View allAll Photos Tagged endpoints
Took my parents to see the "Sensorio, Field of Light" in Paso Robles last night. Fiber optic threads sprouting to endpoints via octopus tentacles connected to buried bulbs - 58,000 of them planted in rolling hills amongst craggy oaks. Scrambled to get there before evening light disappeared, and barely made it. Definitely not part of the Central Coast thing growing up! Really unique experience. iPhone snaps - we'll see how the camera shots turn out later (though they ban tripods, so that was a separate challenge).
“Night Street, Santiago de Compostela” — A few people stroll along quiet streets in the early evening, Santiago de Compostela,
The Spanish city of Santiago de Campostela was one of two we visited on this trip almost on a whim. We knew almost nothing about it, aside from the fact that it is the endpoint for thousands of Camino participants, who take weeks or months to walk there. We ended up loving the town, the old central district of which is charming and has a different feel than other cities — in part due to the connection to the casinosm
When traveling we walk a lot, and often just head out with no well-defined plan, just expecting to see and discover things as we go. My recollection is that this was a post-dinner walk — though given Spain’s late dinner our it could have been pre-dinner! This street, with its old stone buildings, porticos, and narrow passage was almost deserted.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
There’s something about skylights at the top of spiral staircases that makes them attractive photographically. The main problem I have is finding them. Some of them are famous and photographed to death but you can sometimes find less well-known ones in old houses.
I was pleased when I found this one off one of the quads in St John’s College in Cambridge earlier in the year and I ended up making quite a few attempts at capturing it. One of these days I’ll produce a proper image of it, but I thought for Sliders Sunday today that I would have a play with one of the less convincing variants and see what happened.
I had been toying with the image on the Chromebook using the Mirrorlabs Android app. That was really quite interesting and fun, though the results are not for today. What I did notice was one variant had produced an inverted monochrome image that was intriguing, so I decided to have a more formal go at the idea. This is the result… or at least one of the results.
The approach I took was to develop the image normally and then use a Curves adjustment to invert the luminosity. To do this I set the mode of the adjustment to LAB and then inverted the L (luminosity) channel. Normally the ‘curve’ is a straight line going up from the bottom left to the top right; so I dragged the endpoints to make the line go from the top left to the bottom right. That did the bulk of the work for this result. Doing it this way preserves all the original colours.
I then threw it at all my usual toys, but some (like Color Efex) came to nothing. I used Topaz Studio to add a little Smudge and Glow, and tweaked the colours a bit. I then used Photoshop for the Poster Edges filter which is one of my favourites. That was pretty much it. I then framed it by increasing the canvas size and adding a white fill layer underneath. I used layer fx on the image layer to add a drop shadow and an outline, and then we were done…
Although I had some fun with the processing I think the most striking thing for me was not the result but the realisation that spirals are really interesting graphical shapes… Hmmm… I must find some more :)
I’ll post a link to the starting image in the first comment for your delight…
Thanks for looking. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Sliders Sunday :)
Pontile di Bagnoli (Napoli) - Il punto terminale a 900 m. dal punto di partenza. (The end point of Bagnoli pier 900 m. from the starting point)
(see L A R G E R )
The interesting flower of a fire wheel tree (Stenocarpus sinuatus), about 10cm diameter. (Alien tree from Australia)
Inset 1: Five strands go to each endpoint (sphere) of which one goes inside the sphere.
Inset 2:A quarter sphere at the end of one of the 4 strands.
Inset 3: Structure at the end of fifth strand, looks like pistil.
The cauldron of Blato is the endpoint of a mountain road, and a perfect trailhead for hikes on higher mountains.
Too many lines to count and every one of them leads to the one endpoint, or touches a line that does. The light was perfect too.
The destination of our hike: A beautiful lonely beach. Sold a few tents and a small restaurant that served delicious food, as well as the tickets for the return journey by speedboat.
The location of the beach I've marked on the map - strictly geotagged: promise! Actually, you just have to follow the way. Start- and Endpoint is always Sai Kung (Bus or Boat).
Highest Explored position: 225
If you like my pictures, please leave a comment, I'd really appreciate it! If you really like it, hit favourite!
Dam Square lies in the historical center of Amsterdam, approximately 750 meters south of the main transportation hub, Centraal Station. It is roughly rectangular in shape, stretching about 200 meters from west to east and about 100 meters from north to south. It links the streets Damrak and Rokin, which run along the original course of the Amstel River from Centraal Station to Muntplein (Mint Square) and Munttoren. The Dam also marks the endpoint of other well-traveled streets, Nieuwendijk, Kalverstraat and Damstraat. A short distance beyond the northeast corner lies the main red-light district, de Wallen.
As always, comments/notes/crituques and favourites (just hit F ) will be very much appreciated! For the best view, hit L .
Click here to see the rest of my HDRs (Hyper Dynamic Range Photos)!
Some people who's work I admire are tagged in this picture. Please visit their stream!
=======================================
Follow me on:
=======================================
The idea for a hotel in Dalen came with the expansion of the Telemark Canal in 1892. Through a series of staircase locks, the canal from Skien to Norsjø was extended to reach Bandak, with the small town of Dalen as its new endpoint. The canal was referred to as the "eighth wonder" upon its completion, and the waterway saw heavy traffic from ferries bringing passengers from the east in Oslo and Grenland travelling towards destinations in central and western Norway.
