:D

We went to the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque for the first time this year and it was amazing. On our mass ascension day the wind just stopped after a lot of them had lifted off so they all hung around for awhile.
We of course took hundreds of photos but I'll only bombard you with three, though the panorama loses a bit shrunk down to fit through the Cellar door.

That's spectacular! Nicely done.

The wind dying was great for photographers. Beautiful pictures. :thumb:

If you gotta take a leak do you just pee over the side of the basket?

It's a basket. Just pee. It'll run right through.

All the balloons in such close proximity to one another seems dangerous.

Not as close as they appear, maybe.

Great pics!

they are soft and curved so if they hit one another they mostly just push each other gently out of the way. Only danger I can think of is if one rises quickly right up underneath another so the basket of the one on top goes into the vent on the center of the one underneath. But then the one underneath would fall a bit as warm air is let out of the vent, so it would be self correcting. They are not exactly fast. Interesting question. I could be totally wrong.

At the Balloons, Tunes, & BBQ festival in Bowling Green, KY a few years ago, two balloons decided to try and get it on during the inflation ceremony (yeah, I know they call it something besides that, but I can't think of it atm) and got all intermingled with each other.

And then the wind blew.

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Yesterday at Gravelly Point, by National Airport.

DUCK!

Piloted by an alien!

That was yesterday.

Today it was a helicopter landing a block from my house because it's the closest field to the nearby hospital, which has no helipad. I had my camera nearby and so got this shot before it dipped down below my neighbor's garage roof.

Attachment 62467

He prolly got papers.

Glatt, that's an outstanding photo in post #1990.

I'd be interested in how you got that shot. I see Gravelly Point north of the airport, but, what did you use, phone, camera, drone, whut? Was he particularly low?

Thank you. I'm fond of it myself. I actually took an iphone screen shot of a photo that I had taken with my camera and posted to FB. I wanted to share the FB image with the cellar but was away from my computer and couldn't resize it.

To give you a sense of scale, here's another photo taken from the same spot, but with the camera zoomed out a bit.
Attachment 62470

And another where I zoomed in to full resolution and cropped. This plane was probably 100 meters away and 150 feet up in this one.

Attachment 62471

You only have a split second to get a shot, and the camera doesn't want to focus, but they are lined up to land about a minute apart, so you have all day to get a good shot as they come in one after the other.

Crossing their "T", as it were.

That dude is totally looking at you on purpose

He is.

If I'd taken the second pic in post #1996, I would've squee'd.

One of the cool things about being there is after the landing planes streak past you toward the runway, their roaring sound goes with them, and you hear the air above your head making funny wooshing and rippling wispy sounds as the turbulence in the plane's wake settles down into more stable air. Sometimes the weird sound lasts for as much as 20 seconds or so after the plane passes. Not every plane causes the noise. It must be something about the wing design, the flap settings, or the environmental situation at that moment. If you didn't know the plane created the sound, you would think it's ghosts or something. Very otherworldly.

Attachment 63288

Really weird looking bug I saw on the outside of the hallway window Sunday. I googled "Weird stick-winged insect" and learned that it's a morning glory plume moth.

Also, it's hard to get an iphone to focus on a window pane instead of the house next door.

I don't like it.

No, it's simple. All ya gotta do is want a pic of the house next door, VIOLA!, a pic of the window pane!:D

Attachment 63316

just about 30 minutes ago, out back of work

One of the highlights of my trips to the US was the opportunity to observe all manner of wildlife but I have a particular interest in birds of prey.

Your pic prompted me to go my North American bird book, so I tentatively ask was it a Cooper's Hawk?

Red Tail. The image isn't very clear, but there's a few that roost nearby. It's semi-rare that they kill something on the property. I was maybe 20 feet away from the tree it had draped the squirrel over.

Many thanks, lj. I'm grateful to you. :thumb:

Cool!

Are you sure thats a hawk? There are plenty around here and they don't have the size or the legs of that one. Usually they eat field rats and cute baby bunnies.

I think that must be a young eagle. Might be a newspaper story about an Eagle roosting at the Nissan dealership. Who knows what lurks in the stomach of birds, but the Shadow do.

I still think it is an eagle. If not then your birds on steroids up there. Biggest fukin hawk I have ever seen. Maybe it was a baby squirrel being consumed. I am looking at the size ratio. Next time stand next to it for a better perspective.[emoji1]

Eagles have longer beaks. I'm sure it's a red tail. It's just puffed up with its winter coat this time of year.

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Went hiking with the missus today while the kids are away

This post makes me happy!

Me too.

Lovely!

While the mice are away, the cats will play.

Nice to see the rare LadyGlatt in the wild!

Where were you Glatts, anyway?

We went from Elizabeth Furnace to Buzzard Rock and back, in the Massanutten mountains, near the Shenandoah. No leaves on the trees yet, so there were views most of the hike. It was hot, and we drank a ton of water. I was carrying about 4 gallons to add weight to my pack, and we drank almost 3 liters each. 42 pound pack at the start of the hike and 29 pounds at the end.

8 miles round trip with a 2,000 foot elevation gain. Took our time. 7 hours. Beautiful hike and we only saw two other people.

:devil:

Keep the place in mind for First of May.;)<---NSFW Lyrics

Ahhh, Cloud. I miss her.

Great pick glatt! Practicing for empty nest.

Clear Creek Falls in Yakima County from a road trip last year.

Worth a click.

I'm trying to figure out how to make the panoramas I'm taking easily available to you. I'm working on how to make a thumbnail link. I strongly recommend you find the little icon in the lower right hand corner of the image indicating full screen and click it. Pan with the mouse cursor or arrow keys and zoom with the zoom gadget onscreen in the lower left hand corner. I couldn't get the mousewheel scroll to zoom. I've also noticed that the pano hosting site offers an "auto rotation" by clicking their logo in the extreme lower left hand corner.

When I opened it it was auto-rotating on it's own. When was that taken?

That's an awesome 'panorama'.

360 degree pic.

01 May 2018

Yes, in three axes. Did you look up and down?

and thanks!

I did. Very cool.

This one is from this morning's road trip from the door to the edge of the backyard. This maple is just leafing out.

Attachment 70366

Nice! Narnia in summer.

TY

Looks damp.

Lovely shot man.

That's gorgeous, bigV! Is the color tweaked at all?
Nice framing, too. I totally get the Narnia reference.

Beautiful V.

Very mossy.