This is topic Your today in pictures.. in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.
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Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on September 28, 2015, 07:08 AM:
One thing I particularly enjoy are images like most of us by nature of this forum. Another I vacate has an enjoyable thread which can be pretty random titled 'Your today in pictures' where users post photos of something they captured of interest today, everything from landscapes, pets or Eumig's.
Today 30 minutes strip cleaning my favourite Eumig.
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 28, 2015, 09:57 AM:
This idea is up there with "What Films did you Watch Last Night", Lee! I think we will enjoy it here a long time.
This is a patch of wild Prickly Pear Cactus at a nature preserve not very far from home. It's fascinating stuff: about two years ago we were out getting some fresh air and noticed this and I was shocked to find out even here where it snows and can dip down to Zero (Farenheight!) more than once a winter we have Cactus!
It's entirely possible that a few months from now this ornery little patch will spend a couple of weeks buried in snow two feet deep, and come through it no worse than slightly wilted!
This is the only species of cactus that grows wild East of the Mississippi in North America. Our sandy soil is friendly to it and apparently there are many acres of it scattered all over Long Island. This is not desert, though. This is maybe 200 feet from a tidal harbor on our North Shore.
It's a slight cheat: I shot the picture on Saturday. Although It is still there, probably was a hundred years ago and just may be a hundred years from now too!
Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on September 28, 2015, 12:47 PM:
Let us not stray from the purposes of our forum!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 28, 2015, 01:14 PM:
I understand what you are saying, Panayotis.
This is probably a better General Yak, but It's a great idea. It's a chance for all of us to see pictures from all over the world, maybe every day.
I've asked Doug to consider a transfer.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 28, 2015, 02:40 PM:
Great idea Lee
Taken two days ago when we went to a local hardware store. Zoe trying out some of the stuff on sale.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on September 29, 2015, 07:16 AM:
Yep I thought after it may be better settled in General chat.
This mornings picture of our Mayor at the MacMillan Cancer Support coffee morning where we announced the results of our cake baking had raised £100 for it on Monday. Most of the cakes were baked by the children.
I should have the Eumig back together today for tonight's show yay!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 29, 2015, 12:08 PM:
High Noon at The OK (equipment) Corral. Brookhaven National Laboratories, Upton, New York
This is a transformer we have in our tested equipment cage here at BNL. It’s a big one: 333,000 VA, or 3,330 typical projection lamps in our way of thinking. It’s not a super-big one, those run in the millions of Volt Amperes, sit behind barbwire topped cyclone fences, hum menacingly and power entire neighborhoods.
All due respect though: if this fell on you from almost any height, they would probably bury you in an envelope after a great deal of mopping.
These are kind of an unsung technology, probably as important as the internal combustion engine and arguably much more important than the personal computer, because if it wasn’t for the transformer, almost none of us would have one of them, but how many people understand what they do?
These take advantage of a basic fact of electricity: Volts times Amperes =Power. This means a thousand volts and an amp is the same power as a thousand amps and a volt. A transformer acts kind of like a set of gears: Torque times Rotational speed=Power, so you can use different gear ratios to either go really fast or twist really hard or anywhere in between.
A transformer does something similar by changing the values of Volts and Amps, but keeping the power the same by dividing one by the same ratio it multiplies the other.
A problem you have with sending electric power all over the place is Amps don’t travel well. The power lost is proportional to the current squared, so in order to send a large current a long distance you would need thick wire that would cost huge amounts and bend utility poles in half. Once Utah ran out of copper, it would be lights out!
This is where our friend the transformer comes in. It can use its ability to change the values of current and voltage to take the power at the power plant, boost the voltage up to downright terrifying levels (often millions of Volts) yet at a tiny trickle of current which can go vast distances through small wires. When it gets wherever we need it another transformer does the same thing in reverse: reduces the voltages to levels that won't leap across the room and kill us yet still at usable power levels.
The alternative would be to have a power plant every block or so, which simply means that most of us wouldn’t have electric power in our homes today. There wouldn’t even be any debate between video and film for home entertainment: “projection” would mean shadow puppets by kerosene lanterns.
These work very reliably, efficiently and simply. The technology is well over a hundred years old, yet doesn't change very much because it works so well. Many of these still in use were put in during our grandparents' day: there is no reason to replace them.
So the next time you see a transformer, thank it! It of course is an inanimate object and doesn’t care, but it’s good for us to appreciate what we have!
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on September 29, 2015, 01:50 PM:
This is a recent photo of my Nizo Heliomatic 8 Focavorio Regular 8mm movie camera with a Schneider - Kreuznach Variogon f/1.8 8-48mm zoom lens. It is currently loaded with Kodak Ektachrome 100D.
I Photographed it with a Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 large format camera with Graflex Optar f/4.7 135mm lens. The film is Ilford Delta 100.
I've been experimenting with home brewed developers like Caffenol which uses instant coffee to develop black and white film. There are many recipes for Caffenol online. I found a blog post where someone developed print film with beer so I wanted to try it with negative film. The recipe I used is two 12 oz cans of beer, 5.5 teaspoons of washing soda and 2.5 teaspoons of vitamin C. I developed it for 12 minutes at 20 C with 30 seconds of agitation at the start and 10 seconds every minute. Water stop bath then normal fix. It is slightly underdeveloped so I have since increased the development time to 16 minutes with 15 seconds of agitation every minute. I used a local beer called Rainier which is a lager, I have also used Budweiser and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on September 29, 2015, 04:06 PM:
Beautiful photo Bryan!
I love Nizo! I have a Nizo S80 super 8 camera....
Again, wonderful photo.
Bill
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on September 29, 2015, 06:30 PM:
Steve is such a genius at explaining all things electrical in every day terms. How right he is about the transformer being the unsung hero of electrical transmission. All thanks to George Westinghouse of course, who championed AC, whereas Edison wanted all power transmission to be DC. How he disliked all things Westinghouse, but that fact revealing once more that, genius as he was, Edison gets a lot of undeserved credit ( he did not invent the film projector, (that honor goes to the Lumiere Brothers in France).
Bryan, that's a great looking Nizo Reg 8mm camera. So much great engineering and character, it makes a home digital movie camera look like a piece of plastic junk!
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on September 29, 2015, 06:46 PM:
quote:
The technology is well over a hundred years old, yet doesn't change very much because it works so well.
Steve, we used to be able to say this about film....!
Bill
Posted by Kevin Clark (Member # 211) on September 29, 2015, 06:59 PM:
That transformer is a beauty Steve - just popped on my reading glasses to see the picture better and realised it's size sitting there on a pallet!
Paul - I always thought George Westinghouse was more the entrepreneur / financier in partnership with the true AC pioneer and inventor Nikola Tesla:
https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_warcur.html
Kevin
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 29, 2015, 07:49 PM:
Thanks Paul, yet being called a genius in the same paragraph as Edison and Westinghouse is downright humbling!
(I had an Engineering school to go to because of what men like these figured out without one! On my own I might have wound up a blacksmith!)
The beast in question is about 30 inches tall and about four feet wide. A thousand pounds is probably about right and when we need to move it we'll call for a forklift. It is really three transformers on the same frame to take 3 Phase power from our sub-station and step it down for this immense power supply we have here.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on September 29, 2015, 08:04 PM:
Thanks for that Kevin, an amazing read about the genius of Tesla.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 30, 2015, 01:00 AM:
Talking about transformers ...well I removed this one from an old slide projector that, in its "past life" would supply voltage to a 12 volt lamp. After pulling everything apart, I was going to use it, to operate a 12 volt relay, used for heavy duty applications. The problem was the 12 volts from the transformer must have been AC as the relay would only buzz but not operate.
For $3.50 I bought a four pin rectifier..."that did the trick" to give me the 12 volts DC...bingo the relay now works. The idea of all this, is to wire the mains motor to the relay, and the 12 volts through a 5 amp CB to the old wrap detector for the 35mm platter.
In the event of a platter "wrap up" the switch that's on the detector at the moment will kill the 12 volt supply, thus the relay will release, shutting the motor down. The run down of the projector with film on the accumulator side of the wrap detector will allow the film to come to a slow halt, without any strain to film or projector.
That's the theory folks ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
and it should work, all the components are operating well in there electrical range.
In this photo is the general 12 volt layout, once everything is fitted neatly into the speaker box, then I will sort out the mains side of things. The mains fuse 5amp and the 5amp CB for the 12 volt supply should make thing nice and safe. I have included a green 12 Volt 10 amp illuminated LED switch...power on.. circuit complete projector can start... LED out 12 volts off line... motor stops ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on September 30, 2015, 02:43 AM:
Steve
Great article about transformers. I'm always in awe of anyone who knows their stuff when it comes to electronics and from your previous postings you obviously are very competent, but I am confused when you talk about volt amps (it doesn't take much). Isn't a volt amp the same as a watt? If it is the same why the different terminology- Or if it is not the same what is the difference?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 30, 2015, 06:33 AM:
Hi Terry,
A VoltAmp is the same as a Watt...sometimes!
In a lot of AC circuits you have energy storage in inductance and capacitance and you get a phase shift between current and voltage In these cases you need more current to get the same actual power out. So VA>P
That extra current doesn't light your screen or cook your breakfast, but it can pop your fuses, melt your wires and fry your transformer, so devices like this are rated in VoltAmperes and not Watts.
Now someone take a picture!
Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on September 30, 2015, 08:16 AM:
Thanks Steve
That sort of explains it to uninitiated like me! But I feel my brain beginning to bleed so I'll leave it there.
As I've said before - love your sense of humour. I also like the way you are gently introducing your son into the world of Cine (great looking kid) and better I think than just giving him a top of the range machine with which he would get bored with in five minutes and move onto another medium. I'm sure he enjoys watching you restore old projectors and getting involved. Hope so.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 30, 2015, 08:21 AM:
Thanks!
Brain Bleed is to be expected in cases like this. I learned it in High School!
-As if coping with adolescence wasn't bad enough: I also had inductance, capacitance, phase diagrams, resonance and power factor to wrap my brain around!
Of course there were no girls in those classes (back then), so that did simplify things a little...
(Not saying I was happy about it!)
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on September 30, 2015, 09:31 AM:
Steve's analogy between transformers and gear trains is brilliant! Think about it, the voltage change ratio in a transformer corresponds to the mechanical advantage of a gear or pulley system, and the current change ratio corresponds to the velocity ratio of said system. Energy in = energy out in both the electrical and mechanical systems.
Steve is such a great asset to this forum.
Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on September 30, 2015, 11:44 AM:
Totally agree with you on that Paul. I always read Steve's posts even if I don't understand them ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 30, 2015, 12:55 PM:
Lee, my thanks to you. I'm pretty good about keeping my projectors clean up front, but I don't always get around to taking off the back to get all of those dust bunnies! Problem corrected!
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on September 30, 2015, 04:23 PM:
Of course Steve's explanation of the difference of VoltAmperes and Watts is the reason companies made money selling phase compensation capacitors, as power meters overcharge when counted as in Kilowatt when there is a phase difference.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on September 30, 2015, 07:36 PM:
As well as the reason why fluorescent tubes are so very popular in industrial buildings along with salient pole generator sets to bring about a leading power factor compensation for all those lagging ones brought about by inductive loads in industry.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 30, 2015, 07:43 PM:
OK Guys,
'nuff "V"s and "I"s
Who started all this power-tech-talk?
Ohhhh...Yeah...
Next time I'm gonna take a picture of a puppy or a sunset!
Anybody got another picture?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 30, 2015, 10:32 PM:
Well.. I did finish building our decking with staining yesterday. on and off from scratch it took around three months for me to build it.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on September 30, 2015, 11:07 PM:
Sunnyvale Sunset...
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 01, 2015, 03:50 AM:
Finally got round to transferring some of my own home movies to ProRes including the out-takes from 'Cinema in Miniature'..
Above you can see a print of 'Star Wars' being recorded on American dub machines at Derann. The yellow sticker was the date the audio head was fitted so it will have seen 2 years use then.
Also Blackpool.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 01, 2015, 07:51 AM:
Blackpool seems to have a certain Wildwoodishness to it!
Coincidence?!....(probably!)
Lee, I had no idea Cinema in Miniature was made as late as 1992!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 01, 2015, 09:04 AM:
I started filming it late 1990 after Cinema of our Time Steve and seem to remember Miniature hit the shelves at 92 start. Even I'm confused now!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 01, 2015, 06:32 PM:
I would have guessed late 1970s, maybe 1980s, but then again there is a timeless quality to what we do so it's easy to be deceived!
-The difference between my own film activity between the late 1970s and today is the equipment and films became much better and my left knee hurts!
I'd love to see the outtakes. Do you plan on posting them anywhere?
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 02, 2015, 07:21 AM:
Steve Having now at long last commissioned the HD transfer project of my own home movies I do intend to set up a cross section for viewing. I was hoping to do this some time ago but my small media business keeps me very busy, the project is now underway so yes some films will eventually be available for viewing.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 02, 2015, 09:02 AM:
I look forward to it!
Well, it's a soggy, gusty, temperamental day out here in Eastern Long Island
It was hard to hold the phone still in the gusts, and I had to crop out my umbrella!
There's a hurricane off the coast. It may or may not be here on Sunday.
It makes me think! I'm thinking about the ice I have in my freezer and the tree I wanted to cut down last summer, yet never got around to. ("JUNE! , I'll do it in June!...OK, well then JULY!...").
There's a ritual at times like these. You need to buy milk! Your roof may wind up a block away, but at least you'll have milk!
-and Batteries!
If you'll excuse me now, I think I'll go to the gas station and top off my tank. The last time one of these hit it took a week before it was easy to buy gas again.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 02, 2015, 08:53 PM:
Took this photo today down at the boat sheds...anyone for canoe ride up the river?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 02, 2015, 09:13 PM:
You're speaking my language, Graham!
(-or at least one of the major dialects!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 03, 2015, 02:40 PM:
Good photo Steve ...that's what life is about.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 04, 2015, 12:17 AM:
Here's our local theater.
-It's maybe 5 years old. Unlike the one they bulldozed to make a new home-improvement center, It's never seen even an inch of 35mm film.
We went to see The Martian tonight. It's a great movie: Kind of Castaway plus Apollo 13 minus Tom Hanks plus just a dash of 2001, a Space Odyssey.
I already want the silver disk, but I'll have to admit it can't be the same other than on the big screen. So if you are a space-movie junkie like me, now is the time!
-according to the trailers, Ron Howard is doing Moby Dick. (It's going to be a lot louder than I remember the book being!)
Graham, canoeing is wonderful because it is small and simple and peaceful. It gives a lot without asking a lot. (That's pretty rare these days!)
PS: There is storm news. We'll save that for tomorrow night.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 04, 2015, 05:12 AM:
Looks very well lit up at night.
Went to Dudley also called at the old Hippodrome Theatre where so many great stars had appeared in years past. Knowing the popular link with Star Wars and Derann you could not have predicted a storm trooper walked past the front of the building as I was taking this picture! This is a genuine picture by the way we were amazed.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on October 04, 2015, 05:42 AM:
Brilliant capture Lee! Especially given its location
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 04, 2015, 07:37 AM:
Lee?
the next time you are there please drop by 99 High Street and make that your today in pictures? Internet scuttlebutt suggests they are redeveloping the site, but how much can I see from over here?
(They should at least put a historic marker there...but you know...)
Given the synthetic projection at the Regal I was pretty sure all that lighting would be LED, but sure enough: it's real Neon! (Kudos!)
Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on October 04, 2015, 10:04 AM:
Get on Steve, sunset in mallorca last year
Seriously, i'll put me cine stuff next.
& yes i did take this one
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 04, 2015, 03:23 PM:
Well, today was supposed to be THE day, but like most of our big storms Hurricane Joaquin veered well to the East and will not only miss us, but all of New England and the Canadian Maritimes as well. Today dawned kind of nasty looking but became one those great, sunny October days that makes this about my favorite time of year.
-not without incident, though.
When I got home on Friday I found a pretty substantial limb had broken off and fallen on the garage roof. When it tumbled off:
Fortunately this was not the tree I wanted to cut down last summer. I may need a new gutter on my garage, but at least my conscience isn't damaged!
Could have been worse: could have been a bigger branch or the whole tree! The shingles and sub-roof are untouched, and it missed our camper by literally inches!
I'll get some firewood out of it!
-and at least we have milk!
Posted by Bill Parsons (Member # 244) on October 05, 2015, 05:34 AM:
My workshop this morning before starting work, I really must tidy the place up.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on October 05, 2015, 05:52 AM:
A Wonderful emporium you have there.
Many pieces of technical works of art are restored to their former glory here via Bills magical hands!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 05, 2015, 06:43 AM:
Smashing to see the shop Bill and may I say what a smashing job you did on a couple of my projectors with thanks.
Steve re 99 High St. Did film all round it a bit ago to archive a record and will be working nearby in a few weeks time so will pay another call. Bit sad looking at the building which holds lots of memories great for us.
A snap from this years photo archive. After riding 2 wheels for nearly 40 years all over the country on a 2-stroke Vespa I hung up my white wall tyres, but I will say the UK scooter scene is still vibrant and a good way to stay young at least in mind even if the old body is giving in a bit. Made hundreds of friends over the years and some wonderful rides out and about...
A picture of the old Vespa leaving home.
If that had been me buying it I would have ridden it home never mind the van. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
[ October 07, 2015, 04:59 AM: Message edited by: Lee Mannering ]
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on October 05, 2015, 10:07 AM:
Repairing the cracked plastic sprocket hub on my Eumig 824D:
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 05, 2015, 02:17 PM:
I love your workshop pic Bill. Nice work!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 05, 2015, 02:26 PM:
Oh no Paul not another. After mine went I loosened the nut and fed some glue onto the shaft of all my 800 range machines just in case. Closed the job by only just finger tightening the secure nut.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 05, 2015, 02:28 PM:
Bill's shop is nice. -plenty of working surface and the best light in the world to work under: daylight. It's always nicer to work in a room with a big window than down in a basement or some interior room.
-and the picture is much better because it wasn't tidied up first! (Gives it character!)
I'm kind of happy there isn't anything worthy of a picture here today.
It's possible for life to be a little TOO interesting some times!
(Let's see about what we can do with next weekend!)
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on October 06, 2015, 05:17 PM:
After fixing the sprocket on the Eumig 824D, I decided to take a look at some 50 year old Stamdard 8mm movies from my youth in Wales. Boy, that sure brought the memories back! Left me feeling quite nostalgic for Wales and old friends.
Anyway, I projected through my Ektar F1.0 prime lens, and the old Kodachrome 2 looks wonderful, not faded a bit and still as sharp as a tack. I also had some shots taken with Geavart Color film, and that has all turned pink, but still viewable.
All the films were nicely edited and spliced on 400ft reels in labelled cans. So much better than the video archiving that I do these days, and that I very much doubt will be available for my heirs to view, whereas my Kodachromes will be there for another 100 years or more along with my Bolex 18-5 projector.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 06, 2015, 09:48 PM:
After rigorous testing the new "Panasonic" wrap detector is working a treat and now installed. Wired to the film side of things around 30 feet away, next to the platter. I can now run 35mm film with the knowledge, that if things go wrong on the platter side "film wrap" the projector motor will now shut down straight away, with no undue strain to the film or the projector.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 06, 2015, 10:27 PM:
Nice, Graham!
It's something that a lot of people don't really appreciate about this hobby: that if you are inclined to do it, you actually get to build things!
-a little creativity is good for the soul!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 07, 2015, 05:08 AM:
Well done with the 824 repair and nice to hear about watching the old home movies. As years pass they become more precious..
Weather got slightly mean at Blackpool and after a summer morning it turned into monsoon!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 07, 2015, 05:51 AM:
Yes Lee,
It looks like you are getting the leading edge of what bounced a tree limb off my garage last Friday!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 08, 2015, 12:22 AM:
Well, today..no school holidays is complete without a visit to the museum with the grandkids,....must watch "Jurassic Park" again
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 08, 2015, 12:45 AM:
I was waiting for the T-Rex to jump onto the floor with a bone in its mouth...like "Night at the Museum"
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 08, 2015, 02:50 AM:
Great to see the children enjoy themselves.
Braving the monsoon in full weather gear to see MJ...The show was excellent again.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 08, 2015, 04:05 PM:
Thanks Steve and Janice
This is a good topic and its a nice to see what everyone else gets up to other than just film
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 08, 2015, 06:50 PM:
Thanks to Lee!
It was his idea, it just agrees with us!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 09, 2015, 04:13 PM:
Ocean Holiday Motor Inn, Wildwood, New Jersey
We are just arrived for CineSea XII here on the Jersey Shore.
I keep "hearing" people talking about the reasons they love film. One of 'em that kind of stumps me is the "smell of film". For the life of me I can't think of a smell of film that's positive!
Wellllll...
You know how a scent triggers a memory? We arrived here before and got a nose full of Ocean Holiday...
I'm sure for some people it smells like surfing or swimming or sunbathing.
-to me this place "smells like film!"
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on October 09, 2015, 04:47 PM:
Superb location Steve!
Hope you all have a fantastic time there.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 09, 2015, 06:28 PM:
The smell of film....mmmm.. that must be the vinegar just kidding...have fun.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 11, 2015, 07:01 PM:
Sunset on the boardwalk, Wildwood New Jersey
Well,
CineSea XII is now flapping on the take-up reel. It was a great one: some new faces, and a lot of the regulars too! -A lot of great films and a lot of great talk and a nice surprise to end the weekend. The Friday Feature was successful and the Saturday night show ran until a record setting 2:00 AM.
This afternoon we had the experience of a lifetime and went over to the Sea Theater to see a 35mm show. This wasn't just seeing a movie either: the projectionist was a CineSea regular and we got the full tour and an open booth door the whole time. I can't do this justice here: it will be fully written up when Claus does his photo essay thread.
We are the last of the crowd in town and had an evening walk and dinner on the boardwalk.
Posted by John Richard Almond (Member # 2939) on October 12, 2015, 06:36 AM:
Talking of the smell of film, heres an interesting artical.
http://blog.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/2015/09/30/the-smell-of-cinema-why-were-bringing-smell-o-vision-back/
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 14, 2015, 06:06 AM:
A happy hour photographing Blackpools Comedy Carpet.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 21, 2015, 10:50 AM:
How we complicate things!
Consider for a moment the humble stop sign!
-An octagonal piece of sheet steel, painted red with white letters. You put it on a galvanized steel post with a couple of 1/4" nuts and bolts (bonus for using lock washers...), you plant it in the ground next to an intersection and maybe not think about it for a generation.
-cheap, simple and effective: without a lot of fuss it's likely saved millions of lives!
It's like a knife or a fork: nothing that can ever be complicated or really improved in any way.
untillllll.....
Some committee somewhere decided to "upgrade" the stop sign:
"Can we put them on Wifi?!!"
"....no, that's not it, maybe if we made them blink so people would notice them better!"
"Are a lot of people not noticing stop signs?"
"You're not listening: I want to use high intensity LEDs!"
"Oh Yeahhhh! -and we'll make them solar powered for Green Energy!"
"Can't we at least have them on WiFi to monitor the battery?"
"No, but you can bring it up when we redo the fire hydrant next month!"
"Welllll..alllright, I guess...Bluetooth?"
"-No!"
Now we have a stop sign that actually has failure modes, preventative maintenance and a "service life". In the worst case it might even burst into flames someday!
"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain!"
-Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer, Starship Enterprise
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on October 21, 2015, 11:51 AM:
It could be worse:
Seriously though, if it can save one life:
http://resodance.com/mdi/LuminousSigns.pdf
Thankfully, I have never run a stop sign before...but i have run a red light a couple times in my 30+ years, and I am pretty sure it was bright Sometimes there is human error.
This kind of thing is what we are force to create these days i guess due to trying to keep drunk drivers awake.
Cheers,
Matt
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 21, 2015, 12:05 PM:
It's interesting how the law of unintended consequences works though: If people expect stop signs to be equipped this way, will the signs without the LEDs become less visible? If a stray hailstone takes out that solar panel will somebody run the stop sign the next night?
I'll say this much: If I lived on a corner lot, I sure wouldn't want this thing pulsating outside my bedroom window all night!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 21, 2015, 02:53 PM:
This is what my morning walk in the park looked like today.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 22, 2015, 08:11 AM:
For the record: as of this morning that stop sign is kaput!
Scotty was right!!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 22, 2015, 08:36 AM:
Nice pictures there folks..
As promised Steve our trip back to Derann and still up for sale. The agent told me its received planning permission to be developed into flats.
We had a good old wander round the building reminiscing as you do and some passers by told us stories about the kit they had purchased from them over the years. Derann were obviously much loved by the locals as well as its international friends. One woman told my wife she now shops at Marks & Spencers so she can see one of the Derann staff who works there. Nice little story... 
Also my first Super 8 Derann feature film and still mint!
Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on October 22, 2015, 09:56 AM:
This is such a great thread!
If Janice is going for a walk, then so am I! This is at New York City's oasis of green, Central Park.
Doug
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 22, 2015, 07:49 PM:
Doug...I visited New York in 2010 with my son. Walking thru Central Park was heavenly...I'll never forget it
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 22, 2015, 08:27 PM:
Thanks for the photo, Lee!
What is that in Proverbs?:
"Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set."
-I guess this one can't last forever either.
When they closed the place I involuntarily lost something off my bucket list.
If you ever come in the neighborhood again please let us know, Janice! We've been known to meet even outside Wildwood.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 23, 2015, 10:12 AM:
The leaves they are a falling..
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 23, 2015, 03:51 PM:
I have to admit its been a while since I ran the old Ernemann projector... much easier to put a silver disc in and press play.
Anyway, it was time to run it once again, but this time with a really nice "Carl Zeiss Anamorphic" attached on the front that I had been given.
I spent quite a bit of time setting things up, but once the projector and platter got up and running, everything went into the "wow" ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
factor. It really does show how film can "kick butt" with picture and sound over any home theatre video system, well worth the time setting things up. The 5:1 multi channel sound was amazing, compared with any Blu-ray/DVD fed into the same amp.
The following screen shot is a bit blurry due to the digital camera and screen movement at the time I took the photo...
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 23, 2015, 06:29 PM:
Awesome Graham!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 25, 2015, 10:51 PM:
Thanks Janice
Today was stunning, so it was of for a 2 hour bike ride through the local plantation.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 26, 2015, 01:45 PM:
I’ll ride with you, Graham!
(…virtually!)
For a bunch of years after I got a driver’s license, my bike sat in my parents' garage with flat tires. At about 25 I pumped them up again and discovered why I always liked riding a bike!
I have a 32 mile drive out here to Brookhaven Labs: that’s a lot of gas, and in the long term a lot of tires, oil changes and ultimately cars, so I joined a carpool. The Lab decided to maintain my car-less mobility around our 2,500 Acre campus by assigning me a bike.
Who was I to argue?
The choices were “Mountain Bike” or “Road Bike”. I chose “Mountain” because we are mostly on wooded property and there are some really nice trails. Later on I actually saw the road bikes: mint green with white wall tires and a basket, the kind of a bike that will get you beat up even at a national physics lab! (My bike is BLACK: no chemist or materials scientist dares mess with me!)
I decided to “join” Graham during lunch today. It’s a wonderful Fall day here: the trees have turned and there is a nip in the air. I rode with a sweat shirt and was a little bit cold at first, but was fine a mile or so down the road as my ancient metabolism started to speed up.
We do alternate energy work here and have the largest solar farm on the East Coast. I ride down a road that goes right through the middle of it.
We have a railroad siding of about a mile in length off the Long Island Railroad mainline. Weather permitting I drop by about once a week to see if there is anything interesting going on over there. (That I would probably is surprising very few here!)
I’ve never seen a locomotive since they move freight at night here to avoid messing up commuter service. The railroad is kind of like Santa Claus!
-I show up the next day to see what they’ve left me!
These are dwarf pines. This part of Long Island has thousands of acres of them in protected forests. They make for interesting neighbors since they require fire to release their seeds. To local homeowners forest fires are potential disasters, for these trees the lack of them is extinction in progress. The Forest service has to tread the fine line between these two concerns by having regularly planned burns with a lot of precautions.
In 1995, we had a drought and major forest fires out here. Fire departments from four counties battled a big one 24 hours a day for about two weeks before that first rain settled it all in a few hours.
I have not looked out the window on a rainy day the same way since!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 26, 2015, 07:10 PM:
That's fantastic Steve
The previous time for me, was taking my granddaughters 9 yrs olds along. They really enjoyed it and had made a pile of sandwiches to bring along Its great to see families out and about on those trails, just about everyone you meet is friendly and will say "hello".
Yesterday I did come across this on the trail. I have know idea what it is meant to be....but it was well done
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 29, 2015, 03:41 AM:
Someone has been playing with the candles!
Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on October 29, 2015, 03:30 PM:
Great photos, scenery, and candles! Wow!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 30, 2015, 12:59 PM:
Behold the Brookhaven National Laboratory Standard Issue Road Bike
-coaster brakes, white wall tires, basket and little bell! The only thing missing is the cairn terrier in a basket and a tornado on the horizon!
-a bike so completely geeky I bet the seat feels like a wedgie!
This is actually very typical of the rented bikes you see on the boardwalk in Wildwood. I suppose when you are wearing a flowered shirt, sandals and a sun visor, this might seem cool (-especially after a couple of daiquiris), but to ride one every day?!
(And remember: the rental companies just want bikes that nobody wants to steal!)
It must be kind of frustrating when three or four of these are chained up to the rack outside the dining hall and the only difference among them is the combinations of the locks!
He would'a chosen the mountain bike!
(Tongue in Cheek Alert!! Ride whatever kind of bike you like!)
Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on October 30, 2015, 06:52 PM:
Halloween warm-up with Texas Chainsaw. Original French release print (1982). Still powerful and disturbing after all these years.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 31, 2015, 09:16 AM:
Northport Harbor on a Sunny Saturday Morning
We've been going up to a little local diner in Northport for breakfast most Saturdays since we were married. Great place: good home style food, nice atmosphere, we know the people there by name and they know us too!
Northport is an old shipbuilding village that in modern times is mostly restaurants (-not a great place to be on a diet!) and small shops. There was an old movie house on Main Street that went dark about 15 years ago. It was reopened as a live theater and has been doing very well for quite a while now. It seems there was a theatrical stage behind the screen that very few of us knew was there.
Most of the buildings there are about a hundred years old and even though the trolley stopped running in 1926, the rails are still in the street.
In a few weeks the harbor will be empty when people haul their boats out for the winter(-a few hectic days if a major hurricane develops.) During the summer this is a bustling little port with people sailing over from Connecticut and other places around the Long Island Sound, but lately it's become kind of quiet in the way it stays all winter: just home for us locals!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 31, 2015, 03:03 PM:
Steve those bikes ..never seen anything quite like it
Northport looks really nice.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 31, 2015, 03:37 PM:
Yes,
The Real Estate lady was smart:
-she made sure to drive us down Main Street, Northport after we first saw the house! (Wasn't on the way back to the office, either!)
The thing with the bike IS kind of strange. Two options at the same price (as in "none"): 21 speed mountain bike with brakes on both wheels and shock absorbing front suspension VS. single speed, rear coaster brake and rigid steel framed leisure bike.
-you would think for a gaggle of people with degrees in Engineering and the Physical Sciences this would be kind of a no-brainer!
It's so hard for people to look like they are doing serious work with these bikes too:
-you may think you are headed to a meeting on measuring "quantum photon exothermic scattering", but you look like you are headed down to the rec. center to play bingo!
Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on November 01, 2015, 01:27 PM:
Great Halloween family outing at our local amusement park yesterday. My daughter was eager to try out the new log flume (yes, the weather was that good)...
Since the weather was also excellent today, we took a long stroll by the river near our house (can you believe we are less than 2 miles away from Paris?)
Now getting ready to wrap up the Halloween weekend tonight with a screening of R. Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" (on film) when the little one is in bed...
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 06, 2015, 01:43 PM:
Nice one Jean Marc ...that's one big rabbit
Took a photo this week of some of the film stuff I have given to a museum. One Eumig projector and the Star Wars films I once had.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on November 06, 2015, 05:31 PM:
This was shot a few weeks ago while I was working in California. I just finished developing and scanning it. Photographed with a Leica III with a 50mm f/3.5 Leitz Elmar lens. The film is Ilford Delta 100 developed in Caffenol. Caffenol is a home made developer that consists of Instant Coffee, Sodium Carbonate (washing Soda), Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) and salt. I was working in Calaveras County, just North of Yosemite, so I went there on my day off.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 06, 2015, 06:36 PM:
Congrats on a really stunning picture Bryan.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on November 09, 2015, 05:23 AM:
Wonderful picture!
Pleased to see one of my construction experiments from a few years ago return home after a loan out to local film maker friend..
'The MK1 Eumig HD film transfer wonder machine'
And another quick snap of the sky last evening..
[ November 11, 2015, 07:53 AM: Message edited by: Lee Mannering ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 14, 2015, 10:22 PM:
November 2015 is the 20th anniversary of the release of Toy Story.
I happen to have the Derann feature length print, so I decided to do something about it tonight.
We emailed an announcement out and had some friends over to see it theatrically as possible: trailers, newsreel, cartoon and then feature. We even went old school and did an intermission after the second reel.
-At the snack bar (kitchen counter): soft drinks and nachos with mozzarella!
I invited Steven to get in on the act and he showed his R8 Castle "Three little Bruins in a Canoe" (Which is much, much older than he is!) at the close of the intermission and before reels three and four.
Our audience was amazed at seeing such a modern film on Super-8, and we had a great time.
I was in full Projectionist Mode: normally I'd sit up on the couch. Until I got well into the first reel of the feature and had the second hanging ready on a supply spindle, I didn't even sit down!
My co-projectionist, his Yelco and my two Elmo STs: ready for action!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 16, 2015, 02:12 AM:
That's brilliant Steve
Not much this week however I did take this photo last week. It should bring back some memories
Anyone for gas
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 17, 2015, 03:46 PM:
Nitrous Oxide: How the dental industry made us want to go!
Hot Time at the old Lab tonight!
We're taking it in a whole new direction today: from the visible to the infrared to be exact!
We have this vast machine here. It's a half mile circumference stainless steel pipe with an electron beam inside it under high vacuum. There are several hundred electromagnets all the way around to keep the beam inside the pipe and in focus with a power supply for each magnet, and many, many miles of fat copper cabling connecting it all together and a central computerized control system making at all work in harmony. This was as simple as it could possibly be done, but there are a lot of chances for our old friend Murphy to work his Law!
Unfortunately any one of those magnet circuits can take the beam down if it goes dead. When that happens, several hundred scientists who may have come all the way around the world to use the beam and have time reserved at any of 24 hours a day, seven days a week will be left twiddling their scientific thumbs!
(Ever been yelled at by someone working towards a Nobel Prize? They yell just as loud but use much bigger words!)
So how do you stop this? Well...one way is you assign Steve Klare a thermal camera and send him out looking for connections that are in the process of failing.
As the bolts slowly loosen, the resistance goes up, and so does the temperature. Long before something overheats, it starts to run just a little warm.
-That's where I come into the (thermal) picture.
This connection has about 100 Amps flowing in it:
Notice how the side going out is gray, but the side coming back is white. This raised a flag that something was coming undone, and sure enough they found the bolts on the return side just barely tight.
A couple of minutes with a torque wrench took us from a potential multi hour failure to a non-issue.
-so we managed to intercede and keep the Scientists going without them ever even realizing there was ever a problem.
Of course if someone gives you a multi-thousand dollar camera to play with you just have to take an infra-red selfie:
(I mean, how often does that opportunity come up?)
If anyone thinks I lack personal warmth: here's scientific proof!
(Actually 34.2C is a little on the cool side! I must need a new thermostat!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 17, 2015, 06:17 PM:
The ultimate selfie
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 17, 2015, 06:18 PM:
The most terrifying photo I have seen in sometime!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 17, 2015, 09:26 PM:
No worries, Paul!
-once we torqued the hardware, everything was fine!
This camera can also shoot thermal video...
-just imagine what that looks like!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 18, 2015, 07:08 AM:
Two pictures taken in¨Paris
The sentence in Latin (Fluctuat nec mergitur) is the slogan of the city of Paris and means "Floats and doesn't sink". The sentence in French means : "Paris still standing".
"Fight hate with this thing called love"
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 20, 2015, 02:43 PM:
Job "1"... Stain rear fence.
....done....
Job "2".....Yvonne wanted a "Wishing well" out front with a memorial added to some of her broken owls from the 2011 earthquake.
....done...
Job "3"....insulate spare room entrance..
....done...
Well that's what I have been up to
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 23, 2015, 09:44 AM:
Brussels has been under terrorist alert since Saturday. The highest level is reached so there are no metro running, most of the downtown shops are closed, as many malls in the entire city. Events such as music concert have been cancelled, cinema are closed and the schools didn't open today. So far we don't know if this will be repeated tomorrow. The city is under police and army protection.
The famous "Grand Place"
It's not snowing, it's the preparation of the Cristmas market.
Some policemen or soldiers are hidding their face for safety reasons.
The price to pay to try to avoid a bloodbath like in Paris 10 days ago. The French capital is only 1h22 minutes by train from Brussels and several terrorists came from here. One of them is still searched by police.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 23, 2015, 02:30 PM:
Stay safe pal whatever you do! Stay indoors as much as you possibly can. ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 23, 2015, 04:10 PM:
Thanks for your concerns, Andrew, here and on the Star Wars thread. maximal alert level remains for tomorrow so no school ; I will stay at home most of the day (there will be no metro anyway).
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 30, 2015, 01:30 AM:
Nice sky tonight
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on December 06, 2015, 05:17 AM:
A surprise trip to the Christmas model rail exhibition. Nice also to bump into some super 8 film makers and talk over the old times...
Also our own David Guest's amazing 65 key fairground organ.
Took some flowers to the cemetery remembering that great comedy film, stage and radio star Jimmy Clitheroe.
Top picture in Manchester, bottom Blackpool
[ December 07, 2015, 03:15 AM: Message edited by: Lee Mannering ]
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on December 06, 2015, 10:47 AM:
Very nice photographs taken there Lee. Whereabouts were you?
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on December 07, 2015, 03:18 AM:
Surprise trip to Embsay Steam Railway to see Santa. Really fun evening.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on December 09, 2015, 03:35 AM:
Surprise trip over to see young Phil at Classic also leaving with some new 8mm films for the archive. Good to see some sunshine after all the flooding here and our man looked well pleased to report.
Posted by Simon Balderston (Member # 5106) on December 09, 2015, 04:48 AM:
nice picture Lee did you go for a paddle sorry a long walk and a paddle good old Cleethorpes
Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on December 11, 2015, 07:01 AM:
Thanks Lee. Nice to know Phil is ok.
Graham S
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on December 15, 2015, 07:00 AM:
Our mobile Christmas cinema is now in full operation and a big building to project in but the young people enjoyed the show as did the adults apparently. To hear the children chuckle to the old 1930's cartoons brings a great deal of joy to your 8mm heart.
Been giving these voluntary shows for years now and reel fun!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on December 15, 2015, 02:28 PM:
Looks great Lee and a real treat for the young and young at heart!
Must be very rewarding doing these public shows when you get an appreciative audience.
[ December 15, 2015, 05:12 PM: Message edited by: Andrew Woodcock ]
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on December 16, 2015, 05:57 AM:
Thanks Andrew. Things have changed over the years as many will know. You now need a enhanced CRB in hand, pat tested equipment and sorry to say some of the old hands that used to go out giving film shows to youngsters packed in due to all the hassle of paperwork. At the end of the day child protection rules and a good thing measures are in place.
The reward is watching the children enjoy seeing reel film and I usually pass around some short lengths of 35mm film for them to study and take away.
I would love to project a film in Santa's grotto as well.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 16, 2015, 11:58 AM:
This may be cheating just a little, but this is MY day in pictures…about three weeks ago! (Well, at least my delay putting it up made it more seasonal!)
We went to Pennsylvania to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with my sister and her family. My sister is a volunteer at Longwood Gardens and we often go and visit. This is a former estate of one of the DuPonts (…THE DuPonts). Typical of a great many of these estates, it was built during the early part of the last century when it seems there was no limit to the amount of money that could be found and then spent, and it has architecture and gardens that you or I might just have if we had a couple of hundred employees to build and operate them. There is a greenhouse there that has to be easily a hundred acres indoors: all sorts of environments from rain forests to lily ponds to saguaro desert. There are fountains by the dozen and a couple of miles of walking paths through gardens and hedges and ponds.
Of course not many of these places lasted much past the Great Depression: some became schools, others were just bulldozed and the land sold off, this one is preserved by a foundation and open to the public all year long for many events.
The event this time was “A Longwood Christmas”. The volunteers and professional staff decorate the grounds and you can spend a pleasant couple of hours walking around taking in the sights. This year we were fortunate it was just cool: more than a few times it’s flirted with “Arctic” and by the time you finish all you can think about is a hot cup of coffee!
-in the Spring or Fall I'd be happy to be there all day long!
Longwood Gardens
I’d like to take a moment to thank Lee Mannering for starting this thread. It’s the kind of idea that helps people get to know each other better and helps us to become a community, despite the distances and differences we have between us. I hope in five years it’s still on the front page of General Yak and hundreds of pages long!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 18, 2015, 03:10 PM:
Looks great Steve
Yesterday I spent a wee bit a time checking Connor out, now 6 years old on Zoe "his sisters bike", "hopefully he will get his own soon", with the thought of taking him through the plantation two hour bike track next week... he is keen ..so will see. I don't want him running into any trees. I think he is up to it.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 21, 2015, 09:41 AM:
Young Kids on bikes are really cool to watch. I started my son on training wheels in summertime and he just wasn't getting it. We went all the way through until the snow started and I began to imagine this kid on training wheels in his twenties. (This is what's bad about raising an only child: by the second one you'd at least know what to expect!)
-so we put the bike away and felt glad it was a battle we didn't need to face for a few months. (With any luck, New York State would extend the Junior Driver's license to 6 year olds and we'd forget about the bike!)
-but Spring came anyway and however reluctantly, we saddled up once again.
There came this magical moment somewhere mid May when all of a sudden something undefined clicked and he rode down the street a minute at a time without the training wheels touching pavement. I unbolted them and we rode about 5 miles that afternoon.
It was a day I'll never forget, just like the same day I had when I was six.
A lot of people think what makes a bike stay upright is the wheels acting like gyroscopes. This is true but not the whole truth. What keeps a bike upright is the rider's inner ear telling his brain he's tipping and the rider unconsciously leaning away and putting just a tiny twist into the handlebars to bring the bike back under their center of gravity.
It's one of those things you can teach without understanding, and even understand and still not be able to communicate.
It's something you have to encourage until somehow everything falls into place.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 21, 2015, 01:00 PM:
Steve this was yesterday.
..we were away for almost three hours, with a few stops on the way to chill out, have a drink, and something to eat, from the lunch box and drink bottles I took along....he did a lot of biking, he did really well for a first time. I will see about getting him a better bike, one with gears on it.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 21, 2015, 01:26 PM:
Nice, Graham!
What's wild about it is with your sandy soil, pine forests and ocean beaches, you could have told me you took these pictures 10 miles from here and I would not have disputed you for a minute!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on December 21, 2015, 09:52 PM:
Here's my son and I standing in line today to see Star Wars. The Force was with us Loved it! Loved it! Loved it!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 22, 2015, 01:37 PM:
Yesterday
I heard this voice..."Nana" what's your password
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 22, 2015, 02:27 PM:
You have to watch young kids these days: computers are as natural to them as a TV was to us. Being that the desktops are full of icons, they don't even have to read to be able to navigate the system.
-my kid was in daycare where they had computers set up on tables maybe a foot and a half off the floor. For the preschoolers they didn't leave the keyboards in place because letters and numbers were still gibberish to them. It was all two handed mousing on the desktop.
Somehow my son discovered this song called "The Underwear Song" on one of the computers and started playing it over and over. He immediately became the toast of the Butterfly Room and a media celebrity among the other little boys until the teacher became fed up, found the file and deleted it.
-after he went into trash and recovered the file...
Janice, there's kind of a debate at the House: we understand the new Star Wars is really good but haven't been following the series. Does it work as a stand-alone or do we have to start borrowing DVDs to study?
I'm prone to complaining I don't really understand the Star Wars timeline, but then again it can't be nearly as convoluted as Star Trek!
"Yes, 'Enterprise' was made after 'The Next Generation", but it is set before The Original Series which was made almost fifty years before 'Star Trek' which is set in the same time with the same characters, but it's an alternate timeline and different actors (except for Spock, who is played simultaneously by two actors including the one from The Original Series), so the stories are the same...but different..."
There....Simple!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on December 22, 2015, 04:20 PM:
Steve...I think having some knowledge of the original Star Wars especially "A New Hope" will make the movie more meaningful, but it's not necessary. I think it stands pretty much on it's own and will spring-board more good stories for future movies. My son watched all 3 of the original movies (you can totally ignore the prequels) before seeing this movie just to refresh his memory...but I didn't ... and very much enjoyed it anyway.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on December 22, 2015, 07:53 PM:
and lets not forget what was meant by "Zoomin" back in the glorious 80's!
And there was me thinking of B/S!!
anyhow, as its nearly Christmas, here is the Uks Brightest Star for this year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDrjyZfNBPQ
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 02, 2016, 09:11 AM:
Every pet store, every department store, even many supermarkets have pet toys.
-jingly, sparkly, noisy junk that usually dies a quick, violent death in the bowels of the vacuum cleaner.
Just think of all the money we could save if we gave them what they really want!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 04, 2016, 01:23 AM:
Is that your cat Steve? if so what's its name?
Today I was looking through old paper work, and came across my old school leaving reference. I turned 15 yrs on the January and left 2 months later to start work in a Ford Dealership.
All this stuff will be thrown out one day, but surprised so much is still with me after all those years
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on January 04, 2016, 01:36 AM:
Just as when I look back on my old school reports, I always have a little chuckle to myself at the forthright no nonsense approach that was utilized in those days with things like student reports etc lol.
Nowadays, if a student was written about in a similar draconian manner, the parents would be suing the authorities for character assassination of their child and the student would need counselling to aid their dented confidence in accordance to the same said parents! Ha ha ha.
It's great to see all of the important qualities in life,you had in abundance Graham!
"Could do better" were the words I most recollect from my early school day reports!
In my school days, you were allowed "sports days" and someone was even allowed to win!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 04, 2016, 01:49 AM:
Steve you are so correct. I bought a nice little bed for my son's cat Buster to rest in.
...but this is what he preferred.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on January 04, 2016, 03:34 AM:
Too...cute Janice!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 04, 2016, 08:38 AM:
Graham,
He is my son's cat and his name is "Tigger".
We just got him a second one and he wanted to name him "Piglet", we settled on "Oreo" instead....
(-still beats "Pooh", isn't there enough cat pooh as it is?!)
I ask you: Could a human being be this delighted in anything without borrowing money first?
[ January 07, 2016, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 07, 2016, 11:25 AM:
One of the things I love about the job I have these last few years is it is in the western part of what we Long Islanders call “Out East”. This is no longer Metropolitan New York, but forests and rivers and lakes, vineyards, farmland, harbors, seashore, islands and prairielands. Every day I arrive out here and if I want I can take a short hike or ride my mountain bike out in a couple of thousand acres of forestlands during lunch. I’m not that surprised to see deer anymore, but I still enjoy it! There are foxes out in these woods, but that’s a rare pleasure. They know you are there a long time before you know they are.
I’ve been hanging around out here since not too long after I graduated from college. We canoe quite a bit. We bought the first boat a few weeks after we tried skiing (…didn’t go at all well!). One of the nicest places locally is the Carmans River. Since we are on an island it’s only about 10 miles from source to sea, but it has three shallow lakes joined by a lazy, crystal clear river through quiet forest lands. Lately I cross it twice a day, and if time allows sometimes I park my car and visit for a minute, just to take in the peacefulness.
It was a very warm December and it looked like real winter would never come, well…if you can call it good news it has arrived with a vengeance these last couple of days. Monday was well down into the (Farenheight) teens and every night since it has plunged well below freezing.
When I dropped by Yaphank Lower Lake this morning it was icing over. Of course if you were…ambitious enough to try to ice skate there right now all you’d get for your trouble is a pair of skates stuck in the lake bottom and wet, cold, muddy feet! –but suffice it to say I doubt I will be canoeing there until March (…at the very least).
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 09, 2016, 05:35 PM:
Not today but last year....
...and that's how its done....
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 12, 2016, 11:42 AM:
Nice, Graham!
One of the guys at CineSea taught my kid how to splice 16mm,...which I haven't,... ever!
(Teach 'em young!)
In other news:
Looks like someone had a pleasant drive to work today!
It's not mine! My car probably weighs less than the chrome on this one!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 12, 2016, 01:04 PM:
Bellowy clouds and rain all around the SF Bay Area...but only blue skies over my street in Sunnyvale
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on January 18, 2016, 04:08 AM:
A quick snap as we await the Flying Scotsman Locomotive to arrive as the snow broke out.
Posted by Keith Ashfield (Member # 741) on January 18, 2016, 07:00 AM:
Just to prove that he loves film like his master, this is my Shih Tsu "Charlie" in his latest movie roles ......
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on January 18, 2016, 03:04 PM:
Very nice Keith!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 18, 2016, 03:10 PM:
Lee,
The Flying Scotsman shows up regularly on my screen and through my speakers.
-hats off to someone who got to see it in person!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 20, 2016, 03:14 PM:
In Praise of Percolated Coffee! (-and accidental discoveries!)
I’m what you might call a low-level outdoorsman. I can’t throw an axe 50 feet and embed it in a tree, and if I was stranded in the High Sierra at 30 below, rather than fashion a crossbow from tree branches and kill a bear for his fur I’d probably freeze to death just like anybody else, but I like to do things outdoors like canoeing and camping and hiking and mountain biking, even if I rarely get beyond cell service and quite often I’m home for dinner too!
I like to share this with my son, and that’s kind of become a tradition. From the time he was about seven I’d heat up a pair of cans of Spaghettios and put ‘em in a Thermos and throw that in a daypack and we'd head somewhere beautiful, safe and local and stop trailside for lunch. The beverage of choice is Hot Chocolate. I found this serious little camp stove that literally fits in the palm of your hand and can boil a pint of water in less than two minutes (-sounds like an itty-bitty Jet Engine!). This sent me on a quest for a small pot this thing could manage to heat the water.
-I found it: Five bucks on E-bay, two cups and barely bigger than a decent sized coffee mug. From the looks of it it’s easily as old as I am!
It came with the grounds basket. One day I decided to try to see if it really works and it certainly does!
Percolated coffee tastes great and not only that, it is an achievement! With the Keurig you stuff the little cartridge in there, fill up the water and push a button: thirty seconds and a lot of mysterious sounds later you have your cup of coffee.
-this you need to measure out the grounds in the basket and watch it closely while the water is heating up to boiling. After that first ”Glurp!” up top you need to immediately turn the heat down or you will have a geyser of coffee all over the stove top. (Boiled coffee is SPOILED coffee!) You then need to perk it five minutes before it’s ready. Too little it's weak, too long it can become bitter.
This is a very user interactive process! Whether it comes out right or not is the result of the care you put into it. Yes there are more automatic ways of doing the same thing, but the coffee tastes better because YOU made it that way.
-something a film collector surely understands!
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on January 20, 2016, 04:38 PM:
lately I've been experimenting with different home brew recipes to develop black and white film. I have a recipe for developing with beer that I have been working on that works pretty good. There are also many recipes online that use instant coffee.
Recently a member of another forum that I'm on built a working camera from a coconut. The question then came up if it was possible to develop film with coconut water so I went to work and came up with this recipe for Coconol:
Pure Coconut Water (I used Vita Coco brand) - 500mL
Washing Soda - 20g
Vitamin C - 8g
Develop at 20 degrees C for 15 minutes. 30 seconds of agitation at start and 15 seconds for every minute after that.
Clearly the recipe needs some work but I think this answers the question that has stumped the scientific community for decades: How did the castaways develop the film in the Gilligan's Island episode Castaway Pictures Presents? Now we know.
Gilligan's Island: Castaways Pictures Presents
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 23, 2016, 01:32 AM:
Good photos Steve
Getting out and about is great fun. One of the places we used to go regular was the "Devils Punchbowl", Its in an area with plenty of good day walks. The mountain air is just great, although my present fitness will have to improve a bit before I take the grandkids up there. I still have some Super 8 somewhere ...anyway we were sorting out old photos the other day, and came across a couple of early 35mm ones when Steven and his friends was younger. The water fall is impressive straight of the snow, so its cold, but in a hot summers day its great stuff.
Time to get fit
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on January 23, 2016, 08:48 AM:
I think it is amazing someone else in the world has named a similar thing the 'Devil's Punchbowl'. In Ontario, Hamilton is the only place I know of with a Devil's Punchbowl, which is approx 2 or 3 kms from my house!!!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/DevilsPunchBowl.jpg
http://www.cityofwaterfalls.ca/devils-punchbowl/
I am not so surprised to find another topological wonder, but to be named the exact same is interesting to me!
[ January 25, 2016, 07:08 AM: Message edited by: Mathew James ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 23, 2016, 12:24 PM:
Interesting videos Mathew
Came across this short one on You-tube that shows the one out here.
https://youtu.be/e3w-44cVk-o
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on January 23, 2016, 12:41 PM:
There's a Devils Punchbowl in Oregon as well.
Devils Punchbowl State Natural Area
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 23, 2016, 02:03 PM:
Bryan, it looks like they are everywhere
Steven came round to see me a few weeks ago and the subject came up about taking a trip with the grandkids, we usually combined the punchbowl with other walks while we are there to make the trip worthwhile. It such a quiet and peaceful area to visit, I like the mountains... should live there ..here is one last old 35mm photo taken when Steven and April and "me" were a lot younger and I was a bit more fitter.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 23, 2016, 02:13 PM:
There's a Devil's Punch Bowl in Wales too!
-what I learned from my print of "Vale of Rheidol Railway".
I actually learn a lot from my films. Very often after I rewind I have something I have to look up.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 23, 2016, 05:25 PM:
A bitterly cold day in Orlando was spent at the annual Orlando Antique Phonograph Show. As usual there were many interesting items on display, including Edison Phonographs, Victor Talking Machines, Swiss music boxes, and all kinds of memorabilia. Amazing to me is how loud the acoustic amplification is through these wooden horns, with no electronics.
This Pathe advertising sign was on sale for $500.00!
The famous RCA/Victor dog 'Nipper' had memorabilia all over the place:
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 24, 2016, 10:48 AM:
I bought a new snow blower in December. My old one was not only electric and corded, it was not only made in Regular-8 days (-came with the house...), but it was tiny and getting tired. Some days I wondered if it wouldn’t be easier to just shovel!
Ever since I bought the thing, people keep saying “Since you bought a snow blower that means it won’t snow this year!”
MYTH: BUSTED!!!
The forecast was 6” to 12”, and we certainly got our money’s worth. Good thing it was a Saturday, at least most people could just stay in and let the crews fight the roads without complications.
My wife said “Steven, go help Daddy!”
-he called himself my “accomplice”.
The new machine does make it much easier, but it was still work. The walk is clear and the cars are free to navigate.
-Meanwhile, among the Leisure Class:
"What's all that commotion outside?"
Wonderful event, Paul! They look like kindred spirits!
Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on January 24, 2016, 11:43 AM:
The view into our courtyard at our condo in DC. No shoveling, no going anywhere, just cooking, watching films, playing music and taking pictures.
As usual, the hysteria in the media was on in full force, as if the Second Ice Age was to descend.
The sun is out and it is starting to melt here already.
Claus.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 24, 2016, 11:48 AM:
..."Myth Busted".. sure is...
That's a lot of snow hope it does not freeze or get messy when it turns to slush, making driving very dangerous. Good photos Steve.
PS. Steve and Claus where are your snowmen?...you must build one
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 24, 2016, 12:23 PM:
quote:
Wonderful event, Paul! They look like kindred spirits!
They certainly are Steve.In fact these people feel about Phonographs and records exactly the way we do about projectors and films. A grand bunch of people too, just like film collectors.
