"Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

I just thought the quote was appropriate for that "stubborn" shadow. :)

I am trying to make my way through your streams my friends. I eventually will get the hang of moving around well enough again, some time soon. I hope. Have a great day!

Copyright © GeDelaCruzPhotography. All Rights Reserved.

The chancel vault 14thc.

The Abbey church of St. Mary, Tewkesbury was founded in 1092 by a cousin of William the Conqueror. The building work was largely complete by 1121, when the church was consecrated. Another major building campaign took place in the 14thc.

Until the Reformation, this church was a Benedictine Abbey. Then, it was sold to the townspeople by Henry VIII for £453. It then became what it remains to this day - a parish church. But as these photos will illustrate, it is no ordinary parish church. Indeed, it is larger than many cathedrals, and it boasts great art treasures and architectural features that would be the envy of any English cathedral. For instance, it contains what has been described as the largest and finest collection of medieval tombs outside of Westminster Abbey, and also a good deal of high quality medieval stained glass. Tewkesbury is, in short, one of the greatest churches in this country.

In all these instances, the Hebrew word for “mercy” is hesed, which has the connotation of undeserved kindness or grace. In Exodus 34, the word for “merciful” is rachom, derived from rechem (“ womb”), and implies caring for another in the way that a woman cares for the child in her womb. The pervasive sense that Scripture gives of God’s maternal compassion makes the fifth Beatitude a summons to imitate it.

-Evolving humanity and biblical wisdom : reading scripture through the lens of Teilhard de Chardin, Marie Noonan Sabin.

My inspiration song for this pictur:

SCHAMANISCHES Tribal Drum Journey

Message for you:

Even when the wolf sometimes disappears deep into the forest, he always finds his way back home. May the power animal Wolf guide and lead you because in the last instance we will always follow the call of our soul.

Together we go our Soul Path the Queen of Swords and the Wolf as companions you will meet again and again and strengthen each other's backs because that is the deal and the goal.

Botschaft für dich:

Auch wenn der Wolf manchmal tief im Wald verschwindet findet er immer wieder den Weg nach Hause zurück. Möge das Krafttier Wolf dich leiten und führen, denn in letzter Instanz werden wir immer dem Ruf unserer Seele folgen.

Gemeinsam gehen wir unseren Seelenweg, die Königin der Schwerter und der Wolf als Gefährten werden sie sich immer wieder begegnen und sich gegenseitig den Rücken stärken denn das ist der Deal und das Ziel.

How we see echother:

Lina Bó - So wie du bist

Ich und Du - Anna Depenbusch & Mark Forster

Egzod & Maestro Chives - Royalty

Sam Tinnesz - Leading The Pack

Chosen One - Valley of Wolves

Valley Of Wolves - Take It All

WAR*HALL - Ready or Not

Soul Mates enter your life some stay for just one page others for a whole chapter and then there are those who are there for the whole story.♥

Since we have met each other I have always seen us as very polarizing and as strong personalities, two alphas who respect each other even if we sometimes snarl at each other.

Like the Bremerstadt musicians we couldn't be more different but we are connected from cradle to grave by a strong bond.

We are there for each other come what may and YES come what may.

We are never alone on the path we each take. I was allowed to grow on and with you and that is incredibly valuable to me. ♥

We know each other for what feels like an eternity now and I am incredibly grateful that you are a part of my life. You make my life more colorful and even more worth living.♥

Thank you for being exactly the way you are because in my eyes you shine in all your facets and it is pure joy to be able to experience this. Friends like us are very rare and I appreciate this gift very much.♥ Together we accompany each other on our way and Yes I am proud to have a friend like you at my side!

I am glad that you wash my head from time to time ^^ and still let me be who I am. ♥

You strengthen me and give me the courage to handle everything because you simply believe in me, thank you for that. ♥♥♥♥♥

Thank you for all the emotional and wonderful moments I was able to experience with you, whether good or bad, both are part of it. ♥

I have found my best friend in you because you are friend and girlfriend in one what could I wish for more ^^

Love you my BBF Friends for Ever SL & RL ♥

Seelen Gefährten treten in dein Leben einige bleiben für nur eine Seite andere für ein ganzes Kapitel und dann gibt es noch die die während der ganzen Geschichte dabei sind.♥

Seit wir uns getroffen haben, habe ich uns immer als sehr polarisierende und starke Persönlichkeiten gesehen zwei Alphas die sich gegenseitig respektieren, auch wenn wir uns manchmal anknurren.

Wie die Bremerstadtmusikannten könnten wir unterschielicher nicht sein und dennoch verbindet uns ein starkes Band denn von der Wiege bis zur Bare sind wir alle miteinander verbunden.

Wir sind für einander da komme was wolle und JA wolle was da komme.

Überwegs auf dem jeweiligen Weg den jeder einschlägt sind wir nie alleine. Ich durfte an und mit dir wachsen und das ist mir wahnsinnig viel wert.♥

Wir kennen uns nun schon eine gefühlte Ewichkeit und ich bin unglaublich dankbar das du ein Teil meines Lebens bist. Du machst mein Leben bunter und noch lebenswerter.♥

Danke das du genau so bist wie du bist den den in meinen Augen strahlst du in all deinen Facetten und es ist die Pure Freude das miterleben zu dürfen. Freunde wie wir es sind sind sehr selten und ich weiss dieses Geschenk sehr zu schätzen.♥ Gemeinsam begleiten wir uns auf unserem Weg und Yes ich bin stoltz einen Freund wie dich an meiner Siete zu haben!

