The Emperor dumped, originally uploaded by jjn1.

Where he belongs. Seen in a recycling bin the other day.

At first sight, this seems an extraordinary site. People post photographs that are meaningful to their lives — and life-stories. Many are touching, moving, happy, sad.

But…

The only thing wrong with it is the exploitative licence that the site insists on. It reads:

When you submit your materials, you grant dearphotograph.com a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use the work to be used, copied, sub-licensed, adapted, transmitted, distributed, published, displayed or otherwise under our discretion in any and all media.

Nauseating.

HDR Panorama, originally uploaded by jjn1.

Yesterday evening, we drove round the Northern side of the Gorge de Verdon — which over-enthusiastic guidebooks sometimes call “Europe’s answer to the Grand Canyon”. It’s not that, but it is still magnificent, awe-inspiring and ravishingly beautiful in places. About half-way through, we stopped for a break and thought of taking some panoramic shots. But by that stage we were heading for dusk, with distant peaks catching the rays of the setting sun and the foreground in shadow. I tried some conventional pics, with the usual problems. So switched on the HDR App on my iPhone, with this result. It leads me to wonder why proper digital cameras don’t now have in-camera HDR built in. The answer, probably, is that they don’t have processors that can handle it. Whereas the iPhone is really a general-purpose Unix box which can turn its hand to anything (er, provided Apple approves, of course).

Another HDR shot from further on in the drive, looking back on where we’d come from.

The floating leaf, originally uploaded by jjn1.

In a way, a testimony to the crystal-clear water of a Provencal stream.