Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS Mk II USM
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The spiral staircase is located within UTS Building 2 (UTS Central) and is located along Broadway in Ultimo. The spiral is inspired by the double helix structure of DNA molecules. It was designed by the Australian firm FJMT.
Broadway, Ultimo
December, 2022
I spent my latest trip exploring Parke County, Indiana. It's claimed to be the "Covered Bridge Capital of the World". Parke County was once home to 53 covered bridges, today 31 remain. It is said that Parke County has so many bridges because of the numerous streams and creeks but also because several bridge builders/designers lived in that area.
I was able to visit 30 out of 31 bridges and photographed 29 during my trip. Most of the bridges are in good condition and almost all are accessible. If you are interested in making the trip, it will easily take two to three days to visit and properly appreciate all 31 bridges. Some may think I'm crazy (which I might be) but I enjoy traveling through rural Indiana anyway so this was the perfect getaway! I probably won't share pictures of all the bridges (a lot of them have the same look or paint scheme) but I will share the most notable over the next few weeks with some other highlights. 😁
Now onto this bridge, this one was the first that I visited and probably my favorite. While I was snapping pictures, I heard a noise in the bushes behind me. I turned around and a whole family of cats and kittens jumped out and walked up to say hi. Naturally they got their pics taken too and you'll see them in my next upload!
Big Rocky Fork Bridge
Built: 1900
Built by: J. J. Daniels
Total Length: 88 ft
Mansfield, Indiana (Parke County)
I don't have a name for it. It's been a while in the making. I was trying to make it look like vines climbing up the tree in the foreground but I don't think I did very well at that. Anyway . . . it is what it is
Seen in the Wrigleyville section of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood
For Our Daily Challenge: Multiple
Flickr friends, life got in the way on Friday, and I have fallen a bit behind on comments, but will be catching up with your latest images soon.
Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili...
If you're interested, you'll find a more detailed closeup here (it's the 8th photo from the top): www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (it's very brief but pretty unusual: a tiny wall lizard attacks two young great tits): www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqkSsyrm7E
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: MY LONG AND ARDUOUS JOURNEY TO BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
If you've set yourself the challenge of exclusively shooting the wildlife in your own back yard, you might find - as I did - that bird photography is really, really hard.
It's not that reptiles are easy to photograph either, mind - but at least the ones in my garden stay (for the most part) on the ground, and one can learn how to carefully approach them with a camera. They're also clearly egoists, which from a photographer's point of view is is a great character trait: if a lizard detects a human in its vicinity, it's only interested in saving its own skin, and it won't alarm its buddies.
But birds... oh man. Over the years, my feathered friends and I have developed a lovely routine that now defines our peaceful co-existence. As soon as I as much as open a window (let alone the door), I'm instantly greeted by an eruption of panicky fluttering and hysterical shouts from my garden: "SAVE YOUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND FLY FOR YOUR LIVES: THE HAIRLESS, PINK MONSTER IS COMING!!! (Yes, I speak bird, and I know that this is exactly what they are shouting 😉).
Needless to say, with the exception of the redstart I already showed here, all my efforts to get the kind of detailed shots I usually strive for with my nature photography ended in complete failure and utter disillusionment. I was ready to give up on stalking the winged misanthropes in my garden altogether, but then winter came - and changed everything.
One day this past January I observed my neighbor Signora P - a kind, elderly Italian lady - putting something on the low garden wall in front of my house. At first I thought she was just putting some treat there for her cat Romeo; the young tom patrols that wall constantly (it's his favorite spot in the garden, and during the warmer months he usually lurks in the thick foliage next to it to prey on lizards).
But once I detected a lot of movement on that wall through my window, I understood she had put a little pile of bread crumbs there; she was feeding the birds who soon arrived in flocks. This was certainly well-intended on my neighbor's part, but her noble action came with a catch, and I'm afraid quite literally.
