• Members 351 posts
    June 13, 2026, 5:21 p.m.

    Excellent. That's a GREAT shot. B&W is perfect. I admire your courage (street photography). I am fairly sociable, but standing behind a tripod trying to get a decent landscape shot is less intimidating! LOL.

  • Members 351 posts
    June 13, 2026, 5:34 p.m.

    Orcinus orca. I went out for a walk yesterday afternoon, and when I got to the end of the street, there were many cars parked on the shoulder of the road. Didn't think much of it. I continued on my normal walk up the hill (elevation is about 460 ft. at the top; 140m) -- about 12 minutes up and 12 minutes down. Something quick to get the heart going. Coming back, the cars were still there and I could see people standing with binoculars. Ahhhh. I think I know what's happening. Got back to the house and grabbed the camera. I have a few more, but this was one of the better shots. A bit difficult… zooming in and out (to get the whole pod or a tight shot?) and the changing lighting (ISO) and dummy me always shoots in manual mode, so lots of wheel spinning and twiddling while looking at the light meter… plus keeping the shutter speed "up" (telephoto) and you don’t know where they will surface again after they go under water. There seemed to be about 5 or 6 whales in the pod. Two large, a mid-size, and two or three smaller ones. This one is a male (distinguished by the dorsal fin).

    orca-01-crop-resize.jpg

    orca-01-crop-resize.jpg

    JPG, 5.2 MB, uploaded by cpm on June 13, 2026.

  • Members 2660 posts
    June 13, 2026, 6:50 p.m.

    Must be a spectacular experience.

  • Members 2660 posts
    June 13, 2026, 6:51 p.m.

    Yes, this is a nice happy portrait.

  • Members 2660 posts
    June 13, 2026, 6:55 p.m.

    The top one is my favourite in this set. I like the light.

    It is amazing how much you can crop a Z8 image and still get something useful.

  • Members 1457 posts
    June 13, 2026, 7:24 p.m.

    My understanding is that the timber arches act as frames to hold the bales which slot in. The arches are erected at the distance apart equivalent to the length of the bales - you have to know your bale size before putting up the arches. The straw is then lime plastered inside and out, and tiled outside. I looked at this in some detail years ago when I first toyed with the idea of building a house. Sadly the chap's own website has disappeared now.

  • Members 1457 posts
    June 13, 2026, 7:27 p.m.

    Wow! We don't see anything like that on our daily walk 😀

  • Members 960 posts
    June 14, 2026, 8:12 a.m.

    It’s cloud iridescence, caused by diffracted from droplets light, rainbow is caused by refracted through droplets light.
    Nicely captured colours, i’m usually disappointed in my attempts to capture such phenomenas, as colours from camera seem to be much more pale than in real life.

  • Members 960 posts
    June 14, 2026, 8:16 a.m.

    Interesting to see different shapes: round, triangular, rectangular, etc.

  • Members 960 posts
    June 14, 2026, 8:21 a.m.

    From her expression seems like you talked nonsense and she expresses it as "yea, right" 😀. Nice capture.

  • Members 960 posts
    June 14, 2026, 8:42 a.m.

    These are my favorites, first with its nice rolling hills and fluffy clouds and last with colourful sky and clouds, also the ground seems natural green, in previous to that image the green colours seem to be too saturated.

  • Members 1560 posts
    June 14, 2026, 8:46 a.m.

    That's a good story to go with a brilliant picture. I love the backlit water around the whale.

  • Members 960 posts
    June 14, 2026, 8:47 a.m.

    The back light makes this image. Great capture.

  • Members 1867 posts
    June 14, 2026, 9:07 a.m.

    Back when I still surfed I was in the water when an Orca breached about 50 metres away. During Autumn the Whales migrate to warmer waters to calve and the Orcas and sharks follow them. At that time I didn't know that the Orcas followed them, assuming they hung around in colder waters. It was quite an alarming experience as my mind was befuddled knowing it wasn't a shark species I knew of and being quite a bit larger than most sharks I had seen. There was a group of 3 surfers about 20 metres away and one had seen it so I paddled over to see if he knew what it was. We worked out it was an Orca having a more rounded nose, the distinctive black upper, white lower and the large dorsal fin. I did a lot of research on them that night and put my mind at ease that humans are not normally on their menu...

  • Members 2361 posts
    June 14, 2026, 5 p.m.

    Rare sighting indeed. Lucky event. Well captured.

  • Members 2014 posts
    June 15, 2026, 9:45 a.m.

    Lovely clouds, I witnessed it once here in Kent, they look magical.

  • Members 2014 posts
    June 15, 2026, 9:50 a.m.

    Thatched roofs always amaze me. I watched a video that shows how they make them, it was very interesting. There are lots of old buildings here in Kent with these sort of roof, so they must be kind of reliable. But I havent seen as them as external cover.

  • Members 2014 posts
    June 15, 2026, 9:51 a.m.

    I love orchids and beautifully captured orchid photos :)

  • Members 2014 posts
    June 15, 2026, 9:51 a.m.

    Dark background worked well here.

  • Members 2014 posts
    June 15, 2026, 9:57 a.m.

    Another fantastic set, I am glad to read that your fitness is improving.

  • Members 2014 posts
    June 15, 2026, 9:59 a.m.

    You caught the moment here.

  • Members 973 posts
    June 15, 2026, 1:36 p.m.

    From the Zoo
    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-260.jpg
    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-263.jpg
    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-266.jpg
    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-278.jpg
    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-281.jpg
    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-283.jpg

    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-283.jpg

    JPG, 3.6 MB, uploaded by Sagittarius on June 15, 2026.

    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-281.jpg

    JPG, 4.3 MB, uploaded by Sagittarius on June 15, 2026.

    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-278.jpg

    JPG, 3.7 MB, uploaded by Sagittarius on June 15, 2026.

    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-266.jpg

    JPG, 2.2 MB, uploaded by Sagittarius on June 15, 2026.

    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-263.jpg

    JPG, 1.6 MB, uploaded by Sagittarius on June 15, 2026.

    Atlanta Zoo 20260612-260.jpg

    JPG, 1.3 MB, uploaded by Sagittarius on June 15, 2026.

  • Members 465 posts
    June 15, 2026, 2:08 p.m.

    Really like your rhino