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Kluane National Park - pronounced Kloo-Wah-Nee - in Canada's Yukon, is probably my favourite all-time backpacking location. Here's my hiking partner, Kluane Bonnie, taking a break above 48-Pup Creek.
In the distance is Red Castle Ridge. Below "our" hill is a deep creek drainage, where waters flow (right to left) from the green plateau and high ridges surrounding it. That's Sheep Creek, and our hike started way down there, to the left, out of the frame. 48-Pup is a tributary creek not visible here, but it's just to the left. At this elevation there were no more trails, and we were following one of those nonexistent trails up Sheep Mountain, which is directly behind me in (or out of) this photo.
It was a splendid, sunny day in August. Rain and fog would move in that night, but at least we were able to pitch the tent when everything was dry. That is so much more pleasant than doing it in the pouring rain. Make a dry camp and then with only a few housekeeping rules you can keep the interior and all your gear dry.
Wildlife that day included lots of Dall Sheep and one Grizzly. We saw the big bear ambling up a slope we had just vacated, about 200 yards away. It was pursuing its bear interests, which did not include us.
You can see another use for the ice axe here - a prop for my pack...
More to come from this amazing place!
Photographed in Kluane National Park, Yukon (Canada); scanned from the original Kodachrome 64 slide. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©1982 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Est une espèce de petits passereaux partiellement migratrice très répandue, de la famille des Muscicapidés. On l'appelle également rossignol des murailles ou queue rousse.
Adulte, le rougequeue noir mesure environ 14 cm de long et 25 cm d'envergure, et pèse de 14 à 20 g. Ils sont très protecteurs envers leur famille. La femelle est plus terne que le mâle, avec un plumage uniforme gris-brun cendré, le roux est inexistant chez elle. Sa poitrine grisâtre est légèrement striée de foncé.
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Is a species of small migrating partially migrating passerine, of the family Muscicapidae. It is also called the nightingale of the walls or red tail.
As an adult, the black redstart is about 14 cm long and 25 cm wide, and weighs 14 to 20 g. They are very protective of their families. The female is duller than the male, with uniform gray-brown ash plumage, the roux is nonexistent in her. Its grayish breast is slightly streaked with dark.
A favorite book of mine has always been John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America. Perhaps, because of Steinbeck’s yearning for wanderlust in his early 50’s, the same time I realized how much I wanted to experience the beauty, meet the people and hear the stories of this amazing land we call home. When I think of Bannack Montana, I am reminded of the words from those pages “A journey is a person itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us”
When you visit Bannack, the old mining town, you immediately find the true meaning of these words and that of the “wild west”, when law and order seemed to be nonexistent. This well preserved town now sits empty, consumed only by the ghosts of days gone by.
On an earlier visit, a few years ago, to this location, I was cautioned that the current “residents” still run this town. On that stop I encountered a spirit in the Bannack Hotel Meade. He made his presence quite clear to me with cold drafts, the smell of sulfur, malfunctioning my camera, draining its batteries and sending me racing down the stairs and out of building faster than I had moved in quite some time! Following this confrontation, I became a bit terrified of the unknown, but intrigued and wanting to face my fears, I returned for a second visit. This time with a plan to spend the night.
I arrived early in the afternoon on a beautiful day and was a little relieved to find a park ranger ready to accompany a group of school kids on a tour of the town. I walked though photographing these amazing old structures trying to stay ahead of the visitors. I listened to my footsteps echoing through the spring air as I walked the old wooden boardwalk towards that dreaded Hotel to face my fear. Now standing at the front door, I found my hand shaking a bit as I turned the knob to gain access (to what seemed in my mind) to hell.
Once inside this grand old hotel, I started my ascent on the creaking old stairs, ever so cautiously, to the scene of my last meeting with “Mr. Not So Nice”. Once upstairs I rounded the corner to that long hallway where all the doors were open allowing the light to pour onto the floor, except the one door at the end of the hallway, which was shut tight, and the reason, on my first visit, I let my curiosity get the best of me. I had to know what was behind that door. Again in almost the same spot, came the cold draft, then the smell of sulfur. My heart racing, paralyzed for the moment, a couple of kids came running up the stairs and as quickly as Casper’s not so friendly cousin came, he was gone. No cold draft, no foul smell. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, I regained my composure as nothing had happened and greeted the kids. Bravely, I walked to the end of the hallway to find that the door nailed shut, simply lead to the old second story porch on the front of the hotel.
After spending a couple of more hours photographing this “ghost town”, I headed several hundred yards to the river to set up camp. Carefully preparing my accommodations for the evening, saying hello to the only other campers at the grounds, an older couple in a huge RV, I started a fire to cook my gourmet cuisine of beans and franks. After filling my belly, I noticed the sun making its way to the Montana horizon and grabbed my gear to photograph this amazing light casting upon the plains.
