on the way to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe one has to clim the pictoresque stairs. and wait a long time to minimize the crowd in the picture, Game of Throne fans included.

5 single row vertical exposures minimized at ten seconds to minimize blur. Stitched with ptgui and used a Nikkor 50mm 1.8g lens

A special forces team in southwest Asia was tasked to establish a combat outpost (COP) to monitor smuggling routes into the city to prevent a possible offensive. The team made their way along with coalition partner forces in a ground convoy.

Although the team picked a route that minimize traveling on roads due to Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) threats, inevitably the convoy must drive on roads to arrive at their destination.

As the convoy traveled on road, they carefully checked the road for IEDs. The team continued to carefully make their way to their destination.

To be continued...

This is part of my pandemic project. The project was created to minimize the number of people that I would come into contact with and to help keep my sanity. The location is a local university. From what I can tell the vast majority of classes are being held online leaving the campus empty with the exception of a few nursing students and an occasional group of Frisbee golf players.

The project started when my wife and I used the campus to walk the dog in the evening. I began to notice the architecture and interesting light fixtures. I started to return and photograph and soon had a project.

The project is to examine the lights and architecture of the empty Campus at night.

Canon 6D

Voigtländer Color Skopar 20mm f3.5

The greenery around this area always makes for a difficult composition but after moving around for a minute or two I was able to minimize the plants from blocking the view.

Thanks for looking!

WELL ENHANCER LWI / DIVE SUPPORT VESSEL

COILED TUBING CAPABILITIES, MONOHULL PERFORMANCE

The Well Enhancer is designed to minimize production downtime and provides cost effective well maintenance, production enhancement and well abandonment solutions. With 1,100m2 of main deck space and the ability to run rigid riser and coiled tubing, the vessel can also perform a range of well testing and production flowback services.

The vessel features a 150 Te multi-purpose tower (MPT), capable of deploying wireline and coiled-tubing. The vessel also features kill pumps and a 100 Te main crane and is currently capable of conducting LWI operations to a depth of 600m.

The DP3 Well Enhancer features a purpose built derrick over a 7m x 7m moonpool and has a travelling block rated to 150 Te capacity in passive mode.

The Well Enhancer’s 18 man saturation diving spread is rated to 300 m, and combined with the vessel’s work/observation class ROVs, provides for full IRM and light construction services and diving support for any tree systems which require manual intervention to facilitate LWI operations.

I am just left breathless by the colors of paradise in this iPhone photos panorama. Hurricane Matthew was churning along the East Coast of Florida heading in to North Carolina when my flight from Long Island, New York, to Tampa Bay, Florida, was on approach to Tampa International Airport. As the Boeing descended near Tarpon Springs, I realized I was flying parallel to a community right on the Gulf of Mexico in New Port Richey where I had considered buying a home in 2012 before deciding on my own personal paradise in Apollo Beach. It was too small and too expensive but the best part was that there was diving board in the house from which you could dive right into deep Gulf of Mexico water where dolphins could be swimming by.

This is an 11000x6000 panorama image stitched from just six iPhone 6S+ photos taken from seat 1A. I had to rotate the phone as accurately as I could, while minimizing the chance of my hands, shirt, and phone itself being visible reflected in the window on the otherwise brilliant day, despite the massive white and bluish gray clouds above and puffy white clouds below.

I had to crop some of the sides and lower part of the image where the panorama was jagged. I did not try to correct the jet engine's shape caused by geometric anomalies of stitching. Can you name the engine? LOL.

Try to zoom in and see how much detail is in the picture. I can actually see the house I almost bought. Can you see the details? Do you know the area?

© 2016 IMRAN™

Played with PS to minimize the noise in the long exposure, and this is the result I have got!

...actually, a mouthful of sedge. This female Grizz (Ursus arctos horribilis) stands up in alert posture. There were other bears in the area she has spotted.

The claws are adapted for digging. Black Bear claws are much shorter, and are adapted for tree climbing. Grizzly adults cannot climb trees, although the cubs can, as they have much shorter claws.

This is another capture from my Tide Rip Tour outings. All these bear shots were taken off a boat specially designed for bear viewing. I like Tide Rip because they are very conscious of minimizing any disturbance to the bears. They float the boat towards the bears with no motor, and stay a very safe distance (around 100m I think) from them. They do not allow eating on the boat, no perfumes or noise of any kind. This is also a very safe way for the bear-watchers to view these amazing animals.

© Mark K. Daly - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use. Absolutely no permission is granted in any form, fashion or way, digital or otherwise, to use my Flickr images on blogs, personal or professional websites or any other media form without my direct written permission.

When I was in Iceland, I made a visit to the dock area. The edges of the dock were just beginning to freeze and occasional snow would blow in and pile up. All the ships were giant, metallic, and cold. I thought about what a hard life it would be to work on one of these ships. I don't really like being too cold and I'm not sure if the old "dress in layers" trick would work so well when out on one of these ships in the north Atlantic. Those guys that do that every day are tough!

On this one, I kept the aperture pretty wide open to minimize ship movement on the rolling water. I don't normally tell the software to automatically align images (mentioned in the HDR tutorial), but this time I did.

from the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com

Fort San Miguel access is via a sloped winding ramp. The design minimized the chance of a rushed attack on the fort.

Built between 1779 and 1801 and dedicated to the archangel Michael, the fort was positioned to blast enemy ships with its long-range cannons.

