Your Today in Pictures...

[Melvin England]

On Sunday lunch time, I decided to go for a walk around the neighbourhood and came across these jolly chappies sitting on a tree stump !


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[Dominique De Bast]

Yes, Janice I spent good time there. And you can even watch early Lumière and Méliès films in a dedicated room.

[Janice Glesser]

Thanks for all the cool photos Dominique! What a great experience.

[Dominique De Bast]

Several signs have a translation in English. Like this one that reminds Belgian contribution to the pre-cinema 😀

[Dominique De Bast]

It says the automat was made for the film Hugo Cabret, based on a real automat from 1805.

[Dominique De Bast]

I spent three days in Paris. Among other things, I visited the "museum" of the Cinémathèque. The musée du cinéma moved there several years ago and changed completely. While it was before a general exhibition, it's now mainly focused on Georges Meliès.

[Dominique De Bast]

As every year, the 6th January is the day to eat "la galette des rois" (the kings' cake). The one who finds "la fève" (the little thing hidden inside) is the king of the day. It's linked now with the Wise men's day but before Christianity, it was a Roman tradition but it was reserved to the slaves. One of them became the king of the day and had even the right to give orders to his master. But the following day, he turned back to his condition or was killed. Today, it's much more safe and this cake is delicious.

[Janice Glesser]

Buster has always enjoyed being around my film equipment since he was a little kitty. Tonight he found a comfortable spot sleeping on the lid to one of my 16mm shipping cases.

[Janice Glesser]

Last night seven of us piled into the minivan and drove to San Dimas... The home of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Every year they have a drive-thru Christmas light show. The lights are all timed to go with the music. It gets better every year.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Thank you, Paul & Graham. Merry Christmas!

[Graham Ritchie]

Thanks Doug.

Your photos look fantastic.

[Paul Adsett]

New York- THE place to be at Christmas time - merry Christmas Doug!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Graham, great job on the 8mm display and the other exhibits look very interesting also.


I walked along Fifth Avenue the other night, taking in the Christmas sights along with many, many tourists.







The Plaza Hotel, well known to fans of Home Alone 2.


Saks Fifth Avenue puts on its holiday light show. This year, hundreds of thousands of LED lights are synchronized to Elton John songs. The show takes place every 10 minutes.



The 82 foot tall Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center....all 14 tons of it!

[Graham Ritchie]

Today I took some photos one of a 8mm film display I have been working on, others around the building, thought it might be include those as well

Its still in the early days, but have already bought building material to cover in the area of the screen for the Westar 35mm, also will show the workings of 8mm film as well on the odd home movie day later next year. Well that's sort of the plan

[Graham Ritchie]

Looking back over the years one of the things I always liked during the summer months, was when I was on the roster for tarmac in the evening. There was a moment at the airport where things went quiet, after the noise and bustle of the day. Towards the West were the Southern Alps, and as the sun was setting over them you always had a stunning sunset during the summer months. While the loaders had there evening meal I would often pick out a baggage trolley, put my feet up with a cup of tea and something to eat and look towards the sunset and enjoy those few special moments.

Back then, there was a book that came out, which to my surprise the person had not only captured an evening shot of the airport but also one taken in the hanger, which I should add, also had the doors facing West, so you had the evening sun coming right in . Now in the book, there is no mention of who the person on the wing is, but I could guess, and just the other day it was confirmed by that same person, he had no idea that a photo had been taken. So it goes to show that even after 27 years or there about, things can still pop up from the past.

The final photo below, I had no idea that one had been taken of me looking for an oil leak from a supercharger one night until lately. Now that we are all basically retired pensioners on Facebook, its amusing thanks to the internet what appears from time to time from those long ago times. .

An evening shot, later I would spend time working on the Ansett 146 you can see parked up in the distance.

The person in the photo contacted me yesterday to say they were good times, and they were.

Yours truly long long ago.

Just to finish here is a nice photo of one of the Ansett NZ BA146, most likely all now scrapped.

I also mention another aircraft we looked after on tarmac, that being a leased Boeing 757 from Britannia Airways painted as "Freedom Air", That aircraft was used between Australia and New Zealand. I remember having to marshal it onto a gate one day. The pilot came in way to fast, so had to show him the stop sign very early on. The aircraft came to a halt quickly, but only missed the nose wheel mark by a couple of inches which was pretty good. As soon as the airbridge was in place I spoke to the pilots, what was the hurry?. The captain said he needed a cigarette, the copilot a beer was there reply, they were English I should add, and had a bit of a sense of humor. I saw them of at the end of our summer, for there long journey back to the UK for the Northern summer session, last thing they said after the push back was thanks for everything, and I wished them a safe flight.

Good times