Random Photos

[berkeman]

Have a wonderful Holiday! Are you allowed to tie up to the windmill bases? Seems like good PR for the windmill company. @anorlunda ?

 

[anorlunda]

My home for a week this holiday:

Wow, a classic wooden boat. Is the whole hull wood?

 

[Arjan82]

Hull is iron, that's already more than enough wood to maintain

 

[Arjan82]

Have a wonderful Holiday! Are you allowed to tie up to the windmill bases?

You can actually sail right in between them, although we found out the hard way that this is very much not advisable regarding the wind strength... ( duh... )

 

[BillTre]

You can actually sail right in between them, although we found out the hard way that this is very much not advisable regarding the wind strength... ( duh... )

Wow. I have often wondered about things like this.
Stealing the energy to turn the windmills should have an effect.

How much does the wind decrease?
Ar the windmills real dense or its just a couple lines of them?

Enough might change the weather locally.

 

[Arjan82]

The effect was much more dramatic than we expected actually. We sailed between the shore and the two rows of windmills in the water, as seen in the picture below (this is the actual location where we were sailing in my second picture of my first post #210, I found this picture just coincidentally). In the picture below the camera would be pointing directly into the wind that day (this was our mistake, we thought the wind was more from the land) and we were sailing along the shore towards the camera.

In between the windmills and the shore the wind was about 1Bft, we even decided to start the engine because things were going annoyingly slow. Also, there were these annoying waves which we couldn't originate (but waves without wind is very annoying when the sails are up). And in the open water it was a good 4Bft, even close to 5Bft I would say. This explained these annoying waves!

(Just to convince you that we are not lousy sailors, that morning, when we left, the wind was indeed much less and more from the shore, but it shifted and increased during the afternoon as it had been doing all week, but this time we were in between the windmills so we hadn't really noticed!)

 

[Arjan82]

Oh, and by the way, the top of the mast is actually lower than the lowest point of the tip of the windmill blades. I would then more or less expect the wind to be blowing underneath the swept area of the blades, but apparently it doesn't work that way...

 

[berkeman]

Oh, and by the way, the top of the mast is actually lower than the lowest point of the tip of the windmill blades.

Lordy, good thing it's not the other way around! If you lost your wind and started drifting toward one of the windmills with the blades turning, that would be like something from a James Bond movie!

 

[morrobay]

 

[DennisN]

A couple of flowers photographed yesterday:

 

[Keith_McClary]

A couple of flowers photographed yesterday:

View attachment 287945View attachment 287946View attachment 287947View attachment 287948

How do you get them so colourful?

 

[DennisN]

How do you get them so colourful?

Actually there are many things that influence the color:

I'd say the main thing is that photographing in nice sunlight almost always produce more vivid colors.
It has such a big effect that I actually don't particularly enjoy taking photos when it's cloudy.

Another thing is of course the subjects themselves. The flowers above were quite colorful in themselves, particularly #2.

The choice of lens can also have a big impact. The photos above were taken with a Helios 44M7 lens, which actually produce somewhat "oily" colors with quite a bit of "vintage look". Therefore I used some software to enhance them a bit. I use a great software called DxO PhotoLab 4 in which I apply the standard preset to all photos. Afterwards I do some further minor edits in Photoshop, sometimes changing so-called "gamma correction", and also adding a bit of saturation, typically about 10% for the Helios lens, to get the "oily" colors a bit more natural. If I used my Canon lens instead I would probably not edit the photos as much.

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

 

[jack action]

An engineering "perfect storm":

 

[Andy Resnick]

Spotted a new species of bird on vacation this year: I think it spotted me as well!

A few pics of receding water on sand:

 

[Andy Resnick]

Normally we just see horses and Ospreys:

 

[Leo Liu]

I came across a wavy bridge a few weeks back.

(The man in pic 3 is a fishing amateur.)

Location: The Grand Canal, Tongzhou, Peking.

 

[StevieTNZ]

Wall from house of Publius Fannius Synistor

 

[DennisN]

For those interested in photography, I want to say that there are some really good photography channels on youtube which I've found to be helpful. For instance, here are two good channels which covers both gear and some techniques:

• Zenography: e.g. Ten Ways to Unleash Your Creativity and My TOP TIPS For Buying Mirrorless Cameras!, where some of the tips are good in general, not only for mirrorless cameras
• Simon's utak: e.g. What makes a great photograph?

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

My new girlfriend from Burma at the worst beach in the world. My last girlfriend (Thai -5 years) Time to get out of Dodge.

 

[morrobay]

Well the long view is always nice : Lam- Chabang deep water port distance.

 

[Leo Liu]

I discovered a new commuter bullet train line to a small station 3km away from my home in Peking. It only took the train 20mins to travel from Beijing station to the station. The ticket is priced at a mere $1 USD and it is probably the coziest train I have even taken. I traveled in it this morning again, but heading in the opposite direction to visit my dentist in the downtown and there were more commuters, most of whom were heading to office; luckily there were still plenty unoccupied seats.

I used to take the subway when going downtown. But from now on I am going to ride in the high-speed train as frequently as possible -- who wouldn't prefer a fancy and streamlined train over some out-dated and crowded subway carriages if they costed the same?

Me tang ping on the square at Beijing railway station.
More about the "tang ping" movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_ping

 

[berkeman]

This photo from the Alameda County Fire Department came into my Facebook feed yesterday. For me it is a very powerful image, with lots of meanings and juxtapositions.

These firefighters (FFs) are currently on deployment many miles from home at the "Caldor" fire near Lake Tahoe in Northern California. I used to do some volunteer work for ACFD as a citizen volunteer (not volunteer FF), and I know a number of FFs that still work for ACFD. Many have been deployed on 2-week assignments to forest fires in California over the past couple years. It is hard duty, working at least 12-hour shifts for the whole time you are deployed, often under very hot, steep and difficult conditions.

These FFs are getting ready to load up on the Engine and head out on their assignment for the day. What makes this photo especially powerful for me is that it looks so much like my camping trips to similar areas in Northern California, where we would be standing around the tents early in the morning having coffee and enjoying the view of the morning mist in the trees around camp. Except that is not mist behind them, it is smoke from the nearby Caldor fire. And they are not wearing their comfortable camping clothes, they are in their wildland FF gear ready to spend yet another hot day facing the flames and dense smoke on the fire line. You can see that they are very fit (you have to be for this type of assignment) and a bit fatigued, but ready for another day saving lives and homes. Thank you FFs!

 

[BillTre]

It is good and appropriate to appreciate people like these guys.
The world needs more of them.

If I were there, I would be concerned about the constant breathing of all the smokey air, 24/7 for weeks.
Can't be good for you. I have lots of allergies and smokey air from fires (which we have had in town several times) has a similarly bad effect on my breathing.

Do they use some kind of breathing filters that they use most of the time there? It looks pretty smokey in that picture and they aren't using any masks (of course, drinking coffee).
Do they sleep in a place with well filtered air?
Hows their insurance coverage for this stuff?

 

[berkeman]

I'm no expert on wildland firefighting, but the most I've usually seen is a bandana for protection from the more smokey locations. They'll usually sleep a distance from the active fire line, but the air quality is still going to be pretty bad I would think. Sometimes they get lucky and are able to sleep in nearby motels, in which case the air conditioner will be running while they are there, providing some welcome relief.

As for insurance, they are covered by their home fire department's insurance, as always while on duty.

Here is a useful page with wildland firefighting equipment and safety information:

Shrouds and Masks​

Wildland firefighters often find themselves surrounded by burning plants, debris, and trees, which can create a lot of smoke and heat. As a result, breathing can be difficult. In fact, smoke inhalation is a leading cause of firefighter death and can result in numerous acute and long-term lung issues.

Shrouds and masks can make it easier to breathe and protect one’s lungs from excess smoke inhalation. However, not just any shroud or mask will do.

Ideally, a wildland firefighter’s shroud should use a fire-resistant material such as Tecasafe or Nomex so that it can keep smoke out of your lungs while also providing a layer of protection for your neck, face, and head from the heat. To provide additional protection against harmful smoke inhalation and contaminants matter, particulate filters and disposable masks can also be beneficial.

https://www.supplycache.com/blogs/news/types-of-protective-equipment-wildland-firefighters-wear

 

[docnet]

A few pics of flowers

 

[docnet]

Ripplez

 

[morrobay]

Two from a seafood restaurant on Naklua bay.

 

[morrobay]

 

[Ivan Seeking]

From my hotel room window in Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, Alaska, in late December. I had been promised there is a beautiful woman behind every tree, in Dutch Harbor.

 

[DaveC426913]

TIL: there's a place called Unalaska, Alaska.

_{(I wonder if China Miéville lives there.)}

 

[berkeman]

And there are no trees there...

 

[Ibix]

Things I saw on my holiday: feral kittens

A sand shark (about 3m long and in an aquarium, lest you think me braver than I am):

The Child:

A lighthouse blotting out the sun:

Three sides of a glass display cabinet held together by a block of perspex that someone was really enthusiastic about drilling: