Welcome to Friday Foto Flogging, a place to share your photos and photography news. We were inspired by the folks at European Tribune who post a regular Friday Photoblog series to try the same on this side of the virtual Atlantic. We also thought foto folks would enjoy seeing some other websites so each week we’ll introduce a different photo website.
This week’s theme: Surprise! Unexpected photo ops.
Website of the Week: Lens distortion by Stephen Eastwood. Shows what the face looks like when shot at various focal lengths.
AndiF Surprises
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The first evening of my first time in Tucson, I went to get something from the car and saw a sky I didn’t know could exist.
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I thought I was taking a picture of bubbles but instead discovered neon water.
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I looked out the window and saw Sniff, Lord of All He Surveys From His Very High Throne
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olivia’s surprises
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All these photos from last w/e. The furry (and scaly) critters were enjoying the sunshine and warmer temperatures along with the human critters.
Chickadee Click image for larger version |
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Happened to find this snake trying to get warm in a bit of sun.
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This young deer separated from the pack and came out of the thicket to say hello.
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- Next Week’s Theme: Random … your choice!
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Previous Friday Foto Flogs
I wonder if either one of two pictures would be appropriate to display here.
I got a laugh out of this.
Crooks and Liars
Sure they would have — we are happy to be almost NSFW. 🙂
that whole set is full great shots, congrats on getting some wider exposure on them, too.
l especially liked the betsy ross lady handing out teabags.
Nice photoset ss … you captured the flavour of the day for sure.
It took some time to come up with these as I’m rather deliberate as to what I shoot (probably from years of shooting slides) and am not usually surprised by what I get but there are always some.
I wasn’t expecting too much with this. It was taken using one of Nikon’s first consumer auto-focus lenses for film and a D1X. I was surprised by the amount of color saturation that it produced while still producing a rather sharp image.
Hey, where did that purple come from? Sure, there was an overhead lamp but it didn’t look like that.
This was kind of a real fluke. The screen door was drawn so I got close to the screen and took the shot. What I got was a screen door diffusion filter. Large size for detail is here http://bobx327.deviantart.com/art/Cardinal-117974187.
Hey a purple dinosaur … and it’s not Barney! Who can resist.
Besides the diffusion on the cardinal, you also got some nice light on the weeds and chains.
Thanks Andi, I love the neon water.
All three of your pictures share a real warmth that I like.
I really like the “screen door diffusion filter” – what a great “fluke.”
Hi Bob. Echoing the others. Those are great shots. The cardinal especially!
LOL Andi – purple dinosaur. 🙂
Thanks, hand fed chickadees? I wish they were like that here. We have a different species and they are so skittish.
LOL, yeah … they can be quite brazen.
I love the dinosaur!
BobX,
Fantastic dinosaur shot.
Too too cool.
Thanks ‘Head and thanks to everyone another great flog as usual!
During our trip to Western Australia we spotted these Galah (aka Rose-breasted Cockatoos) operatives in the middle of leaving someone a morning surprise.
Here’s something you don’t see everyday – a slime mold.
I love the birds. All I can say about the slime mold is ….. EEWWWWWW!
There’s a reason that few people keep Galahs as pets. They’re very naughty.
As for the slime mold, yep they’re eewwwwwy, but thankfully not smelly. I’ve spotted this one, and one that looked like little dollops of bright red fish roe (Dictydiaethalium plumbeum). At the stage where I usually spot them they’ll only last a few days before they spore and dry up.
I like all of your color combinations, keres.
Wow — that’s wild! Does it have any odour?
Nevermind -just saw your comment to Andi. 🙂
Here’s another Stemonitis axifera at about actual size (big image). You can actually see the slime trail it has left behind in the lower right-hand corner of the image. The whole organism will move in the direction of a food source. People sometimes put down an oatmeal trail to watch a slime mold follow it over the course of several days.
That is just too cool.