Ich bin froh das du mir ab und an den Kopf wäschst ^^ und mich dennoch so sein lässt wie ich bin. ♥

Du stärkst mich und gibst mir den Mut alles in Agriff zu nehmen weil du einfach an mich Glaubst danke dafür. ♥♥♥♥♥

Danke für all die Emotionalen und wundervollen Momente die ich mit dir erleben durfte ob nun gut oder schlecht beides gehört dazu. ♥

Ich habe in dir meinen besten Freund gefunden denn du bist Freund und Freundin in einem was will man mehr ^^

Love you mein Bester Friends for Ever SL & RL ♥

This year, the weather in our globe is very un-predictable. One instance it is spring.

On another day is winter back again. With the weather changing dramatically, it is very easy for people to get sick & feel low on the emotional cycle.

I have been observing the plants' flower's boomming & their cycle of becoming fruit's. I found out that plant's are very much affected by the hot & cold ; especially it change between a single day of more than 20-40 degree F.

The Bees' are dying as well for the reason of too much disturbances from the cell phones frequencies according to some bio-scientists. I would like to comment that the dramatically change of the day & night temperature would have cause the death of the bees.

Thus, it would be more difficult for plants' to harvest fruits.

With these in mind. We have to think seriously about the effect of Global warming & to take action & rectified the situation now; before it is too late.

So Go Green...

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

This image was taken with wind speed 15mph.

Pirated, poorly applied instances of my designs brought to you care of SCAmazon 1 of x (with x being a large number I'm afraid)

Some of these would be laughable if there weren't so many of them - and if they didn't mean so much work by me to issue take down notices - costing time & energy that could be better spent doing other things.

Flickr Spoonflower Discussion Group on the issues here: Copyright Issues on Amazon

And here's yet another designer grappling with the same issue of Spoonflower theft on Amazon: karapeters.design/copyright/

The irony is that Spoonflower - my publisher - hosts its designs on AWS - yet has no business-to-business relationship that could protect its investment. I guess that's the free market for you! Meanwhile Jeff Bezos buys a $114m house! Nice one Jeff!

[Poorly pirated stolen care of SCAmazon_1ofx]

The mudflats provided a rare instance of a number of Curlews across a single location. Over a period of time I shot quite a few. These were the first. There will be more.

For Instance: For the devil in you...wicked pink - When you are too angelic...textured off-whites - Hunting instinct up? Helanca stretch leotards - When you go all little-girl...stockings in very young blue.

Chemstrand Nylon

yet another instance where it's hard to compete with the pros, but I'm happy I got to take a shot at it

I went into today anticipating 1/4000s shutter speeds and ended up with sub 1/100s for most of my shots because of the heavy cloud cover.

Fortunately by combining multiple images I was able to blur out the clouds and get a clearer view of the sun.

I'm starting to get behind enough on posting images that I'm forgetting important details. For instance, I believe this pinhole image was shot on infrared film, but I'm not 100% sure. I do know, of course, that it's an image of Lower Kentucky Falls, found near Mapleton, Oregon.

Not much else to say about this... and I need to get back to editing pictures. Hope you're all having a great weekend.

We were both in our cars. Parked outside a local supermarket. She must have sensed my lens, peering at her and the light of her mobile phone. She turned her head, just for an instance...

Pentax MX - A 28 F/2.8

Fomapan 100 - Rodinal

Vuescan linux + Darktable

Ouch Darktable has quite a learning curve ! But the results are really nice. I was ripping my hairs until I found the new instance smallish icon...

Here I cropped, removed dust spots, corrected the curves to add more depth in the sluggish blacks and a bit more contrast, sharpened a bit, and looked for a barrel distorsion removal but alas didn't find it...

So here you go :)

Saint-Sauveur, mai 2017

27/52 By some unspoken rule, the "special needs" boarding cats - for instance geriatric or diabetic cats - have become my responsibility (under the doctors' supervision) on the shifts I work. Many cats don't eat for a day or two when they first come to board because they are too nervous. I feel bad they are so nervous but I know they'll be OK. However, diabetic cats MUST eat. As you may be able to tell from this picture, Magic spent his first 24 hours under his towel - NOT eating. I tried every variety of prescription diabetic food we have - wet and dry, pate and "savory selects" in gravy and nothing. I tried tasty junk food and nothing again. I tried slipping his food under his towel with him and still nothing. We were getting to the point where we were going to have to test his blood glucose level to determine if, or how much, insulin to give him. I was just about to walk out the door at the end of my shift and have him be someone else's responsibility when I saw him peek outside his towel and eat some of his Purina DM Savory Selects wet food for about 45 seconds and something huge inside me lightened up. I was so thrilled to see him eating that I, of course, didn't want to open his cage door to get a better picture of him. Any cat who eats while boarding is a happy, little thing.

By the way, if you ever have to board your cat and the vet asks for your permission to give an appetite stimulant if needed - please say yes. For those who feel reluctant to give their cats medication, know that the appetite stimulants used are very safe and the risk of the medication is so much less than the risk to your cat of not eating - especially if it is overweight or diabetic. Often one dose is enough to get a cat to eat and that first meal is all it takes to jump-start their appetite and no further doses are needed.

