Wednesday night sunset, after a brief encounter with a dust devil

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This was the view that greeted me after I came home from a long day trip to Pierre, South Dakota for a video project. I love our HD gear, and I probably should; I selected which gear to purchase when our company decided to go HD! We did mostly driving today, however, with a very little bit of shooting in between. I did stop to take one still picture though:

There were a few of these “dust devils” visible in a field along Highway 1804. They hung in the air long enough for me to go through the internal “do I, don’t I?” before finally pulling the Suburban over to the side of the road to get the shot. Our project manager thought it was cool and our client didn’t mind, so I grabbed my trusty camera and snapped a few shots before moving along.

Several hours of driving, a little bit of shooting, and a pair of pretty decent photos. Yep…good day.

Minot Air Force Base hosts Northern Neighbors Day 2009

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I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the Minot Air Force Base’s “Northern Neighbors Day” this weekend. I believe this show runs every two years, but it’s been a while since I’ve been able to make it to one. I have been looking forward to this day for two years, and I was not disappointed. Boy, did I take a lot of pictures. Here are a few…and there’s a link to a gallery of more at the bottom of this post.

Starting with the star of the show, the B-52 Stratofortress.

Check out the riflings on the barrel of this A-10’s 30mm gun! That’ll get those depleted uranium shells spinning.

Of course, there were plenty of aerobatic demonstrations.

How’s that for a ribbon cutting ceremony?

Various planes and helicopters were available for people to inspect, including a peek into the cockpits of some such as the F-15 and F-16. Pilots were on hand to chat.

Don’t get any funny adventurous ideas. You’re still on a nuclear weapon facility. I need one of these for my property, at least the last line anyway.

Yes, attractive women DO fly deadly planes.

I’m sure I’d have even more photo opportunities if my truck did this.

If I couldn’t attach these to my motorcycle, I bet I could make a monster go-kart with them!

The Barack Obama fighter. Hope™! Change™!

As some of the Army’s “Golden Knights” parachute team spiral toward us, the Pietsch brothers circle in their stunt planes.

These jets can fire up at a moment’s notice. They have explosive charges on the engines that can be detonated to spin the turbines up instantly, negating the use of an APU. They can be airborne and ready to go make some mayhem in a matter of minutes. We got a demo.

Something you don’t see every day: an F-16 Fighting Falcon alongside a P-38 Lightning!

Something else you don’t see every day: a B-52 Stratofortress next to a B-25 Mitchell!

This was my first experience with the B2 Spirit stealth bomber. I came away from it very pleased. All radar invisibility aside, the thing is just darn near impossible to see or hear when it’s coming or going! Only when it flies by is it detectable, and then it’s too late. It’s quite BIG, too.

U2 flyby. No, not Bono…he only THINKS he can fly. I was stunned at just how loud this aircraft is, and it was a real hoot to see it peel off and head to 60,000 feet. I don’t think they’ve ever let on how high it can REALLY go. Space, pretty much.

Uniform-01, the missile training facility. It’s an exact replica of a Minuteman III silo and launch facility. Through a stroke of luck my friend Jerry and I got a personalized tour of this thing, with the better part of an hour to just have the instructor to ourselves and ask questions. This alone made the trip worthwhile. No, I was NOT allowed to take my camera with me when we went down the hole.

Beauty.

Amen, brutha. I know the pusillanimous, sissified PC crowd thinks that this statement is imperialist and overbearing…but it’s not. America has been the greatest stabilizing force in the world. It’s because of the folks serving here at Minot Air Force Base, and all over the world, that we enjoy peace. If there’s a war, they win it for us. If there’s peace, it’s because people are afraid to mess with them. They stand by our allies and defend our nation and its friends.

Want more pics? I took a TON of them. These were just some of my favorites. I took the opportunity to make an online gallery of the ones I like the best. You can find it by clicking here. I hope you enjoy. Thanks to the friendly (and I do mean FRIENDLY) folks at the Minot Air Force Base for all that they do and all their hard work and hospitality in making this Northern Neighbors Day one that I’ll remember for the rest of my life!

And now for my next trick…

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I had the great opportunity to poke around up at the Minot Air Force Base this weekend, as part of their Northern Neighbors Day. It was amazing. I had an incredible time and took over 1,500 photos. Obviously it’s hard to go through them all in a timely fashion and post them here, but I’m almost ready.

In the mean time, I noticed that I took my 44,000th photo over the weekend, the one above. Time flies (pun intended) when you’re having fun! Of course, the photos come more slowly in the winter time. I need to maximize my opportunities during the summer, balanced with family time of course, and so far this year has been pretty good for that.

Check back soon for some amazing aircraft photos! I’ve got so many “keepers” that I’ll have to make a special gallery; a blog post containing them all would take forever to load.

Two sets of pioneers

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From the coordinates I had received, the ISS was going to appear in the west and travel toward the northeast. Wrong. My spotter told me via cell phone that it was heading in a far different direction than I had expected, so I had to call an audible. Instead of sitting behind the pioneer statue on the capitol mall, I had to dash around to the front of it and pick a new foreground object. Thankfully I was able to still keep the capitol building in the photo!

