beach huts in Figueira da Foz

amazing sky

waiting for customers

unfurled sunshades in Figuera da Foz, Portugal

back from Figueira da Foz

I figure perfect place for "just being lazy" holidays.
and when the ocean is not safe to swim, at least you can watch the waves.


beach in Figueira da Foz is astonishingly wide, you have to walk and walk and walk from where the sand starts to the water. fortunately, there are wooden walkways almost the whole width of the beach

snowy owl

spend a few happy moments photographing this owl. it turns its head amazingly fast

Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) flexes its neck for you

went to the pick-your-own farm today. no plums this year :(
but it looks like there won't be any shortage of apples

highflyer

my older son scared some garments off me, by jumping off the swing on the highest point he can reach.

to be perfectly honest, of course we did the same when his age.

fortunately (for me) construction of that swing prevents him from doing full circles around the pivot (exercise called "full sun" in our neck of wood)

Canon 24-105 F4L

got it today (after some struggle with local DHL). testing testing. heavy somewhat, but I will probably get used to it eventually

Last w/e was in Norway.

My friend took me to a little, well, little by norwegian standards, lake not very far from where he lives (here). we went on a short walk around it. when we can back to the car, this butterfly came towards us. I offered it open palm - it settled on it and was happily exploring it for a while. than it allowed itself to be transferred to his hand (where I snapped it many times, most of them came out shaky, but not all). funnily, after I finished shooting, it won't leave the friendly palm, and needed a lot of encouragement to finally re-settle on a bush somewhere.

it's called Camberwell Beauty apparenly. in Russian it's much more morbid "траурница", which is something like "she who's in mourning". Latin name Nymphalis antiopa

reflection without "flood" plugin - "wave" displacement map created by multiple application of gradient tool in "difference" mode

collage - hand drawing and paper textures

globe of summer sky

there were two pics to start with - nice cumulus clouds over blue sky and pic of starry sun separately. the sky pic was horizonally reflected and two copies stitched together so that the left edge matched the right. picture was stretched to fit а square, turned 180, and rectangular-to-polar distortion applied. center, where the line converged, was simply painted over by blue color matching the sky. sun pic was put on the top, in "lighten" mixture mode.

apples and pears

incense stick

another version

and derivative image - "smoky princess

full frame at shutterstock

today. they are not quite there yet

another version

strange flora

another variant at shutterstock

can you juggle?

other useful "border" compositions

very very very very very big monster

much more peaceful pic by the same kid

Bosa, Sardnia

sleeping beauty of a town
view across the river Temo

Alghero beach

you know that strange thing - when you step on very wet fine-grained sand, it suddenly does dry (looks dry, anyway) around your feet? That's what those guys are doing
@shutterstock