Thornham Norfolk

This guy proved pretty difficult to photograph. I spent half an hour or so photographing him in his entirety as he would just not stay still. But towards the end, he stopped running around and kind of calmed down for a bit, allowing me to photograph his eyes at this magnification. He was about 9mm long.

You can see his palps and legs sticking out in the reflection in his eyes.

Focus stacked from two photos, which were taken with the 28mm reversed mounted to a 2x teleconverter which was mounted to my macro bellows.

A few of my previous photos of this species are on wikipedia here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platycryptus_undatus

Also tolweb has a photo I took of a female Platycryptus undatus on their website here:

tolweb.org/Platycryptus/3042

Edit: Wow, this photo sure did well: 50,000 views in just 24 hours!

It also made the front page of reddit.com and was #8 on Explore at one point.

Difficult to accurately describe - like Charmaine's lips or this strange monkey :)

Passing through difficult times while the last weeks

it makes me glad to know Henry by her side.

I was the one that always told her

that she hasn't´ enough time to be a good mum for a dog.

She struggled so hard to convince me of the contrary.

And she was right.

I always will admire her belief and her fortitude.

Taixtsalda Hill wildfire gains power and gains ground in the late afternoon heat, wind and low humidity. Winds to 33 mph yesterday made battling this wildfire difficult.

Porters in Larjung at a difficult crossing

=> for Information look here

(28.68604, 83.61447); [20°]

De Cala Tirant à Sanitja

Environ 9 km aller-retour. Tout en dénivelés mais sans grande difficulté.

A l'origine, la vocation du Cami de Cavalls ( "chemin des chevaux" en catalan) étant la défense et le contrôle de l’île, il était parcouru par des soldats montés sur des chevaux minorquins, d’où sa dénomination.

Tombé en désuétude, le sentier se dégrada, de nombreuses parties furent intégrées dans des propriétés privées. En décembre 2000, le parlement des Îles Baléares considérant le chemin comme bien historique et culturel du peuple minorquin, adopta une loi afin « d'établir un passage public sur le tracé original du Camí de Cavalls, dans le but de permettre son utilisation générale, libre et gratuite ». Le gouvernement s’attaqua alors à la restauration et au balisage de l’ensemble du sentier, permettant désormais de le parcourir à pied, à VTT ou à cheval.

Long de 186 km, le sentier est divisé en 20 tronçons, d’une longueur de 5 à 14 km chacun. Le sentier a été homologué comme GR 223 et est signalisé par des pieux en bois plantés tous les 50 m environ et par des panneaux d'information au début des étapes. Les plus de cent barrières à franchir (un ingénieux système d'ouverture fermeture) témoignent des activités agricoles (parcelles cultivées, élevage) toujours pratiquée au long du sentier.

Difficult to miss!

If you Spanish is good, these give more information on the murals.

www.hotelartmadams.com/en/video

This is the reopening of the hotel in 2021

www.majorcadailybulletin.com/news/local/2021/07/01/86193/...

Artist José Luis Mesas

The bill for the mural is estimated to be around 150,000 euros, for scaffolding, 5 months work by José Luis Mesas and other costs.

Though a later news article indicates the own and the artist were in dispute.

There was also a dispute with the Palma authorities.

We didn't have time to peek inside, I suspect that is also rather bold.

Technically difficult shot that is made much easier by the Laowa 12mm. Opted for a vertical shift of 3 frames in a vertorama to reduce distortion at the ends, where it could have been worse if done by the usual panorama techniques.

He was Paul, accountant, painter and ceramist.,

A "difficult" friend!

I find it difficult to photograph "monuments" and make an interesting photo...I have placed a "faded foto" texture to abstract from the original colorful in order to emphasize other details: the cotton sky type, the shadows in front, the turn on light inside and,less visible, the rose petals in the churchyard (traces of wedding).

This black headed gull had a real problem trying to land in gale force winds on the North Norfolk coast.

