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Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

Random CrapCam ™ photos that amused me.

Friday, May 17th, 2013

HEB Central Market: the place to go for all your Juggalo needs.

I have a three-year old nephew who loves his “trucks”. So whenever I’m at the HEB, I check the toy aisle and try to pick up a Hot Wheels car or something for him. I noticed this at the HEB yesterday:

I don’t know who the target audience for this is. Little kids shouldn’t be watching NCIS, and I doubt adults are big into toy cars. (Collectors are an exception, but is there really a big audience of NCIS collectors, as opposed to Star Trek or Star Wars ones?)

No, I didn’t buy it: the three-year-old is not a big NCIS fan, and it was $5. The Hot Wheels were 97 cents.

(To answer another question: this was the only NCIS branded car they had, though there were also some “Greenlight Hollywood” vehicles with branding tied to one of those auto auction shows on some cable channel. I don’t remember which one; sorry.)

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Can’t afford it (take 2).

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

Don’t really feel like I have a need for it, since I’ve been happy with my D40x, and the step up from 10 to 14 megapixels doesn’t seem like that big a jump to me. Also, I’ve already got the lenses.

But if I were looking for a new DSLR, $500 for the D3100 with 18-55 and 55-200 zoom lenses strikes me as being a heck of a deal.

I assume Nikon is blowing the D3100 out in favor of the D3200. And the 55-200 lens isn’t the VR one. But still, this strikes me as being a good bit of starter kit.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of all three cameras I’ve mentioned from Digital Photography Review. Note that I’m not getting any kickback from Nikon for this; I just like my camera.

(Precision Camera doesn’t list it on their website, but I have seen the same deal in their store.)

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Can’t afford it.

Monday, May 6th, 2013

Have no practical use for it.

Camera is not included.

Want one anyway.

(I wonder if you could build a business around this device.)

Posted in Photography, Planes | No Comments »

Radio silence.

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

There just hasn’t been much newsworthy in the past day or so. I’m having trouble working up energy to write about TMQ’s mock draft column (further proof that Easterbrook is more funny to himself than he is to real people). I’m also having trouble with the latest Travis County DA development:

More than 170 Texas attorneys filed a brief Thursday in support of jailed Travis County district attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.
Austin criminal defense attorney Betty Blackwell said that Lehmberg, who pleaded guilty Friday to driving while intoxicated, has received a harsh sentence of 45 days in jail, a $4,000 fine and a 180-day drivers license suspension.

“Hey, Rosemary? Betty. How are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that. Listen, Rosemary, I need a favor.”
“Well, Rosemary, I’ve got this client…”
“Look, Rosemary, when you were in jail and needed a hand, I stood up for you. Now you’re not willing to help me out with a little deal here?”

This is exactly the kind of thing I was afraid was going to happen. And, you know, I’m not sure it makes a difference. The petition to remove Lehmberg is based on the law, and the law says you can get thrown out for being intoxicated. Lehmberg’s confessed to DWI. As far as I know, the law doesn’t say you can get thrown out for being intoxicated unless you get a bunch of your friends to testify about what a great person you are.

Anyway, instead of content, have a couple of photos.

This is the Austin skyline, facing south from the 27th floor observation deck of the Main Building at the University of Texas. (Yes, that observation deck.) Taken at 1/60 and f/22, with the Nikon 55-200 VR zoom at 55mm. Just to the right of the Capitol, you can see the Frost Bank Tower, or as some of us like to call it, “the nose hair clippers”.

This is the upper portion of the Capitol, taken at 1/30 and f/22 with the same zoom at 200mm, and cropped some in iPhoto.

Posted in Law, Photography, TCDA, TMQ watch | No Comments »

Where do we get such men?

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

The Statesman and other papers are reporting that 14 people are confirmed dead in West.

[Dr. George] Smith [EMS director for West] said four of the confirmed dead were among 18 EMS students who rushed to the scene. Another five volunteer firefighters died. “We had a class at the EMS station that was baptized under fire,” he told residents at the town hall meeting, tearing up as about 250 residents stood in unison and applauded.

The Waco paper is maintaing a list.

Volunteer Fireman’s Monument, Texas State Capitol

Detailed article on the Dumas-Sunray disaster from Industrial Fire World.

Posted in Clippings, Heroism, Photography | No Comments »

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Friday, April 19th, 2013

The weather here yesterday was spectacularly crappy.

Today is beautiful. The sun is shining, the temperature is moderate – a perfect spring day.

For various reasons, including how nice a day it is (as well as some others that I don’t want to touch on just now) I thought it’d be fun to go down to the state capitol and take some photos.

So I loaded up the Honda with ~~shovels and rakes and implements of destruction~~ the big Nikon with the camera bag and lenses, as well as my tripod. Headed downtown to the capitol, got rockstar parking, and went inside to see a man about a racehorse before I started shooting. (Officious guard: “Sir, where are you going?” Me: “CHL holder.” OG: “Oh.”)

(For those who don’t know, the Texas capitol has a separate line for CHL holders that bypasses the metal detector.)

Anyway, get back outside, set stuff down, take out the camera…

…and the GD battery is dead. And, unlike my SD1000, I don’t have a spare Nikon battery.

Oh, well. I’m going to be down in that general area with the camera tomorrow as well, so I’ll plan on taking my photos tomorrow.

(And I stopped by Precision Camera on the way home so I could fix the “no spare Nikon battery” problem.)

(I’ve been meaning to mention this, but Precision Camera’s new store is really swell. Parking is a vast improvement over the old store, there’s much more space to move around and for them to display stuff, and the men’s room would get three stars if I was rating it for the SDC.)

Posted in Endorsements, Photography, Stupid | 1 Comment »

This is what happens when you’re not hard enough on the Beaver.

Monday, April 15th, 2013

When the man approached the beaver to take a close-up photograph, the beaver suddenly pounced on him and bit him in the thigh.
The bite was a nasty one that severely damaged the man’s artery, and he bled to death before he could receive proper medical assistance.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Photography | No Comments »

The further on the edge, the hotter the intensity.

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

(This isn’t an actual F-16 cockpit, but a “cockpit egress trainer”.)

(We would also have accepted “You ever been in a cockpit before?”)

(Subject line hattip for the younger set.)

Posted in History, Photography, Planes | Comments Off

Kübelwagen!

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

(I have a short list of cars that I wouldn’t want as a primary daily driver, but would love to have as a second car just to knock around in. On that list: a VW Thing. Which I know isn’t strictly the same thing as the Kübelwagen, but close enough for a Nobel Peace Prize winner to order a drone strike.)

Posted in Cars, History, Photography | Comments Off

Important reminder.

Monday, February 11th, 2013

The ejection seat is not a toy.

(Top: my sister’s youngest boy. Bottom: the middle boy, who you may remember from here. Not shown: the oldest boy, Sir NotAppearingInThisSketch, who had a band thing going on and didn’t make the trip with us.)

Posted in History, Photography | Comments Off