I recorded a brief video of a robin singing in my backyard.
I have a bunch of photo edits to post. Hopefully soon.
All posts by James O'Keefe
Birds and the Moon
I had the Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens so I found other uses for it. It was probably excessive to use it photographing birds in the backyard …
… but I got many good photographs of the moon that I hope to try focus stacking. In retrospect, since I used a tripod, I should have used a slower shutter speed. One unfocus stacked image:
Warship Wednesday: DDGs LBJ & Inouye
Over the summer I planned to head up to Bath, Maine to photograph the USS Lyndon B. Johnson. I planned to take the Maine Maritime Museum’s Shipyards & Lighthouses Cruise just as I had when photographing the USS Monsoor.
Due to the pandemic that was not possible, so I instead rented the Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens from Hunt’s Photo Video. My son and I drove up and tried finding locations to photograph from. The land across from the Kennebec River is filled with private houses and offered no outlet from which to photograph the USS LBJ. We ended up starting on the US Route 1 bridge and traveling down to the Doubling Point Lighthouse:
The Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens is a very heavy lens. Hand holding it seemed a recipe for blurry photos so I put it on a sturdy tripod. It worked well though the walkway to the Doubling Point Lighthouse vibrated when people walked on it.
From the US Route 1 bridge:
From the Doubling Point Lighthouse:
From where on the Doubling Point Lighthouse I photographed the LBJ. Taken while on a previous boat cruise.
Worcester Walkabout
Back in October I walked around Worcester mapping surveillance cameras at a Pirate Party outing. Got a chance to photograph some of the murals and other sights in downtown Worcester.
Attacks on Section 230
Steve and I talked about the CDA Section 230 gutting SAFE TECH Act on the latest Pirate News livestream. You can read a redline version.
Some of the articles we reference:
- The SAFE TECH Act offers Section 230 reform, but the law’s defenders warn of major side effects;
- War on Section 230 begins in earnest as Dem senators look to limit legal immunity for social networks, websites etc;
- Now It’s The Democrats Turn To Destroy The Open Internet: Mark Warner’s 230 Reform Bill Is A Dumpster Fire Of Cluelessness;
- Senators Warner, Hirono, And Klobuchar Demand The End Of The Internet Economy.
We live stream Sundays at 7:30pm Eastern. You can find past recordings at MassPirates.org.
Summer Neighborhood Photos
Finally got around to posting some new photos I took during the summer.
I was particularly fond of the following photograph, though a flash would have helped.
Whether the patient fly stuck around with a flash going off repeatedly is an open question.
Flowers and Such
A few flowers and such from the neighborhood.
To see a higher resolution version of the one above:
DeCordova Sculpture Park
Visited the DeCordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln recently. It was a nice day to get out and walk around with the family. Here is a selection of the art we saw:
Some of the art wasn’t:
You can cycle through all of the pictures:
Latest Fleet Additions
Finally got around to photographing and uploading my latest set of 1/2400 ship miniatures. I cannot claim that I painted the ships. That honor goes to gak8346 who has a far better eye for painting small modern ships than I do. I’ll stick to other miniatures.
I played with focus stacking and using HeliconFocus got a number of photos of ships at oblique angles. Some post-Cold War GHQ ships:
I based the Arleigh Burke IIA destroyer as the USS Hudner, which I photographed when it was being commissioned in Boston.
And one from Dutch Fleet Naval Miniatures on Shapeways:
As well as some Cold War era ships:
Some of the mini-carriers nice and based:
Finally finished the Tarawa-class LHA:
Bill’s Models was nice enough to create some ships at my request, so I had to get them, including some USNS RO-ROs:
They are all decent ships, but if you are starting out with adding merchant or RO-ROs to your collection, I recommend getting some of the US ships from Viking Forge such as the Sealift Pacific, Cape Isabel and Algol.
There are more pictures from this upload in my 1/2400 Naval Miniatures photo album as well as pictures I shared in the past. You can just cycle through them below:
NEOWISE
In July, my sons and I went to Danehy Park in Cambridge to see Comet NEOWISE. We got there before sunset to find a good position on the hill in the park.
It wasn’t the best location, even besides the mosquitos that came out after dusk, but it was a good opportunity to try time lapse/astro photography.
It wasn’t easy to find Comet NEOWISE with the naked eye, so I pointed my camera in the right direction, took a long exposure photograph, then checked if the comet was in the photograph. Whether it was there or not, I repositioned the camera to either find it or get a better picture of it.
It was an iterative process.
I played with the duration of the photographs experiencing that long durations at high focal lengths result in star trails. Some had a good balance.
The next day, clad in bug spray and long pants, my son and I tried photographing the comet from the top of the Alewife MBTA stop garage in Cambridge. The combination of the clouds and the bright garage lights hindered my efforts to get decent pictures. It was a good scouting opportunity. Unfortunately, the weather since hasn’t been great so it was good we went out the earlier night.