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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
Fri, 05 Mar 2010
A Lovely Non-Motorcycle Picture For A Change
Goodness, but those flowers look gorgeous...
Posted at 10:38 permanent link category: /misc Tue, 16 Feb 2010I know you're just dying to see it.
Note the yellow stain along the bottom edge. I'm pretty sure that's oxidization from being old. Never a good thing. And here it is inverted and contrast-enhanced (but nowhere near as contrast-enhanced as the first one):
So, more developer time is good. Fresh film will be even better. Posted at 22:45 permanent link category: /misc I developed the second exposure from our epic four-shot 5x7 photo shoot on the 31st. The first exposure was pretty milquetoast, as far as contrast went, so I went from 11 minutes to 15 minutes in the developer. It definitely made a difference, but the contrast still seemed weird. In fact, once I looked closely, I realized that the bits of the film which were covered up by the film holder were... well, kinda foggy. Uh-oh, thought I. 10 year old film. I might be dealing with film that's just past its use-by date. So I developed an unexposed sheet of film, to see if the film right out of the box was foggy and gross, or whether it was somewhere else in the process (such as handling, the film holder, light leaks in the camera, etc.) that it was getting fogged. So, this is the completely unexposed film:
That's pretty much exactly what it's not supposed to look like. Note the even darkness (it should be nearly glass-clear), plus the slight yellowish fringe around the edge. Oh well, I guess that 10 year old film is junk. I'll still process the other two exposures, because they're salvageable, but I know I'll get much better results with fresh film. Well, this is why I wanted to do a throw-away photo shoot first. Posted at 21:51 permanent link category: /misc I walked out the door to head up for lunch today, and stopped in my tracks. Between the towering rooflines of the buildings around me, I could see a strip of sky, and it was pretty stunning, bright blue and big puffy clouds. It was clearly a day on which I needed to bring a camera with me. So I did. And when I got to the cherry tree, I knew just what needed to happen. These were photographed near the PCC store in Fremont.
The photos are unretouched, except for a slight bump in exposure and exposure offset, which has the effect of increasing contrast and dynamic range. In Photoshop, look under Image > Adjustments > Exposure (at least in CS4). Posted at 14:40 permanent link category: /misc Tue, 09 Feb 2010
The Positive Benefit of Negative Dreams
I woke up from an anxiety dream this morning, and found that I couldn't get back to sleep. It wasn't a normal anxiety dream, in which there's just a vague feeling of tension. This one was definite, and quite realistic. It was after a performance of Penguins, and several people were walking away from the theater, talking about the show. There were some actors from the show, and some of their friends, and myself. At some point, one of the friends is describing a part she particularly liked, which included a prop gun. Only, instead of miming a gun with her forefinger and thumb, she actually pulled out the gun itself as we walked through this public square, and started gesticulating with it. My reaction was swift, and had none of the moving-through-molasses quality that dreams sometimes have. I swiped it out of her hand, and pulled the slide back to check that it was empty. I ejected the magazine. In the midst of this, I also fumbled it, and it dropped on the ground, breaking several large chunks off. While doing all this, I was also asking in a too-loud voice and with rather too many expletives who had let her have this thing. The commotion brought over a police officer, and then the dream branched into a bunch of different exploratory endings as the cop A) pulled her own gun on me; B) started waving around some kind of magical gun-sensing wand that looked like a boom microphone; C) sauntered slowly over to talk to me; etc. None of them ended particularly badly for me, as I just reacted calmly and laid down the now-broken blank gun and kept things mellow, all the while casting dirty glances at the person who'd brought the thing out in the first place. Of course, the anxiety part of this dream is that this is the exact situation I've been worried about for as long as I've been helping productions as armourer: someone brings a fake gun out in public, and Bad Things happen. In real life, it's pretty reasonable to guess that this situation would lead to someone causing a panic, getting shot, getting arrested, etc. I give each cast a speech filled with dire warnings about this kind of thing happening. The value of the dream is that I had not, up until this morning, considered what I would do in a situation like this. I think that in the dream, I reacted partly right, and partly wrong. The right reaction was to get the pistol away from the person waving it around, clear it, and ensure it was safe. The wrong part was to make a commotion about it. I should have just dropped it in a pocket and immediately headed back to the theater, saving any loud speech for later, and in more private circumstances. On this topic, I wanted to relate a story which directly bears on this situation, and illustrates perfectly what can happen. I wasn't involved with this particular show, and heard about it second-hand from one of the people involved. A theater company, which shall remain nameless, had a temporary rehearsal and storage space in a light industrial part of Seattle. It was mostly warehouses and industrial businesses, but there were some consumer businesses there, a gym across the street, etc. For the show they were rehearsing, they had these wooden rifle props, which were approximately shaped like AK47s. 
