View allAll Photos Tagged nonexistent
This small falls is probably nonexistent in dry periods. It tumbled nicely over the shale bank along the Rocky River that flows in to Lake Erie. This photo was taken in the Rocky River Reservation that forms part of the "emerald necklace" near Cleveland, Ohio.
Rail traffic around Salt Lake City was all but nonexistent on New Year's Day, 2019. I did however manage to photograph a train I've never had the opportunity to do so before. The YRO78R-30 switch engine (which operates only at night when UTA commuter rail is shut down) was parked on the Univar spur in the former D&RGW Fourth South Yard in Salt Lake City. Does this bode well for further photographic success in the new year? Fingers crossed.
I've probably mentioned it more than a couple times that I really enjoyed the CNW out in it's western reaches. Somehow it had a real different flavor than the CNW I was used to in ore and paper country. A pair of SD's rest at Chadron on May 30, 1986. The 6602 and 6610 would idle the day away and leave for Rapid City after dark. Except for a geep working the yard action was nonexistent on this day and I had to content myself with this view.
About the size of a quarter, this hatchling Common Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus) has some growing to do...though not all that much. Even adult musk turtles are only between three and five inches in size. And this little one is already fending for himself, zipping around along a shallow riverbed in search of protein-rich morsels of food. As an adult, he will use some interesting defenses to combat would-be predators--he'll have to because his plastron (the part of his shell covering his belly) is smaller than most other turtles' and leaves much exposed. Though it isn't as exposed as the poor snapping turtle, whose plastron is nearly nonexistent and results in quite a necessary and defensive temper.
But musk turtles will bite when they fear that they are being considered as a potential meal. Perhaps more interestingly, they will also secret a wildly foul-smelling, yellow-orange fluid from their musk glands, which reside at the base of their plastrons. Indeed, this is how they received their common nickname...the stinkpot!
The silhouette is a shadow, a shadow is nonexistent, shadow is the absence of light. The shadow is our part most primitive, that can walk to the light or to the darkness.
Alzira Maia da Costa(www.facebook.com/AlziraMaiaCosta?group_id=0):
"The shadow is the witness of the light over ..."
A silhueta é uma sombra, uma sombra é algo inexistente, sombra é ausência de luz. A sombra é a nossa parte mais primitiva, que pode caminhar para a luz ou para a escuridão.
Alzira Maia da Costa(www.facebook.com/AlziraMaiaCosta?group_id=0): " A sombra é a testemunha do excesso da luz..."
Met up with Ian Brodie for a nonexistent sunrise a few weeks ago! low down at a spot I've got many a photo from! But atleast he managed to test his new camera!
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 Juneau, Alaska
Taken almost exactly two years ago.
That face. Those ears. Those paws. Thank goodness she hasn't changed - except to get bigger. And to make us fall that much more in love with her.
One of the last species I found was this Pacific Forktail. Not much to say about it: Ischnura cervula, the Pacific forktail, is a species of narrow-winged damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It is found in Central America and North America.
Now, of much greater importance and interest is the Duck Weed. Lemnoideae is a subfamily of flowering aquatic plants, known as duckweeds, water lentils, or water lenses. They float on or just beneath the surface of still or slow-moving bodies of fresh water and wetlands. Also known as bayroot, they arose from within the arum or aroid family (Araceae) - flic.kr/p/2m51zRE.
These plants have a simple structure, lacking an obvious stem or leaves. The greater part of each plant is a small organized "thallus" or "frond" structure only a few cells thick, often with air pockets (aerenchyma) that allow it to float on or just under the water surface. Depending on the species, each plant may have no root or may have one or more simple rootlets.[2]
Reproduction is mostly by asexual budding (vegetative reproduction), which occurs from a meristem enclosed at the base of the frond. Occasionally, three tiny "flowers" consisting of two stamens and a pistil are produced, by which sexual reproduction occurs. Some view this "flower" as a pseudanthium, or reduced inflorescence, with three flowers that are distinctly either female or male and which are derived from the spadix in the Araceae.
The flower of the duckweed genus Wolffia is the smallest known, measuring merely 0.3 mm long. The fruit produced through this occasional reproduction is a utricle, and a seed is produced in a bag containing air that facilitates flotation.
