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Schwalbenschwanz - Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) | 05-2022 | Ticino | Switzerland
If anyone can identify the grasshopper, that would be helpful, thank you!
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO:
The wild garden around my vacation home in Ticino, where all the photos you can see in my Flickr gallery are from (well, some have been taken a couple of meters outside, but that still counts in my book 😉), had been a cause of contention between me and my mom for some time.
At the root of the conflict was the upper part of the garden, which originally had been conceived by my dear mother as a vegetable patch, but, left to its own devices by me after I "inherited" it, had developed into a marvelous oasis of pure botanic chaos teeming with insect life.
Mom was not amused. Although she - like all in our family - is very much in favor of letting nature roam freely around the house, and she loves all creatures big and small, she (unlike me) does draw a line somewhere. That line was the vegetable patch.
And she let her disapproval be known, and very clearly; she kept pestering me about my unwillingness to pluck the weeds (my response: "What weeds - there are no weeds: I'm creating a functioning ecosystem here, mom!") for several years, until my stubborn refusal made her reach her breaking point. She'd finally had enough.
My mom is a cunning old lady of nearly 80 years (79 to be precise), the matriarch and evil genius of our family (make no mistake: that house and garden are still HERS - and forever will be, regardless what it says on some sheet of paper), and so like a James Bond villain plotting revenge, she hatched a diabolic plan.
One day, when I was gone for a couple of weeks, she let me know via e-mail she had decided to turn this ugly weed jungle of mine into a flowery meadow. There was nothing I could do as she had already ordered a local gardening company to level that part of the garden, and once that was accomplished, as she described with obvious relish, the gardener would plant the most beautiful wild flowers and turn this ugly mess of mine into a colorful paradise.
I was not amused by this at all, as you might imagine, but there was nothing I could do to save my gorgeous oasis of chaos, so I grumpily accepted "my" garden's fate. After that, my mom avoided me whenever she could, and when she couldn't, she wouldn't mention the garden at all. This didn't strike me as odd, since I assumed she might feel at least a little bit guilty about her sneaky move (at this point, I hadn't seen the "improved" version of the garden yet).
Cut to a few weeks later, when I went back to Ticino and finally DID see the "flowery meadow" and "colorful paradise" my dear mother had ordered. My jaw dropped. But in shock - not in awe of flowery beauty of any kind: as there were NO flowers of any kind. What there was, was sod. Plain, ugly sod, completely devoid of any insect (or other animal) life, already turning into a brownish yellow due to a lack of rain in the past weeks.
You see, my mom's Italian is not very good (in fact, it's so far from good that it could be argued she doesn't speak it at all) and as it turned out, there had been a "slight" misunderstanding. Instead of planting gorgeous wild flowers, the local gardener (whose Italian is impeccable by the way), put turf rolls down after he'd leveled my oasis; turf rolls of the kind that is usually used for sterile football fields.
OK (you, dear reader, might say at this point); sad story, bro - but what does it have to do with the swallowtail in the photo? The answer is: everything. The past autumn and all through spring this year I've been planting wild flowers in that garden like a mad botanist; I've planted field scabiouses and red clover, ox-eye daisies, echium, salvia and thyme and lavender as well as plants for the caterpillars of the in Switzerland rare swallowtail butterfly such as fennel and wild carrots.
This was my desperate attempt to undo the damage and terrible devastation my mother's wrath had brought upon the earth (well, my garden's earth anyway) and turn this sod-desert into an oasis of pure botanic chaos and a colorful paradise teeming with insect life once more.
And it worked! Ever since those plants started flowering my garden has been an attraction for all kinds of butterflies and generally insects, even rare ones - and, obviously, my dearest guest and visitor that you can see in the photo above: the swallowtail.
These gorgeous butterflies are now steady guests, and they even laid their eggs on the fennel (which is now a nursery for cute swallowtail caterpillars). So in the end, my mom's will prevailed (as is always the case with the wills of all moms all over the world - don't kid yourselves, kids 😉). My weeds are gone, there now is indeed a flowery meadow - and there's even vegetables (although the fennel is strictly for the swallowtails 😊).
I have a creeping suspicion maybe my mom's Italian is better than she lets on...