I have found that being a transgender woman is tough. There are so many things that must be done to pass successfully like for instance: Dieting to lose weight and to achieve that feminine curvey body, building a feminine wardrobe, getting top and bottom surgery done and speech lessons. The most difficult things to do is getting surgery and speech lessons. Unless you have enough money to do these things, it ain't gonna happen.

There are several instances when long hood forward locomotives are the better choice, and this is one of them. Not because the 4619, a first gen GP9, was set up to run LHF, not for dramatic effect, either, but because the other short hood end is really ugly. This old veteran was originally a Grand Trunk Western GP9 and wore the old olive and gold. It also served time on the Central Vermont, then came back home. I don't know who or when the lobotomy was done, but it wasn't the best work the loco doctors had ever done. It came out with a nice streak of unpainted rust around the top of the chopped nose and was never painted over or repaired. So be happy you don't have to look at that end. The crew aboard the 4619, the Griffith local, may not have been happy, but then they're inside the beast and not outside having to look at it...

By around midnight the traffic on the bridge has subsided, though in this instance it was heavy again at 1.30am.

It's difficult photographing works under glass. But in this instance I decided to go full reflective mode and incorporate myself into the photograph. I saw the pattern of light and dark in the original photograph created an interesting abstract effect with my reflection on the glass. It also plays with the idea of a photograph within a photograph.

The original photograph by is by John Kauffmann from 1920 and entitled The National Bank. Comparing this to his 1914 overtly Pictorialist photograph I showed you in the previous collage, it marks a shift to a Modernist approach in photography that was being popularised in America by Paul Strand (1890-1976).

www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/13134/

Not everywhere you find animals being portrayed in this manner, with all the embellishments and careful craftsmanship. The sad part statues get more attention than the actual being.

via andre on Pixelfed metapixl.com/p/andre/578232655592903277

metapixl.com is a pixelfed instance

4 instances of raw images from Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences enhanced, tweaked and converted into a human colony on Mars. My nod to favourite SF authors Lem and Dick. HAPPY SLIDERS SUNDAY! :) Here is a before and after image: www.flickr.com/photos/lunaryuna/14181342603/

Hi Flickr!

I know it's been a while since last time. A lot has happened in my life. I've for instance taken a year off school. August has been an amazing month for me. I've kayaked on the waves in Lofoten where I saw the most beautiful scenery Nature has to offer..

I then went to Svendborg/Denmark as a travel leader for something called "Emax", a entrepreneurship conference that brings young entrepreneurs together from Scandinavia. As well as known and successful entrepreneurs that hold lectures to always inspire us.

After 4 days in Svendborg I went to Copenhagen and met a magnificent and heart lifting facebook friend called Cecilie. She'd been to India several times and it had changed her life completely. Some months ago I sent her a facebook mail and told her about my life and misery. She then told me to go and visit her and I did.

We did Yoga in the morning and had smoothies for breakfast. She had breath taking apartment with tall windows and a great positive atmosphere. We walked and talked. About Life so to speak. About how everything happens for a reason. About happiness, and how everything that happends to you - is eventually for you to get on the right path in your life. The one that makes you happy.

But what is happiness?

Is it a new car? A new television? Food? Desserts? Cakes? Having a boyfriend? Watching a movie? Shopping? Getting plastic surgery or a new camera and lens? Having a bed to sleep in? Having pets? Nice phones and computer? Being tall and skinny? Smoking?

I figured that for me personally all of these things are just temporarily - temporarily happiness to make me forget about the most important thing. - Happiness Within.

Happiness, true Happiness I’ve come to find after a lot of hard work and a million tears and bad episodes is not to find outside the body. But rather Inside. You can have all the money and external joy and that will still not make you happy. This is a well-known fact. Even though it's sometimes hard to realize.

So after being with Cecilie the visit India seemed so much closer. And I also realized how much I wanted to BELIEVE in something more than molecules and Darwin’s theory.

About how everything that happens for you is for a reason. About how I shouldn't identify myself 100% with my body. Because in the end; My "body" has it all; A bed with a million blankets, All the food I can dream of, Clothes (I recently gave away my own bodyweight in clothing to charity!!!!!! CRAZY), Shoes, Friends, School, A job, Income, A family, +++ and I STILL don't feel happy with myself. I'm on the quite opposite field. Wondering what the heck I'm doing here. And why I have to wake up to these days which are all the same. I WAS anyway.

There's so much "Magic" in the world. There's so much we cannot touch or see but is still there. Like our thoughts and feelings for instance. And there's so many tiny creatures that have a life that we cannot see. That scientists are yet to discover. Or maybe never will discover. However they live with us as fellow members on this earth.

There is so much astonishing in this world. Like how a seed can have all the "ingredients" and wisdom to become a solid tree fifty meters of the ground.

Humans should show more respect to our fellow members of this earth.

We destroy the woods and we kill the animals so we can eat their meat.

Surely if the slaughter houses where made of glass we would stop killing millions of animals every year. Surely we would use our energy to feed the humans that are starving on the other side of the planet.

I'm not saying that everyone should become a vegetarian. My theory is that I should eat what I can kill. Therefore I've stopped eating pigs, cows, sheep’s, birds, simply because I know in my heart that if I had a choice of eating a melon or killing that innocent lamb standing next to me I would with NO doubt choose that melon.

