This image is better viewed: LARGE

Benched in Southern California

This eagle made so many low passes over my head that I finally began to think it was showing off its spectacular plumage design. The encounter took place on a private estancia in Chilean Patagonia.

This is the view into the stairwell of a small council estate on Pomeroy Street, in New Cross, in south east London, just east of the border with Peckham, where an abandoned mattress looked as though it was derived from some sort of sea creature. Photo taken in the early evening on March 5, 2013.

For more on Andy Worthington, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/

For my most interesting photos, see: www.flickriver.com/photos/andyworthington/popular-interes...

UPDATE JUNE 2017: I've just set up a Facebook page, 'The State of London', featuring, every day, a photo of London from my five years of cycling around and taking photos of the capital. Please join me! www.facebook.com/thestateoflondon/

They were friendly patrolling the busy Athens streets in a hot afternoon

This is my new

Argentum Excursor I. h.

11x14 inch camera.

Argentum Camera Manufactura,

Hungary.

The camera weighs only 3.9 kg.

This was a bit of a surprise its in excellent condition for one of these! this is by far the best example I’ve found! On the rear its all complete too and its the rarer 13” version

This Towhee was quite the aggressor and fought with a male Cardinal. I don't know that I have seen such interspecies fighting before. The Towhee was the clear victor. It confirms my belief that sparrows rule! :)

This is a panorama of Joshua Tree National Park at Night, in an attempt to capture to feel of the park at night. This is a panorama of 8 combined horizintal images, taken with a Canon 1Dx camera, and a Nikon 14-24 mm lens at 14 mm, f 2.8, 25 sec. exposures and ISO 6400. there are 2 small lights hidden among the rocks and a larger light approx. 40 - 50 meters to my right. There a a considerable amount of light pollution around Joshua Tree. This creates aa background ambient light so the park does not seem "pitch black", and actually helps to light the foreground somewhat. This ambient light is a very "flat" light however, and does not create a very pleasing look. The added lights create shadows and create some depth to the photo.

Thanks for looking. All comments are appreciated. Hope you enjoy!

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This split light portrait adds a sense of focus and seriousness to an otherwise light hearted image,

Short Meaning:

Be aware of beauty in the world around you.

Not So Short Meaning:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"

And If You Have 5 Minutes To Kill:

Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address By David Foster Wallace

- May 21, 2005

(If anybody feels like perspiring [cough], I'd advise you to go ahead, because I'm sure going to. In fact I'm gonna [mumbles while pulling up his gown and taking out a handkerchief from his pocket].) Greetings ["parents"?] and congratulations to Kenyon's graduating class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"

This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story ["thing"] turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre, but if you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.

Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that I'm supposed to talk about your liberal arts education's meaning, to try to explain why the degree you are about to receive has actual human value instead of just a material payoff. So let's talk about the single most pervasive cliché in the commencement speech genre, which is that a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about quote teaching you how to think. If you're like me as a student, you've never liked hearing this, and you tend to feel a bit insulted by the claim that you needed anybody to teach you how to think, since the fact that you even got admitted to a college this good seems like proof that you already know how to think. But I'm going to posit to you that the liberal arts cliché turns out not to be insulting at all, because the really significant education in thinking that we're supposed to get in a place like this isn't really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about. If your total freedom of choice regarding what to think about seems too obvious to waste time discussing, I'd ask you to think about fish and water, and to bracket for just a few minutes your skepticism about the value of the totally obvious.

Here's another didactic little story. There are these two guys sitting together in a bar in the remote Alaskan wilderness. One of the guys is religious, the other is an atheist, and the two are arguing about the existence of God with that special intensity that comes after about the fourth beer. And the atheist says: "Look, it's not like I don't have actual reasons for not believing in God. It's not like I haven't ever experimented with the whole God and prayer thing. Just last month I got caught away from the camp in that terrible blizzard, and I was totally lost and I couldn't see a thing, and it was fifty below, and so I tried it: I fell to my knees in the snow and cried out 'Oh, God, if there is a God, I'm lost in this blizzard, and I'm gonna die if you don't help me.'" And now, in the bar, the religious guy looks at the atheist all puzzled. "Well then you must believe now," he says, "After all, here you are, alive." The atheist just rolls his eyes. "No, man, all that was was a couple Eskimos happened to come wandering by and showed me the way back to camp."

