View allAll Photos Tagged instanced
+++UPDATE+++ This image is part of a series of four shots from this location that has won me the title Nature Photographer Of The Year at the prestigious International Photography Awards.
- - -
I just returned from this year's Namibia workshop - great as always. Even though this was already our 9th or 10th visit, I still consider it a huge privilege to be able to walk around in the incredibly stunning landscapes this amazing country has to offer.
What surprises me every time, is that even though I know most of the locations we visit by heart, and have taken thousands of images there, I still see new compositions that I missed on previous visits. This changes from year to year. Last year for instance, I suddenly saw way more possibilities than the years before, and I still wonder what caused that. One day you're really struggling to get anything decent, the next you see nothing but great shots to be taken all around you.
Anyway, this is one from last year's visit to Namibia's most iconic location: Deadvlei. Shot early morning during pre-glow.
If you're interested in joining me on this spectacular trip, please check out my website for more information, pictures and tour impression video clips:
Squiver Photo Tours & Workshops
Hope to see you there!
Marsel
You'd be hard-pressed to find a handful of my photos where I've used the camera's built-in flash. However, in this instance, I really needed it to capture the underside of Bishop's Bridge ("Pont del Bisbe"). It's just that there's a story about this bridge that I'd really like to tell you.
Legend has it that Rubió intended to demolish several buildings near the cathedral to rebuild them in the Neo-Gothic style. Since he was only permitted to build this one bridge, he became so furious that he cursed it, carving a skull pierced by a dagger onto its underside. Anyone passing beneath the bridge and looking at the skull would suffer great misfortune in life. Worse still, if anyone dared to remove the dagger, the entire city of Barcelona would crumble. However, there is also a legend claiming that if you walk backwards under the bridge without looking at the skull and make a wish, that wish will come true. Apparently, there are legends to suit every taste. 😏
In any case, these legends draw tourists in droves, so... I suppose you could say it’s a case of mission accomplished. 😉 And I faced that skull head-on and nothing bad happened to me—so, when you go to Barcelona, you can admire every aspect of that bridge to your heart's content; no need to thank me. Just maybe don't remove the dagger from the skull... 😄😏
Será difícil encontrar uma mão-cheia de fotos minhas em que usei o flash incorporado da câmara. No entanto, neste caso, precisei dele para mostrar a parte inferior da Ponte do Bispo ("Pont del Bisbe"). É que há uma história sobre esta ponte que eu quero mesmo contar.
Reza a lenda que Rubió pretendia demolir vários edifícios nas redondezas da catedral para os reconstruir ao estilo Neo-Gótico. Como apenas lhe foi permitido construir esta ponte, ficou tão irado que a amaldiçoou, esculpindo na parte inferior uma caveira atravessada por um punhal. Quem passasse por baixo da ponte a olhar para a caveira, teria um grande azar na vida. Pior ainda, se alguém se atrevesse a retirar o punhal, toda a cidade de Barcelona iria ruir.
No entanto, também existe uma lenda segundo a qual quem passar por baixo da ponte a andar de costas, sem olhar para a caveira e pedir um desejo, terá esse desejo realizado. Pelos vistos, há lendas para todos os gostos. 😏
De qualquer forma, estas lendas atraem turistas aos magotes, por isso... acho que se pode dizer que é um caso de missão cumprida. 😉 Eu encarei a caveira e não me aconteceu qualquer desgraça — por isso, quando forem a Barcelona, podem admirar a ponte à vontade, de todos os ângulos; não precisam de me agradecer. Só talvez não seja boa ideia retirar o punhal... 😄😏
Some photographs communicate the photographer's state of mind to the viewer. For instance, a majestic mountain top sunrise might convey the photographer's state of awe, whereas a placid lake conveys his or her feelings of tranquility and calm, or a solitary leaf conveys feelings of loneliness or isolation.
This is probably not one of those photographs.
As a photographer, it's impossible to totally isolate yourself afterwards from the experience of taking the photograph and view it entirely objectively, like any other person would viewing it fresh for the first time.
But I can try.
Looking at this photo, I think most folks would see the zig-zag trail heading into a bright clearing and, perhaps depending on whether they are optimists or pessimists, think about the phrases "light at the end of the tunnel" or "not out of the woods yet," respectively. The soft snow looks sleepy and comfortable, but the shadowy woods along the path are a little spooky and mysterious. And the cool blue tones are icy and refreshing, like a stick of winterfresh gum.
While those thoughts may have subconsciously played a part in me making this photograph, I can assure you that is not what was going through my head at the time. This was the day after my three-year-old daughter's birthday party, which was Beauty and the Beast themed, and the only thing running through my head on loop all day -- throughout my entire 4.5 hour hike -- was that little candlestick singing "Be our Guest."
But please, if I am wrong and that got through to anyone viewing this photo, please let me know.
Urho Kekkonen National Park (Finnish: Urho Kekkosen kansallispuisto) is a national park in Lapland, Finland. Established in 1983 and covering 2,550 square kilometres (985 sq mi), it is one of Finland's largest protected areas. It is named after Urho Kekkonen, former President and Prime Minister of Finland.
The Suomujoki river flows through the northern parts of the diverse park. The marked paths in its western part are an easy destination even for the inexperienced backpacker, whereas the wilderness is good for long and demanding trips.
Most trips to Urho Kekkonen National Park are started from the Kiilopää fell center, the Aittajärvi lake along the Suomujoki river, or Raja-Jooseppi, and backpackers usually end up nearby the Saariselkä fell line, for instance on the top of its highest fell, Sokosti.
