Using small batch format production we as independent operators deliver uniquely integrated beauty, wellbeing and environmentally conscious products. PURE is Sodium Laurel Sulphate and Paraben free and is created without dyes or synthetics. We only use high quality essential oils to scent and each product is made in small batches to ensure quality. Through the use of natural, botanical ingredients, free of harsh chemicals and preservatives we deliver health and beauty products to the eco minded health conscious consumers through hotels, spas and retail locations throughout North America.

 

purelysaltspring.com/

 

(If you'd like to use any of these photos for anything pls contact Kris Krüg first - kriskrug@gmail.com or 778. 898. 3076. Thank you! (c) (r) (tm) 2016)

   

Using a tiny 9m bus on that route is not a good idea!

Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. Please respect "My Copyright ©2014" - All rights reserved.

This bridge is used for the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) interchange ramp crossing Big Beaver Boulevard (SR 18) at exit 13. The National Bridge Inventory listed this bridge as being built in 1950. It was built BEFORE Big Beaver Boulevard was even constructed and it appears this bridge was built at least a year or two before it was put into use. This bridge handles 2,000 to 5,000 vehicles a day. It appears the unusual steel truss design was built so that the bridge could cross five lanes of traffic without having columns in the middle. The nearby bridge the Turnpike uses to cross-over Big Beaver is a concrete arched-top design.

 

The original interchange connected to Norwood Drive (the main road in the area prior to Big Beaver Boulevard opening in the early 1950s) in an unusually long ramp that continued north beside the current Big Beaver Boulevard and looped back around at the current location of Westgate Drive. Eastwood Drive was part of the original ramp for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. We can also see part of the original ramp abandoned now that the trees are cleared out east of Big Beaver Boulevard.

 

Exit 13 bridge at I-76 and SR 18 - Homewood, Pennsylvania

 

If you want to use this photo please contact me (Nicholas Eckhart) in one of the following ways:

>Send a FlickrMail message

>Comment on this photo

>Send an email to eckhartnicholas@yahoo.com

Used your picture in the Birmingham Mail 28th Aug Tuesday.

Used nearly every day

After stealing an Ostrich from Ahmud, Dastan is forced to clean up after the ostriches to repay his debt.

 

Originally built for the PoP contest on Eurobricks, I missed the deadline, so I thought I'd post it anyway.

(used in Yahoo! Profiles)

For your Art only, not for Sale on a collage Sheet or CD

Used panty. These are my used panty with some staining. They do smell very nice. Hope you like them. I get really hot when someone looks at my panties.

 

You can see more used panties here bit.ly/used-panties

 

USE A LOT OF CIRCLES TO SHAPE

Use this image without my permission is illegal. All Rights Reserved ste.t.©

 

Do you want to know a secret?

Do you promise not to tell?, Ooh oh, oh.

Closer,

Let me whisper in your ear,

Say the words you long to hear,

I'm in love with you.

 

beatles

do you want to know a secret?

 

I used this tutorial to create the circles.

makeitawonderfullife.blogspot.com/2009/08/simple-circle-q...

 

Once I started I just couldn't stop.

[explore #354 on 21.08.08]

not a star, obviously. only a plane's wake :)

on black?

 

|| web site || tutorial blog (italian only) || twitter ||

 

© All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal.

Please don't use my images on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.

© All rights reserved - Use without permission is illegal!

 

Tra le numerose cittadine della Baviera e in particolare della Strada Romantica emerge per bellezza e fascino quel gioiello dell'arte medievale che è Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Rothenburg sopra il Tauber). La città ha circa 13.000 abitanti e vanta un grande numero di alberghi, pensioni e ristoranti tale da conquistare il primato come offerte turistiche tra le città di piccole dimensioni della Germania.

 

L'origine della città risale al X secolo quando sorse il castello dei Conti di Rothenburg; per tutto il 1100 Rothenburg gode di un periodo politico, culturale e commerciale molto fiorente e positivo a tal punto che nel 1274 le cinta murarie vengono allargate per ospitare il quartiere degli artigiani. Nel 1802 la città viene annessa alla Baviera mentre cento anni dopo, nel 1905, viene collegata con le altre città tedesche attraverso una linea ferroviaria.

 

Per Rothenburg e la sua ottima economia la situazione idilliaca sembrava senza fine ma nel 1945 un terribile bombardamento distrugge buona parte del centro storico e solo grazie all'intervento di un generale americano si evitò la distruzione totale della città. Dopo la fine della seconda guerra mondiale inizia la grande ricostruzione ed oggi si può ammirare la città in tutta la sua ritrovata bellezza.

 

Da non perdere la Marktplatz (piazza del mercato), da sempre luogo principale della vita cittadina anche grazie alla presenza del Rathaus. Il grande edificio del municipio è caratterizzato da due differenti stili architettonici: una parte risale al periodo gotico mentre la facciata principale sulla Marktplatz è in stile rinascimentale. Da vedere inoltre la Baumeisterhaus (casa dell'architetto) che venne edificata nel 1596 come residenza dell'architetto della città.

 

La strada principale di Rothenburg è la Herrngasse (via dei Signori) che collega la Marktplatz con i Burggarten (giardini del castello). E' una tipica via di un paese bavarese: eleganti abitazioni dalle facciate realizzate con stili e colori diversi, balconi ricchi di fiori dai colori accesi e molti negozi.

 

Tra le chiese è da segnalare la Jakobskirche (Chiesa di S. Giacomo) che è la più grande ed importante della città. La costruzione è durata quasi 100 anni mentre la solenne consacrazione risale al 1448. L'esterno della chiesa, con due alti campanili, e l'interno, sobrio e severo, sono in stile tardo gotico.

 

Quello che però caratterizza maggiormente Rothenburg è la grande cinta muraria che racchiude la città e le solenni porte d'accesso: una parte delle mura sono percorribili a piedi. Tra le porte più belle: la Klingentor e la Galgentor.

 

Un altro vanto della città si trova nella Herrngasse 1: è il negozio di giocattoli e articoli natalizi fondato nel 1977 dalla famiglia Wohlfahrt che, forte del grande successo ottenuto in Germania, ha aperto alcune filiali all'estero. Durante il periodo di Natale è aperto anche di domenica.