One of the more important factors influencing the distribution of wetland plants, and aquatic plants in particular, is nutrient availability. Duckweeds tend to be associated with fertile, even eutrophic conditions. They can be spread by waterfowl and small mammals, transported inadvertently on their feet and bodies,[5] as well as by moving water. In water bodies with constant currents or overflow, the plants are carried down the water channels and do not proliferate greatly. In some locations, a cyclical pattern driven by weather patterns exists in which the plants proliferate greatly during low water-flow periods, then are carried away as rainy periods ensue.
Duckweed is an important high-protein food source for waterfowl. The tiny plants provide cover for fry of many aquatic species. The plants are used as shelter by pond-water species such as bullfrogs and fish such as bluegills. They also provide shade and, although frequently confused with them, can reduce certain light-generated growths of photoautotrophic algae.
For at least six years, my primary source for dragon- and damselfly photography were three places in Heather Farm, a wonderful wildlife area given to the city a century ago for the enjoyment of "all citizens." In just three years - even before Covid - it seems that our City has deemed the wildlife part of the farm as unimportant. When I visited last week after a 15 month absence, duck weed had died, water flow was nonexistent, and in three areas, reeds had taken over a most beautiful lagoon where I photographed odonata but, even more, all manner of herons, ducks, and egrets! All gone! And I mean all! Seven Canada geese and, four mallards. Can you imagine a pond that once provided me with large populations of Ringed-necked ducks (flic.kr/p/2kNy5VY), Snowy egrets, *breeding* Double-crested cormorant colony, and a field of wild mustard that was the courtship, mating and nesting grounds for Redwinged blackbirds and a hunting ground for mated Red-shouldered hawks. All gone! And for what? An ill-conceived "community garden" that few were interested in, and now is a field of boxed weeds, fences that keep wildlife out, and cost more than enough to have maintained the two ponds (one a small lake), a stream, the lagoon, the mini-waterfall that was a breeding ground for the dragonflies, and six islands on which plants that were not native were planted and which died in less than 18 months and cost something like $7k each. They are still there. I saw one duck and dead plants. In four years, we've lost a treasure, a place where wild river otters and muskrat would nest during the summer (flic.kr/p/HagXWg). The two established nests are either in disrepair or have been torn down by the city. But basically, it's almost like planned neglect. I have a thousand images taken at Heather Farm from 2008 to 2019. There's nothing left to enjoy in the wild state. No hawks (flic.kr/p/2eqZiAj) breed there anymore, and they are neither fish nor vegetation to sustain such a wonderful population of wildlife ... even wildflowers. (The rose garden is kept up because it's a revenue source: wedding take place there, but I wonder how long that will occur since the devastation is just outside the rose garden gates.)
190 shoves the typical cut of bulkheads off the SC&S and onto the spur for Great Lakes Reloading. In the foreground is B&OCT's Burnham Spur which dead ends at Calumet Lubricants directly behind me. The signal in the background governs the nonexistent traffic that moves across the NKP and South Shore on the SC&S.
Beautiful summer evening on the Oregon coast
My daughter Dani and I slithered through a narrow separation in rock to wander a section of beach unexplored by others. The tide was out and falling. Necessary to know the tides when wandering the rocky beaches less we get stranded on the rocky face and become battered by the waves. Sun was setting over water. Wind was almost calm. Waves on water were nonexistent.
Dani and I stood on a beach, covered in stones, and photographed the ocean until the sun kissed water at a tangerine horizon. Sea birds nesting on the rocks, floated around the blue sky. Evening air remained warm with the bright pungent odor of seaweed. Ocean echoed in our ears.
Twilight, we slithered back through the rock opening, and onto the freedom of open sand.
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
While hunting for waterfowl this year, (which are almost nonexistent this year because of a 4 year drought by the way) hiking along the river. I spotted 3 Otters coming down stream and 2 of the 3 came up from the bottom of the river with large crawdads, crawfish or even crayfish. Depends on what part of the country you're from. But they were big ones and they were having fun with em. Unfortunately for me, they were about a 100 yds or so from me 20' up the bank wonder how to get down to them without killing myself, to could get a good shot of them.
