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Fun Summer Projects for Fathers and Sons

Summertime is the time for getting outside and having some fun. And there are lots of traditional ways to do this but this article looks at some unusual and different ways to enjoy the summer. The focus here is on projects that adults and children or teens can do together and with an eye toward learning and or making things.  And although the title of this article says for fathers and sons all the projects and ideas would be great for fathers and daughters too!

Become a Siege Engineer

Building a catapult or a trebuchet is a fun project that has strong tie-ins to engineering. You can easily build a small siege engine in a single day and then you can take it outside to launch any number of things from tennis balls to watermelons.  There are lots of online resources for finding plans on how to make siege engines around three feet in size.  And this type of project lends itself very well to design improvements. It is very common for young siege engineers to be constantly improving their new catapult. You can build a mid-sized catapult with just a few basic woodworking tools and a few pieces of two by four lumber.

Rocketing into the sky

Model rockets have been a steadfast hobby for many decades. It is very inexpensive to get started and you get a double dose of fun with them because you can spend an hour or two making the rockets then you can take them out and launch them. There is a duality here that is hard to resist. If you don't know anything about model rockets there are many beginner kits that are readily available. You can get everything you need to start this hobby including the launching pad and rocket engines around thirty or thirty five dollars.

Remote Controlled Fun

Remote controlled vehicles such as helicopters, airplanes, cars, and even boats can be a very rewarding pursuit in summer although the initial expense can be a bit high. There is also the added benefit of being able to make the projects before you take them out to fly or drive them. One of the best examples of this is remote controlled airplanes. Half the fun of the airplane comes in the making of it. And you can tailor the type of airplane to the age and skill level of your son or daughter. There are great beginner kits that can be assembled in a couple of hours and there are more advanced kits that take dozens of hours or more to make.

Make a Go Kart

This is a great project for teens because it is a bit more in-depth in both the making stage and the outdoor fun stage. You can spend several days making the go kart then it can be used all summer long. You also have the option of making a simple go kart that will roll down hills or getting elaborate and adding a motor to it. You can even start with the simple kart and later in the summer upgrade it by adding the motor.  There are many clubs that still engage in soapbox derby racing which adds a competitive dimension to this summer hobby.

Exploring the Sciences Outdoors

The Natural Sciences - All it takes is a field manual (that you can check out of the library) and a little time outdoors and you can do some discovering of how nature works. A few suggestions would be to study rock formations and geology, or to study botany and plant life. In both of these activities you can build a collection of plants, leaves, or rocks and minerals.  Half the fun is in collecting then identifying the specimens you collected. It is an easy task to find one of the sciences that might interest you and other family members. A good example is entomology where you can collect insects and display them in a case.

The sciences offer many opportunities in many different fields but my favorite is astronomy. This is a pursuit that can be started without spending any money. All you have to do is download and print a few star maps and you are ready to begin finding and identifying constellations and other heavenly bodies like planets. If you have a pair of binoculars it will add a whole new level of enjoyment to your star gazing.

 If you are looking for something spectacular in astronomy you can consult with charts of meteor showers. There are several different meteor showers that occur during the summer months and some of them have a frequency of up to as many as sixty falling stars per hour. And if you are bitten by the astronomy bug the sky is virtually the limit in this hobby because you can upgrade and improve your viewing by buying a telescope or even making your own.

When it comes to the summer months there are lots of fun and traditional activities you can do like going to the beach or an amusement park but with a little thought and creativity you can take on some hobbies and projects that add whole new dimensions such as making things and learning about the world around us.

About the Author

Looking for fun and creative projects? I have plans and guidelines for all these projects along with lots of other projects on my website at : StormTheCastle.com

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Options to Consider When You Need to Copy Pictures

Copying pictures becomes a hassle when you no longer have the negative available. The good news is that modern technology makes it possible to get a good, quality copy of your picture, even without the negative. If you need to copy pictures for friends or family members, keep these facts in mind.

