View allAll Photos Tagged posting
For Project Soul Pancake: PenPal on the Down-low.
This challenge was perfect for this week, as I've just started mailing out my christmas cards (perhaps by balloon, you never know!). I'm usually way more organized but this year I've been a bit behind on the holiday stuff! Today was my last day of work until 2012 so hopefully I can catch up on everything on my list :)
Posting another oldy here. This photo was taken in New Zealand as the sun rose over Lake Rotorua. The low-hanging fog and the clouds in the sky created some fairly dramatic sunrise conditions. Sometimes you get lucky.
Tall Texas Tuesday. The walls of Santa Elena Canyon on a spring morning. Never got around to posting this from a couple years ago. Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, May 2016
Best viewed large by pressing "L". All rights reserved
First, my apologies for posting so infrequently lately. Everything is fine, I've just been a little busy and haven't had as much time to devote here as I would like to. Hopefully I can get more consistent again soon.
I didn't take many portraits of Scotch after his surgery in large part because I wanted him to just concentrate on getting better and was a bit stressed out from the whole ordeal. After 17 total trips to the vet and surgery facility in 2016, he's off to a great start here in 2017 at least. He's been healthy, going on multiple long walks a day and is generally just a really happy 13 year old. This portrait comes from the same shoot as my previous Scotch post and I was mostly very pleased with all the results. I picked an evening where he was both calm and alert and didn't have to rely on him napping or sleeping like the previous year. With a handful of tiny treats, I was able to move him around where I wanted. He may be deaf but he still knows a few hand symbols we've used since he was a puppy. He'll still go to where I point, will still sit when I hold up a fist and will lie down when I lower that fist.
For this capture, I held a treat by my face and let him stare away for a few shots before I threw it to him. All dogs look differently when they want a treat or food--my Rottweiler would stare at and inch closer to the food while drooling or snatch it when he thought he had an opening and my old miniature pinscher would growl and bark at me (he was a monster)--but Scotch either figured out my weakness when he was young or simply lucked out. What he does when I'm eating my own food or holding a treat is stare me right in the eyes--this is a dog who hates eye contact--and just look at me like this while I eat, never shifting his gaze to the food. it's impossible to ignore and say no to...and I rarely do. It's so effective, in fact, that I'l typically push aside on my plate the last bite and give it to him so he won't look sad when I put my fork down on an empty plate.
This was also the first time I got to test out my new manfrotto tripod and vanguard pistol grip head. The tripod was a christmas gift to myself and finally gave me a lightweight, sturdy and portable option. It also allows me to get the camera extremely low to the ground like my old vanguard Alta Pro 163AT which is what I've used for the majority of the photographs I've posted here. The head is a vanguard GH-300t which has a built in shutter release if I want an extra hand verses holding a wireless remote. Oddly, my old set up was a vanguard tripod with a manfrotto pistol grip but this new setup seems much better to me. Like the previous post, Scotch is up on a chaise in my brother's office with a black foam board behind him to create the background and let me use a quicker shutter speed. While previous portraits have been favorites as I learned to photograph him and figure out how to achieve the look I wanted, I think these last two have been my favorites overall. These shots have more detail and better poses and the remote shutter on the pistol grip worked surprisingly well and sped up the time needed between the focusing, arrangement and setup of each shot.
Again, sorry for the infrequent posts and I hope everyone is having a great weekend :)
SCOTCH
Age 13
Hollywood, California
January 18th, 2017
SETTINGS
40mm
ISO 400
f/5
1/13th second
SETUP
legs: Manfrotto 190cx pro4
head: Vanguard GH300-T
lighting: EcoGear FX pro LED flashlight with diffuser
compact LED flashlight offset on either side of his face.
black foam board backdrop
I am posting this with mixed feelings. A friend of mine had nothing but criticism for the pics from this shoot. But whatever... I guess you can't please everybody.
And I guess there will always be someone to try to bring me down by downplaying the positive reaction I have received on Flickr. Some people just love to make me out to be this vain ditz who takes pictures of herself just so she can read a hundred comments about how pretty she is.
I take self portraits because they allow me to express myself artistically and emotionally. I share them on Flickr because it gives my work some (however small) kind of meaning. What's the point in pouring my heart into a piece of art and then keeping it in a folder on my H:// drive? When I can post it here and have other people enjoy it and connect with it?
I don't know why I even have to explain myself, I just know that I am tired of people bringing me down. It really affects my creativity and desire to do this...
- - - Anyway - - -
Yup, I dyed my hair! It is now closer to my natural hair color. I was a dark brunette for about 4 years and I am now happily done with that stage of my life!
