The Flickr Panasonicdmcfz7 Image Generatr

HAPPY SLIDERS SUNDAY!
This is a wall-mounted woodcarving. It is of an Alsatian women in a traditional headdress.
IMO she looks both wise and amused, and unfortunately she is cracked.

If you think that her headdress looks improbable,
see this modern Alsatian girl modeling one:

i.pinimg.com/originals/f9/62/67/f96267b101afe0475008cfdce...

For HSS, I did some serious cropping and sliding to increase the drama of the image.

Location: A village in the Alsace region of France.

In my album: Dan's Fantastic Faces.

HAPPY SLIDERS SUNDAY !!
Why "Archery 123" rather than Arch 123?
Because I think this old and pretty structure is decorative rather than functional.

I don't think it bears any load except itself.
Why?
Look at the precarious stone work of the side columns.

Archery 123 is just there to decorate the sweet little arched window and to provide a prominent location for the house number - 123.

Yes, I did some max-style post-processing, However, the brightly-painted old homes of Alsace are, in a way. already "post-processed to the max."

Location: Eguisheim, Alsace FR.
In my album: Dan's Old architecture.

HAPPY SLIDERS SUNDAY !!
Yes, I did some sliding toward the max.
However the colors of many buildings in Alsace
are close to the max all by themselves.

I think a caption with a little humor in it is in the spirit of Sliders Sunday.

Location: Eguisheim, Alsace FR.
In my album: Dan's Miscellany.

HAPPY SLIDERS SUNDAY !!
I was just preparing this nice image of an old Alsatian window.
THEN
I noticed that I had accidentally captured an image of the
ALSATIAN GIANT !!
There he is:
staring at us out of the shadows,
his bony hand covering his mouth.
😎
A once-in-a-lifetime capture that I am happy to share.
Rumors link him to both the Yeti, and Big Foot.
IMO, links to the Loch Ness Monster are nonsense.
😎

LOCATION:
Eguisheim Village, Wine Road, Historic Alsace, France.
In my albums: Dan's Funny Stuff, Dan's People, Dan's Windows.

HAPPY SLIDERS SUNDAY !!
CLICK on the image to see the beautiful wood grain patterns and textures

Venus de Milo, who lives indoors at the Louvre in Paris, pales (literally)
in comparison to this equally armless, but tawny, textured, outdoor Venus.
She greets strollers in the charming village of Eguisheim,
on the Wine Road, down in historic Alsace, FR.


I am sorry to say I did not learn the name of the sculptor.
However I can strongly recommend a visit to Eguisheim.
It is anciently beautiful.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eguisheim

I had one of my all-time favorite lunches there, in a small, quiet restaurant.
It was a salad of fresh, mixed-greens and generous thin slices of sautéed duck breast.
With it, I had a fresh-baked baguette and a glass of chilled Gewurtzstraminer.

Location: Eguisheim, Alsace FR.
In my album: Dan's Fantastic Faces.

Taken at the end of a winter storm, from the top of a mountain * in the German Black Forest, at mid-afternoon in late December.

If you haven't played the Beatles "Here Comes the Sun" for a while (or never) it's time that you did:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKdl-GCsNJ0

*The Hochblauen is a 1,165-metre-high (3,820 ft) mountain in the southern Black Forest. There is a clearing at the top that provides an uninterrupted view to the southwest.

Location: The Hochblauen lies within the municipalities of Schliengen and Malsburg-Marzell in Landkreis Lörrach and the community of Badenweiler in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald.

In my album: Dan's Landscapes: Southwest Germany.

This is the wild winter sky from the top of a mountain * in the German Black Forest. Taken at mid-afternoon in late December.

*The Hochblauen is a 1,165-metre-high (3,820 ft) mountain in the southern Black Forest. There is a clearing at the top that provides an uninterrupted view to the southwest.

Location: The Hochblauen lies within the municipalities of Schliengen and Malsburg-Marzell in Landkreis Lörrach and the community of Badenweiler in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald.

In my album: Dan's Landscapes: Southwest Germany.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO LOOK AT THE FROST PATTERNS.
End of a snow fence, in a clearing at the top of a mountain* in the German Black Forest. The wind had been blowing the snow sideways, and some of it stuck to the end this fence. You can "see" the direction that the wind had been blowing. It was an early afternoon in late December.

*The Hochblauen is a 1,165-metre-high (3,820 ft) mountain in the southern Black Forest.

Location: The Hochblauen lies within the municipalities of Schliengen and Malsburg-Marzell in Landkreis Lörrach and the community of Badenweiler in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald.

In my album: Dan's Miscellany.

Freezing the instantaneous look of wild water, using a shutter speed of 1/1000s.

Location: River Birs, Birsfelden BL Switzerland.

In my album: Dan's Water World

Here is a nice group of Clematis that bloomed simultaneously.
The snail (left of center, below the leaves) is climbing the stucco wall behind the clematis.

Snail Mini-Mystery: I frequently see small snails climbing walls. The one shown is about 1.5m above the ground. Why do they do this? I can't think of a good reason. Do any of you know why they do this?

Location: The small garden of my garden apartment, Riehen BS Switzerland.

In my album: Dan's Flower Power.

This cement wall, with its text and enlarged model of a stone age tool, is just a few meters behind my garden apartment. In archeology, a "chopper" is a crude tool with an irregular cutting edge, formed by removing flakes from one side of a stone.

TRANSLATION of the wall text:
CHOPPER:
"The chopper, found here in the loess in 1999, is the first Paleolithic tool in Switzerland to come from a geological context that can be dated. The chopper is around 100,000-180,000 years old."