As soon as it was completed, pirates stopped attacking the city. In fact, the cannons were fired only once, in 1842, when General Santa Anna used Fuerte de San Miguel to put down a revolt by Yucatecan separatists seeking independence from Mexico.

In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on a building to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth.

I captured this while enjoying hey stroll along the Rankin Ridge Nature Trail with a view looking to the southeast. This was another image captured on that overcast day with low clouds, so I angled my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward to minimize that but also capture more of the depth looking across the hillsides and valleys to my front. I later used a Sunset recipe in Color Efex Pro 4 after doing initial post-processing work in Capture NX2.

Music: Fly My Pretties: Bag Of Money (the video is pretty dumb, but the song is sooo cool!)

Taken for the Dip-It-Thursday Group. The theme is in the title. I chose a song of the "Fly My Pretties", a kiwi unification of some cool artists!

Since this is one of the very few shots I actually planned there's not much else to say about it! The house in the upper picture is where we store all the tools that one may need in a garden, the other one is on the pavement in front of our house ;-)

View On Black

Our two granddaughters inside the garden.

Almost an optical illusion.

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

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Ripples in water. Concentric circles in water.

MAKING CIRCLES IN THE WATER (2011)

Faire des ronds dans l'eau (2011)

Balmori Associates, New York, USA.

Visit: www.balmori.com

GROUNDED IN ECOLOGY

Balmori Associates is an international urban and landscape design firm founded by Diana Balmori. Balmori Associates is recognized across the globe for its creative interfacing of landscape and architecture and expanding the boundaries between nature and structure. As distinguished leaders in the field of urban design and the design of innovative public spaces Balmori Associates gives form to the processes of sustainability, producing ‘green infrastructures’ while revealing the constructed and natural operations of a site.

Balmori Associates strives to achieve the highest standards of environmental responsibility by rooting our work in two basic sustainable design principles: Low-Impact and Regenerative . Low-Impact to reduce potential detrimental effects of local and project-related construction, development or consumption and to minimize environmental impacts, while sustaining the health and resilience of ecological systems. Regenerative Design to integrate building systems within landscape for resource renewal and the restoration of constructed landscape.

Our diverse portfolio includes executed projects at all scales, and award-winning competitions and has garnered numerous awards for design excellence; and sustainability is a central concern in all our work. In 1998, Balmori Associates’ Master Plan won the international competition for the waterfront development of the Abandoibarra district of Bilbao, Spain. We provided design leadership on the greenroof at Silvercup Studios in Queens, New York, the largest scientifically monitored green roof in the United States. In the fall of 2012 Korean Prime Minister and several ministries moved from Seoul to Sejong, South Korea new multifunctional administrative city, a zero-waste urban plan designed by Balmori Associates. (Info from Balmori's website)

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LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS | REFORD GARDENS

Visit : www.refordgardens.com

From Wikipedia:

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

One of the amazingly colourful Marine Iguanas from Suarez Point on Espanola

Marine Iguana

The Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is an iguana found only on the Galapagos Islands that has the ability, unique among modern lizards, to live and forage in the sea. It has spread to all the islands in the archipelago, and is sometimes called the Galapagos Marine Iguana. It mainly lives on the rocky Galapagos shore, but can also be spotted in marshes and mangrove beaches. On his visit to the islands, Charles Darwin was revolted by the animals' appearance, writing “The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large (2-3 ft), disgusting clumsy Lizards. They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl & seek their prey from the Sea. I call them 'imps of darkness'. They assuredly well become the land they inhabit.” In fact, Amblyrhynchus cristatus is not always black; the young have a lighter coloured dorsal stripe, and some adult specimens are grey. The reason for the sombre tones is that the species must rapidly absorb heat to minimize the period of lethargy after emerging from the water. They feed almost exclusively on marine algae, expelling the excess salt from nasal glands while basking in the sun, and the coating of salt can make their faces appear white. In adult males, coloration varies with the season. Breeding-season adult males on the southern islands are the most colorful and will acquire reddish and teal-green colors, while on Santa Cruz they are brick red and black, and on Fernandina they are brick red and dull greenish. Another difference between the iguanas is size, which is different depending on the island the individual iguana inhabits. The iguanas living on the islands of Fernandina and Isabela (named for the famous rulers of Spain) are the largest found anywhere in the Galápagos. On the other end of the spectrum, the smallest iguanas are found on the island on Genovesa. Adult males are approximately 1.3 m long, females 0.6 m, males weigh up to 1.5 kg. On land, the marine iguana is rather a clumsy animal, but in the water it is a graceful swimmer, using its powerful tail to propel itself. As an exothermic animal, the marine iguana can spend only a limited time in the cold sea, where it dives for algae. However, by swimming only in the shallow waters around the island they are able to survive single dives of up to half an hour at depths of more than 15 m. After these dives, they return to their territory to bask in the sun and warm up again. When cold, the iguana is unable to move effectively, making them vulnerable to predation, so they become highly aggressive before heating up (since they are unable to run away they try to bite attackers in this state). During the breeding season, males become highly territorial. The males assemble large groups of females to mate with, and guard them against other male iguanas. However, at other times the species is only aggressive when cold. Marine iguanas have also been found to change their size to adapt to varying food conditions. During El Niño conditions when the algae that the iguanas feed on was scarce for a period of two years, some were found to decrease their length by as much as 20%. When food conditions returned to normal, the iguanas returned to their pre-famine size. It is speculated that the bones of the iguanas actually shorten as a shrinkage of connective tissue could only account for a 10% length change. Researchers theorize that land and marine iguanas evolved from a common ancestor since arriving on the islands from South America, presumably by driftwood. It is thought that the ancestral species inhabited a part of the volcanic archipelago that is now submerged. A second school of thought holds that the Marine iguana may have evolved from a now extinct family of seagoing reptiles. Its generic name, Amblyrhynchus, is a combination of two Greek words, Ambly- from Amblus meaning "blunt" and rhynchus meaning "snout". Its specific name is the Latin word cristatus meaning "crested," and refers to the low crest of spines along the animal's back. Amblyrhynchus is a monotypic genus in that Amblyrhynchus cristatus is the only species which belongs to it at this point in time. This species is completely protected under the laws of Ecuador. El Niño effects cause periodic declines in population, with high mortality, and the marine iguana is threatened by predation by exotic species. The total population size is unknown, but is, according to IUCN, at least 50,000, and estimates from the Charles Darwin Research Station are in the hundreds of thousands. The marine iguanas have not evolved to combat newer predators. Therefore, cats and dogs eat both the young iguanas and dogs will kill adults due to the iguanas' slow reflex times and tameness. Dogs are especially common around human settlements and can cause tremendous predation. Cats are also common in towns, but they also occur in numbers in remote areas where they take a toll on iguanas.

