Random photos you've taken yourself

I thought I'd start a thread for random mellophantastic photographs. Here are a few I took late one night in my home town.

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Criticisms, comments, death threats all welcome. Some info on the pictures. The castle in the background is newly refurbished but dates from the 13th century originally. The church in the last photo is from the 1840s.

That really makes me miss being there!:smack

The deep amber color over everything is fantastic. Kind of nostalgic-feeling. All three pictures look like they could be the covers of paperback novels.

Downtown Houston, early morning, September 2009:

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This is my sweetheart artifex. I took this picture at the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas, in May of this year.

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That's a really nice Houston picture.

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Originally posted by An Gadaí

That's a really nice Houston picture.

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And ironically, that's the one that was snapped with my camera phone as I stepped onto the rail platform, not with the nice expensive "real" camera. Well fine then, more camera phone goodness it is:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3515/...b4370d84cb.jpg

Cheaper cameras can often offer a more "impressionistic" image that sometimes works really well.

This is a tree we saw in the Lake District - Tarn How

http://home.sianali.org.uk/joomla/ga...10-36_0061.JPG

Si

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Originally posted by si_blakely

This is a tree we saw in the Lake District - Tarn How

http://home.sianali.org.uk/joomla/ga...10-36_0061.JPG

Si

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I was last in Tarn Hows (sometimes spelled Taun Hous for some reason) in 1961 and have always longed to go back there. Never seems to happen.
Maybe next year :roll:

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The Atomium a couple of weeks ago.

I've always wanted to see the Atomium. It seems like something out of the Thunderbirds. Nice pic!

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Isla Mujeres, Mexico. I took it from a golf cart; my husband didn't want me to take it. "I don't want to piss off the communists!"

Okay, so we have either Pancho Villa or Emiliano Zapata, what might pass for Che Guevara if you squint...but who is the guy with the balaclava, corncob pipe, baseball hat, and headset mic?

I could be wrong but I believe he is Subcomandante Marcos.

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Subcomandante Marcos wearing his trademark black balaclava while smoking his usual pipe.

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This is one from Kylemore Lake in County Galway. It was from a roll of film that I scanned.

It is indeed the Subcomandante, AKA "Delegate Zero." Isla Mujeres is great, it's right outside Cancun, then you land on the island and see all these great hotels - IOW, capitalism everywhere!

On the other side of the island, it's all ramshackle shanty towns of the locals next to sprawling mansions. It's a little depressing, really.

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Originally posted by An Gadaí

I've always wanted to see the Atomium. It seems like something out of the Thunderbirds. Nice pic!

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Thanks, was an early morning shot in mist, looked quite ethereal.
It reminds me of The Tripods from the old serial on TV.

Not a "random" shot, but sort of planned. A Flickr group has a weekly photo challenge, and last week was to shoot a local statue or monument. This is in a grotto by the St. John the Baptist catholic church in Alvin, Texas. Rather than the normal tourist shot, I knelt on the prayer bench provided and shot up toward the figure, using the bricks as a natural frame.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3505/...e3d74cb125.jpg

Random, as in, "saw this and took a chance".

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Ditto.

Was helping my father do something boiler related when I realized I had by old Nikon film camera in the car, loaded with black and White.

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I was really happy with how this turned out.

Just cause.

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This is one I took in Toronto a few years ago. It's my personal favorite of what I've done.
http://members.cruzio.com/~momus/sa/hotel.jpg

This one was taken in Santa Cruz where I live now. It seems to be other people's favorite.
http://members.cruzio.com/~momus/sa/birds1_lo.jpg

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Originally posted by Papaw

Not a "random" shot, but sort of planned. A Flickr group has a weekly photo challenge, and last week was to shoot a local statue or monument. This is in a grotto by the St. John the Baptist catholic church in Alvin, Texas. Rather than the normal tourist shot, I knelt on the prayer bench provided and shot up toward the figure, using the bricks as a natural frame.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3505/...e3d74cb125.jpg

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Love love love this one Papaw...I think it's exactly the right perspective.

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Originally posted by PurdWerfect

This is one I took in Toronto a few years ago. It's my personal favorite of what I've done.
http://members.cruzio.com/~momus/sa/hotel.jpg

This one was taken in Santa Cruz where I live now. It seems to be other people's favorite.
http://members.cruzio.com/~momus/sa/birds1_lo.jpg

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Yeah, the first one is cool, but I really love the second. Outstanding.

Here's a shot I took out of the window of my old office. Pike Place Market, Seattle. Shot on Polaroid Type 59 (I think). Lensboard was tilted back (I think) for the "model" effect.

http://web.mac.com/andykeck/ViewSM.jpg

Here are some pics I took in Colorado 2 years ago.

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2712/...a88d531e_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2787/...c62819b8_m.jpg

The town you see is Cripple Creek.

Here are some pics of the Atlanta Skyline I have taken from various places around town.

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And here are some pics of opportunity I have taken.

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2773/...a1fd1f5c_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2599/...bae5c320_m.jpg

I'll see about getting some more uploaded soon.

