Ichneumon Wasp (family Ichneumonidae)

As the weather is warming up, we reached 39°C (102°F) today although it is cooling off now at 4 pm, down to 29°C (84°F), I am seeing the various species of wasp back in the garden. You will get to see some in future posts.

We now on 'holidays' the school year is over. Both Daniel and Sarah received honours in various subjects and we are very proud of them.

Louise and Rui will be down on Monday for ten days so there may be some days when I don't post.

I had another long wander around Farleton, Holmepark, Newbiggin plateau on Friday evening. I was hoping for some sunset action but that didn't happen, but I did find some great locations and subjects for sunrise in future.

It was noticeable that the colours were changing autumnal and this gorgeous sycamore tree on Newbiggin Crag was starting to show some early rusty signs in its foliage along with the orange looking ferns amongst the limestone. Ingleborough can be seen in the far distant Dales to the left of the tree and I thought in the absence of any of the anticipated sunset shots from the evening, this was at least worth a post!

The property on which this barn is located contained a large abandoned farmhouse and another smaller barn. This barn and the farmhouse are my 2017 favorites in both categories. More in future postings.

This juvenile is calling for lost love. Its parents have disowned it now for the forthcoming breeding season. Perhaps it will return to the fen in future years with a partner, and raise young at its old nursery. It certainly is big, and 'ugly ' enough to fend for itself, Lakenheath fen.

I recently reviewed these Ninjago sets for The Brick Blogger (review of The Island, review of Seabound) and to wrap up the review I built them all into this large display. 8 32x32 baseplates and one of my tallest ever creations! Lots of fun to work with the colors on this one, got some great advice from Markus Ronge too.

This has definitely whetted my appetite for building islander style stuff, it was so much fun to do that top layer! Look out for those tiki style masks showing up in future builds of mine!

More pictures of the display on The Brick Blogger and also in the breakdown video!

Flickr | YouTube | GenevaD.com | Pinterest | Instagram

I took some time to finish small part of our beach, more as a motivation for myself and as a base for the quality I wanna achieve on our home.

And as requested:

-The Hutt is a modified version of a Scarlet Creative hutt

-Massage Bench is from Boo's

-Planted Pots are from Heart

-Gas lantern is from DDD

-Scenery, Ground, Background Bamboo plants are all from various sets from Skye Studios

If you like to know some of the things I use, send me a message,. I try to include those items in future presentations

En Esperanto: Fred Wright (el Anglujo) estas la biciklisto kun blanka ĉemizo kaj ruĝa pantalono. Fred radjis tre bone en 'Le Tour de France 2022'. La biciklisto kun blaua kasko estas Pier-André Coté (el Kanado). Geraint Thomas (el Kimrujo) havas ruĝan ĉemizon kaj nigran kaskon. Geraint gajnis 'Le Tour de France' en 2018.

The three main cyclists photographed are Fred Wright (from England) wearing a white shirt and red shorts, Pier-André Coté (from Canada) wearing a blue helmet and Geraint Thomas (from Wales) wearing a red shirt and black helmet. They finished 5th, 13th and 8th respectively out of 126 riders that started the race.

Fred Wright had a fantastic Tour de France 2022. He was in many breakaways and was unlucky not to have a stage win. Also, he was only a split second from winning a medal in this race. He's very likely to win Grand Tour stages in future.

In the Vuelta a Espana 2022 Fred was involved in a controversial incident. Primož Roglič (one of the favorites to win) crashed and subsequently abandoned the race. He blamed Fred Wright - Fred denied that he was to blame, saying that it was "just a racing incident".

On the Monday of my holiday I ventured to Low Newton to visit the extraordinary Jigsaw rocks. Unfortunately the tide was not quite right but a rain shower as I was driving had kindly wet the shore making them stand out in the directional light of dawn. This is one of the best sunrise locations I've ever been to and I must say I was utterly smitten with the place. I will return again with the right tide in future.

In the previous Flickr post, these Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) were calmly sitting "row on row" along the barbed wire fence but it is instinctive for them to take to flight quickly as they have just done. This is only a small portion of what was circling around my vehicle. They were along the fence line, on the road ahead of our vehicle and in the trees tacross the road from the fence line. This happened over a number of minutes on a gravel road south of Beaverhill Lake east of Tofield, Alberta, Canada.

More images to follow in future posts.

15 April, 2024.

Slide # GWB_20240415_7380.CR2

Use of this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission is not permitted.

© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.

