View allAll Photos Tagged precisely
"The more precisely
the POSITION is determined,
the less precisely
the MOMENTUM is known."
(Werner von Heisenberg)
Cruzamento no bairro Juvevê, Curitiba-PR. Sábado de tardezinha.
-------------------------------------
Neighborhood crossroad, Curitiba, Brazil. Saturday in the afternoon.
298/365
"In any weather, at any hour of the day or night,
I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too;
to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future,
which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line." - Henry David Thoreau
How precisely shall we define the word "abandoned" in northern New England, in midwinter? Is a house "abandoned" if the driveway isn't getting plowed? What if the driveway isn't plowed, but there's a rather expensive looking fifth-wheel trailer parked (and snowed in) in the driveway? Does the owner of the trailer also own the farmhouse? Or is someone just taking advantage of a rent-free patch of land to store their trailer?
Fuji X-T20, XF 50mm F2 WR.
Thank you for visiting!
Of course the light wasn't precisely like this.............but I could tell it wanted to be......
The sun was very harsh and very bright. Facing away it was OK of course, but I particularly wanted the light shining throught he petals. I have posted another facing away from the sun...
When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine?
If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door,
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?
oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo
You'll be older too, (ah ah ah ah ah)
And if you say the word,
I could stay with you.
I could be handy mending a fuse
When your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride.
Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?
Every summer we can rent a cottage
In the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck, and Dave
Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
Stating point of view.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, Wasting Away.
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?
Whoo!
Oh gosh this song brings me back to when I was 5. The Beatles were always playing in the car.
I love this one
So vintage
But if you really listen and think about it, it means that he is asking you to love him even though hes old, which means he wants to grow old with you.
I think thats an awesome thought
Hope you love it as much as I do
These are clam shells — marine bivalve mollusk shells. More precisely, they look like single valves from two different clam species, not two halves of the same animal. Bivalves include clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops, and are defined by having paired shell valves joined at a hinge.
Left shell
Likely hard clam / quahog type — Mercenaria sp., possibly Mercenaria mercenaria
Confidence: moderate
The left shell is thick, rounded-triangular to oval, dark gray-brown, and marked mostly by concentric growth bands rather than strong radial ribs. That fits the general look of a hard clam/quahog-type shell. NOAA describes northern hard clams as having thick gray-to-white shells with outer concentric growth rings; other references describe Mercenaria mercenaria as broadly triangular-oval with distinct growth lines.
What prevents a firm species ID: the interior, hinge teeth, pallial sinus, and exact locality are not visible. Those features matter for separating similar clams.
Right shell
Likely a Venus clam-type bivalve, possibly a cross-barred Venus group — Chione sp. / related Veneridae
Confidence: low to moderate
The right shell has a warm orange-brown/cream pattern and a strong crosshatched surface: concentric ridges crossed by finer radial ribs. That points toward the Venus clam family, Veneridae, especially shells with cancellate or cross-barred sculpture. The Florida Cross-barred Venus, Chione elevata, is described as having concentric ridges intercepted by denser radial ribs; the broader Veneridae family includes shells with commarginal, radial, or cancellated sculpture.
Not a firm species ID from this view alone. It could be a related Venus clam rather than Chione elevata, especially if the shell is larger than typical Chione specimens or came from outside the Florida/Caribbean/Gulf region.
Description
The image shows two contrasting clam valves on a white background:
Left: darker, smoother, more subdued; brown, gray, black, and tan horizontal banding; worn surface; low, rounded dome.
Right: larger-looking, brighter, more decorative; orange, rust, cream, and brown color zones; strong ridged texture; pronounced growth bands; more inflated and sculptural.
The pairing works visually because the shells share the same basic bivalve form but contrast strongly in color, texture, and age/wear. The left shell feels weathered and muted; the right shell feels fresher, warmer, and more patterned.
Rocking. That's very precisely what the wave does on this picture - it reaches and hits the rocks (not that they are very much affected by it though). And the lens was Rokinon. Beautiful weather.
Exif: ISO 100 ; f/5.6 ; 1/4 ; @14mm
Handheld
This wonderful grassy Wood-rush indeed gleams and sparkles purplish in the Sunlight. And there's probably some truth to the derivation of Luzula from a form of the Latin Lux, light. But nobody can narrow down the reason for its name more precisely. David Gledhill in his great The Names of Plants is quite right to say: Luzula is 'an ancient name of obscure meaning'.
There are at least four theories. The first is that this Wood-rush gleams in the moonlight like a glow worm, a Lucciola in Italian; another idea is that the flowers and their sheaths (ca. a mere 4-5 mm) dew-wet sparkle in the morning sunlight; third advocates claim the anthers and pistil look like lamp wicks, and hence the connection to light; and finally some have said that the pith of Wood-rush has been used to fashion exactly those candle or lamp wicks. I haven't been able to find any confirmation that Wood-rush pith was indeed used that way except for people claiming it. I'm also sceptical about the 'look-like-candle-wick' assertion. That leaves two explanations. It seems to me a bit far-fetched - having often seen glow worms myself - to put them into the equation; their light is far brighter than the gleam of Wood-rush in the moonlight. Which leaves as most likely the idea that our Plant in flower sparkles in the sunlight, as I myself could see this morning.
5/28/16 - Late Breaking News from Texas' Hutto Lake: At precisely 6:04 PM.....nothing happened, and it was wonderful!
Giandomenico Tiepolo (Venice, August 30, 1727 - Venice, March 3, 1804) - rooms of Pulcinella di Zianigo - Museum of the Venetian Eighteenth Century Ca 'Rezzonico, Venice
In queste sale si possono ammirare gli affreschi eseguiti da Giandomenico Tiepolo nella villa di famiglia a Zianigo. Strappati nel 1906 per essere venduti all’estero, furono acquistati dalla città di Venezia e trasferiti nel 1935 a Ca’ Rezzonico dove sono stati posti in piccoli ambienti che ripropongono la collocazione originaria.
Compiuti in un periodo di tempo assai lungo, fra il 1759 e il 1797, costituiscono senza dubbio uno dei momenti più affascinanti e singolari di tutta la pittura veneziana.
Non si tratta di opere eseguite per uno specifico mecenate ma per il piacere dell’artista stesso e dei suoi congiunti nella dimensione privata della propria dimora. Proprio questa circostanza rende il pittore libero da convenzioni tematiche e figurative e gli consente di assecondare la propria intima natura che lo porta a descrivere con sarcasmo il mondo che lo circonda.
In these rooms you can admire the frescoes painted by Giandomenico Tiepolo in the family villa in Zianigo. Torn off in 1906 to be sold abroad, they were purchased by the city of Venice and transferred in 1935 to Ca' Rezzonico where they have been placed in small rooms that reproduce their original location.
Completed in a very long period of time, between 1759 and 1797, they are undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and singular moments of all Venetian painting.
They are not works executed for a specific patron but for the pleasure of the artist himself and his relatives in the private dimension of his own home. It is precisely this circumstance that makes the painter free from thematic and figurative conventions and allows him to indulge his intimate nature that leads him to describe with sarcasm the world around him.
The clock is a technical masterpiece which belongs to a group of similar European clocks such as in Danzig, Strasbourg or Lund. But the clock in Rostock is the only one that still has its original mediaeval clockwork from 1472 which still precisely functions. It indicates the phases of the moon and the solar year St. Mary's Church. Each hour the glockenspiel plays a tune that the cantor chooses on a roller depending on the church season The data on the current calendar disc comprise the years from 1885 to 2017, Rostock, Germany
“And what do ye mean with ‘were takin over yer convoy’?” the elderly dwarf yelled. “Precisely that, miss Stonearm.” Sergeant Haelga Ulrissen replied. “Well, tell that capt’n of yers he can put that request of his RIGHT HERE!” the dwarf pointed at her arse. The folkir sighed, she wasn’t paid enough to enter in a discussion with a dwarf. Then she silently chuckled, the captain would have to deal with this now.
Martin could already tell what was going on from the loud shouts from the distance, hell, he would be surprised if anyone hadn’t. “Let me guess,” he said when the folkir made her approach “the commander has some reservations about our cooperation?” the large, blue skinned woman nodded “Not quite her precise wording sir, but close enough.” Martin silently cursed “Let me guess.” Roger said, “You were hoping that the sight of a seven-foot-tall overgrown blueberry – no offense sergeant – would be enough persuasion?” the human male nodded “Aye, it usually is anyway.” Martin returned to sergeant Haelga “Who is leading them anyway? A minotaur or something?” the folkir chuckled “You’re going to love this sir: it’s an old dwarven lady.” Martin uttered a loud groan and looked at the heavens for a moment “Cemea, why do you hate me?” Unsurprisingly, the goddess of luck remained silent. “alright then chaps, let talk to the lady in question.” Roger said, “We’ll figure something out, we’ll always do.” and began casually walking towards the blockade formed by Martins’ men. The others shrugged and followed.
“Nay can’t do bonny lad.” The dwarf responded to Martins’ request, this time in person, clearly having not a lot of respect for the man to request her to quit her assigned job, something dwarves take great offense to. “I couldn’t care less who ye are. By Murdins’ beard, I’ve got me pride!” The human cursed under his breath. Why couldn’t this caravan have been led by a friendly halfling? He wondered. He had carefully taken over ninety men and women through the dim light of the early morning and through small forest paths that the rangers and mountaineers had found in the previous weeks. He had then carefully hidden them along a rarely used piece of road. It was almost never used, save for experienced cart drivers, who knew it to be a significant shortcut. It was there they intercepted the wagons heading southward. All this trouble and effort, executed without flaw, now stopped by one of the toughest obstacles known by any race or species: a dwarf. Martin looked desperately over his shoulder to what the men had jokingly begun calling “the royal council”. The dwarf Thirn was just shrugging. The sylvaeri druid Elahna Galariel had conveniently shape-shifted into a weasel, hopped onto the shoulders of the other wood elf Celdric and now lay relaxed around her partners neck. The gnomish wizard and other long-time companion, Roger had tried something similar. Unfortunately, he was not a druid, but a mage. So, shape-shifting came far less natural and could only manage one form: that of a massive owl, which had parked its big fat behind on Thirn’s hat. Strangely enough, the dwarf didn’t seem overly pleased by this. The other gnome, Sarah Brightspark was busy loading a small crossbow with what Martin could only hope were stun-darts. When he gave her a disapproving look, she just shrugged “Just wyvern tranquilizer sir.” It was then that Ely Emberchest, a cleric of Ishala, decided she couldn’t stand this sight any longer. The voslar mumbled a quick prayer, quickly followed by a flash of golden light. “Miss Stonearm, if I could have a moment of your time.” She spoke with a voice laden with magic “I understand your reservations, but think about it. The captain is here on request from a member of the Edorian royal family, so if you think about it, nobody is asking to cancel your given assignment. It’s merely been… redirected, so to say.” The dwarf’s eyes filled with a golden light for a single moment. “Aye” she said “Of course, yer right miss.” Ely winked to Martin “So that’s how you do that, a little persuasion can get you a long way.” The human chuckled “Sure, magic can get you a long way you mean.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about sir.”
