The Relaxed Photo Thread

[OldMacs4Me]

The thing about small town life is that when things happen they happen all at once. Friday we were on the road for 300+ KMs nothing caught my eye. Got home and was going to go into the basement and get my bicycle to get groceries. Saw this little guy tucked in just next to the door.


Went back a few minutes later to try to sneak in for a closer pic and (s)he had turned into twins.

All photos with my wifes Lumix ZS200.
Same as always, click on the first to get full resolution then use the arrows to see the rest.

 

[Chuckeee]

View attachment 2398179

iPhone 13-mini; in the Wild

Looks likes something I would view through a microscope 🔬

 

[splifingate]

Looks likes something I would view through a microscope 🔬

Snail radula magnified 200x

Snails (which made this pattern in their eating/harvesting of the algal coat on a client's front gate) are really weird

 

[OldMacs4Me]

I'm not at all camera active at the moment but did fire off half a dozen shots of a pair of young bucks. This was the BOB.

 

[splifingate]

I'm not at all camera active at the moment but did fire off half a dozen shots of a pair of young bucks. This was the BOB.
View attachment 2402898

Healthy Boi!

 

[OldMacs4Me]

I am a sucker for sunsets, and last night there was just enough smoke, cloud and moisture in the air to make a good one.

 

[splifingate]

Cadiz Summit (near Amboy, CA).

110F; 7% humidity; iPhone 13-Mini In The Wild.

One aspect that I did not appreciate (going-in on teh Adventure) was that the natural rock crops retain the heat-energy from their day-after-day exposure to the Sun.

Ambient did not drop below 100F until well-past Midnight....

 

[OldMacs4Me]

So this is the common Tansy.



It is pretty and the bees love those yellow flower clusters. The deer don't munch on it. And the local weed gnatsies have declared it to be a noxious weed. All points in its favour.

However it can rather quickly choke out other growth, especially near creeks or rivers. And contact with the leaves can be a skin irritant. Things that would normally see it banished from our property, a thought vetoed by my better half.


Each of the little clusters is about 1cm in diameter.


Reminder to click on the first image to see at full resolution then use arrows to advance.

 

[splifingate]

So this is the common Tansy.

View attachment 2406990

It is pretty and the bees love those yellow flower clusters. The deer don't munch on it. And the local weed gnatsies have declared it to be a noxious weed. All points in its favour.

However it can rather quickly choke out other growth, especially near creeks or rivers. And contact with the leaves can be a skin irritant. Things that would normally see it banished from our property, a thought vetoed by my better half.
View attachment 2407000 View attachment 2406999

Each of the little clusters is about 1cm in diameter.
View attachment 2407001

Reminder to click on the first image to see at full resolution then use arrows to advance.

Spira mirabilis

 

[OldMacs4Me]

These Gazinia are really eye catching. Sadly they caught the eye of a marauding deer and the blooms are now history.

 

[splifingate]

These Gazinia are really eye catching. Sadly they caught the eye of a marauding deer and the blooms are now history.
View attachment 2408899

Lovely capture.

I always tell Clients: "Insects/Animals gotta eat, too "

 

[lkalliance]

OK, I've got another story. And I just realized earlier today that we passed the 20-year anniversary of this hike. I was reminded about this set of photos by the recently launched photo contest for this week.

So, 20 years ago (!) I was living in the Seattle area. And my friend--whom I have not consulted about posting this so I won't use his real name, so I'll call him Charlie--was (is) a mountain climber. I don't know how to vouch for his bona fides, but he'd climbed Mount Rainier and Mount Adams and a bunch more that I didn't remember, and had even climbed Denali (and survived a fall down into a crevasse, but that's his story and thankfully not mine).

Charlie asked me if I wanted to go up Mount Si with him. Now, this was 20 years ago, so I didn't have a Wikipedia link to information on Mount Si, but more the point I just trusted him. He is my friend. And I said "Are you [expletive] kidding me? Climb a mountain with you?" But Charlie assured me that it wasn't really a climb, it was more of a hike. Oh, OK. So we set a date.

And then he told me I should train. Oh, s***.

We started our "hike". Here is a pretty good indication of how the trail was:


This was in the easy part, where there were still portions that were flat. Most of the time, we were gaining elevation this might look easy, but consider doing this (when not in shape) for over six miles continuously, dealing not just with steepness but with roots and rocks:



I did bring my DSLR along. This being the Pacific Northwest, there were a lot of photos of big green trees. The PNW is very green, it's often not a very welcoming green. It's often a fight-you-for-every-inch green:







continued...

 

[lkalliance]

Eventually, we got to a point where the trees began to thin out. This was sometimes very pretty:



(Brief aside: we came across this tree that, less than a year after the release of Lord of the Rings in theaters, I was expecting to bend down and pick me up.)



And then we broke out from the treeline. We were about 4000 feet up. And the last bit, just the last bit, was the Haystack. Charlie hadn't told me about the Haystack. He told me that if he had warned me, perhaps I wouldn't have gone. Here's the Haystack:



Don't worry, he assured me. We're not climbing up that way. There's an easier way we all use.



Oh, s***.


continued...

 

[lkalliance]

Of course I did climb up. The official term is "scramble", but it didn't feel like I was doing much scrambling. Note that this is a free climb, no safety harnesses and whatnot. I've never climbed a mountain, or scrambled or whatever. I really was worried that I would fall and hurt something badly. I gave Charlie my camera, he could carry it up because this was easy for him. And he created proof that I had at least attempted it:



That's me, thankfully not the last picture of me in existence.

OK, so after all of that, after the training, the hike, the heat, the sweat, the potential ents, and the scramble, we made it to the top of the haystack. And this is what awaited me:



That's Mount Rainier, rising out of the clouds. OK, this was cool. And breathtaking.

We hiked down. Hiking down is not easier than hiking up, let me tell you. It's a different set of muscles to torture. But we did make it down. On my drive home, I stopped and took a picture of Mount Si:



I haven't climbed it since. I have made a couple more climbs with Charlie, but honestly that first time was the best.



continued...

 

[lkalliance]

One final note. About a year later, my five-year-old daughter drew this picture, of me and Charlie climbing a mountain (I've covered up his real name in the picture, her penmanship is not THAT good). Of course, in her depiction It's me leading the way, and Charlie following behind. Don't you just love daughters?

 

[Strider64]

Here's a Canadian Goose getting a little annoyed with a Great Blue Heron

However, the Great Blue Heron and the Canadian Goose don't like the Double-crested Cormorant. 🤣

It's nice relaxing watching wildlife having their little quarrels. 😉😂

 

[OldMacs4Me]

Couple of shots from a mellow late season river trip. The flowers were very tiny and framing/focusing with one hand from a not quite steady platform was quite challenging.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

Been wanting to get some photos of this centennial memorial for some time. Sun partly emerged from the clouds just as I drove by, giving me better than usual lighting.

More about the monument here.

Beaver Mines Centennial Statue complete

When you turn into the hamlet to stop at the general store, keep an eye out as you will drive past the newly completed centennial monument to the right of the highw…

www.pinchercreekecho.com

NOTE: Locally sourced and funded, as these things should be.

More about Beaver Mines here:

A LOOK BACK AT SOME OF THE EARLY BUSINESSES IN BEAVER MINES

This article provides a look at a few of those pioneer businesses that operated during Beaver Mines’ early history.

www.kootenaibrown.ca

 

[OldMacs4Me]

More photos of the Beaver Mines centennial memorial.

 

[deep diver]

I belong to a photo group pf people with all levels of ability. It's about being together to have fun -- very relaxed. We choose a theme or a destination each month and then share our 3 best images at the next meeting. Most of us shoot with ILCs. The people that shoot with cell phones think less of their work because of the equipment, even though many of those images are very good. So, our challenge this month was to shoot what we want but everything has to be shot with our phones. Cell phone photography is completely new for me. I used an app that gives me some manual control but it was still much more limited than my D7000. I also upped my challenge by doing all of the processing in my phone. (I actually used my tablet with the same app I woud have used on my phone. I just wanted the larger screen area.)

The hose is on a fire truck at my local fire station. The flowers are from the landscaping outside the station. The wheels are at an industrial salvage warehouse. I desaturated that image to emphasize the age of the wheels.

These are thumbnails.












.

 

[splifingate]

I was expecting to bend down and pick me up

"Mhmmmm . . . younng Hobbit."

 

[splifingate]

OK, this was cool.

Understatement of the Week

 

[OldMacs4Me]

A quick photo session, all from the drivers seat when parked on the shoulder.

 

[xJustxMegx]

Three pictures I toke a while ago during a night shift.

 

[xJustxMegx]