Best viewed extra large. This was taken with the camera of a new phone that has more pixels than I can cope with at the moment. I will probably try curb the size a bit in future.

It's a good place to be alone. No-one has lived on the common since a curse was put on it in the middle ages and I hardly ever see anyone around here, which has made it a perfect home for rabbits, hedgehogs and a stray hen.

Self portrait photoshopped onto a circuit board I have saved. I always save interesting things like that to potentially use in future photos.

One day old back alleys like this will be part of history. How many of us have not paid attention to places like this and then think in future years when it's too late that we have no record of where we grew up.

-Artificial intelligence “image generators” give everyone the opportunity to be creative, and thanks to their abilities, millions of people have this experience. But there is confusion and new questions. As the artistic prowess of artificial intelligence emerges, it raises questions we haven't encountered before about what it means to be human. Some consider AI products to be works of art, while others object. I evaluated the facts analytically in terms of art philosophy and wrote my ideas in this article.

Below is the article I wrote about art, artist concepts, can artificial intelligence make art, analysis of human art and artificial intelligence products.

*

AN ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE "ART" ADVENTURE OF HUMANS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The concept of "art" is the field of creativity, the only feature of being human. As the artistic prowess of Artificial intelligence emerges in a fast-moving world, it raises questions we've never encountered before about what it means to be "human". What kind of a period will "art", which is the result of human concepts such as existence, society, communication, subconscious, emotions, imagination, intuition, love, sensitivity, impulse, instinct, dream, originality and of course, creativity, enter into a period with Artificial intelligence (AI)? With its revolutionary technology that will change production, thinking, lifestyles and the future, will artificial intelligence, which is designed to replace people in other fields of activity, be more creative than humans in the field of art and reach the competence to challenge the artist?

According to Hegel, art carries the spirit of the artist, who is transferred to matter and likens matter to himself. Well, since the products created by machines without a soul today are not generated by an artist, can they carry spirit and meaning?

For years, computer technology has already made an impact and contribution to visual arts with image technologies such as vector, bitmap, 3D, CGI as a tool that creates, processes and changes the image. Today, many smart image generators such as Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, Craiyon, Midjourney, Nightcafe Ai, etc. are software systems that can statistically evaluate themselves over large datasets containing millions of images, train themselves, and produce new images that are not included in the original dataset. Not just images, AI is already being used in other branches of the arts to create music, poetry, sculpture, stories, articles and films.

There are many new questions and concepts such as whether the products created by a system that has human skills but is not human are real works of art, whether programmers and machines will be accepted as artists, whether AI products can be included in the broad and general definition of art. Although there are objections, acceptances, doubts, different opinions, it has been met with great interest by the majority.

First of all, it is necessary to talk about the concepts of “Art” and “Artist”. In its most general definition, art is a reflection of the human mind and cultural evolution, an expression of creativity, way of thinking and imagination. The artist, on the other hand, is the one who makes art with the awareness of "being human", humanizes and shapes life, and realizes the phenomenon of art with action. The artist combines facts with aesthetic elements from a different point of view and records them in social memory. Behind his creative works lie deep stories of man, his age and society. He uses his imagination, patience, enthusiasm and self-sacrificing efforts to embed his passions, memories, dreams, imaginary and abstract ideas, symbols, philosophy and his inner world, the dynamics of the era and society he lives in, with aesthetic expressions. The process of creating the artist's art is complex and difficult, while filtering everything he is affected by and incorporating it into his works. He feels both sadness and happiness most deeply, and experiences his anxiety and pleasure at the highest level.

Art originates from life and human beings and belongs to humans. “Art is an object made by man for man. “ (E.H.Gombrich, The Story of Art) This is a very accurate definition and “Art” is based on a human-made phenomenon that takes its source from the human artist and seeks meaning with its historical, social accumulation and imagination; existence occurs in the unity of human, artist, meaning, aesthetic object and aesthetic taste. In this respect, there is a deep bond of existence between man, art and work of art that complements each other.

The artist searches for the meanings behind artistic intentions and desires and vital phenomena. Since AI is not a living, emotional being, it lacks imagination, the reality of its external world, and the qualities of being human. Unfortunately, those who claim in advance that the products of AI are art, underestimate the artist who realizes the thousands-year-old deep source of art and the artistic production process, and find it unnecessary to question the artist's effort and necessity. Decisions made by those who do not know the depth of the creative process, without entering the enthusiastic world of an artist, are in favor of accepting and affirming AI products without questioning them. We see that the capitalist world, which wants to benefit from the stimulating effect of the trade created by AI products, has great expectations to use this situation in its favor and turn it into money.