What a real AK47 looks like On a smoke break, several of the actors were standing outside the door, goofing around, as actors do. They had brought a couple of the wooden rifles out with them, and were presumably play-acting shooting at each other. A few minutes later, smoke break over, they went back inside, and continued with rehearsal. About 20 minutes later, everyone looked up in surprise as the door banged open, and a dozen SWAT officers poured in the door, assault rifles up, and shouting, "DROP YOUR WEAPONS! DROP YOUR WEAPONS! HANDS UP!" Real SWAT officers. Real assault rifles, capable of shooting real bullets that would go through a bulletproof vest like butter. The actors, fortunately, dropped the wooden guns and stood there with their hands in the air, as Hollywood had trained them to do in a situation like this (note: this is a fine reaction to have in this situation). Fortunately, no one thought he'd be a joker and aim his stick at the SWAT guys. Fortunately, the situation was quickly defused, and everyone had a hearty chuckle as the SWAT van trundled off. No arrests, not even a fine for calling out the van. What had happened was this: one of the gym patrons across the street had seen the actors, questionable looking fellows even in good light and close up, playing with AK47s outside a warehouse. The patron's mind being full of 24 and airplane hijackers, he naturally hopped it to a phone, called 911, and reported a group of suspicious men with assault rifles in a warehouse. As the police, this is not the kind of call you half-ass. You don't send a couple of patrol officers in a cruiser to check it out. You call out the anti-terrorism troops you've been training for just such a situation: terrorist cell in Seattle. I'm sure the chief could see the headlines scrolling through his head about his cool, overwhelming and successful response to the situation. Not only the SWAT van and many SWAT officers arrived. There must have been dozens more normal patrol officers. They shut down a 2 block radius around the building. The response was huge. Fortunately, as I said, no shots were fired, and no one was hurt. However, all it would have taken was one joker, and it would have been a very real tragedy. A dozen edgy guys with machineguns turn into a wall of molten metal death very quickly. The moral of this story, of course, is that theater props stay in the theater, and they're not for joking around. You use them for your scene, then you put them back on the prop table. The AK47 props were plainly not AK47s up close, but from a distance, it's hard to tell unless you know what you're looking for. My greatest fear on any of the shows I provide prop guns for is that someone's going to get hurt or killed because they didn't take my warnings seriously. I now use this story as part of my gun speech, just in case anyone thinks I'm joking. Posted at 07:18 permanent link category: /misc Mon, 08 Feb 2010
When I was a big wee lad of 17, I had a crush on a girl. I would leave cherry blossoms in her locker, and ever since then, blooming cherry trees remind me of her. Even now, I miss having someone like that in my life. Older and wiser does not always mean older and happier (although a lot of the time, it does). Photographed in Fremont, camera balanced carefully on knee. Posted at 22:14 permanent link category: /misc Sun, 07 Feb 2010
His Majestic Dustiness, Conqueror of Floors and Corners, Lurker Under Beds and Despoiler of Tidiness Everywhere, King Dustius von Bunnenstein, the Holy Dustbunny Himself, did command my death for crimes against dustbunnies everywhere. Fortunately, by quick use of my wits and a nimble wisk-broom wrist, I was able to avoid his terrible, dusty wrath, and escape with my life. The kingdom of the dustbunny mourns the loss of their leader, and has vowed to regroup and conquer, and I fear it is only a matter of time until I must face a reprise of the terrible, dusty ordeal. Posted at 12:50 permanent link category: /misc Sun, 31 Jan 2010My friend Melanie and I finally went out today, and shot some pictures with the 5x7 camera. I've only been getting ready and geared up for this moment since, oh, last summer. Tonight I spent a couple of hours prepping the darkroom area (my bathroom, with light-tight covers on the window and door). I located and washed out all the old chemical bottles and trays from the last time I did this -- 1999 or so. The chemicals contained in those bottles were... impressively full of crud. Lots of rinsing. Finally, it was time, and I turned out all the lights and processed my first sheet of 5x7 film in over a decade. It went pretty smoothly, but I clearly have some work to do. 