A woman in red sits on a ledg to check her phone in London.
confess that I barely, if at all, remember making this photograph, nor can I say precisely where in London I made it. I grabbed it while in a particular mode of street photography that is the antithesis of how I might photography, say, landscape. I shoot handheld. I carry a small camera with a single small prime lens. I work extremely quickly, often not even slowing down to frame the subject, and continue on. In this case, I shot “blind,” holding the camera down at my side. (That created a little problem. More below.)
There are a few things about this photograph that could make some viewers a bit uneasy. First, I did not ask for permission and I doubt the subject was even aware that I made the photograph. There was no time, and if I had asked the photograph would have been a very different thing. (BTW, sometimes I’m in public and I see that I might end up in someone’s photograph like this — and I remind myself that it is OK since I do it, too!) Second, the original image had a serious problem. It was badly tilted, perhaps as much as 20-degrees. I liked the image, but I had to crop radically to get the framing I wanted, and there were still problems. How did I fix it? For the first time, I allowed an AI tool to generate some content in the corners of the frame. Still not sure how I feel about that, but it seems worth experimenting with at least.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
"Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard's rustling, a breath, a flash, a moment - a little makes the way of the best happiness."
- Frederich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
"Remember this - that very little is needed to make a happy life." - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
I greatly appreciate your visits, comments, invitations, awards and faves, my friends. Have a wonderful week, everyone...!
Best seen on black - press L or click on image above.
I felt it was time to post another candid shot of O'Henry's. I was trying to get a close-up shot of his paw, when he started yawning. I thought it was too funny to pass ;-)
Anyway, 'good morning' and have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Title by Eiderdown from the "Title me" group.
The date of the church’s construction was not precisely known until 1969, particularly as the pisanie (inscription) is partly deteriorated.
That year, the parish priest discovered a petition from the Christians of the Broșteni district to the Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia.
Authored by Manul "Cavaful", head of the shoemakers’ (cavafi) guild, the document asks permission for building a church on the land of the late Hagi Dumitrache Papazoglu, in accordance with his will.
It is dated July 1815, and construction probably started on August 15, a date mentioned on the inscription.
The structure was probably erected by summer 1816, and was completely finished by November 1817, as attested by a document of that date.
Repairs were carried out in 1868, 1891 and 1906, while the painting was redone in 1929.
Thorough repairs took place in 1949–1950 and 1957.
Repainting was done under Patriarch Justinian, whose portrait appears among the ktetors.
The 1930 parish house was demolished in 1985 to make way for the surrounding apartment blocks.
The church has two spires, one above the nave, the other, the bell tower, above the narthex.
The iconostasis is carved in wood and gilt.
The facades are simple, with a classical cornice and pediment on the western side, painted with three panels of saints’ icons.
Saint Haralambie, whose relics are here, awaits them every day.
The church, in the shape of a cross, was built between 1815 and 1817 on the land left by Hagi Dumitrache Papazoglu, by Maria and Manea Cavafu, the latter being the elder of the tanners in the Broşteni slum.
Over time, the church was repaired several times.
Among the objects of historical or documentary value, the very old icons stand out (the oldest is from the 17th century), but also the iconostasis, which is carved in wood and gilded.
The current painting dates from 1986, made by a certain Gheorghe.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Church,_Berlin
St. Mary's Church, known in German as the Marienkirche, is a church in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Karl-Liebknecht-Straße (formerly Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße) in central Berlin, near Alexanderplatz. The exact age of the original church site and structure is not precisely known, but it was first mentioned in German chronicles in 1292. It is presumed to date from earlier in the 13th century. The architecture of the building is now largely composed of comparatively modern restoration work which took place in the late 19th century and in the post-war period. The church was originally a Roman Catholic church, but has been a Lutheran Protestant church since the Protestant Reformation and a united Protestant church since the Prussian Union of churches in 1817.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3,723,914 (2018) inhabitants make it the second most populous city proper of the European Union after London. The city is one of Germany's 16 federal states. It is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and contiguous with its capital, Potsdam. The two cities are at the center of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which is, with 6,004,857 (2015) inhabitants and an area of 30,370 square km, Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions.
Berlin straddles the banks of the River Spree, which flows into the River Havel (a tributary of the River Elbe) in the western borough of Spandau. Among the city's main topographical features are the many lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs formed by the Spree, Havel, and Dahme rivers (the largest of which is Lake Müggelsee). Due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. About one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers, canals and lakes. The city lies in the Central German dialect area, the Berlin dialect being a variant of the Lusatian-New Marchian dialects.
First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin became the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1417–1701), the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933), and the Third Reich (1933–1945). Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II and its subsequent occupation by the victorious countries, the city was divided; West Berlin became a de facto West German exclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989) and East German territory. East Berlin was declared capital of East Germany, while Bonn became the West German capital. Following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all of Germany.
Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media and science. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination. Significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics.
Berlin is home to world-renowned universities, orchestras, museums, and entertainment venues, and is host to many sporting events. Its Zoological Garden is the most visited zoo in Europe and one of the most popular worldwide. With the world's oldest large-scale movie studio complex, Berlin is an increasingly popular location for international film productions. The city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts and a very high quality of living. Since the 2000s Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernsehturm_Berlin
The Fernsehturm (English: Television Tower) is a television tower in central Berlin, Germany.
Close to Alexanderplatz in Berlin-Mitte, the tower was constructed between 1965-69 by the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was intended to be both a symbol of Communist power and of Berlin. It remains the latter today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. With its height of 368 metres (including antenna) it is the tallest structure in Germany, and the third-tallest structure in the European Union. Of four tallest structures in Europe, it is 2 m shorter than the Torreta de Guardamar, 0.5 m shorter than the Riga Radio and TV Tower, and 8 m taller than the Trbovlje Power Station in 2017. The structure is also more than 220 metres higher than the old Berlin Radio Tower in the western part of the city, which was built in the 1920s.
In addition to its main function as the location of several radio and television broadcasting stations, the building – internally known as "Fernmeldeturm 32" – serves as a viewing tower with observation deck including a bar at a height of 203 metres, as well as a rotating restaurant. Also, the Berlin TV Tower can be booked as a venue for events. The distinctive city landmark has undergone a radical, symbolic transformation: After German reunification, it changed from a politically charged, national symbol of the GDR into a citywide symbol of a reunited Berlin. Due to its universal and timeless design, it has increasingly been used as a trademark and is identified worldwide with Berlin and Germany. In 1979, the Berlin TV Tower received monument status by the GDR, a status which was perpetuated after the German reunification.
The tower has become one of the most prominent symbols of the country and is often in the establishing shot of films set in Berlin, alongside monuments such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Victory Column and the Reichstag building. It is also one of the ten most popular attractions in Germany with more than 1,000,000 visitors every year. Due to its location near Alexanderplatz, it is occasionally called Alex Tower.
He was nicknamed Milione during his lifetime (which in Italian literally means 'Million'). In fact, the Italian title of his book was Il libro di Marco Polo detto il Milione, which means "The Book of Marco Polo, nicknamed 'Milione'". According to the 15th-century humanist Giovanni Battista Ramusio, his fellow citizens awarded him this nickname when he came back to Venice because he kept on saying that Kublai Khan's wealth was counted in millions. More precisely, he was nicknamed Messer Marco Milioni (Mr Marco Millions).[46]
However, since also his father Niccolò was nicknamed Milione,[47] 19th-century philologist Luigi Foscolo Benedetto was persuaded that Milione was a shortened version of Emilione, and that this nickname was used to distinguish Niccolò's and Marco's branch from other Polo families.[48][49]
WIKI
Milking it, for all it's worth.
Every mid to late February, mother nature directs the very last light of the day precisely on the flowing water of the Horsetail Fall in Yosemite. For roughly 10 minutes, the light falling upon the water creates an illusion of lava flowing down the cliff.
This natural phenomenon is highly contingent upon a presence of sufficient water from snow melt during the day and a clear west sky right at sunset.
On this particular evening, mother nature was kind enough to let show happen in its full glory. Needless to say the crowd, most of whom had been waiting for hours, went absolutely wild!
Belgium.
National Botanic Garden.
www.br.fgov.be/PUBLIC/GENERAL/index.php
The azure damselfly (Coenagrion puella) is a species of damselfly found in most of Europe. It is notable for its distinctive black and blue colouring. They are commonly found around ponds and lakesides during the summer.
Mating in damselflies, as in dragonflies, is a complex, precisely choreographed process involving both indirect insemination and delayed fertilisation. First, the male has to attract a female to his territory, continually driving off rival males. When he is ready to mate, he transfers a packet of sperm from his primary genital opening on segment 9, near the end of his abdomen, to his secondary genitalia on segments 2–3, near the base of his abdomen. The male then grasps the female by the head with the claspers at the end of his abdomen; the structure of the claspers varies between species, and may help to prevent interspecific mating. The pair fly in tandem with the male in front, typically perching on a twig or plant stem. The female then curls her abdomen downwards and forwards under her body to pick up the sperm from the male's secondary genitalia, while the male uses his "tail" claspers to grip the female behind the head: this distinctive posture is called the "heart" or "wheel"; the pair may also be described as being "in cop".
*** Don't have to fav/comment.. u can ask qs here tho & i will try to put them up here b4 next post ***
"Not another shameless wanky post from this bugger! Move on & stop showing off!" Well, that's precisely what i was thinking when i'm about to post this shot. Seriously I PROMISEI will not post this type of self-indulge promotional shot ever again unless its something you guys can benefit from. This is most probably my 5th or 6th mag publications to date so THIS IS IT (for shameless post) as Michael Jackson said :)) Quite a no of ppl have asked me qs relating to my photostream, publications etc all along therefore i thought this is the best time to consolidate similar FAQs & answer them here. Hope u can gain something out of them. cheers!
