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A clearly visible, large anvil cloud, likely from a storm cell, blanketed much of the sky above! Dark and rainy skies lingered above Silicon Valley during the afternoon. A bit of a clearing of blue sky was visible in between the storm clouds. Atmospheric instability from this 2nd upper level low pressure storm system this week had increased thunderstorm chances this day. This 2nd, stronger storm system this week battered our area with gusty south southeasterly winds along with windswept rain. Our area hasn't had such a stormy period in quite a while! The worst of the winds and rain had occurred during the system's main cold frontal passage which was between midnight and the predawn hours this day. Pic taken from around San Jose, CA from up at The Point Church. (Friday afternoon, February 28, 2014; 4:12 p.m.)
***After weeks of dry and mild weather, wet and stormy weather was finally back in the forecast for California. A pair of storms was forecasted to bring lots of rainfall to the parched state this week, a welcome news to a state that had just endured its driest year in recorded history. The 1st system had moved in Wednesday. The 2nd stronger storm brought a much-needed soaking to many communities Friday. This massive storm had battered the Bay Area with rain and wind early Friday and knocked out power to more than 55,000 PG&E customers. But it ultimately provided the parched region more rainfall. The storm dropped most of its moisture between midnight Thursday and dawn Friday. Our area got roughly over 0.9 inches of rainfall when measured. Even after a reasonably wet February, the Bay Area would still need to see five to 10 more significant storms by the end of April for rain totals to hit their seasonal averages...
A scarily busy - and active - Saturday. Megan and I went out for a run whilst Eli went to football, and then we all went swimming (the Tooting Leisure Centre pool is not one we'll be rushing back to) and then home for lunch and a quick play in the garden with the macro lens, before I headed off to a proper paid photography job - a newborn shoot, which was lovely but thankfully no longer makes me broody - and then back to meet the others at soft play for a 4th birthday party.
A sophisticated Malaysia Escort....I am a very hot friendly companion who loves meet new people enjoys and dinner out . I am charming n cute face ,sensual n passionate ,feminnie n easy going .I am here to please you and look forward to meet you soon....... !!!!!!
**ACTIVE- VERSATILE PRE-OP..** I am charming n cutie ,sensual n passionate ,feminnie and easy going. I am here to please you and look forward to meet you soon....***
Submitted for Active Assignment Weekly: Music + Pictures = Musictures
Songs - we've all got our favourites. Some that lift us up, some that make us cry, some that make us shake our groove things. In honour of all of those tunes out there, this weeks task is to turn song lyrics into something visual.
Song: Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust
Ok. So this is what I could come up with.... Obviously, reflects the title of the song (one of my personal all-time favs)
WIT: black cloth set outside in daylight (not direct sun), place objects and shoot -- nothing fancy :)
Students try out indoor cricket as part of Active Brunel, Brunel University's sport and fitness programme for all students, regardless of skill, experience or fitness levels.
The Vice-Chancellor Professor Chris Jenks, trying out for the Active Brunel cricket team.
The Real Hong Kong Car Culture
Hong Kong Car | Automotive Photography since 2011
For a detailed introduction | guide on Hong Kong Car Licence Plates | Car Vanity Plates click on the link below to learn more :
✚ www.j3consultantshongkong.com/hk-car-vanity-plates
One of the largest collections of quality Hong Kong Car Images and specialising in Car Licence Plates | Car Vanity Plates or as the Hong Kong Government likes to call them - Vehicle Registration Marks
I photograph all car brands and please do bear in mind I am an enthusiastic amateur and NOT a professional photographer but I do have a fairly distinctive style and it has got better over the years.
☛.... and if you want to read about my views on Hong Kong, then go to my blog, link is shown below, I have lived in Hong Kong for over 50 years!
✚ www.j3consultantshongkong.com/j3c-blog
☛ Photography is simply a hobby for me, I do NOT sell my images and all of my images can be FREELY downloaded from this site in the original upload image size or 5 other sizes, please note that you DO NOT have to ask for permission to download and use any of my images!
Madame Alexander, 18 inches tall, 1954 only. All original. Lots of extra joints: elbows,wrists, knees. All hard plastic, and is a head turning walker.