 

Rothenburg, un gioiello medievale

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on authentic facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Austrian Air Force in its current form was created in May 1955 by the victorious Allied powers, subject to restrictions on its use of guided missiles. The Austrian State Treaty of 1955 committed Austria to permanent neutrality. Pilot training started out with a four Yak-11 Moose and four Yak-18 Max aircraft donated by the Soviet Union, and Austria purchased further light trainer types under the Military Assistance Program. Until 1960 Austria purchased training and support aircraft under the MAP, but no modern fighter aircraft; the role of a fighter was rather inadequately filled by thirty already outdated Saab 29 Tunnan, bought second-hand from the Swedish Air Force in the early 1960s which equipped two fighter bomber squadrons.

 

To expand its capabilities and modernize the fleet, Austria purchased from 1970 on a total of 40 Saab 105 lightweight multi-role aircraft from Sweden with the intention to deploy them in trainer, reconnaissance, ground attack and even interception roles. As it became clear in the 1980s that the light sub-sonic aircraft were inadequate for air combat and airspace interdiction, Austria started looking for a more capable aircraft. In 1984, Austria had devised a two-phase solution to its problem: buying 30 interim aircrafts cheaply as a stopgap and then trading them back for a new generation aircraft in the early or mid-Nineties.

 

International response was quick and manifold: Bristol Aerospace offered initially ex RAF Jaguars to be replaced by Tornado F.3 or even Eurofighters; Saab-Scania offered between 24 and 30 former Royal Swedish Air Force J 35D Draken, followed by Saab J 39 Gripen as future substitutes; General-Electric suggested downgraded F-16/79 or F-16A for phase one and an option for the same aircraft in a more modern variant for phase two; Northrop’s numberF-5E was another alternative for phase one. Dassault was also present with refurbished Mirage III initially, followed by Mirage 2000.

 

Finding the most suitable option in this mass was not easy, and eventually a surprising deal materialized: In 1985 the contract for the sale of twenty-four Lightning F.56 fighters plus four T.55 trainers was signed by the SPÖ/FPÖ government under Fred Sinowatz. The background: Saudi Arabia had been operating thirty-four F.53 single-seaters and six T.55 trainers since 1967 and was about to retire its fleet, which was still in very good condition and with a reasonable number of flying hours left on many airframes. The aircraft would be refurbished directly at BAe in Great Britain with the option to switch to the Tornado ADV or its successor, the Eurofighter Typhoon, later.

 

The Lightning F.53 was an export version of the RAF’s F.6, but with a multi-role mission profile in mind that included, beyond the primary interceptor mission with guided missiles or internal guns, the capability to carry out interdiction/ground attacks and reconnaissance missions. To carry a suitable ordnance load, the F.53 featured additional underwing pylons for bombs or unguided rocket pods. Instead of the standard Firestreak/Red Top AAM missile station in the lower front fuselage, two retractable panniers with a total of forty-four unguided 50 mm rockets, which were effective against both ground and aerial targets, could be installed, or, alternatively, two camera packs (one with five cameras and another with a rotating camera mount) was available for tactical photo reconnaissance missions. Overwing hardpoints, adapted from the Lightning F.6, allowed to carry auxiliary fuel tanks to increase range/endurance, additional rocket pods or even retarded bombs.

The Lightning T.55 was also an export variant, a two-seat side-by-side training aircraft, and virtually identical to the T.5, which itself was based on the older F.3 fighter variant, and fully combat-capable.

 

The Saudi Arabian multi-role F.53s had served in the ground-attack and reconnaissance roles as well as an air defense fighter, with Lightnings of No. 6 Squadron RSAF carrying out ground-attack missions using rockets and bombs during a border dispute with South Yemen between December 1969 and May 1970. Saudi Arabia received Northrop F-5E fighters from 1971, which resulted in the Lightnings relinquishing the ground-attack mission, concentrating on air defense, and to a lesser extent, reconnaissance. Until 1982, Saudi Arabia's Lightnings were mainly operated by 2 and 6 Squadron RSAF (although a few were also used by 13 Squadron RSAF), but when 6 Squadron re-equipped with the F-15 Eagle from 1978 on, all the remaining aircraft were concentrated and operated by 2 Squadron at Tabuk. In 1985, as part of the agreement to sell the Panavia Tornado (both IDS and ADV versions) to the RSAF, the Lightnings were traded in to British Aerospace, returned to Warton for refurbishment and re-sold to Austria.

 

While the Saudi Arabian Lightnings’ hardware was in very good shape, the Austrian Bundesluftwaffe requested some modifications, including a different missile armament: instead of the maintenance-heavy British Firestreak/Red Top AAMs, the Lightnings were to be armed with simpler, lighter and more economical IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs which were already in the Austrian Air Force’s inventory. Two of these missiles were carried on single launch rails on the lower forward fuselage; an additional pair of Sidewinders could also be carried on the outer underwing stations, for a total of four. The F.53s’ optional retractable unguided rocket panniers were dropped altogether in favor of a permanent avionics bay for the Sidewinders in its place. However, to carry out tactical reconnaissance tasks (formerly executed by J 29Fs with a removable camera pod instead of the portside gun bay), four Austrian Lightnings frequently had one of the optional camera compartments installed, thereby losing the capability to deploy Sidewinders, though.

 

Among other things, the machines were furthermore upgraded with new bird strike-proof cockpit glazing, avionics were modernized, and several other minor customer requests were adopted, like a 0.6-megacandela night identification light. This spotlight is mounted in the former portside gun bay in front of the cockpit, and an anti-glare panel was added under the windscreen.

The fixed in-flight refueling probe was deleted, as this was not deemed necessary anymore since the Lightnings would exclusively operate within neutral Austria’s borders. The probes could, however, be re-installed, even though the Austrian pilots would not receive on-flight refueling training. The Lightnings' optional 260 imp gal overwing tanks were retained since they were considered to be sufficient for extended subsonic air patrols or eventual ferry flights.

 

The refurbished Lightnings were re-designated F.56 and delivered in batches of four between 1987 and 1989 to the Austrian Air Force’s 1st and then 2nd Fighter Squadrons, carrying a grey air superiority paint scheme. At that time, the airframes had between 1,550 and 2,800 flight hours and all had a general overhaul behind them. In 1991, the Lightings were joined by eighteen German ex-NVA-LSK MiG-23s, which were transferred to Austrian Air Force's ‘Fliegerwerft B’ at Nittner Air Base, where they'd be overhauled and updated with NATO-compatible equipment. As MiG-23Ö they were exclusively used as interceptors, too.

 

Shortly after their introduction, the Austrian Lightnings saw their first major use in airspace interdiction starting 1991 during the Yugoslav Wars, when Yugoslav MiG-21 fighters frequently crossed the Austrian border without permission. In one incident on 28 June a MiG-21 penetrated as far as Graz, causing widespread demands for action. Following repeated border crossings by armed aircraft of the Yugoslav People's Army, changes were suggested to the standing orders for aircraft armament.