The production process of AI is formed by the combination of computer, programmer, data, algorithm, output, aesthetic taste of the receptive subject. Since AI does not perform its actions by focusing on aesthetic values, aesthetic harmony and meaning, the output it produces is only a sensory, aesthetic value uncertain, non-essential, formal object. Because it lacks the subjective point of view and the values of the special creation process in the mind of an artist. The software, which does not take its source from the human mind, does not have emotions, and produces from ready-made data, has the potential to produce likeable outputs. It can even produce outputs, albeit rare, that, by chance, can give aesthetic pleasure and cause emotional and artistic excitement in people. Again, it is the receptive subject himself who adds artistic value to such an output with his artistic disposition, education and dreams. Because, while the output is devoid of a communication basis, an expression to be conveyed and has no artistic value, the perception style, psychological orientation and point of view of the receptive subject who establishes the communication raise the output to the value of an object that gives aesthetic pleasure. The receptive subject participates in the process with its level of perception of the object, aesthetic judgment and creativity, and needs the qualities of its own self and visual capacity. With a subjectivist attitude, he takes the artistic value not from the object but from his own psychology, customizes the object with his own emotions and attributes a meaning to the output. What makes the output of AI valuable is not the qualities of the aesthetic object formed by the activity of an artist, but the way of seeing of the receptive subject.

The work of art is a human creation, the creative subject is the artist. The artist produces by adding meaning to his work, and the visible form has a meaning integrity, a unity of form and content. In his work, the artist formally expresses a reality about life in his work. That is, the meaning is not added after making the work, and the meaning exists as a substance in the mind of the artist before the work takes shape. In the work, the expression to be conveyed without communicating with the receptive subject is already present and ready; all this is hidden in the work as a reality and waits to be seen by a competent receptive subject. This is the process of discovery of the work of a spirit that repeats the aesthetic creation formed in the artist's soul. The receptive subject, who judges the output of artificial intelligence, lacks the pleasure and effort of creating, perceiving and recreating the expression level of the artist, that is, the human being. Because understanding and making sense of a work of art requires an effort like the creativity of the artist.

E.H. “We cannot hope to understand a work of art if we do not have the ability to share that sense of liberation and triumph that the artist has over his finished work,” says Gombrich.

We see that while art is realized with the connection of the artist, the work (aesthetics) and the receptive subject (aesthetic interest), the process in the AI product takes place with the connection of data, algorithm, object (sensory) and receptive subject (aesthetic interest).

Human art is the aesthetic relationship between man and objective reality and includes artistic reality. Its source is life, human, society, created by the artist, it focuses on the whole process and is holistic. It is based on the reproduction of the aesthetic values that the artist brings to the object by the receptive subject, the connections and interaction with the aesthetic judgment. It is directly and tightly connected to human practice, society and social life. The work of art is personal, original, and the artist has a compositional knowledge and skill that will require much more than repetitions, different blending and attachment techniques in AI output. In a way that takes its origins from life and focuses on the soul and meaning, art considers beauty as a unity of values. Like artificial intelligence, it focuses not only on the result, but also on the whole process, and this is what we need to distinguish.

Although AI is capable of creativity, this does not mean that it is an artist. Likewise, neither a programmer nor an algorithm is an artist. Because their production is outside of the vital, emotional, spiritual and meaning integrity we have explained above, they produce automatically and with commands. The algorithm does not create the object by considering artistic values, qualities and concerns, that is, the algorithm is not aware that it is dealing with art, so it is not conscious of reality. It scans the database and generates predictive compositions with the ability to fuse, add, subtract, associate and learn.

Artificial intelligence products can only be at the limit of the general definition of art. The creation process is automatic and is not identical with human art with the layers of existence it has; the source, formation and result are realized by a completely different method. Therefore, it is a phenomenon of experimental production that, although it is ostentatious and surprising, is not competent, imitates art as a form, its essence is incomplete, although it gives the impression of art.

Based on the context of reality, the search for meaning, the layers of existence and the social source of life, it would be appropriate to call it "Human Art" because it represents human beings, and "Artificial Intelligence Art" because it is created by codes. Because we cannot see artificial intelligence, which enters art as a separate actor, as if it is making productions of the same value as human beings and art. What makes human art valuable is that it tells its own story and the struggle for existence with the accumulation of thousands of years of creation process.

