I was going to crop and enhance this, but I imported it into Shotwell, took a look at it…and I’m actually kind of happy with the way it came out, unenhanced and uncropped.
Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This is distinct from the new State Capitol, which is where Huey was actually shot (more on that later) but the gun and bullets on on exhibit in the old one.
Taken with the little Nikon Coolpix S6500.
Also: a historical note, suitable for use in schools.
Taken with the iPhone camera, cropped a little, and enhanced in Shotwell:
I like the use of the word “supposedly” there, but that’s another discussion for when I have more time.
And don’t forget who else used an FN 1910.
A little more context on Weiss, Guerre, and the bullets, along with a lot of the assassination mythology, here.
Found at Blood Bath and Beyond, and also available from Amazon: Presidents of The United States Volume 8 – Pez Limited Edition Collectible Gift Set
A better view with some of the packaging removed:
Seriously. How did I live this long without a Richard Nixon Pez dispenser?
All I need now is Lyndon Johnson (who is in Volume 7
(Well, okay, technically, I guess I would also need a Gary Busey Pez dispenser and maybe a Keanu Reeves one, too.)
(“The part of Keanu Reeves is being played by a tongue depressor.”)
(And I should probably get Volume 3
…”Self, I wonder what it’s like to take photos with a three foot long, 36 pound, $180,000, 1,200mm camera lens?”
Don’t even think about taking a selfie. It will not focus on anything closer than about 46 feet.
I wish this had been a better article. It really doesn’t talk as much about the actual process of shooting with the lens as I’d like, and I’m not all that impressed with two out of three of the photos. But I still think it’s worth linking, even if it doesn’t push all of my photo geek buttons.
(Also, this is a used lens. For the record, and because I’m a Nikon guy, here’s their “equivalent” lens.)
The Smith and Wesson Collector’s Association annual symposium was in Spokane this year.
…cheesecake, that is.
I’m on the road, so expect sporadic updates. I would say that I’m in an undisclosed location, but it turns out my hotel is within a very short walk of a certain university. I didn’t plan it that way (it also happens to be the convention hotel), but it does amuse me how this worked out.
One more photo. I took this last night, after I finished dinner and while I was waiting for the hotel shuttle.
“Ironic or not?” is a game I used to play with one of my cow orkers at Four Letter Computer Corporation.
During the Great Bobblehead Scandal of 2012, I bought a John Wilkes Booth bobblehead.
I had it on my desk at work until this morning, when I accidentally knocked it onto the floor and…
Yes, Booth broke his ankles. Much like the actual John Wilkes Booth did when he got his foot tangled in the bunting while leaping out of the presidential box at Ford’s Theater.
(Or maybe he broke his leg. Or maybe he didn’t break anything at all in the leap, but his horse injured him later. I’m a little dubious about that story; the evidence for that seems to be “he didn’t run like he had a broken leg”. Well, maybe, but given that he’d just killed the president and was fleeing the scene, adrenaline may have done a great job of hiding a broken leg.)
What really kind of totes my goat is that Booth fell maybe three feet (if that) onto a carpeted office floor. Note to self: don’t buy stuff from “The Bobblehead LLC”.
Ironic or not? Before you answer…
I’ve sort of hinted at this, but now the full story can be told.
Mike the Musicologist and I went on a road trip to Oklahoma the weekend of November 8th.
From the LAT archives, some spectacular photos of firefighters responding to a DC-6 crash.
What I find interesting about this story is that, with the exception of the standard “junk on the bunk” photo, all the weapons photos are of guns “similar to one police say was seized from Bjorkstam’s Kirkland home”. No photos of the actual guns? Also, heroin dealing must not be that lucrative if all you can afford is a Taurus.
A brief consumer note for my readers. Many of you know of my interests in neurology, books, and photography.
Please do not purchase this book for me.
Thank you.
The LA Weekly profiles Nick Ut, legendary AP photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner. He’s still working as an AP photographer in LA.
You may not recognize the name, but you’ll know the photo; it is one of the two most famous Vietnam War photos. I won’t embed it, but you can find all over the place, including here.
I’m not generally a big fan of the alternative papers, but this is a swell article. Some pull quotes:
Pulled mostly so I can plug Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina
…
Young photographers today, who “shoot 15 frames a second,” exasperate him. “Too fast. Picture lousy. One frame. Show the best picture. That’s how I learned. Look for the picture first.”
Besides, “If you come back with 500 pictures from one assignment? Your boss will yell at you. Too many! Who wants to look at all those pictures?”
…
Gratuitous Leica for the win! (I do wish the Weekly had gone into more detail about what Ut uses today. But then again, this isn’t an article targeted at professional photographers.)
