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The Luxury of being yourself
We have selected pictures on our website, but can always add more depending on the requests we do get and the current trend in the world of luxury fine art:
We do wedding photography and videography:
We do once in a while have discounted luxury fine art, please do keep checking:
Fine Art Photography Prints & Luxury Wall Art:
We do come up with merchandises over the years, but at the moment we have sold out and will bring them back depending on the demands of our past customers and those we do take on daily across the globe.
Follow us on Instagram!
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/william.stone.989/
500px:
500px.com/p/wsimages?view=photos
Twitter:
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/william-stone-6bab1a213/
Pinterest:
www.pinterest.co.uk/wsimages_com/
Smugmug:
Instagram:
We tend to celebrate light in our pictures. Understanding how light interacts with the camera is paramount to the work we do. The temperature, intensity and source of light can wield different photography effect on the same subject or scene; add ISO, aperture and speed, the camera, the lens type, focal length and filters…the combination is varied ad multi-layered and if you know how to use them all, you will come to appreciate that all lights are useful, even those surrounded by a lot of darkness.
We are guided by three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, our longing to capture in print, that which is beautiful, the constant search for the one picture, and constant barrage of new equipment and style of photography. These passions, like great winds, have blown us across the globe in search of the one and we do understand the one we do look for might be this picture right here for someone else out there.
“A concise poem about our work as stated elow
A place without being
a thought without thinking
creatively, two dimensions
suspended animation
possibly a perfect imitation
of what was then to see.
A frozen memory in synthetic colour
or black and white instead,
fantasy dreams in magazines
become imbedded inside my head.
Artistic views
surrealistic hues,
a photographer’s instinctive eye:
for he does as he pleases
up to that point he releases,
then develops a visual high.
- M R Abrahams
Some of the gear we use at William Stone Fine Art are listed here:
Some of our latest work & more!
Embedded galleries within a gallery on various aspects of Photography:
There are other aspects closely related to photography that we do embark on:
All prints though us is put through a rigorous set of quality control standards long before we ever ship it to your front door. We only create gallery-quality images, and you'll receive your print in perfect condition with a lifetime guarantee.
All images on Flickr have been specifically published in a lower grade quality to amber our copyright being infringed. We have 4096x pixel full sized quality on all our photos and any of them could be ordered in high grade museum quality grade and a discount applied if the voucher WS-100 is used. Please contact us:
We do plan future trips and do catalogue our past ones, if you believe there is a beautiful place we have missed, and we are sure there must be many, please do let us know and we will investigate.
In our galleries you will find some amazing fine art photography for sale as limited edition and open edition, gallery quality prints. Only the finest materials and archival methods are used to produce these stunning photographic works of art.
We want to thank you for your interest in our work and thanks for visiting our work on Flickr, we do appreciate you and the contributions you make in furthering our interest in photography and on social media in general, we are mostly out in the field or at an event making people feel luxurious about themselves.
WS-344-231316657-231371624-4958370-10122021232305
So often, I'll see caterpillars every year, but never encounter the moth they become...in the case of the Pearly Wood-nymph, I finally found the moth, yesterday, at Meaher State Park! That's where I usually see their caterpillars each Spring!
Man, this moth is tiny, but about as wild looking as it gets...and beautiful in an otherworldly way! It's supposed to imitate bird poop, but it's much more complex than that! A really stunning 'lifer' to start my day!
Can strangers be regular passers-by? I guess so. This orange cat visits our garden on a regular basis, and every time he does so, he is welcomed by our hissing ladies. He is the gentlest of cats, so he accepts whatever welcome he gets and can easily be cuddled if we want to. If it weren't for the dislike of our resident ladies, he would probably live in our house by now.
From James Bond 007: The Living Daylights (1987)
Built for the fbtb.net's "MOC the 80s!" contest.
I've been talking about doing James Bond related MOCs for a while now, always putting them off for something else. This years fbtb.net contest left me without an excuse and I decided to finally build one of my favourite cars from the franchise.
It was quite a quick build, just two evenings in early September. And then I had to wait for those lovely striped tiles that are incredibly hard to get. And now its the last day to enter ;)
My thanks goes to Calin for the wheel technique - and for Cecilie for providing me with wheels I didn't own - cause why would I own any? :P
Let me know what you think. I'm looking forward to any feedback whatsoever, it being my first car.
Intact side with 007 (Deeplink)
Original for comparison: i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02856/Bondv8Volante_...
(Sorry for the boring edit. Thats according to the rules.)
►►► Explore the world of HDR with me at farbspiel-photo.com - View. Learn. Connect.
______________________________________________________________________
About | HDR Cookbook | Before-and-After | Making-of | Pics to play with
______________________________________________________________________
(Hit 'f' to fave this image)
I made my second ever Explore appearance with the fountain shot. Thanks to everybody for the faves and comments!
The story of this photo:
The title of this sculpture is "Kopfbewegung – Heads, shifting". It can be found in Berlin Adlershof at the "Forum" of Humboldt University. The heads are constantly turning and thus changing their relative directions. Moreover, each head consists of 30 layers, each of which turns individually. The heads are 1,6 meter tall. Together with heir platforms they are 4 meters tall.
These heads symbolize "the relation between the general and the individual at a location associated to science and communication". Go and make of this whatever you like. It's art. So it means whatever it means to you. To me it is mainly a very nice subject against the blue sky.
Enjoy!
Take a look at my "HDR Cookbook"! It contains some more information on my techniques.
How it was shot:
> Handheld
> Three exposures (0, -2, +2 ev) autobracketed and merged to get and HDR
> Camera: Nikon D90
> Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3,5-5,6G ED VR
> Filter: Circular Polarizer
> Details can be found here
How it was tonemapped:
> HDR created from the three RAW files
> Photomatix version 3.1 (Detail Enhancer)
How it was post-processed:
> Post-processing was done in Photoshop
> Topaz Adjust on the entire image to get back the colors and the details [details]
> Topaz Denoise [details]
> Saturation layer on the heads (increased master)
> Blended heads with a second layer copy (mode: Overlay) to increase the impression of depth
> Saturation and levels layer on the metal (increased contrast and master saturation)
> Saturation and levels layer on the sky (increased master saturation and contrast)
> Levels layer on the sky to even out uneven luminance resulting from the tonemapping (used inverted green channel luminance as the mask)
> Vignette effect using a masked fill layer [details]
> Sharpening on the heads using the high-pass filter [details]
> Sharpening on the metal using the high-pass filter [details]
______________________________________________________________________
Learn these techniques at farbspiel-photo.com - View. Learn. Connect.
- Thanks for viewing!
Union Pacific's FEF-3 4-8-4 Northern number 844 rolls south around a big sweeping curve near Scott City Missouri. This would be the last shot of the train I would get, and after one last slow run by in Rockview MO, JB and myself headed back north to St. Louis ending this fun day chasing the UP 844 down the majority of the UP Chester Sub.
The World Is Too Much with Us
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. —Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
"The World Is Too Much with Us" is a sonnet by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In it, Wordsworth criticises the world of the First Industrial Revolution for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature. Composed circa 1802, the poem was first published in Poems, in Two Volumes (1807). Like most Italian sonnets, its 14 lines are written in iambic pentameter.
To be honest, I haven’t had very much luck with photos in the past few months and when I do, it’s usually just with AC’s. This photo being an example of that but, as my Grade Primary teacher taught me, you get what you get, and you don’t get upset. So, Here’s CN 511 on their eastbound trip to Dartmouth to drop off their load of gypsum for the day. 3059 was their leader on this day… Just my luck.
here we go loopty loo . . .
"I definitely was in the sequined, bedazzled era.
We would put blue eye shadow up our eyebrows
and glitter all over our faces.
I probably put more effort into my skating outfits
than my clothes."
~ Rachel McAdams ~
Couldn't resist the razzle dazzle and glitter in the fabric store.
I just put my lens as close as I could get and voilá . . .
The image in the upper left hand corner is a copper decoration on a calendar case. To its right is just some awesome fabric I considered buying!
And about the skating outfits . . . I still have wonderful memories of roller skating and ice skating in indoor rinks with my outfits and tights! Wish I still had my old metallic shoe skate case!
Jep Robertson and Jessica Robertson
October 2, 2015
stuff-of-god-robertsons-400x400
On Sunday nights, dad and the house church men would sometimes take me trot-lining with them. We’d take a couple of boats out and string out the long trotlines, weighted at both ends with plastic milk-jug floaters in the middle and multiple baited hooks.