The initiative to build a luxury hotel in Dalen was taken by Skien businessman Hans Larsen along with his two associates, merchants Lars Rød and Anton Hansen from Skien and Porsgrunn respectively. The men commissioned local Porsgrunn architect Haldor Larsen Børve to design the hotel. Børve, originally from Ullensvang, was a highly trained architect, having studied at universities in Trondheim and later Hannover in Germany. After its opening in 1894, the hotel drew royal guests from all over Europe, playing host to the likes of King Oscar II of Sweden, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Leopold II of Belgium, King Haakon VII of Norway and his family, and several members of the British aristocracy.
During the German occupation of Norway in World War II, Dalen Hotel was used as a resort for German officers. Most of the building's interior was stripped out and sold for parts, and the building fell into disrepair due to lack of proper maintenance. After the war, the building was bought by singer and evangelist Aage Samuelsen with the intent of restoring the hotel to its former glory. Though Samuelsen failed to raise the necessary funds to renovate the building, he gave the hotel significant press exposure, and towards the end of the 1980s restoration efforts began in earnest. The hotel was reopened once the remodelling finished in 1992. In 2000, the hotel was honored with the Europa Nostra award for outstanding conservation.
This glacier lake is the endpoint of the Hooker Valley Track, which is considered one of the best walks in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the lake was covered in snow so couldn't get a nice reflection of Mt Cook, the biggest mountain in New Zealand.
Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park | NEW ZEALAND
Took my parents to see the "Sensorio, Field of Light" in Paso Robles last night. Fiber optic threads sprouting to endpoints via octopus tentacles connected to buried bulbs - 58,000 of them planted in rolling hills amongst craggy oaks. Scrambled to get there before evening light disappeared, and barely made it. Definitely not part of the Central Coast thing growing up! Really unique experience. iPhone snaps - we'll see how the camera shots turn out later (though they ban tripods, so that was a separate challenge).
Cornus Kousa flower.
This variation is based on one of my own presets in Topaz Studio 2, based loosely on my Paeony Play set from last week. I try and reach differing endpoints from the same start as part of the fun.
I like this for the changed colour scheme and the texturing. What fun.
This is the one from the set that I thought I would publish in the Sliders Sunday group. I hope you enjoy it :)
See this version for more detail of the initial processing.
The first comment gives a link as usual for Sliders Sunday to the in-camera original I started with.
Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image and the series. Happy Sliders Sunday everyone :)
Mobile Pictures taken at a trip to La Councha,
High above the hustle and bustle of Marbella and San Pedro, La Concha Mountain stands proud as the famous landmark that towers over this part of the Costa del Sol. A visual delight that plays a vital role in Marbella’s benevolent micro-cilmate, La Concha’s summit is also the endpoint of a pleasant three-hour hike that is highly recommended to confident walkers during autumn, winter or spring.
At 1,215 metres above sea level, La Concha – which means ‘shell’ in Spanish but is actually an impressive mass of limestone – marks the western point of the imposing Sierra Blanca mountain range that is impossible to miss for anyone driving along the A-7 coastal road.
A rocky path partially covered in ‘pinsapos’, a rare pine tree discovered in 1837, the route is varied and thanks to its views is probably one of the most pleasant treks in Andalucía. If you enjoy hiking, are steady on your feet and happy with heights, take an afternoon to scale La Concha and enjoy impressively panoramic vistas of Gibraltar, northern Africa and inland Spain on the way up.
The walk sets off from the Refugio de Juanar refuge, on the road from Marbella to the inland village of Ojén, and takes you through a pleasant pine forest before continuing along the bottom of a valley carpeted with olive trees towards the Cruz de Juanar peak. Here the route heads off to the north, taking hikers through another pine forest with a fern-covered floor before beginning its steady ascent. La Concha is clearly signposted.
With the news just out that modern day Norfolk Southern is selling a surving piece of the original historic Norfolk Southern to RJ Corman I thought I'd share another shot from the one day I spent on part of the line. If you missed the news I'm talking about here's the link: www.railwayage.com/freight/short-lines-regionals/r-j-corm... I'm glad I shot this when I did, and I'd love to go back for some nice looking red Corman units in the street someday.
Anyway, here's the caption I wrote at the time:
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing in town.
By far the dominant railroad in town is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city.
The city is also served by the Norfolk Southern that arrives tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
This remarkable street running is made even more special by story behind it, since prior to this trip none of us even knew it existed. One evening while we were hanging out at the Salisbury depot after the big 611 celebration that had brought us to Carolina we ran into a long time regular local fan named John who was an ex original Norfolk Southern (pre-74) engineer. He told us about the street running on a surviving portion of the original NS down in Fayetteville that the modern NS still serves with tri weekly with local out of Varina. Being that Friday was our day that we planned to head off to hunt the Aberdeen and Rockfish anyway we crossed our fingers and headed out. Low and behold luck was with us, as shortly after we arrived in Fayetteville we heard NS E25 (the symbol for the branchline local) crackle on the radio and we knew we were in luck.
