Bits And Pieces
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There's a bit of a large patch of some forgotten part of the garden where lots of Foxtail Barley grows and it's all become golden and yellow and so I ventured into the patch this morning with my camera. Got half-bitten to death by mosquitoes in the process; suffering for my art! :-))
Available on Getty Images' Catalogue
... or is it a bit of Paradise in the Swiss Italy?
In Ticino's Canton, the Italian speaking part of Switzerland.
@ Lugano, Switzerland
Becoming a bit of a classic as more and more photographers are drawn to these beach huts, and for good reason! There is a very short moment where the tide is right in past the huts, so to time that with a nice sunset is golden!!!!!
Switzerland, May 2021
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
You find a selection of my 80 BEST PHOTOS (mostly not yet on Flickr) here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
ABOUT THE PHOTO:
So this photo is a bit of a novelty for me - at least here on Flickr, but it's also a journey back in time in a sense. I've always loved b/w and sepia photography; already as a very young teenager I would go out into the woods with an old Pentax Spotmatic (which I had nicked from my father) whenever it was a foggy day to shoot b/w compositions of sunbeams cutting through the ghostlike trees.
I used films with a sensitivity of at least 1600 (for those of you who remember what that means 😉 ), and the resulting photos had an incredibly fine grain which I loved; I blew them up to the size of posters and hung them on the walls of my teenage man-cave next to Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Slash.
But then I abandoned photography altogether for 20 years, and when I finally picked up a camera again, it was one of the digital kind. Now neither film nor grain played any role in my photographic endeavours - let alone b/w compositions: because the reason I fell in love with shooting pictures once more was the rare and incredibly colorful lizard species that had chosen my garden as its habitat.
It's this species - the Lacerta bilineata aka the western green lizard - that my photo website www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ and also my Flickr gallery are dedicated to, but I've since expanded that theme a bit so that it now comprises the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat, which is to say my garden and its immediate surroundings and all the flora and fauna I find in it.
I like that my gallery and the website have this clear theme, because in order to rise to the challenge of portraying all aspects of a very specific little eco system (which also happens to be my home of sorts), it forces me to constantly explore it from fresh angles, and I keep discovering fascinating new motives as my photographic journey continues.
Which brings me to the horse pasture you see in this photo. This playground for happy horsies lies just outside my garden, and it normally only interests me insofar as my green reptile friends claim parts of it as their territory, and I very much prefer it to be horseless (which it thankfully often is).
Not that the horses bother the reptiles - the lizards don't mind them one bit, and I've even seen them jump from the safety of the fly honeysuckle shrub which the pasture borders on right between the deadly looking hooves of the horses to forage for snails, without any sign of fear or even respect.
No, the reason I have a very conflicted relationship with those horses is that they are mighty cute and that there's usually also foals. The sight of those beautiful, happy animals jumping around and frolicking (it's a huge pasture and you can tell the horses really love it) is irresistible: and that inevitably attracts what in the entire universe is known as the most destructive anti-matter and ultimate undoing of any nature photographer: other humans.
Unlike with the horses, the lizards ARE indeed very much bothered by specimens of loud, unpredictable Homo sapiens sapiens - which makes those (and by extension also the horses) the cryptonite of this here reptile photographer. It's not the horses' fault, I know that, but that doesn't change a thing. I'm just telling you how it is (and some of you might have read about the traumatic events I had to endure to get a particular photo - if not, read at your own risk here: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51405389883/in/datepo... - which clearly demonstrated that even when it's entirely horseless, that pasture is still a threat for artistic endeavours).
But back to the photo. So one morning during my vacation back in May I got up quite early. It had rained all night, and now the fog was creeping up from the valley below to our village just as the sky cleared up and the morning sun started to shine through the trees.
And just as I did when I was a teenager I grabbed my camera and ran out to photograph this beautiful mood of ghostlike trees and sunbeams cutting through the mist. There had already been such a day a week earlier (which is when I took this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51543603732/in/datepo... ), but this time, the horses were also there.