 

With more and more practice and frequent interceptions one of the Lightning's basic flaws became apparent: its low range. Even though the Lightning had a phenomenal acceleration and rate of climb, this was only achieved in a relatively clean configuration - intercepting intruders was one thing but escorting them back to the Austrian border or an assigned airfield, as well as standing air patrols, were a different thing. With more tactical experience, the overwing tanks were taken back into service, even though they were so draggy that their range benefit was ultimately zero when the aircraft would use its afterburners during a typical interception mission. Therefore, the Austrian QRA Lightnings were typically operated in pairs: one clean and only lightly armed (typically with the guns and a pair of AIM-9s), to make a quick approach for visual intruder identification and contact, while a second aircraft with extra fuel would follow at high subsonic speed and eventually take over and escort the intruder. Airspace patrol was primarily executed with the MiG-23Ö, because it had a much better endurance, thanks to its VG wings, even though the Floggers had a poor service record, and their maintenance became ever more complicated.

 

After more experience, the Austrian Lightnings received in 1992 new ALR-45 radar detectors in a fairing on the fin top as well as chaff and flare dispenser systems, and the communication systems were upgraded, too. In 2004 the installation of Garmin 295 moving map navigation devices followed, even though this turned out to be a negligible update: on December 22, 2005, the active service life and thus military use of the Lightnings in general ended, and Austria was the last country to decommission the type, more than 50 years after the first flight of the prototype on August 4, 1954.

The Austrian Lightnings’ planned service period of 10 years was almost doubled, though, due to massive delays with the Eurofighter’s development: In 2002, Austria had already selected the Typhoon as its new “Phase II” air defense aircraft, having beaten the F-16 and the Saab Gripen in competition, and its introduction had been expected to occur from early 2005 on, so that the Lightnings could be gradually phased out. The purchase of 18 Typhoons was agreed on 1 July 2003, but it would take until 12 July 2007 that the first Typhoon would eventually be delivered to Zeltweg Air Base and formally enter service with the Austrian Air Force. This operational gap had to be bridged with twelve F-5E leased from Switzerland for EUR 75 mio., so that Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) duties for the Austrian airspace could be continued.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 55 ft 3 in (16.84 m)

Wingspan: 34 ft 10 in (10.62 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 sq ft (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 31,068 lb (14,092 kg) with armament and no fuel

Gross weight: 41,076 lb (18,632 kg) with two AIM-9B, cannon, ammunition, and internal fuel

Max takeoff weight: 45,750 lb (20,752 kg)

 

Powerplant:

2× Rolls-Royce Avon 301R afterburning turbojet engines,

12,690 lbf (56.4 kN) thrust each dry, 16,360 lbf (72.8 kN) with afterburner

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 2.27 (1,500 mph+ at 40,000 ft)

Range: 738 nmi (849 mi, 1,367 km)

Combat range: 135 nmi (155 mi, 250 km) supersonic intercept radius

Range: 800 nmi (920 mi, 1,500 km) with internal fuel

1,100 nmi (1,300 mi; 2,000 km) with external overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,000 m)

Zoom ceiling: 70,000 ft (21,000 m)

Rate of climb: 20,000 ft/min (100 m/s) sustained to 30,000 ft (9,100 m)

Zoom climb: 50,000 ft/min

Time to altitude: 2.8 min to 36,000 ft (11,000 m)

Wing loading: 76 lb/sq ft (370 kg/m²) with two AIM-9 and 1/2 fuel

Thrust/weight: 0.78 (1.03 empty)

 

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.181 in) ADEN cannon with 120 RPG in the lower fuselage

2× forward fuselage hardpoints for a single AIM-9 Sidewinder AAM each

2× underwing hardpoints for 1.000 lb (454 kg) each

2× overwing pylon stations for 2.000 lb (907 kg each),

typically occupied with 260 imp gal (310 US gal; 1,200 l) ferry tanks

  

The kit and its assembly:

This was another submission to the “Hunter, Lightning and Canberra” group build at whatifmodellers.com in 2022 and intended as a rather simple build since it was based on an alternate reality plot: the weird story that Austria was offered a revamped fleet of ex-Saudi Arabian Lightnings is true(!), but the decision eventually fell in favor of revamped Saab J 35Ds from Sweden. For this what-if build I used the real historic timeline, replaced the aircraft, and built both story and model around this – and the result became the BAC Lightning F.56 in Austrian Air Force service.

 

Initially I wanted to use an Airfix BAC Lightning in The Stash™, a really nice model kit and a relatively new mold, but it turned out to be the kit’s F.2A variant. While very similar to the F.6, changing it into a F.53 analogue with the OOB parts turned out to be too complex for my taste. For instance, the F.2A kit lacks the ventral gun bay (it just comes with the auxiliary tank option since the guns are already located in front of the cockpit) and the cable conduits on the lower flanks. Procuring a suitable and priceworthy Airfix F.6 turned out to be impossible, but then I remembered a Hasegawa Lightning F.6 in The Stash™ that I had shot at ev!lbay many moons ago for a laughable price and without a concrete plan. However, this kit is pretty old: it has raised (yet quite fine, less robust than the Matchbox kit) panel lines and even comes with a pilot figure, but also many weak spots like the air intake and the jet exhausts that end in flat walls after some millimeters depth and a very basic cockpit. But for this rather simple what-if project the kit appeared to be a suitable basis, and it would eventually find a good use.

 

The Hasegawa Lightning was basically built OOB, even though I made some cosmetic amendments like a better seat for the pilot, hydraulic fluid lines on the landing gear made from wire or opening the flat walls inside of the air intake opening and the jet nozzles. Behind the radome, a simple splitter plate was added as well as a recessed bulkhead in front of an implanted Me 262 cockpit tub (the Hasegawa kit just offers a bare floor panel, nothing else!), the afterburners were extended inwards with parts from a Matchbox A.W. Meteor night fighter.

 

The Red Top AAMs and the in-flight refueling probe were omitted. Instead, I added extra F.53-style forward-swept pylons under the outer wings, scratched from 1.5 mm styrene sheet due to their odd, raked shape, and I added Sidewinder launch rails plus suitable missiles from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapons set to all four stations. After long consideration I also retained the ‘overburger’ tanks, partly because of the unique layout on the Lightning, and also because of operational considerations.

Chaff dispensers were scratched from styrene profiles and placed at the fin’s base. A fairing for the retrofitted radar warning sensor was added to the fin tip, created from 1.5 mm styrene sheet.

