View allAll Photos Tagged thoughts...
susannedrechsler.wordpress.com/2024/12/25/in-thoughts-6438/
Shape: enLight – ABI shape (GenusMorph+Reborn)
Body: eBody – Reborn by eBODY v1.69.6 Mesh Body @ eBody
Head: GENUS MORPH – Head Preset – Female/Margo/Bambi (Head Base Heart, EyeMorph Doe, NoseMorph Bulbous, LipMorph Natural, Ears Human – Large Tunnels – Female) @ GENUS
Skin: enLight – ABI 5-satin Genus-4K *Head skin* No Brows -add NEW @ Uber
Eyes: From the Head HUD
Brows: From the Head HUD
Hair: WINGSDG – EF0501 Hair + Bangs EF1129 @ WINGSDG
Necklace: RAWR! – Dovey Necklaces eBody NEW @ RAWR!
Nails: HOLLYHOOD – Stiletto Mani – CHRISTMAS Reborn NEW @ CAKEDAY
Backdrop: Lori Novo – Christmas . Christmas Morning #1 A NEW @ MP
.
• ───────────────── •
↳ Garmonbozia - Liaison Bangles Exclusive for Warehouse Event!
Taxi maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rotten/127/109/23
⪼ Rigged for Legacy M/F, Reborn, Jake.
⪼ 3 Varieties + Bonus pack with special colors
⪼ Preview gyazo.com/578d78a797d6ccc687c3dbd23c28efd5
• ───────────────── •
↳ ONEDAYs - Blaze Outfit Exclusive for Alpha Event
Taxi maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wunder%20Land/94/94/1759
⪼ rigged for Legacy/Athletic and Jake
⪼ Hud for Each Pack
A whole row of carved corbels above this left-over carved lintel from the time when it surmounted a doorway. Leaves and flowers are interspersed with geometrical patterns, which are thought to have been based on motifs in Reading Abbey, long since in ruins. This carved band would presumably already have been around 500 years old during the 1607 rebuilding of the tower, and in a style very unlike the prevailing one in Tudor times, so it's impressive that they decided to incorporate it in the new tower. I'm guessing that although only about 8 'tiles' are lattice work, they probably all were and have either become clogged up by centuries of dirt, or needed backing to prevent their disintegration.
I’d noticed the striking white building with its handsome blue roof as we’d passed this way a day earlier, mustering our spirits as best we could under a grey, leaky sky that gave no hint of the beautiful evening we’d later enjoy by the side of the lake at Kirkjufell. I’d also spotted the rough pull in where the road snaked gently upwards through a patch of rocky scrub. “That might make for a shot,” was only the vaguest of thoughts as we passed through this remote area, heading for Arnarstapi and Dritvik Beach beyond. At this stage, the only thing we were certain of was that we’d passed the road that led to the Black Church of Budir and not taken it. And as we were following a circuit on the lonely road of West Snaefellsnes, we knew we’d need to be back this way the following day. That black church screams for attention you see. One of the most impossible to ignore hotspots on a peninsula that offers all sorts of possibilities.
So now we were here again, this time travelling anticlockwise on the most fantastic of coastal roads. Coming from a densely populated country where the sound of the internal combustion engine dominates almost every waking moment, driving here is an unrelenting joy. The Útnesvegur takes you through a brutal and dramatic landscape, where the story of Iceland’s violent volcanic birth is forever on show. In the far western reaches, we drove for miles, flanked by moss filled lava fields, roughly hewn and worn by the rages of a thousand winter storms, barely seeing any other vehicles at all. At times only the bulk of the ice clad Snaefellsjokull, rising mightily above everything else here seemed to anchor us to the land as if by some gravitational pull. A harsh elemental landscape in a time and place that has crept in under my skin and stayed there to settle into a contented glow that burns slowly within, forever calling me back. Having more time to explore on this, our second Icelandic adventure, was enabling us to see gems we’d had no time for on that dash around the ring road three summers earlier. You could easily fill an entire visit to Iceland with Snaefellsnes alone.
By now I was in a particularly fine mood. We’d already bagged compositions at half a dozen spots on this amazingly productive day as we made our way around the circuit. To add to the internal satisfaction levels, I’d also visited the fish and chip van at Arnarstapi. Let’s face it, if your stomach’s rumbling it’s game over on the photography front. Hunger is a big distraction when you’re trying to take epic photos. And now, a few minutes later after a spell in gastronomy heaven, here we were, pulled in at that patch of scrub and gazing at another epic vista, filled with more of those moss covered lava flows. And a handsome blue roofed building. And some other interesting stuff, I hope you’ll agree.
