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Post by vlogdance on Mar 14, 2019 15:05:18 GMT
Look how many stars our hostelry's got, in Midlands pub guides.
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Post by Helmut83 on Mar 14, 2019 21:28:43 GMT
A couple of weeks ago I went to my family land in Azul, Buenos Aires Province. The night of the day I arrived and the following night there were two incredibly powerful electric storms. I've witnessed electric storms many times over in the countryside, but these were something else, the biggest I have seen, particularly the second one. Remarkably enough, both developed in very similar fashion in consecutive nights, coming from the southwest at about 11 p.m., slowly closing in and being over me at about 12:30 a.m. The electric activity was so intense that there wasn't a single full second in which you couldn't see light, and the whole landscape was constantly illuminated almost as if it were daytime. I didn't have anything better than my cell phone to try and capture a bit of that unbelievable natural show, so I started shooting and shooting randomly at the sky and a few good pictures came out. I was extremely lucky on one particular picture: I was just taking another shot at the lightning but a random factor intervened and as a result, when I passed it to the computer I could hardly believe what I was seeing, and it's without a doubt the best pic I've ever taken. You'll find it at the very bottom of the post. I have to clarify that even though some pictures give the impression of being in the late evening or in the morning, all of them were taken by midnight when it was totally dark, with no flash or artificial lights turned on; all the light you see there is from electric activity: I particularly like this one. There's something really sinister to it, as if it were a ghostly country that appears in the middle of the night During the storm, I asked to the skies who and why had conjured up such a storm over me. The answer soon arrived, as the clouds rapidly formed and showed me the head of a monster, which I assumed that was undoubtedly the Two Headed Monster (no explanation where the other head was, but I suppose there was only one head because BSJ was travelling on holidays at the moment) who had conjured up that storm to keep a watchful eye over me. It must have been no coincidence that the part that I could see most clearly was precisely the eye, threatening, intimidating, like saying "you might have fled to the country but we still know what you are doing". You don't see it? Maybe this will help? Now that you see it, here's a few more of the intimidating Monster: Don't tell me I'm paranoid, it's clearly there! On one of the pictures there came out the face of a woman (it's profile), but I couldn't tell whom she was. Any ideas? ...and... ...finally... ...the big photo... ...wait for it... ....HERE!
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Post by Horacewimp on Mar 14, 2019 21:34:34 GMT
Great pictures Helmut83 both Mother Nature and the two headed monster can be very powerful things.
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Post by unomusette on Mar 14, 2019 22:25:23 GMT
Wow, just Wow Helmut, those photos are super-brilliant (literally) and I'm so jealous because I love thunderstorms and we hardly ever have them here. The ones where it looks like broad daylight are so cool and of course it's gratifying to see that the Monster's presence reaches so far across the globe But you're right, the bat photo is just stunning. It would probably win you a prize if you entered it into some top-notch competition. You would imagine that bats would shy away from going out in such brutal conditions, wouldn't the lightning interfere with their sonar-like squeakings?
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Post by Helmut83 on Mar 14, 2019 22:34:17 GMT
Thanks, Horace and Uno bach! Glad you liked them. You would imagine that bats would shy away from going out in such brutal conditions, wouldn't the lightning interfere with their sonar-like squeakings? I would have thought the same, but maybe they were scared and/or disoriented by the amount of thunder, I don't know. Also, there are a few things I can't decipher from that picture. One is if the bat you see right behind the big one is another bat or is some kind of shade of the first one (they are in a very similar pose but not sure if totally exact). Another one is that vertical line you see on the left. That would make sense if I took it from inside because the door has vertical bars (it could either be them or their reflections on the glass), but I'm pretty sure I was still outside when I shot it. The third one is if those two spots you see on different parts of the picture are other bats, which I think they must be.
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Post by BSJ on Mar 14, 2019 22:53:24 GMT
Fantastic photos Helmut! Beautiful. Crazy. I can easily imagine how loud and scary those storms were. The bat photo is damn cool. What a great surprise. The monster was there to protect you from that nasty storm. Nothing mess's with our Bud. Hard to see the "woman".
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Post by unomusette on Mar 14, 2019 22:53:48 GMT
I agree, I think the two smaller spots are other bats. But the one which looks like a shadow of the other one is so almost the same it's uncanny. Maybe it's something like a strobe just in that part of the picture, where two streaks of lightning happened really close together and showed the same bat milliseconds apart? The dark line down one side makes it look like there's a massive beam of light coming down to the right of it, maybe that's something to do with the whole doubling up effect too.
We need an expert on nature to advise us, or failing that Jeff's lighting manager...
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Post by BSJ on Mar 14, 2019 22:56:31 GMT
Because the bottom wings are in different positions, I think there are two.
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Post by unomusette on Mar 14, 2019 22:58:16 GMT
The monster was there to protect you from that nasty storm. Nothing mess's with our Bud. Hard to see the "woman". But of course!
The woman looks a bit like the Queen on our stamps (only the other way around)
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Post by Helmut83 on Mar 14, 2019 23:03:03 GMT
But of course! The woman looks a bit like the Queen on our stamps (only the other way around) Exactly! Well spotted! Now, the Monster appearing to me during the storm now makes sense (you are right, BSJ , it must have been with good intentions this time), but what on Earth was the Queen doing there??? Doesn't she have more important business to attend than appearing on anyone's storm?
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Post by Helmut83 on Mar 14, 2019 23:06:26 GMT
Thanks Dude! Yeah, there were a few thunders that shook the place quite heavily, it was pretty loud. Add to that the massive downpour on the roof...
As for the bat, both the things you say could be, for all I know. It could be the same bat with a millisecond of difference (that maybe the lightning helped appear so), or two different bats flying quite close to each other. I couldn't tell.
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Post by unomusette on Mar 14, 2019 23:15:05 GMT
The Queen moves in mysterious ways of course, I just wish she'd brought back some of that lovely stormy weather with her. Fact is, the bat photo is a totally unique one-off which we should just admire and not try to explain. A bit like the marvellous majesty of the Two Headed Monster, another one of nature's miracles
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Post by Timeblue on Mar 14, 2019 23:19:06 GMT
Your storm reminds me of my storm of a couple of years ago up here in West Yorkshire, never seen or heard anything like it in my life, I was at work so no camera present but the thunder was almost continuous with few breaks. sheet lightning again,was almost continuous. Very weird....
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Post by Helmut83 on Mar 14, 2019 23:19:47 GMT
Fact is, the bat photo is a totally unique one-off which we should just admire and not try to explain. A bit like the marvellous majesty of the Two Headed Monster, another one of nature's miracles That's right, after a while I took that approach. In any case, all of it's components, explainable or not, make it all the more mystical.
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Post by queenofthehours on Mar 15, 2019 20:09:41 GMT
Excellent photos, Helmut83 . Any of those of the lightning could easily grace the cover of an ELO compilation. Doesn't the Afterglow box set feature lightning? Helmut's lightning shots are better.
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