  

Painting and markings:

To reflect the “alternate reality” role of the Lightning I gave the model a livery similar to the Saab J 35Ö that were actually procured: an adaptation of the USAF “Egypt One” scheme, carried primarily by the USAF F-16s. Adapting this simple three-tone camouflage from the flat F-16 to the Draken was easy and straightforward, but applying it to a Lightning with its many vertical surfaces turned out to be a tough challenge. I eventually came up with a paint scheme that reminds of the late RAF low-viz Lightning liveries, which existed in a wide range of patterns and graduations of grey.

 

The colors were authentic, FS 36118, 36270 and 36375 (using Humbrol 125, 126 and 127), and I decided to emphasize the camouflage of the flanks against the horizon, so that the vertical surfaces and the fin became FS 36270. The undersides of wings, stabilizers and fuselage became FS 36375. The dark FS 36118 was only applied to the upper sides of the wings and the stabilizer, and to a high dorsal section, starting at the wing roots. As a small contrast, the tank area on the spine was painted in light grey, simulating unpainted fiber glass. The radome was painted with a streaky mix of Humbrol 155 and 56.

 

As usual, the model received a light black ink washing, some post-panel-shading in lighter tones, and, due to the raised panel lines, was very lightly rubbed with graphite. The cockpit interior was painted in medium grey (Revell 47) with an olive drab fabric fairing behind the black pilot seat, which received ejection handles made from thin wire as eye candy. The landing gear and the respective wells were painted in Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope).

 

The decals are a wild mix: The fuselage roundels are actually wing markings from a Hasegawa J 35OE, as well as the huge orange "06" on the wings (I could not resist; they will later be partly obscured by the overwing tanks, but the heck with it!). The roundels on the wings come from a generic TL Modellbau sheet - I found that I needed larger markings than those on the Draken.

Both unit and individual aircraft identifiers are single black DIN font digits, also from TL Modellbau. The unit badges on the fin are authentic, even though from an earlier era: they came from an Austrian J 29 of Fliegerregiment 2 from a PrintScale sheet, and all stencils were taken from the OOB low-viz RAF markings sheet, plus four small warning triangles for the underwing pylons.

  

A ‘what-if’ model in the purest sense, since this model depicts what could really have been: ex Saudi-Arabian export BAC Lightnings over the Austrian Alps! However, refurbished Saab J 35D Draken made the race (and later followed by the Eurofighter Typhoon at ‘Stage 2’), so that this Lightning remains fictional. It does not look bad in the ‘Egypt One’ paint scheme, though, better than expected!

For your Art only, not for Sale on a CD or Collage Sheet~

Life Magazine Oct 1925

Using Human Persception Modeling conversion of color into black and white, I revisit a few images from the Vintage Revival Montlhery in 2022.

 

With digital, working in color is very easy. But I'm not sure it's the best way to express things all the time. Which is why I keep returning to black and white.

 

The exploration is fun.

1975, thought I would be a bit arty and use the pillar and shadows (or did I just not see the train in time?).

 

I don't have the loco number; sure its a class 25, the lights are mounted a little higher than the first series of these, the warning stickers are directly above the lights and close to them, maybe the blue diamond is missing on this side...must be possible to id but I haven't managed so far!

February 13, 2008: This building has been demolished.

Taken using a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AI manual focus lens (Phil's lens, thanks Phil!).

 

The D300 allows users to enter non-CPU lens data which is great. So it's able to record the f/stop, able to meter and aperture mode works, yay!

 

(Of course you still need to manually set the aperture through the lens)

 

Larger on black

Using the stereo 3D tool in StarTools image processing software on an image of "The Wall" I took a while back. Just stare and cross your eyes for 3D effect.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Francisco Aragão © 2015. All Rights Reserved.

Use without permission is illegal.

 

Attention please !

If you are interested in my photos, they are available for sale. Please contact me by email: aragaofrancisco@gmail.com. Do not use without permission.

Many images are available for license on Getty Images

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

 

"A lei da mente é implacável.

O que você pensa, você cria;

O que você sente, você atrai;

O que você acredita torna-se realidade"

Buda

 

"The law of the mind is relentless.

What do you think, you create;

What do you feel, you attract;

What you believe becomes reality "

Buddha

 

"La ley de la mente es implacable.

Qué piensa usted, que cree;

Qué sientes, atraes;

Lo que usted cree se convierte en realidad "

Buda

 

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

 

Portuguese

O budismo tibetano, também chamado de budismo vajrayana ou lamaísmo, emprega práticas de meditação na forma de elaborados rituais, com leitura de Saddhanas (textos litúrgicos), visualizações e instrumentos musicais. Possui uma forte tradição nas artes, com elaboradas pinturas e esculturas, e também em ordens monásticas, com ênfase no relacionamento entre alunos e lamas.

Pertence a uma vertente do budismo chamada maaiana, mais precisamente, a vertente Vajrayana (tantrismo ou "Veículo do Diamante"), e apesar de não se organizar como uma instituição, tem sua representação maior na figura do Dalai Lama.

As principais escolas são Nyingma, Kagyu, Gelug (escola de que faz parte o Dalai Lama) e Sakya.

O termo "lamaísmo" provém do tibetano Lama, que significa "mestre" ou "superior", e que designa, geralmente, os monges tibetanos, em especial os hierarquicamente superiores.

Esta denominação foi dada ao budismo tibetano pelos estudiosos europeus, principalmente, que se utilizaram deste termo para distingui-lo do budismo indiano e permitir que fosse dada ênfase ao seu caráter místico. Segundo alguns outros autores, contudo, tal emprego da palavra é impróprio, pois tem a intenção de estabelecer distinções entre as duas correntes que, na verdade, não existem.

O Lamaísmo apresenta um duplo aspecto, assim como a maior parte das religiões orientais: o doutrinal e o popular.

A doutrina lamaica", que se distingue da tradição Teravada (também chamada de "Doutrina dos Anciões"), tem como base filosófica a manutenção e o desenvolvimento da tradição do Mahaiana (Mahayana, "grande veículo") que não tem um caráter de pura magia. Entretanto, o culto popular, em função da influência da religião Bön, mais antiga e nativa, apresenta várias divindades e uma conotação acentuadamente mágica.

Essa doutrina, em síntese, é bem menos conhecida que suas manifestações populares. Em razão disso, alguns estudiosos erroneamente exageram em seu aspecto mágico, estendendo-o também à prática monástica.

 

English

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Bhutan, Kalmykia and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, and India (particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim). It is the state religion of Bhutan. It is also practiced in Mongolia and parts of Russia (Kalmykia, Buryatia, and Tuva) and Northeast China. Religious texts and commentaries are contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon such that Tibetan is a spiritual language of these areas.

