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Hurricane season has been especially difficult in my area this year. The beauty of the habitat was destroyed! However, the actual habitat remains. The birds still have food, shelter, and water.
It will not take me 22 years to rebuild the beauty of the habitat again. It's going to be different and will take me some time to get used to. However, barring additional hurricanes, it will be beautiful again by this time next year.
I believe I will add an additional water feature and more snags for perches. Large palm trees will be delivered and planted after Thanksgiving. They will provide shade for the Crepe Myrtle that is loaded with orchids. They can never replace the beautiful Live Oak that was destroyed but it is what it is.
I am grateful, my home was untouched, when the oak fell it went the other way. Although, I now have a lot of repairs to the pond. The pond took a direct hit. All of the Koi managed to remain unharmed. That's another blessing. I am sure they are not extremely happy with the modification at the moment. The bog was completely destroyed. I have people coming to see how to repair and rebuild. The Koi have gotten very large, I believe I will have the pond expanded and they will be very happy.
Most of my little feathered friends have gotten used to the changes. They are all still coming for their fast food. That of course includes what I put out as well as caterpillars they find.
Today's featured backyard beauty is young Phil, a lovely, Red-bellied woodpecker. There are three Red-bellied beauties visiting daily.
Okay, I believe I am rambling so I will simply say, have a great day and happy snapping.
It was rather difficult to find any information about the person who gave their name to Camellia japonica 'Lavinia Maggi' (or just 'Contessa Lavinia Maggi'). It appears that a certain Onofrio Maggi cultivated this camellia some time in the middle of the 19th century. We know this, because the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) awarded it a First Class Certificate (FCC) in 1862. I believe, after some searching, that this was Onofrio Maggi di Gradella (1809 - 1880). This Onofrio had a daughter Lavinia (1862 - 1935), of whom all I know that she was married to two men of the local nobility, Carlo Guaineri and Francesco Dionisi Piomarta, and had one son with her second husband, the marchese Ottavio Dionisi Piomarta. None of these seem to have had any greater historical significance.
Created for AIA Gothic Stories Challenge
All work done in Photoshop 2025
Best viewed Large
Thank you very much for your comments and faves, regretfully, I am finding it increasingly difficult to reply to your comments, because of my very limited time on the internet, due to constant power interruptions in South Africa. I do read and appreciate every one of them, however! Thanks again!!
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Sorry, to me is very difficult to visit people that always only leave a fav without commenting...
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Do not use any of my images on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission.
All rights reserved - Copyright © fotomie2009 - Nora Caracci
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1970 - Fiumicino (Rome) , Italy
Arrivo delle paranze per la vendita diretta del pescato. L'accostamento al molo era realizzato a forza di braccia.
Arrival of fishing boats for the direct sale of the catch. Approaching the pier was made by force of arms.
This difficult to photograph butterfly decided to take a pause from foraging, and gave me this moment!
Yellow gorse in the hedgerows and a lone daisy !!!
Common gorse is a robust evergreen shrub
and widespread in the UK. It flowers January-June.
It's leaves are needle sharp, and the flowers are coconut perfumed.
[ Bellis perennis ] The Common daisy.
It is also commonly known as Bruisewort.
It habitually colonies And is difficult to eradicate.
In the recent weeks/months I've been unsuccessfully wrestling to keep a presence in the Flickr community.
If on one side I have less and less time for myself, on the other I have been struggling with my own photography: I imagine I am going through what afflicted many other photographers before me: Having started many years ago with film, I was at one time seduced by digital and later disappointed by the said medium. Yet, aiming at the best from both worlds, I returned to medium format film; somehow I cannot bring myself to scan those minute 35mm negatives.
Additionally, I decided to try colour photography, from which I have long shunned, owing to my partial colour blindness to red.
This picture is one study I have recently made on sharpness in photography: sharp or not so sharp, that is the question. My eyes tell me that sharpness adds a lot to a photograph, my heart that it adds too much.
The above are two different edits of the same digital photograph made with a Leica M10 Monochrome and the Summilux 1.4/50 Asph. Lens. While the left version was edited to enhance contrast and sharpness, the right one was edited to soften both.
Your comments and views on this matter will be highly appreciated, thank you.
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Leica M10-M, Summilux 1.4/50 Asph., EI 160 ISO, 1/360s, f/13
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P.S.
Although I will reply to each comment, I would like to thank here all who took much of their time to share with me their thoughts on this subject.
