Daily Image - Mar '22 Archive

All the Daily Image mailings for the month of Mar '22

01 Mar 22 For today's B & W Tuesday submission I'm sharing with you a sky taken 16 years ago during a medivac mission. Today was the last day I could download a set of skies from a software house for use in sky replacements. For only $65 dollars they were proposing to provide me with 250 skies. I always like to see what is being sold and in this case it was more like 70 different skies at most. Still not a bad price if you don't know how to point your camera at the horizon or up, and then press the shutter. But I'm thinking it can't be all that difficult to shoot the sky each time you shoot your subject. In my case, I have several thousand skies which I'm always happy to share with anyone who wants them. Of course my price is a bit steeper because I require you to send me a storage device on which to place them and pay the postage both ways. On top of that, with several thousand skies available, you have to wade through a lot more of them the get just the right one for the desired replacement. One of those skies is our subject and it was taken as we were flying above the remnants of a dissipating hurricane something I got to do frequently during my last 8 years on AD while being stationed in MD. Now these kinds of skies are not the kind I've ever seen offered by any of these companies selling skies, and that might be a good thing as flying in weather to get them can be a bit challenging, especially if you make a mistake. 😉 Now if only I could figure out a way to harness all that energy! This is straight from the camera. Anselish Nikon D70s; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/4,000 sec @ f / 9.
14 Mar 22 The day we arrived in Praha was a dry one but it wasn't to remain that way for long. We were exhausted from the flight so checked into the hotel and crashed for a few hours before wandering out on our own. We really didn't know what we were doing or where we were going but thought we should try to make some use of the daylight hours. What we should have done was cross the street and get the guide book we got on our last day and study it so we could have made MUCH better use of our free time. We did see a lot mostly by accident in our two solo days but we could have done much better. A good example is this building called the Municipal House the shot of which I took that first evening. It is typical of the architecture we saw everywhere so I'm thinking, based on what we saw in the buildings we got to enter, that it was magnificent on the inside. Perhaps some day we'll find out. That day had a totally flat grey sky so I replaced it with something more complimentary; otherwise, this is what the camera captured. Downtown Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/500 sec @ f / 6.3.
15 Mar 22 Old Town Praha is a relatively large area with something to see of interest with every step. One such sight is the building that is the center piece of today's offering. Called The House of the Minute, it is part of the Old Town Hall complex, and a typical example of Czech Renaissance townhouse architecture. The facade, decorated with sgraffito, depicts scenes drawn from biblical and mythological sources, as well as contemporary Renaissance legends. Franz Kafka and his parents lived here from 1889 to 1896. We walked past it several times during our visit, often in the rain, never knowing what it was. In fact, it isn't even listed in any of our three guides to Prague. Had to do some web searching to find out what it is and it was only by accident that I did find it. Knowing now what we didn't know then we would have definitely tried to visit the interior. Need to add this to our list. The rainy sky was ugly so I replaced it with a more fitting one, otherwise, this is what the camera recorded. Bible on a Wall Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 250; 1/1,250 sec @ f / 5.6.
Jan's Birthday It being theatrical Thursday as well as Jan's birthday, it is her pick we are seeing today. There is a very stately yellow stone building, that sits on the other side of the Vltava (Moldau) river from Old Town, that regularly caught my eye. This section of the river, the longest river in the Czech Republic, tends to cut the historical part of Praha in half. I don't know exactly what the building houses and although I've scoured my guide book and spent some time searching for it on the web, I can't find it identified. I've thought it might be a govt building and an apartment building at various times but truly have no idea what it is but it just stands out from the crowd. This creative version presents it in a manner that mainly promotes its design of rigid symmetry which is truly different from the majority of the surrounding buildings. It is also one of the few buildings that has a wall in front of it keeping the river away. The grounds surrounding it were immaculate but that tended to be the case wherever we walked in the city. The cleanliness of the river as you might observe was a real surprise and belies its history of which I will write at length next week. Where the wall ends and the river becomes easily accessible look carefully and you'll see a group of swans enjoying a morning swim while a few locals stop to observe and chat. This is straight from the camera save for the conversion with the Topaz plug-in Simplify 4. Painted Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.

22 Mar 22 Back to Praha and the river Vltava. The Vltava (Moldau River - German) is the longest river in the Czech Republic. It runs 30 kilometers within the Praha metropolitan area, with 18 bridges spanning it; among them, the emblematic Charles Bridge. For 430 kilometers, it crosses the Bohemian country from south to north, from its source in the mountains of the Bohemian Forest, to its junction with the Elbe River, in the city of Melnik. This river, called Vltava in Czech, is navigable and constitutes an important and historic river communication route in Central Europe. "The river flows through the center of Praha, and is the waterway around which the city has developed over the past 1000 years. The Old Town and the New Town lie on one side of the Vltava River. On the other bank is the Lesser Town and Prague Castle, top center in the capture. Spanning the two sides of course is Charles Bridge, right half of the picture, a pedestrian crossing and focal point for visitors to the city. The river has played a fundamental role in the foundation of the city. It provided water for drinking and crop irrigation, and was a means of navigation for both the early settlements establishing along its banks and for travelers passing along the early trade routes between Southern and Northern Europe. It also simultaneously served as the sewer system for the city. The flow of the river can be strong, particularly at certain times of the year, so as well as transporting people and goods, the water was also used to power mills and industry. To tame the river, to make it easier to navigate, eight dams, a large canal and weirs were constructed along the Slapy-Prague-Mělník stretch, where the Vltava flows into the River Elbe." The river is celebrated as the second subject in a cycle of six symphonic poems under the general title of Má vlast (“My Country”) by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. When you visit this will be an area in which you will undoubtedly spend a fair amount of time. The water was relatively shallow and slow moving while we were visiting; I would like to see it when at full force. I'm thinking that is rather special. As it likely is both during winter in the snow and when the ice breaks up in early spring. This is an 8 frame pano. I've cropped it some to make it rectangular but other wise, with the exception of conversion to B & W with the nik plug-in Silver Efex Pro 2, this is what the camera captured. In Mono Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority' ISO 400; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.