allow for light variances, cloud movement, etc, I think I was quite lucky how this one turned out. It's funny how sometimes a photograph comes together seemingly of it's own accord, yet on other occasions you can put all the effort in the world into an image and still walk away empty-handed.
Yesterday was a good example by comparison. I got up at 4.20am, having checked the tide times, weather report and photographer's ephemeris the night before. I had one or two shots in mind that seemed to suit the likely conditions and with those firmly planted headed off to Lyme Regis, finding myself standing on The Cobb about half an hour before sunrise - and for once without another photographer in prime position blocking my shot! Despite this, somehow everything seemed... wrong. There had been hints of a good smattering of promising looking cloud as I'd driven through the darkness, yet the approaching onslaught of dawn had banished it completely from the skies before me... I took a few shots half-heartedly as the light grew, thinking perhaps it was time to just head home given how bright the day seemed determined to become. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained - the rest of my day went like this:
Ask for sausage and egg baguette in cafe before leaving Lyme Regis. Realise wrong filling in baguette once back at car. Eat baguette anyway. Reluctantly admit cafe's choice had been pretty good.
Decide to try several other locations in the hope that a little cloud might provide some relief from the increasingly harsh conditions. Curse incorrect weather report.
Drive to Seatown. Make mental note of limited photographic possibilities for a different day.
Head on to Charmouth. Remember why I have never taken any photographs there before. Has anyone found anything to photograph in Charmouth?!
Continue onwards to West Bay. Wince as my sun visor comes down and I wonder just how many ND filters I can stack at the same time. Park at West Bay. Abandon camera and head off in search of food and water. Take photograph of large strawberry and cream flavour ice cream in waffle cone on my phone to tease my wife (toiling away at work), ruefully aware it may be my finest image of the day.
Watch as cloud starts to build inland. Wait nearly an hour as cumulus stubbornly refuses to head towards me. Race back in the direction of Colmer's Hill, a wonderful location I've tried to shoot several times previously and failed. Leave car in nearby Symondsbury, figuring it will be a good idea to trek to the top of the hill. I climb. I swear. I climb. I swear. I climb. I swear. I... oh, you get the idea.... Once at the summit, I discover picturesque though the surrounding scenery is, a good photograph it does not necessarily make. Spend several moments contemplating this green and pleasant land. Glimpse hints of cloud in the direction of West Bay.
Return to West Bay. Realise hints of cloud were just there to tease me and force my hand for more petrol money.
Give it all up as a bad job and start the return journey. Stop at shop and buy more food... and drink. I am far from fat. Despite my better judgement, somehow convince myself there are no bad conditions, only bad photographers - and embark on a detour to Sidmouth. Arrive at Sidmouth, cruise the length of the sea front in dismay trying not to knock down the milling throng of tourists who apparently forgot to go home after the school holidays.
Leave Sidmouth. Go home.
Noh masks (能面 nō-men or 面 omote) all have names. They are carved from blocks of Japanese cypress (檜 "hinoki"), and painted with natural pigments on a neutral base of glue and crunched seashell.
Usually only the shite, the main actor, wears a mask. However, in some cases, the tsure may also wear a mask, particularly in the case of female roles. Noh masks portray female or nonhuman (divine, demonic, or animal) characters. There are also Noh masks to represent youngsters or old men. On the other hand, a Noh actor who wears no mask plays a role of an adult man in his twenties, thirties, or forties. The side player, the waki, wears no mask either.
Several types of masks, in particular those for female roles, are designed so that slight adjustments in the position of the head can express a number of emotions such as fear or sadness due to the variance in lighting and the angle shown towards the audience. With some of the more extravagant masks for deities and monsters, however, it is not always possible to convey emotion. Usually, however, these characters are not frequently called to change emotional expression during the course of the scene, or show emotion through larger body language.
~from Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh#Masks
National Cultural Properties inJapan
Exhibition of NPO 三河三座 (Nonprofit Organization, Mikawasanza group) at the Toyohashi City Art Museum. Toyohashi city, Aichi Pref. Japan
The Bay of Fires Binalong Bay, Tasmania If you would like to purchase this image, contact me on: hello@aperturevariance.com via 500px ift.tt/16WpM06
An early morning photo of a pier in Sorrento. A little town along Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula. via 500px ift.tt/1xgqi0N
Camera: Mamiya C33
Lense: Mamiya-Sekor 180 mm, F4.0
Film: Ilford FP4+
Processing: Rodinal, 1+24, 07:50 min, PULL ISO 80, digitized with Epson V850 Pro
The 1 is operated by a mixture of Volvo B7TLs, Enviro200s and Streetlites, with all buses operating all variances of the route. I tried to get some sort of order (e.g. double decks on the long routes to Poole), but it seems to be completely random. Here is 856 over the bridge.
Got to spend the day in Geelong yesterday. I must admit the people of Geelong have an awesome waterfront. Here is a shot of Cunningham Pier via 500px ift.tt/1GMxOCn
People Screaming,Why?Why?Why?
