Mirror | The Daily Post

This week’s challenge is all about reflections. Show us a mirror. You can take this photo challenge literally, and find reflections in mirrors, or in the stillness of a natural body of water. Or, use this challenge to take a photo of yourself in the mirror. Self-documentation is important, especially for those of us who are usually behind the lens.

Source: Mirror | The Daily Post

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Purakanui Inlet, on the coast (obviously), just north of Dunedin on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

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Lulu loves the wind in her face…we finally got her to accept that it was a better idea to keep her feet inside the car. She’s an old dog now, but still loves going for a drive..she’s not quite up to getting up on the deck on her own now so we have a little loading ramp in the garden for her to board and debus…

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The prototype Fisher XP-75 in the old experimental hangar at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio…a memento of a brief era when a highly-polished surface equalled a few more miles per hour in maximum speed…

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I have no idea what this building is but it is opposite the Thon Hotel in Brussels. I always preferred to stay in town when working in Brussels: yes, it was a 30 minute bus ride to work each morning but the evenings, we explored all the eateries, bars and alleyways around the Borse…

Abstract | The Daily Post

This week, snap a picture either so close or so far from an object that it stops being what it’s normally seen as.

Source: Abstract | The Daily Post

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Something retro perhaps..? Part of a Golden Age appliance..? An old heater, or fridge maybe…? Shiny…most definitely… Precious…possibly to some…

Challenges like this are a fun way to examine how we perceive objects when they are isolated from their more common associative reference points…

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Like this drain…or is it part of a washing machine SmartDrive…?

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Or the exhaust of the engine that punches this D-21 drone to well over Mach 3…?

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An F-111 of the Royal Australian Air Force performs possibly the last ever “dump & burn” at the 2010 Brisbane Riverfire Festival in Australia. This is the only aircraft with the fuel dump nozzle positioned between the two engines at the back, and with afterburner on, the fuel dump switch is flicked resulting in a giant fireball.

Alphabet | The Daily Post

This week, let the alphabet be your inspiration: find a string of letters. Try a multi-photo gallery to collect images of single characters. Find some beautiful typography, or look for letters hidden in natural forms.

Source: Alphabet | The Daily Post

Lockheed F-117 Stealth

Lockheed F-117 Stealth

North American F-86D

North American F-86D

Mountain Air Cessna

Mountain Air Cessna

De Havilland Sea Hawk

De Havilland Sea Hawk

Hawker Hurricane

Hawker Hurricane

B-17 Flying Fortress

B-17 Flying Fortress

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Color | The Daily Post

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The deep blue of descending night against the stark white stone of the Menin Gate in Ieper, Belgium…during the daily remembrance ceremony that has been conducted every night since 1928..

My totally random take on the theme of colour…a quick scroll through the last few years of pictures…in no particular order…just colours….

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It is what the sign appears to say…The Beer Temple’ shop in Brussels…well worth a few hours browsing and a few euro expended…

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A bright London bus against the drab city (it was a drab sort of day)…

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No idea what these are – big lighty things outside my room at the Radisson LAX…

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The Matchbox Walrus box-art was always very orange and is well-captured in this 3D recreation at Scale Modelworld in Telford 2011…

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Purty crimson looks out of place in this special ops helicopter display at the USAF Museum near Dayton, OH.

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The for-real Mother Of All Bombs in bright colours at the USAF Armament Museum at Eglin…looks more like Resene display…

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My place of work at home – not sure if this is before, during or after a tidy up…

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The morning after snow – crystal-clear blue sky…

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A colourful character…

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Good use of colour by Lily aged 5

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…and Lily aged 5…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Color | The Daily Post.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

On the general theme of reflections this week…

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After a big storm  blew the top off our water tank in 2010, we had a reflecting pool just outside our bedroom window til the Great Team Effort of Boxing Day 2012, fitted a new roof…(we replaced the tank anyway because the ripping-off of the rook also did quite a bid of damage to the plastic liner so it leaks quite a bit but is handy for car ashing, garden watering, etc…

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I guess this is the second order effect of reflection…everything here looks so bright and clear after a snow fall because the white snow reflects the sunlight and delivers such delicious contrasts…

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Waiting for the 471 bus at Gare du Nord in Brussels one morning a couple of month ago….an airliner contrail (you can just make it out as a vertical streak in the centre) was reflected all the way up the glass of both buildings…I couldn’t get the camera settings right to capture as spectacularly as it looked…then the bus came…

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Many prototype aircraft meet the criteria for “….shiiineeee…” These are the highly reflective natural metal surfaces of the Fisher P-75 fighter at the National Air Force Museum near Dayton, OH.

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It can be particularly reflective in Brussels…either that or there was a window washing blitz…

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Purakanui, on the east coat of the South Island of New Zealand…a tidal inlet where the water is mirror smooth most days between tides….

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry

As this week’s challenge, ‘geometry‘ was very specific in what it wants “…find a good subject that contains an interesting geometry…try to crop tightly into the subject to make an unexpected composition…” Hmmmm…unexpected seems to imply ‘so that it’s actually identify is concealed’…more hmmm….OK, here goes…crops to the top, originals to the bottom…

 

…and the orginals…

Water intakes on one of the hydro-electric dams in the Waitaki Valley

Wing fence on the YF-23 prototype at the USAF Museum

SR-71 at the Eglin Armament Museum

Remnant of the Iraqi ‘Supergun’ from DESERT STORM days in the Imperial War Museum at Duxford

Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue

Eliminating ‘blue‘ sea and ‘blue‘ skies from my quest, I simply scrolled through my Picasa library and waiting for a ‘blue’ (no! not that sort of blue!!) picture to catch my eye…the winner was this Martin B-10 at the USAF Museum near Dayton, in the common pre-WW2 scheme of blue fuselage and yellow wings…

Then I became curious as to the ‘why’ of this colour scheme which seems counter-intuitive for operational military aircraft and found this explanation at War and Game:

BLU AND YELLA

 The use of two color schemes, Light Blue for trainers, and Olive Drab for tactical aircraft, caused logistical headaches for Air Corps maintenance facilities. Quantities of O.D. and Light Blue paints were required in stock at all time. Another problem was the need to know an aircraft’s ultimate destination before paint could be applied: examples of many aircraft served in the training roles, and thus could require blue fuselages.

 The solution, as recommended by the Chief of the Material Division in January 1934, was to standardize one paint scheme for all aircraft, regardless of role. His choice was Light Blue fuselages and Yellow wings and tails, reasoning that high visibility was essential for trainers, while temporary water paint camouflages made the lower-contrast Olive Drab for tactical aircraft unnecessary. Stocks of Olive Drab were at the reorder point, making a timely decision that much more important, and in February the recommendation was approved by the Chief of the Air Corps. Revised specifications and T.O’s were printed in May, and shortly afterward, tactical aircraft were noted with Light Blue fuselages.

OK, I can live with that….