View allAll Photos Tagged improve
HLE 1803 + TEE 88 "Watteau" (Bruxelles-Midi - Paris-Nord), Hennuyères, 2nd November 1994
This is an improved slide scan.
09784EM_C
Wukoki ruins, part of Wupatki National Monument, Arizona.
Wikipedia:
The many settlement sites scattered throughout the monument were built by the Ancient Pueblo People, more specifically the Cohonina, Kayenta Anasazi, and Sinagua. Wupatki was first inhabited around 500 AD. Wupatki, which means "Tall House" in the Hopi language, is a multistory Sinagua pueblo dwelling comprising over 100 rooms and a community room and the northernmost ballcourt ever discovered in North America, creating the largest building site for nearly 50 miles. Nearby secondary structures have also been uncovered, including two kiva-like structures.[6] A major population influx began soon after the eruption of Sunset Crater in the 11th century (between 1040 and 1100), which blanketed the area with volcanic ash, improving agricultural productivity and the soil's ability to retain water. By 1182, approximately 85 to 100 people lived at Wupatki Pueblo, but by 1225, the site was permanently abandoned. Based on a careful survey of archaeological sites conducted in the 1980s, an estimated 2,000 people moved into the area during the century following the eruption. Agriculture was based mainly on maize and squash raised on the arid land without irrigation. In the Wupatki site, the residents harvested rainwater due to the rarity of springs
Please, don`t add any pics (invite or award) without your opinion to photo! I'm not interested in that unless you write at least your comment!
I really appreciate every of your opinion, because it inspires me, helps me to see it from different view so that I can improve my photography...
Thanks a lot...!
What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.
www.millionairemindset.net/what-you-do-today-can-improve-...
This is my second and much more blatant modification of an image by painting over it. Like all ambitious projects, the early attempts are a disaster, but a great learning experience. Let me know your thoughts -positive and negative. I hope I will have the audacity to do this more and more often and hopefully improve by doing.
Much improved lighting recently, getting the angles right again at last so that everything is nicely lit. Now all I need is some time do do stuff!!
The line in the spout is a refracted image of the back of the splash.
Strobist Info : Canon Speedlite 580EX-II with light blue gel firing from about 40cm up down at 45 degrees. 430 EX-II below it firing directly into the back of the splash with a frosted perspex diffuser about 30cm in front of them. (All behind the splash).
Canon 550D with Sigma 105mm Macro Lens, F16, 0.6 sec exposure, ISO 100. Flashes and drops triggered with a 'Time Machine' www.bmumford.com/photo/waterdrops/index.html
Try it : Large On Black
Carousel Buses
Volvo B7TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini
WVL26 - LG02KJE
Seen at the Carousel depot this afternoon to which I have finally found a use for my old Carousel blind which I was given 4 years ago!
Tell you what though, I don't envy those engineers who have to continually fit blinds to fleets of vehicles day in, day out. Got about three different cuts on my hands and couldn't get the blind round the 'taught' rollers at the top and bottom so simply wound it round the main rollers. I imagine the former pop out somehow, but I couldn't work out how!
So although I set out with about 4 blinds to put in the vehicle to display things like A40 Heathrow, this was the only snap I got!
The blind is still with me and not left in the vehicle because I don't want to lose my blind should the vehicle suddenly be taken one day.
You can see behind WVL26 the Tridents which are soon to be sold as they are no longer DDA-complaint. There is also 'death row' of which you can see 415; 101 and 417 also form this line - these are all to be scrapped.
Been a busy boy, I have set up my Marketplace store, an in-world group, Flickr group and finished two shapes, Chase and Bentley. Really pleased how they turned out!! Let me know what you think in the comments, always looking for thoughts on how to improve! marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/192272
Best on black.
I am once again way behind on my thank you's! So to all my flickr friends ... THANK YOU for a taking a moment out of your day to view my photos and leave such kind and generous comments, awards, and favs!! I do greatly appreciate it!! You make me feel good about my photography and it makes me want to continue to try to improve :)
Seneca Improved View 5x7 + 4x5 reducing back, Buhl Optical 9" (229mm) f/3.6, Old Workhorse collodion, 4x5 Tintype
f/3.6, 10 seconds
I leaned a mirror against a table on my balcony for this. I pre-focused on my raised hand approximately where my head would be. Head shook too much during exposure but focus/exposure were pretty good, surprisingly. Check out my blue gloves that turned white, haha.
Feel free to leave suggestions on how to improve this figure
Name: Maxwell Dillon
Villain
Universe Details: An electrical engineer once employed by Oscorp. Gained his powers from an accident in which a particle destabilizer he was working on for Oscorp malfunctions sending an electric shock through his body activating his dormant mutant gene. Electro’s only hate is towards Normon Osborn, as his salary kept his mother on life support. Being thought dead, his mother was eventually taken off life support and died. Electro has nothing in particular against Spider-Man, in fact he respects him as a “true” super hero. Though, he will not hold back against Spider-Man if he gets in the way of his plan.
I’m interested in the silent shutter for lunar and planetary images because eliminating mechanical shutter wear could free me to improve the quality of my images by taking many more frames and getting better lucky images for stacking when atmospheric seeing isn't at it’s best. Because the extra noise introduced by the electronic rolling shutter used for silent shutter images is far below the eight bit resolution offered by compressed images, I decided to compare the quality of processed images taken with the two techniques as well as the original images.
