Just another random musical post from You-Tube…..love this song.
Category Archives: Videos & You Tube
Neglect, Neglect & more neglect…..Did you see?
No More Dead Pixels….. there haven’t been any. The statement says it all. People keep telling me that only women can multi-task…..okay then I will shut up now. It might well be true because I have had a major problem actually writing two blogs at once. I have been so “in to” my new blog Streetographies that I have totally neglected everything here. Am I asking for forgiveness?? Absolutley!I have even neglected my flickr pages too….but having said that there hasn’t been much activity behind from behind the camera to even upload anything that would be worth showing. The most photography I have done is on my mobile phone. End of story. Moving on…………
Did you see the article on the news and television about Nik Wallenda completing a quarter mile tightrope walk accross the Grand Canyon? If you didn’t have a watch of this lunatic !
Aerialist Nik Wallenda completed a tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile over the Little Colorado River Gorge in northeastern Arizona on Sunday. Wallenda performed the stunt on a 2-inch-thick steel cable, 1,500 feet above the river on the Navajo Nation near the Grand Canyon. He took just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the rope swayed.
“Thank you Lord. Thank you for calming that cable, God,” he said about 13 minutes into the walk.
Wallenda didn’t wear a harness and stepped slowly and steady throughout, murmuring prayers to Jesus almost constantly along the way. He jogged and hopped the last few steps. The event was broadcast live on the Discovery Channel. Winds blowing across the gorge had been expected to be around 30 mph. Wallenda told Discovery after the walk that the winds were at times “unpredictable” and that dust had accumulated on his contact lenses. “It was way more windy, and it took every bit of me to stay focused the entire time,” he said.
The 34-year-old Sarasota, Fla., resident is a seventh-generation high-wire artist and is part of the famous “Flying Wallendas” circus family — a clan that is no stranger to death-defying feats. His great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, fell during a performance in Puerto Rico and died at the age of 73. Several other family members, including a cousin and an uncle, have perished while performing wire walking stunts. Nik Wallenda grew up performing with his family and has dreamed of crossing the Grand Canyon since he was a teenager. Sunday’s stunt comes a year after he traversed Niagara Falls earning a seventh Guinness world record.
Wallenda wore a microphone and two cameras, one that looked down on the dry Little Colorado River bed and one that faced straight ahead. His leather shoes with an elk-skin sole helped him keep a grip on the steel cable as he moved across. About 600 spectators watching on a large video screen on site cheered him on as he walked toward them. A Navajo Nation ranger, a paramedic and two members of a film crew were stationed on the canyon floor and watched from below. The ranger, Elmer Phillips, said Wallenda appeared to be walking like any normal person would on a sidewalk. But he said he got a little nervous when Wallenda stopped the first time. “Other than that, a pretty amazing feat. I know I wouldn’t even attempt something like that,” Phillips said. “Very nicely done.”
Before the walk, a group of Navajos, Hopis and other Native Americans stood along a nearby highway with signs protesting the event. The event was touted as a walk across the Grand Canyon, an area held sacred by many American Indian tribes. Some local residents believe Wallenda hasn’t accurately pinpointed the location and also said that the Navajo Nation shouldn’t be promoting the gambling of one man’s life for the benefit of tourism. Discovery’s 2-hour broadcast showcased the Navajo landscape that includes Monument Valley, Four Corners, Canyon de Chelly and the tribal capital of Window Rock. “When people watch this, our main thing is we want the world to know who Navajo people are, our culture, traditions and language are still very much alive,” Geri Hongeva, spokeswoman for the tribe’s Division of Natural Resources, said before the walk.
Other than that, everything else is trif !!
Don’t look down! Daredevil films himself climbing 250ft crane without safety equipment – before dangling one-handed from the edge
I just had to blog this…..even if its something just to refer to one day…OMG !!
Did we dare do that…….
Does growing old terrify us? I don’t know, it’s not something I have actually considered recently. Do you think that watching our children grow old terrifies us….? Yes, well it does me anyway….they seem to grow up so fast yet we grow at a parallel pace and things don’t change that quickly. When it comes to comparing what we used to do as kids and what kids do today I am shocking. I see photographs and videos of young children doing dangerous things and it shocks me. I suppose it shouldnt really there is so much on the news and in the papers we all should be used to it by now.
It works the other way around too, I look at the places we used to play as kids and I mean young kids (10 or 11) and I just scare myself to death. Places my mum and dad never even knew about. The number of times I used to go out on my bike at 12 and cycle for miles. If something had gone wrong like a puncture or a broken part on the bike it would have been a long walk home. I did cycle to Haverigg from Bradford in 1982 at the age of 14. It was just over 100 miles in each direction and looking back I was quite chuffed with myself. When I look at my son Scott now, all I can think of is that there would be no way I would let him do what I used to do. But what has changed? Society? People? I used to dash across to the shops for my mum when I was young….it was never given a second thought. But now? Yes, it makes you think again.