#2
Posting the archive Photo of Taj Mahal Hotel which I had Taken as a dedication to the people who died in the latest attack of Terror on Mumbai. This heritage building is under fire. Pls join me in prayers for the lives of people who are still trapped in Taj and Oberoi in Mumbai. I am in Mumbai today .
All these pigeons sit on the buildings of the Old Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. They looks like a huge bunch in the sky near the Gateway of India at Bombay .
posting and running as I seem to be doing so much recently... sorry will catch up tomorrow.... HMBT .....almost the weekend :D
Yes ok I know I actually posted this on wednesday thinking it was thursday ( sorry)
Anyone got a spare brain??
Before posting this photo I was stumbling about a long report of Siena. A female lion, part of the Marsh Pride Lions, who was a star of the TV show BBC’s Big Cat Diary since 1996. A group of lions were accompanied by the BBC team over many years. 2014 Siena got badly injured by a buffalo attack and the healing process (it took over one year because the wound always opened again) where documented by the Wildlife veterinarians who are doing great jobs in the National Parks by the way, caring and take care of the animals when injured. Sadly Siena and other members of the group passed away in 2015. Local farmers poisoned them.
So this photo dedicated this pround animals and in memory of Siena and the other lions.
For those who are interested. Write "The Marsh Pride of Lions" on Facebook and you'll find a site about the lions.
Posting a few more from April's photowalk event as Bedford's was going to host another one Sept 14th where they would meet at the same place and bring some gear to try out.
Model: Maddy (her mother's insta: @1emilykwhite)
Taken at the April 3rd Thursday Photowalk hosted by Bedfords OKC
Note: THIS IS MY MAIN photo of the three (i.e. the very last photo posted) I'm posting today! Flickr is messing up yet AGAIN, showing my photos in a different order from what I post, when some people look at them, which drives me nuts! Often, my second and third photos are much poorer quality (sometimes downright awful, lol), so that is what people see instead of what is usually the best of the three. They are always displayed in the right order on my photostream. I can tell this image is not being seen, as there are already 11 or 12 views on my second and third photo and nothing on this one. I've just deleted it and uploaded it again to see if that helps, but I suspect not. OK, so yes, it is at least now being seen : )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After a long day out at Frank Lake on Saturday and then checking the upcoming weather forecast, Sunday, 20 March 2016, looked like it was going to be the only decent day of the coming week. Of course, we all know that weather forecasts can change. So, my alarm clocks were all set ridiculously early, though I still left home a bit later than I had intended, and I took myself NW of the city again to see if I could see an owl.
Just a handful of friends were there and we got a few moments of great views of this Great Gray Owl, including a very brief stop (seen in this photo) on top of a small coniferous tree right in front of us while it was hunting. I think it took all of us by surprise. During the rest of the time, I did see an owl fly off into the trees a couple of times, but the rest of the time was spent waiting and chatting with my friends. Patience .....
While we were waiting, someone spotted a beautiful male Mountain Bluebird way down the road. I am pretty sure I had caught a quick glimpse of another Bluebird on my drive to my destination. Also, I seem to remember catching a quick sight of another one recently, but can't for the life of me remember where or when. It's always such a thrill to see a Bluebird, especially the very first of the season. That flash of bright blue takes ones breath away. Two beautiful birds to see on this first day of spring!
"Although the Great Gray Owl is the tallest American owl with the largest wingspan, it is just a ball of feathers. It preys on small mammals and has relatively small feet. Both the Great Horned and Snowy owls weigh half again as much, and have larger feet and talons. The oldest recorded Great Gray Owl was at least 18 years, 9 months old and lived in Alberta." From AllAboutBirds.
Verona, Italy
You will need to read my write-up to understand why this is my first posting from our trip to Verona, Lake Garda and Venice.
The day started with a 3:15am alarm clock to allow for last minute checks (did you pack this, where's my thingy, did you turn the water off, are the windows locked, you know the usual last minute panics!), before the taxi arrived at 4:15am to take us to the airport. The journey went quickly and even the check-in, drop-off and passport control went like clockwork (an unexpected bonus and allowed for in Mrs R's excellent planning). Even the flight with Monarch went exceptionally well and we landed bang on time at 10:10am local time at Verona airport. Mrs R had costed all options for getting to our hotel and considering everything was going splendidly we threw caution to the wind and jumped in a local taxi.
Here the fun begins...
