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Another gorgeous sunset right outside my front door! At this instance, birds were flying by settling in for the night.
This is a rare image and not because of its subject matter, which in this instance is a diverted West of England - Paddington service, but rather because it was recorded on a glass plate with a large format camera - the first instance I have come across of a diesel hauled train shot with this medium, which was already largely dying out in the 1930s as lighter and faster medium format cameras and the first 35mm cameras made the cumbersome format largely redundant - at least outside of studios.
The 11 month old 'Warship' still looks pretty pristine apart from the missing right hand route indicator blinds! Smoke from previous steam hauled SR services is drifting out of the tunnel bore located between Templecombe and Gillingham.
Unknown photographer.
Yesterday evening I went birding after work for the first time in a long while because it wasn't so damn hot for a change. I stumbled upon a pair of Virginia Rail that were accommodating enough to be within 8 - 10 feet of me while I took photos from a floating boardwalk. In some instances we were probably only 5 feet apart! This was by far my closest AND longest encounter with this species and I was loving every minute of it. I even got to see one making a "grunt" call which was exciting. Something that amazed me while watching them from such a close distance is how truly small they are in real life. At times I thought that long pointed bill looked quite like a needle when the bright orange sides weren't visible. Great fun to observe such a secretive bird –once again all by myself. Hennepin County, MN 07/12/21
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
The Southern Hawker is a big dragonfly with a body up to 70mm in length. It is an inquisitive insect, and can often approach people for a closer look...
but in this instance, I was the one taking a closer look
NEW JERSEY 2017 BALD EAGLE PROJECT REPORT
ANOTHER PRODUCTIVE YEAR FOR NJ’S EAGLES
by Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist
The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ in partnership with the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program has released the 2017 NJ Bald Eagle Project Report. In 2017, 178 eagle nests were monitored during the nesting season. Of these nests 153 were active (with eggs) and 25 were territorial or housekeeping pairs. One hundred and ninety young were fledged.
In 2017 the number of active nests was three more than in 2016, but the number young fledged decreased by 27 from a record high of 216 fledged in 2016. The productivity rate this season of 1.25 young/active nest is still above the required range of 0.0 to 1.1 for population maintenance. Productivity could be lower this season for many reasons including weather, predation and disturbance to the nesting area. In 2017 nest monitors reported several instances of “intruder” eagles at nests which did disrupt the nesting attempts of several pairs. One of these “eagle dramas” unfolded at the Duke Farms eagle cam watched by millions of people. An intruder female attempted to replace the current female. This harassment interrupted the pairs bonding and copulation and no eggs were laid.
This year’s report includes a section on Resightings of banded eagles. Resightings of NJ (green) banded eagles have increased over the years, as well as eagles seen in NJ that were banded in other states. These resightings are important, as they help us to understand eagle movements during the years between fledging and settling into a territory, as well as adult birds at a nest site.
For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/12/06/new-jersey-201...
New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2017 may be downloaded here: www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/eglrpt17.pdf
"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.
ANGKOR WAT
Angkor Wat ("City Temple") is a vast temple complex near Siem Reap, about 200 miles from the capital of Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
Built in the 12th century by the king of the prosperous Khmer empire, Angkor Wat was built as a royal temple dedicated to a Hindu deity.
After the city of Angkor fell to invaders, Angkor Wat receded into the jungle but continued as a Buddhist temple and a pilgrimage site over the centuries.
Angkor Wat is the best preserved example of Khmer architecture in Cambodia and is so grand in design that some rank it among the seven wonders of the world. It appears on the Cambodian national flag, a very rare instance of a flag incorporating an image of a building.
The "lost city" of Angkor first attracted the interest of Europeans in the 1800s after Cambodia was colonized by the French. Today, Angkor Wat continues to draw thousands of visitors anxious to see this remarkable ancient temple in the jungle.
In addition to many tourists, Buddhist monks are daily visitors to Angkor Wat, their bright orange robes making a vivid contrast with the grey stone of the temple.
HistoryThe city of Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th centuries. The Khmer empire was one of the most prosperous and sophisticated kingdoms in the history of Southeast Asia, and its prosperity was expressed through a wide range of architecture.
The city of Angkor was founded on political and religious ideas adapted from India, and the temples of Angkor were intended as a place of worship for the king and a way for him to ensure his immortality through identification with the Hindu gods.
Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century as a vast funerary temple that would hold his remains, symbolically confirming his permanent identity with Vishnu.
Many of the bas-reliefs in the temple depict scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Hindu sacred texts that recount the adventures of two major incarnations of Vishnu.