The Cristal peak is the sixth highest peak in Brazil, with 2,769.05 meters of altitude, according to the measurement made by the IBGE and the Military Institute of Engineering, through the Pontos Culminantes do Brasil Project, and revised by the IBGE through a new mapping of the geoid of the Brazilian territory in 2016.
It is located in the Serra do Caparaó, within the Caparaó National Park, in the municipality of Alto Caparaó, State of Minas Gerais, at 20º 26' 37" south latitude and 41º 48' 42" west longitude. A measurement on Google Earth shows the border of Espírito Santo just 930 meters east of Pico do Cristal, and Pico da Bandeira, the third highest mountain in Brazil and the highest in the Southeast Region, at 1,940 meters to the northeast. The two peaks are visible from each other.
Pico do Cristal is the highest mountain located entirely within the territory of Minas Gerais, as the other highest peaks in the state are on the border with Espírito Santo (Pico da Bandeira), São Paulo (Pedra da Mina) or Rio de Janeiro. January (Agulhas Negras peak).
Until recently, the peak of Cristal was considered the fourth highest mountain in Brazil, with 2,798 meters. Later, another measurement pointed to the summit of the peak at 2,780 meters. More recently, within the scope of the Pontos Culminantes do Brasil Project, where more precise technology was used, the IBGE confirmed the summit of the peak at 2,769.76 meters, which places Pico do Cristal as the sixth highest mountain in the country. In 2016, the IBGE revised the altitudes of the highest points in Brazil, based on the geoid mapping of the Brazilian territory, and confirmed the altitude of Pico do Cristal as being 2,769.05 meters.
The peak of Cristal is a massive point that has this denomination due to its abundant rock formations of quartz, in which it presents landscapes of extreme beauty, being considered by some the most impressive place than the peak of the Flag, where the vegetation is formed basically by bromeliads and lilies on rocky outcrops, the site being part of the highest altitude zone of the park.
For those departing from the Tronqueira campsite, in Minas Gerais, the trail goes up towards Pico da Bandeira, where, close to this, you head south to Pico do Calçado and then west.
For those coming from the Casa Queimada side, you can reach Pico do Cristal by going up the trail to Pico da Bandeira and heading east before climbing Pico do Calçado. From its summit, it is possible to see the imposing Pico da Bandeira, with its characteristic abyss on the Espírito Santo side and softer slopes on the Minas Gerais side.
perhaps ignorance, credulity—helps your enjoyment of these things, and of the sentiment of feather'd, wooded, river, or marine Nature generally :-)
Walt Whitman, "Birds—And a Caution," Specimen Days
HMM! HPPT! Truth Matters!
sasanqua camellia, 'Green 99-031', j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina
Today I would like to send you back to a wonderful morning that I was able to experience all to myself below Kriebstein Castle. To be precise, you can see the crowning conclusion here, which I didn't expect at all.
At that point I had been here for quite a while and had already taken some photos. The fog on the water was the absolute highlight (of course next to the cool knight's castle that I was here for). But something was still missing to make the atmosphere perfect.
The sky was just monotonously blue-grey and therefore quite boring.
But all of a sudden, I had already packed my things again, this small single cloud comes by, which had been set on fire by the rising sun. And everything came together.
Heute möchte ich Euch noch einmal zurück schicken, zu einem wunderschönen Morgen, den ich ganz für mich unterhalb der Burg Kriebstein erleben durfte. Um genau zu sein seht Ihr hier den krönenden Abschluß, mit dem ich garnicht mehr gerechnet hatte.
Zu diesem Zeitpunkt war ich schon eine geraume Weile hier unterwegs und hatte auch schon einige Fotos gemacht. Der Nebel auf dem Wasser war dabei das absolute Highlight (natürlich neben der coolen Ritterburg wegen der ich ja hier war). Doch irgendwas hat trotzdem noch gefehlt um die Stimmung perfekt zu machen.
Der Himmel war bis gerade eben noch eintönig blau-grau und somit recht langweilig.