My dad knew just where to go. We’d catch all kinds of fish, but the best were the big Opelousa cats. We’d bring whatever we caught back, and Dad would clean the fish and cook them. He’s a great cook, and the men loved it.
But Dad did more in the river than just fish. He also baptized people. Men and women who were in trouble somehow found their way down to our house, where my dad and mom would stop what they were doing and talk to them.
In our living room is where I first started to realize that there was something to this God stuff my dad was always talking about. [tweet this]
These people would come in looking like they’d been down a long road and were worried, unhappy, unhealthy, and just plain scraggly. Dad would talk to them about God and Jesus as I was sitting there on the couch, watching and listening.
Pretty soon he’d take ’em down to the river and baptize them. I’d see them later, singing at church, but they looked different — happier, healthier, changed from someone you might run away from to looking like the nicest person you’ve ever met.
There’s something to this, I began to think. I knew God was real, but there was something powerful happening with the words my dad was using out of the Bible. And my dad not only shared Jesus with people, but he also helped people.
Mom and Dad always took people in — vagrants, criminal types, and people with mental problems. Word got around. If people had a cousin or a friend in trouble, they’d offer Dad up: “There’s this guy who lives down by the river. People come to see him. He can help you.”
It didn’t matter where you came from or what you were like. Dad would welcome you in and talk to you. People have compared him to John the Baptist, baptizing people in the river. With the hair and the beard, he even looks the part, and he played the part of John the Baptist in a play at church one Christmas.
I also saw my parents live out their faith in real time as they took people in to our house. It wasn’t unusual for people to be living with us while they tried to get their lives straightened out. Dad ran a little boot camp of sorts, taking people hunting and fishing and showing them how to do good honest work, in between nightly Bible studies. Sometimes we even had people sleeping on the floor. I saw what it meant to really love your neighbor.
I listened to Mom and Dad, watched what they were doing, and saw what a difference God made in these people’s lives. When I was thirteen years old, I told Dad I was ready to be a Christian, and he baptized me in the river too. I loved church, loved the Bible lessons, and had good friends there.
But then things changed.
I’d started experimenting with some things I’d never done during my straight-and-narrow childhood. I knew right from wrong — my parents had taught me, and I’d been in Bible classes for years, so I had a strong conscience that generally kept me out of trouble. But by my junior year I’d started hanging out with a like-minded friend, and together we started cutting up. Then I started drinking. A broken ankle and the loss of my basketball scholarship dreams led to more of this behavior and left me disappointed, angry, and with a bad attitude getting worse all the time.
Back when I was in the middle of that crazy time of drugging and drinking, I remember feeling guilty once in a while and knowing I needed God. But then the thoughts would come. I’m not good enough. Or I’m just not quite ready. I think that’s the number one excuse because you’ll never be perfect, and you’ll never be ready.
Getting right with God and getting rid of the bad stuff in your life takes time. You have to take it one step at a time. It’s not easy, I’m not perfect, and I still struggle.
In fact, it took me a while to wrap my mind around the idea that church was about getting to know God and getting right with God, and that it didn’t have to happen in a church building. I finally began to understand when I realized that the act of going to church hadn’t saved me from my bad choices before.
My ritual of going to church services to please my parents and keep the peace in my family hadn’t meant much because my heart hadn’t been in it. I had been far more interested in parties and girls and cuttin’ up than getting to know my Creator and Savior.
That all began to change as I studied the Bible with my dad, spent time talking to my mom, and let the Word of God begin the process of changing me. It didn’t happen overnight, and there were stumbles along the way, but I worked hard to let go of the chase for the perfect high and, instead, started on the chase for a godly life.
I also realized I was blessed to have spent only six months in the pit of alcohol and drug abuse. My brother Alan had struggles that lasted a few years, and my dad was a prodigal for ten years. But I had the advantage of three brothers and two parents who saw me messing up my life and who stepped forward to pull me out of the pit.
I understand now that the longer you stay in that kind of life, the worse you get and the harder it is to change. My dad had to lose just about everything, including his business, his wife, and his sons, before he turned to God. He was blessed in that my mom forgave him and let him come back.
Phil and Miss Kay have left a legacy of love for their children and grandchildren. They’ve been teaching us their whole lives what Christ has taught them about love, sacrifice, forgiveness, and grace.
We want to carry on the Robertson legacy with our old and new friends, including those who know us from the television show.
It’s a little scary to know we’re being watched, but we look at it as a privilege to be able to show who we are and how we live our lives to so many others. We work hard to love each other and love others.
But in the end, it’s our children who are most important. We want to carry on our family legacy with our four children and someday our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It’s an awesome responsibility to be parents and to know that
what we are doing with our kids will have eternal consequences because we know this world is not our home [tweet this] — we’re just passing through.
I had this shoot with a pregnant girl that got cancelled and I was very releaved in away cause I was nervous about it. But I decided that instead of shooting her Ill shoot myself. Cause I keep waiting for a photo to happen but it wont happen without me making it happen. So i decided to go shoot on this road that I saw not too long ago that had these old small electricity poles. But when I got there I discovered some strange building that was closed up and locked and I was scared someone would be there so I drove away to a field near by that I shot in last winter. It was green again and beautiful but I just ended up staring at it having no idea or inspiration as to what I was going to shoot. When I did get my camera to try something out I discovered I left the battery in the charger at home. going to get and come back would mean I wont have enough light to shoot. So I shot something at home.
I really do want to take my photos up a notch and I do have a few ideas for new photos but I have no idea how to make them happen.
I hope I figure it out very soon. I don't want to not to shoot because I'm feeling too lousy about myself again like I let happen a few years back.
That pregnancy shoot is happening next Tuesday. I am nervous about it but not as much as I use to be not as much as I was 2 months ago. So I'm very happy about that, it means I'm making progress and thats always something to give myself credit for otherwise I fall into depression too quickly.
I think its been a month now since my breakup, Im doing ok all in all but its never easy. Its always weird to let someone IN and allow them to be apart of your life only to have it end and have to push them out cause staying in touch only makes things harder and more confusing. Its always a challenge and a difficult process. Life it weird... but thats nothing new.
The Arcade & Attica Railroad has been running steam tourist excursions in Western New York State since 1962, making them one of the older steam tourist lines in the entire country. Over the years, the equipment here has sported a number of paint schemes, ranging from simple, green coaches and plain white lettering on the tender, to this striking combination of orange and black, with large, ornate lettering on the cars as well as the locomotive. What you see here in this May 2025 photo is pretty much what the line started with, back in the 60s, and what I remember from advertising brochures that I saw as a kid. After years of apparently hunting for a look, the line has apparently decided to return to its roots, and I personally hope they stay with it. It's unique, it's an attention-getter, and it is memorable.
In this image, the train is depicted passing the siding at Creekside Millwork, just outside Arcade, on a southbound run with the line's 1920-vintage Alco Consolidation #18 on the point.
Note on 2 January 2022: I have just found out that David Dover died on December 1, 2020. Such very sad news.
calgaryherald.remembering.ca/obituary/e-david-dover-10810...
In the morning of 25 September 2015, six of us were lucky enough to explore a tiny part of the land belonging to Frances and David Dover. For two of us (myself and our leader), this was our second visit - for the rest, it was a first time there.
A few minutes before reaching their property, I just had to pull over and take a couple of shots looking west over our beautiful foothills. The morning sun made the landscape almost glow. This area looks so beautiful in the winter, too. Talking of winter, snow was in the forecast for Saturday/Sunday but I see that has changed to just rain on Saturday, with a high of 5C, and sun for Sunday! Then we should be back to the low to mid teens again.
I will copy and paste the description I posted on Flickr from our first visit to the Dover's acreage, on 7 August 2015:
"Yesterday, 7 August 2015, four of us were extremely fortunate to have the chance to visit the home and highly varied topographic 62-acre property belonging to Frances and David Dover. We felt honoured and privileged to meet and spend time with Frances and David, and also their daughter Carolyn and her husband Clair. A delightful family who welcomed us so warmly into their home and land.
This acreage of grassland, forest, rolling hills - and special gardens - is not far from Millarville, SW of Calgary. In fact, it's in an area that I often drive through when I only have time for, or only feel like doing, a short drive. Amazing what little gems exist out there.
