THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

Testing my new 105mm f/2.8 macro lens in native Z mount: an amazing performer, significantly above my previous Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8, which was no slouch at all. I keep being astonished at the optical progress that is being permitted by the new, ultra-wide Z mount. It is easy now to understand how limiting and constraining was the older F mount, designed in the 1950s...

Handheld shot, with some wind, not much care went into it, and yet the quality is impressive.

Andromeda Rock

In Greek mythology, Andromeda is the daughter of the Aethiopian king Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeia's hubris leads her to boast that Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, Poseidon sends a sea monster, Cetus, to ravage Aethiopia as divine punishment.[1] Andromeda is stripped and chained naked to a rock as a sacrifice to sate the monster, but is saved from death by Perseus.

Her name is the Latinized form of the Greek Ἀνδρομέδα (Androméda) or Ἀνδρομέδη (Andromédē): "ruler of men",[2] from ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός (anēr, andrós) "man", and medon, "ruler".

As a subject, Andromeda has been popular in art since classical times; it is one of several Greek myths of a Greek hero's rescue of the intended victim of an archaic hieros gamos (sacred marriage), giving rise to the "princess and dragon" motif. From the Renaissance, interest revived in the original story, typically as derived from Ovid's account.

Contents [hide]

1Mythology

2Constellations

3Perseus and Andromeda in art

3.1Film

3.2Novels

4Depictions in art

5See also

6Sources

7References

8External links

Mythology[edit]

A small Roman fresco from Pompeii

In Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of the North African kingdom of Aethiopia.

Her mother Cassiopeia boasted that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids, the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus and often seen accompanying Poseidon. To punish the queen for her arrogance, Poseidon, brother to Zeus and god of the sea, sent a sea monster named Cetus to ravage the coast of Aethiopia including the kingdom of the vain queen. The desperate king consulted the Oracle of Apollo, who announced that no respite would be found until the king sacrificed his daughter, Andromeda, to the monster. Stripped naked, she was chained to a rock on the coast.

Perseus was returning from having slain the Gorgon Medusa. After he happened upon the chained Andromeda, he approached Cetus while invisible (for he was wearing Hades's helm), and killed the sea monster. He set Andromeda free, and married her in spite of her having been previously promised to her uncle Phineus. At the wedding a quarrel took place between the rivals and Phineus was turned to stone by the sight of the Gorgon's head.[3]

Andromeda followed her husband, first to his native island of Serifos, where he rescued his mother Danaë, and then to Tiryns in Argos. Together, they became the ancestors of the family of the Perseidae through the line of their son Perses. Perseus and Andromeda had seven sons: Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, Electryon, and Cynurus as well as two daughters, Autochthe and Gorgophone. Their descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon down to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus attained the kingdom, and would also include the great hero Heracles. According to this mythology, Perseus is the ancestor of the Persians.

At the port city of Jaffa (today part of Tel Aviv) an outcrop of rocks near the harbour has been associated with the place of Andromeda's chaining and rescue by the traveler Pausanias, the geographer Strabo and the historian of the Jews Josephus.[4]

After Andromeda's death, as Euripides had promised Athena at the end of his Andromeda, produced in 412 BCE,[5] the goddess placed her among the constellations in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiopeia; the constellation Andromeda, so known since antiquity, is named after her.

Constellations[edit]

Andromeda (1869) Edward Poynter

Andromeda is represented in the northern sky by the constellation Andromeda, which contains the Andromeda Galaxy.

Four constellations are associated with the myth. Viewing the fainter stars visible to the naked eye, the constellations are rendered as:

A huge man wearing a crown, upside down with respect to the ecliptic (the constellation Cepheus)

A smaller figure, next to the man, sitting on a chair; as it is near the pole star, it may be seen by observers in the Northern Hemisphere through the whole year, although sometimes upside down (the constellation Cassiopeia)

A maiden, chained up, facing or turning away from the ecliptic (the constellation Andromeda), next to Pegasus

A whale just under the ecliptic (the constellation Cetus)

Other constellations related to the story are:

Perseus

The constellation Pegasus, who was born from the stump of Medusa's neck, after Perseus had decapitated her

The constellation Pisces, which may have been treated as two fish caught by Dictys the fisherman who was brother of Polydectes, king of Seriphos, the place where Perseus and his mother Danaë were stranded

Perseus and Andromeda in art[edit]

Cesari: Perseus saving Andromeda, 1596, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Sophocles and Euripides (and in more modern times, Corneille) made the story the subject of tragedies, and its incidents were represented in numerous ancient works of art, including Greek vases. Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera, Persée, also dramatizes the myth.

Andromeda has been the subject of numerous ancient and modern works of art, which typically show the moment of rescue, with Andromeda usually still chained, and often naked or nearly so. Examples include: one of Titian's poesies (Wallace Collection), and compositions by Joachim Wtewael (Louvre), Veronese (Rennes), many versions by Rubens, Ingres, and Gustave Moreau. From the Renaissance onward the chained nude figure of Andromeda typically was the centre of interest. Rembrandt's Andromeda Chained to the Rocks is unusual in showing her alone, fearfully awaiting the monster.

If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,

And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet

Fetter’d, in spite of pained loveliness;

Let us find out, if we must be constrain’d,

Sandals more interwoven and complete

To fit the naked foot of poesy;

Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress

Of every chord, and see what may be gain’d

By ear industrious, and attention meet:

Misers of sound and syllable, no less

Than Midas of his coinage, let us be

Jealous of dead leaves in the bay wreath crown;

So, if we may not let the Muse be free,

She will be bound with garlands of her own.

“”

"If By Dull Rhymes Our English Must Be Chain’d"

John Keats (1795-1821)[6]

The Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino composed an hour-long operatic drama called Perseo e Andromeda in 2000.

Film[edit]

In 1973, an animated film called Perseus (20 minutes) was made in the Soviet Union as part of the Soviet animated film collection called Legends and mуths of Ancient Greece.[7][8]

The 1981 film Clash of the Titans retells the story of Perseus, Andromeda, and Cassiopeia, but makes a few changes (notably Cassiopeia boasts that her daughter is more beautiful than Thetis as opposed to the Nereids as a group). Thetis was indeed a Nereid and also the future mother of Achilles. Andromeda and Perseus meet and fall in love after he saves her soul from the enslavement of Thetis' son, Calibos, whereas in the myth, they simply meet as Perseus returns home from having slain Medusa. In the film, the monster is called a kraken, although it is depicted as a lizard-like creature rather than a squid; and combining two elements of the myth, Perseus defeats the sea monster by showing it Medusa's face, turning the monster into stone. Andromeda is depicted as being strong-willed and independent, whereas in the stories she is only really mentioned as being the princess whom Perseus saves from the sea monster. Andromeda was portrayed by Judi Bowker in this film.

Andromeda also features in the 2010 film Clash of the Titans, a remake of the 1981 version. Several changes were made in regard to the myth, most notably that Perseus did not marry Andromeda after he rescued her from the sea monster. Andromeda was portrayed by Alexa Davalos. The character was played by Rosamund Pike in the sequel Wrath of the Titans, the second of a planned trilogy. In the end of the sequel, Perseus and Andromeda begin a relationship.

In the Japanese anime Saint Seiya the character, Shun, represents the Andromeda constellation using chains as his main weapons, reminiscent of Andromeda being chained before she was saved by Perseus. In order to attain the Andromeda Cloth, he was chained between two large pillars of rock and he had to overcome the chains before the tide came in and killed him, also reminiscent of this myth.

Andromeda appears in Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series as a new student of "Prometheus Academy" which Hercules and other characters from Greek mythology attend.

Novels[edit]

In Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, there are a few references to Andromeda. The most obvious is that the series' lead villains have a cruise ship which serves as their headquarters and is called The Princess Andromeda.

Andromeda is the main character in Harry Turtledove's short story "Miss Manners' Guide to Greek Missology", published in Esther Friesner's Chicks in Chainmail series of humorous feminist fantasy collections, and reprinted in other anthologies afterwards. It is a satire filled with role reversals, puns, and deliberate anachronisms relating to pop culture.

Andromeda is Anna's full name in Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, which was turned into a movie in 2010. In the novel there are several references to mythology, as Anna's dad Brian is an astronomer in his free time.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_(mythology)

he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%9C%D7%A2_%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%...

#52 Weeks: the 2022 edition

#Week 13 Energy

Just about everything in this image is an expression of energy, largely from the sun. The sea temperature is a very pleasant 23.5 degrees C today thanks to solar energy; the incoming waves contain energy transferred from far away winds; humans expend energy riding them or frolicking in the water; and above it all, the clouds represent evaporation and condensation as the air is first heated near the ground, before cooling higher in the atmosphere. And of course, too many clouds for too long constrains the ability of roof top panels to collect solar energy and convert it into electricity for our consumption.

"barrier" mutaion - Constrain´ing

/

"Blockade" Mutation - Restriktiv´er

THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

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I wanted to learn how to create rays of light in photoshop, and looked back through my photos to find one that might suit.

This was shot on a walk through Cibola National Forest along the 10K Trail last month.

I used this photo despite the original being so dark, as the composition suited me. You'll see the original in the first comment box below. If that box doesn't show, clicking your browser's refresh button usually fixes that.

First in Lr, I dragged the shadows slider all the way to the right. I also dragged the highlights and white sliders rightward. Dragging the clarity slider also brought out more mid tone contrast and brightened the lighter bits on the near tree.

I also experimented with Lr presets, the cyano especially, but I didn't go with that. I kept the original as color (despite it being b/w from hipstamatic) and experimented with the various color sliders until I got a blue tone I liked. Sharpening sliders were also utilized, and the slider for masking to only edges.

I then googled for how to create rays of light in Ps. So the image was exported to Ps, where I created a new layer above the background.

I also had created a series of luminosity based channels in the Channels panel based upon the tutorials from Tony Kuyper. And then created a basic mid tone masked Curves adjustment layer to bring up mid tone brightness without affecting the lightest pixels or darkest pixels.

Filter>Render>Clouds filled that new layer with as you'd expect, clouds. Then Filter>Blur>Radial blur, sliding the strength up to 90 something, dragging the point of origin of the radial blur toward the upper right, estimating about where the lighter background through the trees would be. I changed the blend mode of that layer to Overlay. I had to duplicate the layer several times to make it show. Then I placed those layers into a group and created a mask to block the effect from the tree in the foreground and other areas. Then the opacity of the group was slud and also the opacity of the mask itself.

Wanting to create more color contrast, rather than just have the overall blue, I created a blank layer in that group of layers and filled it with a yellow color, and changed the blend mode to color. But I didn't like the tone, so added within that group a photo filter layer, filled with orange and slud the density and opacity to alter the warmth of the light rays. The single yellow color was too cool, and needed warming to get more of the contrast I wanted with the blue.