When I took a stroll through my garden the next day I discovered a suspicious amount of feathers on the ground next to the wall. Romeo had apparently switched from his low-calorie summer diet (lizard) to more energy-rich meals consisting of "fowl" (it was winter after all, so from a nutritionist's point of view this made sense).
I would find fresh traces of Romeo's victims (mostly feathers, but also the odd wing) in my garden over the following days; so my first intuition that my neighbor was feeding her cat hadn't been that far off after all, as Romeo was now clearly being "served" fresh birds on a daily basis. And although the hungry visitors seemed to be aware of the danger and became slightly more prudent, they just couldn't resist the tasty snacks Signora P put on that wall - and neither could Romeo.
It was obvious that I had to act, but talking to my neighbor - who is as stubborn as she is kind - would have been futile, I knew that much. I pondered the matter long and hard - until a light bulb went off in my head. The idea was genius. If successful, what I had in mind would not only increase the birds' chances of surviving Romeo's appetite, but also greatly benefit my own photographic endeavors.
I started to enact my master plan the very next day by buying a giant bag of bird feed (consisting mainly of sunflower seeds) from the store. Then I dragged a huge piece of a tree trunk (approx. 120 cm in height) that we normally chop firewood on in the shed out into the garden and emptied almost half of the bag's content on top of it. Signora P's buffet for birds (and cats) was about to get some serious competition 😊.
My reasoning was as follows: not only would the birds be lured away from the fatally low garden wall to a place where they were safe from the cat - there was nothing around that tree trunk that provided cover for a predator, and the birds had a nice 360° view around it at all times - but I was also able to photograph them while hiding in the shed.
However, in order for my plan to work there was one little extra measure I had to take, and it was one that risked lowering my own life expectancy considerably once the owner of the property - my mom - discovered it. You see, our shed is completely windowless, so if I wanted to use it as a blind, I had no choice but to cut a hole into one of its wooden walls... which I promptly did (I figured all's fair in love - and photography 😉).
Granted, I have absolutely zero carpentering skills, and it showed. That hole was an ugly mess: the shed's wall seemed to have had an encounter with Jack Nicholson's ax-wielding lunatic character from the film 'The Shining'. Needless to say, I was incredibly proud of my work (I mean, come on: there now was a hole where before there wasn't a hole, and it was big enough for the lens of my camera to peek through, so it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned).
Now all I had to do was wait for the birds to discover the tree trunk. In the meantime I started to mentally prepare myself for the inevitable confrontation with my mom and go through possible explanations for that splintering hole in the wall (it was either gonna be a rabid woodpecker attack or an emergency rescue mission with a feeding tube for a little kid that had accidentally locked himself inside the shed - both seemed valid options, though I slightly preferred the locked-in kid due to the involved drama and heroism 😉).
A whole day went by, and not a single bird visited the sunflower seeds. I had expected that it might take a few hours until the first of the ever curious great tits or blue tits would show up, but given how tiny my garden is, an entire day seemed excessive. Then another day came and went: the birds kept flocking to the bread crumbs on the wall, and my tree trunk kept collecting dust. To add injury to insult, a few fresh feathers on the ground were proof that Romeo was still feasting.
It was incredibly frustrating: I provided my winged guests with a much better view - plus a higher chance of surviving the cuisine - than Signora P's place; I risked (almost) certain death at the hands of my own mother (OK, the act of vandalism on the shed I had committed for my own benefit, but still), yet the birds kept ignoring me.
Then, after three days, just before sunset, I spotted a single blue tit on the tree trunk picking away at the sunflower seeds.
When I got up the next morning I immediately realized that the loud noise that accompanies each and every tit activity had shifted from the wall to the shed. At last the dam had broken: there was a flurry of movement around the tree trunk, and I counted at least 5 different species of birds feasting on the sunflower seeds.
From day 4 onward my plan worked beautifully: the birds now indeed mostly ignored Romeo's "snack wall" and kept to the tree trunk. And yes, I was able to play peeping tom from behind the shed's wall and photograph them!! 😊
Thus, dear readers, I finally managed to produce some acceptable bird photos, and I had even saved my feathered friends from a deadly foe in the process. All through winter and spring I took advantage of my new bird hide, and in late May I started mixing some cherries with the sunflower seeds. The idea was to attract a Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), and as you can see, it worked!