This is not just a beautiful property, but is very special for various reasons. For one thing, read any history of Alberta and you will find the Dover family, including David's mother, Mary Dover. Second, among the trees and open "lawns", there are Peony flower beds, containing 100-150 heritage Peonies, each one different, that have now multiplied to more than 300 plants. Unfortunately, they bloomed a couple of weeks early this year, and all the flowers had gone to seed. Another open area had a different kind of ground cover - Thyme, which smelled wonderful. If I remember correctly, this was the open space where the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra performed on one occasion!
There are two large ponds on the property and another smaller area of water that they hope to turn into a Japanese Garden. It was while walking around the latter that a large brown 'shape' could be seen through the dense trees - a handsome Moose buck. I will look properly at the four or so photos I just managed to get and will slip one of them into my photostream sometime soon, just for the record, definitely not for the photo quality : ) This was also where a Great Horned Owl was seen flying through the trees by some of us (not me, ha!).
There are grassy paths winding through the acreage, up and down hill, that take David seven hours to mow. They are not pristine, velvety paths, but instead, they seem to take nothing away from the wildness of the whole area. One of the animals that have passed through is the Cougar. In fact, several years ago, I saw a video taken on a nearby (or adjacent?) property, where a 'kill' and night-time camera had been set up and a total of six different Cougar individuals were seen!
Even the Dover's home is unique and beautiful. It is completely built of concrete - floors, walls, ceilings, roof, deck, and so on. A Hummingbird feeder and regular bird feeders, set up on the patio, attract a variety of birds. We sat on the patio after our walk to eat our packed lunches - and to enjoy a delicious Orange Pound Cake that Frances had made for us, along with refreshing Iced Tea - thank you so much for this, Frances! Yesterday, while I was waiting for one of three tiny Calliope Hummingbirds to come back, I was lucky enough to see a little Mountain Chickadee, along with many Pine Siskins. We could also hear a Red-tailed Hawk in the area.
There is just so much I could write about this visit and family. Instead, or for now, I will add several links to more information on the Internet. This was a memorable day for us. Thank you so much, Frances and David, Carolyn and Clair, for being so kind and welcoming us into your home and gardens.
books.google.ca/books?id=Tr36Tq_gadcC&pg=PA290&lp...
www.westernwheel.com/article/20110727/WHE06/307279983/-1/...
David's mother, Mary Dover (her father was A. E. Cross), was "a dynamic and distinguished Calgarian, particularly known for her work with the military during World War II." As well as being an army officer, and an alderman, she was also a preservationist. See the following link.
www.albertachampions.org/champions-mary_dover.htm#.VcY1KP...
ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesMainResults.aspx?XC=/searc...
glencoe.org/documents/10184/637479/The-History-of-Elbow-P... page 44-45 ."
After our visit to the Dover's on 25 September 2015, I decided to drive eastwards along a road that I'd never driven before, until I reached the main road going south. From there, it was a fairly short drive to the Saskatoon Farm. As usual, I wandered round the grounds with my camera and then, when I was ready to leave, I ordered a pizza to take home with me. The inside of the gift shop has recently been renovated and they now have a pizza oven and area.
those lines that start
the building of a nation's light,
high like a pedestal of pride
soaring the skies
and touching the clouds;
but when comes the quake of terror
and when those lines
would hold no longer,
no second chance
would we ever get
and perish we shall
if we are never aware;
Today on the 18th of September 2011, Bangladesh faced a 6.9-magnitude earthquake, thanks to the Almighty, the damage was not severe, but it should be a wake up call for everybody, that nothing is certain and that we should take measures on the grounds of building safety and evacuation in the case of future disasters.
Taken on a bitterly cold Christmas Bird Count today around the town of Harris, Saskatchewan. The outside temperature was minus 24 degrees Celsius, with the wind, it felt like minus 30!
Not the best perch, but sometimes, you just take what you get, and be happy :-)
so today is my birthday. Wee! I am currently 18 years old. I guess I am old enough to go to nightclubs and turn up lol. Interesting fact about me, I was born a month early. I was suppose to be due somewhere in May 16th but I was like "Nope, I'm getting out of here!" and boom, I was born prematurely but I never been in an incubator, I was really close to though.
So What am I getting and where I am going? Well, I don;t care, I usually buy my own gifts and my dad gave me some money to use for Disney few days ago so I guess I already got what I want. I'm just going to stay home a relax. Little kids, when you get older, you will start to feel indifferent when your birthday comes around.
you're someone that aren't mine but someone that i'll get and you don't know how hard i've tried to convince myself that i can easily forget...
The Luxury of being yourself
We have selected pictures on our website, but can always add more depending on the requests we do get and the current trend in the world of luxury fine art:
We do wedding photography and videography:
We do once in a while have discounted luxury fine art, please do keep checking:
Fine Art Photography Prints & Luxury Wall Art:
We do come up with merchandises over the years, but at the moment we have sold out and will bring them back depending on the demands of our past customers and those we do take on daily across the globe.
Follow us on Instagram!
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/william.stone.989/
500px:
500px.com/p/wsimages?view=photos
Twitter:
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/william-stone-6bab1a213/
Pinterest:
www.pinterest.co.uk/wsimages_com/
Smugmug:
Instagram:
We tend to celebrate light in our pictures. Understanding how light interacts with the camera is paramount to the work we do. The temperature, intensity and source of light can wield different photography effect on the same subject or scene; add ISO, aperture and speed, the camera, the lens type, focal length and filters…the combination is varied ad multi-layered and if you know how to use them all, you will come to appreciate that all lights are useful, even those surrounded by a lot of darkness.
We are guided by three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, our longing to capture in print, that which is beautiful, the constant search for the one picture, and constant barrage of new equipment and style of photography. These passions, like great winds, have blown us across the globe in search of the one and we do understand the one we do look for might be this picture right here for someone else out there.
“A concise poem about our work as stated elow
A place without being
a thought without thinking
creatively, two dimensions
suspended animation
possibly a perfect imitation
of what was then to see.
A frozen memory in synthetic colour
or black and white instead,
fantasy dreams in magazines
become imbedded inside my head.
Artistic views
surrealistic hues,
a photographer’s instinctive eye:
for he does as he pleases
up to that point he releases,
then develops a visual high.
- M R Abrahams
Some of the gear we use at William Stone Fine Art are listed here:
Some of our latest work & more!
Embedded galleries within a gallery on various aspects of Photography:
There are other aspects closely related to photography that we do embark on:
All prints though us is put through a rigorous set of quality control standards long before we ever ship it to your front door. We only create gallery-quality images, and you'll receive your print in perfect condition with a lifetime guarantee.
All images on Flickr have been specifically published in a lower grade quality to amber our copyright being infringed. We have 4096x pixel full sized quality on all our photos and any of them could be ordered in high grade museum quality grade and a discount applied if the voucher WS-100 is used. Please contact us:
We do plan future trips and do catalogue our past ones, if you believe there is a beautiful place we have missed, and we are sure there must be many, please do let us know and we will investigate.
In our galleries you will find some amazing fine art photography for sale as limited edition and open edition, gallery quality prints. Only the finest materials and archival methods are used to produce these stunning photographic works of art.
We want to thank you for your interest in our work and thanks for visiting our work on Flickr, we do appreciate you and the contributions you make in furthering our interest in photography and on social media in general, we are mostly out in the field or at an event making people feel luxurious about themselves.
WS-342-341729951-172064702-2687915-8122021173433
This shot captures the "Power Centre" of Hong Kong - the biggest banks and the biggest corporate Headquarters all gathered together on what must be some of the most expensive real estate in the world. This is shot on my NEW Canon 5D, which makes night shots a breeze - I love the colours it gets and the 'hyper-reality' look you get with the long exposures!
MadPea's Agents of Mystery is not only FREE TO PLAY, it is full of mystery, excitement, intrigue, prizes and Achievements!
With Hunters darting to and fro across the Grid, searching and finding the clues, it's time for a look at the first of the awesome prizes revealed this week!
The perfect fit for any study, office, business, club or evil lair the MadPea Agent Desk w/Chair is effortlessly chic with a touch of class that is a welcome edition to any space! Get the most out of your workroom with with the ruthless efficiency of a true go-getter, and the decor to get you there!
Grab your FREE HUD at the MadPea Main Store: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea/66/128/33
Or Join the Fun as a Hider of Secretive Intelligence that can be purchased at the MadPea Main Store or on Marketplace:
HOY RUEGO se vea esta fotografía y la siguiente. //// TODAY PLEASE look at this picture and the next.////// AUJOURD'HUI S'IL VOUS PLAÎT regarde cette photo et la suivante.
