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Sydney’s tallest building, Sydney Tower, gets reflected in 20 level office tower. Walking along the Pitt Street at one time I was stunned by clear and almost full size reflection of Sydney Tower in one of the glass buildings nearby. I observed it for a while moving around and noticing how reflection is changing and disappearing at some spots. After that I started to think about capturing the view noticing when would be the best light and the best time. Sometime later with Tower glowing in yellow light of setting sun and sky deeply blue I took around 27 shots handheld from different places to select just a few for further processing.
For this image I chose 9 shots (3 vertical AEB sets with three -2,0,+2EV photos in each). 3 HDR files came out of those 9 images and finally they were stitched into one big HDR panorama. I then tonemapped it lightly and processed to enhance the contrast, color and few minor things like noise and shadows.
Location: Pitt Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
From my photoblog at www.bouncedphoton.com
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We stopped in for a bite at an historic restaurant in Olds, AB, on our way to Red Deer. The food was great!
From the Globe & Mail, 2013:
After 95 years, the faded words hang above the main drag here in Olds, Alta.: "Public Lunch Cafe," each black letter embedded with tiny pieces of glass to catch the sun. To Stewart Wong, it still feels like home.
Each morning, the 84-year-old comes through the doors of the Chinese restaurant his great-grandfather opened. Stewart Wong ran the Public Lunch for 26 years, albeit reluctantly. "I was not a restaurant man. My dad was," he recalls. "I hated it." The first chance he got, he sold.
It was over a century ago that Chinese restaurants began to spring up across the Prairies. For families among the first wave of Chinese immigrants, many of whom had worked building the railroad, it was the best, or only, option to make ends meet. Like Public Lunch, those establishments now form the pillar for a new exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum, Chop Suey on the Prairies.
It's a look at the restaurants and families that became an icon of Prairie towns and served as a foothold for a new Canadian community.
"I hope that the idea this is a Canadian story, this is an Alberta story, comes through very strongly," curator Linda Tzang said.
The restaurants sprang up in the wake of the railway, when Chinese labourers were brought over and paid sub-par wages. A host of policies, including the notorious head tax, limited both employment options and the chance to return home.
"So they were sort of limited to working in service industries. So, that means laundries, grocery stores and restaurants," said Ms. Tzang, the museum's curator of cultural communities.
Mr. Wong's great-grandfather didn't work the railroad, but arrived in Olds, now a town of about 8,000, and started its first laundry in 1898. He soon expanded it to a bakery. Fire razed the building, so they rebuilt the Public Lunch Cafe around the corner, opening it in its current location in 1918.
The first era of Chinese-Canadian restaurateurs worked long hours, but the menus, including Mr. Wong's, weren't Chinese. It was Western food.
"One of the things we asked was what makes a Chinese restaurant Chinese? And in the early years, it was the fact that a Chinese person owned it. Certainly they weren't making Chinese food," Ms. Tzang said.
Soon, though, the menus expanded. Mr. Wong's restaurant added Chinese food just after the Second World War as more restaurants opened in Olds. "We had to expand to serve a different kind of food to keep the public coming, keep the public interested," he recalls.
Chinese food – or a Western version of it – started to take off more broadly in Alberta during the 1960s, Ms. Tzang says, as more Chinese migrants arrived in Canada.
It was in 1970 that William Choy's grandfather opened Bing's #1 in Stony Plain, Alta. He slowly added Westernized Chinese food to a traditional menu that included burgers and pizza. "I think that's just taken off as a subset of what Chinese food is, that Western Chinese food that many people have grown up with, eaten, loved and that they call 'Chinese food,'" the younger Mr. Choy says.
In 1975, the Silver Inn in Calgary was looking for a way to bring in more customers. A husband of one of the owners began toying with a recipe hailing from Northern China and honed in the pubs of Britain, where he'd previously worked. His creation is still on the menu, No. 65: deep-fried shredded beef in chili sauce – or "ginger beef," now a ubiquitously available and popular Alberta dish.