These images are from my first night out with the a6300 which was at prime focus on a Questar f15 1400/89mm telescope. Images were take at ISO 200 for 1/50 sec. I took about 40 images each with the mechanical shutter (with the electronic first curtain shutter option to minimize vibration) and with the fully electronic silent shutter. The quality of the images was auto graded and the best 8 were selected from each batch. Because of the wide, half degree, field of view atmospheric seeing can cause mirage like distortions of the Moon’s surface. This isn’t a problem for small area shots of the Moon or planetary images because of the smaller field of view. For full disk Moon images, the results of stacking are improved if each image is geometrically normalized before stacking. I use Nebulosity’s 8 parameter affine transformation. The cost of this is that each frame takes about one hour to align. This translates to a practical limit of 8 images for an overnight alignment run. Processing consisted of deconvolution and wavelet processing in Lynkeos to recover resolution lost to the atmosphere and diffraction in the small, 89mm objective, telescope. The exposure curves are then adjusted to enhance contrast and slightly boost saturation in Photoshop.
One way to see the quality of the low intensity data near the noise floor is to examine the terminator region. You can see detail extend into the dark part of the moon in the processed images. The post processing of the two images was similar, but not identical. As you can see in the raw images there were slight differences in exposure although the camera settings were the same except for the silent shutter setting. These may be because of the silent shutter or differences in transparency of the sky between the two sets of exposures.
My current thoughts on astrophotography with the a6300 so far are as follows.
Measurements that I’ve seen of the images of the electronic silent rolling shutter on the Sony a7 series cameras show about a stop of increase in noise at low ISO speed compared to the mechanical shutter.
For dim targets like DSOs where noise must be minimized and relatively few, long exposure, images are stacked - the mechanical shutter is clearly a win.
For small bright targets like planets where resolution must be maximized and cropped video is frequently used, the extra noise in video capture (or wide FOV silent shutter shots) isn’t an issue. Stacking more images can reduce noise and the video codecs don’t capture the full raw dynamic range in any case. Video (or silent shutter for the widest FOV) works well to capture the thousands of frames that are preferred, without mechanical wear on the shutter mechanism.
Full disk images of the moon are an in between case. The images are bright and the number that I stack is limited by the long processing time for the affine geometric normalization. I’d like to have more full disk images to choose from, without wearing out my mechanical shutter. From my results so far it seems that to see a difference that silent shutter makes in quality of the final result takes pixel peeping and may be mostly due to seeing and transparency variation.
Is progress truly progress? How do you improve upon perfection? Not once have I ever worried about getting dust on the Sensor, when changing lenses.
Not just any camera. Why?
Back to real photography . . . No batteries required!
Manual everything.
Whether you realise it or not, regardless which brand camera you are loyal to, THIS CAMERA, that is the Nikon F, was the father to all Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras that followed.
I searched long and hard for this pristine example. Easily looked at 100 cameras. It is 99.9% perfect, though 54 years old.
I first saw war correspondents, during the Vietnam Conflict with the Nikon F strapped around their necks. This camera spawned my enduring interest in Nikon.
The Nikon F 35mm film camera was introduced, April 1959 and was Nikon's first SLR camera. My camera was manufactured by Nippon Kogaku K. K., Japan, between July and September 1967.
The March 1959 Philadelphia trade show (Master Photo Dealers and Finishers Association Convention) of the Photo Marketing Association saw the US introduction of three new top brand Japanese SLR lines: the Minolta SR-2 with 55/1.8 and a list price of $249.50, the Canon Canonflex with 50/2 and a list price of $299.95, and the Nikon F with a 50/2 had a list price of $359.50, which costs more, today, unless it is in poor condition.
The Nikon F was the first Japanese SLR to have a lens lineup from 21mm to 1000mm.
The Nikon F was the first 35mm SLR with 100% Viewfinder.
The Nikon F was the first 35mm SLR with Mirror lock up.
The Nikon F was the first 35mm SLR with interchangeable focusing screens.
There were many firsts, in the Nikon F.
The Nikon F was superseded in 1972, by the Nikon F2 series, after a production total of 862,600 to 1,051,051 bodies, less about 90,000 Serial Numbers reserved for the (Nikon S3M range finder camera bodies).
The Nikon F marketed and sold exclusively for the German market were branded Nikkor F.
Here are some very good articles about the birth of the Nikon F-
imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-f/
imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-f/index.htm
www.casualphotophile.com/2018/04/27/nikon-f-retrospective/
time.com/3667583/korean-war-photos-david-douglas-duncan/
www.mikeeckman.com/2017/08/nikon-f-1966/
www.nzgeo.com/photography/nikon-f/
Note: This camera and lens were pre-owned. When I decide to purchase pre-owned photographic equipment, it must look this well maintained and cared for, plus function perfectly, or I am not interested. Can you imagine this camera is 54 years old? I estimate that is was assembled on Tuesday, September 12, 1967, when approximately 158.7143 cameras were assembled every working day.
$306.27 AUD Nikon F camera body cost
$423.50 AUD Nikkor-SC Auto f=55mm 1:1.2 lens with HS-3 Lens Hood, Nikon L-1A Lens Filter cost
$22.00 AUD Nikon Nippon Kogaku 52mm J.U.M. 515,897 Lens Cap cost
$48.00 Nikon AR-1 cost
As I did not purchase everything all at once, I didn't notice the cost, so much. I examined many samples and asked a lot of questions, before I settled on these items. And, I just waited until what I wanted became available.