Bien. Hay que llegar y preguntar por Carmina para que te enseñen esta Colegiata , o Iglesia de San Pedro de Cervatos. Al comienzo de Cantabria , en el Alto Campoo, a
pocos kilómetros de Aguilar en dirección Santander, salida a Cervatos..no te vaya a pasar como a nos… Aparte de que sea una auténtica gozada verla en cuanto a su construcción puede ser muy instructiva su visita. Es uno de los mayores exponentes del románico… pero también de su expresión erótica como se puede apreciar en la fotografía que sucede a esta. Creo que en esta ocasión el artista se excedió un poco en su expresión moralizante y se definió un poco el mismo… A nadie le amarga un dulce … En aquella época …Hoy prefiero ahorrarme las palabras y que cada cual juzgue…. Cuando volvamos otra vez explicaremos…Pero puedo adelantar… casi todos los canecillos se refieren a escenas obscenas bien entre animales bien entre humanos… no se salva nadie…. NO hay que irse a Asia para ver templos con motivos eróticos…y además hay que hacer patria…. Por el mes de Junio publicaré el resto de la historia…que es de lo más interesante….y pssssssss…..sugerente….
Well. We need to get and ask for Carmina to show you this collegiate, or Church of San Pedro de Cervatos. At the beginning of Cantabria, in the Upper Campoo to
few kilometers from Santander Aguilar direction, exit at Cervatos .. you will not pass to us ... Aside from being a truly enjoyed looking at it in terms of its construction can be very instructive visit. It is one of the greatest exponents of the Roman ... but also of their erotic expression as shown in the picture that this happens. I think this time the artist was exceeded a little moralizing in their expression and defined a bit the same ... No one is bitter sweet ... At that time ... Today I prefer to save the words and everyone sees .... When we go back again ... But I can explain further ... almost all canecillos concern obscene scenes or between animals or between humans ... no ... no one is spared. NO need to go to Asia to see temples with erotic motives ... and needs to be done ... homeland. For the month of June will publish the rest of the story ... that is very interesting .... Pssssssss ... .. and ... thought.
Bien. Nous avons besoin d'obtenir et de demander des Carmina à vous montrer ce collège, ou l'Église de San Pedro de Cervatos. Au début de la Cantabrie, dans le Haut-de Campoo
quelques kilomètres de Santander Aguilar direction, à la sortie Cervatos .. vous ne pourrez pas passer à nous ... En plus d'être vraiment aimé regarder en fonction de sa construction peut être très instructive visite. Il est l'un des plus grands interprètes de la romaine ... mais aussi de leur expression érotique, comme indiqué dans l'image que cela se passe. Je pense que cette fois, l'artiste a été dépassé un peu moralisateur dans leur expression et de définir un peu la même chose ... Nul n'est doux amer ... À ce moment-là ... Aujourd'hui, je préfère mettre les mots et tout le monde voit .... Lorsque nous revenons de nouveau ... Mais je peux expliquer plus loin ... la quasi-totalité des scènes obscènes canecillos préoccupation ou entre animaux ou entre l'homme ... ne ... personne n'est épargné. Pas besoin d'aller en Asie pour voir des temples avec des motifs érotiques ... et à faire ... patrie. Pour le mois de Juin va publier le reste de l'histoire ... c'est très intéressant .... Pssssssss ... ... .. et sugerent....
Glass tree sculpture. Jeannette Krohn.
artist's brief: Post-Tree Museum was both a testament to the original 'Big Scrub' forests of the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, the white pastoralists who came after the timber getters and the change in understanding of the significance of rainforest today. Now 10 years later and the forests of the world are in a much. more precarious position. Therefore this is made of glass.
(One photo from each month, starting top left. You can read more about these photos and each month of my 2020 below.)
What a year this has been, in all ways. Lots of cancellations of everything I looked forward to due to a certain virus, and then health issues for the rest of the year. But all this has made me doing more of some of the things I love, that I normally don’t use that much time on – like enjoying nature and birdlife nearby, learning so much more about it and also getting to know lots of new people because of it, and also buying all the camera gear on my wish list with lots of time getting to know it.
You can read more about each month of my 2020 below if you’d like to:
1. (Top left) Sweetest Dreams
JANUARY: The year started with wind, rain and floods, and my only nature photos are from one nice sunset in the middle of the month. We never got the nice winter weather we usually hope for to set a nice mood at the start of a new year, and we never went on our traditional January bonfire and night photography trip to Eigerøy lighthouse. The fact that we also didn’t have a dog anymore that needed to go out every day, made me spend less time outside.
But I filled the days with work and several spare time assignments – like singing in a jubilee, photographing several adorable newborn babies (one of them on this month's photo), having a concert with my choir and the Norwegian singer Solveig Leithaug who I’ve listened to since I was little, and photographing lots of rabbits and cats for The Norwegian Society for Protection of Animals.
My boyfriend Richard and I also started attending several of the meetings of the local club for The Norwegian Ornithological Society (NOF - the bird protection society of Norway.) It’s inspiring to see all the nice bird photos that people use so much time on getting, and nice to get to know more people with that interest. It made us both getting even more interested in bird photography as well, and during the year both of us would buy better telephoto lenses for bird photography.
I celebrated my birthday in the first part of the month by going to the town where I used to live, to by a flash for my new Sony camera (after recently starting the process of replacing all my Nikon gear with Sony). Then I also bought my second Sony camera (a9) and the Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 Art lens. It feels necessary to have two cameras – both for portrait assignments and travels where I need several lenses.
2. A weekend of nice nature experiences
FEBRUARY: Started with a really nice reunion for my choir’s trip to Israel, together with friends and family of the choir, four months earlier. As usual, I got the fun job of making a slide show of photos from the trip.
The wind, rain and floods continued, and the few days with nice weather I didn’t have the time to go outside. I photographed a beautiful kitten for The Norwegian Society for Protection of Animals and a wedding on Valentine’s day. I also photographed my adorable neighbor on her christening day, and when she turned 4 months. It’s nice that her parents let me test my new cameras and lenses on her and use them for advertising. My choir also had a concert together with the awesome American gospel singer Jason Nelson this month.
We finally had some nice weather during the last part of the month, and we finally went on several hikes along the coast of Jæren and at home. But the wind was still present, and for the first time we experienced that the foam coming from the sea due to the wind, prevented us from walking on the only possible trail above the sea where we live. It made us get some unusual photos though.
I only had one day off during the winter break since we had one student with special needs left at school. But my friday off luckily was the only one with lovely weather and that night also brought the year’s first snow. We had a nice road trip photographing nature, reflections and snow that day, and I also photographed the year’s first lovely spring flowers. The rest of that leap year weekend was bad weathered again, so I’m glad I had that one lovely day off to remember for a long time.
3. Angry Bird ッ
MARCH: On the first day of the month and spring, I went outside between the showers of rain for the year’s first bird photos - of some of the numerous seabirds where we live. Little did I know that this was the activity that I would spend the most of my time on and learn so much more about during both the rest of the month and the whole year. (It really made up for spending much less time in nature that I would like to during the year’s first two months.)
The big change came when covid-19 arrived, the country shut down and I realized that my spare time wouldn’t be filled with the normal, busy and fun activities of singing, photography assignments and traveling for a long time. I had lots of singing and photography assignments during spring and summer that got cancelled or moved – most of them to the next year.
It made me buy the Sony 200-600mm lens earlier than planned, to have an exciting spare time ahead anyway. It would be so much better than the one I used for Nikon, and so much faster together with the perfect partner which I already had bought - the Sony a9 camera with 20 photos per second and a fabulous autofocus tracking. I was lucky doing so, since all photography equipment became even more expensive after shutdown.
Even though most of my colleagues and students spent the next months at home, a few of us had some students with special needs at work. From the shutdown, the weather stayed nice every day for a really long time, and I started cycling the long way back and forth to work on my electrical bicycle every day, with the new lens and the a9 on my back. I cycle by the sea all the way, and also have some nice forests for bird and spring flower photography close to work.
I actually found it that exciting to get so much better bird photos than before, that I woke up one or two hours before I had to, to have lots of time to stop on the way when I saw or heard interesting birds. On still mornings I also brought the Sony a7III and 24-70mm lens with me to finally capture the nice morning and boathouse reflections that I’ve only dreamed of while passing by by bus on early mornings. But I found it most exciting to get my first nice photos of so many familiar small birds that I hadn’t been able to photograph before, and to also find and get to know so many birds that I even didn’t know existed.