Climbing the grassy hill leading to town, I once again was feeling a little pensive, after realizing I was the lone breathing person in a town abandoned and now taking on a whole new vibe. Setting up my camera I turned my attention to the beautiful light and began to photograph this place ripped from the pages of history. As I made my way towards the end of town snapping the shutter of my camera, I found myself frequently looking over my shoulder expecting to see someone there. Shaking off this feeling each time, I went back to the task at hand.
I reached the end of the town, which was only about two to three blocks long, I turned and headed back to photograph the now even more dramatic light making its last attempt to spread its hues of gold and reach across the land before retiring for the evening. I began my quest to capture this new, ever changing light and shadows drawn from the old buildings, and it was then I realized that not only had the light changed but so had everything else! There WAS someone else in that town, but how, but who, could have possibly opened almost every door in town!! All the doors, that on my short journey to the end of town were closed tightly, were now all WIDE OPEN! Frozen in fear, trying to rationalize this happening, I struggled to peruse my original goal of photographing this light, when a wind from the west whisked though the streets, overwhelming me in panic. “What in the world was happening”? Did they expect me to go in one of those doors, only to have them slam shut, locking me in wild west hell for eternity? I think not. That is when I picked up my backpack, my tripod and ran (and I mean full on marathon running) back to my campsite where I pulled up the stakes on my tent, threw my gear in disarray in the trunk of my car and left nothing but the dust in my path behind me.
My journal entry from that evening was titled “A Change of Plans” and boy was it ever! I was now able to breath comfortably, as I found myself nestled in to an extremely busy KOA Campground next to 15 Texas A&M students who were enjoying their night with cold beers around a campfire swapping stories and laughter. I am usually the one who seeks out quiet, remote camping quarters, but this evening, the sounds of people, real, living humans, was such glorious music to my ears!
Now, because I am truly suffering from a bruised and batter ego over this event, I am sure that this is not the last time there will be an entry in my journal in regards to Bannack Montana. But I AM sure, that it will take a couple more years at least to rebuild the courage so injured in defeat, when I can finally make the photographs I have hoped for, documenting this forgotten town in the middle of nowhere, under the evening stars. So until that time, I will continue on my journeys in hopes that I will maintain some sort of control over the adventures rather than them directing me, but that remains to be seen.
Als Natur- oder Landschaftsfotograf hat man's im Januar/Februar in unseren Breiten oft nicht leicht. Schnee, Eis, Raureif gibt es kaum mehr, für Blumen oder frisches Grün ist noch viel zu früh, die Wälder und Felder sind oft trist und alles scheint wie mit einem schwarz-grünen Algenschleim überzogen zu sein. Bähhh. Moose, Flechten sind nun mit die besten Motive. Ja und mit ein wenig Glück findet sich auch noch das eine oder andere herbstliche Blatt im Sonnenlicht. Das Ganze, wie hier, vielleicht noch jeweils mit hübschem Bokeh im Hintergrund (hier das glitzernde Wasser der Wutach).
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Being a nature or landscape photographer in our latitudes in January/February is often not easy. Snow, ice, and hoarfrost are almost nonexistent; it's far too early for flowers or fresh greenery; the forests and fields are often dreary, and everything seems covered in a blackish-green algal slime. Yuck. Mosses and lichens are among the best subjects now. And with a little luck, you might even find the odd autumn leaf in the sunlight. All of this, as seen here, perhaps with a pretty bokeh in the background (in this case, the glittering water of the Wutach River).
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Please darken your room and
turn the brightness of your display all the way up,
lay back, press L button and
enjoy this picture in full screen size ;-)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . looks muuuch better. PROMISE !
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Thanks for your visit, 1000 thanks for commenting
Thanks for watching the picture before FAVing 😉
As you enter the Garden from April to September in most years, you'll be greeted by the sight of two most unusual vine like plants climbing up two posts. Cropped to the base in winter, these vines produce two different color flowers on each plant. (See closeup below) This year, the flowers didn't show until July, but everything has been late, early, or nonexistent in 2022.
Thunbergia alata, commonly called black-eyed Susan vine, is a herbaceous perennial climbing plant species in the family Acanthaceae. It is native to Eastern Africa, and has been naturalized in other parts of the world. As I said last year, the name 'Black-eyed Susan' is thought to have come from a character that figures in many traditional ballads and songs. In the Ballad of Black-eyed Susan by John Gay, Susan goes aboard a ship in-dock to ask the sailors where her lover Sweet William has gone. Don't ask. I didn't know the answer last year, either. Black-eyed Susan is also a name given to other species of flowers in the genus Rudbeckia.
The adult humpback whale is generally 14–15 m (46–49 ft) long, though individuals up to 16–17 m (52–56 ft) long have been recorded. Females are usually 1–1.5 m (3 ft 3 in – 4 ft 11 in) longer than males.