You may wonder why I did not go for a black edition. I could not be 100% assured it had not been like mine, but painted black. Many of the black Nikon F camera bodies are brassed all along the edges and very few examples are as nice as mine. Lastly, the black version commands a ridiculous price for exactly the same camera, except they are black. I just like the finish and contrasting black leatherette of mine. Refer to this weblink- www.destoutz.ch/typ_finish.html#black
So, you may wonder why I did not go for a later model "Nikon "Apollo" F. All slick advertizing by U.S. camera retailers, back in the day and plastic bits on the Rewind Lever and Self-Timer Lever. Also, it has a later Focusing Screen and an Eye Level View Finder that will accept diopter correction lenses, as well as Type 2 threaded flash sync terminal. The only difference that I can see between the two Nikon F and the "Apollo", is on the flash contact: the early 7303xxx has white insulating plastic on the flash connection and the late 7444xxx has black insulating plastic. Are the cosmetic changes worth more to me? No, quite the opposite. I wanted the bulletproof version, like what was used during the Vietnam war.
As a perfect counter balance to this gem, I use a Sekonic Studio Deluxe II L-389M Light Meter that does not require batteries.
I have found using this combination has made me much more careful and thoughtful as a photographer. Actually have to plan and think about camera settings and equivalent exposures before taking your shots.
A gentle reminder about copyright and intellectual property-
Ⓒ Cassidy Photography (All images in this Flickr portfolio)
The Mineral Range train swings past the old Lloyd Mine on its way east. Recent trackwork is evident with new ties and ballast, a breath of fresh air for this line that has suffered deferred maintenance for the last several decades. May 26, 2015.
Part of the ruins from Bomarsund fortress on the Åland islands in the middle of the Baltic Sea. It's guns were obsolete by the time it was completed and the Russian garrison was rather easily conquered by the superior field guns of the French and English in the Summer of 1854. The victors destroyed the fortress to prevent it from being improved upon as it commanded a strategic point on the shipping route. A lesser known part of the Crimean War.
When doing the jogging stroller, I came up with a better solution for the cargo bike I made three years ago:
Look at little apple hanging out with MPatrizio's pear in Chery's stream! Don't they look so happy together? :)
www.flickr.com/photos/cheri-berry/484384427/in/set-721575...
After waiting 3 days for the weather to improve, the storm finally pushed off to the East and Saturday, October 30th dawned crystal clear on Rich Mountain!
Now while Rich Mtn is certainly scenic, I guess I am spoiled by the vast open areas around Western Colorado and Eastern Utah as there just isn't that many places around this area to shoot that aren't 3/4 "wedgies":{
One of the better locations is this slight S-curve and many thanks to Flickr member "The Wheeling Feeling" for clearing this area out so at least 8 or so railfans could cram into the bushes to get this shot:}
A pair of SD70ACe's head South with a loaded Grain near near the Oklahoma/Arkansas border with Big Creek (that isn't looking so big!) in the background.
Waves breaking on Roker Pier.
With the growth of Sunderland as a port in the 19th Century, it was decided to improve the approach to the river by creating an outer harbour, protected by a new pair of new breakwaters curving out into the North Sea from the shore on each side. The foundation stone for the New North Pier (Roker Pier) was laid on 14 September 1885. Applauded at the time as a triumph of engineering, the 2,000 ft (610 m) pier is built of granite-faced concrete blocks, which were manoeuvred into place by a gas-powered crane nicknamed 'Goliath'. The lighthouse at the pier head was completed in 1903. Its distinctive stripes are of naturally coloured red and white Aberdeen granite. When built it was said to be Britain's most powerful port lighthouse. It still functions today; indeed both lighthouse and pier have undergone significant refurbishment in recent years.
With it's new 'Improving Your Railway' lettering, Network Rail HST, 43014 'The Railway Observer' brings up the rear as 43062 leads the New Measurement Train passed Alderton forming 0555 Old Oak Common to Derby on 29th April 2016
Seneca Improved View 5x7, Osaka 120mm f/6.3, New Guy Collodion (3 months old), 5x7 glass negative
I think my problems are coming down to developer. I can seem to make clean plates just fine and get an image. I think I'm just not developing properly. I got a developer recipe from someone who recently did it successfully (on their first try!). Will try again eventually.
Now... to wipe these plates and try again.
Follow murphyz: Photoblog | Twitter | Google+ | 500px | Instagram
Today is a special day.
First up, it’s the 4 year birthday of my photoblog, www.murphyz.co.uk. 4 years ago today I started posting images there, and after a month of daily posting I cut back to Monday thru Friday of posting a new image, so just 5 per week instead of 7. That has continued throughout. Through busy schedules, illness, travel and various other distractions, I have somehow managed to post an image without fail during the whole of that period.
I think that’s pretty awesome.
I've learnt a lot in the past 4 years, and improved greatly. I've met some amazing people, and made some great friends. I've also changed as a person. From someone who never used to like to travel, I've started to do a lot more of that. 4 years ago when I started the blog I had visited 5 foreign countries; by the time I finish the trip I'm currently on that total will be 34 countries…and that’s due to photography.
However, it’s now at an end. As the title of this post suggests, I will not…indeed I can not…continue to do the same. I’m not sure I’m learning anything through posting daily. I’m no longer finding that I am enjoying it in the same way as I used to either. Sure, I love being out there and taking photos, I love processing them, and I love to share them – however I can do all of that without having to post daily. There were too many times last year when I felt I had to post just for the sake of posting, and my heart wasn’t in those particular images. There’s one thing for creating something and sharing it because you want to, but it’s another thing when you are just going through the motions and creating something because you feel you have to. Quality suffers as a result.
I also want to free up more time to do other things. Work takes up a large portion of my life, and much of my ‘spare’ time in the past year has been travelling. In between those and trying to maintain some sort of social life I had tried to fit in photography and daily posting of images. That doesn’t leave time for much else, and there are lots of projects I wish to work on. If I can free up the hours I spend on processing and apply these elsewhere, I think that would be a great thing.
