View allAll Photos Tagged secondamendment
The Mean Green Machine spends its last day with me.
Seven-exposure HDR. Natural light from windows- no artificial light on subject.
Guns on display at anti-Islam rally in Phoenix. Protesters brought plenty of firepower to a protest against Islamic terrorism and Islam itself on October 10. Police separated them a smaller group of counter-protesters. Held in front of the Islamic Community Center, the event was part of a broader "Global Rally for Humanity," with similar protests scheduled in other cities that day.
Taken with my new cheapo Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, mounted on my Nikon D600. This is the earlier non-CPU version of the lens (model FE8M-N), but my D600 handles this well, giving full metering when the camera is set to know the parameters of the mounted lens.
As you can see, the lens is intended to cover the much smaller DX "crop sensor". The lens hood obstructs much of the image circle when projected onto the FX (36x24mm) sensor.
The hood is permanently attached, so it will require some brutal measures to free it. Once removed, the circle cast on my sensor will reside within the rainbow ring here. MUCH more usable area. You can see the inside of the lens hood (circular grooves around the image).
Grotesquely post-processed by Photomatix, this weirdness is not a product of this particular lens.
Guns on display at anti-Islam rally in Phoenix. Protesters brought plenty of firepower to a protest against Islamic terrorism and Islam itself on October 10. Police separated them a smaller group of counter-protesters. Held in front of the Islamic Community Center, the event was part of a broader "Global Rally for Humanity," with similar protests scheduled in other cities that day.
Guns on display at anti-Islam rally in Phoenix. Protesters brought plenty of firepower to a protest against Islamic terrorism and Islam itself on October 10. Police separated them a smaller group of counter-protesters. Held in front of the Islamic Community Center, the event was part of a broader "Global Rally for Humanity," with similar protests scheduled in other cities that day.
The current owner Willie Shepherd, who is well into his eighties, originally traded two sacks of potatoes for this sweet (at the time) ride.
This photo was made with a Phoenix MZ-5000 650mm-1300mm f/8-f/16 T-mount lens on a Nikon D600.
The lens was made by Samyang in Korea, and is sold under many brand names, such as:
Bower, Falcon, Opteka, Phoenix, Polar, Pro-Optic, Vivitar, Walimex and Rokinon
Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, intended for use on crop sensor DSLR cameras.
I shaved off the original built-in lens hood to allow this wider field of view.
The camera was a Nikon D600, placed on top of a 4' tall tree stump, facing straight up at zenith.
Exposure time was 30 seconds at f/5.6 and ISO400
This photo was made with my old Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 lens. It was made in 1972 or 1973. It is quite scratched, dusty and maybe even has a little fungus growing, along with damaged coatings.
Nonetheless, it is fun to play with. I performed a crude AI-modification to the aperture ring (I used a file). The lens now works perfectly with my Nikon D600 (full metering and focus confirmation).
This is my Kearney & Trecker horizontal milling machine. It was made during World War II, and was presumably used to produce parts for the war effort.
It has been sitting in my yard for quite a few years, and is missing some parts, some of which were sold to bring new life to other old K&T mills.
It will soon be scrapped, but hopefully not until I have a chance to remove and save some of the smaller parts from this aging derelict.
It weighs about 4,000 pounds, and is considered a baby of its type.
Five-exposure HDR.
Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX lens on Nikon D50
126 seconds at ISO200
I adjusted the levels and curves for this image, otherwise it is as-shot.
The lower part of this psychedelic mushroom cloud image is Route 299 between Bieber and Adin, California.
This is with a 1970s-vintage (maybe early 1980s) orange-colored f/11 Celestron C90 (90mm objective), with a focal length of 1000mm. The newer ones are quite different, and have longer focal lengths.
Washington DC, Saturday March 24, 2018. Hundreds of thousands gathered here today to protest the ever more frequent gun massacres that have sadly become one of the defining features of life in the USA over the past thirty years. The shootings have evolved into increasingly more deadly events because of the ease of obtaining semi-automatic rifles, high capacity ammo magazines and other weapons of war. Organizations like the National Rifle Associations have successfully bribed our national legislators to beat back most attempts to enact sane gun laws that would ban civilian sales of these military munitions. In the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school mass shooting a youth led movement* has become energized and is pushing back against the gun lobby status quo and, it has to be noted, against the entire immoral agenda of Trumpism and 21st Century Republicanism. President Trump spent today at his golf resort in Mar a Lago, Florida. Again.
*There has been an active black led movement against gun violence and other forms of vigilante and police violence in America for many decades but it has been ignored or unfairly reported on by corporate media and actively harassed by police wherever it appeared. The most recent example is the Black Lives Matter movement.
