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November 2021 favourite uploads


Alan Beastall

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It's been a very tough couple of weeks, health wise and due to a massive hail storm that devastated our area, causing hundreds of millions of $$ damage, Including to our home. The Australian government has declared us to be a natural disaster area. My main "insecting" area is now just bare trees, flattened shrubs and parts still underwater. But I've found another small patch not affected and not too far from home. It takes my mind off the recent horrors.

A gorgeous native weevil
semi-punctated-belid-weevil-rhinotia-semipunctata-also-known-as-a-spotted-weevil-coffs-harbour-nsw-australia-2H4H0NJ.jpg

 

I've fallen in love with the tiny leaf beetles

marble-leaf-beetle-paropsisterna-semifumata-paropsisterna-semifumata-this-leaf-beetle-is-endemic-to-australia-and-papua-new-guinea-coffs-harbour-2H4H0DK.jpg

 

Brown Shield Bug

brown-shield-bug-poecilometis-sp-coffs-harbour-nsw-australia-2H4H0FE.jpg

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2 hours ago, cbimages said:

It's been a very tough couple of weeks, health wise and due to a massive hail storm that devastated our area, causing hundreds of millions of $$ damage, Including to our home. The Australian government has declared us to be a natural disaster area. My main "insecting" area is now just bare trees, flattened shrubs and parts still underwater. But I've found another small patch not affected and not too far from home. It takes my mind off the recent horrors.

A gorgeous native weevil
semi-punctated-belid-weevil-rhinotia-semipunctata-also-known-as-a-spotted-weevil-coffs-harbour-nsw-australia-2H4H0NJ.jpg

 

I've fallen in love with the tiny leaf beetles

marble-leaf-beetle-paropsisterna-semifumata-paropsisterna-semifumata-this-leaf-beetle-is-endemic-to-australia-and-papua-new-guinea-coffs-harbour-2H4H0DK.jpg

 

Brown Shield Bug

brown-shield-bug-poecilometis-sp-coffs-harbour-nsw-australia-2H4H0FE.jpg

Those are gorgeous, what camera/lens?

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The Monarch butterfly emerged minutes after I took this.
 

2H4TEAT.jpg
 

Althea, Rose of Sharon shrub ‘lucy’,that produces double-petaled flowers? I planted it 2 1/2 years ago. It’s gotten so large, well over my head, that I have to cut it back with electric hedge clippers.

 

2H4TE6J.jpg

Edited by Betty LaRue
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5 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Those are gorgeous, what camera/lens?

Betty, I have a couple of Canon 5D mark 2s and lens is a Canon 100mm EF 2.8 Macro USM. I also have a 12mm Canon extention tube, but have had to take that off as my right arm is suffering with lack of strength and stability after the 4 BC surgeries and loss of lymph nodes + the massive radiation I recently had. For lighting, I have a Canon Macro Twin Lite MT- 24EX that I bought second hand a week before my first cancer diagnosis and had never been used.

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10 hours ago, cbimages said:

Betty, I have a couple of Canon 5D mark 2s and lens is a Canon 100mm EF 2.8 Macro USM. I also have a 12mm Canon extention tube, but have had to take that off as my right arm is suffering with lack of strength and stability after the 4 BC surgeries and loss of lymph nodes + the massive radiation I recently had. For lighting, I have a Canon Macro Twin Lite MT- 24EX that I bought second hand a week before my first cancer diagnosis and had never been used.

You sure know how to get the best out of your gear. The impetus for me to get into photography was my breast cancer. The unknown future pushed me into doing what I loved for whatever time I had left. I was lucky to be cured.

I wish our insects were as photographic as yours! They’ve pretty much gone into hiding since the weather turned colder.

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3 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

You sure know how to get the best out of your gear. The impetus for me to get into photography was my breast cancer. The unknown future pushed me into doing what I loved for whatever time I had left. I was lucky to be cured.

I wish our insects were as photographic as yours! They’ve pretty much gone into hiding since the weather turned colder.

It's almost summer here Betty, so everything very active. Except our weather is quite nasty right now, has been for a couple of weeks, cold, wet, overcast. And a vast amount of our area has been destroyed in the recent disaster.

I'm glad your BC is gone, sadly it looks like I've moved to stage 4. Getting out with the camera helps a bit with stress relief, as contemplating my future is not easy.

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2 hours ago, cbimages said:

It's almost summer here Betty, so everything very active. Except our weather is quite nasty right now, has been for a couple of weeks, cold, wet, overcast. And a vast amount of our area has been destroyed in the recent disaster.

I'm glad your BC is gone, sadly it looks like I've moved to stage 4. Getting out with the camera helps a bit with stress relief, as contemplating my future is not easy.

So sorry. My neighbor, in her 50s, started in 4. She’s fighting the fight, like you. I hadn’t taken up the camera yet while in treatment, but I started designing and making jewelry which worked as a distraction. 
I hope your foliage grows back quickly after the hail destroyed it.

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I feel so fortunate to have survived my cancer. It was very difficult to diagnose and by the time I knew I had it it was clear that I needed surgery and chemo. I decided on the most severe surgery and the strongest chemo. I was spared the radiation and I have lived without any further problems. I know I was very, very lucky and the brush with death sent me on my wildlife trips so I could appreciate being alive. It is an amazing world and I'm grateful to share your trips into a place I cannot go. So many amazing creatures you have photographed. Thank you.