Reindeer keeping is still a common livelihood in the area.
(Wikipedia)
-----
It just somehow happened that I visited Urho Kekkonen national park twice within a single year; this time, famous "ruska" autumn period and a week-long hike to the north-east part of the park was our ultimate goal.
We traveled on foot for eight days and enjoyed all those lovely aspects of deep-north wilderness: grey sky, cold river crossing, moody terrain, losing direction, and heavy backpacks. However, the autumn colors were truly exceptional - the timing was absolutely perfect.
Here the picture is taken at the Ylempi Kiertämäjärvi lake close to the Kiertämäjärvi wilderness hut that we reached on the 7th day of our week-long adventurous hike.
I know this the third image in a row with a super wide crop. It just worked so well for these images. Warblers are quite small and unless you get them on a vertical or diagonal perch you're often left with a lot of dead space. That being said, you can't control where a bird lands. You can recommend a particular branch all you want but a Warbler is going to Warble wherever it so pleases. Sometimes a bird will land on that perfect perch and other times you are not so lucky. For instance, this Worm-eating Warbler gave quite the performance while the Warbler Crazy team and myself looked on. He mainly stuck to an old and long dead tree in the middle of a small clearing near the trail, only coming down to nice photographable perch one or two times. After singing to his hearts content he made a quick stop on this perch giving us one last look before hitting the road. That was a lie, he came back but in a dense shrub for all of thirty seconds.
.
.
.
Follow me on FACEBOOK
.
.
.
WEBSITE .......: www.jeansurprenant.com
.
.
.
BUY or LICENCE IT HERE
.
.
.
My GETTY IMAGES work
.
.
.
Thanks for the visits, comments, awards, invitations and favorites. Please don't use my images on websites, blogs or others medias without my explicit permission.
Thanks!
© All rights reserved
My technique is alway the same:
Three exposures -2EV, 0, +2EV and then temperature adjustement using Lightroom and layering with luminosity mask using photoshop. Removal of distracting stuff with the stamp tool or patch tool. High pass filter to enhance details. Then saturation, contrast selectively control, dodge and burn where need...
DRI stand for Dynamic Range Increase. Three RAW files are used to achieve this. Rather than using a software like Photomatix for instance, I simply use mask to blend, my own way, the light, dark and normal shot with Photoshop and Lightroom.. To me, It looks more natural than the usual HDR treatment that I would normally applied.
Merci pour les visites, commentaires, récompenses, invitations et favoris. S.V.P. n'utilisez pas mes images sur des sites web, blogs ou autres médias sans ma permission.
Merci!
© Tous droits réservés
Ma technique est toujours la même:
Trois prises de vue -2EV, 0, +2EV. Ensuite ajustement de la température de couleur avec Lightroom et usage de calques et masques de luminosités avec Photoshop. Retrait d'éléments de distraction avec l'outil tampon. Filtre High pass pour le rehaussement des détails. Ensuite saturation et contraste ajustés de façon sélectives et locales. Dodge and burn là où requis...
DRI vient de l'anglais Dynmic Range Increase, qui pourrait se traduire par étendue dynamique améliorée. Les même 3 fichiers RAW entrent dans la composition d'un DRI. Plutôt que de se servir d'un logiciel comme Photomatix qui fait tout le travail, je me sers plutôt de masques pour filtrer l'éclairage dans photoshop et Lightroom. De mon point de vue, cette façon de faire donne une image plus naturel que le traitement HDR que j'employais auparavant.
.
.
.
Follow me on FACEBOOK
.
.
.
WEBSITE .......: www.jeansurprenant.com
.
.
.
BUY or LICENCE IT HERE
.
.
.
My GETTY IMAGES work
Another gorgeous sunset right outside my front door! At this instance, birds were flying by settling in for the night.
On all our tours I encourage our guests to also shoot verticals, not only horizontals. Magazines for instance, are all based on verticals, so if you ever want your picture to grace the cover or to be published on a full page, you'll need to shoot verticals as well.
A little while back I got an email from British Airways, asking whether I had a vertical version of my famous picture The Edge, of an elephant at Victoria Falls. And as a matter of fact I did, I just never processed it. When I started processing the image, I wondered why I hadn't done it earlier - the vertical version seems to make more sense because you can actually see the height of the falls and you can see all the water falling down.
Anyway, British Airways published the shot and I was happy they had given me a good reason to dive into my image library again.
Here's the background story that I wrote for the horizontal version:
-
It's hard enough to make original pictures, but with some subjects it simply borders the impossible.
When I was at Victoria Falls last year, I thought about the billions of photographs that must have been taken there, and I almost decided to just visit the place without my camera. That was until I spoke with some of the local people, who told me that they had seen a bull elephant crossing the Zambezi river the day before. During my research I had not seen any images of the falls with an elephant in it, so I decided to stay a few extra days and try my luck.
The course of the Zambezi is dotted with numerous tree-covered islands, which increase in number as the river approaches the falls. As the dry season takes effect, the islets on the crest become wider and more numerous, and with the water level of the Zambezi dropping, once submerged walkways and fresh foraging possibilities present themselves. This elephant was apparently aware of this.
On the third day I left very early with a small boat to reach my location. On my way to the edge I suddenly saw the lone bull wading through shallow parts of the river, but it was far away and light levels were low, so I decided to continue to the falls. I took some sunrise shots and half an hour later I saw the elephant approaching the falls. I quickly collected my gear and moved carefully towards the edge where the water plummeted into a 360ft chasm - not particularly nice when you're afraid of heights... I set everything up in order to include as much as possible of the falls and made a composition. Luckily the elephant was aware of my preference to shoot into the light, so his position couldn't be better.