It’s not the end completely. I will still be posting images, they just won’t be daily any more. Chances are, if you follow me on the social network sites instead of the blog itself, then you may not notice any difference as I don’t post all of my images on sites other than my blog. However, I can’t guarantee when I’m posting. It won’t be daily, it may not even be weekly or monthly. I guess it just depends on how I feel, what I’m up to, where I go, and those kinds of things.
In one way it will be sad to stop. Part of me thinks ‘give it another year’ as 5 years seems like a better number to end on. However, as I’m typing this I’m feeling pretty pleased by it.
For the next 10 days I’m going to be spending time in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand – so the chances are these will be the next images you see from me once I’ve returned.
See you soon.
>> View the daily photoblog
Learned a few new Photo shop portrait tricks this morning and reworked my profile picture. It is much improved.
A very big THANK YOU to www.flickr.com/photos/mddog/
for vastly improving my picture. And if you want to see some really great pics you must visit his stream.
1365 mm
Canon Powershot SX70 HS
-
Yes, Zoomer (bridge-cameras) need ample Light.
==============================
Excellent IBIS - 5.0 stops
Super Bildstabilisierung (5 Stufen besser für die verwacklungsfreie Belichtung)
Enhanced basic functionality for quicker, easier Shooting
with Dual Sensing IS* aka DS.
Intelligent IS mit Dual Sensing IS und 5-achsigem Advanced Dynamic IS
up to five stops better
(SX70 5.0 stops)
(SX60 3.5 stops)
IBIS, In Body image stabilizer,
-
With the addition of a new eye sensor,
the camera automatically switches to the EVF display simply by bringing the camera up to the eye.
The PowerShot SX70 HS is capable of continuous shooting at up to
10 fps with One Shot AF
and Servo AF up to 7,4 fps,
ensuring that you will not miss picture-perfect moments in sports, wildlife, or any other scenes with fast-moving subjects.
With improved Contrast AF, focus is established quickly even in dark scenes.
Zoom Framing Assist: Supports setting of angle-of-view during telephoto shooting
On the PowerShot SX70 HS, telephoto shooting is supported by three Zoom Framing Assist functions:
Zoom Framing Assist – Lock
Reduces camera shake at the telephoto end. On the PowerShot SX70 HS, this function has been enhanced with Support for subject tracking, allowing you to shoot at the intended angle-of-view.
Zoom Framing Assist – Seek
Helps you to reacquire lost subjects by temporary zooming out, finding the subject, and then zooming in onto it at the original angle-of-view.
Zoom Framing Assist – Auto
Detects an approaching face and automatically adjusts the zoom to keep the face at a constant size on the screen.
Hersteller:
Canon
Modell:
PowerShot SX70 HS
Die neue Premium-Bridge-Kamera von Canon
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Kameratyp:
Bridge
Markteinführung:
11 / 2018
Gewicht:
608g (betriebsbereit)
UVP:
549,00 Euro
-
Serienbilder pro Sekunde:
10,0 Bilder pro Sekunde
-
Sucher:
Ja
Suchertyp:
elektronisch
Sucherauflösung:
2.360.000 Bildpunkte
Bildfeldabdeckung:
100%
Dioptrienausgleich möglich:
Ja
-
ISO Empfindlichkeit:
100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
Auto ISO: 100 - 800
Featuring DSLR-style looks and handling, a 7.5 Vari-Angle LCD screen, 20.3 Megapixel sensor and 4K Ultra High Definition video, the
Canon PowerShot SX70 HS is an ideal all-in-one camera,
capable of handling all types of shooting scenario, without the need to carry multiple lenses.
Bessere haptische Bedienung: wie DSLR EOS Bedienung
Am leistungsfähigen Sucher orientiert +
Zoom-Wippe auf dem Objektiv
The PowerShot SX70 HS inherits the
design of EOS cameras and features a button layout optimised for EVF shooting.
Controls such as the shutter button, electronic dials and zoom button on the lens barrel have also been designed to ensure optimum ease-of-use during viewfinder shooting.
-
In addition to sharp JPEGs, the Canon PowerShot SX70 HS can capture images in
RAW or compact RAW format,
opening a world of professional post-production techniques, providing limitless ways to impress with optimised photographs.
CMOS-Sensor 1/2,3" 6,2 x 4,6 mm (Cropfaktor 5,6)
Just got back from my 2nd Colombia trip this year. This is one of the shot I got from Alexandria Farm near Cali.
A shot taken from Portencross, looking across to the Isle of Arran. The light rays breaking through the clouds were stunning, although I don't think I captured it very well---not sure what I could have done to improve it either ;-/
The same lessons that led to the development of the M-72AB Zastava Zmey were applied to some of the JNA's other armored vehicles. That is to say, the omnipresence of incredibly mature anti-tank munitions and countermeasures left many of Yugoslavia's vehicles exposed to lethal threats during the Second Eastern European War. Indeed, despite what many contemporaneous public reports stated, this rebuke of Yugoslavia's armored forces was felt most heavily among those that rode and served in the M-81A Ipabogs. Rather than being designed for sustained confined warfare, the Ipabog was meant to ambush and overwhelm. This discrepancy in modus operandi would come to haunt the JNA during the war's peak.