We were rewarded with multitude of shots of this train on the half mile long section of street running as well as working the A&R interchange. In this view we see the arriving southbound train curling out into traffic just north of the Cumberland St. intersection to begin more than a half mile run down Hillsboro St. This is about MP VF42 on the East Carolina Business Unit's Varina to Fayetteville District. Since sold off, classic standard cab SD60 6659 blt. for the NS in Nov. 1988 leads the train with NS 6784 an EMD SD70M blt. Mar. 1993 as Conrail 5537 trailing.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015
Took my parents to see the "Sensorio, Field of Light" in Paso Robles last night. Fiber optic threads sprouting to endpoints via octopus tentacles connected to buried bulbs - 58,000 of them planted in rolling hills amongst craggy oaks. Scrambled to get there before evening light disappeared, and barely made it. Definitely not part of the Central Coast thing growing up! Really unique experience. iPhone snaps - we'll see how the camera shots turn out later (though they ban tripods, so that was a separate challenge).
In Vancouver BC.
This is the northeast facade of the art gallery which occupies the former provincial law courts building; which was moved in the early 1980s to newer buildings just southwest.
This plaza is the defacto endpoint for just about every protest march that happens in Vancouver; the steps serving as the speaking platform for whoever happens to be saying their piece that day. It lies alongside Georgia Street, the largest downtown traffic artery in the downtown, and is surrounded by a number of high end hotels including and in the style of Canadian Grand Railway Hotels originally built at the turn of the 20th century.
On the far side of the building, between the gallery and the (now not so new) law courts, is Robson Square. It is a pedestrian portion of Robson Street which runs parallel to Georgia. Robson Square also hosts a below street level, covered but open sided venue used for public skating in winter, and hosts dancing in summer (when there is no COVID-19). Part of it is under Robson Street and sticks out either side.
You can see a couple of pictures of the rink in my photostream including a couple have a wedding reception skate during a public skate session, and a photo of a summertime dance session.
The building, mostly on the far side, often serves double duty as needed, as an old school courthouse for any of the many movies and TV shows the film in Vancouver. Many "Hollywood" movies for theatres and streaming services are shot here.
I mentioned briefly yesterday that I have been working on some various forms of photo art, that employ ideas of conceptual art that are influenced by Surrealists like Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, the Russian Constructivist art movement and even Joseph Cornell. It involves hand crafting and digital media. The common theme running through these various experiments is the Unconscious (as indeed it was for the early Surrealists).
The endpoint of this current approach will be the completion of a short film on C.G. Jung and his "Red Book" (I hope not too big to upload to Flickr). The Frenchman Duchamp, who was also a chess grandmaster, once said of his art, "I am interested in ideas. Not merely visual products."
So everything you see over the coming week or so will not be pretty or even beautiful. But I hope it unlocks some ideas and stimulates a relationship with your Unconscious.
So I won't be spending much time describing the actual works, I'll let you work them out. This one today is a nod to the work of Joseph Cornell, one of the truly unique artists of the 20th century who should be better known. So I've given you a few links to follow up on if you're interested.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/25/joseph-corne...
"Dreams and Shadow: The Life and Works of Joseph Cornell"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=djzwMg3YF0c
A couple of examples of Joseph Cornell's experimental filmmaking (and forays into Surrealism):
"Rose Hobart" (1936)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQxtZlQlTDA
"Angel" (1957)
As seen from our endpoint for today. There is a whole lot more ice on the mountains beyond. And some fresh snow coming down right now.
Færderseilasen, also called Færder'n, is a regatta that held on the second weekend in June by the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club.
The regatta starts in Oslo for ordinary sailboats and in Son for old yachts. The fastest of the sailboats reach Færder Lighthouse. The endpoint is in Horten.[1] Smaller boats turn around at Hollenderbåen or Medfjordbåen. The regatta is open for any member of the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club (KNS), and boats are placed in classes according to their sailing potential. The trip from Oslo to Færder to Horten is about 83 nm long. (Wikipedia)
Best viewed on black.
Pink paeony petals. Yep :)
This is derived from exactly the same image as last week, but with a different endpoint. It treads a well-trodden path for me though in this case I used a different way of producing the symmetry.
Oh, and it’s for Sliders Sunday in case you hadn’t guessed :)
First I developed the image in Affinity Photo to a passable rendition of the flower (effectively a plainer version of last week’s).
The symmetry was achieved very simply: duplicated the layer and then flipped it horizontally and blended the upper copy with Darken. Merged the two layers and repeated the performance but flipping vertically. And there we go: four-way symmetry.
[At this stage it is already a fun image. If you want to have a go do feel free to download the original and have a play yourself: it doesn't take long and can do it in Photoshop or Affinity. I suggest you try changing the colours and contrast a bit and see what happens...]
Then the pretty bit. Into Topaz Studio using the Glow filter and starting with the Contrast Cables preset. Quite a lot of fun and tweaking from there, and looking at it I must have played with hue shifting too.
Finally back into Affinity with a dark vignette and a slight tweaking of the brightness and contrast. The usual frame method of merging what we have so far, expanding the canvas by 100 pixels, placing a white fill layer underneath the merged layer; then adding a shadow and a 1-pixel black outline using layer fx.