"Chinese food's like any ethnic food," explains the Silver Inn's current owner, Kwong Cheung, the brother of the women who first bought it. "As long as people can sit down and eat, it can solve a lot of problems."
Ms. Tzang's exhibit notes the restaurants were havens for other minorities – early owners couldn't afford to discriminate based on ethnicity. Meanwhile, the restaurants have endured while societal barriers have ebbed. Mr. Choy still owns the restaurant and also serves as the town's mayor. "I think my grandfather would be proud that I am the mayor of Stony Plain now, that I'm able to take what he taught us and pass it down to the new children and grandchildren."
The Choy and Wong families were among those who helped Ms. Tzang prepare her exhibit, which toured small towns, growing steadily before opening at the Edmonton museum this month. Chinese restaurants remain a fixture of small-town Prairie streetscapes, though many owners have moved on. A new wave has bought in, only some of them Chinese.
In Olds, Andrew and Janet Kan bought Mr. Wong's former restaurant in 1998, becoming the third family to own it, they say. That same year, the Town of Olds gave the Wong family a plaque commemorating 100 years of service. The Kans have raised two daughters, both now in university, while living above the restaurant with Mr. Kan's parents. The hours remain long – seven days a week, often morning till night – and the food continues to evolve. Mr. Kan serves the Silver Inn's creation, ginger beef. He and Mr. Wong are close, with the latter providing advice regularly and coming daily for breakfast.
Mr. Wong was the only Chinese kid in his air cadets class, but was Canadian-born and grew up playing hockey (and fighting those who directed slurs at him). He's spent his whole life in Olds and returns to the Public Lunch each day, but is glad to be out of the industry.
"I tell ya, if a guy can run a restaurant, you can run anything. But you had no choice," Mr. Wong says of his great-grandfather's era. "When you come over here, you can't speak the language, you've got no education. What else are you going to do?"
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En la fotografia: Àngels i la zona cremada del terme de Malet a Simat de la Valldigna on tot és gris i sec.
EMBED. El moment final del foc, quan sols queda el carbó.
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Àngels y la zona quemada de Simat de la Valldigna donde todo es gris y seco.
EMBED. El momento final del fuego, cuando solo queda el carbón.
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A granite rock embedded into the roots of a tree, then worked over by water, snow and ice for how many years. At Twin Lakes, CA.
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TOUR 1 : How to start your Wedding Photography Business
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Whiskey Bliss (Whitney Fliss) is a blues and jazz singer, musician, and multifaceted performance artist traveling with her accordion across Eastern and Western Europe. She hails from Seattle, Washington, USA where she managed a swing and acrobatics dance company, The Harlequin Hipsters, and appeared with her solo work in cabaret shows at various nightclubs and theaters. She performs original compositions, country blues, jazz, and American folk music on accordion and piano. Throughout her European tour she has appeared in Blues Dancing Festivals in London, UK and Heidelberg, Germany, as well as in lives in Athens and Rhodos Greece, and Szimpla Badehaus in Berlin. She continues to travel and play music in the streets of Europe through Summer 2012!
about her music:
"I write songs to tell stories of love or to recall my dreams, which are fantastical visions of boats and oceans and waves and dancers and clowns. Some of my songs I wrote for my Commedia del' Arte dance troupe in Seattle, The Harlequin Hipsters, and a show we did titled "Passion or Death"--in which the world becomes plagued by a disease that kills those who are dispassionate about their lives. I write music to sing about the emotions in my heart and soul, and to connect with people through those feelings".
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Another view of this old Pullman railcar at the front of this industrial site. Love how nature is devouring this rusted relic.
copyright © 2009 sean dreilinger
view drying off sequoia after his bath - _MG_8453 embed on a black background.