Copying Copyrighted Pictures Is Illegal

If the picture was taken by a professional photographer, such as a portrait done at a photo studio, paying someone to make a copy of it is illegal. That image is copyrighted to the original photographer. If you take the image to a photo studio to have it copied, they should deny you your request. If they do not, they are breaking copyright laws.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. If the photographer is no longer available to contact, you may be able to sign a waiver to have the picture copied. Some photo studios will only hold copyright rights for a set period of time. If you contact them and explain your need for the image, they may sign a copyright release. Some professional photographers will sell the copyright release to their images for a set fee, giving you permission to make copies. However, without this release, you cannot make copies of professional images.

Scanning Kiosks

Most retail photo labs have scanning kiosks that you can use to scan your image and have the picture printed off in seconds. This is an option to consider if you need a quick copy of a picture. However, it is not the best option. First, the scanners, while they are high quality scanners, sometimes have dirt or fingerprints on them since they are open to the public. This gets scanned on to your printed image. Second, these pictures do not go through the chemical developing process, which means they often end up fading faster than a traditional photograph.

Scanning at Home

Another option for making a copy of that picture is scanning it at home. You can use a flatbed scanner, printer, and photo paper to make a fairly decent copy of the image. However, your scanner is not going to capture the picture as clearly as you might want. Also, like scanning kiosks, your home printer cannot make a real photograph. The print you make at home will fade faster than an actual photograph.

Scanning Services

Another way to copy pictures is to send them to a scanning service. These companies have high-resolution photo scanners that can scan the image, convert it into a digital file, and then either print a copy or burn a CD. With the CD, you can visit your local photo lab, upload the picture to their system, and have a real photograph printed. You can also email copies of the picture to others because you will have a digital version of it.

Some photo labs also have this service. They have high-resolution scanners they use to scan your image and then print an actual photograph from it. This is basically the same process, but in most cases having it done at the lab rather than through a scanning service is more expensive. The best option is to use the scanning service to get a digital file made of the picture, and then printing a copy of the picture from that file at the lab of your choice.

About the Author

BritePix offers a professional and comprehensive scanning service of photos, 35mm slides and negatives, as well as other film formats such as APS, Medium-Format, 126, and 110 film.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Tips for Scanning Negatives

Storing film negatives can become a hassle quite quickly, and since today's photography is turning more and more digital in nature, you may want to find a digital storage option for your negatives and slides. Scanning negatives and turning them into a digital file is entirely possible, but you need the right equipment to do so.

Scanning Negatives at Home with a Flatbed Scanne

If you have a scanner with the right adapter, you can scan negatives and slides at home using a simple flatbed scanner. Keep in mind that simply putting your negatives on a flatbed scanner will not work. Flatbed scanners are designed to scan photos by capturing the reflection of the light shown on them. Because negatives are transparent, this does not work. You need a transparency adapter to scan negatives. The transparency adapter, when used in place of the scanner's lid, shines light onto the negatives from above, and the sensors can pick up this light and capture a digital image of the print. Without the adapter, a scanned negative or transparency will look like a big black square.

Scanning Negatives at Home with Film Scanners

If you plan on scanning negatives frequently, you may want to purchase a scanner designed to scan film. These scanners give you a better final image, because there is no piece of glass between the negative and the image sensor. Also, the light is more intense with one of these scanners. They also typically have a higher dpi resolution than flatbed scanners.

Another reason film scanners give a better final image has to do with the density of the image. Photographs have a density of approximately 2.0, and negatives have a density of about 3.0. Because flatbed scanners are designed primarily for documents and photographs, they are calibrated closer to the 2.0 range. This means that scanning negatives with a flatbed scanner will result in tonal loss. This is slight, as in a negative the tonal loss occurs mostly in lighter areas, but it does affect the final image quality a bit.

High Resolution Is Key

Regardless of whether you use a flatbed scanner or a film scanner, you will want to scan your negatives at the highest resolution possible. This will make the scanning process take a while, but if you intend to make prints off of the resulting digital photos, you will be glad you took the time to scan the picture at a high resolution.

Professional Help Is Available

While you can scan negatives at home, it takes quite a bit of time, particularly if you scan them at the high resolution necessary for images you wish to eventually print. To save yourself some time, consider sending your negatives away for professional negative scanning services.

Negative scanning companies will scan your images at an extremely high resolution using scanners specifically designed for scanning negatives, giving you high quality digital images that you can use for just about any purpose, from print to web to archival. In fact, the quality from a professionally scanned image placed onto a CD is so good that you do not have to hang on to those negatives any longer. You can dispose of them, using the CD as your record of the images. Hiring a professional to scan your negatives will save you time, and in the long run, it may also save you money, because you will not need to buy special equipment to get the quality images you need.

About the Author

BritePix offers a professional and comprehensive scanning service of photos, 35mm slides and negatives, as well as other film formats such as APS, Medium-Format, 126, and 110 film.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Photo Negative Storage Options

A photographic negative is a very delicate thing. It can be permanently damaged by the slightest fingerprint or piece of dust. Scratches cannot be removed from a negative, yet they do show up on a print made from the damaged negative. If you have negatives in your home, you need to make sure that you store them properly to preserve them. You just might need a reprint from it when you least expect it.

Negative Preservers

One option you have to preserve your negatives is to place them in archival quality negative preservers. These are 8 ½ by 11 sheets divided into sleeves that are the right size for a strip of negatives. If your photo lab cuts your negatives, you simply slide the negatives into the sleeve and stick the sheet into a binder. Use lint-free gloves when handling negatives so that you do not accidentally put a fingerprint on them. Be sure that the sheets are made from acid-free materials so that your negatives will last for many years.

Glassine Envelopes

Glassine envelopes are traditional negative storage devices used by professionals. The envelopes are translucent and are made from non-plasticized paper that is acid-free and pH negative. Both negatives and photographs can be safely stored in these envelopes and can be used as long-term storage options. One benefit of glassine envelopes is the fact that they come in a wide range of sizes, making them ideal for the professional who shoots on a variety of formats.

Uncut Sleeving

Some photographers prefer to leave their negatives uncut. This can create a difficulty when storing negatives, but it does lower the risk of damage on the developing end. Roll sleeving is the best storage option for uncut negatvies. This is a continuous roll of plastic sleeving that the photographic negative roll can be fed into. The sleeve can then be cut and rolled for storage. Again, these storage sleeves should be acid-free.

Digital Storage

Another option for storing negatives is storing them digitally. Professional negative scanning services can scan negatives and make high-resolution positive images from them. The resulting images are burned onto a CD, which can then be stored. Future reprints can be made directly from the CD.

Digital storage eliminates the need to hang on to negatives for years and years. Photographers who have many years of shooting under their belts know how much of a challenge it can be to keep all of the negatives in order from various photo shoots through the years. With digital negative storage, many images can be stored on one compact CD.

Regardless of the storage option you choose, never leave your negatives in the sleeving from the developer. Unless you are using a professional lab, the sleeving will not be acid free. This means that the acid in the plastic or paper can damage your negatives. Some labs will not sleeve negatives at all, leaving them open to fingerprints, scratches, and dust. Choose the storage option you prefer, and store your negatives in a safe way in order to properly preserve the images they contain.

About the Author

BritePix offers a professional and comprehensive scanning service of photos, 35mm slides and negatives, as well as other film formats such as APS, Medium-Format, 126, and 110 film.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Medium Format – The Professional Choice

As you dig through a box of old wedding photos, you may come across the negatives from the event. When you open them, you will realize that they look quite different than the negatives you had from your older film camera. These negatives are much larger than the 35 mm negatives you are used to handling. This is because the wedding photographs were captured by a professional photographer on medium format film.

What Is Medium Format Film?

Photographic film comes in several sizes, but the three main ones are large format, medium format, and 35 mm. Medium format film is 56 mm in height, and the width varies depending on the type of camera used. Any film that is taller than 56 mm is considered large format. In contrast, the smaller 35 mm film is 35 mm in height. Interestingly, medium format film cartridges were first introduced for the amateur film market, but soon became the standard used by professionals, and even in the digital world of modern photography, medium format images are still quite popular among professional photographers.

