The End of Summer Random Discussion for TPBM (29)

Thanks Cat, it is even sharper IRL! I really like the 50 1.4 on the 5DII

THAT is a GREAT cat portrait!!!

*reminds self to get out the 50 1.4*

Nice T-meister shots!

the last one was at 1.4 and 1000 ISO.

Seems some folks are getting their 7D's already, looks promising. I am officially selling my 40D, if anyone here wants it let me know. I will probably list it on the forum in a few days if there is no interest here.

JWright wrote in post #8714757
We got formaldehyde treated beer in Vietnam... That stuff was horrible.

When I was getting released from active duty, I was assigned to the SLJO at the Naval Supply Center in Seattle while my paperwork was being processed. One of our assignments was doing something (I don't remember what) in a huge warehouse. One part of the warehouse was where the beer going over seas was stored. There were hundreds of pallets of beer in there...

That stuff was just nasty...it earned the "embalming fluid" nickname. I was surprised to see how much beer we actually had on board the ship. We had to do weekly inspections of ship's spaces...you couldn't inspect your own spaces...so you got to see other areas of the ship. I was always amazed by the things that supply had aboard....especially Special Services. There was a good reason why they had armed Marines on watch there. Not only was there beer, there was enough hard stuff to float a destroyer or two....plus all the stuff sold in the ship's store. I can tell you...there isn't a camera store anywhere around here that has the kind of inventory that was available on the ship on a daily basis. They had at least 20 Canon F-1s and Noink F2s on the shelves and lenses out the wazoo.

How did you get him to hold still long enough for those shots Crissa? The animals here go into high gear whenever a camera appears.

He was quite cooperative this afternoon! Eli and billy were out of the house for a few hours and he was getting mucho momma love!

JWright wrote in post #8713065
I see the sea stories continued after I went to bed...

The Haley had the same type of A-frame that stayed for quite a while after her acquisition by the Coast Guard. It was eventually removed.

The discussion of weather at sea and sea sickness prompted me to go back and find shots of my ships.

This is the USS Menhaden, a WWII submarine modernized and kept in service until the 1970's. Because she was conventionally powered, she couldn't remain submerged to avoid weather. We hit gale force winds coming back from Japan on a great circle route up by the Aleutian Island. Being round bottomed, she rolled severely.

http://users.infomagic​.net/~grog/Fiber.htm

The USS Bauer, a Dealy-class destroyer escort didn't handle twoo badly, but had a tendency to pitch in any kind of seaway. It was always fun trying to sleep in my bunk in forward berthing...

This picture is before I served on her. The Weapon Alpha (between the gun and the bridge was gone and there was a helo hangar at the back of the superstructure.

http://www.navsource.o​rg …s/06021025/0602​102502.jpg

You want poor handling at sea? Try a minesweeper... the Agressive-Class ocean-going mine sweepers were constructed of wood with aluminum superstructures and had a comparatively shallow draft. They had all the sea-keeping characteristics of a fishing bobber and were impossible to steer in any kind of weather. If they had the sweep gear streamed it just compounded the problem.

They were prone to engine room fires as the engines were built out of a non-magnetic alloy and were always breaking fuel lines.

http://www.navsource.o​rg/archives/11/1102464​01.jpg

Perhaps the most fun I had in the Navy other than diving was on these. Tom probably remembers the Mark VI LCPL from his transport days. We used these as harbor patrol boats in Vietnam during the 1960's.

http://www.warboats.or​g …tonerPics/stone​rlcpl2.jpg

Now you have to tell us some of your war stories...

Neat John

puddlepirate44 wrote in post #8713430
Not all were Navy....

I hope you get a chance to hear it from your dad. That's a segment of history that is slowly going away. As a society, we've veered away from the oral histories of our ancestors due to the advent of History books and "Wiki". In my mind, that's a very sad thing. I remember hearing my Grandmother talk about Dec 7, 1941, how she heard about it, what she was doing, what she felt. Hearing about these events in our own past makes them so much more real and separates them from the dusty, dry data of the textbooks.

Which is often altered to reflect views educators and politics of the time the book was written.

Becky N wrote in post #8713551
A bit of George AFB History while I was there:

Tactical Air Command

35th Tactical Fighter Wing

431st Tactical Fighter Trainer
F-4 Phantom II Aircraft

While there the base received a prestigious service award for the F-4 by going so many years without losing an aircraft. As I recall within a week of receiving the reward we lost one aircraft and 2 more shortly afterward. I think it was the 1 st and 3rd one had the same pilot. First time the aircraft never lifted and kept going off the runway leaving quite a trench in its wake. First flight after the accident investigation was completed he no sooner got up and off the runway when he and his co-pilot had to eject and let the plane ditch over the desert. Both accidents were deemed mechanical errors, but; he decided not to try for the "3rd time is a charm".

2nd craft was over a populated area around LA, the pilot rode that one out to crash the jet in an uninhabited area. The co-pilot got out the pilot ejected just as the jet rolled and pretty much ejected into the ground. That was a very sad day at the base.

Good Air stories.

thomascanty wrote in post #8713610
I guess that site must have hotlink protection turned on.

I linked to three of the photos on this page. There are a few others there as well.

puddlepirate44 wrote in post #8713661
I tend to think of THIS

Neat

Skrim17 wrote in post #8713704
My dad was in the Air Force during the Korean conflict (war). He remained statesside and was in charge of the officers clubs and entertainment on the bases where he served in Texas and California. He wound up teaching Greek and German at the Army Language school in Monterey.