That's the first look at the negative (hanging in my shower stall, still drying, why do you ask?). I inverted the colors, dramatically upped the contrast, and that's the result. Obviously I'll be doing more with it than just photographing it hanging in the shower stall, but as it's still wet, that's all I can offer for the moment. The contrast is so low that I suspect my development time was way too short. This was 11 minutes with Microdol-X (itself about 10 years old, but freshly mixed), and it clearly needs more like 14-15. Fortunately, I took two exactly identical exposures, so I've got another one to play with. Working with 10 year old film and developer is a bit of a crapshoot, but it's a good way to do some initial checks, and make sure that I don't have light leaks in the camera, or any other really obvious operational problems before I go blow money on fresh film and chemicals. In any case, hooray for progress! Posted at 21:56 permanent link category: /misc Thu, 07 Jan 2010I think the mountains came out for my brother's birthday. Of course, he's in LA and couldn't possibly have seen them, but it seemed likely in any case: 
Posted at 10:37 permanent link category: /misc Tue, 05 Jan 2010This morning, I came across some coupons from Silence Heart Nest, a restaurant in Fremont, which took over the space from the Longshoreman's Daughter restaurant. It's a new-agey-feeling place, with all the servers in saris, and a menu heavy on the happy/hippie food. I looked at the coupon, saw that it was from this place, and scoffed to myself: "Yeah right, you won't catch me going in there again." This is the story of that reaction. In the early planning of SketchFest Seattle last year, we were having meetings about once a month, and we found ourselves generally meeting for brunch on our meeting days. It was a nice way to get together and discuss the pressing issues while taking our time and being leisurely about it. One time, we decided to stop in at Silence Heart Nest, having heard that it was a good place. They seemed to be doing a brisk trade that morning, but we were able to find a corner table for four, and sat down to our discussion. Food was ordered, and consumed. It was pretty good, and reasonably priced. We had our discussion, and ended up sitting at the table for a couple of hours, deeply embroiled in the issues of putting on a quality sketch comedy festival. This was our usual mode of meeting, and we'd done it at many restaurants. I remember looking over occasionally to see if we were sucking up table space unnecessarily, but there was never much of a line at the door, and the servers didn't seem anxious to get rid of us. So we stayed, and we discussed. Eventually, two hours after we'd gotten there (having ordered a full round of breakfast for everyone), we flagged a server and got our check. "You know," said the server (I must necessarily paraphrase, my memory's not that good), "you guys have been sitting here for a really long time, and you've been taking up a perfectly good table, costing us a lot of income. It was really quite inconsiderate of you, and maybe next time you have a meeting like this, you could take it somewhere else after you eat, like a local coffee shop or something." We four sat there, stunned. Glances were exchanged across the table. There were sotto voce conversations affirming that each of us had been looking out to see if we were being an inconvenience to the restaurant. We paid our bill and left, much more quickly than we might otherwise have done. There was still nothing like a line at the door -- there might have been two people waiting for a table. As we walked down the sidewalk away from the the restaurant, it was generally agreed: that was about the worst possible way for our server to handle that situation, short of actually screaming or producing weaponry. In a normal restaurant, it wouldn't have even come up. SHN is arguably a small space with relatively few tables, and could be excused for being anxious for high table turnover. It would have been acceptable, if a bit weird, if someone had come over and politely asked us to clear out after we were obviously done eating. Laying a heavy guilt trip on us after we were done left us feeling like we'd just transgressed, without having any indication it was a problem during