It's so easy to STOP thinking when it comes to food. You have everything cut in small pieces and files in the stores. It's hard to think about what you eat. It's too easy to think about it. In the end every human being has to find their own way. But if you're up for some changes please see this video: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6361872964130308142#

I’m not even saying that “Happiness” isn’t to find on the outside for somebody. I’m not saying that my way will work for everybody. I’m not saying that no body has done this before me. I’m not saying that everybody should go to India. However, what I’m saying is #BE HAPPY – regardless of the costs. Fight for happiness like you would fight for your life. Never be satisfied with crying and being depressed year after year. And if happiness has come to you, I smile from ear to ear and hope you simply enjoy it to the fullest every single day!

Anyway, here comes the most important point in this text, and as I’ve written so much I’ll caps look it! I’VE QUIT SCHOOL AND AM BUYING MYSELF A TICKET TO AUSTRALIA, INDIA, NEPAL TO GO ON THE SCHOOL OF LIFE. TO SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS AND HEALTHINESS. I’M GOING ALONE. I’M SCARED. BUT STILL I’M SO HAPPY. I’M LEAVING NORWAY WITHIN TWO MONTHS.

There. I’ve said it.

And I’ll be poor.

And I’ll be alone.

My mind and Me.

And I’ll practice all that I’ve written in this text.

And I’ll throw away all my university books.

And I’ll have no job.

But to find myself. To try to understand life and appreciate it.

Go back to the beginning.

Following the road with bad balance and cerebral palsy.

It won't be easy!

Wish me luck!

It certainly did in this instance due to the maroon pick up moving between my exposures. The pick up certainly looks odd.

Before we went in holiday to South America I searched online for well known sights in the locations we woulds visit. Apart from football grounds Buenos Aires was somewhat lacking with the exception of this obelisk.

The Obelisco de Buenos Aires is located in the Plaza de la Republica. It was built in 1932 to mark the 400th anniversary of the city of Buenos Aires. Believe it or not six years after its construction the government sanctioned its demolition. A public revolt followed and the obelisk received a reprieve. The 221 foot tall structure is hollow and includes a staircase that a leads to virtually the top. Alas I wasn't aware of this otherwise I would have looked at climbing it.

Get Into Shape, exclusive shapes for Lelutka Lilly.

Bonus shot using same shape and skin, with alternative eye and hair color, makeup and in some instances, eyebrows if appropriate, to see her in her full beauty!

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blumoi/27/21/600

The Saddest Poem

by Pablo Neruda

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

Write, for instance: "The night is full of stars,

and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance."

The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this, I held her in my arms.

I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her.

How could I not have loved her large, still eyes?

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her.

To hear the immense night, more immense without her.

And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.

What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.

The night is full of stars and she is not with me.

That's all. Far away, someone sings. Far away.

My soul is lost without her.

As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her.

My heart searches for her and she is not with me.

The same night that whitens the same trees.

We, we who were, we are the same no longer.

I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her.

My voice searched the wind to touch her ear.

Someone else's. She will be someone else's. As she once

belonged to my kisses.

Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her.

Love is so short and oblivion so long.

Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,

my soul is lost without her.

Although this may be the last pain she causes me,

and this may be the last poem I write for her.

www.flickr.com/groups/flickrrivers/discuss/72157631862672... Front page pic

Sony A7RII Fine Art Zion National Park Autumn Winter Subway Hike! Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape Photography!

An important thing to remember is that even though pixel sizes keep getting smaller and smaller, the technology is advancing, so the smaller pixels are more efficient at collecting light. For instance, the Sony A7rII is back-illuminated which allows more photons to hit the sensor. Semiconductor technology is always advancing, so the brilliant engineers are always improving the signal/noise ratio. Far higher pixel counts, as well as better dynamic ranger, are thus not only possible, but the future!

Yes I have a Ph.D. in physics! I worked on phototranistors and photodiodes as well as an artificial retina for the blind. :)

You can read more about my own physics theory (dx4/dt=ic) here: herosodysseyphysics.wordpress.com/

And follow me on instagram! @45surf

instagram.com/45surf

Facebook!

www.facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken

www.facebook.com/45surfAchillesOdysseyMythology

Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Photography!

I love shooting fine art landscapes and fine art nature photography! :) I live for it!

45surf fine art!

Feel free to ask me any questions! Always love sharing tech talk and insights! :)

And all the best on Your Epic Hero's Odyssey!

The new Lightroom rocks!

Beautiful magnificent clouds!

View your artistic mission into photography as an epic odyssey of heroic poetry! Take it from Homer in Homer's Odyssey: "Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, O daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them. " --Samuel Butler Translation of Homer's Odyssey

All the best on your Epic Hero's Odyssey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!

Sony A7RII Fine Art Zion National Park Autumn Winter Subway Hike! Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape Photography! Sony A7R2 & Sony 16-35mm Vario-Tessar T FE F4 ZA OSS E-Mount Lens!

fine art landscape photography,fine art photography, fine art photographer, elliot mcgucken photography, landscapes, fine art landscape, landscape, landscape photography

Intimated Instance is from 0 to 1.5 ft.

Public Distance is 12 ft or more.

P.S. Change begins at the end of comfort zone!

