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Photographing smoke art is one of the most rewarding aspects of home photography. We've all seen the wispy strands that float and glide through the air, but it's not until these trails are frozen in time do we see the true beauty and elegance of their construction.
In many images it's possible to see a subject within the smoke.
The advantage of smoke art photography is that - compared to water droplets - the patterns take longer to form so it's easier to judge when to take the shot. It's when the scene is viewed on the screen that the true diversity and uniqueness of the patterns is realised.
This was processed in Photoshop to highlight the patterns that exist within the formations.
The smoke was created by burning an incense stick against a black background. The light was a flashgun behind and below at an angle of 45° upwards with black card between the flash unit and the subject so that the light hits the smoke, but not the camera lens. The result was processed in Photoshop.
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This is the last set of smoke art to be produced using this method. With so many uploads, it's difficult to create original ideas. So now I will be concentrating on a different and more creative method which I plan to have ready within a few months.
Watch this space.
I shot this Ferrari 599 during the Top Gear auto show 2010 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
It was a nightmare to shoot through the crowd. I wasted a ton of nerves but eventually I managed to expose the car properly.
Strobist:
One SB-800 bare @ 1/4. Multiple shots merged together.
Like most American airlines, Eastern Airlines started as an airmail company. In 1926, Pitcairn Aviation merged with Florida Airways and acquired its first government airmail contract between Atlanta and New York City. In 1929, North American Aviation, an aircraft manufacturing company, bought Pitcairn; North American’s owner, Clement Keys, wanted to turn the small airmail company into a passenger airline, and so changed its name to Eastern Air Transport. After Keys was bought out by General Motors in 1934, the name was changed to Eastern Airlines. Passenger service began in 1930 with Ford Trimotors.
Arguably the most important event in Eastern’s history took place four years later, in 1938, when Edward Rickenbacker bought Eastern outright. Rickenbacker was the US’ top fighter ace of World War I and well-respected throughout the aviation community; Eastern immediately profited by having “Captain Eddie” in charge, as he brought trust and name recognition. Though Rickenbacker’s plans for the airline were delayed by World War II, once the war was over in 1945, he began expanding the airline—though he kept the network small and limited to the US East Coast, Rickenbacker concentrated on lower fares, high density routes, and fast service. Though Eastern, like most postwar airlines, initially relied on war surplus Douglas DC-3s, Rickenbacker was quick to appreciate the value of the faster, larger Lockheed L-049 Constellation. Eastern rapidly grew and gained in revenue: alone among major American air carriers, Eastern did not accept or need government subsidies. In 1956, with the acquisition of Colonial Airlines, Eastern expanded its route network internationally for the first time with flights to eastern Canada.
Though Rickenbacker made Eastern the launch customer for the Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop, he did not trust jet aircraft, believing them fit only for wealthy passengers. As every other major carrier was busy buying jet airliners, Eastern’s board of directors eased Rickenbacker out in 1960. After that, Eastern enthusiastically embraced the jet age by introducing the Douglas DC-8 on high-density routes and becoming the launch customer for the Boeing 727 for shorter routes. This began a tradition of Eastern becoming the first airline to introduce an airliner type, either as the first customer or the first American customer.
As the airline was now left with a large fleet of Constellations, the airline put these to work on an hourly shuttle service between New York and Washington DC; the shuttle alone carried 2.2 million passengers annually and shot Eastern into the largest airline in the world by passenger use. Eastern also positioned itself as the official airline of Walt Disney World and acquired both Caribbean Atlantic Airlines and Braniff’s extensive South American network. By the late 1970s, Eastern had introduced the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, mainly on its Caribbean routes, and became the first American airline to fly the Airbus A300.
By 1980, the situation was beginning to change. Eastern’s iconic “hockey stick” livery was familiar to everyone in the Western Hemisphere, but deregulation put the airline in the position of competing with carriers that were either better equipped to deal with it (such as Delta, Eastern’s main competition at its Atlanta hub) or able to undercut its fares (such as no-frills startup People Express). While the new A300s were unique and Eastern was the launch customer for the Boeing 757, both were huge investments in aircraft that Eastern could ill afford and did not really need.
With Eastern now posting continual losses, Borman oversaw the sale of the airline to Frank Lorenzo’s Texas Air, which already owned Continental. This move angered Eastern employees, as Lorenzo had a reputation for destroying airline unions. This in turn led to labor unrest and strikes, grounding Eastern at the worst possible time; Lorenzo retaliated by giving Eastern’s US West routes to Continental and selling the airline’s profitable New York-Washington shuttle to Donald Trump, who formed his own airline, Trump Shuttle. Not helping matters was increasing fuel prices and a huge fine levied by the FAA on Eastern for poor maintenance.