the transgression itself. So, congratulations, Silence Heart Nest. Your ill-timed scolding has not only guaranteed that I'll never be back, it has also produced this journal entry, which will be read by at least a half-dozen people, who might even have the same reaction. The durable power of infamy, indeed. Posted at 10:18 permanent link category: /misc Tue, 15 Dec 2009So, if you've been following along, then you know that I was drooling over the Canon G11 a while ago, primarily for one reason, and one reason only: low-light performance. The G10 is a fine camera in almost every respect, but it was disappointing in its low-light abilities. For those, it's pretty grainy and annoying, and feels like it lets the side down, if only because everything else is so excellent. It is a pleasure to use otherwise. Despite all that, I really wanted to get my hands on a G11. I finally realized that yes, low-light performance really was a big priority for me. This, coupled with someone who was interested in buying my G10, made the decision pretty easy. I've now been using my new G11 for about 5 days, and wanted to make an intial report. First and foremost, holy crap does this thing do low-light well! The first time I took a real picture in a dim restaurant (as opposed to playing around with ISO settings and taking test shots), I was astounded. The quality is excellent, and although there's grain, it's really not that bad. 
ISO 1600, .4s, f/2.8 One of my few complaints with the G10 was that the shutter release button was kind of mushy feeling. This, sadly, remains true with the G11. There's not really any tactile feedback to the shutter button, and so you can't tell when you've got it pressed half-way (a critical tactic when taking pictures with any kind of autofocus camera). There's a light that flashes, eventually, but that only comes on after everything gets locked in, so it's significantly delayed feedback. This is a huge disappointment because other Canon cameras I've used have had excellent shutter release buttons, and those were much cheaper cameras. I was unclear on whether I'd like the fold-out screen on the G11. My first impression, when I handled a G11 in a store a month or so ago, was that the screen felt a bit cheap compared to the brick-like solidity of the G10. I haven't really changed that assessment, but in use, the screen of the G11 doesn't feel as cheap as it first seemed. It still falls down compared to the G10. However, the benefit of the articulated screen became apparent in use. I knew in the abstract that it'd be nice to be able to take pictures from different angles, but the reality of it was better than I'd expected. I would still be perfectly happy with a fixed screen like the G10 has, but I can see the utility of the folding screen. The big one that I'm still looking forward to is taking waist-level candid shots, so I can hopefully get pictures of people who don't have that frozen, "Oh shit a camera!" rictus about them. The G11 seems to continue the tradition of the colors on the camera's screen being a bit more vibrant than they appear anywhere else. This can be disappointing, but as long as you keep in mind that it happens, it's acceptable. Everything is sufficiently similar between the G10 and G11 that all my G10 accessories still work: the fisheye lens add-on, the case, the spare battery. The G11 feels almost exactly the same in my hand, although the buttons on the back feel a bit more crowded with the extra furniture required for the flip-out screen -- I've found myself accidentally pushing buttons more on the G11 than on the G10. An interesting change on the G11 is that the scroll wheel on the back is now part of the four-way rocker switch. This makes the four-way easier to use, but the scroll wheel harder to use, as if you apply too much pressure while scrolling, it'll activate one of the four-way buttons. It's an acceptable compromise for me, and I'm not honestly sure which setup I prefer. So, my impression from the first few days with the G11 is quite favorable. I'm very pleased I made the leap. I'll be sad to see the G10 go, although the trade-offs between the two cameras definitely make the G11 the one I want to keep. Posted at 10:57 permanent link category: /misc Mon, 07 Dec 2009
How the universe says, "Screw you, hippie!"
I decided, given an unexpectedly free evening, that it would be a good night to go to the range. Given that it's somewhere below 30 degrees outside, the truck was the logical vehicle to take for this venture. I loaded up, put the thing in gear, released the clutch, and... it wouldn't move. Finally I coaxed it forward, but something was clearly Wrong. I took a very low-speed stroll around the neighborhood, figuring maybe it was some ancient grease that needed to warm up a bit or something. Half a mile later, I stopped, and checked the brakes, to see if one of them was sticking. Sure enough, I nearly burned my fingers on the left rear brake. Ok, so that brake drum is sticking. Crap. I definitely couldn't drive any distance with things in this condition. I also know I'm going to need the truck later this week, and so I decided to sit down and see if I could resolve the problem. I always enjoy problems that might be solveable with a Big Hammer. Fortunately, Ford designed their rear brake drums the right way around, and once you get the wheel off, the drum just pulls off. Well, that's what it's supposed to do, but that doesn't work out so well when there's a brake shoe pressed hard against it. Out came the little hammer, and I slowly worked the drum off the axle. There was nothing obviously wrong, and a bunch of fiddling finally allowed me to discover an adjuster wheel. I turned it in the "less" direction, and amazingly, the brake drum slid back on beautifully. A few test adjustments and fittings, and it appeared that I was good to go. Back on went the wheel, and I tried again. After a few initial twangings and pingings, like the sound of a wooden ship under moderate winds, it seemed... No, it was stuck again. The drag came right back. Crap! So I pulled back into my driveway, and set the parking brake. More twangs, pings, creaks and ratchet noises occurred. Thoughtfully, I pulled out again, and tried my luck once more. Much to my surprise, the dragging rear brake had stopped dragging, and all seemed to be fine. I glanced at the clock: 8 pm. I'd started this whole escapade at 7. There was still time to go, but it would be a brief session. I did another circuit of the neighborhood, just in case, and carefully checked for dragging brakes. All seemed to be good, so I finally pushed onward. I made my way toward the freeway, stopping once to confirm that the left rear brake wasn't heating up -- all good. Then, as I was about to get on the freeway, I noticed that my dash lights seemed a little weak. In fact, yeah, the voltage gauge was looking pretty limp. Double crap! I turned around and came back. The alternative, of getting somewhere between here and Bellevue, or worse, between Bellevue and here, with descending temperatures destined for the teens, and a truck that wouldn't run because the battery had crapped out, seemed too stupid to contemplate. Clearly the battery was struggling, and possibly the alternator wasn't up to the task. I'd rather find that out sitting in my driveway than somewhere on a cold, bleak freeway. So, back I drove, noticing the voltage gauge get a little bit lower as the trip progressed (all 5 miles of it). Sure enough, the voltmeter revealed just under 12V at the battery terminals (it should be 12.8 or higher, particularly just after driving like that -- under 12 is kind of a death sentence for a car battery in that point in time). It's comforting to think that at least the bicycle won't suffer from being too cold. Posted at 20:45 permanent link category: /misc Tue, 01 Dec 2009This is a short one. Every once in a while, I'll go out searching for myself, to see what kind of incriminating evidence I can dig up. Today, instead of incriminating evidence, I found a Scot who is shockingly similar to me. Posted at 10:48 permanent link category: /misc Mon, 30 Nov 2009Normally, in November, I would be feverishly typing away on a novel. For instance, in 2006, I came up with my first novel, Troublesome Cargo. The next year, I came up with my favorite long-form project so far, Hybrids. In 2008, I was ridiculously busy, and did NaNoWriMo, but I really phoned it in with The Curious Adventures of Heinrich von Klausheim. Definitely not my best effort. This year, perhaps soured by the effort of 2008, I decided to try something different. My first novel hit the requisite 50,000 word mark in 12 days. My second in 14 days, and it ended up being 85,000 words. Clearly I was capable of the task. So this year, I decided to try writing a play. Enter NaPlWriMo (pronounced "napple-rai-mo"). The goal is similar to that of NaNoWriMo: write X amount of text in 30 days. Since a play is obviously different from a novel, the requrement is different too. Instead of writing to 50,000 words, the goal is 75 pages of 12 point Courier text. I started out much like I had with Hybrids (where I decided to see if I could write a story based simply on a word I'd heard on the news one day: "hybrids"): I started with a phrase. Someone mis-pasted the phrase, "Then, she stole my jacket and cell phone" into an IRC channel (online chat room sorta thing) I frequent. I liked the phrase, and thought I'd try writing a play around it. I was in no rush, unlike with the novel attempts in the past, because I had clearly demonstrated my ability to be a wordy firehose, and 75 pages didn't honestly look like a very daunting goal. So I tried to get my mind worked around the unique limitations of writing for the stage: limited locations, limited characters, nothing too outlandish and hard to stage. Doubtless experienced playwrights would have something to say on this kind of self-limitation, and I'd be interested to hear it, but that's how I handled things. The effort ended up taking 25 days to finish, which included at least three days on which I didn't write at all, and a few days where I made only a token attempt at getting any writing done. It was finished on the train down to Portland to hang out with my family for Thanksgiving. Today, I finished a first-pass edit to clean up obvious inconsistencies, giving me a fairly readable and not too unbearable 77 page play. I still haven't come up with a title yet, so I've just been calling it NaPlWriMo 2009. Click here to download the PDF of NaPlWriMo 2009 The play ended up being centered around time travel, and the enforcement of time travel regulations, based on a universe where timelines split every time a decision is made. It's an interesting exploration for me, and notably, I finally feel like I had some success creating believably unique characters. Previously, I've always felt like every character in a book was more or less myself with something added or subtracted. Whether my "believably unique" characters have anything more than a paper-thickness of depth to them is a completely different question, but I'll take progress where I can get it. Bret Fetzer, Artistic Director of Annex Theatre, made some (perhaps half-joking) motions about wanting to do a reading of it, and I've been considering talking to him about it. We'll see what happens. Maybe we'll see Nigel and crew on stage at some point in the future. Of course, because I finished in the allotted time, I am allowed to post this striking graphic on my blaggs: 
I iz a winnar! If you find yourself with constructive feedback regarding my latest foray into literary endeavors, please feel free to email or comment on FB, where this will end up in an hour or two. Hooray for creativity! Posted at 16:52 permanent link category: /misc Thu, 12 Nov 2009I have taken a few random pictures in the last couple of weeks, and thought I'd share them here.
This is a flower that was mysteriously growing out of a planter box on my deck. The weird thing is that it was blooming and happy in 50 degrees and rain in early November.
This is the Aurora Bridge, as seen from the Fremont Bridge. I was riding on my way to the theater, and this image was too good to pass up. It was taken at twilight, and was pretty stunning in the half-light. Finally, if you're in Seattle and want to see some of my photography "for real" instead of on a screen, I'll be putting up a gallery show at Annex Theatre, which will open November 27th, the day after Thanksgiving. Some of the pictures from this set of photos will be up on the walls. Come see a show, see the photos, and have a drink! We'll have three shows a night during this time, Fridays and Saturdays, including Penguins, Episode 1, in case you missed it the first time around. Posted at 11:25 permanent link category: /misc Mon, 02 Nov 2009That is, National Play Writing Month. I've decided this year that rather than write another novel, I'd try a new challenge, and write a play. I've been doing a lot of theater lately, so it seems like a fairly logical match. If you'd like to follow along, hit up the script and hit reload every day to see the progress I've made. The goal is to write 75 pages in 30 days. I'm already at 13+ pages in two days, so as with novels, I don't think the volume of output is going to be my challenge. Writing with the stage in mind is curiously constraining, but also a very interesting challenge. The play got off to a rocky start so far, but seems to have settled down nicely. Where it goes from here is definitely anybody's guess. Posted at 23:43 permanent link category: /misc Thu, 29 Oct 2009
How Not to Do It (an ongoing series)
Just now, my phone rang unexpectedly. I glanced at the number: an unknown 1-800 number. I answered tentatively: "This is Ian." Before I got the second word out, a recorded voice drowned me out: "This is Aetna calling with important information about your..." blah blah blah. Ok, sure. Up next: "This important information is for Ian Johnston. If I'm speaking with Ian Johnston, please say 'yes.'" So I say, slowly and clearly, "Yes." In the middle of this, a triple chime sounds, followed by silence. The voice repeats, "If I'm speaking with..." and I wait for the ill-timed chime before saying "Yes" again. All fine so far. However, next comes the bit where we cross the line. "We need to confirm your identity by checking some data. Please press or say your birth date..." followed by instructions on formatting. So, there are some important bits of information which never go from me to you unless you really, really need to know them. They are:
Why? Because that's all data that can be used to steal identity, either establishing credit in my name, or any of a variety of other forms of ID theft. Yes, some of it is widely available, but that doesn't make me any less likely to tell you, unidentified and unidentifiable other party, what it is. So, to whoever designed this clever system, you really need to work on your etiquette. If you're phishing, good riddance. If you really are Aetna, figure out a less intrusive way of identifying who you're talking to. This felt like a scam in the making. Posted at 10:38 permanent link category: /misc Thu, 01 Oct 2009There's something just delightful about living in a city with small businesses. I popped my head into Clear Cut Plastics in Fremont, and 5 minutes later walked out with a hunk of black plexiglass 1/2" thick, and 6.5 by 15 inches. That's enough to make three lensboards. The best part? It was a scrap, so it cost a grand total of $3.29. Some quality time with the miter saw, mill and rotary table, and I'll have a beautiful lensboard or three. Posted at 13:18 permanent link category: /misc Wed, 30 Sep 2009I decided to do a quick-n-dirty layout of a Korona lensboard, and figured my work might come in handy for others. I need to redo this sheet a little bit, as it's not entirely clear how things are laid out, but it's too late to modify just now. I'll post another one soon that's more illustrative, with more description on the sheet. So, for the Google-bot: if you have a Korona (Gundlach) 5x7 view camera from the 1910s, and you need a lensboard for it, you're probably looking for this: Lensboard plans for Korona 5x7 camera (v1) - PDF file I plan to make mine out of plastic, probably black ABS or something similar. The 42mm hole is good for anything that is mounted on a Copal #1 shutter, such as the 210mm Schneider Symmar-S f/5.6 lens I'll be putting in mine. I'll probably make it out of two thicknesses of 1/4" plastic (since we still live in an SAE world, sad to say) glued together, with the larger piece milled down to 6mm where it matters, at the top and bottom edges. It's a .35mm difference, but it'll mean the difference between the board working and not working. Important note: I am not an expert! I just took some measurements off my existing lensboard and stuck them into a CAD drawing. I probably got something wrong, your mileage may vary, etc. Posted at 23:51 permanent link category: /misc Tue, 29 Sep 2009Every once in a while, I'm struck by a random whim. In going through old negatives a week or two ago, I came across one of a friend from highschool, Amy Tarlow. I remembered it being a decent picture, and on the negative it looked good. I didn't do anything about it, just kind of filed that data away. Tonight, I was chatting with Amy on Facebook (the evil blog-killer), and randomly mentioned this negative I'd run across. She was interested to see it, and I (not having a scanner) lamented not having a light table available. Then, it occurred to me that I could tape the negative to the monitor, and that would be a kind of light table...
It's hardly something to get thrilled about, but I thought the outcome was pretty interesting, and actually quite acceptable for a quick-n-dirty try at coming up with a useable proof. Tape negative to monitor, load blank page in Firefox (handy all-white screen), shoot with G10. Voila, instant ~4 MP copy of the negative. Load it into Photoshop, tweak the levels (the negative is a bit overexposed and contrasty, but workable), et voila! In related news, I'm getting close to being ready for some 5x7 shooting action, which will almost certainly involve the acquisition or construction of a light table to check out negatives. I have a modern 210mm lens (Schneider Symmar-S f/5.6 in a Copal #1 shutter) sitting on the living room table, which only awaits a lensboard to make it complete. I have a spot-meter on the way, and dark cloth waiting to be installed in the bathroom. It's close. Posted at 23:52 permanent link category: /misc Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