The Tibetan diaspora has spread Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million.

 

Tibetan

སྐད་རིགས་གཞན་ཐོག།

བོད་བརྒྱུད་ནང་བསྟན་ནི་ནང་བསྟན་གྱི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་ལྟ་བུ་ཡིན་ཞིང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་དང་ ཁོངས་གཏོགས་དམིགས་བསལ་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་བོད་དང་ ཧེ་མ་ལ་ཡའི་གྱི་བལ་ཡུལ་གྱི་བྱང་ཕྱོགས་དང་ འབྲུག་ཡུལ་དེ་མིན་རྒྱ་གར་དང་ ཨ་རུ་ནཱ་ཅལ་མངའ་སྡེ།ལ་ཏགས་འབྲས་ལྗོངས་བཅས་སུ་ཡོད།

 

Spanish

El budismo tibetano es el budismo que se desarrolló en los Himalayas. También conocido como budismo vashraiana y budismo tántrico. Esta forma de budismo es seguida por el 6 % de todos los budistas, siendo una de las escuelas budistas más practicadas y una de las mejor conocidas en Occidente.

El budismo tibetano o lamaísta es mayoritario en Bután, Mongolia, Ladakh (India) y Tíbet, así como hay importantes minorías budistas lamaístas en Sikkim (India), en Nepal y en las regiones de etnia mongol de Rusia como Buriatia, Kalmukia, Tuvá y en Mongolia Interior (China). Básicamente, esta forma de budismo es la religión predominante de los pueblos mongoles y tibetanos, todos los cuales reconocen al Dalái Lama como Bodhisattva y por tanto lo respetan como un alto maestro espiritual, si bien cada una de las escuelas tiene una jerarquía distinta y un sistema propio de enseñanza. Al tener unos 20 millones de seguidores, mayoritarios en diferentes países y regiones autónomas, es una de las ramas más grandes e importantes del budismo.

Asociado a este tipo de budismo aparece la figura del lama. En la clásica división del budismo entre monjes y laicos, los lamas tibetanos suponen una figura con relevancia no solo religiosa sino que fueron centro de la vida social y económica de Tíbet.

 

Wikipedia

From the appearance of the original photo print, I can tell that it was taken using my mom's Olympus Pen-D half-frame camera. Photo taken circa late Summer of 1966 when our house was freshly landscaped and only a few months old. We moved in during August of 1966. That Japanese black pine tree in front of the large window still exists today albeit a bit larger now.

 

A bit of College Park East (CPE) life back then:

 

At this point in time, this side of Elder Avenue was the furthest south to which College Park East was yet built; it was all clear and unbuilt from here to the San Diego Freeway (I-405). The tall concrete sound wall that separates this neighborhood from the freeway was not yet erected. This meant that we could stand on the 2nd floor balcony of the house and see the traffic whizzing by on the freeway.

 

Mailboxes needed to be curbside at first, so they had to be on the parkway as apparent here. By the time the subsequent blocks or units of homes were constructed, parkways were no longer included. This meant that sidewalks on later homes would be right next to the curb. Only the first units of homes, those that are located in the northeast portion of College Park East, have the benefit of parkways between the sidewalk and the curb.

 

At the time we moved in during August, 1966, Lampson Avenue in Seal Beach consisted of only two lanes, one in each direction. Shortly thereafter, two additional lanes were paved, allowing two lanes in both directions, its current configuration.

 

Also at this time, the Los Angeles-based Helms Bakery was still in business, so their delivery trucks would make their routes through the neighborhood in those earlier years. Similarly, Adohr Farms delivered milk and other dairy products.

 

Because my parents both worked, my mom made arrangements with the Helms Bakery truck driver to leave a loaf of bread on top of the clothes dryer in the garage whenever she placed the Helms sign in the window. She would leave money on top of the dryer for this. This, of course, meant that we would leave the garage door unlocked on those days.

 

Unlike the rest of Seal Beach, College Park East and College Park West were served then by the Los Alamitos School District for grades K through 6 and by the Anaheim Union High School District for grades 7 through 12.

 

To register me for school, my mom and I drove to the old Laurel School building that faced Florista just east of Los Alamitos Blvd. I was rather disappointed in that I had the impression that this deteriorating site was going to be the school that I would attend that fall. The buildings and the land seemed to me to be in a state of disrepair - the large, painted word "Laurel" in script form on the side of the pink-painted building was beginning to peel off and the baseball diamond on the southwest corner of the lot (where Katella Avenue intersects with Los Alamitos Boulevard) appeared to be neglected. It was only after my mom suggested that we drive to see my new school within Rossmoor that I realized (with relief) that the Laurel School was simply used for administrative purposes.

 

That first year of 1966-67, elementary students from College Park East were distributed among several schools in the Los Alamitos School District, transported by bus. All who were 6th Graders attended Francis Hopkinson Elementary School in Rossmoor. All 5th Graders attended Rossmoor Elementary School, 4th Graders to Benjamin Rush Elementary, etc. The other schools in the rotation were Los Alamitos and Thomas Jefferson Elementary Schools, both located on Bloomfield between Katella Ave. and Ball Rd. For some reason, neither Jack L. Weaver nor Richard Henry Lee Schools, two other schools within Rossmoor, were in the mix for College Park East students, or at least the bus on which I rode never stopped there. In retrospect I wonder if perhaps there might have been another bus, say for Kindergarteners, who may have had shorter school hours. I do not know. The school bus that I rode served all of College Park East.

 

The buildings for Benjamin Rush Elementary School no longer exist; only its site, Rush Park remains. Rush School appeared to be nearly identical to Hopkinson School nearby. The appearance of Hopkinson as viewed from Kensington is how Rush appeared as viewed from Blume.

 

Our bus driver for elementary school that first year was Jerri Sawyer. I can still picture her now, her auburn hair neatly pinned up, dressed in a clean white buttoned shirt with sleeves rolled up and with dark slacks. She was so consistent and reliable, always coming to a complete stop at every stop sign and railroad track crossing*, looking in all directions before proceeding. By observing her drive the bus, I learned how a manual transmission was operated, coordinating gear selection using the floor-mounted stick shift with clutch pedal modulation in order to start moving from a dead stop. Then in the second half of that school year, that bus was replaced with a brand new GMC that was equipped with an automatic transmission.

