Random Photos

DennisN · Jul 14, 2025

Four shots...

Houses...

Courtyard square with a dark sculpture on a pedestal, flanked by cream and tan multi-storey apartment buildings with balconies under a blue sky with clouds.

(Lens: Meyer-Optik Lydith 30mm)

Park scene

Sunlight shining through dense woodland, with a bright starburst where the sun breaks through the leaves of a large tree in the centre.

(Lens: Meyer-Optik Lydith 30mm)

Sunflower

Single sunflower in full bloom with yellow petals around a dark brown seed head, on a thick green stem with broad leaves, against a blurred dark green background.

(Lens: Helios 44 (13 bladed))

Dipsacus

Close-up photo of teasel plants (Dipsacus) in soft backlit greenery, with spiny bristly flower heads and thin stems against blurred green foliage.

(Lens: Helios 44 (13 bladed))

TensorCalculus · Jul 14, 2025

Maths (my book looked so dramatic in this photo for no reason)

Photo of an open printed textbook held in a hand on a wooden desk, showing two pages of dense mathematical text with equations and the heading 'Appendix G: Power Series' at the top.

DennisN · Jul 15, 2025

It was raining this evening...
I used to avoid shooting in rain but nowadays I enjoy it, so I actually went out on purpose...

Night photo of a rain-soaked street with a cyclist in a white rain cape riding toward the camera, headlights of a car ahead, and string lights overhead.

Night street scene in rain, with wet cobblestones reflecting colored lights and warm window glow from tall brick apartment buildings, and an outdoor cafe with a large white umbrella and string lights.

Person seen from behind holding a black umbrella and a white tote bag while standing on a wet cobblestone street at night, with colourful lights reflected on the pavement and outdoor café tables under awnings.

Luckily my camera is weather sealed; I don't think I would have gone out with a camera that wasn't weather sealed since it was pouring down...

A pretty wet camera afterwards

:

Back of a Sony mirrorless camera with the rear LCD and electronic viewfinder covered in water droplets, showing a shutter speed of 1/30, aperture F2.8, exposure compensation 0.7 and ISO 2009.

collinsmark · Jul 15, 2025

DennisN said:

It was raining this evening...
I used to avoid shooting in rain but nowadays I enjoy it, so I actually went out on purpose...

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Luckily my camera is weather sealed; I don't think I would have gone out with a camera that wasn't weather sealed since it was pouring down...

A pretty wet camera afterwards :

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Nice photos!

Yes, rain presents wonderful photographic opportunities. There's of course the reflections and the puddles (more reflections), specular highlights everywhere, and then there's also the umbrellas people are using, which by themselves can turn an otherwise mundane image into a powerful one.

My laziness got in the way last rainy season, so I didn't get the camera out. That's bad on me. (It's dry season here, now.) I need to work on and and practice no-hands/limited-hands umbrella holding techniques.

pinball1970 · Jul 16, 2025

In Hertfordshire today, hopefully get some images later on.

jtbell · Jul 16, 2025

For about 20 years, our college sponsored a chapter of the Confucius Institute, which provided instructors from China who taught Chinese classes here. In December 2019 they went home as usual for the holiday break. Then the Covid pandemic began, and they did not return.

Bronze statue of a robed, bearded figure with hands clasped in front, standing on a grey stone pedestal in a campus courtyard beside a brick building and a flagpole.

At some later time, the college ended its relationship with the Institute. The statue that they donated is still here, but the pedestal next to it no longer bears the plaque that commemorated its installation.

collinsmark · Jul 16, 2025

I took the rangefinder out with me yesterday while running some errands. 'Managed to snap off a couple of pics. Both images are with the Leica Summilux-M 50mm ASPH, wide open at f/1.4.

Backlit cluster of white rose blossoms with yellow stamens and green sepals on a thin stem with leaves, against a blurred dark background.

Figure 1. "Backlit flowers across the street in the parking lot near the vacant store, study #1"

Close-up photo of a black motorcycle's handlebars and chrome front fork with a black helmet hanging from the grip, decorated with stickers, blue flame graphics on the tank and fender, shallow depth of field.

Figure 2. "'Figured @PeterDonis might get a kick out of this one."

jtbell · Jul 17, 2025

jtbell said:

Back in October I posted a photo of a neighbor's house after they tried to remove a tree that had fallen on its back side during tropical storm Helene.

https://www.physicsforums.com/posts/7126216/

Now, one can see the back of the house from a nearby cross street, revealing the extent of the damage:

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Update: the house sold recently. Even though the hole had grown bigger during the past six months, the new owner apparently decided it was nevertheless worth repairing, instead of demolishing and rebuilding completely. The work began this week.

