• Members 1546 posts
    Feb. 22, 2025, 4:05 p.m.

    Those towers rising from the colorful trees are outstanding. Perfect shot.

  • Members 1546 posts
    Feb. 22, 2025, 4:08 p.m.

    Great take on winter ice. Abstract painting...

  • Members 839 posts
    Feb. 22, 2025, 4:49 p.m.

    I agree. And I looked at it without the sign for a bit. Then said, Nah, it’s NOT Rapa Nui. It’s just a gritty little beach town whose existence used to be solely for Marines from Camp Pendleton to get buzzed on Friday nights, and left it in!

    Rich

  • Members 746 posts
    Feb. 22, 2025, 4:49 p.m.

    Tiger swallowtail

    Tiger swallowtail.jpg

    Tiger swallowtail.jpg

    JPG, 1.8 MB, uploaded by Sagittarius on Feb. 22, 2025.

  • Members 1546 posts
    Feb. 22, 2025, 6:02 p.m.

    Excellent background for your subject.

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:14 p.m.

    are those snowflakes, right?
    or insects searching a mate?
    slow shutter speed: cool!

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:15 p.m.

    autumn colours are
    sprouting towers: pretty neat!
    I would go for square

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:18 p.m.

    centuries old are these
    is this imagination
    or... reality?

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:20 p.m.

    the swamp shows its bones
    is this really an x-ray
    or just infrared?

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:21 p.m.

    walking the King's Road
    in Westeros: that's what I
    think this looks most like

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:23 p.m.

    universal language
    of joy: girls anywhere share
    hen night rituals

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:28 p.m.

    how I love this one
    is it ice or mercury?
    Terminator Vibes!

    and if thas sounds obscure: watch this:
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq5ydeWWr4A

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:32 p.m.

    Gee, I love Lego!
    (Minnie knows); so these are like
    a real candystore!

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:34 p.m.

    delicate dancer
    with pink blossom as tutu:
    ballet butterfly

  • Members 924 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:37 p.m.

    Did anyone notice that I commented on all your images in the form of a haiku?
    (It's my favourite form of poetry: just seventeen short syllables to get the idea across.)

    I like to write them from time to time (but mostly in my own flemish).
    I was inspired tonight.

  • Members 746 posts
    Feb. 23, 2025, 6:40 p.m.
  • Members 1863 posts
    Feb. 25, 2025, 10:22 p.m.

    Very nice image that makes me yearn for this cold gloomy weather to break and for us to get a little bit of spring.

  • Members 1863 posts
    Feb. 25, 2025, 11:01 p.m.

    Thank you for sharing such detail of your thoughts! Southern cypress swamps are always great fun for reflections because they are usually sunken river beds that have been cut off from their source river and exist as horseshoes protected from surface wind and moving currents. They are also eerily quiet except for the frogs in summer and they are both peaceful and a little spooky. I wish this little swamp had the wonderful Spanish moss that the swamps further south in Louisiana do, but it hasn't a shred of it. Love your pointing out the "animals" you see! Wonderful interpretation.

    Thank you Pete. The swamp is a little disorienting in regular atmospherics but especially in fog. I'm so glad you guys found the spindly legged creatures.
    .

    The odd contrast of clear and not clear is what I hoped would be noticed. Thank you!

    Thanks Mike. I honestly am not sure what gave me the effect of the near/far trees. As my oldest grandson used to say in explanation of a puzzling event "It just goes that way sometimes". I didn't do anything special so it was surely the weird atmospherics of a fog that was rising. Fogs do behave differently in the swamp anyway because the swamp is perhaps 20 ft or more below ground level in an old river bed which somehow makes the fog hover above the waterline. It reminded me a bit of the X-rays I've had done of my complaining knees.

    The aperture on this one was 6.3, which is similar to what I'd normally use down there or for most ordinary landscapes (between 4 and 8), and the camera is m43 so there's that.

    Thank you. Essence of southern swamps: spooky and intoxicatingly peaceful. That's why so many southern movies and books are set in swamps.

    Love the haikus you sometimes gift us with! I did notice that the image looked a bit like an infrared, but it isn't, and I didn't try to make it that way. I did jiggle the Lightroom sliders here and there trying to bring out the texture on the nearest tupelos, but without losing the ghostly look of the trees further back in the scene but I couldn't duplicate it if I tried.

  • Members 1863 posts
    Feb. 26, 2025, 4:35 a.m.

    Agreed. The pink petals give colour and forms that help the butterfly stand out. The blooms, top left, are framed to give balance without distracting.