It's easy to run this story through kind of a standard liberal arts analysis: the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people, given those people's two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience. Because we prize tolerance and diversity of belief, nowhere in our liberal arts analysis do we want to claim that one guy's interpretation is true and the other guy's is false or bad. Which is fine, except we also never end up talking about just where these individual templates and beliefs come from. Meaning, where they come from INSIDE the two guys. As if a person's most basic orientation toward the world, and the meaning of his experience were somehow just hard-wired, like height or shoe-size; or automatically absorbed from the culture, like language. As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal, intentional choice. Plus, there's the whole matter of arrogance. The nonreligious guy is so totally certain in his dismissal of the possibility that the passing Eskimos had anything to do with his prayer for help. True, there are plenty of religious people who seem arrogant and certain of their own interpretations, too. They're probably even more repulsive than atheists, at least to most of us. But religious dogmatists' problem is exactly the same as the story's unbeliever: blind certainty, a close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up.

The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. I have learned this the hard way, as I predict you graduates will, too.

Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness because it's so socially repulsive. But it's pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.

Please don't worry that I'm getting ready to lecture you about compassion or other-directedness or all the so-called virtues. This is not a matter of virtue. It's a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting which is to be deeply and literally self-centered and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self. People who can adjust their natural default setting this way are often described as being "well-adjusted", which I suggest to you is not an accidental term.

Given the triumphant academic setting here, an obvious question is how much of this work of adjusting our default setting involves actual knowledge or intellect. This question gets very tricky. Probably the most dangerous thing about an academic education -- least in my own case -- is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract argument inside my head, instead of simply paying attention to what is going on right in front of me, paying attention to what is going on inside me.

As I'm sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.

This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.

And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. Let's get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what "day in day out" really means. There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I'm talking about.

By way of example, let's say it's an average adult day, and you get up in the morning, go to your challenging, white-collar, college-graduate job, and you work hard for eight or ten hours, and at the end of the day you're tired and somewhat stressed and all you want is to go home and have a good supper and maybe unwind for an hour, and then hit the sack early because, of course, you have to get up the next day and do it all again. But then you remember there's no food at home. You haven't had time to shop this week because of your challenging job, and so now after work you have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket. It's the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be: very bad. So getting to the store takes way longer than it should, and when you finally get there, the supermarket is very crowded, because of course it's the time of day when all the other people with jobs also try to squeeze in some grocery shopping. And the store is hideously lit and infused with soul-killing muzak or corporate pop and it's pretty much the last place you want to be but you can't just get in and quickly out; you have to wander all over the huge, over-lit store's confusing aisles to find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart through all these other tired, hurried people with carts (et cetera, et cetera, cutting stuff out because this is a long ceremony) and eventually you get all your supper supplies, except now it turns out there aren't enough check-out lanes open even though it's the end-of-the-day rush. So the checkout line is incredibly long, which is stupid and infuriating. But you can't take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register, who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college.

But anyway, you finally get to the checkout line's front, and you pay for your food, and you get told to "Have a nice day" in a voice that is the absolute voice of death. Then you have to take your creepy, flimsy, plastic bags of groceries in your cart with the one crazy wheel that pulls maddeningly to the left, all the way out through the crowded, bumpy, littery parking lot, and then you have to drive all the way home through slow, heavy, SUV-intensive, rush-hour traffic, et cetera et cetera.

Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn't yet been part of you graduates' actual life routine, day after week after month after year.

But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in. Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don't make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I'm gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop. Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me. About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home, and it's going to seem for all the world like everybody else is just in my way. And who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are, and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line. And look at how deeply and personally unfair this is.

Or, of course, if I'm in a more socially conscious liberal arts form of my default setting, I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV's and Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, forty-gallon tanks of gas, and I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper-stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest [responding here to loud applause] (this is an example of how NOT to think, though) most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers. And I can think about how our children's children will despise us for wasting all the future's fuel, and probably screwing up the climate, and how spoiled and stupid and selfish and disgusting we all are, and how modern consumer society just sucks, and so forth and so on.