The species can reach body masses of 40 metric tons (44 short tons). Calves are born at around 4.3 m (14 ft) long with a mass of 680 kg (1,500 lb)] The species has a bulky body with a thin rostrum and proportionally long flippers, each around one-third of its body length.[14][15] It has a short dorsal fin that varies from nearly nonexistent to somewhat long and curved.
Like other rorquals, the humpback has grooves between the tip of the lower jaw and the navel. The grooves are relatively few in number in this species, ranging from 14 to 35. The upper jaw is lined with baleen plates, which number 540–800 in total and are black in color.
The dorsal or upper side of the animal is generally black; the ventral or underside has various levels of black and white coloration. Whales in the southern hemisphere tend to have more white pigmentation. The flippers can vary from all-white to white only on the undersurface. Some individuals may be all white, notably Migaloo who is a true albino. The varying color patterns and scars on the tail flukes distinguish individual animals.[
The end of the genital slit of the female is marked by a round feature, known as the hemispherical lobe, which visually distinguishes males and females.
Unique among large whales, humpbacks have bumps or tubercles on the head and front edge of the flippers; the tail fluke has a jagged trailing edge. The tubercles on the head are 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) thick at the base and protrude up to 6.5 cm (2.6 in).
They are mostly hollow in the center, often containing at least one fragile hair that erupts 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) from the skin and is 0.1 mm (0.0039 in) thick. The tubercles develop early in gestation and may have a sensory function, as they are rich in nerves. Sensory nerve cells in the skin are adapted to withstand the high water pressure of diving.
In one study, a humpback whale brain measured 22.4 cm (8.8 in) long and 18 cm (7.1 in) wide at the tips of the temporal lobes, and weighed around 4.6 kg (10 lb). The humpback's brain has a complexity similar to that of the brains of smaller whales and dolphins.
The structure of the eye indicates that eyesight is relatively poor, being only able to see silhouettes over long distances and finer details relatively close. Computer models of the middle ear suggest that the humpback can hear at frequencies between 15 Hz and 3 kHz "when stimulated at the tympanic membrane", and between 200 Hz and 9 kHz "if stimulated at the thinner region of the tympanic bone adjacent to the tympanic membrane". These ranges are consistent with their vocalization ranges.
As in all cetaceans, the respiratory tract of the humpback whale is connected to the blowholes and not to the mouth, although the species appears to be able to unlock the epiglottis and larynx and move them towards the oral cavity, allowing humpbacks to blow bubbles from their mouths. The vocal folds of the humpback are more horizontally positioned than those of land mammals which allows them to produce underwater calls. These calls are amplified by a laryngeal sac.
This image was taken in Reykjavik, Iceland
Materans were tough and self-sufficient. They had their own rituals and songs, their own demons and dialect. Many of their traditions developed as ways of preventing waste. Using shared ovens, they produced a unique horn-shaped bread that was leavened and baked slowly, yielding large pores that helped it stay fresh for a week. Rainwater was captured by a complex network of stone basins and underground ceramic pipes. Resourceful as the Materans were, however, their life style increasingly lagged behind that of the rest of the world. The better-off citizens of Matera began departing for the Piano—a more recently settled, flatter section of the hilltop—and the townspeople who remained in the Sassi were almost exclusively poor. In the caves, plumbing, electricity, and telephones were practically nonexistent. And until the nineteen-thirties you couldn’t take a wagon drawn by a donkey into the Sassi, only a hand-pulled cart.
This is from my second night with the "Boys Club" at Pt. Reyes, the all male Tule Elk herd down in the ravine beside the skinny 2-lane park road. The sun was still on them so I took a chance and eased the rolling blind onto the nonexistent shoulder. I got a few minutes before they moved on, when some ying-yang decided to lay on her horn. Too bad she didn't see the same magnificent animals I saw or she might have stopped to look. They were spectacular and I'm glad I got another 2nd chance, however brief.
Where the land meets the sky is almost nonexistent here. I love the look of the lone tree against a field of white.
After two straight days of non-stop rain the skies finally began clearing up and the sunshine breaking through. We were all super excited to finally see blue in the sky, and mountains for that matter. Those two rainy days felt interminable. Hiking was difficult with waterlogged trails, sightseeing was dismal with all the mountains shrouded by clouds, and photography was almost nonexistent with no light and constant rain. On a bright note, the rainstorm helped feed the waterfalls and cascades from trickling flows the raging forces. Although the storm broke in the afternoon and completely cleared out by sunset, there the late afternoon dappled light was perfect in completing that pristine mountain feel of these cascades.
Western Grebe, with its low-lying, almost nonexistent nest. San Luis Obispo County, California. I didn't see a mate the entire time this grebe was repairing its nest.
10 stops ND, 8s exposure in the late afternoon to smoothen out the waves.
Shot taken when the sun was low and the tones warm.
Weaker rocks get worn away leaving the more resistant rocks as protrusions along the cliff face. Evidence of the hydraulic action can also be seen on the shore platform here during low tide.
Taken with AF-S 18-35mm f3.5-4.5 G.