They saw me eyeing them and were going to make sure I didn't get anywhere close to them. So the chase was on. Me struggling to run through the rocks and thick brush and trees along the bank and them pretty much laughing at me as I stumbled about. By the time I got down to the waters edge panting like a quarter horse after a long run, and shaking like a leaf in the wind. Struggling to get the camera and lens up to my eye which now weighed more than 300 lbs, normally it would only been about 20 lbs, but not now. Thinking I'd out smarted them, before they came around the bend in the river I got down on the ground so I could get a shot at ground level. Laying there with my belly and knees which felt like they were about to pop out of my skin. The Otters suddenly appear on the other side of the river, which is now about 200 yds away, thumbing their collective noses at me. And to make matters worse, I couldn't hardly get back up on my feet. So sorry, this is the best I could do under the circumstances.
Such is life at my age, but in my mind I think I'm still young and spry or perhaps it's just wishful thinking? So the self deception and struggle to keep warm and have fun while you can continues as you stumble along as best a nearly 80 year old "would be wildlife photographer" can do, by the GRACE OF GOD, THANK YOU JESUS. YES WE'RE STILL HAVING FUN. Even though now I am constantly humiliating myself in the process.
------------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES-------------------------------
7 Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me WILL BE SAVED. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:7-10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH! Because JESUS LOVES YOU! ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE OR
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
My THANK'S in advance to all who fave and/or comment on my photos I very much appreciate it! ❤️
© All Rights reserved no publication or copying without permission from the author.
I found this trying to overcome my quarter plate issue with the 9x9 Go board. The slight bowing you see is nonexistent with ample side support (1x2, 2x2 bricks, etc). I am not sure the hinge tops are quite quarter plates, but I am sure the raised lettering on these parts isn't helping.
I tried using some plates, tiles, and flags to determine the actual fraction of a plate, but when I broke out the calipers I found that the plates, tiles, and flags I was using were not quite the dimensions I expected, so I just took a sample of 32 hinge tops and with statistics concluded the actual fraction is about 5/16 of a plate.
This bold, beautiful maple leaf appears to be the last gasp of color in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts as foliage goes from peak to nonexistent.
I truly and honestly adore landscape photography ... I love the way "Nature" expresses itself in front of my dazzled eyes ... I like how sunlight, filtered by an unusually heavy cloudy atmosphere, weakens and merely touches on earth's objects almost totally strengthless, practically nonexistent but still with just enough power to make all of them visible, evident, recognizable ... I want to be able later to recall those captured scenes and try to make out the shape of the natural objects by the barely visible light reflected from their physical structure directly into my eyes ...
And last but not least, I like taking down with my camera pure natural scenes that don't have any sign notwhatsoever of human presence and his usually "ugly" intervention ...
EXIF: NIKON D90 with Nikon Nikkor 18 - 55 lens, manual mode, f 9, ISO 200, focal length 22 mm, auto exposure mode, cloudy weather adjusted white balance, center weighted average light metering mode, use of ND HOYA X2 filter (played a big part to the sky's clear writing), HDR made by only 1 original RAW shot with shutter speed 1/80 s, managing to accurately convey the scene's lighting conditions to the viewer, flash didn't go off, no tripod ...
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KCS 4845 leads CPKC train 2K53 (2nd section of K53, Marquette, IA - La Crescent, MN turn) heads southbound through Lansing, IA with a healthy sized train from La Crescent bound for Marquette. Hours later, this crew would make a second run (that we knew of) back to La Crescent for even more traffic. It kind of seemed like it was handling traffic that'd normally get tacked onto 260/261, but those trains seem to be up to greater things, with them being resymbolled to 280/281 and going all the way to Sanchez Yard in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, just across the border from Laredo, TX.
I've always sort of struggled to make this particular angle work because I'm not a huge fan of the cars abruptly ending on the right side of the frame with no natural break between the edge of the photo and the cars- a build or a few trees right there would solve that issue, or maybe if I stopped being so picky the issue would be nonexistent, who knows? I'm not giving up on getting the perfect shot at this location, but I think for now, I did alright. Side note, I keep thinking the singular cloud right above the locomotive looks a dust spec on the sensor, and I'm ashamed to admit how many times I've been fooled by it when looking at this picture.
Taken on the CPKC Marquette Subdivision south of Lansing, IA on 8/23/25.
A slightly early Independence Day (Fourth of July) fireworks show over Lake Monona in the heart of the Wisconsin capital.
