Out and about...

[Kav]

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

 

[Kav]

Got to swim with the whale sharks. Sorry that the photos are a bit blurry.

This one was winding up to kill me with a blow from his tail. I'm not sure what I did to piss him off, but he was mad. I alway kept some distance, but maybe I just smelled funny.

The wind up with me trying to get the hell out of the way:

 

[Kav]

Off to the Cheetah Refuge today. Here's a few of the photos I took:

Our taxi river, Alex:

We're taking a right:

Alex with his taxi, We also paid for him to join us on Refuge. He had a pretty good time:

 

[Kav]

My travel buddy vs an Ostrich:

 

[Kav]

My travel buddy posing in a little hut:

 

[High Lord Gomer]

I didn't realize that ostriches were so ugly!

What kind of cat was that with the pointy ears?

 

[Kav]

That they are.

The cat is a Caracal.

 

[Dirtjunkie85]

So are you a professional photographer or is it more of a hobby?

 

[Kav]

It's a hobby for me, but after the base Public Affairs Office saw my photos They set me up as a stringer for them.

 

[Dirtjunkie85]

That's awesome!

 

[High Lord Gomer]

He is also an A-class crash dummy!

 

[Kav]

That I am!

 

[Kav]

Got to hang out on the streets for a while, more photos to follow:

 

[Papakeith]

simply awesome stuff Kav!

 

[Kav]

Walking the streets of Djibouti:

We didn't get a chance to try his food, but it looked great:

 

[Kav]

Fruit stand:

Me:

Dinner for one:

A side street:

 

[Kav]

With the Arabic and French influences you see some neat buildings here:

We stopped in "Planet Hollywood" for a few. This waitress asked if we were tourists, (nope) or journalists (nope again). So then she asked "what are you then?" "Photographers" I told her. So she had me take her photo:

 

[Kav]

Well that's enough fun for the deployment, back to work:

leaving the HMS Ocean:

Picking up some guys:

The coast:

Moving some dust:

 

[Kav]

Ok Spooky night for me last night and a lesson learned too: When you are sitting on the ramp of a C-130 cargo plane while it is flying you need to not sit on the side of it. The wind will snatch you up and try to toss you out of the bird. Hooray for harnesses! And I'm glad I did not drop the camera. I think that was caused by my death grip on at due to thinking I was going out of the back of the bird and I want to hold on to something.So once I pulled myself safely back onto the ramp I started snapping photos and shooting some video. These were with a taken with night vision device (NVD Click Me) under starlight. I was not planning on flying that night, but took it as a chance to learn what works best with the NVD because I will be using it later. The thing is when our pilots fly using night vision goggles this is what they see. We are flying in a very tight formation. And in order for our helos to refuel our helo has to fly about as fast as it can, and the tanker aircraft as to fly about as slow as it can. Sorry for how grainy these photos are, but that's what it looks like through our eyes.


Coming in for the basket:

Got it and taking fuel (BTW the blob at the top of the photo is the tail of the tanker I am on. We are that close together) shot at 18mm to try and get everything in frame:

Shot with my nifty fifty while they were trying to get more gas.:

 

[High Lord Gomer]

Wow! I couldn't imagine.

Keep 'em coming, Kav!

 

[Kav]

Lots of work to keep these things in the air:

Tiny Gecko:

 

[High Lord Gomer]

Does he work for Geico?

 

[Kav]

No, but he did pick up dinner. I thought that was nice of him.

Ok a Secret Santa was beyond good to me:

So the mail shows up for the squadron and we get to sorting...

Well what do you know? I got a box! Super sweet!!

So I crack it open to find this:

One the Marines that works for me says just what I was thinking. "You got a satchel." And I was like HELL yes, I could totally use one of these. So I pick it up and it's heavy... Hummm.... What's inside?...

So I figure I should start checking the pockets to see if I can get a hint as to what is in side...
First I find this in a side pocket:

That's a film back for what looks to be... Na, it couldn't be...

So I dig around some more and find this:

Hummmm... Some 120 film...

I look around and find a manual (but I do not look at it. I figure it's for what may or may not be inside.)

So I crack open the lid and see this:

NO WAY!!!! THAT IS NOT WHAT I THINK IT IS!!!!

So I pull it out, and sure as **** it's:

It's a Friggan Hasselblad! Holy Cow! I can not believe it. Thank you so much who ever you may be!

 

[dirt bike dave]

That is awesome, Kav!

Congrats to you on the new rig, and for having a most excellent secret Santa.

FWIW, I googled the model and it looks like they were made in 1984 - 88

 

[Kav]

I did some looking into it, and my camera was made in 1986, the lens in 91, and the film backs in 71, and 89. This is going to be fun :)