I envy you and Claus with all that snow. A lot of people who have moved to Florida from the north always seem to get a smug satisfaction when snow hits in the towns they used to live in. kind of a justification for their move. I have never felt that way, and still miss the beauty of Montoursville Pa. after a snow fall. Just magical to me.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on January 25, 2016, 03:52 AM:
Morecambe bay (Lancashire) at sun down.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 26, 2016, 08:41 AM:
Lower Lake This Morning
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 27, 2016, 01:49 AM:
Myself and Connor paying a visit today to the "Ferrymead Heritage Park" including a look around the railway shed
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on January 27, 2016, 07:44 AM:
Something a little obscure for you today, some recently processed 9.5mm colour cine film and a shot of our railway culvert.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 27, 2016, 12:20 PM:
Completed a bit of work on the Westar projector at the "Ferrymead Heritage Park" last Saturday, wired up the motor and soldered/rewired the sound to an amp and speakers. The results were very good indeed, next stage will be getting a bit of " light".
Nice to see and hear the projector running once again.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 28, 2016, 08:35 AM:
"I know you worked really hard on the puzzle...
-but that's the table the cat stands on when he's looking out the window."
I think I found all the pieces and we won't vacuum back there until he builds it again.
"....Quiet on the set: TAKE...TWO!"
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 08, 2016, 10:58 AM:
NOT AGAIN!!!!
Well, it's yet another snowy day out here on the Frontiers of Science!
This is not one of those nice December snowstorms where you feel the latent urge to grab your sled and head for a hill, and hope Mom makes hot cocoa for when you get home.
No, this is realizing you are 32 slippery miles from home, and the best feeling you can hope for on the way back is "solemn".
It's OK, we have a system:
I'll grip the wheel with white knuckles, and my carpool friend will dig her fingernails into my dashboard...
It's gotten us home every time...so far!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on February 08, 2016, 11:16 AM:
Be careful Steve...This is the kind of day I would work from home
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 08, 2016, 11:37 AM:
I tried that, but my neighborhood has a thing about having a high intensity X-ray source next door!
-eh!, I got anti-lock brakes, I got electronic traction control, I got front wheel drive, and I know Newton's Laws by heart!
(Besides, there's hot cocoa at the house!)
-I suppose good manners mean I should post after I get home...
Edit: Home, safe and sound!
[ February 08, 2016, 03:24 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 08, 2016, 05:04 PM:
Years ago if things got bad especially up in the mountains, I used to carry snow chains...very handy ..clunk..clunk...clunk... I once went on a bus trip with an intermediate school 11to 12year olds as a parent helper. Once we were at the start of the climb, the bus driver drove his inner rear wheels onto small wooden ramps, that made it easy to fit the chains onto the outer wheels, for the trip up the snow covered loose gravel road.
It was steep and slow going, but we got there safely, same for coming back down later on in the day "real slow". The kids were great and once I had got them sorted out on the beginners slope I disappeared up the main slope. Strangely none of the other parent helpers that wanted to come that day could ski, only me . At the end of the day we rounded them up, "found them all" for the trip home, they were everywhere on the slopes it was a good day out, up in the mountains.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 09, 2016, 05:12 AM:
Not quite today but had the wonder box out for another show.
This 807D has entertained me man and boy. Going to make a video about it I think.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 11, 2016, 02:08 AM:
Well folks I am soon going to embark on what could be an interesting project. I have offered to help sort out, what's what with many years worth of stored old films "old home movies" in both Standard and Super8 for the photographic crowd at the Heritage Park.
I have only just started looking at some of it, and to be honest its a bit sad, that these films have landed up here in the first place over many years, with no record being kept of there origin. Looking at the editor, you start to think, who are those people? are they still alive? etc. The Kodachrome Standard 8 films condition wise look great.
Anyway here are a couple of photos. The first is just part of the film collection, and then some screen shots of some Standard 8 film taken here in the South Island in "1965". Once I have more time I will see if I can track down the kids in the following screen shots, who would be if they are still alive, in there late 50s.
So folks don't ever let your precious "home movies" land up being forgotten like this lot has
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 11, 2016, 03:33 AM:
Someones treasured childhood memories there Graham. You are doing a great job there!
I hope you can locate the people concerned.
Try posting your screenshots on FB.
Only last week a guy who found a stolen wedding album did the exact same thing.
Within a few days, the owners gratefully contacted the guy!
The power of Facebook eh, always someone who knows us all there!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 11, 2016, 12:32 PM:
Andrew
I will be doing that very shortly. It would be great if the family members were still around, but most importantly be able watch those images taken 50 years ago projected once again on a Standard 8 projector onto a screen. I think that would be neat, will see what happens.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 11, 2016, 01:15 PM:
I very much look forward to the eventual outcome with this one Graham.
It's a great thing that Standard 8mm film has found its way into a collectors hands like yourself Graham, as many, myself included, wouldn't have any equipment to be able to view this long lost footage anymore.
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on February 11, 2016, 01:24 PM:
8 years ago, I bought a DeJur 750 on eBay. I picked it up locally. The guy threw in a metal case of 10 400' reels of family home movies. The projector and films belonged to someone in his family but he didn't want any of it. I've kept these films even after I moved 3 times and downsized each time. I can't bring myself to toss them. Someone spent years shooting and editing these home movies. At this point they will never find their proper home. I guess you could say I adopted them. I feel like the knight in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' who guards the holy grail.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 11, 2016, 02:00 PM:
I sympathize...
a couple of months ago I bought somebody's home movies because they were on Gepe reels and they were selling five of 'em for what bust-out retail would be for one if the reels were empty.
Some of the footage is interesting. Whoever it was belonged to some flying club down in Texas and there's a lot of action with small aircraft.
-some of it is some nice yet completely anonymous family frolicking on the beach on the Gulf Coast.
Watching this feels semi-creepy to me (like looking into somebody's front window 30 seconds too long!), yet I can't bring myself to just de-reel it into the trash can!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 11, 2016, 02:21 PM:
We have the luxury most other people on the planet don't.
We have a passion for projecting these things and an about to do so. Therefore we can therefore put them out there again, to the world at large.
In all these cases, there is a very strong possibility you can give their owners what THEY would want. Not the actual film but just a digital copy. No matter how rough the transfer, just to relive their memories no doubt.
Facebook really is the place for all of this long lost treasure for those willing to make the effort.
Just think how thrilled,no doubt, the original photographer would feel quite possibly,for these to find their way back down to the families again, no matter how many generations further on.
[ February 11, 2016, 03:43 PM: Message edited by: Andrew Woodcock ]
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 12, 2016, 02:54 AM:
Today I shall be remembering the late and possibly greatest electronic organist Lenny Dee who will have been gone 10 years now. Lenny I am sure many of you in the US will know played at his Dolphin Den or the Kings Inn in his unique staccato style, had a lengthy recording career and even had a 45rpm in the top 20 playing the Hammond organ.
So my today in pictures is remembering Lenny Dee.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 14, 2016, 09:59 PM:
Well those screen shots from the editor went into a City Facebook page over the weekend, but so far nil response
However on Saturday I started to modify the Kodascope 8 projector to take a 15volt 150watt lamp, the distance from the gate to the lamp is the same as the ST1200, so it should work "hopefully" will also include a high and low setting for the lamp. The previous 110volt 500watt lamp along with its condenser lens etc has been removed.
Sunday, well I just had got an image out of the "Westar" after fitting a lamp and using an old Elmo slide projector for the 24volt 250watt lamp. the surrounding area however, was way to bright, but both picture and sound are working...big projector small image anyway that's as far as I got that day, as things around the place went a bit shaky
Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on February 17, 2016, 01:32 PM:
Just got back from London,
Here we were last night at he O2 Arena to see the master composer Ennio Morricone in concert with his 60 years in music tour. It was superb,
Here we are, my lovely wife Natasha, me and my Brother, this was his Birthday present from us. It does look at bit empty but this was an hour before the start, it soon filled up.
Posted by Jamie Biggs (Member # 3778) on February 17, 2016, 03:24 PM:
I saw Ennio Morricone last night too Tom, it really was fantastic! Apart from The Ecstasy of Gold (which I could listen to on an endless loop), I think my highlight was either The Man With The Harmonica or Sean Sean. And what a brilliant surprise to see the great man presented with his BAFTA for The Hateful Eight! Amazing!
Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on February 17, 2016, 05:37 PM:
Jamie that was a great surprise for us all to see. Tonight i have listened to that great love theme from the red tent over and over. I hadnt heard this before and it is the most moving music i have heard.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on February 17, 2016, 11:16 PM:
Tom and Jamie..What a wonderful opportunity to hear Ennio Morricone. He's truly one of the great composers.
Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on February 18, 2016, 07:33 AM:
For me he the best of them all by far, over 500 movies to his belt, music of all styles and only 7% of those were the Westerns for which he is known for the world over.
Just listen to this one, in the dark with some volume and tell me it doesn't move you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylTLjhBHzuI
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 20, 2016, 07:58 AM:
Paid our respects to author Mary Shelley also remembering the popularity amongst 8mm collectors of Frankenstein.
Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on February 20, 2016, 08:55 AM:
Are you a Goth, Lee?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 20, 2016, 01:32 PM:
Finished converting to Quartz Halogen 150 watt lamp. Bought a transformer and a fuse holder, but decided not to have a low/high lamp setting and just go for the full 15 volts through the original lamp switch.
The light from the projector without doubt is a huge improvement over the original 110v 500w lamp and its condenser lens. The throw to the screen is about 8 meters around 24ft. I understand when this model of projector came out in the early 1950s you had to buy the lamp separate and was not included in the projector upon purchase....it was all very expensive stuff back then.
Quite a long throw but the light output is very good, it will be interesting to screen some Kodachrome.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 20, 2016, 02:06 PM:
Nice job Graham and a simply stunning home cinema you have there BTW!
Posted by Evan Samaras (Member # 5070) on February 20, 2016, 03:00 PM:
Love that setup Graham!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on February 20, 2016, 03:28 PM:
Graham ... your cine room is beyond awesome. It's a film-lovers dream theatre. It looks so cozy and warm...I just want to plop down on one of those cumfy theatre seats with a bag of popcorn and a box of Junior Mints and let the movie begin
[ February 21, 2016, 12:00 AM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 22, 2016, 11:52 AM:
I agree with Janice, a lovely super 8 viewing room. Let us hope that these blasted quakes never part you with it!!!!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 22, 2016, 01:02 PM:
Yes, If I get the chance I would like to do something like this.
Home Cinema: Yes, Cinema atmosphere, but still Home atmosphere!
-The kind of movie theater you feel comfortable with your shoes off! (-a projection booth with a bottle opener!)
I have these recurring dreams of discovering perfectly shaped empty rooms in the house (been there 24 years...you'd think I'd know by now!).
-and I keep waking up remembering that the other side of the wall behind the china closet is just lawn!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 22, 2016, 01:55 PM:
Wouldn't it be great if we were all as lucky as Paul and Graham here with our cinema rooms!
Ah well, we can dream.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on February 22, 2016, 03:01 PM:
Graham,
Looks great!
I am curious about the speakers on either side of the screen.
Can you let me know your set-up for doing this. Can you play any projector through those speakers and if so, how did you set that up. I would like to do that with some extra speakers i have, but i thought i needed elmo speakers to run on the elmo, because of the special 'jack' plug in. Is there a way to do this for any projector?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 22, 2016, 03:19 PM:
I find the best thing to do is get your projectors to play nicely with your home audio system.
-something like this:
An Easy Hookup from a Projector to a Stereo Amplifier
I wrote these for a Forum Friend before I decided to make them available to everyone here. He tried it and was very pleased with the results.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 22, 2016, 03:27 PM:
Any decent mixer console will allow at least two or three analog inputs from our projectors Matthew, so as long as you can sit all the projectors in a booth in fairly close proximity to the mixer, then the output from a mixer can be fed through to a home cinema receiver or stereo amplifier very easily and then out to the fixed located speaker system.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 22, 2016, 05:47 PM:
Thanks everyone
Mathew what model of Elmo do you have? the reason I say this is that the very early ST1200"M" did not have a Aux out, but does have a "monitor jack" you can use that, to make a duel lead RCA inputs to an external amp, you can probably buy an already made cable that will do the job. However your Elmo speakers are themselves very good do you use both? L/R mono.
All the sound from video and film projectors is fed directly into a external Yamaha amp, with the exception of Super8 and 16mm only, which goes from the projectors to a selector switch, then onto an old Sony Graphic Equalizer before the amp. That Graphic Equalizer with its wide range of adjustments, works a treat in improving the sound just before it gets to the amp.
The great thing about this amp is wide range of inputs at the rear including "a must" multi-channel for the 35mm.
anyway its all food for thought
Just finished mixing the best bits of Elmo Editor 912 dual with the arms and motor attachment from a Goko Dual 8 Editor, that was damaged. Bought an external plug in 12 volt DC, 2.5 amps regulated output for the variable speed Goko motor. Made a small light box, plus was given some cement splicers, all secured to a table. Heaps of film to sort out during the winter months so this should do the job. I still have not had any replies to "Facebook" regarding the return of some of this film it to the original owners...but will keep trying and just give it time.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 22, 2016, 05:54 PM:
That's a real shame to hear Graham however I wouldn't give up hope just yet. These things can take time and many families don't look at nostalgia in the way perhaps you or I would.
At least you've done the honourable thing here and hopefully your efforts will be justly rewarded in the long term!
Well done Graham.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on February 22, 2016, 06:20 PM:
I have 3 elmo's currently. ST180E, ST1200HD, and a no sound K110SM.
I really need to fix the ST1200HD with a proper ext socket in order to set up speakers externally, but it is something i would love to do as well. Thanx all for the explanations of how to set-up sound via speakers.
Here is the link to my very first post on this forum! which got me to working sound order on the ST1200HD, but I have yet to find a replacement part I need. http://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=009610# 000000
I don't have any elmo speakers myself, sorry if i miscommunicated that, but I do have older stereo speakers currently that are not being used. My speakers are called B&W DM110i. I also made up a stereo system from flea market parts, mostly pioneer, including the receiver. I don't have a mixer, other than my zoom MRS-8 multitrack recorder http://test.zoom.co.jp/products/mrs8
which has a digital mixer. I can find a mixer at a fleamarket if need i believe.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 22, 2016, 06:38 PM:
Bower & Wilkins manufacture very fine speakers indeed!
These may prove to be TOO GOOD to use with your cine equipment simply because the sensitivity and frequency range of these refined speakers may prove too much when fed a relatively crude signal by comparison with today's squeaky clean digital standards.
I know these are older B&W speakers but maybe better in many ways to find hi fi equipment from the exact same era your machines were made to use with them and to a degree, less refined dare I say.
Better speakers produce a far wider range of sound, some of which is not what you want to hear at certain frequencies for the viewing of Super 8mm or 16mm film.
They will be far more suitably matched and will save the high probability of ruining a very refined piece of equipment here.
A Mixer such as a Numark CM100 or 200 or equivalent plus a decent graphic equalizer (like a Behringer 6200 for example), will also work wonders here before an amplifier.It will also fit nicely into a self contained 4U rack for protection and professionalism if you want to keep your booth nice and tidy.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 23, 2016, 12:55 AM:
The sad part with a lot of home movie stuff, is how it was got rid of in the first place.. and why?
I was talking to the folk at the Heritage Park, and was told its not just home movies. People often dump there 35mm slides, and either hand the boxes in or sell them on the internet. The most valuable part of all this is in my view is the slides, but sadly they are the first to get thrown out, this kind of thing I understand happens all to often
In one box I discovered over 40 reels that had come back from Kodak from processing taken of the 1974 Commonwealth Games that was held here in this city. This without doubt is amazing footage, and covers just about everything. Those little Kodak reels look like they have never been through a projector, plus the fact there are paper details with each reel regarding the content.
Also in the same sealed box was quite a number of empty 200ft reels and plastic boxes. I guess the films were to go onto those reels.
The question I ask myself what happened 40 years ago, that with all the trouble taken to shoot this film the project was never finished? Anyway I am going to finish this 40 year old film for this person, who ever he was, by editing and splicing all those reels together for projection.
That brings up the question to all of us, as to what will happen to our films and projectors after we are gone? will they suffer the same fate? and will anybody even be interested, other than using a GS1200 as a boat anchor
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 23, 2016, 04:04 AM:
Food for thought indeed Graham!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 24, 2016, 05:51 AM:
Still saddened to see my favourite shop close down, understand it was something to do with the lease. Went along for the last couple of days trading chatting to the staff and buying a few films. Will very much miss this store with the friendly staff.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 24, 2016, 06:15 AM:
Sad, but surely not to the extent we felt learning this one was closing Lee!
No online alternative when this one went!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 25, 2016, 02:15 PM:
Bikes, Barracks….Berlin Too!
So today is the first day this year that has had just the slightest hint of springtime to it. I’m all for that, so before I ate my lunch I dusted my bike off and took a ride down along the siding through the solar farm.
(This is not the first time I’ve ridden my bike this year, but only the first time I wasn’t risking frostbite or winding up being ”bad example guy” on a safety poster due to ice on the pavement!)
One thing I learned is either I am not in the same shape I was last fall, or the cold I’m not quite finished recovering from has taken a lot out of me! Even with full tires the ride back up the hill made me feel about 90 years old today! (We’ll work on that!)
While I was off the bike trying to catch my breath I walked along our railroad siding and noticed cinders in among the ballast, even though there hasn’t been a steam locomotive operational on Long Island in my lifetime. This is very old track, and years ago there was a lot more of it too. The land that is now Brookhaven Labs a very long time ago was called “Camp Upton” and was a very large Army base with miles of spurs and sidings and its own station too.
During World Wars One and Two this was where the US Army brought thousands and thousands of recruits and did their best to very quickly turn them into soldiers. When they were as ready as could be, Long Island Railroad trains rumbled down that same track and took those husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and friends west to the Port of New York where they boarded ships across the Atlantic, or changed trains and headed cross country for other ships crossing the Pacific.
At the end of both wars, they took as many soldiers as came back, and took care of them before they were formally discharged so they could be husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and friends again.
One of those young men was a nice Immigrant kid from the Lower East Side named Israel Isidore Baline. He came out here almost a hundred years ago on the way to Europe and WW1. He was a talented song writer so he composed a musical revue which the soldiers performed at the old War Department Theater (long gone…termites got it!) and later on Broadway.
Along the way, Private Baline took the stage name “Irving Berlin”, and among his many musicals was a 1943 show called “This is the Army" which soon became a movie. I am a sucker for old musicals, so I was pleased to buy a print from Guy Taylor at CineSea a few years back.
-Imagine how much more I was pleased to discover it was largely set at Camp Upton, where I come to work five days a week!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 25, 2016, 05:37 PM:
Brilliant story Steve
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 25, 2016, 06:01 PM:
Thanks, Graham!
There's history and culture everywhere!
-even along a railroad siding out in the middle of nowhere!
It's interesting that there is very little left of the old Army camp except for the Officer's Club (-it's OUR club now!) and the basic layout of streets on the grounds.
The buildings were very rapidly built up at the onset of hostilities and then either sold and moved off-site after the wars ended or those that remained were demolished or abandoned to the elements. The camp was closed entirely between the World Wars and changed radically when reopened.
There are no more than 10 historic buildings left, although there are quite a few scattered throughout Eastern Long Island today.
-but the grounds are littered with parts of wagons, small artillery and the skeletons of a great many army mules. Very often when they clear land to build something new, the first to arrive are the folks with the metal detectors and old maps.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 27, 2016, 12:55 PM:
Well what a week, sadly we had to take our cat to the vet where due to her age and deteriorating health she was put down. Rascal was found as a kitten at the bottom of the garden by Yvonne and the kids back in 1998 and for 18 years she lived her time mostly in the house or garden. We buried her in the same spot where she had been found as a kitten all those years ago.
taken a couple of years ago.
One good thing this week was my daughter April found her parrot that had flown of a few days ago. April and her friends went all over the place the following days and had pretty much given up.
Yesterday an elderly lady found Brucie and contacted April through Facebook. Not only that but the local fire brigade turned up and spent two hours trying to coach Brucie back down of the power lines....well it worked Aprils parrot is back home, thanks to all those who helped.....a happy ending.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 29, 2016, 03:54 AM:
Some of you will I am sure have or seen the super 8 documentary I filmed of the first WB multiplex in the UK many moons ago.
I'm sorry to say here it is today in a very sad way after Vue took over for a short stay.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 29, 2016, 11:45 PM:
What a shame Lee.
I still have the VHS tape Derann sent me long long ago.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 01, 2016, 08:00 AM:
The view from our Kitchen window this morning:
Spring has arrived in Florida!
And it's March 1st, St David's Day, the national day of Wales, and the commencement of Eistedffod week in Wales. So out goes the red dragon at our front porch:
[ March 01, 2016, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 05, 2016, 01:20 AM:
I landed up putting a lot of time fixing this little Eumig P8 Imperial, it took a while to get the claw to shutter timing just right on assembly, but the end results were very good indeed. This little Eumig is a really nice Standard 8 projector. With a two claw pull-down and a nice smooth locking sliding gate.
Anyway test screened it today, with my usual Charlie Chaplin film "The Immigrant". A big plus this week was finding a nice F15-28 zoom lens for it. That means I can project it to the same screen size as the GS1200 from the projection box. I intend to bump up the light out-put with an alternative light source soon.
...Tickets please for the test screening.....
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 05, 2016, 02:13 PM:
Graham, the little P8 was my first 8mm projector, back in 1959. It was a game-changing design at the time, with brilliant low voltage lighting, top mounted reels, and that great sliding gate. My P8 also had the Phonomatic mechanism on the back, as shown in your picture, and it did a great job of synchronizing to a reel-to-reel tape recorder, for music and commentary.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on March 05, 2016, 02:22 PM:
What a great job you did in restoring this handsome little projector Graham. You are the master
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on March 05, 2016, 07:49 PM:
Graham, I have that same projector sitting in my closet waiting to be fixed. Just need some time to work on it.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 05, 2016, 09:43 PM:
I love those cool wire reels.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 05, 2016, 11:06 PM:
Thanks Janice
Paul those Eumig reels are really good they have a clever means to clip the end of the film into to lock it.
I am looking at the idea to change the lamp over to a vertical halogen 24v 250watt, still leaving the mirror and condenser lens in place. I would use an already made external plug in converted Elmo slide projector for the power source. That will still give me a high/low setting on the lamp. The lamp holder G6.35 base and the lamps are a left over from the Elmo slide projector cinema days. If I go ahead I will make sure the projector will always look as original, that's a must.
I might look out for an old "Reel to Reel" as well now that would be nice. I really do like the "two claw" pull down on this projector, much more than the single claw that many other Standard 8 had.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 06, 2016, 02:42 AM:
All hail Eumig! Nice job there.
Bedford. 
Bedford again.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 13, 2016, 03:47 AM:
As advertised on TV back in 1981 Well it might be 35 years since this record was advertised, but its still fun to go through those old LP covers and play some records.
Oh! to be young again
Posted by Jonathan Trevithick (Member # 3066) on March 15, 2016, 03:30 AM:
I've had quite a surreal day. The BBC came over to our house to shoot an episode of their "Wanted Down Under". Watch out for it next year if you are in the UK.
In fact, it's been quite an exciting month which began with meeting my comedy idols John Cleese and Eric Idle. As a life long Python fan, Eric (a genuinely nice guy) very kindly invited me backstage on the two nights I attended and we chatted and drank some very decent white wine.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 15, 2016, 05:44 AM:
Brilliant Jonathan!!
You have indeed witnessed "the brighter side of life" there recently.
I shall look out for the BBC series here when it's on.
Posted by Jonathan Trevithick (Member # 3066) on March 15, 2016, 06:43 AM:
Yes, Andrew. I will tell you when I know. It's on in the UK in January/February.I wasn't filmed,though.Most of my film collection is packed away ready to move but you may be able to spot the odd 16mm reel on display here and there!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 15, 2016, 06:53 AM:
I look forward to seeing it then Jonathan!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 21, 2016, 01:30 AM:
So what does an old Elmo slide projector, an old Panasonic video camera power supply from 1992, One new Osram 24v 150watt lamp, an old cooling fan from an old B/H 16mm projector all have in common with an old Eumig Standard 8mm projector?.
The answer is, a much brighter picture. The cooling fan just slips onto the top of the lamp house. Instead of blowing air in it sucks the hot air out.
The screen shot is around 24 feet from the projector as shown.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 21, 2016, 09:00 AM:
Springtime is Here!!!!(?)
-It just arrived frozen!
Forecast for this afternoon: sunny. It may all be melted before we head home today.
I like your "audience" in the second picture, Graham! He can watch movies at my house any time! (Did he come by himself?)
Posted by Guy Taylor, Jr. (Member # 786) on March 21, 2016, 01:39 PM:
I want to see some more picks of prickly pear cactus.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 21, 2016, 03:05 PM:
Hey Guy!
This would have been best done this morning since the snow is probably melted by now, but if you’ll bear with some shots taken in the Winter of 2014 this is basically what we would have seen there roughly lunch time:
This is amazing stuff. I remember years ago I was out on a short hike with my son and we happened on this straggly, low patch of dark green paddles. I said “It looks just like cactus!”. After I convinced myself it really was cactus I figured it was some invasive species that a northeast winter would put an end to long before the snows came.
-then I found out it is a native species and just as rightly here as a seagull or an oak tree!
Nature isn’t ever bounded by our imaginations!
There is a park not very far from where I work where a full two acres of it has stood watch for more than a century now. I want to see this sometime.
(I have friends who live in Tucson...they weren't very impressed!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 21, 2016, 05:21 PM:
Steve...and friends
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 21, 2016, 06:07 PM:
"I'm Lovin' It", Graham!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 21, 2016, 07:11 PM:
Definitely a captive audience!
Well done on the lamp conversion of the P8 Graham. Was it a whole lot brighter?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 21, 2016, 07:51 PM:
Paul.
Its a lot brighter than the original 12v 100watt lamp. The good thing about the Osram 24v 150watt is that they are cheap to buy and readily available. Using the Elmo slide projector I can still use the high/low lamp settings.
The slide projector used to run 24v 250watt lamps so I could simply swap lamps, however it gets warm enough with the 150watt, so will skip using anything bigger. I think that would be pushing things a bit much.
If I could have had some means of adjusting the position of the lamp in relation to the mirror, and condenser lens, that would have been great, but that in itself would be a lot of work.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 23, 2016, 06:20 AM:
Blackpool
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 23, 2016, 10:21 AM:
Graham,
Your audience is very...ecumenical!
Starting from the left: Pixar, Pixar, Aaardman, Disney, Warner Brothers and M&M Mars!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 23, 2016, 06:14 PM:
Well Steve
I hope Andrew does not see this photo, as I doubt very much we will "ever" hear the end of it.
I was forced to fit a roller into an old guide, due to excess wear on the existing one on the Elmo the other guides are ok so far.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 23, 2016, 06:23 PM:
Each of us enjoys this hobby in our own way, Graham!
I stumbled on an absolutely mint set of guides for my most heavily used machine, so I am good to go for a long time.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 23, 2016, 08:27 PM:
In these parts Graham, I trust! Might see a big revival for the GS fan club now parts like these are available!
I personally, think this is an extremely wise move Graham.
Anyone who takes preventable measures to protect our remaining golden prints scores highly in my book.
I've always loved from afar,the complexity and sophistication of the GS 1200, just not its original film path design.
We only get but one chance with these gems now!
Do you believe and trust in him?
I do!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 24, 2016, 01:21 PM:
A Little Lunchtime Archeology!
It’s early Spring here. One of the things that means is a lot of things that were hidden by the growth of later Spring and Summer are very visible, even if for only a little while. I was out on one of my lunchtime bike rides yesterday when I stumbled on a side trail I’d never noticed before, so in the spirit of exploration I blundered down it and found this:
In person it’s a pretty astounding object: thick steel girders, maybe 20 feet wide by 20 high when it was standing as its builders intended. Today it’s laying capsized on the forest floor, and probably will until it crumbles to rust.
It happened to be a day when I left my phone on the desk to charge and couldn’t take any pictures. For this I went back again! Knowing the history of the area like I do this is not something I should have accidentally found, I should have been looking for it all along!
It’s natural to ask “What IS it?”, but that’s actually the wrong question.
50 years ago and more it WAS this:
A long time ago this place was called “Upton Junction” and a lot of World War I and later WWII troop trains started off for New York City here. They were all powered by steam locomotives and they got ready for the trip by filling up from this water tower.
This wasn’t one of those water towers with a spout that the enginemen pulled down and then pull a chain to get the water flowing. The spout was out between the two tracks and there was a concrete block house with the valve inside.
Most of the house is gone today, but the valve is still there:
History records that the tank toppled over during a forest fire a few years after the historic pictures shown above were taken. I certainly get the wooden tank failing from the fire, but the steel is still in pretty decent shape despite having the fire and then the fall. You would imagine a heavy steel structure that had held a couple of thousand gallons of water 20 feet in the air through maybe a dozen hurricanes could withstand a little fire better than that! I investigated: one of the footings seems disturbed from its original location. My best guess is when the tank failed a couple of thousand gallons of water very quickly washed the soil around it away, the footing shifted and the tower fell.
It would have been an awesome sight to see!
Very few of the timbers are left, but those that remain are charred.
It actually took a lot of timing to make these pictures possible. The Railroad dieselized in the mid-1950s and from that day forward, the tower was a derelict structure. Had that happened 20 years earlier there is no way this much steel would have survived a war time scrap drive.
-so there you have it: a relic from the age of Steam, forgotten yet always waiting to be discovered, again and again I'm sure!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 26, 2016, 03:27 AM:
Likewise Steve I also have a special box of new spares for el Elmo and its a wise move if we are owd timers to take precautionary measures me thinks. As my Dad used to say 'These spares will just about see me out'
Made in Bristol
Also got to go in the cab of the Tornado on a very memorable day.
Full steam ahead in the cab with the massive fire box it sure was boiling.
Interesting points make you do Andy. On the flip side I was very disappointed in the plastic spool retainers expected to support those massive spools on the Beaulieu so let it go. The GS thankfully has metal retainers which I'm more at home with complete with flip over end clip to doubly hold the spool on. Happy days!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 26, 2016, 06:57 AM:
Nice, Lee!
When I was about 20 a couple of friends and I went up to Massachusetts to a narrow gauge museum for Railfans Day. We paid extra and got tickets to ride 5 miles in one of the cabs.
In this engine the firebox extends a good 4 feet inside the cab and I was wedged between the firebox side and the cab wall. If it was a hot day it would have been blazing in there, but this was a cold, damp, drizzly day and I was never more comfortable!
Where it got interesting is I have commercial film shot in the 1930s in that engine, in that spot (different railroad, though)...and I just happened to have my movie camera and a couple of cartridges of K40 too!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 26, 2016, 09:00 AM:
Lovely story you have there Steve and what memories.
Its great to have that extra link particularly if it includes a film. After I hopped on my moped in the 70's complete with tripod strapped to my back, Super 8 camera to film a southern steam railway some 80 miles round trip away, in later years I found a little Standard 8 sound film shot only a few years before. I should go back and film it all today...
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 26, 2016, 09:11 AM:
The clip spool holders are the better designed ones Lee, no doubt about that and the later Beaulieu projectors did have uprated metal spindles with a steel retaining and locking clip built in.
I still maintain though, that even the nylon standard reel holders are ok though, just so long as you only ever fit quality solid centred spools onto them of the correct thickness.
My new ones I fitted a couple of years back are still the same as when I fitted them and the spools even at 700m on fast rewind stay secured to the holder.
If and when I do have an issue in the future, I will get some identical ones made to those Beaulieu fitted to the "Studio" range.
Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on March 26, 2016, 01:22 PM:
Went to the store where our DVD is currently being sold. I was quite surprised to see how well it was displayed.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on March 26, 2016, 01:27 PM:
How exciting Jean-Marc!!!!! I hope it gets on Netflix here in the US
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on March 26, 2016, 01:31 PM:
Brilliant Jean-Marc!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 27, 2016, 12:38 AM:
Today was a most enjoyable day spent at the Heritage park as it was a long weekend it was busy, so made up a 20 minute reel of film and ran the projector with sound and picture. Its the first time I have done this with a full reel... specially edited by yours truly for the occasion
It was really good talking to both adults and the kids, plus I brought along the splicer with me so they could cut or splice 24 frames of film, sounds familiar of those long ago days at the cinema. Added to that I found an old B/H Filmsonic 1230 camera, where the kids especially were fascinated by the way you get the distance to focus, simply by aiming it at your subject feet then reading of the distance to focus...its very accurate.... they had a lot of fun with that camera.
The image from the Westar projector was very small indeed, with huge amount of light coming from all over the place, but might work on something in the coming weeks to improve that
the potential to do a more with this projector is there that's if I can convince the folk at the park....
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 29, 2016, 05:34 AM:
More of a Easter weekend in pictures for us and a trip back to 1977 for our SW extravaganza which was superb fun.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 29, 2016, 06:07 PM:
Very clever that focusing arrangement in the Bell and Howell camera, Graham. If I remember correctly there was a pendulum inside the camera.
Worked fine, as long as you were not standing on a hill!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 31, 2016, 01:41 AM:
I never thought about that Paul
A line up of lots of little yellow "Kodak Moments" of the 1974 Commonwealth Games I will soon be sorting out on the editor. What I have seen so far looks really good
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 31, 2016, 04:31 AM:
Nice evening watching the outtakes from Magical Mystery Tour.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 10, 2016, 03:48 PM:
I'm just back from my first Holiday in Latin America.
Iguazu falls, Bresilian side.
It is said that they are bigger than the Niagara falls.
The Argentinian side.
Surprise : a 16 mm projector in the museum of the railway in Asunción, Paraguay.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on April 10, 2016, 04:05 PM:
Looks beautiful Dominique, and I don't mean the projector ha ha.
Never been to that part of the world but the falls look spectacular!
Seen Niagara, but Iguazu is new to me here Dom.
Hope you had a superb relaxing time there Dominique.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 11, 2016, 05:56 AM:
I has, Andrw, thanks. Not easy to come back to the normal life, especially with the jet lag. Tomorrow, back to work...
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on April 11, 2016, 06:16 AM:
Oh no, the swear word...Work! Arghhh. Ha ha.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on April 11, 2016, 08:15 AM:
Looks like a fun time Dominique!
I wonder if those falls are bigger, meaning, wider....but not necessarily higher. Maybe they are higher. Niagara boasts lots of water falling more than height.... It is hard to tell from a couple pics...but i've heard the experience at Iguazu is much better as it is more nature -like, whereas Niagara is a tourist trap-he hee. Glad you had fun and are back safe.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 11, 2016, 08:57 AM:
Being that I live in New York State I've been to Niagara Falls only once. (We never go see our own stuff!)
I thought it would be bigger!
Then again when I was standing on the shore a thousand feet upstream later on that day, I looked at that current from the point of view of somebody that canoes and it was downright scary!
There's a barge stuck on a shoal a few hundred feet upstream of the Canadian Falls. Back close to a hundred years ago three men were working on it when it broke loose from the dock and was headed over the edge in less than a minute with absolutely nothing they could do.
-a time of fervent prayer I'm sure!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on April 11, 2016, 09:01 AM:
Taking the elevator down behind Niagara Falls, and stepping out on the ledge behind that thundering volume of water, is an experience I will never forget.
And lets not forget that Niagara is one of the wonders of the world, along with Marilyn Monroe!
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on April 11, 2016, 09:06 AM:
quote:
the elevator down behind Niagra Falls, and stepping out on the ledge behind that thundering volume of water
I'ee been there too Paul and you are correct, a very powerful experience....water is an amazing thing really.
Bill
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 11, 2016, 11:58 AM:
The Work Plant
I have this Amaryllis on top of my bookshelf at work. As of this morning it looks like this.
This plant is kind of a refugee. A friend gave it to my wife about a year ago and then the cat decided to kill it, so it came out here with me.
That it's survived this long is kind of a miracle: given my history with plants it may have been better off with the cat! I've killed basically any plant I've ever taken care of including a cactus! It's not that I hate them or anything...they just don't seem to thrive under my care. (Helps to water them, I guess!...-you just can't please some...organisms!)
-as a matter of fact I managed to reduce it to this about a month ago:
-but as they said in Jurassic Park: "Life will find a way!".
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on April 11, 2016, 12:04 PM:
I get to Niagara Falls about 2 times a year. I live only 40 mins drive from them. Sadly, the 'behind the falls' experience can no longer be experienced as such...It has been several years now, but they have barricaded it off a good 10 feet back now because of erosion. I have pictures somewhere of behind the falls looking down, and yes, it was overwhelming. To think people go over in a barrel is truly nuts.
I heard the maid of the midst opened up the earliest it ever has this year, because of being milder, April 2nd. it is a fun ride. I like the daring boat operators who bring you right up close into the wake a bit....
For those who ever visit the Canadian side and have more time...downstream the gorge(towards Lake Ont) you get to an area called the Glen. http://www.infoniagara.com/recreation/niagara_glen/images/Niagara_Glen.png
You park at the top and hike down through amazing scenery and then get to watch the jetboats going by at the bottom... https://www.niagarafallstourism.com/site/assets/files/4808/img_8870.jpg
http://www.hember.ca/hikes/NiagaraGorge/NiagaraGlenTrailsMap800px.jpg
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 11, 2016, 01:15 PM:
The "Rough Guide To South America On A Budget" says (the phrase between () is mine): "To describe their beauty and power is tall order, but for starters cast out any ideas that Iguaçu (this comment is in the "Brazil" section, hence the name in portugese) is some kind of Niagara Falls transplated South of the equator-compared with Iguaçu, Niagara is a ripple". That is more than probably exagerated but the site definitely worths a visit (two visits to be precise as there are two different parts, one in Brazil and one in Argentine).
One of this animal stoled the bread I had in my bag. I have been Lucky because the bag was on the floor (while I was taking a picture) and the coati (that's the name of the monster) could have make my bag Fallen in the water (my precious 9,5 camera was in it !).
More peaceful, two buterflies (they were millions !) intersted by my camera.
Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on April 11, 2016, 06:19 PM:
I was really impressed by Niagara Falls. I visited in 1998 and was able to experience the "behind the falls" walk tour. A great memory. I might have to travel to Argentina for work within a year or two, hoping I can go and see the Iguazu falls (anyone remembers in which Roger Moore Bond film they are seen?)
Wow, Dominique, you found a Debrie MB15 in Paraguay... Awesome!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on April 17, 2016, 08:52 PM:
This 1970's Zenith Console Stereo is located below my screen in my screening room. It is a really nice looking piece, and being early American furniture style, it has not become dated in appearance.
It has not been run in quite a while, so today I opened the lid and polished everything up and removed the platter and lubed the motor and disc changer. I placed an LP record on the turntable at it ran beautifully and sounded fantastic.
Just as film is so much more intimate than DVD'S, so are LP'S compared to CD's. There really is something special about pulling that record out of its sleeve and placing it on the turntable and lowering the stylus.
This particular stereo is one of the Zenith Allegro series, manufactured in the USA at a time when American electronics companies held their heads high, firm in the knowledge that they designed and made the best products in the world. And their employees felt the same way. At Zenith the corporate logo said " the quality goes in before the name goes on", and this stereo is a perfect testament to that philosophy. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it will be running just fine 50 years from now.
You have to weep when you realize how this country has lost its iconic companies like Zenith and RCA.
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on April 18, 2016, 07:30 PM:
I am completely with you on this. Older technology does not mean bad technology. Technology built in the time when quality meant something is everlasting. I still prefer playing an LP to playing a CD.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on April 18, 2016, 11:38 PM:
Paul, my wife and I have two RCA Victor stereo consoles from the early 1960's. we're always listening to the radio and records with them. They sound great and we have over 1,000 records to listen to, jazz, rock, blues, soul, soundtracks, Latin... Does yours have an 8 track?
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on April 19, 2016, 08:57 AM:
Hi Bryan,
Yes my console also has the 8-track player, which still works perfectly, although I have only a few tapes to play in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ-DKXWVtiA
[ April 19, 2016, 08:06 PM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on April 23, 2016, 07:03 PM:
This week I've been preparing my veggie garden for planting. Seems like it takes me longer to do this each year. I tend to take lots of breaks
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 23, 2016, 08:09 PM:
Ahhh!
-the first really nice day of Spring!
You'd better walk to Home Depot on a day like today because you sure aren't going to find a parking space there!
THIS will be the year we get vegetables from the garden without the birds and the bugs destroying them and just this ONCE the lawn will be more grass than weeds!
Godspeed, Janice!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on April 23, 2016, 10:35 PM:
Sounds like you have a good handle on your yard this year Steve. I love this time of year and it's so nice to be able to enjoy the outdoors in our own back yards isn't it. I plan on lighting up the barbie and watching some films on the patio.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 24, 2016, 01:02 AM:
Brilliant Janice that's what life is about
Nothing startling today, however I did admire the work going on outside our house over the last few days, they have a neat machine for pouring the concrete.
Today back down at the Heritage park running the 35mm digest "Dolphin Tale" not bad bit of 20 minute editing I must say
also got some Super 8 stuff out as well, nice afternoon chatting to folk.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 25, 2016, 08:11 AM:
quote:
Sounds like you have a good handle on your yard this year Steve.
-Nawww!
It's really more of a lament! When we bought the house we had a 400 square foot vegetable garden out there and we planted corn and zucchini and tomatoes: we were young!
...managed to grow two green peppers last year (squirrel got the third!)
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 25, 2016, 01:00 PM:
I went to London this week-end. If one of our members lost an Eumig camera in 1963 in the Tube,
go there :
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 02, 2016, 08:40 PM:
Well the last few weeks the weather has been really good for this time of year, but hope to get some rain soon as things are getting a bit dry. The school term break has just finished and had the grandkids round, so here are a couple of things we did.
Oh! if you look at the background you will see a Eumig projector and some "Star Wars" films on display. I have told Conner not to tell his dad, that I have donated his stuff to this museum...hope he does not want it back....
While we were in the center of the city looking at the fountain, a group of tourists turned up, and very politely asked if Conner could pose with them...so he did...nice people.
spent that afternoon wandering around the gardens etc
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on May 06, 2016, 09:55 AM:
This week-end, Brussels will, following what the weather said, be the hotest capital in Europe. So I decided to try to put on my balcony the hamac I brought back from Paraguay. And I succeded.
The colours (white, blue, red) are the colours of the Paragayan flag which has the specifity to be one of the two flags in the world that have a different design on each side.
Isn't life fantastic ?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 07, 2016, 11:42 PM:
Brilliant Dominique
Well if there if ever was a sad photo regarding a family disposing of one man lifetime of home movies and photos, this has to be it I understand two very full "red" suitcases mostly of home movies were dropped of at the heritage park last year. The retirement home was clearing out all this stuff as the person whom all this belonged to had passed away, they simply wanted to get rid of it. I really cant understand why his family let it come here it might be that without a projector they simply did not want it...I don't know.
Anyway there is some interesting historical footage that's been captured, so will see how I get on sorting it out, but its going to take a long while due to the vast quantity of donated film this place has...where do you start?...sad really.
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on May 08, 2016, 09:13 AM:
Indeed, this is sad. However, the silver lining is that someone - namely you - cares about it. When the time comes for me to shed my mortal coil, I hope my family or someone like you cares enough to save my celluloid history.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on May 08, 2016, 09:53 AM:
Dominique...your picture reminds me of Fred Flintstone on a Sunday afternoon....aahhh....looks good!
Bill
[ May 25, 2016, 10:48 AM: Message edited by: Bill Phelps ]
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on May 08, 2016, 10:09 AM:
Knowing how to relax and actually doing it can be very challenging. Dominique your hammock photo is quite inspiring! Enjoy
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on May 09, 2016, 12:53 PM:
I didn't have time to post this yesterday...but I spent Mother's Day with my son Darrin at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The Giants lost the game...but no worries... the day was beautiful anyway.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on May 09, 2016, 01:28 PM:
[ May 25, 2016, 10:49 AM: Message edited by: Bill Phelps ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 13, 2016, 10:47 AM:
I'm just back from the Beam Tunnel!
We're in a maintenance shutdown for a couple of weeks, so we can work down in the innards of our synchrotron light source.
Under normal operations the spot I was standing in to take the picture is bathed in high intensity X-rays. The camera I was using would certainly survive the experience, but not the guy operating it!
Here's what you are looking at: buried down inside all that stuff there is a stainless steel pipe about an inch across which is operating at very high vacuum. There is a very energetic beam of electrons which is very highly focused.
If you started walking in either direction, after a half mile you would find yourself exactly where you started. It looks exactly the same throughout the tunnel. It's very easy to get lost when you are new here!
Most of the objects on those girders are specialized electromagnets. The large blue ones bend the beam so it goes in a circle, the others focus it and keep it aligned at the center of the beam pipe. Each magnet has a power supply. There are more than 800 magnets. I'm a power supply engineer...life is good!
On a warm day like today, the tunnel is HOT! This is not because somebody left the thermostat turned up. The walls of this area are at least 3 feet of poured concrete for shielding and vibration isolation. The concrete is about 5 years old, still curing, and still releasing heat into that confined space.
Those of you who are worried (-or delighted) I'm giving away national secrets, it's OK. Nothing here is secret at all, as a matter of fact many countries around the world have a machine like this, it's just that at least for a while it is the newest and the most advanced.
Basically what this does is provide high intensity X-rays for imaging. It's useful for medical research, semiconductor research, metallurgy and many other fields requiring very advanced X-ray imaging. A few years ago the machine this one replaced verified the authenticity of a Van Gogh painting and this one should be able to watch a virus attack a cell in real time.
NSLS II Introduction
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on May 26, 2016, 01:54 PM:
An hotel in Paris found another use for 16 mm spools :-)
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on May 26, 2016, 04:00 PM:
That looks like a neat place Dominique. I like the film leader at the bottom of the doorway
[ May 26, 2016, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: Mathew James ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 27, 2016, 05:37 PM:
Lower Lake Today
Well, the ice is gone and the lily pads are back with a vengeance! Today is one of those spring days I dream about all winter: the April rains have passed and the temperature is warm.
So far this year my canoe is still hanging up in the garage.
-let's hope I do something about that before the ice is back again!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 30, 2016, 09:28 PM:
I spent some time this afternoon relining my front brakes:
I actually hate doing brakes. They are dirty, you have to work on them either sitting on the ground or sitting on a stool bent in half.
-Also, if you mess them up, you may (you know…) die.
-but you see I had no choice: I’m up for inspection and I had an eighth inch of brake lining left. The minimum in New York State happens also to be an eighth of an inch, and no mechanic with a mortgage and a week at Disney World hanging out on his credit card for the last three years is going to let something like this slide!
The factor of five times difference in cost if a mechanic does it vs. me is kind of a clincher here!
It was kind of a daunting project: you see, this is my “new” car. It has 53,000 miles on it and my old one had over 200,000, so it’s practically mint in original packaging as I measure these things!
Because it’s “new” I have never actually worked on it before. I don’t have the service book, and as a bonus It hasn’t even been published yet!
-so I have no procedures, no torque specs, no “don’t do this or you will lose a wheel” kinds of helpful hints.
I did what we all do these days: I went out on the ‘net. There is a lot out there: YouTube videos, helpful websites and the occasional pop up ad. from attorneys specializing in motor vehicle accidents. There was this one extremely detailed website that actually said “Sit in the driver’s seat and step on the brake pedal.” (…really?)
Exactly what makes a torque spec off a website that trustworthy? This isn’t really coming straight from Honda and for all I know it’s being typed into a website by some guy who has a refrigerator full of severed heads and if I follow it I’ll wind up wrapped around a tree! I actually compared several specs I found on different websites and only used them because they agreed with each other!
-having an actual, bound book in your hands is just much more reassuring: at least if you wind up flipped on your roof you’ll have somebody to sue!
In the end, all went well. I guess to a large extent disk brakes are disk brakes and they aren’t that different among each other. Naturally those first few times I used them I made sure I wasn’t pointed at anything close enough to hit if all hell broke loose, but it stopped quickly, quietly and straight!
Next Weekend: the rear brakes.
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on May 31, 2016, 08:24 AM:
You're a funny guy. I totally agree with you about holding a book in your hands. In the past, as soon as I bought a car (always used), I bought the Chilton repair book for that make and model. Breathlessly awaiting next week's entry about the rear brakes.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 31, 2016, 08:34 AM:
Nahhh!!!!
-you know sequels are rarely as good as the original!
I have a sneaking feeling there may never be a service book for this car, but Honda will sell you a service manual on disk for $150.
"Why is the keyboard...GREASY?!!"
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 01, 2016, 04:11 AM:
You are doing well Steve, the days of me being a mechanic on cars and aircraft are long gone. I don't even change the plugs or change the oil, I let someone else do it.
Regarding torque, the last time I used a large torque wrench it was on prop for a Rolls-Royce dart engine 960 lb/ft if I remember right. It took two of us to swing on it, while others held the blades.
For the most part either on cars and aircraft, unless its really specified its down to the person doing the task to make sure things are tight enough...just right....or else...
This photo was taken during an evening break back in the late 90s
Back in 1975-76 I worked for Avis and this was my work area complete with heater and radio.
The thing was with both with the motor trade and aviation was that you had to be versatile and take on anything from working on Boeing 767, 737. ATRs 748s BA146 and so on, same with cars you never stopped learning.
Just lately I have been thinking about what to do with 50 years worth of tools sitting now in the garage, as tools were once my trade before projection work, its hard to part with them but one day they will have to go
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 01, 2016, 08:51 AM:
I'm with you, Graham.
My most ambitious days of working on cars are probably behind me now: even in my fifties all the up and down between where the work is and where the tools are is getting harder.
-back when we were in our 20s and it was a couple of young guys doing something a lot more inspiring on cars than swapping out brake pads it was a different kind of thing!
A couple of years ago I swapped in a starter on a night well below freezing. I figured it was two bolts and a wire: how bad could it be?
-between the dark and the cold and the dirt and all the stuff in the way keeping me from swinging the wrench more than half an inch at a time?
-plenty bad!
A couple of days later I found out from a friend that had the same car that the key to getting that top starter bolt was go to every friend you have and borrow every 1/2" socket extension you can round up and torque it from up by the radiator, but this was too little too late!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 06, 2016, 06:55 PM:
Well Steve a few months ago I was going to do some painting so decided to slip into my old overalls. I found that they must have shrunk in the last 20 years, as I got to the zip bit, I had to take a deep breath, pulled the zip up, then relaxed and "ping" went the zip. I said to Yvonne I never new tummy muscle's could be strong, she replied its not your tummy muscle that broke the zip something else
As Clint Eastwood once said, "a man has to know his limitations" and trying to get into those old overalls, he sure was right.
Anyway Yvonne has a thing about having a white picket fence so I am building one for her at the moment, hopefully will get back to playing with films after all this is done.
Many a film arrived from Derann in that old letterbox but its time to make a new one, just got to think it out.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 14, 2016, 11:45 PM:
Well the front fence is now finished thank goodness and apart from getting the spray gun out later after this winter is over for a white paint job.
So what that means... its back to films
Anyway, although its winter at the moment, we had a nice sunrise "red sky in the morning is shepherd warning" remember that? took this photo before heading off, for the morning school run
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 17, 2016, 11:29 PM:
After soaking what was left of the belts with turps over the last few months in a attempt to soften the rock hard remains stuck hard to the pulley "both of them" I finally today finished replacing all three belts, plus giving the projector a lube and clean etc. It runs really nice, the lamp and everything is good, checking the serial number it looks like it was manufactured around 1963.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 18, 2016, 07:28 PM:
Well, HERE's something you don't see everyday!
This is what I saw out my front window this afternoon:
-let's hope this was after he drove the bride to her wedding!
Can you imagine?
"I KNEW she wouldn't show up!"
-In the middle of the Congregation one of her friends stands up:
"I'll marry you!!!"
-and that's how history is made!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 24, 2016, 11:33 PM:
Came across this wonderful old cover photo, from an old magazine "How to make Home Movies" taken at a boys and girls camp, Malibu, California.. I think around the 1957 period.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 28, 2016, 03:06 AM:
Well the last few days I have been watching our old home movies on a Elmo ST180 here are a few screen shots. One with Steven with my Canon FTB camera, and when we did a bit of gold panning over on the coast.
Always a fan of Canon cameras still and movie, the 512XLE has lasted well.
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on June 28, 2016, 02:46 PM:
Nice. Elmo ST-180...nice reliable projector.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 30, 2016, 01:47 PM:
Totally agree with you there William
This arrived in the post this week including the all important wiring from the reader to DTS processor, a free gift from a cinema owner I still have a number of DTS discs and films to go with it not many but it should be interesting project, anyway another addition for the old Ernemann
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on June 30, 2016, 02:29 PM:
Last weekend I spent converting 3 projectors from the old tube-like bulbs to MR16 base bulbs. In doing so I found a new respect for this type of Bell & Howell 8mm projector. They are solidly built and with a 250W bulb they project a beautiful bright steady picture. The two models I have (Dual 458A, Super 8 482A) also have variable speed control making them good for DIY real-time captures.
[ June 30, 2016, 07:23 PM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 30, 2016, 04:08 PM:
I praise your industriousness, Janice! I washed my car last weekend and felt kind of proud of that! (-and I'll do it again, too!)
They are making a TV commercial out in the lobby right now
Our local community college runs TV spots showing bright young people talking about where they wound up after they graduated.
-the bright young man in this ad seems to have joined us here bending electrons into a big circle!
(We were told to expect a film crew this afternoon....Yeahhhh...)
Edit:
The end results are now on YouTube:
Why we couldn't use the lobby stairs that afternoon...
[ February 09, 2017, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 01, 2016, 08:19 AM:
Last Fall we got a storm door. With the coming of warm weather I swapped the storm window for a screen. (-No, not THAT kind of screen!)
-some seem to be enjoying it!
Do they remind you of anyone….?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 04, 2016, 11:53 AM:
We decided to celebrate Independence Day by starting with a little Outdoor Cookery.
I couple of months ago I found a cast iron griddle down in the basement. It’ very possible it’s left over from the family that used to own our house and has been moldering down there for at least 25 years. Being a film collector I’ve always had a warm spot for other people’s discarded technology, so I spent some time scraping rust and then re-seasoning the thing. After a break that probably started somewhere between the 1950s and the 1980’s it is now back on the job. Last winter we did steak and onions a couple of times, and a lot of Saturday morning breakfasts.
We decided we would bring it out on the patio this morning and try it out on the grill:
So it was pancakes and bacon: bacon first, just to grease the griddle and make sure nothing sticks. Something we learned was this is not a steak: it takes some time to preheat the griddle and it needs to sit on the barbecue a few minutes first or nothing cooks!
Later on, maybe we’ll watch “1776” or “John Paul Jones”, and tonight we’ll build a fire outside and watch the fireworks!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 04, 2016, 07:54 PM:
They look yum
By the way the founder of the American navy "John Paul Jones" like all great men came from Scotland
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 04, 2016, 09:51 PM:
I know all about Captain Jones, Graham! One of the things that makes the 4th special to me is I greatly admire the Patriots and I've studied the lives of most of the major figures of the American Revolution.
John Paul Jones was nowhere near the Boy Scout that Robert Stack makes him out to be (seriously: you keep expecting lines from AIRPLANE!), but he has something in common with a lot of the greatest of the Patriots: he was at a point in life when he could really have sat back and let the young guys do the fighting and stayed home to enjoy his livelihood, but he risked everything he had including his own neck to take up a cause that by most sane measures was impossible.
-It took enough men like this to make a difference.
This 4th has been an interesting one. Despite fireworks being illegal in New York State, there is always a pretty impressive barrage on the 4th. This year wasn't so much Bunker Hill or Yorktown, but closer to Normandy or Guadalcanal!
The thing of it is somewhere around 8PM it started to drizzle just a little and then slowly began to pick up in intensity. The whole neighborhood seemed to sense they were going to be stuck with a lot of leftover munitions and the rate of fire approached the point of apocalypse!