(I must confess that I am pretty chuffed, and honored, and humbled: so far as I know this picture is my first ever EXPLORE! Wow! 😀 And THANKS for all the views and faves!! )
* Fireworks pictures in a sense are double exposures, at least multiple exposures; time lapse in a single frame.
* My ISO was set at 100. Nothing higher is needed or even desirable. The lower the ISO the longer the shutter can remain open.
* White balance set to auto because in raw capture it does not matter. Otherwise I'd suggest tungsten.
* The technique used (and it's an old one) was to hold the shutter open for 10, 20, or 30 seconds at a time.
* The aperture is adjusted in the opposite direction to keep the exposure uniform. In this case I found that 10 seconds at f/8 worked well. 30 seconds at f/16 captured more bursts, but if the action was very heavy then too many bursts made for a busy, messy picture. I had to keep changing the settings.
* The camera was in full manual mode (otherwise it would change the exposure and focus).
* Because the display was 2 miles away the camera only needed to be focused at infinity.
* Solidly mounted on a sturdy tripod and tripped with an electronic cable release to insure there is no camera movement.
* Vibration reduction turned off (otherwise the VR would "hunt" for nonexistent movement and smear the shot). I nearly forgot this but I made a couple of test exposures early on and realized immediately that they were smeared due to the VR.
* I also turned off the Long Exposure Noise Reduction when I realized that it was doubling the time for the picture to load, and I knew I could minimize any noise in Lightroom. As it turned out little noise reduction was necessary beyond the standard.
* I worked in live view and kept the auto review on for two seconds for each shot to insure that I was getting what I thought I was getting. It’s enormously reassuring!
* With the shutter open for longer periods, more individual bursts are recorded on each frame. You have to shoot a lot of frames and hope to luck out. There is no way to plan it. You open the shutter, the stuff goes up, at the end of the time the shutter closes and you've got what you've got. I think I made about 75 exposures to get 19 that were good. The rest were trashed.
* Despite some 75 extended exposures, live view, and constant instant reviews, the battery at the end of 45 minutes of fireworks still had 60% charge. Turning off the noise reduction undoubtedly helped, plus made the shoot more efficient; no waiting. 😀
I feel as though in my head I've had millions of adventures spanning the time and space in which my eyes are closed and my mind wanders. Oh yes, I can tell you of all the people I've met, the places I've been, the things I've done, but it would be useless, for all occurs in a nonexistent world. Every trial I've faced is merely an apparition imagined by a part of the brain which lusts for something greater than reality. But perhaps it is the other way around. Perhaps the dreams are my reality and that which I call the waking world is in fact a well established dream created and constructed by a mind starved of any normalcy or routine. Perhaps what I should be asking is: How do I honestly know if anything is real at all?
Please excuse my absence. Senior year has taken its toll on me, as I'm sure some of you understand. I'm happy to announce I've been accepted to UGA, however, and am still awaiting the letters of four other schools. This picture is from Election Day. I just finished the roll of film for a project for school. Hopefully when the semester ends, I'll be able to go back to taking pictures over break. Also I'm doing a Directed Study in art next semester so I will hopefully have a chance to explore other media and expand what I've done.
Sorry for the lengthy anecdote.
Many of the old Mail Pouch barns are falling into disrepair and the Mail Pouch signs are faded and missing letters. Even so, they show how enterprising advertising could be in a day when television was limited and the internet, nonexistent.
This barn sits only about three miles from another, but I know of only one more of the original barns in our county.
I used two of Kerstin Frank's www.flickr.com/photos/kerstinfrank-design/ textures, one from Jerry Jones www.flickr.com/photos/skeletalmess/
and one of my own.
This was probably the closest frame to being perfect on my trip. The composition turned out to be pretty nice and it turned out very simple. Editing was virtually nonexistent on this one.
Mellow Yellow - La Maison Charest, Quebec City (Vieux Quebec),.
Happy Window Wednesday!
36 to 38 Rue Saint-Pierre, Quebec. Year of construction, 1757. (1)
“The first two levels are period (1757-1758), in "stone of Beauport". This stone, taken from the limestone beds of the Côte de Beaupré, was much more resistant than the "Cape Stone", made of black shale taken from the Rock of Quebec and used previously. The masonry also withstood the cannonading of the siege of Quebec City in 1759. A 32-pound cannonball hammered into a wall was even found during the restoration.