A friend and colleague photographer here on Flicker once said that medium format film is my "at home", and I think he is quite right.
Although I have taken a lot of 35mm photos in the very early 90s, from 92 onwards I used mostly medium format film. As the gear got a bit too heavy for my liking I moved to the 35mm format but was never entirely happy with the results. Getting a good scan with a "normal" scanner is pretty difficult.
I tried my hand at digital photography and was initially fascinated by the sharp resolution and the vivid colours, but with time the images started to feel too aggressive, and recently I tried my hand again at medium format film.
This test was to prove myself that I could get a "film-like" soft resolution, soft contrast image from a very sharp, very contrasted file. Curiously, this does not satisfy me for, what is the point in having ultra-sharp gear if you prefer softer images.
And so, my heart brought me back home to medium format film photography. I'll occasionally do some digital photography too, but for as long as I can, medium format will be my main line.
And maybe time will bring me back again to digital, one never knows....
Thank you all again, for your great input
In the end she opted for a book on flowers. Good choice, I think. :)
For those of you who are interested in scale, the books (which have turnable pages) are ¾" high. The little mouse is hand crocheted from mohair and her dress is hand knitted.
Sit with it
Sit with it.
Sit with it.
Sit with it.
Even though you want to run.
Even though it's heavy and difficult.
Even though you're not quite sure
of the way through.
Healing happens through feeling…
It's quite difficult to get an elevated view of the coast in the tropics, the vegetation grows in profusion everywhere up to 3000m. (10000ft) elevation, this grassy hill, Montaña Redonda, rises relatively close to the coast, and for $27USD you can ride at the back of a pick up truck up the bone jarring jeep road to the summit. The view isn't as spectacular as Alpine lakes or Nordic fjords, but it's an unusual non-drone perspective of the Dominican coast. I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have, my wallet had fallen out of my shorts' pocket into god knows where on the way up, when I discovered that fact I almost had a stroke, but the merchants called the driver who drove me up and he found my wallet in the back of the truck, it ended well after all, but I was a nervous wreck until I was reunited with my wallet.
This is a crazily difficult puzzle with a ballbearing to run and track through its many 360° pathways - I have never finished it through lack of dexterity and patience! Hahah!!!!
Last Friday I sold my little X-E2 & XF18/2 to a friend.
A bargain but that's the price of the market today...
Had to do that choice since a year or more. Must admit I miss the little beast; it came with me on so many trips overseas and around. A little tribute.
I tried various cameras and lenses (this one: Fuji X100F) in order to get this right. I am still not happy and will try different camera/lens combos and points of view.
The most strenuous hike i have made during my vacation was the Tachäl Dhäl (Sheep Mountain) Ridge. It is a category very difficult. Used to American classifications I thought it wouldn't be that bad, but from the first moment it was steep, and sometimes very steep, and sometimes quite dangerous. So completely exhausted I arrived at the top, some 1300 meters higher. The view in every direction was the reward. And I stayed up there for an hour (I think I even slept, because I was wasted). But with Dall sheep and Lake Kluane close to me and this mountain view I didn't care. After 10 hours I arrived exhausted at my car, even the descend was a tough one!
To make this picture I had to wait quite a long time, because the clouds were covering the peak almost always, or there was so much shade It didn't look interesting. But when it finally came, this was the result! I by the way made two pictures with my 200 mm, and stitched them to make this panorama. More pics from this fantastic hike will follow sometime!
From 11 june till the 25th of July, I traveled in Canada. Starting in Brighton Ontario, where my sister lives at the border of an amazing part of lake Ontario, I flew to Vancouver, and Vancouver island where I took the boat at Port Hardy to take part 1 of the Inside passage, to Prince Rupert in BC. Two days later I took part 2 to Skagway in Alaska. When coming from Skagway Alaska, you can take the train to Carcross. it is a very scenic train ride that halts at Bennet lake.
And then to Whitehorse and further on by car to Kluane National park in the Yukon district. Whitehorse is situated at the border of the Yukon. From there I flew back to Vancouver, rented a car, and traveled three weeks in the BC- and Alberta Rockies, visiting the famous, and less famous Nature parks like Banff and Jasper. Last few days back to Brighton Ontario to enjoy lake Ontario once more, before going home. A picture of my itinerary can be found on Facebook (www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152940536581759&set...).
4000 pictures later, it is quite a task to show the right stuff, although the stunning scenery guarantees at least a few great shots to share. Objective will be to make a book (for myself mainly), and that might take a while.