It took me almost three weeks and more than a few tricks to capture that clever fella, but given how long I've been rambling here already, that's a story for another day. As for my mom, she still doesn't know about the hole in the wall, so please don't snitch! 😉.
I hope you like the photo and wish you all a wonderful weekend! Many greetings from Switzerland, and as always: let me know what you think in the comments 🙏 😊 ❤!
P.S. if anyone has their own funny tale about the obstacles we photographers are prepared to overcome for a desired photo, please write it in the comments: I love such stories 😊
The second time I've caught this service and a better location and shot than first attempted. I first visited here yesterday and thought it would be a good spot for this train and alllow me to catch the 56 shortly after. Even this spot isn't long enough for the train.
The latest variety of daffodils to bloom in my garden. For the first time I can remember, my earliest daffodils are still looking great. In past years, shortly after they would bloom, we would get very hot Santa Ana winds that would just decimate the flowers. This year, some of us are complaining that it's cold, but not the daffodils.
this cute guy will hang out on the screened in porch for the season - looks nice from the front yard
It's that time of the year again. Hiawatha #336 arrives Chicago behind the class Amtrak B32-8WH which is subbing for a Charger that shit out a few days prior. The searchlight installations at the east end of Morgan Street were installed in the early 1980s.
Real estate development has exploded in the West Loop over the past decade. The Fulton Labs on the right were completed last year, and 345 N. Morgan on the left was completed a few months ago (still under construction when this picture was taken). The latter was built by Sterling Bay which is also overseeing the redevelopment of the former ADM flour mill. What you see here is only a fraction of what's to come to the West Loop in the next few years.
Colourful scooters - Alicante, Spain
As many of you may already know:
Mods and rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early/mid 1960s to early 1970s. Media coverage of mods and rockers fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youth, and the two groups became widely perceived as violent, unruly troublemakers.
The rocker subculture was centred on motorcycling, and their appearance reflected that. Rockers generally wore protective clothing such as black leather jackets and motorcycle boots.
The mod subculture was centred on fashion and music, and many mods rode scooters. Mods wore suits and other cleancut outfits, and preferred 1960s music genres such as soul, rhythm and blues, ska, beat music, and British blues-rooted bands like The Who, The Yardbirds, and Small Faces.
[Wikipedia]
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The latest #macromondays challenge #Heart prompts me to share this picture with you.
The heart symbol is an ideograph used to express the idea of the "heart" in its metaphorical or symbolic sense. Represented by an anatomically inaccurate shape, the heart symbol is often used to represent the center of emotion, including affection and love, especially romantic love. It is sometimes accompanied or superseded by the "wounded heart" symbol, depicted as a heart symbol pierced with an arrow or as a heart symbol "broken" into two or more pieces, indicating lovesickness
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I've driven past this scene many times and I've tried to photograph it at least a couple times . . . but today it came together with the flowers, the hay bales, and the sky . . . and I saw it.
Hopefully it signals the end of my latest slump . . .
The latest Ford GT running it's V-6 producing 660 hp.......should slice through the air with ease don't you think? No it's not the GT40, of 58 years ago, named so as 40 inches high was the minimum at LeMans, and this grandkid is 43 inches (for taller customers), and the engine isn't the hunking NASCAR fire breathing 427, but almost 60 years of improvements jack up the horse power with the smaller lighter engine......nicely. Not a car to leave for a couple hours in the K-Mart parking lot while you search through the Blue-Light Specials.......but what a rush to slam the pedal to the floor......and WhewwwHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
pair of turnstones from just before the latest lockdown event . ..keeping its beady eye on me as I popped up from behind the rocks ...
© Zoë Murdoch. All Rights Reserved. Use without permission is illegal!