Doch auf einmal, ich hatte meine Sachen schon wieder eingepackt, kommt diese kleine einzelne Wolke vorbei, die von der aufgehenden Sonne in Brand gesetzt worden war. Und schon passte alles zusammen.
more of this on my website at: www.shoot-to-catch.de
It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy :-)
Henri Cartier-Bresson
HBW! Justice Matters! No one is above the law!
prunus mume, japanese flowering apricot, 'Tama', j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina
To be precise : in 6 weeks I will be standing at exactly this place to watch the waves. Blavand, Jylland, Denmark
Because we're talking about holiday memories, I'll go right back to the beginning of my Slovenia tour, to Bled to be precise.
I don't think I've ever photographed a subject as often in such a short time as the island with the church in the middle of Lake Bled. I was only here for two days and still there are at least 5 versions of this picture. And since I'm only counting the versions that were made from the shore. The conditions were constantly changing and so every time I looked at the lake the sight was completely different and beautiful again. So, of course, I had to capture all of these different faces.
Here, it's easy to see that it's dusk and besides the fact that a light just came on here and there (that's why I'm here), I'm standing under an umbrella in the pouring rain and trying to operate the camera with one hand. As you can see, I did quite well.
Weil wir gerade bei Urlaubserinnerungen sind gehe ich gleich nochmal zurück zum Anfrang meiner Slowenien Tour, genauer gesagt nach Bled.
Ich glaube, ich hab noch nie ein Motiv in so kurzer Zeit so oft fotografiert wie die Insel mit der Kirche in der Mitte des Bleder Sees. Ich war nur zwei Tage hier und trotzdem gibt es mindestens 5 Versionen dieses Bildes. Und da zähle ich nur die Versionen, die vom Ufer aus gemacht wurden. Die Bedingungen waren ständig im Wandel und so war der Anblick, jedesmal wenn ich auf den See geblickt habe, völlig verändert und wieder anders schön. Also musste ich diese unterschiedlichen Gesichter natürlich alle festhalten.
Hier, das ist unschwer zu erkennen, ist gerade Abenddämmerung und neben der Tatsache, dass gerade hier und da ein Licht anging (darum bin ich hier) stehe ich gerade im strömenden Regen unter einem Schirm und versuche mit einer Hand die Kamera zu bedienen. Was mir, wie man sehen kann, ganz gut gelungen ist.
Site emblématique de la ville des Sables d'Olonne, et plus précisément de son quartier originel de la Chaume, le phare de la Chaume, ou "Feu de la tour d'Arundel", est situé sur la terrasse de la tour d'Arundel qui constitue le donjon carré de l'ancien château Saint-Clair à la Chaume, bâti à l'entrée du port des Sables-d'Olonne au 14ème siècle par les princes de Talmont.
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phare_de_la_Chaume
Château Saint-Clair (Vendée)
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_Saint-Clair_(Vendée)
Castle St Clair - La Chaume lighthouse
Emblematic site of the city of Les Sables d'Olonne, and more precisely of its original district of La Chaume, the lighthouse of La Chaume, or "Feu de la tour d'Arundel", is located on the terrace of the tower of Arundel which constitutes the square dungeon of the former castle Saint-Clair at La Chaume, built at the entrance of the habour of Sables-d'Olonne in the 14th century by the princes of Talmont.
February 2023 - Uploaded 2023/02/09
White Knuckled driving conditions through the Thompson–Nicola Regional district
Sub-zero temperatures.
The day before making this precarious trek through the Central Interior of BC, Canada , the news reported vehicles sliding off the road in all directions at this precise location.
Descending the highway hill was nerve racking to say the least, however I was in capable hands.
The pick-up truck in this image decided to travel down the center of road, in search of better traction.
As beautiful as this mountain highway is, wintery conditions can serve to be treacherous.
Beautiful British Columbia
Canada
Thank-you for all the overwhelming support and many friendships.
Stay Healthy
~Christie
*Best experienced in full screen
it’s precise, lightning-like, clean cut, brilliant, alert :-)
Beaumont Newhall
Ukraine Matters! PeaceNow!
oakleaf hydrangea, j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina
Look at that precise balance! Wing goes right, part of tail feathers move left, perhaps without thought.
You know how when you think, oh, what the heck, I'll just try this, and it almost turns out to be identifiable? The hummingbird continued to examine me and didn't seem to mind the macro lens. I cropped this a tad.
Identification welcomed. Not trying for an award with these photos. Just having goose-bump interactions ;-)
Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) female/juvenile perhaps.
Suite à une erreur de mise en ligne d'hier corrigée aujourd'hui,je remets les commentaires exacts.
🇫🇷Nous voici sur la terrasse de notre location pour cette 2° semaine de vacances en Corse, plus précisément Tiuccia qui est une station balnéaire de Corse-du-Sud, dépendant de la commune de Casaglione et située à une vingtaine de kilomètres d'Ajaccio, sur la route de Calvi (par la côte), au fond du golfe de Sagone.
Elle est bâtie au pied du rocher de Capraghja (Carpraja), où demeurent quelques vestiges des fondations du château des comtes de Cinarca, et d'où l'on domine la totalité du golfe, jusqu'à Cargèse.
Le site est bordé au nord par le Monte Lazzu (100 m). Dans son prolongement en direction de la mer se trouvent également les ruines de deux anciennes fortifications génoises, la tour du Capigliolu (XVIe siècle) et un fortin (XVIIe siècle/XVIIIe siècle).
🇬🇧 Here we are on the terrace of our rental for this 2° week holiday in Corsica, more precisely Tiuccia which is a seaside resort of Corsica-du-Sud, dependent on the commune of Casaglione and located about twenty kilometers from Ajaccio, on the road to Calvi (by the coast), at the bottom of the Gulf of Sagone.
It is built at the foot of the rock of Capraghja (Carpraja), where remains of the foundations of the castle of the counts of Cinarca, and from where one dominates the entire gulf, up to Cargèse.
The site is bordered to the north by the Monte Lazzu (100 m). In its extension towards the sea are also the ruins of two ancient Genoese fortifications, the tower of Capigliolu (16th century) and a fortin (17th century/18th century).
This is a medium-sized species (11–15mm) and has a black body with white spots. The precise pattern of white around the inner margin of the eyes, the white bands on each pair of legs together with the white band on the first abdominal segment are distinctive. The second, larger pale band on the abdomen is often absent.
Can be confused with other black Ichneumoninae with white spots.
Habitat Hedgerows and copses.
When to see it - June to September
The larvae feed on butterfly and moth larvae.
Thought to be a fairly common species in Britain but little recorded.
Rachmaninoff :
Elegie Op. 3
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTUxrPJfpqk
Gluck-Sgambati, Melody
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XQ6tjxuJ6g
Gluck's Melody by Hambourg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq8bXrgXlE0
Gluck's Melody by Felicja Blumental
www.youtube.com/watch?v=csp8yB21udA&list=RDcsp8yB21ud...
Gluck's Melody by Guiomar Novaes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=io-7CqUkuPI&list=RDcsp8yB21ud...
Alexander SILOTI was taught first by Scriabin's piano teacher, Nikolai Zverev, followed by Rubinstein, Taneyev ( counterpoint ) and Tchaikovsky ( harmony ) at the Moscow Conservatoire. He moved on to become one of Liszt's pupils from 1883 & the editor of Tchaikovsky's two piano concertos.
"In the turn of the century, it was Siloti ( who tutored his cousin Rachmaninoff ) who was a much more famous pianist, and a much more highly regarded one than Rachmaninoff: Rachmaninoff was considered precise and over perfect and Siloti had more charm and sentimentality. This distinction would align Siloti in style more with such players as Paderewski, de Pachmann et al; Rachmaninoff's more with the later Hofmann and Lhevinne." The Siloti student Bernardo Segall is quoted as saying, "he played from the heart--direct, with great simplicity and nobility and a beautiful singing tone."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ6TCZH8uA0&list=RDiMzfRsHgHg...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQi3jE5qsSk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YNg99UuIFo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMTzhdtMn0A
Emil Von SAUER, Liszt's successor, noted for his aristocratic approach to music-making, with lashings of charm, elegance and style backed up by phenomenal technique.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdt04xPdm8g
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTC0kIodTrY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KxThSO4ZNY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiXc81SP05Q
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJfnBY00JuM&list=RD4C4lOthOZb...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C4lOthOZbI&list=RD4C4lOthOZb...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KxThSO4ZNY
Alexander Brailowsky
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhPAPLJTmYc
*
Martha on Horowitz
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXPkSeY_zVg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZm7OW3ufbc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ELwCdgGQLQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1FmDleuzk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz26IpXtIT4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_ifupYBjRo
Segovia:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRz3AQx21y8
Narciso Yepes, Fernando Sor 24 Etudes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gCLpbaaRRA
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf; "Wiegenlied"; Richard Strauss
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL0IWiRJ_44
Ferruccio Tagliavini:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5ywUv0rs4k
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhFUpO6AFxc
Francis Planté
“Each meeting occurs at the precise moment for which it was meant. Usually, when it will have the greatest impact on our lives.”
― Nadia Scrieva
Blog Post
The same pair as in yesterday's shot but ten minutes later. 07.38 am to be precise. Their wings have warmed up by then but they are not particularly flighty and on the wing. The perfect time to get a shot on a warm day like this. Another great time is early evening as they settle and crawl down the long grasses which they also tend to do if its windy.
I was able to kneel and lean on one elbow to steady myself and get some of that beautiful blue sky in shot. I must say they are fairly acrobatic and got into many precarious looking positions to accomplish their driving force...The perpetuation of the species which in this particular area are thriving. Sadly the weather went downhill and the wind so bad we saw none for days afterwards...
🇫🇷Nous voici sur la terrasse de notre location pour cette 2° semaine de vacances en Corse, plus précisément Tiuccia qui est une station balnéaire de Corse-du-Sud, dépendant de la commune de Casaglione et située à une vingtaine de kilomètres d'Ajaccio, sur la route de Calvi (par la côte), au fond du golfe de Sagone.
Elle est bâtie au pied du rocher de Capraghja (Carpraja), où demeurent quelques vestiges des fondations du château des comtes de Cinarca, et d'où l'on domine la totalité du golfe, jusqu'à Cargèse.
Le site est bordé au nord par le Monte Lazzu (100 m). Dans son prolongement en direction de la mer se trouvent également les ruines de deux anciennes fortifications génoises, la tour du Capigliolu (XVIe siècle) et un fortin (XVIIe siècle/XVIIIe siècle).
🇬🇧 Here we are on the terrace of our rental for this 2° week holiday in Corsica, more precisely Tiuccia which is a seaside resort of Corsica-du-Sud, dependent on the commune of Casaglione and located about twenty kilometers from Ajaccio, on the road to Calvi (by the coast), at the bottom of the Gulf of Sagone.
It is built at the foot of the rock of Capraghja (Carpraja), where remains of the foundations of the castle of the counts of Cinarca, and from where one dominates the entire gulf, up to Cargèse.
The site is bordered to the north by the Monte Lazzu (100 m). In its extension towards the sea are also the ruins of two ancient Genoese fortifications, the tower of Capigliolu (16th century) and a fortin (17th century/18th century).
Calendula officinalis, the pot marigold, ruddles, common marigold or Scotch marigold, is a flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is probably native to southern Europe, though its long history of cultivation makes its precise origin unknown, and it may possibly be of garden origin. It is also widely naturalised farther north in Europe (as far as southern England) and elsewhere in warm temperate regions of the world.
Normally I'm here to show you Croydon car parks but here's one from another part of London, in Stratford, in East London, to be precise. For someone that likes to shoot architecture car parks are always an interesting challenge. They are usually very symmetrical with distinguishable lines and shapes. There's always likely to be an abundance of light and shadow because car parks are likely to not be fully enclosed, leaving room for lots of contrasts in tone and light. If I go past a car park I always look for a composition of some kind.
I've subtitled this 'when day becomes night' because this image was a post processing challenge that I set myself. This shot was actually taken in the middle of the day, at 1pm to be exact. I wanted to see if I could make it appear as if was taken at 1am instead.
HSS
I couldn't find a precise ID for this small, cute little Jumper. I've not taken many bird photos lately--haven't had the luck, nor much of the ability. I didn't say much about my injuries, but suffice it to say I suffered a slight concussion. A lot of the photos I've taken lately are macro. Easier to look down than up. I need the practice anyway.
Thanks for Viewing.
The precise location of this bird was posted back in December. Would he still be there?
He was.
He was a life bird for us.
