Category Archives: PHOTOGRAPHY
Sunset at Xingping, China.
Photograph by James Bian, National Geographic Your Shot
The sun sets over the mountaintops in Xingping, China, in this photo by Your Shot member James Bian.
“Guilin and the Li River are famous for their beautiful landscape,” he writes. “Visiting this area [has been] my dream.
Before the trip, I selected a couple of locations to photograph sunrise and sunset, and Laozhai mountain was one of them.
On a clear afternoon, I hiked to the peak an hour before sunset on a trail built and maintained by a Japanese gentleman (which saves a lot of energy for photographers).
The view was overwhelming, with the Li River making a 180-degree turn right under my feet.
I spent most of my time focusing on a wide-angle view until I realized that leaving the river out and just zooming in on the peaks and sun was a much better composition.”
Bian’s picture recently appeared in the Your Shot Daily Dozen.
This photo was submitted to Your Shot.
See more via Mountain Sunset Picture — China Photo — National Geographic Photo of the Day.
‘Feathers of Australia’.
The diversity of Australia’s birdlife is amazing, with over 800 species who live in every kind of environment.
From the mountains to the mangroves, and from the rainforests to the deserts, Australian birds have adapted to almost every kind of environment.
Spot the Galah by Gemma Deavin, Longreach, Queensland.
Smiling in Flight by BryanLJ, Maroochydore, Queensland.
Tasmanian Wedge Tailed Eagle by Glenna M, Bicheno, Tasmania.
via Feathers.
Aussie Fashion over the Years.
Zoe, Mrs Mary, Marjorie and Chloe Gullick, outside Altoncourt, Killara (ca. 1909). Zoe, Marjorie and Chloe are wearing wide-brimmed sun hats, a look which Margot Riley says Australians pioneered.
ALARMINGLY, WHEN I ASK historian Margot Riley what Australians have contributed to fashion, she immediately brings up a classic combination – the safari suit and long socks.
“I think that was pretty uniquely Australian,” Margot says dryly. Thankfully, she moves on and lists a few other Aussie fashion innovations.
Eleanor Elizabeth Stephen (ca. 1855) sits in a lovely crinoline dress. She is likely attached to a steel rod at her neck to hold her still for the photo. “People think why are they looking so serious, but it’s quite difficult to hold a smile still for the length of time required. It could be up to minute in these early days,” says dress historian Margot Riley
“In the 19th century there were quite a lot that were designed to deal with climatic condition…the wearing of sunhats in town and light-weight silk coats in summer.
And then of course now you get wonderful local designers who are responding to the local environment, people like Linda Jackson and Jenny Kee.
I think that sort of bush couture aesthetic that they developed in the 1970s and ’80s was a very important shift trying to create and independent unique look that tried to set Australia apart.”
Opera singer Madame Carandini and her three daughters (ca. 1876) in the era when it became fashionable to collect photos of public figures.
For those that don’t know of them already, Linda Jackson and Jenny Kee are cut from the same cloth, producing patterned and quilted clothing in bright eye-assailing colours.
In our settler days, however, Australian fashion was regularly hijacked as a more subtle disguise.
“In Europe there was a very strong code about what was worn, by whom and doing what, and people knew that and they were very sophisticated in reading a crowd,” Margot says.
“[Early Australians] could change their look when they came to Australia…and they took advantage of distance and poor communication to reinvent themselves.”
Valma Ashcroft (later Burrows, at left), one of Australia’s earliest paid fashion models, and another model in Australian fashion outside the Minerva French Perfumery, Kings Cross, 1941.
Once they’d made something of themselves early convict emancipists were not shy about flashing their wealth around either. “There’s always comments made about how flashily they dressed,” says Margot. “Australians had a very vibrant workforce here; labour was in demand so the working man probably had more disposable income than in many other countries in the 19th century and the fashions reflect that.”
See more Images via Australia’s fashion history – Australian Geographic.
Lucille Ball in the 1930s.
Lucille Désirée Ball (1911-1989) was an American actress, comedienne, model, film-studio executive, and producer.
She was best known as the star of the self-produced sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy, and Life with Lucy.
In 1962, Lucille Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu Productions, which produced many popular television series, including The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.