The few chances I would have had to get a horizontal trajectory of the ISS passing the capitol, it either appeared too far south of the capitol to work photographically or was obscured by clouds. Tonight’s photo, while not what I was trying so hard to set up for, isn’t bad; sometimes creativity gets a kick in the shorts, and this is one example!

Friends & Neighbors Day at the NGPRL

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I took my family to the Friends and Neighbors Day at the NGPRL again this year, and we had a blast! We barely had time to take in a fraction of everything going on out at “the Lab” because of all the scheduled events. We did so much and had such a good time that my little boys (ages 1 and 2) went straight to snoozeville after their baths tonight. And there was plenty going on when we left after a couple of hours’ worth of adventure!

There were fun activities and toys for the kids. Coloring, face painting, free flying discs and other attractions. Plus there were my boys’ favorite…snacks!

The boys got their first school bus ride today, until we figured out that the bus tour was going to take two hours. We hopped off at the first stop and got a ride back to rejoin the rest of the festivities. Next time I’ll ask first…thankfully we didn’t inconvenience anybody. Oops!

This exhibit teaches kids what they might find if they burrowed under ground; roots, bugs, critters…and even a hole to poke one’s head out and see what’s going on above the surface!

While the big kids perused the presentations highlighting the work being performed at the facility, little kids like my PJ started honing their disc-throwing skills. Even at only two years old, I think he’s starting to show signs that he’s inherited Daddy’s “mad skillz” with a frisbee!

Of course, the highlight of any little boy’s day, other than the free swag, is going to be the big machinery available for climbing. When my boys are a little bit older, I’m going to take them for some tractor rides and Bobcat training. I have friends who have volunteered to let me use their machines, so the boys are already looking forward to it.

He looks right at home in a skidsteer, doesn’t he? It’s a good thing they take the keys out of these machines, because the kids thought they were better than a playground. My two boys were NOT the ones who couldn’t take their hands off the horn buttons.

My one year old was pretty sure that the hubs needed servicing on this tractor!

Thanks again to the folks out at the NGPRL for putting on an incredible event. I didn’t even get to talk about the free Cloverdale hot dogs and pop, or the evening BBQ with Chuck Suchy performing! Nor did I get a chance to talk about the various seminars about trees, gardens, lawn care, Garden JEOPARDY, or that kind of thing. There were horse-drawn wagon rides, exhibits, and dozens of friendly faces. I can’t do it all justice, other than to say that the folks at “the Lab” have continued a tradition of fun, hospitality, and education at this year’s event. Next year, when you see those signs around town, make sure you save the date and attend the next Friends and Neighbors Day!

Note the absence of any space stations in this photo

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Sometimes I get a bug for a certain photograph and spend my camera opportunities trying to acquire it. While I have plenty of photos of the International Space Station flying over various Bismarck-Mandan landmarks, I wanted another one with the capitol building in the foreground. That has proven quite difficult.

First, we have the night portrayed above. I had bad information; while I had the camera set properly, and managed to get perhaps the sharpest twilight photo of the capitol since I started dabbling in photography, the ISS flew directly over my head (maybe even slightly behind me). Darn.

Last night would have been a perfect night for an ISS capture: it was passing just above the capitol, very brightly, and for several minutes. Then the clouds spoiled it. Grrr.

I already have a photo of the ISS over the capitol; however, I want ANOTHER one. Don’t worry…I’m persistent. It won’t escape. For now, maybe I’ll use a more flexible foreground object like a windmill or something.

Not sure I’d be able to do this job

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I couldn’t help but wonder what those trucks were doing on the new Memorial Bridge last week or so. I was hoping that by sticking people over the railing and working on the underside of the bridge, they’d finally get those fancy lights working on the pillars! No such luck: they were painting.

I’ve never been a big fan of heights when it comes to scaffolds, ladders, or bucket trucks. Sure, I’ll do it…but that doesn’t mean I like it. I hope these guys are more comfortable with the idea, because the boom on this truck goes all the way down!

This guy had some spectators, as three girls were enjoying a sunny day at the river right by where he was painting. I bet that was a pretty wild looking sight from the water level, a guy hanging from a truck on a big telescoping arm…painting. I found it pretty cool that the truck could do such a thing, and I was glad I wasn’t the guy on the end of that arm! The paint looks good. Now if they could just get those lights working…

Don’t criticize Democrats on KFYR Radio, or you’ll be canned

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I’m neither a farmer nor a daily commodities investor, but I’ve enjoyed listening to Gene Graner of Heartland Investor Services on KFYR Radio from time to time. Well, last week he was talking about political forces acting on the markets, and said some things critical of our state’s anointed Democrat congressional delegation. Apparently that isn’t going to fly at KFYR Radio. Here are the comments – click on the bottom of the graphic to play the clip.

My friend Rob at Say Anything and I have been following this since the get-go. He relayed Gene’s details by email:

” Today July 2, 2009 I was silenced by the socialists and removed from the daily shows I do on KFYR radio for the comments I made.

I was told I could continue if I just report on the markets. I said I would report the markets and what affects them, including politics.

I was then thanked by the General Manager, who is a know Obamacrat, for the work I had done but that I was no longer needed.

Friends, I put liberty before wealth, freedom before treasure. If more people would do this, this country would not be were it is at, continuing it deep spiral into extreme socialism.”

Thankfully, Gene told me he was doing the KFYR gig pro bono, so getting taken off the air doesn’t affect his livelihood at the political whim of a Democrat sympathizer who can’t stand criticism of his party.

This is concerning. I mean, it’s obvious that the media is in the tank for Democrats, but it’s getting worse. For instance:

Look at who the Bismarck Tribune is friends with on Facebook… pro-homosexual agenda “civil rights” and pro-Obama groups. They don’t bother hiding it, but why should they? It comes out in their “journalism.”

Around a HALF MILLION acres of private land have now been put under the “management” of a bunch of liberal Democrats who are not elected and hold no official office, but they’ve been loyal to the cause and so their “foundation” will be in charge of coming up with a “plan” for usage of pretty much all the land between Huff Hills and the Knife River Indian Village! The Sierra Club, a group historically hostile toward individual property rights, will now be telling the property owners they loathe what they can do with their land! Have you seen or heard THAT on the news?

How about the fact that Kent Conrad has been under investigation by an ethics committee for MONTHS for being part of, and benefiting from, the mortgage crisis that caused much of our current financial meltdown…yet you have probably not heard one single word about this in the North Dakota media! That means KFYR AM and TV…KXMB…any of them. They’re all complicit in this.

I know people at KFYR radio that I like a lot, some of whom I have worked with and been good friends with for years such as Phil Parker, Jason Hulm, Al Gustin, and Todd Mitchell. I don’t dare ask them if they are limited in what they must or cannot say on the air in either their radio shows or their news reports. I wouldn’t want to put them on the spot. I just fear that they operate under the same caution, that telling the truth about North Dakota politics may mean the end of their career. How would you like to have to work in such an environment? I sure hope that’s not the case for the employees of KFYR (or all of the Clear Channel stations in Bismarck).

I’ve never been more glad that I’m no longer in local broadcasting. I’m not constrained by any such rules. If you vote with your phone or your radio dial, you may consider whether this is a big enough travesty to tune out KFYR and other Clear Channel stations in town. You might also want to email KFYR TV and KXMB and ask them why they don’t have the sack to ask Kent Conrad or Byron “Skybox” Dorgan any tough questions. Why haven’t they mentioned that Earl Pomeroy said he didn’t support Cap and Trade “as it stands” – meaning that he would support it in some form?

Don’t let anybody in this town tell you that they’re a News Leader until they start doing some honest reporting. And if you’re concerned about the haps at KFYR Radio, call them or send them an email. Sure, we are used to this kind of thing on a national level, but there’s no reason why we should have to stand for it locally.

July 4th 2009 in pictures

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My little two year old is learning early on to love his country, honor the soldiers who fight for him, and respect the flag he was given to wave. He took to it like second nature.

These kids are future marketing majors…taking a crappy job (pun intended) and branding it “Free Fertilizer.” They just need to find a way to charge a nominal handling fee.

Old car body in the bushes? Usually I burn time and gas looking for this kind of thing, but today someone was nice enough to bring it to my camera on a trailer.

Two of the coolest seats in the house, today. Talk about a fun point of view! That haircut reminds me of my mohawk, only mine was nineteen inches long. Seriously. I have pictures.

He assures me he bagged all those deer himself. This was by far one of the most creative displays this year, so I salute his effort.

Later it was time to attend the Bis-Man Symphony playing at the capitol. A friend’s daughter plays in the Symphony, so I got some pictures for them…then it was time for the fireworks. A friend and I arrived early to play some intense frisbee on the lower part of the capitol mall, then hoofed it up to the top with our cooler full of Dew.

I tried a different approach this time around for capturing the fireworks, and for many of the shots it worked perfectly. For others it didn’t turn out so well, with the intensity of the fireworks overpowering the camera sensor. I still prefer the look to that of past attempts.

The night that the “4th” was put in the windows, I actually go to spend some time with the man who walks around and pulls the window shades to make it happen. He also turns on the correct office lights to make sure that the “4th” shows up properly. He has a map of the front face of the capitol with the windows he needs highlighted. It’s really cool! When he does the Christmas windows, I may ask to tag along and write a short feature about him.

Happy Independence Day! I was able to capture what I wanted with the camera but otherwise left it behind. I got family time in, motorcycle riding, frisbee, the Symphony, fireworks, tacos, and much more crammed into this single day. Friday our office grilled at noon and then shut down for the day, so I was able to attend Art in the Park as well with my family. I then took one of the little boys to the capitol to look out the windows up top, then to the glass elevator in the Logan Building, and some other local attractions. We got a LOT out of this weekend…I hope you did, too.