July 25, 2025

Former Space Force officer once relieved over Marxism remarks confirmed

confirmed as Air Force’s No. 2 civilian

A former Space Force officer who was relieved of command in 2021 over remarks stemming from a book he wrote on Marxist thinking within the U.S. military is now the No. 2 civilian leader of the Air Force.

Matthew Lohmeier was confirmed Thursday as the new undersecretary of the Air Force and is tasked with managing its day-to-day business.

He will oversee the Department of the Air Force’s budget and direct strategy and policy development, the service said in a statement Thursday.

Airmen and guardians “deserve all of the best tools, training and support they need to perform their missions in an increasingly complex and quickly evolving threat environment,” Lohmeier said in the statement.

https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2025-07-25/air-force-undersecretary-lohmeier-18550908.html

July 20, 2025

Flying machine of a different kind

Sphecius speciosus, the eastern cicada-killer wasp, a large, solitary digger wasp that makes tunnels in the yard surrounded by mounds of dirt from their digging. This is only the second year they have made their home in my garden. They are not the least aggressive and allow me to get rather close, until eventually tiring of me and moving off to other hunting grounds. These are about 1.5" long and seem to be hunting like a dragonfly does, catching something on the wing, and returning to a perch.

July 10, 2025

I'm almost baaack!

Since my last post I’ve shirked my photography and dedicated myself to being able to survive 5+ days without grid power or gas for a generator, as we lived through hurricane Milton. It’s hurricane season again.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1036137793

We now have a system that will allow us to have power at a reduced level after a storm with whole house battery backup. These last two months I designed and installed a system to monitor the grid and automatically turn off the major watt hogs like hot water, well and pool pump, etc. if the grid is down for 10 minutes, so that I can manually budget our usage at night while charging our batteries during the day (Z-Wave run off two Raspberry PI processors). We generate more than enough for normal operation during the day and sell our excess to power company.(at wholesale rates dammit)

Now maybe I can get back to my photography!

May 31, 2025

I'll never make another blanket statement again

about not posting a photo........jeeze, I did it again, lol

One more of those 40k ft photos because it is now my all time favorite

May 29, 2025

Last plane photo for awhile

We have entered our summer storm period where thunderstorms begin in central Florida. This has driven some of the flight paths, normally 30nm to the east, to the west coast, and brought one of my favorite subjects closer. I've included the adsb screenshot for this particular flight of another 747-800. For anyone interested in this type of photography, almost anywhere in the world you are, just look up........the second screenshot is what the US looked like at 7:30 this morning, third is world view. (no comment on the environmental impact of our lifestyles.....but I guess I just did)

May 27, 2025

New project to share!

An offshoot of general planespotting, I’ve been concentrating on aircraft at 30-40k ft, specifically early morning or late afternoon when the light and shadow adds so much depth and interest to otherwise boring airplanes. The photos I’m sharing today were made with no generative AI. All my photos are of real planes taken from my backyard shot in RAW (.nef) and processed with Camera Raw and Photoshop.

A majority were taken with the Nikon P1000 @3000mm, a real bear handheld. At 3000mm it’s impossible to find your subject, but thank goodness it has power zoom so you can start from a wide angle and power zoom up to 3000mm while keeping the subject in view. It took me a long time to perfect the method. It’s a comparatively slow camera in focusing and can’t match the quality of more expensive glass, has limited menu options, but it gets the job done. The remainder of the photos were taken with the Nikon Z8 160-600 +TC2 @1200mm and D750, or Df with a 200-500 + TC2 @1000mm.

I’m also still beta testing Topaz Labs and find one of the newest features, “Super focus”, to be quite interesting, rather overpowering with a steep learning curve, but useful for the right photo. Some of these photos used it, some used simple denoise and/or sharpen. Taking photos at dawn and sunset can be quite noisy. Some photos have the plane identified but many are not if I didn’t have my laptop with me. Hope you enjoy some of these!

Examples and link to the slideshow, only 36 as of today
https://jamesdevore.smugmug.com/SLIDESHOW-Cruising-in-a-Special-Light

May 25, 2025

Appropriate for this Memorial weekend

We had an infrequent visitor. Rare to see and even more rare to be at an altitude to get a decent photo

May 12, 2025

Something I witnessed last week - Ospreys

I wanted to share this, even though the quality and detail are lacking due to them being several thousand feet overhead with the sun backlighting, but the action is quite special. These were taken in my backyard, as I do yardwork I keep my camera with me for just such occasions.

This young Osprey was in what I would term “flight training”. The day had a strong steady wind which allowed the parent to soar effortlessly while the child was strengthening the wings or learning how to do controlled dives. From soaring the youngster would partially pull in the wings and start a dive, then abruptly flare them for an air-brake effect. They were doing this for 10 minutes directly overhead but eventually the wind moved them away and out of sight. Enjoy!
Link to most of my Osprey photos in slideshow: https://jamesdevore.smugmug.com/SPECIAL-SLIDESHOW-The-Ospreys


How high they were viewed through a 1200mm lens


The parent patiently watching


Youngster begins training

April 14, 2025

Plane spotters!

This Ukrainian, Russian built, Antonov AN 124 spent the night in Tampa last week, picking up some under wraps cargo and flying to some undisclosed location out west. Flightradar24 stopped over the Rockies. This is a big boy comparable to the C5 Galaxy. It was a treat to see.
The first photo is on approach to TIA at 5nm, the second, it's departure the next morning at 4nm

April 3, 2025

I can honestly say that I regret voting for Trump

(now that it affects me)

https://www.wfla.com/news/polk-county/i-want-to-stay-longer-haitian-man-family-members-worry-about-deportations-with-protections-rescinded/

‘I want to stay longer’: Haitian man, family members worry about deportations with protections rescinded
LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) – Members of two Polk County families said they are devastated over decisions by the Trump administration that threaten to deport their loved ones back to Haiti, a war-torn, gang-controlled country.

“These are people. This is not stuff that we’re moving around. These are people’s lives,” said Dawn Chappelear.

Chappelear and her husband, John, moved to Haiti in 2013 to do full-time missionary work.

During their time there, they met Cabila Toussaint, a Haitian boy.