Nikon’s DSLR pro specced lenses were made to withstand the wear and tear that pros subject their gear to and these obviously were more expensive.
Nikon during the DSLR era did have a nice and affordable range of very capable prosumer lenses but this is practically nonexistent in their Z mirrorless range. Not everyone needs pro spec lenses and the extra costs and weight that came with it.
For hobbyists; AF-S 18-35mm f3.5-4.5 G, AF-S 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 G VR and AF-P 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 E VR makes for a very capable and relatively light-weight travel kit.
There is no need to splurge on pro specced lenses hence my regret for buying the 24-70mm f2.8 when the cheaper and lighter 24-85mm VR would have sufficed and probably even better since VR would have worked better with D8XX high resolution cameras which required higher handheld shutter speeds to ensure pixel level crispness.
I bought my Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 way back when I mistakenly thought that the more expensive lens will make my photos better. It didn’t, all it added was more weight and expense!
Fact is, we actually need to be confident enough of our own abilities to know that we can actually rely on inexpensive, basic gear. Be a photographer instead of a mere gear chaser, a self reminder whenever I get GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)!
When I 1st start with photography, most of my shots were not up to scratch. Not knowing any better, I looked towards upgrading my gear as a means to improve my photography when what I truly lacked back then was post processing skills.
The Myth of Babies. It was the white stork that inspired the legend that storks bring babies. This story originated in Europe, where the birds often nested right on the roofs of houses and were associated with family well-being.
They cool down in a very unusual way. White storks don't have sweat glands, so in hot weather they... defecate on their own feet. The evaporating moisture cools the blood in the vessels of the legs - a process called urohidrosis.
They return to the same nest for decades. White storks return to their old nest every year, constantly adding to it. Some nests are used for decades and can weigh over 500 kg, and sometimes even over a ton.
They barely flap their wings during long-distance migrations. Instead, storks use rising currents of warm air (thermals), soaring vast distances with minimal energy expenditure. Because of this, they avoid long flights over the sea, where thermal springs are almost nonexistent.
️ They have almost no singing ability. White storks lack a developed vocal apparatus (syrinx), so they communicate primarily by loudly clicking their beaks. This sound can be heard over long distances and is used to greet a partner and defend territory.
A modern problem with storks. In some European countries, white storks have begun spending the winter not in Africa, but near garbage dumps, where food is available year-round. This has changed their migratory behavior, but raises concerns about pollution and possible harm to the birds' health.
Death Valley legends claim this truck was once owned by the Manson Family. The stars on the roof of the cab are offered as evidence. Maybe so, but it is odd they would rip off the upholstery all those many years ago in order to paint stars on the metal.
Someone along the way added a rock in the drivers seat. The better to see through the nonexistent windshield I guess.
Happy Truck Thursday!
I used the "Pretty Preset" called Gingersnap to enrich this, and add some texture. And, of course, there's my pseudo cottage, and my fake window on the nonexistent lake.
The adult humpback whale is generally 14–15 m (46–49 ft) long, though individuals up to 16–17 m (52–56 ft) long have been recorded. Females are usually 1–1.5 m (3 ft 3 in – 4 ft 11 in) longer than males.
The species can reach body masses of 40 metric tons (44 short tons). Calves are born at around 4.3 m (14 ft) long with a mass of 680 kg (1,500 lb)] The species has a bulky body with a thin rostrum and proportionally long flippers, each around one-third of its body length.[14][15] It has a short dorsal fin that varies from nearly nonexistent to somewhat long and curved.
Like other rorquals, the humpback has grooves between the tip of the lower jaw and the navel. The grooves are relatively few in number in this species, ranging from 14 to 35. The upper jaw is lined with baleen plates, which number 540–800 in total and are black in color.
The dorsal or upper side of the animal is generally black; the ventral or underside has various levels of black and white coloration. Whales in the southern hemisphere tend to have more white pigmentation. The flippers can vary from all-white to white only on the undersurface. Some individuals may be all white, notably Migaloo who is a true albino. The varying color patterns and scars on the tail flukes distinguish individual animals.[
The end of the genital slit of the female is marked by a round feature, known as the hemispherical lobe, which visually distinguishes males and females.
Unique among large whales, humpbacks have bumps or tubercles on the head and front edge of the flippers; the tail fluke has a jagged trailing edge. The tubercles on the head are 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) thick at the base and protrude up to 6.5 cm (2.6 in).
They are mostly hollow in the center, often containing at least one fragile hair that erupts 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) from the skin and is 0.1 mm (0.0039 in) thick. The tubercles develop early in gestation and may have a sensory function, as they are rich in nerves. Sensory nerve cells in the skin are adapted to withstand the high water pressure of diving.
In one study, a humpback whale brain measured 22.4 cm (8.8 in) long and 18 cm (7.1 in) wide at the tips of the temporal lobes, and weighed around 4.6 kg (10 lb). The humpback's brain has a complexity similar to that of the brains of smaller whales and dolphins.