I’ll post a link to the in-camera original in the first comment so you can see how far we meandered...
I rather liked the stained glass window effect...
Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Sliders Sunday :)
Italien / Toskana - Siena
Piazza del Campo
seen from Palazzo Comunale
gesehen vom Palazzo Comunale
Piazza del Campo is the main public space of the historic center of Siena, Tuscany, Italy and is regarded as one of Europe's greatest medieval squares. It is renowned worldwide for its beauty and architectural integrity. The Palazzo Pubblico and its Torre del Mangia, as well as various palazzi signorili surround the shell-shaped piazza. At the northwest edge is the Fonte Gaia.
The twice-a-year horse-race, Palio di Siena, is held around the edges of the piazza. The piazza is also the finish of the annual road cycling race Strade Bianche.
History
The open site was a marketplace established before the thirteenth century on a sloping site near the meeting point of the three hillside communities that coalesced to form Siena: the Castellare, the San Martino and the Camollia. Siena may have had earlier Etruscan settlements, but it was not a considerable Roman settlement, and the campo does not lie on the site of a Roman forum, as is sometimes suggested. It was paved in 1349 in fishbone-patterned red brick with 8 lines of travertine, which divide the piazza into 9 sections, radiating from the mouth of the gavinone (the central water drain) in front of the Palazzo Pubblico. The number of divisions is held to be symbolic of the rule of The Nine (Noveschi) who laid out the campo and governed Siena at the height of its mediaeval splendour between 1292-1355. The Campo was and remains the focal point of public life in the City. From the piazza, eleven narrow shaded streets radiate into the city.
The palazzi signorili that line the square, housing the families of the Sansedoni, the Piccolomini and the Saracini etc., have unified rooflines, in contrast to earlier tower houses — emblems of communal strife — such as may still be seen not far from Siena at San Gimignano. In the statutes of Siena, civic and architectural decorum was ordered :"...it responds to the beauty of the city of Siena and to the satisfaction of almost all people of the same city that any edifices that are to be made anew anywhere along the public thoroughfares...proceed in line with the existent buildings and one building not stand out beyond another, but they shall be disposed and arranged equally so as to be of the greatest beauty for the city."
The unity of these Late Gothic houses is affected in part by the uniformity of the bricks of which their walls are built: brick-making was a monopoly of the commune, which saw to it that standards were maintained.
At the foot of the Palazzo Pubblico's wall is the late Gothic Chapel of the Virgin built as an ex voto by the Sienese, after the terrible Black Death of 1348 had ended.
Fonte Gaia
The Fonte Gaia ("Joyous Fountain") was built in 1419 as an endpoint of the system of conduits bringing water to the city's centre, replacing an earlier fountain completed about 1342 when the water conduits were completed. Under the direction of the Committee of Nine, many miles of tunnels were constructed to bring water in aqueducts to fountains and thence to drain to the surrounding fields. The present fountain, a center of attraction for the many tourists, is in the shape of a rectangular basin that is adorned on three sides with many bas-reliefs with the Madonna surrounded by the Classical and the Christian Virtues, emblematic of Good Government under the patronage of the Madonna. The white marble Fonte Gaia was originally designed and built by Jacopo della Quercia, whose bas-reliefs from the basin's sides are conserved in the Ospedale di St. Maria della Scala in Piazza Duomo. The former sculptures were replaced in 1866 by free copies by Tito Sarrocchi, who omitted Jacopo della Quercia's two nude statues of Rhea Silvia and Acca Larentia, which the nineteenth-century city fathers found too pagan or too nude. When they were set up in 1419, Jacopo della Quercia's nude figures were the first two female nudes, who were neither Eve nor a repentant saint, to stand in a public place since Antiquity.
(Wikipedia)
Die Piazza del Campo ist der bedeutendste Platz der toskanischen Stadt Siena, deren Zentrum er bildet.
Der Platz ist bekannt durch seine beeindruckende Architektur und seine halbrunde Form sowie durch das hier normalerweise jährlich zweimal ausgetragene Pferderennen Palio di Siena.
Geschichte
Das Zentrum der bereits in der Etruskerzeit bedeutenden Stadt lag ursprünglich im Gebiet des heutigen Castelvecchio, während „der Campo“ lediglich ein Stück Land war, das dem Abfluss des Regenwassers diente. Da aber auch die an Siena vorbeiführende Fernstraße über dieses Feld verlief und sich hier mit einer anderen Straße kreuzte, entwickelte sich bald ein Marktplatz.
Der Name „Campo“ wird zum ersten Mal schriftlich 1169 erwähnt in einer Quelle, die sich mit der gesamten Talebene befasst, zu der auch die heutige Piazza del Mercato, heute auf der anderen Seite des Palazzo Comunale, gehörte. Damals erwarb die Stadt Siena das Gelände, das von der Piazza del Mercato bis zur heutigen Logge della Mercanzia reicht. Eine Unterteilung des Geländes in die heutigen zwei Plätze wird 1193 erwähnt, sodass man davon ausgehen kann, dass in der Zwischenzeit zumindest eine Mauer erbaut wurde, die den Platz in zwei Hälften teilte; möglicherweise geschah dies, um das Wasser besser ableiten zu können.