I also photographed charming seals several times, that enjoyed themselves on the skerries close to our home. But one of the absolutely best nature experiences this month was the day that the largest number of oystercatchers I’ve ever seen returned to our neighborhood (tjeld in Norwegian - my favourite sign of spring). There were nearly 400 of them around me and out on the skerries during one lovely afternoon, making the loveliest long-awaited sound.
I also had a fun dog photography assignment on the beach where we live, and photographed a newborn girl in our neighborhood this month. My choir was supposed to go on a Norway tour the last weekend, but of course we had to cancel that due to covid.
4. (Top right) ٠ Reminiscing Spring ٠
APRIL: Started with Easter from the first weekend, and I had the whole week off. Our original plan was to go on a Norway road trip, hiking and photographing landscapes like we normally do – but due to travel restrictions we stayed home. Luckily the weather was nice almost every day, and we spent much time on garden work - planting a dozen fruit trees and setting up new bird feeders, insect hotels and bird boxes. We also had several nice hikes in neighboring municipalities and made good food.
I also photographed and had fun with some neighbor’s dogs – still longing for a new dog myself (but there were really many wanting the same this year, so we never found one that we wanted who wasn’t taken yet). I was supposed to photograph a wedding and several confirmands this month, but all of them were moved to late summer and autumn
The weather got even better and warmer during the last part of the month, and I continued cycling to work, with the camera(s) in my backpack – continuing bird, reflection and flower photography. There are also lots of lambs in my neighborhood during spring, as seen on this month’s photo.
I bought the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM lens that I needed for portrait assignments (and sold the Sony 85mm I bought last year). This also made me able to sell all my remaining Nikon equipment, since I now had the most important lenses for Sony. I tested the new portrait lens on two adorable small dogs in a forest filled with spring flowers and was really satisfied. I love its bokeh, sharpness and even a little bokeh swirl with the right circumstances.
I also went home ordering a Helios 44M-6 58mm f/2 vintage lens that day, for amazing flower photos with even more and impressive bokeh swirl - after seeing all the nice spring flowers, and experiencing that the 70-200mm had too long focal distance for flower photography. I actually hadn’t heard of these vintage lenses before. If I had, I would have bought one a long time ago. They cost nothing, and give the loveliest photos and bokeh (it’s a photo from this lens on the June photo).
5. (Middle left) ~ Peaceful Pentecost ~
MAY: The lovely spring weather continued (not at all guaranteed in this country), only interrupted by a few days of cold temperatures and a little snow (!) There were still more amazing bird experiences waiting for me and my camera both on our island and in town. Like sitting for an hour on a rock on the shore, watching a tern couple where the male were fishing and trying to impress the lady with it. I also saw and photographed a couple of grey wagtails for the first time, up close with their young ones by a river in the middle of town (vintererler in Norwegian). It was also nice to finally get some really good photos of the adorable ducklings.
I used my Helios a lot for flower photography and also tried it on a dog among lots of dandelions – which made great photos. We drove for several hours the first weekend, just to photograph the stunning blue kidneyworts (blåveis in Norwegian). I had only seen them once before, and I had wanted to find them again for a long time. It was a little late, but luckily they still were in bloom. There were also so many lovely pink and white blossoms both in town and in parks that we drove to this month. I even bought another Helios (44-2) in hope of another variation of lovely bokeh – but since I didn’t see any difference from my other one, I sold it to Richard. It was fun to photograph flowers together for the first time. I also bought the Sony 90mm f/2.8 macro lens for close ups and insect photography ツ
After two months of lockdown, the schools opened partly with lots of restrictions – two months after closing. The National day the 17th couldn’t be celebrated as normal with children’s parades, marching bands and entertainment, and it was my first time not going out wearing my national costume that day. But Norwegians are creative, and there were boat parades in all coastal towns and villages instead, and it was nice to watch all the boats with flags and even bands on them. I think it would be a nice tradition for the future as well.
We also finally went on two road trips the two last and beautiful long weekends of the month. On the first one, we finally visited my parents for the first time this year, due to covid. Then we drove all the way to our favourite place Stryn and rented a house above the Olden lake with the stunning view towards the mountains and glaciers. We also drove on day trips to other favourite places nearby. I brought my national costume “bunad” to pose in the stunning nature, since I didn’t wear it on the National day.
The next weekend we went to beautiful Hardanger, where we lived on a nice fruit farm by the fjord. We photographed nesting birds and blossoms by the apartment, went on a hike to one of our favourite lakes by the mountains and glacier (on the photo for this month), and met several friends.
6. In summer, the song sings itself • ♫ ♪
JUNE: A warm and really nice month, where we actually felt a little good about finally getting a little rain for all our new fruit trees in the end of it. I went on some nice hikes and trips both together with Richard and with colleagues and students who were finishing their three years at our school.
I continued cycling around photographing birds and flowers almost every day, and some dogs and lots of cats in between (both indoors for The Norwegian Society for Protection of Animals, and a colleague’s beautiful purebred cats in their nice garden). I also took some summer photos of my adorable neighbor at eight months. Finally I also could meet my choir for a summer party together, after only meeting them online since lockdown.
But one sad thing this month was my left foot unexpectedly starting aching one day after a long hike at work (with no accidents). It never stopped, and got worse when I went on long walks and walked a lot at work. I had to use crutches most of the time until the summer holiday. We first thought it was a strain injury, but sadly it only worsened and spread for the rest of the year, and we still don’t know what’s wrong. I never thought that it would last for that long. I thought that a quiet summer vacation would do the work.
JULY: When I started my long summer vacation, the long-lasting nice weather typically turned to cold and rainy weather. We went back to beautiful Stryn, where we had ordered a house for a week. Sadly we had rain most of the time, but since my foot was still aching I couldn’t do much anyway. During some hours of sunshine, we went out by car to get some nice landscape photos. This month’s photo is from a day trip to Geiranger. We also spent some nights in beautiful Sogn before going home. On the way home I also took some newborn photos for a former colleague ツ
While we were on holiday, my kind parents stayed at our place to change the wooden boards on our house. I went back home with them, to stay there for the last two weeks of the month. It’s the first time in many years I’ve been there so long, and I loved to do so. My sister, niece and nephew also came for one week. I didn’t go outside that much due to still some aching in my foot, but I got some bird photos nearby, and went by boat a couple of times to feed and photograph the sea eagles.
At this time, I started reporting all the birds that I’d photographed during spring and summer in a national registry, and will continue doing so for a long time. I’ve learned so much both there and after getting to know other bird photographers and registrators.
AUGUST: Started with photographing a wedding, and later going on a fun cabin holiday together with my sister and her family (this month’s photo is of my niece fishing close to the cabin). The month was really nice and warm. We cancelled our planned trip back to Stryn both due to my health and since there were too many Norwegians there, since no one could go abroad this summer.
Later I had several photography assignments - including another wedding, several families, dogs and cats, and the year’s two first confirmands (girls in their national costumes, which I love to photograph. One of them even together with her horse). I also sang in a confirmation.
After a week at work, my aching foot got worse again, and now it spread to both feet and higher up in the body. It isn’t easy with crutches and keeping up with busy students when the pain is in both feet, so after only one week together with my new 8th graders, I went on sick leave for the rest of the year. I didn’t know that then since we took four weeks at a time, and I was hopeful of it getting better soon. But since it didn’t change for the better, and the doctor and therapists still works on finding what’s wrong or how to make it better, that was how it turned out.
One nice thing was getting to know that I’m getting a new niece in the spring (my brother’s first one)! ツ And since I couldn’t walk that much, it was nice to spend some time in our boat on nice evenings, and to have my electrical bike when I needed some air. In the end of the month, the raw autumn air came to stay.
9. (Bottom left) ♤ Embracing Autumn ♤
SEPTEMBER: Luckily I had lots of photos to edit, from assignments and from the summer holiday, since I was at home every day. My physiotherapist encouraged me for some activity on good days, so I went out with my bike and camera sometimes. Just watching and photographing birds and forgetting everything else have really been my medicine during autumn. I loved to capture my first photos of small birds in colourful autumn trees due to my new equipment, and to enjoy all the migrating birds that I hadn’t seen before both on our island and on beautiful Jæren.