Unexpect'd preconceiv'd moltitudini of distribut'd pipes,
furiously upturn'd into αναταραχές air,
listen to thy hubbub of ragioni mention'd,
clattering besprinkl'd phenomena of variances of φιλοσοφικός vows,
simultaneously maintaining exclamaciones into egregious words,
a circumstance rubbish compos'd precise iskrivljavanja be,
inflammatories obtaining необјашњив manufactur'd grunts,
disinclin'd to trépidations seiz'd suspiciously committ'd hence,
drawing obrovský preparations to extract thy soaring tears,
far dimensions emerge straffeloosheid resides in revolution of speeches,
bellows immediate pneumatics thy communicationes stumble,
αμαθής in proficiency mistrust thy notions of the leaders confus'd,
requisite repayment substance ergernis of endeavors aghast,
numerous speculatively offering analyse self interest swirls,
improbable незначительный particulars laid,
apocryphal paragraphs hesitatingly przekłamań minds,
diminish'd passages analoga to pressure opinions,
the misanthrope assequebatur of inventions of rumors,
excepting ascertain'd vapors crucibles sbalorditivo decision,
Why?Why?Why? Molten limaille voices rise!
Vikomt.D.Hammengoor.
My first and only diving excursion for 2016 (so far) was to San Miguel Island. It was nice to see the variances between San Miguel and my usual diving at Anacapa. I was also excited to find a bunch these spectacular blue-ringed top snails.
I make no apologies for my complete and total reverence of the color green. Living on the Olympic Peninsula, one can hardly fault me for this. Everywhere a person goes there are visual reminders of this remarkable color. Most of the time, our forest lands contain many different tree variances, each species with a somewhat different hue of green. Just for good measure, there is a host of understory shrubs for our viewing pleasure as well.
On this day, I went to the waters edge and found some paper thin seaweed clinging of an old tree root. The fog nearly shrouds my vision, but the always amiable sun will soon have its way and burn it all off. So you see, the color green, always lovely, catches my fancy once again---but in a different sort of way.
My dear friends, I've been pretty busy these days, I'm really sorry I couldn't upload anything sooner.
I will try to keep uploading at least once a week, it's the best I can do.
My exam went great, I finally ended my academic career!!!
I'm currently working 50+ hours/week, and since I'm spending some time out relaxing in the evenings it's really hard
to get here.
In this shot, I decided to make a long exposure, while trying to keep a shutter speed which could freeze Alice and
Letizia (the dark haired girl on the right). It's almost impossible to stand still for 10+ secs, so I chose 4s.
This shiny tree and the glowing reflections on the pavement really caught my eye, and I'm pretty happy of how this
turned out.
I'm becoming more and more critic on my works, so it's difficult for me to pick up something I really like.
I'm not really sure about this one...
Hope to have some time to get out and shoot some new works.
My website is SLOWLY growing, I hope to put it online in two months.
Moreover, I decided to adopt a more serious attitude towards processing, so I purchased a Spyder 3 Pro Calibration
device and these days I'm placing an order for a 24'' HP LP 2475 monitor. Would love to get an Eizo but, unless
photography becomes my main occupation, 1.000+ € for a video device are way too much.
After the monitor, I will be getting, finally, a 5d mark II. I'll keep you updated on this (I should need some months)!
Details
- CANON 400d, EF-S 10-22 @ 10mm, f/13, 4 s, ISO 100.
- Tripod
The shot
Shot last December in Innsbruck.
The Processing
Photoshop:
- Switched to LAB color space to pull out some nice colors.
- Remove a little flare spot in the upper left corner.
- Created 5 Overlay layers to adjust light.
- Added a Color Balance adjustment to equalize colors.
- Improved the tonal variation with a Variance Layer.
- Improved microcontrast with Unsharp Mask
- Resized
- Sharpened (SS + More Accurate)
- Framing and signature.
Take a look at it, LARGE on Black :
@ You all
Comments, faves and critiques are always welcomed!
Have a great weekend, my dear friend!!!
Feel free to add me on Facebook!!!
I have a color version of this I'm still toying with. I was initially seduced by the inky blacks in the water here. But the gooey colors have their merits too. It is quite interesting how the color involves more steps in processing....not so much in altering the original...but the tones and values have just that many more variances to be subtly tweaked. I will share that version when it's done.
The friendly variance of the Star Wars snow speeders. Note the cats on the wings, the pilot only has to touch a corresponding paw print in the cockpit to activate the cat to meow which in turn fires the canons. My first build for #friendshiptember #friendshiptember2022 over on Instagram
A thunderstorm rolled over Berlin yesterday with lightning activity. Thankfully the view to the skyline was clear, no torrential rain obstructed the view. The rain clouds looked quite unstructured / boring to the naked eye, but thankfully some variance was captured. Out of the many shots taken this was basically the single one that captured the moment quite nicely, bonus point for touching the TV tower's antenna.
My first and only diving excursion for 2016 (so far) was to San Miguel Island. It was nice to see the variances between San Miguel and my usual diving at Anacapa. El Nino's influence was still felt, with clouds of these pelagic red-crabs cruising around.
Here are side by side comparisons of the 2013 through 2016 Disney Store Classic Princess 12 inch dolls. I start out with Snow White, the first Disney Princess and also my favorite Disney character.
