Hobby projects including cars, photography, woodworking, restoration, and many other things of interest.
A Little Fall Color
Flashback 1983 – Sports!
Do you remember 1983? You should! Huey Lewis and The News released their rather spectacular album, Sports, in September of that year. It sure seemed like they got a lot of play on MTV, which was only about 2 years old at the time. I was wandering through the local …
A Sort-of-Kind-of-Funny Photo
This is a sort of funny photo for technical reasons. You get a pretty good idea of how panorama photos work. This was snapped, so to speak, near the pond at the nature center adjacent to the Shaker Heritage Society property in Colonie. The idea is that when you make the panorama you turn around in a circle while holding the camera steady. The clever software stitches the photo components together so that when displayed you get a 360 degree view.
In the example here, you can see that the image is somewhat distorted and that the center of the image is almost like a “V” where the arms of the V go off at about a 40 degree angle. In fact, this central point is not at all like a V in real life. If you go there you will see exactly what I mean.
If you look closely at the left side of the photo you will see Anita walking Annaleigh and Maggie. It looks like she has six dogs, but, in fact, Anita has only two. It is really a strange effect.
Lincoln Memorial —– in Legos!
Reliving the 8-Track Life
Remember the good old 8-track tapes? I had a bunch. Remember Columbia House? The young ‘uns out there might not remember those guys. What a scheme, what a setup! The way it worked was that you would get an offer in the mail or see one in a publication. Maybe …
That’s One Big Stack of Legos!
A few months ago, as I mentioned some time back, the Lego people brought their historic Roadshow to the local mall. This is a rather spectacular example of their work. I snapped this photo from the second floor of the mall. Wow!
Mrs. Peel, Do You Know Where Your Car Is?
Ol’ Number 31
This is a photograph of locomotive #31, a Baldwin, on the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. The locomotive was built in Philadelphia in 1908.
This photo was snapped along the “Road to Paradise”, which is Strasburg’s line from the Strasburg station to Paradise along Route 30 in Lancaster County. The filmstock was Kodak Kodacolor Gold 35mm. I recently scanned it from the original negative. This image has been mildly touched up in Photoshop to correct color shift and aging.
Building Blocks
A few months ago we had occasion to visit the mall while the Lego Americana Roadshow was in attendance for a few weeks. If you have not seen what Lego Master Creators can do, you have really missed something amazing. The Roadshow has 10 models, and the US Capital building is one of the most amazing. According to the accompanying sign, eight people worked for 1700 hours to make this astonishing model. As I recall, the structure is about 26 feet wide and about 10 feet high. The display base adds another 3 feet or so to that height figure.
Seriously, if you get the chance to see the Lego Americana Roadshow, be sure to take it. Keep an eye out for it to appear in your area.