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La Transiraniana ha unito per la prima volta il Paese. Un esempio di come un'infrastruttura sia potu
salini, we build value, transiraniana www.diggita.it/v.php?id=1525415
IR HDR. IR converted Canon 40D (Lifepixel.com) . Canon 17-55 F2.8 IS lens. Shot at ISO 100, F8, AEB +/-3 total of 7 exposures processed with Photomatix. Levels adjusted in PSE.
High Dynamic Range (HDR)
High-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) is a high dynamic range (HDR) technique used in imaging and photography to reproduce a greater dynamic range of luminosity than is possible with standard digital imaging or photographic techniques. The aim is to present a similar range of luminance to that experienced through the human visual system. The human eye, through adaptation of the iris and other methods, adjusts constantly to adapt to a broad range of luminance present in the environment. The brain continuously interprets this information so that a viewer can see in a wide range of light conditions.
HDR images can represent a greater range of luminance levels than can be achieved using more 'traditional' methods, such as many real-world scenes containing very bright, direct sunlight to extreme shade, or very faint nebulae. This is often achieved by capturing and then combining several different, narrower range, exposures of the same subject matter. Non-HDR cameras take photographs with a limited exposure range, referred to as LDR, resulting in the loss of detail in highlights or shadows.
The two primary types of HDR images are computer renderings and images resulting from merging multiple low-dynamic-range (LDR) or standard-dynamic-range (SDR) photographs. HDR images can also be acquired using special image sensors, such as an oversampled binary image sensor.
Due to the limitations of printing and display contrast, the extended luminosity range of an HDR image has to be compressed to be made visible. The method of rendering an HDR image to a standard monitor or printing device is called tone mapping. This method reduces the overall contrast of an HDR image to facilitate display on devices or printouts with lower dynamic range, and can be applied to produce images with preserved local contrast (or exaggerated for artistic effect).
In photography, dynamic range is measured in exposure value (EV) differences (known as stops). An increase of one EV, or 'one stop', represents a doubling of the amount of light. Conversely, a decrease of one EV represents a halving of the amount of light. Therefore, revealing detail in the darkest of shadows requires high exposures, while preserving detail in very bright situations requires very low exposures. Most cameras cannot provide this range of exposure values within a single exposure, due to their low dynamic range. High-dynamic-range photographs are generally achieved by capturing multiple standard-exposure images, often using exposure bracketing, and then later merging them into a single HDR image, usually within a photo manipulation program). Digital images are often encoded in a camera's raw image format, because 8-bit JPEG encoding does not offer a wide enough range of values to allow fine transitions (and regarding HDR, later introduces undesirable effects due to lossy compression).
Any camera that allows manual exposure control can make images for HDR work, although one equipped with auto exposure bracketing (AEB) is far better suited. Images from film cameras are less suitable as they often must first be digitized, so that they can later be processed using software HDR methods.
In most imaging devices, the degree of exposure to light applied to the active element (be it film or CCD) can be altered in one of two ways: by either increasing/decreasing the size of the aperture or by increasing/decreasing the time of each exposure. Exposure variation in an HDR set is only done by altering the exposure time and not the aperture size; this is because altering the aperture size also affects the depth of field and so the resultant multiple images would be quite different, preventing their final combination into a single HDR image.
An important limitation for HDR photography is that any movement between successive images will impede or prevent success in combining them afterwards. Also, as one must create several images (often three or five and sometimes more) to obtain the desired luminance range, such a full 'set' of images takes extra time. HDR photographers have developed calculation methods and techniques to partially overcome these problems, but the use of a sturdy tripod is, at least, advised.
Some cameras have an auto exposure bracketing (AEB) feature with a far greater dynamic range than others, from the 3 EV of the Canon EOS 40D, to the 18 EV of the Canon EOS-1D Mark II. As the popularity of this imaging method grows, several camera manufactures are now offering built-in HDR features. For example, the Pentax K-7 DSLR has an HDR mode that captures an HDR image and outputs (only) a tone mapped JPEG file. The Canon PowerShot G12, Canon PowerShot S95 and Canon PowerShot S100 offer similar features in a smaller format.. Nikon's approach is called 'Active D-Lighting' which applies exposure compensation and tone mapping to the image as it comes from the sensor, with the accent being on retaing a realistic effect . Some smartphones provide HDR modes, and most mobile platforms have apps that provide HDR picture taking.
Camera characteristics such as gamma curves, sensor resolution, noise, photometric calibration and color calibration affect resulting high-dynamic-range images.
Color film negatives and slides consist of multiple film layers that respond to light differently. As a consequence, transparent originals (especially positive slides) feature a very high dynamic range
Tone mapping
Tone mapping reduces the dynamic range, or contrast ratio, of an entire image while retaining localized contrast. Although it is a distinct operation, tone mapping is often applied to HDRI files by the same software package.
Several software applications are available on the PC, Mac and Linux platforms for producing HDR files and tone mapped images. Notable titles include
Adobe Photoshop
Aurora HDR
Dynamic Photo HDR
HDR Efex Pro
HDR PhotoStudio
Luminance HDR
MagicRaw
Oloneo PhotoEngine
Photomatix Pro
PTGui
Information stored in high-dynamic-range images typically corresponds to the physical values of luminance or radiance that can be observed in the real world. This is different from traditional digital images, which represent colors as they should appear on a monitor or a paper print. Therefore, HDR image formats are often called scene-referred, in contrast to traditional digital images, which are device-referred or output-referred. Furthermore, traditional images are usually encoded for the human visual system (maximizing the visual information stored in the fixed number of bits), which is usually called gamma encoding or gamma correction. The values stored for HDR images are often gamma compressed (power law) or logarithmically encoded, or floating-point linear values, since fixed-point linear encodings are increasingly inefficient over higher dynamic ranges.
HDR images often don't use fixed ranges per color channel—other than traditional images—to represent many more colors over a much wider dynamic range. For that purpose, they don't use integer values to represent the single color channels (e.g., 0-255 in an 8 bit per pixel interval for red, green and blue) but instead use a floating point representation. Common are 16-bit (half precision) or 32-bit floating point numbers to represent HDR pixels. However, when the appropriate transfer function is used, HDR pixels for some applications can be represented with a color depth that has as few as 10–12 bits for luminance and 8 bits for chrominance without introducing any visible quantization artifacts.
History of HDR photography
The idea of using several exposures to adequately reproduce a too-extreme range of luminance was pioneered as early as the 1850s by Gustave Le Gray to render seascapes showing both the sky and the sea. Such rendering was impossible at the time using standard methods, as the luminosity range was too extreme. Le Gray used one negative for the sky, and another one with a longer exposure for the sea, and combined the two into one picture in positive.
Mid 20th century
Manual tone mapping was accomplished by dodging and burning – selectively increasing or decreasing the exposure of regions of the photograph to yield better tonality reproduction. This was effective because the dynamic range of the negative is significantly higher than would be available on the finished positive paper print when that is exposed via the negative in a uniform manner. An excellent example is the photograph Schweitzer at the Lamp by W. Eugene Smith, from his 1954 photo essay A Man of Mercy on Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his humanitarian work in French Equatorial Africa. The image took 5 days to reproduce the tonal range of the scene, which ranges from a bright lamp (relative to the scene) to a dark shadow.