I'm posting this months later....
I was impressed with the results from a post processing program.
I wondered if I could spiff up my less than great photos of this exciting and rare birb.
I'll give you the link to David Steidensticker's owl photo.
flic.kr/p/2iPkSWq
Look at the change in the feather detail around the beak.
I'm doing the free trial.
So far the hardest thing has been finding the photo in my files after putting it through processing.
Stay strong, my flickr monkeys.
Budva. Old Town, Montenegro
The oldest church with the precise date of constructing in Budva is crunch of St. Maria’s. It’s placed in the Old Town of Budva. This is a short Latin inscription in stone about the building of a church in 840.
Today it survives incorporated in the north wall of St. Maria’s, one of the oldest known, accurately dated, medieval inscriptions on the eastern Adriatic coast. It is believed that it refers to the church of St. Maria cited in later written sources. It is not known where the church was located; possibly it was even an adaptation of the diocesan basilica. The small town of Budva did not preserve many records of its appearance in the Middle Ages.
Material remains confirm continuity of habitation in the town. For this period there are the remains of ecclesiastical buildings, and something an be concluded on the basis of the medieval walls.
…… The English Bridge in Shrewsbury to be precise - the Welsh Bridge is the other side of town! Had to go to town to pick up some more timber supplies and took the opportunity to have a quick whizz around town & grab my #308 picture of the day. Thought this made a change from shots from off the bridge which I’ve posted loads of times!! Water levels are up but not enough to give a full flow through this section of the bridge. Alan:-)
For the interested I’m growing my Shutterstock catalogue regularly here, now sold 133 images :- www.shutterstock.com/g/Alan+Foster?rid=223484589&utm_...
©Alan Foster.
©Alan Foster. All rights reserved. Do not use without permission.……
To be more precise this is Castle Augustusburg in Brühl (sometimes also called Augustusburg palace which sounds more like it looks like) - built as a weekend cottage by the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, Clemens August of Bavaria of the Wittelsbach family in the 18th century. The castle is surrounded by extensive gardens and park grounds. From shortly after World War II until 1994, Augustusburg was used as a reception hall for guests of state by the German President, as it is not far from Bonn, which was the capital of Germany at that time.The castle is protected by the international “Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural heritage”. I shot this on a photo safari with my friend during the only hour of good light yesterday.
Sun setting over County Antrim coast, Northern Ireland. The title's a bit of artistic licence.
______________________
Not many could predict the precise circumstances of their own death. Only God-incarnate could confidently foretell His subsequent resurrection:
And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
(Mark 8:31)
Finally I am done with both of the houses, took many hours of painstakingly work put in the end all is worth it.
I had the most fun doing the wire for the lights, twisting and more twisting, all is done with Gumpaste.
Clue is the slate roof.
I will be more precise from now on with the clues.
Happy Sunday!
Est une espèce de passereaux. Auparavant placé dans la famille des Turdidae, il figure actuellement, avec d'autres représentants de celle-ci (particulièrement les tariers et les traquets), dans celle des Muscicapidae. Le mâle et la femelle sont presque identiques, avec une couronne, des ailes, le dessus et la queue de couleur brune, une bande grise sur les côtés de la gorge, un ventre blanc et la fameuse « gorge rouge », plus précisément de couleur orange foncé tirant vers le rouge. Bien que sa face et sa poitrine soient plus orangées que rougeâtres, cet oiseau prend le nom familier de rouge-gorge au Moyen Âge. Cette contradiction est due à ce que la dénomination de la couleur orange n'apparaît en Europe qu'au xvie siècle, par la diffusion sur ce continent de l'orange douce (le fruit) rapportée à la fin du xve siècle par les Portugais de Ceylan et de Chine.
L'âge maximal d'un rouge-gorge est de 18 ans.
--
Is a species of passerines. Previously placed in the Turdidae family, it currently appears, along with other representatives of this family (particularly augers and wheatear), in that of the Muscicapidae. The male and the female are almost identical, with a crown, wings, upper and tail of brown color, a gray band on the sides of the throat, a white belly and the famous "red throat", more precisely of color. dark orange tending to red. Although its face and chest are more orange than reddish, this bird took the colloquial name of robin in the Middle Ages. This contradiction is due to the fact that the name of the color orange does not appear in Europe until the sixteenth century, by the distribution on this continent of the sweet orange (the fruit) reported at the end of the fifteenth century by the Portuguese of Ceylon and China.
