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Collembola under a drop of water.
The Collembola's (aka Dicyrtomina minuta forma ornata) feet make use of surface tension that allow it to walk upside down on a drop of water.
We tend to take for granted the integrity of the foundation of our everyday lives. But the solid icy surface of modern civilization only runs so deep. Once in a while the cracks appear and make us enormously aware of our own vulnerability. And maybe our shared humanity as well? While there have been many trying events in my life, few have had the kind of global resonance that the current Coronavirus pandemic has. My prayers go out to all those affected personally. For the rest of us, it is an opportunity to reflect on the fragility of life and what we value most deeply.
It seems almost a lifetime now, but just a few short weeks ago I had a couple of days to explore the crazy, frozen environs of Abraham Lake in Alberta Canada. While frozen lakes are not exactly unusual in Canada (home to approx. 60% of the world's lakes, almost 100% of which will be frozen in February), Abraham Lake is quite unique among them, being a glacial runoff lake (fed by the indescribable turquoise runoff of the Canadian Rocky Mountain glaciers), a man-made lake of recent origin (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lake), and most importantly, a location that is subject to nearly continuous scouring by intense winds in the winter.
On the relatively mild days I was there, wind speeds ranged from 10-40mph, gusting even higher at times. At one point the wind managed to physically push me about 20 feet down the ice. While I was wearing ice cleats. It literally left deep groves on the ice where my boots were digging in while the wind pushed me. That is an insane level of wind force. The upside is that the wind cleans off much of the snow from the ice surface (nature’s own Zamboni) and lays bare the surprisingly varied beauty of the ice formations underneath.
The ice is of course subjected to major stresses during the winter which result in huge cracks across the surface such as those seen here. However, the ice is also remarkably thick (12-24 inches here, at a guess), and more solid than it often looked. Even more uniquely, the decaying organic material creates methane bubbles that get trapped in the ice during the winter. The layers of methane bubbles combined with the crazy lines of fractured glacial ice create a visual field almost unprecedented in its weirdness, and the incredibly discomfiting effect that has on one's own sense of preservation.
it's also a perfect metaphor for the wild fracturing occurring in the broader world as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
I took many shots on Abraham Lake, but in some situations I found it either impossibly tedious or outright impossible to get the shot I wanted with the DSLR and a tripod (remember, 40mph winds!), and so I resorted to a lot of shots with my iPhone while lying on my belly. This is one of those. Not ideal. But it works.
A quick personal shout-out here to my good friend John Cohn. I placed a "Sam Stone" at the nearby Aurum Lodge, a great little B&B that is the perfect home base for exploring Abraham Lake. John created Sam Stones to honor the memory of his son Sam and I am honored to have a few of these in my possession. If you find this, or any other, SamStone please record your find at www.samstones.org and feel free to re-home it and keep the chain going.
Stay safe and wash your hands my friends!
Outdoors, contre-jour, 7Artisans manual lens at F16 plus 16mm macro extension tube; edited in Fuji's raw converter and refined in Luminar. Electromagnetic forces may hold the rain water molecules together - ideally in the shape of a sphere. In this case, gravity and other forces generate an asymmetric body of water. And though there is no such thing as a skin the water does not run off.
We're having a beautiful sunny Sunday evening. Decided to use the pocket camera that's waterproof for a water capture. My very first try on this. 182/365
There is no way to penetrate the surface of life but by attacking it earnestly at a particular point. -Charles Horton Cooley
A jumper surfaces and gasps as she comes up in the icy lake water during the Penguin Plunge held at City Beach in Whitefish Montana as part of the City’s annual Winter Carnival. The plunge is held to benefit Special Olympics and is sponsored by Local Law Enforcement agencies and businesses. Over 130 people jumped and raised more than $40,000!
A day out photographing Kingfishers. It was likely to be the last chance of 2021. The light was dull to start with but improved during the afternoon.
This Kingfisher breaks the Surface with a fish before flying away.
Virtual Surfaces. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Distorted reflections in the windows of a San Francisco building.
Almost every time I photograph in big city (and sometimes small city…) downtowns I end up getting distracted by the things reflected in the windows of tall buildings, and by how they relate to the forms of these architectural structures.
Buildings of certain styles and vintages have exteriors that are largely glass. While these buildings have physical forms and volumes, what we see of them is more a result of what is around them than of their own shapes. I’m intrigued by how little of what we see when we look at such structures is actually the structures themselves — most of what we see is virtual, imaginary, and transitory. In this photograph, all you see of the buildings actual exterior are a few non-reflective areas between windows — some dark horizontal strips and a few lighter vertical panels. Everything else in the image is either inside the building (a few interior lights seen through the windows) or a distorted reflection of the building’s surroundings.
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.
Antwerp, close to the harbour and the brand new porthouse, they are building many new appartment blocks. This one is recently finished. I love its minimalism and bright aspect.
ID: 003570
This picture is (c) Copyright Frank Titze, all rights reserved.
It may NOT be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without my permission.
See more pictures on frank-titze.art.
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Exposure: 05/2015
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Published: 09/2015
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From this photogenic angle, the high throne or monolithic chair becomes less obvious and the ramp behind, a far away detail. The surface of this man-made alcove is smooth and extends to the floor. From details visible from behind, it would seem that the alcove was at some point in the distant past vandalised and transformed from a resounding amplification of voice into an arch. This sort of troglodyte amplificatory space can also be seen in the nearby Cova dels Moros, Cova de Sa Tuna and, to an extent, the extension of the natural Cova de Cala. Despite the obvious local appreciation for this scale of man made alcove / cave, I will argue that each site needs to be looked at in relation with local issues and geographies.
The monolith is found on the high point of a mining area that was used for constructions in the Baix Empordà of northern Spain between the broad dates of protohistory and prehistory. Whilst difficult to date, I would want to place it's first shapes as far back as the late neolithic or bronze age. But, with dynamic transformations into the early years of history, over writing and wear the site may not give up all of its archaeology with ease.
AJ
The rim of a large crater, with some smaller craters within. I originally planned to have this rim be at one end of my base, with the entire base inside the crater. But now I'm thinking of building parts of it outside, e.g. I have a few Windtraps that would make sense to have on the rim, to pick up the maximum amount of wind. Also, I have a force field barrier, that would make more sense to have on the outside than on the inside of the crater...