Ansel Adams elevated dodging and burning to an art form. Many of his famous prints were manipulated in the darkroom with these two methods. Adams wrote a comprehensive book on producing prints called The Print, which prominently features dodging and burning, in the context of his Zone System.
With the advent of color photography, tone mapping in the darkroom was no longer possible due to the specific timing needed during the developing process of color film. Photographers looked to film manufacturers to design new film stocks with improved response, or continued to shoot in black and white to use tone mapping methods.
Color film capable of directly recording high-dynamic-range images was developed by Charles Wyckoff and EG&G "in the course of a contract with the Department of the Air Force". This XR film had three emulsion layers, an upper layer having an ASA speed rating of 400, a middle layer with an intermediate rating, and a lower layer with an ASA rating of 0.004. The film was processed in a manner similar to color films, and each layer produced a different color. The dynamic range of this extended range film has been estimated as 1:108. It has been used to photograph nuclear explosions, for astronomical photography, for spectrographic research, and for medical imaging. Wyckoff's detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the mid-1950s.
Late 20th century
Georges Cornuéjols and licensees of his patents (Brdi, Hymatom) introduced the principle of HDR video image, in 1986, by interposing a matricial LCD screen in front of the camera's image sensor, increasing the sensors dynamic by five stops. The concept of neighborhood tone mapping was applied to video cameras by a group from the Technion in Israel led by Dr. Oliver Hilsenrath and Prof. Y.Y.Zeevi who filed for a patent on this concept in 1988.
In February and April 1990, Georges Cornuéjols introduced the first real-time HDR camera that combined two images captured by a sensor3435 or simultaneously3637 by two sensors of the camera. This process is known as bracketing used for a video stream.
In 1991, the first commercial video camera was introduced that performed real-time capturing of multiple images with different exposures, and producing an HDR video image, by Hymatom, licensee of Georges Cornuéjols.
Also in 1991, Georges Cornuéjols introduced the HDR+ image principle by non-linear accumulation of images to increase the sensitivity of the camera: for low-light environments, several successive images are accumulated, thus increasing the signal to noise ratio.
In 1993, another commercial medical camera producing an HDR video image, by the Technion.
Modern HDR imaging uses a completely different approach, based on making a high-dynamic-range luminance or light map using only global image operations (across the entire image), and then tone mapping the result. Global HDR was first introduced in 19931 resulting in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995 by Steve Mann and Rosalind Picard.
On October 28, 1998, Ben Sarao created one of the first nighttime HDR+G (High Dynamic Range + Graphic image)of STS-95 on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It consisted of four film images of the shuttle at night that were digitally composited with additional digital graphic elements. The image was first exhibited at NASA Headquarters Great Hall, Washington DC in 1999 and then published in Hasselblad Forum, Issue 3 1993, Volume 35 ISSN 0282-5449.
The advent of consumer digital cameras produced a new demand for HDR imaging to improve the light response of digital camera sensors, which had a much smaller dynamic range than film. Steve Mann developed and patented the global-HDR method for producing digital images having extended dynamic range at the MIT Media Laboratory. Mann's method involved a two-step procedure: (1) generate one floating point image array by global-only image operations (operations that affect all pixels identically, without regard to their local neighborhoods); and then (2) convert this image array, using local neighborhood processing (tone-remapping, etc.), into an HDR image. The image array generated by the first step of Mann's process is called a lightspace image, lightspace picture, or radiance map. Another benefit of global-HDR imaging is that it provides access to the intermediate light or radiance map, which has been used for computer vision, and other image processing operations.
21st century
In 2005, Adobe Systems introduced several new features in Photoshop CS2 including Merge to HDR, 32 bit floating point image support, and HDR tone mapping.
On June 30, 2016, Microsoft added support for the digital compositing of HDR images to Windows 10 using the Universal Windows Platform.
HDR sensors
Modern CMOS image sensors can often capture a high dynamic range from a single exposure. The wide dynamic range of the captured image is non-linearly compressed into a smaller dynamic range electronic representation. However, with proper processing, the information from a single exposure can be used to create an HDR image.
Such HDR imaging is used in extreme dynamic range applications like welding or automotive work. Some other cameras designed for use in security applications can automatically provide two or more images for each frame, with changing exposure. For example, a sensor for 30fps video will give out 60fps with the odd frames at a short exposure time and the even frames at a longer exposure time. Some of the sensor may even combine the two images on-chip so that a wider dynamic range without in-pixel compression is directly available to the user for display or processing.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-dynamic-range_imaging
Infrared Photography
In infrared photography, the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm. Film is usually sensitive to visible light too, so an infrared-passing filter is used; this lets infrared (IR) light pass through to the camera, but blocks all or most of the visible light spectrum (the filter thus looks black or deep red). ("Infrared filter" may refer either to this type of filter or to one that blocks infrared but passes other wavelengths.)
When these filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, "in-camera effects" can be obtained; false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the "Wood Effect," an effect mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow. There is a small contribution from chlorophyll fluorescence, but this is marginal and is not the real cause of the brightness seen in infrared photographs. The effect is named after the infrared photography pioneer Robert W. Wood, and not after the material wood, which does not strongly reflect infrared.
The other attributes of infrared photographs include very dark skies and penetration of atmospheric haze, caused by reduced Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering, respectively, compared to visible light. The dark skies, in turn, result in less infrared light in shadows and dark reflections of those skies from water, and clouds will stand out strongly. These wavelengths also penetrate a few millimeters into skin and give a milky look to portraits, although eyes often look black.
Until the early 20th century, infrared photography was not possible because silver halide emulsions are not sensitive to longer wavelengths than that of blue light (and to a lesser extent, green light) without the addition of a dye to act as a color sensitizer. The first infrared photographs (as distinct from spectrographs) to be published appeared in the February 1910 edition of The Century Magazine and in the October 1910 edition of the Royal Photographic Society Journal to illustrate papers by Robert W. Wood, who discovered the unusual effects that now bear his name. The RPS co-ordinated events to celebrate the centenary of this event in 2010. Wood's photographs were taken on experimental film that required very long exposures; thus, most of his work focused on landscapes. A further set of infrared landscapes taken by Wood in Italy in 1911 used plates provided for him by CEK Mees at Wratten & Wainwright. Mees also took a few infrared photographs in Portugal in 1910, which are now in the Kodak archives.
Infrared-sensitive photographic plates were developed in the United States during World War I for spectroscopic analysis, and infrared sensitizing dyes were investigated for improved haze penetration in aerial photography. After 1930, new emulsions from Kodak and other manufacturers became useful to infrared astronomy.
Infrared photography became popular with photography enthusiasts in the 1930s when suitable film was introduced commercially. The Times regularly published landscape and aerial photographs taken by their staff photographers using Ilford infrared film. By 1937 33 kinds of infrared film were available from five manufacturers including Agfa, Kodak and Ilford. Infrared movie film was also available and was used to create day-for-night effects in motion pictures, a notable example being the pseudo-night aerial sequences in the James Cagney/Bette Davis movie The Bride Came COD.