Because of our slightly strained relationship I only took this one photo of them (I now wish I had taken more: talk about missed opportunities), and otherwise concentrated on the landscape. It was only later when I went through all the photos on my computer that I realized that I actually really liked those horses, even despite the whole composition being such a cliché. And I realized another thing: when I drained the photo of all the color, I liked it even better - because there was almost a bit of grain in it, like in the photos from my youth.
Since then I have experimented quite a bit with b/w and sepia compositions (some of which I will upload here eventually I guess), but this photo here is the first one that helped me rediscover my old passion. I hope you like it even though it builds quite a stark contrast with the rest of my tiny - and very colorful - gallery. But in the spirit of showing you the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat (and also in the spirit of expanding my gallery a bit beyond lizards and insects), I think it's not such a bad fit.
As always, many greetings to all of you, have a wonderful day and don't hesitate to let me know what you think 😊
Bit of a special evening yesterday! Popped up to one of my favourite local places after work, Healey Dell nature reserve near Rochdale, a little hidden gem of a place right near the town, kinda hidden away.
It's the kinda place that if it was in the Lake District it would be swamped by visitors and you'd have to pay £10 to park, but as it is, there's virtually never anybody around, even locals don't know what they have there :)
This is the 2nd of a series of 5 or 6 big waterfalls that run through the place.
But when I got there my eyes nearly popped out at how beautiful it had become with the golden leaves carpeting the rocks.
One of those special moments that makes you feel good to be alive :)
Hope you like, Visit my Facebook page if you want more pics and info
Happy Friday all :)
A bit closer today but maybe too close to her taste. I think she wanted me to go away or maybe it was the strong wind and hard for her to stay on the post ! We never know and, in doubt, I left :-)
I took this shot in the Audubon Marsh near the River Loire Estuary (France)
♡
D'un peu plus près aujourd'hui mais peut-être un peu trop à son goût. Je crois qu'elle voulait que je parte ou alors c'est le vent, qui soufflait très fort, qui l'empêchait de garder son équilibre ! On ne le saura jamais et, dans le doute, je suis partie :-)
J'ai pris cette photo au Marais Audubon près de l'estuaire de la Loire.
I had a bit of rare time to try an experiment for Macro Mondays yesterday. The theme is 'Reflection.' Not sure the reflection here is good enough, so I probably won't use this shot, but I had so much fun, I couldn't resist uploading one ahead of time...
(Well, I decided this one was the best of the lot. Feather is just under or just over 2" in it's curled state, depending on how 'loose' the tips are in the breeze etc., which makes this frame barely in the 3" limit. If the moderators want me to crop it more, or upload another, I will comply....).
I sprayed the hood of our vehicle with water, stuck the feather on, hoping to get a clear shot and it wouldn't fly away in the slight afternoon breeze. It was wonderful to see how the image changed depending where one was in the light, the POV and where on the hood it was, as sometimes the reflection of nearby trees added some different colour.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs, etc. without my permission.
If you decide to travel along this highway into the bowels of the Universe, carry enough fuel to cover the billions of light years ahead of you. You won't find a place to refuel. When you have travelled this distance without finding anything, not even a little bit of intelligent life and you reach the far reaches of the Universe... don't be scared... there's nothing there, either. Only the "nothing". Or since everything is cyclical, perhaps you have returned to the place where you started, full of wisdom from your long trip. It's probably better to look for intelligent life on Earth, but it's also very likely that you'll have a hard time finding it. Don't worry about not understanding the Universe or the reason for its existence... you're not Einstein, but one day you'll understand that... The Universe is wounded, but it still has infinity ahead of it. It still has you and me. Merry Christmas to all and to the infinite Universe that is within you.