Going by our boat to the lighthouse nearby, making dinner outside is also a good memory from this month. I also had some long time scheduled confirmand, newborn and animal photography assignments during the month. A nice way of getting out of the house for a little while. I also joined my choir on a nice rehearsal weekend, while staying at my sister’s place nearby. There’s nothing like waking up by my nephew or niece coming into my bed ツ
In the end of the month, my kind parents came again to replace our kitchen with the new one we had ordered. They love working, and suddenly the floor and walls were new as well 😉 On the last day of the month, I visited the local center of The Norwegian Society for Protection of Animals for cuddles and photos. I love being there, meeting all the rescued animals and getting nice photos to help them getting new homes.
10. The Little One
OCTOBER: My bird watching by sea continued on some of the good days. I got even closer to several birds that I hadn’t seen up close or at all before. On some really nice days, I sat for hours enjoying hundreds of shorebirds up close on the coast of Jæren (and also spent some fun time together with my sister-in-law who lives there), and had seabirds resting or fishing really close to me, while just sitting by the sea over some time at home.
Other days I only sat right outside the house or in the bathroom window, watching all the birds on our bird feeders and taking some photos on nice days. One day two of all the roe deer living around our house and in our neighborhood came right outside the window as well, just when I was photographing – as seen on the photo for this month.
Originally we had planned on going back to Stryn for the autumn break, for hiking and photographing. But when that got cancelled due to my health, I went home to my parents instead together with my sister and the kids. I loved that my niece at four years old liked to join me attracting the birds I grew up having around me, with bird sounds from my phone. She made the birds come really close, and I photographed them 😉 I also spent some time together with other bird photographers there, and met several species for the first time.
Back home again, a friend came to visit us to photograph all the birds on our island together with me. We got lucky both with the weather and with all the exciting bird meetings we had up close. Some of them were even new to me as well. Then my dad and uncle visited us too – finishing the last things on our kitchen and showing uncle our island for the first time. On his birthday, we went by boat to the lighthouse watching the waves. He loves it just as much as we do ツ
I also photographed a newborn baby, two one year olds (including my adorable neighbor) and some cats, and did like I did the month before – visited the local center of The Norwegian Society for Protection of Animals for cuddles and photos on the last day of the month.
NOVEMBER: I spent less time outside due to the autumn weather, but got some nice photos of the guests on our birdfeeders. It was especially fun having the beautiful goldfinches visiting us one week (stillits in Norwegian). And the one day a bird photographer from my home island and his wife visited us, we were lucky to have some nice hours outside where I showed them our neighborhood and we came close to some rare migrating geese.
Even in grey weather, I had a couple of unforgettable seabird experiences just sitting by the shore in our neighborhood. Suddenly birds I’d never seen that close came diving for fish right in front of me, on several occasions. One day a black guillemot (teist in Norwegian) was fishing in front of me for more than one hour, and it posed with every fish it found (like on this month’s photo).
I also sang in a funeral, and photographed a rescued kitten that sadly didn’t make it after all. I ended the month by photographing an adorable newborn baby, together with the family dog for their Christmas cards.
DECEMBER: The first day was a lovely one, cycling in the cold but sunny weather, photographing birds for the first time in a while. The rest of the month was mostly made for editing photos and listening to podcasts inside.
All the Christmas concerts that I normally attend from late November on, were cancelled this year (but I couldn’t have attended them anyway due to my feet). So to get an early Christmas mood like I’m used to from the concerts – I started decorating earlier than usual. We also bought our own Christmas tree for the first time ツ
We didn’t go to the island I’m from at all this Christmas time. My parents came for one night during early December, bringing and picking up gifts. We also made an early Christmas dinner together, since it was our only time together this month. I also got to meet Richard’s relatives’ new puppy on the beach, and photographed it with a little Christmas outfit on her ツ
The day before Christmas Eve, on what we call Little Christmas Eve, we drove to an arboretum where I knew we could find bullfinches (dompap in Norwegian). They are typical on Norwegian Christmas cards, and I’ve always wanted nice photos of them. On this month’s photo you can see that we found them ツ Christmas Eve and Christmas day were some beautiful days (normally it use to rain these days), and we spent some time out in the sun and on a boat ride to the lighthouse.
We spent Christmas Eve together with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and a friend of hers. We spent the rest of Christmas and New Year’s Eve by ourselves, not to meet too many people since the virus is spreading again in our part of the country. My health isn’t made for long car rides either these days. But we find it just as cozy being by ourselves.
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From last year’s goals for 2020 – I only fulfilled the one about replacing the rest of my Nikon gear with Sony, and bought everything that I wanted due to the extra spare time.
No trip to Paris with a friend, no trip to Northern Norway with Richard neither during summer or winter, no new dog, not more time together with family and friends, not a lot of wedding assignments and not that many exciting concerts and assignments with my choir.
But this only means that 2021 has lots of potential, doing all that I didn’t this year ツ
And I really look forward to getting a new niece this March ♡
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Thanks to all who wanted to read about my year, and to all my photography followers!
I hope that 2021 will be so much better for all of us! Enjoy it!!
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║*˚♡˛˚ღ •˚ ˚˚ ✰* ★ *˚♡˛˚ღ •˚ ˚˚ ✰* ★ *˚♡˛˚ღ •˚ ˚˚ ✰* ★
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To watch and read my Highlights of 2013, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2014, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2015, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2016, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2017, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2018, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2019, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2021, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2022, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2023, take a look here.
To watch and read my Highlights of 2024, take a look here.
Irish weather can really really suck sometimes, actually a lot of the time! This was another quickie from the summer with the mad Aussie...Dubiz (Flies Crew) I don't think he could even believe how much rain we get, and anyone who has visited us here in the west has a story about it, even your underpants will be drenched... anyway the craic was good, we got soaked, the pub was lovely and warm, oh and don't ever offer Dubizzle a Guinness, he's not a fan! ha ha ha
...and it's still pissing rain outside three months later, FML!
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold
Molten, graven, hammered and rolled
Heavy to get and light to hold
Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled
Spurned by young, but hung by old
To the verge of a church yard mold
Price of many a crime untold
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Good or bad a thousand fold!
How widely it agencies vary,
To save - to ruin - to curse - to bless -
As even its minted coins express
Now stamped with the image of Queen Bess
And now of a bloody Mary
Thomas Hood (23 May 1799 – 3 May 1845, British humorist and poet)
It was very refreshing to be in the Parks at Disneyland Resort this past week. This year I have not been able to spend the late night hours in the Parks like I have been spoiled with in past years. So I take what I can get, and try to fit in the processing end of it whenever I get a chance. Last night I was going through my images from Tuesday and Wednesday evenings looking for my usual HDR compositions and found this little gem I had taken on the way back to Cars Land...The Trolleys do not go that fast, but panning with them at night can turn out some pretty fun photos!
Had to edit the water cause it was overexposed. I used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.
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If you do decide to post this photo on tumblr all i ask is that you comment under this picture with the link so i can see how many notes it gets and reblog you :)
I first took this comp, my first time 10 years ago this month. It was one of two shots that I took that year a few months apart that jumped started my obsession with photography. A couple of years earlier I had just bought my first full sensor camera and loved it. Taking pictures at every chance. But it was this comp /shot a couple of years later after buying that camera that changed things. I received comments from photographers that I had followed and admired, who congratulated me for my shot and being the lucky one that finally got that sunburst shot.(www.flickr.com/photos/stokesrx/14836137375/in/album-72157...). A couple of years later a landscape top of the pyramid guy asked me specific questions about this shot, such as this must of been hard to get and couldn't you see the sky? I of course said yes to the sky question but I didn't know about blending. luminosity masks etc.( which to the non photographers are things you need to know to show that sky ). So because of the questions from a now icon and adulation from those I admired it became an all out obsession to improve in all things regarding my processing. One of those that I admired, I hired to teach all things about luminosity masks, blending etc.. After those lessons the obsession was now full on. And that now icon, took the same shot a couple of years later and took credit for being the originator and that everyone now copies him. So sad.
That second picture a couple of months earlier ( www.flickr.com/photos/stokesrx/14181145179/in/album-72157... ) I received the same type of responses and this was the one that got the ball rolling. And to this day because of these two shots, I am still learning, listening and hoping to improve.
listen while watching --> youtu.be/GoRVzSup5WY
For those commenting with a flashy gif or an artwork promoting a group or awards system, I thank you but I prefer text comments only.
I don't want to remove them this time but please refrain from posting anything else than text comments.
Awards groups, please I don't buy into this! To me quality is more important than quantity (this is a biased way of getting and giving traffic - a very 'consumer' approach that is a blasphemy for passionate photographers...). If I posted my pic to an award group and you are not happy because I did not comment back, please remove me from your group. I'd be more than happy to clean out groups in my list... I comment when I feel a photo deserves my honest comment, not when I am asked to.