We like having five fingers on each hand, so we sat out on the patio and built a fire and enjoyed everybody else's fireworks!
-popped a little popcorn over the fire, had a nice cold beer!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on July 05, 2016, 10:51 AM:
Steve,
Fireworks are illegal in Florida as well, but you would never know it by all the roadside stands selling them. Florida law states that fireworks are illegal "except for agricultural purposes", so when you buy fireworks here you have to sign a disclosure stating that you are using them for agricultural purposes, presumably to scare off crows, vultures, and racoons. What a joke! These 'loopholes' in the law, like the gunshow loophole, just boggle my mind.
A few years ago a guy in the neighborhood set off a barrage of mortar sized rocksts on our street for about two hours. It was like the London Blitz, the windows rattled and the house shook. He must have been nuts, if the whole lot had gone off at once he would have wiped out several houses. The next day one of the neighbors went around taking pictures of all the used rocket casings littering the area, and I assume he filed a complaint because that was the last time that guy set off any fireworks.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 05, 2016, 11:25 AM:
I remember a 4th years ago when I was maybe 10 or 12. We went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for the day. My uncle's friend still had a practice grenade from the Korean War and his wife was getting on his case to get rid of it! (You just can't please some people! )
-as I was lead to believe, this thing carried the full explosive charge of the real deal, the difference was it wasn't inside the fragmentation casing, but a cardboard tube for (you know...) "safety".
He pulled the pin and tossed this thing down the street: just like in his Marine Corps days! At the instant I was inside the house maybe 200 feet away and this huge blast roiled the floor under my feet and made me stumble. All of a sudden the front door flew open and all of these middle-aged men came pouring in. They slammed the door and turned out the lights. For maybe a half hour the Nassau County Police went back and forth up and down the block, looking for the mad bombers.
I believe some of them found the Lord that night:
(-at least they called mightily upon His name!)
From the den, a female voice softly called up the stairs: "What the hell is wrong with you?!!"
-but they kept the lights out and avoided the windows until the cars with the flashing lights stopped passing by!
Out on the pavement there was a white scorch mark about 5 feet across. It was there when we left that night and still there when we came back for Thanksgiving!
So you see, you don't need to be a teenage boy to do something really dumb and make the cops show up. My safe, sober Dad was there with the rest of 'em that night. Maybe if they'd broken a couple of windows in the process he would have come out of it with a mug shot, but elsewhere in Nassau County, 2nd and 3rd degree burns were being achieved and the occasional digit was being blown off: Emergency Services had bigger fish to fry!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 13, 2016, 11:58 PM:
This would have to be my photo of the day
Inside the front cover it states quote.... is an American air hostess called Sandra, John Sanders, who took the picture confesses that he can't recall her second name .But he does remember that the photograph was taken on Agfacolor. The location is Camelot Beach, St Lucia one of the dreamy Caribbean Islands. The article also states Sandra's fruit drink came from a conveniently situated bar.
Well that was Moviemaker way back in "June 1970". I think by now Sandra would be well into her 60s good photo of a time long gone.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 14, 2016, 10:21 AM:
On Saturday we went to a party. A friend of mine was DJing.
I enjoyed the music:
-but I really loved the wiring!
It looks like underneath our table when things start to really get out of hand!
-Case in point from last New Years Eve:
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on July 14, 2016, 11:24 AM:
I have many places with wiring that looks like that...hilarious!
[ July 14, 2016, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: Mathew James ]
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on July 14, 2016, 11:25 AM:
Cable management is an art in itself. Unfortunately it's an art I haven't mastered either
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 14, 2016, 01:58 PM:
Cable Management as Art?
I'm more on the abstract side!
Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on July 14, 2016, 02:13 PM:
Speaking of cables; few adjustments made to the old home cinema rack today...
The Super 8 sound is in there!
It's the red cables going to and from the EQ!!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 14, 2016, 02:29 PM:
Years and years ago my boss sent me out to the Lab to troubleshoot this very complicated test fixture that just didn't do anything it was supposed to do.
-every last wire among the hundreds was the same color...
Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit drinkin'!
Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on July 14, 2016, 03:31 PM:
Presenting; CINESEA- The Motion Picture
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 14, 2016, 04:03 PM:
Cables Cables everywhere
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on July 14, 2016, 04:24 PM:
Well it ain't pretty...but gosh darn it all works
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on July 14, 2016, 06:03 PM:
Steve, if you want to see wires, I'll show you wires in abundance from one of my old time gigs when I'm back home in the morning!
It's bordering on the ridiculous I can assure you, for a mobile set up!!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 20, 2016, 11:05 AM:
Sunset over Northport Harbor, July 19th
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 21, 2016, 02:58 AM:
That's a nice shot Steve
I was down at the heritage park today and used the station to set up some Super 8 editors with film, so the kids can see how a single images moved quickly can give movement, they had fun using the editors, plus I brought down more 35mm film and the splicer so they can have a go at splicing and take home strips of 24 frames of the stuff....it was a good day.
Anyway at the end of the day just on closing up, I thought I would take a photo on the tracks of the station.
One thing this Heritage park does, is to cater for school groups who then dress up while they are here, and enter a classroom from long ago just to get a feel of what it was like back then. Anyway here are a couple of photos "not mine I should add" of a group of kids from a local school being subject to this experience. The looks on there faces is just brilliant
Incidentally the lady in the background is there actual real teacher also dressed for the part.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 21, 2016, 08:55 AM:
The kids look thrilled!
I had a history teacher in Junior High who made a point of doing one class a year nineteenth century style: today she just might get fired!
Graham, do your kids do summer vacation in December, January and February?
Starting Summer Vacation with Advent?!
-It's the kid's Perfect Storm!
There is a movie connection in my picture. That land across the harbor is Centerport. The William K. Vanderbilt mansion (now a public museum) is there. Think of "Crocodile Dundee II", where Mick goes out to Long Island to rescue Sue from the Drug Lord's mansion. Well, that was where it was filmed. Given a real camera and enough telephoto I might have been able to pick it out from where I was standing.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 21, 2016, 02:54 PM:
Hi Steve
Yes the schools finish up for the summer holidays at end of November and then restart around the first week in February.
At the moment they have just finished a two week term break this coming weekend. I will be back driving the daily school runs this coming Monday. When April and Steven went to primary school, a small number of parents got involvement in camps, fundraising, etc. I went to two summer camps with the school, myself and other parents involved really had a good time. It was a lot of fun, and something I would recommend. Do parents get involved where you are?.
The last time I did anything like that was on a ski trip when Steven was at intermediate school. I got a free ride in the bus and ski hire and all I had to do was to get all the children safely into there gear, and onto the beginner slope, then the rest of the time was mine. The kids were great and we even found all of them at the end of the day for the bus trip home.
Without rambling on to much on one primary school summer camp we travelled by train, and on the journey home some American tourists came up to me and said, that they just wanted to comment as to how well behaved the kids had been on the journey...I always thought that was a nice thing to say.
Although those days are now long gone, looking back I am glad I got involved.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 22, 2016, 09:11 AM:
Every summer our local parks have public movies. At the beach north of us they do this on the parking lot and call it a drive in movie. This doesn’t make up for us losing our last real drive–in theater 18 years ago, but it’s at least a taste of what it was like.
Last night was “Finding Nemo”. We got a little behind schedule and were literally the last car allowed in because the parking lot was full. One more red light or bathroom stop on the way and it would have been “Finding Nemo” back at the house! (-note for next year!)
It is of course digital projection off a disk, but if you look among the gear of the people doing the presentation, there are a couple of 35mm film cans for holding their miscellaneous odds and ends: I’m thinking there is some history here.
They have the largest inflatable screen I’ve ever seen! It is a good 25 feet tall. Bearing in mind this is done under sea-breeze conditions, so the screen is a little lively and is sometimes part of the show. Last year it deflated about 20 minutes into “Back to the Future”! (“Ummm…obviously we are having technical problems…but if you will bear with us a minute….”)
Showtime is Sunset. They want you there at least 45 minutes early so people can get themselves situated without cars running all over the place, so I had some time. I took a walk behind the screen and visited the tidal creek headed into Long Island Sound.
That coastline on the horizon is Connecticut. I live literally 5 miles from a state border: you just can't cross it without watercraft, aircraft or really impressive swim skills.
-then I went up on the beach and saw that sunset was coming soon.
-and the show went on!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 23, 2016, 05:49 PM:
Well last night it was time to get back to film. Back in 2005 I ran this particular print of "The World's Fastest Indian" the film itself was a huge success out here at the time, and I screened it for many sold out private sessions back then. I do remember getting a call from downstairs one morning to let me know that actress Annie Whittle who played opposite Anthony Hopkins in the film was in the back watching it.
Anyway as the years went by, the print hung around and when we closed I found a new home for it. Its been 11 years since it was last screened, and a few months ago I made the film up and loaded it onto the platter for a screening once again. Its been a while since I have run 35mm, and its certainly easier to put on a dvd/Blu-ray instead, but once the projector started and the platter etc were doing there thing, it was nice to sit back and watch 35mm film once again. It looked great and without doubt there is something special and always will be about the look of film.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on July 30, 2016, 04:15 AM:
Water heating systems and safety concerns vary from a continent to another...
Just remember it when you take your shower in South America (it is 220 volts but I don't think 110 volts would forgive any distraction here). By the way, the slippery floor was challing, too but not photogenic.
Dos these three letters pictured in Ciudad Del Este in Paraguay remind you Something ?
Posted by Michael Lattavo (Member # 4280) on July 30, 2016, 08:35 AM:
We are finally getting rain, which has broken (for now, anyway) the heatwave - here are some pics of my field in between storms...
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 31, 2016, 02:48 PM:
It looks glorious, Mike!
I get out to wide open spaces as much as I can. There's something good for the soul in being able to see the stars at night, maybe hear some crickets.
Posted by Michael Lattavo (Member # 4280) on July 31, 2016, 05:26 PM:
Thanks Steve! Ive got some stars and crickets in my forcast, leaving tmorrow for 3 days of camping. Will be the first time the girls are joining us guys in the pop up!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 31, 2016, 06:22 PM:
It sounds like a great your day in pictures, Mike!
Are you doing a campfire? That's one of my favorite parts of it all. You can do the campfire popcorn and the hotdogs on sticks. In the company of adults a little wine in a metal cup heightens the sense of out-doorsy fellowship.
You just need to stay mobile and avoid the smoke!
There's a river out East of us. Next month my son and I are going to pack food, firewood and tent into our canoes and camp overnight on an island halfway down.
Not the first time, but at least he can paddle for himself now!
(Seven Years Ago...)
(-And where's my wife? Other side of the lake with the pop-up!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 31, 2016, 07:00 PM:
Michael and Steve.. those are brilliant photos
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 31, 2016, 07:49 PM:
Thanks, Graham!
This was August, 2009. Steven was seven and I was forty-seven, and beyond our first names we shared something else in common: we'd never been canoe-camping before.
We were at campground up in Western Maine, maybe 50 miles from the Canadian Border. It was 10 miles up a dirt road from a little town of a couple of hundred. There was electricity, but from a diesel generator, and every night at ten sharp the lights went out and there was peace and quiet like you can't begin to imagine. The stars were brighter in the sky than I'd ever seen before.
We never camped there without seeing a Moose at least once!
One night we rented a second site across the lake and paddled over after dinner. We set up the tent and spent the evening making campfire snacks and having seven year old style conversation.
It's cold overnight up in Maine in August, so we bedded down under heavy sleeping bags. About 3 in the morning I woke up to something rustling in the woods behind the site and started to realize how isolated we really were, but it moved on and I fell back to sleep.
The next morning we paddled back over to the main campground and had a good camping breakfast (-nothing to ever mention to your cardiologist!)
-I'll remember that day as long as I live!
Posted by Michael Lattavo (Member # 4280) on August 01, 2016, 06:44 AM:
That's awesome, what a great experience!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 01, 2016, 09:08 AM:
A friend of mine who is a teacher and a father of three (I'm a father of only one, and the youngest kid in my family...what do I know about raising children?!!) told me it's not so much what you do with them that's important to them, just the fact that you dedicate the time to them.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on August 01, 2016, 05:25 PM:
A man of much wisdom you have befriended there Steve!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 03, 2016, 06:50 PM:
Sorry folks I cant help myself here, came across this really neat photo on an airline Facebook page that I once worked for long long ago...
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on August 03, 2016, 08:11 PM:
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" starring Daffy Duck !!!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 04, 2016, 11:47 PM:
This is dedicated to Steve and all those happy campers
https://youtu.be/9jjiWS__Mp0
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on August 07, 2016, 05:48 PM:
A neighbor gave me some 16mm films that he had purchased from a local library years ago. One of them had this card in it. It's interesting that they wanted the attendance count, I wonder what they did with that information.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 11, 2016, 12:07 AM:
Well I finished the front fence for Yvonne, and apart from painting it white...she wanted a white picket fence.. later on when its warmer nearer the summer.. that's it.. all done
Our road repairs are now finished, but still a huge amount of underground work being carried out elsewhere, they have done a great job.
...June 2011
....Today 2016
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 11, 2016, 06:29 PM:
What has a air compressor and a projector have in common?
Answer...A nice clean projector ...very handy, everyone should have one
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on August 11, 2016, 07:12 PM:
That air compressor looks older than your projector. Also, probably a bit more CFM/PSI than you need to clean a projector.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on August 11, 2016, 08:01 PM:
Just a bit!! (to the latter)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 12, 2016, 01:57 AM:
Not a problem if you use one of these chaps
I bought that compressor second hand in 1982, although its true vintage I guess it would be older than me, and I am due to retire very soon. ...re-painted a car with it back then...very handy for blasting any projector.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on August 12, 2016, 09:57 AM:
It'll probably still out last compressors that are built today if you take care of it, they don't make them like they used to.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 12, 2016, 02:43 PM:
Very true Bryan
Its kept in the garage and every time when I finish using it I open all the drains releasing the air and any water contamination, and leave them open until I come to use the compressor again. Its built like a tank and one very heavy unit.
One thing I really like about it, is when I was painting a car. The compressor had no problem keeping up a high volume rate of air supply to the spray gun.
Like so much machinery built years ago, at the time it would have been expensive to buy, but were built to last.
Yvonne first car, I re-painted it "long ago" with some old aircraft paint using that compressor. Yvonne took the photo of her car and me admiring it
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 12, 2016, 06:53 PM:
Staying the weekend with my sister in Jackson. She and her husband live on a ranch in a custom designed home built into a hill. Their goats graze on the roof.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on August 12, 2016, 07:18 PM:
Crikey, that house is as long as our street janice!
That's about 60 houses worth of land where I come from.
We just get Burglars on our roofs around here.
20 miles if you want to see a goat, unless it's curried
Posted by Michael Lattavo (Member # 4280) on August 13, 2016, 06:57 AM:
Neat house Janice - I bet its nice and cool in there!
Graham - very cool car, what kind is it? Do you still have it?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 13, 2016, 09:30 PM:
That's brilliant Janice
Michael
Sold it long ago the Morris Minor was one of the most popular British cars ever built. Here in NZ back in the 1960s through to the early 70s cars were very expensive to buy and mostly British. I did own two Morris Minors in Scotland, one a 1957 "full screen", I sold to an American serviceman attached to the nearby "Holy Loch" nuclear submarine base in the late 1960s.
I do remember how he paid me a visit to the garage that I worked at, after owning it a couple of years, stating the Morris Minor had been one of the best cars he had ever owned.
I still have the Service Manual for the one we owned here in NZ, here is a scan of it, to those long ago years
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 14, 2016, 07:36 PM:
...and here are the goats on the roof.
[ August 21, 2016, 10:01 AM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 17, 2016, 01:03 PM:
So, It’s Maintenance Day here out on the Frontiers of Science,
-and I’m looking for trouble!
This doesn’t mean I plan on walking into a biker bar and ordering a drink with an umbrella in it or leaving the seat up late at night: I am literally looking for things going wrong so they can be dealt with before very expensive equipment gets damaged and days (sometimes weeks) are lost in repairs.
I work at a very recently built synchrotron light source. It’s one of those huge machines that shoots a particle beam around a circle for scientific research. (If it was Starbucks and The Gap instead of scientists and equipment, it would be about the size of a middling shopping mall.) My machine isn’t one of those that crashes protons into each other trying to discover the origins of the Universe. That one is actually about a mile away. Mine makes really high power, finely focused X-rays so material scientists can look at semiconductor crystals for integrated circuits and solar panels and medical researchers can see viruses swimming around inside living cells and see DNA up close and personal.
There aren’t many facilities like this in the world. The chance to use it brings people from all over the globe and they can be working at any hour of the day or night to have their turn at it. If the beam goes down halfway through their shot at getting a Nobel Prize, they get really, really upset!
-so every couple of months we have planned shutdowns, to do new construction, to install upgrades, and most of all to prevent unplanned shutdowns.
This week I’ve been doing thermal imaging on beam magnets.
This is what the one out in the lobby (for tour groups) looks like:
The stainless steel pipe with the electron beam inside goes through the hole in middle. Each beam magnet has a power supply powering all those electromagnet coils and the magnetic field squishes the beam just enough to keep it focused. There are something close to a thousand magnets of various flavors around our half-mile ring, each doing its specialized job. It is all operated by a central computerized controller. It actually (sort-of) worked the first day they tried it, which will never cease to amaze me! (It’s my first ray-gun…)
My job this week has been to walk around the huge concrete tube this lives inside with a thermal camera and look for magnets that are overheating. (They actually turn the beam OFF first...)
I CAUGHT one yesterday!
-NOT cool!
The cooling water to the bottom coils was blocked, and the top coils got all the flow (see it?)
That’s what’s great about this technology: not only can you tell something isn’t right, you can even start to understand why.
So the guy from the water group will come by and clear tubing and readjust flows and maybe one day you’ll have a better cell phone a few days sooner than otherwise because somebody had better semiconductors to work with.
(You’re welcome!)
[ August 17, 2016, 09:14 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 18, 2016, 08:04 PM:
Nice photo Janice
Steve that was very interesting story... amazing stuff.
I was at the Heritage Park the other day hoping to find a going three bladed 16mm projector that I could borrow, as I seem to be getting asked more, about running old 16mm home movies. Although I have used my two bladed projector of late, I really need a three bladed to reduce the flicker.
Anyway while I was there looking for a projector I came across another box of home movies under a pile of stuff. I must make the time to at the very least, start to go through all this stuff ...sad really to come across all these films that nobody seems to want.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 18, 2016, 11:35 PM:
That box of forgotten films is truly a sad sight Graham. If those are some family's personal movies let's hope that they were at least transferred to digital and all those memories weren't lost.
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on August 19, 2016, 09:39 AM:
Orphan home movies are a very sad thing. As someone who transferred home movies for a living, I take pride in knowing that my efforts help families to see their family heritage. The thought of locking them away in a shoebox in the closet (or worse, tossing them into the dust bin) makes me cringe. Film is organic. It needs to be projected to breathe life into it. Home movies are family history - a living and breathing history.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 19, 2016, 08:43 PM:
Waiting for the sun to go down. I'm having an outdoor screening for just myself tonight
The feature was The Goodbye Girl .
[ August 19, 2016, 11:04 PM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on August 20, 2016, 10:05 AM:
Sounds like something I would do if I could. Might sound nutty to a lot of people but I don't care.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 20, 2016, 09:34 PM:
I'm going to have company tonight. Invited my neighbors for another outdoor film viewing. Going to show Baby Boom (1987).
[ August 21, 2016, 07:24 PM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 20, 2016, 10:54 PM:
Well, We’re on vacation!
Where did we go? Actually, we kind of didn’t!
-Let me explain!
Something a great many people from New York share in common is we go everywhere else but New York. I’ve been to Red Square, I’ve been to Vienna, I’ve been across the Golden Gate Bridge and down Lombard Street. I’ve been to the Hofbrau House twice, and had a great time too! Given the beer they have there in the volume it’s served in I can’t remember a lot about it…but I’ve been!
New York was there long before I was born and has been there my whole life! Anytime I get around to it, it will be waiting, so what’s the hurry?!
-so as a result it’s something a lot of us never get around to doing.
So this time around we decided to keep local and do what the tourists do!
Today was a full circumnavigation of Manhattan Island aboard the Circle Line.
We headed South in the Hudson River and passed by Ellis Island.
Like a great many Americans, I am descended from people who first stepped on American soil here. My grandfather stepped off the boat here in 1927. Knowing the man as I do it seems someone was asleep at the switch that day!
(I KID, I KID!!!...he probably just ducked under the rope!)
I of course haven't ever been there!
As it has basically since the last Ice Age, the Staten Island Ferry eternally heads back and forth! It's the least nautical looking vessel ever take to the waves: kind of an immense subway car with a propeller!
-and of course we passed by this lady. Typical of folks from ‘round these parts, this is as close as I’ve ever gotten! Maybe someday when somebody visits from out of town I’ll actually get there!
Soon we passed the southern tip of Manhattan and turned north into the East River.
My native Long Island is to the right, and Manhattan is to the left.
We still have a long way to go, and we will continue!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 21, 2016, 02:20 AM:
Have a great vacation Steve
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on August 21, 2016, 02:46 AM:
Enjoy Steve! It's a magical vibrant city. Once visited, never forgotten!
London next year perhaps?
Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on August 21, 2016, 03:09 AM:
And coincide it with the BFCC
Graham S
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 21, 2016, 04:01 AM:
Brilliant photos there Janice and Steve
Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on August 21, 2016, 12:28 PM:
Janice - I have had the pleasure of standing on that exact spot and doing the exact pose!........ although my motive was to re-enact a classic photo taken on that spot of my hero John Lennon many years before!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 21, 2016, 03:00 PM:
Thanks all!
So you see, Janice is from San Francisco and SHE’S been to the Statue of Liberty! Melvin is from the UK and so has he! I was born here, but haven’t been there even once, and I didn’t buy the T-shirt either! If somebody from here wore an “I Love New York” T-shirt their friends would say “Yeah, well if you love it so much, stop griping about your taxes and stop threatening to move to South Carolina!”
NOTE to Janice: I enjoyed San Francisco and hope to again!
Northbound up the East River
Here we meet one of the classic suspension bridges in the history of the world: the Brooklyn Bridge. Long Island, my home, was actually anywhere from rural to downright wilderness before it was built: forests, rivers, deer: the whole deal, even bears, moose and wolves if you look back far enough. In the 1800s, a stubborn little colony of people had houses on the Brooklyn side and commuted to jobs in Manhattan by boat every day, weather and tides allowing (-not always, especially before the age of steam.). Then they built the Bridge and the modern American style suburb sprung up.
The Brooklyn Bridge has a younger neighbor, the Manhattan Bridge. I can’t help but feel the Manhattan Bridge has to cope with some kind of inferiority complex! It does exactly the same job and just as well, but have you ever heard of the Manhattan Bridge? Has anybody ever made fun of somebody who is extremely gullible by offering to “sell them the Manhattan Bridge”? Has anybody asked "-and if they dared you to jump off the Manhattan Bridge, would you?!".
-No, I say!
You have to admire the Golden Gate Bridge in this respect: it works alone! (The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is really TWO bridges and everybody knows that’s just showing off!)
This of course is the Empire State Building. I’ve been there….once!
(It’s very tall, but you probably already know that!)
Then we went past the United Nations:
When I was in second year Spanish in High School, We did a field trip to the UN. We even stood in the visitor’s balcony and saw the General Assembly! They weren’t Generally Assembling anything that day, though!
(-What a great room to show movies!)
There was a band of showers running East to West across Manhattan while we were there, so being that we went around the Island we were actually rained on twice by the same storm!
Here it is again!
(You would think with what we paid for these tickets, they’d figure out some way to prevent this!)
-Tell you what. Let’s wait until it stops and then we’ll continue up the Harlem River!
(Stay dry, Stay tuned!)
[ August 21, 2016, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Michael Lattavo (Member # 4280) on August 21, 2016, 06:42 PM:
I love these NYC pics! I lived in Boston in the mid 90's, then Manhattan for about about a year and a half. Being an outsider who grew up in the midwest, I was a perpetual tourist! Always loved big cities, and ended up living on a farm in Ohio....oh well, maybe when the kids are grown....
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 22, 2016, 07:09 PM:
The Harlem River and mobile Marble Hill!
The Harlem River is kind of what makes Manhattan what it is. It is bound on two sides by large bodies of water, the Hudson and East Rivers. The Harlem is what makes Manhattan an Island unto itself and not just a peninsula along with the Bronx. It was once a shallow tidal creek that people waded across, but since it’s a shortcut between the East and the Hudson, it’s been dredged beyond all recognition and rerouted in interesting ways.
After a few minutes the rain stopped, and we turned west into the Harlem River.
Yankee Stadium on our right! (Never been there either: grew up a Mets fan!)
Here’s the Broadway Bridge. Every other bridge across the Harlem River goes from Manhattan to the Bronx, but this one goes from Manhattan to Manhattan, because it goes to Marble Hill, which is in Manhattan even though it’s in the Bronx.
You see, Marble Hill started out in Manhattan, but it moved to the Bronx: not just the people, but the buildings and even the land…even though it’s legally still in Manhattan, nobody wanted to move to the Bronx and none of it actually moved an inch!
I’m sorry…is this confusing? Let me start over…
One day long before yours or mine, Marble Hill was a bump in the northern end of Manhattan, and the Harlem river made a tight loop around it. Ships navigating the river kept crashing into each other so they decided to cut a canal straight across the bottom. Now Marble hill was its own island, with a stagnant marsh to the North, which they eventually filled in. People in the Bronx thought they’d gained a neighborhood, but the Marble Hillsters decided they were staying Manhattanites! Then the Bronx Borough President literally climbed to the highest point in Marble Hill, planted the Bronx flag, and declared his dominion to the locals!
–but in the end it was settled the way everything is settled in New York: they hired lawyers and lobbyists! Not very long ago the New York Legislature proclaimed Marble Hill legally part of Manhattan and everyone thought we were done with this!
-YET…
When The Phone Company introduced the 718 area code in the Bronx the people in Marble Hill decided they wanted to keep Manhattan’s 212. It was decided that rewiring the place would be such a production they had to accept the Bronx’s 718, because even the law of the land needs to yield to the laws of electronics!
Kind of a nice water tower…it’s in Manhattan…Let’s hope it stays there!
We had come far, all the way to the very northernmost point of Manhattan, it was time to turn south into the Hudson and head for the dock,
-but not today!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 23, 2016, 03:45 PM:
We were now in the home stretch!
I’m kind of grateful the Harlem River is there. If not for that the Circle Line would need to go through Canada!
(-we’d need to pack a lunch!)
-But we’re back in the Hudson River now.
These are the Palisades:
This is a dramatic rock cliff, over a hundred feet tall (-just scope out that flag pole for scale…), which stretches along the New Jersey shore of the Hudson River for many miles. When Billy Joel sings about life going on beyond the Palisades, this is exactly what he is talking about!
-Although most probably haven’t bought Cadillacs and are still exactly where they are supposed to be. (Can anyone from New Jersey please verify?)
Ahead is the George Washington Bridge. Interstate 95 crosses the Hudson here: 300 miles one way you’re in Maine, 900 miles the other you’re in Florida. Interstate 80 begins nearby. It’s 3,000 miles West to the Bay Bridge and San Francisco.
There’s a new Tom Hanks movie about the pilot that made what the airlines like to call a…”water landing” in the Hudson. We are now getting into where the last tense minutes of that flight occurred.
Here we make our final turn to dock and debark! Right next door is the US Navy Aircraft Carrier Intrepid, living out her honorable retirement as a museum of naval aviation.
Since we were still in Tourist Mode we rifled through the brochures for the area attractions. Steven found a nice one for Wildwood, New Jersey!
-Unlike a great many of these places, I’ve been there many times! (…Have you?)
PS:
-It turns out that there is a Hofbrau Haus in New York, too (-It’s a little smaller than the one in Munich!), so we decided to treat ourselves for dinner that night!
Auf wiedersehen!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 25, 2016, 11:51 PM:
Brilliant photos there Steve, thanks for posting them
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 26, 2016, 07:04 AM:
Thanks, Graham!
This was a little different than most of these I do. A lot of the time I'm somewhere and snap a picture with my cellphone and maybe even after the fact decide to post it here. This one was intentional from the start and I actually dusted off my digital still camera so I'd have a real mechanical zoom lens and not that hokey deal where I spread my fingers on the cellphone screen to zoom.
Something I've noticed is it's not just film that's going by the wayside but cameras themselves. The average person taking pictures stopped with the instamatic and camcorder years ago and just whips out their phone or tablet now.
It's really handy having a camera in my pocket everywhere I go, but I find the mechanics of it make getting a good shot harder and give me way too many pictures with my fingers in them!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on August 26, 2016, 07:46 AM:
Here's what you need Steve. guaranteed no fingers in shot!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on August 26, 2016, 10:29 AM:
Now that's a camera!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on August 30, 2016, 05:39 AM:
Steve, since you decided to "visit" New York as a tourist, is there a specific reason why you didn't go to the Statue Of The Liberty (like a two hours queue) ?
I'm back from my second Holiday (Egypt and Israël) and came across some familiar things :
A 9.5 projector in a camera shop window in Tel Aviv (when did that machine arrive in this city ?)
A much bigger piece in an antique shop in Jaffa (in the famous flea market area).
Same area. The price of this projector was over 1.000 euros !
Two pictures taken in a window of a camera shop that makes digital transfert :
Sadly, it was difficult to take pictures (because of the light reflection) from the window, I could not take the old tv set.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 30, 2016, 07:27 AM:
I think the big reason I've never been to the Statue is I've never had a moment of decision: "This is the day I will visit the Statue of Liberty". It's not something you just do on the spur of the moment: it's on its own island and you need to get tickets for the boat that goes over there.
I guess if we were really ambitious we could have gone after the Hofbrau Haus, but that liter plus those stairs may have proven...eventful!
(I'll have to say, I enjoyed the train ride home more than usual!)
I'm pretty sure some out of town relatives will show up someday and decide to go there (My relatives from Germany have been to the real Hofbrau Haus many, many times: We'd go to the Statue and save Hofbrau until we can do it again in Munich!) and that will be the day I finally get there!
Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 1183) on August 30, 2016, 10:53 AM:
> Can anyone from New Jersey please verify?
Yes, everything in NJ is exactly where it belongs, however, contrary to what Billy Joel thinks, we no longer all drive Cadillac, most of us drive Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis.
The NJ side of the George Washington Bridge land in the town of Fort Lee, where the motion picture business got started here in the USA. At one time there were over 20 major studios there, before they all moved sunny California. The Fort Lee Film Commission has a web site dedicated to the towns motion picture history.
Further into New Jersey, in the town of West Orange, the National Park Service runs the Edison National Laboratories, where you can tour the research buildings where Edison's team invented the light bulb, sound recording and motion pictures.
From the 1890's up until the early 1970's, Palisades Amusement Park sat on the edge of the cliffs. They had a rollercoaster with the big drop that ended right at the edge of the cliffs before the track bent sharply to the right. It was quite a thrill going down that first drop.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 02, 2016, 01:10 PM:
We're still on vacation, My wife went back to the grind on Monday and my son and I are just staying local...doing stuff!
We did a 16 mile bike ride on Monday down to the beach. It peaked at 90 degrees that day, so either I'm in excellent health or perhaps dead and in extreme denial! (Always, ALWAYS bring water! We each downed a bottle and refilled it twice.)
We got a neat little propane stove last week to improve our outdoor adventures. It weighs about 2 pounds and is smaller than a dinner plate. It runs over two hours on the small propane bottles.
This morning we decided to give it a trial run out on the patio and enjoy breakfast outdoors too!
For those of you who know Steven in real life: he's starting High School next week, and no: I don't understand how that happened either!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 04, 2016, 08:05 AM:
Good luck to Steven !
This morning I attended a local Cine Fair, close to Brussels. I was surprised that it had not been advertised on the net as it had been for the previous editions but arriving there I was told that the organisator died so it was a little bit sad (and of course there were less people than usual).
A projector in action.
Private projection for this young lady...
Jean-Christophe, member of this forum. He is famous for re-recording soundtracks (mainly to have a French sound).
A picture for the posterity...
Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on September 04, 2016, 08:59 AM:
Thanks for those pics Dominique. Makes me hunger for the upcoming Ealing and Harpenden coming soon.
I take it that film was Jaws.
Graham s
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 10, 2016, 10:45 PM:
Tonight: Minor League Baseball with the Long Island Ducks!
We have a local minor league baseball team. About once a year we head towards the South Shore and go to a game. There is a lot of tradition here: over the years we’ve gone to easily ten of their games, and haven’t seen them win even once!
I’ll have to say, at least they are dependable. They had a great first inning and took a commanding lead. It looked like they were going to walk away with it, but bless their hearts, somehow they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory once again!
…Oh well, at least the fireworks after their humiliating (and almost inevitable) defeat were pretty good!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 14, 2016, 03:31 PM:
Springy Dog on a Stick!
So, we have a little Canada Goose problem out at the Lab. You see: Canada Geese are supposed to summer way up North and winter way down South.
-but many of ours don’t!
A couple of decades back, some Geese who were way ahead of their time decided Long Island was the place to be a Goose! You can’t half blame them: our weather is usually moderate, there are plenty of wetlands for them to paddle about in, and there are all these lawns. You see, Canada Geese love lawns: all those blades of grass, kind of a Canada Goose buffet! There are also very few predators here.
So, Goose Traditionalists are heading up and down the coast every Fall and Spring, but the Modernists stay here year round and fatten themselves eating our lawns and (…ummm) fertilizing them too!
This gets nasty sometimes. Suffice it to say the lawns out here have plenty of nitrogen in the soil, but unfortunately so our sidewalks, parking lots and sometimes even the carpeting in the buildings too.
Something had to be done! This is a place for Geeks, not Geese!
So I’m sure some task force did all sorts of research, maybe even some computer simulations, and this is what they came up with:
-a springy dog on a stick!
Now, seriously folks! –You’re talking about people who could have produced drones with computer guided lasers or some hypersonic…death beam!
-and the best they could come up with is a springy dog on a stick?!!
It would be absolutely scandalous other than the fact that springy dogs on sticks are doing a pretty respectable job scaring the geese away!
-Who’da thought?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 14, 2016, 09:05 PM:
Give them time Steve. One day you will come out and they will be sitting on it.
Last night I ran an old 16mm film I found down at the heritage park called "This Auckland" NFU 13 minutes made in 1967. Much to my surprise, it showed the old "SS Australis" at Auckland heading North once again across the Pacific on route to the UK. That ship would come and go from Auckland around every three months or so on her round the world journeys, from the 1960s-1977.
Here are a couple of screen shots of a time when folk were in not so much of a hurry.
She must have clocked up many miles at sea on that UK...Australia....New Zealand....run over those years.
here is a photo taken before the sea finally took her
[ September 26, 2016, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: Graham Ritchie ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 16, 2016, 09:21 AM:
Physics Building, State University of New York at Stony Brook
So there I was again last night! I’m signed up for an adult-ed. course, and it just happened to land…there!
Back in a time before time, when I was still a teenager, I sat down in a lecture hall in this building for Physics 101, my very first college course. I was 18 years old and had done a summer at an electronics company doing production test. It was September, 1980 and I was a brand new college student, -an engineering major no less.
Now, this wasn’t college like in the movies: there were no cheerleaders or hay-rides. We didn’t burn our rival school in effigy at the pep-rally because we didn’t have a football team, or a pep rally, or time to make an effigy either! This was work! This was homework and projects and exams without Mom or Dad watching over my shoulder in a place where the teachers not only didn’t care if I passed or not, they may not even have known my name! We studied Science and Math that must have been invented by people on some kind of drugs and generally lost contact with our youth during semesters. After I graduated, my Dad bought me a beer and I found I'd lost my taste for it since I finished high school. I got it back quickly, but it goes to show how little I got out in those years!
I learned lots of stuff, but most of all I grew up! (The Boss doesn’t want to hear the dog ate your homework!)
A lot of water has passed under my bridge since the first time I walked up that path. It’s strange to stand there with gray in my temples and a family and a full time job off-campus.
-but trust me, being an adult rules! Your life is a lot more your own.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 25, 2016, 07:49 PM:
Its the school term break at the moment. This morning I woke to find Connor who is staying with us at the moment in his Onesie, ....it really put a on my face.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on September 25, 2016, 09:04 PM:
So cute Graham. I just love that age
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 26, 2016, 10:17 PM:
Thanks Janice
Today we went to the "Air Force Museum" and being the school holidays they had a search the museum competition for the kids. They had to find certain objects with numbers on them, and once found match the letter attached to finally make a word...Connor word was "transmit" both he and a lot of other kids were all over the place doing this challenge, with a small prize in the end if they get it right...and he did
In front of the Mustang...one very impressive aircraft.
looking through the sights...
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 28, 2016, 12:21 AM:
Another museum today that was hosting "Air New Zealand 75 years" Lot of interactive things for the kids to do and interesting stuff for the adults as well.
This is a mock up interior of a "Solent Flying boat" complete with engine noise and video outside the cabin window...just like the real thing....you can just see the engine turning out the window.
With the school holidays at the moment and the weather not so great, the museums have been a popular choice with families.
The kids can also dress up...Captain Connor..
I was watching some old Super8 home movies a few weeks "as screen shot below". I took some film when my parents came out on a Air New Zealand DC10 back in 1977. The DC10 would fly to LA then a British Airways flight crew would take over the same DC10 and continue the LA London leg, the same on its return journey.
[ September 28, 2016, 01:44 AM: Message edited by: Graham Ritchie ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 03, 2016, 09:16 AM:
WHAT the...?
So I came into work this morning, and there was this...thing constructed out in the lobby...
-a bunch of "wet floor" signs arrayed around an empty recycle bin.
-kind of a tiny, plastic Stonehenge!
Several of us stood together and theorized what it might mean. Some said that since the building is pretty new the roof still leaks here and there, but there wasn't any rainwater in evidence anywhere.
We are affiliated with a lot of universities. My own theory is some psychology department set this thing up to see how many people they could deceive into taking a picture of it and posting it on the internet with some wild theory about exactly what it really means.
(.......oh!)
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 03, 2016, 04:44 PM:
Given the high cost of processing Super 8 film, I've got it in my head that I will process my own. First step is to practice using 35mm still photos. I took my daughter out yesterday to use up a roll of B&W film. We found some very interesting stuff.
Unfortunately I didn't read the developer instructions closely enough and didn't realize that 50°C was the mixing temp, not the developing temp.
Oops.
Also getting the film on the developing reel was a challenge in the dark. I accidentally put some creases in the film at the beginning of the roll. They ended up looking like little moon slivers.
In spite of the problems, we did get images. Just not good ones. Unfortunately, some would have really been great photos and will be hard to duplicate. The mural below is nearly done and I have no idea what their schedule is for working on it.
As they say, baby steps...
Once I've got B&W figured out, then I'll try some color. After that I'll track down a lomo tank and try some B&W Super 8.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on October 03, 2016, 06:04 PM:
50°C is pretty hot for developing, I'm surprised it didn't bring out more grain. That's usually what happens when you change the temperature during development. Unless you kept it at 50°C for every step.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 03, 2016, 07:44 PM:
The small size of forum pics hides a lot of flaws.
There is plenty of grain in larger versions and if you zoom in at all, the poor women are covered in tiny black splotches like they have some sort of skin disease.
Live and learn.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 03, 2016, 09:43 PM:
Well Steve that kind of thing reminds me of the Indian janitor in the movie "The Terminal" who would set things up so folk would go flying.. just for his entertainment ..good movie..
Today it was painting...I had just finished replacing our old picket fence a few months ago, so it was now the "paint job". Yvonne always liked a white picket fence and as the old one was well and truly had it, it was time for a new one....she has now got her wish
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 03, 2016, 09:52 PM:
Please don't remind me!
-every time I look at the back fence, I quickly switch to the front window instead!
Looks like the teeth of someone who ate a LOT of candy growing up!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 04, 2016, 01:26 PM:
This is kind of a rare ”My day in pictures” because I’m actually in the picture. For a guy who loves cameras, I’m a little bit of a hypocrite: I hate being in the picture!
I’ve made it a rule of life to get a haircut the week of CineSea to avoid pictures like this: seems I’m due!
-but an opportunity popped up. A friend of mine texted me Sunday morning “Do you want to go canoeing this afternoon?”. Now, Sunday was not your prime canoeing day: it was gray and temperamental looking, just the kind of day to get a canoe trip and a cold shower all at once.
-but he got a brand new boat and was itching to try it out, and I’ve been kind of canoe-lazy these last few months. Besides, I finally got a set of roof racks for my car: wouldn’t even need to commandeer my wife’s minivan!
-Why not!
So even without any watts and wires running all over the place, this is me in my element (actually, water is a compound…but you get the idea!). It’s not fast, and it’s not loud, just peaceful and smooth: nothing to do if you’re in a hurry.
Wondrous thing: Like this you can drive with your sunroof open in a pouring rain and not take on a single drop!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 06, 2016, 01:58 PM:
Bought my first "Pink Vinyl" record last weekend, as its Henry Mancini 1963 soundtrack to "The Pink Panther". It was a must buy.. ...the soundtrack is excellent "one of the best" I have heard.
Its well worth getting folks...
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on October 06, 2016, 10:28 PM:
Ah, records! Don't you just love 'em?
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 07, 2016, 08:59 AM:
I botched my first attempt at developing B&W film in 35 years, but round 2 went better. These "Urban Art" pictures are from a couple of days ago. Going to try some color soon (good timing, leaves are changing) and eventually... Super 8.
The building where I work was originally a car barn for Minneapolis street cars. The first street cars were pulled by horses and mules. A cable system was going to be built but it never happened, as electric cars became more practical. The steam turbines used generate electricity needed water and what you're looking at in the first picture is a backwater from the Mississippi river. The tunnel in the 3rd picture (facing the opposite direction from the first) fed the water to my building a few blocks way.
[ October 07, 2016, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: Tom Spielman ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 07, 2016, 09:03 AM:
Nice!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 07, 2016, 09:29 AM:
Thanks. I'm pretty happy with them.
The nice thing about using archaic technology is that it can be had for a song. No one wants film cameras. The camera was $25 and the really nice 50mm f/1.4 lens I got for free with a broken camera that someone was giving away. Still trying to fix that camera.
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on October 07, 2016, 10:09 AM:
Nice pictures. 'Archaic' technology? That word bothers me. How about 'alternative' technology?
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 07, 2016, 11:01 AM:
Alternative is fine with me.
FWIW, I didn't mean film so much as the camera and lenses. These were taken with a pre-auto focus Canon and an FD lens. Once Canon came out with their EOS line of cameras with EF lenses (still film at that point), suddenly all this fantastic glass was made obsolete, - and affordable to mere mortals.
The camera is a Canon T70 which has neither the look nor construction of a classic SLR. It also lacks the features of newer film SLRs. "Archaic" might be a bit harsh but I think "obsolete" is fair. At any rate, it works for me.
I do have an EOS film camera too. It's nice and light but it's got a so-so lens and good modern lenses are pricey.
[ October 07, 2016, 12:31 PM: Message edited by: Tom Spielman ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 07, 2016, 03:45 PM:
They look good Tom The crowd I am in with at the Historical Park are right into developing film from different formats, also with amazing results. Some of the cameras these guys are given from the past and because no one else is interested in them are really something. Pity you did not live closer you would be right in your element at that place
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 07, 2016, 05:18 PM:
Thanks Graham. I've been enjoying myself and could see moving on to other formats like 120mm but the equipment starts to get more expensive. The results would be fantastic though.
My teenagers have been enjoying it too so I can use the educational value as reason to spend a bit of money on chemicals and such. Not sure that it will be a long term hobby but I'm learning how to take better pictures in the process, - things that I can also apply in the digital world.
Posted by William Fleming (Member # 2632) on October 09, 2016, 11:19 AM:
Playing in Garden with my Danes
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 09, 2016, 01:08 PM:
Well done, Will!
Posted by William Fleming (Member # 2632) on October 09, 2016, 01:13 PM:
Cracked it
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 09, 2016, 05:31 PM:
Yeahhhh.....
-the first time is kind of an achievement, the second kind of a chore, you get up into the hundreds it's second nature!
My first couple I gave up and mailed 'em to Doug!
Posted by Michael Lattavo (Member # 4280) on October 09, 2016, 06:29 PM:
Great pic, except for the ladder - I'm terrified of heights!
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on October 10, 2016, 09:48 AM:
I'll try to upload some fun pics from time to time of neat happenings in our backyard
Here was a good birdfight i was watching earlier....not sure who won..there was more than enough but you can't tell them that...similar to us humans!
In circumstances such as this, it is best just to ride it out and wait for a turn....
Posted by William Fleming (Member # 2632) on October 10, 2016, 12:38 PM:
Yes Michael needed some roof repairs doing but i can assure you it wasnt me up there i wont even go up throught the exit hatch in top floor
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 10, 2016, 01:15 PM:
That's a really interesting house.
What's the history of it? It looks like there is a story going on there.
Our house was built in 1956, we are the second owners, apparently the plumbing hates me...and it's mutual!
(-Not much of a story!)
Posted by William Fleming (Member # 2632) on October 10, 2016, 01:58 PM:
Steve i will do a post in general yak about it with a link the history is amazing including deals with the devil
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on October 12, 2016, 04:18 PM:
Sunday, I visited an exhibition in Paris (at la Cinémathèque) called (I translate) From Mélies to 3D. As it took me some time to post the pictures (in another thread) of the private museum I visited on Saturday, I'm posting these pictures a little bit late.
It is NOT 9.5 although there is a central perforation. It's 15 mm.
This is the 15 mm machine.
Early sound system.
A scopitone machine, using 16 mm magnetic sound films.
Talking about 16 mm sound, here is a magnetic camera.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on October 13, 2016, 02:29 AM:
9.5 is also there of course.
The first Pathé Baby projector ever made.
I wonder how many films from this poster have survived.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 13, 2016, 10:00 PM:
Enjoying the (almost) full moon.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on October 14, 2016, 07:49 AM:
beautiful Tom! So close you can see the cheese! I always wished to be able to take pictures like that. I only have a canon Ti1 with a 55-200 lens. I wish i knew how to take good pics like this, mine are small and blurry for the moon. Nice job! I can take good bird and flower pics though
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 14, 2016, 09:12 AM:
Thanks Matt. I cheated and used a telescope.
I realized after I posted them that the telescope reverses the images so those are probably backwards, but I'm still happy with them.
Used telescopes are pretty cheap and so are the camera adaptors but I also got a pretty good picture using a 400mm telephoto lens from the 70's. Many of those lenses used a "T" mount which could used with any camera via an inexpensive adaptor. They're manual focus and aperture settings, however. If you're interested take a look at http://shopgoodwill.com Lots of old inexpensive lenses available there. It is a bit of gamble but I think I paid $20 for that 400mm lens including shipping (probably $8.00 for the lens and $12 for shipping).
Here's a picture from last month with the 400mm:
You really need a tripod and a remote shutter release helps.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 14, 2016, 09:15 AM:
Yes,
I guess that's why Tycho Crater seems to be in the northern hemisphere!
(I was wondering about that!)
Nice shots!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 14, 2016, 09:59 AM:
Oh and I forgot a couple of key things when it comes to taking pictures of the moon without a telescope. The moon is a case where modern technology gets in the way. The moon is bright but relatively small compared to the size of the rest of the image your camera is trying to capture. Since the overall amount of light entering your camera is small, your camera sets the exposure accordingly and badly overexposes the moon. And because the shutter speed will be slow due to the low light, everything is blurry.
Going to manual settings can compensate for that and I'd bet you could get a very good picture of the moon with your 200mm zoom. There are lots of web sites that will give you tips. You might have heard of the "sunny 16" rule for daylight photography. There is also a "looney 11" rule for the moon:
- With ISO 100 film / setting in the camera, one sets the aperture to f/11 and the shutter speed to 1/100 or 1/125 second (on some cameras 1/125 second is the available setting nearest to 1/100 second).
- With ISO 200 film / setting and aperture at f/11, set shutter speed to 1/200 or 1/250.
- With ISO 400 film / setting and aperture at f/11, set shutter speed to 1/400 or 1/500.
Something that I learned is that if you see a photo that shows the moon over a city skyline and you can clearly see both lights of the buildings AND the details in the moon, it is most likely two pictures combined. It is almost impossible to get the exposure right for both the moon and a night-time cityscape in one shot.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on October 14, 2016, 11:28 AM:
Thanx for that info! I will try it on my camera next time we have a nice clear moon!!
So you used a telescope..very nice!
I am a bit of an enthusiast of things skyward...here is my humble set-up, but i would love to take pics of what i see with it one day! Once you get the weights perfect, it moves smooth as silk almost complete circle if needed....you can't hold these by hand, to shaky...
Big honkin Binoculars, i know, i know...but i like them
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 14, 2016, 12:14 PM:
Long Island Expressway eastbound, roughly 8:15 AM
This is a Lamborghini Aventador (Base price: $399,500 US. Cup holders and floor mats cost extra!).
Research reveals it belongs to a local divorce attorney.
Those considering getting engaged during the upcoming Holiday Season should ponder the full meaning of this picture and choose wisely!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 14, 2016, 02:27 PM:
Cripes Matt, those are the biggest binoculars I've ever seen !
But I've got good news for you. Though I do have a real camera mount for my telescope, my son wanted to be able to take pictures with his cell phone, so we got one of these and it also works with binoculars:
A smartphone - telescope adaptor
I admit that in spite of the good reviews, I was skeptical that something that costs under $20 could work very well, but those pictures I posted used that very adaptor. It does take a little bit of patience to align the smartphone camera lens with the eyepiece, but it's really not that hard and the results are good. I believe there are two different sizes for different sized eyepieces and the eyepieces on those binoculars look pretty big. But as far as phones go, it was adjustable enough to accommodate both an iPhone 5S (smallish) and a 6 plus (largish).
Oh and Steve: Clearly I'm in the wrong field. That car is a hazard. The glare off it could blind someone.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 14, 2016, 02:43 PM:
It was literally a mirror surface.
Clearly this is someone who isn't big on "incognito"!
Meanwhile back at the Lab!
They assigned me a mountain bike so I'd have wheels even when I carpool, so I took advantage of the nice cool Fall day during lunch.
(Beats sitting at my desk playing Solitaire on the computer!)
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 14, 2016, 09:07 PM:
When I saw Tom's moon photo it reminded me of a photo I took of the "Super Moon" in May 2012. I didn't have a telescope like Tom...and Matthew...the lawn lounge chair was a brillant idea ). I didn't even have a good still camera or smartphone back then. All I had was this little Kodak HD video camera that did take stills. I attached a little telephoto lens that I bought for $10 on Ebay...and this is what I got.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 14, 2016, 11:24 PM:
Wow, that little thing worked pretty well Janice !
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on October 15, 2016, 09:15 AM:
Tom, thanx again! I am so interested in that adapter!!!
This weekend is the supermoon/hunters moon(lunar eclipse) combo...not sure of the skies, but could be another great venue!!!
Steve, I like how your pic shows the immense height of those trees!! And i am sure they go up alot further beyond...Nice peaceful pic!
Janice, Brilliant! Better than anything i've taken to date.
I just bought a cellphone for my son since he started highschool this year, it is a samsung j3 and my daughter has the galaxy core...both of these should do great for the adapter...I can't wait!
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on October 16, 2016, 03:33 AM:
Yes, about exposure, you have to remember that the moon is an object in un-obscured sunlight and expose as you would on a bright day. I think you might get away with moon and lit buildings in one shot using a dark split or graduated filter (as used in day for night filming) on the camera or slightly forward in front of it.
[ October 16, 2016, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Brian Fretwell ]
Posted by Michael Lattavo (Member # 4280) on October 19, 2016, 07:20 AM:
Some turkeys walking down my driveway yesterday (ain't too cool, this close to Thanksgiving!)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 19, 2016, 08:15 AM:
There are lots of Turkeys where I work:
-and most of 'em are birds!
We are about 2500 acres and most of it is forested. So we get all sorts of wildlife: deer, foxes, groundhogs (etc.).
It makes life interesting sometimes. A couple of years ago a motorist spooked a deer and it bolted. It knocked a rider off his bike and slightly injured him. Being that we do high energy research this was labeled an incident and a committee had to convene and investigate.
-the biggest problem they had was the list of "preventative measures"...it was kind of a random event!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 26, 2016, 08:56 AM:
Now you would HOPE...
-we'd have something better to do!
As a matter of fact in a house full of homework, and housework, and yardwork, and sometimes even work work, you can be pretty sure of it!
-but I guess we all have our moments!
He actually sat there that way until we took it off...
(-there's just something wrong with this cat!)
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 26, 2016, 11:43 AM:
Based on the facial expression, I'd say the cat was planning an appropriate response to this assault on its dignity. I wonder what you will find shredded into little pieces when you get home
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 26, 2016, 12:48 PM:
Naaaa...
He's really not like that.
-he's never had any dignity!
A lot of people think they're all alike, but that's very untrue. We have this one that's so laid back he doesn't particularly care about stuff like this, then again there's the other one that lived under the couch for a month after we brought him home....
This is where a dog would have an advantage: he'd just eat the bread!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on October 26, 2016, 04:50 PM:
I missed a picture : I saw this afternoon two Young people carriying (toward a cinema) a 16 mm projector. But it went fats and the time I realized they were gone-the projector was not light :-)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 28, 2016, 03:35 PM:
Steve....your next photo might just be "Revenge of the Putty Tat"
I got a call from a projectionist I used to work with long ago...would I like a few 35mm trailers he said?, well he turned up with a box... sure you want them all. I said yes that would be great ....I never imagined this lot ...this should keep me busy
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on October 31, 2016, 06:16 PM:
Jack O' Melon:
What you get when you try to buy a pumpkin the day before Halloween.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 31, 2016, 07:39 PM:
That's HYSTERICAL!!
(Well done!)
There is no higher affinity in Nature than a cat and a cardboard box!
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on November 01, 2016, 11:03 PM:
October in the Pacific Northwest turned out to be the wettest on record, almost 10 inches of rain. The normal is less than 4 inches. That turns out to be great for mushrooms so I set out with my Rolleiflex TLR using a closeup attachment and shot some mushroom photos on Kodak Ektar 100 film.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 06, 2016, 07:30 AM:
Last night on Coney Island
THE original Nathan’s, now 100 years old.
A little neon, a lot of incandescent, arguably the best hot dogs on the planet, inarguably the best French fries on any planet!
If you drive down Surf Avenue and can’t find it, it certainly isn’t their fault!
Our friend invited us into Brooklyn to celebrate her birthday.
-She decided to eat at the Applebees right across the street. (for SHAME!)
I like your pictures Bryan, especially your use of focus.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 06, 2016, 11:22 AM:
Last night we had to turn all the clocks back one hour for daylight savings time. I have never understood the logic of this, and would much prefer the same time all year. But, whatever, I went around the whole house resetting all the clocks and watches. They were all battery operated, undistinguished and uninteresting clocks, until I came to this one:
This is a beautiful Ridgeway mechanical clock, with a gorgeous real wooden case, solid brass faceplate, and a mechanism from the Black Forest in Germany. This is a special clock in our family. I bought it one snowy Christmas eve in 1969 as a present for my wife. My 3 year old daughter and I wrapped it up, and we stuck it under the tree for Christmas morning. Come Christmas day and the three of us gathered around the tree to exchange gifts. I handed the wrapped up clock to my wife to unwrap when my daughter proclaimed " It's not a clock mommy" !
Anyway this clock has been with us for 48 years through good days and bad. It is like a member of the family, chiming out the quarter hours and hours, and going into its full ritual at 12 o'clock. I always pause and listen to its new year chime, wondering what we, and the clock, will experience in the coming year. Once I had to take it to a clock shop to repair one of the springs. It was gone for several weeks, as the clock guy was a perfectionist and refused to let me have it until he knew it was all ok. During that time you could feel its lack of presence in the house.
I think comparing mechanical clocks to battery clocks is like comparing film projectors to DVD players. Clocks and film projectors both have a beautiful noise associated with their operation, and they are both examples of magnificent mechanical engineering. They have a soul.