Their faces are all identical as far as I can tell. Except that the latest one has slightly paler and pinker skin on her face as well as the rest of her body, which is a welcome change to me. They are all glancing to the left (their right), have dark pink lips that are full and slightly open in a charming smile.
They are all supposed to have the same bobbed hair style, but only the 2013 doll has very neat hair that is close to the correct style. They all have red satin ribbons in their hair, but only the 2013 doll has an actual bow. Since then the 'bows' are actually flat pieces of satin sewn to look like a bow.
They all have the same style outfits: blue bodices with puff sleeves and high white collar, red capes, golden yellow skirts and yellow flats. Their skirts changed between glitter patterns and uniform glitter in alternate years. I prefer the latter, although it does shed quite a bit, and is especially troublesome on their sticky rubber legs. The 2015 skirt hardly shed glitter at all, and also had jewel embellishments, which none of the other dolls had. The 2016 skirt has a denser layer of glitter than the 2014 one, which makes it stiffer and helps it keep a fuller shape. The best outfit was the 2014 one, with velvet bodice and cape, and a double layer hemmed satin collar. The 2014 and 2015 capes were removable, so it is disappointing that the current doll has a cape that is permanently sewn to the back of her dress, just below the collar. It also doesn't drape very well, being encrusted with red glitter.
They have the same bodies (except for the skin color change in the 2016 doll), with rubber legs, click stop internal knee joints, and ball jointed neck, shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. It might just be a factory variance, but i feel that this year's doll has looser joints than the older dolls.
The biggest change (and improvement) in this year's doll is the addition of a bluebird sidekick figurine. It's little claws fit snuggly over Snow's index finger or thumb, and mimics the bluebird included with the 2009 LE Snow White 17'' doll, although it is much less detailed.
St Swithun was an Anglo Saxon saint, born in Winchester and Bishop of Winchester from his consecration on 30 October 852 until his death on 2 July 863. However, he is scarcely mentioned in any document of his own time. He died in 863 when King Alfred the Great was still a young man. It is possible that St Swithun was tutor to the young king and accompanied him on a pilgrimage to Rome. His death is entered in the Canterbury manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS F) under the year 861. He is recorded as a witness to nine charters, the earliest of which (S 308) is dated 854.
More than a hundred years later, when Dunstan and Æthelwold of Winchester were inaugurating their church reform, Swithun was adopted as patron of the restored church at Winchester, formerly dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. His body was transferred from its almost forgotten grave to Æthelwold's new basilica on 15 July 971; according to contemporary writers, numerous miracles preceded and followed the move.
According to legend, St Swithun has a special association with the English weather, a legend which dates from July 971 when the bones of the saint were moved from outside the old Saxon cathedral and brought inside the building, apparently causing a great thunderstorm:
"On St Swithun's Day, if then dost rain,
For forty days it will remain:
St Swithun's Day, if then be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair."
A Buckinghamshire variation has
“If on St Swithun's day it really pours
You're better off to stay indoors.”
Swithun was initially buried out of doors, rather than in his cathedral, apparently at his own request. William of Malmesbury recorded that the bishop left instructions that his body should be buried outside the church, ubi et pedibus praetereuntium et stillicidiis ex alto rorantibus esset obnoxius [where it might be subject to the feet of passers-by and to the raindrops pouring from on high], which has been taken as indicating that the legend was already well known in the 12th century.
In 971 it was decided to move his body to a new indoor shrine, and one theory traces the origin of the legend to a heavy shower by which, on the day of the move, the saint marked his displeasure towards those who were removing his remains. This story, however, cannot be traced further back than the 17th or 18th century. Also, it is at variance with the 10th century writers, who all agreed that the move took place in accordance with the saint's desire expressed in a vision. James Raine suggested that the legend was derived from the tremendous downpour of rain that occurred, according to the Durham chroniclers, on St. Swithun's Day, 1315.
John Earle suggests that the legend comes from a pagan or possibly prehistoric day of augury. In France, St. Medard (8 June), Urban of Langres, and St. Gervase and St. Protais (19 June) are credited with an influence on the weather almost identical with that attributed to St Swithun in England. In Flanders, there is St Godelieve (6 July) and in Germany the Seven Sleepers' Day (27 June). There is a scientific basis to the weather pattern behind the legend of St Swithun's day. Around the middle of July, the jet stream settles into a pattern which, in the majority of years, holds reasonably steady until the end of August. When the jet stream lies north of the British Isles then continental high pressure is able to move in; when it lies across or south of the British Isles, Arctic air and Atlantic weather systems predominate.
The most false that the prediction has been, according to the Guinness Book of Records, were 1924 when 13.5 hours of sunshine in London were followed by 30 of the next 40 days being wet, and 1913 when a 15-hour rainstorm was followed by 30 dry days of 40.
St Swithun's Day is celebrated on 15 July. Wikipedia
I always enjoy capturing sunsets, even if the location is the same, the sky, color temperatures, and surroundings always make it as if I'm capturing it for the first time. I really enjoyed the variance in colors from organges, pinks, and hints of purple adding a dynamic color pop to the frozen lake water in the foreground.
