A visit, board, search and seizure team returns to the ship after boarding the Spanish ship Castilla

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A visit, board, search and seizure team returns to the ship after boarding the Spanish ship Castilla

Image by Official U.S. Navy Imagery
ATLANTIC OCEAN (June 21, 2011) The visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team assigned to the amphibious dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) returns to the ship after boarding the Spanish navy landing platform dock ship Castilla (L 52) during the bilateral Spanish Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX) 2011. Whidbey Island is deployed as part of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group participating in PHIBLEX off the coast of Spain. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rachael L. Leslie/Released) 110621-N-GH121-467

Visit, board, search and seizure team members retrieve a rescue basket.

Image by Official U.S. Navy Imagery
GULF OF ADEN (Dec. 28, 2011) A member of the visit, board, search and seizure team aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91) retrieves a rescue basket line from an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, assigned to the Raptors of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 71, during medical evacuation training. Pinckney is assigned to Combined Task Force 151, a multinational, mission-based task force working under Combined Maritime Forces, to conduct counter-piracy operations in the Southern Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Somali Basin, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Eddie Harrison/Released) 111228-N-ED900-620

The visit, board, search and seizure team from USS Halsey approaches a Yemeni dhow.

Image by Official U.S. Navy Imagery
GULF OF ADEN (Feb. 5, 2012) The visit, board, search and seizure team from the guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey (DDG 97) approaches a Yemeni dhow. Halsey is the flagship for Combined Task Force 151, a multinational, mission-based task force working under Combined Maritime Forces, to conduct counter-piracy operations in the Southern Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Somali Basin, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Krishna M. Jackson/Released) 120205-N-RP435-311
Join the conversation www.facebook.com/usnavy

Members of a visit, board, search and seizure team from USS Anzio assist mariners aboard a skiff

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Members of a visit, board, search and seizure team from USS Anzio assist mariners aboard a skiff

Image by Official U.S. Navy Imagery
GULF OF ADEN (Aug. 12, 2011) Members of a visit, board, search and seizure team from the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio (CG 68) assist mariners aboard a skiff in the Gulf of Aden. The Sailors provided food and water to the distressed mariners. Anzio is on a routine deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brian M. Brooks/Released)
110812-N-YM590-441

The playful search for beauty

Image by dollen
Colorado Model "Teddy" www.modelmayhem.com/903689

I don't often post the same image with different processing. But in the case of this image there is a bit of a back-story and a Flickr experiment at work.

First post here: www.flickr.com/photos/dollen/5180082820/

As many of you know Rj Dollen is a collection of creative types headed up by me, Cam. We collaborate, debate and often disagree on what processing works best, what lighting suits a model or achieves our end result best… and in a larger sense what is "beautiful." Now, all of that probably sounds like a lot of words clumped together just to say that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." But is it really?

With that in mind check this out:
flickreffect.tumblr.com/post/1593187255

and this too

www.ted.com/index.php/talks/eva_zeisel_on_the_playful_sea...

and with that… here is the second version of "what is beautiful" as it relates to this image of Colorado Model "Teddy."

… and lastly an open challenge/call to you in the form of Opensource Photography.

I cordially invite all of you Photoshoppers, Post Processing Pro's, digital darkroom guru's and whatever you want to call yourselves, to edit away in the name of BEAUTY. Show us your mad skills. Show-off with your best effects and tweaks processing and beautification tricks. Then post it back to the same group you got it from for all to see. Sound fun?

Disclaimers:
• Its just for fun. Doing this does not make it your picture.
• You can't sell it, you CAN Post it in your streams, but do give credit (i.e. Photo by Dollen, mad tweaks by (insert your flickr name/link here)
• You can't grossly manipulate the girl. This isn't about making her look bad, or putting her head on a horse body or anything like that. Be respectful to the model/subject please.

Here is the group:
www.flickr.com/groups/opensourcephotography/

The source files is in the description of the group

Afghan soldiers search villagers’ homes

Image by United States Marine Corps Official Page
Farid Ahmad, a squad leader with the 215th Corps, 1st Kandak, 1st Brigade, and member of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Combined Action Company, watches Afghan women and children walk out of the room of a compound in Gowragi, Afghanistan, so his fellow Afghan Army soldiers can search it during a clearing operation, Oct. 1, 2010. The clearing operation was followed by a sustained presence in the area. (Official Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mark Fayloga)

Cool Photo Search images

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Cave search

Image by The U.S. Army
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Lucas A. Kammerer, a squad leader assigned to Bushmaster Company, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, climbs down a hill after searching a cave for weapons during Operation Bulldog Bite in the Pech River valley, Kunar province, Afghanistan, on Nov. 25, 2010. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, U.S. Army.