Bis ins Jahr 1270, als die Herrschaft der Vierundzwanzig (1236–1270) zu Ende ging, wurde dann der Platz für Messen und Märkte genutzt. Zwar hatte der Platz noch nicht das heutige Aussehen, er entwickelte sich aber allmählich zum zweiten Mittelpunkt der Stadt neben dem Dom; während dort religiöse Feste im Mittelpunkt standen, dominierten auf der Piazza del Campo der Handel und weltliche Feste. Da sich auch die städtische Obrigkeit immer unabhängiger vom Bischof (und später Erzbischof) machte, kam in der Zeit der Herrschaft der Neun (1289–1355) der Bedarf nach einem eigenen Rathaus auf.
Die Piazza del Campo ist einer der eindrucksvollsten kommunalen Plätze Italiens – im Gegensatz zum Markusplatz Venedigs und zur Piazza dei Miracoli Pisas ist dies ein Platz ohne Kirche, also ein rein politisches Zentrum – und das zeigt sich auch in der Kunst in den Innenräumen des Rathauses. Das Gelände ist leicht abschüssig und der Palazzo Pubblico, der öffentliche Palast, also das Rathaus steht an der tiefsten Stelle. Diese auffallend tief liegende Position im Gegensatz zu den Gepflogenheiten anderer Städte erklärt sich aus dem Bedürfnis, eine neutrale Lage zwischen den Hügeln von Siena zu wählen. Auch hier hat also das Konkurrenzdenken innerhalb der Stadt Konsequenzen gehabt. Das hatte zur Folge, dass der Turm sehr hoch werden musste, damit er trotz seiner niedrigen Lage die Stadt überragen konnte.
Mit dem Bau des Palazzo Comunale wurden dann auch die Impulse für eine architektonische Gestaltung des Platzes gegeben. In den Jahren 1327–1349 erhielt der Platz eine Pflasterung, wobei auch heute noch die Einteilung in neun Segmente an die damalige Herrschaft der Neun erinnert. Die „Skyline“ des Platzes ist allerdings nicht spontan in einem Stück entstanden. Erst mit den Jahren sorgte die Stadtverwaltung durch entsprechende Gesetze dafür, dass die Fassadengestaltung einheitlich gehandhabt wurde. So wurde etwa eine Peter- und Paul-Kirche abgerissen; heute erinnern die Gassen Vicoli di San Pietro e di San Paolo daran.
Nach 1861 wurden, wie auch an anderen Gebäuden in der Altstadt von Siena, Gebäude an der Piazza von ihren barocken Fassaden „befreit“, um dem ursprünglichen, d. h. mittelalterlichen Erscheinungsbild wieder zur Geltung zu verhelfen.
Seit ca. 2017 gehören 15 der 20 Gebäude, die den Platz begrenzen, Igor Bidilo, einem Investor aus Kasachstan.
Fonte Gaia
Auf der höheren Seite des Campo steht der Fonte Gaia, den Jacopo della Quercia von 1409 bis 1419 geschaffen hat. ‚Brunnen der Freude’ heißt er, weil es 1342 zum ersten Mal gelungen war, mithilfe einer 25 km langen Leitung Wasser in die Stadt fließen zu lassen. Der ewige Wassermangel war in der Bergstadt Siena ein großes Problem – besonders in den Sommermonaten. Stilistisch hat della Quercia in den Figuren dieses Brunnens etwas Ähnliches erreicht wie die Sieneser Malerei, nämlich einen Ausgleich zwischen der klassischen Tradition und gotischem Schwung.
Die Figuren des Brunnens sind zwar seit 1858 durch Nachbildungen von Tito Sarrocchi ersetzt, aber trotzdem haben wir hier ein wichtiges Dokument für die Entwicklung der frühen Renaissance-Plastik vor uns. Zur damaligen Zeit, 1409, hatte man angefangen, sich zunehmend für die antike Vergangenheit zu interessieren und dabei natürlich besonders für die Geschichte Roms. Jacopo della Quercia war von der Stadt Siena deshalb beauftragt worden, in diesem Brunnen die angebliche römische Abstammung der Stadt als Gründung der Söhne des Remus und ihre darauf beruhenden Tugenden zu dokumentieren. Die Originalteile des Brunnens sind heute im Museum von Santa Maria della Scala im Raum Fienile zu betrachten.
Gebäude
Palazzo Comunale
Mit dem Bau des Gebäudes der Stadtverwaltung wurde 1297 begonnen. Ursprünglich hatte der Palazzo lediglich drei Stockwerke; später erfolgten weitere Anbauten. Vor allem aber kam im Laufe des 14. Jahrhunderts mit dem Torre del Mangia der 102 Meter hohe Turm hinzu, der das Stadtbild von Siena prägt. Der Name leitet sich von dem Spitznamen Mangiaguadagni (Gewinnfresser) des ersten Glöckners ab.