As AI enters more and more scientific, everyday and artistic and human fields, we have to make the rules, boundaries and definitions of human domain, arrangements, positioning and criticisms that include what human being is, to remain "human". The important thing is to create and place concepts that will preserve the depth, value, originality, creativity and freedom of the human domain. While doing this, we should determine the roles by defining the field that artificial intelligence, that is, the machine can have. For this reason, the categorical distinction was made as "Human Art" and "AI Art" because it was based on codes. To make both the same, to say that both achieve similar goals in different ways, is a disrespectful, unfair approach to art and the artist and should be objected to.

Of course, AI will enable artists to create new and original products through collaborative work as a resource to benefit from. With artificial intelligence in artistic creation, the artist can expand his creativity, get inspired, try new things, and also think of artificial intelligence as a collaboration tool. Even if the artist is involved in the creation process of the products created by this collaboration, even if he has the initiative, the use of AI based on the source codes will bring about discussions.

The approach to artificial intelligence products will also mean the sincerity exam of people. The artist and no one should not escape easily, and try to show stolen ideas or directly as his own work. It should not make an effort to reflect worthless products as if they are valuable.

Deciding whether the output has value and the quality of its connection with the art means reaching the big problem area in art. A wide variety of factors should be taken into account while making an aesthetic interpretation. Knowing who the work belongs to is also a factor that will affect our decision. Interpreting a work that is not clear by whom it was generated may cause exaggeration or vice versa, underestimation and incompleteness. Evaluating an object as artistic and beautiful is relative (apart from reconciliation with assumptions that make aesthetic judgment general and based on common feeling) and is difficult, but this is a mysterious and normal state of art.

Artificial intelligence will be an encouraging and supportive force with its ease not only for artists, but for everyone. In addition, the copyright problem of the entries that make up the database should be solved, and the rights of the artist and everyone else who does not want to be in the database should be respected.

It should never be forgotten that; The importance of painters and painting did not decrease with the invention of photography, the transformation of smart phones into talented cameras did not turn everyone into a photographer, AI cannot turn anyone into miraculous and fantastic artists, nor transfer talents.

While the subject is being discussed, painting is generally focused on because of its popularity. But how do we react when AI produces an image with details and visual quality indistinguishable from a real photograph? Especially when we compare it with documentary photography, the situation will become more complicated. At this stage, the values shaped in our aesthetic, emotional and imaginary world, which we judge the paintings, will not be enough. We will need to ask whether the photograph is based on objective reality, and we will build our judgmental values after the definition of reality. Because, as a document, that photograph is real, it reflects the state of the world while connecting the lived past to the future, it has a place and a story, it is direct, it is a human and social memory and transfers it to other generations. The photograph created by AI has no story, it only depicts unreal scenes with automatic editing, and the composition is created only with the ability to imitate. Such a photograph will not go beyond an image that only arouses technical admiration before the viewer. For this reason, I think that unmanipulated and documentary photography will become more valuable in the future. Because it will never lose its value as a tool that reflects reality and directly reflects events.

Can you consider William Turner's painting "The Slave Ship" separately from the historical, social, reality of the outside world and the dynamics of the artist's inner world? This painting is not just a painting, it is a work that has meanings far beyond the painting. Now let's imagine that a similar picture is generated by artificial intelligence. Even if pictorial values, light and composition are used appropriately, what historical, artistic, cultural, emotional value can it have? In other words, in the background of art, there are stories of life and a context, while artificial art has nothing to tell, it is a storyless phenomenon that is disconnected from the context of reality, as a product of a system under the control of virtual codes, and has no history.

In today's society, communication habits have changed, the world of possibilities has grown, and even magicalized. AI "image generators" give everyone the opportunity to be creative, and thanks to their amazing ability, they make this experience available to millions of people. Even a child who has learned to read and write can accidentally create remarkable products in front of his computer. It does not make anyone who can write keywords to the computer and who does not have artistic personality and creativity an artist and does not include them in art. Millions of people are attracted to this attractive game without age limit and are entertained by its amazing and strange results, as if they have achieved a magical power. It is more accurate to call them "experimental participants". It is a fact that outliers, complex, uncertain, surreal, mystical, imagination-stimulating images attract a lot of attention. Friedrich Schiller and his theory that art is a game come to mind. But in his theory, Schiller meant real art. Besides, art is a much more complex phenomenon than play.

Although the outputs are strange, unencountered, interesting and attractive, as they multiply uncontrollably in the internet environment, they have a high potential to turn into habitual, valueless, artificial, ordinary objects.

