All posts by James O'Keefe

Photography, War

USS Hudner

2 Comments

The USS Hudner, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was in Boston for its commissioning ceremony.  My son and I saw this ship in August when we travelled to Bath, Maine to photograph the Zumwalt destroyer, USS Monsoor.  However, many of the photographs of the Hudner came out poorly due to distance or an error on my part.

While it was in Boston, I was able to go on a public tour of the Hudner. Most of the photographs are from that outing.

USS Hudner

USS Hudner

USS Hudner Cannon

USS Hudner Bridge

USS Hudner

USS Hudner

The following Saturday, I planned to take pictures when the sun came up. I woke up early, but decided I wanted to sleep more and tried to get back to sleep. After 30 minutes of failing to get back to sleep, I got up, threw the previous day’s clothes on, gathered my camera equipment (except for my remote trigger) and drove to a spot across the Reserve channel, which I probably should not have.

I drove to the lobster boat pier, found a sign that said not to enter, and doubled back to another spot. I parked, gathered my equipment, walked near the waters edge and found a large barge in the way. I decided to try the lobster pier again and found that the do not enter sign applied to a different fenced area, so I drove in. After asking if it was ok to photograph in the area and getting an ok, I grabbed my gear, setup my tripod and took a bunch of photos.

USS Hudner

I watched as a Massachusetts Environmental Police boat appeared, came to the waters edge and dropped a Massachusetts Environmental Police officer off. We talked courteously and he went on his way.

Just then the light peaked through the clouds and lit up the Hudner.

USS Hudner

I got a few more shots of the ship and the surrounding seagulls and decided to drive home. I saw another spot outside the port on the drive home, but ignored it. Since this was likely the last time I would get a chance to photograph any Burke-class destroyer, I turned around and got a few more photos of the ship and a number of birds from a little park.

USS Hudner

USS Hudner Landing Pad

However, the light was higher and much more harsh, so the pictures aren’t nearly as good, unfortunately. You can find all of the pictures I posted at my Flickr album:

USS Hudner

Pirate Party, Politics, Voting Rights

Vote Today

Leave a comment

I posted this over at the Massachusetts Pirate Party blog.

Election day is today. Polling places are open until 8pm. You can find your polling place at WhereDoIVoteMA.com.

If you believe you are registered, but you aren’t listed on the voter rolls, don’t walk away. The law says you can demand a provisional ballot and get a receipt. Follow up after the election to make sure they count it, but your vote cannot be counted if you didn’t cast it.

When you vote, we ask you to vote yes on Questions 1 and 3 and support any third-party candidate you agree with. You can find out more about the ballot questions below.

As always, we are looking for candidates for the 2019 town and city elections. If you are interested in running, fill out our supporter/candidate form.

More on the ballot questions

Question 1 would set the maximum number of patients per registered nurse which would vary by type of unit and level of care. Our increasingly corporate-controlled health care providers are against it as it would harm their profits. Send them a message that people deserve decent healthcare and vote yes.

Question 3 prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity in places of public accommodation. The legislature already approved it, but some anti-trans bigots believe that our fellow trans citizens and residents do not deserve equality and are using lies and fear mongering to try to get their way. Don’t let them win; vote yes.

On Question 2, we have not decided. Question 2 would create a citizens commission to advance an amendment to the United States Constitution to limit the influence of money in elections and establish that corporations do not have the same rights as human beings. We do not believe that corporations should have the same rights as individuals and I agree that we need to remove the corrupting influence of money in politics. Considering the influence of the rich and corporations on both major parties and on politics, it is pretty clear that once we open up any citizens process to amend the US Constitution, the rich will do their best to rewrite it in ways that enshrine their power and ideas. What is your opinion? Tell us in a comment below.

The Massachusetts Elections Division has more information on the ballot questions.

Politics, Social Justice

Early voting starts today

Leave a comment

Election day is 13 14 days away.  Early voting starts today in Massachusetts and concludes on November 2nd.  Find your city or town’s early voting times.

Alternatively, if you cannot vote on November 6th, you can mail in a request for an absentee ballot to your city or town.

Whenever you vote, I ask you to vote yes on Questions 1 and 3.

Question 1 would set the maximum number of patients per registered nurse which would vary by type of unit and level of care. Our increasingly corporate-controlled health care providers are against it as it would harm their profits. Send them a message that people deserve decent healthcare and vote yes.

Question 3 prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity in places of public accommodation. The legislature already approved it, but some anti-trans bigots believe that our fellow trans citizens and residents do not deserve equality and are using lies and fear mongering to try to get their way. Don’t let them win; vote yes.

On Question 2, I have not made up my mind. Question 2 would create a citizens commission to advance an amendment to the United States Constitution to limit the influence of money in elections and establish that corporations do not have the same rights as human beings. I do not believe that corporations should have the same rights as individuals and I agree that we need to remove the corrupting influence of money in politics. Considering the influence of the rich and corporations on both major parties and on politics, it is pretty clear that once we open up any citizens process to amend the US Constitution, the rich will do their best to rewrite it in ways that enshrine their power and ideas.

Find out more about the ballot questions.

Miniatures, When Imagination Fails

Uploaded latest crop of 1/2400 scale warship photos

Leave a comment

I recently posted more 1/2400 modern naval warship pictures I have found on the web. Here are some of them. All of the images are at whenimaginationfails.org.

