R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 139

Puerto Vallarta 2017 — Part 3

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Hitting the Wall

Click on today’s photo gallery and slide show:

For additional reading and photographs of Puerto Vallarta:

Last Stop Before the Return — Puerto Vallarta The Mexican Riviera—Ixtapa and Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta — Walking the Malecón Area Fun Photo Friday — Sights Along the Malecón, Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta — Statues of the Malecón, Part 1 Puerto Vallarta — Statues of the Malecón, Part 2 Puerto Vallarta — Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Church Fun...

Fun Photo Friday — Puerto Vallarta 2017 part 1

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Boys & Girls

Click on today’s photo gallery and slide show:

For additional reading and photographs of Puerto Vallarta:

Last Stop Before the Return — Puerto Vallarta The Mexican Riviera—Ixtapa and Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta — Walking the Malecón Area Fun Photo Friday — Sights Along the Malecón, Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta — Statues of the Malecón, Part 1 Puerto Vallarta — Statues of the Malecón, Part 2 Puerto Vallarta — Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Church Fun Photo...

Puerto Vallarta 2017 — Part 2

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Waving to the Ships at Sea

Click on today’s photo gallery and slide show:

For additional reading and photographs of Puerto Vallarta:

Last Stop Before the Return — Puerto Vallarta The Mexican Riviera—Ixtapa and Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta — Walking the Malecón Area Fun Photo Friday — Sights Along the Malecón, Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta — Statues of the Malecón, Part 1 Puerto Vallarta — Statues of the Malecón, Part 2 Puerto Vallarta — Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe C...

Puerto Vallarta 2017 — Part 1

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Flying the Flag

We’ve done Puerto Vallarta many times on the blog, and in January Ursula and I returned yet again. So I’m going to try something a bit different over the next two weeks with this return look at one of my favorite Mexican destinations.  Rather than waste time on text, I’m going to take you on a strictly visual tour, with the best photos from this trip appearing over the next two Fun Photo Fridays. If you’d like an explanation of what you’re seeing, I’ll post links to previous a...

Fun Firearms Friday — Pocket Pistol Shootout: Colt Mustang vs. Beretta Tomcat

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Left to right: Walther PPK, Beretta Tomcat, PPK/S, Colt Mustang

I hope you’ve enjoyed Pocket Pistol Week here at the blog, but now it’s time to determine a winner. The 9mm P99c AS by Walther remains my primary concealed carry weapon, and it will continue in that role. But sometimes you simply need something just slightly more compact than the (in my opinion) best concealed carry weapon ever made, and for years my go-to choices for this were the Walther .380 ACP PPK/S for winter and the .32 AC...

Pocket Pistol Week — Beretta Tomcat

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Original “thin-slide” Beretta 3032 Tomcat from 1997 — second year of production

No discussion of pocket pistols is complete without bringing up Beretta. And no discussion of Beretta pocket pistols is complete without reference to Beretta’s famous tip-barrel designs. Beretta’s most famous pocket pistol was the Model 418, which began life shortly after World War I as the Beretta Model 1920. The Model 418 is a blow-back design chambered in .25 ACP/6.35x16mmSR (SR = Semi-Rimmed cartridge). This p...

Pocket Pistol Week — Colt Mustang

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What’s in the Box: Colt Mustang Lite .380 ACP/9mm kurz, one magazine, safety lock, and a nice zippered gun pouch

This is Pocket Pistol Week. I’ll return to travel and photography next Monday, but today we’re taking an in-depth look at the latest iteration of the Colt Mustang. Wednesday’s mystery pocket pistol is going to be a bit of a surprise, especially if you’re one of the many people who believe that Wednesday’s pistol is no longer in production. And on Fun Firearms Friday both pistols ar...

Fun Photo Friday — Whale Watching Tour Favorites

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The Flag “Waves”

As I noted earlier this week, the whales on this tour were not very cooperative, but there was much to photograph anyway.  It should be no surprise, then, that my favorite photos from this tour had nothing to do with whales.

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Cruisin’

One of the tricks to capturing fun images is mentally cropping what you see and determining if the composition is interesting.  Sometimes monochromatic subjects can actually work in your favor, and without the need to converting to Black & White:...

San Diego for Whale Watching — Part 2

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Flagship Marietta

For the next couple of hours we chased whales . . . at a distance.  If one of the tour boats in the area observed a whale, the whole fleet would reposition close, but not too close, to that area.  Regulations require whale watching boats to approach no closer than 100 yards/90 meters.

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Gray Whale

Fortunately, I had with me a Panasonic FZ1000, which has a 35mm equivalent focal range of 400mm, or about 8x telephoto magnification.

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Gray Whale

The FZ1000 is a very versatile travel...

San Diego for Whale Watching — Part 1

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Ruby Princess in San Diego

Last week you saw our Ensenada wine tour, but before we got there our ship, Ruby Princess, made port in San Diego.  Here Ursula had reserved a tour of a very different sort — whale watching aboard Hornblower Cruises’ ship Adventure Hornblower.  The picture above was taken at the boarding point for the tour, so you can see how short a walk it is from where Ruby Princess docked.

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Adventure Hornblower approaches port

Adventure Hornblower is the second largest of Hornblo...