The structure of the eye indicates that eyesight is relatively poor, being only able to see silhouettes over long distances and finer details relatively close. Computer models of the middle ear suggest that the humpback can hear at frequencies between 15 Hz and 3 kHz "when stimulated at the tympanic membrane", and between 200 Hz and 9 kHz "if stimulated at the thinner region of the tympanic bone adjacent to the tympanic membrane". These ranges are consistent with their vocalization ranges.
As in all cetaceans, the respiratory tract of the humpback whale is connected to the blowholes and not to the mouth, although the species appears to be able to unlock the epiglottis and larynx and move them towards the oral cavity, allowing humpbacks to blow bubbles from their mouths. The vocal folds of the humpback are more horizontally positioned than those of land mammals which allows them to produce underwater calls. These calls are amplified by a laryngeal sac.
This image was taken in Reykjavik, Iceland
Patches of yellow hillside daisies accent the topography of hills in this view of the super bloom earlier this year. I’ve become increasingly fascinated with the distribution of flowers during such events, noting how they relate to the landscape. In one superbloom the southern facing slopes were incredible. In another, the the flowers seemed to swap over to the north facing slopes. Some flowers seem to concentrate in washes while others prefer wide slopes. Not here for instance that on the right side of the frame in the distant valley the yellow daisies completely dominate on one side of the wash but are almost nonexistent on the other side, which instead has a distribution of little shrubs. The slight differences in light and moisture throughout the year are enough to completely tip the balance from one plant species to the other. I liked the way the early afternoon high light helped accentuate the daisies on the ridges here. I wonder if in a future visit the daisies will be erupting from different slopes instead.
Well, KS 265 came out, so I've been indulging myself in making over a couple of old characters, instead of, you know, doing homework. My self-control is nonexistent.
And I swear, one day I'll stop posting portraits and actually play the game.
But character creation is just too damn fun.
Don't think I've been so absent from here in a long time, but it's been a hot, busy, uninspiring summer...and I couldn't be more ready for fall. The family decided we should take one more vacation before the kid's summer vacation was over...so we picked New York City to visit. Since photography has been nonexistent for me this summer I figured I should try to get a shot or two at some spots on the trip. My plans were bigger than what I could accomplish with the family but going to the Top of the Rock did work out. I have to give a shout out to Bryan Carnathan at The-Digital-Picture.com for his "Ultimate Guide to Photographing at the Top of the Rock". Knowing what to expect and find the the right spot was pretty key and well worth the read if you're going. We arrived probably an hour and a half before sunset and it took a few minutes for someone to exist a nice spot (a concrete, flat, chest-level pillar) on the 3rd level that I could grab. I had bought the tiny tripod Bryan recommended and it worked perfectly, since traditional tripods are banned and would NEVER work there in the crowds. As the night went on the crowds got worse and it was shoulder to shoulder and 2-3 people deep along the edge. I probably stood my ground on my little spot for a good hour and a half. I'm sure I got the stink eye from folks...but oh well, sorry. This shot ended up being a blend of a shot a bit before sunset...and one later as some lights began to shine. I hope everyone's had a better summer than I for photography...bring on Fall :)
running away from the castle, the only place she's ever known, to start anew with the love of her life.
yeah idk i was trying to take a different picture but it wasn't working so i took this. it just looks like she's in some big fancy building. doesn't really look like she's trying to escape but pullips only have one facial expression.
also my photoshop skills are nonexistent so i'm sorry
as you can see, i managed to get a picture of the flowers in the jar, but it didn't turn out as expected! i had wanted to get a picture of it in soft light with a white background, but that's pretty much impossible where i live (the middle of the forest, where daylight is either super harsh or nonexistent). i had almost given up hope on getting a cool picture of it, until i saw it on the windowsill as the sun was setting and thought it would look cool if i inverted it. this proved to be very true. all in all, this probably looks just as cool as the image i originally imagined would have.
What would I do without friends? One morning a phone call came from Pat: "We have Blue Jays beside the house!" I dropped what I was doing and drove out. It isn't far; Pat and Maurice live only about a kilometre from town.
And they had blue jays! We don't see them often here; this is a bird of the woodlands, habitat that is almost nonexistent in southwestern Saskatchewan (it should be noted that they adapt well to suburbs, too). I look at their range map: there is a conspicuous gap exactly where I live. But every few years they do show up in fall or early winter. Maurice and Pat have trees. And well-stocked feeders.
The jays all flew away, of course, when I ventured outside, but it is a matter of giving them time. I set up my tripod without a blind and lay flat on the grass and fallen leaves. Sure enough, within 15 minutes they began returning to the feeder, landing with their raucous calls and foraging on the ground beneath for sunflower seeds. First blue jays I've seen here in five years. A glorious fall day, warm sun dancing on the land. Who could ask for more?