A few years ago, the hill pasture behind us was sold to be a location for some nice-quality townhouses. When the builders started excavating, they encountered evidence that, back in the Old Stone Age (the Paleolithic), we had some "neighbors." Archeologists were called in. They found what was clearly a chopper, and they were able to date it, as described above.

BTW - Archeological finds are not unusual here in Canton Basel-Stadt. Typically, the finds are "only" from a few thousand years ago (Roman or Celtic times). This 100,000+ year-old tool was found right behind my home. It is the oldest human implement ever found in Switzerland. I guess our village of Riehen has always been a nice place to liive.😎

Location: Village of Riehen BS Switzerland.
In my album: Roaming Riehen.

Here Is a view of the natural Rhine and the "not natural Rhine," the Grand Canal d'Alsace. After 27 years of work, it was finished in 1959. It runs parallel to the natural Rhine for 50km from Kembs, Alsace FR (just north of Basel CH) to Vogelgrun, Haut-Rhin FR. In this stretch most of the Rhine's water is in the canal, and the natural Rhine is too shallow for boat traffic except e.g. row boats and rubber rafts. Locals from nearby CH, DE and FR come to the natural Rhine for a morning or afternoon to enjoy its tranquil beauty.

The Grand Canal d'Alsace is navigable by high-capacity long, narrow boats. When the canal ends at Vogelgrun, the Rhine regains its waters and becomes deep and wide enough for the big boats. All this makes it possible to move large quantities of goods. (and tourists) by water between Basel CH and the North Sea.

Location: Taken from a rural, wooded overlook in the Lörrach District of Baden-Würtemberg DE.

In my album: Dan's Landscapes: Southwest Germany.

HAPPY SLIDERS SUNDAY!!
Who knew that a bunch of olive wood mortars and pestles could look so dramatic! I slid several sliders up high (including my treasured Posterize Sllder) to create all this drama.

NB - I am not a mortar and pestle expert. However, although ones made from from olive wood are visually attractive, I wonder if they are functionally a good idea. My main worry is whether the wood can be cleaned easily and sufficiently to prevent it from harboring both bacteria and decaying remnants of organic things ground in it. Also, I wonder if. on a wood surface, the last thing you grind would tend to flavor the next thing you grind. If you are an m&p expert, please comment.

Location: Booth at a street fair, Riehen BS Switzerland.

In my album: Dan's Patterns: Wood.

HAPPY TUESDAY'S TEXTURES !!
When we are kids, we quickly learn that rocks have much more intense textures and colors when they are wet, rather than dry. However, these rocks were not wet. I made them "look wet" (IMO more beautiful) by using a Sharpness Slider to increase texture and a Saturation Slider to intensify their colors.

Re the X Rock:
The X is not painted on. Geologic ages ago this rock was part of a strangely cross-layered geologic strata. A piece of the strata made it to a river and was broken up, turned and tumbled for aeons until it became this X Rock.

Location: The rocky shore of a stretch of pristine "old Rhine" north of Basel CH. It parallels the modern industrial Rhine for a few km before the two merge farther north (down stream).

In my album: Dan's Miscellany.

Stella was just 11 weeks old at the time. (When full-grown, she would still be tiny--about 7kg.) She had just been weaned, and we had brought her home to live with us. This was her first encounter with a REALLY big dog--a St. Bernard! She did not seem afraid; just really curious and puzzled. I imagine her thinking "It smells like a dog but it's sooooo big!"

From the strapping tied to the St. Bernard's foot, it looks as if it had hip dysplasia. This means that neither the hip socket nor the hip ball was well-formed. In dysplasia, the ball tends to slip out of the socket. This is painful and debilitating. Unfortunately, It is common in St. Bernard dogs.

Location: Riehen BS Switzerland.
In my album: Dan's Stella photos.

I am grateful this Passover / Easter season.
This peaceful scene is just a 5 minute walk up the street from where I live.
My home is a small low-land town in northwest Switzerland.

The horrors of Putin's War on Ukraine are only 1000 miles (1700 km) away.

That is a distance easily traveled by a modest-sized cruise missile.
Modern ones fly low and at supersonic or even hypersonic speeds.
The faster ones are terribly hard to intercept.

Location: Moostal (Moss Valley) Riehen BS Switzerland.

In my album: Roaming Riehen.Th

I just liked how there were fresh green leaves right next to this fresh, beautiful, but old-fashioned rose.

Location: A rosebush planted next to the front fence of a rural weekend garden, Moostal, Riehen BS Switzerand

In my album: Dan's Flower Power.

HAPPY SLIDERS SUNDAY !!
This is what happened when I applied the SS principal (post-processed to the MAX) to a nice old alpine-winter landscape. It's one that I had never uploaded to Flickr.
"You shoulda left well-enough alone and posted the nice original" is a likely criticism. However, in the spirit of Sliders Sunday, I refuse to unFlckr this processed version and put up the nice original instead.
.
NB - My post-processing software is sophisticated and feature-rich. However, it has a few "rabbit holes" - sliders that are not explained in the manual. This is the result of my using one called "Paint...". The ellipsis is meant to be a warning, I guess. What happens is that the more you slide "Paint...", the more it reduces a photo to geometrically simpler patches of color. But the "essence" of the image is preserved:
- The patches are where they should be.
- There are no shifts in the color spectrum, but the gradations of a given color are reduced.

Location: A view from the top landing of the Rinderberg Ski Lift, near Zweisimmen, Kanton Bern, Switzerland.

In my album: Dan's Landscapes: Swiss Snow.

An early spring view of the change of seasons in the Swiss Alps.

Location: Taken from the top of the Rinderberg ski lift, near Zweisimmen, Kanton Bern, Switzerland.

In my album: Dan's Landscapes: Swiss Snow.