Welcome to the 582nd edition of Picture of the Week (POTW), covering period 30 December 2019 - 12 January 2020. Let's see what you have been shooting these past two weeks. POTW is a great spot to show off six or fewer shots you take or are editing within the thread's date range. In other words, you can post your shots from this week AND last week.

To post your great photos, just hit reply and attach away. Feel free to start immediately.

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• consider including in your post any special circumstances or tips on technique or equipment which might be interesting to others.

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2) Six or fewer images per person per thread to prevent thread bloat
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The current host will invite a new host via Private Message (PM), but if you are interested and willing to host POTW, please send me a PM, before I contact others.

If possible, the new thread will be linked to the previous one. If the thread doesn't start, please contact the host, via PM. Here are the records of recent POTW thread hosts: 390-406 smf, 407-408 ramseybuckeye, 409-411 stubyles, 412-423 SD_Bob, 424-427 dave kitson, 428-451 smf, 452-454 StephenHampshire, 455 Aslyfox, 456 StephenHampshire, 457-466 noelcmn, 467 Aslyfox, 469-470 aaacb, 471-472 Madmathmind, 473 Eva, 474 rjbrett, 475 Aslyfox, 476 - 485 noelcmn, 486 - 488 rjbrett, 489 clackers, 490 - 498 rjbrett, 499 StephenHampshire, 500 smf, 501 StephenHampshire, 502-505 Eva, 506-525 Vaskebjorn, 526-538 noelcmn, 539-547 aaacb, 548-563 Eva, 564-571 noelcmn, 572-579 nosliwmit 580-582 aaacb

---------- Post added 01-05-20 at 02:53 PM ----------

Here are mine, one from a short hike in the mountains





one commute shot


and the local woods this morning

[nosliwmit]

Hi all. I spent 10 days in Myanmar over the Christmas/New Year break and took a lot of photos. Still going through them, but here are a few from the Inle Lake area.

- The first photo is of a young Kayan woman. The rings on her neck are actually a single, solid coil made of brass. It is shockingly heavy! I think a full set weighs something like 10kg.
- The second photo is a monastery on Inle Lake.
- The third photo is of some people riding a long-tail boat in Nyaungshwe (connected to the lake by a long cut). The boats are long and narrow and are usually powered by an old and extremely loud Chinese diesel engine. The ones made for tourists feature chairs, life vests and blankets, but the locals sit on the floor of the boat...

[othar]

Engineman's controls of a steam locomotive of the "Steyrtalbahn" in Upper Austria.

[othar]

Coal storage for the "Steyrtalbahn" in Upper Austria.

[othar]

"Perchtenlauf" in Steinbach at the Steyr in Upper Austria.
Perchten: carved wooden masks and fur clothing with bells attached to ring in the new year and chase away winter.
This are Schiachperchten (schiach = ugly) opposed to Schönperchten (schön = beautiful) who also exist.


K-3 + SMC Pentax-A 50mm F1.7

[noelcmn]

Thanks for hosting again aaacb, I like your opening shot very much- very nice. Nosliwmit, you do know how to get the wunderlust going- greaet shot of that young woman, which reminded me of the Ndebele people of Southern Africa, where such neck rings are a sign of status, and the more you have the higher your status. Not sure if they are as heavy as those you came across, but certainly the few I have seen, the neck gets stretched beyond what is normal. I'm attaching an image of one at the end of this post. Sacry stuff there Othar, particularly the last one-that eye would put even Sauron off (LOTR) .

Yesterday was my birthday, and off I trundled to Rietvlei Nature Reserve to spoil myself . Had a wonderful day. 1500 photos later, though I should add that the settings on the K-30 is for multiple shots so a lot of those will be deleted as they are duplicates. This contribution is from that visit.

[othar]

Sacry stuff there Othar, particularly the last one-that eye would put even Sauron off

Ah, a little fear is part of the fun .

And opposed to the 'Krampus' the 'Perchten' are totaly harmless, they are here to scare away the evil spirits of winter and not to punish nasty kids like the 'Krampus' does.

[bigoak]

missed the contest thread. here's one from brooklyn

[Apet-Sure]

Yesterday was my birthday, and off I trundled to Rietvlei Nature Reserve to spoil myself.

What is the weasel-like creature in picture #5? I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it before.

[noelcmn]

What is the weasel-like creature in picture #5? I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it before.

Yellow Mongoose, one of quite a few species we have around here- there is banded ones, dwarf ones, water and river ones, and slender ones too. Wikipedia will give you a lovely article on mongooses.
Here's my only image of the banded ones- though I have seen them a few times in Kruger Park. The Yellow Mongoose is by far the most common one sighted.

[Apet-Sure]

Very cute, but not very yellow.

[eva]

Some highlights from Slivnica 1,114 metres or 3,655 feet) is a peak in the Dinaric Alps in Slovenia, southeast of Cerknica on the edge of the plain defined by Lake Cerknica. Its southern and western slopes are covered in deciduous and pine forests, which also obstruct the view from the highest peak, Big Slivnica
A karst cave below the summit of Slivnica, known as Witches' Cave (Coprniška jama) was described by Valvasor in his The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (1689) as a hole where storms were made. Warm air rises from the cave in the cold winter months and condenses to form mist, a phenomenon that contributed to the creation of the local legend about the Slivnica witches, traditionally blamed for all misfortune by local farmers from hail storms to various ailments.
Photos taken with K100 D Super & hd-da 21 mm lens

[eva]

Lake Cerknica K-5 & F*300

[aaacb]

New thread here POTW #583 - Covering period 6 - 19 January 2020 - PentaxForums.com