It is human beings who will stand against the destructiveness of technology and protect humanity. Being human, despite your shortcomings, is unique. Do we have the human intelligence, virtue, honesty, will, courage and plan to use the future to be a better human being “together” and to create a world based on beauty and equality? While AI becomes human, we never want a role change where people become automatic, ineffective and robotic.

Man interprets and makes sense of life with his art, resists against time, and transfers his relationship with life to the art environment in freedom with his searches and discoveries. Art is formed in reality through "labor" by the artist. All innovations and technological changes should never be allowed to trivialize art and artists. Because Artificial Intelligence lacks the human touch, love, impulses and, in short, a life.

Einstein said, "The criterion of being intelligent is not knowledge but imagination," and reconciling human imagination with intelligence.

Akil Alparslan / 01 2023

3 mesh components

copy/mod permissions

30 premade textures

4 example unique builds

downloadable psd to make your own textures!!

check it out now on Marketplace

marketplace.secondlife.com/p/CURVED-AWNING-KIT-URBAN-JUNG...

*note this was a free item for group members so if you want items like this for free in future get on it and join the group

This is supposed to be for 52 weeks of no colour

I thought rather than post the other b&w shot I took before the holiday for the no colour project I'd do a shot today for it, and look here it is in colour, I couldn't resist it, I did do a b&w version which I will post tomorrow, I just love colour too much....I think this will be happening a lot more in future, you'll get a colour and no colour version because I can't help it......and I promise this is the last post today, sorry I've gone a bit mad on posting today......have a fab weekend everyone.

West Cloudy Head is shown here in sepia toned infrared. These heads divide the smaller Lighthouse Bay (seen in the foreground) from the large Cloudy Bay on the other side. I will visit Cloudy Bay in future photographs.

Hoteliers don’t shy away from experimenting. Here’s an interesting story about Mid-City Bloomington Hotel in Illinois, that is going to open again soon with a new look. Phoenix MidCity Lofts is the fresh Avatar to this old hotel

The Hotel will be converted to Townhouse apartments. It is an example and a trend that can have a lot of takers in future.

Gaye Beck recently purchased a Mid-City Bloomington Hotel and is giving the vacant hotel a new purpose.

And she is doing it in style?

Read on to know how this long vacant Mid-city Hotel has shaped up to become trendy luxury apartments.

Not long after the purchase, Beck was able to get architectural plans drawn up that would house her growing floral business on the hotels’ first floor and turn the second and third-floor rooms

I recently had the very great pleasure of attending the Parade of Homes at The Grove in Second Life. This is an event in which a number of home owners at The Grove very generously open their gorgeous, luxurious homes and gardens to the public, so guests can tour and admire them.

I'm sad to say that the parade is over for now (sorry to anyone who missed it!), but I'm sure it will be on again in future at some time, so watch out for that, it's a lot of fun!

In the meantime, though, The Grove also hosts great live music shows every week, and features many other attractions and sights you can see or tour anytime.

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@Chaya-Momiji@CADERU

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bamda and MORE Laville co-produced "Momiji-Chaya Set" :)

First time co-work with her \o/

Momiji means Maple!

"Chaya" means cafe in Japanese.

Cha➡tea / Ya➡build. soooo chaya is cafe :)

We imagined autumn and food.

And We got the idea of ​​“Momiji Manjuu” of Hiroshima xD

If you visit Hiroshima in future, try two style of Momiji manjuu!!

It's toooooo yummy :3

I hope you enjoyed it ♪

This young lady was created entirely using Adobe Fuse - she is NOT real! I had hoped to introduce models into various real pictures to add interest, but unfortunately, the rendition isn't realistic enough to place them in good lighting, but you may spot one or two in the background or shadows in future.

RECOMMENDED LARGE View On Black

On some requests a few more pics from Ukraine.

I was making the pictures of the buildings under demolishment or capital repair. They look quite sad but stylish. I really hope they will keep the historic appearances in future. This man arrived and voluntered to show around... He said that before the bolsheviks it was a private factory which one man has build for his own money. It was standing there for 2 centuries... And now they want to replace it with office blocks. The chap lives nearby for the whole his life - not big supporter of the current situation...

PS

For those who asked I am in London - came back end of June. It is just takes time to sort out all i shoot for 2 months in Ukraine

I have a fascination with keys and I collect them so I may be working with them more in future photo projects. I think these keys and lock may have gone to an old suitcase.

