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This shot was taken during my most recent session in the Adda river, along with Those unspoken words between us and Yes, yes... Look up!.
It was an unusual morning, full of surprises. The feast of colours occurred almost an hour before the official time for sunrise; I assume that it was due to the clouds being at a very high altitude. It was lucky that I was ready for that surprise time, albeit still walking towards the chattering banks of the river.
When I took this exposure bracketing, the early colourful moment was at its climaxing point; I had just captured an interesting dialogue between the sky and the humble gold of the buttercups in a nearby field, practically on the other side of the towpath (Those unspoken words between us). There was no time to move to another spot; all I could do was walk to the other side of the towpath, position my tripod, and shoot two or three exposure bracketings, one of which badly blurred (hurry, hurry up!). And alas, the heavenly fires were gone. After that fleeting, glorious explosion of rosy and purple light, the mood of the day progressed rather linearly towards a quiet morning bathed in a soft, veiled light that, combined with the mists from the river, lent the place a somehow ethereal mood. More photos about this evolution are to come in due time - which means in a long time, given my current state of physical and mental exhaustion.
It is always extremely satisfying to capture a sunrise, even when it is unsatisfying from a photographic standpoint. At the bare minimum, it means that I have had a little peaceful time in a nice location. You cannot really foresee what a new sunrise is going to offer. I remember slow, lazy, almost endless sunrises, and some gray, dull ones. I have also experienced some fleeting sunrises, lasting the time one needs to think, "oh, wow...". This one was of this kind, and ahead of schedule on top of that. I doubt anyone notified the sun about the proper time of sunrise that morning, lol. It might have easily been missed. I was lucky, and this is the best shot I have taken at that sunrise proper. I am not entirely satisfied with it, but I suppose I should be happy with what I got since I risked getting nothing at all...
I wish you all a good weekend!
Explored on 2024/07/13 nr. 31.
I have obtained this picture by blending an exposure bracketing [-2.0/-1.0/0/+1.0/+2.0 EV] by luminosity masks in the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot). Along the journey - post-processing always is a journey of discovery to me - I tried the inverted RGB blue channel technique described by Boris Hajdukovic. It revealed many fine details in the clouds that previously had looked like a rather amorphous glow. I desaturated this layer a lot since colours didn't need any boost - indeed, I was struggling to keep that colourful sky at bay.
As usual, I gave the finishing touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and played a bit with dodging and burning.
Raw files processed with Darktable.
D9516 was the most recent of Didcot Railway Centre’s diesels to be built, emerging from Swindon works in 1964, only to be withdrawn by 1968. The entire class had short working careers with BR, but many went on to have long and successful spells with industrial users and of the 56 built, 19 have made it into preservation.
D9516 was built at Swindon, entering traffic in October 1964, but by 1966 was already to be found stored out of use.
The locomotives are powered by a Paxman 6-cylinder Ventura 6YJXL engine producing 650 bhp (485 kW), connected to a Voith L217U hydraulic transmission and Hunslet gearbox.
Due to recent unauthorised publication of my images in a magazine without payment I have to now make this statement:
This image is the copyright of © Peter Brabham; Any users, found to replicate, reproduce, circulate, distribute, download, manipulate or otherwise use my images without my written consent will be in breach of copyright laws. Please contact me at pete.brabham@ntlworld.com for permission to use any of my photographs. I will give permission free of charge to Heritage Railways and steam loco restoration projects but profit making magazines and book authors must pay a reproduction fee.
The top third of a tall pine crashed into our yard, onto a corner of our roof, and poked a hole in the house.
Taken on our recent trip to Northumberland with the diddy little DJI Spark. I had got a few shots along the beach but when I swapped the batteries on the drone decided it needed the IMU calibrating. I spent 15minutes faffing around and once it was complete noticed the fishing boat heading back to the shore. If it wasn't for the IMU needing recalibrating I might have missed this!
Some of the recent minifigs which I purchased from Shopee and BL... I had the Shower guy before but gave him away. So here he is again. I can't remember if I had the Where are my pants guy before but I think it's a neat addition to any city or town folk. He will be wearing pants of course... XD
Surprisingly the pizza costume guy is kinda cute. Wasn't interested in these costumes at first but when I got him, the pizza mould is quite nice. Now it seems that I have to build a pizza place for him... :D Here we go again!
Judging in any competition is impossible to double guess, and there can't be many years (for which read any) when even the majority of people think that the best shot won in any given competition - so I just use competitions to give me an incentive to go out and take pictures by making the deliberate decision that I'll only enter pictures taken in the last year in any annual competition that I enter at all regularly. One of the pleasures of this is reviewing the last years pictures - I don't sort them into possible entries and the rest or anything like that as I go,so I look through the whole of the least year's output, regardless of subject matter. Doing this, I quite often find pictures - especially at time when I'm taking a lot of pictures, that just don't get posted because I've just moved on to another day's output. seeing these with fresh eye's they often seem worth posting - and this is one - no doubt with a few others over the next days as I get together an entry for this year's LPOTY.