In recent decades, developments in software and hardware technologies have created dramatic shifts in design, manufacturing and research. Software technologies have facilitated automated process and new solutions for complex problems. Computation has also become a platform for creativity through generative art and design. New hardware platforms and digital fabrication technologies have similarly transformed manufacturing, offering more efficient production and mass customization. Such advances have helped catalyzed the maker-movement, democratizing design and maker culture. This influx of new capabilities to design, compute and fabricate like never before, has sparked a renewed interest in material performance.
We are now witnessing significant advances in active matter, 3D/4D Printing, materials science, synthetic biology, DNA nanotechnology and soft robotics, which have led to the convergence of software, hardware and material technologies and the growing field of programmable materials.
This conference was about the emerging field of active matter and programmable materials that bridges the worlds of art, science, engineering and design, demonstrating new perspectives for computation, transformation and dynamic material applications.
If over the past few decades we have experienced a software revolution, and more recently, a hardware revolution, this conference aims to discuss the premises, challenges and innovations brought by today’s materials revolution. We can now sense, compute, and actuate with materials alone, just as we could with software and hardware platforms previously. How does this shift influence materials research, and how does it shape the future of design, arts, and industrial applications? What tools and design processes do we need to advance, augment and invent new materials today? What are the key roles that industry, government, academic and public institutions can play in catalyzing the field of programmable materials?
This two-day conference consisted of a range of talks and lively discussion from leading researchers in materials science, art & design, synthetic biology and soft-robotics along with leaders from government, public institutions and industry.
Learn more at activemattersummit.com
All photos ©L. Barry Hetherington
lbarryhetherington.com/
Please ask before use
An active shooter exercise was held on May 28 at the Camp Zama Community Activity Center. All buildings on the Camp Zama and Sagamihara Family Housing Area installations, gates and facilities were closed as part of the exercise. (U.S. Army photos by Yuichi Imada)
Our Active Learning Classroom (ALC) is designed to support interactive and technology enhanced learning. It serves as an incubation space where faculty can implement and assess new teaching and learning ideas.
The classroom is capable of numerous configurations; with computer stations at each table and multiple wall-mounted screens. The purpose of the ALC is to offer active, engaged teaching and learning experiences in a collaborative environment.
Shot for Active Assignment, theme "Colours of Nature".
WIT
A cold day, with blue sky and the sun present. Almost SOOC this one, just minor corrections.
Our Active Learning Classroom (ALC) is designed to support interactive and technology enhanced learning. It serves as an incubation space where faculty can implement and assess new teaching and learning ideas.
The classroom is capable of numerous configurations; with computer stations at each table and multiple wall-mounted screens. The purpose of the ALC is to offer active, engaged teaching and learning experiences in a collaborative environment.
West, William, active 1568-1594. Symbolaeography which may be termed the art, description, or image of instruments (Imprinted at London ...: By Charles Yetsweirt ..., 1594); 20 cm. Hicks classification: T W5205 1594. STC (2nd ed.) 25268. Call # Rare26 05-1645.
snooted profoto light, upper camera right, aimed down at subject
second profoto light, small reflector lower, aimed up at subject camera right
I served in the RAF for fifteen years.
I worked in the food industry for five years previous to joining up, then worked in the deep sea survey industry before ending up with wind turbines for the last 15 years before retiring.
I am proud to have served, and made many, many long-term friends and comrades.
I last went to a reunion over a decade ago, where the heavy drinking, I realised, was a thing of the past.
Every year I think of going to that year's reunion, but think better of it.
I was an armourer. That is a trade that deals with anything and everything that goes bang, from bombs and missiles, to small arms, loading aircraft to bomb disposal.
We are very proud of our trade, and are very active on social media in keeping in touch and letting the rest of us know when one of the family is called to the Tea Bar in the Sky.
Two years in the planning and fundraising, was a memorial to be erected at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and this week it was to be dedicated.
I decided that I wanted to be there.
So, hotel was booked and much planning of some churchcrawling to be done on the Monday afternoon and maybe Tuesday.
I thought Cheadle was in Lancashire, but it turns out it is near Stoke in the Midlands, a 40 minute drive from the hotel, so it seemed a good idea that I would visit on the Monday, before turning back south to the hotel.
St Luke was designed by our old friend, Augustus Welby Pugin, and is considered his "gem". It even says that on the brown road signs as you get near to Cheadle.
But before getting there, I had the small matter of driving nearly five hours from Dover, heading north, mostly by a route you'll be very familiar with.
