Flashback: And still more Uluru

Flashback: More Uluru

There are rock paintings—some of them 30,000 years old—around the base of the monolith.

Flashback: Uluru

I remembered Uluru, of course I did. I remembered drinking champagne while watching the colors change at sunset, and a different tour group accusing me of having stolen one of their folding chairs. I remembered that it was very, very hot. I remembered the beautiful waterhole, how magical it felt finding water in that dry, dry country.

And the flies. I definitely remembered the flies, and the nets we wore so they weren't crawling directly on our faces.

But I'd forgotten all the curves and undulations of the rock formations when you get up close, so that what looks like a sandstone cake with drippy icing from a distance is so much more complicated and beautiful than you expected.

Flashback: Sydney

Another Australia picture from 2016.

I'm not sure what this is a picture of—just kidding! I originally posted another image from farther away on the footpath under the Harbour Bridge. That one had some interesting shadows, but the closeup is definitely worth sharing, too!

Sunday bird blogging

I was looking for something else and stumbled across a few hundred unprocessed pictures from Australia ten years ago, including this pretty pigeon in Cairns: a Torresian imperial pigeon, aka Australian pied imperial pigeon.

Saturday reflections

The reflections are secondary maybe, but I liked this truck in camouflage colors I saw parked in the East Village last night.

More urban poetry

I really like this one—early evening, and the sunset reflected in snowmelt on Park Avenue.

Urban poetry

It doesn't get much more urban than this: Times Square on a winter's evening this past February.

I seldom carry a real camera around any more, and can't remember why I happened to have it with me that day. Maybe I thought I'd take something I could use in my class this semester—the theme was photography—but it took me three months to get around to looking at the pictures and classes ended last Saturday.

Geometries

A plaza between West 41st and West 42nd Streets, near Bryant Park.

Urban poetry

I had a professional development class in Brooklyn last week and this building was across the street from the education center. I'm not sure what it is—it's just storefronts on the street level with no clue about what's upstairs—but I love the details on the façade, and the open-air staircase.

Astronomy Tuesday

Another image from the Artemis II mission, taken by the commander, Reid Wiseman.

The sun is behind the Earth in this picture, lighting up an arc of atmosphere on the lower right edge. At the top and bottom of the globe you can see the green glow of the auroras. And, look, there's Venus, making a cameo appearance in the lower right.

But my favorite thing about this image is that it's upside down—at least in the way we usually think of directions. That's the South Pole at the top of the picture, and at the bottom you can see the Sahara Desert in Africa, with a little piece of Spain and Portugal below.

It's fun to be reminded that there is no up or down in space, and while it's useful to have conventions like north is up and south is down, they're just that—conventions.

Image credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman

Astronomy Tuesday

Earthset, as captured by the Artemis II crew from the far side of the moon last night.

I think we all have whiplash, jumping from the exhilarating success of our long-delayed return to the moon, to the constant heartsickness at the horrors certain humans are unleashing on that sweet blue cresent of a planet in the corner there.

I'm home, and honestly too wiped out from a long, long travel day and the usual jet lag to say any more about anything. Let's just savor the images and hope as much as we can.