Battery clocks and DVD players do their job efficiently, but they are uninteresting and dull devices in comparison with their mechanical ancestors.
This clock will stay in our family for generations, whereas the plastic battery clocks will be long gone and forgotten.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 06, 2016, 11:45 AM:
I tought it was only done in Europe and in some Mediterranean countries (out of Europe of course). We changed the time last week-end, here.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 06, 2016, 12:56 PM:
Daylight Savings time is observed by every US state except Arizona.
One time years ago I was staying in a hotel in Texas and commuting across to our factory in Mexico every morning. I was also talking to our other factory in Tucson, my home office here in New York and the West Coast office in San Diego.
New York is an hour ahead of Texas. Texas is the same as eastern Mexico except Mexico didn't observe DST back then, so I lost an hour when I crossed the River. Tucson is normally an hour behind Texas except they don't observe DST so they were now TWO hours behind. The San Diego office was two hours behind Texas as usual, but now only an hour behind Mexico and the same time as Tucson, who they normally trailed by an hour! (Who's on first?)
I was sitting there troubleshooting a flaky circuit. A guy walked up to me, asked "What time is it?"
-I said "I have NO idea!"
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 06, 2016, 11:04 PM:
Not surprised
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 07, 2016, 11:14 AM:
We had our change back to Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time 2:00AM Sunday.
We get up at 6AM to get our kid fully assembled, fed and installed in the school bus at about 6:35. (I believe he actually wakes up sometime around 7:00, but by then he's almost to school! -"How'd I get HERE?!!")
The last week or so it was dark even at 6:45, but it was light out today until well after the bus rolled down the street.
I'll drive home from work in the dark tonight, but you can't have it all!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 07, 2016, 12:31 PM:
Do you call that "Standard Time" and "Daylight Savings Time" only in the US or also in the UK ? In French, it is "heure d'été" "Summer time" and "heure d'hiver" (Winter time) which is incorrect as the "Winter time" is already in application and we're still in Autumn/Fall.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 07, 2016, 12:42 PM:
Standard time is the same as Winter Time here. Daylight Savings Time is Standard Time plus one hour, so that instead of the summer sun rising at 4:00 AM when it's not much good to anybody, it instead stays up until almost 9:00PM when basically everyone is still awake!
This afternoon will be a rough drive home. We'll have literally thousands of drivers that haven't done a lot of night time driving all making the adjustment at the same time.
On the plus side: we've all had the sun in our faces for about two weeks now: darkness will be an improvement.
-get's interesting from here: the first snow is coming sometime!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 07, 2016, 12:56 PM:
Oh, 9 pm ! In Belgium, the days ends around 10:30 pm in the Summer (which is only nice the days you don't project films :-)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 07, 2016, 01:38 PM:
We are actually pretty far South by European standards. If you jumped in the Atlantic here and started swimming due East, you would end up on a beach in Northern Portugal. (If you were a very STRONG swimmer!)
-so our days don't ever get as long, or as short as northern European ones do.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on November 07, 2016, 08:48 PM:
Here in California on Standard time it starts getting dark at 5pm. I'm generally a late riser...so my daylight times during this part of the year are very limited. I agree Steve...this changing of the clock is worthless. I vote to keep DST all year long
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on November 08, 2016, 01:21 AM:
Combining hobbies:
This contraption might look like an ordinary roaster oven, but in reality it is a computer controlled tank for maintaining the temperature of chemicals used for DIY color film processing.
Truthfully, nothing this complicated is needed for DYI color processing, lots of people just use insulated coolers to keep the water temp close or a plain old sink. But it was an excuse to play with electronics and give my son a little more exposure to programming. There's a temperature sensor and a relay which are used to turn the power to the roaster on and off.
The software isn't done. What we did was really simplistic and tends to keep the water a bit too warm. The heating element doesn't cool off right away and will keep heating the water up even though it is shut off.
There are some "PID" algorithms I could use to refine the software, but I don't know if I will take it that far. We'll see. Anyway, it's been fun even though I haven't actually tried to develop any color film yet.
Oh, and there's also a small pump from an aquarium in there to circulate the water to help keep the temperature more uniform. It's like a miniature jacuzzi.
[ November 08, 2016, 10:15 AM: Message edited by: Tom Spielman ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 09, 2016, 12:30 AM:
That's brilliant Tom
Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on November 09, 2016, 04:58 PM:
Director John Carpenter (The Fog, Halloween...) was in town tonight, performing themes from most of his movies, as well as cuts from his two recent non-film related albums. The 2800 seats theatre was packed, it really felt like a rock concert.
Posted by Evan Samaras (Member # 5070) on November 11, 2016, 09:20 PM:
Jean-Marc,
I'm Jealous! I wanted to attend his show in NYC, but I wasn't able to =(
Tom,
What a great invention! I usually just use (as you described) a cooler to maintain temp. while developing. As a matter of fact, here is a recently developed picture with my newly acquired Widelux!
Quite grainy, but it was 16 year old expired Gold 100 shot for test purposes
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 12, 2016, 03:24 PM:
Yesterday I spent a bit of time getting things ready for a 35mm Scope screening "English subtitles". I have only ever watched this movie on DVD but this time round its on film. Its an amazing and well told story...gripping stuff.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 14, 2016, 08:29 AM:
Yesterday afternoon: a beautiful Fall day at a local orchard
The local cider starts coming in in June, but it just tastes better this time of the year for some undefined reason.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on November 14, 2016, 05:23 PM:
Evan: I had to lookup what a widelux was, - pretty cool! And not bad for 16 year old film.
Graham: Is that projector in your house?
Steve: Fabulous. I like old stuff like that tractor. But whenever I see something like that, my first thought is: "What would it take to get that working again?"
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 14, 2016, 05:53 PM:
I was thinking exactly that, Tom!
This is basically a bunch of heavy castings and steel assemblies. Most things could be brought back to new with a good sandblasting and painting.
A new fuel tank will save you from tragedy later on!
After that, you rebuild the engine, gearbox and steering gear and you are looking good.
I think this is a Ford tractor: they were common as dirt at one time.
-should be easy to find parts!
I fixed up an old car. I actually came to consider it a collection of parts. This is just an easier collection to complete.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 14, 2016, 09:51 PM:
Tom all the film stuff is out in the garage
Steve.
Many years ago we used to stop over at a camp site that had an old tractor for anyone to play on, here are a couple photos of Steven on it, taken at various stages of him growing up well sort of
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 21, 2016, 01:57 PM:
Some views from Blackpool
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on November 21, 2016, 04:53 PM:
Beautiful pics Dom
I received my Castle Films t-shirt today.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 22, 2016, 12:34 PM:
Waw, Janice. Is that a special order you made from a picture or is it a catalogued (if that's English) design ?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 22, 2016, 03:07 PM:
We have two of those T-shirts at our house.
-have to be sure which one I'm putting on!
My son's fits me a little....TIGHT!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 22, 2016, 04:20 PM:
Where did you buy it from, Steve ?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 22, 2016, 09:38 PM:
I bought ours from Jay Schwartz. He's a regular on 16mmFilmTalk.
He also has a really nice Blackhawk shirt.
He makes these shirts in limited printings, so I can't promise he has any right now, but I can ask if you'd like.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 23, 2016, 02:33 AM:
That would be great, Steve. I guess he has no website.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 25, 2016, 03:14 PM:
Black Friday Done Right!
Personally I hate going shopping: if Amazon sold milk, my car might never be seen in a store parking lot at all!
Seemed a waste of a day off to just sit around the house, so we decided to “visit the cactus.” This is a literal thing: even though we are thousands of miles away from any real desert, there is a native species here and we look in on it at the local nature preserve a couple of times a year.
Now, this isn’t exactly Yellowstone: a couple of hundred acres stretching from our northernmost through road up to Northport Harbor. From there it’s open water all the way across to the Connecticut shore.
-no doubt about it: Summer has past. For Black Friday, the crowds were wonderfully light!
We found no shoppers clamoring up at the harbor. We found some clams, but they weren't clamoring either!
-but unlike the traditional Black Friday, we found exactly what we came for without having to fight anybody off!
As usual, it was doing just fine.
They always shrivel up this time of year. As nearly as I can figure it, the plant protects itself from freezing by drying out as much as possible before the first frost.
Having everything we needed, we checked out, found the car and went home!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on November 28, 2016, 12:14 AM:
Steve, the cactus is cool, but I like the boat better. Beautiful picture, - and your son is destined to be a tall man. You can tell by the feet.
It was a good day for this nerd. A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of the contraption I intended to use to keep the chemicals at the proper temp for developing color film. Well, this morning it was finally put to use in developing some pictures I took last month:
I was pleased with the results but did end up with some water spots. Some changes will be needed for the next roll. All part of a slow journey to being able to develop my own Super 8 film. I guess E-6 would be a logical next step.
The day didn't stop there. In the afternoon, the same contraption doubled as a "Sous Vide" to cook some steaks.
A couple hours later:
In the evening, my wife and I went to our neighborhood 2nd run theater to watch "Sully". The theater has kept its mid-century decor, and still uses real butter on its popcorn. Plus, tickets are $3.00!
The day ended on a bitter-sweet note. I sold the very camera that took the Fall pictures above. Just don't need as many film cameras as I've collected over the last few months. But it did work well.
[ November 28, 2016, 12:28 PM: Message edited by: Tom Spielman ]
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on November 28, 2016, 10:29 PM:
I love that your 2nd run theater has a screen curtain.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on November 28, 2016, 10:41 PM:
It's not the traditional theater experience with ushers, intermissions, etc. Also it's long since gone digital. Don't know if they still have a real film projector or not. But I love that place. They're very creative about making it work. They rent it out. They show broadcasts of major events like the world cup, etc.
Riverview Photo Tour
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on November 30, 2016, 06:19 PM:
My adventures and mis-adventures with projector repairs has extended into other things now. I just dissembled my Toshiba VCR/DVD combo recorder. The VCR was stopping and chewing up tapes. Watching several YouTube videos it looked like a dirty Mode Switch was causing the problem. To get to the Mode Switch I pretty much had to take the whole thing apart. Putting it back together was the real challenge, but the operation was successful...despite having a few screws left over They don't make these any more...so I was motivated to try and fix it.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 30, 2016, 08:04 PM:
I praise your initiative, Janice! (-as always!)
Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on November 30, 2016, 09:12 PM:
Tom,
I like the marquee of that theater. Very different.
Janice,
Excellent work!
Doug
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on December 01, 2016, 10:20 AM:
Nice work Janice.
Video tapes don't get a whole lot of respect for their image quality but I'm still impressed with the engineering, - not that it takes much to impress me.
If you've never watched one operate with the cover off... well, it's pretty cool !
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on December 01, 2016, 10:36 AM:
I agree Tom ... watching the inside of a VCR in action is fascinating. It's like watching a robot. A synchronized combination of mechanical and electrical movements. Yes...very cool indeed!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on December 11, 2016, 05:43 PM:
Some Fresh snow today:
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on December 14, 2016, 06:12 PM:
Put up my Christmas tree today. This is still one of my favorite ornaments from a very thoughtful niece
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on December 14, 2016, 09:38 PM:
We've got four in work (Christmas tree's).
Just as well really seeing as thats where we are all spending our entire Christmas!
Ho Ho No.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 19, 2016, 07:10 PM:
This has been a good topic and always interesting.
Yesterday I did something a bit different, I took Yvonne little digital camera for a ride. When she got home from work and asked what did "you" do today?....I replied this... and showed her the video, as proof that I do "other things" than just play around with films.
Anway, it was a bit more practice for me using "Moviemaker" and threw this together real quick.
https://youtu.be/OCYj0dOCK_M
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 19, 2016, 07:18 PM:
Trains going around the tree tonight!
(Who here is at all surprised?!!)
-More tomorrow!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on December 19, 2016, 09:44 PM:
Janice: Love that ornament! How did you get that large image posted?
Graham: What a beautiful area for cycling. The landscape where I live looks nothing like that. Especially not this time of year.
Steve: I'm disappointed. Where's the train? Looking forward to the next installment.
Though I know this forum is more about collecting, it has helped reignite my passion for photography. All I was looking for was help with a projector belt. Can't thank you all enough. Tonight I froze my fingers trying to get this picture. I wanted to get it before the water iced over but there was only a couple of days between the first snowfall and when that happened.
I know there's a couple of other people from the Twin Cities area on the forum. This is Powderhorn Park with part of the Minneapolis skyline in the background. One was taken with a "star filter". The other without.
This was from a digital camera but I did take some film versions too. Those will of course be better but I need to get some more chemicals before I can develop them. ;-)
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on December 20, 2016, 02:12 AM:
Tom...The forum requirements only state that the image size be not more than 550 pixels wide... but, the vertical height can be proportionally larger...as long as the file size doesn't exceed the max..it will work
My younger son Darrin is home for the Holidays. Tonight.... After a busy day of shopping we came home and prepared a delicious dinner then finished the evening off watching my 16mm print of "It's A Wonderful Life." Doesn't get much better than this.
[ December 20, 2016, 01:30 PM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on December 20, 2016, 04:16 AM:
Terrific Janice, absolutely terrific!!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on December 20, 2016, 10:45 AM:
Ah, I wasn't aware of the image size loophole. Thanks Janice! Also, I like that projection screen you have.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on December 20, 2016, 11:29 AM:
I'm also curious about that screen Janice. Is it one of those high gain screens for video projection?
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on December 20, 2016, 12:16 PM:
I doubt if there are many of these screens around any more. It's a screen that came with my 1980's Sony front projection television. I couldn't even find a picture on the internet. The TV was not connected to the screen, but a separate projection unit designed to look like a glass top coffee table. My TV projected up to the screen from the floor...but these TV's were also popular to use in sports bars and pizza parlors. At these venues the TV unit was usually mounted upside down on the ceiling as well as the screen. The 3 color beams had to project at the proper angle to the screen.
I have since parted with the old TV unit...but found that the screen with it's 4x3 ratio and a very reflective material was still perfect for film projection and my little digital projector. My front room is pretty much dedicated to movies...TV...exercising... and of course a Xmas tree this time of year.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 21, 2016, 01:10 AM:
Janice and Tom your pictures are brilliant
I watched "Its a Wonderful Life" on Super8 last weekend. It was the first time I have watched this print, it came on 7/400ft reels. In some places the print was a wee bit dull, but overall it was still very good and not a mark on it. The sound quality was excellent, much better than my dvd. Now I have checked the print out I will soon move it onto larger reels.
Anyway I am having trouble posting photos at the moment but have included another short video I took today with the grandkids.
We left around 8am for a bike ride and got back 4 hours later. It was another nice day, so could not resist getting back on the bike.
https://youtu.be/9NBtsXQjTAc
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on December 21, 2016, 02:32 PM:
It's a nice reasonably sharp print Graham as I remember, but mine was dark in places also, hence I sent it back at the time after viewing it.
I don't know if all of the Super 8mm prints are this way, but it would be an awful shame if they were given that this is an absolute classic and many a collector's favourite at this time of the year.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 21, 2016, 03:24 PM:
Andrew
When I started the first reel with the kids on the frozen pond I was surprised at the sharpness and contrast thinking this is really good. Many B/W prints I have seen dont have that level of excellent contrast, however it was dissapointing later on when in places it was dull.
If they had kept up the same standard of printing as shown at the start of the film it would have been fantastic, sadly it was not to be ....we might have to get Xenon lamps fitted
Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on December 21, 2016, 03:32 PM:
That is very interesting and unique Janice.
Do you not have any problems with reflective "hot spots" when using that screen for film projection ?
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on December 21, 2016, 03:37 PM:
Yes Graham, that's precisely how I remember it. The beginning was absolutely fine. It was around reel 3 where I first thought I have a defective print here. As if there had been a grading fault when printed, on certain reels.
I think it lasted a little too long also, for what I was comfortable with when viewing it.
If it had been for just a few minutes, there is absolutely no way I would have returned it Graham as I love the actual film.
As things stand, it tends to be one we view on the digital projector now around every other year.
Not watched it this year though yet.
I'd be really interested to find out if all are like this?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 27, 2016, 09:37 PM:
This is kind of a follow-up to the New York tour I did here last summer. As I noted, like many people from New York, I never visit a lot of our stuff. A couple of years ago I turned down a chance to visit Red Square because I’d already been there. I’ve been to the Hofbrau Haus in Munich twice: Empire State Building?—once, 30 years ago. World Trade Center: never.
As of this morning I had never, never, never been to the Statue of Liberty!
As I predicted, this would change because someone from out of town wanted to go: It turned out to be my sister and her family from Pennsylvania.
First stop on the ferry was Ellis Island:
Like many Americans, I am descended from people who came through this place.
-although when my Grandfather came here in 1923 it looked more like this: (actually I think my Grandfather could see in color…)
They have a computer database there of who came in when and off which ship. Sure enough:
It's so hard to imagine my grandfather as a 19 year old. It seems to me he was born at about 53! (By the way: his hometown is really called "Wiesloch", and I've been there twice too!)
-but the goal of the day was still within sight:
So with the sun in my eyes and that late December wind in my face:
Time to go home:
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 27, 2016, 10:21 PM:
Brilliant Steve
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 28, 2016, 05:25 AM:
Thanks, Graham!
Sound of Music fan my wife is, we also looked up Maria and Georg von Trapp: sure enough, they are there too in 1939.
The children aren't so easy to find since Rogers and Hammerstein (-mostly Hammerstein: Rogers wrote the music!) gave many of them different names in the musical!
Digging into this stuff often raises as many questions as it answers. My Grandfather arrived four years earlier than I've been told and was sponsored by some Aunt I've never heard of before.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on December 28, 2016, 10:36 AM:
Beautiful pictures Steve, - especially of you at the base of the statue and of the NYC skyline. The latter would make a great metal print.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 28, 2016, 11:55 AM:
Thanks Tom,
What's kind of sad is there wasn't a real dedicated camera involved here other than the one that took that historic shot back in olden times. It was all cell phone!
The cityscape was just holding the phone against the window on the ferry to keep out reflected light. It was a patience thing allowing the boat to compose the shot with its own motion.
I will grant you: the statue shot has a certain heroic...leaning into the wind quality to it, but it wasn't heroic, the leaning was real and so was the wind!
It's best captioned "PLEASE just take it so we can go back inside!"!
(Then again: there was my kid laying on that cold granite to get the shot! Maybe HE'S the hero!)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 31, 2016, 08:54 PM:
Happy New Year!
(-live from our den!)
We have New Years Eve down in the den with the fireplace every year.
When we bought this house, this room is what made the sale. The original owners built a new garage on the side of the house, blew through the wall into the original garage and made this very nice den with a fireplace. The first decade of our marriage this was basically headquarters of our house and we relaxed in front of the fire many a cold winter's night.
Years back we redid the living room level and added a fireplace there too: a gas fireplace, with a remote. There is no firewood, no ash to clean, no damper, no chimney...as easy as slipping a disk in a player.
So the original fireplace is cool a lot more often than it once was.
The den became my son's domain for a long time: Thomas the Tank Engine, and later Wii and X-box 360, but with New Years Eve every year for all of us.
-lately I've decided to reclaim this room for the adults. That odd white tube leaning on the right is the Da-Lite screen my wife gave me for Christmas. When I get the brackets it will hang up between the ceiling beams and pull down in front of the fireplace. I'll also keep "Theater One" upstairs, but at least now it won't be a strict choice of "watching movies" OR "watching TV", now both can coexist.
-but for tonight we will once again gather by the hearth and ring in our 25th New Year in this house!
Peace and Blessings to all!
[ December 31, 2016, 10:47 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on December 31, 2016, 11:53 PM:
"The Den" looks fantastic Steve to have as a warm cosy retreat for cinema nights. I hope you get your newly acquired Da-Lite screen in position very very soon!
Happy New year to you and yours Steve, and indeed everyone who frequents the forum.
Here's hoping very much, for a better, less stressful and tortuous 2017, than 2016 offered many of us at times.
Peace and Goodwill to all throughout.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on January 25, 2017, 12:48 PM:
From last week actually. Just got around to the developing the film last night. The night before I took these there was freezing rain and then the next day it got to a number of degrees above freezing.
The freezing rain caused the snow on the awnings to become locked into shape. The thaw the following day caused it to start sliding off the metal awnings.
The 35mm SLR I took these with was purchased for $15 and the film had expired in 2010. Not bad for an old camera and old film. My intention was to get pictures of something else but I walked by this store on the way and thought the snow looked kind of cool.
[ January 25, 2017, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: Tom Spielman ]
Posted by Chip Gelmini (Member # 44) on January 25, 2017, 02:47 PM:
Food for thought.
February 17th, Sports Illustrated will release the new swimsuit magazine.
Now THOSE pictures are worth the look!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on January 25, 2017, 03:01 PM:
We'll see if Janice agrees with you there Chip. Somehow,.. I doubt it though.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 25, 2017, 03:58 PM:
LOL Andrew...Sports Illustrated is always a good read, but you are right... the swim suit issue is not on my "must have" list.
I actually have more pressing "issues" (pun intended) .... like my fence which is now leaning like the Tower of Pisa from our recent wind storms. This is just an example of the many things that always seem to need fixing. Just this week I fixed a slow flowing water dispenser in my refrigerator and a garbage disposal that turned but wouldn't grind things up anymore. Rather than a magazine...I'd be more impressed with a good handyman...swim suit is optional
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on January 25, 2017, 04:24 PM:
Sorry Janice, I'm old skool when it comes to women being portrayed as men's play things!
Rightly or wrongly, I try to respect all human beings.
Until I hear what they have to say at least!
Your fence Janice,well that's men's work! Ha ha.
Now who's the hypocrite? 😂😂
I guess you've probably gathered, I doubt me and Donald for once, will ever see eye to eye!!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on January 25, 2017, 04:43 PM:
Sorry. Swimsuit models are a rare sight in downtown Minneapolis in January. You'll have to be content with odd snow formations.
I do have a picture of me in a wetsuit standing on a snowy bridge not far from the market pictured above but that's a long story.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on January 25, 2017, 04:45 PM:
Let's leave it there shall we Tom!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on January 25, 2017, 04:59 PM:
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 10, 2017, 03:05 PM:
We had a blizzard yesterday…
Two days ago if you looked out the window, you would have seen a bare brown lawn, maybe a shred of our deceased Christmas display, but no snow! This changed in kind of a hurry Thursday morning. A Pennsylvania-sized white blob was headed east on the weather map and it hit us long and hard: more than a foot in 8 hours!
This was my chance to wheel out one of my less-beloved toys: our snow blower. This came to us because our old electric one was growing frail and I decided it was time to take it out behind the barn and put it out of its (well…MY ) misery.
-interesting contraption: We don’t have a lot to clear, so I got a fairly small gasoline powered one. It is more than capable! In the old days I used to spend a couple of hours clearing the driveway maybe seven feet wide, line the cars up and fall into a snow drift getting out. With this snarling beast we are more than two cars wide in maybe an hour. When the wind blows a shower of snow back at you, you still want to go to Hawaii until April, but at least you are done quicker and better!
One lesson learned is you have to let it cool before you bring it into the garage: if it’s still hot it stinks the whole house up!
My son and I are home. My wife works at a hospital and they don’t have snow days. She suggested when I went out to do a little cleanup I bring the 14 year old with me and try putting him at the helm!
He said it was “fun”! (Here we differ: My own Dad used to ask "D'you want to cut the lawn?". I replied: "No...".)
This is great! Maybe in a winter or two I can stand in the window and complain “That’s not the way we did it in MY day!” (-With my hot cup of coffee and dry clothing!)
-Next Summer: The Lawn Mower!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on February 10, 2017, 03:37 PM:
Steve, I love your son's spirit and his enthusiasm to pitch in and help. I don't have snow, but for years I cut my own lawn with no help from my two sons. One day my younger son made the effort to go out and cut the front lawn. My neighbor saw this and ran out with a camera to take a snap shot. She said she wanted to document the occasion She was right to do so since this was a first and last. I eventually hired a gardener.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 10, 2017, 03:47 PM:
Thats quite a contrast to what I was reading about the 46C they are getting Sydney. ...rather have the snow
Janice I had the same problem with my two ![[Mad]](mad.gif)
...hopeless. Although when they were young and I needed the veggie garden dug up, I did tell them there was a hidden treasure buried there. Away they went with shovels and after a while they complained they could not find it, so I said dig over there and away they went again ...in the end I got it all dug up, but I dont think they ever forgave me as....they never did find that treasure
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on February 10, 2017, 05:27 PM:
I'm a bit jealous since we will lose whatever pittance of snow we have in the next few days. It's supposed to be above freezing for the next 10 days at least so the rest of my broomball season is likely to be canceled as well.
Then, as likely as not, the snow will return in late March or April when I'd just as soon be done with it.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 10, 2017, 07:31 PM:
-Gotta have SOME fun!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 14, 2017, 08:41 AM:
Lower Lake Today
Well,
Some sentimental soul out here in Suffolk County has a boat.
-hopefully some warm clothes too!
(The things we do for love!)
Happy Valentine's Day!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 14, 2017, 09:04 AM:
" Like walking in the rain and the snow, when there's no place to go, and you're feelin like a part of you is dying and your lookin for the answer in her eyes..."
" You think your gonna break up, then she says she wants to make up.."
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on February 14, 2017, 09:48 AM:
Scary Andrew. That's the first song that popped into my head when I read Steve's post.
Steve: I'm a little confused. Was this someone spreading joy on the holiday or were they just pining for their boat?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 14, 2017, 09:56 AM:
Not as scary as you think: It's what I was thinking when I wrote it!
-Like paddling out into four feet of freezing water to put a heart on a raft!
My own standard this time of the year is no water more than a foot deep. Hypothermia will kill you...literally!
Whoever it is put a small Christmas tree out there in December. It's one of those random acts of kindness and senseless beauty we keep hearing about.
(Nice!)
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 14, 2017, 10:18 AM:
Maybe not so scary as you may think Tom given that Steve posted the words "The things We Do For Love!"
Now then, back to film talk...
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 14, 2017, 10:35 AM:
I don't feel like talking about film today!
-HERETIC!!!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 14, 2017, 10:40 AM:
Oh dear Steve.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 14, 2017, 10:44 AM:
It's big world out there, Andrew.
-pays to roll up the screen and experience it now and then!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 14, 2017, 10:50 AM:
Ha ha ha ha LMFAO Steve!
I've just done enough International jet setting for one month thanks very much Steve.
I'm just off to Facebook to show someone how not to modify an Agfa LS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TctayGNzbTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ4lvUJ39fE
Trainspotting 2, here we come!
[ February 14, 2017, 07:21 PM: Message edited by: Andrew Woodcock ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 14, 2017, 11:02 PM:
Well this is not my photo but does sum things up that is going on here at the moment. The fires have been going on for days now and this afternoon school run took me near "but not to close" where all this is happening.
To top it off and around the same time I was picking the kids up at school, there was a short but major power cut through out the city and that made driving interesting to say the least. Sadly one of the helicopter pilots involved in fighting the fires was killed yesterday. I have never seen anything like it. The people fighting this fire really have a tough job on there hands trying to control it.
This evening
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 15, 2017, 04:41 AM:
That is most saddening to read of Graham, nobody should lose their lives trying to make a living.
I hope the fire can be quelled asap.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 15, 2017, 08:20 AM:
It's easy for we northern hemisphere folk to forget that for better or for worse, it's summer for you there.
We had a drought summer about 20 years ago. We had sustained forest fires for a couple of weeks at a time, all the parks closed down, there were restrictions on watering gardens. Our fire departments were all dispatching crews and trucks out East to try to keep the forest fires out of communities. The air hung heavy and after a while you just felt sick.
I remember one morning I woke up and heard rain outside. It was the first rain in weeks and it was steady all day. By that night the fires were all out. The local farms and vineyards lost the season and there were burned trees for a couple of miles on each side of the road going out East for several years.
I hope that rain is coming for you too, Graham.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 15, 2017, 12:17 PM:
This is a photo someone took last night. I understand they dont have control of the fire and there is little chance of rain in the near future...anyway will see what today brings as it was to dangerous to use helicopters last night.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on February 15, 2017, 12:19 PM:
I worked on the cleanup after a massive California wildfire a few years ago. One thing the was shocking for me was the extent of the damage. Most homes were burned down to the foundation. If you think a fire proof safe or building your home out of cement block and metal will give you any protection think again. Most homes had absolutely nothing to salvage. People I talked to only had time to grab the family and pets and get out. The fire moved incredibly fast and burned extremely hot.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 15, 2017, 12:29 PM:
Bryan?
Was this the one down near San Diego?
I was out there in roughly 2008, a few months after the fire. We drove through areas and saw a house completely intact, and an empty foundation right next door. There were entire neighborhoods like this: mostly there, just missing some of the houses.
It looked more like you'd expect from a tornado than a fire.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on February 15, 2017, 04:22 PM:
Steve, it was the Butte fire in Calaveras County in 2015. Calaveras County is in the Sierra foothills near Jackson.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 15, 2017, 04:28 PM:
Bryan
You are quite right about the speed and heat from those fires, They can look quite deceiving at times, just some smoke with not a lot happening then "woof" up she goes and its away big time, deadly stuff.
Sad photo in this morning paper of a chap watching his house burn to the ground. One minute its seems ok the next its engulf in flames....gone.
Here are a few more photos.
This gives an idea the intense heat thats created taken from this morning paper.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on February 15, 2017, 05:37 PM:
Graham, that first photo with the aluminum puddle was a familiar site at the Butte fire. It just shows how hot it was. I'm sure wind is a factor with the fires you're experiencing, that's what drives most of the California fires. I talked to one person that saw the fire from his home a few valleys away (several miles). He went into his garage to work on something, when he came out 30 minutes later it was coming up the hill to his house. He worked on exotic cars, lost a Ferrari a Rolls Royce (Wood Frame) and a few other nice cars.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 17, 2017, 12:51 AM:
Such a shame he lost those cars Bryan. Sadly the above photo also is about a keen car collector who lost the lot I think he had around ten classic cars none of which were insured.
This last photo is remarkable, in the sense that while fires had raged all around this house, it was saved by the efforts of the fire fighters.
Today its been raining what a relief for those dealing with it.
Thinking back to the old greek tub "SS Australis" that I sailed in around the world back the 1970s. I always remember the greek crew doing fire drill and being told that the greatest risk to this ship at sea was "fire"...they took those drills very serious indeed.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 17, 2017, 05:50 AM:
I've always wanted to have a nice rustic house out in the woods, maybe on a lake shore (-front porch, big stone fireplace...). Then I remember that fire is part of life in forests.
-maybe it's better just to rent one for a week every few summers.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 17, 2017, 12:58 PM:
How true Steve..
Came across this photo this morning as a thank you to the helicopter pilots from the pupils of Halswell School
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 20, 2017, 06:40 PM:
Captree Boat Basin
We have a great tradition in my family. Every winter since was a little kid, when the weather first becomes a little less than Arctic, we go down to the boat basin at Captree State Park.
This is where our local fishing fleet docks. These aren’t commercial trawlers headed out into the Atlantic after tuna, but party boats taking paying customers out into the shallows after fluke and flounder.
Now, let’s ponder sport fishing: consider for example going out for Marlin. There you sit strapped into a chair bolted to the deck. The rod is held in a harness strapped around your waist because the action would be too heavy for you to hold it in your hands. There you take your stand: locked in mortal combat with this spectacular beast. Hundreds of pounds of muscle threatening to break your line, you can’t ever reel it in all at once: the reel screams as you let the line run out, and someone has to pour water over it or it will overheat.
If after hours and hours of this your own endurance holds out, you are rewarded with a spectacular trophy and great stories of a day you will remember the rest of your life.
Flounder Fishing IS…not in the least like this!
Very typically you spend the day standing at the rail with maybe fifty others on the same boat. You use this stubby little rod which for some reason Dad never explained you hold with the reel on top. You put two hooks on a spreader with sinkers and chopped up worms of some unknown species on the hooks.
There you stand by the hour: bouncing this odd assembly off the bottom, maybe eight feet under the keel.
If you are really lucky, you may catch this:
-now I’m asking you: if you saw something like this wash up on your beach, wouldn’t you suspect some kind of toxic spill in the area? –but no: that’s what they’re SUPPOSED to look like!
Don’t get me wrong: heading out for Flounder is a great local tradition and generations of us have done it. My grandfather in particular did it all the time. To me it’s just one of those things made much better by beer!
Our tradition is a little different. My Dad was always of the opinion that there was nothing that ailed you a little salt air and clam chowder couldn’t cure. So every year just around now, when the snow is just starting to melt we head down to Captree, walk along the docks and then stop in at the café for lunch.
-it turns out even if all you are doing is getting a little fresh air and a change of scenery, Dad was right!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 23, 2017, 10:01 PM:
Brilliant photos Steve, fish done in beer batter is nice, have you tried it?
Sadly this photo appeared yesterday in the paper of the death of the Kingston train driver that was featured in the 1975 film "A Train for Christmas". He had quite a battle on his hands trying the get the present owner to sell at over the years, at a lower price in a attempt to save it from the elements, as its now at the stage where it may no longer be viable. Although there has always been a certain amount of interest in someone buying it, the asking price was always to high. Its a shame that the Kingston Flier has come to this, its future is very uncertain.
Driver Russell Glendirining...
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 23, 2017, 10:20 PM:
That's sad about Russ Glendinning, Graham. Sometimes it takes a champion to make the difference between a lost cause and a surprise success, and right now it seems the Flyer needs a champion.
Somewhere on the 'net there is an interview with him (I found it just once and never again!) about his experiences running the train while they were filming "A Train for Christmas."
Ever the trainman, he said "We would have been on time that day if it wasn't for the #$%@in' film crew!".
-and the beer battered fish is nice, too!
I remember those days of going out for flounder with Dad and my uncle from down on the South Shore. It was barely 6AM and the sun hung low over Ocean Parkway all the way out to Captree. We'd spend our day with those poles..."up, down, up, down..." Every so often somebody would pull up a crab or a sea robin. Sometimes it would actually be a flounder...looking it's usual deformed self. Later on we got back to the house and Dad would fillet them for dinner. Being about twelve I thought cleaning the fish was disgusting, but the knife was kind of cool!
One time somebody succeeded in hoisting up a sand shark and it chased everybody on deck around the boat a couple of times before a mate heaved it over the rail.
-buy a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish...
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on February 26, 2017, 06:24 PM:
Carnaval in Belgium.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 02, 2017, 01:53 AM:
Yikes Dominique does that not scare the kids?
Has anyone ever seen the 1996 film "The Phantom" I haven't, at the moment I am giving it lots and lots of fresh air after this print has been stored on rusty reels in a tin can all these years, which have gone to the scrap. Apart from being warped like Brainstorm was, its in excellent condition no visible scratches etc, so for the time being as its summer the reels are getting a bit of fresh air in the hope the musty smell will go.
I am pretty sure the Ernemann will hold focus, even though its a bit warped as Brainstorm was which was in much worse condition, and ran through the Ernie fine....
Lastly I am bringing back to like..hopefully.. an old and rather negleted Elmo ST180 I was given..it does run fine and everthing works just never been cleaned...EVER
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 06, 2017, 11:32 AM:
What's going on?!!!
-I just cleaned the gate and there's another HAIR in it!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 06, 2017, 03:44 PM:
Steve, a can of compressed air will clear cat hair from the film gate AND the cat from the table, all in one shot!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 06, 2017, 07:40 PM:
Ah!
-but we're talking about a very large, fairly dopey(1) cat!
He'd either stand there with his ears blowing straight back or run for it and knock at least one machine off the table!
Notes:
(1)Ref: this thread, October 26th, 2016
(It has a footnote, so it must be true!)
Actually he's a good soul, kind of like you used genetic engineering to stuff a golden retriever inside a cat skin!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on March 06, 2017, 10:05 PM:
I'm sure Steve's cat deserve's kinder treatment Paul, but I must confess, I like the way you think.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 10, 2017, 12:23 PM:
Well...Daylight Savings Time begins in two days, but Winter doesn't seem quite ready to give up just yet!
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on March 10, 2017, 02:03 PM:
Now wait a minute...I just saw some nice B&W pictures from Evan....and now they're gone....what happened?
Was I just seeing things?
Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on March 10, 2017, 02:10 PM:
Bill,
Small tech issue.....those great pics will be right back. And yes, you were seeing things.
Doug
Posted by Evan Samaras (Member # 5070) on March 10, 2017, 02:16 PM:
And they're back!
My Recent Excursion! 1 out of 2 rolls developed so far (in my bathroom)
...Perhaps some more in the coming week!
(Shot on Kodak TMY-400 through Rolleiflex 2.8F)
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on March 10, 2017, 02:43 PM:
There we go....that was very strange...I started to question if I actually saw those pics or not! I'm glad they are real!!!
I really like the last picture of the projector....nice composition and use of background, and of course subject too!
[ March 10, 2017, 03:47 PM: Message edited by: Bill Phelps ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 10, 2017, 03:28 PM:
-at least it stopped!
This will make the drive home much less...exciting!
Still...not one of your red-letter days for solar power!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on March 10, 2017, 04:24 PM:
Those are beautiful Evan. Have you tried Caffenol as a developer yet? I've been really tempted.
Steve, those are beautiful pictures too. At this time of year I love the look of snow covered landscapes... somewhere other than where I live.
We were supposed to get a foot of snow a couple of weeks ago but it went just South, - right on top of a ski area that my friend works at about 45 minutes away. They were ecstatic. That snow has managed to hang on through some warm weather. Now it's cold again for at least a few days. May get my last runs in for the season on Sunday. They don't expect to be open much longer than that.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 10, 2017, 10:53 PM:
What's sad about it is my job tends to award snow days pretty easily. You can't half blame them: they have a 2500 acre campus with many miles of roads and sidewalks and acres of parking lots to clear, plus there is at least a mile of woods on all sides before you find civilization as we know it. It would be a nightmare if we were all there and got stranded by a blizzard! ("OK, the candy machine in building 743 is still full. We're out of change now, but If you can find a fire axe...")
So we sit there on a Thursday night when a big storm is headed our way:
"-C'monnnn three day day weekend!"
-like we're in the fourth grade!
Yet that call never came!
(-Shame! I was gonna build a snowman!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 10, 2017, 11:02 PM:
Brilliant photos Steve and Evan
Evan those b/w prints look stunning
Posted by Evan Samaras (Member # 5070) on March 11, 2017, 08:23 PM:
Thank you Bill, Tom & Graham!
Tom, as a matter of fact, I have! I found the results amazing! I should mix up a batch again soon! Here are some examples from shots through My RZ67
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on March 11, 2017, 08:37 PM:
Evan your photos are gorgeous! Great work!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 11, 2017, 11:09 PM:
How can Evan and Steve's pictures look so incredible when reduced to the dismal 550 pixel width required for posting here?
And, Evan's amazing black and white pics show us exactly why so many of the greatest films were shot in B&W. Unfortunately most of today's generation has no interest in watching them.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 11, 2017, 11:31 PM:
Paul,
Thanks, but what makes it worse is mine were shot with a cell phone.
-at least Evan has the basic decency to use a real camera!
We live in strange times. Please consider these sentences:
"Where's my phone? I need to take a picture."
This is utter nonsense! Telephones are large plastic objects wired into the wall that you use to order pizza! You do NOT take pictures with them!
Seriously though: the 550 pixel width can be worked around. I try to format my pictures vertically as much as possible. A 'scope formatted picture would be deadly here, but you can go tall!
I was messing around with my Minolta XL-401 the other day. Maybe it's time to get back to a real camera and reserve the phone for pizza, at least for a while.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 12, 2017, 02:25 PM:
Steve, how is your cat enjoying the cold snowy weather up there? My bet is that it is curled up as close to that ST1200 that it can get, and hoping you will warm it up by running a feature length film!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 12, 2017, 07:57 PM:
To them a blizzard is just something different to look at out the window! They have the luxury of not only being covered in fur, but never having to go outside!
If you can look past being neutered and not living past your teens, it's not a bad lot in life!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on March 12, 2017, 08:22 PM:
I might be put off a bit by the head gear.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 12, 2017, 08:43 PM:
These things need to be put in some kind of perspective!
-as a house cat he might get bread shoved over his face or be adorned with clip on reindeer antlers every December.
-then again as a husband I sometimes get stuffed into a suit and dragged to some stranger's wedding reception. (-NOT my happy place!)
Each in our own way, we earn our keep!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on March 12, 2017, 08:54 PM:
I suppose we all have our crosses to bear.
I did learn something new about the forum tonight. When I tried to download that photo in the traditional way (in order to repost it here), I instead got an entirely different image that questioned my motives and called me a name.
Posted by Evan Samaras (Member # 5070) on March 15, 2017, 05:07 PM:
Thank you Janice!
Paul, most of my pictures are loaded to my flickr account. Flickr will allow you to download a file at the 500 mark- and they maintain a nice size/quality.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on March 15, 2017, 05:20 PM:
I just got back from working on the cleanup at the Standing Rock protest camps in North Dakota. This is a shot of one of the many sweat lodges that were used there. This one was at the Sacred Stone camp. I shot it with a 1935 Leica IIIa with a Leitz Elmar 5cm f/3.5 lens. The film is Ilford Delta 100 developed in Caffenol C-H (rs)
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on March 15, 2017, 05:40 PM:
Beautiful Bryan.
Makes me really excited to try Caffenol. I have some B&W film ready to develop but fear is holding me back. I have some traditional developer mixed but it's been sitting for a few months already so if I don't use it soon, I may not have any choice.
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on March 15, 2017, 05:48 PM:
Tom, once you try Caffenol you may never go back, nothing to be afraid of, just follow the directions. You could also try my Beerenol recipe:
Beer (cheap Lager, I have used Rainier, Bud, Pabst and Fosters) - 12oz
Sodium Carbonate (Arm & Hammer Washing Soda) - 2.75 Tsp
Ascorbic Acid Powder (Vitamin C) - 1.25 Tsp
Salt (Morton's Iodized Table Salt) - 1/4 Tsp
Developed at 20 degrees C for 20 minutes. Agitate first 30 seconds then 15 seconds every minute. Due to the very thin nature of this film I only fixed for about 20 seconds. Double the recipe for 120 film.
Warning - Add the Ascorbic Acid after the Sodium Carbonate to avoid a foam explosion.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on March 16, 2017, 01:21 PM:
It's looking like the Winter storms are behind us in Sunnyvale. On one side of my yard is a blossoming peach tree...
AND... on the other side I'm getting a new fence built after the old one blew down in January.
...and no...I'm not building the fence myself
Finished Fence
[ March 16, 2017, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on March 17, 2017, 02:01 PM:
All looks very nice Janice, though you no longer have easy access to your neighbor's pool.
Not much blossoming here. March is truly the ugliest month of the year in this part of the world. Everything is brown until April. The occasional snowstorm might cover things up briefly but it's usually gone before long.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 18, 2017, 02:45 PM:
Well Janice, it looks like you are in good company once again!!!
The windstorm we had last week left me with a similar job as what you have.
Unfortunately, it is still early here...3 days after this picture we had a big blizzard, so i am not doing much anytime soon it seems
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on March 18, 2017, 05:03 PM:
Oh my Matthew...that fence has seen better days. Yes...don't do anything until the weather improves. My fence fell down in January while I was on a trip to SoCal. What a nice welcome home to see the fence leaning like it's taking a nap.
Hopefully it won't be too long before you can do the repairs.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 18, 2017, 10:22 PM:
Great Job on the fence Janice! It looks great.
Too bad they can't come to Hamilton and do mine Nice job!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on March 19, 2017, 08:50 AM:
A (small) film fair was held today in Belgium.
Forum members Nick Vermeirsch and Bruno Heughebaert.
Forum member Jean-Christopbe De Block promoting the next film fair (in September) as he will be one of the two new organisators.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 19, 2017, 10:20 PM:
What the???...
This isn't some spectacular second system sound setup I whipped up in the shop. It isn't some exotic Panasonic/Elmo Hybrid Universal Projection System either.
-No, this is diplomacy in three dimensions.
I have kind of a reputation among other film collectors, especially the married ones, for staying set up most of the time on the dining room table. At CineSea I sometimes get knowing nods of respect, someone once said "I know you, you're that guy..."! Truth be told, it's not really a testament to my Lordship of the Household (if any actually exists in the first place...) but more to the basic kindness of my wife in supporting this whole thing. (She wants me to be happy!)
She also bought me a VP for Christmas, and that actually sits on a low table closer to the screen, but the player has to sit on the table to connect the audio into my mixer. (It was the longest RCA stereo cable I had...)
I do have a conscience! I felt kind of bad claiming a couple more square feet of table, so at least until I can get the cabling right for the player to live up with the VP, we are going vertical! (The added Elmo-altitude was easily corrected for.)
Tonight we watched "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Ricardo Montalban" from DVD with a supporting program of Super-8 shorts.
(Somehow Spock's death doesn't have the same poignancy when you know they gave themselves an escape clause!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 20, 2017, 01:20 AM:
This one is for all those train enthusiasts who are to busy using there cell phones, instead of getting out of the road....quickly
https://youtu.be/V-Cb9x70gYQ
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on March 20, 2017, 12:53 PM:
I recently returned from working on the cleanup of the Standing Rock protest camps in North Dakota. Most of the camps were in a flood plain and had to be cleaned before the spring thaw made a mess of things. I brought two cameras, an Olympus OM-2n which I used for color film and a Leica IIIa that I used for Black and White film. The color film was sent to a lab for processing and the Black and White film was developed in Caffenol C-H (rs).
I focused most of my photos on the tribal cultural stuff. This is a sweat lodge at the Sacred Stone camp. Shot on Ilford Delta 100.
This sculpture is called "Not Afraid to Look". It was built by an artist during the protest. It is looking directly at the site where the pipeline is being tunneled under the Missouri river.
Prayer ties and ribbon on a tree along the Cannonball River. A prayer ties is a cloth pouch of tobacco tied with string. There are usually several strung together, each color represents a different type of prayer. Tobacco is considered a powerful medicine by Native American tribes. The Souix traditionally used a tobacco called kinnikinnick which consisted of tree bark and shrub leaves.
This was the last Tipi standing at the Oceti Sakowin camp before the tribe carefully took it down and saved the canvas and poles.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 03, 2017, 05:58 PM:
I wanted to see what happened with the Widescreen Centre (a famous shop in London, they were more specialized these last years in pictures and astronomy but were still selling double 8 stock in the center of the British capital) building as they moved last year.
Sad to see this place now empty.
They still handle film and it seems that you can get a reversal print from a negative one from them https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/film-department/negative-positive-printing
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 11, 2017, 10:21 AM:
Power Corrupts!
It seems we are at peak capacity this week:
- ELMO ST-1200HD
- ELMO ST-800
- Bolex SP-80 Special (dedicated for 'Scope)
- Xenyx four channel audio mixer (line to my Amp is lower right)
- Panasonic video player
- Epson video projector
Here's hoping nothing breaks! If I have to solder something, choices will need to be made!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 12, 2017, 06:05 PM:
Different than the models we use, Steve. That's one of the interest of this section.
When I was in London at the beginning of this month, I pictured Big Ben in lego (altough it is European, I assume that this construction plastic bricks are well known in the US as well). I'm not sure if it was a shop or a kind of museum as there was a queue to go Inside. The windows were anyway not easily reached so I could only take one picture.
In Paris, however, it is clearly a shop and you can easily go close the constructions.
L'arc de triomphe.
Notre-Dame de Paris
The screen allows you to take yourself in picture and see how you would look in lego.
A bakkery.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 12, 2017, 06:22 PM:
Being the Dad of a 14 year old boy, I know all about Lego!
One thing I can tell you for absolutely certain is they hurt like crazy when you step on them with bare feet!
-seriously: Lego sells their own brand of slippers, and in adult sizes too! This way they make money causing a problem and then solving it too!
(I'm not kidding!)
We took Steven to Germany when he was nine years old. It turns out there is this entire Lego amusement park west of Munich. We hid the brochure because we didn't want to spend the time there when the Hofbrau Haus was calling us! (He found it later and was kind of cheesed about it too!).
The kid was as good as gold though about two weeks of nature preserves, medieval churches, wineries and bier halls. By the time we got up to Berlin, we decided he deserved a day for himself and we went to this smaller Lego thing they had going on there.
One thing I learned (other than the slippers) is in Germany, it's pronounced "Leego" as in "league", but here it's pronounced "Leggo" as in "Leg".
-still hurts to step on one!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 12, 2017, 06:47 PM:
Waw, Lego sleepers !
Lego is pronounced in French like if the e was a é (like a Spanish e)
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on April 18, 2017, 10:53 AM:
No picture because I was too wimpy to take one, plus it was raining and I was late. If I had taken a picture what you'd see is some city maintenance workers dismantling a homeless camp that had sprung up along the route I use to bike to work.
Back in February it was a single tent. A couple more tents and a lot of odds and ends had collected around there by the time I did take a B&W photo (still undeveloped) last week.
Yesterday I noticed that it had expanded to maybe 5 tents and a whole lot of junk. I'm not sure if they were hoping to sell it for scrap or what. And of course garbage service is not part of the living arrangements in that situation so some of it was just plain trash which was blowing around to various other areas nearby.
I have very mixed feelings about the camp being taken down and I'm not sure why it was tolerated for a few months and then suddenly not.
The situation here is that there is no permanent housing available to them. They might be able to spend a night or two indoors at a shelter but then they need to move on to someplace else. Honestly many of them prefer to be outdoors and able to have "a place" to call their own even if it's just a spot under a bridge.
When I've shot all the film and developed it, I will post the picture. I think so many people who vote or make policy do not realize that there as many of these people as there are. We assume that most everyone at minimum is getting taken care of with food and shelter and cringe at the idea of spending more of our tax dollars on social programs.
I used to work for a non-profit research organization that did a homeless survey every few years. Believe it or not, there are some who choose that lifestyle. They'd rather not have a steady job and are content with living like that. But most of them have various problems that prevent them from getting a job that pays a living wage. Others have had bad luck, made bad choices, or both.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 18, 2017, 09:05 PM:
Nice winter day today..school holidays with grandson... enjoying getting about.
Tried out the Panorama setting on Yvonne little digital camera..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 24, 2017, 08:41 AM:
Traditions!
I've had occasions recently to visit a lot of my old places, just to touch the long past. I walked past my elementary school and my Junior High. I drove past my high school.
Thing is too, I actually go to my undergrad school every week anyway since I'm taking a course this year, so I changed my schedule and got there an hour early and took a walk. First thing I noticed is the people there are a lot younger than when I went there. They must have some special program for high school kids because I don't remember the students there looking that young! (They on the other hand probably wondered whose Dad I was!)
They are tearing down the old Student Union. Dump that it always was, it's about time.
There was something I had to see. If you go to the main Engineering building, up the back steps and down the main hallway, you'll need to look at the doors on your right. There was this tiny bit of vandalism that was there the entire time I was getting my degree. It kind of spoke something to people who were pulling nineteen credits of math and engineering theory created by people who were obviously out of their minds to think of these things. It was a beacon of sympathy for somebody who was still a teenager, but never had a date, or a beer or a day to call their own.
-and I walked up to the door, and thirty years later...there it is!
Ahhhhhh, Tradition!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on April 24, 2017, 09:19 AM:
Love it !
I wonder if that F has needed some restoration over the years.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 24, 2017, 11:23 AM:
Well, it is a State University...
After all this time it's probably been designated Culturally Significant...maybe has a little subsidy for preservation!
If the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences really wanted to put a stop to it, all they'd have to do is get a new sign: "Maintenance Closet" (-or something like that).
-but the people that run the building probably have their own futility!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 26, 2017, 11:20 AM:
Some views of Barcelona (Spain)
Arc de triomf
Sagrada familia
This design should remind you Something :-) (yes, I'm crazy enough to picture an empty bottle in the street)
Architecture is a main attraction in Barcelone, not always easy to photograph : lack of room, trees, cars, crowd...
Typical colours.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on April 26, 2017, 04:58 PM:
During the Calella (see the 9.5 section) meeting, there has been a visit organized in a film preservation and restauration centre. Needeless to say, it was very interesting.
The films are stored in cold rooms.
The colour of the box has a meaning : red is for nitrate films. A high safety level is in use for these films to prevent any fire.
Mr Otte, a German ninefivers known for reperforing films to this gauge, shows a sample of nine five to one of the young guide.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on April 27, 2017, 11:21 PM:
Fabulous photographs of Spain/Barcelone in spite of the challenges Dominique.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on April 28, 2017, 12:30 AM:
Very interesting Dominique. Thank you for the pics.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on May 02, 2017, 10:14 AM:
Last night was my first attempt at developing B&W photos using "Caffenol-C" which is a combination of instant coffee, washing soda, and vitamin-C powder. There was some conflicting information about how many minutes to develop using my type of film. I went with the longer recommendation which was probably a mistake. A little too contrasty, but overall I'm happy with how they turned out.
The 2nd picture from the bottom was a homeless camp that had sprung up this winter along my bike route into work. There were 3 tents at the time of this picture. 5 tents a few days later, and then the city came and cleared them out.
The last picture was something I noticed not far from my office building. There were two sets of these little doors glued to random spots along the sidewalk.
"Caffenol" was developed at the Rochester Institute of Technology if I'm not mistaken. Variations of it have been used for home processing of B&W Super 8 reversal film.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on May 02, 2017, 11:21 AM:
Wow Tom! Love the photos and your developing process. I haven't developed film since I was in college. Caffenol...What a strange combination. Who would have thought. Pictures are terrific...I like high contrast
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on May 02, 2017, 11:58 AM:
Incredible, Tom !
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 02, 2017, 02:02 PM:
Brilliant photos everyone
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on May 02, 2017, 02:32 PM:
Thanks. A couple of decades ago, Caffenol was created by people who wanted to find a way to use everyday household chemicals to develop film. They succeeded!
Ironically, that stuff isn't so common in households anymore but luckily for me I was able to find it all in a larger grocery store that I went to on Sunday. Since I can still get Kodak's HC-110 shipped to me and it has a long shelf life, I'm not sure Caffenol is what I'll be using long term or not. One advantage that it does have is that since it's available from the grocery store, I can hide it in our grocery budget rather than using my hobby money.
Hopefully the family accountant will not catch on.
And I should thank Evan too since he's posted some very fine B&W photos here and encouraged me to try Caffenol.
[ May 03, 2017, 10:45 AM: Message edited by: Tom Spielman ]
Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on May 03, 2017, 03:58 PM:
Tom, congratulations on an excellent photographic outcome. And I don't think they're too contrasty at all! What film did you use?
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on May 03, 2017, 04:15 PM:
It was T-MAX 100. The negatives were definitely more dense than I what I typically get which is why I wondered if I left them in the developer too long. The first scan of the seal showed more black than there really should have been.
I re-scanned after fiddling with the histogram and that helped. In the end I was happy with how the pictures turned out, but I might make some adjustments next time around.
There are lots of examples of very nice photographs developed in Caffenol but part of me didn't really believe it would work for me as well as it did. So while they're not perfect I am pleased. Not sure Caffenol would be my choice for anything that I intended to print and mount on a wall, but for the annual picture book I give my wife, - yeah.
[ May 07, 2017, 02:16 PM: Message edited by: Tom Spielman ]
Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 06, 2017, 03:09 PM:
Today i decided to have a dam good spring clean of my film den. What a job it turned out to be. I moved everything from one side to the other, i needed to take all my films out of there wooden library case, (My Brother has the other two thirds of the collection thank God), in order to inspect every reel to make sure there is no problems such as mould or anything. Fortunately on this front everything was fine. A couple of boxes will need replacing. Then all the shelf's of the film memorabilia were cleaned polished up and all the goods cleaned and re-organised.
What a lazy but fun day, well,for me anyway & with me magic Fezz on everything went jolly well
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on May 06, 2017, 04:57 PM:
Spoon jar, jar spoon! 😂😂😂
Wonderful collection of Super 8mm films Tom!
Those two photos above are like a scene from Mary Poppins..
"And Snap, The jobs a Game!"
Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 06, 2017, 05:17 PM:
Dear old Tommy Cooper, i want to get our collection together as one now and get a really good picture of our lifetime collection.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on May 06, 2017, 05:27 PM:
And so you should Tom!
