pictures

Unbelievable pictures:

As in the ruins of Beirut, Sarajevo or Stalingrad, the conflict in Syria is a sniper’s war. Men stalk their fellow man down telescopic sights on suburban streets, hunting a glimpse of flesh, an eyeball peering from a crack, using decoys to draw their prey into giving themselves away. During weeks spent tracking the fluid frontline of the battle, veteran war photographer Goran Tomasevic provided daily evidence of an escalating conflict that the UN estimates has killed over 100,000 people. Tomasevic photographed with exceptional proximity as combatants mounted complex attacks, managed logistics, treated their wounded, buried their dead – and died before his eyes.

He talks about minimizing the risk, but I really don’t see how that’s even possible most of the time where he is.  Twenty years in the field though obviously means he knows what he’s doing.  I would have figured that in unorganized wars fought between some of those countries, with little to no set rules of engagement, they wouldn’t have any respect at all for photographers.  It’s nice to see there is still some honor obviously, and they are not just shooting everyone in sight.  It’s interesting when you think about how the simple cropping of a picture, or a caption put on it can affect someones thoughts. As a photographer of this type I would always be worried about how my pictures were being used.

Goran-Tomasevic-Combat-PhotographerMore information about Goran Tomasevic and his work on his Reuters page.  Interesting that the first picture on that page was the one of the U.S. Marine ducking down behind a wall as a piece of it explodes into his face from enemy gunfire.  I remember what a stir that picture caused when it came out.  Incredible shot.

Question: What would you rather photograph…. Hot Shots calendar girls, or combat?  Best of both worlds and the Hot Shots girls IN combat maybe? haha you wish.

Hat tip: Marc

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Products currently haunting my dreams:
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Coffee table book for the more sophistacated “girls with guns” connoisseur:

Not quite sure who their target market is, but I applaud the effort.  Rather than spend $30, it seems I could just get the same experience by walking into any given gunstore, or to any shooting range in the world that happened to have a girl in it.   The girls in the pictures are pretty, but big deal?

As you can tell, my first thought was that a “girls with guns” book, where the girls have all of their clothes on would be a huge flop.   Doesn’t look like it according to amazon sales ranking:

I’m still wondering if the apparent success of this book is from the pure shock value that EVIL GUNS still have in mainstream culture.  According to the book’s website Media page it got a lot of exposure in some of the big magazines and on some popular news websites.  Probably a lot of “OMG that woman looks just like my mom/aunt/sister and shes holding an evil fully automatic assault rifle with extended clips and a shoulder thing that goes up!”

You can buy it on Amazon – HERE

What are your thoughts?  Something you would by for yourself, girlfriend, friend, wife?

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What do you get when a radiologist / NFA gun collector has some free time?

Pictured above is the CT scanned x-ray image of a HK23E (MM23E clone).

I’ve always found x-ray images fascinating.  The rawness of greyscale really gives a glimpse into the manufacturing, engineering, and design.

I exchanged a few emails with the Houston, the owner of XRayGuns and got a real insight into the process.  Little did I know that taking x-rays of such objects involves a lot more than just hitting a button and having it come out looking perfect. In addition to scanning his personal collection, Houston was telling me about a pending project he has for 2011.  It involves scanning a damaged Japanese WWII rifle so the owner of it can see the internals before embarking on a restoration project.  Very neat!

All the scanned images are available on t-shirts that come with the x-ray picture on the front, and native language technical data on the back:

  • More pictures, info and t-shirts over at XRayGuns – HERE

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An Indian Army soldier checks his gun before joining his colleagues to fight with suspected militants near the site of a gun battle on the outskirts of Srinagar, India, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

The AK-47, AKMs, INSAS and the FAL to name a few…  Great pictures.

The full set – HERE

NOTE: For maximum effect, start up the Led Zeppelin song to the left before you click the above link to peruse the pictures.

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Another great set of photos from May.

Check them out – HERE

As you can see in the photo above (#13 in the group), the Army Sargent is preparing to crawl into a cave with the knife clenched between his teeth.  Is that common practice?  Or was he just fooling around for the photo? I always thought it was only done in movies like Rambo for effect.  I tried it once with my USMC Ka-Bar but it wasn’t very comfortable, and I didn’t want to wreck my teeth.

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He said he believed his finger was outside the trigger guard and not resting on the trigger.

Classic line which is said by most negligent discharge bozos.  Has the “blame it on the gun” angle ever worked? Looks like he got proven wrong by the pictures they managed to recover anyway.

Full Story – HERE

Oh Jeff Cooper… why can’t you have influenced EVERYONE in your short time on this earth?

What a shame that a young girl is dead all because of poor gun handling. To top it off, her boyfriend who killed her only gets 3 years and 4 months in jail? WTF?  I am not entirely familiar with the minimum prison term for manslaughter in the United States, but I hope it is a lot more severe than that.

Thank got at least he got what he did. There is a video on the page I linked where it says that a “range of sentencing options are being considered including a home detention.”  Wow…. so this guy kills someone and there was actually consideration in sentencing him to stay in his comfortable home rather than jail?

He put her in his car and took her to a medical centre but refused to give a statement to police for three days.

That’s pretty shady too, but maybe he was advised on that by a lawyer.

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