As a very young man, he was involved in the Greek resistance during their occupation by the Germans and Italians. I have heard many stories about battles and situations that arose from his daring, he was 14 when he first joined the resistance. We have some old photos and there are many battle fields in the mountains of the greek countryside that we have visited together when I was much younger.

I haven't written any of this history down tho, and now he is unable to tell it anymore. I'll do some research to see what I can find, but the documentation is poor as there was a junta in place for many years in greece after the war and they were not supporters of the resistance. My father went to Greece in 1972 with my brother Jon for a few weeks and was held at the airport when he tried to board the plane to come home. After our governor and other elected officials interceded and I am sure someone on the Greek side was paid off they got to leave.

Wow, that's fascinating Crissa.

thomascanty wrote in post #8713725
While I was stationed on the Caron we went on a top-sekrit mission, and none of us peons on the ship were told where we were headed. All we knew was, we left Norfolk, headed west through the Panama Canal, stopped in Panama City to refuel and get supplies (while I got drunker than I've ever been in my life, and a ship-mate showed me how to cheat on the slot machines the bar had -- he used to work for the company that made the slot machines and knew a trick). Then we headed to some foreign land where we just spent the next three months sitting three months off the coast.

About two months into the mission, us enlisted men were given the rare opportunity of calling loved ones back in the States using MARS. When it came my turn, I called my parents. That's when I found out where we were. My mother told me! She'd read about it in the March 22, 1982 edition of Newsweek!

We were three miles offshore from San Salvador, El Salvador during some really tense, touchy election period back then, standing by in case we were needed to move in and stop a coup or something. When we finally headed home from that mission, us peons were called into the control room where a CPO explained to us how sensitive the mission was and that we were to NOT tell anyone where he had been or what we had been doing (and, officially, we still hadn't been told that ourselves). It was all I could do to keep a straight face while he was giving the speech... I have that Newsweek article in my Caron photo album/scrapbook.

A few things I remember about those three months we spent down there were the heat lightning (lots of lights flashing throughout the sky for no apparent reason), the great white sharks that the guys fishing off the fantail were hooking by the dozens, and movie nights where they'd aim a projector at the hanger door on the fantail's helo deck. It wasn't uncommon during movie nights for a small "fishing" boat to putter up to us and, using a loud speaker, tell us to go away.

Good sea stories

T.D. wrote in post #8714182
Howdy from Houston!

Enjoying some Gumbo at the airport during a 3 hour layover. I'll be home tonight!

Dood you so didn't text me, I am not saying hi, phrumph.

cfpackerfan wrote in post #8714920
We walked today in the Santa Clara Swiss Days Parade with 10 of our adoptable dogs. After the parade, we went to the park where the celebration was being held, and stayed there for a few hours with all the dogs, meeting people, and just having fun.

A young girl there saw Jaxson and just fell in love with him. She sat and loved on him for quite some time, then called her mom to come down and meet him.
We talked for a while, and by the time we were ready to go, they had decided to adopt Jaxson!

It actually all worked out rather well.. Jaxson can't be adopted yet, because he hasn't been neutered, but they can't take him yet because she's going to be out of town for a little while, and they have some fence work to do before they can take him. The timing worked out perfectly.

We'll just keep him here till everything is done, then they'll take him home. YAY for Jaxson!!

YAY for Jaxson!!

Skrim17 wrote in post #8715081
The T-meister today:

T-spinner! Nice shots.

Yo.

You could make these cats fresh mouse souffle and they would still refuse to cooperate on a photo.

cfpackerfan wrote in post #8714920
It actually all worked out rather well.. Jaxson can't be adopted yet, because he hasn't been neutered, but they can't take him yet because she's going to be out of town for a little while, and they have some fence work to do before they can take him. The timing worked out perfectly.

Very nice how that all worked out for everyone.

Skrim17 wrote in post #8715081
The T-meister today:

He has turned out to be a beauty of a cat.


Reunion shoot was different from others we have done, Curt knew this but failed to tell me until about a 1/2 hour before we should have been at the venue. Basically an 8 x 10 class shot and then work out with us any small group shots wanted. So we were done in just over 2 hours and went out to dinner. Best part, no PP for me, Curt took all the shots.

How was dinner?

Evening all, just back from silver falls. Met Denise today & photographed her daughter for senior photos. It was a lot of fun. Though...we walked all the way to the bottom of the falls (not so bad) and then back up (near death experience)

Miniflash wrote in post #8714789
Wonders if I"ve been to Silver falls .hummmmmmmmmmm I think I have if its next to gold falls

nope Deb, I think you are talking about Gold & Silver falls, near Coos Bay. This Silver falls is near Aumsville/Salem etc.

Skrim17 wrote in post #8715081
The T-meister today:

SO CUTE!

thomascanty wrote in post #8711302
Not yet. It's on my DVR, too. But, right now I'm watching last night's CSI.

Dude...I SO didn't say that.

Permagrin wrote in post #8711504
I have to show you a shot. Tif took it. It's something I would have NEVER thought of doing (the bride's parents are the ones in the foreground). I love it! It just chokes me up. *proud of offspring moment*

Very nice!

Skrim17 wrote in post #8715081
The T-meister today:

Skrim17 wrote in post #8715124

Lovely spinner shots crissabert!

CAT yay for jaxon!!!

G'evening folks.

I'm bushed. It has been a long and stressful day.