 

We as students riding on the bus were pretty well-behaved but still rather talkative. However, she was serious about maintaining order on her bus. I remember just a couple of times when she parked the bus and then came down the aisle with a serious look on her face in order to give a rider or two a serious 'talking-to.' She was always there to pick us up at Fir Circle; I don't recall even one day on which she wasn't our bus driver. The bus route was always thus: Hopkinson-Rush-Rossmoor-Los Alamitos-Jefferson.

 

Junior high and high schools that served College Park East and College Park West were part of the Anaheim Union High School District then. That first year, my sister along with other junior high level students from CPE attended Oxford Jr. High in Cypress, years before that campus was converted to The Oxford Academy High School. I don't recall with certainty, but I suspect that the first high school students from College Park went to Western High School in Anaheim as Los Alamitos High School did not start until the 1967-68 school year. That first year of Los Al High was held at the site of McAuliffe Middle School now. Only the Class of 1970 attended at that location for that single school year. Then from the 1968-69 school year forward, Los Al High students attended the current campus on Cerritos Ave. at Los Alamitos Blvd. That same year, junior high students from College Park East began to attend Pine Jr. High instead of Oxford. Pine Jr. High is now known as McAuliffe Middle School. The junior high school was renamed as McAuliffe in memory of Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire school teacher who perished in the Challenger Space Shuttle accident.

 

Despite being in Orange County, the telephones in College Park had 213 as the Area Code as did the rest of Seal Beach. Ditto for Rossmoor and Los Alamitos. In Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Rossmoor, the phone numbers began with 43 or 59. This was because these areas were serviced by the General Telephone Company out of Long Beach rather than by Pacific Telephone. When the 213 area contracted circa 1991, the Area Code for these areas changed to 310. Then after another area contraction circa 1997, the phone numbers in these areas changed to the current 562 Area Code.

 

*There was still a railroad track that crossed Bloomfield at that time. It was located along the north side of Los Alamitos Elementary School. That track crossed Los Alamitos Blvd., too, near Catalina St. at that time. The track is gone now but the subtle rise of Bloomfield at this location reminds me that it was once there.

Taken using : Nikon D700 + Nikon 16-35mm f4

  

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The Jacquard head used replaceable punched cards to control a sequence of operations. It is considered an important step in the history of computing hardware. The ability to change the pattern of the loom's weave by simply changing cards was an important conceptual precursor to the development of computer programming and data entry. Charles Babbage knew of Jacquard looms and planned to use cards to store programs in his Analytical engine. In the late 19th century, Herman Hollerith took the idea of using punched cards to store information a step further when he created a punched card tabulating machine which he used to input data for the 1890 U.S. Census. A large, punched-card-based data processing industry developed in the first half of the twentieth century, dominated by the International Business Machine corporation (IBM), with its line of unit record equipment. The cards were used for data, however, with programming done by plugboards.

 

Some early computers, such as the 1944 IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Harvard Mark I) received program instructions from a paper tape punched with holes, similar to Jacquard's string of cards. Later computers executed programs from higher-speed memory, though cards were commonly used to load the programs into memory. Punched cards remained in use in computing up until the mid 1980s. In Wikipedia

 

This specimen is in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry

Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).

 

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions

 

"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".

 

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.

 

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

 

Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.

 

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

 

Wet with cool dew drops

fragrant with perfume from the flowers

came the gentle breeze

jasmine and water lily

dance in the spring sunshine

side-long glances

of the golden-hued ladies

stab into my thoughts

heaven itself cannot take my mind

as it has been captivated by one lass

among the five hundred I have seen here.

 

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.

 

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.

 

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.

 

The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.

 

In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:

 

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".

 

Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.

 

While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’

 

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

 

An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

 

Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983

 

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

Main article: Commercial graffiti

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

 

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".

 

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.

 

Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.

 

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

 

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.

 

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.

 

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

 

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

 

Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis

 

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.

 

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

 

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"

 

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal

 

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

 

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

 

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

 

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

 

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

 

Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

 

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

 

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.

 

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.

 

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

 

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

 

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

 

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

 

I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.

 

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.

 

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

 

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.

 

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".

 

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.

 

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.

 

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.

 

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.

 

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.

 

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

 

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.

 

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.

 

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.

  

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.

 

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.

 

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

 

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."

 

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.

 

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.

 

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.

 

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.

 

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.

 

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.

 

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."

 

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

 

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.

 

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".

 

Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

 

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

 

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.

 

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

 

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.

 

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.

 

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.

 

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.

***Please, feel free to use my Textures, Backgrounds, Stock, etc., in your Artwork.

If you do use them, I would love it if you would please post your work in my group, Ruby's Treasures.

  

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Enough said... Just a great place to hang out...

Rock En Seine 2013

 

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I was using the fuji X-Pro 1 for a while with the 35mm 1.4 then sold it.

 

Then i missed it so much i looked into getting a Leica but bank so not so keen!

After looking around on the internet for a manual lens i could get the same usage as a Leica on the XPro i found the Jackar 34mm 1.8....

 

When i got the lens i was shocked how well made it was. A heavy smooth aperture and focus. When the lens is wide open the bokeh is nice! Sharp on the centre and it fades out to the corners kind of like an old lens when shooting film.

 

There seems to be an added bonus of Jackar and thats the meta data tells me the aperture is shooting at f1.0!!

The focus seems to look like a f1.0 as its hard to get it spot on.. but when it is its great!

 

Anyone looking for a very cheap £70 lens to shoot manually at 50mm its a gem;)

  

A personal fav of mine from the trip

I used to make custom motorcycle speedometer faces, (Alien Faces) and this is one that I made for a customer. (These were high resolution printed inserts that was placed OVER your original speedometer face)

He had a WWII P-51 Mustang airplane theme and wanted something fit the theme.

 

We talked about it in e-mail and came up with this, he just had a vague idea as to what he wanted.

 

His motorcycle had a custom paint job on it that had bullet holes and some intentional paint wear, rust, damage, exhaust smudge etc. So, that is what he wanted to continue on this.

 

I know that those with a sharp eye will see that the two gauges have (digitally painted) glass over them. The inner face has broken (digitally painted) glass over it too, AND, not just that, but there was some REAL glass over these. :)

So, that part, while hokey, he loved it, and we both knew it was WAY over the top, but he wanted it that way, so...

 

Also, in real life if those bullet holes were from a German plane, the holes would be larger, so practically NONE of what you see is realistic. (These are .22 caliber size)

 

In my mind I designed this to be like an old plane that was in a plane boneyard and was rusting for years and he came along and saved it. That was how I looked at it, and realism is what I aimed for, although, nothing was realistic in 'real life'. :)

I learned how to do rust, and age things while making this.