Cappella di Piazza
Vor dem Eingang zum Palazzo Pubblico wurde als Dank für die überstandene Pest 1352 – also noch in der Gotik – eine kleine Kapelle, die Cappella di Piazza, die Platzkapelle errichtet, die über 100 Jahre später (1463) mit einer Renaissance-Dekoration ihre heutige Gestalt erhielt. Beides passt aber so gut zusammen, als sei es gleichzeitig geschaffen worden. Die Dachkonstruktion stammt von Antonio Federighi und entstand in den 1460er Jahren. Die nordeuropäische Gotik wurde in Italien im 13. und besonders im 14. Jh. in stark veränderter und der italienischen Tradition angepassten Form übernommen. Und später konnte im 15. Jh. die Renaissance auf jahrhundertelange vorbereitende Phasen aufbauen. Beides widersprach sich hier in Italien nicht so wie in Frankreich oder Deutschland. Hier an dieser Kapelle ist in der Gotik also locker der alte Rundbogen verwandt worden und nicht der eigentlich typische gotische Spitzbogen. Und als in der Renaissance der Rundbogen wieder zur Norm wurde, musste hier auch gar nichts geändert werden.
Das Pferderennen
Auf dem Platz wird zweimal im Jahr, am 2. Juli und am 16. August, ein Pferderennen („Palio di Siena“) ausgetragen.
(Wikipedia)
McCloud Railway's "Hill Job" backs toward Mount Shasta, California in August 2001. MR had a switchback on the line between McCloud and Mount Shasta. Trains operated uphill from the endpoints with the locomotives on the point. McCloud trains on the Hill Job used cabooses. A trainman would ride the caboose and protect the reverse movements away from the Signal Butte switchback. Cabooses on MR were equipped with a set of horns for use at grade crossings during these moves.
Alas, as local resident "PhotoBob" Morris would say, it's all crap now. When this photo was taken, MR was still running to both Lookout and Burney. In a couple of years, BNSF would negotiate a haulage agreement with Union Pacific for traffic off MR. That doomed the line to Lookout, which saw its last train in December 2003. The railroad filed for complete abandonment in 2005. Freight operations ceased in June 2006.
Once the freight was gone, the railroad was dismantled east of McCloud. Dinner trains hung on until early 2010, when they served their last morsels. Today, these rails are still in place, but unused.
Thank you to the kind soul who cut a hole in the fence for allowing me to capture this photo. My final shot of the Madison to Madison was taken on the old wooden bridge east of Willmar, no longer open to road traffic. Though I always think of the end of the Wayzata Sub in Willmar Yard, according to timetables CP 98 is the endpoint, which is about a mile east of here, making this the Morris Sub.
View from the west wing of the peristyle.
In the foreground, traces of walls defining the square rooms that opened towards the inner of the peristyle from West. Just in front of this wing, a bridge that crossed the Erasinos River marks the endpoint of the road that, in ancient times, led from Athens to the sanctuary of Artemis. The Propylaeum, or main access, to the great stoa was opened on this side.
Source: H. R. Goette , “Athens, Attica and the Megarid, An archaeological guide”
5th Century BC
Attica, Brauron
This was one of the longest sunsets that I've ever experienced. It was also one of the most colorful and surreal. No mater how much time I spend in nature, the capacity of nature to far surpass my prior experiences and my wildest expectations never ceases to amaze me.
On this night the sunset color lasted at least an hour after the sun set. Most people left for dinner, but I was shooting a time-lapse sequence, so I stayed until the color was gone. This was taken on December 13, after Badwater Basin flooded shortly after Thanksgiving. With a follow-up storm, the water remained until early January!
The water table in Badwater Basin can be very close to the surface. That's how these polygons form: salt-laden water rises up cracks in the salt via capillary action, until it dries and deposits its minerals at the surface. The polygons re-form after winter rains, when the water table again is shallow enough to send salt to the surface.
Sadly, many visitors both enjoyed the sight and completely disregarded its fragility. Where people were hiking out to this spot, the polygons were quickly trampled and destroyed, The hike to less damaged locations became longer and longer, until the unique and incredible geologic processes were only visible as traces, lines flush with the surrounding salt flats. It got particularly busy after Los Angeles area newspapers covered the event. In an early visit there were perhaps a dozen people at sunset, even fewer at sunrise. Later, in one panorama image, I counted 212 people, many clearly oblivious to what they were stepping on, and erasing. I'm happy for whatever part of it they did appreciate, if only the reflection, or the joy of running around and splashing in the shallow water. Perhaps they'll notice more next time, and be curious to understand and value the extraordinary nature of the place, and the processes that they're seeing.
I hope that we get more rain on Badwater Salt Flats soon. I hope to spend a lot more time out there next time around.
This is one of the first revisits I've made to my folder from this night, to re-adjust my results with the latest post-processing tools and with a fresh perspective. Post-processing is a process, not a destination, an endpoint. I should re-process the entire time-lapse.
In response to one of the earlier edits from this night I received the inevitable responses of "fake" and "over-processed". Personally, I'm surprised at how often I am experiencing a literally unbelievable moment in nature, one that tempts you to abandon the camera and try to soak it all in before it's gone. Some of these moments are entirely predictable, like seeing the shimmering corona of the sun during a total eclipse. Many people who experience this become addicted to the experience, pursue every possible eclipse that they can, worldwide, for the rest of their lives. Other times you're completely taken be surprise, and the sun rays that you hoped to see are are more intense than anticipated, or the quality and colors of a sunset exceed your ability to comprehend how such a sight is possible.
