Selfie---Click.

 

F-35 Training

 Alabama Air National Guard pilots may have some intense training come up in a few months when the F35's arrive:

"After some training, pilots come out looking like they are 100 years old," another test pilot said.

Source: HERE.

Star Marks Spot Where confederate president Jefferson Davis Was Sworn-in.

 Did The Daughters of The Confederacy Choose The Wrong star?

I think they intended to use the seven pointed star, no?

One way or the other, the star marker sits between the center columns at the front of the Alabama Capitol building, though there are reports Davis actually stood on a wooden platform built for that purpose over the stairs.

Alabama's Coat of Arms

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Alabama

 So where is the reference to the Native American Tribes that were here LONG before the other countries that are given some Coat of Arms real estate?

"The" Bridge in Selma

 

Ghost Boys

 Some boys peer through the glass doors of the Alabama Archives building as those doors reflect the 1852 capitol dome across the street.

table-shadow

 

Storm Night Light

 The pedestrian tunnel that lets people access the Alabama riverfront
in Montgomery by going under the railroad tracks. The lights in the tunnel change colors based on seasons and holidays.

 

Light Door

Sunlight from a nearby window illuminates and interior door in the Alabama Capitol building.
 

A Selma Photo Day

 I spent a while in Selma today, and here are some of the photos I made:

 

This bears the name of a New Orleans metal casting company. It is attached to a building on Broad street in Selma. You can see the building HERE. (Thanks to George McDonald for pointing out to me that the Broad Street building is ONLY a facade. There's just an empty lot behind it! I HOPE someone will save these "Bennett & Lurges" markers when, and if, that facade is dismantled!)

Jefferson Davis Statue

The statue of confederate president Jefferson Davis outside the Alabama Capitol Building in which the confederacy was founded. Davis was sworn in on the front steps of the building in 1861. The confederate capital was moved to Richmond three months later.

The names of the states that seceded from the United States are engraved in the base of the statue.

(The South Secedes

The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas–and the threat of secession by four more—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.)

Long-closed grocery store

 

This is a long-closed grocery store on Hull Street in Montgomery, not far from I-85.

Montgomery Fountain in the fog

 

Birds Reflected

 

 

Birds aloft, reflected in the water, taken from a bridge in Downtown Wetumpka, Alabama.

Montgomery Photo Festival 2023

     

The juror has included a photo of mine for this year's Montgomery Photo Festival! See it, and the other images that made it in, at my photo site HERE.                                            

Parking Be Damned!

 Am I the only one in Montgomery who hates the Downtown parking meters that require you to use a credit card?

There are plenty of people who are NOT going to download an "app" just to be able to park!

Some of them include a warning NOT to use coins, even though there is a coin slot in the damned things. And if you don't have a smart phone, they give you a phone number to call! What if you don't have a cell phone?

Where are the senior citizen groups protesting?  

https://centralalabamaaging.org/

https://www.aarp.org/ 

In The Mighty Concrete Jungle

 

Quack Quack Quack

 

Lunacy

 

The moon is a favorite photographic subject, being the closest celestial object to Earth. Even my 70x zoom lens alone allows us to capture impressive details.

The Union Keeping Guard Over Confederate Graves

 

An old concrete street marker is repurposed at a Montgomery Cemetery, marking the edge of a path, and unintentionally keeping a "Union watch" over a group of Confederate graves.

Way Back Photos

     I made these two photos decades ago, maybe in the 1970's, at a school somewhere in Southern Alabama, but I don't recall the details!

     I liked them enough that I had them enlarged and framed.

     

 

 

The camera I made them with is long gone, but I

was shooting 35mm and may still have the original slides.

     The statue and hallway may have been at a Salesian school in the Mobile area.

Please send me a note if you recognize them!

Thanks!

 Parents preserving their child's visit to the Alabama Capitol Building in February 2023. After their tour and photo-op, I tell the children to save the photo because they will want to use it when they run for Governor!

Quang Tri, Vietnam, 1970

 Vietnamese residents watch as a U.S. Army Medivac helicopter picks up an ill soldier to transport him to a hospital.

1970, Somewhere near Quang Tri, where I was stationed in the U.S. Army.

 

Angel/bird

 At first I though this was an angel, but then determined it is a bird, holding a book? 

One way or the other, it is on top of the Montgomery city court building on Madison Avenue.

Art Review

 

R.R.

 

The Capitol Building in Montgomery

 

In 'Nam

 Sitting on the Armed Forces Vietnam Network jeep in Quang Tri. I spent half my year working for Army Newspapers, the other half anchoring TV news. My 10:00pm News was monitored by the North

 

Vietnamese, since we were the closest station to the DMZ, about 10 miles inside South Vietnam.

I celebrated my 20th birthday there.