Latest face, so effortless
Your great arrival at my eyes,
No one standing near could guess
Your beauty had no home till then;
Precious vagrant, recognise
My look, and do not turn again.
Admirer and admired embrace
on a useless level, where
I contain your current grace,
You my judgement; yet to move
Into real untidy air
Brings no lasting tribute -
Bargains, suffering, and love,
Not this always-planned salute.
Lies grow dark around us: will
The statue of your beauty walk?
Must I wade behind it, till
Something's found - or is not found -
Far too late for turning back?
Or, if I will not shift my ground,
Is your power actual - can
Denial of you duck and run,
Stay out of sight and double round,
Leap from the sun with mask and brand
And murder and not understand?
~ Philip Larkin.
SCT intermodal 3MB9 works around Goondah curve with CSR016 and CF4430 hauling dead attached C’s 502/503/508.
SCT transferred the C class from Western Australia after a period on hire with Watco, they would be detached at Goulburn before being forward to SSR’s Cootamundra depot.
Southern Shorthaul Railroad has added the former Railfirst C’s to their ever growing locomotive fleet.
OBSERVE Collective
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N537CA, a Boeing 747-446F, on approach to runway 24R at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario.
The freighter was arriving as NCR685 (National Air Cargo Holdings, Inc., doing business as National Airlines) from Anchorage, Alaska.
CA = Christopher Alf, the company's founder.
Serial number 33749 began its career as JA402J with Japan Air Lines Cargo on October 26, 2004.
It was repainted in National's latest livery in July 2023 and is one of the few aircraft that wears it.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
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Thought I'd update you on the latest member of my furry 4-legged family - little hammie's been with me just over a week now. I named him "Pippin" (after the hobbit in Lord of the Rings, it just suited him - he's an adventurous little thing!). I'm so pleased with how well he's settled in... I'd been told in the shop he wasn't yet tame and worried he'd be shy. However, whoever bred him handled him well (or he's just an exceptionally confident little hammie!) cause from the start he's been a happy and nosy little character... After 24hrs, I started stroking him, then a little while later, gently scooping him up in my hands]. At first, he scurried off quickly, but now he will happily sit or walk over my hands for a few minutes at a time. He's never once tried to bite or anything :)
He goes out for little adventures each evening in his ball. Of course it's hard to tell with such a tiny creature but I think he really enjoys the explorations around our downstairs. He rolls up and down the hall, the living room and the kitchen, stopping only to sniff an interesting item in his path, give his face a quick wash... or, to investigate Barney!! I'd originally planned to keep dog and hamster apart, particularly when Pippin was in his ball - as Barney is ball obsessed and also a hunter of voles when we're on walks (albeit a very ineffective one!). However as Pip likes to roll everywhere on the ground floor, it wasn't really feasible, so I've taught Barney to be very quiet and calm when Pip's rolling around.
After one quiet but firm "settle down" from me, (he looked a bit too interested on the first evening) he has been good as gold. He actually tries to keep away from Pippin but there's no escape! Pip will spy Barney from up the hall and make a beeline straight for the big dog. He will then sit right up against Barney, sniffing at his paws and fur with obvious interest. Pippin doesn't seem scared, he's happy to groom right next to either dog and doesn't freeze or try and run off... In fact, if I move him away, he often rolls straight back to Barney! Barney lies quietly, deliberately not looking at the hammie and gently moving his paws out the way from time to time. Don't like everything the "Dog Whisperer" says but to use his phrase, Barney's the model of a dog in a "calm, submissive state". Obviously, I wouldn't leave them alone though, it's nice they seem to be co-existing but I wouldn't want Pippin to get hurt...
Anyway, Pippin seems happy in his new home, the dogs have accepted him and he's being very friendly and confident. All going very well really, now, if I can just clicker train him to pose for the camera.... ;-) Haha, will try getting some nicer pics soon, maybe of the odd pair together, reminds me of Bolt and Rhino (if you've seen "Bolt", you'll know what I'm talking about!)
Common Name : Red Kite
Species : Milvus milvus
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Have a great Sunday!