Random Photos

[Ivan Seeking]

Oh yes, I posted these before. This shows bald eagles raiding a fishing boat. The birds are everywhere! And you can get so close that you could reach out and pet them, if you don't like your finger. The Aleut name for them translates approximately as "rats of the sea".

 

[Swamp Thing]

Does these disappear and release energy where they touch?

Haha, not un as in anti-.

But Greece has a Kythera / Antikythera pair.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

With me being divorced and playing the field, my customer knew my weak spot: They promised me there is a beautiful woman behind every tree, in Dutch Harbor! And they weren't lying!!!

How many trees do you see?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Cool photos!

The first location looks like it could be a nice place for long exposures when it's dark (ca 2+ s).
(I'm thinking of really long light trails from traffic)

I have tried doing a few of those, but I haven't found a particularly good spot yet.

Thanks! Yes- when it got dark, I was able to get photos like these:

I was staying in the Crowne Plaza (West Loop), room 1101. All the rooms numbered xx00 and xx01 have this view!

 

[Andy Resnick]

I love the way it looks like you're surrounded by people in that last shot, but then you notice how many of them have a pushchair (I think) with a checked cover.

Thanks! Yeah, a lot of those blobs are actually reflections of me:

 

[Andy Resnick]

Fortunately, I got another chance to stop by the Bean on my way out of town and was able to take some more intentional (and experimental) shots:

For this one, the lens (reflection on the extreme left) is physically touching the surface of the sculpture:

I also found an (approximate) symmetry axis:

Which way is up?

Another Chicago attraction are the glass rooms sticking out of the side of the Willis (nee Sears) tower. I didn't bring any telephoto lenses, this is a 350% zoom (no interpolation) off an 55mm image but it's possible to discern people in the rooms:

And then coming home I was able to get a few shots of downtown Cleve-town:

 

[Andy Resnick]

The last photo is really weird, and cool!
Is the "top" of the sculpture solid, or?
I mean, is there a hole or not in it "upwards", so to say?

The sculpture has no through holes, if that's what you mean. It's unclear how much room there is underneath- there's no obvious surface visible, so it looks quite cavernous "inside".

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

The beer bars days of glory are going fast.

 

[morrobay]

The mall I'm standing on was built on a sandlot that was full of beer bars. The go go bars are still thriving on Walking Street however.

 

[morrobay]

After some altercations with cigarette smokers had to give up on this other
coffee place. And just noticed today this Japanese restaurant has cappuccino too.

 

[DennisN]

Sunset in May (May 7, 2022):

(Lens: Helios 44M7 with CPL filter attached)

 

[DennisN]

Ice skating in the city today... apparently very popular among children...
...and a great place to train photography of moving subjects ; patience is essential .
(even more so when you are using a manual lens, which I did)

Gear: Sony A7R & Canon nFD 50mm f/1.4 with CPL filter attached.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Einstein's desk the day he died. Note the Philosophy book.

 

[DennisN]

A giant wall painting in the city (shot a couple of days ago):

When I was editing the photo I found the artist's signature in the photo:

The artwork is called "Mother's Arms" and the artist's web page (Eloise Gillow) is here.

 

[DennisN]

I was editing a couple of photos taken recently, and I wanted to share a little useful trick when shooting in strong backlight (e.g. sunlight in front of the camera).

Sometimes backlight can be used for certain effects, but quite often it can degrade the image by "washing it out". Other effects that backlight can introduce are lens flares. Equipment that help with counteracting backlight effects are lens hoods.

But if you have no lens hood with you, you can simply use your hand as a cover against the incoming light
(I don't remember from where I picked it up).

E.g. if the sunlight is coming straight ahead from the top, you can put your hand like this:

I'm not sure how well this works with smartphones though, I don't remember if I've tried it with smartphones. If I remember correctly lenses on smartphones are pretty wide angle, so I think the hand would quite easily appear in the shot. But maybe using a finger instead of the entire hand would work, maybe?