By 1989, Eastern had lost two-thirds of the passenger numbers it had posted only four years before. The end finally came in January 1991, when Eastern declared bankruptcy and shut down for good, bringing to a halt one of the United States’ longest and most storied airline franchises. However, the "hockey stick" may not be dead yet: a new Eastern Airlines, with the same livery, returned to the skies in 2014.
Eastern only briefly operated the Boeing 747; N735PA was one of three leased from Pan Am, painted in full Eastern livery. It proved uneconomical for Eastern's business model, so the aircraft only flew with Eastern from 1970 to 1972. Including its brief stint with Eastern, N735PA enjoyed a long career with Pan Am, flying from 1970 to 1991. After Pan Am went bankrupt, N735PA was bought by Polar Air Cargo and converted to a freighter. It was retired in the early 2000s and may still exist in storage as of this writing.
Gaochang (Chinese: 高昌; pinyin: Gāochāng), also called Karakhoja, Qara-hoja, Kara-Khoja, or Karahoja (قاراغوجا in Uyghur), is the site of a ruined, ancient oasis city on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in present-day Xinjiang, China. The site is also known in published reports as Chotscho, Khocho, Qocho, or Qočo. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Gaochang was referred to as "Halahezhuo" (哈拉和卓) (Qara-khoja) and Huozhou.
The ruins are located 30 km from Turpan. The archaeological remains are just outside the modern town of Gaochang, at a place called Idykut-schari or Idikutschari by local residents. (see the work of Albert Grünwedel in the external links below). Artistic depictions of the city have been published by Albert von Le Coq. Gaochang is considered in some sources to have been be a "Chinese colony", that is, it was located in a region otherwise occupied at the time by West Eurasian peoples.
A busy trading center, it was a stopping point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road. It was destroyed in wars during the 14th century, and old palace ruins and inside and outside cities can still be seen today. The ruins are located 30 km southeast of modern Turpan.
Near Gaochang is another major archeological site: the Astana tombs.
HISTORY
JUSHI JINGDOM AND EARLY HAN-CHINESE RULE
The earliest people known to have lived in the area were the Gushi (or Jushi). The region around Turfan was described during the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) as being occupied by the Jūshī, while control over the region swayed between the Han-Chinese and the Xiongnu.
Gaochang was built in the 1st century BC, it was an important site along the Silk Road. It played a key role as a transportation hub in western China. The Jushi leaders invited the Chinese Han dynasty to take over, and pledged their allegiance. In 327, the Gaochang Commandery (jùn) was created by the Former Liang under the Han Chinese ruler Zhang Gui. The Chinese set up a military colony/garrison, organized the land into multiple divisions and Han Chinese colonists from the Hexi region and the central plains also settled in the region.
After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, northern China split into multiple states, including the Central Asian oases. Gaochang was ruled by the Former Liang, Former Qin, and Northern Liang as part of a commandery. In 383 The General Lu Guang of the Former Qin seized control of the region.
In 439, remnants of the Northern Liang, led by Juqu Wuhui and Juqu Anzhou, fled to Gaochang where they would hold onto power until 460 when they were conquered by the Rouran Khaganate (which some scholars believe to have been the origin of the Avars).
ROURAN, GAOCHE AND GÖKTÜRK RULE
From the mid-5th century until the mid-7th century, there existed four independent statelets in the narrow Turpan basin. These were controlled by the Kan clan, Zhang clan, Ma clan, and Qu clan.
A the time of its conquest by the Rouran Khaganate, there were more than ten thousand Han Chinese households in Gaochang. The Rouran Khaganate, which was based in Mongolia, appointed a Han Chinese named Kan Bozhou to rule as King of Gaochang in 460, and it became a separate vassal kingdom of the Khaganate. Kan was dependent on Rouran backing. Yicheng and Shougui were the last two kings of the Chinese Kan family to rule Gaochang.
At this time the Gaoche (高車) was rising to challenge power of the Rouran in the Tarim Basin. The Gaoche king Afuzhiluo (阿伏至羅) killed King Kan Shougui, who was the nephew of Kan Bozhou. and appointed a Han from Dunhuang, named Zhang Mengming (張孟明), as his own vassal King of Gaochang. Gaochang thus passed under Gaoche rule.