The maximum age for a robin is 18.
Sant'Antonio is a giant edifice without a precise architectural style. Over the centuries, it has grown under a variety of different influences as shown by the exterior details.
The new basilica was begun as a single-naved church, like that of St Francis of Assisi, with an apsidal chancel, broad transepts and two square nave bays roofed with hemispherical domes like that of San Marco, Venice. The exterior style is a mixing of mainly Romanesque and Byzantine elements, with some Gothic features.
Later in the 13th century, the aisles were added in a more Gothic style, the length of each nave bay being divided into two aisle bays with pointed arches and quadripartite vaults.
The eastern apse was also extended in the Gothic style, receiving a ribbed vault and nine radiating chapels in the French manner. Later also, the Treasury chapel was built in 1691 in the Baroque style by Filippo Parodi, a pupil of Bernini.
The domes, like the domes of St. Mark's Basilica, were raised in height externally, giving a Byzantine appearance to the building, while the multitude of small belfries which accompany the domes recall Turkish minarets. Externally, at the main roof line each section of the building is marked by a low gable decorated with blind arcading in brick. These gables combine with the domes, the broad buttresses and the little towers to create a massive sculptural form, both diverse and unified in its conglomeration of features. As a work of architecture the building is particularly effective when viewed from the north west,] an extra dimension being added to the facade by the huge plinth and dynamic equestrian monument of the Condottiero Gattamelata by Donatello.
Just a single wake line and a solitary wing bridging the gap between sea and sky.
Captured during the precise moments of twilight, the composition utilizes a high-contrast palette of deep indigo and soft amethyst to explore themes of isolation, scale, and human transit.
A lone vessel glides through a vast, liquid canvas of deep indigo, cutting a delicate path through the silent expanse of the sea. It moves under the gentle watch of an ethereal twilight sky, where the horizon dissolves into a soft tapestry of pastel pink and amethyst light. The ocean mirrors the heavens, cloaked in rich, velvety blues that evoke a profound sense of solitude, peace, and timeless wanderlust.
The yacht leaves behind a gentle, chalk-white wake, a temporary scar of human presence on an otherwise pristine, eternal canvas.
To the right, a seabird hangs suspended in the air, a fleeting silhouette that accentuates the immense scale and quiet majesty of the open water. For a brief moment, the bird matched the yacht's speed, a silent companion bridging the gap between sky and sea. It balances the weight of the ship and breaks up the expansive water adding a touch of natural life.
The clean, modern lines of the ship stand in perfect balance with the soft, geometric division of the horizon, blending human engineering with nature's quiet artistry.
Massive expanses of blue and purple frame the yacht. This amplifies a powerful sense of isolation, scale, and quiet solitude on the open water.
The vessel occupies the lower right quadrant. It moves toward the left frame, leaving a clear "path" that creates a natural narrative flow.
Shot from a cliffside high vantage point, this angle flattens the horizon line into a clean, geometric divider, keeping the composition visually balanced.
"Amethyst" perfectly identifies the rare, high-contrast violet and pink gradient in the sky, while "Meridian" directly highlights the crisp, geometric horizon line that splits the canvas in half. A peak point of splendor capturing a luxury vessel navigating the absolute peak of twilight.
The precise location of this bird was posted back in December. Would he still be there?
He was.
A few curious folks stopped to watch the spectacular bird drop to the ground and then pop back onto a perch.
A brief flash of bright red on a grey day in LA.
#MacroMonday
#unusualpatterns
Weather forecast on a knife blade. On a Damascus steel knife blade, to be precise. Not what I initially had in mind, but that so often is the case when it's one of the "MM themes of the 1000 possibilities". Usually, for such a wide theme, I only have a few vague ideas what I could do for it, and the end result is pretty much a random surprise of what looks, firstly, most interesting through the macro lens, and, secondly, best as a photo, of course. Also, what is easy when it's not asked for - such as finding interesting patterns - becomes nearly impossible when it's required: patterns positively seemed to escape me as I went looking for them around the apartment ;-) And when I saw the knife in the kitchen (I hadn't even considered it as a possibility) I just thought "OK, that's probably very boring, but I'll give it a try." As for the "macro lens surprise", that was that not only did the banding typical for Damascus steel looked like waves (often an intended effect, but I only learned about that when I did my research on Damascus steel for the description and the tags), but those scratches from sharpening the knife that you can see in the upper part of the image also looked like heavy rain. And here it was, unfolding before my eyes: the high seas tempest.