After I took the shots, I knew I had just witnessed and captured something very special. Later that day local people confirmed this by telling me that they had never seen an elephant so close to the edge of the falls before - exactly what I wanted to hear!
This image was featured as a double page spread in National Geographic, and won First Prize in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards.
-
If you would like to join me on our next photo tour in Zambia and learn everything about wildlife photography, please check out my website for more information and tour impression video clips:
Squiver Photo Tours & Workshops
Hope to see you there!
Marsel
©2013 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.
April 19, 2009
I have always wanted to grace a cover of any magazine. Maybe one day that dream will come true. I've kind of always wanted to follow in the footsteps of Miley's success. It is very inspiring. I am probably a bigger Miley fan than Jonas. Hmmm... Today, I also found out that the simplest things are quite amusing. Ants, for instance. When I'm sitting down with my best friend to talk, I notice the little creatures on the ground just scurrying along.
P.S. My old Flickr name was luvjb_ordiee. But, I started hating it. So, my Flickaaa name is now my name!(:
In this instance Tufty was without his trademark tufts which moult during the summer months.
Sadly now despite his road safety campaign in the 60's Tufty is very rare in most of the UK.
Was anyone else a member of the Tufty Club - I still have my badge.
Red Squirrel (Sciurus Vulgaris)
Highland Titles Nature Reserve, Duror - Scotland
Many thanks to all those who take the time to comment on my photos. It is truly appreciated.
DSC_4867 Explore 27 January 2024
'In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.' (Auden) 😊
For the Different Perspective challenge for March, for 12 Months for Dogs, I'll keep it simple with Pips.
Here she is, coming out of the pool - not going in - haha ;)
She's a funny girl in so many instances, though, and this is one of them.
Not long ago, when she was continuously getting in the pool, then out, then back in the pool, then back out again …. well, the owner of the pool declared,"Oh, Pips, why don't you just stay in longer - the water level's starting to drop, you're taking so much water out every time !"
A fair statement, as the pool is fed by a large rainwater pipe from the house roof, and there do occur dry spells throughout the year.
When there's been a long, rainless season, more has to be delivered by truck to refill the water tanks.
So fair enough, I thought, but how will Pips get this communication ?
How will I train her to take one long swim, be satisfied with that, then get out and stay out..?
I was worried that she would wear out her precious welcome, as this amazing privelege must be something she really looks forward to.
Haha, well, I didn't have to do anything, she got the message immediately.
How do they do that ?
Next time she emerged from the water, and ever since then, she pauses on the top steps.
It's as if she's gone into meditation, just stays there for a while and lets most of the water drain off her and back into the pool.
While any nearby humans watch, fascinated.
Go figure on that one ...
Recording that instance before the Deluge.
"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."
Matthew 5:15
"It is senseless to claim that things exist in their instancing only. The template for the world and all in it was drawn long ago. Yet the story of the world, which is all the world we know, does not exist outside of the instruments of its execution. Nor can those instruments exist outside of their own history. And so on. This life of yours is not a picture of the world. It is the world itself and it is composed not of bone or dream or time but of worship. Nothing else can contain it. Nothing else be by it contained."
Cormac McCarthy - Cities of the Plain
Faux cowboy atop Kallison's Western Wear shop in downtown San Antonio, Texas.
El Monte Park nest and chicks:
They say persistence pays off and in this instance it truly did...
I have always said that a good photographer works very hard at getting unique good images that tell a wonderful story. I happen to get very lucky!!!
If you look back two posts at the two fledgling Red-tail Hawks in their nest I said there was another downstairs in the deep nest. Well going back each day to chronicle their growth and life I got the frame of a lifetime. This folks is the very first flight leaving the nest of "one" of those Red-tailed chicks in that very nest that I posted two posts prior to this one. I am absolutely thrilled to offer this to YOU as the "FIRST FLIGHT OF ONE OF THOSE CHICKS"
This is NOT about me as I am doing the last post a disservice by posting this so early on the back of the last post. But I could not wait to share this epic event with my flickr friend. This is what flickr is all about to me...sharing of great moments in time and this certainly qualifies as a great moment for this new fledgling dropping down out of his security blanket as the adults offered a a meal on a rock as shown in the comment section.
This flight was unintentional as the branch he or she was using to catch air and lift off for practice gave way and he glided out of frame in front of a tree blocking the cameras view onto the ground about 100 yards away. The frame in comments shows him on the rock where the adults left dinner enticing any of the three to leave and come get the spoils. Enjoy I hope as much as I the wonderful event of the first flight...
As always I so appreciate you dropping by and if you choose to leave a comment all the better.
Make it a wonderful week and sore like an Red-tail Hawk in life tossing caution to wind and following your dreams.
Texture is very important, especially in this instance. Following on from the Tour de France starting in Yorkshire in 2014, part of the TDF legacy was to improve miles of the Leeds Liverpool canal towpath so that it had a surface good enough for cycling on. For many months sections were closed off as preparatory work was done. The aim was for the towpath to be suitable for a thin bicycle tyre but when it was again opened many cyclists found the quite large pebbles rather tricky to wade through. I struggled on my mountain bike shod with half off road/half road tyres. I think the Canal & Rivers Trust must have received many emails as shortly after the contractors were back sweeping up miles of the large pebbles. The story is that someone ordered the wrong size gravel. Oops!
All is well now with the beautiful surface you see in this photograph. It is truly a joy to pedal along with the added bonus of no potholes.