Espanola (Suarez Point)

Approximately a 10-12 hour trip from Santa Cruz, Española is the oldest and the southernmost island in the chain. The trip across open waters can be quite rough especially during August and September. Española's remote location helped make it a unique jewel with a large number of endemic creatures. Secluded from the other islands, wildlife on Española adapted to the island's environment and natural resources. The subspecies of Marine iguana from Española are the only ones that change color during breeding season. Normally, marine iguanas are black in color, a camouflage, making it difficult for predators to differentiate between the iguanas and the black lava rocks where they live. On Española adult marine iguanas are brightly colored with a reddish tint except during mating season when their color changes to more of a greenish shade. The Hood Mockingbird is also endemic to the island. These brazen birds have no fear of man and frequently land on visitors heads and shoulders searching for food. The Hood Mockingbird is slightly larger than other mockingbirds found in the Galapagos; its beak is longer and has a more curved shape. The Hood Mockingbird is the only carnivorous one of the species feeding on a variety of insects, turtle hatchlings and sea lion placentas. Wildlife is the highlight of Española and the star of the show is the waved albatross. The island's steep cliffs serve as the perfect runways for these large birds which take off for their ocean feeding grounds near the mainland of Ecuador and Peru abandoning the island between January and March. Known as endemic to the island, Española is the waved albatross's only nesting place. Each April the males return to Española followed shortly thereafter by the females. Mating for life, their ritual begins with the male's annual dance to re-attract his mate. The performance can take up to 5 days consisting of a series of strutting, honking, and beak fencing. Once the pair is reacquainted they produce a single egg and share the responsibility of incubation. The colony remains based on Española until December when the chick is fully grown. By January most of the colony leaves the island to fish along the Humboldt Current. Young albatross do not return to Española until their 4th or 5th year when they return to seek a mate. Geographically Española is a classic example of a shield volcano, created from a single caldera in the center of the island. Over the years as the island has moved further away from the hot spot, the volcano became extinct and erosion began to occur. Española's two visitor sites offer an exceptional island visit. Punta Suarez is one of the highlights of the Galapagos Islands. The variety and quantity of wildlife assures a memorable visit. Visitors find migrant, resident, and endemic wildlife including brightly colored Marine Iguanas, Española Lava Lizards, Hood Mockingbirds, Swallow Tailed Gulls, Blue Footed and Masked Boobies, Galapagos Hawks, a selection of Finch, and the Waved Albatross.Found on the western tip of Española, Punta Suarez offers great wildlife such as sea lions, sea birds and the largest marine iguanas of Galapagos. This is one of the best sites in the Galapagos. The amount of wildlife is overwhelming. Along the beach there are many sea lions and large, colorful lava lizards and marine iguanas. As you follow the trail to the cliff's edge masked boobies can be found nesting among the rock formations. After a short walk down to a beach and back up the other side blue-footed boobies are seen nesting just off the trail. The Galapagos Dove and very friendly Hood Mockingbird are commonly found in this area. The nearby bushes are frequently home to the large-cactus finch, warbler finch, small-ground finch and large-billed flycatcher. Continuing down the trail you come to the only place where waved albatross nest in the islands. Some 12,000 pairs nest on Española each year. The feeling is very dramatic and it seems like a desolate wilderness as the waves crash on the jagged cliffs below and the blowhole shoots water 50-70 feet/15-30 meters into the air. The sky above is full of sea birds including red-billed tropicbirds, American Oystercatchers, swallow-tailed gulls, and Audubon's Shearwaters.

Galapagos Islands

The Galápagos Islands (official name: Archipiélago de Colón; other Spanish names: Islas de Colón or Islas Galápagos) are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, some 900 km west of Ecuador. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site: wildlife is its most notable feature. Because of the only very recent arrival of man the majority of the wildlife has no fear of humans and will allow visitors to walk right up them, often having to step over Iguanas or Sea Lions.The Galápagos islands and its surrounding waters are part of a province, a national park, and a biological marine reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of around 40,000, which is a 40-fold expansion in 50 years. The islands are geologically young and famed for their vast number of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Not long after starting a walk along the Wind Cave Canyon Trail, I saw this set of ridges with this one draw in between and some spurs coming off. The way the trees were lined up, seemingly following the curves of the rolling terrain to my front...what a sight it was! I zoomed in as much as I could with the focal length in order to minimize the overcast skies above that afternoon and then cropped some of the foreground to give more of a panoramic feel to the final image.

I tried natural Easter egg dyes for the first time this year. These eggs are dyed red/rust using yellow onion skins. I read several different sites for how to make natural-dyed eggs. I ended up combining several different techniques—here is what I did:

Directions

Large white eggs

Two tablespoons white vinegar and/or one teaspoon cream of tartar

Hose (I used knee-highs, which were $1 for three pair)

Assorted leaves, flowers, and stickers

Scissors

Four to five quart pan

Bowl

Colander/strainer

Slotted spoon

Rack placed over paper bags

Oil

Paper towel

Yellow onion skins (I filled a produce bag at the grocery store by digging at the bottom of the onion bin. I would say I collected almost enough skins to fill a one-gallon plastic jug)

1. First, I washed all of the eggs with soap to make sure they were free of oil or grease, but this is probably optional.

2. Place an egg in the pan and fill it with enough water to cover the top of the egg by at least an inch. Remove the egg.

3. Add the onion skins, press down, and bring to a boil. Boil for 30 minutes partially covered to minimize evaporation, stirring occasionally. The water should be a deep rusty orange.

4. Allow water to cool slightly, and then strain contents over a bowl, pressing skins to remove any remaining liquid.

5. Rinse pan, pour in dye water, cover, and return to low heat to keep warm while preparing eggs.

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6. Cut off the bottom 4 to 5 inches of each knee-high.

7. One at a time, place leaves, flowers, and stickers on the egg as desired. Some of the plant materials will stick better if you dip them in water first.

8. Place the toe of the knee-high on the top of your fingers and turn it inside out so that it covers your hand. Place the egg in your hand, and gently turn the hose right side out to cover the egg. Make sure your design is how you want it, and then pull the hose securely and tie into a knot on the back. Repeat with remaining eggs.

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9. Return dye to a gentle boil and stir in vinegar and/or cream of tartar.

10. Gently lower the eggs in the pan and boil for 20-30 minutes. Check the color of the eggs at 20 minutes. If not dark enough, boil until desired color is obtained (I boiled mine for 20 minutes).

11. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and place on rack to cool slightly.

12. Carefully cut hose and unwrap eggs. Discard any remaining plant materials or stickers.

13. Dampen a paper towel lightly with oil and buff eggs until shiny. Remove excess oil with clean paper towel.

14. Place eggs in your Easter basket!

This Dragonfly is in the "Obelisk" pose, it's torso pointing straight at the sun, which minimizes skin exposure and therefore reduces overheating.

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From my new set, "Dragonflies - III:"

Dragonflies – III:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157636180249003/

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Dragonflies:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157627417639364/

Dragonflies – II:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157633160115841/

Dragonflies – III:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157636180249003/

Dragonfly Mortuary/Autopsy:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157630854477176/

Dragonflies in flight:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157635247891642/

Dragons Munching Bugs:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157635320430576/

Roseate Skimmer:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157631175837296/

Carolina Saddlebags:

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157635534100705/

.

Copyright © notice: My photographs and videos and any of my derivative works are my private property and are copyright © by me, John Russell (aka "Zoom Lens") and ALL my rights, including my exclusive rights, are reserved and protected by United States Copyright Laws and by the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention.

Do not rip these photos off; they do not belong to you!

ANY use without my permission in writing is forbidden by law, including use on blogs; pin boards such as Pinterest; Tumblr; Facebook; or any other use without my specific written permission.

Ma famille <3

Instructions:

- Minimize all the windows.

- Don't clean up anything!

- Take a screenshot of your desktop and upload to Flickr.

- Post the instruccions with your picture.

For my video; youtu.be/NqOJs2Ap40I

This area is also home to some of the most treacherous avalanche country in the nation, containing over 134 known avalanche pathways.

To counter this winter threat, Parks Canada Agency (PCA) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) run the avalanche control program, Operation Palaci, which first started in 1961. Operation Palaci stays true to its Latin name by taking care of Canada’s “palace” in the sky, keeping it safe for trains and winter commuters to make the leg from Golden to Revelstoke, B.C., at the western side of the Pass.

Whenever they need to prevent a big slide, PCA calls in the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery’s 105mm Howitzers. The guns are positioned on one of the 17 specialized rings that line the highway, and traffic is halted while the artillery crews go to work keeping the roads and rails safe. Shells are fired at over 300 known avalanche trigger points identified by PCA, creating smaller, controlled slides that keep the snowpack from building into a naturally occurring uncontrolled avalanche which can threaten the Pass and its users.

