All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
In reply to MasterDiver.
This is a ”disappearing gun” emplacement dating from 130 years ago. It is was a coastal defense weapon.
Sure looks to be that the risings seas have flooded this emplacement out. There is a sea wall on base at NAS Pensacola that has been in place for about the same amount of time and contemporary pictures showing the seawall in the first decade of the 1900’s show no discernible difference from now in water levels.
A lot of my shots aren’t planned shoots, they’re targets of opportunity so to speak. I have 2 cameras; one, like yours is a Sony A7IV and a fair collection of large and expensive lenses. It’s great for planned shoots but is simply too big, too heavy and too expensive to have with me nearly always.
For close to the last 10 years, I’ve also had a camera from the Sony A6000 series (currently A6600). I tend to keep a Zeiss 16-70 f4.0 on it. They’re not exactly cheap but you can get a package 40% the size, 33% the weight, 40% of the cost and 95% of the capability of more upscale Sony (or any) cameras.
I know I’ve used the following analogy here before but when business and practical considerations forced me into concealed carry in downtown Atlanta, when over a 10-year period, I had to survey the structural conditions of old boarded up downtown buildings prior to renovation. Things got pretty scary on a number of occasions and I’m close to dead certain that having that pistol with me, despite never having even been cocked, saved my butt on several occasions.
The best pistol for concealed carry is the one you’re likely to have with you when needed.
The parallel is obvious.
The now-ubiquitous cell phone works for most people and even me on occasion. You can get good snapshots but photographs, no.
Here’s a photo of my version of a “concealed carry” camera. By that, I mean it will fit in a coat pocket or a console.
The lens is a f4.0 Zeiss 16-70 which, since the camera has an ASP-C sensor, is the equivalent of a 24-105 in a full frame camera. That’s mild wide angle to mild telephoto and is a pretty good and useful do everything lens. ASP-C lenses are very small compared to their 35mm counterparts.
This camera is probably 90%+ as capable as its much larger and more expensive cousins. Unless I was pushing in extreme conditions, I am unable to identify which camera shot which photo.
And though the margin is decreasing, in virtually all respects this camera is quite superior to phone cameras .
An analogy
Jake, a monument to military divers. This statue is located on base at The US Navy Diver Training & Explosive Ordnance Training Center Panama City.
Coming home after a long deployment, located on base at NAS Pensacola, National Naval Air Museum.
This monument is from the turn of the 19th-20th century and is located at Atlanta’s Westview Cemetery. I’ve seen lots of cemetery monuments and statues and think that this one is absolutely beautifully done.
This one is a composite. The statue is behind St. Michael’s Episcopal in Milton, FL. I didn’t like the background in the original, it was too busy, towers, other decorations, phone poles, other buildings made a jarring and competing background and destroyed the impact of the statue. So, using Photoshop, I popped it into a photo taken from my house side door as a big storm approached. Much more effective.
Unknown Infant. Every picture should tell a story, this one I think is poignant. I wonder who put the cat there? City Cemetery, Milton, FL.
This is Jasper Smith, currently “residing” in Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta, across I-20 from the Braves old stadium. I don’t have any history for him though there is a Jasper, Georgia, though I have no idea if there’s a connection.. But Jasper sits on top of his very own mausoleum, mulling things over in mild consternation. And who wouldn’t aspire to such a state?
This is one of the shots I took at a museum display of 18th & 19th century French art.
Trisdan De Luna y Arellano, Conquistador and the founder of a Spanish colony at what in now Pensacola in 1559. Funny thing, I did a quick google of him to make sure I had the dates right and the lead article on google was using one of my pictures from this shoot as the lead without permission or attribution. Theoretically, that’s illegal but, I’ve found, common.
This is a near life sized resin casting of a female that I found in the Porch Creek Indian casino in Atmore Al. The Porch Indians are an offshoot of their brother tribe, the BMW Indians. I absolutely do not have the “gambling bug” but my wife does. On the occasion I take her there, I wander around with my camera shooting interesting stuff of which there is a bunch while she’s hypnotized by the slots. The casino staff gets pretty quirky about cameras in the casino until I assure them that I’m shooting the facility, not the people.
I have served in the Army, and understand what a conditional promotion is. You get the rank without the full set of qualifications, and promise to complete them within a specified time frame or lose the promotion.
My problem is Walz refers to himself as a retired command sergeant major E-9, but his actual retirement rank is master sergeant E-8. He did not hold the rank long enough or complete the requirements to keep it. He reenlisted for 4 years in 2003, promoted conditionally in 2004, rumour has it learned through the grapevine about an upcoming deployment, and jumped into retirement. This means he could state ” I was a command sergeant major, and I am a retired guardsman” both of those statements are factually correct. He is not a retired command sergeant major, but a retired master sergeant. In 24 years of service according to his Wikipedia page he has 1 army commendation medal, that seems kinda low, I served 4 years active duty, and got 2 ARCOMS, as a Spec-4, I now have 40 years of service total, and my highest personal award is a meritorious service medal, gotten for 26 years in the Air Force reserve, when I transferred to the Air Guard. I saw no overseas service or combat campaign awards, this looks suspicious, because that means he never carried anything in any war zone, because he was never there. This seems like a minor distinction, but it gripes me to hear someone self promote and then try to weasel their way out of an exaggeration by claiming to be a higher rank than their ID card shows.
Update:
TomD commented:
Walz’s military record, or lack of it, is entirely peripheral to me. The core issue, and this is indisputable, is that he has governed as a hard left radical, adopting and enforcing every leftist position right down the line.
He could have been the Commandant of the Marine Corp with 9 combat deployments and it wouldn’t make a whit. The fact of his deception is just carrying coal to Newcastle for me.