It’s not an easy question to answer is it? When you look at the video above and see the girls cliff jumping ask yourself? Do their parents know? What would they think if they did know? One of the girls even says something similar to that in the film. I actually consider myself a fairly liberal father and parent and sometimes you have to let your offspring find things out for themselves don’t you….
Now, in 2013, things have all changed since we were children, which ever decade you were born and grew up in, back then it was totally different. We evolve in to who we are because of the way we were shaped, taught and brought up.
Thanks for reading
Just an update….How the Belly of the Beast was made…
A couple of weeks ago I put together a post with some of my favourite aviation videos from You-Tube…..One of the videos shown (Belly of the beast) demonstrates a video camera strapped to the nose wheel landing gear of a Boeing 747 Freighter in South Africa. Below is a video showing you how it was done, watch the original video first then watch the “making of”.
Enjoy your day
Random Wednesday
What to talk about….?
Nothing has happened this week in my world of Photography……
The weather has put the chances of any outdoor photography as slim to impossible. I don’t even have any images queued for editing. All is quite silent on the photography front.
Above is an image that I took in 2011. One that I entitled “A time to dance” …. it was a grab shot, an opportunity that caught my eye and I just snapped away. I am sure you know the routine, if you don’t then read on. As photographers we are always striving for things to take pictures of, something different, something better…..as the saying goes “Anything else, is always something better”. Why not aim for the best we can be… You will know from my other posts that I carry a camera with me most times, if not I have a decent camera on my phone and my eye is always searching for that opportune moment to use it.
In this instance I was taking some photographs for a friend who is a dancer. Prior to taking the images she took a little while to warm up and I used this time to prepare my camera’s and lenses and flash to get everything spot on. I was tapping off some test shots when she put her foot on the bar to perform some stretches. I really thought the shot epitomised the dance studio. As always I previsualised the shot and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it once back home and on the PC. For me, the image tells a very short story. A story about a dancer, a story about her preparing, a tale with no beginning and no end. The unknown dancer.
This brings me on to what there is to shoot out there in the big wide world. The answer is……..anything and everything. Why not? Everything has a quality. And as a photographer shouldn’t we try to replicate that moment in time to the best of our ability? Shouldn’t we try to convey the feelings and senses at the time it was taken, not just by the subject but by the photographer too? Capturing an image from around a corner because we dare not show our faces for one reason or another could portray fear in the eyes of the photographer, yet we cannot see him in the shot. This is from information that we compute as human beings. Capturing a single household object and changing the whole portrayal by editing in a certain way to maybe create a mood…. There is always something to take, whether you create the atmosphere by lighting, style or in the computer post-shoot it doesn’t matter. What you have done is paper the walls with your own style… and if you like it then all is well.
When I shot the dancer and her shoe…..All I could hear in my head was the song by the Byrds…Turn, Turn, Turn. A song where the lyrics actually state “A time to dance”…. The video and the words are shown below. I first heard this many years ago whilst watching a film called Footloose. The lines of the song are actually a quote from the bible (Ecclesiastes 3) as Kevin Bacon states in the film. I never related the two until this evening, I don’t know why, I just didn’t make the connection. I will leave you with this “Random Post” …. Have a great day. Thanks for reading.
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late
Danny MacAskill – Inspired Bicycles
This is another one of those random “You Tube” posts……I stumbled across this video and have loved it ever since. What this lad can do with a two wheeler cycle is amazing, please watch and share.
In the name of Aviation…
I couldn’t decide whether or not to post these videos. I will be the first to say that they are not everyone’s cup of tea. However I will say two things. Firstly there is something in each one that you will never have seen and secondly there is something in each one you will never see again. They are taken by Balleka who is a Freighter Pilot and Glider Pilot. Whether you are interested in aviation or not these three videos are awesome, if you have any doubts all I will say is first watch them all then decide. I just love the lowering of the landing gear in mid-flight so the camera can catch the view.
1. A Day at the Office
2. The Belly of the Beast
3. Dudes with Visas
I am sure you will agree they are absolutely amazing viewing. Please feel free to share them and by all means get in touch with Balleka via You Tube and let him know you saw them on No More Dead Pixels
As always thanks for looking. Take care
![Warhorse | Featherstone [explored]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53586903024_e4b790167a_m.jpg "Warhorse | Featherstone [explored]")
No More Dead Pixels .......... 