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- February 5th: During the popular religious feast, I perceive a strong interaction between me, who is photographing them, and the devotees who know they are being photographed. It is the "magic" that can be captured and felt in popular feast like this; Via Etnea, a young devotee, next to a large candle, will be lit later.
- giorno 05 febbraio: durante la festa popolare - religiosa, percepisco una forte interazione tra me, che li fotografo, ed i devoti che sanno di essere fotografati, è la "magia" che si può cogliere-sentire in feste di popolo come questa; via Etnea, una giovane devota, accanto un cero di grosse dimensioni, verrà acceso più tardi.
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Religious devotion, at times, in Sicily seems to take on the face of women, like that of the two Sicilian saints Agata and Lucia along the Ionian coast of Sicily, or the face of Rosalia, on the opposite side, in Palermo. The lives of Saint Agatha and Saint Lucia are closely linked, even though they never met. Agatha was martyred in 251, Lucia was not yet born, she was born 32 years later. On February 5, 301, she went to Catania to pray at Agatha's tomb to invoke her intercession, hoping to obtain the healing of her mother, who was seriously ill. Agatha appeared to her in a dream, confirmed her mother's healing (her mother was healed), but also confided in her that she would be martyred because of her faith in Christ: Lucia was martyred on December 13, 304, during the persecutions of Diocletian. What has been said as an incipit of the photographic story that I present here, created on the occasion of the celebration that Catania dedicates to its Patron Saint Agatha, described as the most important religious celebration in Catania, also considered the third Catholic religious celebration in the world (first are the “Semana Santa” in Seville, and the “Corpus Domini” in Cuzco in Peru), a ranking that takes into account the huge number of people who participate every year. The celebration of Saint Agatha takes place on several dates, from 3 to 6 February, on 12 February and on 17 August: the February celebration is linked to her martyrdom, the August celebration commemorates the return to Catania of her mortal remains, initially taken to Constantinople as spoils of war by the Byzantine general Maniaces, and remained there for 86 years. The young Agatha lived in the 3rd century, she belonged to a rich patrician family of Catania, since she was young she had embraced the cult of the Christian religion, the governor Quinziano (or Quintiliano) fell in love with her, Agatha to escape him hid in his house in Palermo, Quinziano managed to find out where she was hiding, so he had her taken to Catania, here his attempts to bend Agatha's will and make her give in to his flattery were in vain, after her umpteenth refusal he changed his intentions, accused her of being of the Christian religion, condemned her to death, not without first having led her to martyrdom, he amputated her by tearing off both her breasts, in this way in addition to the torment of physical pain, the psychological one was added, humiliating the girl in her femininity, then he gave her death by dragging her on burning coals, Agata was 20 years old. After her death, the cult of her began to spread, even the pagans began to venerate her figure, there is news about her origins starting from 252, the year after her death: the inhabitants of Catania were proud of this young woman who rebelled against the will of the dictator. The feast of Saint Agatha begins on February 3, there is the procession "for the offering of wax", the two eighteenth-century carriages of the senate pulled by horses come out along the streets of the city, "the candlestick" make their appearance; on February 4th the celebration begins with the “Mass of Dawn” which is celebrated in the cathedral, after the reliquary bust of the Saint and the silver casket, they are placed on the “float” (or “fercolo”), to be carried in procession in its “external tour”, the procession begins by crossing the “Porta Uzeda” and thus reaching the arches of the marina, the procession then circumscribes the historic center of the city, going to the places where Agatha’s martyrdom took place; : On February 5th the “Pontifical Mass” is celebrated, on this occasion by lining up in the cathedral, you can go and see the reliquary bust of the Saint, as evening comes, the bust and the casket are placed back on the heavy float for the last procession, which goes along the “internal tour” (or “noble tour”), which crosses the historic center of Catania, a procession preceded by the passage of lit candles carried on the shoulders of devotees (of various weights and sizes, some reach exceptional dimensions and weight, historically these candles illuminated, when electricity did not exist, the passage of the Saint), then the “candlestick” pass, they are gigantic and heavy wooden “candlestick”, in baroque style, painted in gold, each one represents an ancient corporation (butchers, fishmongers, bakers, pork butchers, greengrocers, etc.), finally the float with Saint Agatha passes, the long-awaited moment, with the reliquary bust that it contains inside some parts of her body, the other parts of her body are inside the casket, so, with both on the float, Agatha's entire body can travel the streets of the city of Catania. The float is pulled by hand, by the many devotees who wish to participate spontaneously in this very particular rite, using two large cords more than 200 meters long, to the end of which are connected four handles. The photographs were taken on February 4 and 5, of this year 2026, they are not organized in series taking into account either the year or the days; I made portraits of the devotees, the "citizens" (synonym of "devotees") of Catania towards this young martyr, who has become a symbol of those who oppose violence against women, and protector of women suffering from breast cancer. I captured in some images, the custom of some devotees, to carry with them images of loved ones who passed away too soon (photos placed on candles or printed on the characteristic white habit, called "sacco (bag) ", which is part of the characteristic way of dressing of the devotees). Finally, I conclude with some brief observations on this traditional religious and popular feast, year 2026:
a- This year, during the "outer tour" or "plebeian tour," it rained. I don't recall photographing the Saint Agatha procession in the rain in past years, but the presence of umbrellas was a pleasant surprise for me.
b- Devotees carry candles on their shoulders, sometimes very heavy, weighing 50 kilos or even more than 100-120 kilos. These enormous candles are padded with foam rubber, placed by the devotees themselves, to prevent excessive pain when touching the shoulder carrying them.
c- Devotees carrying very heavy candles, flameless or with a burning candle, rely on the presence of another devotee, who, anticipating the procession, warns those present of the arrival of "a heavy load." This is to avoid accidents along the way, both for those on the road and for the bearer himself. Sometimes, the assistant devotee supports part of the weight of the candle itself.
d- Aware of the risk of people slipping in the streets after the devotees pass by with burning candles, releasing a considerable amount of melted wax onto the ground, on the afternoon of February 5th, before the ritual of lighting the large candles begins, the municipality of Catania sprinkles Catania's main street, Via Etnea, first with water from tankers and then immediately after with sawdust, which, mixing with the water, prevents it from being lifted into the air by the wind (risking irritation to the airways and eyes);
e- As the float of Saint Agatha passes by, countless smartphones are now raised in the air, to take with them, almost every present, a memento of "this beautiful magic." I couldn't resist the temptation to "seize upon" this modern-day custom, also because I'm fascinated by the well-groomed female hands;
f- although I have not respected the temporal presentation of the photographs, I will insert a small comment in the caption, with the day during which it was taken, whether the 4th (during the “plebeian tour” or “external tour”), or if during the 5th (“day of the “internal tour” or “noble tour”).
