Amsterdam Russ

Oh, Lord! What have I started?

Ah-ha - I'm with you. Have to admit it's a film I've not seen, although I'm familiar with the storyline. As you can imagine in a land of greenhouses, news stories about illegal plantations being busted are exceptionally common - and especially locally as we're in the heart of the horticultural industry. In Dutch, the generic term for a place where things are grown is kwekerij (pron: quaker-eye). However, if a space is used for breeding animals, it's called a fokkerij. I kid you not!

It wasn't meant to be impressive - just a "reflection" of what I see on my tiny back balcony. The light you see in the pic is probably from a rather small commercial greenhouse set-up. Look from a distance at this whole region of the Netherlands and you'll find the night sky is like this, magnified across the horizon 10,000-fold.

Any members from 50 years ago still playing for your favourite football team?

Not a great quality pic as I took this from the back balcony about half an hour ago with my aged iPhone 5. It's not the end of a sunset, but comes from a horticultural greenhouse that's using artificial daylight to force fruit, veg or flowers to grow more quickly. The light is made particularly dramatic as it's bouncing off the very low cloud we've had these last couple of nights. Sadly, light pollution like this is extremely common in a country that grows so much in large-scale greenhouses. All the same, I thought the view looked rather eerie!

Put it down to the huge number fabulous photos!

Tim Brown has a Sam & Kitty in his auction. Scan and description as follows: Source: https://www.raresoulvinyl.co.uk/auctions/

It's that time of the year again when Sinterklaas (Sint-Nicolaas) arrives in the Netherlands having sailed from Spain by boat. The Sint is always accompanied by his entourage of Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes). Putting to one side the annual national argument about whether dressing up as Zwarte Piet is racist or not, I managed to capture this portrait of a Piet from the comfort of our 2nd floor apartment where I was watching the afternoon's Sinterklaas celebrations through an open window (and with camera at the ready). Have to say I'm absolutely delighted with it!

Sure they weren’t just little actors in otter suits?

Having a camera with you is certainly a good start, Steve! And absolutely, professionals will typically go out with a clear idea of what they want to photograph, usually scouting locations and potential light conditions well in advance. And as with anything to do with nature photography, a certain amount of luck or good fortune is always going to be a factor. Now as Kylie would say, I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky...

A mini murmuration of starlings flying over our apartment at sunset. Just managed to grab my iPad in time to take a photo before they flew overhead and out of sight.

Fantastic shot, for sure. What's particularly great is that the guy went looking for the photo - it wasn't just a lucky capture. Everything was planned out in advance: he picked his location, composed the shot, and waited for the right conditions to come along, and it paid off big time!

Happy to share as I know they'll be greatly enjoyed here. Now where's my all-weather gear and waterproof hood for my camera...?

Weather Photographer of the Year: only a small selection of pics to look at, but they are stunners, especially the overall winner - which shows Blackpool's iconic tower, pier and ferris wheel against an impressive backdrop of a lightning storm. Check them out: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-46223996

Autumn leaves...

Not interested in tunes with the same or a similar title, to be honest. But thanks anyway. More interested in the legal boundaries surrounding whether it’s legit to “edit” a track in some way (so it’s an enhanced version of itself?) or whether it’s just bootlegging. I appreciated that in law it’s entirely possible to creatively redesign an existing work to the degree that the new work becomes something unique, and thus is deemed to be an original, but are the differences in this tune enough? I can’t see that editing a track down and fiddling with the EQ is enough to make it an original work (and I also appreciate some of the nuanced differences between US and UK/EU law relative to this type of scenario). I don’t make any statements or claims about the legal validity, I’m only after clarification about what they might be here. Anyone?

Well, we have bit of an unusual situation when it comes to the "Most liked photo" for the month of October. We have a tie – with two photos getting the same number of "Likes". But (and here's where it's a bit unusual) both were taken by the same person! So, double congratulations to @Winsford Soul for the brilliant close up of a young badger, and for the kingfisher sitting on a branch. Well done, Steve... twice!

A story that appeared in my Facebook feed this morning. It's a very fitting tribute to a man who was so devoted to this wonderful music. Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full

No idea if this particular owl is doing a good job or not, but shoo-ing the birds away just might be the most effective thing it's ever done.

The owl is perched on top of an industrial greenhouse and used by the owner, who breeds racing pigeons, to scary away birds of prey and other predators that might take a fancy to the pigeons. The owl's raised wings came about as a result of a storm the previous night - in the high winds they'd become detached from the body. I just had to capture the comical effect!

Been after a decent photo of an owl for years and finally got one!!!

Not a great shot, but this looks like a lot of fun! The guy was out there practicing for a night-time performance at our local firework display (one of the biggest in the country), and was doing all sorts of acrobatics with the board while a couple of metres above the water. Reminded me of Spiderman's arch-enemy, the Green Goblin!