You mean one could put a trail of oatmeal to their neighbors house & end the feud.
Someone sent me a link after seeing one of my Fungus images. I went to the link, & found that prepared in a certain way, they are supposedly delicious. Although the fungus is of a different variety, do you think you could be convinced to cook it & eat it.
I didn`t think so.
Keres, I`ll be back tomorrow with the link to the Fungus Cook.
Very interesting specimen though. It looks like something I`d have on my reef.
Not to mention, extremely funny.
The fungus though is really beautiful.
It depends on how far it is to your neighbors house. Compared to slime molds snails are sprinters.
No.
Oh, and did I mention that this is sometimes called “Dog vomit” slime mold?
That is just wild!
I like to think that slime molds were the inspiration for “The Blob”.
Keres here is the pic of my fungus, & a link to the chef who prepares them for eating. It`s quite funny also.
I concur with many of his assertions because I also had to wait a year to get this shot. (one of a series on this particular one)
http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/cat_brainwatch_timeline.php
You probably won’t be surprised to find out that I’ve eaten Sulfur Shelf – made for me by a friend who harvested it from a tree in her local park. It was lovely.
I’ve kept an eye out for it ever since.
Well Keres,
I could send you a couple of pounds, then. I`ll keep an eye out for my private stash to produce.
I appreciate the offer, but Tasmania has some of the toughest bio-security in the world, so unprocessed foodstuffs (and even processed meats) are verboten. We can’t even bring back fruits from the mainland when flying interstate, and many mainland grown grains are restricted from animal feed, etc.
It’s good to live on an island, but island life also has its idiosyncrasies.
LOL, that link was hilarious … 😀
lemony chicken … interesting!
I was glad to read that it was a Sulfur shelf that elicited the recipe. The idea of someone eating a slime mold made me a bit queasy – I mean I know that one man’s meat is another man’s poison (why else would anyone eat a sea cucumber?) but IMHO you can take gustatory exploration a bit too far.
Btw, another name for slime mold, is “Witch’s butter”.
Hah, The Ghost Busters have nothing on the “scrambled egg eaters”.
“Let Mikey try it”
Who was the first person to decide, “hmmmn this just might be good. Let`s go out & get some tonight.”
Good find Keres.
Wasn’t there an old Star Trek episode about this? — Except, of course, for the bit about their being gathered and eaten in Mexico?
This one?
Good guess … I forgot about that one and must have been thinking about this one, but that’s because I always think big.
LOLOL!!!
I’m not sure I’ll be able to eat scrambled eggs again w/out thinking of this link (collected in jars in the moonlight!) and your yellow blob photo keres … 😉
You called it above … one man’s meat … aaaaaaaccccckkkkk is right.
LOL, pretty birds.
I really like the upside down Galah – not only is it comical, but the colors of the Galah and the towel and the background are wonderful.
I don’t know if you happened to read about wombat poo paper. A long ago conversation in the cafe about wombat poop, in which you posted photos, remains one of my all time favorites – always brings a smile when something causes me to remember it.
Thanks. And yes, I just read about the wombat poo paper the other day. It’s being made here in Tasmania, from the “output” of a single wombat housed in a local wildlife park. If the paper really catches on, maybe I can go into wombat poo farming. 😀
the whole town is just a surprise to me. It’s like Mayberry, but with cool, modern things and awesome restaurants.
It looks really charming. You are certainly lucky in your old (newly found) friends.
Hmm. Looks like Hendersonville might be the place to be now that Asheville’s been flooded with money.
😉
Thanks for the pictures!
Holy moly — it’s so colourful there SN! I’m glad you’re enjoying your time there … it looks wonderful.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night…
it never ceases to amaze me how surprised all the newbies are when we get one of these “spring dumps”.
maybe they’ll go back where they came from, eh.
nd under the “wow” [website of the week] category, here are two very good photo essays from the guardian uk: the four faces of the bengal tiger, and the art of beach rubbish.
ims, it’s surprising the quality and variety of imagery you can find on the tubz.