False-color infrared photography became widely practiced with the introduction of Kodak Ektachrome Infrared Aero Film and Ektachrome Infrared EIR. The first version of this, known as Kodacolor Aero-Reversal-Film, was developed by Clark and others at the Kodak for camouflage detection in the 1940s. The film became more widely available in 35mm form in the 1960s but KODAK AEROCHROME III Infrared Film 1443 has been discontinued.
Infrared photography became popular with a number of 1960s recording artists, because of the unusual results; Jimi Hendrix, Donovan, Frank and a slow shutter speed without focus compensation, however wider apertures like f/2.0 can produce sharp photos only if the lens is meticulously refocused to the infrared index mark, and only if this index mark is the correct one for the filter and film in use. However, it should be noted that diffraction effects inside a camera are greater at infrared wavelengths so that stopping down the lens too far may actually reduce sharpness.
Most apochromatic ('APO') lenses do not have an Infrared index mark and do not need to be refocused for the infrared spectrum because they are already optically corrected into the near-infrared spectrum. Catadioptric lenses do not often require this adjustment because their mirror containing elements do not suffer from chromatic aberration and so the overall aberration is comparably less. Catadioptric lenses do, of course, still contain lenses, and these lenses do still have a dispersive property.
Infrared black-and-white films require special development times but development is usually achieved with standard black-and-white film developers and chemicals (like D-76). Kodak HIE film has a polyester film base that is very stable but extremely easy to scratch, therefore special care must be used in the handling of Kodak HIE throughout the development and printing/scanning process to avoid damage to the film. The Kodak HIE film was sensitive to 900 nm.
As of November 2, 2007, "KODAK is preannouncing the discontinuance" of HIE Infrared 35 mm film stating the reasons that, "Demand for these products has been declining significantly in recent years, and it is no longer practical to continue to manufacture given the low volume, the age of the product formulations and the complexity of the processes involved." At the time of this notice, HIE Infrared 135-36 was available at a street price of around $12.00 a roll at US mail order outlets.
Arguably the greatest obstacle to infrared film photography has been the increasing difficulty of obtaining infrared-sensitive film. However, despite the discontinuance of HIE, other newer infrared sensitive emulsions from EFKE, ROLLEI, and ILFORD are still available, but these formulations have differing sensitivity and specifications from the venerable KODAK HIE that has been around for at least two decades. Some of these infrared films are available in 120 and larger formats as well as 35 mm, which adds flexibility to their application. With the discontinuance of Kodak HIE, Efke's IR820 film has become the only IR film on the marketneeds update with good sensitivity beyond 750 nm, the Rollei film does extend beyond 750 nm but IR sensitivity falls off very rapidly.
Color infrared transparency films have three sensitized layers that, because of the way the dyes are coupled to these layers, reproduce infrared as red, red as green, and green as blue. All three layers are sensitive to blue so the film must be used with a yellow filter, since this will block blue light but allow the remaining colors to reach the film. The health of foliage can be determined from the relative strengths of green and infrared light reflected; this shows in color infrared as a shift from red (healthy) towards magenta (unhealthy). Early color infrared films were developed in the older E-4 process, but Kodak later manufactured a color transparency film that could be developed in standard E-6 chemistry, although more accurate results were obtained by developing using the AR-5 process. In general, color infrared does not need to be refocused to the infrared index mark on the lens.
In 2007 Kodak announced that production of the 35 mm version of their color infrared film (Ektachrome Professional Infrared/EIR) would cease as there was insufficient demand. Since 2011, all formats of color infrared film have been discontinued. Specifically, Aerochrome 1443 and SO-734.
There is no currently available digital camera that will produce the same results as Kodak color infrared film although the equivalent images can be produced by taking two exposures, one infrared and the other full-color, and combining in post-production. The color images produced by digital still cameras using infrared-pass filters are not equivalent to those produced on color infrared film. The colors result from varying amounts of infrared passing through the color filters on the photo sites, further amended by the Bayer filtering. While this makes such images unsuitable for the kind of applications for which the film was used, such as remote sensing of plant health, the resulting color tonality has proved popular artistically.
Color digital infrared, as part of full spectrum photography is gaining popularity. The ease of creating a softly colored photo with infrared characteristics has found interest among hobbyists and professionals.
In 2008, Los Angeles photographer, Dean Bennici started cutting and hand rolling Aerochrome color Infrared film. All Aerochrome medium and large format which exists today came directly from his lab. The trend in infrared photography continues to gain momentum with the success of photographer Richard Mosse and multiple users all around the world.
Digital camera sensors are inherently sensitive to infrared light, which would interfere with the normal photography by confusing the autofocus calculations or softening the image (because infrared light is focused differently from visible light), or oversaturating the red channel. Also, some clothing is transparent in the infrared, leading to unintended (at least to the manufacturer) uses of video cameras. Thus, to improve image quality and protect privacy, many digital cameras employ infrared blockers. Depending on the subject matter, infrared photography may not be practical with these cameras because the exposure times become overly long, often in the range of 30 seconds, creating noise and motion blur in the final image. However, for some subject matter the long exposure does not matter or the motion blur effects actually add to the image. Some lenses will also show a 'hot spot' in the centre of the image as their coatings are optimised for visible light and not for IR.
An alternative method of DSLR infrared photography is to remove the infrared blocker in front of the sensor and replace it with a filter that removes visible light. This filter is behind the mirror, so the camera can be used normally - handheld, normal shutter speeds, normal composition through the viewfinder, and focus, all work like a normal camera. Metering works but is not always accurate because of the difference between visible and infrared refraction. When the IR blocker is removed, many lenses which did display a hotspot cease to do so, and become perfectly usable for infrared photography. Additionally, because the red, green and blue micro-filters remain and have transmissions not only in their respective color but also in the infrared, enhanced infrared color may be recorded.
Since the Bayer filters in most digital cameras absorb a significant fraction of the infrared light, these cameras are sometimes not very sensitive as infrared cameras and can sometimes produce false colors in the images. An alternative approach is to use a Foveon X3 sensor, which does not have absorptive filters on it; the Sigma SD10 DSLR has a removable IR blocking filter and dust protector, which can be simply omitted or replaced by a deep red or complete visible light blocking filter. The Sigma SD14 has an IR/UV blocking filter that can be removed/installed without tools. The result is a very sensitive digital IR camera.
While it is common to use a filter that blocks almost all visible light, the wavelength sensitivity of a digital camera without internal infrared blocking is such that a variety of artistic results can be obtained with more conventional filtration. For example, a very dark neutral density filter can be used (such as the Hoya ND400) which passes a very small amount of visible light compared to the near-infrared it allows through. Wider filtration permits an SLR viewfinder to be used and also passes more varied color information to the sensor without necessarily reducing the Wood effect. Wider filtration is however likely to reduce other infrared artefacts such as haze penetration and darkened skies. This technique mirrors the methods used by infrared film photographers where black-and-white infrared film was often used with a deep red filter rather than a visually opaque one.