To rectify these concerns, the Ministry of Defense once again turned to Zastava Arms (hence the new designation) to create a suite of applique for the M-81 series. Many of the improvements and additions are simply commonsense items: explosive reactive armor, a dozer blade, hardened underbelly, slat armor, and an active protection system. Although many of these add-ons obviously improve the overall protection of the vehicle writ large, particular emphasis was paid to the troop bay in the rear--if the dismounts can arrive in good health, then they can offer 360-degree protection for their respective vehicles. Whether or not this idea translates to reality has yet to be seen. Indeed, it appears that NATO is doing its utmost to see that Belgrade never has a chance to use its new toys. Still, that hasn't stopped the Balkan nation from stirring up trouble in the past, so the future might be bathed in red as well.
Belated joint upload with Evan's HQ-7C SHORAD and Brian's Boeing "Shabh" Multirole Fighter.
Improved version of the TLA-SA No.1. It has a shorter stock, longer handguard (way too long now that I look at it), thicker midsection, and old-style sights.
Not as good as the first one, IMO.
--------------------------------
HEY OVER HERE! FOLLOW THE DAMN LINK!
A version that looks better then this one: www.flickr.com/photos/skproductions/5523607903/in/photost...
So I tried to improve this shot to meet the highest quality standards for blogging. I got the kitchen table, the trashcan, but I don't have any cat so I added a rabbit plushie instead. Hoping this still count as valid.
Building instructions available freely here. I strongly advise to have a look at it before doing anything.
Credits inside the building instructions. Enjoy!
Note: it is a non-purist model that contains 4 LEGO compatible technic metal axles from Dark ice designs (UK manufacturer). More details in the building instructions.
The recently completed redeveloped Greenwich Point ferry wharf at sunset on Sydney harbour. Shot on Cammeraygal country.
A moral-licensing-motivated improved rebuild of an old MOC out of the goodness of my heart for an online nagger pressing me for instrukshuns.
This was and is the last time I try to be nice to randos.
View large.
Special NOTE: On Feb. 8, 2012 I attached a comment, readable & easily discoverable on Page 2 of the comments below, that details the vast corporatist scheme, fronted by Jeb Bush, financed in part with hundreds of millions from Rupert Murdoch (FOX nooze), to privatize American public education & reduce it to 'virtual' schools - not to improve anything (as national & international educational research studies clearly show), but rather to become the final recipients of the taxes people pay so that they can skim huge profits off of the top while providing grotesquely inferior services & lots of lying propaganda to keep the public bamboozled. I beg everyone to read the report.
The McGuffey's Ecclectic Spelling Book was published in 1879.
Raymond Cyrus Hoiles (1878-1970) founded Freedom Communications, a newspaper publishing & broadcasting company that has never hesitated to shape the news to fit right wing ideology. When Hoiles was alive & roaring I lived in Orange County, California, home of the equally right wing Walt Disney & Walter Knott, & was frequently compelled to suffer people who agreed with Hoiles' constantly editorialized insistence that public education was a form of theft & communism that must at once be got rid of. Hoiles was motivated by his fundamentalist Christian persuasions, & quite serious. We should restrain our laughter at the abysmal stupidity of his example, because in many ways he & people like him won & are still winning control of public education. - To introduce the article below, I'll say a little about the Christian strategy.
For many years Orange County's teachers worked under a Draconian ruling that forbade the teaching of values. There is no way around the fact, however, that the statement, "Values may not be taught," is itself a value statement belonging to a class of propositions known as Epimenidean Paradoxes. A comparably illustrative sentence would be, "This is not a sentence." Or, a favorite of the best hypnotists, used when addressing a resistant subject, "Do not obey any instruction which I give you."
What, then, was intended by those who created the paradoxical Orange County law? Well, if any teacher dared to say or imply something that would be disagreeable to any person whose beliefs began & ended with church, flag & free-for-all capitalism, then that teacher could be charged with teaching values & be suspended. One family friend, a young man teaching at an elementary school in Anaheim, was charged, hounded, publicly disgraced, threatened with death & discharged from his post, immediately after which he died from a heart attack. The case was depicted in Life Magazine. His only crime was that he was Jewish. His wife, also a teacher, remained bereft & embittered the rest of her long life.
These people became increasingly invisible over time, largely by devising ever more clever ways for gaining control of both education policy & the public dialogue about education.
Ralph Reed, working for Pat Robertson & the Christian Coalition, devised the "stealth agenda" to place fundamentalists in every local school board in America. The plan helped select & fund candidates, who in accord with Reed's instructions never mentioned their religion or religious connections when campaigning for office. In 1983 Reed rigged an election at his university - he got started early, in other words. Recently we learned that Mr. Reed & Jack Abramoff were associate crooks. The revelation forced Reed to abandon his run to become the lieutenant governor of Georgia. Mr. Reed will not disappear, however. He remains a darling of the far Christian right, & owns Century Strategies, a dirty-tricks political consulting & lobbying organization. In 1999 Karl Rove got reed a nice contract with Enron, which was paying Reed $30,000 per month. And guess who recently went to Georgia to try to save poor Reed? Rudy Giuliani, who has the hots to be the next U.S. president & is pandering to the Christians so he can be their new burning Bush.
Stealthiness did not go away when the Christian Coalition folded & Reed went off on his own to rig elections for big bucks. Rather, the stealth moved into policy matters. For instance, all the phony propaganda claiming religious & private education is more successful, creating the excuse to promote vouchers (for which the motives are both religious & racist). Or, most recently, Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which was sought by the Christians not because they believed all the testing of students would lead to improved education, but rather because they wanted teachers to be made too busy preparing students for endless tests about facts to find time to do the great evil thing, which is the teaching of concepts. Teaching concepts leads to teaching logic, scientific & other academic methodologies which by their nature instill respect for critical - read, skeptical - thinking. Dogmatists, advertisers & con men have equal cause to fear skepticism.