Tasmania, home of the Tasmanian Devil. Good old Devonport - Home away from home. Just about every time I visit this place I end up taking a photo of this lighthouse. ift.tt/1BtUarP via 500px ift.tt/2jMQt1l
Sometimes I wonder if we are the last generation that sees variance in the world? Young Muslim women wear hijab, but often, also jeans trousers; young Muslim men hardly wear kaffia. A few weeks ago, I visited Georgia: the old women wear traditional black clothes, while the young girls wear pink spaghetti singlets. About twenty years ago, when I visited Ladakh, all the old women wore the traditional clothes; I was told that nowadays it's rare to see one.
SET 3 – West Point Wal-Mart
At the back of the electronics department is the usual alcove with the back-of-store restrooms, occasional service counter, and entrance to the stockroom. This West Point store had yet another classic feature mixed in amongst all that other stuff: the good ol’ “Today’s Stock Quote” sign! It was pretty cool to see this still in place here (even though a lot of the rest of the image appears to be in less than tip-top shape), and via Yahoo Finance I can confirm the quote was indeed updated and accurate (within a few cents – trivial variance) as of the day I took this image, too.
On a separate note, the newer, brighter shades of blue and orange paint in this image clash rather noticeably with the other color tones around it; this is also even more painfully noticeable at the outside of the alcove, which can be seen five clicks back (and which we’ll also see again, in slightly better detail, soon; I’ll try and remember to point it out again at that description as well).
(c) 2022 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)
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ive been waiting for months to post this finally have been able to, this was a reshoot for some warner brothers stuff and they wanted "Dark" or "grungy" so due to rain coming in we shot at the only insidish location i had blah blah blah this is what we got
also more warped tour stuff to come
Strobist
-ab1600 thru octabox center and as high as roof would allow
-sun for rim and back lighting
5d mark 2
17-40mm f4 usm L
_________________________________________________________________
ALL IMAGES ©OPYWRITTEN BY Evan Dell Photography NONE ARE TO BE USED WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION
Sometimes you happen to be in the right place at the right time. That's the feeling I got when I came across this little shack minding its own business down in Sorrento. via 500px ift.tt/1tBYEqn
The friendly variance of the Star Wars snow speeders. Note the cats on the wings, the pilot only has to touch a corresponding paw print in the cockpit to activate the cat to meow which in turn fires the canons. My first build for #friendshiptember #friendshiptember2022 over on Instagram
Here is another image from this past weekend's workshop with Exposure Northwest. This intimate type of work is not what my contacts know me for! I usually post grand landscapes, or architectural shots! I would have to say, however, that close up shots like this are addicting! Aaron www.flickr.com/photos/sicalufakiss/ pointed this out to me, and suggested several compositions. I really liked it from below, as in this shot, because you could see the textures behind the chain link.
This is one RAW image converted to a pseudo HDR in Photomatix. I had to crop a little in Photoshop CS5 (but I did not crop the top of the link off! I will have to go back to recompose this shot so I can include the top of the link!) I ran through Topaz Adjust Plug In with the Spicify setting. That really brought out all of the color variances and textures in the concrete! Final vignette added in Lightroom 3.
This was taken at Battery Russell in Fort Stevens park where the Peter Iredale wreck www.flickr.com/photos/fresnatic/5507812536/ is located. Fort Casey on Whidbey Island has a giant concrete bunker as well, and I think I will be trying out compositions like this on Sunday!
Thank you for the views, comments and faves! Have a great weekend everyone!
"The couch" where it all started for Xavier Dphrepaulezz, AKA Fantastic Negrito, working on his new album "Please Don't Be Dead" at his studio/collective in Oakland, CA - Blackball Universe.
More photos from this shoot can be seen at Variance Magazine.
The variance in the human race always amazes me:
On the one hand you see shy or introvert people (like me),
behave as conventionally as possible, and are embarrassed when get attention;
on the other hand you meet extrovert people,
that behave in a way that makes them mighty magnets of attention.
Let's hope everyone get what (s)he wants;
and everyone gives what is needed (by everybody else)
p.s.
You may find (half of) this impressive 'African Queen' with her strong gaze and slight pain in the eyes, deep down my stream, in a photo from a few years ago.
Vervet Monkey
Südliche Grünmeerkatze
St Lucia is a settlement in Umkhanyakude District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The small town is mainly a hub for the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park.
Evidence of early humans living in the caves up high in the Lebombo mountains dating back 130,000 years ago provided scientists with clues regarding the lifestyle of these prehistoric settlers. From this cave alone some 69,000 stone implements and various human remains have been recovered. Some of these tools date back to the middle and early stone ages (130,000 to 30,000 years ago).
St. Lucia was first named in 1554 as Rio dos Medos do Ouro (alternatively Rio dos Médãos do Ouro — River of the Gold Dunes) by the survivors of the Portuguese ship São Bento. At this stage, only the Tugela River mouth was known as St. Lucia. Later, in 1575, the Tugela River was named Tugela. On 13 December 1575, the day of the feast of Saint Lucy, Manuel Peresterello renamed the mouth area to Santa Lucia.