260/365

Firstly, huge apologies to those who responded to yesterday's upload. A major 'senior moment' (a lot of those, lately) resulted in me failing to realise I'd submitted the same photo a while back.

I'll endeavour to avoid repeating similar scatter-brained impulsiveness in future!

This was taken on a fairly fruitless Lakeland trip a few years back. I'd wandered up to Red Pike from Bowderdale in the hope that, given sufficient loitering there, I'd be rewarded with some dramatic lighting on the nearby Scafell massif. Despite hours of shuffling around (& eating all my food provisions), the sun never did directly hit my target, even though it made frequent appearances through broken cloud during the day.

Unfortunately, this image exhibits depth-of-field issues & a wee bit of blown-up, distant cloud. The gist of the situation remains, hopefully.

Here's a shot of a B40-8 switching Coca Cola Bottling Inc in Jacksonville, Florida. You'll be seeing a lot more of this from me in future, because my brother Henry will give me some lessons on industrial railfanning now that we have a car to share :-D

This Green Tree Frog was found in my watering can, they like to hang out in cool, moist places. I relocated it to a place where the hunting would likely be better, but not before taking a few shots, which are the theme for today's photos. The next day it was back in the watering can, so I left it there and will be more careful in future when watering my plants.

A beautiful violet and red aurora was imaged in the early morning hours of April 24, 2023 from Lancaster, PA. The Kp value reached a level of 8, enabling viewers to observe the aurora in the United States as far south as the Mexican border. This was a great learning experience for me. I discovered that the aurora is fainter then I recall - I haven't seen it in many years! I need to travel to a darker site and increase the ISO in future attempts. Hopefully, we'll get another solar storm in the near future!

It was a bit muddy and wet yesterday.

These lovely hares have a wonderful unique way of running using their very powerful back legs. More of their leg positioning in different phases of their stride will be shown in future posts.

Entrance foyer. Here for a BBC Radio 4 recording with Professor Brian Cox and a panel of scientists plus health experts to discuss how the COVID pandemic was dealt with and how we should be prepared in future including dealing with misinformation.

It could, I guess, be called a counterfactual. I can't really imagine that I would like to be 'out of the swing of the sea', as a favorite poet of mine sings. In fact, one of the things I aesthetically don't appreciate about the Apocalypse is the statement that there will in Future Paradise no longer be a sea. Anyway... I don't want now to argue with the theologians, ;-).

Here I was high up in the Hound's Snout Barrico with my back to the Sublime Sea (see inset).

Scrounging around in all its dryness I saw on a flowering shrub of Tenerife Stinkweed this moveable Plasterer Bee which I took for 'dimidiatus'. But I stand corrected by insightful Bernhard Jacobi: 'moricei' (see his comment below). The specific stands for the fine English classical scholar Francis David Morice (1849-1926). He was an astute scholar of both Latin and Greek - among many works e.g. by Pindar and Thucydides, he rhythmically translated into English Vergil's Fourth Georgics on The Bee - but his great avocation was entomology. He traveled widely in the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and the Middle East in his quest for insects.

And aren't our Bee's eyes to die for!

Into the Light - Day 197 - Year 2022

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with a Morning Glory Vine

When I planted this hosta in the location it is at the moment there was partial shade, now more sun because a tree was removed, otherwise color would be more vivid. Will be relocated in future.

Somebody pointed out that I have not done an adequate job explaining what a Lora is. Technically it is sofware used to finetune the AI model. Finetuning means you teach the model how you want images to look when generated by showing it images you have created and associating each image with a carefully crafted caption. For example I will show the AI what I mean when I ask for an image of a 17th century middling sort cottage. I call the images I use to teach the AI "training images." The "Lora" trains on each image, using my captions as a guide to what words to associate with the image.

In the attached training image, I am teaching the AI program what a 17th century middling sort of village looks like. I am teaching it what kind of clothes the middling sort wears. I am showing it what the landscape looks like. And so on.

The AI model already understands what a 17th century English middling sort of cottage looks like. But it gets details wrong, and gets the perspective wrong, has trouble showing people at a distance and so on. So I finetune it by showing how I want these structures and objects rendered.

I am currently producing a library of training images that describes the part of the 17th century world I want to visualize. Note that I said "the part of the 17th century world" meaning the specific place, time, events and activities I want to include in my story. I am in effect creating a world. Then I can use the Lora to generate new images that are faithful to the world I have created.