The alarm went off at five.
Early.
I get up, and between us we feed the cats, make coffee, so that by five to six, the car was packed and I was ready to leave.
It was so early that there was no traffic heading away from the port, meaning I had a good run up the M20 past Ashford and Maidstone as dawn crept across the sky, and the sun rose.
Above, the sky was laced with clouds, but mostly blue, though tinged with pink from the early sun.
Amazingly, the M25 was fairly clear. I cruised to the tunnel in just over an hour after leaving home.
Along to the M11, then just head north.
North through Essex. The harvest is in, fields are ploughed and seeded, trees are still green, though edged with gold telling us that autumn is here.
Even Cambridge at eight wasn't busy, though it was coming the other way along the A14. I pressed on, stopping for breakfast at the massive Cambridge Services.
Breakfast was a bacon and sausage butty, a cup of tea and a Twix.
Breakfast and dinner as it turned out.
I ate in the services, then back in the car for the next leg north.
West of the A1, the A14 is still a two lane road, and the trucks that use it, overtaking, cause tailbacks as they creep past other trucks.
Its 42 miles, and it seems to take forever, but the junction at the foot of the M6 arrives, but the sat nav tells me to take the M1 instead.
Once I turned off the motorway, I went through an almost endless series of roundabouts, parkways and strip malls, as one Midland town blends with the next.
Between, sometimes, there are green fields, and rolling countryside, while above a "Simpsons" sky allows lots of sunshine to make nature's colour really punch.
The final 30 minutes were through villages rather than towns, up steeper hills. But I reached Cheadle just before eleven, and once driving round the town's one way system, I found the main car park, a short walk from the church.
St Giles is open every day, once I reached the church, the most striking feature is the west doors, with matching golden rampant lions on a bold red background.
Pugin was here.
I thought Ramsgate was Pugin's perfect church, but St Giles is breath-taking.
There were three others in the church, they sat in the pews and took in the church, talking in whispers.
I went round taking picture after picture, with both the DSLR and mobile.
How do I describe it? How can mere words do justice to a force of natures greatest work?
I guess its like listening to an orchestra, where all the parts combine to make a symphony. St Giles is a symphony in stone and paint and glass for the senses.
I had to leave, as I only had an hour on my parking ticket, so walked back up the main street and cut through back to the car park.
I had asked a friend, Aidan, if there were any churches in the area he recommended, and one was Radcliffe-on-Soar. So, I set the sat nav, and headed 40 minutes back in the direction I had just come.
Ratcliffe is a small village, spread out along a dead end lane, with the church near the end, and would be unremarkable. But decades ago, a massive coal fired power station was built the other side of the main road, its eight cooling towers dominate the village and landscape for miles around.
The power station is now closed and set to be demolished soon, so the towers still stand, stark against the light clouded sky.
Holy Trinity is open daily. I checked. So, I parked on the side of the lane, walked to the porch and pushed open the door.
Inside, the stillness was deafening. The centuries laid heavy on the tombs in the chancel, for it was the tombs that make this church so special.
Five, I think, tombs with carvings of the occupants on top, all in pious poses, though through the untold years, vandals and visitors have broken bits off: nose here, a foot or hand there.
I took my shots, enjoying the peace inside.
But my last church closed at four, it was half two, so should be OK, but you never can be sure.
It was another half hour drive, this time along country lanes winding its way over the Wolds.
The thing with postcodes is that in urban areas are very specific, and you find your destination quite easily. In rural areas a large part of the parish can be under the same postcode, or the whole village.
The sat nav got me to the village, but I could find no church. It suggested going down a road marked private. I decided not to follow, and visited all parts of the village in search of the church.
I found Church Lane, and like me you'd think the church was on church lane.
It isn't.
Or as I found out soon after, the bridge from Church Lane to the church has been closed.
Hmmm..
I checked on Google Maps, and sure enough the church was down the private lane. So I went back, following another car, that was being driven by the keyholder.
This was Widmerpool, the road took me past the outbuildings for a country estate, all now turned into large private residences. I could feel watchful eyes following me as I drove up the road.
I parked at the end, and saw the lady walk up a path with an old gas street lamp indicating it might be the way to the church.
It was.
The lady was talking to a workman who was dealing with a wasp infestation.
"Can I help you?"