I'll leave you with a cheery message in these difficult times of world crisis. The scene is the Tamar River, down by the riverside late on a Saturday afternoon. The light is low down here, but when I look up to the other side I see the sun breaking through (there's a message in that).

So take 3 minutes and listen to the one and only Louis Armstrong as he gives us his rendition of the classic gospel song: "Down by the Riverside".

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ih3kVkk5_Q

"I'm gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside,

Down by the riverside, down by the riverside

I'm gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside,

I'm gonna study war no more."

Let that be our prayer for the world. God bless.

* I've tagged a little old church (actually known as "The Old Kirk") where this song may once have been sung, down by the riverside.

* I should also add that this song was originally a baptism song. In the Deep South of the United States, when Segregation was official policy, people were forced to worship separately according to their "color". Yet whatever the "color" of their church, most Christians shared a deep and abiding faith (that ultimately led to the Civil Rights Movement and Dr Martin Luther King - if ever there was a man who preached faith, hope and love it was this man).

Dr King, like many of his fellow worshippers understood the significance of going down to the riverside in white robes (as the song says) to be baptised. It meant no longer living according to the standards of this world, but aligning one's life with the Kingdom of God. And this is a Kingdom not of power, but of peace. Shalom.

Another shot form this interesting creekbed near Great Falls Park.

Pen and Ink

"Je vous le dis aujourd'hui, mes amis, bien que nous devions faire face aux difficultés d'aujourd'hui et de demain, je fais tout de même un rêve. C'est un rêve profondément enraciné dans le rêve américain. Je fais le rêve qu'un jour, cette nation se lève et vive sous le véritable sens de son credo : “Nous tenons ces vérités comme évidentes, que tous les hommes ont été créés égaux.” Je fais le rêve qu'un jour, sur les collines rouges de la Géorgie, les fils des esclaves et les fils des propriétaires d'esclaves puissent s'asseoir ensemble à la table de la fraternité. Je fais le rêve qu'un jour, même l'État du Mississippi, désert étouffant d'injustice et d'oppression, soit transformé en une oasis de liberté et de justice. Je fais le rêve que mes quatre jeunes enfants habitent un jour une nation où ils ne seront pas jugés sur la couleur de leur peau, mais à la mesure de leur caractère. Je fais ce rêve aujourd'hui ! Je fais le rêve qu'un jour juste là-bas en Alabama, avec ses racistes vicieux, avec son gouverneur qui a les lèvres dégoulinantes des mots interposition et annulation; un jour juste là-bas en Alabama les petits garçons noirs et les petites filles noires puissent joindre leurs mains avec les petits garçons blancs et les petites filles blanches, comme frères et sœurs. Je fais le rêve qu'un jour chaque vallée soit glorifiée, que chaque colline et chaque montagne soit aplanie, que les endroits rudes soient transformées en plaines, que les endroits tortueux soient redressés, que la gloire du Seigneur soit révélée et que tous les vivants le voient tous ensemble."

Martin Luther King

.../...Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up... live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tenneessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring,

And when this happens,and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

"I Have a Dream" speech Martin Luther King

To me, the tufa towers at Mono Lake are actually quite difficult to photograph because they look quite dull in person. Also once you enter into the area, you would feel bewildered almost like walking into a labyrinth, don't really know where to shoot. However, there is one tufa formation that is quite stood out from the rest and has a nick name called the "Battleship". When I was there, I normally used this particular tufa as my reference point to kinda get a feel of where things are. This was particularly useful when I did my shootings under the darkness of the blue hour. When I first came to this place in the morning to take a photo of this "Battleship" during the last Memorial weekend, I didn't realize the sun had risen up earlier on the east side of the sierras. Obviously I was a tack too late to capture the morning glow. To make matter worse, the sun was 2 O'clock in front of me. On top of that, I had left my 100-400mm telephoto in my car because I thought the 135mm lens would just do the job fine without realizing that I did not have a 72mm to 77mm step up ring with me for all my 77mm diameter filters.This was a major setback. So to turn things around, I had no choice but to use my 24mm wide angle lens on which I stacked a ND 64x and a CPL filter in front. With the stacked filters, it flared badly despite the nano coating on my 24mm lens. When I opened the RAW files back home, I kept looking at the image and tried to see if I could salvage it in Lightroom. I finally decided to heavily crop it and make some boost to the clarity, vibrance, and shadows. I was glad that the full frame 5D Mark3 really offered quite a bit of latitude in terms of its headroom in noise and pixel resolution. I was also surprised that the final image looked quite clean.