I hope you will enjoy the impression of my travel, one that equals earlier journeys to Alaska and south America, this journey was the first in the digital era, and equally intensive because of all the hiking activities every day on and on. I loved every minute of it.
When things are not / what they seem / erasion is sometimes a good solution / but to strike out / gets quicker result.
monoprint, color image 17x10 cm, on paper 24x36 cm
I returned to my favorite little cascade at Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. This time I tried a longer lens and photos were taken looking into much brighter reflections. Depth of field was shallower with the longer lens but closer details were beautiful. Access was a little more difficult because the snow was deeper, but it was worth it.
At the National Botanic Gardens of Wales - another visit when taking photos was difficult in the harsh sunlight.
As much as I would have enjoyed going deeper into this area, the thick brambles just seemed like an unnecessary challenge. :-)
At the beginning, I found the theme quite difficult and I struggled to find something…
A “beverage” is supposed to be in a container and glass and every other material I used gave the picture undesirable reflections.
Worst of all, the bubbles I would have liked to catch were absolutely erratic: when I managed to get in focus some of them… BLOB … they moved or disappeared!
So, I took ton of photos, drank a lot (not alcohol, only mineral water and soft drinks, to have fresh subjects for my shots) and played with some post processing that usually I don’t have :-))
This is the image I prefer: I hope you will like, you'll judge by yourself.
One thing I can tell you: I really enjoyed my time and had fun
HMM
P.S. at the end, I put everything upside-down: this way, the top of the picture is the lower part of the glass of this “blond” drink
Fish ponds? Reality is difficult to tell from above. They don't appear like rice paddies or at least there are no discernible rows of rice. What is obvious is that they were drying up as it is summer season in Makassar these days. Without a doubt, landscapes look different when you are not on the ground.
Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
check out my 10 tips in aerial photography, part 1 in colloidfarl.blogspot.com/
Difficult for me to comprehend the transformation of my yard in the past week or so. Where a short time ago there was light and air, it's now a dense overgrowth of verdant plant life. It's such a sudden distortion of reality. Trees, bushes, weeds, ivy (much of it of the poisonous variety) have gained the upper hand in my yard defense system. I worked valiantly in early spring to cut back the budding vegetation in hopes of maintaining some open space. And for a while it seemed I had conquered Mother Nature. But she bested me as she always does. I've been squeezed out once again, left to occupy an ever decreasing patch of mowed grass. The square footage just a fraction of where it started. There are literally sections of the yard that are completely off limits to me now, at least until winter. Unreachable absent massive labor to cut my way through the tangle. And to what end? I figure I'll let this go for now and pick some other battle. While doing some maintenance work on the side of my house over the weekend, I came upon vines that had literally attached themselves to the structure. In just a few short weeks they had crept insidiously up toward first floor windows. This is where I made my stand, ripping the vines away and pulling them from the ground. I've ceded the yard, but I can't let them take my house. But I know they'll grow back. No time to let down my guard.
This photograph was taken in winter with difficult light. I decided it had to be B & W.
Cleethorpes is a Tidal resort and the tide was out, leaving a shallow trace of water around the sand banks, I decided to use this as a leading line to the Fort in the distance. I thought the old wooden Tidal markers would provide foreground interest.
The Fort in the background is Bull Sand Fort. It was built as a defence to the mouth of the esturary, in the First World war, to protect the ports of Hull nad Grimsby. It was updated for the Second Worls War. It is one of two Forts.
Difficult lighting.
Gave my my Nikon an airing today, forgot where all settings should be !
Many thanks for any comments and favs, much appreciated
This week has been a difficult one for me - just couldn't find anything that I was happy with :-( so got out my sons Lego that he dosen't know I have - forgot to mention my wee stash in the cupboard ;-) anyway hubby started to play with it and he was the one that sugested the film theme :-) just managed before the cut off time :-)
Winters are difficult to photograph without the snow, but it was nice to get out and make the most of a dry new year day.
This is again another repost of old picture in 2011.
I never have good luck in landscape shooting. When I went to this Canadian Rockies vacation, I had all kinds of bad weather during the trip. The sky was not clear and the mountains are hiding in the mist and rain etc.
I think the most important skill for amateur photographer is to shoot decent or good pictures in all kinds of weather. What do you think?
The following is the original story of my post.
It is easy to take a wide view. Just swing your head and you will see the panoramic view.
