World Photography Forum

Gesture!!!

sassan — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 23:52:43 +0000

by: sassan

Description: I'm not sure exactly what the bird is trying to tell me but I guess has good intentions! After all, birds don't have middle feather! ;) Or do they?! :))

4 comments

Haaaapppy New Year

sassan — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 22:20:05 +0000

by: sassan

Description: Yes, this winter aint as cold as it used to be but the other night's moon was one of those special editions that reminds the viewer of the right mood for Moses bringing down the 10 Commandments from the mountain! 🎉🎊☃️🎈🎊🎇🥂🏔️🙋🏻

7 comments

Great Planetary Alignment

sassan — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 08:29:24 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Not sure if you're following the early morning events, now available to us, the residents of earth, that could be a once-upon-a-lifetime opportunity to look up and enjoy. That is all the solar system planets are showing up in a single line and at the same time, in one field of view! This picture was my best observation during the early morning hours of June 21, (Not June 24 when the best alignment occurred earlier this morning) because thanks to clouds and the early morning marine system, we had beautiful clouds covering the entire sky:( , including the best observing time of this morning, June 24. I have added an insert of what my best window of observation, in partly cloud that let me see the three bright ones, Jupiter, Moon, and Venus, temporarily only, this morning. Only for a few seconds, as I spent about an hour enjoying watching the clouds! before sunrise... Dearly thank heavens and thanks clouds, letting me "Imagine" the rest of the plant alignment! and also to think more deeply into what Indian Jones is up to this time that plants are showing one such rare celestial show and alignment. That is which other temple he is visiting right now and what other jewel he has discovered!!! Hope you have had a better sky than mine. The show still continues but the greatest was this early morning! Well, may be in the next life for me...

4 comments

Kim

sassan — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 08:53:04 +0100

by: sassan

Description: True love comes in many sizes, forms & colors. This one Is in Blue. Kim is kindly posing for me here. Her beloved husband, Tim is watching from a branch of a nearby tree above, and they are part of our family. can't tell you how much I love them and this is the return.

7 comments

Done

sassan — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 12:22:52 +0100

by: sassan

3 comments

?3D

sassan — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 12:20:23 +0100

by: sassan

2 comments

Ant

sassan — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 12:18:30 +0100

by: sassan

1 comment

Black bee

sassan — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 12:17:17 +0100

by: sassan

6 comments

ISS

sassan — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 05:30:34 +0100

by: sassan

Description: And to complete my series on transport images, this one but from a much higher altitude and a lot faster. In fact, this one being a spaceship was photographed a few nights back when ISS (International Space Station) was flying over my house, using the same Tamron 150-600mm lens set @ 600 and no TC.

4 comments

Osprey

sassan — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 05:15:52 +0100

by: sassan

Description: The half helicopter, half airplane! mostly video game-like transformer!! are totally something out of this world. One of my favorite iron birds. Here is a link to a prior visit where the weather was the norm and not Presidential special, like today where it was covered with a marine layer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSsNm0AsoTo or this one, flying over LA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8mJCc69sCY

2 comments

Marine 1

sassan — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 05:08:14 +0100

by: sassan

Description: The very first helicopter a prestigious and historically significant large Sikorsky VH-3D Sea King or "Nighthawks", HMX-1 helicopter, carries President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden heading for their scheduled program here in Southern California. When the President board, the carrier is referred to as Marine One. I assume the one following, carries WPA, Kamala Harris. The three MV22B - Ospreys are completing the Marine Helicopter Squadron One.

3 comments

Air Force 1

sassan — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 04:48:07 +0100

by: sassan

Description: AF1 has just touched LAX with the most powerful man on the earth on the board.

5 comments

Our Celebrity

sassan — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 04:41:27 +0100

by: sassan

Description: I took this picture this weekend. Our village has a small population however there are many celebrities incognito! some from Hollywood and money-making firms but one, the most famous of all, the subject of this image, is living in this tree nest, near the left upper center of the picture. The name is Spirit, a juvenile bald eagle in her 88 days of life today, on May 31, 2021, when she suddenly (And a bit early) decided to fly away from the nest in early AM, before sunrise, and when she was alone in the nest when it was cold and windy. She and her entire life story are featured in the live nest Cam and many know & follow her throughout the world! I'll leave a link below if interested to check on her or Jackie (Mom), Shadow (Dad), and a short slide show of her life, made earlier today in the other link. Courtesy of FOBBV CAM I don't know what she did on her 1st run away from home but she was very hungry and finished a seafood meal (A fresh watched fish) mom had brought home for her, in a blink of an eye! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6214VXb9Y8

5 comments

My little friend

sassan — Sun, 29 May 2022 15:32:23 +0100

by: sassan

Description: My loyal little serrano, sierras friend (I like to believe he is the same ole one) is back again, as he does every year, and once the snows are melted... And as always, never cease to amaze me with his flying techniques and charm.

