Random Photos

[Andy Resnick]

Backlit leaves:

 

[BillTre]

What's that in the ditch?

View attachment 361517

Looks like eggs, but why?

Where from?
Some look like coconuts to me.
What's with the one on the shore?
What's the local flora and fauna?

 

[gmax137]

What's that in the ditch

Horta?

 

[Andy Resnick]

What's that in the ditch?

Looks like eggs, but why?

Ducks and geese will lay eggs near (or even in) the water for various reasons, but the number of eggs in your image implies multiple birds must be involved, so it's unclear. Too bad for the embryos- if/when they hatch they will drown.

 

[BillTre]

Ducks and geese will lay eggs near (or even in) the water for various reasons, but the number of eggs in your image implies multiple birds must be involved, so it's unclear. Too bad for the embryos- if/when they hatch they will drown.

If that's what they are, they will drown before they hatch.
Bird eggs are made for doing gas exchange with an atmosphere, not with water (unlike fish or frog eggs). Developing embryos have a definite need for oxygen. Without it their development could fail or become disrupted in some way.

 

[jtbell]

After examining the situation again this morning, I'm inclined to think that those might really be duck eggs. The ditch runs along a street with houses on one side and a wooded strip of vacant land on the other.

The ditch makes a right-angle turn into the woods. On the other side of the woods is the college.

Around the block on the other side of the woods is the college pond where a family or two of ducks lives.

Maybe they make their nests in the woods for privacy, and a recent heavy rain washed the eggs into the ditch and downstream toward the other street. Somehow one egg was left high and dry.

 

[DennisN]

Two fun ones...

My cat lying strategically in front of the tablet; she does this sometimes to get maximum attention from me.
She's got other tricks; sometimes she straddles the tablet on the bed with the two front legs and half the body in front of the tablet, and the rest behind . She can also start biting on the USB-cable if she really wants my attention.

And here she is lying on my jeans:

 

[jtbell]

While driving along route I-85 through upstate South Carolina, it's hard to miss the Peachoid:

Some people say it's really a big sunburned butt with a figleaf.

 

[Ibix]

it's hard to miss the Peachoid

According to Wikipedia it's a water tower, and building it like that somehow got them federal funding for the construction?

 

[jtbell]

building it like that somehow got them federal funding for the construction?

I didn't know that! It must have been because of the tourism-promotion aspect.

Gaffney could use a bump in tourism right now. The local college closed this month because it ran out of money and couldn't raise enough to stay open. When I passed by, two weeks after graduation exercises, the entrances to the campus were already blocked off.

https://www.southcarolinapublicradi...ation-some-mixed-feelings-some-positive-vibes

 

[pinball1970]

Captured this sunrise one morning
View attachment 361066

It's not until you zoom in you realise the Sun's power
View attachment 361068


View attachment 361069

View attachment 361075

Beautiful

 

[pinball1970]

Oldham NW England.

This canal makes it's way to Manchester eventually.

These two followed us for the entire walk, land and water.

Yellow Iris and Bull rush.

A micro eco system under that tree.

 

[pinball1970]

This chap came up to me silently, no honking like the Canada geese.
Not a great picture but a superb little bird.
A tufted ... something. Duck? I'll have to check.

The roots.

This tree is alive, although it has moss all over the top.

Tailed.

 

[pinball1970]

Outro out of the Nook.

Something humbling about old trees.

A look to the side and it is wild. TT

 

[pinball1970]

View attachment 361608

 

[BillTre]

Here are some Drosophila embryos cleared and labeled with florescent markers of a variety of anatomical features:

 

[BillTre]

 

[BillTre]

Glowfish, genetically transformed zebrafish expressing different fluorescent proteins.

 

[BillTre]

Nudebranchs, like snails without a shell. Colorful and toxic.

 

[DennisN]

Flowers in a cemetery

These five photos were taken by a fountain in a nearby cemetery.
Please note that I have not digitally adjusted any colors afterwards, this is what the photos looked like straight out of the camera. It was a sunny day with great light and I used my Yashinon-DS 50mm f/1.9 lens (from the 1960s-1970s (ca) which gives great natural colors, and a CPL filter.

1. Flowers by the fountain
- my own favorite of these. Sadly the version here on PF does not quite do it justice, but anyway .

2. Colorful flowers
- Google says chrysanthemums.

3. More flowers by the fountain

4. Roses and some more flowers
- sadly a little bit overexposed, but you live and learn.
I quite often shoot a bit underexposed to avoid this.