I painted on to masks placed in the color layer, photo filter layer, and the group layer, painting through a variety of strengths and a variety of luminosity channel selections, to let the yellow/gold rays be where I thought they ought, and mask from areas they shouldn't.

A new layer containing all the other layers merged up was created and converted to a smart object. The high pass filter was run on that layer, and a mask based upon one of the dark luminosity channels was added to that smart layer. This constrains the high pass sharpening to only the dark pixels and prevents halo-ing on the light pixels. That smart layer was placed into a group containing only itself and yet another mask was created blocking everything. Painting with various opacities of white onto that black mask allowed the sharpening to affect only the areas I chose.

Counting the original background layer, there were 10 layers to the Ps image, and 6 masks. Actually, this is not that many compared to other images I've posted to Sliders Sunday.

Best viewed full screen.

Happy Sliders Sunday!

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On my drive back from Arizona I stopped at Meteor Crater. I stopped a couple times on the road from I-40 to the crater to make some photos. When leaving the crater I realized that this intriguing structure is actually one at which Kim and I had stopped in 2009.

We had been traveling along on our way to California where Tom's soccer team was to be participating in the Far West Regional tournament, spotted this from the interstate, went to the next exit, turned around and came back to it.

Unfortunately, 9 years later, access to it is blocked with locked gates and signs.

I thought I'd experiment a bit. I've been using Photoshop's Stylize > Find Edges filter to constrain sharpening only to well defined edges, and wondered if I could use that to create a line drawing of those edges. Turns out we can.

Then I played with painting onto layers set to color blend mode. It's very similar to what I had been doing by sending photos into my phone to play in the SnapSeed app and the Stackables app with layering on various filters and colors, but a bit more freehand.

This seems to have possibilities.

But I wasn't enamored with just having outline of edges and swaths of color. Thankfully before creating the Find Edges black outline layer, I had taken the time in the original photo to create all the luminosity channels of lights and darks.

This enabled me to paint onto layers set to luminosity blend mode with varying brush flow percentages and create shading and three dimensionality. What one does is Control click on the luminosity channel to select it. Ctrl-H to hide the marching ants, and then when using the brush tool at whatever flow rate, the paint only goes to where those pixels had that particular luminosity value! So I can create darker shadows where in the original photo, shadows had been before finding edges. If one is interested in learning more, google for Tony Kuyper who is very generous with teaching about luminosity selections and channels.

Now this has real possibilities, and I'm excited about trying this more with other images.

Happy Sliders Sunday and may your slide find a slippery slope!

This photo was published in the October/November issue of Talent Photo Magazine.

Explored, highest position #37.

Strobist: SB-26 at 1/16 reflected in silver umbrella cam upper right, triggered by SB-28 at 1/64.

Everyone has heard of the rule of thirds. It is scientifically proven that an image with the rule of thirds applied is more pleasing to look at than otherwise. However - rules constrain your creativity. Photography is art. Art in my eyes is the complete unfolding of the mind. When true art is created, it is not with rules in mind, but with your own artistic eye. While they are helpful guidelines, they shouldn't be followed blindly.

Another thing I've come to think of lately is how uninnovative most people's photography is (goes for me too). One usually sees the same thing over and over again. I think it's because we aspire to the popular photographers, and to achieve similar popularity, we mimic their expressions and ideas. We compare ourselves all the time. You don't come up with really unique things because others aren't either. Somehow we therefore think that it is not necessary to think new. I think so many genres have stagnated and that too many artists are throwing out the same pictures. I guess this is a natural consequence of the rising popularity of photography as a hobby.

With that said, there's still alot of interesting and innovative art out there!

Self-isolation for an extended time places constrains on us as photographers. Painters can continue to paint whatever their imagination can conjure, but we photographers have to find things to photograph in the confined space we now live in. For years, I was saying that my imagination is my Iceland, my African Safari, my Antelope Canyon - you get the idea. Now I am constrained in terms of where me and my camera can go and so this is the put up or shut up time. I am now building up a series (code name Covid-19) that is shot exclusively from within my apartment building (mostly my apartment). Please consider looking at all images in the series and tell me what you think.

The way a camera sees me.

For some, confinement has been constraining, for others, we are finding inspiration in places we never looked before. See out photos shot from the window. - www.aperturetours.com/blog/2020/shooting-from-the-window

- IPA 2013 International Photography Awards - 3rd Prize (Bronze) - Professionals Architecture Bridges -

- SWPA 2013 - Sony - World Photography Awards - Finalist Top 10 Shortlist Architecture Professionals -

- IPA 2012 International Photography Awards - Honorable Mention -

_Katechaki Pedestrian bridge, Athens – Architect Santiago Calatrava_

This is the third image from my study of the Katehaki Pedestrian Bridge in Athens, design by Santiago Calatrava. I'm working now at the fourth one, from a different angle. I'm working now at the fourth one, from a different angle.

I have to say that this study is one of the most complex works I've done in photography up to now. Very challenging for many reasons. The place and the surroundings are very crowded and construction cluttered so it's quite difficult to find clean angles to shoot and almost impossible if you intend to obtain an abstract look and keep the "streety" elements out of the frame. Then, one has to work with wide enough angle to be able to deal with the narrow spaces that constrain the perspective. Then, the deck of the bridge is wooden and there are a lot of pedestrians using the bridge, so it's almost impossible to shoot there during the day (I also have some night shots taken there and the first image in the series, like a harp's strings I, is actually a night shot). There is only a narrow band of concrete floor where you can place your tripod, but even so, people are passing by and one: you bother them, two: they bother you. Plus they are curious and ask a lot of questions, which is not exactly bad, but keeps you from doing your job and you might lose precious clouds like this :). Then the processing was quite challenging too. Being a complex volume, with accentuated curves and a lot of cables going up and down, plus the stairs, the handrails and other elements that can be seen in a wider perspective (as the number II of the series - the "sister" of this one here) you have to hierarchize very well the image and the elements within in order not to get a cluttered one with no point of interest or with too many. That means you have to look very carefully at your composition, trying to keep it as clean as possible, and then you have to play with light and is intensity and try to give the right amount of care to each element so to match your vision of the object and convey the feeling you have in mind. I found none of these images easy to process up to now. Every one of them was a different challenge, even if some seemed easy to be worked with in the beginning. The selections in all of them were completely crazy, these cables can drive mad the most patient person, I'm telling you. The skies also were tough to get right with all these things going on in each photo of this study.

But all in all, I loved working on it (and I still do, as it's an ongoing series). I've learned tons of things struggling with these images and I think this was the best LE exercise I could do to be able to gain confidence in my skills and try even more complex approaches the next time.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Google+ | 500px | Art Limited | 1x.com | Facebook | Facebook Page | Twitter | Stark-Magazine

It's softer somehow, less Flannery O'Connor (Irish American), more Joyce and Dolly combined. It's just a bit messy, sexy even.

Strange for the country that also produced Bram Stoker, but that was probably the 'Ascendency' influence.

I am wondering if it is possible to constrain oneself to one image a day, and to spend more time pulling out the story.

The whole thing happens, all the images are generated, over the duration of one weekend in Dublin, in 1918, the first meeting of Joyce and Duchamp, where Marcel agrees to lead James through 'infrathin' in a search for a cure for syphilis.

All of the images, and their encounters with Dolly, Goya, Chickenman, Rrose, the Giant Silverfish, Shakespeare, and all the others, occur in that three-day-weekend (a long weekend), as they lapse in and out of 'Infrathin' together. This includes all the 'thens' of what we call the past, through now, and to all the histories of our combined futures.

It can be taken for granted that one second, or millisecond of our 'reality', can manifest as a lifetime in that infinity (our beloved infrathin).

The challenge would be to combine the images (edited) and text (even more heavily edited) into a coherent 'story'.

Stories have always been our 'salvation'. They are how we cohere, or coalesce even.

As Martha might say, coalescing is a good thing.

"You think just because there's bad people out there, that there's no good ones either? I thought the same thing for a while. But there's always someone out there for you. Somewhere."

~Norman Babcock

MR SL ♛ X-Mansion was inspired by ParaNorman. Arti is stylizing Norman Babcock, a gentle and shy eleven-year-old obsessed with zombies and horror movies. Norman has a hard time relating to his peers, but not to dead people! He can see and speak to them! Even the animals! Like Norman, Arti loves creepy things and is sometimes alienated from others. However, Norman remains kind and would never hurt another creature, living or dead. Arti carries a rose to lay at the grave of a little girl’s spirit Norman befriended in the movie.

CREDITS

Basic Hoodie for Tweenster - Maroon by Tween Dream

Cargo Jeans for Tweenster by Meshmerized

Skelly Hands for Tweenster - Silver by Joker’s Asylum

Self Diagnosis Bracelet - Zombie by katat0nik

Full Perm Button Badge by Digi

Urban Style Backpack by Rebirth

Work for Brains Button Pin by Hollyweed

Zaifaris' Spellbook - Worn by Constrain

Voodude 18 - Basic 1 & Pins by Harshlands

Ride of Delusion Guardian by ContraptioN

Spiky Hair - Rare by Ink

Dead Cute Skelecat – Light by Foxes

Photo taken at Arranmore

Flower 03 Pose for Kids by the posStore

The nocturnal Invisible Worm cannot destroy the Crimson Bed of Joy. The Rose is The Rose and any visitation of either mortal malady, or momentous merriment is just the conditions, the ailments and the ebullience that make any Rose at anytime The Rose. Roses bloom and fade and become a part of the compost and the midden that fuels further burgeoning blossoms.

The redden crimson bed seems to be a target chosen by the Invisible Worm. Many roses last a season and are mulched back into the earth with their bright vibrant colours and deep rich heady perfumes being wondrous attractions and strong inspiration to those that will garden them in confined arrangements and to those that cut a bouquet, snip a corsages, trim out a boutonnière they are taking the flowering crowns to be pleasant for either the occasion, or the day and to those that take the heads to macerate them for perfume to all of those and those many, many more that draw and paint roses and make and wear them as garments and further still and more beyond to all those roses have a way in their display to bring a message of love and beauty in both sight and scent. The colour and fragrance, the blood the life force of The Rose can be the blood of adulthood that takes away the innocence of all of us delivering a new Rose with new adult perspective. William Blake in his views of delivered in Songs of Innocence and of Experience gives indications that the Innocence of Eden is lost to those that will not look for it and it is easily found by those that endeavour to cherish it, we are too easily deceived by the material engines working to constrain us into rigid life conventions allowing great harm to be delivered generation to generation as we stray from the goodly and godly way as he perceived it.

Having been a fan of William Blake and of wondering after and into his imaginings I have no wish to influence your own explorations. I believe that Blake saw society forming harsh rules and regulations that were to be mindlessly adhered to and also society was forming institutions that were to be revered with question. His notions of humans finding the path through creation to a return towards the Garden of Eden and of man building a world fulfilling his notions of humanity finding and following the intended ways of us as god’s creation.

I do not follow Blake’s visions as a guide to my life. His Poetry and his building of perception of divinity ready to receive us is not my way. The various enigmas in Blakian Divinity do lead me to Tokyo.

The Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai K.K., (東京光学機械㈱, usually translated as Tokyo Optical Company, Ltd) are almost as much a source of research as is Blake. The Horseman Topcon Super ER 90mm f5.6 Seiko SLV Lens From JAPAN used here has had me looking at many records and returning more greatly confused than I had been before my pursuit of clarity about The TOPCON CORPORATION. Seiko

The 6x9cmm Horseman Camera is stated as being introduced for Police use and then considered in further sales as a Press Camera. 120 film backs exist with several formats possible from 6x9cm, 6x8cm, 6x7cm, 6x6cm and 6x4.5cm. The 61mm wide 120 films can be held in light tight interchangeable backs each with their specific colour coded winding mechanism. The dark slide allows not just a change of emulsion from say either negative to positive, or monotone to colour and also a different frame format.

The 6x9cm camera back here held an adapter to connect to a Sony camera. The extension of the digital sensor from the position original film plane does bring issues especially for infinity focus. The small physical size of the digital sensor used here does open ideas of how much of the lens is being used and whether the digital sensor is testing the lens far beyond the original concept. I have ideas and answers that are still being challenged as I take more pictures.

Lens

Horseman Topcon Super ER 90mm f5.6 Seiko SLV Lens From JAPAN

Tokyo Kogaku, TOPCON CORPORATION, Topcor.

Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai K.K., (東京光学機械㈱, usually translated as Tokyo Optical Company, Ltd).

Camera 1

Horseman VH 6x9 Medium Format Technical Camera, also called a Field Camera, Press Camera and further. Some sellers list items relating to this camera as a Large Format Camera. There are Topcon Lenses for their own and other 35mm film cameras, for 6x9cm cameras and with larger image circles for other formats. The intended differences and imagined purposes do give character as well as technical constraints.

Camera 2

Sony α7R III 35mm full-frame camera, ILCE-7RM3, Sony Alpha A7R III ILCE7RM3.

Edit

There are Eight images stacked here in Adobe Photoshop.

The mysteries of Blake and the histories of cameras have brought a focus on dead rose. It has become mummified of sorts and that links to many more mysteries. I am still looking for more details in life, in literature, in history, in manufacture and in expression. I am glad to be involved in the experience of life and happy to think that an Eden of share and of care might be available and we can wander towards a better life for us all. That should be the last statement made, but I am adding that an Eden with Camera Libraries would be welcome.

If this and links do not answer questions then that is where I am continuing on from. On to more pictures and some research. On to enlightenment, that is the way open to us.

Scratch enlightenment just for now, instead maybe on to further edits and to trying to keep up with updates.

© PHH Sykes 2025

phhsykes@gmail.com

The Sick Rose, William Blake

www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/sick-rose/

The Sick Rose by William Blake, Summary & Analysis

www.litcharts.com/poetry/william-blake/the-sick-rose

Sony α7R III 35mm full-frame camera with autofocus

ILCE-7RM3, Sony A7R III, Alpha, 7R III, ILCE-7RM3, ILCE7RM3,

www.sony.co.uk/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/i...

CAMERA REVIEW : HORSEMAN VH

www.bnphoto.org/bnphoto/LFN/CamProf_HorsemanVH.htm

Camera-Wiki, “Tōkyō Kōgaku, later Topcon...”

camera-wiki.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dky%C5%8D_K%C5%8Dgaku

Horseman VH-R PDF MANUAL

www.cameramanuals.org/prof_pdf/horseman_vh-r.pdf

Horseman 985 – an earlier model

www.cameramanuals.org/prof_pdf/horseman_985.pdf

Horseman 980

camera-wiki.org/wiki/Horseman_980

Camera Collecting and Restoration, Seikosha.

The Seikosha is a high quality, Japanese made shutter used on many Japanese rangefinder and TLR cameras. Minolta, Mamiya and Ricoh cameras often use this shutter or one of its variants. Several versions of the Seikosha and Seiko shutters were made.

pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=seikosha

Mamiya, yes but informative of Seikosha shitters.

www.cameramanuals.org/mamiya_pdf/mamiya_seiko_shutter.pdf

Seiko #0 Shutter in Bronica Lenses

learncamerarepair.com/product.php?product=948

... is the Same Fence that Protects

Film Pack 7 FP4+ (no further adjustments)

IMG_2404 DxO_DeepPRIME 3

Yes, this is a very long description, but trust us, you won't want to skip over it. We would appreciate if you took the time to read it.

The sun was now completely overhead as we advanced upon the city, which perfectly illuminated the horror we saw: the city was the remains of a war zone. The signs were everywhere. Windows were shattered. Buildings were riddled with bullet holes. Metal police barricades that had probably once blocked the road were bent and mangled in ways I had not conceived possible. “Wha…What happened here?” I asked, still trying to process everything I had seen. Scott gave no response. We continued to walk, but in total silence. I had always remembered L.A. as a busy, noisy city full of people, but the scene we now walked through was a complete contrast. After walking for several minutes it finally hit me. Where was everyone?

<Previous Next>

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Pretty long story, huh? Anyways, this is the largest Outbreak setup we've had so far, and will certainly not be for much longer. Hope you enjoyed guys!

Buildings were inspired by Empty Sanbox and ✠Andreas.

The Dolores River Canyon, about 30 miles above its confluence with the Colorado River. Here, the canyon is wide and the river is lined with willows, tamarisk, cottonwoods, junipers and pinyon pines. At other places, the canyon is deep and narrow, with cliffs and rock rubble constraining the river.

In June, the water is high and muddy, the accumulated runoff from snowmelt high in the San Juan Mountains.

Yes, the camera is level.

14" x 20"

Brushes: Large squirrel mop and #10 round sable.

Colors: I forced myself to use only few colors at the beginning of the painting and this time I was really upset for constraining myself so.

Cerulean blue, Burnt Umber, Rose, Permanent Yellow and Lemon Yellow and some white to add back the shine on the water. I love Raw Sienna - the best yellow ever but I've run out of it. I categorically despise Lemon Yellow in watercolors though that would be my choice for many fabrics around the house.

c1974 at Gravelly Point Park at the north end of KDCA. Used the lens cap to capture multiple exposures of several aircraft on the same frame of Anscochrome.

Nikkormat FTn w/Vivitar 28mm f 2.8 Prime

Nikon Film Camera

Washington National Airport

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (IATA: DCA, ICAO: KDCA, FAA LID: DCA), also known as National Airport, Washington National, Reagan National Airport or simply Reagan, is in Arlington, Virginia, next to the border of Washington, D.C. It is the smaller of two airports operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that serve the National Capital Region (NCR) around Washington (the larger airport being Washington Dulles International Airport about 25 miles (40 km) to the west in Virginia's Fairfax and Loudoun counties).[2][6] The airport is 5 miles (8.0 km) from downtown Washington D.C. and the border is visible from the airport.

The airport's original name was Washington National Airport. Congress adopted the present name to honor President Ronald Reagan in 1998.[7][8] MWAA operates the airport with close oversight by the federal government due to its proximity to the national capital.

Flights into and out of the airport are generally not allowed to exceed 1,250 statute miles (2,010 km) in any direction nonstop, in an effort to send coast-to-coast and overseas traffic to Washington Dulles International Airport, though there are 40 slot exemptions to this rule. Planes are required to take unusually complicated paths to avoid restricted and prohibited airspace above sensitive landmarks, government buildings, and military installations in and around Washington, D.C.,[9] and to comply with some of the tightest noise restrictions in the country.[10]

The airport's small size constrains its capacity, but Reagan National currently serves 98 nonstop destinations. Reagan is a hub for American. The airport has no United States immigration and customs facilities; the only scheduled international flights at the airport are those from airports with U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance facilities, which generally encompasses flights from major airports in Canada and from some destinations in the Caribbean. Other international passenger flights to the Washington, D.C. area use Washington Dulles International Airport or Baltimore–Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. There are currently five scheduled international routes, which are to cities in Canada, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.[11]

The airport served 23.5 million passengers in 2018.[12] In 2019, DCA served 23,945,527 passengers, an increase of 1.8% over 2018, and a new passenger record for the airport.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Washington_National_A...

The nocturnal Invisible Worm cannot destroy the Crimson Bed of Joy. The Rose is The Rose and any visitation of either mortal malady, or momentous merriment is just the conditions, the ailments and the ebullience that make any Rose at anytime The Rose. Roses bloom and fade and become a part of the compost and the midden that fuels further burgeoning blossoms.

The redden crimson bed seems to be a target chosen by the Invisible Worm. Many roses last a season and are mulched back into the earth with their bright vibrant colours and deep rich heady perfumes being wondrous attractions and strong inspiration to those that will garden them in confined arrangements and to those that cut a bouquet, snip a corsages, trim out a boutonnière they are taking the flowering crowns to be pleasant for either the occasion, or the day and to those that take the heads to macerate them for perfume to all of those and those many, many more that draw and paint roses and make and wear them as garments and further still and more beyond to all those roses have a way in their display to bring a message of love and beauty in both sight and scent. The colour and fragrance, the blood the life force of The Rose can be the blood of adulthood that takes away the innocence of all of us delivering a new Rose with new adult perspective. William Blake in his views of delivered in Songs of Innocence and of Experience gives indications that the Innocence of Eden is lost to those that will not look for it and it is easily found by those that endeavour to cherish it, we are too easily deceived by the material engines working to constrain us into rigid life conventions allowing great harm to be delivered generation to generation as we stray from the goodly and godly way as he perceived it.

Having been a fan of William Blake and of wondering after and into his imaginings I have no wish to influence your own explorations. I believe that Blake saw society forming harsh rules and regulations that were to be mindlessly adhered to and also society was forming institutions that were to be revered with question. His notions of humans finding the path through creation to a return towards the Garden of Eden and of man building a world fulfilling his notions of humanity finding and following the intended ways of us as god’s creation.

I do not follow Blake’s visions as a guide to my life. His Poetry and his building of perception of divinity ready to receive us is not my way. The various enigmas in Blakian Divinity do lead me to Tokyo.

The Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai K.K., (東京光学機械㈱, usually translated as Tokyo Optical Company, Ltd) are almost as much a source of research as is Blake. The Horseman Topcon Super ER 90mm f5.6 Seiko SLV Lens From JAPAN used here has had me looking at many records and returning more greatly confused than I had been before my pursuit of clarity about The TOPCON CORPORATION. Seiko

The 6x9cmm Horseman Camera is stated as being introduced for Police use and then considered in further sales as a Press Camera. 120 film backs exist with several formats possible from 6x9cm, 6x8cm, 6x7cm, 6x6cm and 6x4.5cm. The 61mm wide 120 films can be held in light tight interchangeable backs each with their specific colour coded winding mechanism. The dark slide allows not just a change of emulsion from say either negative to positive, or monotone to colour and also a different frame format.

The 6x9cm camera back here held an adapter to connect to a Sony camera. The extension of the digital sensor from the position original film plane does bring issues especially for infinity focus. The small physical size of the digital sensor used here does open ideas of how much of the lens is being used and whether the digital sensor is testing the lens far beyond the original concept. I have ideas and answers that are still being challenged as I take more pictures.

Lens

Horseman Topcon Super ER 90mm f5.6 Seiko SLV Lens From JAPAN

Tokyo Kogaku, TOPCON CORPORATION, Topcor.

Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai K.K., (東京光学機械㈱, usually translated as Tokyo Optical Company, Ltd).

Camera 1

Horseman VH 6x9 Medium Format Technical Camera, also called a Field Camera, Press Camera and further. Some sellers list items relating to this camera as a Large Format Camera. There are Topcon Lenses for their own and other 35mm film cameras, for 6x9cm cameras and with larger image circles for other formats. The intended differences and imagined purposes do give character as well as technical constraints.

Camera 2

Sony α7R III 35mm full-frame camera, ILCE-7RM3, Sony Alpha A7R III ILCE7RM3.

Edit

There are Eight images stacked here in Adobe Photoshop.

The mysteries of Blake and the histories of cameras have brought a focus on dead rose. It has become mummified of sorts and that links to many more mysteries. I am still looking for more details in life, in literature, in history, in manufacture and in expression. I am glad to be involved in the experience of life and happy to think that an Eden of share and of care might be available and we can wander towards a better life for us all. That should be the last statement made, but I am adding that an Eden with Camera Libraries would be welcome.

If this and links do not answer questions then that is where I am continuing on from. On to more pictures and some research. On to enlightenment, that is the way open to us.

Scratch enlightenment just for now, instead maybe on to further edits and to trying to keep up with updates.

© PHH Sykes 2025

phhsykes@gmail.com

The Sick Rose, William Blake

www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/sick-rose/

The Sick Rose by William Blake, Summary & Analysis

www.litcharts.com/poetry/william-blake/the-sick-rose

Sony α7R III 35mm full-frame camera with autofocus

ILCE-7RM3, Sony A7R III, Alpha, 7R III, ILCE-7RM3, ILCE7RM3,

www.sony.co.uk/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/i...

CAMERA REVIEW : HORSEMAN VH

www.bnphoto.org/bnphoto/LFN/CamProf_HorsemanVH.htm

Camera-Wiki, “Tōkyō Kōgaku, later Topcon...”

camera-wiki.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dky%C5%8D_K%C5%8Dgaku

Horseman VH-R PDF MANUAL

www.cameramanuals.org/prof_pdf/horseman_vh-r.pdf

Horseman 985 – an earlier model

www.cameramanuals.org/prof_pdf/horseman_985.pdf

Horseman 980

camera-wiki.org/wiki/Horseman_980

Camera Collecting and Restoration, Seikosha.

The Seikosha is a high quality, Japanese made shutter used on many Japanese rangefinder and TLR cameras. Minolta, Mamiya and Ricoh cameras often use this shutter or one of its variants. Several versions of the Seikosha and Seiko shutters were made.

pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=seikosha

Mamiya, yes but informative of Seikosha shitters.

www.cameramanuals.org/mamiya_pdf/mamiya_seiko_shutter.pdf

Seiko #0 Shutter in Bronica Lenses

learncamerarepair.com/product.php?product=948

Study for an installation by the Barbarian Group going up at the McLeod Residence in July. I am going to be vague on the details of the installation itself, but it involves Processing, Arudino boards, laser cutting, prints, and lots and lots of magnets. Pictures from the installation and opening will be forthcoming.

Regarding this image, it is more of a process study than a final piece. Learning to control the Voronoi has been quite the brain teaser and much of its nuance still remains a mystery to me. But I figured out how to constrain the Voronoi to a predefined shape in a really round about way involving vector cross products and magnetic repulsion. Fun!

This area consists of high relief rolling to steep hills comprising mega barchan dunes with minor pockets of small sabkha plains. The small sabkha plains often contain cemented secondary gypsum accumulation material, more than 10cm thick, at variable depth. The map unit occurs within the Liwa crescent in the southern part of Abu Dhabi close to the Saudi border. Polygons range in size from 69ha to 28,9924ha. The land is used as low-density grazing. The map unit is devoid of vegetation or has a sparse vegetation cover of Cyperus conglomeratus on the dunes slopes together with Zygophyllum and Tribulus spp on the edges of gypsic and salt flats. The map unit forms part of the Cyperetum-Zygophylletum vegetation community.

The soils of this map unit are dominated by Typic Torripsamments, mixed, hyperthermic (90% AD158) in the dunes. Other soils are Gypsic Haplosalids, sandy, gypsic, hyperthermic, aquic phase (5% AD134) and Typic Petrogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD123). Topographic gradient and relative relief are the main constrains to the use of this land for irrigated agriculture.

For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:

agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...

THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

Deep Dream Generator,Openjourney,Photoshop.Original Sphere created in photoshop,Face created in Openjourney v4 and the combined images put into Deep Dream Generator

Prompt: bi-laterally symmetrical,Beautiful Face of a Woman With Wild Wind Blown Hair Reflected in Chrome Metal Sphere,(!'No Miniature Figure outside of the Sphere'),'No Extra Figures'('Preserve Face, Eyes and Hair Within Sphere'),'Clear Distinct Realistic Eyes','mdjrny--v4 style',Eyes Equal in Size,Highly Reflective,Highly Refractive Polished Tiled Flooring,Background 'Cosmic Sky --Hubble, James Webb Style',No extra Spheres, No Extra Figures Or Faces,Detailed,Realistic,Lighting and Reflections,Constrain Proportions,by Artgerm,Greg Rutkowski,'mdjrny--v4 style'

Negative Prompt:- Extra Figure,Dual Sphere,Dark Face,Too Much Shadow, Too High Contrast,Two Heads,Multiple Heads,Distorted Face Features,fingers, mutated hands, Red Eyes,Yellow Eyes,Multi-coloured eyes,((poorly drawn hands)), ((poorly drawn face)), (((mutation))), (((deformed))), ((ugly)), blurry, ((bad anatomy)), (((bad proportions))), ((extra limbs)), cloned face, (((disfigured))), out of frame, ugly, extra limbs, (bad anatomy), gross proportions, (malformed limbs), ((missing arms)), ((missing legs)), (((extra arms))), (((extra legs))), mutated hands, (fused fingers), (too many fingers), (((long neck))), (((logo))), (((watermark)))](((((((duplicate))), ((morbid)), ((mutilated)), [out of frame], Extra Artifacts

Tired of the concrete jungle, Birch sought to stretch its pinnate veins upward without glass steel or cement to constrain.

The Mithraic Mysteries were a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. The name of the Persian god Mithra (proto-Indo-Iranian Mitra), adapted into Greek as Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery. Writers of the Roman Empire period referred to this mystery religion by phrases which can be anglicized as Mysteries of Mithras or Mysteries of the Persians; modern historians refer to it as Mithraism,[1] or sometimes Roman Mithraism.The mysteries were popular in the Roman military.

Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation, with ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake".They met in underground temples (called mithraea), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome.

Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire.The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene (tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments.[9] It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in Rome.[10] No written narratives or theology from the religion survive, with limited information to be derived from the inscriptions, and only brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested.

The Romans regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources. Since the early 1970s the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between Persian Mithra-worship and the Roman Mithraic mysteries. In this context, Mithraism has sometimes been viewed as a rival of early Christianity with similarities such as liberator-saviour, hierarchy of adepts (archbishops, bishops, priests), communal meal and a hard struggle of Good and Evil (bull-killing/crucifixion).The name Mithras (Latin, equivalent to Greek “Μίθρας” is a form of Mithra, the name of an Old Persian god– a relationship understood by Mithraic scholars since the days of Franz Cumont. An early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th century BC work by Xenophon, the Cyropaedia, which is a biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great.

The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of declension. There is archeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god’s name as “Mithras”. However, in Porphyry’s Greek text De Abstinentia («Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων»), there is a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name “Mithra” as an indeclinable foreign word.

Related deity-names in other languages include

Sanskrit Mitra (मित्रः), the name of a god praised in the Rig Veda.In Sanskrit, "mitra" means "friend" or "friendship"

the form mi-it-ra-, found in an inscribed peace treaty between the Hittites and the kingdom of Mitanni, from about 1400 BC.

Iranian "Mithra" and Sanskrit "Mitra" are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word mitra meaning "contract, agreement, covenant".

Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity worshipped in several different religions. On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st century BC, and to whom an old name was applied.

Mary Boyce, a researcher of ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Empire Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than historians used to think, still "as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance.Much about the cult of Mithras is only known from reliefs and sculptures. There have been many attempts to interpret this material.

Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. Other images of Mithras are found in the Roman temples, for instance Mithras banqueting with Sol, and depictions of the birth of Mithras from a rock. But the image of bull-slaying (tauroctony) is always in the central niche.Textual sources for a reconstruction of the theology behind this iconography are very rare. (See section Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene below.)

The practice of depicting the god slaying a bull seems to be specific to Roman Mithraism. According to David Ulansey, this is "perhaps the most important example" of evident difference between Iranian and Roman traditions: "... there is no evidence that the Iranian god Mithra ever had anything to do with killing a bull."n every Mithraeum the centrepiece was a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull, called the tauroctony.

The image may be a relief, or free-standing, and side details may be present or omitted. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap; who is kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils[33] with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol. A dog and a snake reach up towards the blood. A scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. A raven is flying around or is sitting on the bull. Three ears of wheat are seen coming out from the bull's tail, sometimes from the wound. The bull was often white. The god is sitting on the bull in an unnatural way with his right leg constraining the bull's hoof and the left leg is bent and resting on the bull's back or flank.[34] The two torch-bearers are on either side, dressed like Mithras, Cautes with his torch pointing up and Cautopates with his torch pointing down. Sometimes Cautes and Cautopates carry shepherds' crooks instead of torches.

Tauroctony from the Kunsthistorisches Museum

The event takes place in a cavern, into which Mithras has carried the bull, after having hunted it, ridden it and overwhelmed its strength.[38] Sometimes the cavern is surrounded by a circle, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac appear. Outside the cavern, top left, is Sol the sun, with his flaming crown, often driving a quadriga. A ray of light often reaches down to touch Mithras. At the top right is Luna, with her crescent moon, who may be depicted driving a biga.[39]

In some depictions, the central tauroctony is framed by a series of subsidiary scenes to the left, top and right, illustrating events in the Mithras narrative; Mithras being born from the rock, the water miracle, the hunting and riding of the bull, meeting Sol who kneels to him, shaking hands with Sol and sharing a meal of bull-parts with him, and ascending to the heavens in a chariot.[39] In some instances, as is the case in the stucco icon at Santa Prisca mithraeum, the god is shown heroically nude. Some of these reliefs were constructed so that they could be turned on an axis. On the back side was another, more elaborate feasting scene. This indicates that the bull killing scene was used in the first part of the celebration, then the relief was turned, and the second scene was used in the second part of the celebration.Besides the main cult icon, a number of mithraea had several secondary tauroctonies, and some small portable versions, probably meant for private devotion, have also been found.[The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene.The banquet scene features Mithras and the Sun god banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull. On the specific banquet scene on the Fiano Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a caduceus towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of Mercury, and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a psychopomp, the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter. Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: the blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.Mithras is depicted as being born from a rock. He is shown as emerging from a rock, already in his youth, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He is nude, standing with his legs together, and is wearing a Phrygian cap.

However, there are variations. Sometimes he is shown as coming out of the rock as a child, and in one instance he has a globe in one hand; sometimes a thunderbolt is seen. There are also depictions in which flames are shooting from the rock and also from Mithras' cap. One statue had its base perforated so that it could serve as a fountain, and the base of another has the mask of the water god. Sometimes Mithras also has other weapons such as bows and arrows, and there are also animals such as dogs, serpents, dolphins, eagles, other birds, lion, crocodiles, lobsters and snails around. On some reliefs, there is a bearded figure identified as Oceanus, the water god, and on some there are the gods of the four winds. In these reliefs, the four elements could be invoked together. Sometimes Victoria, Luna, Sol and Saturn also seem to play a role. Saturn in particular is often seen handing over the dagger to Mithras so that he can perform his mighty deeds.

In some depictions, Cautes and Cautopates are also present; sometimes they are depicted as shepherds.

On some occasions, an amphora is seen, and a few instances show variations like an egg birth or a tree birth. Some interpretations show that the birth of Mithras was celebrated by lighting torches or candles.[One of the most characteristic features of the Mysteries is the naked lion-headed figure often found in Mithraic temples, named by the modern scholars with descriptive terms such as leontocephaline (lion-headed) or leontocephalus (lion-head). He is entwined by a serpent (or two serpents, like a caduceus), with the snake's head often resting on the lion's head. The lion's mouth is often open, giving a horrifying impression. He is usually represented as having four wings, two keys (sometimes a single key), and a scepter in his hand. Sometimes the figure is standing on a globe inscribed with a diagonal cross. In the figure shown here, the four wings carry the symbols of the four seasons, and a thunderbolt is engraved on the breast. At the base of the statue are the hammer and tongs of Vulcan, the cock, and the wand of Mercury. A more scarcely represented variant of the figure with a human head is also found.

Although animal-headed figures are prevalent in contemporary Egyptian and Gnostic mythological representations, an exact parallel to the Mithraic leontocephaline figure is not found.

The name of the figure has been deciphered from dedicatory inscriptions to be Arimanius (though the archeological evidence is not very strong), which is nominally the equivalent of Ahriman, a demon figure in the Zoroastrian pantheon. Arimanius is known from inscriptions to have been a god in the Mithraic cult (CIMRM 222 from Ostia, 369 from Rome, 1773 and 1775 from Pannonia).

While some scholars identify the lion-man as Aion (or Zurvan, or Cronus) others assert that it is Ahriman.[51] There is also speculation that the figure is the Gnostic demiurge, (Ariel) Ialdabaoth. Although the exact identity of the lion-headed figure is debated by scholars, it is largely agreed that the god is associated with time and seasonal change.[53] An occultist, D. J.Cooper, speculates to the contrary that the lion-headed figure is not a god, but rather represents the spiritual state achieved in Mithraism's "adept" level, the Leo (lion) degree. Rituals and worship[edit]

According to M. J. Vermaseren, the Mithraic New Year and the birthday of Mithras was on December 25. However, Beck disagrees strongly.Clauss states: "the Mithraic Mysteries had no public ceremonies of its own. The festival of natalis Invicti [Birth of the Unconquerable (Sun)], held on 25 December, was a general festival of the Sun, and by no means specific to the Mysteries of Mithras." Mithraic initiates were required to swear an oath of secrecy and dedication, and some grade rituals involved the recital of a catechism, wherein the initiate was asked a series of questions pertaining to the initiation symbolism and had to reply with specific answers. An example of such a catechism, apparently pertaining to the Leo grade, was discovered in a fragmentary Egyptian papyrus (P.Berolinensis 21196),and reads:

... He will say: 'Where ... ?

... he is/(you are?) there (then/thereupon?) at a loss?' Say: ... Say: 'Night'. He will say: 'Where ... ?' ... Say: 'All things ...' (He will say): '... you are called ... ?' Say: 'Because of the summery ...' ... having become ... he/it has the fiery ... (He will say): '... did you receive/inherit?' Say: 'In a pit'. He will say: 'Where is your ...?... (Say): '...(in the...) Leonteion.' He will say: 'Will you gird?' The (heavenly?) ...(Say): '... death'. He will say: 'Why, having girded yourself, ...?' '... this (has?) four tassels. Very sharp and ... '... much'. He will say: ...? (Say: '... because of/through?) hot and cold'. He will say: ...? (Say): '... red ... linen'. He will say: 'Why?' Say: '... red border; the linen, however, ...' (He will say): '... has been wrapped?' Say: 'The savior's ...' He will say: 'Who is the father?' Say: 'The one who (begets?) everything ...' (He will say): '('How ?)... did you become a Leo?' Say: 'By the ... of the father'. ... Say: 'Drink and food'. He will say '...?'

'... in the seven-...

Almost no Mithraic scripture or first-hand account of its highly secret rituals survives;with the exception of the aforementioned oath and catechism, and the document known as the Mithras Liturgy, from 4th century Egypt, whose status as a Mithraist text has been questioned by scholars including Franz Cumont. The walls of Mithraea were commonly whitewashed, and where this survives it tends to carry extensive repositories of graffiti; and these, together with inscriptions on Mithraic monuments, form the main source for Mithraic texts.

Nevertheless, it is clear from the archeology of numerous Mithraea that most rituals were associated with feasting – as eating utensils and food residues are almost invariably found. These tend to include both animal bones and also very large quantities of fruit residues.The presence of large amounts of cherry-stones in particular would tend to confirm mid-summer (late June, early July) as a season especially associated with Mithraic festivities. The Virunum album, in the form of an inscribed bronze plaque, records a Mithraic festival of commemoration as taking place on 26 June 184. Beck argues that religious celebrations on this date are indicative of special significance being given to the Summer solstice; but this time of the year coincides with ancient recognition of the solar maximum at midsummer, whilst iconographically identical holidays such as Litha, St John's Eve, and Jāņi are observed also.

For their feasts, Mithraic initiates reclined on stone benches arranged along the longer sides of the Mithraeum – typically there might be room for 15 to 30 diners, but very rarely many more than 40 men. Counterpart dining rooms, or triclinia, were to be found above ground in the precincts of almost any temple or religious sanctuary in the Roman empire, and such rooms were commonly used for their regular feasts by Roman 'clubs', or collegia. Mithraic feasts probably performed a very similar function for Mithraists as the collegia did for those entitled to join them; indeed, since qualification for Roman collegia tended to be restricted to particular families, localities or traditional trades, Mithraism may have functioned in part as providing clubs for the unclubbed.However, the size of the Mithraeum is not necessarily an indication of the size of the congregation.

Each Mithraeum had several altars at the further end, underneath the representation of the tauroctony, and also commonly contained considerable numbers of subsidiary altars, both in the main Mithraeum chamber and in the ante-chamber or narthex.[68] These altars, which are of the standard Roman pattern, each carry a named dedicatory inscription from a particular initiate, who dedicated the altar to Mithras "in fulfillment of his vow", in gratitude for favours received. Burned residues of animal entrails are commonly found on the main altars indicating regular sacrificial use. However, Mithraea do not commonly appear to have been provided with facilities for ritual slaughter of sacrificial animals (a highly specialised function in Roman religion), and it may be presumed that a Mithraeum would have made arrangements for this service to be provided for them in co-operation with the professional victimarius of the civic cult. Prayers were addressed to the Sun three times a day, and Sunday was especially sacred.

It is doubtful whether Mithraism had a monolithic and internally consistent doctrine. It may have varied from location to location. However, the iconography is relatively coherent. It had no predominant sanctuary or cultic centre; and, although each Mithraeum had its own officers and functionaries, there was no central supervisory authority. In some Mithraea, such as that at Dura Europos, wall paintings depict prophets carrying scrolls,but no named Mithraic sages are known, nor does any reference give the title of any Mithraic scripture or teaching. It is known that intitates could transfer with their grades from one Mithraeum to another.

Mithraeum

See also: Mithraeum

A mithraeum found in the ruins of Ostia Antica, Italy

Temples of Mithras are sunk below ground, windowless, and very distinctive. In cities, the basement of an apartment block might be converted; elsewhere they might be excavated and vaulted over, or converted from a natural cave. Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier; while being somewhat less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria.According to Walter Burkert, the secret character of Mithriac rituals meant that Mithraism could only be practiced within a Mithraeum.Some new finds at Tienen show evidence of large-scale feasting and suggest that the mystery religion may not have been as secretive as was generally believed.

For the most part, Mithraea tend to be small, externally undistinguished, and cheaply constructed; the cult generally preferring to create a new centre rather than expand an existing one. The Mithraeum represented the cave to which Mithras carried and then killed the bull; and where stone vaulting could not be afforded, the effect would be imitated with lath and plaster. They are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure. There is usually a narthex or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. Mithraeum is a modern coinage and mithraists referred to their sacred structures as speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space).

In their basic form, mithraea were entirely different from the temples and shrines of other cults. In the standard pattern of Roman religious precincts, the temple building functioned as a house for the god, who was intended to be able to view through the opened doors and columnar portico, sacrificial worship being offered on an altar set in an open courtyard; potentially accessible not only to initiates of the cult, but also to colitores or non-initiated worshippers.Mithraea were the antithesis of this.

Degrees of initiation

In the Suda under the entry "Mithras", it states that "no one was permitted to be initiated into them (the mysteries of Mithras), until he should show himself holy and steadfast by undergoing several graduated tests."Gregory Nazianzen refers to the "tests in the mysteries of Mithras".

There were seven grades of initiation into the mysteries of Mithras, which are listed by St. Jerome.Manfred Clauss states that the number of grades, seven, must be connected to the planets. A mosaic in the Ostia Mithraeum of Felicissimus depicts these grades, with symbolic emblems that are connected either to the grades or are just symbols of the planets. The grades also have an inscription beside them commending each grade into the protection of the different planetary gods. In ascending order of importance, the initiatory grades were:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraic_mysteries

In the Mithraic ceremonies, there were seven degrees of initiations: Corax (Raven), Nymphus (Bridegroom), Miles (Soldier), Leo (Lion), Perses (Persian),Heliodromus (Courier of the Sun), and Pater (Father). Those in the lowest ranks, certainly the Corax, were the servants of the community during the sacred meal of bread and water that formed part of the rite.

The area where the concentration of evidence for Mithraism is the most dense is the capital, Rome, and her port city, Ostia. There are eight extant mithraea in Rome of as many as seven hundred (Coarelli 1979) and eighteen in Ostia. In addition to the actual mithraea, there are approximately three hundred other mithraic monuments from Rome and about one hundred from Ostia. This body of evidence reveals that Mithraism in Rome and Ostia originally appealed to the same social strata as it did in the frontier regions. The evidence also indicates that at least some inhabitants knew about Mithraism as early as the late first century CE, but that the cult did not enjoy a wide membership in either location until the middle of the second century CE.

As the cult in Rome became more popular, it seems to have "trickled up" the social ladder, with the result that Mithraism could count several senators from prominent aristocratic families among its adherents by the fourth century CE. Some of these men were initiates in several cults imported from the eastern empire (including those of Magna Mater and Attis, Isis, Serapis, Jupiter Dolichenus, Hecate, and Liber Pater, among others), and most had held priesthoods in official Roman cults. The devotion of these men to Mithraism reflects a fourth-century "resurgence of paganism," when many of these imported cults and even official Roman state religion experienced a surge in popularity although, and perhaps because, their very existence was increasingly threatened by the rapid spread of Christianity after the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 313 CE.

global.britannica.com/topic/heliodromus

Mithraism had a wide following from the middle of the second century to the late fourth century CE, but the common belief that Mithraism was the prime competitor of Christianity, promulgated by Ernst Renan (Renan 1882 579), is blatantly false. Mithraism was at a serious disadvantage right from the start because it allowed only male initiates. What is more, Mithraism was, as mentioned above, only one of several cults imported from the eastern empire that enjoyed a large membership in Rome and elsewhere. The major competitor to Christianity was thus not Mithraism but the combined group of imported cults and official Roman cults subsumed under the rubric "paganism." Finally, part of Renan's claim rested on an equally common, but almost equally mistaken, belief that Mithraism was officially accepted because it had Roman emperors among its adherents (Nero, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and the Tetrarchs are most commonly cited). Close examination of the evidence for the participation of emperors reveals that some comes from literary sources of dubious quality and that the rest is rather circumstantial. The cult of Magna Mater, the first imported cult to arrive in Rome (204 BCE) was the only one ever officially recognized as a Roman cult. The others, including Mithraism, were never officially accepted, and some, particularly the Egyptian cult of Isis, were periodically outlawed and their adherents persecuted.

ecole.evansville.edu/articles/mithraism.html

Some words were enough for God to precipitate the most beautiful of his creatures at the bottom of the abyss. Lucifer, the carrier of Light, pulled(entailed) with him a third(third party) of the angels in its revolt. Hell was created for him. We know the continuation(suite) … The column of July Place de la Bastille, was set up between 1833 and 1840. In its summit, thrones the "Spirit of liberty" conceived(designed) by the sculptor Auguste Dumont. Curious tribute returned by Louis Philippe to the insurgents who knocked down(spilled) Charles X and the Absolute monarchy three years earlier. Lucifer picked up. No detail misses(is lacking) … Torch in the hand, the Angel has just broken his chains(channels) and dashes to new conquests. Under its impressive base is a crypt sheltering some 500 rests of Fighters of 1830, as well as Egyptian mummy brought back(reported) by Napoleon.Durant la commune de Paris en 1870, après avoir abattu la colonne Vendôme, les communards s’en prirent à celle de la Bastille… sans succès. Ni le dispositif d’explosifs souterrains, ni le tir d’une trentaine d’obus depuis les buttes Chaumont n’en virent pas à bout. La flamme du porteur de Lumière refusa de s’éteindre…

During the municipality of Paris in 1870, having brought(shot) down the column Vendôme, the Communards took themselves in that of the Bastille unsuccessfully. Neither the device(plan) of subterranean explosives, nor the shooting(firing) of around thirty shells since mounds Chaumont transfer(fire) it to end. The flame of the carrier of Light refused to go out …Lucifer was so far away...?

« Non Serviam »- « Je ne servirai pas ! »

Quelques mots suffirent à Dieu pour précipiter la plus belle de ses créatures au fond de l’abîme. Lucifer, le porteur de Lumière, entraîna avec lui un tiers des anges dans sa révolte. L’enfer fut créé pour lui. Nous connaissons la suite…La colonne de Juillet Place de la Bastille, fut érigée entre 1833 et 1840. À son sommet, trône le « Génie de La Liberté » conçu par le sculpteur Auguste Dumont. Curieux hommage rendu par Louis Philippe aux insurgés qui renversèrent Charles X et la Monarchie absolue trois ans plus tôt. Lucifer a repris du poil de la bête. Aucun détail ne manque… Torche à la main, l’Ange vient de briser ses chaînes et s’élance vers de nouvelles conquêtes. Sous son imposant piédestal se trouve une crypte abritant quelques 500 restes des combattants de 1830, ainsi qu’une momie égyptienne rapportée par Napoléon.Durant la commune de Paris en 1870, après avoir abattu la colonne Vendôme, les communards s’en prirent à celle de la Bastille… sans succès. Ni le dispositif d’explosifs souterrains, ni le tir d’une trentaine d’obus depuis les buttes Chaumont n’en virent pas à bout. La flamme du porteur de Lumière refusa de s’éteindre…

www.pariszigzag.fr/histoire-insolite-paris/qui-est-vraime...

Blog Stuffst

The room lay vacant, the shadows hid the corners in darkness like curtains constraining the sun from breaking through. She twirled around in amusement, her bare feet gliding against the shiny wood floor, her hair flowing against her shoulders as she did. "What do you think?" She squealed. The brightness of the day leaving Ray's of warmth against her skin. The twitch of her lips into a smile as she cocked her head. "It only looks empty" he replied, a touch of sarcasm in his voice as his eyes took in the room. He turned and glanced around again. "I know" she placated, but look at all the room now. Her enthusiasm slowly edging to a stop. He took a step towards her, his arms circling her in his arms as she melted against him. "I am proud of you" he murmured into her ear before placing a kiss against her neck. She sighed and nuzzled against his chest. Listening to his heartbeat. Thum, thump…. thum, thump….. thum, thump… his voice broke the silence as he pushed a strand of hair out of her face, his eyes fire and smokey as they set her insides on fire. "You have worked so hard containing and pushing things, emotions, people away" his voice soft and melodic "I am happy to see you have let some things go" his face lifts as he glances to a shadowed corner, dark and dusty, webbed and full of luggage, boxes, memories, pain. "It is only when you can bring yourself to let those go, to bring them into your own light you will finally find the happiness you perceive to have now" Her eyes burned, straining to not let out a tear that threatened to come at it's own will. Blinking and dropping her head, a small nod of agreement interlaced with a lost breath when the tears finally came. He voice weak and muffled as she tried to gasp out the words, her throat catching making it hard to breath, to talk to free herself. He held her tight then slowly turned her around to view the shaded corners, his arms encircling her, never leaving her alone, staying there to lean on as she gasped at the sight of the ruins just beyond the shadows.

Sometime we pretend to be okay, pushing the sadness and hurt away. We try to fake a world we know does not exist. The smiles are a mask to hide the shadows that lay beneath. Be kind to others, sometimes it is hard to always pretend to be okay, we break, we fail, we try, we fall, we pretend to laugh, then let the tears come as we try to sleep. May everyone know your inner strength is strongest at your darkest moment. Remind yourself the pain you feel is validated and also reminding you that you are human, with feelings, with a need to be loved. This is not about 2 people, but one, one trying to remind herself in the gentlest of ways that keeping things inside, hidden is not the answer. It is only in the acknowledgement of that, when she can start to heal, mend the cracks in her heart, bring back the glow that her soul once shown. No person is worth losing yourself over. Not one person…..

You have the strength of a Eagle, if only only we learn to harness that from the inside and let go of the darkness we keep entangled in our psyche.

One day may we all learn to fly

Self-isolation for an extended time places constrains on us as photographers. Painters can continue to paint whatever their imagination can conjure, but we photographers have to find things to photograph in the confined space we now live in. For years, I was saying that my imagination is my Iceland, my African Safari, my Antelope Canyon - you get the idea. Now I am constrained in terms of where me and my camera can go and so this is the put up or shut up time. I am now building up a series (code name Covid-19) that is shot exclusively from within my apartment building (mostly my apartment). Please consider looking at all images in the series and tell me what you think.

For those of you who need to know this is a glass lid of a wok with chrome handle photographed using faux slow shutter speed (Live ND) hand-held feature using Olympus EM-1 MK3. I just twisted the camera during exposure.

This image was minimally processed. It was cropped to my standard dimension and colour, contrast and brightness slightly adjusted.

I find it interesting to compare this image which is a single shot with the previous image, which is a collage.

THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

Testing my new 105mm f/2.8 macro lens in native Z mount: an amazing performer, significantly above my previous Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8, which was no slouch at all. I keep being astonished at the optical progress that is being permitted by the new, ultra-wide Z mount. It is easy now to understand how limiting and constraining was the older F mount, designed in the 1950s...

And what a gorgeous bokeh as well! And at ƒ/9...!

Explore #68 - 16.03.2009

I ache to escape

From the confining frame

Of my existence

To soar and swoop

Like a seagull

Along the sunset shore

Into the universe of grand expanse

A Longing To Break Free by Tom Raven - 15th March 2009

Best Viewed Large On Black - See where this picture was taken. [?]

Or the restraining, constraining, detaining effect

of humans on nature.

Or ....

THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1847, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.

To him the world is his to do what he pleases. He is a dangerous egomaniac. The frustrating thing is that there are constitutional ways to constrain him or even remove him from power and the federal government refuses to do so. In the meantime, the world suffers. His actions and the inaction on the part of the federal government will be remembered.