7 comments

Super Blood Moon Eclipse

sassan — Sun, 29 May 2022 15:21:20 +0100

by: sassan

Description: The eclipse happens about once a year. Another capture during the totality of the eclipse of May 15 going to early AM of 16, was the longest and finest I have ever personally witnessed. Blood moon lasts about 84 minutes, just shy of one & half hours! capturing moon details during eclipse has always been a challenge for me but this time I'm happy with what I got. btw and if you missed it for any reason, you may want to! wait for the next "SuperMoon Eclipse" that is going to happen in 2058... but then, don't worry and the next regular eclipse is scheduled again for this year (Lucky us) November 7-8, if you like to mark your calendar or better, check the link to the countdown page, that as of right now is about 162 days a 3/4 of a day https://www.space.com/33786-lunar-eclipse-guide.html but this time, only a partial and no totality. Also, I guess it ends early AM in the USA, but near mid-day in the UK so not sure beside clouds, what else can be blamed this time.

8 comments

Life?

sassan — Sun, 29 May 2022 14:57:41 +0100

by: sassan

Description: A mysterious misty day

6 comments

Early eclipse

sassan — Tue, 17 May 2022 23:45:13 +0100

by: sassan

Description: This is at the early phase of the eclipse when totality hasn't occurred yet and the moon was just risen, to our horizon (With progressing eclipse that was started before moonrise). The image is of low quality as I was in a panic state to find a good location for the right composition with the horizon and didn't have a tripod. Well holding a heavy gear with a long FL lens (Tamron 150-600mm) handheld and shooting at 1/10 sec shutter speed with ISO 6400 won't get any better than this. At least in my hand! The three nearby stars are now visible below the moon. The 1 at approximately 7-8 o'clock position of the moon was soon to be fully covered by the moon, only to be seen later, rising from 10 o'clock position! And what a view was that...

2 comments

Blood Moon of May 15-16/2022

sassan — Mon, 16 May 2022 23:29:57 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Don't know if you could get a glimpse of it last night but I was very lucky that the kind clouds that were present throughout the day, left us for good, in the early night hours, so thank heaven and Yes, I could see the eclipse fully. This wasn't an ordinary eclipse as the moon was in perigee (The closest orbital point to earth), thus the so-called Supermoon and that's what made the eclipse truly one of the kind. You know the moon is ~ 7 % bigger and 15% brighter during the supermoon event. This by far was one of the nicest total eclipses I have ever witnessed in my life. By Southern California time, the moon was in the early progression of partial eclipse, when first rose above the horizon in our place (So we never saw a full moon at moonrise time). I was moving to find the best observation spot during that time so only got a few blurry pictures when the moon was very close to the horizon. This picture is during the early totality of the eclipse or "Blood Moon" phase and as you see the sky wasn't jet black yet. The moon was in the constellation Libra. The two bright stars of Libra, Spica, and Antares are not visible here in the field of view but the lovely two stars on the right of the moon (I believe) are Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali. Moon was moving really fast! at the beginning covering Zubenelgenubi that later was seen rising from about 10 o'clock position of the moon... Really magnificent view to watch. btw and did you know that Georg Lucus has chosen the name Obi-Wan Kenobi (one of only four characters to appear in all six �Star Wars� films), to sound a lot like these stars' names! Anyhow and a time to be remembered. Hope you have had a good time too so please share what you pictured if you were among the lucky ones to witness it in person.

4 comments

For Dave

sassan — Sun, 15 May 2022 11:22:37 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Well Dave I dare it and this is almost a full moon (But I took care to take only a portion of it, using a 12-inch telescope, in case...). I can promise you I didn't turn into a wolverine or any other creature of the night. Or so do I think! Bottom line, don't miss tomorrow's moon as a Full eclipse and the blood moon is on the schedule! That is if you're in the right observation zone and then, clouds permitting! So try to catch it or at least enjoy it. The link below is to count down to eclipse occurrence. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2022-may-16

6 comments

Norma Jean

sassan — Sat, 14 May 2022 02:42:39 +0100

by: sassan

Description: There are stories that were made to be "Sad" from day One but admirably beautiful. MM is one of them

5 comments

Spring 2022

sassan — Sat, 14 May 2022 02:33:50 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Sadly Spring this year was short, like every other one. But gladly I am surprised to see our current era cellphones can actually take good pictures. Here is a picture of blooms from a few weeks back, using my LG cellphone.

7 comments

Meet Tim

sassan — Sat, 14 May 2022 02:22:08 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Tim and Kim are my beloved feathered creations that are always there to bring joy. Not sure what is cooking in their nest but they sure like my peanuts!