In 1822, St. Lucia was proclaimed by the British as a township. In 1895, St. Lucia Game Reserve, 30 km north of the town, was proclaimed. Since 1971, St. Lucia Lake and the turtle beaches and coral reefs of Maputaland have been listed by the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention). In December 1999, the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The park is also home to about 1,200 Nile Crocodiles and almost 800 hippopotamuses.
Other animals include leopards, Greater Kudu, Black Rhinos, rich avifauna and numerous invertebrates.
Under Köppen-Geiger climate classification system, it has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa).
(Wikipedia)
The vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus Chlorocebus. The five distinct subspecies can be found mostly throughout Southern Africa, as well as some of the eastern countries. Vervets were introduced to Florida, St. Kitts, and Cape Verde. These mostly herbivorous monkeys have black faces and grey body hair color, ranging in body length from about 50 centimetres (20 in) for males to about 40 centimetres (16 in) for females.
In addition to behavioral research on natural populations, vervet monkeys serve as a nonhuman primate model for understanding genetic and social behaviors of humans. They have been noted for having human-like characteristics, such as hypertension, anxiety, and social and dependent alcohol use. Vervets live in social groups ranging from 10 to 70 individuals, with males moving to other groups at the time of sexual maturity. The most significant studies done on vervet monkeys involve their communication and alarm calls, specifically in regard to kin and group recognition and particular predator sightings.
The vervet monkey very much resembles a gray langur, having a black face with a white fringe of hair, while the overall hair color is mostly grizzled-grey. The species exhibits sexual dimorphism; the males are larger in weight and body length. Adult males weigh between 3.9 and 8.0 kg (8.6 and 17.6 lb), averaging 5.5 kg (12 lb), and have a body length between 420 and 600 mm (17 and 24 in), averaging 490 mm (19 in) from the top of the head to the base of the tail. Adult females weigh between 3.4 and 5.3 kg (7.5 and 11.7 lb) and average 4.1 kg (9.0 lb), and measure between 300 and 495 mm (11.8 and 19.5 in), averaging 426 mm (16.8 in).
When males reach sexual maturity, they move to a neighboring group. Often, males will move with a brother or peer, presumably for protection against aggression by males and females of the resident group. Groups that had previously transferred males show significantly less aggression upon the arrival of another male. In almost every case, males migrate to adjacent groups. This obviously increases benefits in regard to distance traveled, but also reduces the amount of genetic variance, increasing the likelihood of inbreeding.
Females remain in their groups throughout life. Separate dominance hierarchies are found for each sex. Male hierarchies are determined by age, tenure in the group, fighting abilities, and allies, while female hierarchies are dependent on maternal social status. A large proportion of interactions occur between individuals which are similarly ranked and closely related. Between unrelated individuals, there is female competition for grooming members of high-ranking families, presumably to gain more access to resources. These observations suggest individual recognition is possible and enables discrimination of genetic relatedness and social status. Interactions between different groups are variable, ranging from highly aggressive to friendly. Furthermore, individuals seem to be able to recognize cross-group vocalizations, and identify from and to which monkey each call is intended, even if the call is made by a subadult male which is likely to transfer groups. This suggests the members within a group are actively monitoring the activity of other groups, including the movement of individuals within a group.
Vervet monkeys have four confirmed predators: leopards, eagles, pythons, and baboons. The sighting of each predator elicits an acoustically distinct alarm call. As infants vervets learn to make the variety of calls from observation alone, without explicit tutelage. In experimentation with unreliable signalers, individuals became habituated to incorrect calls from a specific individual. Though the response was lessened for a specific predator, if an unreliable individual gives an alarm call for a different predator, group members respond as if the alarm caller is, in fact, reliable. This suggests vervet monkeys are able to recognize and to respond to not only the individual calling, but also to the semantics of what the individual is communicating. It is believed that vervet monkeys have up to 30 different alarm calls. In the wild vervet monkeys have been seen giving a different call when seeing a human being approaching, leading researchers to believe that vervet monkeys may have a way of distinguishing between different land and flight predators.
Mothers can recognize their offspring by a scream alone. A juvenile scream will elicit a reaction from all mothers, yet the juvenile's own mother had a shorter latency in looking in the direction of the scream, as well as an increased duration in her look. Further, mothers have been observed to help their offspring in conflict, yet rarely aided other juveniles. Other mothers evidently can determine to which mother the offspring belongs. Individuals have been observed to look towards the mother whose offspring is creating the scream.
Siblings likely provide the prevailing social relationships during development. Within social groups, mother-offspring and sibling interactive units are distinct groups. The sibling interaction are heavily supportive and friendly, but do have some competition. Contests primarily involve postweaning resource allocation by the common mother. For example, siblings have conflict over grooming time allocated by their mother. Offspring are usually not born in extremely close proximity due to the interbirth period of the mother. This time can be reduced by use of an allomother. The clarity of the familial and sibships within a group may act as a form of alliance, which would come at relatively low cost in regards to grooming. Other alliances are shown through conflict with aggressive individuals that have acted against a closely related sibling.