5. Red roses by the fountain

And here's the star of the day, the Yashinon-DS 50mm f/1.9 which is about 60 years old:
(the text on the nameplate is sadly a bit worn off after I cleaned the nameplate with some alcohol-based solution; you live and learn )

 

[Andy Resnick]

Aphid. This is a 1:1 crop of the original image, shot with 55mm MicroNikkor set to 1:1 reproduction ratio, f/11, 1/800 s, auto ISO (ISO 9000 IIRC). Handheld and windy conditions :(

 

[jtbell]

At the U. S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville AL on Saturday:

The onboard Launch Vehicle Digital Computer of a Saturn V rocket:

A single ferrite-core memory plane (8192 bits) from an LVDC:

 

[jtbell]

The Apollo 16 command module, which flew to lunar orbit and back in April 1972:

Instructions on the inside of the hatch:

The heat shield is a bit worse for wear from re-entry.

 

[jtbell]

The Mobile Quarantine Facility where the Apollo 12 astronauts lived after splashdown, while doctors observed them for signs of "moon germs".

After NASA no longer needed it, it went to the Center for Disease Control, which used it for doctors who had been working with rare diseases in Africa. Then it went to the U.S. Geological Survey, which used it as a research station at a fish hatchery.

 

[jtbell]

Remember the Skylab space station? I had forgotten that it was occupied for only 24 weeks, during 1973-74. I do remember the nervous excitement when it was about to de-orbit in 1979. Where? Where? Look out below!

Some fragments did end up in Australia. Here's what's left of an oxygen tank.

 

[DennisN]

Remember the Skylab space station? ... I do remember the nervous excitement when it was about to de-orbit in 1979. Where? Where? Look out below!

I remember!

 

[DennisN]

Old camera(s) 2/2:

Here are two more old cameras I recently aquired .

Wirgin Auta

Year: 1930s-1940s (ca; I couldn't find any serial number)
Type: foldable
Format: Medium format

This is a foldable "pocket" camera (I guess), though it is quite heavy with a weight of 660 g.
The dimensions are 35 mm (depth, folded), 135 mm (depth, unfolded), 77 mm (height) and 160mm (width).
I did try to date it, but it proved difficult since it seems there are quite many variants of this camera with different lenses, shutters and general appearance.

Here is what the camera looks like when it is folded:
(and I would personally not have thought this was a camera if I only saw it like this)

And here the camera is unfolded. It's actually a bit tricky to fold it, I had to try quite a few times.

The shutter is a Prontor shutter, and if you look at the photos at the bottom of the Prontor page on Camera-wiki, it is fascinating to see how complex the internal mechanisms are.

The lens is a Wirgin Gewironar 10.5 cm f/4.5.

Links:

Camera-wiki: https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Wirgin_Auta
J. Noir: https://www.jnoir.eu/en/cameras/wirgin/auta/

Next up we've got a real beauty, at least in my opinion .

I bought this camera because I have a personal, historical attachment to Yashica. The first "professional" camera I ever used was a Yashica Electro 35 which belonged to my father (regretfully I don't have it, but I have a Yashica Electro 35 in mint condition at home). I also have three vintage Yashica lenses that I really like; they all give remarkably natural colors.

The camera below is something different though.
It's one of Yashica's twin lens reflex cameras (TLR), which were as I understand it the cheaper options compared to the famous and iconic Rolleiflex TLRs which are collectables and can cost quite a bit.

Yashica-C

Year: 1968 (dated with the serial number 808287)
Type: Twin lens reflex (TLR)
Format: Medium format

Here is the Yashica-C along with the original leather case:

The shutter is a Copal-MX shutter and the lens is a Yashikor 80mm f/3.5.
Well, actually, there are two identical lenses on the camera, since on TLRs the top lens is for the viewfinder and the bottom lens is the one used for taking the photo.

You open the viewfinder on the top, and as usually with TLRs you hold the camera at waist level and look straight down through the viewfinder when composing the photo. The viewfinder has also got a small magnifier which can be folded out to help you nail focus by looking at small details in the composition.

And here's the view though the viewfinder, showing a notebook on my desk:

And last, here is the camera opened:

The weight of the camera is 992 g, so almost 1 kg. The dimensions are 76 mm (width), 100 mm (depth) and 140 mm (height).

Links:
Yashica-C on Camerapedia: https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Yashica-C
FIlm Still Photography: https://www.filmstillphotography.com/yashica-c.html

 

[DennisN]

Some more random photos...

White roses...

A colorful glass vase in the cemetery...

Three red tulips in the cemetery...

A heart made of stone in the cemetery...
...the text "Wir vermissen dich" is German and means "we miss you"...

And last, a very colorful pinwheel...

(Lens used: Yashinon-DS 50mm f/1.9)

 

[morrobay]

Seafood restaurant on Naklua mud flats, low tide. This cat is waiting intensely for shrimp. My Thai girlfriend said no water(the bay). I asked her why , She : "Hot too much - no water"

 

[morrobay]

Night Moves