 

This was all done in Photoshop after looking online at how planes (especially P-51's) gauges looked. Actually, I couldn't find one, so I looked at other plane gauges and just went with it.

 

He was ex-Air Force so he had to have the Air Force star, and he also wanted the small type in small print about, "War Bird", his bike. (See circular print in the inner ring)

He won some contests with his bike, I saw it in a magazine once.

I did several that were in magazines actually, I had a really good business while it lasted.

(Another guy saw this and wanted one for his bike and he had been a Tomcat pilot, so I made him one for that, I had several pilots actually)

 

Anyway, yeah, it's not realistic, but you just have to open your mind, or, have a shot of tequila, whichever. :)

 

Instagram: instagram.com/45surf

 

Subscribe to my new youtube channel and see how I used the divine section and golden rectangle, spiral, and ratio to get the cover of N-Photo Magazine! And see how Ansel Adams and the great painters and fine art masters used the golden mean in their compositions!

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLlB_W3XG-k

www.youtube.com/channel/UC42cWDExI8K8stjROqOlLbQ

 

It shows up in a lot of my surf photos too!

 

Nikon D810 Photos Pro Women's Surfing Sports Photography With New Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD Lens for Nikon!

 

Beautiful athletic swimsuit bikini wetsuit model goddesses!

 

The new Nikon D810 rocks for sports photography! New Instagram!

instagram.com/45surf

 

Goddess videos! vimeo.com/45surf

 

Nikon D810 Photos Pro Women's Surfing Van's US Open Sports Photography Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD !

 

I shot in DX mode which crops away the extra pixels and takes me 1.5X closer while allowing for up to 7 FPS with the Nikon D810's Nikon MB-D12 Battery Grip using the 8 AA battery option! 8 Duracles took me through around 3,000 shots no problem--maybe more! I was shooting at the equivalent of 900mm with the 1.5x crop factor! Pretty close! Had I gone with the Nikon D4s, I would have gotten 12 fps, but no DX crop factor, as the sensor has only around 14mp, compared to the d810's 36 megapixels! Sure the larger pixel size on the Nikon D4s full frame sensor comes in handy indoors or at night, but in the brigth sun, there's more than enough light for the smaller pixels in crop mode! Sure we lose some pixels from the outer edges when shooting in DX crop mode, but most of those pixels would be cropped away in lightroom anyway. And the smaller files make the memory cards last longer, while also upping the FPS to 7 shots per second! Not quite 12 FPS< but still awesome and enough I felt!

 

What a beautiful way to test the Nikon D810 and Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens for sports photography!

 

Athletic graceful girl goddesses! Tall, thin, fit and in shape! Pro women's surfers form the van's us open wearing both long wetsuits and bikini bottoms with shorty wetsuit tops/summer wetsuits. Sexy, beautiful beach babes and water goddesses all! Many are professional swimsuit bikini / surf lifestyle models too!

 

Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD Autofocus lens for Nikon AF-D Cameras.

 

The new Nikon D810 rocks for sports photography New Instagram!

instagram.com/45surf

 

Beautiful athletic swimsuit bikini wetsuit model goddesses!

 

Join me friends!!

 

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Subscribe to my new youtube!

 

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All the best on your epic hero's odyssey! :)

 

Been hard at work on my books--my physics books on Dynamic Dimensions Theory (dx4/dt=ic) celebrating the hitherto unsung reality of the fourth expanding dimension which all the photons surf across the universe en route to making a photograph! Also working on an art, mythology, and photography book titled The Golden Hero's Odyssey! All the best on your Epic Hero's Odyssey! Always love hearing from y'all! :)

No use mis imágenes sin obtener antes mi autorización. © Todos los derechos reservados ©

Don't use this image without my explicit permission © All rights reserved ©

 

♫♥♥♫

 

La cabra montés es una especie muy antigua, estimándose que en el Plioceno (hace 7 millones de años), los caprínidos de Asia central llegaron a Europa y fue hacia la glaciación Riss cuando aparece la forma ibérica del género Capra ya diferenciada de la ibex del centro de Europa.

La primera medida de protección de la especie en España, fue la creación en 1905, por el rey Alfonso XIII, del Refugio Real de Caza de la Sierra de Gredos, salvando una reducidísima población de animales. Siendo especialmente a partir de 1950, cuando se establece un efectivo programa de conservación de la cabra montés a nivel nacional, con la creación de numerosas reservas y un programa de conservación, lo que no obstante no ha impedido la regresión de la especie en algunas zonas como ha ocurrido en los Pirineos.

Esta especie se desenvuelve por igual de día y de noche, aunque sus máximas horas de actividad se localizan por la mañana y a finales de la tarde, cerca del crepúsculo. En invierno desarrollan su actividad en las horas centrales del día, que es cuando hace más calor.

Son animales sociables, pero cambian a menudo de manada. Ésta puede estar constituida por machos adultos, hembras con sus crías o adolescentes de ambos sexos (en este último caso, sólo durante el verano). Los machos y las hembras adultas se reúnen en la época de celo, en los meses de noviembre y diciembre -caracterizados por los violentos combates cabeza contra cabeza de los machos- y las crías (una por parto) nacen todas en mayo.

Habitan tanto en bosques como en extensiones herbáceas, en cotas montañosas de entre 500 y 2500 metros de altura. La dieta es predominantemente herbácea, aunque en invierno se torna más arbustiva. Si es necesario, excavan en la nieve para acceder hasta la vegetación.

 

I used to hang out with this girl all the time, really chill. She cuts my hair for me, and we had a quick photoshoot for payment. I really liked this one, though.

 

Canon 5D Mark II with 50mm 1.8

 

STROBIST:

B800 Camera right through 47" Octabox with both diffusers. Triggered by Cactus V4's. Powered by Vagabond II.

 

Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | www.GarrettCoyte.com | gcoyte@gmail.com

used inverted 28mm Minolta lens

Using Brick Warriors weapon packs

For your Art only, not for Sale on a Collage Sheet or a CD

~~~~~~***Please, feel free to use my Textures, Backgrounds, Stock, etc., in your Artwork.

if you do use it i would love it if you would please post your finished work in my group here****

 

RubysTreasures

 

To see all my textures please visit ~ Here

 

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Please Sign Here to stop the Dog Cruelty and Tortures in China.

 

You can help the billions of animals across the world who suffer everyday, if you care enough ,

Please Sign Here And give them a Voice.

 

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Used the Panorama function on me Moby, Quite impressed with the quality.

Made in France . Expiration date 2000/2001 . With Kodak Gold film inside .

The Baltimore & Ohio created a lap siding at Cairo, Ohio, with the middle of siding being at Main Street. If you look carefully you will see the dwarf signal displays a clear indication. In the meantime, CSX steel train K596 is pulling out of the north end of the siding onto the main. A northbound behind the photographer is in the south end of the siding and will pull onto the main as the steel train meets it.

Using the guid auld Scots word to describe dull, dreary, wet and miserable weather : dreich! As we all know dreich days are often the best of days to get out there with the camera and make the most of the wonderful light and tones.

 

Here in the Trass Valley near Nelson, the bright splash of autumn colours on the stream-side willows contrast nicely with the dark pines and the grey mist.

 

Found near Nelson, South Island, New Zealand.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Francisco Aragão © 2015. All Rights Reserved.

Use without permission is illegal.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[fasub]

 

Portuguese

Canela é um município brasileiro do estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Faz divisa com a cidade de Gramado. A cidade é conhecida por atrações turísticas como a Cascata do Caracol, o Parque da Ferradura e a Catedral de Pedra.

História

A Serra Gaúcha foi habitada, antigamente, pelos índios caingangues. Nos séculos XVIII e XIX, estes foram desalojados violentamente por ação de matadores de indígenas, os chamados "bugreiros". Estes foram contratados, pelo governo imperial brasileiro, para abrir espaço para a instalação de imigrantes europeus na região, visando a uma "embranquecimento" da população brasileira, que, na época, era predominantemente negra ou mestiça6 . Ao mesmo tempo, a região era desbravada por descendentes de açorianos, os chamados "tropeiros", que utilizavam a região para o descanso do gado.

Um dos mais importantes destinos turísticos do Rio Grande do Sul, a cidade de Canela teve seu primeiro núcleo urbano formado em 1903, quando o coronel João Ferreira Corrêa da Silva se instalou no local. Foi sob sua organização que se construiu a estrada para Taquara, de cujo território Canela fazia parte, e se instituíram os principais serviços. A principal praça de Canela recebeu o nome em homenagem a esse desbravador. O clima saudável e as belezas naturais deram sustentação à procura da cidade como centro de veraneio desde os anos 1930 e especialmente a partir dos 1940.

Foi nessa época também que surgiu o movimento emancipacionista liderado por Pedro Sander, Nagibe da Rosa, Danton Corrêa da Silva, Attilio Zugno e Pedro Oscar Selbach. Em 28 de dezembro de 1944, a Lei Estadual 717 criou o município, que foi instalado quatro dias depois em 1º de janeiro de 1945. A estrada de ferro e as usinas de Canastra e Bugres colaboraram para consolidar a importância de Canela.

 

English

Canela, meaning Cinnamon in Portuguese and Spanish, is a town located in the Serra Gaúcha of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Both Canela and neighboring Gramado are important tourist resorts and they both draw many visitors each year. Ecotourism is very popular in the area and there are many opportunities for hiking, rock climbing, horseback riding and river rafting. The main tourist attraction in Canela is the Parque do Caracol, the Cathedral of Stone, and Caracol Falls (Cascata do Caracol). Like sister town Gramado, Canela is a large tourist draw during the winter, where snowfall can occur, and during the Christmas holiday and the local town council deck Canela with lights and other festive decorations. Canela is part of the Rota Romântica or Romantic Route, a scenic bypass.

 

Spanish

Canela es un municipio localizado en el estado de Río Grande del Sur. Separado de Gramado por el Valle del Quilombo, conforma junto con su ciudad vecina el polo turístico más importante de Río Grande del Sur y uno de los más concurridos del país. Su nombre se debe a la presencia de la "caneleira", un árbol típico de la región.

La ciudad es famosa como base para practicar actividades ecoturísticas.

Entre sus muchos puntos turísticos se destacan el Parque Estatal del Caracol, con la famosa cascada del mismo nombre (cascada del Caracol, de 131 metros de caída) y el parque da Ferradura.

La ciudad alberga una de las más importantes catedrales de la región, cuya patrona es Nuestra Señora de Lourdes. Localmente, se la conoce como "Iglesia de piedra", pues fue realizada en basalto en estilo gótico inglés.

Otro monumento destacable es el "Castillito", una casa de principios del siglo XX construida en estilo típico europeo. En sus instalaciones funciona un museo y una confitería donde se sirve Apfelstrudel acompañado de té de manzanilla.

 

German

Canela ist eine Stadt in Rio Grande do Sul im Süden Brasiliens. Der Ort mit ca 40.000 Einwohnern wurde zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts gegründet und am 28. Dezember 1944 eigenständig. Er liegt auf einer Höhe von 837 Metern in der Serra Gaúcha in der Region der Hortensien. Das Gemeindegebiet grenzt an Três Coroas (im Süden), Gramado (im Südwesten), Caxias do Sul (im Nordwesten) und São Francisco de Paula (im Nordosten). Canela liegt 123 km nördlich der Hauptstadt Porto Alegre (84 km Luftlinie).

Der deutsch, italienisch und portugiesisch geprägte Stadtkern mit seiner Kathedrale stammt aus dem frühen 20. Jahrhundert.

Canela hat ein subtropisches durch die Höhenlage relativ kühles und feuchtes Klima. Im Sommer wird es durchschnittlich 28 °C, im Winter 6 °C. Es gibt gelegentlich Frost und Schnee. Die Stadt lockt sowohl im Sommer als auch bei Schneefall viele Touristen an, meist Brasilianer, und ist touristisch sehr gut erschlossen. Besonders die beiden Naturparks Ferradura und Caracol, dessen größte Attraktion ein Wasserfall ist, sind bei Besuchern sehr beliebt. Die ursprüngliche Vegetation ist Araukarienwald und Mata Atlântica in den tieferen Lagen.

Die landwirtschaftliche Produktion ist geprägt durch Mais, Äpfel, Bohnen, Wein, Reis, Maté, Schweine, Rinder und Hühner.

Der Ort liegt an der Rota Romântica, einer landschaftlich schönen Strecke, welche neben Canela noch São Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo, Estância Velha, Ivoti, Dois Irmãos, Morro Reuter, Santa Maria do Herval, Presidente Lucena, Picada Café, Nova Petrópolis, Gramado und São Francisco de Paula umfasst. Die Straße RS-235 führt von Gramado über Canela nach São Francisco de Paula. Von 1924 bis 1963 war Canela durch eine Bahnlinie mit Taquara verbunden. Der Bahnhof dient heute als Museum. Der Flugplatz zwischen Gramado und Canela wird nicht im Linienverkehr angeflogen.

 

Wikipedia