Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
The best thing about the photos on navy.mil is that the high resolution versions still have the exif data embedded. It lets you look at what settings they used to get a shot.
The one you posted had a 30 second exposure @ f5 and iso 1000. It was a lot darker up there than it looks.
That is, by far, one of my favorite poems.
Kevin- I do photography and that is awesome to know! I am going to have to go check that out now! Lex-thanks for sharing the great pic, it is beautiful! Note- Another sure give away of the 30 sec. exposure is to look at the stars. They are a little “blurred” or they look a little bigger than usual due to the open shutter. Beautiful though and very dramatic.
It is John Gillespie Magee. He was 19 years old.
Now that made my day!
Good Morning, Lex.
Subsunk
Very few places on this big round rock you’ll see stars like that, and only three I’ve experienced: at sea, really at sea, out on the deep blue water; in the deep woods of Georgia, with only a campfire to break the dark; and in the desert, far from any semblance of modern civilization other than Humvee lights, and lately, KBR Power and Light.
Speaking as a semi-professional nature photographer, I’m not so sure that could be a 30 sec exposure. I’m sure the ship was moving; it’s definitely a long exposure but 30 seconds? Everything else is in focus except the slight blurring of the stars. Plus a 30 sec exposure of the moon would make it look like a giant white ball, obliterating everything around it.
That said – it’s still an absolutely gorgeous shot.
Been around; seen a lot. Some of my strongest, most lasting impressions of my time on this planet are of days spent aboard ships at sea. Dawn, dusk, midnights, calm, storms, calm, port-of-call approaches/departures. Add sailors and naval aircraft into that mix….Just amazing. Great shot, thanks for sharing.
What an incredible picture. Thank you for tracking down such evocative shots and posting them here for us to enjoy.
Kris,
As I said in the first comment, it’s a lot darker out there than it looks. Those deck lights are practically invisible if you walk outside from a normally lit space… er room – at least until you get some night vision. The one shining on the guy on the left looks as bright as a car headlight. And if you ask me, the moon is completely blown out.
Note the cloudy effect on the moonshine reflected off the sea. It’s smoothed out by the long exposure and the motion of the ship and the water. The camera is on a tripod, so everything on the ship except the guys looking over the edges is nice and sharp. The one on the left is standing relatively still, the one on the right appears to be rocking back and forth – hence his apparent stoutness.
Jessica, if you look closely at the stars, the motion trails aren’t sharp. They’re a very gentle S shape. It’s partly ship movement and partly time lapse.
With a 30 sec exposure shouldn’t be much in the way of star trails. The Lincoln was moving on that gorgeous moonlit sea and you can see the shape of the wave in which she moved.
Despite the beight near first quarter moon, you can clearly see 3 open star clustersl, each a Messier deep space object in Auriga. Honest.