Allomothering is the process when another individual besides the mother cares for an infant. In groups of vervet monkeys, infants are the source of a tremendous amount of attention. Days after an infant is born, every member of the group will inspect the infant at least once by touching or sniffing. While all group members participate in infant caretaking, juvenile females which cannot yet menstruate are responsible for the majority of allomothering. The benefit is mutual for the mother and allomother. Mothers that use allomothers are able to shorten their interbirth periods, the time between successive births. At the same time, allomothers gain experience in rearing infants, and had more success in raising their own offspring. Juvenile females discriminate in preference for the infant they choose to allomother, and will usually choose siblings or infants of high-ranking individuals. When a mother allows her juvenile daughter to become an allomother for a newborn sibling, the mother decreases her own investment in the infant, while increasing the chances of successful rearing of her immature daughter.
Grandmothers and grandchildren share one-quarter of their genes, so they should be more likely to form affiliative relationships than unrelated members in a group. Not only do infants approach their grandmothers more often than unrelated members, but they also prefer their grandmothers compared to other adult female kin, not including their own mothers. Additional research has shown grandmothers show no preference over the sex of their grandchild. Interest in the grandchild spurred from the rank of the grandmother within a group. Higher-ranking grandmothers showed more interest in caring for their grandchildren when compared to low-ranking grandmothers. The presence of grandmothers has been associated with a decrease in mortality of infants.
Spiteful actions are extremely rare in the animal kingdom. Often, there is an indirect benefit to the individual acting 'spiteful' or to a close relative of that individual. Vervet monkeys have been observed to destroy a competitor's food source rather than consume or steal it themselves. While energy is being lost on destroying the food, a competitive advantage is given to the individual due to an increase in competitive gain. This would be pertinent for a male which could be displaced within his group to immigrating males.
Female vervets do not have external signs indicating a menstruation period, thus there are not elaborate social behaviors involving reproduction. Typically, a female gives birth once a year, between September to February, after a gestation period of about 165 days. Usually only one infant is born at a time, though twins can occur rarely. A normal infant weighs 300–400 g.
The vervet monkey eats a primarily herbivorous diet, living mostly on wild fruits, flowers, leaves, seeds, and seed pods. In agricultural areas, vervets become problem animals, as they will raid bean crops, peas, young tobacco plants, vegetables, fruit, and various grain crops. Carnivorous aspects of their diet include grasshoppers and termites. Raids of cattle egrets and weaver bird nests have been observed where the vervets will eat the eggs and chicks.
The vervet monkey ranges throughout much of Southern and East Africa, being found from Ethiopia, Somalia and extreme southern South Sudan, to South Africa. It is not found west of the East African Rift or the Luangwa River, where it is replaced by the closely related malbrouck (C. cynosuros). The vervet monkey inhabits savanna, riverine woodland, coastal forest and mountains up to 4000 m (13,100 ft). They are adaptable and able to persist in secondary and/or highly fragmented vegetation, including cultivated areas, and sometimes are found living in both rural and urban environments. Annual home range size has been observed to be as high as 176 ha with an average population density of 54.68 animals/km².
In spite of low predator populations in many areas, human development has encroached on wild territories, and this species is killed by electricity pylons, vehicles, dogs, pellet guns, poison, and bullets, and is trapped for traditional medicine, bush meat, and for biomedical research. The vervet monkey has a complex and fragile social system, and persecution of the monkeys is thought to have affected troop structures and diminishing numbers. Many people living in close proximity to vervet monkey colonies see them as pests as they steal their food. There are heavy fines in some cities to discourage the killing of vervet monkeys.
Its status according to the IUCN is "least concern".
This species was known in ancient Egypt including the Red Sea Mountains and the Nile Valley. From fresco artworks found in Akrotiri on the Mediterranean island of Santorini there is evidence that the vervet monkey was known to the inhabitants of this settlement around 2000 BC; this fact is most noted for evidence of early contact between Egypt and Akrotiri. Excavations dated to the end of the 1st century AD from Berenike, a Roman-Egyptian port-town on the Red Sea coast, demonstrate that vervet monkeys must have been kept as pets at that time.
Introduced vervet monkeys are naturalized in Ascension Island and Cape Verde. Dania Beach, Florida, is home to about 20 introduced vervets.
(Wikipedia)
St Lucia ist ein Ort im Distrikt uMkhanyakude, östlich des Verwaltungssitzes Mtubatuba der gleichnamigen Gemeinde in der Provinz KwaZulu-Natal von Südafrika. Die Kleinstadt ist ein beliebter Ausgangspunkt für touristische Touren im iSimangaliso-Wetland-Park (ehemals Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park). 2011 hatte die Stadt 1104 Einwohner.
St Lucia liegt an der Mündung der Lagune des St.-Lucia-See auf einer schmalen Landzunge, begrenzt durch das St. Lucia Estuary im Westen und den Indischen Ozean im Osten. Der Ort liegt etwa 240 km nördlich von Durban. Die Straßen sind schachbrettförmig angelegt, die Hauptstraße ist die Mackenzie Street, wo sich die meisten Geschäfte und Tourismus-Dienstleister befinden. Zahlreiche Bootsanleger ermöglichen den Tourveranstaltern Ausflüge in die St. Lucia-Lagune und aufs Meer an der Elephant Coast. Weiter im Inland befindet sich das Dorf Khula Village und im Süden schließt sich das Siedlungsgebiet von Mapelana (Maohelane) an. Der iSimangaliso Wetland Park erstreckt sich vom Ort aus noch ca. 10 km weiter nach Süden und ca. 60 km weit nach Norden an der Küste, die hier stark durch Feuchtgebiete gegliedert ist, allen voran die Lagune des Lake St. Lucia, die sich von St Lucia über ca. 30 km nach Norden erstreckt. Im Park befinden sich die höchsten bewachsenen Sanddünen der Welt und als Sehenswürdigkeit auch das Cape Vidal Lighthouse.
Im Ort starten zahlreiche Wanderrouten wie iGwalagwala Trail, Emoyeni Trail (63 km), Mziki Trail (40 km).
Etwa 20 km südlich des Ortes liegt das Cape St Lucia mit dem Cape St Lucia Lighthouse St. Lucia wurde zuerst 1554 als portugiesisch Rio dos Medos do Ouro (Rio dos Médãos do Ouro, dt. Fluss der Goldenen Dünen) benannt Damals landeten Überlebende des portugiesischen Schiffs São Bento dort an. Zu dieser Zeit hatte nur die Mündung des Tugela River den Namen St. Lucia erhalten. Später, 1575, erhielt der Fluss seinen heutigen Namen. Am 13. Dezember 1575, dem Fest der Heiligen Lucia, benannte Manuel Peresterello das Gebiet um in „Santa Lucia“.
1822 wurde St. Lucia von den Briten als Township institutionalisiert. 1895 wurde 30 km nördlich des Ortes das St. Lucia Game Reserve (Jagdreservat) gegründet. im Gebiet von KwaMbonambi.
Nach der Köppen-Geiger-Klima-Klassifikation ist das Klima in St Lucia ein humid subtropisches Klima (Ostseitenklima, Cfa).
(Wikipedia)
Die Südliche Grünmeerkatze (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) ist eine Primatenart aus der Familie der Meerkatzenverwandten (Cercopithecidae). Sie ist eine der sechs Arten, in die die Grünen Meerkatzen in jüngeren Systematiken unterschieden werden.
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen erreichen eine Kopfrumpflänge von 40 bis 60 Zentimeter, der Schwanz wird bis zu 70 Zentimeter lang. Ihr Gewicht beträgt 4 bis 6 Kilogramm, wobei die Männchen deutlich größer und schwerer als die Weibchen werden. Das Fell dieser Tiere ist an der Oberseite graugrün gefärbt, die Unterseite ist heller, die Hände und Füße sind schwarz. Auch das Gesicht ist schwarz, es wird von hellen Haaren an den Backen und an der Stirn eingerahmt. Wie bei allen Grünmeerkatzen haben die Männchen leuchtend gefärbte Genitalien: das Skrotum ist blau und der Penis rot.
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen sind im östlichen und südlichen Afrika beheimatet. Ihr Verbreitungsgebiet reicht von Äthiopien und Somalia über Kenia und Tansania bis nach Südafrika. Sie kommen in einer Reihe von Habitaten vor, bevorzugen aber offene Wälder und Savannen. Allzu dichte Wälder meiden sie aber ebenso wie völlig baumlose Gebiete. Auch in der Nähe des Menschen können sie sich aufhalten.
Diese Primaten sind semiterrestrisch (das heißt, sie halten sich sowohl am Boden wie auch auf den Bäume auf) und wie alle Altweltaffen tagaktiv. Zur Nachtruhe ziehen sie sich auf Bäume zurück. Sie leben in Gruppen von bis zu 50 Tieren, die sich aus mehreren Männchen, vielen Weibchen und den dazugehörigen Jungtieren zusammensetzen. Beide Geschlechter etablieren eine Rangordnung, die beispielsweise beim Zugang zu Nahrungsquellen und bei der Fortpflanzung zum Tragen kommt. Sie kommunizieren miteinander mit einer Reihe von Lauten, Gesten und Körperhaltungen.
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen sind Allesfresser, bevorzugen aber Früchte. Daneben verzehren sie auch Blüten, Blätter, junge Triebe, aber auch Insekten, Würmer und andere Kleintiere.
Nach einer rund 165-tägigen Tragzeit bringt das Weibchen ein einzelnes Jungtier zur Welt. Dieses wird im zweiten Lebenshalbjahr entwöhnt und mit 2 bis 3 Jahren geschlechtsreif – wenngleich sich Männchen aufgrund des Gruppenverhaltens selten vor dem fünften Lebensjahr fortpflanzen.
Südliche Grünmeerkatzen sind weit verbreitet und können sich besser als die meisten Primatenarten auf die Nähe des Menschen einstellen. Sie kommen teilweise auch in Städten vor und dringen in Plantagen ein. Mancherorts werden sie deswegen als Plage betrachtet und verfolgt, hinzu kommt die Bejagung wegen ihres Fleisches. Insgesamt dürfte die Art nicht gefährdet sein, die IUCN listet sie nicht gesondert.
