View allAll Photos Tagged extraction
I've been wanting to have another go at creating a light orb so I set about making a rig and this was the 1st and only shot I got on location before I discovered my rig wasn't as robust as I thought, watch this space!!!
Skeet Shooting | view on black
My shooting buddies and I went skeet shooting today. I packed my break action 12 gauge shotgun, a few boxes of ammo, shell pouch, ear and eye protection, then headed to the skeet and trap range early. Along with the rest of my shooting gear was the other shooting gear.
After two rounds of American skeet and two rounds of Wobble skeet (one round of consists of 25 clays), I decided to do the other kind of shooting and was fortunate enough to get a few good shots.
Skeet shooting is one of the major types of clay shooting discipline. A variant of skeet called International skeet was introduced in the Olympics in 1968.
Exposure: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 280 mm
Optics: Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G VR + Nikon TC 1.4x
__
Please do not post icons and images in the comments. Any constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks!
2880x1620 Improved textures, SweetFX 1.4
4xMSAA + 4xSGSSAA
No HUD, custom FOV, timestop, freecam hack & Ini tweaks.
A special operations forces team is tasked to intercept a convoy heading to a terrorist cell. The convoy is carrying a crate containing VX nerve gas. The team's objective is to ambush the convoy and retrieve the crate of VX gas.
After recovering the VX gas, the team was extracted by two HH-60 helicopters
Final part of Operation Alcatraz.
I had the strong feeling of being alone when I captured this picture. I tried to transform this feeling to the viewer. I had never seen so often such a dense fog. So I felt lost when I went across the open meadow. When I spotted this lonely tree, the fog isolates it from the surroundings. The snow and the fog creates a cold atmosphere. Normally I don't like to use central composition, cause it often considered to be dull. But the asymmetric tree crown holds against this aspect. So I feel it fits perfectly. The central position gives the tree also the mayor subject. Everything surround becomes the content to be framing. Also I think it brings peace and harmony into the image.
Iovani Pérez Velázquez
Beekeeper
Rancho La Unidad
Ejido Belisario Domínguez, municipio de Motozintla, Chiapas, México
To keep away those pesky Blacktrons from around your digging sites.
The front fits two hard working M-tron security dudes side by side. I wanted to sit a gunner in the back but it turned out to be too tricky for my patience.
-
phase C
This was pretty much the first complete set up for the book.
This early version was taken with a normal digital camera and the lighting was a bit off. A smoke machine produced the fog in the background, an idea we later dropped.
It took at least three attempts until we were happy; it was worth it but it involved a fair bit of swearing.
Some pictures are beautiful, and some pictures are not. But once in a while those ugly tells you something. And you know you've had a rough trip, when the best you've ever seen is such a flying thing.
Jake's plan had worked perfectly, the last of the 'volgans' that had hidden deep inside Dinosaur Valley had been eliminated, except a few stragglers, but the bombs Goldie had planted would take care of them! The helicopter had arrived, now all the needed to do was board it!
“Wait!
Before you take the secondary replacer out, I have a few more instructions for you on how to set up the
extraction so that it follows through to our greater advantage. It is inconvenient that the she-human is so moralistic, and extra steps will be needed to prevent unpleasant results after the extraction.
The she-human will expect the target replacer to make some attempt to save the secondary replacer, out of 'human decency' or 'chivalry' or something like that.
Make the secondary replacer seem as inhuman as possible right before 'she' is extracted. Command the replacer to attempt an attack on the subject based on your fabrication. Make 'her' appearance less human; play on the subject's existing fears regarding mutants. You will find sufficient material to create an effective composition if you examine the subject's mind again.
Besides this, you might as well have the Extracting Officer 'wound' the target replacer, it will provide another reason to excuse his negligence in 'saving' the secondary replacer.”
“It will be done, O Queen. Your wisdom is inimitable.”
I can't believe what's happened!
We were walking along, musing to each other over why we were banished here, when a loud RIP! sounded behind us. I spun around as Djiimi shrugged her cut bonds off and removed her gag in one fluid movement.
“Thought you could restrain me, did you?” she spat, charging toward us. Toward me.
Reldan jumped in her way to protect me but she jumped over both our heads with inhuman agility, landing nimbly at our backs. From behind me, Reldan gasped as she began to change...
Her face contorted...
Her eyes turned orange...
Fangs sprouted from her mouth...
She spoke again, her voice audibly sibilant.
“He'sssss MINE!!!” she screamed at me, and prepared to pounce.
Before I could react, a thunderous rumble emanated from the ground and some sort of...worm thing erupted in a cloud of sand. In the same second wicked mantis claws snatched Djiimi up and lashed Reldan with a barbed tail as he made a move toward it. Struck in the head, he lurched backward.