Through the history of these houses, we learn a lot about the adaptation of construction techniques in the colony. The double windows, almost nonexistent in France, have appeared. The craftsmen made better use of the species of wood according to their qualities: cedar to cover parts exposed to bad weather, cherry for galleries and stairs, spruce and pine for framing, ash for beams and frames and walnut for cabinets and doors of higher caliber. Climate requires, the gables have been reinforced steep slopes to facilitate the fall of the snow.
In summer and winter, the vaulted cellars of the Charest house were kept between 10 and 12 degrees, and allowed the storage of wines, alcohol and perishable goods such as hams, cheeses and molasses.”(2)
“Today, Maison Charest - or more specifically, the cellars of Maison Charest - is occupied by La Tanière3. Since 1977, the restaurant Tanière3 has always strived to push the boundaries of true Quebec cuisine.” (3)
Sources:
(1). www.ville.quebec.qc.ca/citoyens/patrimoine/bati/fiche.asp...
(2). www.lesoleil.com/maison/bistro-lorygine-vent-de-fraicheur...
[Original article in French. Translated from French into English via Google Translate]
(3) taniere3.com/en
Durante las temporadas 24 y 25 mi actividad en el campo ha disminuido considerablemente y se ha limitado a visitar los puntos de observación más cercanos a mi casa.
También mi participación en esta web ha sido prácticamente nula desde hace casi un año.
Vuelvo con este macho adulto de Cordulegaster boltonii en el barranco de la Puça donde he pasado grandes momentos y espero repetir.
Un saludo a todos.
During seasons 24 and 25, my activity in the field decreased considerably and was limited to visiting the observation points closest to my home.
My participation on this website has also been practically nonexistent for almost a year. I'm back with this adult male Cordulegaster boltonii in the Puça ravine, where I've had some great times and hope to return.
Best regards to all.
Meoto Iwa or the wedded rocks will be a very familiar subject to many. This is my favourite PoV for this location aesthetically and symbolically.
I titled this “the shimenawa” because I wanted to share a little excerpt from Joseph Campbell. “…the ‘shimenawa,’ the august rope of straw that was stretched behind the goddess (Amaterasu) when she reappeared, symbolizes the graciousness of the miracle of the light’s return. The shimenawa is one of the most conspicuous, important, and silently eloquent, of the traditional symbols of the folk religion of Japan. Hung above the entrances of the temples, festooned along the streets at the New Year festival, it denotes the renovation of the world at the threshold of the return. If the Christian cross is the most telling symbol of the mythological passage into the abyss of death, the shimenawa is the simplest sign of the resurrection. The two represent the mystery of the boundary between the worlds - the existent nonexistent line."
technical details:
everything started from a picture of an empty glass and the texture of jaiel
then i added some free clips from Microsoft word
other details:
I have to get rid of the haunting images inside me. That is my "torture" and my game.
This is without question, one of the most obscure places I have ever visited. I had never even heard of this arch until a few months ago when my friend David in Texas showed me a photo he had found of it. He had no idea where it was and information on it is nearly nonexistent, but I HAD to find it. He found some info online on approximately where it was located. I don't know if it has an official name. I have also heard it called 'Thanksgiving Arch', because the light is only really nice on it the week of Thanksgiving. I did a search on flickr for both 'Eggshell Arch', and 'Thanksgiving Arch', and found NOT ONE photo of this on all of flickr! Well… Last week was Thanksgiving. I am Back in Arizona. So… I had to find it.
It's on an Indian reservation. I wasn't supposed to be there, but I snuck in.
A lot of time went into this shot. A lot of time figuring out where it was and how to get there. It's only about four miles from a paved road. But it's four miles on a maze of NASTY rough roads. Nasty is an understatement. This was some of the most hardcore 4x4 driving I have ever done, and I have lots of new scratches on my truck to show for it. Some sections of the road were soft sand, covered with ice. Some sections were really rough slick rock. Those were the good parts. The rest of the road really sucked! There were about two dozen forks in the road. A GPS doesn't really help you if you're on a tiny little dirt road that is not on any known map. So… I come to a fork in the road. I have to guess… Left, or right? If I guess wrong, it leads to either a dead end, or somebody's back yard.
