08-25-10 – The Book of Armaments

In case anybody was wondering…

Seriously, I didn’t know that was a model when I saw it in the thread! I was thinking “Wow, that is awesome, it must have been some sort of show or celebration!” Win! for the photo and doubleplus Win! for the model work.

Thanks! I screwed up with my long-winded description by not adding “Pfft…it’s only a model”. I’m afraid that I made it a bit too realistic.

And yes, I had considered using the shot of me looming behind the gun, but the gun tube wasn’t quite lined up right, and I didn’t want anybody to think that I had a droopy barrel.

If anyone happens to look at my B-sides and has any thoughts along the lines of “you know, I’d probably have gone with this one over that one,” I’d welcome the input. Still working on trying to recognize what distinguishes a photo that I happen to like from one with perhaps more universal appeal…

I might have gone with the second Blue Angels picture instead of the little kid but only because it makes me wince to see his finger on the trigger in a crowd of legs. I realize its most likely empty but my dad would still freak out and I guess he taught me well. I really like the kids picture and I like your choices other than that.

What he said. But the “adult” in the background with his finger also on the trigger really rubs me the wrong way. He should know better, especialy around kids.

What he said. But the “adult” in the background with his finger also on the trigger really rubs me the wrong way. He should know better, especialy around kids.

Yeah, technically you’re both right (the “adult” is 14 in that pic, BTW), but all the weapons there had been rendered non-functional. Here’s the uncropped version and a couple of others for context:

The family of the NC Secretary of Public Safety is visible in one of those photos, so you can be assured everything was safe. 🙂

Regarding the alternate selections, I wavered until the end between this one and the B-25 Mitchell bomber. I assumed the thread would be chock full of Blue Angels pics or I would’ve given that one more consideration.

No offence taken. If those were live or even functional weapons, a) you’d be absolutely correct to chastise; and b) I’d never let either one of them around another gun again! They’ve both since gone through gun safety training through ROTC and scouting.

And thanks for the kind words about the Mitchell. I think it’s based somewhere locally because it shows up at all of the airshows and similar events. It’s a cool old plane.

If anyone happens to look at my B-sides and has any thoughts along the lines of “you know, I’d probably have gone with this one over that one,” I’d welcome the input. Still working on trying to recognize what distinguishes a photo that I happen to like from one with perhaps more universal appeal…

Either one of the Blue Angels flying in formation would have garnered my vote. Unlike me, you had a great array of shots to choose from for this theme. All your A’s and B’s are entryworthy IMO.

Thanks much for both your input and the compliment, Zero! Like I said, I thought the Blue Angels would already be well represented in the thread but it looks like Ranger Joe’s is about the only one.

About that Blue Angels shot…

Elsinore, I need you to DQ it…while going through the FSM to see which images Kestrana needs for her project, I saw that I had used the same image for “Bang” in March of 2009.

My bad.

In unrelated nitpicking: Farking voters, how do they work? Usually the humor approach works for solid, bowl-my-average outcomes. I guess the humor was too “inside” this week. I knew I should have went with trench warfare.

yeah the votes for my entries this week are rather weak. I almost feel like a failure. I know the voters are fickle but geeze the picture I liked most has gotten 2 votes other than my vote. Well maybe next week I will have better luck.

I almost feel like a failure. I know the voters are fickle but geeze the picture I liked most has gotten 2 votes other than my vote. Well maybe next week I will have better luck.

I’ve given up entirely on predicting the predilections of Farkers.

My not-perfectly-focused, light-reflecting-in-the-window, ‘where-the-hell-is-that-full-res-shot-in-my-archives-so-I-can-do-this-better’ disrupter-gun pic is slightly outperforming my ‘damn-I-could-have-burnt-my-apartment-down’ shot that I thought would be far and away the better voter getter. Go figure; I concur with caradoc.

Pic of the ‘whoops-I-better-do-this-a-little-more-carefully’ shot from the first attempt:

The bright side (besides the overexposed flames) is I’m keeping up with my recent averages and am actually on the stat’s board under ‘highest recent vote getters’–a feat I never expected to achieve.

IMO, lokisbongyour gunfire shot, cropped to just the gun and the smoke/fire area, would have ranked much higher. It’s that portion of the shot that makes it a good shot; the rest is just a distraction from that focus. But then a 5 year old with a p+s could have taken a better ray-gun pic than I did, and it’s my leading photo, so what do I know?