The creature made a slight movement with its claws and snapped its prey in two like a cookie. I watched it as it greedily sucked gory contents from the body that had just been about to attack me.
It paused to look our way but I froze and Reldan had passed out. Its motion-detecting eyes seeing nothing of interest, it lowered its serpentine body beneath the sands, taking its meal with it.
_________________________________________________________________________
Another one, yay!
Edited even MORE 'shrooms this time. ;_;
C&C appreciated. :D
C-FPBJ, a de Havilland Canada DHC-7-103 Dash 7, at the Marine Laydown Area (MLA) at Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut - just north of the Arctic Circle. It had just arrived as TIN806 (Air Tindi Ltd.) from Goose Lake, Nunavut and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
Its 70" x 91" cargo door permits oversized objects to be loaded and unloaded with ease.
Serial number 9 is currently the oldest Dash 7 in service around the world. The 44-year-old workhorse began its career as A6-MLM with Emirates Air Service at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on July 31, 1978. It later served with Air Greenland A/S of Nuuk, Greenland and with Trans Capital Air Ltd. of Toronto, Ontario before joining the Air Tindi fleet on March 10, 2021.
For heavy equipment fans, the machine shown is a Caterpillar IT28G Wheel Loader.
O'Neil and his squad reach the the LZ as the Dragonfly Gunship touches down. Another successful mission accomplished. Day 1348 Y4D244
Another view of the kitchen....not sure if it's melting away...
Thanks for looking in....appreciated....best bigger....hope you have a Great Day
The Menindee Lakes is a natural series of lakes that fill with water when the Darling-Baaka River floods. In the 1960s, a series of engineering projects augmented the Menindee Lakes, allowing water to be directed into the lakes and held back or released. This ensured a reliable water supply for the city of Broken Hill, the township of Menindee and secure supply of water for the Lower Darling River and supply to South Australia.
The Menindee Lakes system provides important habitat, nursery and recruitment for native fish, such as the Murray Cod and Golden Perch. It is important habitat for a huge variety of native and migratory bird species. The Menindee Lakes system is vital to the communities of the Far West, providing recreation and amenity, as well as attracting tourism, recreational fishing, horticulture and viticulture.
The Darling-Baaka River is central to the cultural, spiritual and economic lives of the Barkindji people.
The health of the Menindee Lakes and the Darling-Baaka River are intimately linked. The lakes fill from the Darling-Baaka River and water stored in the Menindee Lakes keeps the Lower Darling flowing during dry times. The Great Darling Anabranch is a series of ephemeral creeks, billabongs and lakes that wind their way to the Murray River to the west of the main Darling-Baaka River Channel.
Irrigation expands:
There has been a rapid expansion of irrigation along the rivers in the Northern Basin of the Murray Darling Basin, particularly cotton. Irrigation of cotton has expanded by 4,000% since the 1970s. In 1971 Australia grew 81,000 bales of cotton. By 2012 Australia grew 5.3 million bales. Irrigation dams - Wee Waa
Much of the cotton is grown along the rivers of the Murray Darling in very large irrigation enterprises, with most of the cotton grown on tributaries of the Darling-Baaka River.
Large private storages were built to hold water and other structures were built to capture flood waters. Water licences and water sharing plans allow irrigators to suck huge quantities from the tributaries of the Darling-Baaka even when flows are modest.
The result has been that low and medium flows have virtually stopped flowing down the Darling-Baaka River. Only the largest floods that cannot be captured upstream, or specially protected environmental flows, now make it down to the Menindee Lakes and Lower Darling-Baaka River.
An easy target?
After the Millennium Drought exposed just how over-allocated the river systems of the Murray-Darling Basin were, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was agreed between the Commonwealth and the states. The Plan aimed to make the Murray-Darling Basin system more sustainable by returning more water to the rivers through buying back water licences and other measures to recover water for the environment.
Menindee Slogan Bus:
The irrigation industry views the water flowing into the Menindee Lakes as wasteful and unproductive (not growing crops). They would prefer water to be taken from the Menindee Lakes to meet the targets under the Basin Plan rather than for the irrigation industry to be compelled to use less water. The industry points to the volume of water that evaporates from the Menindee Lakes each year as a key reason to reduce the amount of water flowing into and being stored in the lakes. The amount of water that evaporates from shallow private storages in equally hot and dry climates is rarely mentioned.
Scientists and environmentalists view the water that flows down our rivers, fills wetland and billabongs, and spills over floodplains as highly productive for nature and vital for sustaining complex ecosystems that have evolved over eons. These flows are also vital for replenishing underground aquifers and for sustaining downstream communities and Indigenous cultures.