Later, Zhang Mengming was killed in an uprising by the people of Gaochang and replaced by Ma Ru (馬儒). In 501, Ma Ru himself was overthrown and killed, and the people of Gaochang appointed Qu Jia (麴嘉) of Jincheng (in Gansu) as their king. Qu Jia hailed from the Zhong district of Jincheng commandery (金城, roughly corresponding to modern day Lanzhou, Gansu) Qu Jia at first pledged allegiance to the Rouran, but the Rouran khaghan was soon killed by the Gaoche, and he had to submit to Gaoche overlordship. During Qu rule, powerful families established marriage ties with each other and dominated the kingdom, they included the Zhang, Fan, Yin, Ma, Shi, and Xin families. Later, when the Göktürks emerged as the supreme power in the region, the Qu dynasty of Gaochang became vassals of the Göktürks.
While the material civilization of Kucha to its west in this period remained chiefly Indo-Iranian in character, in Goachang it gradually merged into the Tang aesthetics. In 607 the ruler of Gaochang Qu Boya paid tribute to the Sui Dynasty, but his attempt at sinicization provoked a coup which overthrew the Qu ruler. The Qu family was restored six years later, and the successor Qu Wentai welcomed the Tang pilgrim Xuanzang with great enthusiasm in 629 AD
TANG RULE
However, fearing Tang expansion, Qu Wentai later formed an alliance with the Western Turks and rebelled against Tang suzerainty. Emperor Taizong sent an army led by General Hou Junji against the kingdom in 640, and Qu Wentai apparently died of shock at news of the approaching army. Gaochang was annexed by the Chinese Tang dynasty and turned into a sub-prefecture of Xizhou (西州), and the seat of government of Anxi (安西). Before the Chinese conquered Gaochang, it was an impediment to Chinese access to Tarim and Transoxiania.
Under Tang rule, Gaochang was inhabited by Chinese, Sogdians, and Tocharians.
Tang dynasty became greatly weakened due to the An Lushan Rebellion, and in 755, the Chinese were forced to pull back their soldiers from the region. The area was first taken by the Tibetans, then finally by the Uyghurs in 803, who called the area Kocho (Qocho).
UYGHUR KINGDOM OF QOCHO
After 840 it then became occupied by Uyghurs fleeing Kirghiz invasion of their land. The Uyghurs established the Kingdom of Qocho (Kara-Khoja) in 850. The inhabitants of Qocho practiced Buddhism, Manichaeism and Nestorian Christianity. The Uyghurs converted to Buddhism and sponsored building of temple caves in the nearby Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves where depictions of Uyghur sponsors may be seen. The Buddhist Uyghur kings, who called themselves idiquts, retained their nomadic lifestyle, residing in Qocho during the winter, but moved to the cooler Bishbalik near Urumchi in the summer.
Qocho later became a vassal state of the Kara-Khitans. However, In 1209, the idiqut Barchuq offered Genghis Khan the suzerainty of his kingdom, and went personally to Genghis Khan with a sizeable tribute when demanded in 1211. The Uyghurs thus went into the service of the Mongols, who later formed the Yuan Dynasty in China. The Uyghurs became bureaucrats (semu) of the Mongol Empire and their Uyghur script was modified for Mongolian. As far south as Quanzhou, preponderance of Gaochang Uyghur in Nestorian Christian inscriptions of the Yuan period attests to their importance in the Christian community there.
The Gaochang area was sieged by the Mongols of the Chagatai Khanate (not part of Yuan Dynasty) from 1275 to 1318 by as many as 120,000 troops.
BUDDHISM
Buddhism spread to China from India along the northern branch of the Silk Road predominantly in the 4th and 5th centuries as the Liang rulers were buddhists. The building of Buddhist grottos probably began during this period. There are clusters close to Gaochang, the largest being the Bezeklik grottos.
WIKIPEDIA
This image was created from 72 separate 30 second exposures, and then merged together using this free software courtesy of:
I know the moon kind of spoils it a bit, but meh!
Playing at merging images in Lightroom using the Perfect Layers Plugin. Idea is for new video in T189 as we switch to use lightroom
Taken using a tripod and timer on camera then imported to lightroom, the opened in Perfect Layers to merge them.