You should feel very proud by what you've amassed on the Super 8mm gauge. Simply Magnificent Tom!😊
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 06, 2017, 09:06 PM:
Excellent Tom...Oh! I like the Tommy Cooper hat
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on May 06, 2017, 09:10 PM:
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 12, 2017, 08:34 PM:
We decided to celebrate it being Friday by stopping in for a slice of Pizza.
I saw this intriguing car and I just had to stop and snap a photo!
Can you tell which is mine?
(It's the brown Civic coupe! -No: the other one!)
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on May 12, 2017, 11:18 PM:
Is it the one on the left?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 13, 2017, 04:38 AM:
Your left or mine?
What concerned me is the reaction of the other guy if he saw me driving my car:
The poor guy might think I'd stolen HIS!
Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on May 13, 2017, 05:02 AM:
Makes me remember a story my Dad told me when I was a kid back in the 1970's.
He owned a Blue Chrysler and parked up at the local shops, did the shopping and returned to the car...opened the boot with his key, put the shopping in...opened the driver's door...started it up...then though, "Hang on, the seat is in the wrong position!"
Then noticed the fluffy dice on the rear view mirror.
It wasn't his car! His was parked next to it!
And there he was...motor running, ready to drive off!
True story!
Posted by Greg Perry (Member # 5177) on May 13, 2017, 07:41 AM:
Tom,
The pictures of just part of your collection are awesome. I never tire of seeing other's collections or pics of the home cinemas..
I had to look up who "Tommy Cooper" was...I would guess many folks in the U.S. wouldn't be familiar with him--but really should be given how talented the guy was...
Here is a sample of his wit (taken from a Telegraph article):
"Two cannibals were eating a clown--one said to the other, "Does he taste funny to you?"
Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 13, 2017, 12:48 PM:
Take a look at his stuff on youtube greg. He was very funny. Claasic british comedy at its best. I love my film room. Its not particuly cinema like but its dark and cool all year round and i can go in there and forget the rest of the world. I just wish i was more practicle with my hands. If i put a hammer in my hand i become a disastor area.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on May 13, 2017, 02:13 PM:
Tommy Cooper only had to walk on the stage and the audience would roar with laughter. He was a true genius of comedy and no comedians today come close. He literally died laughing, on stage, and so was the audience who assumed it was all part of the act.
Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on May 13, 2017, 06:31 PM:
Paul - You are correct in saying that Tommy Cooper died on stage, at Her Majesty's theatre. What you may not know is that the performance was being broadcast live on British television at the time.
Tom - My sentiments entirely. My man-cave looks a bit like yours. No doubt a projector permanently erected at one end and screen at the other. I have visited several home made/built cinema's in my time and, fantastic that they are and, boy, would love one myself... I am just hopeless at DIY, so have to be content with what I already have.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 19, 2017, 06:58 PM:
Well one thing good about being retired is now the time to catch up in a lot of things ..one being last Wednesday a 300km or 186 miles day round trip to visit Pat at his cinema in Geraldine. While I was there Pat ran a short NFU 1970s film on the Kinoton projector X Movieland cinema. Although it does not get anywhere like the 12 to 14 hrs a day use it once did at yee old Movieland, its certainly nice to see it running again.
Watching this short film does show the quality image film can put on the screen....Oh! if Steve is reading this Pat also has the NFU 35mm print for A Train For Christmas...
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on May 19, 2017, 07:00 PM:
Lovely emporium Graham.
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on May 19, 2017, 09:39 PM:
Last night on craigslist I saw that there was going to be a garage sale in the area and that there were lots of cameras and projectors available. They had belonged to a professor who taught photography at a local college.
What caught my eye was not the projectors or 8mm cameras, but two medium format Rolleiflex cameras that they had mistakenly listed with the movie cameras. Hoping I could get a bargain on one of them, I stopped by this morning on my way to work. To my surprise, the professor's son, who was running the sale, turned out to be an acquaintance of mine.
This did not actually work out in my favor. They had not yet priced the cameras and weren't sure what to ask for them. Since I considered him a friend and wanted his mother to get all she could, I felt compelled to tell him that those cameras were worth a lot of money. So I suggested a price that was well above what I was wiling to pay, but felt sure that someone would buy them for.
But I did not come away empty handed. I bought a box of expired film for a few dollars. It's not as good as new film of course but if you over-expose it, you can still get pretty good results.
You may notice that there are two boxes of double-8 kodachrome, - and I still have my father's camera. You can't get kodachrome processed anymore but if you're willing to live with B&W it can be processed at home. It can be processed as a negative or positive but positive is more complex. We'll see how it works.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 27, 2017, 10:10 PM:
Outside our favorite German Deli this afternoon:
I suppose it COULD be Würst...
(After all: that's what WE bought!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 30, 2017, 05:12 PM:
Steve is that VW yours?
Posted by Zechariah Sporre (Member # 2358) on May 30, 2017, 11:32 PM:
We had a nice little storm come through here 2 weeks ago.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on May 30, 2017, 11:45 PM:
Holy Cow!!!! Glad you are all ok. Looks like your roof didn't fare too well though
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on May 31, 2017, 02:14 AM:
My son Darrin is currently in Thailand. He just spent a week taking care of animals at the Elephant Nature Park. During one of our webcam sessions I could see elephants just strolling around on the grass outside his living quarters... it was so cool
Darrin wrote:
quote:
I spent a week volunteering at The Elephant Nature Park which is near Chiang Mai. This incredible organization has rescued over 70 Elephants who have been abused. Many are unaware how mistreated elephants are in Asia being beaten, starved and chained. Separated from their families, they go through a torturous process which breaks their spirit and are forced to work all day in the logging, tourism and entertainment industries. Many of the elephants at the park were taken in after going blind, with broken bones, and mutilated limbs due to this torture.
quote:
My time at the park was truly magical. The place feels like a real life Jurassic Park! Everywhere you look the views are simply spectacular and surreal. Having the opportunity to volunteer by doing some of the dirty work like shoveling elephant poo and tossing fruit or fun work like making rice balls for the elephants and feeding them was such an honor. These gentle giants are such a gift to just simply watch and bask in their triumphant beauty. You look into their eyes and there is just so much love, spirit and joy!
[ May 31, 2017, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 31, 2017, 08:44 AM:
quote:
Steve is that VW yours?
Graham,
A part of me wishes that was true, but unfortunately no!
I actually have kind of an informal Bucket List, and owning a convertible is on it. These are also great cars to restore: they are simple and the parts are out there by the ton used, new and new old stock. They say two good sized guys can swap an engine without needing a hoist!
We have a 20 mile long barrier island off our South Shore, on one end of it is Jones Beach and the other end is the Captree Boat Basin I wrote about here last winter. Ocean Parkway runs all the way from one end to the other. You can see the Atlantic on one side and Great South Bay on the other for most of the ride.
You take that VW convertible and motor along the beach with the top down some nice warm evening between now and October. Maybe you stop and take a walk along the shore for a while and right around sunset stop in at a nice seafood place and have dinner. Barring rain or forgetting to make reservations, it's basically a guaranteed good day!
-So no, it's not mine. I'll just have to admire it and dream...maybe like this guy!
(He really should get a convertible: he already has the shirt!)
Posted by Zechariah Sporre (Member # 2358) on May 31, 2017, 05:36 PM:
Hi Janice, we went to an elephant camp near Chiang Mai with our children, about 3 years ago.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on May 31, 2017, 06:52 PM:
Zack that must of been a great experience for you and your kids. I wasn't even aware of these refuges in Thailand until my son researched places to go on his trip. I think it's a blessing that these wonderful creatures are being rescued and can spend the rest of their lives in a protected environment.
There are also over 500 dogs and 200 cats in the Elephant Nature Park which otherwise would be dead or roaming the streets. All the dogs and cats are up for adoption.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on May 31, 2017, 11:51 PM:
Glad to hear you're all ok Zach.
(After your storm of course)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 01, 2017, 03:09 AM:
Good photos everyone
Zack.. glad everyone was ok.
Steve..Hope you get a chance to own a convertable VW one day. I bet the person looking at it in your photo, was recounting his memories from the 60s era. I remember changing a clutch assembly in a VW at a garage I once worked at in the early 70s in 32 minutes.. on my own. They were very popular out here for heading up to the ski fields in the 70s, with the weight of the engine on your drive wheels they were good cars for that uphill grind on rough tracks.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on June 01, 2017, 04:02 AM:
My first car when I was going to college was a used VW Bug. It wasn't a convertible, but it did have a sunroof. I was living in San Francisco at the time and driving those hills was very challenging with a stick shift. I wonder who decided to put stop signs at the top of the hills.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 01, 2017, 05:03 AM:
I saw subject on the news a few days ago about wild animals in the US. It is legal there to own them as an individual and to keep them at home. That's completely forbidden here so it was interesting to see the good and the bad sides of that.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 01, 2017, 05:59 AM:
Hi Dominique,
Generally speaking it isn't legal to privately own wildlife here. For example, I can't catch a sparrow out in my yard and put it in a cage. However, I can go to a pet shop and buy a zebra finch, which is actually an Australian bird that is bred in captivity for pets.
I actually could keep something like a cougar or a liger (lion/tiger mix), BUT, it's not that simple! First I'd need to be trained and certified as a wildlife rehabilitator, then I'd need to be living in a place where it's legal. I'd also need proper facilities and a lot of spare time and cash.
I think it's fair to say you can't "own" any of these since it's illegal to buy them. Usually it's a case of an animal being injured or orphaned or confiscated because somebody else had them illegally. The rehabilitator can then volunteer to take care of them.
-I really don't see this flying with my wife in any case.
Two house cats are enough, thanks!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 01, 2017, 06:24 AM:
Thanks, Steve for these précisions. they showed in the news subject (I don't find it online ; it was on French television and it seems that there is no replay for news or if there is it's well hidden on the channel's website) they showed an auction where you could buy a giraffe and also people who owned lions. So it looked like it was "easy" to get these animals. It's probably the same as with weappons. Here we have the feeling that in the US you can go to any gun shop, show your id, use your credit card and go in the street with a gun and carry it almost everywhere. I suppose it's not that easy, neither.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 01, 2017, 06:33 AM:
It's a big country with a lot of different jurisdictions. I've heard there is a county in Texas where adults are required to carry a side arm. Here this would require a license plus a carry permit and you'd better have a valid reason like transporting a lot of cash for your job.
-different places, different cultures, different issues.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on June 02, 2017, 09:09 PM:
quote:
Here we have the feeling that in the US you can go to any gun shop, show your id, use your credit card and go in the street with a gun and carry it almost everywhere. I suppose it's not that easy, neither
Yes it is Dominique, at least in Florida and some other ststes. You can even go to the many outdoor gun shows and purchase an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle. In fact it is much easier to purchase a gun in the USA than it is an automobile.
[ June 03, 2017, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 04, 2017, 07:19 AM:
The Show must go on!
We had company last weekend, so it all came down.
The show must go on, so yesterday it all went back up!
(-wellll...MOST of it!)
-with a little added emphasis on cable management.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on June 04, 2017, 10:51 AM:
Steve...I'm guessing your table just doesn't look right without your projectors sitting there proudly waiting to be run I always get a warm feeling seeing the Elmo ST800. Just love that projector.
Last night I watched a 3x-200 Std. 8mm print of Two Tars before heading to bed. My little buddy Buster decided to join me and initially I was projecting right onto his fur. But he eventually moved down and seemed to be more interested with something on the floor than the film
[ June 04, 2017, 12:42 PM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 04, 2017, 01:09 PM:
Hi Janice!,
I actually delayed setting up again for a week, it' s good to give it a rest here and there. It' kind of amazing how good those first films look after just a few days without.
If there was only one machine on that table, it would be the ST-800. The DC motor makes it a lot more friendly to speed changes than the ST-1200HD, so it's good for when I want to watch silents. It's my travel projector too: all the way from central Maine down to Wildwood. It's just an all around good, versatile machine.
The ST-1200 has its own advantages, especially the 1200 Foot capacity and twin tracks. This machine hasn't switched out of 24 FPS in about 8 years.
In this setup the ST-800 grounds the whole projector end of the audio system. Everything else going into the mixer is through balanced connections so we don't have a ground loop among the machines.
My Blu-Ray player is there sitting in front of the ST-1200, but the video projector is still stowed away. That end of the table is normally reserved for (-you know...) eating!
I've got my own "Busters". Every so often you see those two triangular ears 5 feet across on screen. One of 'em is obviously looking into the lens: time for an intervention!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 04, 2017, 07:21 PM:
Some pictures of the German city of Saarburg that has kept a kind of Middle Age aspect.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on June 04, 2017, 08:27 PM:
Nice pictures Dominique! The architecture is so cool.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 04, 2017, 08:45 PM:
My ancestors are from that area of Germany and the part of my family that didn't come here in the 1920s is still there.
This is why I have a French last name with a German spelling. They had certain...theological disagreements with Louis XIV and needed to relocate fast! The Rhineland is where they lived about 300 years.
I've been there a couple of times: it is a beautiful place. It is wine country, and my family were winemakers.
[ June 04, 2017, 10:26 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on June 04, 2017, 10:58 PM:
Yep, we know.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 05, 2017, 07:26 AM:
Super! Then you'll do fine on the exam, buddy!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 05, 2017, 07:37 AM:
They have a delicious white wine called "Riesling"
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 16, 2017, 08:47 AM:
It's not February 2nd but...
-it's Groundhog Day here!
My carpool friend dropped me off a couple of blocks away and on the walk over I met this fellow.
It's a gray, cloudy day: I'm pretty sure he isn't seeing his shadow today!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on June 20, 2017, 07:07 PM:
While I was digitizing a reel of film...The take-up reel stopped and some film landed on the floor. I was on the phone when it happened only to look over and notice Buster getting all cozy on top of the film and thinking it was a new toy just for him
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 20, 2017, 07:47 PM:
I'm Lucky I have no cat
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on June 20, 2017, 08:15 PM:
Ah come on Dominique...I feel lucky I have a kitty ...and no harm came to the film or the cat. It was just entertaining
Posted by Clinton Hunt (Member # 2072) on June 20, 2017, 08:39 PM:
That's what cats do eh Janice,when I'm packing stuff that I've sold and use a box,my cat is in the box quickly>Lucky cats are soft or else they would crease the film lol
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 21, 2017, 02:47 PM:
I have been catching up with some mods and repairs lately to the now 90 year old projector. With some interesting 35mm film to project in the very near future this projector along with the platter is going to get a lot of work.
Anyway I thought I would post some photos of what it looks like inside and the stunning German engineering that was put into its manufacture at Dresden back in the 1920s.
I found another drive shaft housing with good bearings and after swaping the parts over, plus shimming out any end float there is now zero play in the drive shaft.
Its interesting that they didn't use oil seals, but an oil throw on the drive shaft to direct the oil back to the base of the machine.
After getting things back together I ran the projector without film for a while and very pleased with the results.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on June 21, 2017, 06:10 PM:
I am often watching the birds in the backyard, but today i had a very pleasant surprise. I was lucky she stayed long enough for me to grab the camera. Someone has lost a pet for sure.
Posted by Evan Samaras (Member # 5070) on June 24, 2017, 11:54 AM:
My (LATE) pictures from last CineSea
Shot on Kodak Max 400 - Expired and sitting in my father's cabinet for well over 10 years. Additionally, I think my chemistry was a little too hot and overdeveloped the negs as well.
*Edit: Looks as if I'm limited to three pictures. I'll try to load more later =)
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on June 28, 2017, 07:07 PM:
I've been commuting across the Puget Sound a lot lately for a project I'm working on so I've been shooting a lot of film during the ride. These were shot with a KMZ FT-2 panoramic camera. The canmera was made in the former Soviet Union. I used expired Recordak Dacomatic Microfilm shot at ISO 25, this camera work best with a slow film. The film was developed in Beerenol, a recipe I developed myself using any cheap lager, I used Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer for this roll. The recipe is similar to caffenol.
This is the foot bridge for walk-on passengers at the Kingston Terminal.
The ferry arriving in Kingston.
The sun deck of the ferry.
This is my camera: KMZ FT-2
More of my photos from the camera: FT-2 Album
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on June 28, 2017, 11:18 PM:
Awesome!
So with Caffenol, it's the Caffeic Acid in the instant coffee that is the important ingredient. As was pointed out to me, Caffeic Acid is not unique to coffee and can be found in any number of plants.
Does Pabst contain Caffeic Acid or is there something else in it that gives it the ability to develop film?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 02, 2017, 06:22 PM:
My first camera was a Bell and Howell Filmsonic 1230. I sold it long ago for a Canon 512 XLE. I came across this 1230 at the heritage park lately and after a bit of a clean, put some batteries in and away it went. They were good cameras in there day and I always liked the focus arrangement, where you point at the subjects feet, press the focus button and read of the exact distance to manually focus it.
Anyway I still have one roll of Ektachrome 64T left, so might give it a go, here is a photo of my grandson holding it
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on July 02, 2017, 07:55 PM:
Apart from everything else, it warms my heart to see a young'n holding a Super 8 camera.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on July 02, 2017, 08:09 PM:
Great shot Graham!
Yes, that pendulum auto- focusing arrangement inside the Bell & Howell was a clever design. Not sure how well it would work on a hill though!
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on July 02, 2017, 09:34 PM:
Tom, the oats used in making beer are high in Cafeic acid, that's why I decided to try developing film with it.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 08, 2017, 10:24 PM:
Thanks William and Paul
Well I was thinking of Steve when I took this photo yesterday. Its nice to see some things stay the same even though the last steam train on a regular service vanished long long ago.
When I drove our little school bus its compulsory to stop and look both ways before crossing, even though the bells are not ringing or lights flashing. I used to say to the kids...any choo choo trains coming
Whats it like in the US for rail crossings?
Posted by Berend De Meyer (Member # 5856) on July 10, 2017, 07:54 AM:
Hi admin,
Any change that we are granted larger picture size to be added here on the forums?
Cheers
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 28, 2017, 07:32 PM:
Hi Graham,
Our crossings are very similar except they say "Railroad" instead of Railway" (-and nobody knows why!)
Classically speaking, when some line here starts calling itself a "railway", it usually means it's trying to make a new start: for example following bankruptcy!
I found a crossing on the line near us a few weeks ago. This local street had petered down to being basically somebody's driveway and sneaked across the tracks to their house. For the sake of this they had to put in crossbucks, two crossing gates and all the track detection circuits: tens of thousands of dollars worth of hardware plus regular maintenance. They were kind of stuck: this is a commuter line to midtown Manhattan and sees maybe 50 trains a day!
Then again you have to feel bad for the guy that lives there: he gets in his car, drives 50 feet and sits for a minute while a train passes by! At night, he can see his house, and almost smell his dinner sitting on the table, but has to wait there again!
(Can't be easy to keep stuff on the shelves in that house either!)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 30, 2017, 03:58 PM:
6 AM?!!!
We’ve been having Saturday breakfasts at this great little diner up in Northport Village for easily 20 years now. Our son first showed up there as a baby, and he’ll turn 15 next month.
The lady who runs the place has always thought very highly of him and said “When you are old enough, I’m going to give you a summer job.”
-and sure enough: he’s been bussing tables there on and off for a couple of weeks.
The good news is he seems to be doing just fine. The better news is we won’t need to find another place to eat Saturday Breakfast!
The thing about it is when you are in the breakfast business, the day starts awfully early. We drove him down there to start at 6AM today. This was actually a surprise to me: I assumed they stopped having 6AM on the weekends roughly when my Dad stopped taking me fishing!
I’m not used to seeing Northport like this: This time of the year you usually have a car at each elbow in this spot!
When’s the next street car coming? It’s hard to say: the last one came through in 1926!
Even the Harbor was quiet. You’d hope somebody would be headed out to fish or dig clams!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on July 30, 2017, 04:26 PM:
Absolutely beautiful pictures Steve. You live in a lovely area. It's amazing how things look and feel so much different in the early morning hours of the day. I hardly ever experience that however...I didn't wake up until 10:45 this morning. Stayed up too late watching a 16mm movie. I'm incorrigible.
Posted by Berend De Meyer (Member # 5856) on July 30, 2017, 05:01 PM:
Yesterday I found the only footage - so far from 1965 -> 1975 - of my Father* in action with his Bell & Howell Autoload Zoom Reflex 9-29MM 1-1-1.8 ZOOM Movie Camera, capturing himself in a mirror while zooming in. The film reel is tagged South Africa 1975.
From the same reel a pre flight post production - newly received Somikon deck - of some footage of a wedding he filmed in the South African township Soweto near Johannesburg in 1975, a year before the June 16 1976 Uprising. In 1976 we migrated back to The Netherlands after our stay for 3 years.
Hope you like the result so far.
https://youtu.be/0Wzvw_ubA30
He's the sole reason why I joined this forum. He left us kids ~15 hrs of Normal 8 mm footage which I'm now scanning to our digital family archive. I'm very proud to share this screen print from his footage with you.
Cheers
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 30, 2017, 08:19 PM:
Berend,
We are literally hundreds of pictures into this thread and yours is the first screenshot of motion picture film to make it here!
I'm in a similar situation myself. Back about 40 years ago my Dad was a big fan of color slides. I recently inherited 8 carousels of his slides. His projector has died in the same way many Kodak Carousels do.
-I found someone that fixes them, and Dad will have his day on screen again soon.
Thanks, Janice!
We have the best of both worlds: we're 10 minutes away from the harbor so it's easy for us to get to it. We're also 200 feet above sea level so come hurricane time it's not so easy for it to get to US!
Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on July 30, 2017, 10:01 PM:
Nice screen capture Berend. I wish my father had done the same at least once or twice. He was mostly invisible behind the camera.
Steve and Janice: One of the few advantages of having reached middle age is that for whatever reason I have less trouble getting up early. And I do really like the way the world looks early on a Summer morning.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 30, 2017, 10:20 PM:
Great photos everyone ...getting up in the morning I have got to get up around 6am cant help it. In aviation I used to have to get to work on days around the 3.30am mark for pre-flights etc. I guess I have always been used to it. When someone tells me they slept in to mid morning, my reply.. is how can you do that?..
Here is my latest creation on you-tube from last week..
https://youtu.be/VLr2C1Kyih4
Nice to hear Steven has a job
Posted by Berend De Meyer (Member # 5856) on July 31, 2017, 09:01 AM:
Thanks guys. It was quiet a steep learning curve getting started with my 8mmToDigital adventure. Still reading and learning a lot on this and other forums.
@Steve | yes, my Father did all the filming over the years. He's on some very limited footage over all those years creating his 8 mm archive. So I was surprised he did a analoge selfie.
@Graham | Very impressive YouTube video, thanks for sharing. I LOVE the part of the frogs before and/or after the break, very funny but very needed nowadays.
Cheers
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 05, 2017, 01:12 AM:
My 3 grand sons are back for 12 days at Camp Grandma's! The weather was perfect tonight for a movie on the patio...Ice cream sundaes...popcorn... and hot chocolate were included. The movie was FEDS ... their favorite. There will be more patio cinema nights during their stay...they love it!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on August 05, 2017, 08:44 AM:
Pure Magic!
Enjoy Janice & Grandchildren.
Posted by Berend De Meyer (Member # 5856) on August 05, 2017, 09:11 AM:
That's a great Sit-In Movie Theatre! Have a great time Janice.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on August 05, 2017, 04:06 PM:
Janice, I guarantee that your Grandson's will never forget their movie nights at your house, and the time you have spent with them. These are the memories of their lives.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 08, 2017, 09:49 PM:
Last Weekend
We were up in Western New York last weekend and took the chance to go over to Niagara Falls. As I’ve said here before: as kind of an unwritten rule, people from New York don’t seem to go to New York things! This is especially true for me, for example it took me 55 years to get around to visiting the Statue of Liberty, which I’ve probably seen from the car a hundred times. I have been to the Falls twice, though.
-maybe it’s something to do with the fact that I have to drive 9 hours to get there (It’s a decent sized state!), maybe it’s even something to do with the fact that it’s at least half a Canadian thing.
-but for whatever reason it was, we went (...again):
It's an astounding place. I've lived on the Atlantic shore my whole life, but short of a hurricane, I never see water move with so much forcefulness, never mind the fact that this has been going on twenty-four hours a day for thousands of years!
The Falls are their own weather system: down nearby there is always a strong wind blowing and a fine rainfall from all the mist the falling water throws into the air. The roar is audible for blocks away.
The American Falls
Rainbow Bridge from Ontario to New York
The American Falls as seen from Canada
The Canadian Falls
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 09, 2017, 03:01 PM:
Brilliant photos Steve
Yesterday I did my weekly visit to the Museum of Photography catch up over a cup of tea with the good folk, anyway ever heard of Steampunk? well one of the photo members pulled this out of a plastic bag to show what he makes and sells from junk including parts from old cameras and projectors and anything else he can find ...as well as being an expert on still photography he used to work on firearms.
This example of his work just blew me away...
Note the spark plugs and the B/H 16mm parts used in this following photo..
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 25, 2017, 09:29 PM:
I had a very lucky find this week... one Ernemann aperture plate with a 1:85:1 ratio. ...apart from a little bit a surface rust there was little wear on it if any.
This was indeed a rare find...anyway I modified it a little bit with a countersunk screw to act as a stop when fitting it on the projector to place it at the same stop point as the Scope aperture plate. The lens I have been using was a 75mm, however with the exact 1.85 the image was a bit small for the screen and masking, so it was a matter of finding another lens.
Another surprise was being able to use this German Isco-Optic 40-90mm Cinelux zoom lens. It came along with others bits and bobs when I bought a second hand Simda 400 watt slide projector.
This lens is simply a stunning piece of optics, you can zoom on one ring and focus on another without the need to focus by the usual means on the projector if you wish. This lens must have cost a fortune in its day, and was lucky to have it come with the slide projector. Running a film last night with the new aperture plate and lens, at the now correct ratio was really something. I am also now using the slide projector for the 36volt 400watt lamp high/low switch in the projector lamphouse. The slide projector can, as well as the lens be back up and running as a slide projector as very little modification was carried out.
I am certainly over the moon at the moment, as things dont always go as planned.. but with this they did
PS..Will get back to playing with Super8 soon...
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 25, 2017, 10:11 PM:
It's your lucky day Graham. I'm excited for you. Looks like you have hit the jackpot ! Enjoy!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 26, 2017, 09:28 PM:
Thanks Janice..
I took this photo this week of a line up of Eumig projectors. One projector still has the change over sprockets etc for Std 8 and goes ok. I will concentrate on that one soon, as I would really like to hear the Film Office Std 8 B/W sound film of Petula Clark singing "Downtown" that I still have but never heard.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 03, 2017, 01:55 PM:
Petula Clark Has a French version of this song (and others).
This morning, I attended a film fair in Belgium (20 minutes by train from Belgium, the place is called Ternat). One of the two (new) organizators is forum member Jean-Christophe De Block.
The pictures were takin with my telephone but so you can have an idea...
70 mm films
Posted by Mark Mander (Member # 340) on September 04, 2017, 03:12 AM:
Looks great Dominique,just nice that events like these still go on,well done to all who sold and attended,Mark
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 09, 2017, 09:55 PM:
My son and I canoed our local river today. Fall is coming and it'll be too cold soon enough.
A local Boy Scout troop had the same idea and as we finished up the canoe livery there was getting ready:
Aluminum canoes aren't the most elegant on the planet, but you can't fault 'em for a lack of durability!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 19, 2017, 12:02 AM:
My son decided to customize his kayak.
That's a pretty aggressive look for a craft that would be hard pressed to reach 5MPH...
-but when you're a teenage boy...!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 19, 2017, 04:21 PM:
Looks great Steve
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 21, 2017, 11:18 AM:
A Funky Bug!
A couple of years ago I was taking a walk in the woods out where I work and I saw a weird looking ant. I saw one again this morning and snapped a picture:
It's much bigger than a regular ant and covered in fuzz!
At first I thought maybe it was the result of some 1940s Atomic Energy Commission experiment gotten way out of control, but I looked into it and found out not only is it a naturally occurring species, it's not actually an ant at all.
Even though it's called a "Red Velvet Ant", it is actually a wasp. To me this is a species made for comedy! You see, the females have a spectacularly painful sting, but they can't fly. The males on the other hand can fly but they can't sting! (If the male could somehow carry the female, they would be a formidable team! "Stand back! I've brought my wife and I'm not afraid to use her!"..."I want to sting the one on the left...NO!: MY left!")
-so even though she could probably put me on my back screaming in pain, she couldn't catch me, so I felt perfectly safe chasing her around the loading dock with my cell phone.
I've encountered more frightening Aunts at birthday parties!
Red Velvet Ant
No: I didn't stomp her. Live and let live!
Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on September 21, 2017, 03:44 PM:
Steve, it looks like one of the "Zanti Misfits" - On the Belgium pictures, yes makes me wonder what 8mm was there - Maybe Bruno showed up - Well, perhaps we'll all get together someday - I hope to see many of our overseas chaps at Wildwood next month - Cheers, Shorty
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 24, 2017, 09:43 AM:
Today, was held a film fair in Roubaix, North France.
On the picture above : forum members Jean-Christophe De Block (eating a spool) and Nick Vermeirsch.
Forum member Bruno Heughebaert and Jean-Christophe who is dangerousely touching a big spool (from the preceeding picture, you know what he does with them)
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on September 24, 2017, 10:41 AM:
Great photos of Bruno, Nick and Jean-Christophe again thanks Dominique.
Is that an S938 I see peeping out on the end of one of those photographs there Dominique?
Posted by Bruno Heughebaert (Member # 2756) on September 24, 2017, 10:50 AM:
Well spotted it's indeed a 938.
I own one and also the 940.
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on September 24, 2017, 10:56 AM:
Thanks Bruno, lovely machines!
Posted by Bruno Heughebaert (Member # 2756) on September 24, 2017, 10:59 AM:
I agree for the 938 but not for the 940. I had so many issues with the microprocessor that i finally disconnected it. I use now the 940 with an external amplifier.
Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on September 24, 2017, 11:23 AM:
Please correct me if I am wrong, but this event wasn't advertised / promoted on this forum and it looks superb. Although I could not guarantee to attend myself, it would be nice to have been given advanced warning of it so maybe, just maybe, some of our collectors on the forum,particularly living on the south coast of England could have taken their car over to France for the day to attend as it is not very far from the coast.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 24, 2017, 11:38 AM:
Melvin. You're right, it was not advertise. The only reason why I didn't prompte it myself is that you have never any guarantee that it will be a success. Not being the organizator,, I have no information about the number of sellers who actually booked nor of what they will bring. Add to this the fact that most of the films sold are in French and you know why it was not on promoted on the forum. There was absolutely no intention to hide anything but the will not to take the risk to disappoint anyone who would have travelled from Britain.
Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on September 24, 2017, 11:51 AM:
Yes, Dominique, I understand your point. Especially if most of the films are in French. However, as Roubaix is not too far from the coast, I am sure it could still make a pleasant day out for English collectors.
Posted by Bruno Heughebaert (Member # 2756) on September 24, 2017, 12:52 PM:
You're welcome Melvin. See you next year ?
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 25, 2017, 08:44 AM:
Two last pictures from the Roubaix Fair. For technical reasons, I couldn't post them yesterday.
A vue of one of the 35 mm projectors that was there
35 mm super 8 and 16 mm projected on the same screen. Later on the day they even added a fourth projector.
Posted by Michael Lattavo (Member # 4280) on October 03, 2017, 07:12 AM:
My son recently got his own projector for his 5th birthday; last night he put a show on for his little sister. He told her he had to sit right next to it so he could "work the movie projector".
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on October 03, 2017, 07:38 AM:
Top drawer buddy!
Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on October 03, 2017, 07:09 PM:
Crikey Dominique, that is hardly an advert for the qualities of Super 8mm projection techniques!
Yikes!!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 28, 2017, 09:28 PM:
35mm at last!...(-sort of)...
A couple of months ago I became what would be called "orphaned" if I was 50 years younger. At this stage in life it is just called "life as expected", and I imagine many of you can relate.
We cleaned Mom and Dad's house out this spring and sold it June 30th. Once it was my house too. We sold it with the dining room table in place for the new family. A long time ago my Dad set up his tripod screen and we did slides and movies together with our projectors on that table.
There were some things I would absolutely not tolerate going into the dumpster those last days: one was Mom's sewing machine, another was Dad's slides. We gave the sewing machine to a very creative friend who found herself in need of one, and Dad's slides will stay with me.
Dad's slide projector suffered the same fate as many Kodak projectors and cameras from that era: some 59 cent plastic part snapped and the slides wouldn't advance. I found a camera shop in Vermont that fixes them by the dozen: UPS and PayPal took care of the rest.
Tonight, Dad's projector joined my own once again on our dining room table, and with my help he gets to tell his stories to a grandson that barely got to know him in the short time they had together many years ago. His grandmother is there too, young and vigorous, just as I want to remember her.
Thanks, Dad!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 29, 2017, 08:04 PM:
To Everything There is a Season...
My wife announced today it is time to change to the Fall tablecloth...so we did!
I stay set up for Cinema pretty much as often as I want under the terms of kind of a peace treaty. I'm allowed half the table (We'll call it "the Republic of South Table") and the other half (North Table) is reserved for (you know) "eating"...(and stuff).
Generally there is no conflict as long as I avoid encroaching on the DMZ and abide by some special provisions: I vacate the entire territory when company comes and I allow for certain operations by the...Government of the North.
It turns out today was Tablecloth Day. (Nobody told me! Did you know?)
So I took all the stuff off, scattered it on end tables and countertops and we did "The Autumn Tablecloth".
I put it back and did a sound check. I think I connected it up all right.
I mean: I guess it looks nice, but who can see it when the lights go down anyway?
-yet the show must go on!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 30, 2017, 08:57 PM:
Michael Its great to see the interest the kids have
Steve.. slides are an amazing way of connecting with the past, the size of projected image and the detail, is really something you can spend a bit of time looking at, every so often I get some of ours out as well and have a bit of a slide evening.
Well Steve if you are looking for a portable 35mm, I do have one you can have, as its "on wheels", the only snag is, you will have to come and get it
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 30, 2017, 09:46 PM:
Your setup is much neater than mine Steve What fun!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 31, 2017, 05:47 AM:
Ah! -but this is the calm after the storm!
The People of North Table (and I guess I am one too!) have habit of putting stuff in the beam! Eventually I'll wind up with a shadow of schoolbooks or laptops in my picture! (Sometimes it's a cat!)
I live in fear of some immense Thanksgiving centerpiece showing up! "Pineapples! Did it HAVE to be pineapples?"
It takes a little compromise all around.
I know this much: if we ever move, I'll be sharp on the lookout for houses with full, unfurnished basements, kind of a blank canvas!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 13, 2017, 07:02 PM:
I had this schedule problem...
I needed to pick up my son after work. If I went directly to his school, I'd sit in the parking lot for half an hour. If I went back to the house first, I'd have to leave in about 10 minutes!
-so I needed a place to wander aimlessly for 20 minutes. It was either Barnes and Noble or Home Depot. The Home Despot brings back about 25 years of memories of leaky pipes, wet paint and credit card debt, so B&N it was!
I went into the music department and got a nice surprise:
(I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself waiting for their film department to open!)
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on November 19, 2017, 07:20 PM:
Yes, I've been to Barnes and Noble and have seen the vinyl section. Interesting offerings. Very encouraging. I only hope that they are decent quality.
Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on November 22, 2017, 03:51 PM:
If it's like our local B&N, these are new pressings only. I'm sure the quality is as good as vinyl can be, but if you only knew the processing the audio goes through to fit neatly in a groove, you might prefer the CD. Except the CD is usually brickwall-limited to make it as loud as possible.
Can't win!
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on November 23, 2017, 08:18 AM:
I assume they are all new pressings. I'll stick to haunting used record shops since I don't care much for new music anyway.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 23, 2017, 08:33 AM:
They look to be new records.
Accidentally, and maybe even involuntarily, I'm a record collector now. I had to sell my Parents' house last summer and I wound up with Dad's LPs. (-boxes and boxes and boxes of them...)
I'm going to thin the herd a little.
-How many Oktoberfest in Munich LPs do I really need? "EIN, ZWEI, DREI, G'SUFFAAAA!!!"
-but in the end I'll also buy a turntable...(and some beer!)
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on November 23, 2017, 10:03 AM:
William.... not all new records are new music. A lot of the new lps are re-releases of older stuff. In addition to film I am a record collector too from when I was just a kid. I have bought quite a few "new" releases and they are almost all older material with a few exceptions.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 23, 2017, 07:35 PM:
Great to hear folk talk about Vinyl.... I was surprised at the title of some of them "Blade Runner" was excellent quality to listen to and many are coming into stores from Europe. The original score by Elmer Bernstein "The Great Escape" being another. There seems to be quite a range of new records for sale locally eg Saturday Night Fever, U2, Pink Floyd, The Beatles red and blue albums, Carole King 1971 album Tapestry...plus many many more
I find that I can hear the sounds better on Vinyl than a CD, of coarse that might just be my hearing, but I am certainly enjoying it a lot more. Years ago I nearly threw out all those old LPs, glad I didn't. One old LP I bought new back in the 1970s was Country Joe McDonald "Paradise with an Ocean View" lately the guy in the second hand record store was really keen to buy it from me...but will hang on to it
Steve once you buy a turntable, you will be amazed as to what you have been missing....next.. you will have to buy a valve amp to go with it
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 23, 2017, 07:50 PM:
If I had a projection booth I'd absolutely want a couple of tube amps in a rack.
-especially during the wintertime!
I found switches with red security covers like they use at a missile installations. Even if they weren't connected I'd have to intall some!
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on November 27, 2017, 08:46 AM:
Bill Phelps...I realize I didn't correctly express what I meant. I feel that, since I prefer older recordings, I would rather find them as older pressings rather than new ones.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on November 27, 2017, 09:40 AM:
William... I prefer original issues as well, but of the new releases of older recordings I have bought they sound good. Depending on the artist sometimes the reissue is all I can afford!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 28, 2017, 02:44 AM:
Well I need a break from all this projector/film stuff
What a week, at long last the Bauer U4 is wired up tested/adjusted.. sound/light converted to 36V 400W etc etc. With an large old roller blind hanging on the inside of the garage door, and with the first three reels of "Braveheart" on a 6000ft reel. Its time to put everything to the test...soon..but going to chill out for a couple of days first, before threading it up for its trial run. I fitted new take up belts the other day so things should go ok...well hopefully..
Its strange that this particular print ran at "Movieland" in 1995, later to be sent to a small local town cinema where it sat there for the last 20 years. The Bauer will be projecting it for the first time since then, but this time in my garage...I must be nuts
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 28, 2017, 06:07 PM:
I give you a lot of credit, Graham!
-I'm dabbling along the edges of 16mm these last few weeks, and I feel like that's a big step!
-but if I think I'm the Wright Brothers, then you are Chuck Yeager!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 28, 2017, 07:34 PM:
Steve, Having never ventured into 16mm myself, I will be very interested to hear of your 16mm experience as you get into it. Please keep us all informed of your findings as you go forward.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 28, 2017, 07:55 PM:
Hi Paul,
Basically what I want from 16mm is what I also want from video projection: access to material I'd otherwise not have.
One early impression is compared to a Super-8 machine: the Pageant dominates a small space in terms of machinery sounds and just raw physical presence. The focal lengths of the lenses dictate that the 16mm machine needs to sit further back than my 8mm ones: this is actually for the best.
This is an aspect we've never talked about when we are comparing the different formats. (I didn't need my wife's encouragement to figure out that this one needs to be stowed when not in use!)
A lot of you know I'm kind of obsessed with hum. I first turned on the machine and heard hum in the room and immediately started designing a notch filter to kill it off, but the Pageant really has a respectably low level of hum through the speaker. The internal power transformer: that hums audibly! (I was standing there holding the speaker to my head saying "What the...?")
I haven't plugged it into my mixer yet: I'll make a project of that! (I may run out of channels one of these days!)
-On the other hand the ability to go much bigger screen (250W lamp and a two bladed shutter) gives me other ideas. Out on the patio next summer all that extra size will go away.
Manual threading I can manage. Not trimming the leader? -now that takes some getting used to! One of my 16mm leaders has an end that looks like the cat chewed on it: doesn't matter!
To a certain extent this is also about CineSea...now I will have a lot more prints to shuffle through down there!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 29, 2017, 02:02 PM:
Nice 16mm projector Steve
I am not sure about the Chuck Yeager bit I dont think he would have threaded a test loop of Alvin and the Chipmunks to run backwards by mistake ...it took me a while to figure out why the sound did sound weird...what a idiot.
couple of photos from last week
Adjusting the light for even brightness...as much as I can from that small lamp..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 29, 2017, 02:51 PM:
Don't be so sure, Graham!
-did you see what Chuck Yeager did with that brand new fighter jet towards the end of "The Right Stuff"?
"It's Colonel Yeager!...He must have clearance...right?"
(It seems shocking a man like that could live long enough to have gray hair!)
-We are all human, and have our moments!
The machine is a Kodak Pageant: kind of an echo of my days in Elementary through High School: they were everywhere and any teacher in business more than a few months could run one like a pro!
When a teacher wheeled one of this into a classroom, education was about to get a whole lot better!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 30, 2017, 02:11 AM:
Steve your photo of the "Kodak Pageant" reminded me of a movie we watched only couple of weeks ago, called "A Monster Calls" 2016 release. I took a couple of screen photos at the time as its unusual to see a projecter in a movie. I think its the same as yours.
The movie itself caught me totally by surprise, a complex story of a young kid losing his mother to a terminal illnes starring Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, and a very talented young kid Lewis MacDougall as Connor, plus Liam Neeson as the voice of the monster.
Although it looks like a kids film with only a PG rating, its certainly not for the young, Yvonne had the tissues out at the end...very sad.
Lewis MacDougall as Connor in a scene with his unsympathetic grandmother Sigourney Weaver.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 30, 2017, 08:06 AM:
That is the one!
As I saw things growing up this was the most common movie projector. They were a standard in schools and typically there was an "AV" room somewhere with half a dozen lined up, ready to go. My own is stenciled for a college in Wisconsin.
It's interesting: Even though they have a handle on top, I got well into middle age before I ever saw someone carry one. They were always perched on steel projector carts about 4 feet high. Of course I managed to hurt my back before I first carried one myself! (back repair in progress...)
This is mostly a creature native to North America. Ones set up for 50 Hz do exist, but from what I've heard they aren't very common.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 01, 2017, 05:12 PM:
I was hoping to have a couple of days away from all this crazy film stuff, when fellow film forum member phoned me up...can you run a full 2000ft reel of 35mm trailers that he had?...said Pat...sure.. so we did, most were from the 1970s...
So yesterday I got motivated, got on the old push bike and headed round the plantation. What a stunning day with plenty of stops for a drink I was gone for 3hrs. I did not take a watch, as I thought forget about time, just enjoy the day...so I did. With summer here its time to enjoy outdoors. Arthurs Pass National Park is another place I have not visited in a while, I used to take the kids up there all time. Its really beautifull up in the mountains but, not a place you go on your own....to many Grizzly Bears..
From yesterday..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 05, 2017, 10:54 PM:
Last year roughly this time I said the Christmas Tree was up and pictures of the trains would soon follow.
Wellll...
-better late than never!
I present for your railroading consideration LGB Model 2018D: easily 5 pounds of model locomotive. Back in my college days we found that engines like these could haul an entire case of beer: Engineering students know how to party!
Merrrry Advent!
(Let's not rush: I haven't gone shopping yet!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 07, 2017, 02:14 PM:
Brilliant Steve
Last night when it was dark enough I gave the Bauer a run with the 6000ft reel of Braveheart. Sitting in the garage I was surprised how good both the picture and sound was. I managed to focus the Scope lens down to the 16-18ft throw..it worked fine, however I did keep the sound level down, as I didn't want the neighbours to hear people screaming and getting chopped up in some of the scenes, coming from our garage....they might wonder..WHAT.. is going on in there!...
I gave the old roller blind hanging on the back of the garage door from the 80s a good wash in the garden before the screeing.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on December 07, 2017, 07:22 PM:
Love the train pic Steve. Really makes for a warm nostalgic feeling to Christmas.
As always Graham...great screen shots!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 07, 2017, 08:53 PM:
Thanks Janice
Well we could do with a bit of rain, as things are getting a we bit dry, The temp today up in the 80s F, you would not want to be dressed as Santa...that's for sure.
Here are a couple of photos taken today...as Yvonne was watching TV last night I was sitting in the garage. The old roller blind with a black painted "schoolboard black" border worked well last night.
"Tweety" my car in the drive.....
The ground is getting dry but every day we give the wee birdies some water and bread. When I go out in the morning to feed them they are waiting...just like in the film.."The Birds"
Yvonne had a customer who told her he had a complaint about our white picket fence... that to tell your husband that every time he go passes he has to put his sunglasses on...good paint eh!..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 08, 2017, 08:33 AM:
Graham,
I think my garage was as orderly as yours until roughly 4 hours after we started moving in!
I took a fancy to those trains when I was a teenager. They had a starter set at a huge hobby shop in Manhattan. The shop was closing for the day so I had to grab it or forget about it for a while. Then we did the rest of what we planned that day, so I rode the elevators 88 stories up to the observation deck at the Empire State building with this immense box of trains!
(Young people don't plan very well!)
I figured I'd just get a loop of track and a couple of extra cars to run around the Christmas Tree: no big deal! These days it's easily a hundred feet of track and when my son and I need something to do on a rainy day we are running 20 car trains all over the house. Maybe someday we'll get the cog railway and start going upstairs too!
(It got a little out of hand!)
-the frightening thing is I just went into 16mm with a similar beginning plan: "Just one machine and a coupla' films..."
(Winnie's back will be cold!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 09, 2017, 12:17 PM:
Brilliant Steve
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on December 09, 2017, 01:11 PM:
Just adorable Steve!!! You are getting me into the Xmas spirit. Time to put on the "It's a Wonderful Life" reels. Hot Dog!!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 18, 2017, 08:54 AM:
Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Victorian Christmas
This weekend we took it on the road to Coastal Maine. One of my favorite railroad museums anywhere has a special Christmas weekend every year and we’ve gone about every other year. Don’t get me wrong here: it wasn’t all trains: there were horse-drawn wagon rides, lobster dinners and shopping too!
I like to think this is a pretty picture, but for reasons I don’t have a huge amount to do with, it is also an amazing picture. First of all, no vehicle in that picture is less than a hundred years old. The three coaches were in revenue service from before the turn of the last century until the Depression, and then in tourist and museum service here and there ever since. They are beautifully built: the woodwork and ironwork are no less than works of art. The engine is another story: she was in revenue service from the 1890s until the original line went under in the 1930s. Then some hobbyists trucked her down to Connecticut, where she sat in a shed for 60 years. (Sometimes we hobbyists bite off more than we can chew, right?) The museum trucked her back to Maine in the 1990s, did a very thorough restoration on her and a few months ago she took steam for the first time in 80 years. She may be headed for 130 years old, but for all intents and purposes this is a new machine. What’s also kind of amazing is absolutely nothing in the picture was there 20 years ago: no train, no track, no station, just a weedy path where the original railroad had been torn up prior to WWII.
It’s amazing what a bunch of like-minded people can do when they work together.
For my own part I shot two and a half rolls of Tri-X this weekend, because that is one of the great parts of Super-8 film and sometimes I almost forget that side of it. It took a little adjusting to using a camera with a lens cap again, but I enjoyed myself!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 22, 2017, 04:29 PM:
A couple of months ago i came across a chap that I used to work with long ago during my 10 year stint with the local aero club. Jerry like myself are now retired but he told me how he is now involved the the maintenance of the old Steam Tug Lyttelton.
The tug was built by Ferguson Brothers in Port Glasgow on the Clyde and sailed from Scotland on the 2nd of June 1907 arriving after her 12000 mile journey under her own steam in Lyttelton 10th Sept 1907. Athough retired in the early 1970s the Presevation Society have been keeping her seaworthy ever since.
Anyway in the weekend paper there was an article on the tug and the now society members who are struggling money wise to get her certified to take tourists out in the harbour. I do hope they can manage to get her back at sea as I remember the airline I once worked for doing an evening charter for the staff. It was a great night cruising the harbour where we dropped anchor in a inlet and got a rather large BBQ on her stern going.
These days I guess its harder to find unpaid society volunteers to maintain and run the old steam tug plus obtain funding...which is a shame if she becomes laid up as a static exhibit.
Jerry...wearing the yellow jacket second on the left. I must pay them a visit...photos from The Press
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 29, 2017, 04:45 PM:
Anyone available and handy with a good wire brush to do a wee bit of corrosion control
Anyway back to film and over the Christmas period I ran a 35mm print of "WALL-E" for myself and the grandkids through the Ernemann. The print really looked great. The digital sound track was also impressive. Also ran a 3D reel of "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" just to see what it looked like, not expecting much I was surprised the 3D was not that bad. I cant remember how I landed up with just a single 20min reel. I remember there was a fault with it when we ran the film at the cinema, but cant remember the reason, however it seemed fine the other night. although a lot more light would help
Connor with old "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" 3D glasses just prior to running that reel...he thought it was pretty good.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 01, 2018, 09:18 PM:
Winter is Here! (…and it means it!)
It’s a tropical 11 degrees Fahrenheit here on the Sunny North Shore of Long Island, New York: that’s 9 below zero to my Metric Brethren! We went up to the harbor this afternoon and saw something we don’t see very often: ice from shore to shore. Being that this is seawater it takes some serious cold weather to freeze it, and it’s been serious this past week for sure!
We were sitting watching the Gulls going about their business. They’d land on a surface and very soon pull one foot inside their feathers and in ten or fifteen seconds switch to the other. A whole flock landed on the ice and very quickly laid flat on their bellies like ducks: in this case even putting down one foot wasn’t an option.
-but we’ve reached the stage of life where we’ve seen so many seasons pass we don’t become despaired by it being this cold: you shovel the walk a couple of times, you build a hot fire in the hearth once or twice and sure enough Spring will be here again!
Enjoy your Summer, Graham! They pass quickly as well!
Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on January 02, 2018, 08:11 PM:
We LOVE Wall-E! Why do you have to live so far away???
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 04, 2018, 11:47 PM:
I certainly will Steve
Bill it is a pity we all dont live a bit closer, however if you are ever out this way, do let us know and I will run WALL-E for you
I thought that since you are all enjoying your winter I would add this photo of the grandkids looking out to sea...
Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on January 05, 2018, 05:31 PM:
Thank you, Graham! Actually would love that. Maybe someday I'll get to travel more.
Great photo, but I'm in part of the country that's strangely NOT cold! Condolences to the rest, though.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on January 05, 2018, 05:42 PM:
It's 5 degrees F right now in Massillon Ohio. It was -2 this morning when I started working. Its been miserable this past week. Warming up in the 30's next week and there will be people in shorts, I guarantee!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 05, 2018, 09:55 PM:
Well I have just finished splicing a Scope print of "Oz The Great and Powerful" for a screening in the near future. ...it will be interesting to see what its like.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on January 06, 2018, 07:50 AM:
Today in Belgium, many people will eat what could be translated as the "Kings'Cake" (la galette des Rois in French), reference to the Wise Men (in French, les Rois Mages). A little object is hidden in the cake and if it's in your slice, you're the king or the queen. The French have the same tradition but they tend to eat this special cake all the month long. It's a very delicious cake.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 08, 2018, 02:40 PM:
Looks yummy Dominique...what's the small object that's put into it?
That reminds me that when I grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, my mother would make a Clootie Dumpling for Christmas, what I remember about it the most was, that it was wrapped in cloth and boiled in a large pot. Inside was some "coins" mostly threepenny bits if I remember right. I cant imagine that being done these days
Reading about the weather today in the US...hope it improves as it sounds very cold indeed.
Last night I sat and watched some of our old home movies. My spare GS1200 for a while now, would not run at 18fps, however a good prod with a cotton bud on the 18fps "trim pot" brought it back to life.
....me around the 1979 mark...
Another screen shot from last night, the digital camera did not like the movement....but it does show the colors still look great, anyway, now that this three bladed GS is again running, I will watch some more old home movies very soon.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 09, 2018, 01:07 AM:
My cat Buster loves being around me when I'm working with film or my projectors. Tonight while I was doing some telecine work Buster jumped up on the computer desk right next to me and found a cozy reel of film for a headrest.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 11, 2018, 03:27 PM:
There's a picnic table out on the patio at work:
-I do believe I'll eat lunch at my desk a while!
(I shouldn't complain too much: a few days ago we couldn't see it at all!)
Janice: My absolutely greatest Cat and Film moment came about a dozen years ago: I was screening "Gone Nutty" and one of the cats meandered through. All of a sudden she was confronted by a three foot tall, fanged squirrel!
-She almost...soiled the rug that day!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 17, 2018, 11:58 AM:
Hoping your weather improves.
We have just had a week of much needed rain, the ground certainly needed it..very dry. Its the school holidays at the moment so I took my grandson, like many other grandparents I noticed to the museum while it was raining
How did people ever ride these bikes?...they must have been a tough bunch back then
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 18, 2018, 12:33 PM:
To Everything there is a Season…
I went to a meeting in another, much older building here at work. I found this wonderful relic of past times. It’s called a “phone booth” (fohn büth). This was a place you went when you had a flat tire or you needed a taxi or you were a superhero in need of a quick costume change (Where do they go now?). If you wanted to ask somebody out and you didn’t want your little brother overhearing, a handful of change, one of these and a little courage was all you needed.
This is a really nice one: the woodwork looks to be oak. Everything feels solid, like it was meant to last a century. For better or worse in the last twenty years they’ve gone from being a life essential to a waste of space. This one doesn't have a payphone in it, and probably hasn’t within our decade. The lights don’t come on when you close the door anymore either. It’s almost begging for a purpose: maybe somebody should hang a sign above it “Have your cell phone arguments HERE!”. (It is soundproof, after all…).
The building where I work was a muddy field as recently as 2009. There are no phone booths, and there aren’t any roll-up screens either. Yet who knows what relics they’ll find when they decommission us in 2035!
-One way or another, I don’t intend on being at Work that day!
Time passes relentlessly. I remember thinking my parents were old when they were much younger than I am today, but time moved forward and now their aches are mine! This empty little room is a great symbol of this. I kind of miss there not being a nice, robust pay-phone inside there, but I took these pictures with my own cell phone, didn’t I?
My son is 15 years old. When he was little people were already walking around with phones in their pockets and pay phones were few and getting fewer. Just for laughs I’m going to send him these pictures and see what he thinks that odd little room is for.
-He loves history: I think we have a shot here!
Graham:
-As I said: Seasons pass. It'll be spring here...eventually!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 18, 2018, 02:38 PM:
Of course, the humble phone booth played a huge supporting role in just about every movie made up until the advent of cell phones, and was an essential prop in the Laurel & Hardy shorts!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 18, 2018, 03:01 PM:
-See!
-if I ever set up my dream home cinema I'd have to have one of these set up in a corner somewhere! I'd want the phone to be the kind with the mouthpiece mounted to the front, though.
-For the record: my son knew exactly what that strange little room is, but in all fairness he may also be the only teenager on the planet that knows what 9.5mm film is (Thanks, Paul!).
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 19, 2018, 01:06 PM:
I wish we had "Like" button on this forum. I really enjoyed the phone booth posts
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 19, 2018, 02:18 PM:
Thanks, Janice!
I appreciate that!
The interesting part of that whole story is how cellphones made it possible. If I didn't have a cellphone on me I wouldn't have been able to get the pictures, then again if everybody didn't have a cellphone on them there wouldn't have been a story in the first place!
In other news:
Every week I go out to my old college for an Adult Ed. course. I'm in second year German. (Some people go bowling, I do this!)
It's held in the Physics building.
Last night somebody diddled with the electronic locks and we lost access to our regular room, so we borrowed one and found this on the chalkboard: (Plus another 10 linear feet downstream of it...)