Fishmarket Ypres, Belgium.

Sony 10 RX Mark IV

Zeiss Vario-sonar 8.8-220mm

What was the last difficult decision you had to make? How did you feel? What kept you grounded? We all wrestle with decisions that test our resolve and challenge our emotions. Whether it’s choosing between two paths with unknown outcomes or navigating a dilemma that affects the people we care about, these moments often feel overwhelming. There’s a mix of anxiety, self-doubt, and mental exhaustion as you weigh your options and search for clarity.

But in the midst of the struggle, there’s an opportunity to discover strength and perspective. Taking time to pause, reflect, and prioritize what truly matters can be grounding. Seeking advice from trusted voices, focusing on your values, and accepting that no decision is perfect are crucial steps in finding peace with your choice. While wrestling with difficult decisions can feel like an uphill battle, it’s often these moments that shape character, teach resilience, and pave the way for growth. These challenges are more than just obstacles—they’re the turning points that define us.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

youtu.be/Soa3gO7tL-c?si=aQrqPszcZhrQbFIY

Today was one of those days when I knew I was going to do something but didn't know what when or where, thus an outfit choice was difficult. all I did know was that the sun was out and I wanted to take advantage of it.

Well the beige chiffon skirt had a few marks on it so that went into the was and in doing so killed one outfit idea off. The next was blue and white patterned skirt that I was going to team with a strappy top but it just didn't work and I could find the blouse I wanted to wear instead.

So this dress came into sight and became my outfit for the day.

As you know I suffer a bit....OK I suffer a lot from self doubt I never really think I come up to the mark to be walking around in plain sight of the public. Yeah I know I really don't have a problem but that little doubting Thomas keeps niggling at me.

Anyway while walking around Newlook in Sudbury surrounded by teenage girls and feeling a little nervous I caught my reflection in a mirror and I looked so natural and just like any other woman that it stopped mem in my tracks. I saw myself how most people see me and I was/am so pleased with how that made mem feel. Just another tiny step to realising who I am. we really should worry less :-)

Difficult to convey the size of the

Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"). Photos from fellow Flickr members in comments below provide a better perspective on the aircraft's total size.

My son Scott Dalrymple, Connie Dalrymple and grandson Alden (2 years old) standing under one of the eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"). Built from wood because of wartime restrictions on the use of aluminium and concerns about weight, it was nicknamed by critics the "Spruce Goose", although it was made almost entirely of birch. That propeller is a four-bladed Hamilton Standard diameter: 17 ft 2 in (5.23 m). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_Hercules — at Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum.

☞ Premere L per una migliore visione ingrandita

☞ Push 'L' for full screen view - It's better

PLEASE GO TO MY FLICKRIVER!!!

Fuji FinePix X100, Fujinon Aspherical 23mm f/2, ISO 200, 1/300, f/4

As a Hollywood mobster might say.....Fuji Pro 400H "sleeps with the fishes".

When it comes to different films, I don't get into comparative test shots, spectral sensitivity or dye density curves......but much like Fuji Pro 160s and the original Acros, it was a film that I enjoyed putting through my Hasselblad. While Fujifilm Corp. says it's because, "it has become increasingly difficult to procure the raw materials needed". To me, it feels like another large step away from supporting film photography as a whole....and it's sad. Whether I shoot with a film stock a lot or a little, there is a feeling of loss when one goes the way of Luca Brasi.

