Random Photos

[rsk]

This is one of today's facebook memories, the day I stepped out of the front door to go to school and found an elephant at the end of the lane.
I was living in Nepal at the time, and although I had seen this elephant a few times (it belonged to the zoo and they would take it out to eat leaves) it was the first time I'd seen it so close and practically outside my front door

 

[Keith_McClary]

Abandoned Grassy Mountain coal mine.
Edit:
Five years ago an Australian company applied to reopen this. Just last week (June 18, 2021):

A joint federal-provincial review has denied an application for an open-pit coal mine in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, saying its impacts on the environment and Indigenous rights aren’t worth the economic benefits it would bring.

 

[Point Conception]

 

[Keith_McClary]

Virga (precipitation falling from a cloud that evaporates or sublimates before reaching the ground).

 

[DaveC426913]

Dock duck.

Or is it duck dock? I forget.

 

[DrClaude]

Dock duck.

Or is it duck dock? I forget.

View attachment 284489

Dock duck go?

 

[DennisN]

Virga (precipitation falling from a cloud that evaporates or sublimates before reaching the ground).

Very nice!

 

[jtbell]

Dock duck.

Or is it duck dock? I forget.

If the pilings were made of hickory wood, it could be a hickory dickory duck.

 

[Point Conception]

 

[Point Conception]

Another outside of a mall photo

 

[rsk]

Not exactly random, they kind of follow on from the flowers growing through concrete.

Four photos of the same fence.

This tree seemed to have a gap cut in the fence for it

The fence keeper (?) showing some foresight here

And yet, for some reason, not here

And (almost) finally here one which must have grown too far out of the fence and was chopped down, but is now doing that thing trees do - when you think they're dead and finished, the green starts to appear again

And here, 11000 km away and several years ago. The bench has put up a good fight but it's cracking so I'm calling this one for the tree

H

 

[jtbell]

We've never owned a cat, but we don't need to, because we're often visited by our neighbo(u)rs' cats.

 

[Point Conception]

Some random-color combinations

 

[DaveC426913]

We've never owned a cat, but we don't need to, because we're often visited by our neighbo(u)rs' cats.

View attachment 284944

That cat is really stretching the definition of 'sitting in a box'.

 

[Keith_McClary]

owned a cat

A friend took in a stray cat. It would go away for long periods. She attached a note to it and found out it had three "owners".

 

[DennisN]

Extreme telephotography:

I recently tried out my vintage Tokina 400 mm tele lens on very distant objects for fun, just to try it.
I have never photographed such distant objects (on Earth) except for maybe some clouds or mountains. One of the problems with photographing very distant objects is the huge amount of warm air between the camera and target, which distorts the light and thus the image.

Here is the Öresund Bridge photographed from ca 10 km (6.2 miles) away:

And here is a ship photographed from ca 6 km (3.7 miles) away (I'm not exactly sure about the distance, I estimated it later using a map):

Also, here are two photos taken with my newly acquired Russian vintage Helios 44M-7 lens, which is a very fun lens to experiment with. Under the right conditions it can produce what is called "swirly" bokeh (background blur), as in this photo:

Here is another one taken with the Helios lens, using a very narrow depth of field:

And a daisy, recently taken with my Canon FD 50mm lens:

 

[DaveC426913]

problems with photographing very distant objects is the huge amount of warm air between the camera and target, which distorts the light and thus the image.

Funny you mention this. Just today, out sailing, me bro an me saw this black rectangle across the lake (left).

I surmised it had to be a large ship, heavily distorted by atmo (We don't tend to get container ships here in inland waterways). Me bro was skeptical. We decided it would be fun to go see, so we deployed "the iron spinnaker" and headed across.

We only got a few km closer before the mirage vanished and our quarry was revealed:

Canon G15 - f3.5 1/2000 ISO 80
(I am disappointed that the EXIF data does not tell me actual the zoom factor. It says 30.5mm but I was near max optical Telephoto: 140mm)

The pic on left was taken at approx point A, and the right at approx point B. They're only a few km apart, but it's a 40km distance across the lake:

*BTW, notice in the side-by-side photos, the huge difference in apparent height of the escarpment behind the ship.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Conifer pollen:

Poplar seeds:

 

[davenn]

View attachment 284417
Abandoned Grassy Mountain coal mine.
Edit:
Five years ago an Australian company applied to reopen this. Just last week (June 18, 2021):

what a wonderful piece of geology ... a whole lesson or two in what is going on there

 

[Keith_McClary]

what a wonderful piece of geology ... a whole lesson or two in what is going on there

I need the geological terminology for "skooshed".

 

[Point Conception]

0530

 

[Point Conception]

 

[rsk]

View attachment 285376

Oh, I haven't seen the sea for soooo long! There is sea quite close to where I am now, but our Covid numbers are on the rise and I'm wary of public transport.

 

[Point Conception]

Well good timing, Just got back from afternoon beach walk. The island offshore is where the #1op photo is.

 

[rsk]

Vandalism on a footbridge nearby. There's physics in there... is that surface tension effects?
Is it just that the paint prevents the water being absorbed?

 

[DennisN]

I managed to catch lightning last night.
It was a thunderstorm and I set up the camera filming the night sky.
I recorded only one lightning strike, and I looked though the frames and found one bolt hidden in there:

 

[rsk]

Auto-focus fail. I was aiming for the cute baby duck

 

[berkeman]

Yeah, it's like trying to take a picture of a deer in your backyard, but you're shooting through a window. The window will end up in focus...

 

[rsk]

The duck was quite a way to the right when I first raised the camera and then suddenly decided to make a bolt for it and I was trying to track it, - I didn't even notice the grass, think it wouldn't have been in frame if the duck had stayed where it was.

 

[DaveC426913]

The duck was quite a way to the right when I first raised the camera and then suddenly decided to make a bolt for it and I was trying to track it, - I didn't even notice the grass, think it wouldn't have been in frame if the duck had stayed where it was.

You didn't have time, of course, but the trick is to press the shutter down halfway when you first point the camera out at the water. This will focus it at the appropriate range and keep it locked at that range regardless of any intervening targets. This is when practicing with one's camera pays off.

Alternately, if you have an idea what kinds of shots you can expect ahead of time, consider setting your camera to manual focus at infinity. If it's bright enough, you should get everything from some dozen feet or so to infinity in-focus by-default. That'll cover 99% of any wildlife you come across.