:: FAQs ::
Q. How do I get my photos published in a magazine?
A. Well, its hard to say ...luck plays a part i suppose.. esp for journalists to spot your work out of millions. One thing i know for sure is correctly tagging your photos helps in contributing to the success of others finding your shots. All my published photos were found by editors of the publishing/magazine company through Google, Yahoo search engines & Flickr. Another possible factor is perhaps being known for the sort of photography style u do helps a fair bit too. For instance, if you are into IR photography & your entire photostream is full of IR style images, very high chance when someone is lookin' for IR publication, you will be the outstanding one.
Q. How did I achieve so much attention in flickr?
A. Pretty much the same theory as above... I reckon for me, specialising in just hdr helps bring everyone who has the same interest to my photostream. Perhaps versatility in subject tend to catch ppl's attention too. One definite fact is you should have determination to keep doing what u love & passionate about (it could be flower, macro, seascape, bokeh, BW, night photography, digital manipulation etc..) just pursue this interest be it what others might have said about your images or even negative comments to bring u down along the way (Trust me.. i get those %^$ comments esp when i just started hdr.. even now!). Believe in yourself & others will eventually believe in you & your work ;) go out & make friends in flickr...what goes around comes around.
Q. Am I paid to have your photo published?
A. About 75% of my published photos were paid. Some companies asked for quote before using my photos but usually the publishers seek for publication permission before making an offer.The remaining 25% (non-profit co) either gave me full credit in print with link to my flickr website & free copies of their magazines.
Q. How much do the publishing companies pay usually?
A. I was paid all in USD or GBP... so in Aussie rates, it ranges from 150 -250 per image. Really..all depending on where & what the publisher will be using the images for.. big coverage like front cover/double pages print or just a few small prints.
Q. You have had a lot of your photos on Explore, could you give us any tips or advice on how we could get our images on Explore?
A. Explore is a funny thing. The only tip or advice I can give is if your photo can get enough visits or comments even without adding them to groups, there is a high chance you can get your images on Explore. That's my theory at least. I know its easy to get obsessed with Explore.. i do initially but its good to get over it now :) Seriously, Explore is not about how good your shots are.. being on Explore consistently really does not make one a better photographer. Explore is just a simple way to let one explore the world within a few click of a button. If one is too concern about Explore, it definitely ruins photography in a lot of ways. If you still are really keen, be really active in flickr.. i'm sure you will get your rewards eventually but rem it always take time to build your community of friends here too ;)
Q. Is photography your fulltime job?
A. Photography is not my fulltime job. I only really started photography in April 2008. I work as a computing guy in my state uni. The only time I bring my camera out with me is mostly when i go on a trip. In fact I haven't touch my cam much since April this year except for a couple snapshots here & there... now that's really sad case haha!
Bösendorfer crowns the soundboard of each grand piano with specially-cut and shaped ribs instead of forcing the crown with compression from the rim as other manufacturers do. This process ensures that the exact crown (soundboard curvature) of Bösendorfer soundboards remains unchanged
throughout their lifetime for optimum tone.
Subsequently, during the setting of the down bearing through
the most delicate handcrafted procedure, the height of the
glued-on bridge is adjusted. It is through this that the pressure
exerted onto the soundboard from the strings is precisely regulated. This is necessary in order to put the soundboard under optimal elastic tension in order to make the perfect transfer of string vibrations possible.
Before the final glueing of the soundboard to the inner rim, the bridges are notched with scrupulous precision, the bridge pins inserted and the soundboard lacquered.
"At least it's not a mullet!" But this is precisely how this bittern looked when he initially arrived in Raleigh last fall. If that's not a hockey mullet he's sporting, I'm Wayne Gretzky. I think this clearly answers the question of where this bittern migrates for the warmer months: Canada. Why not travel a few thousand clicks for some delicious Canadian walleye (or "pickerel" for those in parts of Ontario) and, perhaps, a yummy mummy?
The Omo Valley, often more precisely called the Lower Omo Valley, is a place like no other. Home to a number of tribal communities, the variety and diversity of life, truly a melting pot of humanity.
The Lower Omo Valley region has been as UNESCO World Heritage Site since the discovery of human remains dating back nearly 2.5 million years.
Meantime last night or about so (my relationships with the Time are fascinating) I’ve begun or more precisely continued another project. It turned out to be small that time but promises to be big now (I’ll explain in a minute). We’ve taken photos for that project about a year ago and I feel closer to it just now. More or less. Rita run through the winter forest not just naked, which is relatively easy, but barefoot and sat bareass on snow-covered stumps, which is tough absolutely (the whole idea was all hers!). She’s my hero. Real artist. It was just pre-war like some presentiment or precognition. Homeless. Out of all the previous life. Wild. Rita called that project “Run wild”, so be it, I do like this title (decided I right now, translating the title Russian-English). It was getting dark in the forest because it took me that long to get out and that’s – because I didn’t believe that Rita really means it so why bother, let it go as it will. I’ll show you what we’ve got for you, hopefully pretty soon. So, I desire to upload all that that I’ve got for now in this previous project. It’s important for me as well. Cause I’m still bet on freedom in these awful times. Any times. How d’you like it?
Why do I still mention Behance and Patreon? Don’t get them till now. And insta? Just hate it. Fb and vk – about the dead either good or nothing. But what else do we have? What do you have?
Südafrika - Kleine Karoo
Red Stone Hills - Window Rock
The Karoo (/kəˈruː/ kə-ROO; from a Khoikhoi word, possibly garo "desert") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. There is no exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo, and therefore its extent is also not precisely defined. The Karoo is partly defined by its topography, geology and climate — above all, its low rainfall, arid air, cloudless skies, and extremes of heat and cold. The Karoo also hosted a well-preserved ecosystem hundreds of million years ago which is now represented by many fossils.
The Karoo is sharply divided into the Great Karoo and the Little Karoo by the Swartberg Mountain Range, which runs east-west, parallel to the southern coastline, but is separated from the sea by another east-west range called the Outeniqua –Langeberg Mountains. The Great Karoo lies to the north of the Swartberg range; the Little Karoo is to the south of it.
The Little Karoo is separated from the Great Karoo by the Swartberg Mountain range. Geographically, it is a 290 km long valley, only 40–60 km wide, formed by two parallel Cape Fold Mountain ranges, the Swartberg to the north, and the continuous Langeberg-Outeniqua range to the south. The northern strip of the valley, within 10–20 km from the foot of the Swartberg mountains is most un-karoo-like, in that it is a well watered area both from the rain, and the many streams that cascade down the mountain, or through narrow defiles in the Swartberg from the Great Karoo. The main towns of the region are situated along this northern strip of the Little Karoo: Montagu, Barrydale, Ladismith, Calitzdorp, Oudtshoorn and De Rust, as well as such well-known mission stations such as Zoar, Amalienstein, and Dysselsdorp.
The southern 30–50 km wide strip, north of the Langeberg range is as arid as the western Lower Karoo, except in the east, where the Langeberg range (arbitrarily) starts to be called the Outeniqua Mountains.
The Little Karoo can only be accessed by road through the narrow defiles cut through the surrounding Cape Fold Mountains by ancient, but still flowing rivers. A few roads traverse the mountains over passes, the most famous and impressive of which is the Swartberg Pass between Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo and Prince Albert on the other side of the Swartberg mountains in the Great Karoo. There is also the main road between Oudtshoorn and George, on the coastal plain, that crosses the mountains to the south via the Outeniqua Pass. The only exit from the Little Karoo that does not involve crossing a mountain range is through the 150 km long, narrow Langkloof valley between Uniondale and Humansdorp, near Plettenberg Bay.
(Wikipedia)
Die Karoo (auch Karroo, früher Karru; Khoisan für Halbwüste) ist eine Halbwüstenlandschaft in den Hochebenen des Landes Südafrika, nördlich der Großen Randstufe und im südlichen Namibia. Unterschieden werden Kleine Karoo, Große Karoo und Obere Karoo sowie Sukkulentenkaroo und Nama-Karoo. Mit einer Ausdehnung von 500.000 km² umfasst die Karoo fast ein Drittel des Territoriums Südafrikas. Die Sukkulentenkaroo gehört zu den Biodiversitäts-Hotspots der Erde und wird u. a. im Rahmen von BIOTA AFRICA systematisch kartiert.
Der Name Karoo kommt von kurú (trocken) aus der Sprache der San, die einst hier lebten und jagten. In Hinsicht auf die geographische Ausdehnung des Karoo-Begriffs sind die folgenden Teilaspekte zu beachten und voneinander zu unterscheiden.
Die Karoo als Landschaft im traditionellen Verständnis ist eine südafrikanische Trockenregion innerhalb der Provinzen Westkap, Ostkap und Nordkap sowie im Süden Namibias. Ihre spezifische kapländische Strauchvegetation weist sie als Halbwüste aus. Ursprünglich wird in zwei Regionen unterschieden: Große Karoo und Kleine Karoo.
Die Große Karoo besitzt eine West-Ost-Ausdehnung von über 750 Kilometern und eine Nord-Süd-Ausdehnung von etwa 110 Kilometern. Sie wird im Westen vom Massiv der Zederberge und im Osten durch die Winterberge begrenzt. Im Norden bilden die Bergketten vom Roggeveld-, Koms-, Nuweveldberge und Sneeuberg und im Süden die Höhenzüge der Witteberge, Groot Swartberge und die Groot Winterhoek die natürliche Begrenzung.
Südlich dieser Region schließt sich die Kleine Karoo an. Diese wird wiederum an ihrer südlichen Flanke von den küstennahen Langebergen und Outeniqua-Bergen begrenzt.
Anders als in dieser traditionellen Gliederung, wird die Karoo heute nach ökologischen Gesichtspunkten in einen östlichen Teil, die Nama-Karoo, und einen westlichen Teil, die Sukkulenten-Karoo, gegliedert, wobei auch die Gesamtausdehnung der Karoo nach diesem Konzept von jener der traditionellen Betrachtungsweise abweicht.
(Wikipedia)
Die Little Karoo (englisch, auf Afrikaans Klein Karoo) ist eine Region in der Western Cape Provinz in Südafrika.