Oh yeah — well what if they’re from Wyoming and they figure that any place south of them should be a temperate paradise? 🙂
Love the ridges in the snow.
Nice … 🙂
(And not likely.)
Life in the mountains, everyday surprises.
Wonderful surprises! So glad the bear(!) was going the right direction!
Difficult to pick a favorite – “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Catskill version)” brought a smile, but I keep coming back to the feather photo. The order in the feather both blends and stands out from the ground cover.
Finding a turkey feather in the woods is actually not unusual — but the way they appear, just the way you describe it, makes it a magical event.
Yes, the bear was moving away — that time.
This was not the day I walked home from the riverside with a bag of popcorn.
What a great set — no surprise there. I especially love the cat (will resist tin roof remarks).
She’d never go up there when it was hot — she’d be under a bush somewhere instead.
Hiya ww. I’m so enjoying seeing your photos … 🙂 I love the feather photo – that’s wonderful. And of course the cat shot … lol.
So glad I’m able to see your photos here too, Miss O.
I wish I could say that seeing Kate on the trailer roof was always a surprise. Alas, not when I was inside — a-THUNK a-THUNK a-THUNK a-THUNK!
lol
Olivia & Andi — try as I might, I can’t find a favorite pic in your sets. These subjects all inspire similar response from my joy-meter — not least because they’re familiar.
Wait — you’ve had a dog that climbed up on the wood stacks too!?! 😉
Not exactly ..
Ah but unlike dogs, cats are supposed to climb up on high places (See above: tin roof, cat) — so no surprise* there. ;P
* she is, however, shockingly cute
Oh yes, our Miss Kitty, the woodland wanderer. She disappeared one day, just the way she came.
A terrific kitty with marvelous personality; everyone loved her.
Thankfully, she left us Miss Kate.
Click above for further feline cuteness.
I’m in love … **dreamy smile**
I’m sure they’d love you, too, Miss O.
(Even though Katie’s gangsta pose turned out to be quite characteristic.)
I think the three of us would have a fine time hiking in the woods together … 🙂
Oh, absolutely!
the early morning temp was near freezing and there was fog. I thought, “wilderness wench world,” and got the camera.
I found webs
and when I turned one way the cherry blossoms looked like this
but when I turned the other way they looked like this
Wonderful idea to take the two sides of the cherry blossoms — and wonderfully executed too.
Hi tampopo — love that web! It reminds me of that string game Cat’s Cradle. Did you see the home owner nearby? Nice photos of the blossoms too.
I looked around but couldn’t see anything. A night creature perhaps.
These are so pretty, tampopo. Two views of the blossoms was a very nice idea — the ‘feel’ is completely different!
Nicely done! I really like those blossoms.
Slide-off
Street angel above the golden stair
Shadows
Ladies in waiting
I love the top one — it really is the perfect surprise photo op. Probably didn’t last too long either.
The last one is very spooky.
The last one was over at the flower shop across the street. They had taken delivery of the statues earlier and left them out overnight (probably wondering where they were going to display them all).
I love the morning glories!
Some very intense late afternoon sun/shadows that day.
Hi ID … 🙂 Those are fantastic … but the angel one, I love it!
I was at a restaurant nearby and the hostess asked me if I had seen the angel over by the courthouse…
These are all wonderful, ID. I like their shared sense of mystery very much.
My favorite is the angel shot — the central image from a story of redemption.
Thank you. I like her too, especially because of her serendipitous appearance when the sun was just right on those normally yellow steps.
Great Angels shot.
Definitely an unusual setting when thinking of a group of angels.
Thanks! Lots of eclectic stuff comes through that place. I look it over at least once most days to see if there’s anything interesting to shoot.
Indianadem
There`s usually always something interesting to shoot .
I like shooting things, then “misdirecting” viewers to take a good look, so they can see what I might have missed. Or to make them appreciate an image they might not have, if viewed in the real setting. I don`t think it`s wrong, I think it`s drawing the viewer to see & feel things that are not there. After all, it`s only an image.
Check this link to see what I mean, I think it explains it better. That`s why I think the “angels” shot is so good.
http://frenchpirate.blogspot.com/2007/07/queens-of-nubia.html
I see what you mean. I got the mental image of the “dig” right away. Nice surprise.
Angels in the street? I thought it was WV that was almost heaven. 😉
The “Slide-Off” seems really unusual cause there are icicles are still attached. Maybe it was the weight of the snow and not just warmth that caused the slide?
The morning glories are so delicate looking, almost transparent. It doesn’t seem they should be able to produce shadows.
The “Ladies in waiting” is really interesting – lots of stories could be told.
Our little corner of Indiana is quite similar to parts of WV;-)
Could Sniff be watching for the cursed Red Baron?
The neon water really is electric!
Is the Red Baron a member of the Sciurus family? 🙂
Not unlikely, given the aerial acrobatics I’ve seen some of the little rascals perform.
Well girls, You`ve outdone yourselves in the introductory shots.
Each & every one of them is simply perfect.
I think you colluded to make this the “surprise” theme because you`d ammasssed those extraordinary photos. You are the ones surprised I`d bet, upon seeing the amazing submissions of all who postted their wonderful images. I think you`ve got something here.
So now I try. Many of the shots I`m posting tonight are not things that surprised me so much as the surprise the subjects were about to be involved in. (I think)
Actually, some were taken because of my surprise & I posted two images as an exclamatory point.
ELEPHANT EAR BIRTH
AFTERBIRTH
STEAMING CRABS
VOYEUR CRABS
FOUNTAIN FLOWERS (today)
SPECTATORS
CORTISONE POLKA
DANGEROUS INTERSECTION
PEACE
SUNSHINEY BLUE
FM RECEPTION
BLACK MOON
3D SUNSET
SHROUDED IN MYSTERY
REUNITED, AT LAST
BREAST FEEDING
TRIP OUT
INFINITY
VERTIGO
HELPING HAND
What a surprise — I love the blenny. 🙂
Infinity is really a fascinating shot.
CORTISONE POLKA looks like it wants to be very surprising.
I like the BREAST FEEDING best — the colors and shapes come together surprising well.
Thanks Andi.
I like the title of that one.
You`re sunset though, is really fantabulous.
All of these are amazing. That 3d sunset looks like 3 individual canvases.
Hi Boran2,
I like just fooling around with images.
That’s some fooling around. 😉
Hi Head — I’m overwhelmed by your submissions this week. I think my favourites are:
— afterbirth
— fountain flowers/triple post: against the white background, stunning!
— spectators! love it!
— black moon
— infinity … one of favourites of your images.
Thanks Head.
Olivia,
I thought you`re supposed to pick only one. (hah)
You realize that “Elephant Ear Birth” & “Afterbirth” are one & the same, right?
I`m going out in a few minutes to shoot the “Fountain Flowers” again.
A bunch more opened.
I`ll post them, at White Knuckles.
Oh! Some people came to visit & brought me some fish as a gift.
I was only able to take one, (compatibility issues), but placed them in a friend`s system an hour ago.
It`s a “Coral Beauty”.
It`s a coral beauty, called a “Coral Beauty”.
lol, there’s no way to pick just one … 😉
I liked the top-down view of the afterbirth.
Looking forward to new goodies at WK.
Amazing images, ‘Head. Truly magnificent color combinations. Those with predominant golden/orange tones seem to be my favorites.
Maybe it’s the time of year, or maybe it’s the time of man.
Wilderness wench.
Thank you. I will have to check out your perceptions.
And maybe it`s just … time… .
“Afterbirth” is gorgeous – a purple dandelion puffball.