I have come to see the church, it took some finding. It should be open today.
"I have the key, I will open it for you".
We went in and we talked about this church, and churches in general, but mainly about people like her who give parts of their free time for caring for these grand buildings.
Apparently there was an ancient church here, but mostly rebuilt in the first half of the 19th century, and again in the second half, what is there is mainly late Victorian, but of a good standard.
I liked it, and the location, far away from the towns that link like spider's webs across most of the Midlands.
But it was time to go to my hotel in Burton. I bid the keyholder farewell, as two dozy wasps buzzed around sounding like two very small bagpipes.
Back out along the private road, across the crossroads, over the railway and back to the main road. And then just twenty minutes to noisy, busy Burton.
In the middle of a retail park set along the main road into town was the Premier Inn, I pull in and check in.
Nothing wrong with the hotel or room. Clean and functional.
I settle down for 90 minutes before going next door to the restaurant for dinner. I had a table booked to make sure.
At half five, I walked over to the "restaurant", and found the place near deserted, the lady with improbable eyebrows who checked me in was double shifting in the bar all evening, and the oncoming shift found supplies were short.
I found out there were no burgers, no chips, no pizzas, no cheesecake, and other things ran out in the two hours I was there.
I couldn't have burger, so had fish and chips. Though not chips as such. Weird shaped slivers or potato. They did OK.
I had a beer too.
And as I was finishing, an old friend, one of the first corporals I worked for back in 1991 walked in.
Hello Mark.
"Hello Ian"
So, we sat down to catch up and found out what we have done in the last 34 years.
A friend of his came in, to eat, but hearing the ever growing list of items they place were running out of, they caught a taxi into town for a highly rated Indian restaurant (which had closed), so I drank up my third beer and went back to my room.
And went to bed at nine.
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St Giles was originally conceived as a relatively simple parish church, built to serve Cheadle's modest Catholic population. As the plans progressed it increased in size and detail. In 1846 the consecration of St Giles was attended by Bishops, Archbishops and overseas statesmen, as well as luminaries from the world of architecture and design.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852), is arguably the greatest British architect, designer and writer of the nineteenth century. The son of a French draughtsman and designer, Pugin was responsible for an enormous quantity of buildings, and also for countless beautiful designs for tiles, metalwork, furniture, wallpaper, stained glass and ceramics. His prolific output included the interior designs for the Palace of Westminster, over one hundred churches and cathedrals, and eight major books on architecture and design.
John Talbot (1791-1852) became the sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury on the death of his uncle Charles Talbot in 1827, the same year that Fr James Jefferies was appointed as Cheadle's first permanently resident priest. Earl John made Alton Abbey his main residence and renamed it Aton Towers. He was zealous in promoting the Catholic faith following the Emancipation Act, and it was he who brought Pugin, a convert to the faith, to North Staffordshire in 1837. Shrewsbury was impressed by Pugin’s beliefs that Christian (or gothic) art and architecture could be a powerful weapon in the re-conversion of England to the Catholic faith.
www.stgilescheadle.org.uk/pugins-gem.html
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St Giles' Church is a Roman Catholic church in the town of Cheadle, Staffordshire, England. The Grade I listed Gothic Revival church[2] was designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and built between 1841 and 1846, funded by the Catholic 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot. It designed in a decorated and gothic revival style, typical of Pugin. The church is highly decorated on the outside and the inside, and has a tall steeple, the interior is painted throughout, and is floored with patterned tiles. Almost all the furniture and fittings were designed by Pugin, including the piscina, sedilia, a recess for an Easter Sepulchre, the reredos, font, font cover, pulpit, and screen.[3][2] The spire is 200 feet (61 m) high and the church by far the tallest building in not just Cheadle, but all neighbouring towns, even eclipsing the Towers ruins at Alton Towers Resort in neighbouring Alton, also partially built by Pugin.
Great care was taken over the selection of the building materials, which came principally from local sources. There was an abundance of oak and elm on Lord Shrewsbury's Alton estate, and local quarries produced sandstones of various colours and textures. A new quarry for red and white sandstone was opened at Counslow Hill, between Cheadle and Alton, and from here came the stone for both St Giles' and for the complex of buildings which Pugin and the Earl of Shrewsbury were developing in Alton village, namely Alton Castle and the hospital of St John the Baptist.
