John Sheldon's photos

Gravestone of Wulfingus von Harssendorf, who endowed Heiligenkreuz Abbey. Dated 1324. A 'montage' formed using two RawTherapee 4 workings of the same image - one high saturation colour, the other very high contrast black and white. The two images were combined using Serif PhotoPlus X5 software. Original raw file taken at ISO 2000 but no noise reduction introduced during processing.

Heiligenkreuz Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in the village of Heiligenkreuz in the southern part of the Vienna woods, c. 13 km north-west of Baden in Lower Austria. It is the oldest continuously occupied Cistercian monastery in the world. (Wikipedia)

This is one of a pair of sculptures depicting Hercules in the lobby of the Schonbrunn Palace. The other depicts Hercules fighting the Dragon of the Hesperides Here, Hercules wrestles with the lion which is below him and has its head twisted upwards with Hercules stretching its mouth. A placard indicates that the sculptures were designed by Giovanni Giuliani and cast by Ubald Torri. They were made between 1714 and 1724. The placard also indicates that the hollow-cast sculptures served as hot air stoves and the hot air would come out of the mouth of the lion here and the dragon in the other work.

This is one of a pair of sculptures depicting Hercules in the lobby of the Schonbrunn Palace. The other depicts Hercules fighting the Dragon of the Hesperides Here, Hercules wrestles with the lion which is below him and has its head twisted upwards with Hercules stretching its mouth. A placard indicates that the sculptures were designed by Giovanni Giuliani and cast by Ubald Torri. They were made between 1714 and 1724. The placard also indicates that the hollow-cast sculptures served as hot air stoves and the hot air would come out of the mouth of the lion here and the dragon in the other work.

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter and Neptune and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him, and in October which began the season for military campaigning and ended the season for farming. Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She was born with weapons from the godhead of Jupiter. From the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, and magic. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the "owl of Minerva", which symbolizes that she is connected to wisdom.

Janus was the god of gates, doorways, and beginnings in the Roman religion. He is often depicted having two faces because he looked to both the past and the future. The first month of the Roman calendar (Ianuarius or January) was named in his honor. Janus is shown standing with Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, and according to various accounts the wife or sister of Mars.

Human sculpture (street performer) at the Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna.

The Untergrundbahn (underground railway, subway) in Vienna. Montage using two DNGs, processed RawTherapee 4.1 and Serif PhotoPlus X5.