My location is Stogumber, Somerset, England and my time period is the 1630s and 1640s. I will develop specialized Loras for different aspects of this world. In the case of the specialized Lora trained on the attached image, the focus is on the buildings and landscape, the people are secondary. Placeholders. I will have at least one other Lora devoted to clothing. I can run both Loras at the same time and give each Lora a different weight, meaning how much it influences the final image.

I used Loras to produce the attached image. It defined how the clothes will look. It defined how the overall scene looks. I have a specialized Lora that helps me implement the tenebrism style appropriate to this period. "Tenebrism" is a type of lighting attributed to Caravaggio where there is a strong contrast between the light and dark areas of the image.

My current training images are a mix of computer generated images, images where I have done a lot of digital painting and processing and photographs of real people wearing costumes or real landscapes that I have edited. But in future Lora generations the real photographs will be abandoned entirely in favour of images that I have crafted using all my different tools. What does that mean? It will mean that the world my Loras generate will have my style of painting embedded in it.

Does it sound like I have become the director of a movie calling to my palette a host of helpers, like an entire wardrobe department and lighting crew and art director? Yes, exactly, except I am still holding the camera, creating and adjusting the clothing, manipulating the lighting etc. I just have a lot of assistants embodied in the AI and constrained by Loras. Loras are my instructions to the AI.

I’ll show you a bit more of this beautiful dress from ElvenElder in future posts, but I think you can see just from this how gorgeous it is. I’m also showing the new hair from eXxEsS, another winner!

Full credits

It was raining steadily as I finished my "ecotour loop" along grid roads and through the park. Several big bull Bison were at a waterhole, and I made this shot on foot - although not far from my car - as the biggest of them emerged. Enormous. Powerful. Iconic. Impressive. I could keep finding adjectives, but maybe a picture really is worth a thousand words...

There were few tourists out and an abundance of wildlife, so expect to see more from this day in future postings.

Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

I think this shot sort of sums my mood and thoughts up this morning after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. It certainly is the end of an era. Wether you support the institution of the Monarchy or not, she was a great ambassador for Great Britain and such an impeccably respected individual. I had the privilege of meeting her on a number of occasions and even exchanging a short conversation with her. That will live with me for the rest of my days. The phrase, "long to reign over us" certainly fits her legacy and she will be a very hard act to follow in future.

Anyway, this is the last light over the West Coast of Cumbria with the clouds covering the Scafell Range of Fells on the right. Taken from the Little Carrs Ridge with the Hardknott Pass road clearly visible as it winds it way up the pass above Cockley Beck in the middle ground.

Included in the seasonal light trail at Fulham Palace, London. One of the less ostentatious displays on the trail around the grounds but finding one without a crowd in the way or not swarming with kids was proving problematical. Not cheap either so we'll probably be avoiding this sort of attraction in future years.

These Hooded Mergansers were getting to know each other well :)

I will show you in future images the "afterglow" ;-)

I'm pretty exited about Logan so I wanted to make a quick fig. the torso and legs are pretty meh because my main focus was the face (Which is based of the picture to the left) Im really happy with the face but I'm not to sure on the hair, But at least the hair suits its purpose and looks bit like the image. I forgot to mention the torso was a lois lane torso with the curves painted over. In future I may update the torso and stuff but for now I like it. Please comment if you fave and enjoy :)

F-GCVL : Sud Aviation Caravelle 12 : Air Provence.

One of several charter flights arriving with French rugby fans for the following day's game, Scotland v. France.

This was the last "French rugby weekend" before Edinburgh's spectators terrace closed for terminal expansion. Perimeter locations had to be used in future years.

This was the first time I’d photographed wild garlic and it really did make my heart sing – it was quite a spectacular display. Rather annoyingly these woods were very near to a place I’d been visiting for years but I was completely unaware of their existence. A sign perhaps that I need to do a bit more exploring in future.

The Wood Sandpiper is a medium-sized wading bird, with a fine straight bill, yellowish legs and a conspicuous white stripe from the bill over the eye to the back of the neck. In flight, it shows no wing-stripes and a square white rump. Is a passage migrant in spring and autumn, breeding in Northern Europe and wintering in Africa. A few pairs breed in the Scottish Highlands. The flooding of some previously drained traditional marshes in Scotland may help this species in future. Wood Sandpipers are listed as a Schedule 1 species.

Probably my last and probably my favourite of these reflections shots.

Please, if you're giving this photo a low rating tell me why. That way I can improve in future.

For more photos follow me on twitter, on my blog or on shuttrr.

This is the 115th Image in my 365 challenge.