Another common technique with near-infrared filters is to swap blue and red channels in software (e.g. photoshop) which retains much of the characteristic 'white foliage' while rendering skies a glorious blue.
Several Sony cameras had the so-called Night Shot facility, which physically moves the blocking filter away from the light path, which makes the cameras very sensitive to infrared light. Soon after its development, this facility was 'restricted' by Sony to make it difficult for people to take photos that saw through clothing. To do this the iris is opened fully and exposure duration is limited to long times of more than 1/30 second or so. It is possible to shoot infrared but neutral density filters must be used to reduce the camera's sensitivity and the long exposure times mean that care must be taken to avoid camera-shake artifacts.
Fuji have produced digital cameras for use in forensic criminology and medicine which have no infrared blocking filter. The first camera, designated the S3 PRO UVIR, also had extended ultraviolet sensitivity (digital sensors are usually less sensitive to UV than to IR). Optimum UV sensitivity requires special lenses, but ordinary lenses usually work well for IR. In 2007, FujiFilm introduced a new version of this camera, based on the Nikon D200/ FujiFilm S5 called the IS Pro, also able to take Nikon lenses. Fuji had earlier introduced a non-SLR infrared camera, the IS-1, a modified version of the FujiFilm FinePix S9100. Unlike the S3 PRO UVIR, the IS-1 does not offer UV sensitivity. FujiFilm restricts the sale of these cameras to professional users with their EULA specifically prohibiting "unethical photographic conduct".
Phase One digital camera backs can be ordered in an infrared modified form.
Remote sensing and thermographic cameras are sensitive to longer wavelengths of infrared (see Infrared spectrum#Commonly used sub-division scheme). They may be multispectral and use a variety of technologies which may not resemble common camera or filter designs. Cameras sensitive to longer infrared wavelengths including those used in infrared astronomy often require cooling to reduce thermally induced dark currents in the sensor (see Dark current (physics)). Lower cost uncooled thermographic digital cameras operate in the Long Wave infrared band (see Thermographic camera#Uncooled infrared detectors). These cameras are generally used for building inspection or preventative maintenance but can be used for artistic pursuits as well.
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon sends children off to religious education classes with a tradition the growing congregation insists on keeping no matter how big it gets. This commitment to community amidst rapid change is part of why the Unitarian Universalist Association named the fellowship a Breakthrough Congregation.
See “Community Spirit" by Elaine McArdle, UU World (Summer 2016), pages 22–27. Photograph © 2016 Karen Cammack.
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Is feudalism, marketing itself as democracy, the underlying operating system for modern civilization’s social, economic and political systems? This is the hypothesis of those who describe current systems of governance, militarism and global economics as a mutated form of feudalism.
If such assumption were true, it would help to explain why, for over 2,000 years, Western civilizations have perpetuated certain distinct characteristics — such as class systems, extreme wealth inequality, power elites, racism, militarism, prison systems and human trafficking.
It would help to explain why the guiding social systems and cultural programing of modern civilizations appear to be rooted in feudalism — focused on the concentration of power and wealth — and appear not to have changed significantly over time. Feudalism has been continuously “repackaged” and “updated” over time, transforming itself into imperialism, colonialism, industrialism and, most recently, into corporate capitalism and globalization.
Over the past few thousand years, human history has been one long story of empire building, predatory colonialism and military conquest. Even now, the majority of people on our planet are either extremely poor or in debt, while the wealthiest few have absolute control over the way those people live.
Our educational systems use standardized tests to sort, rank and classify children, while indoctrinating them with an incomplete understanding of history and manufacturing obedience. Test scores determine society’s winners and losers, and a child’s future social status will depend on their willingness to follow orders and do as instructed.
Our political systems are set up by those with the greatest wealth, allowing powerful individuals and corporations to make laws and wage wars, occupying offices far away from most “common people”, and ruling over the rest of us.
Our modern military campaigns sent young men off like pawns on chess boards to kill people in faraway countries that have resources our corporations want to control. Expensive weapons systems cost trillions of dollars, while back home there is little money left for the education or health care of our “peasant” classes.
Our prison systems are set up so as to see that poor people who violate laws are locked up in cages. In the United States, more African Americans are currently incarcerated than were forced into slavery 200 years ago.
All around us, we can see the old feudal systems transformed into modern versions of the same archaic patterns, resulting in the same social problems and dysfunctions.
It’s a system kept in place by propaganda that is fed to the masses by the media and schools, telling us that our world is based on “progress,” that we are more advanced and “developed” than primitive tribal cultures of the past. When in truth the feudal paradigm of civilization — focused on the social dominance of others and the acquisition of wealth by a small power elite — is in many ways barbaric, authoritarian and unsustainable.
Crime, war, racism, slavery, addiction, human trafficking, environmental destruction and extreme poverty are all symptoms of an underlying systemic imbalance, of a world where predatory and feudalist systems of social organization still dominate our lives.
Such criticism and understanding is not new. Jesus saw the evils of this system, and spoke out against it. Buddha refused to participate in his father’s kingdom, walking off and choosing to live in poverty instead. From Lao Tsu to Gandhi to Martin Luther King, there have been a chorus of voices that have spoken out across the ages. Albert Einstein wrote about this problem over 60 years ago, describing how modern political, economic and media systems were perpetuating oligarchy and manipulating democratic systems.
As we moved into the modern industrial age, large peaceful social movements have risen up to challenge the system – from the abolitionists and women suffragettes to the civil rights movement, anti-war protests, ecology movement and Occupy Wall Street. The old feudal ways of doing things has created endless misery, destroying Nature’s fragile ecosystems and leading the human race to ruin.
The time has come for our species to grow wiser, evolve our thinking and change the way we live upon this planet.
C. C.
Description of Historic Place
The Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator Site Complex is located on Railway Avenue at Main Street, beside an active railway line in the hamlet of Meeting Creek in central Alberta. The site consists of a pre-World War One grain elevator and an attached drive shed, an office/engine house, and a storage/fuel shed, located on one lot of 215 square metres. The adjacent rail line and train station are not included in the designation.
Heritage Value
The heritage value of the Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator Site Complex in Meeting Creek lies in its role in the grain trade which lay at the economic heart of this rural community and its hinterland from before World War One. It also represents a method of grain handling that predates the large cooperatives of the 1920s onward.
The construction of the Calgary and Edmonton and Canadian Northern Railways and the introduction of the sturdy strain of Marquis wheat in 1910 dramatically expanded agricultural settlement and wheat production in central and northern Alberta in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Meeting Creek was one such settlement, established in 1911 in the centre of what would become a rich agricultural hinterland north of Buffalo Lake. The Alberta Pacific Grain Company erected the hamlet's first grain elevator next to the rail line sometime between 1914 and 1917.
Very few elevators of this period have survived in Alberta, and the buildings on the site follow standard plans common throughout the province at the time. The Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator Site Complex is an excellent, rare example of an early grain elevator, and demonstrates the central role of elevators in Alberta's rural communities. It represents an all-wood Prairie Vernacular style of industrial building designed to grade, weigh, store and ship grain, in this case with a 26, 000 bushel capacity and typical crib construction. The site retains original grain handling artifacts that demonstrate the workings of the elevator, and its historic relationship with the Canadian Northern railway station and rail line.
Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 1864)
Character-Defining Elements
Key elements that define the heritage character of this site include:
- the form, scale, and massing of the grain elevator and its ancillary structures, the drive shed, office-engine house and fuel shed; and the unaltered spatial relationship between the structures;
- the tall rectangular design expressing its grain handling function, with wooden crib construction, exposed structural members, sloping shoulder design, wood framing, and cupola
- pressed metal (tin) covering of elevator;
- in situ components of the grain handling system, such as the elevator leg and distributor, weigh scale and hopper scale, control wheel and levers, electric motors, bins, hopper, belts and pulleys for the vertical conveyor belt, wood bins and chutes, air pressurized hoist system, man-lift;
- post and beam construction of drive shed;
- fenestration pattern;
-prominent corporate signage;
- the external visual relationship between the site, rail line and railway station.
Location
Street Address:
Community:Meeting Creek
Boundaries:Plan 5614 AF, Block A, Lot 2
Contributing Resources:Buildings: 3
ATS Legal Description:
MerRgeTwpSecLSD
4
19
43
8
4 (ptn.)
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
PlanBlockLotParcel
5614 AF
A
N/A
Latitude/Longitude:
LatitudeLongitudeCDTDatum Type
52.681222-112.727913Secondary SourceNAD 83
UTM Reference:
NorthingEastingZoneCDTDatum Type
Recognition
Recognition Authority:Province of Alberta
Designation Status:Provincial Historic Resource
Date of Designation:2001/10/19
Historical Information
Built:1914/01/01 To 1917/01/01
Significant Date(s)N/A
Theme(s)Developing Economies : Trade and Commerce
Peopling the Land : Settlement
Historic Function(s):Food Supply : Grain Elevator
Current Function(s):Leisure : Museum
Architect:
Builder:
Context:The community of Meeting Creek developed shortly after the arrival of the railway to the district in 1911. Across the tracks, directly facing the hamlet's main street, the first grain elevator was erected by the Alberta Pacific Grain (APG) Company. The date of construction is listed on the designation application form as 1917-18. A photo of the hamlet dated 1914, however, clearly shows this wood frame elevator as the most prominent structure in the skyline.
Although Meeting Creek never developed into Village status, it was for years the centre of a rich agricultural hinterland north of Buffalo Lake. During the 1920s, the Searle Grain Company and the Alberta Wheat Pool (AWP) also built grain elevators there. In later years, the Alberta Pacific elevator was given a metal veneer and, in 1972, sold to the Alberta Wheat Pool. Today, the structure complements the adjacent railway station, which also dates from the pre-1920 period.
HSTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator in Meeting Creek is historically significant in that it represents the economic heart of this rural community and its hinterland from, practically, its inception. It also represents a method of grain handling that predates the large cooperative endeavours of the 1920s onward. Very few grain elevators of this vintage have survived in the province. The presence of early grain handling artifacts inside adds to its historical worth.
Early morning walk.
Just put me in mind of the Ents as I’m re-reading Lord of the Rings at the moment. Mind you, they’d have to find the Entwives first.
I finished up my value quilt last night! I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'll have to take some better photos at some point, it was starting to get dark! :)
I just did some simple straight line quilting on both sides of the HST middle seam. :)
American postcard. Caption: Mickey Rooney, Then and Now.
American film actor Mickey Rooney (1920-2014) had one of the longest careers in cinematic history. As a child, he first appeared on film in 1926, and he made his last appearance in 2014. As a teenager, Rooney was a superstar playing Andy Hardy in a series of 15 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomised American family values. With Judy Garland, he became a successful song-and-dance team. Rooney's breakthrough role as a dramatic actor came in Boys Town (1938) opposite Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan. The popularity of his films made Rooney the biggest box-office draw in 1939, 1940 and 1941.
Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. in 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of Scottish-born vaudevillian/actor Joe Yule and Missouri-born Nell Ruth (née Carter) Pankey. Mickey first took the stage in his parents' vaudeville act at 17 months old, wearing a specially tailored tuxedo. His parents divorced in 1923, when Mickey was three years old. In 1925, Mickey came to Hollywood to audition as one of Hal Roach's Rascals for the Our Gang series, but Mickey's mother declined over a salary dispute. Mickey then made his first film appearance in the short silent comedy Not to Be Trusted (Tom Buckingham, 1926), when he was four years old. He played the character Mickey McGuire for the first time in the bubbly comedy Orchids and Ermine (Alfred Santell, 1927) with Colleen Moore. The following year, he played the lead in the first Mickey McGuire short film, Mickey's Circus (Albert Herman, 1927). It was in this popular film series that he took the stage name Mickey Rooney. Rooney reached new heights with A Family Affair (George B. Seitz, 1937) with Lionel Barrymore, the film that introduced the country to Andy Hardy, the popular all-American teenager. This beloved character appeared in nearly 20 films and helped make Rooney the top box-office star in 1939, 1940, and 1941. Rooney also proved himself an excellent dramatic actor as a delinquent in Boys Town (Norman Taurog, 1938), starring Spencer Tracy as Father Edward Flanagan, an advocate of child rights. In 1938, Rooney was awarded a Juvenile Academy Award. Teaming up with Judy Garland, Rooney also appeared in a string of musicals, including Babes in Arms (Busby Berkeley, 1939) the first teenager to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role, Strike Up the Band (Busby Berkeley, 1940), Babes on Broadway (Busby Berkeley, 1941), and Girl Crazy (Norman Taurog, Busby Berkeley, 1943). He and Garland immediately became best of friends. He also appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet (Clarence Brown, 1944). During World War II, Mickey Rooney served 21 months in the U.S. Army, five of them with the Third Army of Gen. George S. Patton. He attained the rank of sergeant and won a Bronze Star, among other decorations. Rooney helped to entertain the troops and worked on the American Armed Forces Network. He returned to Hollywood and starred in Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (Willis Goldbeck, 1946), did a remake of the James Cagney film The Crowd Roars (Howard Hawks, 1932) called Killer McCoy (Roy Rowland, 1947) and portrayed composer Lorenz Hart in the musical Words and Music (Norman Taurog, 1948).
