Car House #3

Yes, I made another trip to the Western Railway Museum. Mostly because I learned about a train barn that I had never visited before. Before we talk about Train Barn #3 (Car House Three), I was able to track down a train shows in a 1975 family photo.

The original photo was taken by my dad during my first visit to the museum. Today the train is not working and visitors are not allowed inside.  The "Blackpool Corporation Transit Boat Car" is from england and was built in 1934. It joined the museum in 1972 and road the streets of San Francisco from 1983 to 1985.

Boat Car in 2011

Boat Car interior 2012.
Had to hold my hand into the air above the train to get this shot... Without the viewfinder.

Car House #3

The Western Railway Museum has a giant train barn full of almost dust free perfectly restored trains. For train fans, they are beautiful. For some crazy reason, access to these trains is limited to a 45 minute guided tour twice a week. All other access is prohibited.  Basically the best of the best is locked away and you are rushed though the barn by a tour guide. Almost no time is available to take a quality photo, let alone look around and just enjoy the history. It is a shame.  Below are a couple of the cool trains I found, a bunch more shots can be found on my flickr WRM photo set. The fastest way to get as many shots as possible was to just put the Nikon D5100 into automatic mode and just shoot.

You can't really tell but the size of this steam engine really is impressive.

Sadly, the steam engine in this family photo is in Barn #2 and "rusting away"

Old Pullman sleeper car. I would love to get inside to shoot photos.

Boxcar with it's own hobo

Oregon Electric

United States Maritime Commission Shipyard Special

Former San Francisco Street Car

This Sacramento Northern train was recently restored and is in working condition

LowePro Pro Messenger 200AW

I picked up a Pro Messenger 200AW shoulder bag today. It is a big bag, almost as big as my LowePro backpack but the layout makes it look smaller.

The shoulder strap had a super thick pad and the inside is full of so many little pockets to store gear, I would never have trouble filling it up.  I was super impressed.  Without a doubt this was a great purchase. I will post photos in a few days when I get some more time.

With my LowePro backpack, I have to set it on the ground to change my lens so I wanted a bag I could hold while changing a lens. The Messenger 200AW can hold my 70-300mm lens on it's end and I could easily swap lenses in a crowd with this bag.

I don't see a little dedicated memory card pouch like in my LowePro backpack, which so far is the only downside I can come up with.

Highly recommended.

Return to the WRM

I have a long history with the Western Railway Museum. My first visit was in the mid 1970's when my parents took my on a visit.

The Comet. Taken around 1975

The Comet taken in August 2011

My next visit was in the 1980's when my best friend and his parents took us on a day trip. I had no idea where the place was located but last year I accidentally passed it while going for a drive.

Museum ticket from 1987 and 2012

So I stopped in 2011 and took some photos and returned again today.  Below are some the shots.

This HDR capture of an old red boxcar was the last image I took today.
Clearly they are doing work to rebuild the interior and exterior.

The next 2 shots were taken of the same train 1 year apart using different lenses. Which one do you prefer?

2011 HDR 18mm Nikon kit lens version

2012 HDR 10mm Tamron wide angle version

HDR train interior

HDR image turned almost totally B&W. Not very happy with the POV.
Next time I will get the tripod lower toward seat level.

I also took a bunch of Macro shots with the Tamron 90mm Macro lens

And of course a few cool signs from inside the train that I really enjoyed

Old Vasco Truck

Every day I drive home from work I have passed this old truck way off in the distance under a couple of trees. It has never moved. No obvious access roads exist. Just a truck and some trees.  I did once see some ranchers in the area...

Anyway, I have always wanted to get a photo but access is not very good and the road isn't very safe, but I did find a spot to safely stop and then walk about 1/4 mile with my tripod.

When I zoom in a little I can see that the windshield appears to have been replaced by either wood or painted metal.

I took these shots with my Nikon 70-300mm lens and I couldn't get in any closer to really get more detail from the truck.  I have no idea what model of truck it is.

To the right of the truck I managed to get a nice HDR image of Mt. Diablo

Rollei 35T Baby!

