* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #861 / Revived #081 on 2024 10 16 *

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Fireplace33
Members 1139 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 10:09 a.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 10:09 a.m.
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@Sagittarius has written:

In the water

Do you want a drink?

If I went for a swim in this beautiful area I wouldn't want to have to hear the sellers calling out and advertising how good their wares are.
I'd just want to relax a bit , but no peace for the wicked anywhere ;-)
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Fireplace33
Members 1139 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 10:10 a.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 10:10 a.m.
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@RoelHendrickx has written:

AN ALBANIAN HERO

Having just landed on Tirana's Mother Thereza airport, we had picked up our car and headed north towards our first stop, the mountain city Krujë, from where Albanian hero Skanderbeg had started his campaign against the Ottomans who had held him as captive/hostage/ward, in order to free Albania. A good place to start an exploration of the geography and history of this intriguing country.

Our first night was to be spent in a guesthouse right in the center of the ancient citadel, next to a new Skanderbeg historical museum and above the Old Bazaar.
(Quite tricky to get there, actually, with a car on steep roads through the actual bazaar, especially on a Sunday, when the place is crowded and when also the site of the old fortress ruins is filled with cars parked quite randomly... Anyway: my first driving experience in Albania was a good baptism of fire.)

Before reaching the ancient and mountainous Krujë (very touristic) and its certified local hero (Skanderbeg is to the Albanians as George Washington is to the USA) we passed through a more "modern" and bigger village/city in the plains, called Fushë-Krujë, and this gave us our first big surprise of our fantastic Albania travels.

Driving up and almost at the foot of the actual old city, I noticed a "George W. Bush bakery" in the corner of my eye.

Obviously, this intrigued me, so at night I googled a bit and found out that Dubya Bush is somewhat of a hero in Albania and specifically in this town, because he visited the town on one of his foreign trips. The occasion was something to do with Albania and NATO.

georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/06/images/20070610-1_d-0958-515h.html
This is what made me want to find that bakery again the next morning.

(This is a photo of that bakery on the next morning, taken on my sunrise morning walk. Not the one I aim for feedback on, just a quirky mental note)

Googling a bit further after breakfast and before leaving Krujë, I found an article on Atlas Obscura telling me that there is not only a bakery, but even a statue of the US President in the town.

www.atlasobscura.com/places/george-bush-statue

Obviously, as we headed back south to start our Albanian adventure proper with a drive past Tirana and Elbasan to Lake Ohrid on the North-Macedonian border, I just HAD to go find that statue. It stands proudly on the center of a Y-shaped and very busy intersection in the business/commercial part of the town.

Having seen the various images of the statue in the Atlas Obscura online article, I spent a minute or so looking for a better angle on the statue, with a natural frame and some interesting background.

Our Albanian expedition had only just begun and I had already found a first quirky gem!

That is a bit strange. He must have made a good impression on someone there.
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Fireplace33
Members 1139 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 10:22 a.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 10:22 a.m.
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@minniev has written:

Out-Takes
The 52 Project I belong to had a prompt this week I'd never heard of called Oil Abstract. You put oil and water in a vessel and take a picture of it. Not having much chemical sense, I had no idea how to pull this off or what was supposed to happen. So I rummaged in the sideboard for something to put it in. First I put the stuff in an ancient medicine bottle from the 1800s that I dug up on the farm. Then I tried dumping it in an antique china saucer. Finally I spotted a cracked crystal bowl and poured it in there, which gave it a zippy look and came up with one I wanted to use. Here's 3 of the out-takes.

The third one here is definitely the best for me. Lots of contrast, details, curves and nice patterns.
Your B&W processing works well well for such a shot.
Getting tasks like that and having to present your results you get sounds like a fun idea :-)

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Fireplace33
Members 1139 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 10:24 a.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 10:24 a.m.
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@Rich42 has written:

Grasses & Woods

Rich

Lots of nice warm light and good details in that shot :-)
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Sagittarius
Members 727 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 10:37 a.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 10:37 a.m.
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@Fireplace33 has written:

@Sagittarius has written:

In the water

Do you want a drink?

If I went for a swim in this beautiful area I wouldn't want to have to hear the sellers calling out and advertising how good their wares are.
I'd just want to relax a bit , but no peace for the wicked anywhere ;-)

They weren't selling, screaming or advertising. This was part of the package with the boat cruise. This area was one of the stops and is called "natural pool" in the ocean.
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Fireplace33
Members 1139 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 10:54 a.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 10:54 a.m.
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@Sagittarius has written:

@Fireplace33 has written:

@Sagittarius has written:

In the water

Do you want a drink?

If I went for a swim in this beautiful area I wouldn't want to have to hear the sellers calling out and advertising how good their wares are.
I'd just want to relax a bit , but no peace for the wicked anywhere ;-)

They weren't selling, screaming or advertising. This was part of the package with the boat cruise. This area was one of the stops and is called "natural pool" in the ocean.