During its six centuries as imperial capital, Angkor went through many changes in architectural styles and in religion. The city of Angkor transferred its from the Hindu god Shiva to the Hindu god Vishnu, and finally to the Mahayana Buddhist deity Avalokitesvara.
By the late 13th century, the once frenzied pace of Angkor's architectural pursuits had begun to die down, and a more restrained type of religion was on the rise under the growing influence of Theravada Buddhism.
At the same time, Angkor and the Khmer Empire were increasingly threatened and attacked by invading armies. By the 16th century, the golden age of Angkor was over and many of the great temples began to recede into the jungle.
From the 15th to 19th centuries, Theravada Buddhist monks cared for Angkor Wat, and it is thanks to them that the temple remains mostly intact. Angkor Wat became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Southeast Asia.
European visitors to Cambodia towards the later end of this period were intrigued by the "lost city" of Angkor. After the French established a colonial regime in Cambodia in 1863, the entire site became a focus of scholarly interest.
Excerpt from sacred-destinations.com
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.
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!
The Manawatu River begins its journey to the sea some 180 kilometres (or 111 miles) away on the eastern side of the Tararua Mountain Range. It cuts through the mountains courtesy of the deep and steeply flanked Manawatu Gorge, and empties into The Tasman Sea at Foxton, creating the largest estuary in the southern North Island.
The Estuary is home to 95 species of birds - some of whom I've been able to share with you over the last few weeks! However, I have to admit: I can't wait to return for another photo shoot; who knows what will be there next time???
In the meantime, the scene above shows the western end of the estuary and looks towards the ocean. It depicts an area that is especially out-of-bounds to the public (and dogs!) especially at this time of the year because this is when the "long-haul" migratory birds such as Red Knots and Godwits arrive home from their epic 11,000km flights from Alaska and / or northern Russia! (The Knots come home via the coasts of China or North Korea; the Godwits don't waste time stopping!).
And before you groan, I admit: this scene has been captured on a phone camera - which in this instance has provided a much better result than the $2,500 worth of camera gear I had around my neck...! (Don't ya just hate it when that happens...!!!). However, I guess the important thing is that - with the main river in the distant background - this scene provides you with a glimpse of the beautiful and ever so desperately peaceful Manawatu River Estuary!
Thanks so much for visiting my Site Folks, and thanks especially for taking the time and trouble to leave a Comment; it's always nice to hear from you...!
(Left (or Right!) click the Mouse to view Large; click again to return to normal).
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.
A rustic cottage moving up in the world .. this sort of house raising was done to create more space underneath .. to allow more cooling air to circulate up top and in some instances to evade rising flood waters .. a good reason to move up in the world . This one appears to be an historical project in the making .
The little house near the creek .
Beerwah
Sunshine Coast . Qld
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)
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!
Golden hour light made for some terrific colours and shadows in this instance. It was the shadow of the stairs that first caught my eye. I took a number of shots with different compositions shooting fairly wide knowing that I would loose lots when correcting for perspective as I was shooting pointing up.
Taken jsut a few minutes before yesterday's post, this is a contained staircase that goes to the roof of one part of the Hospital here in Lamont. I pass by this staircase every day on a walk to the park but had never really noticed it before. Something a bit different for me perhaps and it was fun to shoot.
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
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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/...
Great Crested Flycatcher, in this instance, dragonfly catcher; Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly to be more exact.
Plantation Preserve
Plantation, FL
8/16/25
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
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.
May 11th 2024 was one of the biggest Aurora events in recent history. I'm usually to only person at this location in the past but on this night, it was standing room only. Everyone was going crazy and fixated on getting their shots, as was I.
What I didn't realise until everyone started posting, was that I was standing in the company of all my Instagram/Facebook hero's. Other really good astro photographers I had been following for years but never met in person. What a lost opportunity to meet and chat face to face. But I can't blame anyone, it was night for amazing photography, not chatting.
I must also apologise for the age of this post. I'm about a year behind in my Flickr posts at the moment but will try to catch up over the next month or so.
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.
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River Brathay autumn. I never expect these types of images to be widely enjoyed but I do like a bit of visual ambiguity. In this instance the lapping of the river edge creates a pleasing contrast to the wet beech leaves.