The setup for the photo was as simple as it gets: I simply propped the knife, sharp side of the blade up, against a jar of sugar (my photo studio also doubles as breakfast and dinner table), both of it sitting on top of a heavy book to give it the same height as my camera on its small table top tripod, positioned one LED lamp (warm light) at the side of the table and grabbed my LED torch (cold light) to illuminate the blade from above (which also added the ever so slight 3D effect on the upper part of the blade), enabled the in-camera focus-stacking function, and hit the shutter button. I shot three focus stacking sequences of different parts of the knife of which this looked best.
Processing steps: The cold / warm light effect is something I get quite often when I use different light sources as above mentioned. It even works with one artificial light source (provided it gives warm light) and daylight from the window. Here I liked the split tone effect very much because I think it adds more depth to image. I wish I could have achieved the vivid colours you see here entirely by the use of light and the use of a colour filter (warm-cold or a combination of a cooling and a warming filter), but I've only recently considered to buy a few photo filters to improve my landscape photography, and since a good filter is expensive, I think I will buy one or two more versatile filters first before checking out the more exotic colour filters. So the colour enhancement here was done in Lightroom, where I tweaked the saturation and luminance of the blue, yellow and orange tones, and then in Nik's Color Efex, where, as final touch, I applied a Bi-color filter. I hope that these processing steps are deemed OK according to the new MM rules regarding the editing of an MM shot. I also did some sharpening and de-noising in Topaz Sharpen AI ("Focus" yielded the best result).
HMM, Everyone, and have a beautiful and safe week ahead!
I consider lace to be one of the prettiest imitations ever made of the fantasy of nature; lace always evokes for me those incomparable designs which the branches and leaves of trees embroider across the sky, and I do not think that any invention of the human spirit could have a more graceful or precise origin.
— Coco Chanel
at the moment when he, the photographer, meets the reality he wishes to capture.
Brassai
HGGT! Ukraine Matters!
opuntia, spineless prickly pear cactus, 'Ellisiana' j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina
At Land's End on the Southern Outer Banks or Bogue Banks to be precise. Thanks for the visit, comments and faves. All are much appreciated.
Majestic and elegant mountains of coral that tower monumentally over the surrounding landscape and yet blush like young lovers at sunset... these are the Pale di San Martino.
Their geologic history starts 300 million years ago: in a calm and shallow sea, huge coral colonies developed to create enormous reefs over a thousand metres high. After surfacing out of the water, these coral reefs were weathered by the elements and shaped into the pointed and sharp structures that mark the landscape today. The name dolomia – engl. Dolomite rock (to be precise, the Pale di San Martino are made of “Dolomia dello Sciliar”) is a homage to Marquis Déodat De Dolomieu, who in 1788, while travelling through our mountains, discovered their chemical composition (the Dolomite rock is a combined calcium and magnesium carbonate). Yet what has always captivated visitors - from 19th century travellers to modern-day tourists - is most of all the Altipiano delle Pale: a stone plateau set at 2700 metres altitude, a lunar and mysterious landscape, fifty square kilometres of bare rock to be discovered.
Early morning
Eight o'clock precise
I see the lonely August sun arise
Say you know
You will
Move me like you do... ♫
( ok, so it was actually 7:43 (says the Exif), and not August but September, but it was the first song that came to my mind while I was shooting so, that's what you get :) )
Happy Thursday! Oh! And it's green, I finally was able to catch up with something here :P
Precise location no longer known. This is a fruit-eating pigeon species endemic to New Zealand. It is found throughout most of the three main islands, although it has become extinct in much of the eastern part of South Island. Food competition from introduced Australian possums and doubtless predation of the young by introduced rats has led to a sharp decline in numbers. From a slide.
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