It is difficult to take a wide shot. The wider the view on landscape, the more sky will be included in the scene. We have to make sure there is an interesting sky.
The most difficult part for wide shot is that you need to find an interesting foreground element to guide the view of your readers into the scene.
I am not sure if I had everything in the wide scene but I need to prove I was there. So I still took the wide shot at Emerald Lake regardless.
Happy Friday and weekend!
I would appreciate it a lot if you will tell me whether you like more this wide shot (landscape) or the portrait (vertical) composition in the previous post.
Front View
1911 Baker Electric Special Extension Coupe, Model V
In the first decades of the 20th century, electric vehicles seemed poised for primacy. Early internal-combustion engines were rudimentary, dangerous, and difficult to operate, requiring all sorts of pump priming and starter torqueing. Those tasks were uncouth for the wealthy gentlemen who were the automobile’s first customers and downright risky for the era’s women, clothed in voluminous, billowing Edwardian dresses and patriarchal notions of competence. Electric cars, on the other hand, were extremely simple to use. So long as the heavy batteries were maintained and charged, all one had to do was click the on switch, twist the go lever, and roll.
Having founded the American Ball Bearing Company in 1895, Midwestern engineer Walter C. Baker understood the basics of carriage production. This background gave him faith that he could make the leap into car building. Teaming up with his father-in-law and brother-in-law, he started the Baker Motor Vehicle Company in Cleveland in 1899. Seeing the aforementioned advantages inherent in electric vehicles, Baker decided to place his faith in this powertrain.
“Number one, it’s comfortable, and it’s not terribly difficult to drive,” said Stew Somerville, a volunteer mechanic at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome museum in upstate New York, which holds a 1911 Baker in its eclectic collection. “But part of the attraction of the electric automobile was the fact that it did not emit gasoline fumes, you didn’t have to crank-start the engine, there was no big wheel to wrestle with. It was a very smooth-handling automobile. You didn’t even have a loud, offensive horn. There’s a dainty little bell to warn of its coming.” Period ads were frequently, although not exclusively, pitched directly at women.
Baker’s first car to market was a two-seater, the Imperial Runabout. Priced at a competitive $850, it was first shown in New York at the city’s (and nation’s) first auto show. It attracted a number of notable buyers, including Thomas Edison, who purchased one as his very first car. (Edison designed the long-lived nickel-iron batteries used in some Baker vehicles.) By 1906, Baker was, briefly, the world’s top producer of electric vehicles.
But like many of his cohort in the emergent automotive industry, Baker wasn’t just in it for the business. He was in it for the speed. As his company was enjoying success in the consumer market, he was pursuing his dream by developing a series of advanced, record-setting racing cars. His first, the Torpedo, was built in 1902, at great personal expense to Baker. With its 11 batteries, 14-hp mid-mounted motor, outrageously low-slung 48-inch height, streamlined and lightweight white-pine and oilcloth body, and bizarre webbed canvas seat restraints, it seemed poised to set a world land speed record.
Sadly, in that year’s Automobile Club of America speed trials on Staten Island, the car was involved in a disastrous crash. After crossing the 1-kilometer (0.6 mile) mark in just over 30 seconds, Baker and his co-driver lost control and crashed into a group of spectators. One person died at the scene, and another died later from injuries. The drivers were both arrested and charged with manslaughter but were freed when it was determined that the crowd had pushed past protective barriers and onto the course. (Baker’s innovative safety harness likely protected the car’s occupants from serious injury.)
Further attempts with two smaller, single-seater race cars he named Torpedo Kid were also employed in pursuit of the land speed record but were subsequently abandoned following another, nonlethal spectator crash in 1903. Baker has often been noted as the first person to cross the 100-mph barrier, although his records weren’t official due to these wrecks.
Given this peril, Baker decided to forgo his quest for top speed. As gasoline-powered vehicles increased in popularity and gained infrastructural support, he shifted his attention instead to diminishing the electric car’s liabilities, particularly their limited range. He worked diligently on new battery designs, shaft drives, and other componentry. In 1910, Baker’s new chief engineer, Emil Gruenfeldt, set a record for distance driven on a single charge, taking a Baker Victoria for a 201-mile trip at an average speed of 12 mph. Not exactly Ludicrous speed, but an impressive feat nonetheless.