HMM to everyone!
43148 (now in use with Scotrail) rounds the bend in to Dawlish Warren at the end of the scenic Devon Sea Wall section with the 1A94 15.52 Penzance-Paddington Great Western Railway service on a gorgeous late Saturday evening in June 2017.
Intercity liveried 43002 was the rear powercar which was my obvious traget; whilst I have plenty of decent photographs of this celebrity, there were several occasions such as this instance where I walked away disappointed by it been on the "wrong" end of a train. With the benefit of hindsight, 43148 was a worthy substitute in its own merit and an opportunity I'm glad I didn't turn my nose up to.
Not feeling much inspiration today...365's can be to challenging at times and some days I simply don't want to even bother with a picture but I do it anyways because of the commitment to finish what I started. =) This here is my second cat, Coco, and as I may have mentioned before, she always follows me around like a shadow and has to be where I am. For instance, today and I was sitting at the computer she had to sit on top of the desk in front of my monitor. =)
It's August. Swallows of every kind--in this instance, mostly Barn Swallows--gather in small flocks wherever insects can be found. Roadside wires provide an ideal perch from which to survey the surrounding fields. But in a matter of weeks they'll depart on their long journey to Central and South America, not to be seen again in these parts until next April or May.
Another instance where the morning light streaming into my flat inspired me to grab a quick photo. Here the shadow frame of the kitchen window provided the perfect opportunity for a silhouette self portrait, complete with my ever growing level of bed hair!
Crail... is a former royal burgh, parish and community council area (Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The civil parish has a population of 1,812 (in 2011). The name Crail was recorded in 1148 as Cherel and in 1153 as Karel. The first element is the Pictish *cair (c.f. Welsh caer) meaning "fort", though this word seems to have been borrowed into Gaelic. The second element may be either Gaelic ail, "rocks", or more problematically Pictish *al; no certain instance of this word exists in P-Celtic. However, if the generic element were Pictish, then this is likely of the specific. Quoted from Wikipedia
That was a pretty unique instance, the location, weather, the light and there is always the chance that panoramas of that sort don't work out as planned, so I'm pretty ok with the outcome.
It was the last day of a high pressure system and just a few fluffy picturesque clouds were showing up, next day it was already hazy and overcast past noon. I started my hike in the morning and I'm so glad I 'wasted' a lot of time somewhere else, otherwise I would not have been there in this nice afternoon light.
Also the IR response from the vegetation at this altitude appears to be rather different, sparse in a way, so the development was challenging but this also led to a somewhat novel outcome that's quite fitting I think. I did three panoramas at the lake and they all worked out surprisingly, offering something different each so I did my best to also develop them in distinct ways. Maybe you'll see..
Source for this is a mercator projection consisting of 30 individual photos, 20355 x 15538px, ~316,3MP, then chopped down to 8:5 and ~34,4MP.
Nikon D90 (APS-C, fullspectrum mod)
Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di ll VC HLD
Hoya R72 (720nm infrared pass-filter)
ISO200, 24mm, f/6.3, 0,4sec
(therefore 36mm full frame equivalent)
tripod, panorama head, remote (ML-L3)
Ya gotta get to the Dr. Office on time.... but then, when you do, you rarely get to see the doctor for at least a half an hour (or longer). On this instance I was shuffled around to three different rooms while waiting to see my Opthamologist.... one room had this plant in a corner, and our of boredom took some shots with my P&S and then came home and did some photoshopping.
Here is an example of the benefits of using a program such as Adobe's Lightroom (v2.5 in this instance). I have only used one type of processing within this picture, which is the Local Adjustment filter. This is an excellent tool, as it allows specific editing of points, for example, brightening the forground, whilst still darkening the sky exposure and adding shadow detail to one specific tree.
Originally when I took this photo, I was amazed at the beauty of the view, the colours, the atmopshere, it was almost magical. Yet this was totally lost within the stock output photo. I also happened to be tripod-less at the time, so a quality HDR was going to be out of the picture. I was going to bin this picture finally as I couldn't get the process I needed to bring it back to life..
I have been using lightroom now for multiple versions, and I have only just stumbled on this feature myself whilst perusing Lightroom tutorial videos on a Lightroom group. Anyway, I hope this is informative to people, and can maybe enlighten others as too how some people seem to get such excellent results from almost nothing, or those that don't see how one D40X puts out a picture like the top, and another puts out a picture like the the second... (PS I'm not blowing any trumpets here, I just think the change in picture is somewhat astonishing when some development of the article is actually taken on - after all, photographers for years have been developing in darkrooms, why shouldn't the PC and technological age give us our own "Lightroom"!)...
Please take the time to view large & on black
.................................................................................................................................................................
Enjoy.. thanks for any comments, always appreciate those of you that take the time to leave comments or suggestions.. ta people :)
Another despicable instance of working on my alliteration and foregoing all that's decent. Tis the season.
If you enjoy this kind of wretched excess, you might not hate my Photoshopped set. www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157604211983504/...
The black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family (Recurvirostridae).
Adults are 33–36 cm (13–14 in) long. They have long pink legs, a long thin black bill and are blackish above and white below, with a white head and neck with a varying amount of black. Males have a black back, often with greenish gloss. Females' backs have a brown hue, contrasting with the black remiges. In the populations that have the top of the head normally white at least in winter, females tend to have less black on head and neck all year round, while males often have much black, particularly in summer. This difference is not clear-cut, however, and males usually get all-white heads in winter.
Immature birds are grey instead of black and have a markedly sandy hue on the wings, with light feather fringes appearing as a whitish line in flight.