These three fish, spouting water just above the reflecting pool at Lewis & Clark, were photographed with our dearly departed Fuji Pro 400H. Among its strengths are how it renders blues and greens; plenty of both in this scene and throughout the landscapes of the PNW.....maybe that's why I liked it.

Image with my Hasselblad 500cm

Difficult to envision how these tiny leaves will look once full grown.

I love the shot coz it was difficult ...

[Harry Potter Minifigs #01] from Harry Potter - Minifigs Series

L-R:

Prof. Filius Flitwick (PS)

Prof. Severus Snape (PS)

Harry Potter (CoS)

Tom Riddle (CoS)

Griphook (PS)

Nearly-Headless Nick (PS)

Props to @wizarding_bricks on Instagram for influencing a lot of these figs. Check them out! www.instagram.com/wizarding_bricks/

I've held off posting Harry Potter content for a while because of JK, who's a hateful bigot and I don't agree with anything she's been saying. With intellectual properties, it can be very difficult to separate the art from the artist, and the same can be said about Harry Potter. JK has very much been the face and voice of the franchise from the start, so it's hard to enjoy the books or films without feeling guilty of supporting her. That said, the world of Harry Potter, and the fanbase itself, is so much more than 1 petty person. Thousands of excellent people worked on the films and the fans are wildly diverse group of people, and that deserves some recognition too. I've loved the franchise for as long as I remember, and although it won't be the same in the future, I'm not going to let the vitriolic opinions of the creator influence my enjoyment of the world and the characters.

Read my LEGO Blog? Check out my Instagram? Follow my Twitter?

Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 Editing: www.watermark.ws

Please credit and comment! Feedback always appreciated! :D

Shinbashi bar street,Tokyo Japan

Difficult exposure, but a gradient ND filter on my 90mm TSE helped a great deal. Fog in background is really smoke from an active fire at that location.

Rahja Art

The kids are unhappy! Why is that?

This is unhappy kid candid shot taken in Commercial Drive two years ago and this just a repost of archive picture.

Among the different subjects of portraits, child may be the most difficult one (even harder than baby). You will never have control on what is going to happen on the shoot.

It is not as easy as “say cheese” and then click the shutter.

This is candid shot taken on Italian Day at Commercial Drive.

The kid is apparently not so happy and there is a parent somewhere near me taking his picture.

Have a great Wednesday!

#roundandsquare

A Slinky is a toy pre-compressed helical spring invented by Richard James.

It can perform a number of tricks, including travelling down a flight of steps end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum,

In 1943, Richard James, a naval mechanical engineer stationed at the William Cramp and Sons shipyards in Philadelphia, was developing springs that could support and stabilise sensitive instruments aboard ships in rough seas.

James accidentally knocked one of the springs from a shelf, and watched as the spring "stepped" in a series of arcs to a stack of books, to a tabletop, and to the floor, where it re-coiled itself and stood upright.

James's wife Betty later recalled, "He came home and said, 'I think if I got the right property of steel and the right tension; I could make it walk.'"

James experimented with different types of steel wire over the next year, and finally found a spring that would ‘walk’.

Betty was dubious at first, but changed her mind after the toy was fine-tuned and neighbourhood children expressed an excited interest in it.

She dubbed the toy Slinky; meaning "sleek and graceful”.

On COLOURS...

Light and colour can influence how people perceive the area around them. Different light sources affect how the colours of walls and other objects are seen. Specific hues of colours seen under natural sunlight may vary when seen under the light from an incandescent (tungsten) light-bulb: lighter colours may appear to be more orange or "brownish" and darker colours may appear even darker.

Light and the colour of an object can affect how one perceives its positioning. If light or shadow, or the colour of the object, masks an object's true contour (outline of a figure) it can appear to be shaped differently than it really is.

Objects under a uniform light-source will promote better impression of three-dimensional shape.

The colour of an object may affect whether or not it seems to be in motion. In particular, the trajectories of objects under a light source whose intensity varies with space are more difficult to determine than identical objects under a uniform light source.