Durch die Little Karoo zieht sich die Route 62.
Die Klein Karoo ist ein halbwüstenartiger Landstrich, der zwischen den Swartbergen im Norden und den Outeniqua-Bergen im Süden liegt. Die Gegend ist fruchtbar und nicht ganz so trocken wie die nördlich anschließende Große Karoo. Die Kleine Karoo ist bekannt für die Straußenzucht, allein in der Umgebung von Oudtshoorn gibt es angeblich über 400 Betriebe, landwirtschaftliche Nutztiere der Region sind auch Schafe und Angoraziegen.
Die Kleine Karoo ist das östlichste Weinbaugebiet Südafrikas. Muskatweine, Portweine und Desertweine gedeihen in dem recht trockenen Klima, ein Teil des Weines wird zu Brandy verarbeitet. Auch das hier angebaute Obst wird teilweise zu Schnaps verarbeitet, man bekommt aber auch überall recht preisgünstig getrocknete Früchte.
(wikivoyage.org)
This is for Monday Photo Challenges and Thursday Retreads. The challenge this week was to "Take a photo at 7:00 o'clock. It can be AM or PM any subject, any day all week. (Try to be as precisely at 7:00 as possible.) ". If you look at my exif data it will say 12 am but I assure you this was at 7 o'clock, we added a new harddrive for my photographs yesterday and I think it threw the clocks out.
Rising sun through the coral trees, added some orton.
Hope your Monday is a very good one.
For other images in the challenge look here:
Precisely one third of the 36 E400 hybrids at Stagecoach's Holbrook depot in Sheffield retain original green and white colours, meaning that they will presumably never receive standard beachball livery before being repainted into one of the 2020 colour schemes. YN62BCY (12163) is seen on Windmill Greenway in Mosborough whilst operating the 14:48 120 from Halfway cross-city to Ranmoor.
The Horsehead Nebula aswell as the Flame Nebula can be found in Orions belt, more precisely near the star Alnitak.
The Horsehead nebula is a darknebula, which you can only see, because its backlit by IC 434, a emissionnebula.
You can also see the Flamenebula (NGC 2024), its also an emission nebula. Both nebulae are star forming regions.
IC434 and NGC 2024 are about 1500 light years away.
Detail about equipment:
TS PHOTON 8" 1000mm f5
EQ6 PRO belt modded
ZWO ASI 1600MM PRO
ZWO ASI 120mini
ZWO EFW
Ts 80mm Guidescope 600mm
PegasusAstro Ultimate Powerbox V2
Bortle Class 3-4
Backyard in my own Observatory
Germany, Lower Bavaria
Image details:
250 x 3 minute lightframes
50x ZWO Luminance
50x ZWO Red
50x ZWO Green
50x ZWO Blue
50x ZWO Ha
Chandra's unique ability to precisely locate and resolve individual X-ray sources in 12 globular clusters in our Galaxy has given astronomers a crucial clue as to the origin of these sources. Two clusters, known as NGC 6266 (or M62) and NGC 7099 (or M30), are shown here in this 2003 image.
A globular cluster is a spherical collection of hundreds of thousands and even millions of stars buzzing around each other in a gravitationally bound stellar beehive that is about a hundred light years in diameter. The stars in a globular cluster are often only about a tenth of a light year apart. For comparison, the nearest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light years away.
Most of the point-like sources in these images are binary star systems containing a collapsed star, such as a neutron star or a white dwarf star, that is pulling matter off a normal companion star. While direct, head-on collisions between stars are rare even in these crowded circumstances, close encounters occur and can lead to the formation of binary star systems containing a collapsed star.
The images illustrate a general trend observed for globular clusters. Clusters such as M62 where the stars are packed very closely together and the rate of close encounters is high have more X-ray binaries than those such as M30 in which close encounters occur less often. This is strong evidence that the X-ray binaries in globular clusters are formed by close encounters.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/D.Pooley et al.
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #chandraxrayobservatory #ChandraXRay #cxo #chandra #astronomy #space #astrophysics #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #solarsystemandbeyond #globularcluster
Schweiz / Wallis - Ober Gabelhorn (4,063 m), Wellenkuppe (3,898 m) und Zinalrothorn (4.221 m)
seen on the way from Grindjisee to Grünsee (Zermatt)
gesehen auf dem Weg vom Grindjisee zum Grünsee (Zermatt)
The Zinalrothorn (4,221 m) is a mountain in the Pennine Alps in Switzerland. Its name comes from the village of Zinal lying on the north side and from the German word Rothorn which means Red Peak. When it was first climbed in 1864 the mountain was known locally as Moming.
Geography
The Zinalrothorn is one of the high summits separating the Matter valley on the east and the Val d'Anniviers (or more precisely the Val de Zinal) on the west. The summit of the Weisshorn (4,505 m) is located 5 km to the north and the Dent Blanche 7 km to the west. At the western foot of the mountain lies the large Zinal Glacier and, on the northern side, the Moming Glacier. L'Epaule (the shoulder) is a minor summit lying at the base of the northern ridge.
The villages of Täsch and Zermatt are the closest while Zinal on the north-west is located further (9 km).
Climbing history
The first ascent was made on 22 August 1864 via the north ridge by Leslie Stephen and Florence Crauford Grove with guides Jakob Anderegg and Melchior Anderegg (AD). They left Zinal at 1 a.m. and ascended the Zinal Glacier. They reached the shoulder from the ridge connecting the Blanc de Moming at the base of the northern ridge at 9 a.m. The traverse of the ridge to the summit took them 2 hours, Stephen wrote later that it was 'the nastiest piece of climbing I have ever accomplished'.
The slightly less difficult normal route, the south-east ridge, was first climbed by the combined parties of Clinton Thomas Dent with guide Alexander Burgener, and George Augustus Passingham, with guides Ferdinand Imseng and Franz Andermatten on 5 September 1872.
The first winter and ski ascent was by Marcel Kurz and T. Theytaz on 7 February 1914.
In the 1880s Mrs Aubrey Le Blond, the first president of the Ladies' Alpine Club, left her detachable skirt by mistake up the Zinalrothorn. To preserve her modesty, she made the decision to climb the mountain a second time to retrieve it rather than return to Zermatt in trousers.
(Wikipedia)
The Ober Gabelhorn (4063 m) is a mountain in the Pennine Alps in Switzerland, located between Zermatt and Zinal.
Geography
The Ober Gabelhorn lies in the Swiss canton of Valais at the southern end of the Zinal valley (part of the Val d'Anniviers). It rises, together with the Dent Blanche (west) and the Zinalrothorn (north), above the Zinal Glacier. On the south side lies the Zmutt Glacier in the valley of Zmutt, which extends west of Zermatt.
The Ober Gabelhorn has a pyramidal shape, similar to the nearby Matterhorn but on a smaller scale. Only the smooth north face is completely glaciated, the other faces being mostly rocky. The south-west ridge is called the Arbengrat while the north-north-west ridge is the Arête du Coeur. The south-east ridge looking over the Ober Gabeljoch (3,597 m) is the Gabelhorngrat. The Wellenkuppe is a lower prominence on the north-east ridge; it is usually climbed as part of the normal route.
Huts serving the peak are the Rothorn Hut (3,198 m), the Grand Mountet Hut (2,886 m) and the Arben Bivouac (3,224 m).
Climbing history
The first ascent was by A. W. Moore, Horace Walker and Jakob Anderegg on 6 July 1865, via the east face.
The second ascent of the peak, and the first by the north-north-west ridge, was made one day later by Lord Francis Douglas, Peter Taugwalder and Joseph Vianin on 7 July 1865. At the time of their ascent they were not aware of Moore and party's success on the previous day.
Douglas and Taugwalder made several attempts before they reached the summit. P. Inäbnit accompanied them on the first attempt from the south-east ridge. They didn't have enough time to go higher than the base of the mountain. On the second attempt they reached the Wellenkuppe (3,900 m) on the north-east ridge (the normal route today) but they considered that the ridge above was too difficult to continue. They finally reached the summit on their third attempt (Inäbnit having been replaced by Viennin). They were disconcerted to see some footprints on the east face (made by Moore, Walker and Anderegg on the previous day), but were relieved that no traces were visible on the summit. Not aware of the dangers that might have made the previous expedition turn back, they sat down on the summit to have lunch. Suddenly an avalanche started and everything on the summit began to fall away from them. Douglas and Taugwalder were swept away, but they were roped to Viennin who was a little distance below the summit. Viennin was able to belay Taugwalder and Douglas with the rope, which didn't break. Francis Douglas returned to Zermatt, and was killed a week later on 14 July on the first ascent of the Matterhorn.
The Arbengrat was first climbed in 1874 by H. S. Hoare and E. Hulton with guides J. von Bergen, P. Rubi and J. Moser. The route on the Gabelhorngrat was opened three years later by J. Walker Hartley, W. E. Davidson, P. Rubi and J. Juan.
The north face, similar to but 'rather steeper' than the north-east face of the Lenzspitze, was first climbed on 30 July 1930 by H. Kiener and R. Schwarzgruber. They started from Zermatt at midnight and made a direct 2,000-metre ascent to the Triftjoch. They reached the base of the north face after having traversed the crevasses of the Ober Gabelhorn Glacier and successfully climbed it. This route was repeated only once until 1951.
Christian Klucker and L. Norman-Neruda made the first ascent of the east-north-east ridge on 1 August 1890. Nowadays most of the climbers use this route, starting at the Rothorn Hut (above Zermatt) and passing over the summit of the Wellenkuppe. The major obstacle, the Klucker tower, is equipped with ropes since 1918.
(Wikipedia)
The Wellenkuppe is a mountain of the Swiss Pennine Alps, located west of Zermatt in the canton of Valais. It lies on the range separating the Val d'Anniviers from the Mattertal, just east of the Ober Gabelhorn.
(Wikpedia)
Das Zinalrothorn ist ein 4221 m ü. M. hoher Berg bei Zermatt in den Walliser Alpen. Im Gegensatz zu vielen Gipfeln dieser Höhe handelt es sich beim Zinalrothorn um einen reinen Felsgipfel, mit drei Graten in festem Fels.