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Universe
Y el Universo está susurrando tan suavemente que puedo oírlo todo... el zumbido de los insectos, todos los taxis, todo el cambio gastado de los vagabundos, todos los chicos jugando a la pelota en los callejones. Son sólo pliegues en su vestido. El Universo, está herido, pero aún tiene el infinito por delante. Todavía nos tiene a ti y a mí. Y todos dicen que es hermoso. Y todos dicen...
Image dédiée à Pat. Joyeux Noël. Bisou, jolie.
..........
Music for your trip to the Universe:
Ground Control to Major Tom. Ground Control to Major Tom. Take your protein pills and put your helmet on. Ground Control to Major Tom (ten, nine, eight, seven, six)... Commencing countdown, engines on (five, four, three)... Check ignition and may God's love be with you (two, one, liftoff...)
Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI–IX
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond", was written as a tribute to Syd Barrett, one of the founders of Pink Floyd. He was also known as "The Crazy Diamond Syd". Barrett was a very creative musician and is considered one of the rock icons, with a strong influence on many artists, very especially to David Bowie. Syd Barrett is a key piece to understand the evolution of rock in the 70s.. Excessive drug use, especially LSD, caused him serious mental health problems. Syd Barrett died in 2006 at the age of 60. Always shine diamond.
The Universal is a science fiction song written as a tribute to two films by film director Stanley Kubrick. In the video, the Blur members wear outfits similar to Alex and his gang of thugs, the protagonists of the movie "A Clockwork Orange." The image used for the cover of the single alluded to what is possibly Kubrick's best film: "2001: To Space Odyssey."
We haven't changed that much in 300,000 years of evolution.
Moby - We Are All Made of Stars
Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien
Smash Mouth - Walkin' On The Sun
PS: Electronic - Can't Find My Way Home Just a recommendation. It is important to learn the road signs of the Universe... happy return.
PS: Ground Control to Major Tom. Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong. Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you...
"Here am I floating 'round my tin can, far above the moon. Planet Earth is blue. And there's nothing I can do" (Major Tom)
PS: Merry Christmas to all Flick(e)r users... and to the Universe full of crazy diamonds that shine... And Major Tom
Still a bit of white ⛄️ Christmas, although it is from the archive.
Toch een beetje witte ⛄️ Kerst al is het uit het archief
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Thanks for all the nice comments, it is much appreciated
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission.copyright all rights reserved.
Regards, Bram van Broekhoven (BraCom)
A bit repetitive but I liked the pattern that emerged as I kept folding, distorting and tiling the sample of a syringe image!
Happy Slider Sunday - HSS
FYI: Perhaps this reminds some of "Acid Queen" and Tina Turner's performance in the movie "Tommy". I totally understand...
Mulholland on left was a rescue Thoroughbred (mine at the time) - Bits on right - stablemate friends to the end.
It's a good thing foil came up as a theme for Macro Mondays because now I have a reason for keeping a bag of multicolored foil bits! Perhaps they'll make it into ice cubes some day but for now it's a foil abstract.
The image area measures about 1.5 inches X 1.5 inches.
Nikon 55mm f/2.8 NIKKOR Micro, 9 image photo stack shot at f/11.
I have a bit of time this morning, so I will tell the start of this magnificent day; the first day we, (a photographer friend, my younger two sons, and I), saw two owls in this park together.
We had not been in the park long, when this owl flew over our heads. We stayed put, and several minutes later it came back and landed in a Western Red Cedar right next to us. (The moment of this portrait).
Again, it didn't stay long, when it decided to fly right over my friend's head!
Another relocation, (we were staying put, watching the owl fly to and fro), and suddenly the second owl joined the first. The 'original' owl left it's perch moments before the second owl reached it, and they joined in the air in what looked like a brief scuffle with talons, before they both landed on the same branch.
They stayed there for less than a minute before the two of them joined ranks in chasing a Gray Squirrel that was jumping tree to tree, then spiralled down a nearby tree and off across a log over the creek and into the forest with one of the owls inches behind it in a graceful swoop.