Baker’s successes gave the company prominence among the elite, and the company capitalized on this publicly. In advertisements around 1909, the brand boldly boasted about the King of Siam owning a Baker. The company made a similar splash in American politics when President William H. Taft’s administration purchased a 1909 model as one of the White House’s first automobiles. (A steam-powered White and two gasoline-powered Pierce-Arrows were also included, Taft hedging his bets on how the battle of the powertrains was going to play out.) Taft later added a 1912 Baker Victoria that went on to be driven by five First Ladies. The Baker brand maintains some celebrity allure today, with car-collecting comedian Jay Leno holding a 1909 model in his expansive collection.
As a means of offsetting some of the powertrain’s inherent shortcomings, Baker made investments in battery-charging infrastructure. The brand announced plans to open stations at every major intersection in Cleveland and to grow the network from there, although this effort became cost prohibitive and never came to fruition. Expansion into the production of electric trucks, police patrol wagons, and even trucks and bomb handlers for the U.S. Army during World War I was not enough to fend off the rising dominance of the internal-combustion engine, especially after the proliferation of the electric starter, first available on the 1912 Cadillac, significantly increased safety and convenience. By 1915, the Baker company was defunct.
By Brett Berk, Car and Driver
X is for Xenopus
This tiny frog is the closest thing I have to a xenopus, which apparently is a specific type of African frog. Bella had fun, as she loves being centre of my attention. It was a difficult letter & the most difficult photo of this challenge so far. Though it was also the one where Bella made me laugh most.
"Every creation / knows a difficult state / at which the structure / resists change. // To move along the lines / brings man / to the abyss / or not?"
"Elke schepping / kent een lastig punt / waarop de structuur / verandering weert. // Het volgen van de lijnen / brengt de mens / aan de afgrond / of niet?"
Assemblage, carton, paint, ashes, metal, wood, size 49x27 x 7 cm (www.meurtant.exto.org)
I took pictures of birds in flight at 200mm and 300mm lens before, but today I took pictures in 550mm and 600mm. It is more difficult to take picture of bird in flight with longer focal length.
Sunset out on the seafront at Fleetwood last night. The wind made it difficult to keep the sea spray off the lens and filters and keep the tripod stable enough for long exposures. The light was fantastic though. The sky a little later just went really red and fiery and I'll post some of those shots later this week.
I liked the weathered groyne post on this frame. I have not been to this location for sunset before and it does have plenty of potential as the groynes align themselves for a range of sunset positions too. There are hundreds of wind turbines out in the Irish Sea here which you can also make out on the far left horizon. You can also just make out the Shipyard at Barrow on the horizon above the groyne and the fells of the Western Lake District to the right.
You can choose paths, or you can follow the right path... follow even when it seems that there is no way... I continue the topic of the motion vector in conditions of an excessive number of landmarks :) Thanks for reading!
It’s difficult to close the door on the things that once made us happy, that offered bright promise during dark times. Things that helped us find love or hope or happiness.
But the hard truth is that not everything can last forever and things end; sometimes abruptly, sometimes fading away slowly until they’re just a speck disappearing in the distance. We can’t hold onto things forever, no matter how firmly we fix our grasp upon them. We can’t force people to stay and seldom can we control the situations we find ourselves in.
But what we can do is remember one simple, undeniable reality. And that is that new prospects will always arise from the end of something else. That it’s okay to let go of something that ends, even when it’s devastatingly painful. Even when it’s something that seems like it’s being yanked away from you before you’re ready. The ending of things will sometimes feel excruciating, even when we deep down know that it’s the right thing, the only thing.
Who has ever started something new, something exciting, without finishing something first? It’s only when we’re defeated by the prospect of something ending that we think to pull ourselves up and move forward. Life is a process, a series of ups and downs. A sequence of unpredictable happenings. It’s not black and white and most of the events that fill up the timeline of our lives are very rarely planned or expected.
But isn’t that the whole point? Isn’t that what life is meant to be about? The things that end and the new opportunities that come out of them. The ways in which we fight and struggle and conquer and overcome.
One day you will wake up and it won’t hurt so bad. That you’ll go through entire days without playing out that ending in your mind. That soon there will be whole stretches of time when it never even crosses your mind, until one day it’s just an uncomfortable memory.
Know that one day you will look back and see that event not as the end, but as a starting point. As the pivot that turned everything around. As the thing that gave you the courage to try something new, something that would come to a beautiful fruition.
Let yourself realize that every wonderful thing that you’ve experienced is so because something else ended, not in spite of it.
Things will end, while others are just beginning.