It took two attempts. The first day, after an hour and a half of going round in circles on the maze of roads, I got out and tried to find it on foot. No luck. The sun set. It started to get dark. I bailed out and left. The next day, I made my second attempt. After a couple hours of bouncing around and scraping up against shrubbery, and then a short hike… SUCCESS! It was a little overcast. The light wasn't great. But... I got a shot.
So… Altogether. This shot took about 4-6 hours of research online. about 9 hours of driving (both days combined). A couple hours of hiking. And about an hour I was actually shooting.
This really was one of the most absolutely amazing things I have ever seen. This arch is easily 200-300 feet across. The drop underneath the arch is probably over 1000 feet.
Many of the tallest trees up on the mesa are dead or dying Ponderosa Pine. I'm no forester, but I can see that soil cover here is thin to nonexistent. So larger trees must be anchored down into the rock crevices. In the five of so years of drought we are having, perhaps there is just not sufficient moisture to sustain them.
Castlewood Canyon State Park
Douglas County, CO
Eastbound CPKC 254-22 comes off the "dump" to the UP Milwaukee Subdivision near Northbrook, IL. Like a place out of a John Hughes Brat Pack movie, this Union Pacific control point is aptly named "Shermer" though a township or town of any sort in the area is totally nonexistent. The sturdy brown bridge overpass over Shermer Road, seen just beyond the signals, was rebuilt after a Union Pacific coal load derailed in July of 2012, burying an elderly couple that were out for a drive and happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time when the coal train hit a sun kink, derailed, destroyed the bridge, and fell to Shermer Road down below.
I just returned from a several-day trip to Yosemite and the surrounding areas. Matthew Saville and I did the brutal hike up to the Half Dome Diving Board, the spot from which Ansel Adams took his famous "The Monolith of Half Dome" photo in 1927. The temperatures were terrible (it was >100* F on the valley floor and 95* atop Nevada Falls), our backpacks were heavy (we each carried two cameras, two tripods, and a gallon of water in addition to the usual camping gear), and the trail to the Diving Board was loose, steep, and entirely nonexistent in places.
We may have collapsed at the top of the route, but I think the view was worth it. Half Dome is lit by a setting moon, and this is a stack of 100 1-minute exposures. The lens was a Rokinon 14mm at f/2.8 on a 6D.
The 150 canals of Venice are its streets - roads for land passenger vehicles are nonexistent. Everyone must travel by foot or boat, tourists and locals alike.
Venice is just fascinating, getting lost is part of the adventure!
Come into my nonexistent parlor! (The house is gone.) Same stairs, another view.
Happy Saturday for Stairs!
This was a new one for us, just up the road from Roaring Fork Falls. The water flow was almost nonexistent today. The sun did not show itself all day today until I got ready to press the shutter on this one. I could imagine it would be much prettier with more water. Several more cascades downstream, but the water was very low, so we spent our efforts on the upper part. There may be more falls upstream and we will check that out later.
Took a bad fall at this one today. No major injuries other than cut finger and severely Bruised Pride. However, It's amazing how many places can be this sore on an old 65 yr man.
Explored 5-30-16
White Oak Creek Falls is about 20-25 feet from the parking area at the end of the road with about a 5 degree incline. I made it up with no problems, but the rocks around this one are very slick, as my 65 year old body quickly realized when I took a fall. It can be photographed without climbing on the rocks, but if you venture out in the stream, be very careful. There was sounds of more water falling upstream , but I had already hiked two other falls this day and was too tired to investigate.
Directions: From the Blue Ridge Parkway take Hwy 80 North. You will pass through Busick, home to the beautiful Roaring Fork Falls ( about ¼ mile hike up an old forest road, also with about a 5 degree incline. It’s not included in this group for that reason. See my photostream for pics. ) Continue on Hwy 80 North several miles and turn left on White Oak Creek Road. Stay on this road until it ends at the parking lot.
We made it down to the seaside for the 2nd time this year! It wasn't a planned trip... we just woke up & thought "let's go for a paddle!", hopped on a train down to the Welsh coast & spent the afternoon at the beach. The last time we visited this place was over a year ago but as the train was approaching the final station, he suddenly came out from where he'd been snoozing under the seat, stuck his nose in the air & started wagging his tail, pulling me to stand by the doors. We were first to get off & Barney most certainly remembered where we were - he marched us enthusiastically down to the sea front.