War Pig commented:
I agree. Sort of fishy. I do not mind him not having served in actual combat as relatively few service members realy do fire a weapon in anger or are in an area where they can be bombarded. But, look at the man and two women killed in the drone strike. Death can find you. I know of a couple of sergeants major who never fired a weapon other than on a range but were in the artillery and air cav, respectively. Both served I think it was 32 years active, but had several medals and badges. Then there are those who manage to serve 20 and not actually perform their MOS except in training. They go off into “temporary” duty as a special services NCO or one of a hundred other make work jobs. They found out how to work the system. I’m pretty sure you knew of various NCOs assigned to your unit you never saw except at quarterly recall formations. Could be he was one of those soldiers. Nothing dishonorable, just nothing special. He may have heard about a deployment and took the easy way out. Not illegal, just not someone I’d want to be one heartbeat away from the Oval Office and the Football.
War Pig commented:
This is true. He’s in Soros’ pocket and all his thinking is done by Obama. He joined in with the Defund the Police movement, which hurt minority citizens the most. Martha’s Vinyard is not effected by Defund the Police, but inner city families in blue cities sure are.
Memorial to Confederate soldiers in Atlanta’s Westview Cemetery
Memorial to the Unknown Confederate Dead at Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery.
From the grave of the Atlanta newspaper publisher circa the early 1900’s.
Incredibly well done life sized statue from Atlanta’s Westview. The entire background and statue were carved from the same slab. You can see the veins in the rock running continuously. This was done in the early 1900’s by an Italian artist.
(With respect to the attitude of the populace toward the military.)
Quite true. I’ve seen the gamut from being spat upon and called a baby killer when I returned from Vietnam to being thanked profusely by strangers after 9/11.
You are correct. The populace in general thinks little about the military except screaming about the budget. Until, that is, they get a visceral gut punch and become afraid.
The alphabet people, who despise the military, fail to realize that only 1 person out of 250 is all that is preventing them from being defenestrated by the same Palestinians they are rioting to support. They.also keep feminists and other women from being put back into servitude and wrapped in full coverage burka. Ladies, want your voting rights, driving rights and any other rights ripped away? Do away with our military.
Only 4 people out of a thousand serve on active duty. One in 250. There are only some 6 out of a thousand who are veterans. Being a Spartan is a tough and lonely life. You live fast and die younger than civilians, on average. Those who actually serve in combat are an even smaller percentage. We have seen and done unspeakable things to protect The People in general. Some of us have fought and killed hand-to-hand. We are loaded with PTSD and commit suicide or self-medicate at several times the rate of civilians.
So get off our backs. We have enough baggage to carry as it is.
I would have thought that the main lesson of the Viet Nam and succeeding regional wars was or should have been: Don’t initiate or enter wars unless you intend to win and pay whatever price necessary to do so. WWII would be a prime example.
But, apparently, that lesson is too esoteric or functionally difficult to be put into practice by our masters. Just what has been accomplished by the US providing Ukraine with just enough weaponry and resources to prolong the war and kill millions on both sides? Not to mention waste God knows how many $100’s of billions of dollars. What was the point? Anyone? Send a message, perhaps?
Update:
Comments
photog in reply to TomD
If I had to guess what lesson they think they learned from Vietnam, it was to emulate what the Soviets did in that war. Find a proxy to fight your enemy for you. So Russia had the North Vietnamese. The neo-cons in the State Department have the Ukrainian Azov faction who are willing to burn Ukraine down to punish the Russo-Ukrainians who make up 25% of the population. The fact that millions will die and Russia will become our implacable foe forever is neither here nor there.
Chemist in reply to TomD.
Tom D asked: “What was the point?”
10% for the big guy.
Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, but this has always been about graft.
At least is has from the US side.
I think the Poles genuinely wanted to get their licks into the Russians but the US congress, State dept and POTUS were all in for their cut.
photog in reply to Chemist.
I wonder where they’ll play the game next after Ukraine dries up? Iran?
War Pig commented
We leared the lesson of Vietnam when a Vietnam officer, General Schwarzkopf, refused to play Vietnam rules and insisted on using maximum effort to win-the-frigging-war.
It was LBJ who insisted that he knew better than generals how to fight a war. Ditto Biden.
The US won all the battles in both Vietnam and Afghanistan, but lost due to crooked and cowardly politicians. The lesson is that you do not face the US military head on, you nibble at the edges. Be prepared to take a horrible kill to death ratio because you will lose virtually every battle, and outlast American politicians.
Moving the focus a little, this is still boats in the gulf and contains two oil field boats but it has two shots from a different view.
Captain America, from it’s resume: “Captain America” will be capable of involvement in offshore installation and decommissioning projects worldwide, including installing floating wind farms, says the firm. The vessel’s 399-person accommodations make it suitable for decommissioning preparatory work, platform support for maintenance, field upgrades and allow it to “provide offshore support as a flotel,” adds the firm. It has a 1,000 ton crane.
Another of the many tugs seen around here. This one is bringing coal to a local power, a calling that I suspect is short time. This coal probably come from next door Alabama. We’ve got a great intracoastal system around here, you can go for hundreds of miles from here east or west without ever getting in the Gulf which is a good thing because I’m not sure this particular rig would do well in any seas to speak of.
This boat is in a “less prosperous” marina located at the top of Pensacola Bay where the Escambia River empties. Those are tidal flats in the background. If you look at the flats from the vantage of the bridge in the back ground, you will see a fair number grounded boats sprinkled around (some quite big) where they were placed by various hurricanes.
Speaking of hurricanes, this boat has been here since some hurricane or other sunk it years ago. If I were going to title this picture, this would be, “But the Payments Continue”.