Ah ha, that sounds better than what I had imagined :-)
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Bryan
Members 1320 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 11:11 a.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 11:11 a.m.
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Full moon today

He wasn't crawling across a window. If you look closely you can see what he was doing

I was on the verandah, and he was suspended from the gutter...

Still not overly high above the horizon so some atmospherics at play.

There are light clouds now... Have parted...

Please don't edit without permission

P1322786a.JPG
JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by Bryan on Oct. 18, 2024.

P1322822a.JPG
JPG, 454.6 KB, uploaded by Bryan on Oct. 17, 2024.

P1322810a.JPG
JPG, 431.0 KB, uploaded by Bryan on Oct. 17, 2024.

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DanHasLeftForum
Members 4254 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 11:48 a.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 11:48 a.m.
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** RED WATTLE BIRD **

** SUPERB FAIRYWREN **

superbFairyWren.jpg
JPG, 163.8 KB, uploaded by DanHasLeftForum on Oct. 17, 2024.

redWattleBird.jpg
JPG, 120.9 KB, uploaded by DanHasLeftForum on Oct. 17, 2024.
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ChrisOly
Members 1497 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 1:31 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 1:31 p.m.
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@Sagittarius has written:

In the water

Do you want a drink?

I admire entrepreneur who drifts alcohol in a boat for all to see. Great colours.
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ChrisOly
Members 1497 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 1:32 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 1:32 p.m.
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@DanHasLeftForum has written:

** RED WATTLE BIRD **

Amazing sharpness and colours.
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ChrisOly
Members 1497 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 1:34 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 1:34 p.m.
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@Bryan has written:

Full moon today

Just in rime for Halloween.
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ChrisOly
Members 1497 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 1:35 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 1:35 p.m.
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@Fireplace33 has written:

@Rich42 has written:

Grasses & Woods

Rich

Lots of nice warm light and good details in that shot :-)

I second the comments.
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ChrisOly
Members 1497 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 1:37 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 1:37 p.m.
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@minniev has written:

Out-Takes
The 52 Project

I admire your experimentation streak. Great result.

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ChrisOly
Members 1497 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 1:43 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 1:43 p.m.
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@MikeFewster has written:

@ChrisOly has written:

reflections

Fyi - convex glass in the background.

There's an attractive build up of layer overlaying layer here. The sky first, Then buildings then zebra like patterns over some of the buildings and finally the red moments of the flags. I've no idea what might be creating the zebra pattern but it's visually bold and jumps out from the other layers.
Chris's note about the convex surface is useful. It would have been difficult to make sense of the flag, its reflection and the position of the reflection otherwise.
Now I'm curious. I take it that the flags, foreground, are not reflections. That convex surface must be unusually large for a convex surface. What is it?

Thank you for comments.

It's a massive office building behind the flag poles with convex glass panels. I reckon whatever reflects is somewhat distorted due to conturs of the surface.
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DanHasLeftForum
Members 4254 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 7:32 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 7:32 p.m.
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@minniev has written:

Out-Takes
The 52 Project I belong to had a prompt this week I'd never heard of called Oil Abstract. You put oil and water in a vessel and take a picture of it. Not having much chemical sense, I had no idea how to pull this off or what was supposed to happen. So I rummaged in the sideboard for something to put it in. First I put the stuff in an ancient medicine bottle from the 1800s that I dug up on the farm. Then I tried dumping it in an antique china saucer. Finally I spotted a cracked crystal bowl and poured it in there, which gave it a zippy look and came up with one I wanted to use. Here's 3 of the out-takes.

I like them all but I just wonder if color versions might add more impact to them.
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Kumsal
Members 425 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 8:14 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 8:14 p.m.
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Road Camp Motel

IMG_4089.jpg
JPG, 2.7 MB, uploaded by Kumsal on Oct. 17, 2024.

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Kumsal
Members 425 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 8:29 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 8:29 p.m.
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@Fireplace33 has written:

The valley and waterfalls at Riedingtal
I have posted the waterfalls at Riedingtal many times before.
Today's post is the same again, but from slightly different angles, and from along a different route, and this time, with some nice autumn colours and even some snow at the top.
With warm colours in the foreground and the cooler colours further back, the illusion of 3D in the image is enhanced a bit.

I like this photo.
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DanHasLeftForum
Members 4254 posts

Oct. 17, 2024, 8:35 p.m. Oct. 17, 2024, 8:35 p.m.
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@Kumsal has written:

Road Camp Motel

The crooked vertical lines on the left and right edges spoil the image. The iPhone has made a mess of the clouds on the left especially where they look like badly spread cream on a cake.

It looks better after they have been straightened.

carPark.jpg
JPG, 255.7 KB, uploaded by DanHasLeftForum on Oct. 17, 2024.