Sky100 天際100

This is a REAL instance of ice even without vaccines and it's not the Trump ICE lockup and covid super-spreader site for migrants and kids in Denver. A while back, I grabbed more Clover Basin ditch shots down at Willow Farm when I hauled my D700 back down even though the sky was blank blue. I therefore had no choice but to point the camera downward for captures and keep the sky from the shots. Just like today and tomorrow and tomorrow! I decided that I needed some better originals to edit! I liked this view as well as the other. I got few real duds in my "action" takes of the ditch but I do have several NORMAL shots of the ditch now (they call it Willow Brook) but I call it a ditch. It's not much of one either. Let's face it, most of the St. Vrain stream and ditch flows have been ripped by the towns and cities to water blue grass instead of agriculture.

I can't figure why anyone would cut a ditch this darn squirrely. Drunk diggers, probably, though Longmont was a temperate colony at the time. Not so now When I first saw it, It was nearly impossible to follow the reasoning for this ditch but it does seem that the floods scoured this ditch somewhat. I think I noticed the colors of the reflections and contrasts and decided to take advantage. They seemed to oversaturate in this case but that's about everything posted on Flickr. The water course was a bit torn up but there must have been no serious flooding here.

We hit the end of autumn then and the chills came through but we hit the 60s after Christmas - so no coat. I won't go down to shoot ice today - it hit the 67 degrees in early December and await the 80s later in the week. No Coats in the 60s, no Clarks either. I've still got a lot of captures in the temp directory in today's stretch of no skies. I found Willow Farm on Google maps when searching for a barn I glimpsed and made some trips down there and added some more weird captures to temp stash. This is a shot of Willow Creek, another ditch, IMHO. I went back down with my D700 to see if I could capture some shot of the barn. I may go out soon if we can retrieve some skies and clouds at all.

Here is a normal, if not fairly slow hand held exposure. I already posted other shots that were "action" shots and they were the better shots. I grabbed a couple of slices in Lightroom and dropped them into Photoshop to see what might appear.

I was very surprised when I saw them in the forest yesterday :)

Wood violet, sweet violet, common violet or garden violet (Viola odorata) is a species of flowering plant in the viola family, native to Europe and Asia. It has been introduced into North America and Australia. It blooms from March to April. The species can be found near the edges of forests or in clearings; it is also a common "uninvited guest" in shaded lawns or elsewhere in gardens. In herbal medicine violets has been used for a variety of respiratory ailments, insomnia and skin disorders. Flowers are also edible and used as food additives for instance in salad, made into jelly, and candied for decoration. The sweet scent of this flower has popular, particularly in the late Victorian period, so this plant has been used in the production of many cosmetic fragrances and perfumes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pierwsze fiołki znalezione wczoraj w lesie. Zaskoczyłam się, że już są :)

Fiołek wonny, fiołek pachnący (Viola odorata) – gatunek rośliny należący do rodziny fiołkowatych. Występuje w stanie dzikim w Europie, w zachodniej Azji i północnej Afryce. W Polsce pospolity na niżu i w niższych położeniach górskich. Uprawiany i często dziczejący. Kwitnie od marca do kwietnia. Zasiedla widne lasy liściaste i ich skraje, zarośla, trawiaste polany, trawniki. Rośnie na stanowiskach półcienistych lub cienistych, na glebie próchniczej, lekko wilgotnej. Jest rośliną leczniczą. Działa wykrztuśnie, napotnie, moczopędnie, odkażająco, żółciopędnie i rozkurczowo. Upłynnia zalegający śluz w drogach oddechowych. Kwiaty fiołka dawniej kandyzowano, produkowano z nich syrop na kaszel oraz używano ich do aromatyzowania octu. Uprawiany jako roślina ozdobna ze względu na swój bardzo przyjemny zapach oraz piękne kwiaty.

Not a friendly handshake in this instance though… lol.

(This picture is in this week's [Sat September 20th 2014] Amateur Photographer Magazine on page 21 :)…. Yay, I'm in a national magazine!!! They picked it up from the BWPA and have published several pictures they liked from the awards. Thanks to Rob Williams for informing me.)

Not really good IQ on this because of bad light, I just thought the pose was interesting! I hadn't intended to take this sort of shot today (which is why 700mm) but the starlings were so distracting I couldn't help myself!

I was in the hide for an hour and a half, took over 800 photos, it was a lot of fun, there's lots going on there at the moment and there are still good photos to be had even in bad light.

Sometimes I get inspiration from the strangest things. Take for instance the inspiration for this shot, which came from the fact that Canada Post is on strike which meant that I had to wait another day for my new lens to get here. I started to think about the history of how we send messages and then I remembered that the Item Collaboration theme today is bottles and it all made sense!

I had to put this photo on pause in the midst of setting it up as a group of ducks decided to stand and quack at me for about 10 minutes.

Not sure if you've had enough of these kites, but the light was so good the day I went to Nant yr Arian I can't help posting another one! There were nearly always two or more birds coming down for meat on the water which made for untidy pictures, but in this instance I thought it worked in the composition as well as showing the behaviour.

I read a review of the 7D MkII the other day, written by Andy Rouse, and in it I learnt something useful that I hadn't known before and which applies to all Canon (and maybe other) cameras. I'll mention it here in case its useful to anyone: The default Picture Style is Standard, and I've always left it on that with all the cameras I've had, but he points out that this style sharpens the whole picture slightly even when you're shooting raw. If you choose the Faithful Picture Style it won't do that. Its useful because you will probably want to selectively sharpen your images rather than sharpen across the board, so you can leave the background nice and smooth…. I've immediately changed my settings, but I haven't taken any pictures yet, since changing it!!