For those of you that think I'm showing off, I want you to know I haven't the remotest clue what this is about! Even if I had the remotest clue back in college days those same tides of time have certainly washed most of my clues away! (The LETTERS! I STILL know the Greek letters!...other than that...)
However, I actually may have made a material contribution to the Sciences last night.
-For all I know it's a calculation to perk the best possible pot of coffee, but if it really IS Nobel Prize level stuff, I deserve credit for stopping my teacher from erasing that chalkboard!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 19, 2018, 05:32 PM:
Steve...That black board looks very much like what the board looks like at one on my son Adam's Algebra or Calculus classes.
For fun...I'm going to send the pic to him too see if he know what it is.
Here's an example video (don't worry you won't be tested)...you'll see what I mean
https://youtu.be/Q862Op4rgg4
UPDATE: Adam replied: quote:
I suspect the blackboard is describing some math related to the wave equation from physics.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 19, 2018, 08:41 PM:
Well there you have it!
-I'm a lot more likely to come over and say hello than wave!
My son is in High School Chem right now. Next year will be Physics. (It will be fun for sure!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 19, 2018, 08:43 PM:
I never could understand that stuff
Steve we used to call them a "Phone Box" it wasn't until my father retired, that we got our first phone, it was a big thing to have your own phone, before that it was the "phone box" down the street.
One of the amazing things about the internet of late, was coming across those old photos of the high school in Scotland I went to until I left at 15yrs in 1967. This school building has now been demolished, when I look at photos of a place I have never seen since leaving it, it certainly brings back memories. Back then, if you stepped out of line, you got the belt...and remember once getting it after being caught running along a corridor during a lunch break, some of those teachers were down right nasty.
All in All... I survived
The Gym..."P.T"...known as "Physical Torture"
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 19, 2018, 08:52 PM:
I have no complaints: I went to a really great high school.
My district had five schools and the oldest of the bunch had the vocational-technical programs. My Dad was there 34 years before me and came out an apprentice printer. I changed schools and caught a 6:50AM school bus to go there and came out qualified as an electronic technician.
I loved being there: the bunch of us were like a herd of young scientists and it made learning great.
The day after I graduated I started a part time electronics job, it got me into Engineering School and was my Dad proud!
-not a bad deal!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 19, 2018, 10:28 PM:
Steve
This is what they used in schools in Scotland for discipline until the late 1970s would you believe. I guess by that time people attitude to corporal punishment at schools, thankfully got rid of it. What I used to do was to give them the hand I dont write with, as the swelling would make it hard to write, so I would sit on my sore hand until the swelling had gone down.
Girls got the same treatment, the only difference was a book was placed across there wrist to protect it, other than that they got it just like everyone else. Crimes included not doing you homework etc, some teachers could really swing that belt, not like its shown in the below photo, usually standing up with your arm out stretched, some teachers did it, with what seemed like enthusiasm, and after a few direct hits you really felt it.
I would add this was done in front of the class, so no matter how you felt, you had to keep a straight face in front of everyone.
Teaching these days, is a huge improvement in my book, for me I could not get away from the place quick enough, and to this day I dont really care much for teachers. However going to college after leaving high school for my apprentiship was really good.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 23, 2018, 12:12 PM:
I am sorting out stuff I have accumulated over the years, and I must admit being very reluctant to throw things out but somewhere along the line it will all have to go
One such item, was this little tin I have had from my motor trade days starting in the late 1960s. My boss in Scotland used to to smoke this stuff in his pipe, obtained from the nearby american submarine base. ...anyway that little tin contains the very needed shims for setting up the valve clearance for engines like the Imp, or the Jaguar XJS engines.
The shims are of different thickness and I keep them soaked in oil...been that way all those years and probably hard to come by these days.
Anyone fixing a cylinder head up on a XJS
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 24, 2018, 12:35 PM:
Well after a spell of hot dry weather..still is.. I took this photo of the birdies out the front yesterday, for weeks now I have been letting the garden hose trickle a little bit of water in into the birdie bath ....Its been a very busy spot from morning to night ...very popular...
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 25, 2018, 08:28 AM:
A Sign of Spring!
Yesterday was the first time since October we didn't drive the entire trip home in the dark! It may be a very early sign of Spring, but right now I'll take it!
(Note: I wasn't driving the car when I took the picture!)
Graham: We're keeping the feeders full! It's the least we can do: our birds are freezing their feathers off!
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on January 25, 2018, 09:53 AM:
Steve,
I love your LGB Mogul under the Christmas Tree. I imagine that this engine was added to a starter set that you previously received or bought. Did you purchase the Mougul new, or second hand?
I can believe the LGB towed a case of beer, because the LGB engines are durable.
I have LGB and the "Post War" Lionel. I also have some USA Trains sold by Charles Ro..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 25, 2018, 02:52 PM:
Hey Mike,
I guess it's fair to say the Mogul was added to my original starter set much the same way that Hawaii was "added" to the Original 13 Colonies: it's completely true, it just skips a whole lot of other additions in between!
That was the first of my two really big LGB engines, bought new back around the time I graduated from college. It is actually the first true American prototype engine LGB produced. After UPS dropped it off, the first thing I noticed was it wouldn't go around the curves I owned, and even then the power pack I had would barely budge the thing. This was good for TWO trips to Trainland in Lynbrook and a fair amount of cash across the counter.
It isn't even the heavy hitter anymore: I have the White Pass 6 axle diesel. About two feet long: two motors and 12 pounds! (This was an engagement present from my wife.)
-that one sets the cats running!
(I like to think when I crack the throttle the ceiling lights dim a little, but that's probably wishful thinking!)
The Beer Train was actually a 12 of Fosters (big cans...) at a New Years Eve party back in the early 80s. It wasn't even that large an engine. (Good thing that train didn't tip: the cans would have been full of foam for hours!)
My LGBs have a strong 8mm tie-in. They are the only trains I have ever owned that are big enough to haul a movie camera around, and over the years they have a few times too.
I sold my parents' house (my own home once) last summer. Even though we have our own place for decades now, I regret I will never set foot in my first home again. So I went through the reels and found one of those films.
-I have a room by room tour of my childhood home...by train!
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on January 25, 2018, 11:37 PM:
Steve,
Your story is full of great moments. The Fosters Lager bit is hilarious.
I always loved the LGB 2018D, that engine costing a pretty penny then, and it commands a high resale price on eBay now. What is the most appropriate curved radius for the mogul?
The LGB White Pass 6-axle diesel is a powerful two motor model and testament to the real life engine that keeps trucking tourists through the Yukon Route in Alaska.
You're creativity great, and I wish that I was "ahead of the curve" by making a memorable room train tour, because I'm currently in the process of clearing my parents home. Mom passed a few years ago, and Dad passed last October. My Uncle started me in Lionel Trains in 1962, and my parents began my LGB collection in 1988.
I have Charles Ro's G-Scale USA Trains too, of different motive and rolling stock, a Long Island Railroad NW2 Switcher with a grey body and orange back cab scheme, Tropicana Orange Juice, and Bordens Milk reefers and an NY Central extended vision caboose. I had hoped to build a backyard garden railway; unfortunately, in being consumed with obligations, my trains and films are dormant, and the USA trains remain mint in their boxes.
Check out this captivating: You Tube video of the White Pass train.
Have you, and is there anyone including myself that's collected the Train Films from Blackhawk Films? I love these films in the 16mm edition because some contain live on site recorded sounds while they were filmed and synced later in post-production.
[]_____TT
/ooOOOoo|
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 26, 2018, 10:01 AM:
I bought 2018D when I was graduated from college and working, but still living with Mom and Dad...pretty much your perfect storm where hobbyists are concerned! (It only gets to be a problem when it stays this way too long...)
I have a family now: the best I could do these days is stand outside the hobby shop and press my face against the glass...
2018D rides through 7 foot diameter curves. The 4 foot ones are too tight for a machine almost two feet long itself, although the diesel can manage it.
I have no train room. I have no room for a train room...I do have the trains though! A great life's lesson I learned too late is hobbyists shouldn't live in spit levels: the half basement is a hobby killer! I have a nice screening room, because I've managed to blend it into our living space and my wife is a kind, patient soul!
The tour I'm talking about is actually through the living room, down the hall, through the kitchen, into the dining room, under the table, through the arch, under the coffee table and back to the beginning. It's very Gulliver's Travels...what it would look like to somebody maybe 7 inches tall! (Mom and Dad were very patient too...parents of future Engineers often need to be! I took their stuff apart before I became able to fix it!)
My film collection is probably a third to a half railroad films, and it's actually what got me started in the first place.
I have this custom of bringing one really nice sound railroad film to CineSea to be on the big screen and Doug's Xenon GS-1200. Last time was Sunday River Productions' The Complete Silverton. (It was quite a show!)
[ January 26, 2018, 11:37 AM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 27, 2018, 02:08 PM:
I came across this really neat "Pan American" poster on the internet, anyway not sure of the year, but I dont remember "Glasgow" ever looking like that, but its a nice bit of false advertising
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 27, 2018, 03:06 PM:
Pan American Airlines, forever immortalized in the opening sequence of 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Who would have thought when Kubrick made the film that PAA would go under before the end of the century.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on January 27, 2018, 05:51 PM:
Michael, both silent and sound I have close to 100 railroad films. Blackhawk, Walton, Fletcher, Derann, Interurban, Mountain, and other one-offs including home movies of railroad action. All are 8mm or super 8. I have only one train film in 16mm....Blackhawk's Hudsons of the NYC....the 16mm stuff is hard to find or I just never see it fast enough to buy.
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on January 27, 2018, 10:24 PM:
Bill,
I logged into my eBay page and created an Advanced Search, with saved keywords as:
16mm steam train , and 16mm diesel train , and 16mm locomotives
Blackhawk films RailRoad films series etc. and occasionally I will receive an alert in my email.
As you mentioned there has not been many Blackhawk Train Films listed on eBay in a while, few and far between, but they do become listed on eBay.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on January 28, 2018, 04:04 AM:
I should do what you suggest. I have kept a list of all the Blackhawk train films I see that I don't win or buy and I think the list has more films on it than I actually have in my collection.....Blackhawk made a ton of train films!
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on January 28, 2018, 08:19 PM:
Bill,
Try these phrases too: Railway, Blackhawk Railroad Series, and a eBay seller: s.maturin
Some auctions hit high ending auction prices as this one from last November by s.maturin, starting price was $1.00 and ended at $1,025.00, for a 5 minute home movie of the Hiwatha Milwalkee Road
Click the picture that reads: SOLD and the page will display all 44 images when you scroll down to see the frame grabs.
I received this 16mm auction yesterday by: s.maturin
THUNDERING RAILS
s.maturin has twocurrent color 8mm British Railway auctions on eBay. I don't know if these are 8mm or Super 8.
Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway Documentary,
Color 8mm FILM ISLE OF MAN RAILWAY Steam Train ENGLAND documentary MOVIE
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 30, 2018, 10:22 PM:
Well,
-as long as we're on this...railroad track.
I'm in a phase of film I go into every so often. Even though I really enjoy sound, sometimes I turn off the amp and go silent. I've been there all this week.
I have this whole bin full of Sunday River Productions railroad films, many of them silent. A lot of these are historic footage taken a long time ago of places and times that are long gone. Some of this is really beautiful footage and the lab work at Sunday River was as good as it got. If I felt guilty about it these would be a guilty pleasure, but I simply enjoy them and my collection of them has gone up about tenfold since the "end of film". This is where I've been going on screen since the weekend.
Tonight was two Otto Perry films. He was a railroad fan that lived in Denver just around the twilight of the Colorado narrow gauge lines and the end of Steam. He's best known as a still photographer, and you can still buy books of his pictures.
These two films were transferred to Super-8 from 16mm footage Otto Perry shot in the 1940s and 1950s. They show a still photographer's eye for composition and I suspect even somebody that wasn't in it for the trains might appreciate them on that basis alone.
This was on my screen less than an hour ago:
What's kind of fun about these is they are amateur footage and don't try to hide it at all. Along with the really wonderful shots are many little goofs that anybody who has handled a movie camera will recognize right away. My favorite among these is every so often he's filming a really long train and as the caboose is passing the camera all of a sudden the train accelerates like it's on a catapult!
-spring powered camera, didn't quite make it to the end of the shot.
My wife asked me tonight when I'm going back to sound.
-couple more days, but for now Silents is golden!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 03, 2018, 03:30 PM:
I'm not very big on sequels, but...
I liked this other screenshot, too, so why not?
There's an interesting detail in this picture. If you look below the right edge of the screen, you see the image reflected off the top of my video projector. When it's positioned for projection it's kind of in the way, so it and its table get moved out of the way until showtime. Here it is sitting waiting for a job to do.
I stay set up for Super-8 basically full time. Being a great medium for shorts it's perfect for spur if the moment viewing. Here, video is almost entirely for features: more a weekends only kind of thing.
(We'll bust into a little 16mm tomorrow too!)
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on February 03, 2018, 03:45 PM:
Great screen shot Steve! Just how big is that screen?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 03, 2018, 03:52 PM:
hi Paul,
Thanks!
It's 52" by 92", but being that it's a 16:9 screen and a 4:3 image I only get to take advantage of the 52" in this case.
It's also good for about 3 feet tall in 'scope.
It hangs inside a bay window behind the curtains: this was the biggest screen I could fit!
Someday I'm going to mount a movie camera where my projectors sit and film some antics through the bay window: it'll make a great opening short! ( I have a teenage son: he's basically built of antics!)
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on February 03, 2018, 08:01 PM:
Steve,
Did you attend Sewanhaka Central High School District #2?
I grew up there.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 03, 2018, 08:32 PM:
Very much so!
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on February 03, 2018, 09:33 PM:
Cool! Great H.S.
While attending EMHS, Sewanhaka was during my HS was for grades 9-12 and the Voc Tech Program was incomparable.
Are you aware that Sewanhaka expanded the building behind the school?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 03, 2018, 09:53 PM:
So I've heard!
I was in the neighborhood last Spring and dropped by just to wonder how I got old so fast!
(Time flies when you're having fun, so I must be having a BALL!!!)
I saw the addition out the back of the gym, but just the beginnings of it.
Local friends who are also alumnus say the architecture doesn't quite blend, but I guess that's a lot to ask for on a budget.
I jumped ship from H. Frank Carey at the start of 10th grade to join Technical Electricity and Electronics: to this day I've never regretted it.
Dad grew up near Belmont Park: class of 1946: graphic arts. (Formidable Scrabble opponent! Could spell ANYTHING!)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 08, 2018, 09:21 PM:
Olympics at Last!
My wife and I have been saying we'd like to put the Winter Olympics up on my movie screen for at least two Winter Olympics now.
Well, I finally rounded up the last of the pieces to make it happen last week and as of tonight we've actually pulled it off!
(There's HDMI cable running across the floor tonight...)
-she got her figure skating tonight, and I'm looking forward to bobsled.
Believe it or not, a Super-8 projector is playing a critical role here. Just the same as it has been for years the entire audio chain is grounded through an Elmo sound projector.
(I just got two Blackhawks from Zechariah Sporre: the Super-8 machine will go active again this weekend.)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 09, 2018, 12:08 PM:
Wow Steve thats a stunning picture...is that your Epson?
Funny thing I posted an old photo of yours truly taken in the early 1960s on "Ritchie's Ferries" on a crossing from Gourock to Kilcreggin on the "Firth of Clyde" to a Scottish facebook page on the Clyde. One person made the comment the boat was called The Tigeres ...its amazing the information people have and willing to share through the internet
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 09, 2018, 12:54 PM:
Hi Graham,
Yes it is! My wife bought it for me for Christmas the year before last. (I guess she got tired of listening to me talk about it...)
Tonight we will watch the Opening Ceremonies.
-kind of strange: I'd expect those to come first!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 14, 2018, 08:54 PM:
The Need for Speed!
We’ve seen a LOT of figure skating these last few days…It’s my wife’s favorite part of the Olympics. I’m into it more for the speed-based sports. I’ve been looking forward to big-screening something like bobsledding.
Tonight we got some mens’ skeleton sledding:
-including a pass down the track for the camera…
(In this sport, nobody luges!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 17, 2018, 07:12 PM:
Looks great Steve ...we have been watching it lately
I came across this saying today, that brought back long ago memories of primary school in Glasgow
I can still remember singing this....amazing
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 18, 2018, 03:51 PM:
Well the world has certainly got smaller.. I have been keeping an eye on the Argyll and Southerland Highlanders ACF Facebook page, as its interesting to me how things have changed in the last 50odd years since I was part of the ACF.
Anyway I posted them this old photo of me, and the badge, hoping they dont want it back I got a reply saying quote "I think you have earned the badge" and thanking me for the support.
Its great to see young people still involved in the ACF and the activities they do, for me looking back it was a great experence.
I have still got the badge it should have been returned when I left but somehow it didn't
As the ACF is now and good on them..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 19, 2018, 08:52 PM:
Bobsled!
I finally got to the reason I bought all this electronic gadgetry to hook my VP into the cable TV: bobsledding. (My wife thinks it’s figure skating…I won’t tell if you don’t!)
This is my favorite event in the Winter Olympics.
I suppose I’d like it on my bucket list: I’d like to be one of the guys in the middle of a four man Olympic bobsled. I don’t want to steer the thing or operate the brake. I’m not completely sure I wouldn’t scream all the way down, and can’t guarantee I wouldn’t down a quart of scotch afterwards, but I’d like to know what it feels like to go 85mph through a tube of ice! (Just ONCE!)
(-and for the record, we did some 16mm too!)
Great memories, Graham! Something I've learned these last few months is you need to keep moving forward, but you'd be foolish to lose your own history.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 20, 2018, 12:04 PM:
So true Steve
I always reckon we are always learning something new every day and keeping a positive open mind to take it all in is very important, although when you do get to a certain age we start to reflect back a lot more
Posted by Antoine Orsero (Member # 41) on February 20, 2018, 01:39 PM:
You know that?
[ February 22, 2018, 09:36 AM: Message edited by: Douglas Meltzer ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 22, 2018, 12:00 PM:
Hi Antoine,
Please tell us the story!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 28, 2018, 04:36 PM:
While I was out feeding the birdies this morning and reading of the extreme weather hitting Scotland at the moment, it reminded me of this old Press photo that I had come across a while ago, that was taken in George Square, Glasgow.. back in 1968.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 01, 2018, 01:35 PM:
Today, March !st is Saint David's Day, the National day of Wales, and it kicks off a week of celebration in that country. So out goes the Welsh flag on the front porch for the next 7 days. In the USA the Irish St Patrick's day is a big deal, but the Welsh national day get's no mention!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 01, 2018, 09:05 PM:
Looks good Paul
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 15, 2018, 08:28 AM:
Some cat wishes he was named "Mittens" today...
Well, if all else fails, I'm sure the fur coat is a plus.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 16, 2018, 03:06 PM:
Last week I caught up with lady at the mall over coffee now retired, who for years along with myself used to drive special needs kids to school from this side of town. Strange thing that only weeks before Yvonne and I were out shopping at the same mall, when this tall skinny kid now 16 years old, came up and grabbed me and gave me and Yvonne a big hug. He had been on my run for four years, even with a history of violence and foster care I never had a problem with him after a quick chat, I was pleased he was doing ok. Anyway I came across some photos of one of the vehicles I drove... the transit. It was a manual six speed really nice to drive, but sadly when the contract expired they wanted it back
It would have made a great camper
[ March 16, 2018, 04:49 PM: Message edited by: Graham Ritchie ]
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on March 20, 2018, 05:14 PM:
My wife and I went to Chicago for St. Patrick's Day to see the river turn green. I also shot some 8mm Ektachrome E100D film of it with a Bolex B8. They added the dye on Saturday morning at 9:00 AM, it was still bright green the last time I saw it Sunday evening.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 25, 2018, 06:56 PM:
Hibernation is (Almost) Over!
Every year right around this time we’ve had just about enough of winter. That feeling of wonder we got at the first snow flakes in December died about five storms ago. It’s time to get out of the house and maybe dream a little of Spring and Summer on the way.
Every year we head down to the south shore right around this time and spend an afternoon.
For people that live on an island with several hundred miles of them, we aren’t great beach people. We have no surf board, we do no Hula Hoop, we never met Annette Funicello either! It’s just right now it’s a great place for a good dose of sunshine and fresh air.
This time it was Jones Beach. In the summer literally millions of people visit here, but right now the crowds are pretty much as we like them!
That thin dark band between sand and sky is the same Atlantic Ocean a lot of us share, but we aren’t looking towards Europe here. This is a generally south facing beach. If you are a really strong swimmer and head towards the Horizon from where we are here, you’ll be in the Bahamas in about a thousand miles. (Pack a lunch!)
Where Europe comes in is every few minutes an Airliner passes overhead on a route to or from Kennedy Airport, Europe is most often the other end of their trip.
Look at that thin wisp of snow in the foreground: it goes to show it’s not over just yet!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 25, 2018, 08:12 PM:
That looks great Steve ...good photos everyone.
Taking a break from films and me doing a bit of reading instead. Yvonne, after watching the movie the other night, is also a keen book reader, and came back from a shopping trip with this one.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 30, 2018, 02:37 PM:
Calm, yet Not so Cold!
We were up at the Harbor yesterday morning (Breakfast: highly recommended...)
It was very quiet out on the water: just this one sailboat moored out in the middle and a small fishing boat.
For people that have had enough of this particular winter this is real progress: a couple of weeks ago there were no boats at all: only ice!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 31, 2018, 01:25 PM:
Last night I saw the moon...and thought I would try a quick hand held shot with Yvonne new camera.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 07, 2018, 03:09 PM:
Graham,
There is something really interesting about your photo.
There is a crater on the Moon called Tycho. Maybe 100 Million years ago something very big moving very fast clobbered the Moon. It left a crater about 50 miles across and about 3 miles deep. Rays of material leaving the scene of the accident left tracks about a thousand miles long in many directions. It's so cataclysmic you can see it with halfway decent eyesight 200,000 miles away here on Earth on a clear night.
It was quite a hit!
All of that isn't what's interesting about your photo. I'm used to seeing Tycho on the "bottom" of the moon, but in your picture it's up top.
-just a matter of the hemisphere it was seen from!
Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on April 07, 2018, 04:02 PM:
Fascinating - Shorty
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 07, 2018, 04:45 PM:
Even better seen from the beach in Wildwood, Joe!
Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on April 07, 2018, 04:59 PM:
What magnification does the camera have, Graham?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 07, 2018, 07:46 PM:
Philosophy Time
I brought my car back to Honda the other day for an oil change (JUST an oil change!), They said I needed an engine belt and it would be $250. I asked them if it was made of gold or if they needed to yank the engine out to change it. He said the part itelf was $125 an it was really hard to do.
I told them "No!", but its a long walk home from Wildwood if that belt gave up halfway there!
They were pretty shrewd about it too: somebody called yesterday to see if I was ready to surrender yet.
I got the belt, it was $29.
I put it in this afternoon, took about an hour. It was kind of nasty, but you give me 220 bucks and I will do one of these seven times a week!
Some Impressions:
1) Cars aren't built to be worked on anymore. His belt snaked around about 6 pulleys in a space maybe 2 inches wide between the engine and inner fender. The big old Fords I worked on in my twenties had enough room under the hood for a family of four to move in and invite people in for the Holidays! These new ones are packed so densely you could toss a bucket of water on the engine and it just might not run out the bottom!
2) Say what you will about YouTube, you can't fix this car without it! Honda has no service book, but beyond their control, people keep putting up how-to videos. Without them I would never have known where the belt tensioner was or the secret panel Honda put inside the fender well to allow easy access to the pulley on the crankshaft.
3) I kept thinking about projectors while I was doing this. There's a small belt on ST-1200HD to maximize the belt contact around the 18FPS roller pulley. Honda did the exact same thing around the crankshaft pulley with two idler pulleys. It just may be you can learn something useful from this hobby!
4) There's some things about owning a "new" car that aren't always a plus. I had my old car 25 years and knew every nut and bolt on it. This one I've had for five and every time I run into something like this it's a production! This will be an easy job the second time I do it!
5) If I'm going to mess around with Japanese cars I definitely need more metric tools: the pickings were awfully thin and that didn't help in the least. I used a 3/4" socket on a metric hex. (I checked to see if my Shop Teacher was watching first...)
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on April 07, 2018, 08:02 PM:
Steve,
I'm curious, is the dealership Huntington Honda?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 07, 2018, 08:12 PM:
Oddly Enough, yes it is!
The Three Ring Circus of Auto Dealerships!
I've seem less hectic Airports than Huntington Honda!
You have to admire (or even fear) their Service Department. They are fully trained in Psychological Warfare! I had this car a couple of months and came in for an oil change (JUST an oil change!), the guy behind the counter also said they had their Three Month Service Special: they'd rotate my floormats and check my tire pressure, they'd empty the ashtrays (I don't smoke...) and check fluids nobody else even knows about!
-they were having a Special that day: only $299!
I told them "No!". (I thought: "Isn't this the reason I got rid of my old car?")
The guy behind the counter slightly bowed his head and thrust out his lower lip! I could swear I saw a tear in the corner of his eye!
He made me feel like I was neglecting a puppy!
-for just a second!
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on April 07, 2018, 09:39 PM:
I'm familiar with that dealership. I had a '06 Accord, under warranty, and the rear strut was leaking oil.
The service rep refused to believe that my observation to repair the car was valid and his blunt reply was: that's not the problem, it didn't happen. When they have to eat the bill, they're dismissive of the customer, and that's unacceptable business. Ultimately, the service dept fixed the strut under warranty, but the service rep took no accountability for his foul attitude when I questioned him afterward.
When the Accord was 500 miles over the warranty, I noticed that the car was dripping transmission engine oil. The service dept gave me a detail of charges to repair the leak, and refusing in being taken over a barrel I asked to speak to the service manager, and after listening to my inquiry, he hanged up the phone.
Instead, I had my Dad's neighbor take a look, and the problem was a loose nut that connected a small L-shaped tube at the bottom of the radiator, which required light tightening.
You are not the first to say that the dealership is akin to an airport, and that's the reason a family member of ours decided on buying a Hyundai vehicle from the Hyundai Dealership that's nearby to Huntington Honda.
Your right, Islip MacArthur Airport is more sedate than H. Honda, and the service reps are psychologically abusive. They learn a script that conveys a soft sell with the urgency that your car is dilapidated. I asked the service rep: please ask the mechanic to check the following items for repair, and I was corrected that they are not Mechanics, but they are "Service Technicians."
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 08, 2018, 12:43 AM:
Great stories about the motor trade ...some things just never change.
Steve thats interesting about Tycho...
Robert
The camera is a Panasonic Lumex DC-FZ80...with a zoom range of 20mm to 1200mm. The photo of the moon was nowhere near the its full zoom range. I did look at Canon cameras at the time, but felt this one offered more features for the same price, including the option of taking 4K video up to 15 minutes worth on this card, plus many other things once I have time to sit down and go through just some of it.
This afternoon I was loading the platter with the 2005 documentry "March of the Penguins" this is where the quality of film wins out over digital. I haven't yet watched it but to visit Antarctic on 35mm should be good..
[ April 08, 2018, 03:12 AM: Message edited by: Graham Ritchie ]
Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on April 09, 2018, 05:14 AM:
That was a very good photo Graham.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 10, 2018, 02:05 PM:
Watching march of the Penguins seems to have promted a change in the weather After seeing what the weather was like up in the Nothern Hemisphere, its now our turn, funny enough I came across our old snow chains last week
Here are a couple of photos from our local paper...
They need to fix the sign..
And for those young visitors from Brisbane, Australia, who have never seen snow before in there life.. its magic
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 10, 2018, 09:31 PM:
Wow!
It looks like there's no place to escape the stuff this year!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 12, 2018, 01:52 PM:
Steve I dont no if its just me, but I feel the summers are getting shorter, and the winters getting longer
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 12, 2018, 03:17 PM:
Sometimes I think, at least locally they are actually getting colder!
My car has a temperature reading on the dashboard. One frosty morning a year or so ago I got out there to go to work and I cranked over the engine (like molasses...). The dashboard said "-5"
I thought "Please be Celsius!...Please!"
-but it was Farenheight...
I don't think I've seen it go below zero three times my whole life!
It pays to remember I basically live out in the ocean and our temperatures are supposed to be moderated by all that water. (The winds are another story.)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 13, 2018, 08:13 AM:
Back to the Present!
How often do you see a Delorean?
I'm kind of lucky: I get to see one pretty much every day, and I don't even need to pay for it!
It belongs to a friend of mine at work, and other than when he has to wait for replacement parts to show up, he drives it most days. Before he went into electronics he was a certified mechanic for Volkswagen: that's pretty much what it takes to keep one of these motivated all these years after Marty McFly and Doc Brown!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 14, 2018, 09:43 PM:
This one's for Shorty...
(He'll understand!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 15, 2018, 08:54 PM:
Never seen a Delorean except in the movie, must be a very rare car.
I am on a bit of a nautical theme at the moment which for some reason reminded of this photo I took, of a not so impressed Steven back in 1994, during a short visit me and him did to visit my parents. I thought lets do a day trip down the Firth of Clyde to Brodick on the Isle of Arran. Not one to sit inside, I enjoy the somewhat breezy journey however Steven, had other ideas. I think his expression says it all, as what he thought about me at the time
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 16, 2018, 12:30 PM:
Graham, over the years I've been both the kid scowling into the lens and the Dad pointing the camera too, so I doubly sympathize!
When we've lived enough years, we wind up paying our parents back for what we put them through as children! (I for example am proofreading a paper on Ernest Hemingway this week! ...after all those years Mom typed MY papers!)
We spent the weekend in Cape May, New Jersey. This is the very, very southern tip of New Jersey, the next stop on the Garden State Parkway after Wildwood and the last stop too. (-or they'll have to fish you out of Delaware Bay!).
Before dinner we visited Sunset point, which is worthy of the name.
Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on April 16, 2018, 01:17 PM:
Steve, and how I understand Will be there soon enough - Love to the family, Shorty
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 23, 2018, 07:34 PM:
There was certainly eye contact...
-and I think the squirrel actually enjoyed it!
(-the cat? Not so much!)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 27, 2018, 08:59 PM:
Just a touch of Wildwood Neon on a cool April night!
Posted by Reese Williams (Member # 6432) on May 01, 2018, 04:10 PM:
This is very interesting
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on May 10, 2018, 03:22 PM:
My film-buddy....BUSTER
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 11, 2018, 01:50 AM:
Brilliant Janice ...was Buster watching a Tom and Jerry?
Going to re-visit an old afternoon matinee tomorrow afternoon. The last time I watched a Scope 35mm print of "633 Squadron" was way back in 1964-65 when I was twelve or thirteen. Its not the full feature, but its still a good hours worth of film to watch. I spliced all 4 reels onto one full 6000ft reel now sitting on top of the Bauer yesterday. Its all ready for a wee bit of a nostalgia trip down memory lane.
Just got to warm the projector up then thread it....
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 12, 2018, 05:24 PM:
Yesterday afternoon sitting on a fold up chair in the garage watching 633 Squadron. I was taking a chance leaving the Bauer U4 with a very full of untested 6000ft reel of 35mm film, but thought why not, just sit back and enjoy the film...so I did. Although I did check things every so often, that it wasn't spilling film all over the floor, as usual the Bauer ran great
....screen shot from yesterday...
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 25, 2018, 07:53 AM:
I found this on the front walk on the way out to the car today:
-Man!
-this stuff gets around!
(I guess it would be a stretch to blame it on the Neighbors!)
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on May 25, 2018, 08:43 AM:
You found the missing footage!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 25, 2018, 09:55 AM:
I'm thinking about this: I know exactly what this is.
-a few years ago I went through a film I made in my teens and cut all the tape splices out and redid them in cement. This snip has the odd squiqqly cut the blade on the Baia splicing block makes and it's about as long as a tape splice. (Besides, look at the perfs!)
-so this is like a rock in the ocean, slowly working it's way up on the beach! In the span of about 5 years it's migrated about 50 feet!
(I'd think they'd be safer if they travelled as a herd: I go through there with the lawnmower all the time!)
Of High School, Tape Splices and Ektachrome
How's the Drive-In doing, Bill?
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on May 25, 2018, 08:28 PM:
Thanks for asking. It's going well. Right now I'm showing DEADPOOL2 and SUPERTROOPERS2. Or, as I call it, STUPIDTROOPERS2. Always a double feature here but I wouldn't have chosen these two if I had any say in the matter.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 25, 2018, 08:44 PM:
Ours is not to reason why!
I've been to a number of Drive-In screenings the last ten years: all double features.
-to this day I've never seen the second feature, including the time that's the one I really wanted to see (Cowboys and Aliens), because of the other people in the car.
(-the attention spans of hummingbirds!)
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on May 25, 2018, 08:54 PM:
A double feature at a drive-in is always a late night outing. In any given night, half the cars leave after the first feature. It's usually the newer movie anyway. The rest of them stick it out to the end of the second feature - usually around 1am. Later if the movies are really long. It's a long night for a projectionist.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 31, 2018, 08:17 PM:
I came across this photo on Facebook that might interest those folk from NY.
Queuing up to watch Errol Flynn's 1950 picture "Rocky Mountain" at Schenectady, New York's Lincoln Theatre in 1951.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 31, 2018, 08:42 PM:
-Been There!
Well, not literally "there", but back when I was 7 years old "Scrooge" was playing at Radio City Music Hall (When they still played movies there...).
We arrived for one screening, but found ourselves sold out, standing outside between the ropes in a line literally a couple of blocks long waiting for the next show!
They had to have gaps at the ropes at the intersections (obviously...), so people came to the gap and dodged across when space opened up, trying hard not to get mowed down by a cab or a bus. Times being what they were, nobody tried to cheat the line.
It was December, and I was something less than 5 feet tall and well under a hundred pounds. I was the youngest in the family and surrounded in a canyon of taller people's coats. They crowded in on me and kept everything but my feet from the temperatures! I spent an entire feature like a Flamingo! -first one foot and then the other!
I thought I'd still be standing in that line when I was twenty! (-as if I could imagine ever being THAT old!)
-but eventually we reached Radio City, (and the HEAT!), and saw the movie!
Twenty years later I met my wife: turns out she was there too! -maybe a thousand feet away, maybe five (With all those taller people's coats around us, it didn't really matter!). Who KNOWS what would have happened if we met that night?!!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 01, 2018, 05:57 PM:
Steve
When I was very young I used to think people that left school at 15 years.... were old
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 03, 2018, 03:15 AM:
Well the "big" news this week and after no swimming pool for the local kids and others since the 2011 earthquakes due to complex beyond repair. The new pool opened across the road from where we live this week. It might not seem like a big thing to others, but after six years of city repairs, getting this new one built although smaller is really something. From 7am this morning, lines were forming to get in and was soon full, so it was a case of one out one in.
The grandkids are really going to like what planners came up with, anyway here are a couple of photos I took of the old complex sadly being demolished a few years back.
And now the new one
https://youtu.be/j70v9ysGOVM
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 07, 2018, 02:45 AM:
Mid Winter here at the moment...
Just got back from an evening walk.
7pm 7th June
Mostly Cloudy.
10'C.
Precipitation 39%
Humidity 83%
Wind 18km/h
Now for a cup o tea
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 07, 2018, 08:40 AM:
So, Graham!
The snowshoe is on the other foot, Eh?!!!!
Upton, New York
60F/19C
9:28AM 7th June
Mostly Cloudy.
60F/19C.
Precipitation 0%
Humidity 84%
Wind 6mph/9.7km/h
Don't you call this time of the year "Autumn"? It's Springtime here and summer starts in about two weeks.
-actually we are at the beginning of fawning season right now:
These are kind of "Jurassic Park" deer: 100 years ago deer had been driven to extinction here on Long Island and then some local Sportsmen's clubs decided they'd bring a few from the mainland and have something to shoot at. Lo and behold without the wolves that are supposed to come with the deer as a set, the deer caught on and are actually a nuisance in some places!
I work within a 2500 Acre Federal reserve and there is no hunting allowed within the boundaries. There is an urban legend that the deer actually crowd inside the Lab during hunting season and there's not a damned thing Elmer Fudd can do about it!
(Life will find a way though, there is discussion of Coyotes across the water in the Bronx and Connecticut and the idea they'll get here eventually!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 07, 2018, 08:53 PM:
Very good Steve
Life will find a way....didn't Jeff Goldblum say that in "Jurassic Park" and he was right.
Talking about deer, back in the 1970s I went up with a guy I worked with, to do a bit of deer stalking in a place called the Lewis Pass. We spent the weekend in there and the person I went with had grown up on a farm, so he really was in his element doing this sort of thing...not me.
He shot a deer cut it up then and there, then filled his freezer with venison when he got home. I should add the only shooting I did was with a camera.
Photo taken at the time with my green woolly hat looking serious
Oh! I forgot to mention the sessions out here Spring.. Sept, Oct, Nov. Summer... Dec, Jan, Feb. Autumn... March, April, May. With Winter... June, July, Aug. another month yet to go to hit the middle
PS When I joined the ACF I was 13yrs old, it wasn't until I was about 15 until I received my marksman badge in a shooting competition with an old Lee Enfield 303. We used to go to military bases on summer camps etc and they supplied the weapons and training and of coarse the range.
Looking back we never had any ear protection etc nothing like today. The army range instructors were very good, and sometimes would grab a hold of the rifle and give you and it a good shake, just to make sure you were getting the butt into your shoulder properly, as the old 303 had a strong recoil and could knock you shoulder out. To this day I have a healthy respect for the 303 Lee Enfield its very accurate and very deadly if you are on the wrong side of it.
The worse thing for me, was being left handed as I used to fire from my left shoulder and have to twist the rifle to get to the bolt which meant having to move position. I don't think they ever made them for left handed people like me
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 19, 2018, 11:34 AM:
Ancient Traditions
We went camping and canoeing on Saturday, kind of keeping an ancient tradition. My family started camping the summer when I was between kindergarten and 1st grade. If you do the math, that’s 51 years ago.
It’s a great family activity, because everybody gets a job to do and a lot of them you need to work together.
We went to a county park that my favorite paddling river flows through. We set up the camper and my son and I took our solo boats down to the launch and paddled about 3 miles on the Carmans River estuary. My wife took a camp chair and a book and stayed back at the campground. (-as it's said: "Whatever floats your boat!")
Now, what a lot of people don’t understand about camping is how much it is about the food: it may be the best food that you’ll ever have! By this do I mean it’s fancy? Not at all! If we were wearing cowboy hats and had been trailing a chuck wagon all day, this would be called “grub”! It was just a can of chili over elbow macaroni! However, when you’ve spent an afternoon in a tiny boat trying to shove the World backwards with a big stick it’s one of the best meals you will ever have!
Of course we had a campfire that night. I think campfires are a good thing for modern people, because they are all about patience. You get this tiny lick of flame, and somehow you need to keep faith that you can nurture it into something big enough and hot enough to reduce an entire log to ash without just dowsing it in gasoline and losing your eyebrows!
Based on my years of campfires I am utterly shocked that a house ever burns down! Truth of the matter is that the average house is built of better firewood than what gets used in a campfire: it’s been under that nice roof drying for a couple of decades and probably arrived from the lumberyard kiln-dried to begin with, but “campfire wood” was probably still a living tree a few weeks ago! My bag of tricks starts with something that actually burns quite a few houses down: dryer lint. It is disturbingly flammable and it is what I light even before the kindling.
A campfire is different than a TV: it’s fascinating to watch but you don’t have to focus on it. If you are alone you tend to think, if you aren’t you tend to talk. We talked about my Mom and Dad because Saturday would have been their 67th Anniversary. It would have been great if they could have been with us at our fire that night, but in a sense they were anyway.
The next morning we had another great camping meal: grossly misshapen pancakes with sausages and hot coffee percolated on the stove. We'll skip the heat of Summer, but we'll go again before Fall.
-Great Weekend!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 24, 2018, 04:17 PM:
We had to wait a couple of minutes for a table at lunch today...
-took the chance to appreciate some local architecture.
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on June 24, 2018, 11:33 PM:
Steve,
Is that building in Brooklyn?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 24, 2018, 11:41 PM:
Brilliant Steve
Yvonne just got back yesterday from visiting a friend up in the Nelson area... top of the South Island. Although its winter at the moment the weather was good, anyway Yvonne did manage to take some nice photos.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 25, 2018, 06:46 AM:
Graham,
-definitely looks like an above-average winter to me!
Mike,
It's Main Street, Northport: right down by the harbor.
Posted by Stuart Reid (Member # 1460) on June 25, 2018, 07:34 AM:
Steve, I like your folding camper, we have something similar, if you Google Dandy Folding Camper you'll see it. Fits 4 of us in comfort in proper beds, with running water, cooker and underfloor heater. A quirky British design that dates back to the 1960's. I'm never happier than when we're camping.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 25, 2018, 08:58 AM:
Stuart,
Always nice to meet another Camper!
Our Pop-Up is kind of a marital compromise: early on in our marriage we tented and my wife decided we needed to stop sleeping on the ground! I resisted at first, but I have come around! Every so often my son and I throw a tent in our boats and go back to basics, but for the most part this is the way.
This one is specifically designed to be towed by a small car: many compacts here are rated to tow no more than a thousand pounds, and this one weighs in at 980. Since we became parents we've towed with minivans or SUVs and it's practically nothing for them to tow.
It sleeps 5 in three beds, but they'd better be close, close friends! It is fine for the three of us.
Of course we are in the era of four wheel disk brakes with power-assist. My Dad towed a 1400 pound camper with 4 wheel drums and whatever pressure he could apply through his shoe soles. The leg muscles that man must have had! Then again when everyone had drum brakes there was probably more room to stop!
I think if there is anything that encourages the excess accumulation of gear more than collecting films it HAS to be camping: I have an entire bin of implements just for cooking over campfires: hot dog forks, a popcorn popper, pie irons, a Dutch oven, a waffle iron! You stand there in a store and you see this stuff and it just calls to you! ("buy me!, buy me!!!")
-it's a mania!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 01, 2018, 11:13 PM:
Going through our old home movies at the moment and with the school holidays coming up soon. I might show the grandkids what there parents used to get up to. I used my spare GS1200 and unlike the other GS machine, this one I have kept with its original three bladed shutter, a must for 18fps.
Of all the films we have, our old movies taken with a Canon 512XLE at the time are the most important. I do hope Kodak come to the party this year with new film stock, in both slide and Super 8 form.
flying a kite
blowing bubbles
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on July 01, 2018, 11:56 PM:
Beautiful Graham
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 02, 2018, 04:23 AM:
Thanks Bill
Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on July 02, 2018, 03:43 PM:
Graham - It never ceases to amaze me how the colour from these home movies we made years and years ago has stood up sooooooo well! It is a pity that can't be said about a lot of the package movie colour films! But at least if we must have one that fades and one that doesn't.... at least it is the right way around in my opinion. Home movie memories are priceless!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on July 02, 2018, 04:48 PM:
........the difference between Kodachrome and Eastman print stock Melvin. Right now it looks as if home movies shot on Kodachrome will last at least another 100 years. No digital format will come close to that.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 03, 2018, 07:58 AM:
Really nice, Graham!
I find even the Ektachrome I shot back in the 1970s still looks like new.
We have great old friends of the family who have one reel of Kodachrome R8 shot at their wedding reception in 1957. They don't have a projector so when I was 20 and 45 I showed up at their major anniversary parties with a machine and showed it for them.
It looks brand new. Now, the bride and groom have changed a...little... (You recognize the smiles: that's pretty much it!)
What's neat about it is they see it so rarely it's like a first viewing to them every time they do.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 03, 2018, 09:41 PM:
One thing that stands out with home movies is that the image still looks so fresh, like it was just taken yesterday. Its hard to put into words, but unlike a video image, those Super 8 home movies just seem to come alive when running them through a actual film projector.
It does make me wonder what has happened to the millions of feet worldwide of film either taken on Std 8 or Super 8 since home movies came out, I guess around the late 1920s.
Came across a neat bit of advertising of the Canon 512XLE....incidentally the camera still goes, always thought Canon made nice lenses in both there still and movie.
[ July 04, 2018, 02:39 AM: Message edited by: Graham Ritchie ]
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on July 05, 2018, 09:46 PM:
I agree about the millions of feet of home movies looking awesome especially if shot on Kodachrome. I have 10 400' reels of Regular 8 Kodachrome handed to me when I bought an old DeJur 750 projector. The seller didn't want them. I think they were shot by his grandfather. They are beautifully shot and look like new. I have no idea who the people are in these films but I refuse to part with them. They are also beautifully edited.
[ July 05, 2018, 11:49 PM: Message edited by: William Olson ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 13, 2018, 08:33 AM:
Evening Band Concert down by the Harbor:
-looks like it really IS Summer!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on July 27, 2018, 06:47 PM:
Just about finished with bits and bobs reels. Reel 15 will be the last one, its been very interesting making up those reels full of ads, trailers, shorts etc. This last reel will include all twelve McDonalds ads all joined together.
All those made up 2000 foot reels are for the Ernemann projector. I have been picky with everything added, making sure each of those reels have an interesting mix.
The one thing I have found is all the films are in excellent condition. Its funny looking back at this stuff.
I never realized we ran so many McDonald.....
Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on August 04, 2018, 06:11 PM:
I've been working in Cottage Grove, Oregon all summer. To escape the heat I go out to the coast on my days off. These were shot on a foggy day with a Kodak Medalist 620 camera using re-spooled Fuji Acros 100. I developed it in beer (similar to a Caffenol recipe).
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 07, 2018, 04:13 PM:
Bryan
That's fantastic, great to read about developing those photos in beer, they look good.
Took a couple of photos of my round trip to fellow forum member Pats cinema last Friday. I took along a back up 35mm film print for a private screening he was doing that night. The round trip was 300klm, five hours driving behind the wheel. I really do need a bigger car, as this we Starlet is a great shopping basket for town running, but no use for long distance.
Loading up the back up print on Friday morning Reel one not in photo as its already in the front just 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.
Running a test reel on the Kinoton, this is the very projector we used at Movieland, great to see it running again and consider the Kinoton one of the best modern 35mm projectors...certainly my favorite for cinema use.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 08, 2018, 02:11 PM:
Thanks to a fellow forum member for giving me some centers for 35mm reels. This has allowed me to make two so far, with a third in the pipeline hopefully if I have time to make today. Up to now I have been using 2000ft reels, about 20 minutes of 35mm film, making these larger reels to a 3000ft capacity which the Ernemann2 projector can take, will in turn give me a chance of making up 30 minute worth of 35mm film of shorts etc.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 11, 2018, 06:24 PM:
Roll on summer... and I can then get and about and
of this computer
I found a new place for "tweety" as he keeps falling down.
Making up some films yesterday...must run my Super8 version sometime soon.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 21, 2018, 04:49 PM:
So I got to work this morning and found this where my friend usually parks his Delorean:
I asked him about it and he said he and his friend traded cars for the day.
-Sweet deal!
He said his friend works at Volkswagen. I told him he should find similar friends at Ferrari and Porsche!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 21, 2018, 05:05 PM:
Steve
What year is it? for some reason it looks unusual
My old boss in Scotland had a 1967 model, 12 volt, thankfully not the 6 volt system of earlier cars. Also had... if I remember right the 1500cc engine....it was his pride and joy
PS I once changed a clutch in 32 minutes at a garage I once worked at.....not now
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 21, 2018, 05:11 PM:
Hi Graham,
Judging from the bumpers it's from the 1960s. The ones made in the 70's had much simpler designed bumpers: just a curved chrome bar with a rubber strip.
(Really wish I'd looked at the registration sticker before he left!)
Edit: The 1966 (and earlier) bug had no reverse lights. The 1968 (and later) had them integrated into the tail lights. 1967 was the only year they were mounted separately on the rear bumper, so it's a 1967.
(I LOVE Google!)
My friend had a couple of old MG coupes (Neither consistently ran: they traded parts backs and forth and took turns!). He had a 6V car and a later 12V car. The 6V had a battery bay in the back floor behind the driver's seat.
Did the 12V car have a bigger battery bay for a larger 12V battery?
Noooooooo!
-it had a second battery bay for a second 6V battery behind the passenger seat and the two were strapped in series!
[ August 21, 2018, 10:07 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on August 21, 2018, 10:04 PM:
The taillights remain small, the headlights transitioned to more of an upright positioned modern appearance and I would say 1967, but where did that chrome rear vent come from?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 21, 2018, 10:14 PM:
Hey Mike,
I see some with it and some without.
-maybe aftermarket?
We're lucky here: the '67 had a number of unique features that make it easy to distinguish from other years.
-this doesn't usually come so easily among VW beetles!
I love the roof rack: makes me think of plaid suitcases, picnic baskets and stops at Howard Johnson's!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 22, 2018, 01:30 AM:
To be honest I was never a fan for the VW, however my old boss an X Royal Navy I should add, used to be "really" fussy on keeping it nice "covered up most of the time". I still remember him lighting up his old tobacco pipe and just standing there in a bit of a daze looking at it
Memories
This old ad made me smile....now here is a question ,once you are floating around in the lake as shown, how do you get back?
https://youtu.be/1qB0lb401ZU
Posted by Phil Murat (Member # 5148) on August 22, 2018, 04:09 AM:
Waohhh Graham !!!!
32mn to replace a clutch on the "Beatle" !!!!!.......
This is just a dream, now I don't see any car for which such a performance is possible yet....
Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on August 22, 2018, 04:35 AM:
I didn't realize there was a clutch on a "Beatle." The Fender can be replaced by Les Paul, but that is about it!!!!
(cryptic joke)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 22, 2018, 08:37 AM:
It's here again...
Confirmed!
That chrome grill over the engine air vent seems to be a sheet metal overlay on the regular one. I could imagine somebody years ago mail-ordering it from JC Whitney!
Does anybody remember the Rolls-Volks? This had to be the ultimate Volkswagen aftermarket accessory.
These cars last were sold new here in the early 1970s because they couldn't be made to comply with new safety and emissions requirements. They kept going in other parts of the world for a long time though: when I worked in Mexico in the late 1990s they were using them as police cars. (-obviously not for high-speed pursuit!)
Melvin: "Stratocaster"!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 22, 2018, 01:51 PM:
Well Phil and Melvin check this out
Remember those engines were only held to the gearbox with about four bolts, although other things are connected as well, if you are properly set up for a quick clutch change, it can be done.
These days being in my 60s it would take me longer... probably around 40 minutes.
https://youtu.be/7T51LmuhOA8
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 22, 2018, 02:13 PM:
The Beetle is a great Hobbyist's car.
Parts are common (either NOS, used or reproduction), they are as simple as a stone axe and are always good for a smile.
-granted, by modern standards they are death traps, but nobody said you can't leave them in the garage until a sunny Saturday and drive something else the rest of the time!
We used to camp with a guy who was a NYC bus mechanic. He restored a VW bus camper. This was basically a beetle engine pushing around a tiny house! He figured on going through an engine every couple of years. No big deal to him: he'd pull it out in the Fall and rebuild it in his spare time before the Winter was out.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 24, 2018, 03:42 PM:
Our here some of those cars are now fetching good money in particular the old VW Kombi Camper.
Its funny how cars that I once worked on during the 60s and 70s are now considered classics, back then it was just another car. I was at the mall just lately, when I parked my car, got out and locked it, next to a car which had the bonnet/hood up. The owner asked me if I could give him a jump start he had the leads, which I did. When I disconnected the leads, I looked at the engine, stood back and said to him, this is a Datsun 260c, and that I have not seen one in around 40 years
I had a look at it, the car looked good with no rust etc. I said to him, that I once worked for Datsun agents as a mechanic in the past and told him to look after it, as these days it would be considered a classic and worth a bit of money, much more than an old bomb to go to the mall
All that from a quick visit to get a cup of coffee
Going through my junk, I came across this little tin I have had since the late 60s. This is the stuff my old boss smoked, but in it are the range of shims needed to get he right valve clearance when working on cylinder heads. The last time any of those were used, would be around the 1972 mark when I worked on a Jaguar XJ6 4.2 litre twin cam cylinder head. They are also used on Hillman Imp OHC engines.
Its amazing the stuff you accumulate over a lifetime as a mechanic either on cars or on aircraft, but never to be used again
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 24, 2018, 06:50 PM:
I have a set of those steel ramps you drive one end of the car up to work underneath. Then my father in law passed away and I wound up with his pair too.
-When our friends in Brooklyn decided to give us theirs I put a stop to it!
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on August 24, 2018, 07:57 PM:
I remember one time my friend parked his Beetle in a very slanted way. Rather than re-park it, four of us lifted it into a straight parked position.
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on August 24, 2018, 10:06 PM:
If I have this correct, and I can't explain how a colleague of mine refurbished his VW Van (Vanagon?) with a Porsche engine. Is there some kind of similarity with Porche and VW engines? Please explain.
Anyhow, talk about fast!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 25, 2018, 01:48 AM:
Michael
Cant help you much Michael as I have never come across one, but anything is possible. Apart from both engines being air cooled there is probably a lot more to it than just a simple swap.
Anyway I did a google and came across this modified kombi and does it go
https://youtu.be/BJ2frLTnPDs
I could just see Steve with this one
PS In my long ago Datsun days, the 240Z was a real flyer, I used to road test up to 100mph on the Glasgow motorway. The 240Z had a five speed manual gearbox, but did not like slow moving traffic. You had to be careful with the clutch and throttle in first gear, as it really wanted to get up and go
Although this particular car in this interesting video has been modified, they still went like a rocket.
https://youtu.be/EO2y_-vpolA
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on August 25, 2018, 04:10 AM:
No pictures but not a good start to the day when the smoke alarms went off at 4am. I traced it to the cellar and called the fire brigade. It looks like the dehumidifier there had caught. No serious damage (except smoke to the rest of the house) though the electrics are out downstairs and a few old bottles of home made wine got smashed.
The paramedic and ambulance crew checked me over and apart from initial high blood pressure everything seems OK. No films were damaged.
Now to get the carbon off everything!!!!!
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on August 25, 2018, 11:00 PM:
Graham,
Thanks for the videos with the comparisons.
My colleague's VW had that get up and go speed without the skidding.
The second shot after the VW passes through the curve had the impressive rocket speed in his model too.
Steve,
Thanks for verifying the model is a '67.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 26, 2018, 01:44 AM:
My first car when I lived in San Francisco was a used VW Bug with a sunroof. Loved that little car and it had a lot more room on the inside that you would think. I sold it for a new Ford Pinto and then after I got married we sold the Pinto for a Datsun 260z. However performance-wise it didn't live up to the expectations of it predecessor 240z. Graham...Did the 260z model last more that 1 year? I know it wasn't long before they came out with the 280z.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 26, 2018, 07:43 AM:
Brian,
We're glad to hear you came through it all right!
Life is never boring (even if sometimes we wish it would be!) Something new is always coming up.
We had a lightning strike in the neighborhood last week. It was close: sounded like Santa was up on our roof firing a mortar!
We had phone service back in a day, Internet back in two, our new TV is in a box sitting in front of me, I'm still looking for a stereo amp that will drop in where my old one was, and the check is on the way from the insurance company!
-Can't say nothing ever happens here!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 26, 2018, 01:32 PM:
Brian
Glad you hear all is ok, it also shows the importance of having smoke detectors in the house. There has been many tragic cases of loss of life in the past without them.
Janice
I only came across the 240z in Scotland, when I came to NZ I did work for a Datsun agent, however never had much to do with the 240z mostly they imported the other Datsun models, I worked there until I moved to AVIS in late 1975, there it was all British or Australian cars.
I did a check on google and it does appear the production run for the 260z only lasted a couple of years. Compared to the 240z the 260z performance was reduced to meet the US emissions regulations that came into effect at the time. If I have read it right, the 260z was replaced by the 280z around 1975, and to boost its performance, a Bosch designed electronic fuel injection was added.
For me "Datsun" fell of my radar as I moved to Aviation from AVIS around the 1976 mark. In saying that, it would be great to once again have a drive of the 240z that's if I could handle its impressive performance.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 01, 2018, 02:15 PM:
I took this photo of the inside of a Eumig S932 running after working on it.
However later in the day, I looked at the photo and saw "Tweety" looking at me through the projector....strange I thought "Tweety" must be keeping an eye on me.