If it's a stereotype about Italian driving and Italian taxi drivers in particularly, then our driver was going to live up to this mantel. Queue jumping, lane changing, overtaking, undertaking, tail gating, and late braking were all part of his repertoire. Oh I forgot speed... the roads we travelled on were 70-90km/h but I clocked him at 130-140km/h as often as he could and more alarming... every warning light on his dashboard glowed permanently: engine management light, brakes, oil level indicator, the list goes on! I'm not saying we got to the hotel in record time but I think we arrived on the Friday having left Manchester on the Saturday. I wasn't sure whether to pay him in Euros or Liras as I couldn't determine how far back in time we had travelled - do De Loren's come in white?
Now at the hotel, my plans took over from Mrs Rs. Bags through the door, a quick change and hit those streets and sights of Verona. I had checked my TPE on my phone and knew the first major shot would be Ponte Pietra as the sun was in a good position for a classic sunset shot over the bridge, besides I knew Mark Waidson would be following in my footsteps to Verona and Venice and he's the master of dramatic skies so the pressure was on!!!
I was surprised at how busy Verona was, not with overseas tourists but Italians having their own "staycations". After an hour or two of wandering the streets and main tourist areas we decided to have a break for lunch and a glass or two of wine, as one must when holidaying in Italy! After lunch I suggested we head to the Ponte Pietra for a recky of the bridge for the first night's shot. The obvious route was up through the main tourist areas - Casa di Giuletta, Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori before reaching the bridge at its south side... my heart sank! I expected to see tourists crossing it and taking photos from it but the sight of 20 gazebos standing tall high above the stone sides from one side to the other kind of rained on my parade or as I would have put it "pissed on m' chips". Mrs R, ever the optimist suggested I stick to my game plan and revisit in the evening in the hope of said gazebos not being there.
Well, they were there - all bloody 20 of them!
I setup my camera and tripod and waited as sunset time approached... 7:18pm - still they stood.
Then hope played her hand and one by one, they started to come down - 19, 15, 12, 10. 7:42pm - 8 left standing, but still they clung on to spoil the day. Sunset time was approaching fast at 7:47pm and 3 remained, most frustrating of all - right in the centre of the shot, at the apex of the bridge!
My heart sank for a second time that day as the sun set behind the buildings with nothing more to show than a few whispers of clouds showing any hint of colour. 7:58pm - the last gazebo laughed in my face and then bang on cue at 8:00pm disappeared behind the stone walls of the bridge still chuckling to itself having thwarted another photographer's efforts. I was about to pack up when Mrs R noticed the change in the previously featureless clouds behind the distant churches of San Giorgio in Braida and Chiese di San Giorgio in Braida.
Timed at 8:04pm... almost 17 hours after leaving home and my first planned shot of the holiday. The moral of the story is...
Nature and the world don't run to your timetable and you have to make the best of what's in front of you. So this is it, probably the only time I will visit Verona and the Ponte Pietra.
[I'm posting early today because of several dr. appointments tomorrow. Nothing serious. Just time consuming.]
Scabiosa ochroleuca, commonly called cream pincushions or cream scabious, is a species of scabious with creamy yellow flower heads. It is native to Europe and western Asia. It grows in some of the grasslands surround Mt. Diablo as well as arid parts of the U.S. southwest ... which is repetitious to say the least, but I suppose there's a square mile somewhere that got some rain for more than a day somewhere down there.
What you see in the image is unusual: a flower ready to bloom, a flower in bloom, and a flower that has died and left a marvelous seed pod. I first saw this Scabiosa flower species in the wild wild seven years ago, dead but perhaps even more interesting. (See directly below.)
View large. What seems to be a petal is actually a tiny flower. This pod is only two inches wide, but loaded with flowers. Want to know how many: look at the pod to the left. That has lost all its flowers and will soon take on the geometric pattern you see below. How about that, a flower that gives twice.
Continuing my look back over the last year and posting some of the shots that didn't make it first time around. Part 4: Autumn
Sussex kept delivering and I finally managed a reasonable shot of a Ring Ouzel at Cissbury Ring. Whilst there, I got word from David Gardiner of a Curlew Sandpiper showing well at Cuckmere Haven. This was one of the first birds I photographed almost 30 years ago but since moving to digital had only managed one distant shot, so despite being in the wrong part of the county, I decided it was an opportunity too good to miss
Having captured an excellent range of migrants in Sussex, from mid-October the emphasis turned to Kent where a continued succession of good birds helped ensure this was my most productive Autumn ever. At Reculver, on 15th, I photographed both the Lapland Bunting and Shorelark (2 present for 10 days from 12th) and, at Oare, a Spoonbill. It took two visits however to capture the Long-billed Dowitcher (at Oare from 9th October to 28 November). Also in Kent, the Long Eared Owl returned to Dungeness on 15th November and the Ring-necked Duck remains having arrived on 8th November.