Guns on display at anti-Islam rally in Phoenix. Protesters brought plenty of firepower to a protest against Islamic terrorism and Islam itself on October 10. Police separated them a smaller group of counter-protesters. Held in front of the Islamic Community Center, the event was part of a broader "Global Rally for Humanity," with similar protests scheduled in other cities that day.
Truly a bastard yet temporary child. An Olympic Arms lower, a Delton upper, and a Rock River Arms rear sight. Building a lower based on a Delton receiver for it. Then the Olympic Arms lower goes back to its original A2 upper and the RRA sight gets replaced by some sort of optic.
This image was made through a piece of BAADER AstroSolar™ Safety Film (optical density 5.0). It worked fabulously when I shot the Venus transit a year or two ago, using a carefully made filter holder for my lens, and shooting images of the Sun at 1/500th of a second.
But for this shoot, I intended to use it as an ultra-dense "ND" filter for very long exposures. So I cut the filter down to a size that would fit in my Chinese knock-off of the Cokin P square filter holder. I found a piece of thin card stock that would fit well in the filter slots, then carefully taped the Baader film to the card stock, within the limits of my shaky hands. Last time, my surgeon girlfriend helped me get it all taut and straight.
Unfortunately, there was enough of a gap between the card stock and the filter holder that a lot of light could leak through, so I intended to tape it all up with black vinyl electrical tape.
And of course, I left the tape in the car, so this is my result after a 30-second exposure. Color shift was not as bad as I expected, despite this certainly not being a "Neutral Density" filter. So I'll try again, and be sure to seal up all the light gaps.
An optical density of 5.0 translates to 16-2/3 stops! That's a ND100000 filter.
My, my...
Recording Gun For Hire Radio podcast on the 1st anniversary of the opening of Gun For Hire's Woodland Park Range - 4/21/14.
Proposed legislation in Virginia:
-Background checks.
-Limit on # of handgun purchases per month.
-Communities can ban guns from specific events/venues.
-Police can take guns from those deemed a risk to others.
5.45x39mm Russian 7N6 surplus ammo for the AK-74 rifle. On "spam can" of 1,080 rounds. Shot with an iPhone 4S and processed on the iPhone.
©2012 David C. Pearson
This is a shop-made "Beauty Dish" light modifier. To build it, I bought a $6.00 20" woven-bamboo salad bowl at Resco, a restaurant supply house in Reno, Nevada.
I cut a rectangular hole for the Speedlight's nose to poke through. I drilled two holes to attach an L-bracket to the back of the dish, below the rectangular hole. A plastic rail from a cheap light stand umbrella adapter is screwed down to the L-bracket, allowing the Nikon SB600 Speedlight to sit at just the right height to poke through the center hole.
The baffle in the center of the dish is a plastic ceiling box cover, obtained for free from the Reno Habitat For Humanity store. The baffle stands off of the dish about 4 inches, held there by two #6 machine screws. The stand-off distance is adjustable, and I found that all the way out from the dish worked best.
I painted the baffle and the inside of the dish with flat white spray paint, purchased from Walmart for $.96US per can (cheap!). I will probably paint the outside flat black at some point, but that is strictly a cosmetic measure.
I made a handle from an aluminum bicycle seatpost, which is attached to the L-bracket with the same screw that retains the plastic hotshoe mounting rail. This allows the rig to be easily hand-held for macro and other no-assistant-needed shots. I use Nikon's CLS system to allow full TTL exposure with no wires required. Works very well!
I'll post additional photos of the details in a day or two.
I found that the most even coverage of the dish was obtained when the flip-down "14mm" diffuser over the flash reflector was deployed.
The SB600 was set to 1/4 or 1/2 power here, and f/8 at ISO100 on the camera.
This is the same setup as the previous shot, but with a steel snoot slid over the flashhead. It is a 4" x 3" HVAC duct reducer, purchased from Home Depot for less than $6.00US. The Home Depot site currently shows a different (shorter) design when the SKU is looked up, so I'll have to post a photo of mine when I get to it.
This works so well, I'll have to go buy the rest of what they had in stock, in case the one shown on the web site is the new standard. The reducer, unmodified, is a nearly perfect slip-fit over the flashhead.
I painted the galvanized steel reducer inside and out with a $.96 can of flat black spray paint from Walmart, then baked the part at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes to fast-cure the paint.
Galvanized surfaces are very difficult to get paint to stick to, so we'll see how well this works.
The flashhead was powered by a 4,000 w/s Norman 40/40 powerpack, turned down to minimum power.
