Robin Eating Berries In The Snow, Williamsburg, Virginia

We caught this chubby little fellow, along with many friends, eating the berries off our trees, despite the snow. We never saw robins flock like this before; counting thirty-five at once.

Falls in Autumn

Dispersing fog and a moment of sunshine bring the falls and foliage of Croatia’s Plitvice Lakes National Park into view on an early autumn morning. The country’s oldest and largest national park, Plitvice boasts more than plunging waterfalls: Its 16 terraced lakes, formed by natural travertine dams, change color throughout the day, and its abundant wildlife includes 261 species of birds.

Vedrana Tafra’s image was recently featured in Your Shot’s Daily Dozen.

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March City Daily Photo Theme Day: Ageing

It's March already, it's unbelievable! So here we go for another Theme Day! VDP loves this Lebanon Cedar, always has. It stands proud and tall at the edge of Marie-Antoinette's estate at Petit Trianon castle in the palace grounds, is believed to have been planted by botanist Bernard de Jussieu (1699-1777) and VDP thinks it is ageing rather well! To view all participants in the CDP community click here. Happy March!

Le thème du mois de mars de la communauté des blogueurs City Daily Photo est "vieillissant ou vieillissement". VDP adore ce cèdre du Liban. Il se dresse, beau et fier, dans le domaine de Marie-Antoinette au Petit Trianon. On pense qu'il a été planté par le botaniste Bernard de Jussieu (1699-1777) et VDP trouve qu'il vieillit plutôt bien ! Pour voir toutes les participations au thème de la communauté, cliquez ici. Bon mois de mars !

Theme Day - Ageing

He is in care. 30 years without running water. 30 years without a fridge. He did not care. He is in care. He ate veggies, and nuts. He drank urine, because Ghandi did. He did not care. He is in care. He lived alone. In a hovel, in the bush. He did not care. He is in care. He wandered five days, After the stroke seeped Blood into his drug-addled left-hemisphere. He could no longer understand. He is in care. He is reminded to wash. He is reminded to change. He is fed 3 times daily. He cannot read. He cannot follow television. He is all but mute. Now others care for him. He ain't heavy, He's my brother.

City Daily Photo bloggers hold a Theme Day on the 1st of each month. Click here to see what other members have contributed for March 2015.

Pronking Springbok

“I was on vacation in an area of South Africa where springbok are quite common, and I had a goal of capturing this behavior, called pronking,” writes Charles Jorgensen, a member of our Your Shot community. “On a self-drive safari in Mountain Zebra National Park, we found a plateau that attracted many herds of springbok, among other animals. After a few failed attempts at getting the shot, I came across a small herd. They started running, and one of them started to pronk, jumping to amazing heights. I fired away and managed to capture this animal in its acrobatic display.”

Jorgensen’s image recently appeared in Your Shot’s Daily Dozen.

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Lost in the snow

From a different angle.





Another view of the ducklings without snow here.

A Chantiers

Just a street scene outside Chantiers train station...

Hyde Park Sandringham Gardens

Sandringham Gardens are a memorial to King George IV of Great Britain. These steps lead to the sunken gardens from the intersection of College, William, and Park Streets. Diagonnally opposite The Australian Museum. Sydney Tower looms over Hyde Park, and the second shot also shows the MLC Centre on the corner of Martin Place and Castlereagh Street (in the background).

The Pinnacle

“We were near the summit of Sgurr Dearg, [also called] the Inaccessible Pinnacle, a famous feature of the Cuillin Ridge on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, shooting a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of 'The Ridge,’” writes Chris Prescott of the Cut Media short film featuring trials cyclist Danny MacAskill.

“MacAskill grew up on Skye and wanted to make a film that showed off the beauty of the island. A traverse of the full Cuillin Ridge is considered one of the classic mountaineering challenges in the U.K. The film was shot over two weeks and meant transporting a lot of filming equipment onto the ridge every day. Fortunately we were very lucky with the weather!