I know, we all have an ego (smaller or larger, or much larger...) but this is b...s....ing each other and I simply won't give my contribution to insincere 'commercial' comments and faves onanism...........................
Thanks for your understanding.
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I had a lot of trouble making this pano. The shots should have lined up without any problems but I kept getting grief with different stitchers. I finally said this is as good as it gets and gave up. I'll try again when the leaves change.
The Luxury of being yourself
We have selected pictures on our website, but can always add more depending on the requests we do get and the current trend in the world of luxury fine art:
We do once in a while have discounted luxury fine art, please do keep checking:
Fine Art Photography Prints & Luxury Wall Art:
We do come up with merchandises over the years, but at the moment we have sold out and will bring them back depending on the demands of our past customers and those we do take on daily across the globe.
Follow us on Instagram!
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/william.stone.989/
500px:
500px.com/p/wsimages?view=photos
Twitter:
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/william-stone-6bab1a213/
Pinterest:
www.pinterest.co.uk/wsimages_com/
We tend to celebrate light in our pictures. Understanding how light interacts with the camera is paramount to the work we do. The temperature, intensity and source of light can wield different photography effect on the same subject or scene; add ISO, aperture and speed, the camera, the lens type, focal length and filters…the combination is varied ad multi-layered and if you know how to use them all, you will come to appreciate that all lights are useful, even those surrounded by a lot of darkness.
We are guided by three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, our longing to capture in print, that which is beautiful, the constant search for the one picture, and constant barrage of new equipment and style of photography. These passions, like great winds, have blown us across the globe in search of the one and we do understand the one we do look for might be this picture right here for someone else out there.
“A concise poem about our work as stated elow
A place without being
a thought without thinking
creatively, two dimensions
suspended animation
possibly a perfect imitation
of what was then to see.
A frozen memory in synthetic colour
or black and white instead,
fantasy dreams in magazines
become imbedded inside my head.
Artistic views
surrealistic hues,
a photographer’s instinctive eye:
for he does as he pleases
up to that point he releases,
then develops a visual high.
- M R Abrahams
Some of the gear we use at William Stone Fine Art are listed here:
Some of our latest work & more!
Embedded galleries within a gallery on various aspects of Photography:
There are other aspects closely related to photography that we do embark on:
All prints though us is put through a rigorous set of quality control standards long before we ever ship it to your front door. We only create gallery-quality images, and you'll receive your print in perfect condition with a lifetime guarantee.
All images on Flickr have been specifically published in a lower grade quality to amber our copyright being infringed. We have 4096x pixel full sized quality on all our photos and any of them could be ordered in high grade museum quality grade and a discount applied if the voucher WS-100 is used. Please contact us:
We do plan future trips and do catalogue our past ones, if you believe there is a beautiful place we have missed, and we are sure there must be many, please do let us know and we will investigate.
In our galleries you will find some amazing fine art photography for sale as limited edition and open edition, gallery quality prints. Only the finest materials and archival methods are used to produce these stunning photographic works of art.
We want to thank you for your interest in our work and thanks for visiting our work on Flickr, we do appreciate you and the contributions you make in furthering our interest in photography and on social media in general, we are mostly out in the field or at an event making people feel luxurious about themselves.
WS-181-301355623-16306961-2696956-3062021163033
Audi Sport RS3 LMS (DSG) heading up the esses at Watkins Glen.
I was here for both days over the weekend. Rented the Canon 1DX mkII to see how it performed versus my 7D and 5D. Wasn't impressed enough with it to consider purchasing the mkIII version that was soon to be or just was released. Actually used all 3 cameras on Saturday. After a quick cull in the evening, I decided to give the 7D a go the next day... already knew what I could get out of my 5D.
Sunday was dedicated specifically for the 7D mkII. I knew the 90D was coming out soon so I wanted to spend the day testing my 300 with teleconverters on the crop body of the 7D to see if I liked the 'effective' focal length I would get. Was surprised with some of what I could get and was relatively happy with the effective focal lengths. Just wanted a few more pixels to work with. Felt it was good enough to go for the 90D. Now, like everyone else, just awaiting the world to get going again so I can do more testing with the 90D.
We met this wonderful family while all of us were getting and ice cream in one of the shop in the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse area. We got to talking with the father who spoke English and decided to sit together. He was waiting for his wife who was shopping in warehouse shops and taking care of their kids. The kids were able to speak very little English, but their Dad was quite proficient. We talked very well with the father acting as a translator for all of us. It was a really fun time with this great group of people.
Barney attempting to camouflage himself amongst the autumn leaves, in order to trick a pesky squirrel! Kind of hard for a black and white dog to hide in golden leaves. We both spotted Mr Squirrel skitter along the path ahead of us and run up a nearby tree. To Barney's dismay though, he's on restricted exercise so there can be absolutely no squirrel chasing... hence the need to resort to camouflage and sneak attacks. I'm not sure Barney's quite got the hang of things yet... At any rate, I don't think Mr Squirrel was fooled into coming back down from his tree ;)
If you read my post last week, you'll know Barney's been having joint problems recently. Well, he had his X-rays on Tues and hip dysplasia was confirmed. His right hip is worst but both are generally pretty wrecked... and that's what's causing the arthritis. No wonder the poor dog is reluctant to get up sometimes and has been walking a bit oddly from time to time! Thankfully, the vet thinks that we can manage it without surgery - and even without starting long term use of NSAIDs.
Barney's started on a course of cartrophen injections (for those in USA it's basically an alternative to adequan), which I've heard very good things about - 4 weekly injections, then one every 3 months. He's also having high quality oral supplements every day and the vet was very keen to encourage me to look into complementary therapies. As Barney already loves swimming and I've found a couple of pools which are reasonably local, I will definitely look into hydrotherapy!
Sadly, the condition is degenerative and Barney will probably have to go onto regular painkillers in a couple of years - so when he's about 9. However, he is otherwise in excellent condition, has good knees and his spine looks "beautiful" (vet's description!) and with good management, I think things are pretty hopeful that Barn will be able to get back his bouncy, happy self soon and lead a relatively normal, active life. In the meantime, I'll have to think of some new tricks/games to teach as he's already bored with the "gentle" exercise he's now getting and we've got at least a month or so to go before he can start doing more...
Reached Explore #166 ~ Also, I've just passed 1,000,000 views! Thanks guys :)
*You can find a 2014 Calendar of Barney photos HERE!
Today we walked the girls up to town as I had a prescription to get and so we walked behind the coop on the old railway line route. So 5 images on my ir converted xpro 1.
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
by William Wordsworth, The World is Too Much With Us
The Luxury of being yourself
We have selected pictures on our website, but can always add more depending on the requests we do get and the current trend in the world of luxury fine art:
We do wedding photography and videography:
We do once in a while have discounted luxury fine art, please do keep checking:
Fine Art Photography Prints & Luxury Wall Art:
We do come up with merchandises over the years, but at the moment we have sold out and will bring them back depending on the demands of our past customers and those we do take on daily across the globe.
Follow us on Instagram!
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/william.stone.989/
500px:
500px.com/p/wsimages?view=photos
Twitter:
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/william-stone-6bab1a213/
Pinterest:
www.pinterest.co.uk/wsimages_com/
Smugmug:
Instagram:
We tend to celebrate light in our pictures. Understanding how light interacts with the camera is paramount to the work we do. The temperature, intensity and source of light can wield different photography effect on the same subject or scene; add ISO, aperture and speed, the camera, the lens type, focal length and filters…the combination is varied ad multi-layered and if you know how to use them all, you will come to appreciate that all lights are useful, even those surrounded by a lot of darkness.
We are guided by three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, our longing to capture in print, that which is beautiful, the constant search for the one picture, and constant barrage of new equipment and style of photography. These passions, like great winds, have blown us across the globe in search of the one and we do understand the one we do look for might be this picture right here for someone else out there.
“A concise poem about our work as stated elow
A place without being
a thought without thinking
creatively, two dimensions
suspended animation
possibly a perfect imitation
of what was then to see.
A frozen memory in synthetic colour
or black and white instead,
fantasy dreams in magazines
become imbedded inside my head.
Artistic views
surrealistic hues,
a photographer’s instinctive eye:
for he does as he pleases
up to that point he releases,
then develops a visual high.
- M R Abrahams
Some of the gear we use at William Stone Fine Art are listed here:
Some of our latest work & more!