I grew up in a house full of camera equipment and a darkroom, so photography has been part of my life since before I could walk.  Yesterday I was able to get my Dad's old Rollei 35T. During my high school years this camera sat on a bookshelf in my bedroom along with a Twin Lens Reflex with is still MIA (I hope to find it one day).

My dad told me that he bought the Rollei used some time in the 70's from a camera store. At the time he believes they sold for about $150 new. Today it looks like they sell for the same price on eBay.

Looking on Flickr, the images this tiny camera can capture seem pretty great. I may go buy some film and see what happens. Assuming I can find film.

The camera is in near mint condition. Only thing missing appears to be a battery cover for the light meter, but I am sure it will work without it.

Costco 11.5"x14" premium calendars

I ordered a couple of premium calendars from Costco.com as "samples" to see what the quality would be like. I am not exactly sure what I want to do with the calendars, but I wanted them to be high quality enough to sell if I decided to go down that road.

My impressions:

1) The paper is thick and each page is basically laminated. The quality is nice. They come individually shrink wrapped.

2) The photos do NOT fill the entire page. You are left with large white boarders around the photo you upload.

3) An additional back page is added that seems to detail your shipping info and order info. This really is a bummer and it would require the removal of the back page before any type of sale.

If you know of any other service that provides a high quality calendar, I would love the hear about.

One other note:

Costco seems to have cropped some of the photos in a really bad way. Cutting off entire sections of an image.

The printing also appear darker then the original image.

Macro Fun

Spent some time using my Tamron 90mm Macro this week. A few of the best shots:

Next time I post this, I will run a sharpening on the image

HoldFast Gear RuckStrap Unboxing, Review and gallery

I am not exactly sure how I learned about HoldFast products, but it was probably from someone I follow on Twitter. As soon as I looked at the products page I was hooked. I had been searching and searching for a camera strap that could hold business cards and other items and I honestly could not find anything of quality so when I saw the RuckStrap, I had to buy it as a replacement for the Nikon strap that came with my D5100.

I love small companies and I love when someone creates a quality product that is unique, well made and functional and that is a great way to describe the RuckStrap.

My overall experience:  I contacted Matthew Swaggart, CEO of Holdfast and asked him if they had the RuckStrap available for sale and he was nice enough to make a pre-production unit available for me to buy.  He sent me a paypal link and within a few days it was in the mail.  I got my box in about 4 days.

I opened the box to a nicely leather wrapped package.

Upon unwrapping the paper I found a soft and warm to the touch camera strap. I was really expecting something that would take some time to "break in" but in reality it just isn't needed.

As the following photos will show, the attention to detail can be seen in every aspect of the RuckStrap

The brass buckles are solid and well made. The holes are places well and the leather is thick.

Quality stitching that I expect to last a very long time

On one side of the strap you will find a pouch to hold business cards and batteries held by a solid snap. On the other side is an elastic strip that is open on both ends.  You could use it for batteries, or maybe even loop something through it.

Overall length is perfect for me, and I am a pretty large guy at 6 feet tall.

On the other side of the strap is a soft strip for your neck. Very comfy.

Attaching the strap to my Nikon D5100 seemed to work best by using the provided metal rings rather then running the leather through the hooks built into the camera.  The leather was just a little too wide to run directly through the camera.  The metal rings seemed to give the camera good stability still and flexible movement.

Business card holder has a lot of room

Overall I highly recommend HoldFast and the RuckStrap. Do yourself a favor and check out the product line.

(Images taken with Nikon D5100 with the 18-55mm Kit lens and with an iPhone 4S)

Bug Macros

The yard was full of little flying creatures today so I took out the Tripod, Macro Slide and Tamron 90mm Macro lens...

Changes at Marsh Creek

It is pretty interesting to see how much the water has changed in a short period of time over at Marsh Creek

April 1st 2012

May 4th 2012

Cows of Brushy Peak

Currently my favorite picture. I wish I had been able to get closer, but I was blocked by a fence.

Shot with the Nikon D5100 and Tamron ultra wide angle lens