Carl Jung is most prominently associated with the pioneering stages of colour psychology. Jung was most interested in colours’ properties and meanings, as well as in Art’s potential as a tool for psychotherapy.

Colour has long been used to create feelings of cosiness or spaciousness. However, how people are affected by different colour-stimuli varies from person to person.

There is evidence that colour preference may depend on ambient temperature. People who are cold prefer warm colours like red and yellow while people who are hot prefer cool colours like blue and green.

A few studies have shown that cultural background has a strong influence on colour preference. These studies have shown that people from the same region regardless of race will have the same colour preferences.

I'm ALWAYS fascinated by COLOUR!

Hope this brings a smile again, have a good day and thanks for your visit, so very much appreciated, Magda, (*_*)

For more: www.indigo2photography.com

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

I use to have a difficult time photographing strangers when I would travel abroad. Since my focus has been on portraits the last couple of years, that hasn’t been a problem. For this portrait I told the guy I liked his “Indiana Jones” hat and would like his portrait. He readily agreed.

Bored at home, check out my fine art prints:

SamAntonioPhotography

My Stock Photography:

Sam Antonio Stock Photography

Photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography 2020

Contact me to license my images:

sam@samantoniophotography.com

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#mexico #travel #photography #canon #portraits #fashion #mexicotravel #christmas2020 #Guanajuato #portrait #canonphotography #travelphotography #DecemberToRemember #December2020 #model #style #instagram

Difficult light to photograph, but loved the view over this amazing city!

It's difficult to come up with an unusual take on a well known subject such as this old gun-post which stands on the beach at Kimmeridge on the Dorset coast. But I thought the setting sun, cloud formation and low viewpoint was interesting. Let me know if you agree or disagree.

I have been trying to avoid hdr's as they are in my opinion overdone on Flickr (that's probably a controversial statement but its my view :-) !) but this was so contrasty that I had no choice really but to process it as a 'gentle' hdr in Photomatix.

It needs to be viewed on black.

View On Black

I captured this at Difficult Run, right around the corner from Great Falls Park in Virginia... I love this place!

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Difficult Run Stream Valley Trail, Potomac River

Georgetown Pike, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia

How difficult would it be for you and your very lovely lady to take the 48 Hour Challenge and restrict yourselves only to the Resorts World property? Would it be difficult at all! Perhaps the 48 Hour Challenge would be no challenge at all! Would the 72 Hour Challenge be anymore difficult? 🤔

There's only one way to find out for sure! 😏😎

Certain things can be difficult to tell when looking at others' images. Scale, for instance, or brightness. I headed to Portland Bill to find out for myself what impact the lighthouse would have on the otherwise vivid night sky.

Having shot through the night the fingers of light which, if I'm honest, proved a little frustrating in the absolute darkness went on to provide a defining feature in this early dawn shot.

_____

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Dallas, Texas

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- large -

Where: Sweden, Östergötland, Bjärka säby. google maps

When: 20101129

How and why: The lone straw in a sea of blue snow.

Editing: Minor

South Polar Skuas can be difficult to distinguish from the Brown Skua, which also breeds around the Antarctic. South Polar is a little bit smaller and longer-winged, with colder, less speckled plumage. It does have pale morphs, unlike Brown Skua, which are easier to identify, but this is a dark morph. South Polar Skua is one of only three species that has actually been recorded at the geographic South Pole, the others being Antarctic and Snow Petrels. After breeding they migrate a long way north and are regular in the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, though they are probably overlooked in European waters because on confusion with Great Skuas. South Polar Skuas used to be known as MacCormick's Skua after Robert MacCormick (1800-1890) Naval surgeon, explorer and naturalist who first discovered this species. Its scientific name Stercorarius maccormicki commemorates its discoverer. I photographed this one on the Antarctic Peninsula.

25 seconds, long time for not trying to move.

But with this scenery, not too difficult.

Early morning, no one around