We marvelled at this action right in front of us, all happening too fast and too close to even attempt a picture. Leaving the owls to finish their hunting in peace, we once again stayed put talking about the experience and occasionally seeing one of the owls zig-zagging through the woods in the distance.
Some ten minutes later one of the owls came back and landed in a nearby moss covered Big Leaf Maple tree and started preening. Minutes later the second owl joined it and they participated in allopreening. (The greeting that proceeded this mutual grooming session I have already uploaded).
...and that is only the beginning of a most remarkable morning spent with them.
I am making a semi-educated guess that the two owls involved are last years siblings. That was one story I heard from people who live nearby and frequent this park. The large female who used to 'rule' this park had disappeared, and I found out that she had been hit by a car and killed on a nearby road.
The other story I came across was that they are a mated pair. I spent many hours observing and keeping an eye open for a possible active nest site, and never found one, if there ever was one. Neither did I find any young owlets.
I will continue this story with more photos and at least one video link when time allows.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs, etc. without my permission.
Knowing a bit more about photography makes it easier to understand how and why some oil paintings, say the impressionist, abstract or even watercolour paintings, came into being.
"A beautiful closeup of delicate orchid blossoms and a kaleidoscope of background colors. Great depth and soft light."
A review by Flickr friend/Connoisseur Gertrud Klopp
My condolences
I'll shed a tear with your family
I'll open a bottle up
Pour a little bit out in your memory
I'll be at the wake dressed in all black
I'll call out your name, but you won't call back
I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye
Cause, baby, you're dead to me
I need to kill you
That's the only way to get you out of my head
Oh I need to kill you
To silence all the sweet little things you've said
I really wanna kill you
Wipe you off the face of my earth
And bury your bracelet
Bury your bracelet
Six feet under the dirt
Rainy days and black umbrellas
Who's gonna save you now?
Can you cheat from underground?
My condolences
I'll shed a tear with your family
I'll open a bottle up
Pour a little bit out in your memory
I'll be at the wake dressed in all black
I'll call out your name but you won't call back
I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye
Cause, baby, you're dead to me
I'll mourn you when you go
Baby, you're dead to me
I'll mourn you when you go
I need to say sorry
That's the only thing you say when you lose someone
I used to say I'm sorry
For all of the stupid shit you've done
So now I'm really sorry, sorry for being the apologetic one
But if I told you I cared, if I told you I care
You would think I was crazy
My condolences
I'll shed a tear with your family
I'll open a bottle up
Pour a little bit out in your memory
I'll be at the wake dressed in all black
I'll call out your name but you won't call back
I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye
Cause, baby, you're dead to me
I'll mourn you when you go
Baby, you're dead to me
I'll mourn you when you go
Cause, baby, you're dead to me
A bit of click-bait though, since it was just a bit of wind and the mist from the fountain in the Plaza de España, in Seville.
Pretty dramatic isn't it?
"A Million Dreams"
I close my eyes and I can see
A world that's waiting up for me that I call my own
Through the dark, through the door
Through where no one's been before
But it feels like home
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I've lost my mind
I don't care, I don't care, if they call me crazy
We can live in a world that we design
'Cause every night, I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
Oh, a million dreams for the world we're gonna make
There's a house we can build
Every room inside is filled with things from far away
Special things I compile
Each one there to make you smile on a rainy day
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say we've lost our minds
See, I don't care, I don't care if they call us crazy
Run away to a world that we design
'Cause every night, I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
Oh, a million dreams for the world we're gonna make
However big, however small
Let me be part of it all
Share your dreams with me
We may be right, we may be wrong
But I wanna bring you along to the world I see
To the world we close our eyes to see
We close our eyes to see
Every night, I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
A million dreams for the world we're gonna make
For the world we're gonna make
💖💖 In advance I want to thank you all for your always kindness and support. Please Know that I appreciate each one of you very much for taking the time to look at my pictures. You all mean a lot to me, you make Flickr a lovely place to be and to share pictures. Huge, huge hugs, peace and lots of love to you all💖💖
I'm a little bit shy
I’m a little bit right on time
And I know that you don't operate the same
Are you feeling alright?