Photo examples:

Leaves shot in quite strong backlight:

The same scene, but this time with my hand as a cover against the backlight:
(you can see that the photo looks more clearer and that the colors are more vibrant too)

And finally, the second photo after some additional gamma adjustment:

 

[Astranut]

Crane? @Astranut can help?

Sorry a bit late in replying, the bird in question is a Great White Egret.

 

[Astranut]

All beautiful places.

Everyone in England should make an effort to go and see what is essentially on their own door step, especially city people.
I have never been to Stone Henge, this is one for my bucket list.
You have been much further north than me also! Aviemore from memory.
I did a gig in the lakes two weeks ago and all the hills were covered with snow as we approached the venue in Cockermouth, stunning.
I will see if Astranut has anything he can post, he tends to stay fairly local with bird watching and photography.

This 19th century cobbled bridge at Portland Basin is a local landmark. Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.

 

[morrobay]

Was going to avoid anymore Thai lady photos: But change of plan. Party Time. And on the 'Getting 0ld ' Topic: Stay at your HS weight and everything else takes care of itself. 70 kg.

 

[DennisN]

A glowing heart in the city park:
(I hope it's not a repost )

 

[BillTre]

Photo by Lucy Jones:

Slime mold fruiting bodies:

 

[nsaspook]

 

[pinball1970]

View attachment 322771

Lovely. Like a Xmas card

 

[DennisN]

The Øresund Bridge (shot yesterday):

I had to fight a bit for this shot . It was late, cold and windy, so it was quite tricky to focus.
Shot with my Sony 55-210mm zoom, but I have a feeling one of my tele prime lenses would have been better. I don't know why I didn't bring one of those instead. I will next time.

The sky color is actually not due to any sunrise/sunset, it's light pollution from Copenhagen which shows up since I shot with long exposure (15 seconds).

 

[DennisN]

Copenhagen by night... canal scene shot from Børnehusbroen (Børnehus bridge):

 

[Rive]

Barn finds

Use it till it can be used
Then a bit further
And maybe it can still come in handy on some rainy day...

 

[BillTre]

A large gaggle of geese near home (but not a google(plex) of geese):

 

[berkeman]

A large gaggle of geese near home

See that basketball court in the background? Don't even get me started about geese and outdoor basketball courts. Luckily it's cold wintertime here in Silicon Valley right now, and the geese near my favorite outdoor courts have flown south for the winter...

(Selfishly unluckily, we are getting lots of rain this cold wintertime, so the courts are too wet to play on most days right now. Hopefully tomorrow...)

 

[BillTre]

See that basketball court in the background? Don't even get me started about geese and outdoor basketball courts. Luckily it's cold wintertime here in Silicon Valley right now, and the geese near my favorite outdoor courts have flown south for the winter...

(Selfishly unluckily, we are getting lots of rain this cold wintertime, so the courts are too wet to play on most days right now. Hopefully tomorrow...)

They like the grassy areas where they pick around for things.
There were four or five times as many geese, but they didn't fit into the shot.
Maybe these guys will be flying south to visit you.

 

[berkeman]

Maybe these guys will be flying south to visit you.

Oh no you don't!

And, since you are many miles north of me, are you saying that my theory of the local park geese leaving due to a southern migration is not even wrong?

 

[BillTre]

I think they actually stay around here in fair numbers. However, some seen to migrate also. Those guys in the picture should have been migrated if they were going to, its late February.
Ask a bird guy.

 

[berkeman]

Ask a bird guy.

I did, and he was no help.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url...ved=0CA8QjRxqFwoTCKDuuZG9uf0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

 

[BillTre]

Guess he wants to shoot them.

 

[DennisN]

The name "Frida" carved into a tree:

("Frida" is an old Norse name still used today)

 

[BillTre]

("Frida" is an old Norse name still used today)

So that's where Frida Kahlo is from?