“Vertigo” was this week’s LOL.
I really like what you did in 3D Sunset – expanded, yet connected.
Thank You Tampopo,
I don`t have time to follow all the images that are being posted on this Friday Night extravaganza hosted by two of the best. I`d like to comment on all of the images, though as a group. I think we`re all getting better at capturing or hunting for images when there is a theme, even if we do go into our archives to achieve the theme.
Great job everybody.
Thank you Andi & Olivia.
I don`t know how you got the snake shot. It must have been still a little chilly I guess. They`re usually gone like a slither.
Just arrived in Damascus a few hours ago, mostly unpacked, and have been out on the town (mostly buying necessities and so on). No pictures this week, maybe next week inshallah (Arabic for “hopefully”).
safe travels Hurria. as for the cam…don’t go out without it
No worries about either, Dada. The only really dangerous part of this trip – the part where you get here and back – is half over. Right now I am in a restaurant that has free wireless, enjoying a midnight snack and a nice, cold Syrian lager. It is 12:30 PM, and the only people left are me and those who work here, but I am not going to rush through the beer. The discomfort afterward is not worth it.
excellent…enjoy your beer, leave a nice tip…if that’s acceptable there…a mystery to me.
looking forward to seeing what you find to share.
peace
Hi Hurria, Glad you arrived safely.
I`ll miss your photo submissions, but hopefully you`ll regale us with ones from this trip, on your return.
I’m sorry to not have any of your pictures to see this week but am thrilled at the idea of seeing how you spent your week. Hope all goes well, pictures or no.
Hi Hurria! Glad you’ve arrived safely. We’ll all be waiting to enjoy your photos and hear about your travels when you get a chance to post. 🙂
Have a wonderful stay and please bring back stories and more of your great photos to share with us.
Thanks everyone, for your good wishes. Yes, tipping is very important here, and not just in restaurants. People who perform services are not well paid, and depend on tips.
One difference is taxi drivers, because they usually own the cars they drive, so I never tip them. With taxis you always do one of two things. Either you make them use the meter, or you agree on the fare in advance. Transportation here is incredibly inexpensive. You can take a service – a minibus – anywhere in the city for between ten and twenty five cents, and a taxi costs maximum about three dollars, usually more like two dollars or less. And you can travel by very modern, air conditioned tour bus, or by train anywhere in the country for just a few dollars.
I took a few shots tonight of a very big church and the mosque that is right next to it, but don’t know how they will turn out. I have not had much success with night shots. KH, I tried your suggestion for a panorama shot, but do not have photoshop on this computer, so will have to try to put it all together when I get back to the US.
I did start to write something this afternoon about my journey and the first few hours, but I was too tired and fell asleep before I got very far. Will try to finish it later and make it into something worth posting.
That is some sunset – did you end up seeing more like that on your visit to Tucson?
I looked at the thumbnail of “neon water” and thought it might be green in it that made it neon. Then I clicked on it – oh!
Sniff does look rather royal – I am also impressed with the stability of your wood pile.
We had several spectacular sunrises and sunsets but they were the more “traditional” red sky variety, not the hubble-telescope-galaxy-being-born look of that night. Tucson is one showy sky after another.
click for larger
The chickadee photos are quite something – not just that you have the bird in three different positions, but that the bird is on someone’s hand!
Were you on the lookout for snakes? It would have been very easy to walk by or even step on this one. I love the perspective on this, almost eyeball to eyeball.
The young deer photos are stunning. They feel so personal, that you (and the viewer) are being seen, even studied, without fear.
Hi tampopo. I was strolling along looking at the forest floor — I was looking for pixie cups — and I caught something that looked like a bike tire out of the corner of my eye, looked back and there it was. A small one … under 3 ft I’d say … between 2 1/2 – 3 ft.
And yeah, I got down on the snake’s level (wet belly photography-WBP*) for the shot. 🙂
*coined by JimF