Photographed near Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2018 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
We still have absolutely no idea how it was pulled off, but me and Skylor would successfully catch up and get ahead of SCFE’s Fort Pierce Turn [FPT-15] around South Bay, refusing to let off the gas driving westbound on US-27 until we reached our destination. Despite viewing their EoT for most of the drive, we’d beat it to our final planned photo spot of the chase, ‘the best for last’, if you will, that being the popular trestle over the Miami Canal at Lake Harbor, FL.
Pulling off at the crossing and whipping out the binoculars, we’d breathe a sigh relief at the sight of the Turn’s head end clearing the west end of Buker in the distance. A couple minutes go by and the sickly wail of 6325’s fouled Leslie RSL-3L rings off to our east by Mutt Thomas Rd, paparazzi ready with cameras in hand for the climax of our one hour chase.
The last half hour of unobstructed golden sunlight beautifully illuminates #USSC6325 [SD40M-2] and #USSC3801 [GP38-2] taking charge of SCFE’s Fort Pierce Turn over the Miami Canal with their 20-car train received from the Florida East Coast Railway. A clear shot from the canalbank showcases U.S. Sugar’s new corportate look adorning the newest SD40-2 rebuild to their roster, along with the recently repainted #USSC404, now renumbered #3801. Upon entering the Keela Block [the block limit sign between there and Lake Harbor Block out of frame to the left], the crew will set out their last four covered hoppers at Calcium Silicate, and then continue west towards Clewiston to cap off their day. Skylor and I would end our chase here, parting ways with the Turn, turning east for home.
One can see the comparison between U.S. Sugar’s new look and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad’s last paint scheme when viewed on the broadside, ignoring the obnoxious, poorly contrasted billboard logo. Its ties to the SAL are nonexistent; the scheme intends to honor the agricultural communities of the region, which explains the prominent green and yellow palette. Hell, U.S. Sugar doesn’t operate over any former SAL trackage, but pay no mind to those foamer fantasies. It’s a new scheme, and I’m all for it after this shoot.
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Lake Harbor, FL
SCFE Fort Pierce Subdivision
Date: 11/15/2024 | 17:04
ID: SCFE Fort Pierce Turn [FPT-15]
Type: Local
Direction: Westbound
Car Count: 20
1. USSC SD40M-2 #6325
2. USSC GP38-2 #3801
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© Vicente Alonso 2024
I spent the last few days in the Yuma, Arizona area doing some geocaching and exploring. Wildflowers were pretty much nonexistent, but the Palo Verde trees were blooming nicely and so were the Desert Ironwoods.
Desert Ironwood grows only in extreme southeast California, southwest Arizona, along the eastern coast of Baja, and in Sonora, Mexico.
Desert Ironwood is very hard and heavy. Its density is greater than water, so it will not float.
This specimen is about 20 feet tall.
Desert Irowood
Olneya tesota
...it's DARK!
sort of funny that as I was planning to do this project and thinking about how winter light is my favorite, I completely forgot that so much of the time that pretty light is nonexistent. I normally write notes with my tracking of days and film frames and there is nonstop chatter that goes something like - 'the sun came in!!! it was gone 2 minutes later.' I forgot that you have to be a light ninja in this season, practically gluing a camera to your body so you can capture the two seconds of sun that shine in during the day.
...I exaggerate a tiny bit but not by much. it does feel this way, especially when you're working during all the daylight hours. :)
this was a dark day. if the sun came in at all, I missed it.
This one was taken with my pre-war Voigtlander Bessa RF back in the spring.
It is going to be a while before I post another photo from my medium format or large format negatives. My Microtek Artixscan M1 has failed after only two years of use. Unfortunately, support is nonexistent.
I'm exploring alternatives. I'd love a Hassy Flextight X1 but I can't afford it. I'm considering an Epson 700-series scanner or using a dSLR on a copy-stand. Luckily, I have no problems with my Nikon Coolscan V scanner that I use for my 35mm negatives (knock on wood).
I guess the term is Keep It Simple Stupid and that's exactly what you do when you have absolutely NO choice! The clouds in the sky were almost nonexistent as I waited for the sun to peek through the trees that border Armand Bayou! The bit of a chop on the water sort of disturbed the reflection as well and so I kept it simple!
I might add that the large amounts of rain have done their job and cleared a majority of the water hyacinth away but there are still places where it clings to the banks of the bayou and can be 10 to 20 feet across! At least Armand Bayou is open once again above the bridge and navigable! Hope everyone has a marvelous week!
Unwinding and finding peace in the calm of dusk... ♥
Take a moment to unwind and let her thoughts wander. Sometimes the best company is herself... ♥
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. . . Pursuit of 'Us' . . .
She was aware that she needed a hero to strengthen her weaknesses, and that hero turned out to be none other than herself..
She chose to surround herself with men who have big hearts and unshakable confidence, and who are dedicated to her happiness without hesitation. She left behind those whose hearts were too small and only fought for themselves and the collective 'us', never considering her needs as an individual..
If they keep searching for a collective 'us' to fight for and settle with, they will never find true purpose and fulfillment with her. The sense of belonging to an 'us' only comes after they have fought for and settled with 'her' already..
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Us is ... You + 'ME'
Us is not ... You + Beautiful Planssss 'WITH' Me
Some relations never been relationship and was nonexistent, as there was no "you AND me" or "Us."
Between you and me
... never have us
... never about us
... nothing is us
And also there was never 'our' story because there was never 'us'
Between you and me
... it's just you and your plans to have them 'with' me. it never 'for' me and it never had us. There was never a single minute of 'our' story.
There cannot be a shared story between us since you are solely focused on making plans without considering who I am.
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☑ mutual Agreement 'is not' mutual Commitment
☑ mutual Agreement 'is not' Us
It is quite evident that ambiguity can be a straightforward explanation for some types of relations. If an individual has not assigned any status or label to another person or taken steps to advance to the relationship, it is apparent that there has never been a mutual commitment between them.
That is why she forbids certain individuals from using the words 'us,' 'our,' or 'ours' when addressing her or others. It is not within their authority to use such words and terms.
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CPKC's daily 242 mixed freight winds down the hill into the almost nonexistent town of Cuba, ND as they head for a crew change in Enderlin before continuing east.
This was built for the Iron Forgery contest that Simon started, hence the nonexistent part in the middle. Scaling and angling that thing to correspond with the mecabricks model was a pain.
An older version of the previous shot posted was this Ashland inbound with CSX interchange at Willard, OH in January 2005. Not much has changed except the paint scheme, and the traffic make-up. Garbage was big business back then, now its steel coils. Sunday runs were frequent, now they're nonexistent.
The adult humpback whale is generally 14–15 m (46–49 ft) long, though individuals up to 16–17 m (52–56 ft) long have been recorded. Females are usually 1–1.5 m (3 ft 3 in – 4 ft 11 in) longer than males.
The species can reach body masses of 40 metric tons (44 short tons). Calves are born at around 4.3 m (14 ft) long with a mass of 680 kg (1,500 lb)] The species has a bulky body with a thin rostrum and proportionally long flippers, each around one-third of its body length. It has a short dorsal fin that varies from nearly nonexistent to somewhat long and curved.
Like other rorquals, the humpback has grooves between the tip of the lower jaw and the navel. The grooves are relatively few in number in this species, ranging from 14 to 35. The upper jaw is lined with baleen plates, which number 540–800 in total and are black in color.
The dorsal or upper side of the animal is generally black; the ventral or underside has various levels of black and white coloration. Whales in the southern hemisphere tend to have more white pigmentation. The flippers can vary from all-white to white only on the undersurface. Some individuals may be all white, notably Migaloo who is a true albino. The varying color patterns and scars on the tail flukes distinguish individual animals.[
The end of the genital slit of the female is marked by a round feature, known as the hemispherical lobe, which visually distinguishes males and females.
Unique among large whales, humpbacks have bumps or tubercles on the head and front edge of the flippers; the tail fluke has a jagged trailing edge. The tubercles on the head are 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) thick at the base and protrude up to 6.5 cm (2.6 in).
They are mostly hollow in the center, often containing at least one fragile hair that erupts 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) from the skin and is 0.1 mm (0.0039 in) thick. The tubercles develop early in gestation and may have a sensory function, as they are rich in nerves. Sensory nerve cells in the skin are adapted to withstand the high water pressure of diving.
In one study, a humpback whale brain measured 22.4 cm (8.8 in) long and 18 cm (7.1 in) wide at the tips of the temporal lobes, and weighed around 4.6 kg (10 lb). The humpback's brain has a complexity similar to that of the brains of smaller whales and dolphins.
The structure of the eye indicates that eyesight is relatively poor, being only able to see silhouettes over long distances and finer details relatively close. Computer models of the middle ear suggest that the humpback can hear at frequencies between 15 Hz and 3 kHz "when stimulated at the tympanic membrane", and between 200 Hz and 9 kHz "if stimulated at the thinner region of the tympanic bone adjacent to the tympanic membrane". These ranges are consistent with their vocalization ranges.
As in all cetaceans, the respiratory tract of the humpback whale is connected to the blowholes and not to the mouth, although the species appears to be able to unlock the epiglottis and larynx and move them towards the oral cavity, allowing humpbacks to blow bubbles from their mouths. The vocal folds of the humpback are more horizontally positioned than those of land mammals which allows them to produce underwater calls. These calls are amplified by a laryngeal sac.
This image was taken at Reykjavik, Iceland
The black dog visited yesterday which was a shame as I hadn’t felt that way for a while. I didn’t do my exercises in the morning and as the day drifted on I sank. Carla tried in vane to lift me and go for a walk in the afternoon, I refused saying I was no company at the moment, I flopped on the bed and she went out. Lying there an idea started forming, I looked at the forecast hoping for clear skies, I knew the moon was nonexistent, now it was just the tide, bingo low at 11pm. My mood was lifted and I quickly got up and did my exercises, and went out to find Carla, 2 miles later I informed her of my plans. I’m not an astro photographer but I love the night sky and I’d recently throw more money on a camera which had facilities that made this genre a little easier. My location although close, the walk in was only three quarters of a mile, but it was a dark and the last quarter was along a pitch black rocky way only accessible at low tides. I took my first photo at 9:20 and my last 3 hours later, I had great fun although I don’t know if photos cut it, the new camera performed well. This one of my first images, the little red triangle of stars just rising on the left is Tarus coloured by the earths atmosphere and the cluster above is Pleiadies, the seven sisters.
Maiko Fukutama (Shigemori Okiya) of Miyagawacho, Yasaka Jinja Setsubun.
Maiko at public event looked so much more relaxed.
Shot with Nikon D800E in Live-view with AF-S 70-200mm f4.0 G. Handheld the camera sucked (very slow in Live-view and almost nonexistent buffer) but the lens exceeded my expectations.
While Nikon struggles to implement human Eye-AF on their Z mirrorless bodies, Sony in a surprising move is implementing animal Eye-AF via firmware update into their A9, A7Riii and A7iii bodies. Competition ultimately benefits the users, regardless of brand.
"Do you see that Red Star off in the distance, Turaga?"
"Yes.. I see it, I've told you, Kaluk, it's nothing to worry about"
"I- I don't know.. my satellite picks up all sorts of frequencies from that star.. almost like it's trying to..
communicate.."
Kaluk, the Astronomer is a very paranoid Matoran, rarely leaving his hut or the observatory in fear of the various (and nonexistent) threats that are lurking in the outside world, but no matter what, he does his best to help his fellow Sah-toran.
Yeah I wasn't very happy with the first version of him, so I've gone back and changed him up a bit, I'm much happier with Kaluk now.
FEC GP38-2 507 lifts a single empty 50' standard height plug-door boxcar with dreadnaught ends from Omni Warehouse at the Iris Interlocking near downtown Miami. Standard height boxcars in general are becoming more and more scarce, with most of them reaching their federal 50-year service limit in the next few years and TTX, Union Pacific, and many others actively phasing them out of their fleets and replacing them with 60' high cubes. While they can still be regularly found in the mix, especially in large cuts from paper mills for instance, standard height 50' cars are increasingly rarely seen at small carload customers, which mostly get 60' high cubes these days if they've survived the PSR (precision scheduled railroading) purge in the last few years in the first place. Almost nonexistent nowadays, however, are 50' standard height cars still sporting the classic dreadnaught ends, as non-terminating ends seen in all contemporary boxcars became the standard build from the mid-1970s onward.
Omni gets mostly just T-boxes at this location (this is the smallest of now three locations in Miami), but since the last year or so a standard height 50’ BNSF plug-door will occasionally show up. When my friend gave me word that, remarkably, a 50’ car with dreadnaught ends was spotted there, I made an unreasonable effort to try and see it get pulled, knowing it probably won’t survive beyond the next two years. So…, an almost six-hour overnight drive later I was onsite, and within 30 minutes the downtown job showed up to pull the classic car. Not expecting them an hour before sunrise already, I almost missed the shot! Thankfully I had just pulled up to the crossing and got the tripod ready just in time for a long exposure. Also thankfully, they didn’t have a TBOX to spot to ruin the shot and the lighting from the warehouse across actually worked nicely, so it was mission accomplished and a six-hour return trip later that day... After some research, it appears the boxcar was likely built in 1974, which means it probably won’t survive into the next year. Unless BNSF gets an extension with the government, it looks like the car is currently in its last handful of hauls.
Miami, FL
Ex-BNSF C44-9W, 4514, now AC44C6M 3373 leads Z12031 02 at Belmont on January 4, 2025. The eastbound intermodal train stretches out along the 15 300' siding, having just met L507 which can be seen in the distance at the west end. The little bit of snow cover was nonexistent once east of Truro.
N&W 611 crawls through CP Jenkins as it pulls the Cavalier eastbound for Petersburg. A series of signal failures made this part of the trip painfully slow as we all watched the sun slowly get higher and higher. Regardless, it was a very fun weekend chasing main line steam that has pretty much been nonexistent in 2018. Jun 13, 2015
Between weather and drastic changes in my life, time for astrophotography has been nonexistent lately. This weekend I decided to change that with a drive to a dark and cloud free location in Northern New Mexico. In a race against clouds and the rising moon, I quickly set up my star tracker and DSLR with a new 28mm f/2.8 lens I found at a thrift store. The resulting image is this 2 panel mosiac of two 3-minute exposures of the coreward region of the Milky Way setting towards the Southeast and a photographer that is very happy to be out under the stars again.