Lightroom - Adobe
Perfect Layers - onOne Software
This is the colour version of the preceding photo "Fusion" in black & white. I find it interesting that it is not just the intensity of the light but also the colour hue of the part of the tree hugging the rock that is so similar to the colour of the rock. If I go back to the park, I'll take a few steps back (while being careful not to fall over the edge of the cliff) and try to get a better framing of the tree/rock spectacle, decades in the making.
model: my daugther
photo & manipulation: me
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if you like music too (as I do), please listen to my jazz compositions
at my soundcloud.com site Paper Plane Factory
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and/or listen to my doughter's talented voice
at her site Sophfire Alphafrau
Nikon D90 - Tokina 11-16mm F2.8
Gorilla pod attached to overpass railing - Straight out of Camera
What's interesting about the shot is you will usually get 1 red and one white stream of traffic but in this case 2 red.
Beach near Limbe in Cameroon's Southwest Province. December 2005.
larger is better: View On White
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ah, summer.. and finally some time to go strolling in those almost forgotten archives, mess around in the photoshop.. :)
These shots are actually taken around 10am in the morning, from where I was usually having breakfast during my trip to Cameroon some (already!) 1-half years ago.
Merge was in the new Adobe just a bit harder finding. Adobe has gone though a few changes that take some dedication to master. ;o)
The title is pretty self-explanatory...
D90+Tokina 11-16 @ 11mm on Gorillapod
HDR from 3 RAWs (-2, 0, +2 ) centered on
1.6s, f/7.1, ISO 200
Merged with Photomatix
Improved with Photoshop & Noiseware
The method was inspired by this great tutorial from Stuck in Customs
On another note, my photostream reached 10k views yesterday. Thanks!
Another series of backgrounds/textures for any one to use. Please let me know and give me a credit if you use this.
Tag clouds with shaft of light over the Canadian topography, or playing tag with the Fraser Institute.
This tag cloud was merged with a Google Earth view from West Coast mountains towards Ottawa and Washington in the East. The beam of light in the background is the Enron tower.
In the Adobe Photoshop toolbar under Filter > Liquify > I maximized the brush to create powerful wind patterns effects in the clouds hovering over the Canadian topology.
I studied the Fraser Institute's on-line annual reports and web pages to piece together the following categories, tags or folksonomies to introduce mass media users to one of the most highly cited think tanks which emerged in 1974 at the height of Thatcherism. These are the tags in the cloud:
Economic Freedom, Milton Freeman, Education, Environment and Risk, Privatizing Correctional Services (1998), Alan Greenspan, Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjørn Lomborg, Fiscal Policy, Sally Pipes, T. Patrick Boyle, MacMillan Bloedel, Governance, Csaba Hajd, Ralph Klein, Private vs. Public Health, Can the Market Save Our Schools? (2000), Law and Markets, Caring For Profit: Economic Dimensions of Canada’s Health Care Industry (1987), Non-profit Studies, Adam Smith, Atlas Foundation, Sir Antony Fisher, Regulatory, Pharmaceutical Policy, The Illusion of Wage and Price Controls, Preston Manning, Entrepreneurship and Markets, Michael Walker, IEA, Alan Campney, Social Affairs, School Report Cards, Thatcher, economic conscience, Bill Emmott, George Shultz, John Raybould, Trade and Globalization, Schumpeter, The Economist, Cato Institute- Washington, Rent Control: A Popular Paradox
See also Think Tanks: Corporate Director Board Interlocks: Fraser Institute
Mythical Creatures was the 2016 theme for the 4th annual student fundraiser fashion show known as MERGE. Our team consisted of staff at D+B, VSP Global, Shaw Carpet, and Patcraft, and we had four hours to create a costume from raw materials given to us at the beginning.
The mythical creature we chose was a vampire and the entire costume was made from commercial interior material samples: carpet backing for the cape, decorative wall covering for the bodice, glass tile for the belt, and wall protection for the skirts.
It was held in the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria at the Sacramento Central Branch and was attended by approximately 200 people. Each year the costumes are more elaborate and technical, and we couldn't be more proud of the talented people we have here in Sacramento.
During SXSW, the merging of Yahoo/Flickr accounts came up in one of the panels. Poor Heather, she looked so sad when she saw just how many of us had not merged our accounts. Then she mentioned that the font size was getting larger and larger every day.
Of course, if you never log out of your account, you would never need to log back into it, so you would never see the font size increase. (Which was what happened to me.)
I logged out today just to see how large the font was compared to when I checked it last on Sunday. Then I logged back in and merged the account with my Yahoo id. Doing that only made me twitch a little bit, as I am confident the people at Flickr are watching out for us, and I am reminding myself that Yahoo is not evil.
So, have YOU merged yet?