Home search

Image by The U.S. Army
U.S. Army Pfc. Levi Baldon, a Golden, Colo., native and infantryman attached to Company D, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Task Force Duke, searches a home in Musa Khel district for contraband Oct. 16. Co. D was participating in Operation Nike IV, meant to root out the Haqqani network in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. James Hodges, 1st Bn., 26th Inf. Regt.

Army search

Image by The U.S. Army
2nd Lt. Andrew Smith (left), of the 2nd Brigade, 34th Infantry Division moves through a compound during a search of Qual-e Jala, Afghanistan. Photo by Staff Sgt. Ashlee Lolkus.

Nice Photo Search photos

Some cool photo search images:

Day 124 - West Midlands Police - Operational Support Unit

Image by West Midlands Police
This photo shows an officer from our Operational Support Unit ( OSU ) performing a specialist vehicle search.

OSU officers are trained in wide variety of evidence gathering and search techniques. This includes possible vehicle, person and building searches.

The Operations Support Unit (OSU) is a uniformed department made up of officers with a wide range of specialist skills.

They are our strategic reserve for major and serious incidents.

The OSU has three core roles:

1. Public Order
2. Search
3. Method of Entry

Nice Photo Search photos

A few nice photo search images I found:

USS Curtis Wilbur Sailor climbs from a rigid-hull inflatable boat to the deck of the Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Darwin

Image by Official U.S. Navy Imagery
TIMOR SEA (July 21, 2011) A Sailor assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) climbs from a rigid-hull inflatable boat to the deck of the Royal Australian Navy Adelaide-class guided-missile frigate HMAS Darwin (FFG 04) during a visit, board, search, and seizure drill. Curtis Wilbur is participating in Talisman Saber 2011, a bilateral exercise intended to train Australian and U.S. Forces in planning and conducting combined task force operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Andrew Ryan Smith/Released)
110721-N-IO627-081

p012532

Image by PhotosNormandie
L'USCG 1 Cutter 83300 (photo censurée pour faire disparaitre le radar en haut de mat). Secteur Omaha Beach
voir la p012662 non censurée
www.flickr.com/search/?w=58897785@N00&q=p012662
Le LCT-549, commandant Lt(jg) J.E. Barry, à son premier voyage il doit lancer à H-10, 4 DD tanks de la C Co du 741st Tank Bn sur Fox Green, puis à H+220 (ici sur la photo) doit transporter des éléments de la HHQ Btry Bn, A, B & C Btry du 7th Field Artillery Bn ; A Co, 741st Tank k Bn ; HQ Btry 62nd Armored Field Artillery Bn, Liaison party 231st Brigade de la 50th (Northumbrian) Inf. Div.
Le LCT-549 appartenait à la Task Force 124.3 (Assault Group 0 1) placée sous les ordres du Captain Fritzsche (USCG) et du Captain Imlay (USCG Deputy).
La jeep au centre devant la rampe transbordée depuis le transport de troupe USS Samuel Chase, voir le signe tactique 94 du HQ Jr Inf. Brigade d'une division d'infanterie britannique, à gauche de la Jeep, sous réserve, un soldat britannique en béret.
Dans le fond du LCT un soldat porte le casque 5/6th ESB (arc blanc), voir ici :
www.flickr.com/photos/mlq/2538454104/
Photo prise de l'USS Samuel Chase PA-26.
Renseignements complémentaires ici :
omahabeach.vierville.free.fr/1262-USCGOmaha.htm
60 de ces vedettes rapides des USCG construites dans l'arsenal de Brooklyn ont été dépêchées des USA vers la Grande-Bretagne en vue du D-Day. Les n°1 à 60 leur ont été attribués. 30 unités ont été déployées dans le secteur Anglo-canadien et 30 autres dans le secteur US. Avant même que ne débute les opérations de débarquement, L'USCG 1 a repêché 28 hommes d'une barge en difficulté lors de la traversées de la Manche. Ces unités ont au total sauvé environ 400 hommes le 6 juin 1944. Il fallait pas mal de courage aux Coast Guards car les vedettes étaient surnommées les "Matchbox" ("boîtes d'allumettes") à cause de leur construction tout en bois et leurs deux moteurs fonctionnant à l'essence hautement inflammable (et non pas au gasoil)

Nice Photo Search photos

Some cool photo search images:

Happy New Year, Afghanistan

Image by United States Marine Corps Official Page
Afghan National Police patrolman Dost Mohammad (second from left) waits for vehicles to approach Checkpoint Drahbiash while U.S. Marines with Guard Force Platoon, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, interact with a local man during Operation Gridlock Garmsir District, Afghanistan, March 21. During the three-day Afghan New Year celebration, held from March 19-21 to highlight the transition from winter into spring, the partnered forces manned vehicle checkpoints throughout Helmand province’s Garmsir district to disrupt insurgent logistical movement along routes leading into its bazaars. The Afghan forces halted and searched vehicles while Marines provided overwatch from the periphery and biometrically enrolled passersby.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Reece Lodder)

Crash Scene #1

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Crash Scene #1

Image by Roger Smith
On November 28, 2007, our Civil Air Patrol Squadron was called to search for the wreckages of a crash of two T-6 Texan II trainer aircraft based at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, Mississippi. The aircraft had collided in mid-air near an auxilliary air strip near Shuqualak, Mississippi. We dispatched an air crew including Mike Hainsey as mission pilot, Trey Breckenridge as mission scanner, and me as mission observer and photographer. Our mission was to locate the aircraft and photograph the crash sites. When we arrived on this crash site, USAF ground personnel had already located it.

After the Steve Fossett crash, I heard a lot of people who have never done aerial searches say things like "how hard can it be to find a crashed airplane?" So, how hard is it? Can you find the crash site? Identifying the red fire truck in the center of the photo doesn't count.

I guess I should also mention here that both crew members in both aircraft safely ejected, and were uninjured except for a few cuts and bruises.

Get Wowd

Image by jurvetson
Wowd has entered private beta testing, and I got some invite keys for my flickr friends if you want to give it a whirl. Feedback on the concept and implementation are welcomed.

In short, Wowd has built a fully distributed search engine. No server farm. No web crawlers. It’s like the Skype of real-time search.

Besides changing the cost, and data center energy equation for a new entrant, we think this architecture will have some interesting implications. Instead of relying on content or link analysis for page rank, which is architected – and sometimes gamed – by the publishers on the web, Wowd relies on the real-time surfing behavior of real people. It’s hard to game the behavior of the crowd in the cloud as this scales. So, you get the real-time web, the social web, and over time, the deep web. Think of all those sites that block web crawlers or are hopelessly out of date in search results today – from social networks, to eBay and Craigslist to various niches, like used car sites.

It has been quite exciting to see the product in development over the years. When the founder, Boris, first came to us, he had a bold vision and a smart team of young developers in Serbia. It reminded me of the Skype team from Estonia in so many ways. Boris and I spoke with the founders or original programmers at most of the major search companies, and they opined that it couldn’t be done (with reasonable system latency). That made it all the more interesting, and we seed financed the company. In full disclosure, I am also on the Board.

We thought that we would need many thousands of users before the distributed search engine would “work” and that early search results would be skewed by small numbers, biased by a disproportionate number of Serbs =). It is fascinating to watch in the early days, as many of the properties of the system are emergent, and the quality and performance of the system should improve with scale.

So, if you want to play with it, the link below should take you past the gates to the Wowd site. Please do so only if you are curious and willing to play with early code. It is a browser app that works across Windows, Mac and Linux. If you like it, great, if not, please keep it open and check in from time to time to see if it has improved, and of course, constructive feedback is even better. OK, so here’s the private beta Invite Link. Click on the "Get Wowd" button there to join the Wowd cloud.

• Recent article and video in readwriteweb (their invite keys ran out, fyi)
• Blogs: Wowd, Boris’ Distributed Search

Soul Searching

A few nice photo search images I found:

Soul Searching

Image by gaspi *yg
This is one image that exemplifies doing "candid portraiture at events"
(in Technique).

A 'rorshocking' portrait of introspection, utilizing selective focus 'bokeh' bokeh overlay effect to complete the effect (but she's really just watching an event).

My personal faved best photo of 2004 (added to the 'Cream of the Crop' pool) because it combines utilizing a photographic medium techinque with basic Photoshop technique to create something much more than the sum of the parts.

And in 2005, a wonderful contextual blogging by www.utata.org/archives/2005/07/soul_searching.html and by flickrsoup

In Search of Food (Explored # 110)

Image by Yogendra174
Blogged

View Large On Black


Found this creature few days back during a macro shoot in the backyard... was planning to upload it for a month now... finally the photo sees the light :D

Sigma 70-300 + Raynox DCS 250+ Home Made Diffuser

Explored # 110

Searching for Something to Hold Onto ~ oscote365 21

Image by don j schulte @ oxherder arts
Pea plant in our garden.
~~~~~~~

This oscote365 set is my picture a day (PAD) for a year where the only stipulation is that I am standing on our land. The goal is deepen my appreciation for and connection to this little piece of land we live upon through seeing it better via photography.

Blog the oxherding path ~~ on Twitter ~~ Oxherder Arts Gallery