Hello everybody :)
Here´s my latest creation I made for my current "ExploringTheShire" project. The MOC shows the Hobbit hole from the Sackville-Baggins. I had a lot of fun building that creation, I tried to include some new techniques, for instance for the bench, the bird house or the mailbox and I also tried to make some kitbash minifigures for the Sackville-Baggins. For Otho I used the head of Kimi Räikkönen from an old Ferrari set :D
Credits to Sanel Lukovic for the use of the whips for the tree (www.flickr.com/photos/92767814@N02), Markus Rollbühler for the use of the quarter-tiles for the bushes (www.flickr.com/photos/moriartus) and to Travis Brickle for the idea with the flower box and for the rake (www.flickr.com/photos/brick_surgeon)
I hope you like it :)
This is another view of the lovely spiral stairway at the Aloft Hotel, Excel, Docklands, London. I really like the textures, shadows and shapes, this image was shot looking directly up towards the roof. I asked at the reception nicely if I could take a couple of shots in the first instance, the Hotel is a bit out of the way, near the Excel Exhibition Centre, at Docklands.
The title Round and Around" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. It shares the sixth track with "Yet Another Movie", I thought it suited the image.
1/40th Second / F4.8 / 100iso / Sigma 10-20mm Lens @ 10mm
website : andrewhowe.format.com/
facebook : www.facebook.com/andrewhoweimages
twitter : twitter.com/andyhowe100
Coz' the fear in me just won't go away,
In an instance,
You were gone,
And now I'm scared...
I LOVE Duffy lyrics..
112/365
Explore #63 & Front Page
Do you have Synaesthesia?
Dont worry...its not a disease. For people who have Synaesthesia, they see colors for different things, such as days of the week, or months of the year, for different people or certain names.
Ever since I was a little kid, I see specific colors for the days of the week and months of the year; for instance:
Sunday is redish orange
Monday is blue
Tuesday is orange
Wednesday is blueish green
Thursday is green
Friday is white
Saturday is red
If youd like to learn more about Synaesthesia, here is a link:
Western Fresno County
The San Joaquin Valley, and particularly the counties of Merced, Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kern, and Kings, are extremely conservative politically and largely agricultural. All are located in an arid area receiving less than 13 inches of rain a year. For many years, they have grown their crops by sucking up water from the underground aquifer. Needless to say that is not a infinite resource, however they treat it as such. Ground is actually sinking (subsidence) because of this. These agricultural interests have advocated damning up all the rivers to reserve water from the spring snowmelt in the Sierras. In many instances they have succeeded in these efforts. The salmon runs are all gone because of this, and the rivers are dry in parts of the year. Of course the farmers expect the taxpayer to bear the burden of the huge expense of building dams so they can make more money. You see, they're really socialists. lol
These people do not give a damn (pun intended) about the environment. They would dam their mothers' birth canals if it would benefit them financially.
So, anyway--where was I?-- these signs in one form or another can be found on every highway and byway around the Central San Joaquin Valley. I find them amusing because of the way they can be changed to alter the meanings. How about, "Damn, water grows food." Or, "Damn water grows food."
Oh, it's all fun and games, and meanwhile the planet is dying.
phys.org/news/2019-03-western-droughts-permanent-loss-maj...
The diet of breeding Long-tailed Skuas usually comprises 90% lemmings, but there are no lemmings on Svalbard. Which probably explains why they are a rare breeding bird with only about 25 pairs on the whole archipelago. This compares with about 1000 pairs of Arctic Skua. But you can see from this photo that they are not averse to chasing other seabirds to steal their food, which is a habit known as kleptoparasitism. In this instance the victim is an Arctic Tern. I'm not expecting much attention on this photo as it looks boring in thumbnail but I like this style of photography that shows a bird actually doing something in the context of its natural environment. And it is still possible to see the small icebergs from a nearby glacier in the out-of-focus background. This was taken in Kongsfjord on the island of Spitsbergen.
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.
Alco YDM-4 unit 6515 crosses the busy level crossing at Pilibhit as it arrives with the 12.50pm from Tanakpur (train 52220) on 14th October 2015.
Tanakpur lies 39 miles from Pilibhit and the train is scheduled to take 2 hours 10 minutes with 4 intermediate stops. This includes waiting time for trains to pass on the single track route, and also follows what seems to be the usual habit of inserting plenty of recovery time between the penultimate stop and the terminus - for instance today's train left Nyoriya Husenpur 2 minutes late and arrived in Pilibhit (9 miles away) 15 minutes early!
For anyone with a geographical bent, Tanakpur lies surprisingly close to the Nepal border - about 2 miles as the crow files. It would be a wet walk though seeing as the Sarda River needs to be crossed! Road traffic make the crossing a few miles downstream where there's a bridge and border crossing.