Do you think all this projector and film stuff make people a bit crazy?
I must open a museum
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 04, 2018, 03:17 PM:
Local Adventure! (One item OFF the bucket list!)
Well, after many years we finally pulled of a local canoe camping trip last week. The deed itself is no big deal: simply paddle to a campsite with a bunch of camping gear and set up house overnight. It’s done this way all over the world: people often travel for days on end this way. It’s just a smidge of pioneer living you can enjoy and then put away until next time. It’s commonly done in upstate New York, Maine and Minnesota and throughout Canada, it’s done in Europe and Australia too, it’s just not often (or ever) done here.
Long Island is a place with a lot of variety: the West End is Brooklyn and Queens and very much part of the City of New York, along with subways to Manhattan and bridges and tunnels to the Mainland, high-rises, sports stadiums and city parks. 120 miles away the East End is the Hamptons and farms and vineyards and boating, fishing and beaches. In between you have almost eight million people doing anything and everything you can imagine in modern American life, whether for better or worse.
-just not canoe camping.
I grew up camping. My parents started taking us when I was 5 years old. Most of the time, we are what are called “RVers”. We have a folding camper and a couple of times a year we go to a campground somewhere and relax around the campfire for an evening. We belonged to a camping club for decades and some of my best friends and best memories came from those weekends away. Today when we camp it helps me celebrate those days and my parents too.
This is low level adventure: there is running water and electric power if you want it. Many commercial campgrounds these days have cable TV hookups and WiFi! There are sometimes swimming pools. This is just fine for the typical family adventure, especially when there are small kids involved or when you want to do it for more than a few days, yet is it possible to take it further.
The next level is up there with back packing and canoe camping: basically living with what you can bring under your own power. There must be less stuff and it must be compact and lightweight.
I’ve been doing what can be called canoeing with camping: a car towing a camper, with canoe(s) on the roof rack. I camp near a lake, carry the boat down to the water and paddle around for a while, yet still sleep on a mattress not down at ground level.
I like doing things other people aren’t doing. For example, I like the idea that when I light up a screen with a movie on film, there’s a decent chance that among the tens of thousands of people living around me, exactly nobody is doing what I’m doing. That makes it MY thing! I’ve done canoe camping a little up in Maine, just maybe if I managed locally I’d get that same satisfaction.
Canoe camping is simply not done locally. Yes: there is camping. Yes: there is canoeing. There is even camping with canoeing, but camping from a boat is simply NOT a thing here. There are no (official) wilderness campsites, because there is not a lot in the way of true wilderness. You might say it’s just not part of the local culture: the idea of “Let’s do this” or “Let’s promote this” just isn’t there. It’s more “What IS this?” and “Go Upstate!”.
Years ago I decided I wanted to be the exception here, so I took my boat and started looking at islands in the local rivers. One day I struck gold: a clearing inside a wooded island. Somebody, maybe years before had the same idea I (eventually) did: the entrance was fairly hard to find and there was a fire ring in there made from stones obviously from someplace else. I forgot about it while my son was very little, but went there again a few years ago and found it was being reclaimed by the forest. Since then we’ve brought some saws and shears over and made it a campsite again. We named it “Camp Mason” in honor of Bill Mason, one of my favorite filmmakers. Last week we finally got around to really camping there, not just having lunch or building a fire and hanging out for a while.
Oddly enough: the biggest barrier was what to do with the car. If some local official finds a car with empty canoe racks at the launch after dark, their last thought will be “someone’s camping.”, more like “someone’s drowning!” and we didn’t want to have to pay for a Police helicopter Search and Rescue! (”YOU DOWN THERE IN THE SLEEPING BAG!...DON’T MOVE!”)
My wife stepped in here: she dropped us off, went home and then picked us up the next day: in honor of Neil Armstrong we called her and the car “the Command Module”.
Here’s the ground rules for what I’d accept as a real canoe camping trip:
-There must be an overnight stay. Without that it’s basically a picnic!
-Everything we need we bring with us and take away too: stash no supplies and leave no mess!
-There must be meals cooked and served there: no delivered pizza or sneaking off to McDonald’s!
-Bonus for a campfire. For me the fire is kind of defining here. Even in a fire pit out on our back patio, this is just a little bit “camping”. (It’s what popcorn is at the Movies!)
-and so we began!
The first impression here is how sluggish a 33-pound boat becomes when you add in maybe 50 pounds of gear (Firewood is SO heavy!), but we paddled about a mile and a half and hauled out.
Then comes the setup. Based on his 15 years camping with us and years in Scouting, Steven did a great job setting his own tent up, even though this one was brand new to him.
The two of us have a tradition going back to when he was in Kindergarten. I have a decent sized Thermos that holds two cans of Spaghettios and keeps them hot for many hours. When he was little and we went on a hike, I’d pack this along with some spoons and bowls and we’d have a trailside meal. Years later, be it a hike or a long bike ride or a canoe trip, the thermos, spoons and bowls still come along. If someday, years from now you hear about a middle-aged man showing up at a nursing home with a Thermos full of Spaghettios, you just may understand why!
This is how we started out that night: just some quick chow after the trip over. Soon the sun set. We got a campfire going and the evening meal continued!
There’s just something about hotdogs over a fire. The wood smoke adds a little more flavor, but I think more than anything it’s the ritual!
We do grilled-cheese sandwiches on the fire too. This involves the use of a pie iron: basically a cast iron clamshell mounted on two long handles. This is put directly on the hot coals. At night it’s a two-man operation: one has to operate the pie iron, taking it out of the fire often to see how the sandwich is coming along and the second one to operate the flashlight and have the plate ready for the end results.
The major safety tip here is to remember that “pie iron” sounds a lot like “branding iron”, and that’s no coincidence! Unless you want to explain a really weird scar for the rest of your life (“ROME PIE IRON”, mirror imaged), you should learn to respect this thing!
What’s a slight injustice is the iron is meant for square bread, but I like rye bread! My sandwich looked like this!
-but this IS roughing it, so I suffered mightily through a badly squared-off sandwich! (Someday they’ll write ballades about it for sure!)
(-note to self: find square rye bread before next time…or bring a better knife!)
By the fire, we talked a lot: he’s a teenage boy and for him life is going by at a crazy blur. I’m well along in middle age: Ditto!
How does your evening usually end? Maybe there’s nothing good on the ‘tube or maybe you’re going to have a long day at work tomorrow and need to rest up. Maybe you just can’t keep your eyes open anymore. In this case it’s simpler than any of that: we ran out of firewood around 11:00PM and called it a night.(-less weight for the trip home…) We’d brought a collapsible bucket with us to keep the fire from getting out of hand, so we poured river water over the coals and headed off to the tents for a well-earned night’s sleep
.
Good Night!
(More to come!)
[ September 04, 2018, 04:33 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 06, 2018, 02:12 PM:
The Next Day
"Steven...........wake up!.........STEVEN!...." (Teenagers!)
So, the sun rose on our little campsite, revealing the absolute splendor of complete disorder! (think “Freshman Dorm!”) I guess it was entirely our fault, but then again, it’s a natural consequence of this kind of camping. There isn’t a place for everything, so nothing can possibly be in its place! There are no shelves or cabinets for storage, and under the light of flashlights and the campfire it’s hard to see what’s going on. The end result is you see it in daylight and ask yourself “Who lives HERE?” You find strange things like one sneaker laying in a canoe with its mate two tents away!
-so there was some quick organization before breakfast.
I had wondered about breakfast in the days before…maybe bacon and eggs…then again do hotdogs count as breakfast sausage? Then it dawned on me that I own a genuine campfire waffle iron! This great cast-iron lollypop is from the same folk that made the Pie Iron from the night before. I’ve gotten to know this thing in the years since we got it and I can tell you here the idea of a campfire waffle is a complete lie! In order to keep the batter inside, it needs to be kept level, and you just don’t do that at an open fire. Making waffles in the dark is a whole separate kettle of fish!
-breakfast food needs to come after sunrise: it’s just common sense!
I played with it a long time before I managed to get a decent waffle out of it. The key ingredient is a stove: level cooking surface, reliable, controllable heat. I happen to have a nice little single burner that did a great job!
Something I learned this time is you need to spritz the iron for EVERY waffle. I made three waffles. The first and third came out really great, but the second stuck and it looked like it needed an ambulance! (I’d never made more than one at a time, so this never came up before.)
If you do a camping breakfast there MUST be coffee!
There’s something deceiving about this picture I need to explain: everything shown is smaller than you think! The percolator is two 16 Oz. cups, so basically one mug. The stove fits very comfortably in the palm of your hand, and if you disconnect the gas bottle and fold it up, it fits in a shirt pocket. This little stove is hot: I had a steaming hot mug of percolated coffee starting from cold water in about 8 minutes. It uses two tablespoons of ground beans which traveled in a ziplock inside the coffee pot. (It pays to simplify and organise!!)
This coffee is great! It’s very smooth and satisfying. I kept it to myself though: giving a cup of coffee to a teenage boy you’re trapped on a small island with just isn’t smart parenting! (…or even self-preservation!)
The little percolator is the 1950s Keurig: just coffee for one. I found it on E-bay for five bucks when the outdoors stores had the Swedish Alpine Mountaineering equivalent for like $75! (“Stainless Steel, handcrafted by Elves! -Tested on Everest!) It has been with me all the way from Camping to CineSea!
So it came time to pack up and go home. I’ll have to say we did a pretty decent job this time. You know it’s gotten out of hand when somebody arrives home from camping with their tent unfolded and dragging out the back window: something has gone wrong! We folded them both back into their pouches and packed things basically into the vessels they’d arrived in.
We paddled back upstream to find my wife waiting at the launch, and then headed for the house.
So we had pulled it off: being two guys out of a population of 8 million doing something that most of the rest never even thinks about! We enjoyed ourselves and have resolved to do it annually from now on, both here and even where it’s more commonly done. If nothing else when you have somebody growing up in your house you need to remember that your time under the same roof is finite, and you have to grab times like these while you can.
It also helps you to appreciate life back home! The warm shower and a long nap on a real mattress that afternoon suited me just fine!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 09, 2018, 01:12 AM:
Brilliant Steve
Regarding heating water, I am trying to remember the name of an item that you filled with water that had a hole in the center. The idea was to place twigs into the its center and then light them. The idea of the water jacket surrounding that hole made the heating of water very efficient.Its a long time ago now I don't think they are made anymore, but without gas they were ideal.
I still have my old Pressure Tilley lamp "Kerosene/paraffin". The last time I used that one, was a late night fishing trip to a local beach. Those Tilley Lamps were great, and you could take them anywhere and into any conditions. This one needs a new kit, I think you can still buy them.
Still hanging up in the garage..
I have been trying to improve my fitness to be able to get back up to the mountains this summer. However I have no intention of doing the Arthur's Pass.. Scott's Track like Steven and I did many years ago...that would finish me
However we can do other tracks, but not like that one from the below photos.. those days have well and truly gone.
However there is a Outdoor Center in the township, where you can get the latest weather report "a must" and check in with your details, what track you are doing all that kind of stuff, including when you are due back and the registration number of your car in the car park.
One thing we always took along in our back packs, even on a nice day, is heavy duty outdoor clothing, fully water proof nothing like you wear in town. The weather can change in a instant and once above the bush line the temperature drops dramatically. I always think its great to enjoy the outdoors, but never go on my own and always have respect of those mountains and what they can throw at you in a instant.
In this old slide you can just make out the road below where we started..
Steven wrapping up, it was interesting to hear small avalanches going off near us all the time, although where we were was quite safe..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 09, 2018, 01:19 PM:
Graham,
I wouldn't know what a pressure lamp is other than a Super-8 film: "Snow Drift at Bleath Gill". It talks about men trying to free a train snowed in and frozen solid under the light of pressure lamps. I had to look it up and found out the translation is "Coleman Lantern", not because Coleman invented it, but because they make the vast majority of the ones used here.
My Dad had a curious relationship with our Coleman lantern. Deep down I suspect he loved it the same way we might love a favorite projector. We're used to just flipping a switch and having light pour out, but this thing was a process! You filled the tank with Coleman Fuel, which was some sort of gasoline. You pump up the air pressure in the fuel tank Then you open up a valve and adjust this little lever that nobody back then really understood but I now believe was air/fuel mixture.
It had the allure of danger to it: you'd light the mantles and very often...."WHHHHHOOOOOOOSH!!!"", this orange fireball would pour out and then settle down to this bright white light and reassuring sound of air and fuel rising up from the tank.
You could see the satisfaction in his eyes that he had faced the inferno once again and still had his eyebrows! He had battled the elements one on one and prevailed!
Coleman fuel presented Dad with one of his super-powers. You can't always count on a campfire. Some days the kindling and wood are just plain soggy and no amount of tinder and fanning the flames will dry it out, at least among us mere mortals! You give Dad a full can of Coleman Fuel and he could make anything burn!
He lit one of these up in Massachusetts when I was seven years old, and I swear I remember a shock wave passing under my feet!
(I don't think he learned any of this in the Scouts!)
Maybe 20 years later Mom bought him a new one that screwed on top of a propane cylinder. You open the valve, you hold a flame to it, it lights. Dad appreciated the convenience, but I'm sure it just wasn't the same: kind of the difference between using a parachute or just taking the elevator!
Delaware Water Gap, Ca. 1970
(May we camp together again someday where the firewood is always dry!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 10, 2018, 11:48 PM:
Brilliant Steve.
As spring is on us, myself and my granddaughter went for a walk, nothing unusual about that in itself, except its only five minutes walking to get there from our house. In all our years here we never bothered to have a look until now It was a nice day for a wander around the wetland, will have to do it again.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 19, 2018, 04:08 PM:
NOT a camping picture!
I realize I've been posting a lot of camping stuff lately, so I'm calling this a "biking picture"!
We were (...you know) last weekend. We left the boats home and brought the bikes along instead.
This is one of my favorite places. It's way Out East: 10 miles east of there it's nothing but Atlantic all the way to Portugal. This time of the year the season has really wound down and we came pretty close to having the whole park to ourselves.
I like the picture: it has a certain "If Tom Hanks was stranded with bikes instead of a vollyball" quality to it. (Who would he TALK to?)
Well done Graham: Time outdoors, time with your Granddaughter and a healthy walk.
-all good!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 20, 2018, 03:57 PM:
Thanks Steve.
I was thinking about you when I ran this stunning 35mm Scope print of Alaska the other night. Although the story itself is fairly basic and understand the film did not do well on its 1996 release, the location photography really does shine on 35mm.
Its going to get another screening this weekend
Here are a couple of screen shots from the old Ernemann 2 projector..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 22, 2018, 02:40 PM:
"STEVE!!! There's WATER under the SINK!!"
I hate doing plumbing...
-but you'd never guess that given the amount of time I spend doing it!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 28, 2018, 10:24 PM:
Spring is here and what a wonderful day it is today..
Admiring my front picket fence I put up for Yvonne a couple of years ago...Yvonne has a thing about white picket fences.
feeding my friends....strange every time I go out the front they follow me....its a bit like the film "The Birds".
Lastly finished fixing the second Eumig 810D LUX Projector, letting it warm in the sun for a touch super strength Araldite on a small repair to go off.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 29, 2018, 04:02 PM:
Projecting with the old Ernemann 2 some 35mm film with friends the other night
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 01, 2018, 01:05 AM:
Looking through old Super 8 cameras lately and trying to find one that still works is quite a challenge. The electronics seems to have given up in quite a few of them
So far this Elmo 612 seems to be the one I would like to try out with the new film, everything seems to be still working. I still have my Canon 512XLE and that still goes as well.. a good back up.
I am still waiting for some Super 8 film "64T" to come back from getting transferred onto a flash drive, then will edit it on the computor and show you the results. I was a bit dissapointed with some of the 64T, but will see what the results are like. The film was all shot indoors using a 1000 watt lamp, with plenty of bounce light....it was certainly bright.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 03, 2018, 09:35 PM:
Well, It's getting to be Fall.
A couple of weeks ago Sunset was a little before 9 O'clock, but this afternoon I left work and around 6:30 I came around a curve and the sky opened up over the road. The sun was low in the sky and it was like the clouds were on fire!
I pulled over, snapped the picture through the windshield, stuck it back in "Drive" and took off again. Just then another car pulled over, sat a few seconds and took off.
I wonder which discussion forum HE posts on!
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on October 06, 2018, 10:57 PM:
Steve,
Great shot. Is this the Northern State Pkwy?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 06, 2018, 11:04 PM:
Hi Mike,
Nicolls Road, up around Suffolk Comunity College.
Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on October 07, 2018, 12:06 AM:
Thanks Steve.
Is there much MacArthur airport traffic in the morning?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 07, 2018, 12:13 AM:
I‘m eastbound in the morning: to us “traffic” is any time we’re forced below 65 MPH!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 19, 2018, 01:16 AM:
My better half suggested I should get on my bike today, so I did. With summer just around the corner, it was a case of blowing up the tyres, spray some WD40 on the chain, fill the drink bottle and away I go. I am working at this fitness thing at the moment, so have to push myself and less of going out for coffee.
This retirement thing is pretty good but you have to be careful you don't turn into a couch potato
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 19, 2018, 06:27 AM:
You are making me jealous on multiple levels here Graham!
I’m 11 years away from retirement and we’re bracing for winter! (AGAIN!)
I’m debating cutting the lawn once more or leaving it alone.
I saw the snow blower in the shed the other day: I swear it smiled at me!
(We still have some bike riding to do.)
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on October 19, 2018, 05:15 PM:
Graham...your summer's just starting and ours in California is ending. Temperatures are still warm however and I'm still going out for walks without a jacket
Yes...it's easy after retiring to become less active. Glad to see you are making an effort to keep fit and keeping up with physical activities. I need to exercise more myself. I'm on a Ketogenic diet now which I love. The food tastes so good and I feel good too.
Enjoy your summer!
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on October 19, 2018, 05:17 PM:
When you retire you either become a couch potato or get involved with so much else you soon wonder how you ever had time to go to work. That happened to me and several colleges when we left BT.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 20, 2018, 01:34 AM:
Steve I hope you have a mild winter and that snow blower gets little use
Janice That's brilliant about your ketogenic diet and glad you are still out and about.
Brian
I agree about being retired, some folk have trouble adjusting to it, but when you have worked all your life its great to reach a stage that you now have time to do your own thing and follow interests.
Its always interesting to hear what other folk get up to "not just films" and this topic through pictures etc is a great way to communicate it.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 24, 2018, 11:53 AM:
HOW did this HAPPEN?!!
These two are actually the same picture, just taken in neighboring decades.
-same activity, just a difference of degree!
-same guy behind the wheel, yet in some ways very different too!
I know what happened between the two, it’s just how did it happen..so fast?!
I swear I was here the whole time, yet somehow it still kind of sneaked up on me!
I am perplexed and more than a little concerned…yet still kinda proud!
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on October 24, 2018, 12:48 PM:
Steve, Your boy and mine are the exact same age pretty much. Mine just turned 16 this month, and by 3:30 PM that afternoon, he walked out of the Transportation Office with his beginners license in hand. We just finished this learning to drive curve with my daughter last year, and although she is pretty good now, the white hairs I gained remain.... here we go again.....
I have to admit, one perk is that it is nice to be chauffeured more often these days
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 24, 2018, 01:45 PM:
Steven turned 16 in August, my wife slipped the test preparation booklet in with his birthday present. He passed the permit test last week.
This becomes more of a challenge when you look at it from my point of view: it seems like about 30 minutes ago I taught this kid how to ride a bike and I imagined we'd never get him off training wheels!
There came a day when all of a sudden he rode a couple of hundred feet with both wheels in the air and I unbolted them and we rode a couple of miles that day.
-if you call a miracle something you can't explain that happens entirely beyond your expectations, I had witnessed a miracle.
Last weekend we drove up to a beach near home that has immense parking lots and a couple of miles of park roads. We're at the end of season now so it's pretty quiet. I had him step on the brake, stick it in "D" and slowly ease off the pedal and we slowly rolled around the parking lot, just to gain a feel for the steering and brakes. When he felt a little more confident (-actually when I did!) I had him point the car away from potential targets and try that skinny pedal on the right: the thing jumped! (This was a lesson in subtlety!)
Just for interest, I had him put the car in a parking space: I've seen worse!
Once he got that down we went on a motoring trip: just a pleasant day in the park. The only thing really notable is we took a left turn and wound up on the British side of the line, but all in all it was a pretty decent first day!
Matt, you and your son should motor on down to Wildwood some day!
[ October 24, 2018, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on October 24, 2018, 02:16 PM:
Steve, can you drive alone on the public roads when you're 16 in the US ? In Belgium, you must be 18 to get a driving licence. Anyway, congratulations to your son
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 24, 2018, 02:27 PM:
It varies by state: in some states you can get a license in your early teens, but here there are just too many things to collide with!
In New York you can get a learner's permit at 16. This is driving only with an licensed adult driver in the car during daylight hours. If you pass your road test before you are 18 you get a junior license: like a permit but you can drive solo, yet restricted to travel to school or a job. If you add in driver's education or just turn 18 you get a regular driver's license.
So he can't drive alone, he can't drive at night, he can't drive out of state, but within these limits he can drive on public roads.
...and he's started to pick out cars!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on October 24, 2018, 03:21 PM:
Thanks for your explanation 🙂
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 25, 2018, 01:31 AM:
Brilliant Steve
Is Steven going to a driving school? Out here I would encourage anyone learning, to take a driving defensive coarse, they have cars rigged to do all kinds of things and the kids are taught how to get out of spins etc, all done in a controlled environment.
Out here if you learn to drive a manual, you can also drive an automatic as well. However if they are taught only in a auto they cant drive a manual, so its best to start learning in a manual car.
I did make the big mistake of trying to teach both Steven and April when they turned 16 to drive. April got in a huff with me, got out slammed the door, and said something along the lines she was walking home.
Steven...well he was another case of not listing. I spent most of my time shouting "SLOW DOWN YOU ARE GOING TO FAST" stamping my foot at some imaginary brake pedal.
The last person I tried to teach was young Chis from the cinema, who had saved up and bought an old manual Toyoto Corrolla, as at the time was not getting anywhere with the driving school so I thought I could help....another mistake
I do remember his younger brother in the back shouting "FASTER FASTER" and we were already doing 100km. The glazed look on both of them made me decide "ENOUGH" I am outa here
I will never ever attempt to teach anyone else to drive... leave that to the professionals
Here is a picture of the manual DX Corrolla that April and Steven learned in....the poor car never had a chance
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 25, 2018, 08:12 AM:
Hi Graham,
His high school offers Driver's Education next year. To register for it we need to have permit in hand. That's a big part of what's going on here.
There's no hurry here: I passed my road test when I was 17 and a half and that's young enough! The roads here are often very busy and throwing an inexperienced driver into the maelstrom is not a smart thing to do!
In the meantime there are plenty of sheltered places to practice and we'll slowly build him up. He will also learn how to drive with a trailer, check and change oil, learn what all the stuff with hoses and wires coming in and out under the hood is and how to load canoes and or bikes on a roof rack. (That's mostly for me!)
-like owning a bear rug except you have to feed it too!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 26, 2018, 03:43 AM:
Ever get the feeling we are being watched?
Posted by Greg May (Member # 6310) on October 26, 2018, 11:19 AM:
Looking at everyone's posts, I felt inspired to do a little write up of my own.
For the past seven years, I've worked in broadcasting. Ranging from being a board operator, producer, assistant production manager, and show host I've done a little bit of everything. I've worked at many stations throughout the Philadelphia area. Today is a bookmark in that chapter of my life.
Earlier this month I accepted a role in the world of IT. The broadcasting world tends to be a roller coaster whether it be sanity or salary. That being said in 2016 I went back to school. I already have a B.A. in Radio, TV, and Film production. As of the 5th of November I'll be adding to that with a B.S. in Information Systems. This coming Monday, I will be putting it to work when I begin the new job.
This is not a complete goodbye from radio though. I am only scaling back. I'll continue to host my overnight show (pre-recorded) Monday through Friday. I could not see myself breaking away from radio completely. I still enjoyed what I did, but I am also excited to start a new chapter. I figured I would share a few pictures of my studio to go along with this.
Here's to new beginnings!
A look at the main desk. (Sneaking the forum when I have a free minute)
Even though I had limited wall space in here, I'd like to print out pictures every now and then and throw them on the cork board.
Counting down the days, we are finally here at the last day.
[ October 26, 2018, 12:28 PM: Message edited by: Greg May ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 26, 2018, 12:24 PM:
Excellent, Greg!
This is very much in the spirit of "Your today in pictures.": just random, interesting stuff from around the world!
I think Radio is a great medium, because of the way it makes the listener engage their imagination.
You fit the CineSea profile pretty well: we have a lot of people involved in media in many ways (filmmakers, radio broadcasters, cinema projectionists.) I just do circuits: I'm one of the useful, yet not nearly so fascinating!
Posted by Greg May (Member # 6310) on October 26, 2018, 12:33 PM:
Thanks Steve!
When I first started in radio it seemed much more personal, between the host and the listener. I hosted a variety of shows at my college radio station and we had a decent amount of listener engagement. I still host a show there once a month highlighting music from the 1940's-70's.
It is a little different now. Everything is pre-recorded here for the most part. It takes some of the magic away in a sense.
That being said, I'm happy to be among similar folks when it comes to the CineSea family!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 29, 2018, 03:10 AM:
Brilliant Greg
Saturday afternoon I shut myself away in the garage and watched some films on the Bauer. Its quite a contrast to the new city cinema, with its plush reclining seats that has just opened. In this case, its one fold up chair between the bike and lawn mower. The down side to this, is when I close the garage door from the inside, its very hard to get out. I can adjust the volume from inside the garage. Its amazing how loud it is on the outside,.... so I have been told.
When you close the door, the screen "an old roller blind" swings back.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on October 29, 2018, 04:43 AM:
What a great garage Graham!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 29, 2018, 09:12 AM:
Yes, and that's just his garage!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 29, 2018, 08:42 PM:
Thanks Bill and Steve
I did promise Yvonne that there would still be room for our cars, both now 20 year old Starlets. If you look at the center photo, you can see two white paited bits of wood that are dyna bolted to the concrete floor, so when we drive in, the front tyres hit them, so we cant go through the wall . It leaves about 2 inches at the front and about the same at the rear of the car for the garage door to just shut
Its a squeeze, but the garage is not all cinema, like I promised Taking up any more room, we would have to get something like a Fiat Bambina..
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 31, 2018, 02:37 PM:
Amphibious landing at the Ocean Holiday
This is kind of a Cinesea activity, but since it’s not a very group activity I decided it didn’t really think it belonged in Claus’ photo essay.
This is actually kind of a sad story. It’s the difference between childhood and adulthood: too little wisdom vs. not enough spare time and energy and what those both can do to a project.
When I was 12 years old I borrowed a book on building model cars from the public library. The author had built this spectacular working model of a WWII US Army amphibious Jeep. I wanted one badly, so I built one the way a 12 year old would: also badly. The plans were 1/3 size, and since I was too lazy to manually blow them up point by point, line by line, I made the thing about six inches long.
-it ran on AA batteries so it needed new batteries constantly, the prop was too small to make any usable thrust, the hardware and materials were too often what I could scrape up at home, the craftsmanship was so-so: it was actually kinda crappy!
Years later, after technical school, after engineering school, armed with scanners, computers, printers, algebra, trigonometry, calculus and adulthood, I decided I was going to do it again, and finally do it right!
I went back to my hometown, and went to the library: “Building and Operating Model Cars” had been off the shelves for decades (-and it felt a little creepy to be in the youth section in my forties!). It was the Millennium, it didn’t matter: I found one on E-bay. I scanned the plans in, bought a set of wheels, scaled the printouts to the wheels. I was on my way!
The original was finished in about 6 weeks the summer when I was between 6th and 7th grade. Surely with my advanced knowledge, tools and techniques I could finish the new one in a few months! (Right?)
Ten years later…
-I was about half finished!
I'm not very proud of this: part of the reason i did it was to show my son how projects are done. (This will have to be useful as a bad example!)
Sometimes I ran into a problem I couldn’t easily solve. Being I’m no longer 12 years old I couldn’t just sweep the problem under the rug (Hey! This method got me through Junior High!). I had to come up with some elegant solution, and while I was waiting for the light to dawn the thing sat up on top of the china closet for a year. (I way, way overthink this thing!)
Of course I couldn't accept the plans as the author designed them: mine had to be better! ("Instructions! -HAH!")
Most times it’s just regular old-fashioned laziness: do I want to watch a film or lay on the couch and read, or do I want to get all the tools out, do some actual work and wind up leaving sawdust all over the floor?
I decided this project had a personnel problem: the “employee” that was making that problem was me! I needed to rally the "staff" and get this thing done!
In a vast cosmic sense, it doesn’t matter if I ever get this model completely built: the world will go on. Since I had a fake problem, I needed a fake motivation. This came in the form of the swimming pool at the Ocean Holiday.
I’ve made it a personal goal to sail this little Jeep with my son at every CineSea when I know there will be water in the pool.
This management method has actually worked! The first time I successfully closed up the hull and installed the sea motor and prop. This last time I relocated the batteries astern so the bow rides high and it sails straighter.
The military nickname for these is “Seep” (Sea Jeep), and no nickname ever fit better! Every time I sail it under some different set of conditions, some leak lets a teaspoon of water in some compartment. I take it home, give some attention to that porous seam, and prepare to head back to the waves next time.
I’d say we are now at about 85%. The thing runs on land and water, the entire hull is built and is mostly water tight. The top deck is cut out.
-All it needs is wiring, the top structure built up and painting.
When I get those few, small things done it will look like this:
What do you think? Maybe another ten years?
Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on October 31, 2018, 03:47 PM:
I just happened to catch the voyage of the Seep from a higher angle.
Doug
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 31, 2018, 03:49 PM:
Thanks, Doug!
That's our "control system": it's kind of like very slow tennis!
Theoretically I could have made it radio control...but life is too short!
One thing I've learned for sure is the next time I build a model, I want it to be from a kit: all the parts, all the plans, all the materials in a nice box!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 01, 2018, 05:42 PM:
Brilliant Steve
Look forward to seeing it completed soon
Yvonne and I were out shopping this week when she handed me this very 50 cent coin which is doing the rounds at the moment here is a couple of photos I took of it. Its legal tender and on the edge it states "Eleventh Hour Of The Eleventh Day Of The Eleventh Month"
Its to commemorate the "centenary" of the day in 1918 when the guns fell silent along the Western Front. The First World War had effectively ended and to honour all those that served.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on November 01, 2018, 05:49 PM:
That's a nice looking coin.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 04, 2018, 03:00 PM:
Hi Bill
I came across a very interesting interview of a documentary by Peter Jackson called "They Shall Not Grow Old" What is so interesting, is that for the first time the massive computer stuff he used in NZ for Lord Of The Rings etc for CGI effects, is being used for restoring footage from World War One.
The technology he has at his disposal is really amazing and the results shown here are truly remarkable. I really does open up a new more advanced restoration of all old films.
https://youtu.be/QfomV9GrL6c
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 04, 2018, 07:02 PM:
It was one of those great Fall afternoons today: clear skies, just a hint of chill in the air. I went paddling with some friends on a local river.
You have to do these things in their season: the days are getting shorter and not long from now there just might be an inch of ice up there!
It wasn't like the last time I went canoeing: no tents, no firewood, no sleeping bags, no food. -just a cellphone, a pocket knife and my wallet. It felt good to travel light!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 04, 2018, 10:52 PM:
Great stuff Steve
I came across this old photo that must be around 20 years old. We used to have home film shows every fortnight at peoples homes around the city during the winter months. It was up to the host to pick something of interest that hopefully would keep us all awake
That did not always work but it was more of a social night out, with a cup of tea/coffee and eats if you survived it. I went along for most likely a good ten years. Sadly many in this photo have now passed away.
That me in the back row far left with the blue shirt. Mostly the features were on 16mm with some 8mm but not much.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 05, 2018, 10:20 AM:
We have a circle of friends that regularly gets together for game nights, and dinner out and other things (Actually, it's the same bunch I canoed with yesterday).
-next event: Movie Night at the Klares.
Shorts are always 8 or 16, and the feature is 8 or digital video.
Showmanship is a part of this hobby: it's better when you don't always keep it to yourself!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 09, 2018, 03:45 PM:
After posting this short video I had a surprise visitor this week. The projectionist I trained up when he was just 15 years old at the cinema saw the video, and that prompted him to call round, plus also the fact he was doing electrical work at a new high school down the road.
It was great to catch up, now married with a wee one, how time passes. When he was at the cinema, I suggested he should get a trade, electrician being one. He followed through with that idea and is fully qualified and doing really well.
I remember back when I was leaving school at 15 years, my fathers advice to me was simple...get a trade.. and its something I never regreted doing. It allowed me to immigrate to NZ, and that in turn opened up other oportunities to move into other things like aviation.
For a while trades seemed to go out of fashion, as it seemed everyone wanted to be managers, but as I said when he called around the other day, you can do other things, but having those qualifications and experence is your insurance policy to obtaining employment in other countries...its your back up. .
https://youtu.be/MdODc7bBeBQ
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 10, 2018, 11:37 AM:
If you look closely you might just see our we house with its red roof
Fantastic photos taken of the "South Island" this week by German astronaut Alexander Gerst, from the International Space Station
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 14, 2018, 08:47 PM:
Yvonne and I were out shopping this week and decided to pay a visit to the mall where the cinema once was
"its been a while". It will be seven years tomorrow when it closed. Anyway to commemorate we had a coffee in the spot directly below where the cinema once stood
I did wonder if our old cinema ghost is still lurking around
https://youtu.be/xVKa3yNVINo
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 16, 2018, 07:37 PM:
As its now the seventh anniversary of the cinema closing I was going through some old photos two caught my eye..
This one was taken on 35mm slide film at the time of our last school holidays when those young ladies cut up 24 frames out of old "G" rated trailers to give away downstairs. During that final week we gave away a lot of movie posters and film...
This last photo I later showed to the young lady after we closed. She did not realise that young Chris had been giving her the "rabbit ears" behind her, come to think about it he did the same to me in a later photo
I always think that cinemas attract some interesting characters...
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 25, 2018, 04:44 PM:
Longwood Gardens
We're just home from Thanksgiving with Family, west of Philadelphia. A local tradition down there is Christmas at Longwood Gardens. We often go the Friday after Thanksgiving day.
The cold night air and about a billion watts of Christmas lighting are a pretty strong reminder that the Season is on its way once again!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 05, 2018, 12:07 AM:
That looks nice Steve
Called in to see fellow film forum member Pat yesterday at his secret stash location ….anyway I landed up with this little lot driving down the motorway flat out with this load scary stuff, but I made it home as the last photo shows. The first two photos Pat took.....
Actually I was really proud of myself, getting rid of a pile of films of late...and then I go and do this...I must be nuts, anyway the Ernemann 2 is going to get a lot of use.
The wee Starlet did well although carring this weight is not recommended....last photo...home.
Posted by Mark L Barton (Member # 1512) on December 05, 2018, 06:32 AM:
Today in picture, ion 'location' in my office at the UWE Bower Film Studios. Much as we film using several Arri Alexa cinema cameras, note the proper film stuff around my desk, 16mm cameras in the black and blue cases, the troublesome Sankyo Stereo 800, and a small Bell and Howell TX20 super 8 camera (really small) that Im loaning a student going abroad (compact camera for easy stowage , and of course would not loan out my Beaulieu 6008 or Canon 1014) 
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 08, 2018, 05:00 PM:
Sound Success!
I’ve been a low level 16mm Guy for about a year now: Kodak Pageant, got it at CineSea! I’ve been a high level cinema audio guy for about 8 years now. Mixer, stereo projector-amplifier interface I designed and built myself, amplifier, nice speakers which once belonged to my Dad, which I had to re-foam the woofers to make them work again.
The problem with making these two things come together is the Pageant was never meant to connect into an amplifier. It’s mostly meant for institutional use: there is a speaker built into the cover that plugs into the machine by a ¼” mono phone plug at the end of a long cable. There is no Aux out, which is what an amplifier usually needs as an input. The difference between the two is voltage and impedance. My audio chain is looking for line level signals: about a volt. This speaker output should be capable of about 14V: enough to blow my mixer inputs sky high. Obviously I needed some sort of circuit in between.
The first go-round would have been just spectacular! I was going to do an 8 ohm dummy load with some sort of operational amplifier hum filtering and voltage reduction. It might need a heatsink, maybe even a fan. Since it would be active there would also need to be a power supply.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was overthinking the whole thing. The problem is the Pageant doesn’t have an Aux. output. Maybe the real solution was to give it one just like my Super-8 machines do. For example the Aux on an Elmo ST-1200 is just a pair of resistors in series connected across the amplifier output with a switch that cuts off the speaker when a phone plug is plugged into the Aux. jack. Aux itself taps in where the two resistors meet.
No power supply, no heatsink, no fans: much cheaper and simpler, if nothing else much less to go wrong.
-but would it work? Time for an experiment.
I grabbed two resistors, one ten times the resistance of the other, stapled them to a piece of cardboard, grabbed every clip lead I had and hooked it all up to the Pageant and the mixer. The line over from the machine is this really nice guitar/amplifier cable I just bought.
I chose the two resistors so the output impedance is the same 600 ohms as an Elmo ST: my audio system shouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
It worked very well! I had to crank the volume on the machine higher than I like to get enough signal, so I’ll cut back the value of the top resistor in the voltage divider.
-but now I know enough to build it for real. (-no cardboard!)
Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on December 09, 2018, 10:20 AM:
But there are adapters for this very thing... mine are made by Bose but just having a quick look on eBay.com...
https://www .ebay.com/itm/AUDIOPIPE-APNR-2002-Hi-Low-Impedance-Adapter-Car-Audio-Line-Output-Converter/170849451989?hash=item27c76bbfd5:g:s~wAAOSw8axaBIVj:rk:6:pf:0
This is the type of thing and various makers from the world of car audio do them.
search 'hi low impedance adapter'
https://www .ebay.com/itm/Pyramid-NS-60-Hi-Low-Impedance-Adaptor-From-Speaker-Level-to-RCA-Line-Level/122010015278?hash=item1c685d162e:g:Yr0AAOSwv0tVU5~A:rk:27:pf:0
This second listing spells out the use and you can adjust the output level. Just connect a mono 1/4 inch jack to the bare wires in mono and you are done! You then have a line-level dual mono output that can't damage an amp or mixer and the vol on the projector becomes a pre-amp level. No power required to these units.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 09, 2018, 11:44 AM:
Ah!
-but part of the hobby for me is building the stuff! With electronics made in China so cheaply it isn't even so much a matter of the cost, it's the satisfaction.
When I was a teenager I built electronics as a part of my hobbies. It's what got me started. Then I ruined it for myself by going professional. It's nice these days to go back to work for myself building things I enjoy.
What's also nice is producing something exactly as I want it: the right electrical characteristics, the right connectors, even the right size and shape. It's a matter of deciding I need something and building to the need, rather than seeing what's available and trying to adapt the need to it.
Maybe somewhere else in the world there's a line level, 1/8" to RCA stereo adapter with a ground loop eliminator, a 60 Hz. hum filter and a high frequency roll-off, but I know for sure you won't find it on Amazon.com!
The big exception is my mixer: the day I can build something that good on my dining room table for 65 bucks, I'm obviously a lot more talented than I thought!
Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on December 09, 2018, 03:09 PM:
You have the skills to get it exactly as you want, I'm sure. Unfortunately I don't have the electronics skills so I'm always pleased to find a gadget for the job. I was surprised at the sound quality I could get out of the Eiki NT1 when I used this device and put the old optical sound through a hi-fi amplifier. I do recommend these type of units though and I know that some people are not aware they exist.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 09, 2018, 08:10 PM:
Da Da... bought my first roll today of the new film cant wait to use it
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 09, 2018, 10:31 PM:
I'm hatching a similar scheme myself, Graham. I got my Dad's slide projector repaired a few months ago.
Steven, there's one great advantage buying off the shelf has I can never compete against: it usually takes me a couple of months just the plan my stuff!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on December 17, 2018, 04:22 AM:
The crack of dawn here.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 17, 2018, 11:02 AM:
Cant wait to use this new film Steve
Nice picture Lee
With a Christmas theme, the larger home made larger reels for the Ernemann 2 has worked out well for being able to put "Mickey's Christmas Carol" onto one single reel.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 19, 2018, 12:15 PM:
Its been an interesting time of late when I came across an old photo on a Facebook page of a garage I once worked at in Scotland. It brought back memories of my time there and some of the crazy things that went on That photo also led to comments from another person that once worked there the same time as myself....amazing what a single photo can do in this magic world of the internet
My old card...
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on December 19, 2018, 08:33 PM:
Your apprenticeship began 23 days before I was born!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 19, 2018, 11:52 PM:
Thanks Bill.... I really needed that
A couple of "before and after" photos, the later taken just last night
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on December 20, 2018, 03:39 AM:
Nice to see the next generation of projectionists. Filmed my Son giving a show in the 80's using a Siemens 3008 sound projector, you never see those projectors these days.
Been checking a Pete Smith film quite a collection in this image.
Also went to see The Snowman this month with the Halle Orchestra playing the music quite something.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 04, 2019, 09:58 AM:
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Something unplanned happened last year. We called up my Aunt and Uncle in Germany Christmas Eve and there was a big family gathering happening on the other end of the line. We said we wished we were there and they said “Then come next year!”
-so we did! (We really just called up to wish them Merry Christmas, but the situation evolved!)
We were there two weeks and did all sorts of great things. We stayed in my grandfather’s hometown, we visited the Porsche museum in Stuttgart, we went to a hockey game in Mannheim and we rang in the New Year in the Marienplatz in Munich. We love German food, but there it’s just “food” and you can have it every day!
I drove on the Autobahn a lot and am still fighting the aftereffects! My first day back driving to work I caught myself doing 80 in a 55MPH zone (I’m trying NOT to do that!)
One of the best things is we went to a family dinner party Christmas Eve. I haven’t been to a party with so many people named “Klare” since my grandparents moved to Florida in 1969!
One of the places we always visit is Rothenburg. This is a medieval walled city in western Bavaria. On the surface of it, it looks like something Walt Disney made from fiberglass down in Orlando, but this is the real thing. You don’t have a hard time finding buildings there that were standing before Columbus ever sailed.
Christkindlmarkt is a wonderful tradition: many German towns set up Christmas fairs with food, drink and Christmas crafts. There is this spiced wine drink: Glühwein. It feels great going down on a day when your breath is steaming in front of you. If you are willing to give up on your Pfand (deposit), you can keep your mug. Our luggage fairly rattled with them on the flight home! (Next Christmas we are making our own.)
This was the last day of Christkindlmarkt in Rothenburg. It was not only cold but a little rainy too.
This is always a beautiful town, but decorated for Christmas on an early December night it became almost magical.
This is a classic photo. -not because I took it, but because everyone takes it! I shot this first in the Summer of 2002: I thought it was pretty. Maybe a year later I was at the airport and I saw a poster for world travel: there it was again! I saw a TV documentary about POW camps in Canada during WW2. One of the men that guarded the camp still had a pencil sketch given to him by a German POW: the same building again. Maybe a month ago I was in a German restaurant near home, there was a painting on the wall: once again the same picture.
This is called the Plönlein. It is two streets in Rothenburg that come through the city wall and have a skinny half timbered building squeezed into their intersection. If you pay a little attention, guaranteed you will see this photo wherever you are sooner or later.
Naturally I couldn’t do a lot of film things with all the international travel, but I didn’t waste the opportunity. I bought two ‘scope lens brackets from FFR and had them shipped to my Aunt and Uncle’s home. They came home to New York in our suitcase.
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on January 06, 2019, 02:02 PM:
Waw, Steve, Beautiful pictures !
Today, like every year on the 6 th January, people eat a special cake in Belgium (and I think in every Catholic cultured countries) as this day is when the Wise Men are supposed to have visited Jesus. In French, the Wise Men are called les Rois Mages, the Kings Mage. So, in the cake, there is a small object hidden (it differs from one bakkery from another, some people collect those objects and in some bakkeries there is even one or two gold coin hidden in one of the cakes). The one who find this object is the King of the day.When you cut the cake to give a part to every guest, you may see the small object so to avoid any cheating, a classical tradition among many families is to ask the youngest kid to hide himself under the table and to give the name one by one of the persons who are there to give them a part. When there is only one kid, guess who becomes the king if the family and the chance do well the things ;-) Often, the King can choose a Queen, some bakkeries give one crown with the cake, others give only one. This tradition comes actually from the Roman time. Once a year (also on what is now the 6th January, I think) they choosed by chance a slave and he became the master that day. The same tradition exists in France as well with the same cake (the only difference is that you find it all the month long while in Belgium you don't find them much after the dedicated day). I know in Spain the cake is not the same, I have no informations about Italy, Portugal...I don't know if the Belgian Royal family eat this cake but I know the French president does. It'a a giant cake (to share with all people working with him) but there is no hidden piece in it since a president cannot...become a king ;-)
Popular tradition…
The cartoon crown is provided in the box.
Incredibly delicious !
The small (porcelain) piece...
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 06, 2019, 06:13 PM:
Thanks Dominique,
They have the same custom in Mexico. A friend of mine went to a party there and got the slice of cake with the prize.
-but you see nobody told him first!
(An awkward moment!)
"Vut thuhh...?!"
New Year's Eve we had dinner at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, then we went out on the Marienplatz. At midnight the churchbells rang and there were fireworks like I've never seen before!
-a once in a lifetime experience!
[ January 06, 2019, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 06, 2019, 10:57 PM:
That's Fantastic Steve and Dominique
Out here at the moment its summer, Today Precipitation 0%...Humidity 65%...Wind 34 km/h...Temp 20C....
Replaced the spark plug, cleaned the carb and air filter, changed the oil....finish with a spray of WD40...that should do it for another 10 years..
Our favorite spot is on the swing under the Gazebo, which I built over 25 years ago, out the back and is in desperate need a re-paint, which I hope to do soon...
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 07, 2019, 04:28 AM:
That's cruelly ironic, Graham!
This weekend I fueled up my snowblower, got it going and let it idle for about ten minutes. There was a snowstorm forecast for today, but they moved the schedule back a couple of days. (Maybe they hope to make an even better snow storm!)
I have this 16 year old here who knows how all sorts of systems work. Maybe this is the winter I'll stand in the doorway with a hot cup of coffee and yell out:
"Mister Software! -you point the thing with all the snow pouring out away from you! You're starting to look like a snowman!"
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 07, 2019, 04:35 AM:
What's wonderful about this picture is how your perspective changes what you see.
You might think you are seeing a cat and a box of cereal in a grocery carrier. This is completely true from the Human perspective, but not how it looks to the cat.
From his standpoint this is a coiled steel spring of adrenaline, sinew and muscle, a seasoned predator stalking you: a hapless antelope (-or human being with a cell phone...whatever.).
His point of view: Top of the food chain!
Our point of view: A creature fed from cans that he can't open!
in milliseconds he may leap forth and take down his prey...or just get bored and amble over to the couch and take a nap!
[ January 07, 2019, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 10, 2019, 02:42 PM:
German Trains
Haupbahnhof, München
(I love this picture! Other than the very realistic looking people, it could be the front cover of one of the many glossy Märklin or Lehman model train catalogs I’ve had!)
Months ago, we suggested to my Aunt and Uncle that we travel together to Munich for a couple of days. They accepted with the condition, that especially being Winter, we travel by rail. I didn’t fight back too hard!
I’ve done short distance travel by train in Germany: It’s basically not much different than the commuter trains we ride quite often at home, but this was several hours of travel!
We boarded in the suburbs of Heidelberg bound for Munich. The train departed and began to accelerate. After that it kept accelerating. Just about then it accelerated some more! It's not that it just lept out of the station like a scared rabbit, it just kept building up speed for many minutes and the accumulation became pretty impressive. Once the train reached speed it just stuck at the exact same speed for easily 30 minutes at a time. The straight sections were laser straight and seemed many kilometers long. The curves were gradual and banked: on the table in our compartment, our drinks leaned inside their cups.
It was smooth, but not necessarily quiet. It was not airliner loud, yet not car quiet either.
We heard the train blow its horn only a few times, and only when approaching stations. There were very, very few road crossings the entire trip. I saw one way out in the countryside.
The striking thing was inside tunnels. That fast train inside that confined space seemed to compress the air a lot. It was necessary to gulp a couple of times to make our ears work right again.
What was interesting was in many places along the way there were what looked like little villages: many gardens with some sort of shack or old travel trailer right in the middle. My uncle explained that these were community gardens. The residents of local villages would come out and garden their plots and store their tools in the sheds so they could be kept on-site.
There were a lot of beautiful forested regions and a few cities too, including Stuttgart. At one point I'm pretty sure we passed a large factory marked "AGFA", but that may just be the beverage services talking!
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on January 11, 2019, 02:50 AM:
Britain is buying some trains from Germany now, mainly Siemens.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 12, 2019, 12:19 PM:
Brilliant Steve
We have German neighbours since we moved into our place back in 1982 "Margaret and Gus". Margaret grew up on a farm during the war and Gus from Berlin also a child during the war. Margaret makes the most beautiful and alcohol added Gateau around. Its a cake you could never buy from the shops. Sadly Gus died before there house was finally replaced due to excessive earthquake damage.
Margaret often talks about her childhood during the war years both on the farm and later her work in 1945 Berlin.
Lately I have been going through stuff, in particular all my tools of the trade I accumulated since the 60s The green toolbox came out to NZ with me on the old SS Australis in 1973. It funny when you go through this stuff and the memories of particular items come back as when you used and bought them.
I have to get rid of a lot of things that I never use anymore but getting rid of those tool I just cant at the moment but one day they will have to go....its strange how you get attached.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on January 17, 2019, 07:14 AM:
Deep clean finished ready for the next show.
Seem to becoming addicted to seeking out Techniscope films at the moment.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 17, 2019, 03:16 PM:
We had a surprise visitor this morning. This inquisitive Florida Sand Crane took a keen interest in our back yard, and strolled around for about half an hour.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 17, 2019, 07:47 PM:
Brilliant Paul
I am still going through all my old stuff, that for the most part I don't use anymore. They say every tool tells a story ..here is one, and its to do with my quarter drive socket set.
Way way back in the 60s during my apprenticeship days I needed to buy a quarter drive socket set. They were expensive at the time and hard to come by. However as luck had it, an American from the nearby submarine base needed some car parts, so we made a deal, he gets me a socket set and I would give the parts for his car.
So entered my Snap-On socket set, thanks to the American taxpayer When I worked for Ansett Airlines the ratchet packed up, so as Snap-On has a lifetime guarantee the next time the tool guy came to the hanger I spoke to him about it.
To my surprise he said its military and has a "V" on it, which means, it was issued during the Vietnam war. He got all that for this little tool ...anyway because it was a military issue, it was not covered for replacement, so I had to buy a new one.
Its had a huge amount of use since I got it in the late 1960s.
Here is a photo of the base "floating dry dock" where that socket set came from....
Ah! memories.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 28, 2019, 11:41 AM:
Well it was time to get "The Polar Express" of the platter and onto reels until next Christmas. I must admit projecting the 35mm print looked great, but yesterday I was thinking how much easier it would be is to place a silver disc in a player and press play.
Anyway "The Polar Express" was replaced with another action movie I spent the afternoon making up and loading onto the platter that will run later on next month.
from this....
https://youtu.be/7iVcp1xipV4
The Polar Express coming off the platter.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 30, 2019, 02:15 PM:
My daughter always buys me something film related for Christmas. I really hit the jackpot a few years ago when she got me a beautiful condition 1922 Pathe Baby 9,5mm projector. This year one of her presents was a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of classic film posters. When we emptied the pieces on the table I thought that there was no way that my wife and I would be able to put it together, it really looked an overwhelming job. Well a week later and 40 man hours of work this is what it looks like. We framed it yesterday(36 ins x 24ins) and it now adorns the wall of my home cinema:
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 30, 2019, 02:28 PM:
Looks terrific Paul! What a nice present
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 30, 2019, 09:58 PM:
Up on the roof today cleaning the gutters out YUK...anyway I thought why not take a photo while I am up here...so I did
Temp 75F/24C
Wind 31km/h
Humidity 70%
Precipitation 0%
https://youtu.be/puM1k-S86nE
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 01, 2019, 05:01 AM:
Out photographing the white stuff early this morning.
Then collecting over 100 pies for the Church quiz...as you do.
And a bit more..
[ February 01, 2019, 08:11 AM: Message edited by: Lee Mannering ]
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on February 02, 2019, 09:27 AM:
Belgian tradition (but also followed in other Catholic cultured countries) : on the 2nd February, people make pancakes. You're supposed to hold a coin (better a gold one if you have but less and less people have gold coins so any other should be ok) in your left hand while you throw the pancake to bake the other side with your right hand to give you luck with money all the year long. Pancakes here are different from the Ameican ones. They are lighter. In the US, you use one cup of milk for one cup of flour, while here we use two cups of milk. Unlike in the US, pancakes are not eaten for breakfast.
You can put marmelade, chocolate pasta, sugar (white or Brown, with or without lemon), butter or whatever you want.
Belgian gold coin. Until 1914, gold coins were in circulation in the everyday life. There was a system that was the ancestor of the euro : the Latin Union. Some countries(Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland…) issued coins that were accepted in all the other countries from the union. So you could pay in Italy with a French 20 francs coin for the value of 20 liras for example. The first war ended all this.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 02, 2019, 10:05 AM:
Interesting that Dom. My wife is a pancake lover she fills it with fresh fruit making a wrap
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on February 02, 2019, 10:10 AM:
You're lucky, Lee ;-)
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 03, 2019, 02:48 AM:
A sweet lady.
Something a bit different and my wellbeing project last year during a iffy health spell to keep the old noodle going.
Had a spare Eumig laying around so gradually made up a HD telecine project for my customers not looking for 2K scans, sort of a low cost alternative service and somewhat quicker.
The HD-8 is fully self contained and I have even taken it out and about being as its so portable. Inside the back I fitted a small power supply for the LED, diffuser and the reasonable HD camcorder which can be HDMI into a larger monitor if required.
This will all do Reg 8 Super 8 silent and sound with the sound from the analogue out socket on the front and captured to computer to match up later. Went somewhat over the top perhaps also fitting a little Analogue to Digital audio converter as well in the back.
Here is the old girl.
The results filmed around 1989 as it was captured by the unit.
You can of course view the results on the camera to check after transfer as here.
Quite a versatile little bit of fun don't you think.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on February 03, 2019, 02:54 AM:
WOW!!! That is so cool Lee. What a beautiful unit...you are very talented. Thanks for the pics.
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on February 03, 2019, 08:39 AM:
Nice job Lee.
Dom...I made pancakes this morning and I held a gold plated coin in my hand (it’s all I had) after I saw your post I couldn’t help myself!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on February 03, 2019, 11:11 AM:
Great, Bill
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 03, 2019, 02:45 PM:
Dom you do realise we are now addicted to pancakes 😃 I went in Morristons supremarket and they had sold out today.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 04, 2019, 04:03 AM:
Glasgow
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 04, 2019, 02:43 PM:
99 High Street, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 1QP
Welll...
Here's how the saga of what was Derann finally played out. The original plan was far more elaborate: a mixture of retail and condominium residential space. It looks like it basically came down to a cleanup and a paint job. Somewhere beneath that bland color on the side wall, Mickey Mouse is still there. (It looks like the color they used to paint personal computers!)
It's good to see a vacant business have a sign out on the street again, it's just that the people at the alarm company probably have no idea how special the last tenant was. It's not easy to find a company that actually has a touch of magic to it.
Back in the day I would loved to have dropped in and dealt with them cash across the counter, but the chance never came. Between the time I found out they existed and the time they no longer did I was never local.
Can you imagine the Alarm Folk saying:
"There's some guys out there looking at the building again...".
"It's just film people...they mean no harm."
This grim picture comes to us courtesy of Google Street View. It seems it's OK to use these images as long as you give credit where credit is due and not crop out the "Google".
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 06, 2019, 02:01 AM:
Nice Steve. We did make a number of trips down to film the redevelopment also speaking to them on the phone although they were befuddled at my interest in filming the building work. Anyway it was sad but also interesting to go back inside the building filming hard hat and all somewhat reminiscing. The old Derann Christmas tree still in there used at the seasonal open day which have to say did fetch a tear or two and kindly they let me bring home the decorations on it which we put up this year.
Had a brain wave that we should have some sort of meet come reunion in Dudley before very long as it would be nice to have and get together chatting over old times also pay our respects to Derek. I'll look into that.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 09, 2019, 06:11 AM:
Its turning into service a projector day.
Strip down, clean up, dress the belts, clean the sound head and switches..Job done.
Phew
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 11, 2019, 09:42 PM:
Having a clean out and came across my old British driving licence first issued as a provisional back in 1969, with gaining a full in 1970
Its funny what stays with you all these years and still remember having an argument with the examiner for my full. In the end he said...YOU HAVE PASSED....
When I came to NZ in 73 it was only a matter of a written test, so that was easy enough, but I had to do a full practical etc in 2012 for a new licence that included a passenger endorsement required for my new job. With only a 25% pass rate for other drivers, I thought that this time don't argue with the examiner.
To my surprise I passed with no problems "amazing I thought" just as well, as the bus company had the vehicle and all the paper work for me to start work straight away...good timing.
When I worked for "AVIS" back in the 1970s I remember a mechanic complaining that he was on a much lower pay rate than the rest of us. I asked the boss why? and was told that this mechanic had lost his licence due to DIC, so in fact he was lucky to have a job, as without one you are of no use to an employer.
Having a clean licence all those years has to me, been very important.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 12, 2019, 01:34 AM:
Nice to see that Graham
The little Electronic Yelco with its German Scope lens on and my 50 pence home made scope bracket.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on February 14, 2019, 09:03 AM:
This cold commercial has been brought to you by....
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 14, 2019, 09:24 AM:
Nice, Matt!
We've had a strange winter here: just as cold (maybe even colder) than usual, yet every time a storm has approached we've been locally warm and the snow turned to rain. 50 miles north they get clobbered, we just become damp.
I have not fired my snowblower once in anger this year! If the trend continues, I'll have to siphon the gas tank into my lawn mower.
I guess I shouldn't make this sound too much like a complaint...
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on February 15, 2019, 08:59 AM:
Spring arrives in our back yard:
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on February 18, 2019, 09:38 AM:
Local filmfair, yesterday in the small town of Waremme. Many sellers but, unfortunately, a majority of dvds and papers (books, posters).
The picture of this Ampro projector is not sharp, sorry.
Forum member Jean-Christophe De Block, one of the two organizators of the coming Ternat filmfair (Ternat is close to Brussels, the filmfair will be held on Sunday 18th March).
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on February 18, 2019, 11:15 AM:
Our azalea's are really taking off!:
There are many poisonous snakes in Florida, and when you come across a snake it is always a bit of a scare. Fortunately, this one in my back yard this morning, is harmless (I think!)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 18, 2019, 01:56 PM:
Paul
I hope there are no alligators in the swimming pool
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 23, 2019, 05:30 PM:
Some Things NEVER Change
I have a set of these really nice DVDs. 80 years ago a Gent filmed the last days of the Maine narrow gauge railroads on 16mm. Some of this footage was even color: very rare as far as images of these lines go. He kept it all to himself for a long time but decided in his own last days he could do some good with these films. As a fundraiser for the museums that are now restoring these lines, he donated his footage. It was transferred to digital format, sound tracks were dubbed in and his films were released on DVD. Me being me I was pretty much first on line when they were released. (It’s a film/train kind of thing.)
They play nicely with my VP and sound system. It’s a lot better than when I watched them on a TV screen.
I was watching one of them today and something caught my eye: just a woman sitting in a car parked at a railroad station. Based on my life’s experience I know exactly what she’s doing and why she wound up preserved for posterity. You see, this lady isn’t waiting for a train, NO: she’s waiting in the car while her husband runs around with a movie camera filming some trains! This is yet another dimension of the patient film hobbyist’s wife! (God bless ‘em!)
50 years later and more that could be MY wife! (I have the exact same footage!)
(July, 1936: Franklin County, Maine)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 27, 2019, 02:24 AM:
Picked up a couple of wall lights from our local Eco shop for $5 and after re-wiring them I wall mounted them today.
The red rope light that fellow forum member Pat gave me for round the screen works well, also the Osram LEDs. Funny thing though, when I worked at the cinema our Osram Xenon lamp supplier told me, that if I ordered more just before Christmas they would throw in the changing LEDs as well....so I thought why not. I will need more Xenon lamps soon "well sort of" hence the order and the LEDs now in our wee home cinema.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 27, 2019, 07:21 AM:
All these pictures are so nice to see and also enjoy your memories.
Paid our respects to Mary Shelly with some red roses.
Then visited the other Mary Shelly...as you do.
Met up with an old film friend of mine not seen for 40 years and inspected the Regent projection room.
Last nights visit to Stockport PLaza Super Cinema
The hall of stars
One of the 3D displays
Anyone visiting the UK might want to think about the short bus ride outside of Manchester to Stockport and enjoy a visit to the cinema. Its all art deco complete with vintage projection equipment and even Vitaphone installed. Also has a superb Compton theatre organ played during film intervals.
SUNDAY 6TH OCTOBER 2019 is the 6th festival of BRITISH FILM 11am all day. Might bump into a few of you I hope.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 27, 2019, 10:55 AM:
Two of our old Cinemas still standing..just about.
Palladium Pictures
Picture Palace (Now flats)
Fascinating building where many cinema features remain even the film drop off doorway.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 28, 2019, 05:51 AM:
Trawling thru a digital archive of 35mm film scans all extremely nostalgic.
Fond memories of visiting the Golden Films building on Wardour Street as a boy and returned not so long ago for a wander round nostalgia trip.
Looking back thru our many years as foster carers with disabled children in-between our regular jobs.
FISH SPOTTING and lending a hand in a difficult world for disabled young people.
Still taking the projectors around about to youth organisations and explaining all about film. These young people find it fascinating.
And finally our Tony enjoying his pies at my own Film Fair and in the centre background dear Laurie Ringrow the reel 16mm man who we sadly lost a short time ago. Such a nice man.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 01, 2019, 06:16 PM:
Its amazing what appears on Facebook fellow forum member Pat put me onto this photo of my long ago Mt Cook days. As well as operating a number of HS748s we also used a couple of Fokker F-27 Friendship. This photo that Pat put me onto, is one of them "ZK-BXF".
It brought back memories of one weekend me and my boss were rostered on from 3.30am in the morning to 9.30pm at night, which was then the usual weekend hours coming straight after our night shifts.
The weekend roster consisted of just the two of us, and remember we towed "BXF" into the hanger for regular maintenance. My boss did the airframe and I did the engines.
After we finished it was just a case of the "paper work" which was heaps of computer printed out stuff that always seemed to go on forever. Anyway as I was reading and signing off, my boss was pulling the paper work along the bench, saying "Haggis" you would have done that..just sign it...I could not keep up with the moving paper work, so kept signing without having a chance to read it....just sign he would say...just sign. My hand was getting cramp trying to keep up with the speed of the paper work. At the end he said "DONE", folded it all up and put it in the box....last thing he said..... right "LUNCH"
PS. After we closed in 1997 he went on to being one of the big bosses at Air New Zealand...now retired
Memories
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 03, 2019, 03:57 AM:
Completed my final filming of all the building redevelopment at the old Derann Films premises which we have been doing regularly since 2011 and my goodness have we covered some miles!
The new development is now fully occupied and with some nice apartments at the rear. We once again visited the original shop at Stourbridge which kind of wraps the whole shoot up for me.
This will be forming part of a new Blu-Ray I am producing along with other footage when the shop was open and I'm also at present carrying out a 2K scan of Cinema in Miniature to be included from the master print. Watch this space.
To end out our journey we once again paid our respects to Derek Simmonds placing some flowers from us all on the 8mm Forum.
Posted by Paul Barker (Member # 4318) on March 03, 2019, 04:23 AM:
my oh my. this takes me right back. many a time have i parked on that car park waiting for the open days to begin. exciting times indeed. absolutely loved going to them. great staff to deal with. and of course the boss himself Derek Simmonds. so so many have fond memories of that man.
Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on March 03, 2019, 01:39 PM:
Lee - A very nice touch. Very thoughtful.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 03, 2019, 11:39 PM:
Who remembers taking Polaroid photos? well I must say that although the photos have been knocked around a bit over the years the color is still ok.
The following photos were taken around 1980 I guess as I had just finished re-painting Yvonne 1952 split windscreen, side valve Morris Minor. I still remember the paint I was given for free "Tampa Green" from the aero club that I worked at the time, they were having a clean out.
After cutting the rust out and re-painting it on my, still have compressor, Yvonne got many happy hours driving it around town. These days it would be regarded a classic and certainly worth more than what we paid and sold it for back then.
Anyway this is me, admiring my handy work with Yvonne taking some photos with her Polaroid.....I wonder what happened to it?
Posted by Simon McConway (Member # 219) on March 04, 2019, 09:03 AM:
I still do take Polaroid pictures, on an old Polaroid camera using the original film, still being made. I also have a brand-new Polaroid camera which prints the picture as soon as it has been shot, but this is not a photographic developing process like the original. All great fun and, with the right camera, some very decent results!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 04, 2019, 09:33 AM:
All our Polaroid's have turned pink.
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on March 04, 2019, 12:06 PM:
I remember in the early B&W Polaroids having to put a coating to preserve or stop the developing process.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 04, 2019, 12:25 PM:
Ah! found a old photo with my granddaughter playing with it. On the back of the photos it does say Kodak
Am I right to think that kodak film was used? as I honestly cant remember much about the camera or the film used.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 04, 2019, 02:55 PM:
Excuse me Graham, am I missing something here? If your granddaughter is holding the Polaroid camera, then the photo must have been taken with another camera not the Polaroid , and presumably one with Kodak film in it.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 04, 2019, 03:11 PM:
Paul
The photo of my granddaughter holding the camera was taken with Yvonne digital camera. In its day I don't think we used the polaroid much, as film was expensive. In the end the kids and later the grandkids used to play with it, going around clicking at things
I don't know what happened to it in the end, chances are it was thrown out during some clean out
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 05, 2019, 01:53 AM:
You prompted me to check some of the old Polaroids here which seem to be holding up. Memories of Dad with his B&W camera and putting the paper between two aluminium sheets in his pocket awaiting the process to reveal itself.
Great car and nice to see the youngster discovering the wonders of Polaroid.
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on March 05, 2019, 02:25 AM:
The few colour Polaroids I have taken still look good, but the B&W ones have faded badly.
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 05, 2019, 06:54 AM:
Polaroid really is a top notch company! Their products have stood the test of time in most cases, and where the technology has faded, they have fixed and improved....they are now making amazing 3D printers!
Also: Polaroid instant digital line of cameras and printers now use the revolutionary ZINK® Zero Ink® printing technology which uses heat to produce full-color, high quality, long-lasting and smudge-proof photos.
Polaroid is cool!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 05, 2019, 08:45 AM:
I wonder if they are bringing back Polavision?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 05, 2019, 08:49 AM:
I'm all for that if they bring back Eumig too!
I've shot a lot of Polaroids, but every last one of 'em was an oscilloscope screen capture back in the 1980s. (Digital 'scopes put an end to this.)
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 05, 2019, 09:46 AM:
That would be hilarious Paul: Polavision
I can't believe it could only hold 2 1/2 minutes of recording...and no sound. Hey, Maybe this can now be upgraded!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 07, 2019, 11:45 AM:
German Trains (-small ones this time!)
Every couple of years we go to Germany: we have family there, and then again there is the Bier! Since the last time, I found out about this little Feldbahn Museum and even though this trip was off season, I just had to check it out.
Feldbahn (industrial railways) are kind of a big commercial quality train set for grown-ups. Starting before they invented trucks, if you had a mine, or a quarry or a big farm, and you needed to move materials around, you’d lay some very small narrow-gauge tracks and run tiny engines and cars where you needed them. Everything is small enough that a crew of men can do the work with hand tools. These aren’t great works of engineering: you need a siding for six months, you lay it, use it, rip it up and move it someplace else. Much like model trains, sectional track is quite common: easy, cheap, flexible, reusable. After a while these often became kind of a spiderweb of tracks, switches and crossings: sharp curves, steep hills, and a ride worthy of nothing at all delicate.
”Don’t spend time cutting that tree down!”
This museum is on the site of an old brickworks near Stuttgart. In the 1980s, the brickworks went out of business and left all those neat little trains abandoned yet not unloved. A group of volunteers bought it up and started working. Project one was the engine house. It was buried at the bottom of a valley and the first thing they did was dig down a couple of meters and bring it back to life. (It’s the glamor of historic work!)
I thought we would arrive there and find the place locked up tight, but just because they weren’t offering rides that day, doesn’t mean there wasn’t work to be done. We showed up December 29th and found about 6 volunteers in warm clothing reviving one of their little diesel locomotives. We also found a friendly fellow with English much better than my German (not much of a stretch) willing to give us a tour.
I know quite a few people like these from similar museums over here. To a certain extent I’ve been one myself. A lot of them could be home watching the ‘tube instead of being cold and greasy in an engine shed, but willing, passionate people are often the only way to make something like this happen.
"Daaad! I don’t think the airline will accept this as checked luggage!"
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 08, 2019, 01:14 PM:
Fantastic Steve I like the rails going around the tree, that reminded me of the long gone amusement park across the road where you could use a jigger to go around on. The track went between two rows of trees, about the same width as your photo. After the place closed down, the trees were still there, and for years they always reminded me of the long ago track.
The jigger was great exercise, however you had to make sure the other person was putting as much effort as you were and not just going along for the ride
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 08, 2019, 01:54 PM:
Graham,
This is a small, hilly network of valleys where a lot of clay was dug out (-actually, a lot of those famous red rooves came from places like this: they made roofing tiles as well as bricks.). Given the small curves and nimble trains, you basically have tracks running in every direction all over the property!
-so it's a museum, and just a little bit a roller coaster! It looks kind of like the model train store was going out of business and some guy bought all their track!
They have such great toys there, too!
(I wish they'd open one near me.)
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 08, 2019, 02:41 PM:
Its great there are enthusiast around that keep the interest alive. There used to be a miniature railway we used to take Steven and April to when they were small that was really popular during the school holidays they could ride on. I will have to find out if it is still going.
I did a bit of research about the jigger across the road and came up with those old advertising adds. All you see there has gone which is a shame. From the bumpa slide to the bumpa boats and the bumpa electric cars. In fact there was a lot of bumpy stuff then
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 09, 2019, 12:01 AM:
Nice those pictures!
And from the UK Southern Bluebell Railway
Its a little known fact that in the 70's I helped out with the filming on Super 8 film about this railway. Some of you in the UK may have it as a 200ft B&W silent. Turn the clock back someone!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 10, 2019, 02:49 PM:
A bit of an "ET" weekend. After screening it an Saturday afternoon I thought it would be nice to a double screening of that evening. My son called round, I asked do you want to watch "ET" tonight...no...Yvonne got home would you like to see "ET" tonight...no..
Anyway as I had already threaded up the projector and platter for the second and final run before storing away the film, I would give it a miss that night and run it on Sunday...on my own I should add, so I did.. and really enjoyed it.
After all the work put into the 35mm side of things over the last few years, its nice to just sit back and let everything do its thing. I think it would be fare to say, that much of this stuff has little in the way of a long term future, but like all film formats, enjoy it while you can.
PS. I just realized that in only a few years time "ET" will be 40 years old.
Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on March 11, 2019, 09:29 AM:
WOW! That's a nice and sharp print! And you have a nice setup!keep the film rolling!
Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on March 11, 2019, 03:49 PM:
Graham, are these 35mm prints all your own and all that 35mm projection equipment?? You must have a mighty fine cinema in your home, or is your home in a cinema?
Outstanding!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 11, 2019, 09:01 PM:
All what you see and more was all heading to the landfill including film.
When digital came to be the norm at the cinemas, they could not get rid of the stuff quick enough. The sad part though, is most of it went to the dump. I was offered all kinds of film projection gear at that time, but had to turn it down through lack of space. The ideal would be to set this stuff up as a working exhibit somewhere, but so far there is little interest apart from a few of us in doing so.
Most of the films by now would have gone to landfill, what we managed to salvage is only the tip of the iceberg of films that were thrown out.
PS...This is where film wins out
https://youtu.be/7iVcp1xipV4
[ March 11, 2019, 10:14 PM: Message edited by: Graham Ritchie ]
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 12, 2019, 05:58 AM:
Very nice pictures and story. Saved a mint Kineton myself a few years ago also tip bound, lucky to get it really. I understand one of out UK cinema chains took the precaution of putting all its film projection equipment into a massive warehouse after installing digital so at least one cared enough to see how things would pan out.
Enjoyed a day off work and spent the entire day sorting my home movies and checking a pile of Deranns. Its a first for me but so much fun I even blew a lamp in the projector.
Turned up not one but two prints of Dracula Prince of Darkness in Scope LPP. That never usually happens to me.
Watched Horror of Dracula trailer 4 times.
Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on March 12, 2019, 10:26 AM:
I get the practicality of the platter system but it always appears to me to be a very Rube Goldberg kind of system.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 12, 2019, 01:59 PM:
William
The platter system is really brilliant, in fact without it we could have operated the projection room without it. Once you have completed a screening you can simply remove the center ring and can have the show back on screen in matter of minutes, there is no rewinding involved, and the feed to and from the projector is a constant. With five deck platters you can run film to other screens as well as the one its sitting next to, its a very versatile piece of projection equipment.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 13, 2019, 02:34 AM:
Nice sunset tonight
8pm
Temp 24C or 75F
Precipitation 0%
Humidity 60%
Wind 7mph or 11km/h
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 13, 2019, 10:46 AM:
Great picture that.
Spent today prepping media for my new Blu-Ray project. The 2K scan is coming along of my Super 8 epics and the disc will be filled with other material I filmed over the years including the last Christmas Derann open day dear Derek was present at, my he was laughing a great deal in it nice to see. Also the final sale day at Derann bit of a sad watch but nice to see everyone meeting up and buying films plus quite a bit more besides.
Here is a frame grab from some 20+ year old footage I shot which has held up quite well. Nice to see so many familiar faces although quite a few are no longer with us
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 19, 2019, 04:12 AM:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY 1979 STEREO EUMIG!
40 years old, excellent stereo sound and converted to a 2 blade shutter a good few years ago. Probably one of my oldest film friends along with my Eumig 807D.
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on March 19, 2019, 07:08 AM:
I have a 926, the balance stripe head gave up a while ago. It came in a really massive box that I had trouble getting onto the bus home after buying it - in those days they had high steps and a dividing pole in the entrance to pull yourself on with if you had trouble with the step.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 20, 2019, 09:05 AM:
I don't NEED this!
-but I want to need this!
It popped up in an ad. for an audio supplier this morning. They sell a lot of equipment for bands and small recording studios and concert venues, and maybe even without realizing it, Super-8 based home cinemas. (-at least one that I know.)
I love music! I don't DO music! -nothing is stopping me but a lack of talent! I did just fine in high school band: Teacher said it was because I worked hard. (Translation: "Don't give up your day job.")
-so I don't NEED a big metal microphone, but since it's so cool I still WANT to need it!
I tell you, if I plugged this into the PA jack on one of my machines and got a fedora and a pin-striped suit, I could be the Sinatra of small gauge film!
"Youuu don't break my splices,
and what's so nice is,
When we're sharing a screen,
I'm enjoying the scene!"
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on March 20, 2019, 11:34 AM:
I don't know Steve. Are you Shure you need this? I see you more as the elvis type btw He Hee
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 20, 2019, 11:44 AM:
Thanks Matt! (Thenkyew verra muccsh!)
I'm Shure I don't!
(Especially for 180 Bucks!)
Sinatra was a New Jersey guy: at least that's local!
(Then again, I grew up in the same county as Billy Joel...Maybe THAT's where all my musical talent went!)
Seriously though, my dream projection booth would be full of things like tube amplifiers and analog panel meters (like Wallace and Gromit would build!), one of these Mics would definitely fit that environment!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 24, 2019, 11:16 PM:
Brilliant Mathew
I don't have any photos at the moment but I did up-load this video...
https://youtu.be/VBtsutAcKuE
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 25, 2019, 02:09 AM:
Nice picture that Matty :-) I have a 1960's Reslo mike here the type used in the studios back in Joe Meek's day. Wonderful sound from a ribbon mike.
Brian. I remember the box very well for the old Eumig 926. I collected it from the camera shop then tied rope round it onto the back of my Honda Camino speed machine, not a pretty sight.
My friendly shop owner when I was ready to set off was really worried about me with the box overhanging the back but I just about made it home.
We do some silly thing when we are young especially as I had to do hand signals on my early Camino moped.
I do wonder if the first batch of 926 projectors had a better head as this one having done much recording is still a top performer. Perhaps in the last throws for the Austrian company never far from another bank bail out they made even more cut back in the materials they were using?
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 27, 2019, 09:18 AM:
Got a Fumeo which lived in what looks like a barn, I like a challenge and got one! About half way thru the strip down sorting electrics, drive issue etc but it will be resurrected.
Anyone need any moss?
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 27, 2019, 01:19 PM:
That does look like a Canon Jimi Hendrix is holding... Glasgow concert 1960s.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 28, 2019, 04:31 AM:
Visited Sabrina Sykes Blackpool home again
Sabby's Blackpool home
Those of you in the UK Don't forget its SABRINA DAY on 19th May 2019 at Stockport Plaza Super Cinema 7pm. 35mm film being projected as well.
(Born this day 1936. Passed 24th Nov 2016 in La.)
Posted by Mark Silvester (Member # 929) on March 28, 2019, 07:40 AM:
Loved that pic of the retro style sure mic - outside my day job in mental health i perform semi-professionally with my small swing outfit called "SWAY.." - from left to right. JC does the Sinatra, Caz - Etta James and your truly does either Buble or Harry Connick Jnr. We do quite a few gigs and also do a full rock n roll history set.
Its great fun music.. best to all!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 28, 2019, 08:21 AM:
Well its done one Fumeo (Silma) stripped and a lube up. I didn't account for having to do a rewire to all the main cables as the minute I touched the old ones the coating fell apart. Anyway runs very sweetly and another saved from the recycling centre.
A 1979 slice of cinematic history.
10 Watt amp
100watt lamp
600ft reel capacity
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 31, 2019, 07:23 PM:
Nice projector Lee
Sorted out our tiny space dedicated to film, I hope one day to do a lot more than this, but it will do meantime. I donated the Star Wars films and a running Eumig etc.
Also in the same building.....
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on March 31, 2019, 08:20 PM:
Very nice display Graham.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 01, 2019, 02:50 AM:
Thanks Janice
I have just finished fixing up the last Eumig projector today.
I seem to have landed up with a few Eumig projectors, that nobody wants, so I thought I would get them up and running again. Apart from adjusting the motor drive to disc and fixing a broken sprocket in another, they are now all running fine. I also removed/cleaned and inspected the soundheads for wear, they all look fine and with a test sound film running through all of them, there is plenty of clear volume.
The Eumig are the Mark S 802 early model.
Eumig Mark S 802 the later one, that I finished today with a quick re-paint on the rear cover.
Eumig Mark S 810 D Lux great for standard 8mm sound.
And lastly Steven old Mark 820 Sonomatic , that had problem with the top sprocket which is now fixed.
I was thinking that I might run all the projectors at once, allocating a part of the screen for each...that might be fun. If I do I should video it.
The rear cover was getting really rough hence the paint job..
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on April 01, 2019, 10:31 AM:
Well done Graham! These little Eumig 800's are great projectors, rugged as tanks, and are ideal for a small home show. The 900's have much better sound and the stereo 938 and 940's have the 150 watt lamp and 800ft capacity, but IMO the build quality is not as good as the robust 800's. Looking forward to your Cinerama demo!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 02, 2019, 09:39 PM:
I am thinking about that Paul
It might not be Cinerama but running some suitable films that makes sense on the screen is on the cards
I took this group photo today
All in working condition...
PS. I just had an idea why don't all those attending "CineSea" shoot one roll of Super8 film each, then at your next event have a line up of projectors and screen it all at the same time, with each projector having its own part on the screen, a multi for three and a half minutes, it might even be some kind of record
For those who have time here is my only Standard 8 sound film, but its a good one Petula Clark...."Downtown"
https://youtu.be/DyhmcyD7cGA
[ April 04, 2019, 12:18 AM: Message edited by: Graham Ritchie ]
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on April 02, 2019, 10:10 PM:
Very cool photos Graham!
I have the 810, 824 and the 624. I also use the spoke spool/reel on my Bolex M8 as a take up.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 03, 2019, 11:40 PM:
I have to admit Bill I was never a fan of Eumig projectors I went from a Bolex SM8 to ST1200.
However after working on them of late, I have got to like the Eumig and considering there age they still run well. In NZ I think it would be fare to say that Eumig, were the biggest seller of Super 8 projectors, everybody that was into Super8 seemed to have one at the time.
Not to forget Bolex, here is a photo of some more, apart from the SM8 at the top, the rest run fine. One M8 I converted to a 24 volt 250watt lamp and replaced the motor speed control, to a electronic one, as the original had fallen apart years ago.
Its been fun bringing some of this stuff back to life
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on April 04, 2019, 06:47 AM:
Again nice pics. I use my 810 for standard & sound and my M8 for standard 8 silent. For super 8 I use Elmo. It looks like you have quite a nice projector collection.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on April 04, 2019, 07:12 AM:
You gotta love those Eumig wire spools!
The M8's are gorgeous looking machines, the epitome of Bolex quality.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 04, 2019, 09:53 PM:
Bill here are some old ads that I have, one being the Eumig 810 the other the M8
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 06, 2019, 08:18 PM:
After heavy rain on the West Coast here in the South Island washed away the only bridge, this chap is keeping the traffic going by using his 38 ton dump truck
For a fee of $100 per car plus $20 a passenger with three in the cab you can continue your journey.
Good on him for helping out until the bridge is repaired
He is doing 30 cars a day plus 100 passengers across the river..
Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on April 07, 2019, 08:20 AM:
Wow that’s crazy! Thanks for posting the ads. Those are really nice. I have only had the Eumig projectors for a couple years but I like them a lot. Smooth runners and well built. The Bolex is always a conversation piece. Everybody always loves it...even non film folks.
Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on April 07, 2019, 10:20 AM:
NICE Pictures! They all look good! Keep them coming!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on April 08, 2019, 01:02 AM:
Wonderful Eumig pictures Graham and very well done with the resto work. This thread was started with a Eumig as well!
Went to Stockport PLaza Super Cinema UK to see Stan & Ollie for the 4th time. We were also treated to Be Big and two mini concerts of the Compton Theatre organ. A wonderful evening with fellow 8mm collectors.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 11, 2019, 02:12 PM:
I think Steve in particular will like this
Getting away from all this projector stuff I took the video camera along with me and took some of this
I got up in the morning and to be honest was trying to find an excuse not to do it...its going to rain?..nope...its to windy?...nope...go to the mall and have a cuppa?....nope
Well the little voice in my head concluded don't be lazy and get going so I did..
https://youtu.be/vnCixnOZ_W8
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on April 12, 2019, 01:50 AM:
My Son giving a film show in the early 90's with a Eumig obviously.
Been working on the digital touch up to the 2K scans of Cinema In Miniature and others all looking rather splendid now but time consuming. Here we see Arthur at Perrys operating the film printer. A true gentleman.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 15, 2019, 06:34 PM:
I enjoyed the video, Graham!
-as much as anything because how much the scenery there reminds me of the scenery here. We are a lot of forests and sea coasts too. If you said it was taken here, I'd only wonder where.
I've been going old school as a bike project (Imagine a film collector doing that?). I have what used to be called an "English Racer" here. My parents gave it to me when I was 16. About 10 years ago the chain started to skip because the gear cluster was so worn, so I put it out to pasture (the garage...). Last summer I got it out and replaced the cluster, and then the tires and tubes, and next the brakes.
It's great! It's much smoother on pavement. With those skinny tires I can easily outrun my 16 year old on his mountain bike. All the parts that are plastic on my mountain bike are metal on this one. (It's built like an old movie projector!)
This was a fairly medium-quality bike back in 1978, it's shocking how much it's "improved" since then.
Posted by Greg May (Member # 6310) on April 16, 2019, 01:55 PM:
Spring has sprung in Philadelphia. While sitting at my desk in Center City, I saw on the news that the Phillies were in Independence Mall. They were announcing their "not so secret" secret, that the 2026 All Star Game would be played in our city. My office is two stops down so I sneaked onto the subway. Shhh.. Don't tell anyone! Figured I would share a picture from the day. Seen from left to right (in uniform) is Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, Odubel Herrera, and manager Gabe Kapler.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 16, 2019, 02:09 PM:
Excellent bike Steve
For the couple of years I worked for Ansett Airlines before they went bust. I used to bike to work two to three times a week on a bike just like that. Leave home just before 6am and get to work just after 7am, in time for a 20 minute chill out get organized and cup of tea before starting at 7.30am. What was great about using a bike, is arriving at work wide awake and raring to go, where as the rest of the guys would be just crawling out of the cars still waking up.
The old bike was a great way to get that much needed wake up to start work, plus seeing the sunrise in the mornings looks great to
People forget how quick a bike can be in getting from A to B
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 16, 2019, 05:16 PM:
I miss those days myself!
My last job was 7 miles from home and I biked it when the weather was nice.
My current job is 32 miles away...
(Nope!)
I'm glad I got this one running again: I kind of missed it, and once something has stood idle for a decade, it's easy for it to fall into the category of "useless junk".
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 27, 2019, 12:56 PM:
Blast From the Past!
Greetings direct from CineSea 19!
I brought my bike down with me. I rode up the boardwalk yesterday and got a pretty impressive lesson in the power of Ocean Winds! (Enough to distribute Humanity around the Globe, WAYYY more than enough to halt a 57 year old man on a 41 year old bike!)
I dove off onto the first street inland to try to make the trip back to the Ocean Holiday a little less strenuous, and found myself face to face with the Bolero Hotel.
This is where CineSea began, even though it wasn't even called that yet. This was also a one-off: the following spring we came to Ocean Holiday and have been here ever since.
This was December, 2009, almost 10 years ago.
This one is doing just fine: Roustabout was the Friday Night feature, we are now in session in the Hospitality Room and we're getting ready for dinner and Saturday Night Show.
(In days to come, there will be much more!)
[ April 28, 2019, 08:13 AM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on April 29, 2019, 11:38 AM:
Well unfortunately I couldn't make it to Cinesea 19...but I did go out to see a "film." This month at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, CA they are showing Doris Day films. Saturday I took my son to see "Pillow Talk." To my surprise he loved it. It was the first time I had actually seen it in a theatre and the 35mm was outstanding!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on April 30, 2019, 02:21 AM:
Brilliant Janice "Calamity Jane" would be a good one to watch on film.
Steve...I found an old photo of my bike, it must have been taken be around the 1994 mark.
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on April 30, 2019, 02:55 AM:
Strangely I did watch my Calamity Jane Derann print last week.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 30, 2019, 05:36 AM:
That's it, Graham: what people thought of when they heard "Bicycle" roughly 1975.
I love mountain bikes in their element: they are great off-road and good for adventures there, but on pavement these skinny tired bikes are much easier to make miles.
As I said: I got a lesson. I left the Ocean Holiday and now I am booking up the boardwalk. I am up in higher gears and I am blazing along like I am 16 years old!
-then I turned around and heard the wind roaring in my ears!
After that I returned to...more mature years and lower gears too!
(You would think I'd have learned something from 30 years canoeing!)
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on April 30, 2019, 07:13 AM:
i still have my trusty older Raleigh FS Cyclone mountain bike which is super rare now apparently! I have been looking for another for my son for over a year and cannot find one like mine with aluminum frame. I didn't realize my particular mountain bike would become so rare and I've kept it in great shape!. When I was in my 20's, I would bike up super steep roads just to see if i could make it, but nowadays, I use my toyota
@steve- A mountain bike(with dual suspension like mine) wouldn't outrun one like yours or grahams because some of each thrust is lost in the suspension, unless you have a hardtail bike(ie. no back suspension).
I've been actually considering turning mine into an electric driven bike one day. It would be fun and i could maybe use it again.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 30, 2019, 09:42 AM:
I really like moutain bikes with sprung suspension, but I have to be careful.
My job assigned me a mountain bike because I need to be able to move around campus even on days when I don't have my car.
It has a sprung front fork and I'm accustomed to it being that way.
My mountain bike at home has a solid fork.
-then I go off a curb with it...
("Oww!")
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 04, 2019, 03:33 PM:
Amphibious Update
So, as I’ve covered here before, I’m building this model car…boat thing. It’s a model of a WWII US Army Amphibious Jeep. These were the brainchild of the Allied Command while planning for D-day: build a whole bunch of amphibious vehicles and basically drive to France right across the Channel. The larger 6 wheel amphibious truck version of this was very successful, but this not nearly as much. It’s basically as if you forced an Army Jeep to drive around wearing a big bathtub: the end result was neither a good Jeep nor a good boat!
It is a cool model though!
It’s like my tenth project: I always have other things going on with films and projectors and the house and my job is basically made of projects, so it wasn’t getting done. Right at the start, I cut the two hull sides out and then left it for an entire year! (All priorities!)
I’ve used CineSea as an excuse to actually get some work done on this thing. I make some goal, and then I sail it with my son in the Pool at the Ocean Holiday.
The goal this time was to build the cockpit floor. This is where the seats will ultimately go, but more importantly the underside of it is where all the electrical stuff (batteries, switches, wiring) is mounted. Before I built this I had to round up a whole bunch of clip leads and wire it up poolside. Now I just throw switches (land or sea) and run either the wheels or the prop or both.
-but fate intervened!
When I got to CineSea the pool looked like this! This was opening weekend and the hotel was still cleaning the pool after being closed all winter.
Now I ask you: would you take a model you’d been building (on and off) for a decade and put it in that “water”?
Turned out OK, I remembered it’s amphibious and “sailed” it up on the sun deck!
(It wasn’t as much fun!)
October 31, 2018: The Back Story
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 06, 2019, 03:39 PM:
Sunday Night
Now here's cooperation neither Kodak or Epson ever saw coming:
-Epson VP with Kodak Pageant. (Not shown: Elmo ST-800 and Elmo ST-1200HD)
I had one of those great nights on screen where I just pulled movies off shelves and kind of made it up as I went along. I bounced back and forth among the three formats and enjoyed them all.
(Of course my basket of films and disks to be re-shelved is full now!)
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 07, 2019, 12:42 AM:
Nice Steve and reminded me of our 9.5mm meeting here a few years ago where we projected as many gauges as I could.
Standard 8mm, Super 8mm, 9.5mm, 16mm and finally 17.5mm. One of our members said " you must be mad showing all that lot" ah but what fun we had!
I'm gradually getting volunteers together for a local HOME MOVIE DAY where we will have projectors around a hall projecting local films people will be bringing in. It will make for a interesting picture on here later in the year. We will be projecting 8 9.5 and 16mm.
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 11, 2019, 08:05 PM:
Great stuff Steve ....will you be trying it out in some nearby pond?
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 11, 2019, 08:27 PM:
Its origins are in camping. There's a lake up in Maine where we've gone camping a couple of times and the original plan was to sail it full amphibious off the boat ramp, maybe chase it with a canoe if needed!
The problem was twice I got close to travel time and I had to decide if I wanted to rush finishing it or just set it aside. It's a great project and deserves to be done well, so I stopped. Of course, after we got home there were other things!
-at least it's close enough even now where the next time we go to the lake I'd bring it. Really from here on out almost everything left to do is cosmetic. (For better or worse, it turns out there was an amphibious jeep trailer and I still have three wheels left!...but let's finish this first!)
So I do imagine sailing it in open water sometimes. It would have to be really clean water though, so I think I'll mostly stick to swimming pools.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 13, 2019, 05:00 AM:
Filming Cinema in Miniature II in Dudley finished the days filming popping some flowers on in memory of Derek Simmonds.
Emotional.
Some 42 years ago I helped out with some super 8 filming at the Bluebell Steam Railway and became very attached to a locomotive I was given the task to film on the day. Long since retired from service I tracked it down although not accessible to the public anymore. Thanks to the railway we were given unlimited access and it was nice to see it again although no longer in steam or the beautiful BR green paint. Some of you may even have a super 8 film print we made back then a memorable time and wonderful to be reunited with a old friend.
Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on May 13, 2019, 05:30 AM:
Wonderful story Lee. I have quite a few train films on Super 8, what was the title as I may have it.
Graham S
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 15, 2019, 03:11 AM:
Jubilee Graham. Here is the old girl as I remember her, somewhat smaller but still in steam.
A long time ago now and I lost contact with the other makers many moons ago, they may not even be around now.
And as it was 42 years ago when filming commenced.
Memorable.
I had been blessed to spend years with other film makers offering this youth good guidance in the art of film making and it was pretty much the case if the phone went asking if we could help with filming you just grabbed your cine camera to join in.
Good times and a whole lot of footage.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 15, 2019, 08:07 AM:
I'll have to keep an eye out for "Jubillee", Lee.
-by an odd coincidence last night:
Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway
RH&D Jubilee
Piccadilly Line to Shanklin
Terrier to Wootton
Would that be HO or OO gauge? (-seems a little chunky for HO!)
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 16, 2019, 01:31 AM:
OO Steve. Picked up another that I'm going to repaint in wartime livery. These USA tank locos were made for the United States Army Transportation Corps and later purchased by Southern Railway. Eventually repainted in BR green and heavily used at Bluebell for some years. Sad to see the old girl left on a back lot now but its the money once again.
Another life long passion of mine. The right notes but not necessarily in the right order. Playing at sunny Blackpool joining in the 125th birthday of Blackpool Tower around the town.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 17, 2019, 03:22 PM:
Big Bang: Big Screen
Sometimes something important happens on TV and I get out the cables and connect the VP into our broadcast cable TV. The first time was the last Winter Olympics. Last night was the final one hour episode of The Big Bang Theory. We love this show and have been watching it for years, so we decided to make an occasion of it: made some snacks, invited some friends, rigged for big screen projection.
I’m not sure when these episodes will air worldwide, so I’ll only make one spoiler: 12 seasons later, they finally fixed the elevator!
The shame of it is it’s basically the only TV show I watch right now, so I guess screen-wise I’m going to have to shift even more for myself, but at least we gave it a great sendoff.
I noticed something while I was operating this way: that I have made myself a really bizarre TV set! The screen is in the front window, the volume control is on the dining room table, and the channel selector is at the back of the house about 30 feet away from the screen. What’s also unusual is the fact that an Elmo sound projector pays a key role here. This all evolved from just one film projector on the table. When the sound system was added that entire end of the system was grounded through it. When other 8mm, 16mm and video projectors are added in, their audio goes to the mixer through balanced connections so ground stays with the first Elmo. Without that ground this wicked ground loop develops and you can barely hear the audio through the hum. So for just last night, I needed a movie projector to watch TV!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 17, 2019, 08:21 PM:
Today was spent watching grandson Connor playing "Under 11 grade" junior rugby. All the kids did well, and it reminded me of a couple of photos I took 22 years ago, when Steven himself was playing "under 11" The "then" coach took them that year to top of there grade, which was quite an achievement in this city.
I must say though, that in general most parents, junior players and coaches are pretty good, although you will always find some side line experts
Hard to imagine this was 22 years ago...
There final game of the season, winning there grade..
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 19, 2019, 01:50 AM:
That's the worrying thing looking back through photos how quickly time passes.
We sat looking at some 35mm snaps of the old 80's film fairs and wound up counting film friends in the pictures no longer with us not to mention family. I'll always remember the Film Making magazine event in London during the 70's now forgotten but it was probably the most exciting film event I attended. Will dig out a photo for next time.
Been busy fitting another Analogue to Digital audio converter into a super 8 sound projector, the sound improvement is quite something and lifts a Stereo Eumig to new dizzy heights.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 20, 2019, 01:33 AM:
Stockport Plaza art deco cinema for SABRINA DAY 2019
Nice to see Sabby up on a massive screen in a beautiful art deco cinema complete with Compton theatre organ.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on May 20, 2019, 09:32 AM:
Wow, amazing! How great to have that kind of cinema in your home town Lee.
I would really like you to post more details of your Eumig analog to digital sound conversion, sounds intriguing.
Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on May 20, 2019, 01:53 PM:
I agree Paul! That is one nice looking movie cinema!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 21, 2019, 12:50 AM:
They have some great volunteers at that cinema which also doubles for stage shows having done one gig on the stage myself. Great place and people.
Paul if you get PROJECTIONS magazine I should have a article how to do the job going in using the little Yelco. Some of us have also changed the Capacitors over in the old amps which also makes a difference. I was fortunate to have studied ham radio back in the day which helps a bit with upgrades and repairs. Worth remembering as a very rough guide the life of a Capacitor is around 12 to 15 years so most of the 70's machines will have deteriorated somewhat.
Saddened to hear one of our super 8 film stars has received a drop kick thankfully OK we are told.
Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on May 21, 2019, 10:43 AM:
Yes I seen what happen on the news! I'm glad they caught him! It just goes to show you that there is a lot of unstable people out there!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 26, 2019, 05:18 PM:
Pre–Season PowerWash!
Hey!, It’s Spring!
You can tell because the garden centers have a hundred people in line at each cash register and I’ve already cut the lawn about four times. The snowblower is in deep storage and just as good: we’re getting ready to go camping in a few weeks. We set our camper up last week and aired it out, went through and decided what needed to be there and what did not.
Today’s business: Bring out the power washer and blast all the grime off!
I ask the same question EVERY year!
-which Rocket Scientist decided to paint a recreational vehicle white?!!
(-and yes, we’ll wash that back fence too!)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 22, 2019, 06:24 PM:
So, as a symptom of time passing, we are looking for colleges for our soon to be 17 year old son. Yesterday we visited Stevens Institute in Hoboken, New Jersey. -looks to be a really excellent school. In addition to having a name that's basically begging him to attend, it's got this really spectacular view of southern Manhattan across the Hudson River!
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on July 16, 2019, 02:02 AM:
Been walking the local old disused steam railway lines taking a few images and some wonderful views.
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on July 18, 2019, 03:34 AM:
Britannia passing through here
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on August 29, 2019, 12:40 PM:
This is my last night in pictures
I went to brush my teeth before bed and my cat Buster decided to jump up on the counter and crawl into the sink. I'm not totally sure what prompted this ad hoc behavior...but it was so adorable.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 29, 2019, 12:55 PM:
One of ours fell in the kitchen sink once.
Between the mass and the velocity, a full grown, soaking wet, panicked cat represents a spectacular amount of kinetic energy!
-there was wreckage to clear that day!
-wet, household-wide, senseless wreckage!
A wet cat doesn't corner very effectively or brake well either. Their center of gravity is off and they lose a lot of traction on the wet floor. We followed the tipped over waste paper baskets and silvery streaks along the walls down to the two green eyes glowing under the work bench.
We toweled him off, and life went on.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on August 29, 2019, 01:23 PM:
Thank you Steve for that rather excellent analysis of the structural dynamics of a wet cat!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 29, 2019, 01:32 PM:
Thanks Paul,
-next week we will bring in a biochemist to explain the smell of a wet dog!
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on August 29, 2019, 01:52 PM:
Can't wait for that one!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 30, 2019, 10:21 AM:
The Rangeley
We just did a short vacation up on the Maine Coast. While we were there, we went to one of my favorite places: the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum in Alna, Maine. This is a neat place, because 30 years ago right now there was nothing there but a weedy abandoned grade, and today there is a functioning, recreated, narrow gauge, turn of the (twentieth) century, steam powered railroad there, all due to dedicated volunteers.
These are serious historians: they have a company truck there: 1930s Ford model AA! They own two 100+ year old steam locomotives and are building a brand new one from scratch!
They were having their annual picnic and that day had all of their best, most interesting exhibits out.
This is two-foot gauge, something native to Maine, and Wales before it. What this means is: let’s assume you are a fairly decent-sized man. If you stand on their track with your right heel against one railhead and stick your left heel in front of your right toe, the toe of that left foot will be touching the opposite railhead.
Now what kind of train could possibly run on such tiny track? Up in Maine it was pretty decent sized trains that could move along at a pretty decent speed too. A good example always has been the parlor car Rangeley. She was built in 1901 for use on an express passenger train going almost 50 miles north to grand hotels on Rangeley Lake. She was strictly first class: swivel velvet upholstered seats, smoking room for the gentlemen, powder room for the ladies.
She has always been considered special, even before she became historic. When the Rangeley Express ended she was semi-retired rather than becoming just another coach in day to day service. When her line was scrapped, she wasn’t de-wheeled and turned into a hunting lodge, a tool shed or chicken coop like so many of these cars. A local doctor bought her and when they tore up the tracks across his land, she stayed on a section they left in their wake and he and his family took care of her until a museum bought her and then stored her indoors for about 50 years.
This is not mint condition, restored like brand new two weeks ago. It is lovingly protected, 118 years old, built by hands a long time stilled! The staterooms on the Titanic are a decade newer, yet in nowhere near the same condition! (... ) This is one of the most original condition railroad passenger cars of its era of any gauge.
I have been looking through the windows at it in several different museums for about 40 years now!
-but this time they…let us walk through it!
“No…Really?!”
(I rode one of the steam engines once, but that’s a story for some other time!)
Have you ever been in some place that’s so special you felt out of place inhaling the air? My son and I were invited to walk through…didn’t sit down,…spoke in kind of hushed tones,…touched absolutely NOTHING, and resisted the urge to bow a little when we left!
It WAS cool!
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 10, 2019, 01:27 PM:
Every year, the biggest flea market in Europe is held on Nothern France, in the city of Lille. This year, it was on Saturday 31 st August and Sunday 1st September.
It's not obvious on the pictures but there are many streets full of sellers ans, of course of visitors. A belgian forum member told me he (afterwoods) was there but I didn't see him due to the crowd and the large area covered by the event.
I saw very little films but a good amount of cine material.
This a postcard projector.
Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on September 10, 2019, 01:45 PM:
Steve,
That passenger car is gorgeous.
Dominique,
I cannot believe the size of that flea market!
Doug
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 10, 2019, 01:57 PM:
A real dream fot those who like that kind of things, Doug
'70s items. The orange character (seen on thee versions on the picture), Casimir, was very famous among kid (when I was one) on French tv.
Biggest French rock star, Johnny Hallyday (not his real name) was well represented through his records. When he died, last year, he had national funerals.
Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on September 10, 2019, 02:06 PM:
Dominique,
I'm a fan of Mr. Hallyday's 2002 film Man on the Train.
Doug
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 10, 2019, 02:14 PM:
Great, Doug !
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 10, 2019, 05:10 PM:
No later than tonight (!) Casimir made an appearance on French tv. The man standing beside him is the creator. French tv in the '70s wanted a French version of a character in the Sesame Street style.
Back to Lille's flea market, the last picture : a chips (fries) stand made a pun. They changed a famous (French) film title, "Les totons flingueurs" (The Shooting Uncles) to "Les tontons friteurs" (The "Chips makers" Uncles). Translation is aproximate but you get the idea.
http://fr.film-cine.com/les-tontons-flingueurs-m15539
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on September 17, 2019, 01:47 PM:
Yesterday I bit the bullet and attempted to repair my Epson XP-810 printer. I had started getting an error message that the ink waste collection container was reaching the end of it's life cycle. All suggestions were that the repairs would cost as much as a new printer. A new printer would run me about $300 with ink. After some research I found a supplier on Ebay that sold the new OEM waste pad container and another supplier that sold the software to reset the waste pad counter so that I would stop getting the error message. The project was successful...Hooray! After running a couple print head cleaning cycles the printer is running better than ever. Only cost about $35 and a little time.
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on September 17, 2019, 02:11 PM:
Dom,
At first glance I thought that postcard projector was a 3-strip Cinerama camera!
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on September 18, 2019, 02:23 AM:
Thankfully the only time I had a printer with that trouble it was still covered by an extended guarantee.
[ September 18, 2019, 06:14 AM: Message edited by: Brian Fretwell ]
Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on September 18, 2019, 04:42 AM:
Wow, Dominique, there's a Beaulieu 708!
I wonder how much that was?
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on September 21, 2019, 02:03 PM:
My kitty Buster has claimed this director's chair in my Cine Room.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 30, 2019, 12:13 PM:
Last weekend we went on our final camping trip of 2019. The days were great, but the nights were more than a little chilly! -a reminder that the seasons are moving on and it’s time to start getting ready for winter.
Did we go everywhere or do everything I was talking about last Spring? -of course we didn’t, but I knew that even when I was talking about it. What we did was great and memorable, besides: a year from now our son will be in college and these times are ones we will need to hold on to.
Just the fact that we didn’t do it all means there is still something to look forward to!
I brought my canoe along with me and spent an hour out on a tidal pond. It was almost like sledding! I fought my way across the pond, uphill against that cool breeze. Turned around and rode the wind back across!
Who knows, maybe this will be one of those unusual winters we take the boats out after it snows. It takes a lot of fortitude (and insulation) to leave a perfectly good, warm house and ride the ice water, but the times I’ve tried have been well worth the effort.
-Let's see next Spring if we actually do it!
Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on September 30, 2019, 03:08 PM:
Seeing that canoe Steve I was looking for Little Elmer and his brother Bruins
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 30, 2019, 05:58 PM:
I'm almost ashamed to say I have become a rabid collector of the series!
I became aware of the Castle Bruins because I was looking for S8 canoeing films. My son collects R8 so I bought a bunch for him.
-wouldn't you know: after that I found out the 16mm prints have sound...
I'm sure most people wouldn't see it this way, but 16mm is the Canoeist's Film Gauge! There is quite a selection you never see on S8!
So far my 16mm collection is distinctly...outdoorsy!
(-No MGM, Warner Bros. or 20th Century Fox so far, but the National Film Board of Canada is doing just fine.)
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 30, 2019, 10:21 PM:
The Film Collector's Plague!
I keep finding these things all over the house!
-where I project films and even where I don't!
I even found one out on the front walk once!
So help me, the day I start finding them at Work, I'll consider trying Stamp Collecting!
(They are like Film Dandruff!)
Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 10, 2019, 12:59 PM:
Ha ha ha!
You, me and probably every collector, Steve!
The irritating thing is that I usually find them, in the middle of the night with my bare feet, and i have especially tender feet!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 10, 2019, 01:04 PM:
-better than a LEGO!
I miss a lot about my son not being a little kid anymore, but not that!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 14, 2019, 01:03 PM:
Amphibious Update
Before CineSea 20, I used the possibility of access to a swimming pool as an incentive to do some actual (you know...) "work" on my never-ending Amphibious Jeep Project.
-while I was there I took advantage of the Shalimar's large pool to see how it would do. (seriously: I've canoed in smaller pools!)
I liked the plastic Palm Trees: it gave a certain "South Pacific, 1943" feel to my amphibious WWII mission!
The good news as is always was: "it didn't sink". It was a little cool for a swim that day!
I learned a lesson this time: My son was home to attend his Senior Year High School homecoming. -I was on my own. I found tending both shores of this big pool it order to keep the thing from clunking into the concrete pool wall was a little more athletic than I wanted it to be. I'd earlier considered adding another switch to choose either both batteries connected in series (fast) or both in parrallel (slow), but I started to wonder why I need such a complication: just leave it hard-wired "full speed ahead"! Now I know exactly why and I'll make it happen!
Progress since last time?
-Build the basic superstructure of the top deck
-Design the mounting of the top and mid-deck
-Add the hardware to mount both (The hub of the spare tire and the fake capstan up front both conceal screws.)
Next: Trim the deck, build up the windshield, who knows? Maybe some Olive Drab paint! I'll certainly add that switch: a 57 year old man shouldn't be leaping over any diving boards! (I should just get radio controlled models and sit in a chair with a cold beer!)
It's an act of faith to sail this thing with a deck on it: for all I knew, any minute it would keel over and go full Andrea Doria on me! (It did do some quality time in the kitchen sink a couple of days earlier,...just for confidence!)
I've gained a new perspective on building this model: 75% of the joy of it is the building, not so much the having (-like a jigsaw puzzle...). I'm in no hurry to finish it, I'm enjoying the challenges of making it too much.
Amphibious II, High and Dry at the Ocean Holiday
Amphibious I, the Maiden Voyage
Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 15, 2019, 09:52 AM:
Just finished another 6 hour stint filming for Cinema in Miniature II having lifted many projectors for a few scenes. My back is loving it!
The Leicina Special continues to amaze me as it has for a long time.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on October 15, 2019, 11:58 AM:
My back fully sympathizes, Lee!
-then again, my back was foolish enough to start collecting 16mm in its fifty-fifth year!
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 13, 2019, 03:42 PM:
So Long to Summer!
My Friends, we are gathered here today to to bid fond farewell to an old friend: Summer 2019. We anticipated it arriving fondly 6 months ago and we made great plans. Like all our seasons, the plans are never quite matched by the results, but it was still well worth the trip!
In my family, the ceremony is mostly putting away our camper so it can survive winter and begin its 25th season in good shape.
My son and I put it up on the back patio in the shelter of the house. We'd already gone through it and double-checked there was no food left inside (it's spectacular what a winter housing mice can do to one of these!). We left it tipped down so it wouldn't pool rainwater, I bagged the lighting connector to avoid it being immersed in snow for a couple of weeks, we slid the picnic table over the hitch and next weekend we'll put a cover over it all to cut down on the grime we'll need to remove next spring.
We had a great summer. We camped three times including a journey to coastal Maine: loads of campfires with our friends, many pancake breakfasts and more great memories to throw on the pile.
Something you learn as you get up into several dozen repetitions of all this: you never let the coming of Winter get you down...
-there's another Summer right around the bend!
Next: -clean out the fireplace!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 13, 2019, 07:18 PM:
Steve you will have to do what Charlie from New York State used to do, he came out here for the summer, then returned home for summer, he did that trip for years. Charlie was a real gentleman, and retired.
Winter time is rugby session which is now over....summer is now here.
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 14, 2019, 09:18 AM:
I have to give Charlie a lot of credit!
-most people I know like that just go to Florida for the Winter!
Summer isn't quite the same since I was 12 years old and basically did whatever I felt like (-within limits, of course!) between late June and September. The difference has actually helped me to appreciate the rest of the seasons a lot more.
-just maybe in a month or so, the snow will get deep a little too quickly and I'll get an unplanned day or two off, sleep late, and be "stuck" at home with my family and my amusements:
-not a bad deal!
Posted by Mathew James (Member # 4581) on November 14, 2019, 09:32 AM:
He looks a bit like macauley culkin to me when younger, Graham!
culkin!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 14, 2019, 08:17 PM:
Mathew....you are right he does to
Steve... I forgot to mention that Charlie had friends that he came to live with every summer.
After getting those Eumig projectors back up and running I am thinking of doing some kind of multi-media presentation with all three at the same time
Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 14, 2019, 09:01 PM:
Cinerama-Eight!
The monaural channels on my mixer have a "Pan" knob so I can put one projector in the left channel and one in the right, I've always wanted to try two films at once, but it would probably be better on a night when I'm by myself! ("WHAT are you DOING?!!")
I guess if Charlie traveled around the times of the Equinoxes his year would be Summer, Fall/Spring, Summer, Fall/Spring and the Moon would keep flipping over in the sky!
Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 16, 2019, 11:42 AM:
Charlie I though was one of those American citizen from a much older generation. Once I told him I was from Scotland he talked about his short time there during WW2, he did go on to say he was with the US army in Europe during WW2. Charlie was one of those people that you could listen to for ages with recounts from his past, but more so he was a real gentleman in how he express himself.
Steve I am thinking of cutting up a old scenic travel film into three parts, then dub some music to it. It sounds a bit crazy but it might be fun to see all three old Eumig going at the same time. I will make up a short video showing the results if things work out
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