View allAll Photos Tagged up
Olympus 35 RC + Olympus Zuiko 42mm F/2.8
Kodak Tmax 100 / D-76 1+0 @ 7:30 min at 20º
_____
Home Sweet Home for Horse lovers, Mystic Isle (221, 60, 21) - Adult
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mystic%20Isle/221/61/22
Visit this location at Home Sweet Home for Horse lovers in Second Life
Around 1920, John Singer Sargent was commissioned to decorate the dome of the MFA's rotunda with murals and bas-relief sculptures. They were restored a few years ago. This view from the lower rotunda (the balcony is the upper rotunda) shows how beautiful and well-proportioned they are.
At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Pottery tomb figure of a singer (Han Dynasty), unearthed near Guanghan, Sichuan, in November 1994.
Last week’s photo shoots were of Tianfu Square (at night) and a day trip to Huanglongxi Ancient Town southeast of Chengdu. This week, I changed it up a little and went to a museum that I’d been wanting to visit for quite some time (but, honestly, was just too lazy to go to until now).
Sanxingdui (literally, “three star mound(s)”) is an archaeological site/museum. To give you perspective, I’ll make a few comparisons. The easiest (and less impressive) comparison is to the Jinsha Archaeological Site within the Chengdu city limits.
Jinsha is a very nice site in its own right, and has a lot of source material that dates from around 2,500-3,000 years ago. The Jinsha site was more recently discovered (2001) than the Sanxingdui site (early 20th century; excavations began in earnest in 1986). At Jinsha, things just feel like “leftovers.” I mean to say…there doesn’t feel like anything that the world at large necessarily needed to know about – though some of the art there, the skeletal remains, etc. are incredibly interesting if you have an interest in human history. However, I digress. The main point I should make regarding Jinsha and Sanxingdui is that it’s believed that the sites are from a related culture, though the timing is off by about 500 years (if I remember right from the signage at Jinsha).
The other comparison I will make is to China’s most famous archaeological site: the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an. Those are more important from a nationalistic point of view, I suppose, in that they were made (or ordered to be made, to be more precise) by China’s first emperor circa 200 BC. Aside from that, the terracotta army is quite impressive.
I feel Sanxingdui is much more important to human history, though, and I say this for a few reasons. First, it predates China (as a “nation-state”) by about 1,000 years. Almost everything that has been unearthed here is from roughly the 12th or 13th century BC (per carbon dating). Finding this site was (rightfully so) a huge shock in the archaeological record. It wasn’t known that people were in this area, if I’m not mistaken, and that they were as advanced as they were.
As you can see from the collection, this is a people who were highly advanced, had a monetary system (based on the knowledge of cowry shells, etc.), religious practices, and a high technical skill with bronze and other alloys. The masks from Sanxingdui are the most famous part of this collection and are still in such good shape 3,000 years later that they could honestly be placed in any museum in the world. They’re truly quite impressive.
Another reason I say so little is known of the people who lived here is that, while this museum is of exceptional quality – architecturally, in presentation, in every aspect – there is so little background information provided about the people’s origins. We can see how they lived, what was important to them, and other things, but the one thing that is missing is…where they came from. I continually found myself saying, “Wow,” over and again throughout the afternoon here.
Getting here is relatively easy now. A bus goes from Xinnanmen long distance bus station in downtown Chengdu (leaving at 9:30 a.m.) and takes you directly to the Sanxingdui parking lot, about 50 km (at most) towards the northeast on the Mianyang freeway. The closest town is Guanghan, and the cost of the ticket, for a round trip ride, is 50 RMB. (The bus returns at 2:40 p.m., which gives about 4 hours to see the entire museum and grounds.)
Upon getting to the visitor center, you have to pass through security scanners (in each of the three other buildings, too, for that matter). After paying the very reasonable 80 RMB admission, you pass through security yet again and are finally in the museum/site proper. I don’t recall much information available at the visitor center, but I may have just missed it. In retrospect, it would be very nice to have some informational videos – even if they were just to say much isn’t known about the history of the people. It could have given suppositions of life in video format, or even focused on the discovery of the site. (Again, maybe they’re already there, and I missed them…but, I don’t think so.)
Upon leaving the video center, the first of the three buildings you arrive at is the Comprehensive Gallery. This gallery is wonderful in that it has actually been built into one of the three mounds. (I’m not 100% sure that this is one of the three original mounds; perhaps it’s a replica of the mound. Either way, it was a good use of the land.) The comprehensive gallery consists of five areas that, for the most part, focus on earthenware and stone ware artefacts that were unearthed in the pits. The relics are well-presented, well-labeled, and well-maintained. Besides earthenware and stoneware, there are also plenty of artefacts made of jade, some of bronze, some of gold foil, and so on. The comprehensive gallery ends with a display of bronze money trees that were (are?) important in Chinese culture.
After finishing in the Comprehensive Gallery, my second stop was to go to the Cultural Relics & Restoration Gallery. This is the smallest of the three, and most comprehensive (in terms of presenting artwork from all of Chinese history) of the three galleries. There are plenty of pieces here from the Song, Tang, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. I went through here in a bit of a hurry, so am not certain whether or not the relics in this hall are local to the Chengdu plain or not. I think they are.
Hurrying along, I found my way outside and passed the Echo Altar (sacrificial stage) and quickly wandered around the Bronze Hall before going in. I was enjoying the landscape at the site as it’s spring and magnolias are in bloom all around the grounds, along with rapeseed (a little), and a lot of landscaped flowers along the way.
The Bronze Hall is the highlight of the Sanxingdui site. It almost exclusively contains nothing but masks. You would think it gets a little redundant after a while, as most of the masks are similar (exaggerated pupils, though two or three have protruding pupils), mostly of bronze, and all with the sparse signage that they were excavated from either pit #1, #2, or #3 in the 13th-12th century BC. However, like the Comprehensive Gallery, the Bronze Hall is an architecturally pleasing building that presents the masks in six different sections, also ending with a large (3.5 times the original size) replica of a bronze money tree.
Feeling completely satisfied with Sanxingdui, and fresh out of galleries to visit, I left the Bronze Hall and walked the grounds towards the main exit. There is a restaurant and shopping area on the way out (though I didn’t stop to eat or buy anything). I did take a very quick glance into the gift shop, but wasn’t really excited by anything I saw offhand.
After a little more photographing, I made it back to the bus with about 45 minutes to spare. All in all, it was a perfect day out of town at a museum, and I was also thrilled that there weren’t too many people out here. I couldn’t have asked for much more from this experience.
I finished the day off at Tai Koo Li, eating Thai food at Lian (in a very early preparation for an upcoming holiday in May). Before the May holiday, though, the goal of getting out to shoot every weekend continues. Monday (today), March 14th was spent in Pingle, another ancient town, which was completely underwhelming…especially after last week’s shoot at Huanglongxi and yesterday’s shoot at Sanxingdui. Fortunately, there is plenty more to photograph between now and May.
The streaks at the top of the frame are raindrops falling toward me, which were lit up by nearby stage lights at the zoo. For the astronomers in the audience, this illustrates why meteor showers appear to radiate from a point in the sky: they are approaching from a far distance, the vanishing point, and depending on various motions, that point is in a different place in the sky. Drivers in snow can see the same thing.
Two visitors, past the Yotsu-tsuji (four-way) intersection where most tourists stop, make the final climb to the top of Mt. Inari, to the shrine at the Ichi-no-mine peak. The stone stairs are enclosed in giant torii, some in a better state than others.
STAND UP TO CANCER - An extraordinary lineup of entertainers, musicians and athletes banded together for Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), the groundbreaking initiative aimed at raising funds to accelerate innovative cancer research bringing new therapies to patients quickly (www.standup2cancer.org). The one-hour fundraising event on September 7 was simulcast live and commercial-free on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, BIO, ENCORE, HBO, HBO Latino, ION Television, LMN (Lifetime Movie Network), Logo, MLB Network, mun2, Palladia, SHOWTIME, Smithsonian Channel, STARZ, TBS and VH1. All rights reserved. NO ARCHIVE. NO RESALE (ABC/KEVIN MAZUR)
PAM WILLIAMS, SUE SCHWARTZ, SHERRY LANSING, RUSTY ROBERTSON, ELLEN ZIFFREN, SUE SCHWARTZ, RUSTY ROBERTSON, KATHLEEN LOBB, SHERRY LANSING, LISA PAULSEN, ELLEN ZIFFREN
These Giant Redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) were planted in the 1850's by the Marquis of Bath on part of the Longleat estate. They were among the first to be planted in the UK. These Redwoods were part of a 'Pineta': a grouping of specimen trees.
The Giant Redwood is remarkable. It is the largest single living organism on Earth and can live up to 4,000 years. The Redwoods at Longleat are only seedlings in comparison!
UP ES44AC 7391 glides east through Maxwell, NE on the Kearney Sub during an April snow storm.
My first "satisfactory" panning shot.
Taken at Pebble Beach in Marathon - this was on Tuesday October 26 the day before much of the storm hit - Thunder Bay was already getting hit with this storm...the sun broke out for about 5 minutes and the light was awesome - this is pretty much as shot (minor contrast adjustments).
Being silly...again!
*** A NEW MESSAGE HAS BEEN ADDED TO PICTURES MUNICH 3 - MUNICH 9 ***
-
ATTENTION PLEASE : ALL of the pictures in this Up With People! Volume 1 collection are available right here in full resolution for anyone to use THAT LOVES UP WITH PEOPLE!
It's easy! In the bottom part of the screen containing the picture you will see an icon with a downward pointing arrow above a horizontal like - it's on the far right of 4 icons.
Click on that far right icon, and you'll see options of different sizes to download. FOR BEST QUALITY, be sure to use the "Original" option.
On pictures with high resolution, you WILL see a better looking image if you're viewing on a computer monitor or HDTV only by retaining the original file size.
If you're viewing on a smart phone, don't worry about higher resolution as you won't see a difference on those small screens.
But there's 72 images with larger than 15 MB size files, with the biggest (NBC-TV SHOW) topping out at 43.6 MB! I tried the lower resolution scans too, but they just didn't cut it for the results I'd be satisfied with. But then there's just SO much you can do...
I have three tutorial books of over 700 pages each for Photoshop - where will it end? My brain hurts! Remember when Alvin Tofler warned us about OVERCHOICE in his book "Future Shock"?
He was SO right, and his book came out in like 5 different colored covers to supposedly help get us ready...and the future is now...
Here a close up shot of lovely Sooty.
You can find out more about our Hamsters on our Animal Web Site and Hamsters Discussion Forums
46T Stronglight chainring - 11/36 9V commanded by a Retroshift (Genevalle) lever - new stem after my aluminium one broke during a race in Copenhagen.
I didn't like the teapot appliqué so I decided on the matryokshka appliqué from the 1/2009 issue. I changed it slightly, so that there are only 2 pieces of fabric for the main body and the 3rd is a strip of ribbon. The eyes and mouth are done w/a satin stitch, and the outline stitching is done with a reinforced straight stitch. The pieces shifted a little when I fused them, so the brown floral slid out from under the yellow dot and I ended up having to stitch on that part, too, although it isn't called for in the pattern.