You get the idea.

If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway, fine. Lots of us do. Except thinking this way tends to be so easy and automatic that it doesn't have to be a choice. It is my natural default setting. It's the automatic way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I'm operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world, and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world's priorities.

The thing is that, of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations. In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, it's not impossible that some of these people in SUV's have been in horrible auto accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive. Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he's trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he's in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way.

Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket's checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.

Again, please don't think that I'm giving you moral advice, or that I'm saying you are supposed to think this way, or that anyone expects you to just automatically do it. Because it's hard. It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won't be able to do it, or you just flat out won't want to.

But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she's not usually like this. Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're gonna try to see it.

This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.

Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it JC or Allah, bet it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings.

They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing.

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving and [unintelligible -- sounds like "displayal"]. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound. What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish. But please don't just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr. Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death.

The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

"This is water."

"This is water."

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.

I wish you way more than luck.

- David Foster Wallace

So this is an re-upload of this house, sence i made those a long time ago when i was very un-knowd here on Flickr. But i wanned you guys see it ;)

The hard part while designing this was that i made it in yellow, wish is very hard too work with cuz it´s so bright, so thats why i have an black roof and many grey details, this is inspired by the new lego(s) Pet Shop set, you can problety find some afmilar parts ;) So overall i really like how this turned out.

Youtube review;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJPMBPCV3EI&lc=WSBCCQ2BAoMu2a...

This vehicle was on the Sandwich Open Golf "GolfLink Park & Ride" Shuttle Service in East Kent, and seen leaving the Royal St. Georges temporary Bus Terminal, having come all the way from Stagecoach in Devon at Exeter!

And be sure to check by my other acount: www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?path=&nsid=77145939%40..., to see what else I saw 3 Weeks ago!!

when the owner of the cafe asked us what we were up to this day I said "we are out celebrating our 20 year anniversary" he said "20 years of what??" I laughed and said "of being together" I was looking at some art on the wall and turned around and he was staring at me. He said "what were you in kindergarten when you got together?"

Thank you Mister, That felt very nice. :)

This white-black-grey eagle was flying at a very large distance but I took some photos anyway to enable determination later on.

Its flight was impressive and I saw it landing in a dead tree. Checking my bird guide later that day I concluded that it is a sub-adult Martial Eagle. It exactly matched the description and flight pics of a non-adult Martial Eagle.

Although it was flying at great distance I find the photos to very well show the majestic flight of this beautiful Eagle species.

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The "For Sale" Miniseries

"This Calm Evening" is the thirtieth photo in a miniseries that I recently started. Over the next few weeks, I'll be covering all of my photographs available as prints on my website. I'll be uploading one every weekday (except Friday), as usual, but you'll find a lot more information on the photographs themselves - I might sneak in a few tutorials, quick tips, etc. It'll be great for new and old photographers alike - If you have any friends who might be interested, be sure to let them know! I'll be updating everything on my blog as well as my other social networks, so if you would prefer to follow it there, just click on one of the links above. :)

About "This Calm Evening"

"This Calm Evening" was taken was taken from Adaminaby, at the foot of the Snowy Mountains. Adaminaby is a small town near the Snowy Mountains located north-west of Cooma, New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy River Shire. The historic town, of about 234 people, is a trout fishing centre and winter sports destination situated at 1,017 metres (3,337 ft) above sea level. It is one of the highest towns in Australia, and snowfalls are not uncommon during winter. The construction of nearby Lake Eucumbene made it necessary to re-locate the original Township of Adaminaby in 1957. The present township is located on the Snowy Mountains Highway and is known as the "Home of The Big Trout". In times of drought, the original township and relics of the old valley re-emerge from under the waters of the lake.

Today, Adminaby is a popular destination for horse riders, bushwalkers, fly-fishermen and water sports enthusiasts as well as a base for viewing aspects of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The most momentous episode in the town's history, came with the construction of the vast network of tunnels and dams of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, which began at Adaminaby in 1949. A lake nine times the volume of Sydney Harbour eventually flooded the valley in which the original townsite lay. A prolonged drought saw the ruins of the old township begin to resurface in April 2007, attracting the attention of global media - and even comparisons to the mythical city of Atlantis.

The remarkable story of Adaminaby's relocation was the subject of film produced by the Snowy Mountains Authority Film Unit in 1958, entitled "Operation Adaminaby" (to see clips click here. It was also was the subject of a 2001 documentary by historian Jeannine Baker, entitled "Our Drowned Town", which screened on SBS Television. Entire houses, and even the Commercial Bank Building were transported on the back of trucks and over 100 buildings were re-erected at the new town site. Transportation of the first house from Old Adaminaby to New Adaminaby (a distance of just six miles) took six days. Today a tourist village has been built around the handful of buildings which were not relocated from the newly created lakeshore at Old Adaminaby.

The current town served as a construction hub during the building of the Snowy Scheme. The distinctive "architecture" of the buildings in the main street, defined by cost and engineering requirements of the time, is similar to the main street of Tallangatta, Victoria, which was reconstructed around the same time and for similar purposes. A Snowy Mountains Scheme Museum is planned to be constructed in the town.

Taking "This Calm Evening"

Nikon D90 | Sigma 10-20mm

6 min 49 sec | f/13 | ISO100 | 12mm

What a stunning location this was. I greatly enjoyed photographing Lake Eucumbene, Adaminaby and surrounding locations - can't wait to go back! This was easily the best 'plain' sunset I've seen in Winter. No clouds, yet the sunset was so unique and 'pastelly'. I chose to use an ND filter to further smooth/soften the image. The reflections came out really well, and a love the smaller tree the background.

Processing "This Calm Evening"

Hardly any processing was needed, such was the brilliance of the sunset. Slight contrast, warming and fill light boosts were all. Enjoy :)

This is my first hdr attempt.............

France - Villecroze. Main street

Villecroze is a medieval charming village which attracts many visitors. In the magnificent decor of mountains of pines and oaks, this village has many sights to see. There's one main street running though the center of town, with shops along both sides. A side street off the main street is lined with terrace café-restaurants beneath large, shady plane trees. Beside this are petanque courts and a parking area.

Het schilderachtige, middeleeuwse dorp Villecroze ligt in de Provence Verte, het groene hart van de Var, tussen het Lac de Ste-Croix, met de Gorges du Verdon, en de Côte d'Azur. Villecroze is klein, rustig en gezellig. Het ligt nabij andere mooie plaatsjes als Cotignac, Tourtour, Flayosc, Entrecasteaux, Lorgues en Le Thoronet

This large moth was resting on a step in the stair well for a couple of days. It allowed me to move its fore wing to reveal an orange hind wing.

Grabbed this great expression during a shoot at Dubbo Zoo (NSW; Australia) with long time friend and fellow flickr photographer Joe Micallef a couple of days ago.

Don't know if you're familiar with the game - but I thought this guy was the model on which that game is named!!!

Hope you like it and it gives you a smile!!

Have a great day (better than his!!) and an even better weekend everyone!!

Thanks again for comments, views or favorites for this or any of my other images - greatly appreciated!!!

This bus was new to Lothian Buses as 567 in 2015.

Seen here on Glasgow Road

This was just what I needed, a complete pampering and lovely makeover and photo session.... huge thanks to the fantastic JoJo and Tim/Tamara from FourthSpace, a brilliant makeover service and such lovely and friendly people. (www.thefourthspace.com or their flickr account at www.flickr.com/photos/thefourthspace.)

So what do you think about the new look? More pics to come from this session... don't worry, I won't subject you to all 350 though :)

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Wildlife Photography, Jungle.

Nikon D300 DX Camera.

Nikkor 17-55 2.8 Lens.

November 4th 2014.

Back Story .............

6AM and things are being packed for the run out to the monkey temple.

Sky didn't look good but at the moment it was passable, I've headed out in much worse !

No# 1 wife said her brother was taking her to the morning market so she would pick up the needed 4 kilos of chopped chicken.

