DawsonPointers

<p>The instrument includes an adjustment for the latitude at which it is installed. Here, it is set at about 47N.<br> So, there you go, Matt: too much information.</p><div></div>

<p>Bright sunlight is focused on a paper strip leaving a burn mark when bright and cloudless conditions existed for more than a few seconds.<br> There are different tracks into which the a strip is inserted depending on the azimuth of the sun. They 'idiot proofed' the selection of the paper strips for the time of year by making them only fit in the correct track because of their width. Unfortunately, this idiot does not have the correct strip for this time of year. In the previous photo, it is inserted into the track which it fit. <br> Someone had to look at each day's strip and summarize how many hours the sun was bright based on the scale on the strip and the burn marks. The easiest scenarios were cloudless days or completely clouded days. Otherwise, there was lots of measurement and addition. Data were typically accumulated once a month. Looking at these strips was not a popular task and certainly not one to do when one had a headache.</p><div></div>

<p>This was considered a precision instrument. It is a Campbell-Stokes pyranometer, or bright sunshine recorder. It is essentially a magnifying glass that can focus from a wide field of directions.</p><div></div>

<p>I really noticed today how different the wind sounds since most of the leaves around here fell yesterday. I couldn't take a picture of that difference in sound. I wish I was able to.<br> Anyway, ice that accumulated in the -4C temps last night persisted on the liverwort until after 10AM this morning. </p><div></div>

<p>This is what most of the fall colour looks like around here (yawn). At least it's more colourful than the snow flurries we had this morning!</p><div></div>

<p>It is hard to call something like this 'tough'; but, this little bloom has withstood many frosts over the last week.</p><div></div>

<p>Edwin, great image. I didn't know that horseshoe crabs had compound eyes until I saw your post.<br> Limestone shoals on Lake Huron at the base of the Bruce Peninsula. Look out boats!</p> <p> </p><div></div>

<p>We also saw one of the few remaining Great Lakes trawlers on Georgian Bay.</p><div></div>

<p>We spotted a tractor hauling what looked like a load of sand across the shallows to an island near Oliphant. Our pilot told us that this trip would not have been through water the last couple of years. The level of Lake Huron rose in 2015 because of more snow and lower evaporation (froze across in 2014-2015).</p><div></div>

<p>We took a sightseeing flight from Owen Sound across the southern Bruce peninsula.<br> Looking out of the back window of the Cessna at the Owen Sound Strip.</p><div></div>

<p>Sand dune succession, southern Bruce Peninsula, Lake Huron.</p><div></div>

<p>The water lilies are still blooming in area ponds. </p><div></div>

<p>My first thought was to extend the canvas to the left and put in a miniature marching band that was approaching his feet in a Gulliver's Travels kinda way. Alas, I do not own the right to any images of marching bands; so, I abandoned that concept. I think it would have looked neat.<br> The next thought was to get him leaning on something rather than simply floating out there. For this I used Ps. I extended the canvas to the right and used Content Aware Fill to put something in that space. I cut out the horn and then transformed it to vertical. I also needed to distort it a bit since it was not laying parallel to the frame. I may have warped it a bit too much. The poor young chap might blow a lung if he tried to play that baby.<br> I used high pass sharpen to get the eyes crisp. Then I used directional blur to cover up the poor job of cutting out and resizing the horn (hey, why not) and then masked the eyes back into sharpness. The obligatory border was applied (for me), back to Lr and then export.</p> <div></div>

<p>I think this is a composite or done with blurring post production because nothing else is sharp, even the L, R and bottom edges of the flower that is sharp. It seems unlikely that nothing else would be at the same plane in such a large and busy field of view.<br> Take a sharp image and then an image out of focus (or to which you have applied a blur), overlay them and paint the in focus image back in with a mask. Or, just mask what you want to keep in focus and blur the rest. It looks to me as if the sharp and unsharp images were not taken of the same scene in this case, so my bet is that it is a composite of 2 scenes.</p>

<p>The second from Silver Centre.</p><div></div>

<p>A couple from August 2007 of Silver Centre, a silver mining town pretty much abandoned in 1935. Tens of millions of ounces of silver were mined here. A D80 was my 1st DSLR. </p><div></div>

<p>I just finished reading 'Last Chance to See...' by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine about their year-long trek to see highly endangered species around the world.<br> Hence, my second submission....The Last Flamingo <br> Done in Perfect Photos Suite 9. Added layers of supplied textures (Ancient Times Textures) and changed blending modes. Then put on a border and converted to B&W. </p><div></div>

<p>The young merganser is getting more adult plumage. They grow up so quickly!</p><div></div>

<p>I loved the image to begin with. Such interesting legs! I would have messed around with the background if I hadn't done this.<br /> I flipped the image horizontally.<br /> I really do not like the result. There is <em><strong>something</strong></em> wrong with it<br /> I wonder why. It's just the mirror image; so, what's with my dislike?<br /> I wonder if it's that we westerners are programmed L>R. <br /> Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.</p> <p> </p><div></div>

<p>No motor for the boat? No problem!</p><div></div>

<p>No waves on the lake? No problem!</p><div></div>

<p>It was a hot and hazy weekend here. I was tempted to use the dehaze feature in Lr on these images; but, the haze was part of the story.<br> Folks enjoyed the lake to try to beat the heat. No canopy on the boat? No problem!</p><div></div>

<p>Well Laura, I actually took this photo of an 'ugly duckling' yesterday. My intent was to show how big a merganser's feet are and why they can swim so fast. This poor baby was moulting and acquiring adult plumage. It seemed to be uncomfortable and would roll in the water to be able to have a good scratch.</p><div></div>

<p>Greg S: Great wbn photo! Every time I try to get a good photo of one close up, I look at it on screen and see that it is rather ratty looking and unappealing. They seem to be somewhat unkept: the slobs of the bird world. Yours looks like it has some self respect ;-}</p>

<p>Nature can paint some awesome things when the whole sky is the pallet.<br> Clouds at sunset.</p><div></div>