This shot was taken from Pilibhit East Box with the generous permission of the signalmen.
Alaskan's who live in the interior like we do, cringe when we hear the forecast calling for sunny skies in the winter. We know that the temperature will drop like a rock. For instance - tomorrow the high will be minus 26 F, and the overnight low will be minus 37 F. I was hoping for warmer temperatures on Wednesday - but I just learned it will be minus 33 F. for the high, with a low of minus 39 F. Right about now, I could use a little bit of that so called "global warming".
Homes are freezing up, and men are busy trying to keep water lines running. Many vehicles won't start, and it's best to stay inside anyway, due to hypothermia. Planes have flipped, tractor trailers overturned, and roofs have been blown off, or collapsed. It's a very dangerous and tragic situation. I have never seen a storm this bad, in the 45 years that I have lived in Alaska.
Meanwhile in Wasilla (just 140 miles away from us) - the winds have been blowing up to 85 miles per hour for days, and will continue for the next 48 hours. A few moments ago, the town was declared a disaster. It also happens to be the town where one of my daughters resides - as well as my six grown grand-children, and two great-grandbabies. The last I heard from them, all were without power, except for my daughter. At least they can all gather at her home.
(In this photo you see the Visitors Center, located adjacent to The Hub, at the crossroads of the Glenn and Richardson highways in Glennallen. )
There were quite a few abandoned buildings in the town of Baker, which serves as the gateway to Death Valley and also the midpoint between Vegas and San Bernardino. The town was rather rundown. Occasionally, I found one or two graffitti that were worth noting, for instance, the man face on that side wall. We stopped there just to get gas and had a quick bite at its only Greek restaurant. Oh, and that Alien Jerky store is probably worth a stop just to get yourself entertained on a rather boring long drive.
Film: Kodak Gold 200
Camera: Leica Z2X
I finally got around to processing some of my twilight shots from a recent trip to Cape Kiwanda.
Sorry I haven't been very active on here recently. My life has been a mad scramble for the past couple weeks, and the way the summer's going it probably won't stop anytime soon. This morning, for instance, I found myself crawling around in the attic trying to figure out why the furnace's blower isn't working (which means we have no AC at the moment). And we have guests visiting tomorrow.
I hope your summer's just as busy as you want it to be. Until next time!
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
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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.
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Merci!
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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.
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Well, as usual, I screwed up! In this instance I screwed up big time.
First, I did not pay much attention to my wife telling me there will be light. I said not in California and that too in Bay area.
Second, I did not take the tripod ball head and any other lens than a 20mm F1.8. It was a huge struggle to mount my camera on the gimbal head and adjust the tripod legs to get the right angle. So I wasted much precious time.
Third, I did not know anything about how to photograph auroras. So, stupid me used 30s-60s exposure to get the photos. And this last mistake was the absolute blunder. This is unfixable. My stars are long and my Aurora strikes are not that prominent.
But it was worth experiencing what might be once in a while event. I also went to the nearest darkest area that I know too well. Thankfully, most of the Bay area was busy doing what they do.
The naked eye did not see much other than some faint colors. But a 60s exposure did gather a lot of the hue of the Aurora. I am told this hue is not often seen.
Taken from a moving vehicle. Whilst there have been many improvements in South Africa and a huge increase in better housing, infrastructure and so much more, there are still many problems. Housing for many is still very poor and in these low winter temperatures - for instance last week there was snow In Johannesburg - it must be incredibly difficult.
A very different approach to the crocus shot from yesterday. In that instance, I isolated two on a hillside, shooting upslope and trying for as clean a look as possible. Here, in contrast, a beautiful cluster buried in a tangle of old and new grasses. I did think of doing some grooming, ie. removal of dead material, but two things stopped me: 1. the grasses provided some insulation - protection from wind and cold - and removing them would expose the plant and maybe damage it; 2. this is how we often see wildflowers, in context, as part of their habitat, not neat and clean, not calendar-worthy... so why not show them like this? Perhaps the pattern of blue splashes is enough to cut through the chaos of criss-crossing lines.
The two photos were made minutes apart. Are they equally successful? I don't know; probably not. But there's no point in endlessly repeating what I know will work.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2019 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
With rain falling in Death Valley this morning and more storms lined up in the Pacific to follow, I looked up some of my photos of past instances of lake Manly forming in the flooded Badwater Basin. Ocean temperatures are shaping up to look like we may have a wet El Niño weather pattern this winter:
El Niño is expected to form and continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2018-19 (~80% chance) and into spring (55-60% chance).
www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_a...