Embedded galleries within a gallery on various aspects of Photography:
There are other aspects closely related to photography that we do embark on:
All prints though us is put through a rigorous set of quality control standards long before we ever ship it to your front door. We only create gallery-quality images, and you'll receive your print in perfect condition with a lifetime guarantee.
All images on Flickr have been specifically published in a lower grade quality to amber our copyright being infringed. We have 4096x pixel full sized quality on all our photos and any of them could be ordered in high grade museum quality grade and a discount applied if the voucher WS-100 is used. Please contact us:
We do plan future trips and do catalogue our past ones, if you believe there is a beautiful place we have missed, and we are sure there must be many, please do let us know and we will investigate.
In our galleries you will find some amazing fine art photography for sale as limited edition and open edition, gallery quality prints. Only the finest materials and archival methods are used to produce these stunning photographic works of art.
We want to thank you for your interest in our work and thanks for visiting our work on Flickr, we do appreciate you and the contributions you make in furthering our interest in photography and on social media in general, we are mostly out in the field or at an event making people feel luxurious about themselves.
WS-149-3536167-81624883-6191889-2952022083508
The Luxury of being yourself
We have selected pictures on our website, but can always add more depending on the requests we do get and the current trend in the world of luxury fine art:
We do once in a while have discounted luxury fine art, please do keep checking:
Fine Art Photography Prints & Luxury Wall Art:
We do come up with merchandises over the years, but at the moment we have sold out and will bring them back depending on the demands of our past customers and those we do take on daily across the globe.
Follow us on Instagram!
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/william.stone.989/
500px:
500px.com/p/wsimages?view=photos
Twitter:
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/william-stone-6bab1a213/
Pinterest:
www.pinterest.co.uk/wsimages_com/
We tend to celebrate light in our pictures. Understanding how light interacts with the camera is paramount to the work we do. The temperature, intensity and source of light can wield different photography effect on the same subject or scene; add ISO, aperture and speed, the camera, the lens type, focal length and filters…the combination is varied ad multi-layered and if you know how to use them all, you will come to appreciate that all lights are useful, even those surrounded by a lot of darkness.
We are guided by three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, our longing to capture in print, that which is beautiful, the constant search for the one picture, and constant barrage of new equipment and style of photography. These passions, like great winds, have blown us across the globe in search of the one and we do understand the one we do look for might be this picture right here for someone else out there.
“A concise poem about our work as stated elow
A place without being
a thought without thinking
creatively, two dimensions
suspended animation
possibly a perfect imitation
of what was then to see.
A frozen memory in synthetic colour
or black and white instead,
fantasy dreams in magazines
become imbedded inside my head.
Artistic views
surrealistic hues,
a photographer’s instinctive eye:
for he does as he pleases
up to that point he releases,
then develops a visual high.
- M R Abrahams
Some of the gear we use at William Stone Fine Art are listed here:
Some of our latest work & more!
Embedded galleries within a gallery on various aspects of Photography:
There are other aspects closely related to photography that we do embark on:
All prints though us is put through a rigorous set of quality control standards long before we ever ship it to your front door. We only create gallery-quality images, and you'll receive your print in perfect condition with a lifetime guarantee.
All images on Flickr have been specifically published in a lower grade quality to amber our copyright being infringed. We have 4096x pixel full sized quality on all our photos and any of them could be ordered in high grade museum quality grade and a discount applied if the voucher WS-100 is used. Please contact us:
We do plan future trips and do catalogue our past ones, if you believe there is a beautiful place we have missed, and we are sure there must be many, please do let us know and we will investigate.
In our galleries you will find some amazing fine art photography for sale as limited edition and open edition, gallery quality prints. Only the finest materials and archival methods are used to produce these stunning photographic works of art.
We want to thank you for your interest in our work and thanks for visiting our work on Flickr, we do appreciate you and the contributions you make in furthering our interest in photography and on social media in general, we are mostly out in the field or at an event making people feel luxurious about themselves.
WS-198-221100864-122487490-5875942-1772021122238
"The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and Spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our Hearts away, a sordid boon! The sea that bares her bosom to the Moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of Tune;" c. Wordsworth
Euphorbia mauritanica—golden spurge. The name "mauritanica" is a misnomer. Linnaeus, adopted the name from an earlier botanist, having no idea that the plant was from Southern Africa, about as far away from Mauretania, think Northern Morrocco, as you can get and still be in Africa. The "flower" in the photo is quite small, measuring approximately 5 mm. The plant photographed is from a private garden in Berkeley, CA.
Got as close in as I could get and cropped down to get a good shot of her face, which I hadn't seen anywhere else. It's a nice sculpt and a nice figure, but I think I'm going to be passing on her.
Going through some interesting times right now. Worrying does nothing - for better or worse. Well... it could make you go nuts, I suppose. I would rather eat my cashews, thanks.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed your journey through my brain, haha. I spoke with my dad earlier, and he said what is so true - as long as you have your health, nothing else matters in the long run. No one can take your intelligence, your experiences, your happiness. You just work with what you get and do the best you can.
This shot is from another adventure I had this weekend. I want B to get better at hiking. It is right up his alley (he has energy for days), he just thinks he needs to break world records doing it, haha. Work in progress, but we had a phenomenal time. This weather sure doesn't hurt. It is January...right? :-)
Happy Monday!
_______________
For print inquiries, please Email Me :-)
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Yes... it is a heritage unit believe it or not!
M409-28 with CSXT 1827 up front and CSXT 3469 as mid-DPU and 160 cars passes the Atlantic Coast Line station in Emporia, VA on a sunny late October day.
While like many others I do wish these units were complete with nose paint and logos we take what we can get, and while this shot was on the to do list for the ACL main portion of our Virginia trip we didn't know that we would have a "special" unit for a lead.
Hey, the fresh CSX paint and unique number are cool at least!
October 29, 2023
Twin Lakes, part of Crimson Lake Provincial Park is home to protected Sandhill Cranes. This is a mother and on the left one of two newborns she was watching over. This was as close as we could get and as soon as we were spotted, mother corralled her offspring and moved away.
I still have a lot of shots I took before vacation that I haven't processed or posted, but this one I processed while on the plan to South Carolina, so I thought I'd post it before it started feeling too "old" sitting in the outbox. ;)
Oh, and I also made an interesting discovery about Explore ... I don't know if you remember but a while back I was musing on what might be preventing me from getting in there any more. I used to get in on average 2-3 times per week and now, since Feb 23 I haven't gotten in once. A mystery!
Well it finally dawned on me that that was about the time I got an email from Flickr asking me to remove links to my website from under my photos. I actually didn't realize that that was a problem, since I feel like I've seen so many others do it (and of course didn't recall the exact terms of service from when I signed up years ago). But they threatened to close my account if I didn't remove them. So I promptly did. But, you know what? I haven't gotten into Explore since that day. From 2-3 times per week to nothing for months. Crazy, right?
Anyway, I realize now that in a way it is nice thinking that you are banned from Explore because it makes you free! I can post whenever I want without worrying about if it's an "active" time on Flickr. I can post more than one shot a day without worrying if it will dilute the number of comments I will get. I can post things that don't necessarily seem very "Explore worthy" because I don't have to worry about getting into Explore! I can stop caring about the number of comments and faves I get and just enjoy the little community of friends and colleagues that I've built up for myself over time and nurture those valued relationships more.
Now ... these are all things I would have said I already did ... but I'll admit, I did worry about them some times. Not anymore! :)
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
My old Japanese Maple that I planted in 2005 is barely hanging on to the last of its leaves........
There used to be a dogwood here, but Hurricane Katrina blew it down one day when I was at work. There was no chance to save it, as it was broken off at the ground. We had 50-60 mph winds.....
The maple was probably about four feet high when I planted it, and it has done well. It's probably as big now as it will ever get, and it's so pretty in t he Spring, Summer, and Fall.
Pasant Kitchen
Plano, TX
While I was taking pictures tonight and listing a few items on ebay to "fund" my lens lust, i noticed how clearly you could see though a big old aperture on a 50 1.4 piece of glass. This was a tough shot to get and I am think it could be better but I was also looking after my daughter at the same time.
SCL / L&N Family Lines Rail System operated C&O LIMA 4-8-4 Greenbrier J-3-a class steam locomotive # 614, is seen in pacing action southbound while leading the Safety Express passenger train along U.S. Highway 301 in North Central, Florida, February, 1981. This portion of the day did not provide the best of lighting conditions for capturing pacing action images, however, you get what you get and be glad for it.