Because there is some doubt about what I've said above about Picture Styles, this is the quote from the Andy Rouse article:

"Now a little about the processing. It was shot with a "Faithful" picture style which applies 0 sharpening. This is a really really important point and you need to understand its significance. If you set the style as " Standard" then sharpening is applied to the whole image. If you leave this untouched then the RAW converter, Canon's DPP in this case, will sharpen the RAW during processing to the same degree and you will get a TIFF that has been sharpened across the whole image. This means all the noisy bits have been sharpened too!!! Myself, and many pros like me, never ever ever do this. We sharpen only the bits of the image that need sharpening, i.e. the deer here. This means that I switch off all sharpening, by using "Faithful" and ensure that the RAW converter does the same at processing time. Then, when I am finished my colour correction in Photoshop I sharpen only the deer using Nik Sharpen on a layer. That way I avoid any background noise being sharpened. I have done this with every single camera I have ever used and I have applied it here to the 7D2 as well."

I usually try to have something close in the background to prevent blackouts from the flash but in some instances I either can't help it or it works for the shot. Think it works here.

Still getting to grips with the MP-E 65mm as had little time using it due to weather mainly.

Steady hands, strong arms and lots of patience very much required!

Gear: Canon EOS 40D (F13, 1/250, ISO 100) + Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo (@2x) + B+W 81A MRC Warming Filter + a diffused Canon MT-24EX (-2/3 FEC)

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

Bonus shot using same shape and skin, with alternative eye and hair color, makeup and in some instances, eyebrows if appropriate, to see her in her full beauty!

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blumoi/27/21/600

The great mainline from Osnabruck to Hamburg where one could see the marvellous Deutsches Bundesbahn 01.10 pacific at work. In this instance 01.1054 goes through her paces with a Hamburg train near Bohmte, West Germany.

To think, these were streamlined once!!

In a rare instance, NS Croxton local K75 performs a daylight switch at A. Zerega's Sons Pasta off NJ Transit's Bergen County Line in Fair Lawn, NJ. This is the site of the infamous 1982 wreck where a group of local teenagers threw the mainline switch in front of an eastbound Conrail commuter train, sending it into the pasta factory and killing its engineer.

Does this really need a description? Pretty self-explanatory, I think. Aside from saying that yes, Graysen is still nursing. For reals, not just on naked Barbie dolls....

Mickey seems to be getting a kick out of this.

This picture will be featured on a postcard in the UK and has appeared in the July/August issue of Mothering magazine, in Letters. :)

It has also been lifted without my knowledge or consent so many times that I have watermarked it. Following up on all the stolen instances online, which will take some time!

I have been known to act like an idiot sometimes to attract the attention of the female. In this instance it didn't work and she almost certainly thought I was a fool!

Never mind, today is another day and I’ve got to be more sensible back behind my over familiar desk.

It was last year that I chanced upon a new born Welsh mountain goat in a ruin up in Dinorwic quarry. It was the first I had ever seen. Yesterday we saw eight kids just in the same group around ‘Castell Trefor’. They were amongst the gorse bushes clinging to a very steep part of the mountainside and I suggested to Gary I skirt up the side and get up above them so that we could pen them in a bit to get some better shots. Fortunately for me Gary wasn’t to see that as I crested the slope there was a series of very strong gusts of wind that blew me so hard I was forced to my knees, and weighed down by my backpack I just couldn’t get up for about ten seconds and flailed about trying to get upright. Of course there was one goat that just stood there and watched me, that stupid look they have, on its face. But I’m not sure who looked more goofy: the goat or me?

It's just a shame the mum isn't sharper, but she moved her head just at the critical moment!

Facebook | 500px

Le plus intéressant... | Ma carte | Mes classeurs | Mes albums

Façade du Tribunal de Grande Instance.

Arras | Pas-de-Calais (62) | Hauts-de-France | France

Ever since I became a Flickr member I've enjoyed the gorgeous Bald Eagle pictures of, for instance Imtoootall, Doug LLoyd, Nikographer, Fella-1 and Garnite (to name a few...).

I long to go to the places they live/visit, see the eagles with my own eyes, but it seems that my wishlist of 'must see before I die'-places only grows longer since I'm on Flickr and the time left only becomes shorter.. :-)

But.... there are vague plans to go to Vancouver Island in autumn. I've heard from a friend that there seem to be a lot of these flying beauties around there.....

Meanwhile, last sunday I went with friends and their kids to Beekse Bergen in Holland. Apart from it being a lovely day which really lifted the spirits of us sunstarved people in the Netherlands (:-), they had a wonderful show with birds of prey.

So here was my chance to practice a little! You might call it a small miracle that I haven't hit anyone on the head with the camera and lens but I was só eager to get at least one shot right!

Ok, it might not (yet) be the real stuff, and it doesn't come near the quality of the above mentioned gentlemen's shots, but still I've enjoyed seeing this wonderful eagle fly enormously. (and at least it felt real !!! :-) )

One of those instances where the practise turns out far better than the shot you actually camp for (Trident 472). Oh well, this means I have a shot of the 486 at least.