Den Namen hat es vom Ferienort Zinal im Val d’Anniviers, das sich in der Nähe befindet. Bis zum Aufkommen des Alpentourismus trug der Berg jedoch nach dem Mominggletscher, der an der Nordflanke seinen Anfang nimmt, den Namen Moming. Das Zinalrothorn befindet sich nur 4 km südlich des Weisshorns (4505 m ü. M.). Vom Gipfel hat man einen hervorragenden Blick auf das Matterhorn und das Monte-Rosa-Massiv.
Die Erstbesteigung erfolgte durch Leslie Stephen und Florence Crauford Grove mit den Führern Melchior und Jakob Anderegg aus Zinal über den Nordgrat (ZS, III) am 22. August 1864.
Die drei Grate bieten Anstiege im mittleren Schwierigkeitsbereich. Neben dem Weg der Erstersteiger über den Nordgrat gibt es noch den etwas weniger anspruchsvollen Südostgrat (ZS, III (Stellen), sonst II und I) und den Rothorngrat (ZS+, Südwestgrat, IV (kurze Stelle), III+), einer der schönsten Felsanstiege in der Gegend von Zermatt. Ausgangspunkt für den Südostgrat ist die Rothornhütte auf einer Höhe von 3198 m ü. M., für den Nordgrat die Mountethütte auf 2886 m ü. M. Der Südwestgrat kann von der Rothorn- oder der Mountethütte erreicht werden.
(Wikipedia)
Das Ober Gabelhorn (oft auch Obergabelhorn, jedoch nicht Gabelhorn) ist ein Viertausender in den Walliser Alpen.
Ausgangsorte für eine Besteigung sind Zermatt über das Mattertal oder Zinal über das Val d’Anniviers.
Besteigungsgeschichte
Die Erstbesteigung wurde am 6. Juli 1865 durch Adolphus Warburton Moore, Horace Walker und Jakob Anderegg unternommen. Schon am nächsten Tag folgten die Verlierer beim Rennen um den Gipfel, Francis Douglas, Peter Taugwalder und Joseph Viennin bei ihrem dritten Anlauf. Francis Douglas kam eine Woche später bei der Erstbesteigung des Matterhorns ums Leben.
Der Normalweg führt von der Rothornhütte (3198 m) über den Triftgletscher zur Schulter der Wellenkuppe (3898 m), über diese in leichter Kletterei (III-) hinweg und den ausgeprägten Ostnordostgrat folgend über den grossen Gendarm (Kluckerturm, Fixseile) zum Gipfel. Es handelt sich um eine kombinierte Hochtour (III+, Eis bis 50°, ZS / AD). Weitere interessante Anstiege sind der Arbengrat (Westsüdwestgrat, III+, ZS / AD) und die stark vergletscherte, selten begangene Nordwand (Eis 55°, S / D).
(Wikipedia)
Die Wellenkuppe ist ein 3898 m ü. M. hoher Berg im Kanton Wallis, Schweiz. Er liegt nordöstlich des Ober Gabelhorns und südlich des Zinalrothorns auf dem Grat, welcher das Mattertal vom Val d’Anniviers trennt.
(Wikipedia)
I've been thinking about what to do with jet engines I got in a Chima set, and also thinking about building one more speeder to improve my building skills.
Today I came up with an idea of making a pod racer as in Star Wars: EP 1. However, the minifigure pilot I have is actually a resistance pilot, precisely appearing much later in the SW galaxy.
So I tried the speeder to be more like a EP 4 thing, rather than a streamlined naboo star fighter.
Probably the resistance appropriated the Pod Racer to their fighter speeder. :D
Nature. The most beautiful thing in the world is, precisely, the conjunction of learning and inspiration. Oh, the passion for research and the joy of discovery!
A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
During our stay in Ortisei, we set aside a day to visit Lago di Braies — a popular alpine lake in the Braies Valley, a two-hour drive from Val Gardena. Known as one of the most scenic spots in the Dolomites, it's framed by the cliffs of the Croda del Becco and surrounded by dense pine forests.
We hiked the full loop around the lake, a gentle trail of just under 5 kilometers in length. It's not a demanding walk — no serious elevation gain — but the setting is nothing short of spectacular: turquoise water, wooden boats, forest paths, and constantly changing views.
After several days of longer hikes and steep climbs, this was precisely the kind of slower-paced day we needed.
Sometimes, less distance brings just as much reward.
Apartments, Driveway, Dusk. Pasadena, California. January 6, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.
Security lights illuminate the driveway of an urban apartment complex, Pasadena
Landscape photographers are well away of the qualities of light during the short period leading up to sunset, and with the rapidity of the changes to that light. But something similar happens for photographers of the "urban landscape," as well, though it tends to be most pronounced immediately after sunset rather than just before. There is a short period of perhaps a half hour or less when the ambient natural light is somewhat in balance with artificial light. During this period the natural light has diminished to the point that things appear more like night than day, but there is still enough natural light around to fill shadows and illuminate areas that are not covered by artificial light. (A bit later and the artificial lighting is virtually the only light source in most cases, and the range between light and shadow can be quite large.)
It was close to the beginning of such a time when I made this photograph of a parking lot and group of apartment buildings while walking around in Pasadena during the first week of the new year. A bit earlier and the lights either would not have been on or would not have been visible. A bit later and the foreground shadows would be completely black. It is a bit difficult to say precisely what attracted me to this scene — perhaps the bit of light spilling around the corner of the wall at left, perhaps the lovely yellowing light on the garage doors, maybe the geometry of the buildings... or perhaps the sum of all these things and more.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, "California's Fall Color: A Photographer's Guide to Autumn in the Sierra" is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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See Part 1 in my archives Peepz. And if you're in a hurry, you may want to read this later, or in bits...it's bloody long. It's a work in progress...
"The Diamond Ring"
As my gaze scanned the small, crowded bus depot in Adelaide that December morning, I had all but given up trying to find a lift with anybody from the bus, as I hadn't met anybody on the truck stops we'd made along the way. The ticket counter wasn't open yet, so I decided that I should just wait there until it opened, and figure out what to do next after that. In the meantime I could put out some feelers and try and sense whether anybody else there looked like they might be headed for the eclipse. At that point I was still convinced I should try to get on a connecting bus to Ceduna, where most of the eclipse watchers would be, but I was sure that the tickets were sold out. I hadn't ruled out hitching on the road, but hoped it wouldn't come to that. I was also a little dubious about the weather. It was seven thirty in the morning, and the clouds formed a thick blanket of grey above the city.
The day before, I'd checked the weather forecasts to see what the outlook was like and it was sketchy. There was going to be cloud cover in most of the places along the path of totality, but the forecast said that the clouds should clear to just a scattering by mid or late afternoon. It might have prevented me from going at another time, but because I felt so driven to go I trusted that wherever I ended up would be the right place, with the right people and the right conditions. Still, I couldn't help having a slight sense of trepidation over whether all my efforts would end up in travelling over a thousand miles to watch a total eclipse of a total eclipse.
So with all that and more whirring around my skull, I let my eyes skim the crowd while my otherware kicked in at the non-local levels, and before I knew it I couldn't help but notice these two guys who were standing in one of the aisles a few feet away from me. It was their wooden case that first caught my attention and it got me pretty excited when it looked liked it was just the right size for a telescope. When I looked for who might own it, I scoped them. They looked a little fatigued, but ready for action.
The tall one that looked like Tom Selleck was dressed in loose khaki shorts with cargo pockets, a matching polo shirt, chunky white socks and brown suede walking boots. Short blondish-brown hair peeked out from beneath a baseball cap that made his rugged features look slightly boyish, but he looked to me to be around forty. Standing next to him was a guy of similar age, who looked like your classic computer programmer or science genius. He was more slightly built, had a pale complexion and black rimmed glasses. He was wearing a black leather jacket over his knitted jumper and polo shirt (which was underneath and neatly tucked in to his jeans), a black belt and some well-worn brown leather shoes.
I was totally loving their look. I had to meet them.
I approached them and asked if they were going to see the eclipse.
I think they might have been a bit surprised to have been approached but they smiled and said yes. I found out that their names were Gerard and Alan, then they told me that they'd been on the same bus from Melbourne I'd been travelling on. I had been all the way up the front in seat 1D behind the driver, and hadn't seen them behind me in seats 11C and D.
I told them that I was going to try to get to Ceduna. They glanced at each other making me feel uneasy and they said that the weather forecast didn't look so good there. It was much better where they were going, the Wirraminna Rail Siding, in the desert, but first they had to go to Port Augusta where they would be picking up their car.
It became instantly apparent that going to the desert over the coast was a way better idea given the weather, so I figured that the best thing for me should be to try to get to Woomera with them (which is where I thought the Wirraminna Rail Siding was). I imagined this really cute country town where there would be balloons and streamers in the streets and lots of bakeries. I thought that we'd get there, mingle with the others who'd gathered, and then I could find accommodation and another lift back to Adelaide the next day. I asked that if I could get Port Augusta, would they let me hitch with them to Woomera? We all decided to have breakfast together and see.
As soon as we sat down they were pulling out all these crazy maps and charts that they'd downloaded off the net, one with a pencil line drawn by hand marking the path of totality. Others had bright highlighted sections where they'd made other notes. They had made all the calculations for latitude and longitude, timing down to the second, were a wealth of astronomical knowledge and they told me all about the amazing capabilities of the camera gear they'd brought. They were prepared for everything. I could not believe my luck. They even had spare eclipse glasses! They were able to tell me everything I needed to know and I really hoped it could all happen so that I could travel with them.
After breakfast I noticed that the ticket counter was about to open and I watched as about twenty people formed two queues in front of the two nearest windows. A third window had also opened but no-one seemed to want to go there and at first I stood at the end of one of them then figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, so I went over to the third window. When I asked if that was the right ticket counter for a bus ticket to Port Augusta I was told it was and got my ticket in about 30 seconds, beating everybody. It was a completely full bus, confirming to me again just how much we make our own luck.
The guys agreed to let me join them in Port Augusta and I felt this wave of gratitude leave my body and travel out into the cosmos. As I looked at them hanging out together with their impressive assortment of camera gear, tripods, bags and telescope, with their open, friendly faces, smart casual clothing and a tendency toward geekishness, they looked like my very own Batman and Robin. I smiled inwardly. My prayers HAD been answered! I DID find the right people to travel with right there on the bus!
It was a moment I'll never forget.
After that I found a pay phone and rang Bimbo Deluxe, a bar I had a residency at, and left a message letting them know I wouldn't be coming in for my set that night.