Cause I really can't tell sometimes
I wanna know what's going on inside your brain
Just come a little bit closer
Cause I don't know if I know you yet
Yeah, there seems to be something new everyday
Why do I really wanna hold you?
Why do I want you so bad?
Yeah, you're beautiful but something's in my way
A bit quieter and much smaller version of the Main Square but with as much beauty and charm the Mały Rynek, or Small Square, is another spot to enjoy.
Located right behind Saint Mary's Basilica this is a great spot to hear the Trumpeter play without the crowds of the Main Square.
From the 16th century onward sellers of antiques also made a home for themselves on the square, when it was known as ‘Forum Antiquum’ (the Old Market), though the locals liked to call it ‘Tandeta’ (the ‘tacky market’) or - in a rhyming pun related to the grisly meats on display - even ‘Wendeta’ (Vendetta).
Serving as an intermediate point between the nobility of the Main Square and the impoverished denizens living near the city walls, Mały Rynek also housed a soup kitchen for the poor and the 13th-century School of the Virgin Mary, which predated the founding of the square.
Maly Rynek, Kraków, Poland
It is well known that the lakes in the Upper Engadine freeze at an altitude around 1800 metres in winter, and I wanted to experience this for myself. I travelled there in mid-February in the most beautiful weather - and it was far too warm for the time of year! But the Lake Sils was frozen and I - like many others - hiked across it to the mouth of the Aua da Fedoz. There, however, the lake was open and formed gorgeous ice sculptures. I just had to make sure that the ice under my feet was stable enough, a cold bath would have been a bit unpleasant...
Es ist bekannt, dass die Seen im Oberengadin auf rund 1800 Meter im Winter gefrieren, und das wollte ich einmal selber erleben. Mitte Februar bin ich bei schönstem Wetter hingereist - und es war viel zu warm für die Jahreszeit! Doch der Silsersee war zugefroren und ich bin - wie viele andere auch - darüber gewandert bis zur Flussmündung der Aua da Fedoz. Dort war der See allerdings offen und bildete wunderschöne Eisskulpturen. Ich musste beim Fotografieren nur gut aufpassen, dass das Eis unter meinen Füssen stabil genug war, ein kaltes Bad wäre etwas unangenehm gewesen...
Think I will have a "Bit of Something on Blue week" (bound to be fairly minimal so no offence if you decide to pop back when it's all over :-)
I always pass this pump station at Elan in mid Wales and think tilt-shift would work, finally the miniature version is here!!!
♡ ƁƖσg♡ bit.ly/3DGKPWd
HEAD: LeLUTKA Siwa Head 3.1
BODY: REBORN by eBODY v1.69.4
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HAIR:
Magika – Hearts Like Ours
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ACCESORIES:
MICHAN – Aisha Anklets – Champagne [add me]
Tentacio Vanesa sandals & flowers
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OUTFIT:
AVALE Dominica – FATPACk @Cosmopolitan Event 1st May.
Summer Outfit -Dominica- top & bottom in 12 colors
For Kalhene (Erika), Inithium (Kupra), Legacy, Slink (Hourglass), Maitreya (Lara), Belleza (Isis & Freya), Belleza GEN.X (Classic & Curvy), e-Body (Reborn
💫NEW POST💫
more info click link below...
#noedited #blackdragon #secondlife #reallightsview #unedited #blogger #missred #PsychoByts #original
After a bit of editing her tattoos are revealed in the image below
Blogged here by (Art Rock) Hennie artrock2006.blogspot.ca/2017/03/stepping-into-sparkling-w...
See his Photostream here: www.flickr.com/photos/artrock2006/
Bits of snow cling to the tree trunks. To avoid riding on snow down the road, I made a detour. It lengthened my ride but I felt safer. Riding on slippery surfaces is not my forte. In the comments the same scene in early November and in April.