It was another Super Saturday moment, grabbed in a five minute roadside stop in the grand space between Arnarstapi and Budir. Well maybe a ten minute stop for a second layer to complete the twelve exposures for this handheld panoramic view that filled the space, tailing off into a hinterland of mountains rising from the red sands of the Snaefellsnes south coast under a huge gathering of heavy clouds that promised so much, and later delivered even more. It seems that wherever you stop - when you can stop - the chances are there will be something to fill the viewfinder with. Something that you perhaps didn’t see in a million other images when you planned your own adventures. Just like so many others, I love visiting the hotspots and trying to grab those memorable moments and record them forever. That’s what we were doing for most of our two weeks here, but I also find satisfaction in those impromptu moments when I see something else. And this is definitely an image I’d urge you to look at on the big screen if you can. “Best viewed large,” I sometimes read as I enjoy your stories. And you’re always right of course.
“I realise there's something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they're experts at letting things go.”
― Jeffrey McDaniel
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYWtDHcj_fw
Te Hokinga Mai,
tēna koutou
Tangi ana te ngākau
i te aroha
Tū tonu ra te mana
te ihi o nga tupuna
kua wehea atu rā
Mauria mai te mauri tangata
hei oranga mo te mōrehu
tangi mōkai nei
E rapu ana i te ara tika
mo tātou katoa.
The Return,
greetings
The heart cries
in love
The power still stands
the ihi of the ancestors
it is separated
Bring the human spirit
for the survival of the survivors
this pet cries
Looking for the right path
for all of us.
The thoughts that run through my head often steal my focus.
Photo Taken at Sunny's Pose is called Life the Roof
...sorry no current images...too cold outside:-)
© Copyright Notice: All of my images are All Rights Reserved.
Please don't use my images on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.
Windows of Opportunity" have been on my mind a lot. We are tentatively scheduled to take a May tour of Bryce & Zion canyons with Road Scholar in May of 2022. The COVID numbers are rising. If I were in my 40's , I would wait and say that there would be other opportunities "when life becomes more normal (safe)". I am in my mid-70's and healthy. There is still the thought in the back of my mind as to how many windows of opportunity will be in my future. We will decide as the time draws nearer.
I am reflecting, not complaining. We have weathered the pandemic well and our living situation is comfortable. I have also had many opportunities in the past to experience other places. The Irish rover in my genes still longs for a look beyond my present horizon, however, and it's a nagging feeling.
There will be one other post in this "windows of opportunity" series.
"Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky."
- Author Unknown
Some trees are more interesting without their leaves.
When I begun to process this exposure bracketing, I thought that I knew what I wanted to attain. I was perfectly wrong. Indeed, these RAW files kept a few secret bits of beauty which I was not aware of when I selected them for processing – and they changed the course of the journey I had foreordained.
I was in a gloomy mood, for both personal and general concerns, and the RAWs looked rather duller than the average – taken: they appeared to accurately mirror the state of my soul. At worst, I would have wasted some hours of pointless procesing work before deciding to look for something better. Nobody would have known. However things were to contradict my expectations. I got some good news (a rarity in those tough days) about the health conditions of my brother and my “adopted brother-in-law” (i.e. my brother’s brother-in-law); on the other hand, Darktable – that wonderful software – gifted me with a few unanticipated treasures. My thoughts were growing more and more positive and the processing of this bracketing were proceeding accordingly: a hidden beauty was unfolding before me, my own persisting unawareness of it notwithstanding. At last I found myself with a picture that had apparently self-processed itself*, while I was busy exploring uncharted thoughts that kept emerging along the way
* Admittedly a bizarre phenomenon, which Maurits Cornelius Escher would have loved – think of his Drawing hands.
I would avoid to nag you about this incredibly wonderful location: you can take a look at my album Silent banks, the complete collection of the photos I have taken there; the attached narratives are rich in information about the place, if you are curious enough.
This location is especially renowned for its legendary morning mists, but only a thin layer of milky mist floated above the water that morning. On top of the hill in the distance, beyond the river, lays the sanctuary of the Madonna della Rocca ( = Madonna of the Rock), already brushed by the first light pouring from the Eastern horizon.
I have obtained this picture by blending an exposure bracketing [-1.7/0/+1.7 EV] by luminosity masks in the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot), then, as usual, I added some final touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
I tried the inverted RGB blue channel technique described by Boris Hajdukovic as a possible final contribution to the processing. While this technique (which, its imposing name notwithstanding, is pretty simple to implement) often holds interesting results in full daylight landscapes, its effects on a low-light capture (e.g. a sunrise) are utterly unpredictable, so at the end of my workflow I often give it a try to ascertain its possibilities. In this picture I have exploited this technique in a very frugal, yet effective, way – just some touches where needed.
RAW files has been processed with Darktable. Denoising with DFine 2 and the Gimp (denoised and original images blended by lightness).