E243 motors down the Millennium Busway, with a 161, 108 and 132(?) in the background.

Sony A7RII Fine Art Zion National Park Autumn Winter Subway Hike! Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape Photography!

An important thing to remember is that even though pixel sizes keep getting smaller and smaller, the technology is advancing, so the smaller pixels are more efficient at collecting light. For instance, the Sony A7rII is back-illuminated which allows more photons to hit the sensor. Semiconductor technology is always advancing, so the brilliant engineers are always improving the signal/noise ratio. Far higher pixel counts, as well as better dynamic ranger, are thus not only possible, but the future!

Yes I have a Ph.D. in physics! I worked on phototranistors and photodiodes as well as an artificial retina for the blind. :)

You can read more about my own physics theory (dx4/dt=ic) here: herosodysseyphysics.wordpress.com/

And follow me on instagram! @45surf

instagram.com/45surf

Facebook!

www.facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken

www.facebook.com/45surfAchillesOdysseyMythology

Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Photography!

I love shooting fine art landscapes and fine art nature photography! :) I live for it!

45surf fine art!

Feel free to ask me any questions! Always love sharing tech talk and insights! :)

And all the best on Your Epic Hero's Odyssey!

The new Lightroom rocks!

Beautiful magnificent clouds!

View your artistic mission into photography as an epic odyssey of heroic poetry! Take it from Homer in Homer's Odyssey: "Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, O daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them. " --Samuel Butler Translation of Homer's Odyssey

All the best on your Epic Hero's Odyssey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!

Sony A7RII Fine Art Zion National Park Autumn Winter Subway Hike! Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape Photography! Sony A7R2 & Sony 16-35mm Vario-Tessar T FE F4 ZA OSS E-Mount Lens!

fine art landscape photography,fine art photography, fine art photographer, elliot mcgucken photography, landscapes, fine art landscape, landscape, landscape photography

The Zion Narrows!

Jan. 30, 2012

"This is one of those rare instances where my presence indirectly became a part of this reaction from those pictured in the photograph. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had just accidentally dropped all of her briefing papers onto the Oval Office rug and she, the President and Vice President all reacted in a way that indicated that surely I wouldn't get a photo of that to embarrass her." (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

"I" for Toy Tues & Thurs 2011

On June 5, 2012, Hinode captured these stunning views 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/Lockheed Martin

Original images: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hinode/venus_transit_hinode.html

Read more about Hinode:

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hinode/index.html

p.s. You can see all of our Hinode photos in the Hinode Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/sets/72157606297030945/

_____________________________________________

These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...

From an idea by Daniel Nimmervoll, whose Kindle book I nought and studied to learn to do droplet photography. This is a somewhat clumsy and quick-n-dirty photoshop montage from a series of photographs in this album.

A word for y'all aspirant liquid artists about experts and authors who report via books, articles, youtube vlogs or blogs on this type of photography. It's quite useful what they tell you but I find they spend a lot of time telling you about things you already know, for instance, what backgrounds to use, and how to position your flashes to create this infinite effect and subject colours (thru usage of colourful gels) we often see in product photography. It's all right to have that knowledge, but droplet photography is not about this in the first place. It is about practical things like what should the height of the nozzle from the surface the drop hits should eventually be, how it impacts the forms it creates, how to calculate the time from drop exit from the nozzle to the impact with water for Tats and what follows next analytically. Quite a few people try to explain how they did certain shot, but they will never tell you that whatever they did was 10% by design and 90% by accident. This is an important element of this type of photography. Given a drop, and the best calculated parameters for certain planned outcome, the photographer was the first to be surprised by those outcomes. The photographer's creative work starts after God, nature and its laws, and chaos theory had finished their toil. That post processing consists simply of a selection of the best shots, the healing out of stray drops that defocus the viewer from the main subject, and adjusting the shot's colours via controls that packages like LR CC, Luminar and above all Photoshop have to offer. Of course, the photographer also designs the background and lighting, but that's not the hard part of such a project. It's the easiest in fact.

A method about Tats should preferably start by explaining the steps in the drop 'lifecycle', that is from the moment it impacts the surface and what happens next. Very few people will tell you that in a detailed and comprehensive manner. They do tell you about bits and pieces of the lifecycle but they all select and pick what they want to tell you about it, and you are left wondering. You need to google and read many sources to make sense of it. I should say, you start with Youtube as there are good clips about the phenomenon that people videoed with high speed video cameras and they show droplet lifecycles really as nature decided them to be. Even so, they only cover a few use cases and none of what I saw told me anything about how to reach a tall Worthington jet, just to mention something rather important... And you have to make some assumptions yourself, now that you have the whole thing deploying in front of your eyes, and calculate the distance in millisec from impact to say the jet formation and its highest point. So, I reckoned that the total duration between impact and collision with the following drop is in the range of 120 to 160 millisec. My own empirical experiments later confirmed that assumption. In another Flickr post about it, I gave a simple method to calculate the time needed for a drop to hit the surface after its nozzle exit. This helps a lot because, at least it gives you a first parameter to work with in your drop lifecycle controller, what it is, Pluto, Miops, etc... I was able in most cases that I tested to fall within the smallest unit of my system, one millisec that is, in my prediction of the touch down as I called it. Actually the only unknown scientifically that is impossible to calculate is the air resistance that for heights between 60 and 40 cm it turned out to be between 20 and 25 millisec. The good thing is that it is linear, so if you figure out the amount of resistance for 42 cm it's a simply analogy to calculate the corresponding resistance for say, 56 cm. I have designed shots based on this formula that I could capture drops barely touching the surface in their last few millisec before impact. Provided you are so close to the start of the process, and if you have a reasonable knowledge of what it takes in millisec to go to the following stage, then you are reasonably in control of what happens when. This will save you time, stress and battery life (your speed-lights that is) in your quest to reach the moment of creation.