Just as I was pulling out of the compound I noticed No# 1's brother getting ready to leave, but he was dressed for work..Hmmm ?

6:30AM and I'm heading down the wet road, it had been raining all night.

And it rained slightly on the way to the monkey temple, not bad but enough to be annoying !

Pulled in and there was monkeys everywhere, so lets talk about this for a minute.......

Last few days 20-25 Army guys were here as was a couple hundred locals celebrating Loy Ka Tong.

Big speakers, lots of noise and no tourists.

What's all that mean ?

That means all the monkeys stayed up in the jungle not wanting to be around the loud speakers and not wanting to be hit with sticks or rocks.

The Thais hit and chase the monkeys away -- Tourists feed them and think they are cute pets ! ..;-(

Anyway the monkeys are big time hungry and in a very aggressive mood ... ;-0~

Started down shifting and weaving through the monkeys on the road, same road that marks the boundary between The Browns and The Leroy Crew.

Well over a hundred monkeys on the road maybe as many as two hundred +or-.

Usually they zip out of the way but not when hungry. They 're eye-ballen me and the food bags ! Gggrrr !

Pulled down The Browns driveway and they were right there to greet me by the old rusty gate.

Next 20 minutes was taken up feeding The Browns and giving them their quota of affection .... ;-)

Soon all of us were heading across The DMZ where Mama and Mr Brown kept a few monkeys away from me and the food bags.

Crossed the boundary line, met up with The Leroy Crew and got them all fed.

Hung out for maybe 30 minutes then headed back.

Not far from the entry into The DMZ a primate starts yelling at me.

Mr Brown and Ding Bat come running to my rescue....Mama is wrapped around my legs as I'm standing here.

Just as Mr B and Dingy arrive said monkey chickens out and heads for the safety of the closest tree.

Once high in the tree he turns and yells at Mr B but never takes the chance of coming back down for a toe to toe discussion.

Soon we are all back over at The Dog Palace and The Browns are finishing up their breakfast.

Sky is really starting to look ugly, by that I mean, huge dark gray/black clouds coming out of the gulf... Not Good !!! ...

Said my goodbys, mounted the scooter and took off for home.

Had just left the temple grounds and there stands one of the monks with his hand waving me to stop.

He said something in Thai, i said "I don't understand ?" in Thai.

No problem -- Pulled out my seldom used cell phone and called No# 1 Wife.

Told her the situation then handed the phone to the monk.

Now I figured he needs a ride but what I need to know is to where ?

No# 1 says drop the monk at the main road about 5-6 klicks away, no problem.

Before we hung I did ask her if she made it to the morning market for the chopped chicken.

"No" she says, "My brother went to work and didn't come to get me" .. Ha Ha I knew that.

Dropped the monk off at the main road then headed west towards our town, about 45 minutes away.

All the way I'm looking to my left and watching the storm gaining momentum and getting darker.

Problem being I still need to get to the other side of town and do business at the morning marked, plus being a little late I hope the chicken lady has enough left.

I made it and yes she did have enough left.

Now the storm is nothing more then a huge wall of dark water maybe 1-2 klicks from the market.

Strapped the chicken bag onto the scooter and took off like crazy heading for home.

Arrived with plenty of time, No# 1 is pointing at the sky as I come flying in and dismounted.

No # 1 shakes her little Thai head, looks me in the eye and says, " you take big chance all time, big big chance" "You young monkey boy, no brain 4 thinking"

I smile, laugh and fall down on the floor with Mr WeeNee, The Worm and Boney Boy all trying to get my ears .

Five minutes later the sky opened up and the downpour began ............ ;-)~~~

Jon&Crew, still doing what I do.

if you do a Fav please be polite

and leave a comment too.

Thank You.

Jon&Crew.

Please help with your donations here.

www.gofundme.com/saving-thai-temple-

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This is a West Mexican Chachalaca or Chachalaca Pallida a bird with a loud, jarring call. Get a dozen them together and it gets very noisy. The birds are about the size of skinny chickens with long necks, legs, and tails.