I rarely let Barney off lead these days so I was very happy that he had a bit of time running free on the sand that afternoon. It was lovely to watch him gallop (albeit, a fairly slow gallop!) off to the water & then come bounding back to me, with such a delighted expression on his face. He didn't feel like swimming but had a good paddle, ripped some seaweed up, barked at the (almost nonexistent!) waves, played a very short game of fetch, he even did a bit of digging in the sand - something I've not seen Barney do for years. We were all exhausted on the way home but I think it was worth it, to see Barney have so much fun :)
The silhouette is a shadow, a shadow is nonexistent, shadow is the absence of light. The shadow is our part most primitive, that can walk to the light or to the darkness.
Alzira Maia da Costa(www.facebook.com/AlziraMaiaCosta?group_id=0):
"The shadow is the witness of the light over ..."
A silhueta é uma sombra, uma sombra é algo inexistente, sombra é ausência de luz. A sombra é a nossa parte mais primitiva, que pode caminhar para a luz ou para a escuridão.
Alzira Maia da Costa(www.facebook.com/AlziraMaiaCosta?group_id=0): " A sombra é a testemunha do excesso da luz..."
Mono Lake on Christmas Day
I didn’t have to do a whole lot for the shot that you’re looking at. Light did all the work for me.
All I had to do was simply replant my tripod, aim my camera at and compose a shot of the beautifully snow-covered Mono Dome and Lee Vining Peak with those little Tufa rocks floating in the water in the foreground.
I have to admit though that it is not always this easy and that there were times when it was extremely tricky to compose a shot when using a prime 24mm lens.
For instance, there were times when not enough room gave me a hard time planting the tripod with a few elements in the foreground in mind. In such cases, I simply didn’t have the luxury of changing focal length when using a 16-35mm lens.
Sometimes such a make or break situation challenges me and sometimes it takes time to compose a single shot.
And yet, it is the sharpness (as I demonstrated a few posts ago) and the almost nonexistent distortion across the entire frame that please my eye.
I also appreciate its light weight of under 1 lb (15.7 oz) tremendously. Yes, there are lightweight 16-35mm lenses, but none of them has the aperture of F/1.4.
Meanwhile, the tranquil view that you’re now looking at simply tickled me to pieces.
I got to briefly re-explore the dead trains in my town ("my town" is half an hour away; I live in the woods), and this one of the shots.
The light was TERRIBLE (nonexistent, basically) so I definitely will go back. Again.
It's finally over. About two years into shooting up and down the former Wabash half of the NS Bloomington District, I have finally captured every single searchlight signal with a train. It's not such an easy task as it seems thanks to sporadic traffic on the line. Southbounds were easy enough to get, but northbound signals were pretty tough to deal with. NS D32 is the usual northbound but that is a midnight train, making daylight appearances to shoot incredibly rare - not helped by the fact I have work during the day! Regardless, I've collected shots of all the different searchlight configurations on the Bloomington - except for one.
Located a little ways into a wooded region of central Illinois, CP Mills' northbound signals requires would-be photographers to take a hike down the tracks, cross a short bridge, and try to make a very awkward light situation work - northbounds are a pain to shoot in the best of conditions, and Mills being half-hidden behind trees is far from the best conditions. Crucially, ATCS coverage of Mills is nonexistent thanks to the same tree cover. With Bement being spotty as well, getting a northbound green is hard to find - usually they appear at Lodge, the north end of Mills, and it's way, way too late.
Finally, the timing worked out. After work, I checked my monitor to see a signal lined north of Lodge and a train still working Bement - this was my best shot at finally nailing the last shot I need to complete the collection! I raced to Mills and finally had the courage to cross the small bridge, then waited.
It was nearly two hours later when NS D41 finally appeared around the distant curve. Light had been fading fast, and paired with the recent haziness, conditions were getting rough. Still, despite the rough light and boring motive power, I finally got the last shot I needed of the Bloomington. What a fine way to spend an evening.
Not to say I'm done shooting this line, but things may not be so easy in the future thanks to recent developments...
The silhouette is a shadow, a shadow is nonexistent, shadow is the absence of light. The shadow is our part most primitive, that can walk to the light or to the darkness.
A silhueta é uma sombra, uma sombra é algo inexistente, sombra é ausência de luz. A sombra é a nossa parte mais primitiva, que pode caminhar para a luz ou para a escuridão.
I came across this cute jumping spider. It was pretty jumpy, but luckily stood still for a bit so I could take its picture.
Depth of field at f/4 and 2x magnification is almost nonexistent, but it's all about the eyes anyway.
This male evarcha arcuata is real tiny, the total width of its head is only 1.5 mm. Despite 2x magnification and a crop camera, the image was cropped from 24 MP down to 8 MP to make the spider fill the frame.
Rush, CO - Inspired by this week's flickr Friday theme, FarAway. This is in eastern Colorado, where there are more dirt roads than paved roads. The cattle outnumber the people, and cell signals are nearly nonexistent.
In a perfect world, I35 would be nonexistent and the SD45 would be running but man does this look good. The 2015 Railfan Weekend train makes it way up the north shore past iconic Duluth locations.
I was injecting a big batch of XSRs for an upcoming weapons pack, and got these two oddballs when I didn't wait until the plastic was hot enough and rushed the injection.
Not much of a sniper rifle now, is it? What would YOU call this?
(Armor by Brick Affliction, and poorly painted by me. And yes, he went out this morning and forgot to put on his nonexistent leg armor))
"The Asian ladybug is a predator of a number of pest insects, especially aphids, but it has become a problem because it has overtaken native species. It is also this species of ladybug that may occasionally bite the hand that lovingly thinks it is playing with one of the harmless native ladybugs.
At a quick glance, it can be hard to tell the difference between the Asian ladybug and the native ladybugs, partly because the color of the Asian species can vary from light tan or orange to bright red, making them almost identical to some of the native species. But if you look closely, you will see the Asian ladybug has a white marking behind its head in the openings of what looks like a black M. Some also have dark black spots, but on others, the spots are very light or nonexistent.
Since their purposeful introduction, some not-so-beneficial qualities of Asian ladybugs have become apparent. Like boxelder bugs and stink bugs, Asian lady beetles will crawl into cracks and crevices of the home on the eaves, siding, or even the foundation to overwinter between the walls. They can then come into the house through the winter seeking its warmth.
Once inside, the insects can crawl or fly around rooms and land on windows, walls, and furniture. Like other ladybugs, the Asian variety secretes a yellowish, smelly fluid if disturbed, which can stain walls, furniture, and fabrics.
Asian lady beetles are typically somewhat more aggressive than native varieties and may bite if they land on the skin. Though the bite is not very painful, some people can have allergic reactions, ranging from eye problems like conjunctivitis ("pink eye") to hay fever, cough, asthma, or hives. Reactions can be triggered by touching the lady beetles then touching your eyes, or just by being around a large or lengthy infestation of the insects."
My alarm went of at 5:00 am, and of course I hit the snooze button and had the usual "should I get up" argument in my head for several minutes. The forecast was for 50% chance of rain, so I might get skunked. But then again, going back to sleep would equal 100% chance of skunk.
I arrived at the Hawk Hill parking lot at 6:20 am, and sure enough it was raining. I waited until 6:35 am when there was a slight break in the rain, suited up, and forced myself to get out of my car and walk up to the very top of Hawk Hill. It of course started raining again, so I stood around for while with my umbrella.
The sunrise was nonexistent with the heavy clouds so I decided to do a little scouting and I shifted positions. The rain stopped long enough for me to setup my tripod again, and in a few minutes the sun just barely peeked through. Suddenly a hole in the clouds appeared and beautiful God Rays streamed over San Francisco Bay. The rays quickly shifted right over downtown. I was so glad I hadn't left prematurely, and I feverishly captured some exposures, while disciplining myself to periodically wipe the condensation off my filters and also re-check focus. I remember saying to myself out loud "Do NOT miss this shot", and luckily I got a keeper.
Nikon D7100
18-55 mm kit lens (DX)
ISO 100
f/8.0
1/125 seconds
-0.3 step exposure bias
34 mm
Lee 0.9H grad ND filter (or possibly 0.6H, can't remember)
16:9 crop
Flowers are almost nonexistent around my house, except for vines running up a backyard fence featuring small clusters of tiny blooms surrounded by red leaves. Alas, I cannot identify the plant as I am not a botanist.
This furry-looking bloom was roughly 1/4" (6.35mm) in diameter, the pollen cluster (I think) less than 1/32" (0.79mm) wide.