-------------------------
From: Truthdig.com
Taking Back Our Schools--and Fixing Them
Full text with links: www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060425_taking_back_our_sch...
Posted on Apr. 25, 2006
By Wellford Wilms
The recent news reported in The New York Times that schools are throwing out science, social studies and art to make time for drilling students in remedial math and reading is a sign of things gone terribly wrong. Former New York State Commissioner of Education Thomas Sobol told the Times that narrowing education to just math and reading would be akin to restricting violin students to playing scales day after day. “They’d lose their zest for music.” But most schools that serve poor populations, like those in Cuero, Texas, are squeezed to meet federal math and reading standards. Cuero Superintendent Henry Lind told the paper, “When you have so many hours per day and you’re behind in some area that’s being hammered on, you have to work on that.”
But by the looks of things, hammering students for higher test scores isn’t making much of a difference. Most students have already lost their zest for learning. How do we know? In Los Angeles, upwards of 50% of Latino and African American students never finish high school. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ve been a professor of education at UCLA for more than 25 years and am convinced that despite the fads that come and go, nothing has put a dent in the public schools’ failure to educate inner-city children. In fact, things are getting worse. But I am also convinced that we’ve been looking in the wrong places for solutions. My own research across a wide array of organizations—corporations, trade unions, public schools, colleges, teacher unions and police agencies—suggests another way of looking at the problem and that solutions will come from a new direction.
This essay is a proposition—one that I hope will spark a lively debate among Truthdig readers and inform policy leaders. Future essays will examine Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign to take over the public schools, analyze whether teacher unions can be a force for productive change, and expose promising ways to rebuild public investment in the schools.
Let’s start with Jonathan Kozol’s new book, “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.” It is a scathing indictment of American social policy that banned racial segregation in public schools in 1955 and then turned a blind eye to its implementation. Today, Kozol says, schools are more segregated than ever. But he fails to explain why resegregation has occurred. Because Kozol overlooks the root causes of the problem, his solutions—spending more money on dysfunctional schools and wishing for a social mandate to desegregate the schools—miss the point.
To be sure the problems are undeniable. Kozol examines the appalling condition of big-city schools. In school after school we see children who are brimming with potential but who are walled off from the larger society and abandoned by the schools. Most middle-class white Americans simply cannot comprehend the horrid schools that Kozol describes. Ceilings fall in, toilets are filthy, libraries, music and arts have been stripped away. Teachers in these schools, who are paid 40% less than teachers in the suburbs, are forced to teach “scripted” lessons that are written for children who are deemed incapable of learning.
It is all part of the latest reform pushed by the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind initiative, a reform aimed at the singular pursuit of increasing test scores. Learning has been stripped of its intrinsic meaning and reduced to simplistic steps—“Authentic Writing,” “Active Listening,” “Accountable Talk”—that hamper teachers in teaching anything but how to take a test. Behind it all is an attempt to impose control, much as mass production techniques were used a century ago, to standardize instruction to fit new immigrants to the system.
Meanwhile, millions of children are failing. In nearly half of the high schools in America’s 100 largest districts, fewer than 50% of students graduate in four years. Most of these students are from poor Latino and African-American families. And from 1993 to 2000 the number of failing schools has mushroomed by 75%. Mayor Villaraigosa calls Los Angeles’ high dropout rates “numbers that should put a chill down your spine.”
The reasons, Kozol argues, are lack of money and racial discrimination that produce inferior and segregated schools. No doubt this is partly true. We have tried to desegregate the schools for a half-century and failed. Middle-class white parents have voted for individual freedom with their feet, enrolling their children in private schools, leaving the public schools more segregated than ever. The same is true for middle-class black families. Gail Foster, an educator who has studied black independent schools, was quoted in 2004 in The New York Times as saying: “Many of the most empowered parents and families are removing their children. What’s left, in even working-class communities, are schools filled with the least empowered families. Families with the least parent involvement to offer, families with the least help with homework to offer. There’s been a continual outflow for at least 10 years, and it isn’t stopping now.”
More money is not the answer either. Kozol points to wide disparities in educational expenditures ranging from $11,700 per student in New York City to $22,000 in suburban Manhasset. Disturbing as that is, study after study shows that equalizing money does not necessarily equalize learning.
In 1966, sociologist James Coleman conducted the most extensive study ever made of desegregating education and found that what mattered most in students’ learning was the economic status of their peers rather than the racial makeup of the school. He also found that school funding was not closely related to students’ achievement—their families’ economic status was far more predictive. Coleman’s findings were controversial and led to a bitter debate, but they have been replicated many times. Daniel Patrick Moynihan summed it up best when he commented shortly after Coleman’s groundbreaking study, “We should begin to see that the underlying reality is not race but social class.”
Since social class matters because money follows privilege, and since desegregation will take generations to eradicate, what can be done now? Are poor children doomed to attend grossly inadequate schools? Surely not. We must find ways to remove the influences that have crippled the schools. Money must be diverted from bloated bureaucracies that snuff out innovation. Instead it must go directly to schools where principals and teachers can influence what is taught and what children learn, and help bring parents back into the fold. Otherwise, it is going down a rat hole.
Parents have a significant role to play in their children’s education, but their voices have been largely silenced. Over the last 40 years, we have witnessed the decline of civic involvement and the growing dominance of self-interest over the greater good, a social deterioration that sociologist Robert Putnam calls “hollowing out” in his 2000 book “Bowling Alone.” One result, as the old saying goes, is that “the rich get richer” and the poor fall ever further behind in crumbling schools.