A harmless Huntsman spider (c. 60mm across, Holconia sp.?) found stranded by another spider's web this morning. I managed to remove some of the constraining web strands, but it remained on the window for about three hours before a Butcher Bird flew in and grabbed it for lunch. C'est la vie!

St. Aethelbert was the son and successor of Ermenric, King of Kent, and great great grandson of Hengist, the first of the Saxon conquerors of Britain. He reigned for fifty-six years over the oldest kingdom of the Heptarchy. He even gained, over all the other Saxon kings and princes, even to the confines of Northumbria, that kind of military supremacy which was attached to the title of Bretwalda, or temporary chief of the Saxon Confederation.

His wife was Bertha, daughter of Caribert, King of Paris. She was a Christian princess, who brought over to England as her chaplain, one Liudhard of Senlis, a bishop, who exercised his ministry in a church built around a Roman mausoleum, near the walls of Canterbury and dedicated to St. Martin. Tradition records the gentle and lovable virtues of queen Bertha, but little is known of her life. She has left but a brief and uncertain illumination on those distant and dark horizons, over which she sits like a star, the herald of the Sun. Her example, and the virtues of Liudhard, probably did much to break up the ground in the heart of King Aethelbert; but his conversion was reserved for the coming and preaching of St. Augustine of Canterbury and his companions, the missionaries sent from Rome by Gregory the Great.

These men landed first on the Isle of Thanet, which joins close to the eastern part of Kent, and thence they sent a message to King Aethelbert, saying why they had come into his land. The King sent word back to them to stay on the island till he had fully made up his mind how to treat them. He gave orders that they should be well taken care of in the meanwhile. After some days, he came himself into the isle and bade them come and tell him what they had to say. He sat under an oak tree and received them in the open air, for he would not meet them in a house, as he thought they might be wizards who would use some charm or spell, which, according to the superstition of the time, was held to be powerless out of doors. So they came, carrying a silver cross and a picture of Our Lord, painted on a wooden panel, chanting in procession the litanies in use at Rome, in the solemn and touching strains which they had learnt from Gregory, their spiritual father, and the father of religious music. At their head, marched Augustine, whose lofty stature and patrician presence attracted every eye. For, like Saul, "he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders and upwards." The king, surrounded by a great number of his followers, received them graciously and made them sit down before him. After having listened to the address which they delivered to him and to the assembly, he gave them a loyal, sincere and truly liberal answer. "You make fair speeches and promises," he said, "but all this is to me new and uncertain. I cannot all at once put faith in what you tell me and abandon all that I, with my whole nation, have for so long a time held sacred. But since you have come from so far away to impart to us what you yourselves, by what I see, believe to be the truth and the supreme good, we shall do you no hurt; but, on the contrary, shall show you all hospitality and shall take care to furnish you with the means of living. We shall not hinder you from preaching your religion and you may convert whom you can."

So he gave them a house to dwell in, in the Royal City of Canterbury and he let them preach openly to the people, of whom they quickly brought some over to the faith, moved by the innocence of their lives and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine, which was confirmed by miracles. They were given, as Bede tells us, the Church of St. Martin in which "to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach and to baptise." But it was not long before the King also submitted to the them and was baptised. Before the year was out, there was added to the Church more than ten thousand souls. It was on Whitsun-Day, in the year AD 597, that the Kentish King entered into the unity of the Holy Church. Since the conversion of Constantine, excepting that of Clovis, there had not been any event of greater moment in the annals of Christendom.

Then, the King told Augustine and his companions that they might build new churches and repair the old ones which Christians had used before the Saxons invaded England and drove the ancient Church into Cornwall and Wales. Aethelbert, faithful to the last to that noble respect for the individual conscience, of which he had given proof even before he was a Christian, was unwilling to constrain anyone to change his religion. He allowed himself to show no preference, save a deeper love for those who, baptised like himself, became his fellow-citizens in the heavenly kingdom. The Saxon King had learnt from the Italian monks that no constraint is compatible with the service of Christ.

From the time of his conversion, Aethelbert behaved, for the twenty remaining years of his life, as became a good king and a good Christian. He gave his Royal Palace in Canterbury for the use of the Archbishop, founded Christ Church Cathedral in Canterbury, St. Andrew's in Rochester, St. Paul's in London and built and endowed the abbey and church of SS. Peter and Paul without the walls of Canterbury, commonly called St. Augustine's. He was instrumental in bringing over to the faith of Christ, Sebert, King of the East Saxons, with his people, and Redwald, King of East Anglia. The former remained true to Christ till his death; but Redwald returned, at least in part, to the worship of Thor and Wodin. Queen Bertha died in AD 612 and King remarried soon afterward. Aethelbert died on 24th February AD 616 and was succeeded by his son, Edbald. He was buried in the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, near the body of his devout Queen Bertha and the holy prelate, St. Liuthard. A light was always kept burning before his tomb by our pious ancestors. Liuthard of Senlis, the chaplain of Queen Bertha, is also commemorated on this day.

This is not a great test, not a good test and yet maybe not a bad test. Two Cameras, well let us try that again,

Two Cameras, both alike in dignity

(From fair Tokyo, where we see the scene),

From ancient art breaks to new potential,

Where civil demand makes civil hands create.

From forth the fatal lineage of these Two Cameras

A pair of star-crossed developments show;

Whose true adventured brings lasting glory

Doth with their marked differences show progress.

The fateful passage of their brand brings love

And continuance of the ways of photography,

Which, but these mechanical offspring live on,

Is now the two photographs focus stacked;

The which, if you with patient eyes attend,

That here is a miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Please forgive me above is a quick transformation of THE PROLOGUE as delivered by Chorus at the very start of, “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter,” oh no not the fictional working title of the play that needs a dog for the comedy, no not that from the 1998 film, “Shakespeare in Love,” rather it is from, “The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet,” or “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,” or the shorter title that now in great esteem is, “Romeo and Juliet.” The use of Shakespeare here is to introduce a Camera Shoot-out Comparison as a High Noon Showdown which offers a quick think of, “Romeo and Juliet – The Western,”and links ideas of tropes and memes including those of Camera Reviews and Head to Head Tests.

The two cameras are further detailed below.

Camera 1 Horseman VH 6x9 Medium Format Technical Camera

Camera 2

Camera 3 both the above film cameras were then used to mount a modern digital camera.

Sony α7R III 35mm full-frame camera, ILCE-7RM3, Sony Alpha A7R III ILCE7RM3.

The two lenses, marked as the same, but built years apart and they have small differences.

Newer Horseman Topcon Super ER 90mm f5.6 Seiko SLV Lens From JAPAN

Older Horseman Topcon Super ER 90mm f5.6 Seiko SLV Lens From JAPAN

A very good comparison could be entered into of these cameras and lenses. I took some pictures and focus stacked them. The first image included some errors so I thought of it as a Sick Rose. The second picture of the same Rose and lighting with a different perspective gives onlya little insight into a comparison. It has given me inspiration to create and share the following. I do not expect anyone to read through all this, I do hope that I can access it later on and that it might be the fuel to ignite further projects.

Everything has been put on hold to try to complete these images. I will find hydration and food soon. What follows was posted with corrections to Flickr on 02 / 09 / 2025. Today, 03 / 09 / 2025 I have the second image to share in three version. Yesterday was a focus stack of 8 photographs and today it is a focus stack of 7 photographs.

The nocturnal Invisible Worm cannot destroy the Crimson Bed of Joy. The Rose is The Rose and any visitation of either mortal malady, or momentous merriment is just the conditions, the ailments and the ebullience that make any Rose at anytime The Rose. Roses bloom and fade and become a part of the compost and the midden that fuels further burgeoning blossoms.

The redden crimson bed seems to be a target chosen by the Invisible Worm. Many roses last a season and are mulched back into the earth with their bright vibrant colours and deep rich heady perfumes being wondrous attractions and strong inspiration to those that will garden them in confined arrangements and to those that cut a bouquet, snip a corsages, trim out a boutonnière they are taking the flowering crowns to be pleasant for either the occasion, or the day and to those that take the heads to macerate them for perfume to all of those and those many, many more that draw and paint roses and make and wear them as garments and further still and more beyond to all those roses have a way in their display to bring a message of love and beauty in both sight and scent. The colour and fragrance, the blood the life force of The Rose can be the blood of adulthood that takes away the innocence of all of us delivering a new Rose with new adult perspective. William Blake in his views of delivered in Songs of Innocence and of Experience gives indications that the Innocence of Eden is lost to those that will not look for it and it is easily found by those that endeavour to cherish it, we are too easily deceived by the material engines working to constrain us into rigid life conventions allowing great harm to be delivered generation to generation as we stray from the goodly and godly way as he perceived it.

Having been a fan of William Blake and of wondering after and into his imaginings I have no wish to influence your own explorations. I believe that Blake saw society forming harsh rules and regulations that were to be mindlessly adhered to and also society was forming institutions that were to be revered with question. His notions of humans finding the path through creation to a return towards the Garden of Eden and of man building a world fulfilling his notions of humanity finding and following the intended ways of us as god’s creation.

I do not follow Blake’s visions as a guide to my life. His Poetry and his building of perception of divinity ready to receive us is not my way. The various enigmas in Blakian Divinity do lead me to Tokyo.

The Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai K.K., (東京光学機械㈱, usually translated as Tokyo Optical Company, Ltd) are almost as much a source of research as is Blake. The Horseman Topcon Super ER 90mm f5.6 Seiko SLV Lens From JAPAN used here has had me looking at many records and returning more greatly confused than I had been before my pursuit of clarity about The TOPCON CORPORATION. Seiko

The 6x9cm Horseman Camera is stated as being introduced for Police use and then considered in further sales as a Press Camera. 120 film backs exist with several formats possible from 6x9cm, 6x8cm, 6x7cm, 6x6cm and 6x4.5cm. The 61mm wide 120 films can be held in light tight interchangeable backs each with their specific colour coded winding mechanism. The dark slide allows not just a change of emulsion from say either negative to positive, or monotone to colour and also a different frame format.

The 6x9cm camera back here held an adapter to connect to a Sony camera. The extension of the digital sensor from the position original film plane does bring issues especially for infinity focus. The small physical size of the digital sensor used here does open ideas of how much of the lens is being used and whether the digital sensor is testing the lens far beyond the original concept. I have ideas and answers that are still being challenged as I take more pictures.

Lens

Horseman Topcon Super ER 90mm f5.6 Seiko SLV Lens From JAPAN

Tokyo Kogaku, TOPCON CORPORATION, Topcor.

Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai K.K., (東京光学機械㈱, usually translated as Tokyo Optical Company, Ltd).