The breeding habitat of all these stilts is marshes, shallow lakes and ponds. Some populations are migratory and move to the ocean coasts in winter; those in warmer regions are generally resident or short-range vagrants. In Europe, the black-winged stilt is a regular spring overshoot vagrant north of its normal range, occasionally remaining to breed in northern European countries. Pairs have successfully bred in Britain in 1987, and after a 27-year hiatus, two instances of successful breeding in Southern England in 2014. 13 young were fledged in southern England in 2017.
These birds pick up their food from sand or water. They mainly eat insects and crustaceans.
The nest site is a bare spot on the ground near water. These birds often nest in small groups, sometimes with avocets.
The black-winged stilt is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.
For more information, please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-winged_stilt
At Central Park's Shakespeare Garden, an immature robin waiting patiently for its mom to come feed him.
Too bad, I wasn't good enough of a photographer to shoot the instances when she was feeding him.
Habitat is a “home ground” or an environment in which an organism or group of species normally lives or occurs. In this sense, a habitat is any particular place that supports animal or plant life. From the habitat is where plants or animals get their survival essentialities such as water, food, shelter, and breeding grounds.
Different plant or animal species have different necessities for water, shelter, nesting and food. Thus, each and every plant or animal is adapted to survive in a specific kind of habitat. For instance, some turtles live in the seas while others live on land. Some plants grow in the deserts, some in the seas, and some in swampy areas. This shows different species have different needs. Examples of habitats include oceans, streams, or forests.
When a habitat is dramatically altered due to natural or anthropogenic activities such as earthquakes, agriculture, pollution or oil exploration, these places may no longer be able to provide shelter, food, water, or breeding grounds for the living organisms.
Such kind of events lessens the places where plants or animals such as wildlife can live and threatens the survival of various species. That sort of habitat degradation or fragmentation is what is termed as habitat loss and destruction. Habitat loss and destruction are influenced by several drivers which include:
1. Agriculture
Agricultural production has claimed much space of the natural habitat since settlers began converting forests and grasslands to croplands. In the modern world, the pressure to convert lands into resource areas for producing priced foods and crops has increasingly led to habitat loss.
Runoff of agricultural waste, fertilizers, and pesticides into marine and freshwater environments has also transformed streams and water systems. As a result, there has been a tremendous loss of natural crop species, aquatic life, and wildlife habitat.
2. Animal Waste, Sewage, Fertilizer, and Mining Waste Pollution
Marine and freshwater life forms are the most affected by pollution. Pollutants from animal waste, untreated sewage, fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy metals find way into wetlands and water systems and subsequently end up in the food web.
Animal wastes and fertilizers generate nutrients that cause an outburst in algae growth that depletes dissolved oxygen in aquatic systems. Mining wastes may also contain heavy metals that affect the health and breeding of aquatic organisms. Sewage sediments may destroy dwelling grounds of aquatic animals.
3. Industrial and Automobile Pollution
The majority of animal and plant habitats have been destroyed due to the toxic substances and chemicals emitted from industries and automobiles that pose long-term cumulative impacts on the species health. Seriously polluted regions have become dead zones since the conditions have become very harsh for biotic survival. A prime example is an acidic lake which cannot support aquatic life forms. In some areas, only a few organisms can survive owing to the cumulative effects of industrial and automobile pollution.
4. Water Projects
The development of water projects such as hydropower plants, dam construction, and water diversion frequently disconnect or draw off waters thereby altering water chemistry and hydrology. This is because such water projects limit the amount of water and nutrients running downstream.
The downstream section of the river can dry out and the nutrients supporting aquatic life can significantly reduce. As an outcome, gradual habitat loss happens as the water flows downstream.
5. Land Use and Development
The conversion of lands into urban settings, housing developments, office spaces, shopping malls, industrial sites, parking areas, road networks, and so on takes away the naturally occurring land that provided habitat for wildlife and other living organisms. This practice has substantially led to the loss and destruction of millions of acre of natural habitable environments.
6. Global Warming
Global warming is one of the recent leading causes of habitat loss since it changes the physical environmental factors such as temperature and moisture which are essential for a sustainable habitat.
For instance, wildlife that requires cool temperatures of high elevations such as the rock rabbit and mountain gorillas may in the near future run out of habitat due to global warming. Excessive rains, flooding or drought arising out of global warming have also impacted several habitats, contributing to the loss of wildlife and other living organisms.
7. Diversity Loss and Invasive Species
When a certain ecosystem which is home to numerous species collapse, more aggressive species may enter the territory. As the original species struggle to cope in a harsher environment, the invasive species contributes to a further and rapid decline of the habitat and subsequently dominates.
The explosive entry of invasive species into a habitat presents a strong threat to the native species as they struggle to survive in the increasingly changing environment. Invasive species directly competes for food with the native species and can also alter the structure of the habitat.
8. Vegetation Removal and Logging
Vegetation removal and logging destroy the structure of the habitat since it takes away the vital materials and natural systems responsible for replenishing and purifying the habitat. Removal of vegetation cover and logging also creates room for soil erosion and decrease stormwater infiltration which leads to the degradation of water quality, further destroying the habitat.
9. Dredging and Bottom Trawling Fishing
Dredging and bottom trawling fishing gives rise to the physical destruction of the dwelling, feeding and breeding areas for aquatic plants and animals. The displaced sediments may further smother the bottom dwelling organisms. Fish gills can as well become blocked with sediments and plant life activity is reduced due to limited light.