With the recent influx of patched ex CSX C40-8's on seemingly every road freight, it's hard to imagine that it wasn't long ago that the entire Guilford/Pan Am fleet was all in matching paint. Opinions differ on the Big G paint scheme, but at least everything was painted for many years. In 2008 I was living in Portland and would often be coming home from work in the evening around the time eastbound train SEWA would be leaving Rigby yard in South Portland. There are a few shots in the Portland area that are properly lit for an evening eastbound. On this particular day the train had a pair of ex CN GP40-2W's, purchased by Guilford in 2000, for power. At this time there were two units in the initial light blue Pan Am paint. By the late 2000's the majority of the roster was mostly different variants of the GP40, but there were still a few odd balls floating around if you were lucky enough to find one. Unlike the recently purchased GE's, the 20 GP40-2W's were delivered painted in the GRS scheme.
South Portland, Maine
June 3, 2008
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Some of the minifigures which arrived recently. The classic ones are from the Thai BL seller... Not sure why one black hair is not shiny and dull in colour. But I checked inside the stud area has a Lego logo. Might have to buy another hairpiece to replace the dull black one.
Vidiyo bunny... Yass, finally have him! I bought one together with the Candy Ballerina, but they never arrived.... never left France too because it was stolen by the French customs. : ( Sad... Glad to have gotten him (from another French seller instead) Had a bit of phobia since the earlier ones were gone... Relieved he arrived safely...
Been a minute since I’ve shared on here. I’ve been busy workin on the railroad and don’t have a big slot to photograph anymore.
Some of the minifigures which I assembled recently... Built the sail boat lady earlier but then disassembled her to make another minifig... missed her so I built her again but this time with a life jacket... :D Some random City minifigs and Jack Davids...
Grey Fantail definitely has the look of an immature. Fluffy, with hints of buff coloration in the wing feathers and eyebrow.
It had the gregarious habits of its elders and wasn't in a hurry to leave.
One aspect I enjoy about cross-dressing is attempting to create different female appearances. This is down to a combination of make-up application, wig choice and style of clothing. My choices are driven by mood. Some occasions I really want to glam up and wear short dresses, this is always fun and , I feel, rather daring to attempt when you live as a man. Other times I want to see gif I can pass myself off as female and be believable in terms of appearance.
I find attempting to look female in na convincing way is the challenge I truly thrive on and enjoy the most. This picture is a selfie shot from my most recent cross-dressing opportunity in mid March. It had been three years since I last had a relaxed opportunity to cross-dress (I had a very brief and unsuccessful opportunity back in December…best forgotten!).
I’m aware I have older sagging and far from smooth skin, but then again who in the real world, and I include many beautiful young woman, has skin without texture? Texture is real and so is an aspect one has to work with when applying make-up. My acceptance is I have less than ideal skin on my face and I focus on creating a smoother overall colour tone as the texture, my pores and bumps from years of shaving, exist and are there. I know photo manipulation can smooth skin which I feel looks quite odd! I see pictures in many women magazines (yes, I love reading women magazines) where the faces look like they are made of some strange plastic looking skin…scary! I see this trend is now prevalent on social media photo posts. I think such magazines are probably at the root of image issues many young females seem to be having these days.
I admit, I dreamed of smooth perfect skin but reality is I don’t have it. I’m much hap[per in my cross-dressing now I’ve evolved my mental approach to knowing I have to work with the face I’ve got. I really enjoy applying make-up now and seeing what I can do. I will never master the skin I hope to one day haver but I get a lot of delight and enjoyment from applying make-up and trying out various colours and techniques.
I’ve come to this direction because I am planning a trip out later in the year and you can’t exist in the real world in any other way than working with what you’ve got. This applies to my face, my body, clothing choices my mannerisms and inner projection. My facial skin has texture and I have wrinkles and lines, these are inescapable. I use make-up to change the focus on my face. By that I mean I play up what are(hopefully) my best areas and try to minimise the less than ideal areas. I have rubbish lips, there is not much I can do to them without ending up looking like a full on drag queen. I play these down. I use my eyes as my main emphasis so concentrate my efforts on eyebrows, eyeliner, shadow and mascara. I’m hoping if I make my eyes the main focus my other failings won’t be as noticeable.
In terms of clothing, I’ve modified my dress choices for the planned real world trip out. Female friends advised me on this. They suggested, rather unanimously to my surprise, I should wear midi dresses with a scoop or v-neckline. Being a crossdresser this was a departure from the faved mini dresses and body con styles. I followed their advice and the first time I wore one of the midi style dresses it felt incredible! It proved to be a style that made me feel more feminine than ever before. I loved the fabrics, I adored the way it swished around my freshly shaved legs, the feel of the whole dress was unbelievable. When I sat down and the split draped and revealed my legs I was ecstatic. This impacted on me more than I can articulate. I have a few midi dresses now and I am looking forward to wearing them in the future.
Although the full dress is not visible in this selfie I was feeling so alive wearing it and the make-up. I adored, loved, was delighted, truly in heaven appearing as a woman and felt great emotional fulfilment. I felt my nerves easier and my confidence increase and though I always felt terrified over going out in public (my last time was back in May 2017) I felt a new level of comfort within me. Now, I can’t wait!
Hello.
I am sorry to have kept you waiting so long.
I'm fine. This is recent pic.
I hope you like it. :-)
Love,
Kyoko
So in a recent entry from a friend's series (which if you still haven't seen it from the last time I told you to I swear to Jesus Christ Vampire hunter) one of the character's experiences rain for the first time in her life. I just looked at it all "yep, drawing that". Here we are. I did look at the poster for The Sound of Music, but by the time I did I already drew up like 70% of this. The rain wasn't anywhere near as tedious as I thought it would be.