White-throated Dipper, Cinclus cinclus gularis.

I've had a couple of hours to get my head around the RawTherapee software now, I have to say it is pretty impressive, a little more time to get used to using it and I could very easily be using it for all my RAW editing and conversion to .tif in future. _MG_7790

"Elephant capers"

It was very amusing watching these two and the rest of the herd wallowing around in the mud.

Zebra Plains Mara Camp, Masai Mara, Kenya, November, 2017.

With winter fast approaching its time to look forward to 2021 and what is hopefully a better year for us all. There will be no better time to go on Safari than in 2021 as the camps have reduced their prices to try and rebuild their economy. Zebra Plains Mara Camp has some fabulous offers for 2021, prices that will not be beaten in future years. With that in mind now is the time to start planning for a Safari. I'm sure lots of you have thought about it but not taken the plunge yet. Now is your opportunity to start the process. Take a look at our Safari page on our website www.2togs.com for all inclusive trips. We do all the work all you have to do is be there.

Fortaleza de Shigatse.

The imposing Shigatse Dzong was built in the 17th century as a smaller prototype of the Potala in Lhasa, and had turret-like fortifications at the ends and a central Red Palace. In the 17th century, the Mongols (by Gusri Khan in 1642) supported the Fifth Dalai Lama and defeated Prince Tsang at Shigatse. After this event, the Tashilhunpo Monastery came under the control of the Yellow Hat sect. The rivalry between the Sakya and the Gelukpa orders is traced to this event; the Geukpa sect of the Dala Lama controlled from Central Tibet and the Panchen Lama controlled from Shigatse.

Shigatse was previously the seat of the kings of Ü-Tsang and the capital of the province of Ü-Tsang or Tsang. It was sacked when the Gurkhas invaded Tibet and captured Shigatse in 1791 before a combined Tibetan and Chinese army drove the Gurkhas back as far as the outskirts of Kathmandu. The Gurkhas were forced to agree to keep the peace in future, pay tribute every five years, and return what they had looted from Tashilhunpo.

Shigatse was also the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas. Until the Chinese arrived in the 1950s, the "Tashi" or Panchen Lama wielded temporal power over three small districts, though not over the town of Shigatse itself, which was administered by a dzongpön (general) appointed from Lhasa.

Here is one more photograph of the Siberian Chiffchaff in the Dearne Valley this week. Siberian Chiffchaffs breed in the taiga forests of Siberia east of the Yenesey River and winter mainly in India. But every year Siberian Chiffchaffs are found overwintering in Britain in small numbers. They have a different song to Chiffchaff (listen here: xeno-canto.org/692351 ) and the contact call has no upslur at the end (listen here xeno-canto.org/685436 ). This bird called several times with the typical Siberian Chiffchaff call, and I'm told that earlier in the day calls were played and it did not respond to Common Chiffchaff, but flew in immediately and started calling when Siberian Chiffchaff was played. This species will probably be split in future after more studies in the area where the two forms meet near the Yenesey River, but at the moment they are treated as races. Siberian Chiffchaffs are rather cold-coloured but with bright green fringes to the flight feathers and particularly cold pale underparts. Any yellow is usually restricted to the bend in the wing but with none on the underparts. This one has some green in the grey back, which probably means it is a bird of the western race fulvescens. Here is a photo of a typical British Chiffchaff showing more green and yellow tones in the plumage: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/13374409363/in/photolist

This is the first in a series of shots showcasing red-crested cardinals in and around a small pond. In this shot, a cardinal stands at the edge of a small waterfalls considering whether he/she should have a refreshing dip in the pond. As I recall, it was quite hot and the cardinal, as you will see in future shots, had a grand time in the water. The photo was taken in February 2020, with my trusty Olympus digital camera. See large for more detail. Enjoy and stay well!

I bought a rainbow slinky a very long time ago for photographic purposes but have to give credit to hlngre23 who I then found had some amazing slinky shots. Despite that, I still didn't get round to using it. My new contact CatMacBride reminded me of it recently so thanks to her too. You should check out both their streams as they're amazing!

I'm looking forward to having more fun with it in future.

I have it in my mind that this was a Hispano Suisa circa 1936 shot in the (then) somewhat dodgy resort of S'Arenel on the Spanish Island of Mallorca.

I seem to remember using a Halina 35mm with Kodachrome65 slide film. I digitised it using Miranda Slide Copier. Then I converted the raw image in Lightroom and Photoshop.

In future I will use a system which I have dreamt up using an interesting light source.

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