GHQ

US Independence LCS-2 by gak8346.

PRC LuyangIII/Type52D DDG by gak8346.

PRC Taizhou/Project956EM DDG by gak8346.

PRC YutingII/Type072A LST by gak8346.

US Nimitz and Ford CVN by Scott Price

Superior

US Long Beach CGN by gak8346.

US Kidd DDG by scoobjd.

US Forrestal CV & Enterprise CVN by Scott Price.

Viking Forge

PRC LuyangII/Type 052C DDG by gak8346.

PRC JiangkaiII/Type 054A FFG by gak8346.

PRC Yuzhao/Type 071 LPD by gak8346.

FRG Hamburg FFG by gak8346.

FRG Bremen FF by gak8346.

US Whidbey Island LSD by gak8346.

US Thomaston LSD by gak8346.

US Garcia FF by gak8346.

US Iwo Jima LPH by Scott Price.

US Algol T-AKR by gak8346.

US Cape Isabel T-AKR by gak8346

Shapeways

Soviet/Russian Zubr LCAC by gak8346.

PRC Type 056 Corvette by gak8346.

Photography

2018 Honk! Parade Photos

Leave a comment

On October 7th, I attended the Honk! Parade with some photographers from the Boston Area Photography Group meetup.

I used my 35mm lens for the photographs during setup, but switched to the 18-105mm lens once the parade started since the telephoto lens worked better with moving subjects. I set my camera to aperture priority mode, set it to f/8 and experimented with shifting my focus point. The Tony Northrup how-to video for my camera helped in ways the camera manual does not and I recommended it to one of my fellow photographers.

Here are a few of the pictures:

DSC_1355

DSC_1381

DSC_1540

DSC_1442

Of the 304 photographs I took, I selected 12 to clean up and post to this flickr album:

Honk 2018

Miniatures, When Imagination Fails

Updated picture archive of 1/2400 modern warship miniatures

Leave a comment

Been sick of late, so in between sleeping, I updated my picture archive of 1/2400 modern warship miniatures. Here is a selection of the best of the new pictures.

Superior (top) and GHQ (bottom) Soviet Kiev-class CVs by Todd Hammond

PFC C-in-C Soviet Moskva CVH by Todd Hammond. I am not sure if the flight deck is a decal or an excellent paint job.

GHQ USS Ford CVN by Scott Price

and by Chuck Seegert

USS Enterprise CVN by M. Razali (Superior)

and by Kenneth Hall (Viking Forge)

Sea Battle USS Iwo Jima-class LPH (foreground) and oiler (back ground). By M. Razali (Viking Forge also casts these miniatures)

Superior USS Long Beach CGN by gak8346

Shapeways USS Kidd DDG by gak8346

Various PRC war and supply ships by Shark73

Various 1/2400 scale Soviet/Russian GHQ aircraft by caviles

Games, Miniatures, When Imagination Fails

Painted 1/2400 scale miniatures [Updated]

6 Comments

Here are some painted 1/2400 scale modern/cold war naval miniatures. Everything except the Type 022 missile boats is painted by gak8346.

Decals by Flight Deck Decals 2400. Bases without wakes are from Litko using their Base Maker product. The carrier bases are 2″ by 6″ with a 3mm curved edge. Trawlers and Houbei Type 022 bases are 0.5″ by 1.75″. Bases with wakes are from Old Dominion Game Works.

I tried different camera settings so I could get multiple miniatures in focus.

Chinese Houbei (Type 022) 1/2400 Miniature Missile Boats

These are used as civilian ships or dummy markers:

Viking Forge WW1 Generic Fishing Trawlers

1/2400 scale container ships

Viking Forge Sealift Pacific transport oiler 1/2400 miniature

These are passive contact or dummy markers:

Passive sensor contact markers

A comparison of Viking Forge and GHQ Nimitz CVNs:

US Nimitz class Cold War Era US Modern Naval 1/2400 miniatures

US Nimitz class Cold War Era US Modern Naval 1/2400 miniatures

And here are a few more of the many pictures I uploaded:

Viking Forge Modern 1/2400 miniatures

Viking Forge Cape Isabel RO-RO US Cold War Era/Modern Naval 1/2400 miniature

Viking Forge SS Algol RO-RO US Cold War-era/Modern 1/2400 miniature

If you want to see all of them, they are in this album:

1/2400 Naval Miniatures

Internet & Net Neutrality, Pirate Party, Web/Tech

Hate your ISP? Help form a community ISP

Leave a comment

Today during the monthly Somerville Cryptoparty, will be a discussion on how we can move forward with developing a community mesh network in the Boston area.  It will be from 6-9pm at The Sprouts, 339R Summer Street, Somerville. The Sprouts is in the garage in the back of the drive way. Unfortunately, it is not wheelchair accessible.

On Saturday, February 10th, there will be a Community Meshnet Workshop from 1-4pm at the Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave, Somerville.  The Somerville Public Library is wheelchair accessible. The Somerville Cryptoparty folks put together this flyer for the February workshop. I would appreciate it if you downloaded it and put it up around your neighborhood. You can also share the Somerville Cryptoparty page or the February Facebook event.

Hope you can make it and please spread the word about these events. Thanks!