You can listen to the Chachalaca call here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0H8ZwFc8EU

Chachalacas spend most of their time foraging for fruits, berries, and seeds they feed on. Chachalacas are arboreal living in trees rather than on the ground.

Chachalacas are social and often live in large groups of up to a dozen individuals. Members of a group call to one another, and they can be quite loud. Most vocalization occurs in the early morning just prior to sunrise before the birds head out to forage for food.

Chachalaca Pallida is found on the semi-arid Pacific Slope of southern Mexico. It was approximately 5 years ago we first saw/heard them around Bahia de Zihuatanejo. The numbers have steadily increased.

My travails across sub-himalayan India often gives me chance to make interesting acquaintances. This fellow was accompanying a?naga sadhu travelling in a SUV which stopped right in front of me as I was making my way back to my hotel.Without any intro he asked me to make a donation for the akhara of the naga sadhu.No hesitation, no request. I was rather taken aback by this brazen intrusion seeing which he literally dragged me for an audience and blessing from the sadhu in the car.His other accomplice had by then worked his magic over my companion who evinced a misplaced interest and had already taken some steps to the car.To cut this short, a fully naked sadhu was sitting in the car in partial light, on seeing us he took out a metal contraption( seemed like trisul), mumbled some mantra and asked for 5000 bucks. I was getting over my initial shock and started protesting but by then my companion had already handed over 500 bucks while I had brought out a fifty note.By then I knew we had fallen to a ruse so I caught hold of my companion and tried to take her away. I succeeded and moved away just when this fellow caught the strap of my dslr and tried to pull it off my shoulder.I had enough. I let out a holler to attract the people on the road and I managed to draw clear. It was then I shot this, his unrepentant countenance coming as a shock. This masquerade of a thug...Pl see magnified.

This weekend I attended an event hosted by the David Lynch Foundation (visit dlf.tv) located at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. The generosity that comes out of this man is unparalleled. His vision is simple: Let's make a better world.

Thank you David Lynch for your words and infinite inspiration.

Now let's go fishing.

This is an image from my collection. Although predominantly slide scans, it includes other forms of media as well. All have been collected over the past 40+ years of shooting Kodachrome and digital images, slide purchases and many years of exchanging. I was fortunate enough to trade with some of the best airliner photographers around the world.

Created in 2017, this is a curated archive that serves to share what otherwise would be kept in binders and boxes, not being enjoyed by anyone, myself included.

REGISTRATION : N1549

MFR TYPE & SERIES : BAC One-Eleven 203AE

MSN : 43

OPERATOR : Braniff International

AIRPORT (WHEN KNOWN) : Chicago ORD

DATE (WHEN KNOWN) :

PHOTOGRAPHER (WHEN KNOWN) : Ron Kluk

REMARKS:

This was taken in Domaine Chandon Winery in the Napa Valley. I usually am not a big fun of post processing (except occasional change of brightness and saturation and cropping). I did this one when I was bored, and after just one option, I got this.

This week there have been spring tides which means very low water so the repair work on the pier can start again.

This 1954 Cadillac Series 62 was ordered by the Belgian Royal Family and served as an official state limousine and royal wedding car.

It has some unique features including the split front bench, and a handle on the wind screen frame. It participated in most of the state occasions in the second half of the 1950s, such as the marriage of Prince Albert and Paola on 2 July, 1959. But it is especially famous as the wedding car of the Royal couple Baudouin and Fabiola, on 15 December 1960. For this occasion, a special plexi top was manufactured by coachbuilder Vesters & Neirinck from Brussels.

This Cadillac, with Belgian plate No. 35B, is on display at Autoworld, Belgium’s national motor museum, in Brussels. It has a 250 hp V8 engine and a top speed of 150 km/h.

This is the first day of my life.

I swear I was born right in the doorway.

I went out in the rain suddenly, everything changed.

They're spreading blankets on the beach.

I mean, I really think you like me.

This was the last time I saw him. I miss him so much.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This was our "Scarlet Pimpernel" It used to nest on our Emerald cedars ... for 12 years ... this year it DID NOT RETURN from California USA. It used to feed off my hands ... there are more images of it here:

www.flickr.com/photos/oscarromulus/34835694980/in/photoli...