Dredging might also release underground toxic materials into aquatic habitats. Besides, bottom trawling fishing can by-catch unmarketable fish which turns out to be the food for other bigger fish in that particular underwater habitats.
Inframe :
The greater sand plover (Charadrius leschenaultii) is a small wader in the plover family of birds.
It breeds in the semi-deserts of Turkey and eastwards through Central Asia. It nests in a bare ground scrape. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in East Africa, South Asia and Australasia. It is a rare vagrant in western Europe, where it has been recorded as far west as Great Britain, France and Iceland. It has been spotted twice in North America, the most recent being on May 14, 2009, in Jacksonville, Florida.
This species is fully migratory, and is likely to migrate without stopping on a broad front between breeding and non-breeding areas . Migratory flocks form after the end of breeding between mid-June and early-August, and arrive in the wintering grounds between mid-July and November (adults and immature birds arriving before juveniles. Those birds wintering in South-East Asia start moving northwards to the breeding grounds in late-February (the migration peaking in March to early-April), arriving from mid-March to May; whereas those wintering in East Africa and southern Asia depart for breeding grounds from mid-April to early-May. Most non-adult wintering birds remain in the wintering areas during the breeding season . The species is typically gregarious, feeding in flocks of 2-50, and sometimes congregating in groups of up to 1,000 when roosting (Urban et al. 1986, del Hoyo et al. 1996). Habitat Breeding During the breeding season this species is predominantly found in open, dry, treeless, uncultivated areas up to 3,000 m , including dried mud, silt and clay flats, hard salt-pans overgrown with halophytic plants , and rocky plains near mountains in desert or semi-desert . In Turkey the species frequents heavily grazed saline steppe . The species usually breeds near water but exceptionally it will nest up to 20 km away from it. Non-breeding During the non-breeding season this species shows a preference for littoral habitats with mixed sand and mud substrata . It is found on sheltered sandy, shelly or muddy beaches, large intertidal mudflats, sandbanks, salt-marshes, estuaries, coral reefs, rocky islands, tidal lagoons and dunes near the coast , although it may sometimes feed on coastal grasslands . Whilst on migration the species will occasionally utilise inland habitats such as salt-lakes and brackish swamps, usually roosting on sandbanks and spits . Diet This species is carnivorous: during the breeding season its diet consists mainly of terrestrial insects and their larvae (especially beetles, termites, midges and ants), and occasionally lizards whereas during the non-breeding season its diet contains mainly marine invertebrates such as molluscs (snails), worms and crustaceans (such as shrimps and crabs). Breeding site The nest is a shallow scrape on the ground amongst sand-hills, gravel, or on other barren substrates.
My Nan was a prodigious collector of useless things. For instance, she had 17 rolls of the single ugliest contact paper in creation - a kitchen themed hodgepodge of images. For what purpose did she have it? We don't know. But we know that she never used it because it was still in the wrapper. So the question remains why did she keep it? Why did she keep the 32 vases of fake flowers? We can't know.
(These are the things we miss.)
Manipulation of light often gets a bit more complicated in some spots. In this instance, natural light is coming in from the lip of the cave which is just around the bend and you can see it reflecting off the rock's wet surfaces and the pacific water coming in. The shadows take hold around the corner and it 0 natural brightness takes hold past that, leaving people like us to install man made light to illuminate the inner cave walls.
For how little space there was to operate down here in the Sagamiko sea caves, I was only to find a lot of compositions. I had my tripod out the whole time but to get that next cave I had to jut out more, so on one of the walkways next to the inflow, I held my camera out over the railing to get this field of view (not to fret, I had a strong strap). If I recall, the light on the room I was in changed a bit, the colored lights in the next room definitely did, so I'm glad I got a regular yellow light to highlight the black and orange wall in a certain mood.
In editing my first step was ofcourse to raise the shadows and saturation. Some of the highlights on the outer room were blown out so I toned them down so they didn't stand out, and the inner walls had more clarity.
A rare instance of level and almost centered framing from a moving car. I was driving, so I only took a fleeting glance as I held the camera out to the side at arm's length. I did crop it some on the right side to put the tree more in the center, but made no other adjustments. The odd sky color must be the result of shooting through a dusty window. I like how opaque the sky looks and that the tree is in focus, also a hit or miss phenomenon in drivebys.
On June 5, 2012, Hinode captured this stunning view of the transit of Venus -- the last instance of this rare phenomenon until 2117. Hinode is a joint JAXA/NASA mission to study the connections of the sun's surface magnetism, primarily in and around sunspots. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages Hinode science operations and oversaw development of the scientific instrumentation provided for the mission by NASA, and industry. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., is the lead U.S. investigator for the X-ray Telescope.
Image credit: JAXA/NASA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
This was one of those rare instance in which I liked the way my camera’s LCD looked better than the view out in front of me. The long exposure, which was made well after sunset, brought out the subtle colors and smoothed the rough water. While not my typical shot, I like the way it turned out and realized once again it pays to experiment.
Large on black is nice for this one
As always, thanks for your input!
Barrett
9
I planted several varieties of zinnias this spring, none of which were marked on their packets as being curly-petaled. There were, though, some marked "goliath", whose blooms have proved to be so petite that if I had seen them in passing at a florist or maybe in a neighbor's garden, I'd have inquired about them, curious at the "teacup" breeding.
Not being a picky person when it comes to these things, my focus being more on preventing the plants' premature death, I have been quite overjoyed at the surprises I've been coming home to each day. (Fun fact: If one is looking for validation in the "adulting" department, I highly recommend growing flowers from seeds. It's exceptionally helpful at dulling the pain of life's hum-drum happenings, like, for instance, not getting the laundry done, taking way too long to correct the grammar in one's sister's college paper, or say, pushing forty. Not me, necessarily, which is why I used the indefinite "one", so y'all don't get confused.)