Mickey Rooney appeared in Andy Hardy Comes Home (Howard W. Koch, 1958), together with his son Teddy Rooney portraying Andy Hardy Jr. Andy Hardy, now a grown man with a wife and children, returns to his hometown on a business trip and finds himself getting mixed up in local politics. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Rooney did a nightclub comedy act with comic Joey Forman. He also appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961), starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Rooney played Hepburn's Japanese neighbour, Mr. Yunioshi. A sign of the times, Rooney played the part for comic relief, which he later regretted, feeling the role was offensive. He once again showed his incredible range in the dramatic role of a boxing trainer with Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason in Requiem for a Heavyweight (Ralph Nelson, 1962). He followed it up with the comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 1963), starring Spencer Tracey. Rooney regularly worked in European productions, such as the Italian comedy L'arcidiavolo (Errore Scola, 1966) with Vittorio Gassman, British crime comedy Pulp (Mike Hodges, 1972) with Michael Caine, and the Spanish thriller Juego sucio en Panamá/Ace of Hearts (Tulio Demicheli, 1975). In the late 1960s and 1970s, Rooney showed audiences and critics alike why he was one of Hollywood's most enduring stars. He gave an impressive performance in Francis Ford Coppola's The Black Stallion (Carroll Ballard, 1979), which brought him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He also turned to the stage in 1979 in 'Sugar Babies' with Ann Miller, and was nominated for a Tony Award. During that time, he also portrayed the Wizard in 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' with Eartha Kitt at New York's Madison Square Garden, which also had a successful run nationally. Rooney appeared in four television series: The Mickey Rooney Show (1954-1955), the sitcom Mickey (1964) with Sammee Tong, One of the Boys (1982) with Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane, and The Adventures of Black Stallion (1990-1993). In 1981, Rooney won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of a mentally challenged man in Bill (Anthony Page, 1981). The critical acclaim continued to flow for the veteran performer, with Rooney receiving an honorary Academy Award. Later, he also appeared in such films as Erik the Viking (Terry Jones, 1989) with Tim Robbins, Night at the Museum (Shawn Levy, 2006) with Ben Stiller and The Muppets (James Bobin, 2011) with Amy Adams. Rooney's personal life, including his frequent trips to the altar, has proved to be just as epic as his on-screen performances. His first wife was one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, actress Ava Gardner, but his final marriage to Jan Rooney was longer than all his other seven wives combined. In 2012, when he permanently and legally separated from his eighth wife, Rooney chose to permanently reside with his stepson Mark Rooney and Mark's wife Charlene Rooney. They moved to the Hollywood Hills for him. After his death, his eight surviving children said in a statement that they were barred from seeing Rooney during his final years. Mickey Rooney passed away in 2014 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. The 93-year-old had at least three future projects that he was going to perform in. His acting career had lasted for 89 years, and Rooney's 339 film credits span ten consecutive decades: 1920s-2010s. He is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
More tests today. I'm learning how to control very light values. But first I did a little ink test in the upper left to see if you get green when you mix yellow and black ink. Yes, you do if you are very fast and mix them while they are still wet. I used a yellow Micron pen and a black Zig pen.
My main test was to slowly build up dilute colors. I had burnt sienna in one Kuretake Mini waterbrush and cobalt in another. I applied a wash, waited for it to dry completely, and added another. I did this four times to create four increasingly darker values. You have to be very patient, but it works. I learned this method from a book called "The Wash Method of Handling Water Colour" by Frank Forrest Frederick published in 1908. I found it for free on Archive.org
archive.org/details/washmethodofhand00freduoft
Where you can download it as a PDF, ePub, or Kindle file.
Finally I tried to get the lightest value possible with a number of colors. I used a wet round brush to pick up a little dried tube paint. I then quickly dipped the brush in water, tapped the brush against the inside of my water container (to dislodge a little water) and then made a brush mark down the dry page. This deposits very little pigment and is a good way to make beautiful, light colors. I also tried lifting some color out with a thirsty brush (in the cadmium red/lemon yellow mix), and I tried adding a little more color on top of the wet first stroke (ultramarine and cobalt - bottom left).
be sure to view the comparison chart on Full Screen
OK. At first glimpse, this comparison might sound unfair. The D300, featuring a 12 MP sensor was released in 2007, while the D7100, featuring a 24 MP sensor was released almost 6 years later in 2013. Six years. That is a long time in the digital world.
PREFACE
But let's start from the beginning. I am, or at least was most of the time very happy with my D300 for more than 5 years now. The camera travelled from the darkest basements to far asian cities and islands. And I never considered it an option to give away my cam as it never failed, never let me in the dark, never disappointed me. After having the D40 for a year before going to the D300 I was learning to appreciate the straight and clean layout of the control elements on the D300. It is truly straightforward. Shooting modes (P,M,S,A), ISO, WB, Exposure, Aperture and many more important settings can be very easily accessed without ever going into the menu. Hold the specific settings button while clicking the exposure dial thru the option value range. Release the button and it is set. Thats it. This straight UX approach was another strong reason I was soo happy with that camera. Also with the quality of the camera, especially its built quality – full metal (magnesium alloy) body - and the haptic feeling I was always more than satisfied over those years. For the image quality I was also quite pleased. Except, that sometimes I felt a bit more resolution for cropping could have been in those situations where you once again had to hurry snapping a shot without fine adjusting of the frame. On other occasions I was feeling like wanting more High ISO with less noise to shoot in the dark by hand. But as both of those requests seemed like only having one answer, namely going to full-frame (FX-Format) I dismissed the idea of upgrading . I was more than often on a holiday in a situation were I was tired to carry around my bulky and heavy bag. Going to full frame would not have meant to spend much more money on lenses but also to carry around an even bulkier and more heavier bag than the one I am sick of right now. So on holiday you will see me often just with the camera hanging from my shoulder, having the 35mm f/1.8 on and thats it. I highly appreciate the ability to move virtuously. Without moving, there is not much different scenes you are going to take in a day. And if you don't have a car with you or someone who is happy to carry your equipment (tripod, bag, umbrellas … what else do you need?) you really don’t feel like moving that much while taking all that material with you.
I remember also one of my close friends wanting me to convert to Canon, but this was also never an option for me. Not only having to switch a whole system of lenses, flashes and accessories, but I was and I am appreciating the nature of Nikon products in all ways a lot. Canon cameras often come out with newer features (Full-Frame-Sensors, Video, ...) or higher image quality more soon than Nikon ones. But to me they never felt that solid holding them in my hands as the Nikon cameras. I had Canon Cameras in my hand which cost more than double of the D300, but they always feel like cheap plastic to me. They never feel that solid as I would spend that much money on them. I also have some recent models of premium cars in my mind where manufacturers really failed in interior materials for +100k USD cars. I never would going to buy those – even I had the money - as they have cheap plastic buttons on the command panel, despite of being highly awarded by the so called independent specialized press.
COMMON FEATURES
OK. Lets first take a look, not at the differences of those both cameras. Let's take a look of what they have in common. Both are Nikon F-Mount DSLRs with a DX-Sensor (crop factor 1.3x). Both have the four basic important shooting modes – P, M, S, A. Both have an HDMI output on the left and a LCD on top. And the D7100 has at least a body which is partially made of magnesium alloy. Both have a 100 % viewfinder (0.94x). Both can shoot 14-bit NEF's, and both are featuring a 51-point AF sensor and an AF-motor, so non AF-S lenses will have AF function on both cams as well. Both can be equipped with a battery grip, and if you take a look at the menus you'll also find both cameras having extensive settings options which is almost the same huge feature list once more. And interestingly the D300s (the video enabled succeeder of the D300) is available at almost the same price right now as the D7100 is.