“The shoot on the Inaccessible Pinnacle was one of the key moments of the film and meant a 3 a.m. start in order to get the best light and catch the cloud inversion. This was taken at around 6 a.m. in the middle of summer, and the sun was still low in the sky. I used the shadow of the pinnacle to block the sun and create the halo effect around Danny. It was taken handheld using a 17mm lens and a graduated neutral density filter.”

Prescott’s image recently appeared in the Your Shot assignment Behind the Adventure.

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Weekend Reflections: le hameau de la reine

Part of Marie-Antoinette's hamlet is reflected in an icy lake for Weekend Reflections!

Les Reflets du Weekend sont par ici !

Pitt Street Mall - the retail heart of the City

This is the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney. It is built on the swamp from which the Tank Stream arose, that very stream which caught the attention of Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788.

The original crowned street was pedestrianised in the late '70s, but it is this decade's renovation which has converted it into an outside living room. It has been estimated that 58,000 people wander this mall on any given weekend day.

Here, by way of comparison, is the relevant section of Pitt Street in 1900, courtesy of The Powerhouse Museum. The cross street in the foreground is King Street.

Winter Lodgings

A solitary beaver pauses at dawn on its way home from a night of chewing off tree branches, newly within reach under the weight of freshly fallen snow. John Warner explains that the beaver, a mate, and two kits appeared late in the fall on Montana’s Lake Elmo and hastily built a lodge before the winter freeze.

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Jaywalking

Looking north up Pitt Street from Liverpool Street

Jaywalkers on (south) Pitt Strret late on a Friday afternoon.

Des lumières dans la pénombre

Lights on a dark Valentine's day evening in Montreuil neighbourhood.

Des lumières au début de la soirée de la Saint-Valentin à Montreuil.

Berlin’s Reichstag

Berlin, the imposing power city at the heart of Europe’s 20th-century tragedy, is learning to live with its troubled inheritance. Here, a central glass dome symbolizes transparency in the 1894 parliament building, the Reichstag, damaged in World War II and restored by British architect Norman Foster in the 1990s.

See more pictures from the March 2015 feature story "Two Cities, Two Europes."

La quiétude de la ferme

We're back at the farm. Marie-Antoinette's farm at the queen's hamlet that is.

Nous sommes de retour à la ferme. Celle de Marie-Antoinette au hameau de la reine, s'entend.

Hyde Park - A road runs through it

Taken in 2013 from Sydney Tower. A better view of Macquarie St is impeded by buildings.

There was Macquarie Street. There was Macquarie Street North. And there was Macquarie Street South. Macquarie Street North still runs from the Opera House Forecourt to Bent St (the State Library corner). Macquarie Street runs from Bent St to Prince Albert Road/St James Road. Macquarie Street South no longer exists. The stretch from Liverpool Street down to Wentworth Ave was renamed Commonwealth St in 1905. It had appeared on the original subdivision of the Fosterville Estate in 1843 as Macquarie St. There was a Little Macquarie St parallel to Commonwealth St, but it was renamed Alberta St in 1896. I do not know when the road running north-south through Hyde Park was removed, but my guess would be around the turn of the century.

Left: View of Macquarie St 1842, (John Rae)(State Library NSW) Right: View of Macquarie St, 1830-1850 (Ellis)(State Library NSW)

I was amazed when I found the above two sketches of an early Hyde Park. I had no idea that Macquarie Street had bisected it. Park street bisected the park east-west in 1831. Park St, in the guise of William Street, ran up to Kings Cross from 1834. So, from 1831 to close to the end of the 19th century, Hyde Park was split into quadrants. No wonder Macquarie Street was truncated!

Hyde Park (2007) commissioned from Airview by Dictionary of Sydney

I am indebted to the City of Sydney, for their excellent "History of Sydney Streets"

Fun in London

Burmese Day

While walking the mountain villages between Kalaw and Inle Lake in Myanmar (Burma), Alexandros Tsoutis woke early one morning to find this scene. “The foggy, exotic landscape gave me the opportunity to experience the beautiful sunrise hues while locals were making their way to the farms,” he writes.

Tsoutis's picture was recently featured in the Your Shot assignment First Light.

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