This bloom, I think, looks like me. I have curly hair, and it has curly petals! See? Maybe, like pets, plants eventually begin to resemble their owners? No? Okay.
Another thought: Maybe the folks at the seed packaging, um, place, are stoned. They take all of the carefully bred seeds, toss them into the air, which is really high up, because it's probably a warehouse with incredibly tall ceilings, then let them fall in a mix onto the floor. They then scoop them into their packets willy-nilly, and then they all smile because a crazy person somewhere will get a real kick out of it. I wonder what music they're listening to in that big seed packaging place.
With a billiard table, cues and balls in four colors, a nod to Calder’s bold palette, Untitled 2021 (le jeu de l’araignée rouge) is a typical example of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s work. Here, the player’s successive advances with the billiard’s cue alter the mutual relationships of the balls. During the game, viewers experience the work for themselves and, at the same time, change it for spectators. Tiravanija believes that art should not just be looked at but also experienced by socially inhabiting and activating it. The artist wants to minimize the boundaries between art and life whenever possible. He turns the spectators, whether or not they realize it, into a main feature of the artwork.
Rirkrit Tiravanija and Calder
There are myriad connections between the work of Tiravanija and Calder. For instance, a number of Calder’s sculptures (…) require activation in order for the viewer to achieve the full experience. Tiravanija’s work contains the same unfinished quality that characterizes Calder’s radical oeuvre.
Sounds and noises are also common denominators in the works of both Calder and Tiravanija. Some of Calder’s mobiles are sonorous: they make noises that could never be programmable; chance determines the experience and sounds of the work. Everything depends on conditions of the space, air currents and people’s movements. The same applies to Tiravanija’s works: the sounds they make are subject to the different configurations and the collisions of the billiard balls.
For both artists, the spectator is key and elements of chance are crucial. ”To most people who look at a mobile, it’s no more than a series of flat objects that move. To a few, though, it may be poetry” (Alexander Calder, 1957)
Source: Interaction and Chance – text describing Rirkrit Tiravani’s work in the superb exposition Calder Now – which ran at Kunsthal Rotterdam in spring 2022.
Always a balance. Each instance is only one moment, one idea, one event. At the same time, each instance is a reflection of and part of the overall.
May your Friday be full of peace and reflection.
Yamdrok Yutso ཡར་འབྲོག་གཡུ་མཚོ་ yar 'brog g.yu mtsho turquoise lake/a glittering blue glacial lake/name of lake yamdok གཡུ་མཚོ་ g.yu mtsho It is over 72 km (45 miles) long. The lake is surrounded by many snow-capped mountains and is fed by numerous small streams. The lake does have an outlet stream at its far western end. Around 90 km to the west of the lake lies the Tibetan town of Gyantse and Lhasa is a hundred km to the northeast. According to local mythology, Yamdok Yumtso lake is the transformation of a goddess. The lake (621 km² in area, of depth unknown) is fan-shaped, spreading to the South but narrowing up to the North. The mountainous lakeshore is highly crenellated, with numerous bays and inlets. The lake has a dozen of islands. Lakes Yamdok Yumtso freezes up in winter.Like mountains, lakes are considered sacrosanct by the Tibetan people, the principle being that they are the dwelling places of protective deities and therefore invested with special spiritual powers. For instance, Lhamo La-tso (Oracle) Lake is thought to be divinatory; everyone from the Dalai Lama to the local villagers makes pilgrimages there. Yamdrok Lake is one of four such holy lakes, the others being Lhamo La-tso (mentioned above), Namtso and Manasarovar. It is revered as a talisman and is said to be part of the life-spirit of the Tibetan nation. The largest lake in southern Tibet, it is said that if its waters dry, Tibet will no longer be habitable. The lake has nine islands, of which one houses the famous Samding Monastery. This monastery is interesting, as it is the only Tibetan monastery to be headed by a female re- incarnation. Since it is not a nunnery, its female abbot heads a community of about thirty monks and nuns. The Samding Monastery, where Dorje Pamo, the only woman Living Buddha in Tibet, stayed and presided, stands to the south of the Lake Yamdrok Yumtso . Today, both pilgrims and tourists can be seen walking along the lake's perimeter, enjoying the diversified fauna and flora, admiring the snow-capped mountains in the distance and visiting the villages scattered along its shores. One of the most newly popular pastimes for Tibetans is fishing, new because Tibetans are traditionally not allowed to eat fish. One of the lake's islands contains an old fort or castle called Pede Dzong. Exploitation There are shoals of fish living in Yamdok Yumtso lake, which are commercially exploited by local population. From April to October, fish caught from this lake are sold at markets in Lhasa, the provincial capital. Additionally, the lake's islands serve as rich pasture land to local herdmen. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamdrok_Yumtso
The rose is England's national flower. Usually red, it is used, for instance, in the emblems of the English Golf Union and England national rugby union team.
This is part of a model I built earlier in the year, the model is of a British Challenger Mark II Tank.
However when completeted I felt that it had one item missing that is usually carried by all British Army Vehicles, it is called a Camouflage Net. This is a net with large pieces of material attached in various colours dependant where the tank is operating.
For instance in the UK during summer the patches would be brown, green and black. In Norway in winter the patches would all be white, whereas the tanks in the desert would be various shades of tan, beige and browns.