(Wikipedia)
Bodega (2021). This piece represents the hundreds, if not thousands, of neighborhood bodegas in New York City. It is a mash-up of two corner bodegas on my former block in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.
I am happy with the feel I’ve attained in this piece and quite think it represents my neighborhood very well. Of note on the body of the building I used thin LEGO plates instead of LEGO bricks. I did this in an effort to attain the realism of a bricked façade. Also notable are the color variations in the LEGO pieces. The color variances greatly assist in providing the realism I strive for in my work. Lastly, I had hoped to include a bodega cat, but could not find the LEGO cat I thought I had. Not sure where she ran off to. Enjoy!
This is one of the displays within one of the display cubes in the "Work In Progress" display cabinet. For the past few days I have been working on getting the cubes color backed & trimmed out - which is actually a daunting task, although it may not appear that way. I have a different theme planned for each cube - but so as to not overwhelm the eye, I have chosen 3-4 basic color schemes that will repeat every few cubes or so, with slight variances to each one.
Now that I've fully deboxed both the LE 2500 and the Harrods LE 100 Frozen Elsa 17'' Dolls by the Disney Store, here they are in a side by side comparison. Following is a feature by feature comparative review of the two dolls, followed by purchase details.
Comparative Review of Elsa LE 2500 vs LE 100 17'' Dolls
Outfits: LE 2500 Elsa is wearing her Snow Queen outfit, that is similar in design to that of the Harrods LE 100 Elsa doll, but is less detailed and less full. The light blue green satin inner dress is very similar in both dolls, but the Harrods doll has a few more round crystals just below the bodice, and it is longer and wider at the bottom. The front of the bodice is covered in rectangular crystals representing icicles. The skirt has a slit in the front for the legs and has a diminishing density of round clear rhinestones closer to the hemline. The skirt has a dark blue satin lining. The attached over-sized cape (or gown overlay) is made of double layered organza, with dark blue embroidery and jewels. It is shorter, narrower and much less detailed than the Harrods cape. In particular, the icicle and snowflake embroidered patterns with the accompanying jewels are only near the edges of the cape, and there are no jewels in the area between the icicles and the snowflakes. Instead, there is a covering of clear hexagonal glitter. Fortunately, the glitter is glued very securely to the cape is sheds very little. There are also fewer blue jewels in her sheer long sleeves than on the Harrods doll. Her high heeled blue shoes are same snowflake design as the Harrods, except that the color is a plainer blue, without the iridescence or silver paint making it look metallic.
Face: My LE 2500 Elsa has a beautiful angular face with an elfin appearance. She as large blue eyes, small pointy nose, thin deep red lips in a slight closed mouth smile, and rouge on upper cheeks. She has a few freckles on her upper cheeks, in an identical pattern to the Harrods Elsa. Her skin is a very pale purplish pink, that is smooth and dull in appearance. She is slightly paler than the Harrods doll, who has shiny pearly textured skin. The Harrods Elsa also has considerably darker rouge on her cheeks, and her ears are reddened as well, representing her exposure to cold weather.
Hair: My LE 2500 Elsa doll has the same hairdo as the Harrods Elsa. Her light blonde hair is formed into a long braided ponytail. There are long curvy bangs that are combed back and heavily gelled to form a sort of crown over her head. There is a solitary curly bang on the left side of her head. She long curving rooted eyelashes, that are not as curvy or well formed as the Harrods Elsa (or the LE 2500 Anna), but that is just a factory variance. There are two snowflake jeweled ornaments that are sewn to her braid. The Harrods Elsa has a third snowflake of the same design on the side of her head.
Body: The LE 2500 Elsa has fixed angled feet, same as the Harrods, so she looks elegant in her high heels. Other than that, she has the same articulation as the most current Disney Store 17'' Limited Edition Princess dolls. She has ball jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists and hips. Her knees are external hinge joints. She can free stand with the help of her gown, but only with great difficultly, and is very unstable in that pose, the same as with the Harrods doll. She also has an upper torso joint of limited movement side to side and back to front.
Both Elsas are very beautiful dolls, with their unique and exotic faces and hairdos and commanding presence. She has a dramatic outfit that fits her role as the Snow Queen. She is also very movie accurate. The LE 2500 is one of the better LE dolls that Disney Store has produced, and is well worth her price. The Harrods doll has many enhancements (and other differences) from the LE 2500 doll, in her face and skin, her gown, her accessories and her shoes. But those are clearly don't justify four times the cost of the LE 2500 doll, rather it is due to the exclusivity of the release.
Purchase Details
Elsa Limited Edition Doll - 17'' - Frozen
US Disney Store
Released online and in store on November 20, 2013
Purchased in store on November 20, 2013 (#102 of 2500)
SOLD OUT online in 12 minutes
$99.95
Item No. 6070040900950P
The Harrods Special Edition of the Disney Store's Limited Edition Anna and Elsa Doll Set.
Released by the Harrods department store in London, England on November 1, 2013, in an edition of 100. The retail cost of £500 (about $800 US) is more than four times that of the pair of separately sold LE 2500 Anna and Elsa dolls.
My set is #39 of 100, and I received it on November 11, 2013.
SKU 411047812035