One of my favorite themes is running today!
#PaintItSaturday by +Alexius Jørgensen

Sunrise in the land of the 300 - Sparta, Greece
#PlusPhotoExtract

I've been spending the day working through the pile of ant photos I took this December in Australia. Here's one of my favorites, a throw-down between Rhytidoponera victoriae and Amblyopone ferruginea (a species I don't believe has been photographed alive before).

More here: http://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Rhytidoponera/9440773_KhNfV5#!i=1744029108&k=4vdMkFg

Remembering the 3/11 Earthquake & Tsunami

A year has passed and today when I pause at 2.46pm as well as everything else that will be going through my head, I'll be remembering our good friend Sam Bevan who was here with us on his first trip to Japan when the earthquake happened.

The photo is of Sam with our son Charlie, who celebrated his first birthday on March 10th 2011 and who, yesterday, celebrated his 2nd birthday. It was taken in Kita-kamakura just a few days after the 3/11 quake, as we spent some days just outside of Tokyo to try and give Sam the holiday he had come 6500 miles to have.....

It's odd how things turn out in life. Charlie is, because of his birthday, a child who is in some way defined by the quake of 3/11. Our eldest son, Joe, was born at 2am [London time] on September 12th 2001. Each of them in some way defined by events of enormous magnitude that happened at each end of the first decade of the 21st century.

I'll remember his reaction as the house was rocking, his immediately pitching in to take care of our kids as Hiromi and I did what we needed to, I'll remember his presence with us being just the best thing that could have happened in the circumstances : a best friend from our old life in the UK here with us at a moment of extremity in our new life in Japan. I'll be thinking of how his life changed by being here, because I know it has. I'll be thinking that as fate meant he was here with us fate also made me change our original plans from being in our other home in Fukushima for Sam's first week of holiday to staying in Tokyo instead.

I'll be thinking of all the people I met in Fukushima on various trips there since 3/11. I'll be feeling proud of all my friends who've done so much to help up north since 3/11 or who've been there to write, shoot and get the word out about the situation.

I'll remember all the acts of kindness and those people (you know who you are) who extended themselves in some way to help me and my family last March.

I'll be sad for everyone who was lost that day last year but I'll be grateful that my family and friends are safe. Nothing's the same as it was. But despite all the pain and suffering, that's not a bad thing. Change, however it comes, should be an opportunity to seize for the best.

Here's to the future, to family, to friends: to Japan.

Another Selfy Sunday Is Upon Us!

Here is my most recent submission for the Selfy Sunday Project. The album is already filling up with Selfy awesomeness! Check it out here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/110036682383342142442/albums/5718306615358811393

The Selfy Sunday Project is an ongoing project that was created and is run by +Levi Moore and +Jeff Smith. For more info, go to +Selfy Sunday.

Tell Me Baby What's Your Story

The other side of the Allis Engine
March 9th, 2012

Located in the Waterworks Museum in Boston, MA


"Allis is a 5-story, self-contained steam engine that was the most thermally efficient pump of its era. Installed in 1898, Alllis was also 30 percent more fuel efficient than any other steam engine of its era.

The parts were manufactured in Milwaukee and sent to Boston via train, where they were assembled in the open air while an extension to the Waterworks building was constructed around it–brick by brick.

Apart from two giant flywheels that had to be hand-started by workmen with crowbars, Allis practically ran itself. It required nothing more than periodic oiling. Workers spent the rest of their time as they liked, and they often liked to polish and tend to Allis. The engine’s relatively pristine condition today gives evidence to the care lavished upon it at the time."

Source: http://www.bujournalism.com/freeradicalsmag/onthewater/steam-power-fight-clean-water/

Beach #5 Dark Sunrise, Havelock Island, India

It was still quite dark when the sun made its first appearance. I love the low tide at Beach #5 and I can't wait to see it again someday.

Read more about this photo and my other PHOTO ADVENTURES in the Andaman Islands on my blog: http://paulbellingerjr.blogspot.com
#plusphotoextract #sunrise #india #andaman #havelock