A selection of my favourite images from 2016 can be seen here
Ten years ago from posting (2025 -> 2015). The Lake Superior Railroad Museum's SD45 made its grand debut during an SD45-focused Railfan Weekend. (The weekend also featured GN 400 at Osceola, which I was part of the train crew, and the SD45-bodied EMDs on the SCXY)
Northern Pacific 3617 was freshly repainted from its WC appearance, but lacked the finishing touches to make it operational at the time. Today, 3617 is a fully operational locomotive, sometimes paired with Hustle Muscle or the museum's GP9 245, also of NP heritage.
WC fans weren't thrilled with the repaint, but NP fans, like myself, think this is an improvement.
Now to get 245 painted properly NP.
I debated posting something other than an Iceland photo today, but well, I haven't posted *that* many yet so maybe just one more for now.
This is the beautiful Vestrahorn mountain, lit by the last light of the setting sun. This particular section of the dunes really appealed to me because of the streaky lines of white-on-black left by the blowing snow on the volcanic black sand, with those lovely grasses artfully interspersed.
Shot with Pentax K-1 and Pentax 15-30mm lens using "PixelShift"
Keep posting my pictures from last september London trip.
Full map of location visited on the map on my facebook page.
Day 2, London Skyscrapers
On day 2, we had a walk from the hotel through the skyscrapers zone and stopped at the Gerkin and at Lloyd's building complex.
My Social presence:
Nikon D7000 + Sigma Wideangle 8-16mm
HDR from 3 shots, handheld
DxO, Noiseware, Photomatix, Photoshop, Nik Viveza
Posting something a little older, I just stumbled across this sunset silhouette I took back in August and I feel like uploading it. ;)
Okay now really back to finishing up my report and midterm tonight.
Posting an image I shot in 2012 that I had never uploaded to flickr.
This is from back when Byron Hot Springs Hotel still had walls intact. These days, it is fully gutted and stripped of all moldings, tiles, panels.
Keep posting my pictures from last september London trip
To see the whole tour you can have a look at the map on my facebook page
My Social presence:
Nikon D7000 + Sigma Wideangle 8-16mm
HDR from 3 shots, handheld
DxO, Noiseware, Photomatix, Photoshop, Nik Viveza
Day 3, Natural History Museum
So we watched Elf last night and I got a bit inspired by Buddy's talents in the snowflake department. That movie is one of my favourite christmas movies and it always makes me laugh!
I must say the last few days have been strange not shooting and posting to Flickr. On thursday I felt this surge of panic at about 8pm, fearing that I had forgotten to take a photograph. Friday was better but today I really felt like something was missing during my day so I got out the scissors, paper and my camera and had fun just playing. I think I need to find the balance between posting every day and posting every once in a while....in time I suppose!
Some late postings from earlier in the year - when it was sunnier and warmer!
From top left clockwise:
Chimney Sweeper (Odezia atrata) a daytime-flying moth, 13 June 2018, Priory Fields NR
The wonderfully chunky Large Narcissus Fly or Narcissus Bulb Fly (Merodon equestris) 13 June 2018, Priory Fields NR
An unusually sun-bleached Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) 14 September 2018, Cuttle Pool NR
An intrepid Spider-hunting wasp (Pompilid) 4 October 2018, Cuttle Pool NR
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Reserves
Posting a sort of throwback from 2016 today as I've always loved this photo but it has since gotten lost near the back of my photo stream. Enjoy!
Posting some pics from the Breast Cancer Awareness auction.
Lag was kind of bad, so pics were hard to get.
(Sorry, no time for editing, just want to post these)
Everyone had a great time and we raised well over 600,000 Lindens Denise said.
Waiting for the final results.
~Fin
With the sad news of the Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) extinction, I'll be posting some of the critically endangered amphibians I've seen in the wild. According to the IUCN Red List, one third of the 6,260 amphibian species assessed are globally threatened or extinct. As sad as the news is, I'm optimistic for the future of amphibians because there are many great people and groups out there fighting for them.
copyright James H. Muchmore Jr.
HMBT!
Posting early, as storms are buffeting us in the north of Scotland and power supply lines might be affected! Hoping that commenting will be possible tomorrow ;o)
My Bokeh set: Elisa's bokeh set
B/W Infrared Mono or nearly! B/W Infrared Mono or nearly!
My Geranium set: geranium set