We got on the next bus, me alone behind the driver in 1A again, and them just a few seats behind. I spent a bit of time visualising a bright blue, cloudless sky for the eclipse, and reminding myself to be in the moment, trusting as much as possible that life would take me where I needed to go, as the frequencies of gratitude for all that had occurred up until then filled me and flowed outwards from me. All the seeds sown by reading the CWG series which had tied up so many loose ends for me in my esoteric studies, were beginning to sprout and I wanted to breathe as much life into them as possible. I wanted to see how they might grow, as I did. I thought about Time. Then I slept deeply.
"Alan and Gerard spent the trip working out the orbital distance of the Moon and the rotation of the Earth in order to finally understand the path taken by the Moon during the eclipse and the speed at which it travelled. This was facilitated by the calculator in the mobile phone. Alan also worked out how photo exposures and bracketing points using full and ½ stops."
This is what Gerard wrote about what he and Alan did on the bus to Port Augusta, in his own account of our travels called "Eclipse 2002". He has even named the subtitles in Chapter 1, which will give you a greater idea of what's to come.
Subtitle 1: Alan's, Gerard's and Liz's Big Time-Warp Adventure
Subtitle 2: Port Augusta or Bust!
Subtitle 3: The Kangaroo Did It
I believe all time is happening in one eternal now. Especially since studying the Maya's supreme understandings of cosmic timing cycles and mathematics. Whenever I begin to worry about anything "in the future", I ask myself, "Am I OK, in this moment?", and the answer is always yes, so it's a good way for me to quell my fears and anxieties, and to trust life more. I really started this practice on a regular basis during this trip. And I was more than ok, as I was soon to see..
When we arrived at Port Augusta, the sky had cleared and a few tufts of white dotted the sky, which was a relief, and a beautiful gleaming silver sedan met us at the terminal. It belonged to Gerard, and I asked how even though he lived in Melbourne, his car was quite conveniently waiting for us in Port Augusta, at the bus terminal. After we piled into the car I heard the first of many stories during that trip that would change me forever.
The guys had so much gear it was hard to believe they'd carried it all by themselves and for a few moments I had my doubts that we would fit everything of theirs into the car, let alone have room for me or my scant belongings. After some tricky packing though, a space was made available for me to squeeze into in the back seat, behind Alan who was in the passenger seat, and with Gerard expertly handling the wheel, we set off for last minute supplies.
The whole transition from the bus to the car couldn't have been timed more perfectly or executed with more ease. It was a good sign, but once we got in the car I really knew that the gods had smiled down on me. They could've had a big old pick up truck for all I knew, but instead I was able to relax in the luxury of black leather seats and enjoy the views from air conditioned comfort, gaze out at the sky through the sunroof and tinted windows and tell the outside temperature from a LED display in the wood dash. To top it all off, I had just met the two coolest, smartest straight guys I'd met in ages, and we were about to embark on a truly amazing adventure together. I was happy and grateful to be alive.
We stopped in Pt Augusta's main shopping drag for some lunch, supplies and fuel for the trip. After some bad cafe food Alan and I headed off to the supermarket while Gerard attended to some other business and we quickly dashed around picking up water, bags of fruit, nibbles, and chocolate (for me). I asked Alan if they'd like to have something to eat later, maybe for a picnic? This seemed like a good idea to him (I don't know if the guys, for all their planning, had considered the necessity for food at all), and I picked out a roast chicken and some salads. I completely forgot to buy a disposable camera in Adelaide so I tried finding one there only to discover they were sold out. There was a Woolies a block down too (also sold out of cameras), but I quickly purchased a cotton blanket as I had nothing warm with me, and hoped it would come in handy, seeing I already had my pillow and I had no idea where I was sleeping that night. All I knew was that the eclipse was in less than four and a half hours and when we met up with Gerard a short time later, it was agreed that there was no time to spare, so we, and the fully-laden car, swung back onto the road and headed for the outback. Alan had a collection of maps in the glove box that he would refer to from time to time as Gerard brought us up to a comfortable cruising speed of 130 kph. ETA was going to be 17:45 at our desired spot.
They were both great story tellers, although you could see that Alan's more outgoing personality was more suited to it, but Gerard certainly didn't seem concerned, and I realized later that even though Gerard had heard Alan tell most of his stories several times before, he obviously still liked to hear them, and he often helped coax a story out of Alan's memory banks by reminding him of some of the funny details.
I began to hear about how they had been driving through the South Australian countryside a month earlier, taking photos and generally enjoying a break from work for a few days when they had hit a kangaroo when it suddenly jumped out in front of the car and stopped them all in their tracks. Gerard's car had been in the shop at Port Augusta getting extensive repairs done ever since, and as the eclipse was occurring at the same time they could collect the car, they decided (at the last minute too) to come and get it and see the eclipse at the same time. At the end of their story we all fell silent for a moment as it dawned on us that their encounter with the kangaroo had actually created the conditions for us to meet as we did. The kangaroo was pivotal to the whole story and we knew it. I silently thanked the kangaroo for it's role in all this, and for the ripples that that moment created when it lost its life that night, as I marvelled at the way our lives had intersected.
Whatever green countryside there was around Pt Augusta soon made way for flat, dry earth covered in clumps of long grasses, low bushes and small trees as we sped towards Woomera. We passed a few old run down towns that looked like the only public outlet was the petrol station, and I wondered how people out there spent their time, and how children, if any, could cope with the sheer barrenness and isolation. Then we passed Pimba. It was so third world I was totally taken aback. I felt like I'd stepped into an alternate reality, into another version of Australia, one I would never want to dream into reality, but it already was. It was quite a sight. We all unanimously agreed that it was a "hole" of gargantuan proportions, a "standard reference hole" at that, as we passed the shabby weatherboard houses that all seemed to be just barely standing, with each and every backyard sporting massive piles of rubbish and broken down, rusting machinery. I thought I'd seen bad, after all, some of my poor Filipino relatives used to live in houses where to get there, you'd have to walk on wooden planks to avoid the mud, streams and little fishes everywhere, but this was BAD.
I could see why the area we were fast approaching was home to a detention centre for illegal immigrants, a former nuclear missile testing ground and hot spot for UFO sightings. There was nothing. For miles around, nothing. Just red earth, a bit of scrub, and the wind and sky. I must admit as well as watching for the clouds to clear up even more, I was constantly on the lookout for any unusual aerial phenomena as I'd thoroughly done my research and the probability for a sighting was in my estimation, high.
While we drove to our destination we all got to know each other a bit better which was easy as we all seemed to like one another. At first I was a little unsure about whether Alan was actually happy about me being in tow, as the two of them had conferred briefly before deciding to let me come, and I'd picked up on a vibe. I couldn't blame him if it he wasn't all too pleased, as my coming along had interfered with their plans and well, "guy time". I soon put those thoughts to rest though as it as it soon became apparent to all of us that that the extra pair of hands I now afforded them, might've actually come in quite handy.
We went over a few things about the way the guys wanted to set up their gear, and what we would do when totality arrived. Then they started describing to me how they would like me to help change a solar filter on "the Lens", this massive super-telephoto thing. They explained that When Gerard said "totality", I had to take the filter off and to put it in a special Tupperware container that they had brought with them. I was like, "Oh my God, are these guys for real? We're actually practicing a DRILL for taking photos!". Say what you will, I thought they were unreal.
I know that sort of daggy technical stuff about photography and math and astronomy that we talked a lot about is pretty boring for most people but I frickin love it! And I didn't even need a camera after all! It was almost too much, too good.
When we passed Woomera it dawned on me that we weren't going to stop there, and that I'd gotten my wires slightly crossed. But as we drove past it, I thanked my lucky stars I wasn't going. The town looked horrible, with a big vintage fighter plane mounted on a big metal brace near the "Welcome to Woomera" sign near the town's entrance, to show off our so-called military "might", right(?), and the selfish misuse-use of our country's resources by stupid white guys who are all dead now anyway. I didn't see one person anywhere. The whole town looked deserted and felt like a museum you'd never go want to go visit. It didn't look like anywhere I could find accommodation at either, that's for sure. The Wirraminna Rail Siding was another 73 km on from Woomera, as I quickly learned, as the guys handed me the map and asked me to calculate the distance.
When I realised that I had no plan of action for after the eclipse, or anywhere to stay, and that I was in the middle of nowhere, I decided to just go with the flow, and didn't worry too much about it, and drew comfort from the fact that at least I'd had the foresight to bring dinner.
When we started getting close, the energy in the car changed from quiet expectation to a more intense, hair prickling kind of anticipation. I'd been chatting quite animatedly with the guys from the back seat the whole way there, but now I was nearly bouncing up and down like a child with excitement as we passed the parked cars, then bus loads of Japanese tourists, four-wheel drives and camper vans. The Japanese tourists had lined up all their shiny camera gear in front of their respective buses and had about 30-50 telescopes per bus pointed at the Sun. We kept driving though, for another couple of k's, headed for as close to the centre line of the path of totality as possible. When they explained this to me, I nearly exploded with glee, although I didn't really grasp the enormity of this fact until the moment of the eclipse itself.
The sky had finally cleared to just a bit of late afternoon haze, and the temperature was up around 27 degrees, a far cry from the sombre 11 degrees that morning in Adelaide. I was being taken to a spot on the earth that would be precisely in line with the Moon and the Sun as the eclipse took place. I thought back to the day before when all of this had been just a dream. I knew I was experiencing life at a much a higher frequency than the one I normally did, and things that would normally take a lot longer to materialize, seemed to be taking form almost instantly.
We finally saw a place where we could park. There were a few people dotted around the brush nearby. Some guy was hanging out at his ute with his sheepdog about 30 metres away. He looked liked a local with his cut-off sleeves and messy shoulder length hair. There were a couple with a tent next to their car some distance away too, as well as a tourist bus parked on the other side of the road behind us. Although there were really only a few others in the close vicinity, the air still felt tantalisingly pregnant with expectation.
We began unpacking the car and setting up all the gear. Alan had cut some sheets of polystyrene back in Melbourne to make a viewing box and we set about putting it together. The tripods were set up and the telescope came out of it's handsome handmade box. Gerard took care of setting up his two cameras and the Super Lens and soon everything was done. He found himself afterward, aching for somewhere to relieve himself and decided the only gentlemanly thing to do was drive the car down the road a couple of k's and find somewhere totally private. I think he had to go quite a way though as he was gone for quite a few minutes...