Some politicians view the Menindee Lakes as an easy target. The population around Menindee is sparse, without much economic or political clout. The birds, fish and wildlife can not vote, lobby or protest. Taking water from the Menindee Lakes system is seen as politically easier than seeking to recover water from loud, well-connected and politically savvy irrigators. The location of the Menindee Lakes in a remote part of NSW that is out of sight and out of mind for many citizens located on the eastern seaboard also makes it hard for the issue to gain political traction.
A plan to decommission the Menindee Lakes:
After the Menindee Lakes filled from a major flood event in Queensland and NSW 2012, they were rapidly emptied by the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the NSW Government. Usually the lakes would hold water for many years after they filled, but by 2014 they were emptied. As a consequence, Broken Hill was in danger of running out of water and the government announced a plan to drill bores to supply the city with low-quality bore water. Locals were outraged at this plan and were concerned that the Menindee Lakes had been deliberately drained so quickly as part of a plan to justify the decommissioning of the lakes.RIP Menindee Lakes
Another flood filled the Menindee Lakes in late 2016, but again they were rapidly drained, almost inexplicably into a flooding river. By then end of 2017 they were again dry just as drought started to bite and Broken Hill was facing another artificial water shortage.
Flush with cash from privatising the electricity networks, the NSW Government spent $500 million building a 270 kilometres water pipeline from the Murray River at Wentworth to Broken Hill. This ended the city’s reliance on the Darling-Baaka River and Menindee Lakes for water supply. Cotton Australia applauded the construction of the pipeline saying in their Annual Report, "The pipeline is a win for the community, the environment and irrigating farmers, and a solution Cotton Australia and its allies have long lobbied for." Meanwhile the local community was concerned that the pipeline would allow the NSW Government to decommission the Menindee Lakes without worrying about Broken Hill's water supply.
Sure enough, plans to reconfigure the Menindee Lakes are back on the table as a project to 'recover water from the environment' under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan's Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism. The NSW Government wants to save up to 100 gigalitres of water each year by reducing the volume water stored in Menindee Lakes by up to 80%. A range of proposals have been put forward for consultation.
The Darling River Action Group has labelled the plans as 'ecological genocide.' They strongly oppose the huge reduction in habitat that will occur if reconfiguration plans go ahead. They worry that changing the times between and length of inundation in the lakes will have a major impact on fish breeding and birdlife. The Barkindji native title holders are also strongly opposed to the plans, with significant concerns about the impact on their culture, community, environment and sacred sites.
Fish kills and dry rivers and lakes:
Fish Kill Menindee In the teeth severe drought, predictions of environmental catastrophe on the Darling River came true as millions of fish floated dead on the surface. Hot weather and a lack of flows led to a blue-green algae bloom that stripped the water of oxygen when it died, suffocating many millions of fish along a length of the Darling-Baaka River. Images of giant Murray Cod many decades old floating on the surface of a stagnant, bright green river shocked Australians. If water had been stored in the Menindee Lakes, a flow of water in the Darling-Baaka River could have been maintained and millions of fish and other creatures would have survived. It was noted that the very large mature Murray Cod that had died would have survived numerous previous droughts, so what had changed?
A report by the Australian Academy of Science concluded:
The conditions leading to this event are an interaction between a severe (but not unprecedented) drought and, more significantly, excess upstream diversion of water for irrigation. Prior releases of water from Menindee Lakes contributed to lack of local reserves.
A small flow in mid-2019 led to a partial revival of the Darling-Baaka River and water in the upper lakes of the Menindee Lakes system. However, the Menindee Lakes and Darling-Baaka River face three major threats:
1) The proposed re-configuration of the Menindee Lakes system;
2) The continuing overallocation of water extraction licences in the Northern Basin of the Murray-Darling system;
3) The extent and proposed licencing of floodplain harvesting, which is capturing huge quantities of water before it can even reach the waterways of the Darling-Baaka River.
Source: Save Menindee Lakes (www.savemenindeelakes.org.au/the_history)
Leatherhead Food Research (disused), Leatherhead
Minolta 800si
Minolta 28-105 RS
Ilford Pan F Plus
Developed and scanned by AG photo
82/365
Day 82 sees me taking inspiration from Tim www.flickr.com/photos/fadetoblacklp If you don't follow him then go check out his stream.
I tried to follow his way of lighting hands but I couldn't nail it. So these are lit from above with a bare flash and my hands were resting on some black felt.
El wire pulled through a hole in the felt after the flash had fired. Hands desaturated in LR...
Strobist: YN560 IV fired from directly above. Bare 1/64 24mm. Triggered via YN560TX
Jobs a good'un.