7 comments

Mashti Melon!

sassan — Sat, 14 May 2022 02:16:52 +0100

by: sassan

Description: I'm sure Mo knows what I'm talking about. In Farsi, it's called: بستنی اکبر مشتی ! Not sure what you did for mother's day but if you're in LA, no matter what and where you dine, you must come to one special place for desert and that amazing saffron ice cream that also has pistachio with Palloudeh... They claim to be among the top 5 Best Ice Cream Makers in the world and as per the legend on the wall (You can see it in one of the sub-images), their story is as follow: "Once in a time and place little know, lived an old farmer named Mashti Malone. And though he worked his poor hands to the bone, nothing would grow in his hand except stone. Then one day as he was sitting alone, he saw a vision from heaven full-blown. It was a rose chilled with cream in a cone and from that vision a legend has grown. Rosewater ice cream your taste buds will moan. Dozens more flavors each on its own. Guaranteed to put you in a Heaven-zone. So goes the legend of Mashti Malone. Well, I leave a link to their website, in case... https://mashtimalones.com/ingredients/ https://mashtimalones.com/ And this is the location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im3yhSTDBG4

4 comments

83% illuminated Moon

sassan — Fri, 13 May 2022 08:02:28 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Monotonous processing. I consider myself a lunatic! One who loves the moon unconditionally!! and in all phases. Well, tonight she was in the Waxing Gibbous phase and 82.2 percent of the moon was visible.

2 comments

Color Moon

sassan — Fri, 13 May 2022 07:58:08 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Color of the moon - Subtle processing I consider myself a lunatic! One who loves the moon unconditionally!! and in all phases. Well, tonight she was in the Waxing Gibbous phase and 82.2 percent of the moon was visible.

3 comments

Bee

sassan — Sat, 07 May 2022 23:05:20 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Another macro with the vintage lens, the Vivitar 90mm F2.8

4 comments

Macro with Vivitar 90mm

sassan — Sat, 07 May 2022 23:03:00 +0100

by: sassan

2 comments

Butterfly

sassan — Sat, 07 May 2022 23:00:32 +0100

by: sassan

Description: My cabbage butterfly!

2 comments

Vintage lens

sassan — Sat, 07 May 2022 22:59:07 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Another vintage lens. One that makes me very proud of its ownership. A gem of the early 20 Century. Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm F/2

3 comments

Topcor 58mm

sassan — Wed, 04 May 2022 19:10:09 +0100

by: sassan

Description: This is my vintage Topcor 58mm F1.8 riding on Olympus EM10-iii pictured with also vintage Vivitar Macro 90mm F2.8 on Fujifilm XT2

4 comments

Gold leaf crown

sassan — Wed, 04 May 2022 17:23:17 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Another picture by my vintage lens. Topcor 58mm F1.8 The Crown is real. Authentic and 24 crate gold leaflets, thinner than rose's leaflets. My only wish is to see it in person over the head of the original owner!

4 comments

Cabbage Butterfly

sassan — Wed, 04 May 2022 17:05:52 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Another picture of my garden friend. They are always here and fun to watch

5 comments

Celebration

sassan — Wed, 04 May 2022 17:02:59 +0100

by: sassan

Description: This is a picture taken with another Vintage lens I have. My Topcor (If you have ever heard of Topcon) that I really love a lot. Persian dance for Nowruz, the ancient Persian new year that happens close to 21 March, exactly and down to second, at the event of Spring Equinox, not sure how they knew about it on those days. Probably they used to measure their shadows down to mm, every day!

4 comments

Milky Way & lake

sassan — Tue, 03 May 2022 08:14:14 +0100

by: sassan

Description: We are very fortunate that these days/nights!, several very interesting celestial events are happening s.a. Saturday's Solar eclipse(Was anyone lucky to see it?), yet to come, the lunar eclipse, Lyrids meteor shower, Eta Aquarid meteor, Sun's activities, Black Moon! . . . Well, last night, enjoying a moonless dark night and despite the light pollution, I could capture a few wide view night sky images including several from the Milky Way. We are currently in a very good time of the year to see the Milky way in the very right location, near the horizon so I encourage all the photographers to pay attention to this beautiful heavenly subject, should the devil (Clouds) are not impering your view.

8 comments

Garden fly

sassan — Tue, 03 May 2022 07:49:22 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Another image with Vintage Vivitar lens

4 comments

Pretty Cat

sassan — Tue, 03 May 2022 07:41:17 +0100

by: sassan

3 comments

Cabbage Butterfly

sassan — Tue, 03 May 2022 07:38:38 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Only missing a candle.

2 comments

Cabbage Butterfly

sassan — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 14:05:54 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Pieris rapae, small white or cabbage white butterfly. Supposedly this is a pest! that originated in what is today's Turkey but found its way all over the world as the green caterpillar had a free ride along with cabbage! I have plenty of these guys in all forms in my garden but certainly can't call them pests! Unless when looking at the half-eaten leaves of my citrus trees! or some others...

4 comments

For Charles

sassan — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 13:53:05 +0100

by: sassan

Description: This one is from a few weeks back and thought I was going to take a current picture for dear Charles, haven't been able yet but will upload another fresh one soon.

5 comments

For Charles

sassan — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 13:43:31 +0100

by: sassan

Description: This one is for Charles who wanted to see a picture of my kid's Jaguar with the door modification they made on it (My younger's son first car that his elder brother is gifted). This Lovely Cat is now with me as my sons (Very technically oriented motor-heads!) are only into Subarus these days and that is what they drive but my love for Jaguar is eternal and though maintaining a vintage car in driving condition could be expensive and hard, I simply can't let this beauty to go. This picture is from Xmas time, few years back.

5 comments

Vintage macro lens

sassan — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 13:28:46 +0100

by: sassan

Description: This is the Vivitar lens (Komine made - serials 28xxxxx) that I was talking about earlier. I picked it up ridiculously cheap on eBay and of course, it came naked! without a plastic handgrip focus ring cover that could not stand the test or torture of life so instead of going the high way to replace it with an OEM expensive/rare-to-find one, I decided to go with this camouflage band (Self-adhesive/retaining) that to me, appeared adequate and overall, I like the current look & functionality. This lens surprisingly expands to get into that 1:1 ratio of macro (Without any need for an adapter) that not many lenses could on those days. Here are spect of the lens that I found & copied from Pentaxforums: Optical construction: 6 elements, 4 groups Aperture range: f2.8 - 22, half stop clicks except 16-22; Iris: 8 blades; Focus throw: approx 990� (two and 3/4 rotations), anti pentax. Angle of view: 27 degrees Weight: 480 g (17 oz.) Length on camera: 89 mm (3.5 in.), max ~178mm Filter size: 62 mm Lens coating: MC (multicoated) Minimum focusing distance from front element: 14.5 cm (5.7 in.) Maximum reproduction ratio: 1:1 without adapters or other extenders

4 comments

Sunset @ Lake

sassan — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 10:00:18 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Another picture with the Vivitar vintage 90mm F2.8 macro lens

6 comments

Happy mallard

sassan — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 09:52:46 +0100

by: sassan

Description: In talking with Mo, I discovered our love for the "Vintage Lenses" and thanks to mirrorless camera bodies of this digital era, all the old lenses have given a new light of light! so deservedly. I'm trying to use my older lenses and go along with a series of images (So-Called "Character Signature") they can produce, that is interesting to me and to say the least, "Very rewarding". I do encourage all to give it a go on the older lenses if you own some and promise you that dusting off is so much fun... This image is made with a Macro lens. A Vivitar 90mm F2.8 that I picked up cheap on eBay. This is not the legendary hero of its age, that great lens made by Tokina under Vivitar rebrand name, the Series One, Vivitar 90mm F2.5, but still, the result was quite impressive to me and the FL 80-135 is my dream favorite all-time rang for all uses! Even better when they provide macro like this one (1:1 macro capability as this provides). Anyways and love to see you images taken with the vintage lenses so please try to share if you can. Let's see what you have to follow.

5 comments

Marina Del Ray

sassan — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 09:26:13 +0100

by: sassan

Description: While doing grocery

5 comments

Frozen

sassan — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 09:19:14 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Boulder Bay @ Big Bear Lake The image is taken from a moving car in the early AM

5 comments

Spring 2022

sassan — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 23:05:44 +0100

by: sassan

1 comment

Nowruz 1401

sassan — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 22:57:07 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Nowruz Dance. Nowruz is the Persian New Year festival that is on the first day of Spring (Beings exactly to the second at the occurrence of the spring equinox), which is also the first day of Persian new year Calander (This year 1401), and has been celebrated for thousands of years in Iran and Mesopotamia also part of the East and far east but now seems to happen all over the world... This is the part of the festivity of the event here in Los Angeles, at the prestigious Getty Villa where the cultural event was performed along with a display of some of the artifacts from ancient Iran, in the attached museum auditoriums.

3 comments

My 2022 Dafidills

sassan — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 22:43:25 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Though this year doesn't have too many, all the good, no great ones showed up. So can't complain. After all how else I could know it's again spring? The picture is taken with one of my old vintage lenses

3 comments

For Charles

sassan — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 22:09:54 +0100

by: sassan

Description: Jay Leno's Lancia

5 comments

My friends

sassan — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 12:09:39 +0000

by: sassan

Description: Kim is stuffing the treat as her husband Tim (not shown in this picture) is guarding from a nearby tree branch. Such is the liked memories of 2021 to be posted on the first page of 2022 in this forum.

4 comments