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La devozione religiosa, a volte, in Sicilia sembra assumere il volto delle donne, come quello delle due sante siciliane Agata e Lucia lungo la fascia Ionica della costa sicula, od il volto di Rosalia, sul versante opposto, in quel di Palermo. Le vite di Agata e Lucia sono tra loro legate in maniera strettamente indissolubile, pur non essendosi mai conosciute, Agata morì martirizzata nel 251, Lucia non era ancora nata, nascerà 32 anni dopo, il 5 febbraio del 301 si recherà a Catania a pregare sul sepolcro di Agata per invocare la sua intercessione sperando così di ottenere la guarigione di sua madre, gravemente malata, Agata le appare in sogno, le conferma la guarigione di sua madre (sua madre ebbe la guarigione), ma anche, le confida, che per lei ci sarà il martirio a causa della sua fede in Cristo: Lucia fu martirizzata il 13 dicembre del 304, durante le persecuzioni di Diocleziano. Quanto detto come incipit del racconto fotografico che qui presento, realizzato in occasione della festa che Catania dedica alla sua Santa Patrona Agata, descritta come la più importante festa religiosa di Catania, considerata anche la terza festa religiosa cattolica al mondo (prime la “Semana Santa” di Siviglia, ed il “Corpus Domini” di Cuzco in Perù), graduatoria che tiene conto del grandissimo numero di persone ogni anno vi partecipano. La festa di Santa’Agata si svolge in più date, dal 3 al 6 febbraio, il 12 febbraio ed il 17 agosto: la ricorrenza di febbraio è legata al suo martirio, quella di Agosto rievoca il ritorno a Catania delle sue spoglie mortali, portate inizialmente a Costantinopoli come bottino di guerra dal generale bizantino Maniace, e li rimaste per 86 anni. La giovane Agata visse nel 3° secolo, apparteneva ad una ricca famiglia patrizia di Catania, sin dalla giovane età aveva abbracciato il culto per la religione cristiana, di lei si invaghì il governatore Quinziano (o Quintiliano), Agata per sfuggirgli si nascose in una sua casa a Palermo, Quinziano riuscì a sapere dove si nascondeva, quindi la fece condurre a Catania, qui i suoi tentativi di piegare la volontà di Agata e farla cedere alle sue lusinghe furono vani, all’ennesimo suo rifiuto egli mutò i suoi propositi, la accusò di essere di religione cristiana, la condannò a morte, non senza averla prima condotta al martirio, le amputò strappandole entrambi i seni, in tal modo oltre allo strazio del dolore fisico, si aggiungeva quello psicologico, umiliando la ragazza nella sua femminilità, poi le diede la morte trascinandola sui carboni ardenti, Agata aveva 20 anni. Dopo la sua morte si iniziò a diffondere il culto verso di lei, anche i pagani iniziarono a venerare la sua figura, si hanno notizie sulle sue origini già a partire dal 252, anno successivo alla sua morte: gli abitanti di Catania erano orgogliosi di questa giovane donna che si ribellò al volere del dittatore. La festa per Sant’Agata inizia il 3 febbraio, si ha la processione “per l’offerta della cera”, escono lungo le vie della città le due settecentesche carrozze del senato trainate da cavalli, fanno la loro comparsa “le candelore”; il 4 febbraio la festa inizia con la “Messa dell’Aurora” che si celebra nella cattedrale, dopo il busto reliquiario della Santa e lo scrigno d’argento, vengono messi sulla “vara” (o “fercolo”), per essere portati in processione nel suo “giro esterno” (o “giro plebeo”), la processione inizia attraversando la "Porta Uzeda" e giungendo così agli archi della marina, la processione quindi circoscrive il centro storico della città, recandosi nei luoghi ove avvenne il martirio di Agata; il 5 febbraio si celebra la “Messa Pontificale”, in questa occasione mettendosi in fila nella cattedrale, si può andare a vedere il busto reliquiario della Santa, col sopraggiungere della sera, busto e scrigno, vengono nuovamente messi sulla pesante vara per l’ultima processione, che percorre il “giro interno” (o “giro nobile”), che attraversa il centro storico di Catania, processione preceduta dal passaggio dei ceri accesi portati in spalla dai devoti (di vario peso e dimensioni, alcuni raggiungono dimensioni e peso eccezionali, storicamente questi ceri illuminavano, quando non esisteva l’energia elettrica, il passaggio della Santa), poi passano le “candelore”, sono dei giganteschi e pesanti "candelabri" in legno, in stile barocco, dipinti in oro, portati in spalla, ognuna rappresenta una antica corporazione (macellai, pescivendoli, panettieri, pizzicagnoli, fruttivendoli, ecc.), infine passa la vara con Sant’Agata, il momento tanto atteso, col busto reliquiario che racchiude al suo interno alcune parti del suo corpo, le altre parti del corpo si trovano all’interno dello scrigno, in tal modo, con entrambi sulla vara, tutto il corpo di Agata può percorrere le strade della città di Catania. La vara è trainata a mano con due grosse funi, dai tantissimi devoti che desiderano partecipare spontaneamente a questo rito così particolare, le due grosse funi sono lunghe più di 200 metri (una posta alla destra della vara, l’altra posta alla sua sinistra), al cui capo sono collegate quattro maniglie. Le fotografie sono state realizzate il 4 ed il 5 febbraio di quest’anno 2026, esse non sono organizzate in serie tenendo conto né dell’anno, nè delle giornate; ho realizzato ritratti dei devoti, dei “cittadini” (sinonimo di “devoti”) catanesi (e non) tutti legati “ed innamorati” di questa giovane martire, diventata simbolo di chi si oppone alla violenza sulle donne, e protettrice delle donne ammalate di cancro al seno. Ho colto in alcune immagini, l’usanza di alcuni devoti, di recare con se immagini di persone care scomparse troppo presto (foto messe sui ceri o stampate sul caratteristico saio bianco, chiamato “sacco”, che fa parte del modo caratteristico di vestire dei devoti). Infine, termino, con alcune osservazioni “in pillole” di questa festa tradizionale religiosa e popolare, anno 2026:
a- quest’ anno durante il “giro esterno” o “giro plebeo” è arrivata la pioggia, non ricordo di aver fotografato negli anni passati la processione di Sant’Agata sotto la pioggia, per me la presenza degli ombrelli è stata una piacevole novità;
b- i devoti portano in spalla ceri a volte molto pesanti, di 50 chili ma anche più di 100 – 120 chili, questi enormi ceri presentano delle imbottiture con gomma spugna, posizionate dagli stessi devoti, per evitare che il contatto con la spalla che li regge, diventi eccessivamente doloroso;
c- i devoti (o le devote) che portano in spalla ceri molto pesanti, senza fiamma, o con il cero che arde, si avvalgono della presenza di un altro devoto o devota, che anticipandone il passaggio, avvisa i presenti dell’arrivo “di un carico importante”, questo per evitare incidenti durante il percorso, sia per gli astanti, sia per il portatore stesso; a volte l’aiuto devoto regge parte del peso del cero stesso;
d- consapevole del rischio di scivoloni nelle strade, da parte delle persone, dopo che sono passati i devoti coi ceri che ardono, liberando un notevole quantitativo di cera sciolta per terra, il pomeriggio del 5 febbraio, prima che inizi il rito dell’accensione dei grossi ceri, il comune di Catania cosparge la via principale di Catania, via Etnea, prima con l’acqua delle autobotti, subito dopo con della segatura, che amalgamandosi con l’acqua impedisce alla stessa di venire sollevata in aria col vento (rischiando di irritare le vie aeree e gli occhi);
e- al passaggio della vara di Sant’Agata, oramai innumerevoli sono gli smartphone sollevati in aria, per portare con se, quasi ogni presente, un ricordo di “questa bellissima magia”, non ho saputo sottrarmi alla tentazione di “cogliere al volo” questa consuetudine dei nostri tempi, anche perché affascinato dalle mani femminili, così ben curate;
f- pur non avendo rispettato temporalmente la presentazione delle fotografie, inserirò in didascalia un piccolo commento, col giorno durante il quale è stata colta, se il 4 (durante il “giro plebeo” o “giro esterno”), o se durante il 5 (giorno del “giro interno” o “giro nobile”).
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copyright © 2009 sean dreilinger
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Once they've made it to Dolo Ado, and have been registered, people are able to get access to an allocation of 8-10 litres of water per person per day. This has to meet all of their needs, for drinking, cooking and washing. The average person in the UK uses 150 litres per day.
To find out more about how the UK is helping in Dolo Ado, and elsewhere across Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, visit: www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/News-Stories/2011/British-aid-...
Image: Cate Turton/Department for International Development
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copyright © 2010 sean dreilinger
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