 

Paulette

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5 hours ago, cbimages said:

It's almost summer here Betty, so everything very active. Except our weather is quite nasty right now, has been for a couple of weeks, cold, wet, overcast. And a vast amount of our area has been destroyed in the recent disaster.

I'm glad your BC is gone, sadly it looks like I've moved to stage 4. Getting out with the camera helps a bit with stress relief, as contemplating my future is not easy.

 

So sorry to hear about your health issues Carol. I'm praying to send all our lovely insects to crawl over your garden. Photography is for you a second passion after diving and is a good distraction. Keep uploading those creepy crawlies if you can. Some are truly amazing. All the best Carol. Sending you positive vibes.

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Thanks for you good wishes Betty, Paulette & Gen. I intend to do everything I can to hang around a lot longer - except chemo or anything else that will stop me diving. After 2 dry years, I'm starting to see some diving hope on the horizon.

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On 05/11/2021 at 22:26, cbimages said:

Thanks for you good wishes Betty, Paulette & Gen. I intend to do everything I can to hang around a lot longer - except chemo or anything else that will stop me diving. After 2 dry years, I'm starting to see some diving hope on the horizon.

 

Carol, I sure hope you can get back in the sea soon! Your images are always stunning but even if you don't shoot any photos, I know it is your happy place.  I have only been diving 2 twice I can really understand those who almost feel at home in the sea....it is another world.  I always felt like it was the closest I'll get to being an astronaut, and perhaps better, there is nothing living out in space (that we know of yet).  I am sending you all my best wishes for a win in this battle!

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This was from a shoot I did for a magazine recently.  It was a family night out, in a park, at campfire and an actual film projection movie (the old animated film was that orange).  A little bit challenging to balance all the different light sources, including a little bit of flash that added (off to the right, out of frame) to light the faces some.

 

usa-maryland-md-colesville-maydale-nature-classroom-montgomery-county-campfire-and-a-movie-show-on-a-film-movie-projector-families-in-the-autumn-2H54CR2.jpg

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9 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

the old animated film was that orange

Prints from before the early 80s have invariably faded, usually to pink, also orange as you've seen. Kodak is the worst. The chromogenic dyes were unstable and the colour fixing inadequate.

https://ian-partridge.com/fade.html

Among collectors, Technicolor dye-transfer prints command eye-popping prices as they used metal dyes and are effectively fade-proof.

 

101 Dalmatians?

Edited by spacecadet
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8 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

It was Disney's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Ah, 1949- it would have been Technicolor originally. But a reissue would have been Eastmancolor and that's the stuff that fades. I don't think there ever were very many Technicolor prints struck in 16mm.

Edited by spacecadet
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On 08/11/2021 at 11:19, Michael Ventura said:

 

Carol, I sure hope you can get back in the sea soon! Your images are always stunning but even if you don't shoot any photos, I know it is your happy place.  I have only been diving 2 twice I can really understand those who almost feel at home in the sea....it is another world.  I always felt like it was the closest I'll get to being an astronaut, and perhaps better, there is nothing living out in space (that we know of yet).  I am sending you all my best wishes for a win in this battle!

Thanks Michael. I fear it is not to be. Seems my breast cancer has now moved to my liver - in 2 areas. An urgent MRI has just been ordered, but will not be done until 26th of November. And if I want to have more than a few months, seems the treatment will be be pretty awful. It's going to be a very tough decision to make. Live at bit longer and be very ill, or have a few months at best, and hopefully get to visit the places I love and do some diving.........I supposed I just have to wait for the results and listen to the advice of the oncologists.

 

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Don't give up. A friend had a series of ghastly chemos and seemed to have reached the end of the road YEARS ago. She has had nothing but clear results since then. They can do amazing things these days. Enjoy every moment you can.

 

Paulette

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13 hours ago, cbimages said:

Thanks Michael. I fear it is not to be. Seems my breast cancer has now moved to my liver - in 2 areas. An urgent MRI has just been ordered, but will not be done until 26th of November. And if I want to have more than a few months, seems the treatment will be be pretty awful. It's going to be a very tough decision to make. Live at bit longer and be very ill, or have a few months at best, and hopefully get to visit the places I love and do some diving.........I supposed I just have to wait for the results and listen to the advice of the oncologists.

 

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Ah, Carol. I wish there was a way for me to pray and have it help. Instead I'm just angry and resentful towards any god that would let these things happen. My wife had cancer 7 (8?) times, yet made it into her 80s. 

 

Edited by Ed Rooney
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Thanks everyone, your lovely messages mean a lot. I won't give up. But having already tried some of the hormone meds, with horrendous side effects, I'm scared of trying not only another one, but combining it with a CDK inhibitor, which also comes with dreadful side effects. And bearing on mind that my husband is now 81, with a mild (well controlled) heart condition, we don't have the luxury of time. We have no family, and no close friends nearby, just each other. It makes decision making very different to most ladies my age.

 

Meanwhile, I'll just keep looking for insects, trying to keep myself sane.

Thanks again. xxxxx

 

Edited by cbimages
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As I often do at this time of year, I've been scouring images from past travels looking for possible missed gems. I probably passed on this one because of the young woman in the background who walked into the frame. However, now that I look at it again, I quite like the young woman / old woman contrast.

 

Mexican sweets vendor, Cholula, Mexico

 

elderly-woman-buying-mexican-baked-goods-from-a-street-vendor-in-cholula-puebla-mexico-2H5GPXY.jpg

 

 

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