Over the last 25 years, education in general has been taken from ordinary citizens and teachers by politicians, administrators, union leaders, publishers, test makers, consultants, university professors, hardware and software developers and the media, each playing its part in keeping alive the illusion of reform. All in all, this $1-trillion industry has replaced the common interest, and no one, it seems, can muster the will to rein it in.
Local control is only a dim memory. Decisions now come from the top—from the federal and state governments, school boards and high-level administrators who have little knowledge of what goes on in the classroom. Teachers are left out of these decisions, carrying on the best they can, safe in the assumption that the newest fad, like those before it, will blow over. Parents are all but forgotten.
While command-and-control management may seem to produce results in the short run, it strips schools of the capacity to develop the stable leadership that is necessary to sustain success. Principals are besieged with demands from district offices and from the educational fads that emanate from publishers and university researchers. Many principals know that they put their careers in peril unless they do what their bosses want. One elementary school principal told me, “District directives undermine our own abilities to think for ourselves, to believe in what we see and know.” When schools discover something that works, it is rarely sustained because they lack authority or stable leadership.
In 1969 when I worked for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, I monitored the schools in impoverished Ocean Hill-Brownsville in New York City. The local school board hired a charismatic superintendent, who fired incompetent teachers and hired young and idealistic ones. The firings set the local board at odds with the huge teachers’ union, which demanded due process for the fired teachers. The superintendent, Rhody McCoy, was convinced that good teachers had to respect the children they taught. He put it in plain words: “If you’re convinced that this kid is doomed by nature or by something else to lead a shrunken and curtailed life, then you’re basically incompetent to teach that child.” The experiment worked. Observing classrooms left no doubt in my mind that students were learning. Eager first-graders sat attentively on the floor in semicircles shouting out answers to fraction problems and reading aloud. The schools buzzed with excitement as parent helpers streamed in and out of classrooms. But in a bitter power struggle the board seized authority and the experiment ended.
Years later, in 1985, Deborah Meier, a passionate educator who founded Harlem’s Central Park East Secondary School, achieved stunning successes that led the school to be celebrated as a model alternative school in Time magazine. But it could not be sustained beyond Meier’s unique leadership. Today, 10 years after Meier left, a respected children’s advocacy group, Insideschools and Advocates for Children, reports that the Harlem school “…has fallen on hard times in recent years with rapid staff turnover, low staff morale and uneven discipline.”
In risk-averse environments like public schools, few principals will stick out their necks, because they don’t want to buck the bosses downtown. Courageous and visionary principals like Rhody McCoy and Deborah Meier keep coming. But charismatic leadership is no match for heavy-handed district management, which always wins out.
Take Foshay Learning Center in Los Angeles, for example. In 1989, Howard Lappin took over a failing middle school. With the help of teachers and an infusion of money, Lappin wrested control from the district and transformed Foshay. The school expanded into a K-12 “learning center” and became largely autonomous of the district’s bureaucratic requirements. Teachers and administrators decided who would be hired and what would be taught. Foshay succeeded, and in 2000 its high school was selected by Newsweek as one of the 100 best in America. But in 2001 Lappin retired, and his unique leadership was lost. Today Foshay is being threatened with sanctions by the district and the county because gains in students’ test scores have stalled. As the school has fallen under the district’s “one-size-fits all” bureaucratic requirements, the impact has been to undermine the once vibrant teacher leadership that made the school so enviable.
The problem with public education is not with the teachers, or with the children, but the way we organize the schools. Probably the greatest casualties are teachers themselves, who are forced to accept decisions by authorities about teaching that they know to be nonsense. One professor interviewed by Kozol said that forcing an absurdity on teachers teaches something: acquiescence. For example, in study after study, teachers report that relying on test scores as sole marks of student achievement and teaching scripted lessons destroy students’ natural love of learning. And such practices also erode teachers’ professional authority, which is fundamental to student learning.
Why is it so hard to foster the only kind of reform that really works, which is right in the schoolhouse? Because politicians, school board members and administrators are under intense pressure to produce immediate results, i.e., higher and higher test scores—a goal that is pursued through directives from districts with little input of principals, teachers and parents. Superintendents serve at the pleasure of school boards, and most board members are elected or appointed and have limited terms of office. As test scores have become the measure of educational quality, everyone is under immense pressure to show fast results or be turned out.
No wonder that school boards hire superintendents who promise to deliver quick results. But few do. Superintendents last on average only three or four years. Many are thwarted by outmoded bureaucracies that were designed a century ago using top-down control practiced in American industry to mass-produce learning. Within these organizations, power has quietly accumulated, making them all but impervious to outside influence. Sid Thompson, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, told me: “Trying to change the district is like trying to change the direction of a fast-moving freight train. You might knock it off course for a moment, but before you know it it’s rattling right down the tracks again.”
Frustration and suspicion about who might emerge from the shadows to sabotage their plans often lead superintendents to jealously guard their power. In 2002, Day Higuchi, then president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the Los Angeles teacher union, had high hopes for working with the school district’s new “can-do” superintendent, Roy Romer. Higuchi hoped that Romer would endorse a new union initiative called Lesson Study, a plan to help teachers work collectively to improve classroom lessons. At a breakfast meeting that I attended, Higuchi presented Romer with an invitation to work with the union to develop and spread Lesson Study across the district. When Higuchi finished, Romer flipped over his paper placemat and with a red felt pen drew a box with an S in it. “That’s me,” he said. Beneath he drew 11 boxes with smaller s’s in them, representing the 11 local superintendents, and below that, a number of small boxes with roofs, representing schools and teachers. Then, pulling his face near to Higuchi’s, he drew bold red arrows pointing downward from the top. Romer jabbed his pen in the air to accentuate each word: “You cannot usurp my authority to manage this district!” It was a dumbfounding moment, one that revealed the true underside of the use of power. Here was a chance for a new superintendent to forge a small but significant step with the union, but Romer, who recently announced his resignation, explained that he was “in a hurry.” He clearly had little time for ideas that were at odds with his own. In the end his refusal to work with the union undermined the possibility of creating a broader base of power that could transcend self-interest.