Suppose you are trying to figure out in how many millisec after impact your system will generate a Worthington jet. And at which point does this jet reach its maximum height. As an example, I spent in one session more than three hours trying to figure out, at the given configuration I was trying, with only one drop coming out of the nozzle, as during all this time all my shots for millisec after millisec came out with a short Worthington of a few cm never reaching a descent height to have it collide with drop number two, and all the shots came out with the seven dwarfs but no Snowhite, if you know what I mean. It took me sometime to realise that what makes Worthingtons shoot high is more the liquid composition of both the basin and the falling drops than a part in the lifecycle that I was chasing for hours, as I was convinced that in my combination of liquids, parameters and heights from the basin there ought to be a descent jet hidden somewhere. Also the size of the surface and volume of the basin should play a role, although one celebrity artist wrote that this is irrelevant as the cavity a falling drop creates will only go as deep as a couple of cm. Dream on dude. In Ship Building (from which I graduated as a PhD some 40 years ago) we had a whole chapter of manoeuvrability in shallow waters. It's an entirely different world. I strongly believe the size of the basin and the depth of the water mass plays a certain role in the magnitude of the jet. Can't mathematically prove it, but this is something my shipbuilder's intuition tells me. The jet is created by the falling drop that creates a cavity, and it is the hydrostatic pressure that pushes water back to the cavity and creates the jet. In a super shallow basin you'll never be able to create a jet. Also a small basin with very little water in it, like a glass of water. I don't know, but they don't tell you these things. So you keep trying and wasting battery life, until, if you are lucky enough and get to the ultimate creative moment, where nature feels sorry about you and starts creating its beauties for you to admire and share in Flickr. Unfortunately, real science has very little to tell us about the phenomenon itself, therefore we are left out in the cold to figure out by ourselves what makes jets shoot high and what mostly causes them to remain shorties! Like I said, no expert is sharing his/her experiences to that level, and you are left guessing, and even worse, you are left admiring those wonderful boyz 'n gals for their abilities... (luck I should better say).

A surprise and a gamble

I’m not usually an “assortment” person. For instance, I know I only want the licorice jelly beans, so why would I buy a bag with multiple flavors. Although, I must admit, my preference works in my favor because licorice is usually all that’s left after a bowl of jelly beans has been sitting a few days.

I ordered a four-pack of novelty suspender tights in February and lost the nerve to wear them. In the meantime, I forgot what they looked like. This is the second pair I’ve tried in recent weeks (the ootd pics with the first pair were too scandalous to publish) and I like the surprise of discovering the pattern as I put them on. I’m wearing this pair backwards from the model’s picture, but I think I’ve got it right and she’s got it turned around. So far, this assortment has been a big hit at tango. (Especially the unpublished outfit. I know. I’m a tease.)

Dress, H&M (thrifted). Tights, TGD. Earrings, Green Tree Jewelry.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

[]Please comment if you favorite[]

So this Bill guy. He's from this alternate reality. He's from Aim. Aim sucks. Hydra rules! Hail Hydra! Anyways, he totally sucks! Like he is the complete opposite of me. For instance.

"Yo, what's your favorite rock band?"

"Rock? I like rap, man."

Rap? Really? Rock is where it's at, Bill. Such an idiot.

"What's your favorite tv show?"

"Tv is for morons."

"You're for morons."

"My point proven."

"Favorite movie?"

"The Twilight films."

Are you freaking kidding me? This dude, man! He's so stupid. Honestly I wouldn't mind if he died. I wouldn't mind killing him either. Like seriously.

"Favorite superhero?"

"BIrdman."

"Dude, Pinkman could kick his butt anytime."

"Birdman!"

"Pinkman!"

"Bird!"

"Pink!"

"B(ee)!"

"P(ee)!"

"B(uh)!"

"P(uh)!

I'm gonna kill 'im!

"Hey, there's that Grasshopper dude."

Bill elbows me in the stomach and begins a full on sprint towards the Grasshopper. What the heck man? I catch my breath and begin chasing down Bill and the Grasshopper. With the Grasshopper's mechanical prosthetic's he is able to jump over obstacles much quicker then Bill or I can. With this advantage he was able to jump over a security fence. Bill stops in his tracks and doesn't make an effort to even try to jump over the fence.

"What the heck man? You were right behind him! You could've jumped that fence and caught him!"

"I'm sorry, the dude's a no-class villain. He'll end up getting caught by the cops."

"How do you know?"

"Trust me, on my world, he always does."

"Just because on your world he does, doesn't mean he does here. You're just being freaking lazy."

"Dude calm down. It's just the Grasshopper."

I rear back and punch him straight in the nose. He quickly grabs his nose to stop the blood from flowing out.

"The heck dude?"

"Next time I won't stop there."

"Whatever dude. Let's go find Lady Deadpool and Deadpool."