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.
Worcester Walkabout
All posts by James O'Keefe
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.
Flowers and a Spider
Photographed flowers in the yard recently. No use of focus peaking this time, but I used HeliconFocus to stitch the sharp part of images together. Click on the images to view them in more detail. You can then zoom into them further.
Also found this spider in our house. It was a mostly willing model, but eventually it had had enough.
All images taken with my Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens on my Nikon Z 50 via the Nikon FTZ adapter.
Boston Facial Recognition Ban Hearing Today
Reposting this from the Massachusetts Pirate Party. If you live in Boston, do contact your city councilor and tell them to support this ordinance. Details below.
Today at 3pm, Boston City Council’s Committee on Government Operations will discuss a proposed ordinance to ban face surveillance in Boston. The hearing will be by Zoom meeting and the public may watch this meeting via live stream at boston.gov/city-council-tv.
It is too late to address the committee, but you can still provide written testimony. Details below. The ACLU put together a toolkit for activists that includes model testimony. There are also public education resources available at https://aclum.org/presspause.
Please attend the hearing and help out in the following ways:
- Sign and share the ACLU’s petition in support of the campaign: https://action.aclu.org/petition/ban-face-surveillance-boston;
- Encouraging your friends and family in Boston to provide testimony in support of this ordinance;
- If you live in Boston, contact your city councilor and tell them to support this ordinance. You can find a list and email them at https://www.boston.gov/departments/city-council. The ACLU has a toolkit for activists that includes contact information for the city councilors.
Written comments may be sent to the Committee or staff email (below) and will be made a part of the record and available to all Councilors.
Email: ccc.go@boston.gov/christine.odonnell@boston.gov Attn: Christine O’Donnell, Docket #0683
Fax Number: 617-635-4203 Attn: Christine O’Donnell, Docket #0683
Mail Address: Docket #0683, City Council, City Hall, 5th Floor, Boston MA 02201
Rhododendron flower
With the warmer weather of Spring, our Rhododendron is blooming. I continued my adventure with macro photography and focus stacking by taking multiple images of some of the flowers. This one was the best:
I zoomed in on my camera’s screen and manually focused the lens for each photograph. Next time I will try using focus peaking.