The_Animal

Every one says that the fiddly bits are the hardest part of scale modeling to do. Even more so after 40. I have started noticing the problematic situation that develops when you have presbyopia - This loss of focusing ability for near vision due to the inflexibility of the focusing lens in your eye. A photography analogy would be when your focusing element for your macro lens goes all wonky and jams. I find myself rubbing my eyes more due to dryness. If I bring a model part up close to my eyes to ascertain the detail work needed it goes all blurry. The inherent miniscule size of the deta

Yeah, GENIUS... you think anyone else (even me) wouldn't KILL to get a shot of the Shuttle coming in like that? That's a money shot, right there... That shot is a pro-photographer's dream shot. Asides from the safety and security reasons that they keep shuffling out at us. The USAF would know we'd have it plastered up on a magazine inside of two minutes and that's a security risk that they don't want to compromise. Your IQ match your shoe size? Hmmm, you should be a frequent poster to What'd You See Today thread then. :monkeydance:/>/>/>

Jannie... Great comparison thread. Am really enjoying this. The differences in the model kits are interesting. But I'm still debating whether to make the jump to 1/32 over 1/48. If I wasn't, the Kitty Hawk C7 would be a draw. When I'm not out shooting, I should be looking at working on my models. Just got to get that creative mindset going.

OMG! Chuck, the detail on your A-10 cockpit and fuselage is incredible. I don't know if I have the patience. I've been staring at my Tamiya F-14A for I can't remember the better part of a decade and I still am too scared to touch it. I'm at the crux point of deciding whether to give up the 1/48 models in my stash, sell 'em and move to 1/32 entirely with the exception of the SR-71 and the B-1B. Fewer kits and more potential to work on some detail. I have this thing for Aggressors unfortunately, the simple realization that my hands seem to be unsteady for work on 1/48 scale has pushed

WOW...looks like another place I gotta visit (Hamilton) Too many things to put on my bucket list. Anyways. Your VF-74 Tom looks very nice. Great work on those ejection seats. By the way, were those cushions cloth bandaids? Awesome job.

Yes, Sheldon, but did she not miss a few?

The finite and concise mathematical explanation on "How many fleas does it take to play a piano". <-- a question posed to the musicologists on Talk Classical forums. If you have an average touch weight of 50 grams per key in order to emit a pianissimo sound from a piano, you will require a touchweight of 150-200 grams to emit a forte sound. In this way we calculate the number of fleas required to achieve a variable touchweight between 50 and 200 grams. A single flea generates a down force on his leap of 5 Newtons which is equivalent to 509.8 grams of down-force generated on the key.

No, just scared pilots with my 600mm... ~they thought it was a bazooka~ Gotta love making airport security really NERVOUS. Tony's photo is probably done by a NASA or USAF photographer. No other way they'd be able to camp out on the approach without, as the guy above me mentioned, being chased off by guys with guns and big mean dogs.

That's what happens when you overfeed your iguana steroids. They were warned.

This oughta help deal with it.

I was hoping to insert an Apple Maps joke, but unfortunately, they didn't make any easily identifiable errors in Vancouver, BC. :( Thank goodness Apple didn't put in the directional software for the Cassini space probe. It would have made three orbits around the sun, then did three orbits around Mercury...three orbits around Venus and then tried to go directly through the Moon before trying for Mars. Needless to say, that wouldn't have gone well.

4. A flea can live more than 100 days without a blood meal. - So...be happy, when you get bitten, you have just prevented a flea from dying of starvation. Now you know.

bbbbbb?

Evidently from the convention centers perspective, it depends from site to site. Some find that the winter months are the busiest, others, the summer. It all depends on the locale. The clinching factor may be the hotel busy season centers directly on summer-time as the time that they jack their prices for accommodation. I'd have to say that I'm no outdoorsman. I'm just a photographer who enjoys wildlife. But there are other things in Loveland, CO to see. http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/index.aspx?page=1876. As you said, there is no location to suit every member of IPMS. And finances di

And thar he blows! "Just to the Left of Virginia" That would work. :P Eric, you'd be considered "north-central United States" Well, ~smug~ it's east of me, so I say it's out east. And the population out in what's known as the West Coast would decidedly say that Colorado is Central United States. :P We on the West Coast can't help it if the majority of the population is directionally...hmmmm...east-centric (to put it kindly). And if it's not on the same time zone as me...it's out east. That works for me since I live on the West Coast. See? And Canada is north somew

Hell, if I was going, I would have taken in the Rocky Mountain National Park Estes Park, Colorado. Chance to photograph elk and mountain goats? Wouldn't miss it. Would probably check out this too, on the Friday. Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. http://www.ipmsusa2013.com/index.cfm?mode=tours

I have always shaken my head at the misnomer "out west" to refer to the Central States. Does THIS look like "out west" to anybody other than the east coast. It's right SMACK in the center of the United States of America. And please don't tell me that it's west-ish... That doesn't fly. A state that is landlocked, smack dab in the side-by side central belt of the United States bordered by Kansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Nebraska...out of which the only state that seems to have water in a body much larger than a PUDDLE... is UTAH! Is not WEST-ish...It's CENTRAL!

Sometimes the shot comes to you, other times you just have to wait. http://500px.com/photo/41401232 - "I Am Not Amused" - the expression of this barn swallow says it all. http://500px.com/photo/41414600 - "Hey! Watch Where You're Going!" - a shot of a divebombing crow as it passes by a screaming bald eagle. These are the shots that I've been waiting for; thanks to the 600mm f/4.

Tooting my OLDEST son's achievement this time... My oldest son has been bitten by the wildlife photography bug (yes, a bug more insidious than the regular photography bug). So, he is not only an athlete (hockey player), but also an impressive photographer in his own right at 11 years of age. This is HIS shot...not mine...HIS. This shot was taken with my D50 that I gave to him. 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII +TC-20EIII which he is borrowing.

It was a great day at Green Timbers today. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the ospreys were poopin' rainbows and I was rockin' my 600mm. Now if I had caught the osprey in a dive, I'd be even more happy, but alas it was not to be. Well...I'll get the bugger one of these days.

tiny little child's voice - "Are we there yet?"

Spent the morning out at Green Timbers "What the h*** is that human pointing at me?!!!" cuteness factor x 4 Gotta love turtles.

Awesome shots of Steveston. dylan. As for me, I'm heading out to Green Timbers to shoot some mallards. Figure since I turned my FB into a FB fan page; I'd start making sure that I have plenty of NEW content out there. :) Gotta work that 600/4. :D A set of Lee ND grad filters is in the mix for purchasing - I have the holder (the contraption to fit the filters to my lens) as per my photo on my FB site. The soft graduated neutral-density filters have a way of taking regular ho-hum skies and making them seriously pop. In some ways, this is an addiction worse than scale modeling. S

Decided to upload my images into a slideshow. This is a test run (I'm going to get my friend (trumpet) and I (Harpsichord-continuo) to do this piece for the soundtrack of the slideshow; just temporarily using Ludwig Guttler's rendition of Telemann's Trumpet Concerto in D+ - Adagio (TWV51: D7) right now). http://youtu.be/Jke8I7BG7BA

Of course most people know me as a photographer... more than a modeler. I'm pretty much ARC's resident scale model kit (collecting) slacker. however I am also a classical music audiophile, former chorister, and pianist. Just recently my wife (wanting to learn piano) is considering getting a 88 key digital piano and now I am considering the acquisition (after I get the 300mm f/2.8 VRII (birds in flight) lens) of a Flemish or French harpsichord to enable me to get back into music (self-teaching along the way... - it's just brushing up my rusty skills. I was a Grade 10 Royal Conservatory