VIDEO
Let's just assume for a second that the only feature I am missing on my D300 is the video. Especially on holiday there is always something funny happening you want to take a video of, but often that is not in ideal light conditions. Smartphones just miss up taking videos in dim light and they don't have any optical zoom. So for taking just a little bit serious video it might be a good feature to have on the camera. But for buying a new camera with new money the step from to the D300s is just not far enough for me. It does not feature 1080p or 30fps video recording. And compared to the D300 there is just not more in the box finally than the video.
When spending money on a new camera you want to have more than just one feature. I never thought before that I am going to leave this super straight and solid prosumer Nikon line – not in favour for a less-pro product line. But as it turns out, the D7100 has much more image detail and quality offering in a package which is even lighter and more easy to carry than my old D300 and it is giving me 1080p video, while spending even a little less than for the D300s without missing all those detailed menu settings and major features. That's it. Said like this, it sounds very simple.
DIFFERENCES
Finally, I want to point out, which features you might be missing in case you are going for that same “upgrade” as me, or which features you might gain.
D300 havs, D7100 don't havs - flash sync plug (the old round one) - round 10 pin cable socket for remote cable shutter release and the older style GPS modules - display cover (protects your display from scratches) - straightforward controls - CF card slot (big cards, easy to grab, but be careful with the pins) - manual pop up flash (it never fires unless you release it first, no matter which program – that makes you look more smart than those people who are taking photos in the night of far objects (like skylines) or shooting thru windows with accidently firing the flash ;) - more solid body - bigger top LCD - bigger body more easy to grab (but also more heavy) - high shooting rate of up to 6/8 shots per second (8 only with battery grip or sw tweak***) - big buffer space (will enable you continues shooting of up to 18 RAWs (12-bit) at 6 FPS with fast cards) - LCD screen features more realistic tones and colors - in camera preview is of higher quality
D7100 havs, D300 don't havs - 24 MP sensor - Video recording - SD cards (hell are these small!) - DUAL SD card slots (second one can be set to JPG, backup or overflow) - IR sensor (for triggering the shutter) - many shooting scene modes (your friends who are not into photography might be able to take photos as well) - flash pop up is controlled by software now (to disable the flash, be sure to choose the right settings first) - shooting rate at 6 shots per second also for 14-bit NEFs (3 on the D300), but as of the - limited buffer space the burst rate drops dramatically (under 3 fps depending on your card) after 5 or 6 takes. - support for newer style GPS receivers and the Wifi-Adapter - LCD screen features adjustable backlight - HDMI-C socket (HDMI-A-Cables need an adapter)
That is not a comprehensive list, but the biggest differences I have encountered so far.
LOW PASS FILTER
Finally one last stop at the so called “low-pass-filter”. I have read on many sources on the web that there is “no significant difference” in picture detail by removing the low-pass-filter. I can confirm now while comparing both cameras that this is not true. The D7100 100% crops show definitely higher sharpness on the pixel level than the shots from my D300. Sure, that effect can only be observed while having a lens which is able to deliver that high detail. Just look at the photos I took here. Despite that DX prime lens' super low price tag, its able to deliver this. And there are probably more pricy prime lenses available which can even surpass this performance.
DISPLAY
The back display of both cams are different, but I cannot see any benefit in case of the D7100 LCDs in having another W-subpixel. If you place the cameras side by side you will easily notice that the colors and tones on the display of the D300 are much more natural. The D7100 has an adjustable backlight now and a little bit more true black. That is both a plus. But the photos on the D7100 seem oversharped on playback. But luckily this effects can only be observed on the screen. The photos itself on your memory card are of highest quality on both cams.
Image playback on the D7100 over HDMI shows black bars on left and right side - even if you zoom in into the photo - this is something nobody likes to see, especially as the D300 was able to do that better back then in 2007 already. But despite Nikon knowing from customer complains about this problem they never went to fix it and so this sticks out as a deliberate attempt to cancel this as a pro-camera and keep a distance to the higher priced 3-digit and one-digit product line.
VERDICT
As for the overall picture quality there is not much big difference between both cams. They perform almost equal in terms of dynamic range and white balance. But when you have the right lens mounted, the D7100 is the clear winner in resolution and detail. Also in Low-Light situations the D7100 tends to preserve more details than the D300.
I read on many sites on the web that people recommend the D300(s) as a more solid working body for professional photographers who take their 3000 images a week, but finally I believe that professional photographers can afford more recent and more pricey equipment as the D4 for example. So we are really not talking about professional photography here I guess.
I really liked the super solid body and the straightforward controls on the D300. But at the same time I don't want to miss that resolution and detail plus on the D7100 anymore. If you are used to the controls on any prosumer Nikon it might need a little time to get used to the layout of the controls on the D7100, but that is nothing to worry about if you have that time. Also the smaller image buffer on the D7100 might be something to consider, as the burst rate just drops much more early than on the D300. As a fashion show photographer this drop in burst rate, is unacceptable. The D300 image buffer allowed taking 3 times the number of RAW pictures slowing down, as long as you agree on the fact that 12 bit raw is enough and you wont need 14 bit.
Finally, I believe, that if you don't care about using CF or SD cards, and if you don't care about having a camera body fully made of metal alloy or half synthetics, the D7100 will give you much more than just more image detail. It will give you a more advanced focussing system, a lighter body, a second memory card slot and of course Video. And all that for a very decent price tag. So for me it is really an option while not going to FX (more weight, more pricey lenses) but still having major image detail improvement and a few relevant features.
And as my friend Ivo says. It is a new toy to play with as well for sure. :)
Hasbro - 6 Inch "Value" Star Wars Figures
Picked up at Big Lots, Walgreens, and a Canadian trade
Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Kanan Jarrus, Death Trooper, Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, Rey, Finn, First Order Stormtrooper, Captain Phasma, and Kylo Wren
The last Super Dollar Tree store in existence. This was originally part of the Lamson's Value City store.
Great Eastern Shopping Center - 2584 Woodville Road in Northwood, Ohio
Value City (closed) [90,000 square feet]
837 J Clyde Morris Boulevard, Newport Square, Newport News, VA
This location opened on August 5th, 1993 and closed in November 2008; it was originally a Murphy's Mart, which opened on October 3rd, 1973 and became an Ames in early 1987, which closed in April 1993. The majority of the building became a Stratford University campus on May 21st, 2012, and the rest became part of a Waters Edge Church in November 2012.
9x12, oil. This is just the first step for this painting. After this value study is dry I will glaze over with color. More to come on this one. Fonzie is one of my favorite models.
The common and typically annoying seagull does not offer much aesthetic value compared to dozens of far more interesting birds, but it has one redeeming virtue: it is ubiquitous and easy to find, and is a great subject to test cameras and lenses, specifically autofocusing and tracking. So I made a trip to the San Francisco Marina at Fort Mason to take some shots of some gulls.
At a weight of 4.65 lb / 2115 g, the Sony 200-600mm is hand-holdable, but even so, it gets tiring after an hour without a monopod or tripod. The image quality of the 200-600 f/5.6-6.3 is virtually identical to the Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-6.6 at the focal lengths that are common to the two lenses.
I made this for the world. Get the full resolution copy at my blog: www.blossomaz.com/offering-value/. Plus, you might find some good info on there!
Also on
Shiny silver- something I value very highly... especially when it clings to my curves as well as this!