I had mentioned to Alan and Gerard earlier that I was interested in UFO's and I was secretly hoping I might get to see one fly past as the only other time was a long time ago, and it was pretty far away. I kept my eyes peeled to the skies, which by now were absolutely clear of any haze and a vivid, bright blue. YAY.
During the 1991 eclipse in Mexico City, tens of thousands of spectators saw a huge metallic disc sitting stationary as it slowly spun in the air and emitted a reddish glow. It was captured by 17 different cameras at the time and you can get the videos online if you do a search. Anyway, it was in the air above the city for 30 minutes before, during, and after the eclipse. But that is something I have learned since.
We did the practice run of the drill for when totality struck, when Alan would have me change the solar filter on the camera lens. Gerard was supposed to alert us when totality came, which only lasted 32 seconds, by saying "Totality". I would quickly remove the filter and say "Off", and put it into the special Tupperware container, heh. When totality was nearly over I was to put the filter back on and say "On" and he would continue snapping. It was a pretty funny and well, beyond cute for me. We laughed a lot while we were practicing too, so you can see they don't take themselves too seriously. Along with their brain power, personalities, preparedness and 5 star transport, it was everything that worked for this li'l diva. It was so hard to believe how amazing this was all turning out, but I kept reminding myself to accept it, because it was exactly what I'd set out to create. I was ticking off all the things on my checklist of requirements effortlessly. They were the perfect eclipse companions.
It was getting close to the time when "first touch" was going to occur and both Alan and Gerard started getting really anxious and a bit fidgety. They made last minute checks of their gear, which turned out to be good thing, as Gerard realised that one of the lenses on his camera wasn't right and changed it. They checked their watches, which had been synchronised to the second (NO! Really? Yes...REALLY), and I got some of the prepared polystyrene board so Alan could project the Sun's image onto it from the telescope's eyepiece while they both took pictures. The wind was up and it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold it so that it was straight, but I managed, and they were able to capture all the crucial moments without too much trouble in the end, but how the hell they'd planned to do all that on their own, I have no idea. There was only about an hour to go until totality and I wondered when the sky would begin to grow dark.
We occupied our time by switching from eclipse glasses to looking through the Super-Lens and watching the projector board. After 40 minutes or so I noticed that the desert was beginning to look darker and redder. It was so beautiful with the contrast in colours so much more pronounced all around us. Then it became darker and darker very quickly. The soil, the rocks, the trees, everything now looked like a deep blood red. We looked at each other and knew that this is what we'd all come so far to see. The hairs began to stand on end on the backs of our necks. The Moon's disc was almost all the way across the Sun, and we couldn't wait for the last of it to be covered. As Alan was focussing through the camera, Gerard and I put the glasses on and watched. We grew more and more animated as the last couple of minutes ticked by, talking about how it was going to be great. They'd told me earlier that when the Sun was in totality, it was ok to remove the glasses due to the rays being blocked, which I didn't know, so now I was really hanging out for when I could look at the Eclipse with my naked eyes.
"All is ready. The sky is clear of any obstruction, the gear is set-up and as good as it can be. 14.5cm telescope, low power eyepiece and reflective board, Nikon 1200mm lens on a cinematographic tripod with a Nikon F100 behind it loaded with several feet of Fuji's finest 400 ASA film ready to go. All the planning has been for this moment. Researching the websites for eclipse locations, photographic exposure tables, rain and cloud-cover forecasts; the planning, the buying, the hiring, the building, the packing and the travelling have come down to this moment, which finds Alan, Gerard and Liz at the side of the Stuart Highway A87 halfway between Pimba and Glendambo in South Australia on Wednesday Dec 4 2002, at 19:40 and 43 seconds local summer time."
More from "Eclipse 2002".
Then Gerard yelled out "Totality!" and exactly what happened next is rather hazy. I know that at some point filters must have been changed and photos were taken, but what I do remember is Gerard saying, "Liz, you should take the glasses off". I turned my back to the sun, whipped them off my face and when I jumped back to look at the sky, my jaw fell. It was so incredible. Oh my God, OH MY GOD, the COLOURS!" And then I was suddenly going "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" at the top of my voice and started pogo-ing up and down on the spot like an African Masai tribesman, not caring at all what Alan and Gerard must have thought about my rather vociferous, ebullient display. It was just so stunningly beautiful. Think of Jodie Foster's face in Contact when she travelled through the wormhole and saw the galactic core for the first time. Ok? Awesome. That was me. That was ME!!!!!
It was so ineffable, so untranslatable, so profound, to watch the perfect circle of the Moon's disc finally moving into place, and exactly covering the Sun's. The resulting diffuse flares of intensely-hued colours that began around the white-hot corona, and radiated trails that filled the entire dome of the sky overhead and as far as one could see. They formed in streaks of rich fire-orange, electrically charged gold, plasma-perking purples, reds of all shades, the deepest royal blues and St Germaine's violet flame. Small fiery orbs of intense orange, called Bailey's Beads, gathered and bubbled around the edges of the Moon's jagged mountain peaks and looked like liquid mercury. Stars became visible for those few moments, as did the planet Mercury, which hung like a small jewel in the sky beneath the Sun.
Nothing can prepare you for that moment. No photo can ever do it justice, no words can completely convey all the emotions that you experience or what your eyes actually see. It is like looking into the Eye of God.
Physically being a part of that alignment makes you understand just how synchronised this universe is. As I watched the Moon gliding over the Sun, as our planet turned, I felt like I was a both a witness to and a part of a great cosmic clock, and I was watching as the cogs were sliding perfectly into place. It stirred something so deep and ancient within me, my enduring connection to the Sun, and I knew that I could never be the same again. Looking back I realise that the rays of light I was exposing myself to were in fact carriers of particular frequencies that open usually inactive codes within our DNA, often referred to as "junk". What a crock. It's not junk, it's programs and codes that help re-install our Otherware, and we all have it in our DNA.
All across the desert, from all the different groups of people scattered around us and beyond our line of sight came cries out to the sky like mine. People cheered, hooted, honked, laughed, screamed, clapped, cried. Dogs howled. Their voices were carried by the outback winds high up into the air where they met and playfully merged with the sounds of others that had come from further away, then they dropped back down to earshot where my ears would catch them, and I could feel their wonder too. We all knew we were part of something infinitely greater than us, that we were seeing something incomparable, that we were part of some vast intelligence that permeates and synchronises the entire Cosmos.
The guys were similarly affected and started exclaiming things, which again are hazy. What is clear, is how we all just looked at each other at one point, and with crazed smiles across our faces, spontaneously hugged all at once, laughing. Then they both paced around our site afterwards saying things like, "No one can ever take this away from us. We can say WE WERE HERE", and "We saw it!" We really saw it!" and, "We can never say "Awesome" about anything else again!" I thought statements like these, especially from Gerard, were rather brave, as I couldn't imagine him having outbursts like this very often, and we all went "Yeah!" quite loudly in agreement...and laughing that excited laugh that is almost the same as the one you do when you drink too much red cordial.
I thought a lot about the unbelievable relationships of proportional size and distance that it takes to actually create a total solar or lunar eclipse from our vantage point on earth. It is not a coincidence that the sun is 400 times bigger than our Moon, or that it also happens to be 400 times further away from the Moon than the Moon is to Earth. Unsurprisingly, I've wanted to learn a lot about sacred geometry since then and from what the astronomers are saying about the layout of the Universe, it seems nothing has been placed anywhere by accident.
At the end of 32 seconds, after the Moon began to move again, the first rays of light emerged again and for the briefest time, we were treated to the dazzling "diamond ring" effect that results. It's what most of the eclipse watchers as their favourite moment and I now know why. We took more photos and continued to watch through the cameras or the on the projector board for at least another half an hour. The Sun had only been 14 degrees above the horizon when totality had occurred so the Sun set quickly as the last whiskers of the pinks and oranges of sunset trailed across the sky. We packed up and left there, as I continued to watch the sky out of the car's back window, for as long as any traces of light remained. By 9:15 they'd all disappeared, having been devoured by the by the encroaching darkness, and we were plunged into night once again.
Then I realised I could start looking for UFOs so I spent the next twenty minutes scouring the skies some more.
We were all still pretty high from the eclipse experience, but by that time we had settled into our own reveries and the car was silent. We decided to drive down the road a little further until we found a spot to stay at for the night. The guys figured they'd just sleep in the car, and that was fine by me. I was SO glad I'd bought that blanket, let me tell you, as it can get nippy out there in the desert, even in summer. We'd passed some lovely salt lakes on our way there during the day, but hadn't had time to stop so we decided to try and find one to make camp at. Gerard found a great spot down a dip off the road beside one of these giant salt lakes that was quietly shimmering as it reflected the starlight. As there was no moon or cloud, the stars lit up with sparkles over the black canvas of the sky. It had been awhile since I'd been out to the country and I'd forgotten just how many stars there were up there, but it was great to be reminded. I breathed in deeply and imprinted all I could about that moment into my DNA. The Milky Way was looking particularly milky, and when I remembered we had a telescope with us I nearly lost it. I completely forgot all about stargazing that day, which for me is unusual. I'd wanted to bring my own telescope but knew it wasn't practical, and I hardly thought I would get the chance for sky watching without having my own transport.
It was becoming more and more evident that our meeting was no accident. Every single thing that I had visualized was coming true, and I felt totally in the zone. The best part was that I could get an astronomy lesson too, something I hadn't even thought remotely possible when I left for Adelaide the night before. I'd only just begun studying backyard astronomy on my own for a few months at that stage, so I really appreciated the opportunity to learn some more from people who actually knew their stuff.
We set up a rug to sit on, a buffet was laid out on the boot of the car, and we had a fabulous starlight picnic, then Alan got to work putting the telescope back together. He'd not only painstakingly constructed the box for it, he's also done several clever modifications to the telescope itself. It was incredibly smooth to manoeuvrer and the viewfinder was mounted in such a way that made it permanently aligned to the eyepiece. Not bad compared to my clumsy thing, which was big and had a great lens, but needed constant adjusting.
Gerard had a red-light torch for perusing the star map, and between them both they had all the star maps you could wish for, including a current one. I'd brought my Mighty Bright light as well so we consulted the maps for awhile under the open hood of the boot, deciding finally that we should definitely try to get a rare glimpse of the Andromeda galaxy, which was going to be low on the horizon, but still visible for a little while from where we were. It's the closest spiral galaxy to ours, and part of our local system of stars, but it's still 2.2 million light years away!
So we began. We looked at binary star systems including Sirius A and B, the Great Square of Pegasus, found Andromeda (it looked amazing, though tiny - but who cares, I saw it with my own eyes), some pretty star clusters, a wild nebula in the Orion constellation, and loads more. We had a ball. I was completely enthralled. Alan turned to me after awhile and asked whether there was anything I would like to see, and I faltered for a minute. I tried to pull a star's name, a constellation, anything from my rather limited astronomical knowledge that I'd like to view. Then I remembered! It slipped off my tongue so easily like it was something I said all the time: "I'd like to see The Pleiades please". With a quick look at the sky map, he and Gerard quickly turned the scope into position and aimed. When Alan told me I could take a look, I put my eye up to the lens. I could not have been less prepared for the reaction that I had next. It all happened in the instant when the photons of light, carried across space for my eyes to see, entered my retina. I was greeted by the most gorgeous display of hundreds of shining points of light, like diamonds on black velvet, in a beautiful cluster formation, with the seven main stars of the constellation contained within my field of view. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I gasped audibly. Within nano-seconds every part of my being, down to my DNA, was resounding with the recollection that the stars I was looking at, were HOME. Yes home. H-O-M-E. What!?@!
Tears had welled up in my eyes and I just wanted to cry it was so beautiful, but I had to catch myself in front of the guys, as I didn't want to come across as a complete lunatic. I didn't even know what to think myself. I had to process this. It was happening so fast. So I composed myself and said something like, "Wow. That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." (twice in one day, shit, what was happening to me?), and I found it very hard to tear myself away from the telescope after that .
We did however move away for awhile, and we all sat around chatting some more, and telling more stories. I didn't speak about what had just happened to me. I just sat with it and tried to make some sense out of it. I really knew very little about them, except that they were also known as the Seven Sisters and were a favourite for stargazers. The Pleiades weren't a part of my research or knowledge base at all. I don't even know how I even remembered the name. Whatever was unfolding though, I knew one thing was undeniable. I must be going insane. NO, just jerkin with ya, sorry, anyway, it was undeniable.
Everything in me knew that I was somehow deeply connected to this star system, but how? I resolved to do some investigating when I got home. But that night in the Australian Outback, in my planetary home, I knew that I had remembered another home, a galactic home, and that it was just as real. It thrilled me to the core. I was beginning to remember who I was!
Gerard retired early that night, and went to sleep in the driver's seat fully reclined, while Alan and I told a few more stories. I'd asked him earlier in the car if he'd ever seen any UFO's and had hinted at something but didn't really want to discuss it much. But when we were alone I asked him to tell me again and he did, reluctantly at first, but then much more engagingly, as he began describing some unusual sightings he'd had growing up on the coast in New Zealand.
These were not some pissy two second glances at a tiny little light in the sky type of sightings, his were skilfully detailed, varied, and in one case he watched some craft over a few hours. He eventually worked out that there must have been a flight path near his home because he would regularly see them all following the same course. Commercial and Air Force planes would also fly past but whenever he would ring Air Traffic Control at any of the Air Force bases or airports, he would be told that it was one of their regular flights, just a bit off schedule. Then he would say, "NO, I saw Flight Number so and so depart on time, this was something else," which always fucked them up. I heard some pretty amazing stuff and realised there was more to this funny computer guy cum action hero, than I thought. It didn't surprise me in the least that we could have something like that in common. I've always been attracted to people that, despite appearances, upon scratching their surface, you find that there's a whole lot more going on with them than you knew.
Alan declared he was sleeping outside on the rug, and I stayed up late into the night, just me, the telescope, and the stars. I finally had to go to bed when I looked directly up at the sky overhead a couple hours later, and the black void turned into a flat plasma screen and the stars became eyes, and they were all looking at, Me. That was the limit.
I was able to lie down quite comfortably in the back seat if I lay on my side in the Toblerone-shaped wedge that had formed under the reclined seats from the front. I adjusted my pillow, put the blanket over me and slept like a baby.
I found out later that the salt lake we were led to is named, quite appropriately, Lake Hart. Heart....geddit? Can you believe it? I actually couldn't. The gods have such a sense of humour.
Since then a lot has happened, and my kin in the Pleiades are now a big part of my life. They have taught me so much. I'll write a lot more about them in later posts, trust me.
And for the next two and a half days Gerard, Alan and myself ended up staying together. I gave them several opportunities to ditch me, but we were really having a lot of fun, and they would always invite me to stay on. We were well matched intellectually, but we all had quite different worldviews, so it was nice challenge for us to be mutually respectful of each other's ideas while trying to challenge one another as coherently as possible. We spent much time on the road exchanging ideas, trying on stuff for size, or sometimes throwing them in the 'too hard" basket. If Alan slept then Gerard and I would talk about stuff and vice versa. They both worked as computer technicians, which is how they met, and pretty early on it became obvious to me that some of my ideas about reality were pretty hard for them to hear. They were always open-minded enough to let me speak though, and they'd bounce things off me. We talked sporadically about some of the ideas in the CWG books that were relevant to that moment, or about a particular insight I'd had, or how you might apply some of the ideas to your daily living, and it sparked much interest and debate. I found out about a year later that Alan and Gerard had both decided to give the books a read a few months after our trip, which was brilliant.
It was always reciprocally enlightening, being in their company. They were an absolute mine of information about all sorts of things and we never ran out of topics to discuss. And it wasn't long before I threw away my return bus ticket and we leisurely drove me around some of the most beautiful South Australian countryside on a very scenic route back to Melbourne. We went through quaint little towns that they'd found on previous jaunts, and I saw the constantly changing landscape from high lookouts and wide open roads.
I've experimented with stretching time ever since I first discovered that when you fall in love, you can make a kiss last an eternity. You can also make a boring flight pass more quickly if you get good at it, or create an atmosphere at a party where a deep, lengthy, important conversation that seems to last for hours, passes in only twenty minutes. I've always liked bending and stretching time to suit my needs and on that trip it happened constantly, but it felt out of our hands for the most part, like we were caught in a strange time-warp so we just surrendered to it. "Is that the time?" was something we ended up saying more times than I can remember. And the best part was, it wasn't just me saying it, we all were.
We "parked" out the next night in a back street of a village. We got there quite late at night, and parked the car at what appeared to be a dead end street, with no neighbours to annoy. The next morning, we were mildly shocked to discover that we'd parked only a short distance away from the municipal dump! A few curious Jersey cows had congregated at the fence beside the car as well, and from beneath thick eyelashes, they were casually eyeing its sleeping inhabitants. The next night we were in the Barossa Valley, slightly more prepared, and we woke up to a gorgeous view of a hillside covered in rows and rows of lush green grapevines and blue sunny skies.
Once we got back to Victoria, we made for the Grampians, where time seemed to bend and take on a mind of its own again. No matter how we tried to stick to a schedule, or drive faster it just seemed to take a really long time to get back to the City. We saw wild deer in the mountains though, which I loved, and we used the drive to delve a little deeper into our exchanges. My cheeks welcomed the break too as they'd begun to ache a little due to all the laughing I'd done over the last few days, and especially that last day. Alan had let loose with some of his real life death-defying adventures at around lunchtime and he had me crying with laughter a few times. He really is Batman if all that stuff is true, and he told them like it was. So at around dusk, the tone changed slightly and I got to hear about a poltergeist that he'd lived with for over a year, and some other pretty far-out stuff that had happened to him. Gerard spent some time wanting to discuss the Akashic Field, so I fielded questions from both of them about that for awhile. We talked about reincarnation, dimensions of reality co-existing in the same space without knowing about each other, consciousness, the astral world, the Noetic Sciences Institute, a whole lot of stuff that I really love and it was a nice way to leave things.
We'd gone from being complete strangers to all being deeply transformed in some way by our meeting, in three and a half days. We'd trusted in our flexibility in each moment, and stretched ourselves beyond our normal comfort zones, creating or participating in large and small miracles, so it seemed, at every turn. We used our brains, which came as a great joy to me as I don't get to talk quantum physics with many of my disco friends. It's not their fault I know...but it was a nice change. I also knew that I'd helped to open up their perspective in many ways, as they did for me, in HUGE ways. My heart knew that I had been drawn to them because their soul's urge for change, and expansion, had already begun, by nudging them into unconsciously creating the conditions for me to enter their lives. I'd definitely sent out a call for them too, for the same reasons. The difference was that they had no idea I was coming along. I, on the other hand, had been certain that I would find them.
We finally made it back to Melbourne sometime around 9 pm that night. It was a lot later than we all thought we'd be back by, and we'd all been together non-stop for 3 and a half days. On our way home, I told them where I lived and it turned out that Alan lived just around the corner from me! It was nice, as dropping me off didn't pose any inconvenience at all. We swapped numbers and said our farewells amidst bear hugs and kisses goodbye. It was good to be home, back to my bed, but I could've kept going for at least another day if I'd had to. They dropped me off right to my front door.
We all knew it was meant to be, and it was.
We've all kept in touch too, Batman, Robin and I.
I'm forever in their debt for everything they shared with me, for their kindness and generosity and for behaving like perfect gentlemen the entire time. Men like these are really rare... but if you are one them, you should try going to an eclipse!
There’s nothing quite like sipping champagne at sunset on a luxury yacht, and Ivanna Wayne knows precisely how to match the moment with effortless glamor and undeniable style. For this radiant golden hour soirée, Ivanna turned heads in a sheer, crystal-studded azure pant set that sparkled as brilliantly as the sun on the water.
Her look features a sleek bralette and sheer high-waisted pants, allowing just the right amount of skin to peek through while keeping things sophisticated and summery. The matching headscarf adds a touch of old-Hollywood allure, reminiscent of seaside icons from a bygone era — think Grace Kelly meets modern mermaid.
This looks truly stunning because it blends resort wear with runway flair. The lightweight fabric floats with the breeze, while the shimmer creates a dreamlike aura against the sunset backdrop. Ivanna’s minimal accessories make the outfit speak for itself — calm, confident, and irresistibly chic.
Whether it’s a private yacht party or a summer beach gala, this look is a showstopper that says: “I came to celebrate, and I came in style.”