Two-storey house with yellow vinyl siding partly covered by white house wrap printed with Lowe's logos, with debris on the ground, a basketball hoop, and a brick house beside it.

pinball1970 · Jul 17, 2025

Welwyn Garden City.

Formal park path lined with tall poplar and other trees, with clipped hedges in the foreground under a cloudy sky, and a few people in the distance.

Tiered outdoor planter on a paved town square, with three levels of dense purple, magenta and white petunias and dark foliage, and a brick building behind.

pinball1970 · Jul 17, 2025

Formal garden with a circular bed of clipped hedging and a topiary shrub, surrounded by a field of flowering lavender, with rows of trees and brick buildings beyond under a cloudy sky.

Tiered planter in a paved park, its stacked rounded sections overflowing with pink and white petunia-like flowers, with trees and benches behind.

Bronze statue of a bearded man in a suit and waistcoat, holding a spade in one hand and a hat in the other, on a circular plinth engraved with the name EBENEZER HOWARD and the words VISION AND PRACTICE.

pinball1970 · Jul 17, 2025

Outdoor plaque titled Ebenezer Howard, Founder of Welwyn Garden City, crediting sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies and letter carver Simon Langsdale, with a short biography and sponsor logos.

Tall white stone memorial pillar at the end of a paved path, with a grass cross inlaid in the paving, flanked by clipped hedges and trees in a park.

pinball1970 · Jul 17, 2025

Circular fountain pool in a park, with a tall jet of water spraying upward, surrounded by tall poplar and conifer trees, white-flowering shrubs and a bench.

Park scene in summer with a tiered fountain spraying water in a round pool, surrounded by shrubs and dry grass, with red-brick buildings and trees under a cloudy sky.

Water fountain in a circular pool, with jets of water arcing outward from a dark, low central basin under a cloudy sky, with trees behind.

berkeman · Jul 17, 2025

What is the difference between the lighter photos and the darker ones with more contrast? Different exposures or post-processing?

pinball1970 · Jul 17, 2025

berkeman said:

What is the difference between the lighter photos and the darker ones with more contrast? Different exposures or post-processing?

Besides my position to the sun I have options to adjust the image once taken, brightness, contrast, white level, saturation, sharpness etc.

jrmichler · Jul 17, 2025

Three consecutive photos of the neighbor's house. The first photo is from 2003. That house was originally built some time before 1984, probably in the 1950's or 1960's. The previous owners never built big fires, while the new owners built a big fire in the fireplace. No surprise what started the house on fire.

Weathered stone chimney with a rectangular metal panel set into an arched opening, surrounded by bare trees; a date stamp in the lower right corner reads 9 11 05 AM.

So they built a log home on the original foundation. The woodburning stove got a chimney made of single wall stovepipe. Snow built up and slid in 2014, taking the chimney with it.

Photo of a log home's eave and roof edge, with a metal wood stove chimney pipe running down the log wall beside a sliding glass door and a stovepipe elbow with a cap jutting out at the roof.

The next chimney was stainless steel. This one lasted until 2020. Snow took it out.

Snow-covered dark metal roof with a dark grey single-wall chimney pipe rising from it, capped with a black cowl, against a clear blue sky and bare trees.

The current chimney has two guy wires and a splitter. I expect it to survive.

pinball1970 · Jul 19, 2025

Burnsall Yorkshire

Carved stone plaque on a bridge parapet reading WEST RIDING, BURNSALL BRIDGE, RE-ERECTED SEPTEMBER 1884 IN PLACE OF OLD BRIDGE DESTROYED BY GREAT FLOOD JANUARY 29TH 1883.

Green fairway in the foreground with trees and a heather-covered hillside behind, with a white farmhouse and a stone building nestled among the trees.

A gravel path runs beside a river under a large spreading tree in summer foliage, with a stone wall and a small wooden shed on the left.

River flowing through green countryside on a cloudy day, with a white marquee tent and parked cars beside the far bank, stone cottages among trees, and grassy hillsides rising on the right.

pinball1970 · Jul 19, 2025

Narrow tarmac lane running between dry-stone walls through green countryside, with a large tree on the right and rolling hills under a cloudy sky.

A cream-coloured sheep with a dark face standing on top of an ivy-covered stone wall beside a narrow road, with a large tree and green foliage behind it.

River flowing through green valley meadows below a grassy hillside, with stone walls, trees and houses along the banks and pale gravel bars in the shallow water.

Stone-built village street with grey slate roofs, bending road, and wooden picnic benches with parasols outside a pub on the right under a cloudy blue sky.

Bolton Abbey

Ruined stone wall of a medieval building with empty window openings, pointed arches and a low white fence along the grass in front.

pinball1970 · Jul 19, 2025

I thought I had discovered some ancient rune from the middle ages. Probably a masonry mark.

Close-up photo of a weathered stone surface with a shallow carved mark resembling a stylised letter or masonry symbol, with a hook-like stroke.

DennisN · Jul 19, 2025

pinball1970 said:

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Bolton Abbey

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Gosh, those photos are so much Britain!

Rolling hills, lots of green, sheep, old houses... I remember.

Ibix · Jul 19, 2025

pinball1970 said:

Yorkshire

West Riding of Yorkshire, please (grumpy old Yorkshireman expression).

Riding is a corruption of þriðing (the first character is a thorn, a soft th like in three , and the funny d in the middle is just a d), which would be "thirding" in modern English - so there are three Ridings of Yorkshire, West, East and South. Or there were, before the Ridings were more or less abolished about forty years ago.

If you split a region in four, they would be fourthings, or farthings - hence the old quarter penny and the four divisions of the Shire in the Lord of the Rings.

jtbell · Jul 20, 2025

(6:30 AM) The early bird gets the worm. The early cat gets the car.

An orange tabby cat lying on the roof of a white car, stretched out over the open sunroof, with a grey house and green lawn behind it.

(An hour later...) Maybe the other car feels better... aaah, yes!

An orange and white tabby cat lying stretched out on the roof of a dark grey car parked in front of a light blue siding house with a white door and a wreath.

DennisN · Jul 22, 2025

A study of raindrops...

Close-up photo of two green leaves with serrated edges, each with a clear water droplet hanging from its tip against a soft blurred green background.

Close-up of dark green grass-like leaves covered with many water droplets, some large and rounded, reflecting light, against a blurred dark green background.

Close-up of green leaves with reddish edges covered in many water droplets, with dark foliage blurred in the background.

Close-up of a dark purple leaf covered with many water droplets of varying sizes, with light reflecting off the drops against a black background.

(all shot with Canon nFD 100mm f/4 Macro, some have been focus stacked)

Edit:

Oh, I forgot one thing...

I wanted to notify @Andy Resnick and others who like to do close-up photography that there are tripods where you can reverse the center column (if you didn't know about). This can be very handy when shooting close-ups of static objects. The photos above were taken with such a tripod (Benro Slim), though I didn't use a reversed center column at that time.

I recently got me a Benro Slim tripod which I am very pleased with.
It's very compact, light and versatile:

Black and carbon-fibre tripod with blue and yellow leg locks and a ball head, standing on a paved surface, with the centre column in its normal upright position.

...and here with the center column reversed:

Photo of a black carbon-fibre tripod with blue and yellow-green leg locks, standing on a paved path with its centre column reversed so the head points downward.

Very, very good value for money.
Available in aluminium version and and a slightly lighter carbon-fibre version.
(I got the carbon-fibre version)

I decided to get it after watching this video when I was looking for a more compact, travel-friendly tripod without spending a fortune

:

I Tested Every Travel Tripod Under $100: These Are the Best (Mark Wiemels)

Andy Resnick · Jul 23, 2025

DennisN said:

A study of raindrops...

I wanted to notify @Andy Resnick and others who like to do close-up photography that there are tripods where you can reverse the center column (if you didn't know about).

...and here with the center column reversed:

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Hey, that's spiffy! Thanks for the heads-up. Your raindrop photos are excellent, btw.

I have a Gitzo tripod, no center column. One thing I like about it is flexibility of leg adjustments, from opening the legs all the way to put the camera (almost) onto the ground to swinging one leg underneath, permitting vertical shooting (helpful for space station overpasses!).

Some good images (I have a slightly different model) are here:
https://www.richardpeters.co.uk/gitzo-gt5541-tripod-review/

DennisN · Jul 23, 2025

Andy Resnick said:

I have a Gitzo tripod, no center column. One thing I like about it is flexibility of leg adjustments, from opening the legs all the way to put the camera (almost) onto the ground to swinging one leg underneath, permitting vertical shooting (helpful for space station overpasses!).

Very cool!

I didn't know there were tripods that could do that, actually (swinging one leg underneath).

jtbell · Jul 23, 2025

jtbell said:

I've been on the road again the past few days, this time to Ohio for my 50-year college reunion.

And here we are, about 8%-10% of the class of 1975. Unfortunately none of the other 4 physics majors in my class showed up, but I was at least acquainted with a few of these people.

Group photo of about 18 smiling adults with name badges posing in a hotel meeting room, holding a sign reading "50th Reunion Celebration" with the words "Alumni Weekend" below.

There were actually about a total of about 250 people at the reunion, because it was for all alumni, with special attention to the 5-year reunion classes.