I've had this snug fitting strapless gown for so long I've forgotten where I bought it! But that doesn't really matter because it still looks Fabulous, especially in this ensemble!
This is a reshoot of me wearing my excitingly snug and tight fitting silver wet look lycra spandex strapless gown. For this set I've matched it up with silver elbow length opera gloves, fishnet hose and a newly arrived pair of shiny silver platform stocking boots with 6" heels.
I do hope you like my ensemble and the way it hugs my curves as much as I do!
To see more pix of my legs in sexy dresses and other sexy, tight and revealing fitting outfits click this link:
www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157623668202157/
To see more pix of me in sexy boots click here: www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157622816479823/
DSC_5567-25
Usonia: a fascinating little study in mid-century optimism and cooperative values, fused with a drive to escape the city which we normally associate with more individualistic impulses. Also atypical for the postwar suburb, we find individually-crafted architecture, either by Frank Lloyd Wright - who also did the site planning - or, mostly, "in the mode of"; early houses had to meet Wright's design approval, though he later lost interest for various reasons. The custom architecture strained the budget of the community, which was organized in the late 1940s as a cooperative society in which all property, including the houses, would be communally owned.
The central organizing figure was David Henken, who was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's 1940 MOMA show to seek out an apprenticeship at Taliesin and, ultimately, to seek Wright's guidance. Henken and his friends hoped to establish a new community in the woods somewhere outside of New York City, where they could enjoy a better life in the countryside without abandoning what we might now recognize as a Depression-era or Old Left sense of all-in-it-togetherness. Wright's Usonian houses of the 1930s seemed the appropriate architecture: ostensibly affordable, humble, with a warm material palette and an embrace of both existing topography and landscape views. Most of the Usonians who signed on were not wealthy (though certainly none were poor), and it seems clear that the experience of working and sweating together - planning their ideal community, acquiring land, and building the first houses - was itself part of the appeal.
The arrangement was severely tested by a mortgage market profoundly suspicious of cooperative ownership, and equally skeptical of "modern" architecture. This was true even with the imprimatur of Wright, recently re-minted as a national treasure and celebrity. Other problems were posed by the escalating costs of construction, attributed by some to self-indulgent or inexperienced architects, and by others to enormous rises in the costs of material and labor during the Korean War years. And of course, there were basic problems inherent to the cooperative scheme: how do you decide who gets their house built first? What do you do when someone who has been paying in all along but is tired of waiting years for their house to come up in the queue bails out? What if some people get better or more expensive houses than others?
These are not insurmountable problems, and in a world more supportive of such ventures to begin with, Usonia might have prevailed along its original lines. But by the mid-1950s, the group had agreed to reorganize, handing individual ownership of sites and buildings to individual members, though retaining Wright's idea that the site plans should be circular and fenceless, regardless of how they were put on paper for the local government. Still, relationships among the members were strained, at least for a while. Some early adopters pined for their original, cooperative dream. Those residents who doubled as architects struggled with resident-clients and with the incorporated Usonian entity over fees, costs, and their in-betweener role vis-à-vis Wright. But generally the memories of the years that followed seem rosy: children grew up wandering in and out of neighbors' houses at will, while their parents basked in the things Usonian architecture was always supposed to provide: a free and comfortable interior existence with enveloping visual connection to the surrounding landscape. Most houses remained either in the hands of their original clients or their children, and the covenants on the property require that any alterations meet community approval as being in the Usonian spirit, vaguely defined.
There are no famous buildings here, but the houses by Wright and his disciples are generally quite good or even great, and more generally, it's fascinating to see a neighborhood of such consistent intent, with neither a front gate nor, indeed, any fences. I would love any of these houses. At the same time, I shrink back a bit from the mid-century belief in the pursuit of the Good Life by way of the detached single-family house on a one-acre lot, however that house and the neighborhood are redefined. But even if Usonia poses no practical answers to the urgent housing needs of today, it certainly suggests alternatives for those currently in the market for a McMansion. A half hour's drive from Manhattan, it's well worth a visit.
Reference: Usonia, New York: Building a Community With Frank Lloyd Wright, by Roland Reisley with John Timpane (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001).
View of the Benjamin and Frieda Henken House (David Henken, 1949).
APPROXIMATE RELEASE DATE: 2000-2005
MISSING ITEMS: Sleeping bag
PERSONAL FUN FACT: The Bitty Bunch line was one of the frivolities in Bitty Baby's collection. The sets made for Bitty Bear and co. didn't have any practical value other than being mega cute. Therefore, I never actually anticipated that I'd own any of the pieces from the Bitty Bunch collection (other than the animals themselves of course). Despite knowing I didn't want to spend my money or Christmas/birthday gift opportunities on things like the Bitty Bunch Playhouse, I did admire them in the pages of the catalogue. I probably spent too much time in the Bitty Baby section altogether as a kid. That's why I instantaneously recognized this house when I happened upon it at a local thrift store in 2020. It was in September that year when I had to go get my oil changed. It is an adult task I dread...I'm not really sure why getting things done to my Jeep makes me so anxious. But I rewarded myself with a trip to this thrift store on the way home. We usually find at least something in this particular location. In the past, we've actually been lucky enough to come home with Bitty Baby stuff! As we went into the basement of the store and shimmied into the super narrow toy aisle, I spotted this fabric house on one of the shelves. I immediately headed over to it to inspect. Sure enough, there was a tag which stated it was American Girl Bitty Baby, and that it contained TWO of the animals. Colleen and I excitedly began looking inside for the two creatures that were supposed to be there. But we found none...I wasn't going to buy just the house. I relentlessly searched the entire toy section of the basement a dozen times over, hoping to locate the animals. We did end up recovering Bitty Puppy, which prompted me to purchase the house. It was rather filthy when I first brought it home, as to be expected since it is fabric. But a mixture of water and Oxy Clean made it smell/look wonderful again!
UN VALUE: Progress
Fishing in the Bay of Bengal at the Saint Martinâs Island of Bangladesh. Fishing is the only profession of this islandâs poor people. Every year they lose their fishing net by storm, cyclone and other natural disaster. In that situation local NGOs gives micro credit loan to fisherman for buy fishing net.
Photo: United Nations/M. Yousuf Tushar
Collection: Icelandic and Faroese Photographs of Frederick W.W. Howell, Cornell University Library
Title: Núpsvötn and west end of Skeiðarárjökull.
Date: ca. 1900
Place: Núpsvötn (Iceland)
Medium: collodion print
Repository: Fiske Icelandic Collection, Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
Accession: 1923.3.56
URL: http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/howell/intro.asp
Persistent URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1813.001/62p0
There are no known U.S. copyright restrictions on this image. The digital file is owned by the Cornell Univeristy Library which is making it freely available with the request that, when possible, the Library be credited as its source.
We had some help with the geocoding from Web Services by Yahoo!
@ Dambulla Wiharaya
Monk was showing his money to the beggar and beggar the one who decided which note he wants...however i have noticed that beggar asked 100/- note and this foreign monk gave it to him without any doubt....
yea..this monk is really great to be a human...