In these moments, I've gotten into the habit of stating out loud "No one is going to believe this,", partially to mark that moment in time in my own brain and memory when I seek to relive it in post-processing. It is important to ensure that I'm not tempted to dumb it down out of fear that some armchair quarterback on the Internet might not have enough experience in nature to know that such a place and moment existed, if only for a moment in time. This is especially critical during photography workshops, when an important part of my service to my clients must be to empower them to have the courage to resist the temptation to cave in to self-proclaimed experts on the Internet, who should calm down, grow up, and get out more.
There's a lot of life left to be experienced, for most of us, and it would be a shame if you never experienced something like this. Whenever you do, please don't destroy any rare geologic features that you're walking among.
MRL's local to Harrison MT crosses this unique and rustic timber trestle at Beale on it's way up and out of the valley to it's endpoint. At Harrison there is a grain elevator which is the only customer left on the branch. June 14, 2022
Ilford Delta 100 @ISO 400, Nikon F
Built in the 1870’s on Shipman’s Point, likely as a safe haven for yachtsmen, it is now owned by the Town of Brookhaven.
Gamecock Cottage is an historic building located at Stony Brook in Brookhaven Town, in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. It was built in 1876 for storage of oars and sliding-seat rowboats and is the only remaining wooden beach cottage that was part of West Meadow Beach. It is located at the southernmost point of a peninsula within what is now part of the West Meadow Wetlands Reserve, as the official public beach is now restricted to the north. The Gamecock Cottage sits at the southern endpoint of West Meadow Lane, which was once called Trustees Road.
It is a 1+1⁄2-story building with a front-gabled roof with a four-sided wooden cupola located in the center of the ridge line in the Gothic Revival style. It is 20 feet, 5 inches wide and 25 feet, 5 inches long and covered with board and batten siding.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007
The greens and trees mark the endpoint of a route at the Nilambur Road Railway Station. The freshness of the morning's weather, and a freshly painted engine are just something special! The chills brought on by the cool morning weather are lowered by the warmth of the sun. In fact, the presence of the sunshine enhances the beauty and serenity of both the subject and its surroundings. It's worth every dime to visit the enchanting Nilambur Road station because there is beauty throughout!
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Dam Square lies in the historical center of Amsterdam, approximately 750 metres (2,500 ft) south of the main transportation hub, Centraal Station, at the original location of the dam in the river Amstel. It is roughly rectangular in shape, stretching about 200 metres (650 ft) from west to east and about 100 metres (350 ft) from north to south. It links the streets Damrak and Rokin, which run along the original course of the Amstel River from Centraal Station to Muntplein (Mint Square) and the Munttoren (Mint Tower). The Dam also marks the endpoint of the other well-traveled streets Nieuwendijk, Kalverstraat and Damstraat. A short distance beyond the northeast corner lies the main Red-light district: De Wallen.
On the west end of the square is the neoclassical Royal Palace, which served as the city hall from 1655 until its conversion to a royal residence in 1808. Beside it are the 15th-century Gothic Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) and the Madame Tussauds Amsterdam Wax Museum. The National Monument, a white stone pillar designed by J.J.P. Oud and erected in 1956 to memorialize the victims of World War II, dominates the opposite side of the square. Also overlooking the plaza are the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky and the upscale department store De Bijenkorf. These various attractions have turned the Dam into a tourist zone.
Bílá Hora means "White mountain" and fittingly it's located on the plateau on the western side of Prague, high above the city center. It's the endpoint of tram lines 22 and 25
Another shot from some fabulous but more obscure southern street running. I like this shot with the brakeman or conductor hanging out looking back at his train strung out down the middle of the road.
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing in town.
By far the dominant railroad in town is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city.
The city is also served by the Norfolk Southern that arrives tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
This remarkable street running is made even more special by story behind it, since prior to this trip none of us even knew it existed. One evening while we were hanging out at the Salisbury depot after the big 611 celebration that had brought us to Carolina we ran into a long time regular local fan named John who was an ex original Norfolk Southern (pre-74) engineer. He told us about the street running on a surviving portion of the original NS down in Fayetteville that the modern NS still serves with tri weekly with local out of Varina. Being that Friday was our day that we planned to head off to hunt the Aberdeen and Rockfish anyway we crossed our fingers and headed out. Low and behold luck was with us, as shortly after we arrived in Fayetteville we heard NS E25 (the symbol for the branchline local) crackle on the radio and we knew we were in luck.
We were rewarded with multitude of shots of this train on the half mile long section of street running as well as working the A&R interchange. In this view the southbound train is nearing the end of the half mile stretch of running down the middle of Hillsboro Street approaching the Junction with CSXT seen in the foreground at the intersection with Rowan Street.
**Update: I just looked at Google maps satellite imagery and it appears the that Rowan St has been rebuilt as an overpass over both CSXT's mainline and this Junction between NS' branch and CSXT's branch. So while most of the street running is still there it looks like this curve here at tbe far south end no longer is and that Hillsboro now dead ends at a curb about where the second unit is, and if I was there now if be standing in the shadow beneath the new overpass.**
This is about MP VF42.5 on the East Carolina Business Unit's Varina to Fayetteville District. Since sold off, classic standard cab SD60 number 6659 blt. for the NS in Nov. 1988 leads the train.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015.