It appears that Lord Shrewsbury himself suggested that alabaster should be used for the altars at Cheadle and St John's, Alton. It carved beautifully and took fine detail, and in pre-Reformation times had been used extensively for statuary and ornamental work. There were local alabaster mines at Fauld, near Tutbury, but instead of being quarried in blocks, the material was simply being blasted out before being ground up to make gypsum, the principal ingredient for plaster-of-Paris.
A north porch was added, the south aisle was extended eastwards to form the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, the Lady Chapel was moved over to the North aisle, and the proposed Chapel of St John was scrapped altogether. The sacristy was extended, and the "Rector's Door" on the south side of the chancel - planned originally to communicate with the priest's house - became superfluous when the location of the presbytery was moved north-east into Chapel Street.
It is a commonly held fallacy that the main functions of the nave and aisles of a church are to seat as many people as possible. That had certainly not been the case in medieval times, when the nave and aisles were regarded not as an auditorium filled with a static body of people in fixed seats, but as a liturgical space in which there was movement and drama (for example the festal processions on high days and holy days, and the penitential processions in Lent). Though benches were not uncommon in medieval times, fixed seating as a generality came about only after the Reformation, and the arrangements in early nineteenth-century Catholic chapels were little different from those of Nonconformist ones, with seating often running right across the width of the building, and with galleries to provide extra accommodation. Pugin would have no such "protestantisms" at Cheadle. When Lord Shrewsbury proposed to fill St Giles' with seats running the full width of the nave, without a central passage, Pugin reacted with characteristic indignation.
Pugin experienced great difficulty in finding stained-glass artists able to make windows to his complete satisfaction, and at the right price. The process involved the working-up of Pugin's drawings into full-sized cartoons, and the production of accurate colours by fusing various pigments onto the glass in a kiln at controlled temperatures. For the Cheadle windows he employed William Wailes of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. With the exception of the figure of St Giles' in the south aisle, which he had altered at his own expense, Pugin was generally pleased with Wailes's efforts, noting that some of his best craftsmen had gone to Normandy to make special studies of old-style glass.
Pugin believed that, after stained glass, encaustic tiles were amongst the most important forms of decorative art. By the winter of 1843 Pugin was able to tell Lord Shrewsbury that the tiles for Cheadle were proceeding well and that they would have "the finest floor in Europe"
The tiles for the chancel and the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament were both rich and expensive. Lord Shrewsbury was concerned that they would be damaged by being constantly walked upon, so he suggested putting down carpets which, in Pugin's view, defeated the object of tiles at all. The Clerk of works, John Denny, suggested a solution: the priest and his assistants would be required to wear special cloth overshoes. Lord Shrewsbury warmed to the idea and told Pugin: "You may have your tiles and we shall want no carpet."
Active Assignment Weekly - soft focus.
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION
Your assignment this week is to capture your images using a technique called "Soft focus". There are a number of different ways to achieve soft focus; including manual de-focusing, stretching a nylon stocking over your lens, using a diffusion filter, or post processing. The idea being that your image is soft and pleasing to look at. I know I imediately delete any shot thats not fully in focus, and this will be a challenge. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
WIT: One clear bowl of water, one CD in the bottom, and a few drops of vegetable oil... the autofocus wasn't picking up the oil drops (and neither were my aging eyes), so this was an outtake on an experiment that I want to try again in natural light. Shot under tungstun lights, 0.4 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800, curves adjustment and vibrancy addition in CS4, noise reduction, and sharpening (though I don't think that did a thing).
Active Assignment Weekly: January 31 - February 7: Minimal House
WIT-- I have a hard time making a curve for a minamilist shot.....................still not completely what I had in mind..............but..........
Bathroom sink............color adj and crop.
As part of the Active Angus 2004 sports and activities programme run by Angus Council Leisure Services children aged 8-12 years were at Arbroath Sports Centre from August 10 to 12, 2004, to take part in fun Norwich Union star:track athletics coaching. Norwich Union star:track athletics was a national programme which offered children the opportunity to try fun athletics through a number of events including the hurdles, javelin, discus, long jump and relay races. Under the watchful eye of qualified athletics coaches the children were put through their paces and all received a star:track goody bag including T-shirt, handbook, calendar, baseball cap and certificate. All participants also got the chance to achieve a Norwich Union Shine Award.