Category: Photo Study

Camera Girl, Guns and Glory

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So, today Camera Girl and I attended a gun show.  Well, no.  The guy there told me it wasn’t a gun show.  And it was described as a Shooting, Outdoor, and Military Expo.  And he was right there was other stuff for sure.  They had World War II vintage trucks and jeeps and lots of veterans were there like the guys from the Geronimo Foundation who had details of the reenactments they do of D-Day and other paratrooper deployments.

There was a lot of interesting things besides guns.  For instance, what the heck is this?  I’m sure it made a lot of noise and blew up a lot of stuff but what is it called?

 

But there were a lot of guns, so to me it was a gun show.

There were all kinds of antique guns and there were a lot of rifles from the World Wars.  But there were also countless modern weapons that ran the gamut from hunting rifles to self-defense to just enthusiast favorites.  I think most of the machine guns were from World War II but being completely uninformed I couldn’t really say for sure.

But I got a whole load of shots mostly with my Voigtländer 10mm f/5.6 manual focus lens.  In tight spaces such a wide-angle lens helps out.  Of course, the manual focus aspect is not so helpful but it was still manageable.

I’ll be processing all the files and then I’ll add them to the Photo of the Day rotation to give everyone a break from my close-up documentation of my corner of Dunwich.

And I had some very interesting conversations with the denizens.  One fellow was Vietnam era Army and he was telling about his time on the logistical side of that war.  He said that if someone made a requisition for any kind of supply it had to be provided.  One day someone came in and ordered three helicopters.  And they had to provide them!

Well, it was a very interesting time and I enjoyed it.  But I’m still as ignorant of gun knowledge as I was before I entered the hangar (it was at an airport).  I asked Camera Girl if she wanted to try the helicopter ride that was available.  She gave me a very squinky look and I let it go.

I’ve been meaning to get a gun for the house for a long time.  I’ve only delayed this long because Camera Girl has Sicilian blood on her mother’s side and providing her with a firearm always seemed like stretching my luck.  But now that we saw so many exciting choices, who knows.  Some of the young guys at the show were playing around with guns that had the light or laser aiming assist.  Suddenly I had the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger showing up at the compound and I thought maybe I’m better off building a panic room instead.  Well, maybe I should do both.  After all, in the upcoming cannibal interregnum you can’t have too many precautions.

21APR2024 – OCF Update – Photo of the Day Info

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Our long national nightmare is at last within sight of ending.  Today I added the last three photos from that endless series of rock and mineral show shots I took last year onto the scheduler.  After Wednesday something different will be in its place.  What that something is remains to be seen.  I’ve ruled out cat pictures (because we haven’t got any cats).  But let’s hope I can find something with a warm weather theme.

Recharging the Batteries

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I’m gonna talk about fun stuff today.  I need a break from Biden and his mush-brain.

I was watching a YouTube video by one of the guys who provides me with pep talks on photography and he said when you’re feeling uninspired the best thing to do is grab your camera and look for inspiration.  Well, Camera Girl has been haranguing me for the last couple of days about the return of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard to the swamp.  Now this is an annual event.  The same pair of mallards (I think) return every late winter to the local water and graze on the slime and ooze and raise up a passel of youngins.  Some of my favorite shots of the mallards involve heavy snowfall.

At the same time, they are very annoying because they tend to retreat from me and my camera whenever I try to capture them.  But this year the battle is stacked more in my favor.  I’ve got the Sony 200-600 lens and with its extra reach I can still get reasonably close up shots from what the mallards feel is a safe distance.

So, I went out this morning with my A7IV, the long lens and my monopod and picked my way between thorn bushes and mud holes until I was at a respectable one hundred feet from the ducks and banged out maybe a hundred exposures.  I used single shot autofocus and a comfortable ISO 1000 to get the short exposure time I needed with the long lens.

The ducks are kind of funny in that the male and female look totally different from each other.

And they have slightly different behaviors also.  The male is more confident while the female seems more cautious.  His head seems to be mostly underwater while hers is above.

He ranges around more while she is mostly still.  And interestingly, I’ve adopted the idea that they work for me and require my approval in order to feel legitimate.  Well today they got the official thumbs up from the king.  I provided them with the royal nod and now they can get on with perpetuating their species without fear of their charter being pulled.  I told them that I am following their careers with great interest and expect to review their progress sometime in the early spring when the latest cohort is swimming and quacking around the puddle.  After all Dunwich must be populated or duckulated or whatever duck increase is called.

I was looking for inspiration today and sure enough, it was fun.  And that got me motivated to download all the files on my camera and at least look at the mallard shots I just took.  And that is the evolution of a good day.  A little research, a little field work and a little work in the office and I have a few nice shots of the neighbors and a nice little illustrated post for the site.

All right.  Now I can stand to hear about what mush-brain has done today.  Hopefully something harmless like taking credit for the invention of shoelaces or something.