Camera was set to ISO50 at f/22
While making a purchase at a used bookstore, I spotted a booklet containing the United States Constitution on the counter. I asked the price. “Free”, the owner answered, “from ACLU”. He emphasized the acronym for the American Civil Liberties Union like either I didn’t know what the organization was or that the there was special significance to the group producing the handout—perhaps both. Whichever, or neither, he wanted to impart something.
Was either my surprise or interest at all the reason? His next statement, unprompted, perhaps explains: “It says nothing about assault rifles…[but] well-regulated militia. Most militias are illegal”. That was so left-field—politically, not just figuratively—I couldn’t rightly respond. He referred to the Second Amendment: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”.
How did guns come into any of this? What? I look like some alt-right, QAnon conspiracy case? Is that the stereotype now of anyone attracted to the Constitution? I am white, middle-aged, and talk like a Mainer—could it be nothing more than that? You tell me.
My interest is something else: A printed copy would be handy to have, and I thought my wife might appreciate its presence. I am not familiar enough with the document, and the booklet presents chance to change that without being subjected to all the unwanted commentary and analysis associated with online renditions.
As for stereotypes, I wouldn’t know a QAnon from an Al-Anon, pantheon, gargantuan, or any other an/on you can rhyme. For sure, the bookstore owner didn’t mistake me for a—gasp—journalist, for which a First Amendment discussion could have been. That one reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.
Now excuse me while I rush off to watch the nation’s future unfold in the second episode of HBO Max limited series DMZ, which is set in a dystopian future civil-war-torn country. Surely some type of militia is involved and clearly I need to be educated about such things. Hehe.
This photo was made with a Phoenix MZ-5000 650mm-1300mm f/8-f/16 T-mount lens on a Nikon D600.
The lens was made by Samyang in Korea, and is sold under many brand names, such as:
Bower, Falcon, Opteka, Phoenix, Polar, Pro-Optic, Vivitar, Walimex and Rokinon
Processed with Photomatix
An homage to the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. :-) Slide locked back and out of ammo. Glock 19.
©2011 David C. Pearson, M.D.
This large and ancient metal lathe is located in Lookout, California, in Lassen County, Big Valley.
This is in the boonies of Northern CA.
The label reads:
The Hendey Machine Co. Torrington Conn. U.S.A.
The size is as follows:
Swing over bed: 18"
Swing over carriage: unknown
Chuck diameter: unknown
Bed length: 10 feet
It may have been built in the 1905-1920 era, from what I've learned so far.
It has a full feed/threading gearbox.
It is equipped with at least parts of a taper attachment.
The original drive, which may have been a lineshaft or an electric motor is long gone. In its place, a modern 1HP motor with an unknown number of poles drives the conehead through a three-speed automotive transmission and a flat belt to the spindle cone. The owner says the motor will start the spindle in anything but highest gear.
It is owned by a fine older gentleman named Willie. He owns a LARGE property full of old tractors, cars, trucks, bulldozers and vehicles of varied and sundry description.
This lathe was still in occasional use. I expect that it could be restored to its former glory by a man willing and able to put a LOT of time and/or money into it. I plan to buy it some day, assuming Willie gets tired of it at some point.
More info on Hendey lathes:
America: Land of the Gun. "'The people have the right to bear arms for their security and defense". Each year about 30,000 people die in the States from gun-related incidents. In Britain it's about 42. And yet still Americans think the right to bear arms is something worth defending. 30,000 dead is some price to pay for a dubious right. (This image created for use with promotion of Popcorn by Ben Elton - a play about film violence). There are more free stock photography shots in my Freestock set.
This large and ancient metal lathe is located in Lookout, California, in Lassen County, Big Valley.
This is in the boonies of Northern CA.
The label reads:
The Hendey Machine Co. Torrington Conn. U.S.A.
The size is as follows:
Swing over bed: 18"
Swing over carriage: unknown
Chuck diameter: unknown
Bed length: 10 feet
It may have been built in the 1905-1920 era, from what I've learned so far.
It has a full feed/threading gearbox.
It is equipped with at least parts of a taper attachment.
The original drive, which may have been a lineshaft or an electric motor is long gone. In its place, a modern 1HP motor with an unknown number of poles drives the conehead through a three-speed automotive transmission and a flat belt to the spindle cone. The owner says the motor will start the spindle in anything but highest gear.
It is owned by a fine older gentleman named Willie. He owns a LARGE property full of old tractors, cars, trucks, bulldozers and vehicles of varied and sundry description.
This lathe was still in occasional use. I expect that it could be restored to its former glory by a man willing and able to put a LOT of time and/or money into it. I plan to buy it some day, assuming Willie gets tired of it at some point.
More info on Hendey lathes: