View allAll Photos Tagged pool
The blue-cheeked bee-eater (Merops persicus) is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. It breeds in Northern Africa, and the Middle East from eastern Turkey to Kazakhstan and India. It is generally strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa, although some populations breed and live year round in the Sahel. This species occurs as a rare vagrant north of its breeding range, with most vagrants occurring in Italy and Greece.
This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly-coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green; its face has blue sides with a black eye stripe, and a yellow and brown throat; the beak is black. It can reach a length of 31 cm (12 in), with the two elongated central tail feathers adding another 7 cm (2.8 in). Sexes are mostly alike but the tail-streamers of the female are shorter.
This is a bird which breeds in sub-tropical semi-desert with a few trees, such as acacia. It winters in open woodland or grassland. As the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch. However, this species probably takes more dragonflies than any other food item. Its preferred hunting perch is telephone wires if available.
Blue-cheeked bee-eaters may nest solitarily or in loose colonies of up to ten birds. They may also nest in colonies with European bee-eaters. The nests are located in sandy banks, embankments, low cliffs or on the shore of the Caspian Sea. They make a relatively long tunnel of 1 to 3 m (3.3–9.8 ft) in length in which the four to eight (usually six or seven), spherical white eggs are laid. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs, although the female alone incubates them at night. Incubation takes 23–26 days.
The call sounds 'flatter' and less 'fluty' than the European bee-eater.
This one took quite a bit of processing to achieve, as I didn't follow standard procedure to create it. Normally, you would position the camera in one spot with a tripod and take multiple exposures, insuring you had enough depth of field and shutter speed to capture the action clearly. You then layer the images and "paint in" the motion from each frame. In my case, I was using a telephoto lens and was tracking the subject, so my images were not overlapping. Luckily, Photoshop is powerful enough to help you align layers, and then using some other tools I was able to get the image I wanted. Not the easiest method to obtain this result, but it worked.
Playing around with different focus points and DOF.
Fill flash was also used using a 580EX bounced off ceiling.
Something to warm you on this chilly day.
ABYSS POOL
"Temperature 172°F Dimensions 30x57 feet. Depth 53 feet. Abyss Pool is a colorful and interesting pool in the West Thumb Geyser Basin. Abyss is the deepest pool known in Yellowstone and received its name for its abyss-like depth. The dark green-colored water gives the illusion of a bottomless pool. Vandalism may have changed this pool's temperature. Coins and other debris thrown in have caused the vent to plug. The reduced spring flow also reduced the pool temperature, allowing abundant algae growth along the edge and run-off channels. The extensive microbial mats now support ephydrid flies, spiders and killdeers."
YNP.com
Happy Friday!
اليهال بدعو يا حلوهم يقعدون من الصبح لما اذان المغرب بحمام السباحه :|
عاد الصبغه ماشاءالله صارت اتيين ...
كلهم محترقين :=\
A newly reconstructed natural-spring-fed pool reflects a view of...
Seminary Wood
Decatur (Legacy Park), Georgia, USA.
6 May 2021.
▶ The pool, under reconstruction: here.
***************
▶ Photo by Yours For Good Fermentables.com.
▶ For a larger image, type 'L' (without the quotation marks).
— Follow on Twitter: @Cizauskas.
— Follow on Facebook: YoursForGoodFermentables.
— Follow on Instagram: @tcizauskas.
▶ Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
— Meike MK 25mm f/1.8
— Focal length: 25.0 mm
— Aperture: ƒ/8.0
— Shutter speed: 1/800 seconds
— ISO: 200
— Edit: Photoshop Elements 15, Nik Collection.
▶ Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.