Nor are the unions exempt from self-interest. A few years ago I helped establish a national group of union presidents called TURN (Teacher Union Reform Network) who were dedicated to remaking their unions as forces to improve education. One way was to cooperate with administrators and encourage teachers to use their classroom know-how to redesign teaching at the schoolhouse. But hostility and mistrust run deep. The union leaders became nervous, fearing that fellow unionists would attack them for “collaborating” with the enemy and that if the effort to collaborate failed they would share the blame. Don Watley, president of the New Mexico Federation of Educational Employees, commented: “It’s like the Normandy landing. We’ve got the best troops in the world. We’ve got the best officers in the world. And we’ve got the best equipment in the world. But at 0800 when we hit the beach half of us are going to get killed!” Sadly, in the years to come, the ingrained mistrust, and the unpredictable dance of union politics, prevented these unionists from becoming a positive force in educational reform. Instead, they have been reduced to stockpiling power, much as the Soviets and Americans stockpiled nuclear weapons during the Cold War, to oppose any hostile moves the other side might make.
So what can be done to break the standoff between teacher unions and districts? How can teachers’ professional authority be restored? How can parents be awakened and brought back into the fold? Experience shows that it can be done. Schools such as Harlem’s Central Park East Secondary, Los Angeles’ Foshay Learning Center, those in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, and many others attest to the fact that schools can be made into safe places where children learn. Sustaining them is the hard part.
There is little doubt that trying to build good schools with command-and-control management doesn’t work. School boards, superintendents and union officials need to clear the obstacles—unnecessary bureaucratic requirements and outmoded work rules—to make innovation at the schoolhouse possible. These top-level educational leaders also must make resources available to support new ways of teaching. Jonathan Kozol has it right. Teaching is the only reform that counts and it can be done only at the schoolhouse by teachers, principals, parents and students working together.
Turning school districts upside down will also mean turning a century of top-down management on its head. But where is such bold leadership to be found? One promising place is among big-city mayors. But they must resist trying to take over the schools, as they did in New York, Chicago and Boston with mixed results at best. Instead, popular mayors could use their influence and visibility to tell the truth about the condition of education and to build a popular consensus about how change must occur.
In the next essay I am going to examine what mayors can do. Waiting for the schools to be saved by someone else is nonsense. Only concerted local action offers a chance. Doubters should recall Margaret Mead’s observation: “Never doubt that a small group of concerned people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2006 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
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Just a bit of an update. I had planned to be back earlier, but I managed to hurt my back over the weekend and have been trying to get everything back in sync. I’ve had my old back brace on for the past two days trying to get my spine back into alignment and it appears to have been successful. I am feeling much better and having no pain at the moment. I took the brace off this afternoon and went for a slow walk, and everything seems to be back in alignment. Only time will tell. I’m not going to spend much time in front of the computer this evening, but I did want to let everyone know what is going on. Best wishes to everyone for a great finish to this week. Enjoy it to the fullest and enjoy the journey.
Had a great time at the birthday celebration and got to spend some time with my family over the weekend as well before I hurt my back. Comments are turned off as this is just to let every that I am doing fine and should be back in a couple of days. Cheers.
DSC02116uls
Very early morning shoot. Woke up usual round 4.30am took a look outside saw the very low clouds and no stars and decided today maybe a keeper of a sunrise.
Sun is very north right now and the clouds where coming in from the south east and becoming thicker very fast. This was the first image I took of the day in almost complete darkness. The sunrise itself was very bland and boring. Reinforces my practice to shoot as soon as I arrive regardless of light or lack of. Then sit back and wait for improving light, it sometimes just does not happen.
This was taken Saturday 19th round 5.20am around an hr before sunrise.
Copyright © Spool Photography.
This photo may not be used in any form without prior permission. All rights reserved
Go North East's Riverside-based Volvo B9TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 6050 (NK12 GDE), which carries a commemorative rainbow livery to support the company's 'One Team GNE' colleague and community network initiative, is pictured here at the Metrocentre Coach Park, Gateshead, whilst out of service. 22/03/21
During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, Go North East colleagues have demonstrated some exceptional team spirit, shown across the whole company, with colleagues coming together like never before to face many challenges with great strength, pragmatism and positivity.
To take everyone’s great efforts to the next level in working to make Go North East's company culture kinder, more inclusive and mutually supportive, whilst also improving engagement with the communities they serve, the company launched a new internal initiative called ‘One Team GNE’, in 2020.
Bus 6050, which was already planned for repaint due to the impending delivery of new vehicles for the "Red Arrows" X1 service, has been adorned in a striking ‘retro’ multi-coloured scheme.
Inspired by a re-work of the company’s infamous 1985 'don't judge a bus by its colour' initiative alongside the rainbow image that has been so prevalent during the coronavirus crisis.
The vehicle has become a visual symbol of the company’s ‘One Team GNE’ colleague and community network being launched to build upon the great strength and team spirit shown by its team during the depths of the crisis, to work together to build even better relations across the company and the communities it serves.
Following its repaint last year, Volvo B9TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 6050 (NK12 GDE) has now been internally refurbished, with re-trimmed seats in a retro rainbow moquette and rainbow coloured headrests, and Alfatronix-supplied rainbow USB chargers.