Beautiful!

And then there's

"You buy 50 pounds of bird seed a month so you can get decent pictures of all the birds around your property."

EWWWWW!!!!Stink bug!!! Nice pics, though LOL!

Oh, I LIKE that!

Anyone who doesn't think these were done by a serious photographer doesn't understand the concept of serious photography.

Having seen firsthand virtually every indignity and insult that can be heaped upon a person by their fellow man, these don't disturb me at all. They do, however, evoke memories of faces that I thought I had forgotten. And while many of those faces no longer exist....they primarily belong to some of the ones we lost....remembering them isn't all bad.

Amazing work, Tilde...and never bend to criticism. You are a true artist, one who touches the soul. Wildlife pics and street dancers and all the rest of the things we shoot daily are wonderful, and I'm not trying to take away from them, but these photos touch me in ways that little else does.

INCREDIBLE!

I wondered if I was seeing something there too. DSLRs are famous for capturing things the naked eye misses. I have a pic of some greenery I was shooting at a place where there was an enormous amount of Underground Railway activity. It was a clear, sunny day. When I downloaded, there was a misty but absolutely undeniable figure of a running man in the shot.

On another day I was taking pics (at the congregation's request) of the homecoming service at a small Pentecostal church. The guest minister was a very nice gentleman from Atlanta, and very probably the first person of color who had ever entered that building. At one point during the day he said, "God is going to get something going up in here" just as I snapped a shot. When I downloaded, there was a very clear set of white feathered wings extending around his face.

I love the shots, especially #1 & #2. The only thing I think might make them even more dramatic would be long, wispy tendrils of Spanish Moss, and of course that's something you have no control over.

As for your vandals, forget the cane. I have two three million volt stun guns, though, and would love to deplete the battery on both.

What kind of contest? Who are the judges, and who are your competitors? There are more factors to consider than just the photo itself.

Get a shotgun. If you don't need it now,you will tomorrow! Oh, and it's a good pic too LOL!

I love it....and I have been soooo been there.

LOVE IT!!!!!

God himself could not clean up the mess that 12 years of Bush, et al, created in four years even if he didn't meet overwhelming opposition every time he tried to do anything. It was a given to anyone who can even remotely think clearly that Obama's first term was, at best, going be an exercise in futility.

The end result is that the Republican Party decided that America would rather have anyone....ANYONE.....in the White House than a, um, well, you know what fits there. When the time came to present someone to replace him, they were caught with their pants down, as it were, and without a viable suggestion in their pocket. They still don't have one, which almost guarantees Obama's re-election. Well, that and Mitt's wife's statement that they had given "you people" everything we needed to know regarding their finances.

The general public has learned that if they are arrogant when they are campaigning, it is an ironclad guarantee that their term in office won't be a benefit to the rank and file. Finally.

None in SE Texas yet, either.

I honestly think that particular quote was where Obama lost his train of thought and left out part of the sentence...like, you didn't do it all by yourself, others also helped you.

Honestly, Obama wasn't my candidate. There hasn't been a president I liked since Kennedy, and realistically,if he had finished out his term HE probably would have done things I didn't like. Since him it has been more a question of who will do the least damage overall.

Any of you who believe that an illegal cannot obtain government issued ID are delusional. They can, and they have, for many, many years. The cost is high, but judging by how many of them do it, it apparently is worth the expense.

Now...let's look at this objectively. If you are living on, say, SSI, which is around $650 a month+/-, the $30 or so required to get a copy of your birth certificate and the $10-15 required to get a state ID, plus the money to get yourself back and forth to the DMV/BMV/whatever they call it in your state represents a week or more's food budget, or budget for other expenses like, say, rent, utilities, and other insignificant needs. If you are elderly, your social security may well not even be that high. I have seen elderly people who hae worked hard their entire lives, paid their taxes, done everything they could and should have done to be model citizens, whose entire income is FAR less than even SSI, some as low as $300 per month to meet their entire needs...rent, utilities, medical care (because no matter how low your income is, there is always SOME expense), transportation, clothing.....the list is endless. Take even $10 for a state ID from them, even once a year, and you have imposed a serious financial hardship, and no state issues them free.

Now....if you're a diehard conservative, which in the final analysis translates to, "I've got mine and the hell with you if you don't have yours, regardless of the reason why you don't," these are the exact people you do NOT want voting. The easiest, and least blatant method of keeping them from the polls is to impose rules that will be a financial hardship in the name of preserving the integrity of the voting process. When it's a hardship just to physically get to the polls, overcoming the red tape and expense required to obtain an ID so you can vote is often overwhelming, as it is meant to be.

As one person who didn't realize I was in earshot put it, "It keeps the riffraff home".