Glacier, British Columbia, Canada

Here we have Veracity Afterthought paying tribute to Esther Noriega. I shot this photo on a white background to minimize any distractions from the simple beauty of the outfit. The golden leaves on the side adornment as well as the earrings were custom made for this dress by Veracity as she celebrates Ms. Noriega's use of these in many of her designs. The Dress is from Blueberry ( Sophia Side-Split ). The Hair from Donna Flora ( Lia ). We have finished this piece with shoes from G & D ( Patricia ). Special thanks to Veracity Afterthought for her time and effort helping me realize this picture and bring it to life................................................................................................................... ( UPDATE 11/26/2015 - These pics were denied by Versus Magazine and I'm a little upset about it.The note card called for Photographer/Stylists .....Not Photographer/Stylist/Models....So they pretty much wanted me to put a dress on and take a selfy...Sorry Shena and Salvo , red is just not my color :) Oh well One week wasted shouldn't slow me down all that much. More to come soon ...)

The Exit 111 on-ramp to I-5 at night. I mounted my tripod in the passenger floorboard, weighted it down to minimize shake, and set the camera to 4 seconds at f/5.6. The hood of my car is captured in the foreground, and the lights reflecting off the passing semi-tractor trailer make a neat reflection. I love the colored squiggles made by the road bumps. For post-editing, I did ratchet down the exposure a bit to make it darker, and cropped off the top half (all dark) of the picture to make it more interesting.

Normally when I line up to capture an image, I try to minimize or work an angle to avoid any signage that seemingly"Interrupt" the feel of a setting in nature. For this Image though, I decided to keep the street sign because I thought it kind of added something to the destination of going into Sabino Canyon for anyone who's experienced that. Off in the distance are mountainsides and peaks of the Santa Catalina Mountains, but one must first go to the right around the entrance for this canyon filled with Saguaro cactus, desert plant-life, and jagged and rugged peaks…

Here are a few shots of my bus, having been repainted into the stripes livery, a couple of new panels, all the skirt panels have been off and had padding put behind them to minimize the B6 rattle, plus various other preperation jobs, then rubbed down, repainted, badges applied, new number plates, black painted around teh windows etc etc just needs signwriting next week now! I wasnt going to publicise these photos just yet but it appears that she has already been photograped so no doubt they will appear on the internet, so felt it appropriate that I share these shots before others decide to show her off!!!!

The first of 18 apples trees I photographed this morning. A nice overcast minimized harsh shadows.

Prior to this year, I knew of 6 or 7 apple trees on this 1/2 mile loop . This incredibly wet year has caused visible fruit to appear all around the loop, attracting many birds. Since the only difference between crabapple and apple is the size of the fruit, many of them would normally be called crabapples.

If you know anything about heriloom apples, please contact me.

Utata's weekend project asks us to seek out "unintended art" in its diverse forms. Here, morning light streams through a fan.

Addendum: A note on composition

I imagined the high contrast light might drive the rest of the room into shadow, giving bright objects floating in negative space. There were several distracting details in the room that couldn't be minimized by exposure or curves adjustment. Topaz Restyle blended the color palette with one from a high contrast cross-processed image, rich in black and dark grays, making midtone features unobtrusive after B&W conversion.

WELL ENHANCER LWI / DIVE SUPPORT VESSEL

COILED TUBING CAPABILITIES, MONOHULL PERFORMANCE

The Well Enhancer is designed to minimize production downtime and provides cost effective well maintenance, production enhancement and well abandonment solutions. With 1,100m2 of main deck space and the ability to run rigid riser and coiled tubing, the vessel can also perform a range of well testing and production flowback services.

The vessel features a 150 Te multi-purpose tower (MPT), capable of deploying wireline and coiled-tubing. The vessel also features kill pumps and a 100 Te main crane and is currently capable of conducting LWI operations to a depth of 600m.

The DP3 Well Enhancer features a purpose built derrick over a 7m x 7m moonpool and has a travelling block rated to 150 Te capacity in passive mode.

The Well Enhancer’s 18 man saturation diving spread is rated to 300 m, and combined with the vessel’s work/observation class ROVs, provides for full IRM and light construction services and diving support for any tree systems which require manual intervention to facilitate LWI operations.

I am not sure of the name of this Meadowhawk. He is in the "obelisk" position which allows a dragonfly to stay cool minimizing the area the sun can hit! Amazing little creatures.

Ok-ok...last one (for now). Trying to find away to minimize reflections on these shots. Not having any luck.

Most of the time during my trip to Saguaro National Park and the Tucson area, I'd done my best to minimize the blue skies above as it really didn't add much to the desert landscape all around me. It was for me kind of a negative space that didn't add much to image of the Sonoran Desert all around. This day though day though brought clouds and now I felt I really could include those skies above to complement my images. So that's what this image is about. I was now going to enjoy a few hours walking around the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum...

Tonic Tight Graphic T, Premium Resistance tattoo, Lelutka River, Lelutka Chill hair, Mudskin Billy glasses, Tonic Fine Beauty Minimizer body, Glam Affair Natasha skin, SAP Purity brows, Zibska Yuki blush.

In arid ecosystems, communities of mosses, lichens, and cyanobacteria stabilize the soil, minimizing erosion by wind. They fix carbon and nitrogen and enhance water retention. The crusts are complex, diverse communities that take many years (or decades) to become mature. Unfortunately, they are easily disturbed by trampling, bicycle or 4 wheel drive tires. A recent report in the scientific literature indicates that climate change has significant, negative impacts on desert biocrusts.

A photo showing a landscape dominated by desert biocrust:

www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_mitton/20286829999/

the south-facing side has small slit windows to minimize solar heating. Phoenix, AZ. 2017

My entry for the "IdS-MiMi 2018 - Minimize Me" contest. A midi-version of the giant First Order Dreadnought.

Shot my neighbor's house lights with the good Canon camera and an old Nikon manual everything 105mm lens. Manual focus, shot in raw but uploading a jpg transfered to my phone. #14 of 366. Has some green C. A. but did not bother to use lightroom to minimize.

In a city as dense as Japan, construction workers set up sound curtains to minimize noise... When these curtains are lifted, what lies behind it?

Winter Sky, California. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.

Winter evening sky above the San Joaquin Valley, California

Photographers sometimes have a complicated relationship with sky. On one hand, quite a few of us tend to minimize its presence in photographs, especially when the sky isn't special. The sort of blue sky day that seems beautiful to non-photographers (and beautiful to photographers when not making photographs!) often produces a plain blue expanse that can seem empty in a photograph. (Not always. It is also possible to use this in some cases, for example to suggest grand space and distance.) Among my photographer friends, quite a few work to minimize the presence of such skies or even eliminate it entirely — to the point that this can become an inside joke. I've heard people refer to certain photographs by one friend as "an extremely rare [insert photographer name] photograph of the sky."

But sometimes the sky begs to be included, and on occasion it can be the main subject. To generalize, the most interesting skies often come in fall, winter, and perhaps spring in California, when much of the state gets its most interesting weather. (There are opportunities in summer, to — how about a clearing thunderstorm?) I made this sky photograph while I was busy photographing another subject. During a slow moment I looked away from that "other thing" and saw these clouds. I pivoted and made a few exposures, just as the last sunset light was illuminating the undersides of the clouds and already beginning to fade from the highest clouds against the darkest sky.

The area that was to become West Palm Beach was settled in the late 1870s and 1880s by a few hundred settlers who called the vicinity "Lake Worth Country." These settlers were a diverse community from different parts of the United States and the world. They included founding families such at the Potters and the Lainharts, who would go on to become leading members of the business community in the fledgling city. The first white settlers in Palm Beach County lived around Lake Worth, then an enclosed freshwater lake, named for Colonel William Jenkins Worth, who had fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida in 1842. Most settlers engaged in the growing of tropical fruits and vegetables for shipment the north via Lake Worth and the Indian River. By 1890, the U.S. Census counted over 200 people settled along Lake Worth in the vicinity of what would become West Palm Beach. The area at this time also boasted a hotel, the "Cocoanut House", a church, and a post office. The city was platted by Henry Flagler as a community to house the servants working in the two grand hotels on the neighboring island of Palm Beach, across Lake Worth in 1893, coinciding with the arrival of the Florida East Coast railroad. Flagler paid two area settlers, Captain Porter and Louie Hillhouse, a combined sum of $45,000 for the original town site, stretching from Clear Lake to Lake Worth.

On November 5, 1894, 78 people met at the "Calaboose" (the first jail and police station located at Clematis St. and Poinsettia, now Dixie Hwy.) and passed the motion to incorporate the Town of West Palm Beach in what was then Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). This made West Palm Beach the first incorporated municipality in Dade County and in South Florida. The town council quickly addressed the building codes and the tents and shanties were replaced by brick, brick veneer, and stone buildings. The city grew steadily during the 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century, most residents were engaged in the tourist industry and related services or winter vegetable market and tropical fruit trade. In 1909, Palm Beach County was formed by the Florida State Legislature and West Palm Beach became the county seat. In 1916, a new neo-classical courthouse was opened, which has been painstakingly restored back to its original condition, and is now used as the local history museum.

The city grew rapidly in the 1920s as part of the Florida land boom. The population of West Palm Beach quadrupled from 1920 to 1927, and all kinds of businesses and public services grew along with it. Many of the city's landmark structures and preserved neighborhoods were constructed during this period. Originally, Flagler intended for his Florida East Coast Railway to have its terminus in West Palm, but after the area experienced a deep freeze, he chose to extend the railroad to Miami instead.

The land boom was already faltering when city was devastated by the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. The Depression years of the 1930s were a quiet time for the area, which saw slight population growth and property values lower than during the 1920s. The city only recovered with the onset of World War II, which saw the construction of Palm Beach Air Force Base, which brought thousands of military personnel to the city. The base was vital to the allied war effort, as it provided an excellent training facility and had unparalleled access to North Africa for a North American city. Also during World War II, German U-Boats sank dozens of merchant ships and oil tankers just off the coast of West Palm Beach. Nearby Palm Beach was under black out conditions to minimize night visibility to German U-boats.

The 1950s saw another boom in population, partly due to the return of many soldiers and airmen who had served in the vicinity during the war. Also, the advent of air conditioning encouraged growth, as year-round living in a tropical climate became more acceptable to northerners. West Palm Beach became the one of the nation's fastest growing metropolitan areas during the 1950s; the city's borders spread west of Military Trail and south to Lake Clarke Shores. However, many of the city's residents still lived within a narrow six-block wide strip from the south to north end. The neighborhoods were strictly segregated between White and African-American populations, a legacy that the city still struggles with today. The primary shopping district remained downtown, centered around Clematis Street.

In the 1960s, Palm Beach County's first enclosed shopping mall, the Palm Beach Mall, and an indoor arena were completed. These projects led to a brief revival for the city, but in the 1970s and 1980s crime continued to be a serious issue and suburban sprawl continued to drain resources and business away from the old downtown area. By the early 1990s there were very high vacancy rates downtown, and serious levels of urban blight.

Since the 1990s, developments such as CityPlace and the preservation and renovation of 1920s architecture in the nightlife hub of Clematis Street have seen a downtown resurgence in the entertainment and shopping district. The city has also placed emphasis on neighborhood development and revitalization, in historic districts such as Northwood, Flamingo Park, and El Cid. Some neighborhoods still struggle with blight and crime, as well as lowered property values caused by the Great Recession, which hit the region particularly hard. Since the recovery, multiple new developments have been completed. The Palm Beach Mall, located at the Interstate 95/Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard interchange became abandoned as downtown revitalized - the very mall that initiated the original abandonment of the downtown. The mall was then redeveloped into the Palm Beach Fashion Outlets in February 2014. A station for All Aboard Florida, a high-speed passenger rail service serving Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, is under construction as of July 2015.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Palm_Beach,_Florida

Griffon vultures have been used as model organisms for the study of soaring and thermoregulation. The energy costs of level flight tend to be high, prompting alternatives to flapping in larger birds. Vultures in particular utilize more efficient flying methods such as soaring. Compared to other birds, which elevate their metabolic rate to upwards of 16 times their basal metabolic rate in flight, soaring griffon vultures expend about 1.43 times their basal metabolic rate in flight. Griffon vultures are also efficient flyers in their ability to return to a resting heart rate after flight within ten minutes.

As large scavengers, griffon vultures have not been observed to seek shelter for thermoregulation. Vultures use their bald heads as a means to thermoregulate in both extreme cold and hot temperatures. Changes in posture can increase bare skin exposure from 7% to 32%. This change allows for the more than doubling of convective heat loss in still air. Griffon vultures have also been found to tolerate increased body temperatures as a response to high ambient temperatures. By allowing their internal body temperature to change independently of their metabolic rate, griffon vultures minimize their loss of water and energy in thermoregulating. One study in particular (Bahat 1995) found that these adaptations have allowed the Griffon vulture to have one of the widest thermal neutral zones of any bird.

It declined markedly throughout the 19th–20th centuries in much of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, mainly due to direct persecution and "bycatch" from the poisoned carcasses set for livestock predators (Snow and Perrins 1998, Ferguson-Lees and Christie 2001, Orta et al. 2015). In some areas a reduction in available food supplies, arising from changes in livestock management practices, also had an impact (Ferguson-Lees and Christie 2001, Orta et al. 2015). It is very highly vulnerable to the effects of potential wind energy development (Strix 2012) and electrocution has been identified as a threat (Global Raptors Information Network 2015). Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) used for veterinary purposes pose a threat to this species. One case of suspected poisoning caused by flunixin, an NSAID, was recorded in this species in 2012 in Spain (Zorrilla et al. 2015). Diclofenac, a similar NSAID, has caused severe declines in Gyps vulture species across Asia.

Look closely,,, water drops dot pink petals plus a bit of pale green Duckweed. But most extraordinary of all, notice the large bubbles the lifting tips of the petals out of the water.

Why are bubbles round? The surface tension of water provides the wall tension for the formation of bubbles. The tendency to minimize that wall tension pulls the bubbles into spherical shapes.

Surface tension is responsible for the shape of liquid droplets. Although easily deformed, droplets of water tend to be pulled into a spherical shape by the cohesive forces of the surface layer. Due to surface tension, small objects will "float" on the surface of a fluid, as long as the object cannot break through and separate the top layer of water molecules.

www.susanfordcollins.com

View of Porto Giunco Beach, Sardinia, Italy.

August 2013.

Shot with 4x5 Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic large format camera, Fujifilm Pro 160S print film, Schneider Super Symmar HM 120mm lens, no filter, exposure guessed at 1/125s @ F22, unshifted.

Self-developed in Tetenal C-41 3-baths kit, temp 38°C, continuous agitation , 4' 30'' First Developer, 3' wash, 6' Color Developer, 3' wash, 6' Bleach/Fix,15' wash, 1' Stabilizer.

Manually inverted in Photoshop.

The file is available in full resolution.

Compare with Medium Format version here:

www.flickr.com/photos/tjshot/36657997934/in/dateposted-pu...

The Schneider Super Symmar HM 120mm is probably the sharpest large format lens I've ever used.

To preserve acutance and perception of details, I decided to scan using my Fuji X-A3 with a custom macro setup.

I believe the result is about as close to top performance as it's attainable with film and it's very cost effective compared to outsourced professional scanning.

Thanks to www.addicted2light.com for inspiration.

Here the details:

- High quality, D50 compliant, GTI model GLE light table; the quality of the lamps is superb and makes it a great choice for a light source.

- Anti Newton Ring glass pressed above film to keep it flat against light table (emulsion side facing towards table to minimize newton rings on both sides of film)

- Pentax Macro-Takumar 50mm F4 , mounted on bellows (the lighter the better, I use an old BPM unit) to reach desired macro ratio; if you own a short-focal, 1:1 macro lens you could do without bellows, just with a set of extension rings. Lens fstop range 5.6 (for macro 1:1) to 8 (for macro 1:2) to limit diffraction

- A metal lens hood to use as a spacer between lens and glass; I use a 105mm takumar hood. (This part is rather tricky: finding a longer hood to act as a spacer for smaller macro ratios can be difficult... I'm still searching for a proper candidate to fit 1:2 ratio)

- Thick black paper mask between hood and glass, to prevent scratches and minimize stray light reflecting inside the lens hood;

- Fuji X-A3 with manual live-view focus, check focus/refocus for each shot.

Scan progressively in rows as you would do for a multi row pano shot, about 20% area overlap between shots; gets very fast with practice.

Stitching in Kolor Autopano Giga software, set for multiple viewpoints pano.

Hugin is a free alternative software, but needs some customization and practice to work properly with this kind of stitched scans.

I rely on this workflow for my film scans, as I've verified it delivers results well above the performance of top scanners and it renders every bit of info available from film.

A little more tilted view of Pandora at night. This one is pure Lightroom, but with a lot of adjustment brush, trying to brush away the orange sky. The orange color itself is also tweaked to try to minimize it. Disney apparently did not want to make it easy on us!

to minimize effects of traffic and have more effective use of time, i always use my motorbike to move around. so, it is so inconvenient when one gets a flat tyre specially on a big bike, as most bikers could sympathise with. but such is life! lucky for me i found a vulcanizing shop about 1km from where i was and there was just barely enough air pressure to get me there and even better i was the only customer at that time. the guy who did my tyre was very efficient, he was able to patch up my inner tube without removing the tyre from the bike. the whole job took about 45 minutes and cost usd1.60 but gave him usd2.00 (the usd40cents for tip). the guy was happy and so was i as i was able to finish my chores for the day! by the way the cause of the flat was a small piece of broken wire which i kept as souvenir

I reprocessed the image I posted earlier. I tried to minimize the bright orange glow on the trees created by my campfire and make the colors a bit more natural. Do you like this one better?

Stonewall Peak in the background. Shot this from site #7 in the Paso Picacho campground. Orange glow on the trees is from my campfire.

Cuyamaca Rancho State Park is a state park in California, USA, located 40 miles (64 km) east of San Diego in the Laguna Mountains of the Peninsular Ranges. The park's 26,000 acres (11,000 ha) feature pine, fir, and oak forests, with meadows and streams that exist due to the relatively high elevation of the area compared to its surroundings. The park includes 6,512-foot (1,985 m) Cuyamaca Peak, the second-highest point in San Diego County.

The name "Cuyamaca" is a Spanish version of the name the native Kumeyaay peoples used for this place. In water-short Southern California, the Indians called the area Ah-Ha Kwe-Ah Mac, meaning "the place where it rains."

The possibillities are many.

I had already known that material in the chitin of scorpions fluoresced when exposed to UV light, however, thanks to Techuser on flckr for the idea of using UV on harvestmen. Here shows the use of a tripod using 15 and 30 second long exposures, while minimizing ISO's to 100-400. The results are much cleaner than previous attempts. Here, any movement will result in fairly poor results. UV light was in the 365nm wavelength. This provides a more naturalistic lighting that minimizes the purple colour cast of 400nm + wavelengths, though the latter definitely have an interesting look. Furthermore this wavelength seems to make create a brighter fluorescence, enabling shorter exposure times. The reason is a little unclear though. Some insects see in UV and so it might help in species differentiation or mate selection. Snakes, birds and other predators can also see in UV so perhaps the brightness reflects aposematism in nocturnal predators in a similar way to how bright colours in the visible spectrum do to diurnal predators. Harvestmen use a variety of defenses including aposematism, stridulation and chemical defenses to ward off predators and so it seems feasible that such fluorescence might fulfill a similar role. Though the accentuation of patterns on the dorsum and posterior might be more reflective of mate selection since many harvestmen will perch up high and with relatively poor vision, such brightness might help them find a mate.

Some other insects that I have found to reflect UV are some leaf mimicking katydids, centipedes (Scolopendra), some crab backed orbweavers (Micrathena sp.), some caterpillars, scorpions, some stick insects, some grasshoppers/katydids...quite a broad spectrum really. Though like mimetism UV fluorescence seems to change with the life cycle, either becoming stronger of weaker with age depending on the species. For example one individual of a possible new genus of millipede that I found fluoresced red under UV. But others didn't. All Found during night hikes in Bellavista cloud rainforest reserve, Ecuador.

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Yesterday the tire flew off my minibus, I cut the head off a pit viper and I was banned from a commercial flight by associating with a narco-trafficker. Today I am bushwhacking through the jungle in the remote trail-less backwaters of Guyana, waist deep in water and praying to make it through the rest of the day alive. What will tomorrow bring? God only knows. The adventure starts here- pbertner.wordpress.com/.

After several overcast mornings and off and on drizzling weather, it was an amazing sight to see the sun shinning down and blue skies above. So my goal with this image wasn't to minimize those skies, but I did want to capture more of a sweeping view across the badlands to my front by angling my SLR camera slightly downward. I then did some post-production work balancing out the exposure with the nearby area still caught in shadows with those area basking in the morning sunlight. I got the idea for this overlook type view from another photographer before heading out on this trip that included Badlands National Park. I just loved how the view of badlands and the formation seemed to stretch to a far off horizon with the green prairie grasses adding a nice color contrast for the final image.

Taken in Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne

The Essence is an ongoing study about minimizing the elements in a photo to its essence - shapes, lines and black and white.

Took this one on the same day as the first one but I really wasn't sure if I liked it enough. However after a few weeks I am starting to like it more so here it is.

Hope you like it :)!

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Thanks for viewing my photos! Don't hesitate to leave a comment or send a pm and ask me about anything :)!

For prints please message me directly.

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