Camera 1

Horseman VH 6x9cm Medium Format Technical Camera, also called a Field Camera, Press Camera and further. Some sellers list items relating to this camera as a Large Format Camera. There are Topcon Lenses for their own and other 35mm film cameras, for 6x9cm cameras and with larger image circles for other formats. The intended differences and imagined purposes do give character as well as technical constraints.

Camera 2

Sony α7R III 35mm full-frame camera, ILCE-7RM3, Sony Alpha A7R III ILCE7RM3.

Edit

There are Eight images stacked here in Adobe Photoshop.

The mysteries of Blake and the histories of cameras have brought a focus on dead rose. It has become mummified of sorts and that links to many more mysteries. I am still looking for more details in life, in literature, in history, in manufacture and in expression. I am glad to be involved in the experience of life and happy to think that an Eden of share and of care might be available and we can wander towards a better life for us all. That should be the last statement made, but I am adding that an Eden with Camera Libraries would be welcome.

If this and links do not answer questions then that is where I am continuing on from. On to more pictures and some research. On to enlightenment, that is the way open to us.

Scratch enlightenment just for now, instead maybe on to further edits and to trying to keep up with updates.

© PHH Sykes 2025

phhsykes@gmail.com

The Sick Rose, William Blake

www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/sick-rose/

The Sick Rose by William Blake, Summary & Analysis

www.litcharts.com/poetry/william-blake/the-sick-rose

Sony α7R III 35mm full-frame camera with autofocus

ILCE-7RM3, Sony A7R III, Alpha, 7R III, ILCE-7RM3, ILCE7RM3,

www.sony.co.uk/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/i...

CAMERA REVIEW : HORSEMAN VH

www.bnphoto.org/bnphoto/LFN/CamProf_HorsemanVH.htm

Camera-Wiki, “Tōkyō Kōgaku, later Topcon...”

camera-wiki.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dky%C5%8D_K%C5%8Dgaku

Horseman VH-R PDF MANUAL

www.cameramanuals.org/prof_pdf/horseman_vh-r.pdf

Horseman 985 – an earlier model

www.cameramanuals.org/prof_pdf/horseman_985.pdf

Horseman 980

camera-wiki.org/wiki/Horseman_980

Camera Collecting and Restoration, Seikosha.

The Seikosha is a high quality, Japanese made shutter used on many Japanese rangefinder and TLR cameras. Minolta, Mamiya and Ricoh cameras often use this shutter or one of its variants. Several versions of the Seikosha and Seiko shutters were made.

pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=seikosha

Mamiya, yes but informative of Seikosha shitters.

www.cameramanuals.org/mamiya_pdf/mamiya_seiko_shutter.pdf

Seiko #0 Shutter in Bronica Lenses

learncamerarepair.com/product.php?product=948

Romeo and Juliet

www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/romeo-and-julie...

Shakespeare in Love - From Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_in_Love

Bottle from the Lampe de Méduse vintage from Sainte Roseline vineyard in Provence. I also have a more high-key one with a slightly different lighting. All in all, these attempts at macro shots of a bottle were not too successful, because the obligation to keep it macro constrains whatever “vision” I may have. I don’t have much of one to begin with, and having to keep it macro makes it even more difficult.

Shot taken for the Macro Mondays group, theme: “Bottle(s)”.

Strobist and technical info: One Phottix Pro Mitros+ cobra flash on a Manfrotto Nano light stand and MagMod Magshoe flash attachment in backlit Rembrandt position to camera left, 1.5 meters from subject and 1 meter above it, firing at ½ power through a 22 × 22-cm Lastolite “Joe McNally” Ezybox 2 softbox with double diffuser; and another Mitros+ cobra flash on a Neewer tabletop stand in backlit Rembrandt position to camera right, 1.2 meters from subject and at the same height, firing at ¼ power through a gridded Andoer snoot.

Strobes set and triggered via Phottix Pro Odin II radio controller on the Nikon Z7 hotshoe, manual mode. Sekonic L–858D light meter used to balance light sources. Gitzo GR3543XLS tripod with Arca–Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Nikon Z7 camera body, Micro-Nikkor Z MC 105mm ƒ/2.8 S macro lens. Flashes powered by Godox Propac PB960 battery pack.

This Chandra X-ray Observatory image from 2008 shows the debris of a massive star explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy about 160,000 light years from Earth. The supernova remnant (SNR) shown here, N132D, is the brightest in the Magellanic clouds, and belongs to a rare class of oxygen-rich remnants. Most of the oxygen that we breathe on Earth is thought to have come from explosions similar to this one.

The colors in this image show low energy X-rays (red), intermediate energy X-rays (green) and high energy X-rays (blue). Substantial amounts of oxygen are detected in this image, particularly in the green regions near the center of the image. The location of these oxygen-rich areas, detected in the Chandra image, is generally well matched with the oxygen-rich areas detected in Hubble Space Telescope images (not shown here). However, the expanding, ellipse-shaped shell of oxygen seen in N132D is not seen in either G292.0+1.8 or Puppis A, two oxygen-rich SNRs in the galaxy with similar ages to N132D (about 3,000 years, ten times older than Cas A). The origin of this shell is unknown, but it might have been created by a `nickel bubble' shortly after the supernova explosion, caused by radioactive energy input from nickel that was created by the explosion. The existence of such bubbles is predicted by theoretical work.

The ultimate goal of these observations is to constrain the mass of the star that exploded and to learn more about how massive stars explode and spread heavy elements like oxygen into surrounding space.

This year, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrates its 20th year in space exploring the extreme universe.

Credit: NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.J.Borkowski et al.

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The Meathook Galaxy, or NGC 2442, is an easily recognizable

spiral galaxy with its bright northern arm and starkly contrasting dust lane. In typical spiral galaxy coloration, it has a warm yellow core with blue outer arms speckled with pink clouds of ionized, glowing hydrogen gas associated with star formation. A small, but conspicuous background galaxy is also peeking through just left of the nucleus.

This was an unlikely mosaic. Since late 2006, Hubble has been looking at this galaxy with its Advanced Camera for Surveys and Widefield Camera 3 in bits and pieces, usually involving supernovas and their progenitors. So the telescope looked here and there, but never at the whole galaxy in one sitting. Last year, enough observations had been made to nearly cover the galaxy in 3 channels. I've gathered them up into what I think is a decent result.

If you zoom in, you may notice some areas that have some odd or no coloration near the edges and dark parts. These are places where fewer observations were taken, and I couldn't generate proper or perfectly matching color. I'm glad most of the galaxy was covered, though, because it's really not noticeable. There is a place in the northeast arm right under that dark, dark dust lane where data were completely absent, and I filled it with a brightness-matching blank patch and some fake noise. Two other less obtrusive blank places are in the lower left and lower right corners. There is also a small spot where only older WFPC2 data were available, so it looks a little blurry. Other than that, nice data!

Special thanks to Bill Keel, who freely offered up his data to try and help fill the gaps. I ended up using his H-alpha data in places where there was none available from HST. Mostly the upper half, and a little on the right side. I also removed the stars and galactic nucleus from his data, leaving (hopefully) just the star-forming regions.

Data from the following proposals were used to create this image:

Detecting the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae

Understanding the Progenitor Systems, Explosion Mechanisms, and Cosmological Utility of Type Ia Supernovae

Going gently into the night: constraining Type Ia supernova nucleosynthesis using late-time photometry

Continuing a Snapshot Survey of the Sites of Recent, Nearby Supernovae: Cycles 25 & 26

One last peek at SN 2015F

The Identification of Failed Supernovae

An archive to detect the progenitors of massive, core-collapse supernovae

Red: ACS/WFC F814W + ACS/WFC F658N + SARA H-alpha + WFPC2 F814W

Green: WFC3/UVIS F555W + WFPC2 F606W

Blue: WFC3/UVIS F438W + ACS/WFC F435W

North is 18.10° counter-clockwise from up.

Testing my new 105mm f/2.8 macro lens in native Z mount: an amazing performer, significantly above my previous Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8, which was no slouch at all. I keep being astonished at the optical progress that is being permitted by the new, ultra-wide Z mount. It is easy now to understand how limiting and constraining was the older F mount, designed in the 1950s...

Handheld shot, with some wind, not much care went into it, and yet the quality is impressive.

Water drops refract the image of the United States flag behind them. Have a great 4th everyone!

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. --And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Today is a "big" day, it is the day I "graduate" to my superlative digital camera, with all its lenses, bells and whistles, and, especially, the remote control accessory, which cost me an arm and leg. Getting the accessory is only part of the story! I had to spend a fair amount of time figuring out how this thing works but I feel my hard worked was amply rewarded. I mean, compared to what my telehpne can capture, this is day and night. I'm so proud I got to this point? I had been thinking for a looong time about solving the "remote control" problem with this camera. The darn thing was (and still is) way too expensive. But, when I look at the result, I forget about the outrageous price... Yesterday, my wife accompanied me on St-Hubert street, an old commercial sector in Montreal, to shop for shoes. We did many stores to no avail. But finally stumbled upon these guys, which I'll put a picture of separately. They had both size 10 and 11 in stock, so I tried both sizes, size 11 first. It was clear, when I got to size 10, that only size 11 would work for my feet! Oh well, if it's size 11, so be it. So that's the story if the shoes you see in the picture. I wanted to wear a different pair of tights, I found these blue-green ones which I had not worn for a long time. I felt like wearing them whatever they would constrain me to wear, in terms of dresses. But then i thought, why not this 1942 vintage gem with its winged sleeves, front buttoned. Boy! I had the intuition that the "coral" color of the fabric would harmonize well with my tights? I don't think I was wrong but I hesitated. When I look at the "ensemble" now, I'm satisfied! Boy! This is going to be a beautiful day for Jacqueline.

Stars of all ages are on display in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the sparkling spiral galaxy called NGC 6000, located 102 million light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.

NGC 6000 has a glowing yellow center and glittering blue outskirts. These colors reflect differences in the average ages, masses, and temperatures of the galaxy’s stars. At the heart of the galaxy, the stars tend to be older and smaller. Less massive stars are cooler than more massive stars, and somewhat counterintuitively, cooler stars are redder, while hotter stars are bluer. Farther out along NGC 6000’s spiral arms, brilliant star clusters host young, massive stars that appear distinctly blue.

Hubble collected the data for this image while surveying the sites of recent supernova explosions in nearby galaxies. NGC 6000 hosted two recent supernovae: SN 2007ch in 2007 and SN 2010as in 2010. Using Hubble’s sensitive detectors, researchers can discern the faint glow of supernovae years after the initial explosion. These observations help constrain the masses of supernovae progenitor stars and can indicate if they had any stellar companions.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko; Acknowledgment: M. H. Özsaraç

#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #galaxy

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