Etched in Stone Photography

09/28/2025

Marugami Falls - The Only Waterfall in Saitama Selected for Japan's Top 100 Waterfalls!

The Chichibu area🏞️, known for its lush nature and scenic countryside landscape, is home to the only waterfall in Saitama Prefecture to feature as one of Japan's top 100 waterfalls.

Marugami Falls is a spectacular waterfall with a dramatic 76-meter drop. Divided into three distinct tiers, it captivates visitors with its graceful descent down the dark rock face, resembling beautiful white silk threads.

A 1.5-kilometer walking trail has been developed around the area. The route from the eastern entrance along the riverside is particularly enjoyable, offering a refreshing stroll along a relatively flat path.

The seasonal scenery is breathtaking throughout the year - from fresh spring greenery🌿 and autumn foliage🍁 to the serene, frozen beauty of winter. It even awarded the waterfall praise in historical writings about 200 years back as standing out among the many other waterfalls in the Chichibu area.

Why don't you venture out from the city center to experience this magnificent autumn view for yourself?

[Marugami Falls]
📍Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MLVgEbeyMcjYyY7o9

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🌎 “Saitama Tourism Support Desk” provides tourists with information on how to make the most of their trip to Saitama! The service staff can also assist you with booking activities. 🙆‍♂️
Please feel free to contact us. ✉📞
https://saitama-supportdesk.com/contact/
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A comprehensive website that provides tourism information about Saitama
▶ https://saitama-supportdesk.com/
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09/08/2025

This morning’s lunar eclipse unfolded slowly across the Sydney skyline.
The Full Corn Moon rose in soft radiance, casting its gentle light over the buildings. As the night deepened, Earth’s shadow gradually moved across its surface, and the Moon began to shift—first fading, then glowing in red tones as it entered total eclipse.

By 4:11 am AEST, the Moon hung low, fully eclipsed and glowing with deep, earthy hues, a classic Blood Moon, visible in stunning clarity from across Sydney. Just before dawn, it began its descent, slipping behind the silhouettes of city buildings and painting the skyline with its final, fading light.

This was Australia’s only total lunar eclipse of 2025! A rare moment where cosmic timing, urban geometry, and atmospheric colour aligned perfectly.

10/11/2024

With Tiffany Alvord – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

06/22/2024

This is my most advanced moon photograph ever, featuring interesting surface details and maybe no one has ever seen it before ,it’s also my clearest and sharpest moon image I’ve captured, it required 4 days of continuous moon observation and shooting. Below are some facts about this image:
1- the image size is 708 gigabytes
2- over 81000 images were stacked
3- by merging 4 different moon phases and merging the shadow area it reveals an interesting topography of Lunar surface.
4- telescope : Skywatcher Flextube 250p dobsonian modified on equatorial mount NEW6 pro.
5- camera : Canon EOS 1200D for minerals, ZWO ASI 178mc for detail.
6- no AI involved in this image.
7-image resolution is 159.7 megapixel suitable for giant print.
8- this is what the moon looks like if it was a flat disk with mountains on it.
9- this is only a showcase of the northern portions of the moon, full version on my instagram account.

06/09/2024

This is kind of long.
Bare with me.....
I'm seeing more and more ai generated pictures. People think they are real. Don't be fooled.
Most common ones I see are:
1. fancy looking birds or cats
2. Pretty plants or flowers
3. Rustic beautiful cabins
4. Some artistic young African boy creating an amazing sculpture out of rocks or twigs or similar.
If you look closely you will begin to see that they are fake.
Ai art is getting better though. There's some pictures of some attractive young women floating around the internet (mostly Instagram) that look quite real. The person or people posting those, give their girls names and people think they are real.
Ai art has a place perhaps, as long as it doesn't pretend to be real life. But many friends are making comments about the beautiful creation and great God we have based on fake photos.
God is great. No argument there. Creation is fantastic..... If it's the real thing. But not if made with computers.
~~~
I run several photo pages and ai photos are beginning to show up there too, but being passed off as real. Yes, we photographers like to play around with our photos on the computer to perfect them. But that's not the same thing. We go out with a camera, use our skills and equipment, then upload them to the computer or online.
~
Ai photos are words typed into an app and a computer obeys our instructions. That's very different.

10/15/2023

Another one bites the dust. Another ad removed after I reported it.

09/22/2023

This is one of the closest images to the surface of Planet Mercury.

09/17/2023