CAL FIRE Sikorsky S-70i Fire Hawk N483DF, 903
c/n 704030.
I believe that that the 9xx number on this aircraft indicates that it is part of CAL FIRE's reserve fleet, used to replace or augment other helicopters as necessary. The station marking above the cockpit is McClellan, CAL FIRE's headquarters.
Sacramento McClellan Airport (MCC / KMCC), California
CAL FIRE S-70i Information Sheet (CAL FIRE):
34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureed...
Sikorsky / Lockheed Martin FIREHAWK web site
(Manufacturer's web site):
www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/sikorsky-firehawk.html
My good friend Adam was complaining about Frank Keller's post of this train yesterday. Since I was standing right next to Frank for this I figured I'd share another frame I like.
Another shot from some fabulous but more obscure southern street running. I like this shot with the local resident pedaling along paying no regard to the giant beast he's sharing the road with here!
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing in town.
By far the dominant railroad in town is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city.
The city is also served by the Norfolk Southern that arrives tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
This remarkable street running is made even more special by story behind it, since prior to this trip none of us even knew it existed. One evening while we were hanging out at the Salisbury depot after the big 611 celebration that had brought us to Carolina we ran into a long time regular local fan named John who was an ex original Norfolk Southern (pre-74) engineer. He told us about the street running on a surviving portion of the original NS down in Fayetteville that the modern NS still serves with tri weekly with local out of Varina. Being that Friday was our day that we planned to head off to hunt the Aberdeen and Rockfish anyway we crossed our fingers and headed out. Low and behold luck was with us, as shortly after we arrived in Fayetteville we heard NS E25 (the symbol for the branchline local) crackle on the radio and we knew we were in luck.
We were rewarded with multitude of shots of this train on the half mile long section of street running as well as working the A&R interchange. In this view the southbound train is nearing the end of the half mile stretch of running down the middle of Hillsboro Street approaching the Junction with CSXT seen in the foreground at the intersection with Rowan Street.
**Update: I just looked at Google maps satellite imagery and it appears the that Rowan St has been rebuilt as an overpass over both CSXT's mainline and this Junction between NS' branch and CSXT's branch. So while most of the street running is still there it looks like this curve here at tbe far south end no longer is and that Hillsboro now dead ends at a curb about where the second unit is, and if I was there now if be standing in the shadow beneath the new overpass.**
This is about MP VF42.5 on the East Carolina Business Unit's Varina to Fayetteville District. Since sold off, classic standard cab SD60 number 6659 blt. for the NS in Nov. 1988 leads the train.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015.
Shot on Lomography Color Negative ISO 800 with a Smena Symbol, 23 August 2019
This gorgeous lake is the perfrect endpoint* to a hike up Cascade Canyon, meadows full of a raindbow of wildflowers and boulder fields. And if you're brave you can even bathe.
*well, halfway point really, because from here you turn back to the start at Jenny Lake, looking over the Tetons the whole time.
Iowa Interstate has varied operations into its eastern endpoint of Blue Island over the years which occasionally benefits the railfans. For many years, eastbounds could be found in the mornings across eastern Illinois and into the Metra owned trackage between Joliet & Blue Island. Westbounds were generally in the evening - usually after dark except for the latest days of summer.
From time to time, operations would shift to a Rockdale, IL based crew called during the morning to bring the eastbound into Blue Island and then back out with the westbound. On this day in 2006, IAIS 704 West was using this type of crew setup and was getting across Bridge 407 in Joliet around 1527 on a sunny afternoon. Unfortunately, the light would be great just as the crew would get to Rockdale and tie down to let the train wait for an overnight crew to move BICB towards the Quad Cities.
10-01-2006
Just barely past sunset on a spring Sunday, CTA Pink Line run 314 pulls into the Western station on the Cermak Branch, headed for Cicero and (just barely) Berwyn. Almost completely rebuilt in the early 2000s, when service here was provided by a branch of the Blue Line, this route was originally the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad's Douglas Park Branch, named for the large park it passed (and still does). Extended westward in short sections over the years, by 1924, the line reached Oak Park Avenue in Berwyn. This would only be the terminus for 28 years though, as in 1952, as part of a broader series of service "revisions" by the then-new CTA, the branch was cut back to its current endpoint at 54th & Cermak, just barely inside the village limits of Berwyn (the terminal station there was actually once known as Cicero-Berwyn).
Færderseilasen 2025, Norway
----
Færderseilasen, also called Færder'n, is a regatta that is held on the second weekend in June by the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club.
The regatta starts in Oslo for ordinary sailboats and in Son for old yachts. The fastest of the sailboats sail around Færder Lighthouse. The endpoint is in Tønsberg since 2017, after many years finishing at Horten. [1] Smaller boats turn around at Hollenderbåen or Medfjordbåen. The regatta is open for any member of a Yacht Club, and boats are placed in classes according to their sailing potential. The trip from Oslo to Færder to Horten is about 83 nautical miles long.