Here it is on our Emerald Cedars:

www.flickr.com/photos/oscarromulus/26802642452/in/photoli...

This is Ricky. He is a recruitment consultant in Nonsuch Park.

This sheep was one of huge flock of sheep I met on a meadow a few days ago. Whereas most of the others weren't really impressed by my presence, this one watched me constantly and seemed to be very interested in what I was doing with my camera.

This store was used as a once monthly flea market. It only lasted a few months.

This unusual hood ornament is a little creepy and cool at the same time. This and many other unusual cars appeared at the annual Greaserama Car Show held in Tracy Missouri at the Platt County Fait Grounds.

Voightlander Color Skopar 21mm

Thanks for all your comments and faves, much appreciated as always.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF4Pr5yVbo4

This Weevil was only 2.5-3mm, not much between this and a globular Springtail, it was only when i zoomed up with the camera that I realised it was a Weevil, I've never seen one this small before, any idea on ID

This is the Hercules arriving back into Leuchars after deploying the paratroops.

This year there were more harlequins at the rapids than I've ever seen before. On this visit I counted seven drakes (and only one hen).

These wonderful amazing ducks migrate from the coast of the northwestern U.S. to ply the rapids in the Yellowstone River where they glean lots of aquatic insect life for about a month before the plain-plumed hens lay eggs in nests on the bluff high above the river, and the decoratively-marked males fly back to the coast, leaving the hens to raise the ducklings and guide them to the coast at the end of their short Yellowstone summer.

This is day 14 of the fire. The fire has retreated from near my home but the smoke prospects are bad and might well get worse than this.

“Have you not reason then to be ashamed and to forbear this filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof. In your abuse thereof sinning against God harming yourselves both in person and goods, and raking also thereby the marks and notes of vanity upon you by the custom thereof making yourselves to be wondered at by all foreign civil nations and by all strangers that come among you to be scorned and held in contempt; a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”

― James I of England

A Counterblaste To Tobacco

This is an old Watson figure I made with my old account, that I wanted to repost because of Season 4 of Sherlock.

(This image is computer generated)

This image is © KM Edinburgh. It would be an offence for you to remove the copyright mark, or post the image elsewhere without my written permission.

This is Loodswezen, a building more than 120 years old located in Antwerp harbour area.

This picture is a result of a very funny photo shoot (mainly) within a flooded nature reserve during a test of the Canon EOS R5 with the Samyang AF 85mm 1.4. The SERVO AF delivered very mixed results if the model was more far away and worked best from close distances.

This part of the woods is unfamiliar. Its edge is the kind of place that looks like it’s going to open up into a strange city, with light the color of another world entirely. I wonder if you know what I mean. I can remember another such place, a woods of pine trees in symmetry and then---expansion. Or what felt like it was going to be. In reality a little clearing existed there, and within it a small grotto that seemed to belong in a fairy tale. I could sometimes hear water running there if I paid attention and we weren’t in the middle of a dry spell.

The edges of this place claim a part of my soul that is afraid to step into its light. I’ve been told there is a river just beyond the sweep of trees. Not a city but running water, alive and wild. Dizzy with imagined possibility, I hang around in hiking boots, feet clad in leather watertight and unsuitable for toeing the edges of rivers. I keep thinking I’ll go beyond the place where I always stop, someday. I’ll just keep walking over the little ridge and there will be the moving water that will tell me something I’ve always needed to know. It will want me to learn its language. It won’t be scared, even though I might be. I’ll be wearing tough-girl Tevas and I will sit on the bank of the river and let my feet find the flowing coolness below me. I’ll sit there with the eddies of the river around my toes and the tops of my feet, remembering the pine-woods grotto and its delicate underwater voice, tracing new places in clay.

-----lks 7/08/14

This famous cookie factory was built in the 1930's.

It was very succesful and at one point there were 2000 people working in this factory.

It even had it's own railway connection and steelworks section.

It closed down 70 years later. The factory was old and the company needed to build a new factory.

Visited this location in February 2015

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