All pics hosted on Flickr.

I did not mean for the pics to be so small. Here are the larger versions.
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Picture taken from my car wile driving.


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The town of Cripple Creek Colorado.


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A close up of same.


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Sunset over the Rockies.


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Atlanta from the south east near the Federal Prison.


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The Georgia Aquarium from a 27th flr Condo across the street.


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Centennial Olympic Park looking at The CNN Center from a 5th flr condo.


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World of Coca Cola and Georgia Aquarium from 5th flr. condo.


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View straight down from same condo. Note I am leaning out this window.


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View of Midtown from a Downtown High-rise 27 flrs. up.


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View to the north west. The tall building is The Coca Cola World Headquarters.


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Two pics of trees at a park near my house.


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A Door on the side of a customers house in the morning sun.

GROWTH 12/15/09
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1394/65802934.th.jpg

I took this photo this morning on my way to work. I was struck by the moss growing amidst the decaying leaves and dirt trapped at the top of the drain.

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...P/P7190031.jpg

Is that random enough?

What about this?
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...G0009_0002.jpg

Here's one I took wile measuring for a glass wall to someones wine cellar.
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Shelley Lake park in Raleigh. It's a flood control lake.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...aleigh/009.jpg

I was captivated by this belly dancer at Dan Electro's Guitar Bar in Houston, Texas. the occasion was a benefit for Pacifica Rradio affiliate KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and it happened to be my birthday!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2661/...5cca4679da.jpg

Dammit, I live in Houston! How do I always miss this stuff?

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_dhRsv7QUKHI/S0...torhome002.jpg

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Dammit, I live in Houston! How do I always miss this stuff?

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Keep your eyes and ears open! Next time I am going to something like that, I will PM you.

More of what you missed is HERE .

I have a couple taken when I was out at the telescope in California over Christmas. We have three different types of telescopes out there -- ones that are 10m, 8m and 3.5m in diameter. Normally the 10 and 8m ones work together as a telescope known as CARMA, whilst the 3.5 m telescopes look for variation in the cosmic microwave background radiation caused by galaxy clusters, and is known as the SZA. But in the winter, when the atmosphere is really stable, we use both together as one telescope to create really high resolution images at mm wavelengths.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_quxAHXxxNiQ/Sz...2/DSCF0871.JPG


http://lh6.ggpht.com/_quxAHXxxNiQ/Sz...0/DSCF0873.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_quxAHXxxNiQ/Sz...0/DSCF0879.JPG

We are not accustomed to icy weather here south of Houston, Texas, so when the last few days were under 30 degrees overnight we had some problems. Frozen and broken water pipes, icy roads, etc.
A better part was this frozen fountain outside Joe's Banquet Center in Alvin, Texas.
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http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4025/...e7b542e9a4.jpg

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Papaw, those are beautiful!

I found this picture on my cell phone...apparently, it snapped accidentally as I was walking from the parking lot to my office! I thought it looked kind of cool.

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All images hosted by flickr.

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All images hosted by flickr.

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Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, a symmetry.
Though at first glance from the street, these propane tanks appear the same, they are not.

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Vomit Comet
The Vomit Comet is a little piece of NASA ingenuity - a KC-135 aircraft that flies parabolas, up and down, in and out of gravity.
NASA required that all Vomit Comet fliers be in top medical condition, not a pound overweight or nose over-runny.
Roughly the same size as a commercial plane, the Vomit Comet is white, with a long blue stripe from head to tail.
NASA has flown parabolic flights on various aircraft for many years. In 1959, Project Mercury astronauts trained in a C-131 Samaritan aircraft, which was dubbed the "Vomit Comet". Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. ... ...


Twin KC-135 Stratotankers were used until December 2004 and have since been retired. One, a KC-135A known as NASA 930 was also used by Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment for filming scenes involving weightlessness in the movie Apollo 13; that airplane ( the one in this photo) was retired in 2000 and is now on display at Ellington Field, near the Johnson Space Center. It's estimated to have flown over 58,000 parabolas.

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...P/P8010111.jpg

I took this in Iceland. It's one of the lava formations in the Blue Lagoon.

Iceland


I don't know how to get just the pic over here(?)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19350879@N07/3626587637/

You right click on the image and select "Copy Image Location/URL" then over here you select the Insert Image icon just to the right of the globe icon. Then you paste the URL and away you go.

Here it is for anyone too lazy to click! :)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3129/...aee67695_o.jpg

My latest favorite photo-
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/...e2bc4d8553.jpg

The mall my shop is located in.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2612/...7294692a_b.jpg

This is something I wish I'd done down through the years, a photo of the book display.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/...6b9da512_b.jpg

U2 on a wall of an alleyway in Dublin

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2581/...4f46e7a2_b.jpg

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/2992594-lg.jpg

Just popping in to say how much I enjoy these photos, some of which are really striking. I'll post something eventually (actually I think I put a link in this thread months ago before I figured out how teh intarnets work enough to actually paste a photo into the thread itself, duh) but it won't be as nice as a lot of these!