This model Camouflage Net is made with a plastic net mesh "Bound" with black cotton. modelling paint daubed over it, to such an extent that some of the net is filled in where the threads of net criss crosses over each other.
The "rolled cam net" is 2.75 inches long.
Macro Mondays, theme # Mesh
125 Pictures in 2025, theme 26 Criss Crossed
.
.
.
Follow me on FACEBOOK
.
.
.
WEBSITE .......: www.jeansurprenant.com
.
.
.
My GETTY IMAGES work
.
.
.
Licence disponible sur [ GETTY IMAGES ]
Licence available at
.
.
.
Thanks for the visits, comments, awards, invitations and favorites. Please don't use my images on websites, blogs or others medias without my explicit permission.
Thanks!
© All rights reserved
My technique is alway the same:
Three exposures -2EV, 0, +2EV and then temperature adjustement using Lightroom and layering with luminosity mask using photoshop. Removal of distracting stuff with the stamp tool or patch tool. High pass filter to enhance details. Then saturation, contrast selectively control, dodge and burn where need...
DRI stand for Dynamic Range Increase. Three RAW files are used to achieve this. Rather than using a software like Photomatix for instance, I simply use mask to blend, my own way, the light, dark and normal shot with Photoshop and Lightroom.. To me, It looks more natural than the usual HDR treatment that I would normally applied.
Merci pour les visites, commentaires, récompenses, invitations et favoris. S.V.P. n'utilisez pas mes images sur des sites web, blogs ou autres médias sans ma permission.
Merci!
© Tous droits réservés
Ma technique est toujours la même:
Trois prises de vue -2EV, 0, +2EV. Ensuite ajustement de la température de couleur avec Lightroom et usage de calques et masques de luminosités avec Photoshop. Retrait d'éléments de distraction avec l'outil tampon. Filtre High pass pour le rehaussement des détails. Ensuite saturation et contraste ajustés de façon sélectives et locales. Dodge and burn là où requis...
DRI vient de l'anglais Dynmic Range Increase, qui pourrait se traduire par étendue dynamique améliorée. Les même 3 fichiers RAW entrent dans la composition d'un DRI. Plutôt que de se servir d'un logiciel comme Photomatix qui fait tout le travail, je me sers plutôt de masques pour filtrer l'éclairage dans photoshop et Lightroom. De mon point de vue, cette façon de faire donne une image plus naturel que le traitement HDR que j'employais auparavant.
.
.
.
Follow me on FACEBOOK
.
.
.
WEBSITE .......: www.jeansurprenant.com
.
.
.
My GETTY IMAGES work
.
.
.
Licence disponible sur [ GETTY IMAGES ]
Licence available at
.
.
.
Halation: The scattering of light. To surround, as if with a halo. The instance where light disperses while hitting film emulsions, especially around highlights.
I try to keep my geeky, technical side in check with photography. I am a bit wary of it, truth be told. I try to make my photography less technical and more creatively by chance. But I do enjoy geeking out now and again while learning the technical nuts and bolts of how film emulsions work and why certain films do certain things that other films don't. When pursued properly, such technical information can inform the less formal creative exploration of film photography. As long as I don't get too fixated on it, or too narrow-visioned, I find it can open possible avenues of exploration.
Anyhow, I was reminded of this general philosophy recently while researching the characteristics of Fomapan 400, which is kind of a unique film among black and white negative films. There are two things it does kind of strangely. The first is that it has a very uncharacteristic spectral sensitivity chart. While most black and white films kind of balance out in their sensitivity to the visible spectrum, Fomapan 400 starts out with relatively low blue sensitivity and progressively gains sensitivity as it moves to the red end of the spectrum. It makes the film behave almost as if it has a built-in red filter in terms of how it renders tonality and translates color into shades of gray. The other thing it does is exhibit frequent halation, especially in 120. I am guessing this is because the 120 format is coated onto a polyester base instead of the more usual triacetate base, and polyester bases are prone to "light piping". Fomapan 400 has an anti-halation layer added to it to help prevent this but apparently it is not super effective, as evidenced by this and other images I have made.
Anyhow, I dig this kind of thing and just wanted to share a little bit of it. I don't think I was aware of all these qualities while making this image, so they were a bit of a surprise... but a good one.
Hasselblad 500C
Fomapan 400
Photo of Icicle Creek captured via Minolta MD Zoom Rokkor-X 24-50mm F/4 lens. On the Snow Lakes Trail and on the way to the Core Enchantments. Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Stuart Mountain Range. Central Cascades Range. Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Chelan County, Washington. Late October 2017.
Exposure Time: 1/100 sec. * ISO Speed: ISO-200 * Aperture: F/5.6 * Bracketing: None * Color Temperature: 9000 K * Plug-In: Vibrant Fall Minimal - Lou & Marks
Welcome to the Beacon Theater. Built by the Knights of Pythias (a fraternal order that promotes peace around the globe) in 1926 but Non operational since the early 70's. The top floor though has been renovated for conferences, etc. I want to apologize for the lack of quality in these photos. I was shooting with the camera that I dropped and the viewfinder and lcd screen are both busted up so I didn't really know what I captured until I got it home on the computer. Also,I was working in conditions that were the most filthy yet. If I barely moved I would kick up tons of dust. I had no source of real light to see by as only the hall lights leading into the theater worked. I relied on my camera phone light to see in most instances.(I never claimed to be good at what I do. I just enjoy what I do). I had a blast though. What with hearing organ music playing when I was in a building completely locked up (no organ was in the building by the way)and a door opening and slamming shut. I had quite a time.