Benefits of Medium Format Film

Why do professionals choose medium format film? Because the film itself is larger than a typical 35 mm negative, as much as six times larger depending on the camera used, much clearer enlargements can be produced. When 35 mm film is enlarged, it often has grain and blur due to great difference in size between the negative and the resulting image. Since the medium format negative is larger, there is less difference in size between the two, and the resulting image has a smoother gradation and does not show as much grain as a similar enlargement of a smaller negative. Since most professional photographers take images with the intention of enlarging them, medium format is the better film choice.

Getting Film Digitized

Even though medium format film carries a distinct advantage over 35 mm film, it does have a disadvantage in today's market. The disadvantage is that medium format film is not a digital medium. The old negatives you have in a shoebox in your closet are difficult to share with friends because they are not digital. Professional photographers who use medium format film need a way to digitize the images in order to display them in a digital portfolio or on a website.

Medium format film can be scanned using specialized scanners designed to carefully handle these negatives and create a positive scanned image. The process begins with a careful cleaning of the negative to remove any stray dust or lint. Unmounted negatives are then placed into a glass film adapter that holds the image steady during scanning. Negatives that are mounted are loaded into a mounted film carrier. These negatives are scanned using high-resolution scanning equipment designed specifically for negatives. A typical flatbed scanner cannot accomplish this task and create a quality digital image as a result. Dust and scratch removal technology is essential to creating a clean digital image from a medium format negative.

Because medium format film is larger than 35 mm film, the scanned digital image will be more clear and crisp than the image that would be created by scanning a 35 mm negative. When larger film is combined with a high-resolution scanning equipped to handle medium format negatives, the resulting images are professional and perfect for creating a digital portfolio or simply preserving memories for a lifetime.

About the Author

BritePix offers a professional and comprehensive scanning service of photos, 35mm slides and negatives, as well as other film formats such as APS, Medium-Format, 126, and 110 film.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Down By The Depot

American railroad stations (or depots, as the smaller buildings are commonly known) were once an all too common sight in our country as almost every town, large and small, could claim one, which was largely due to the fact that railroads once went literally everywhere, reaching almost any and every town.

While Pennsylvania Station in New York City was without question this country's most famous railroad station and arguably the most beautiful (along with the New York Central's Grand Central Terminal), those which served the smaller towns and cities across the country were much more than just buildings to load and unload passengers. For many years, until the automobile became a reliable means of transportation the railroad depot was the center of life for these towns and cities as it was the only means to and from the outside world for almost everyone (unless you would rather take the journey by horseback, which would not only take much longer but also was very grueling and tiresome). Because the depot was the focal point of small towns the phrase "down by the depot" became commonplace.

Not only was the depot used to board and de-board your train wherever it may be taking you, but it also nearly always delivered the goods you purchased. For instance, if you had a small business such as a farm and needed a few items shipped that were either sold or up for sale you would simply stop by the depot and talk with the station agent who would set you up with a price (which was determined by weight) and give you a receipt known as a waybill.

And, the same can be said if you had an item(s) waiting at the depot to be picked up. When you believed it had arrived (much like postal mail) you simply stopped down at the depot and asked the station agent about items you were awaiting.

In many ways, what railroads did back then (before automobiles became reliable and efficient) is much the same thing that trucking companies and deliverers like UPS and FedEx do today by shipping small, mostly lightweight, items. Of course, what made the idea profitable for railroads back then (by shipping merchandise of any kind, large and small) was the fact that they were the most reliable and quickest means of transportation (they had a near monopoly on the market, which is a major reason why they were regulated so heavily by the government and in turn caused the catastrophic industry collapse in the 1970s).

It was this waiting for something to arrive, shipping your goods, and catching the train that fostered a community gathering at the depot and many folks went down simply to mingle and talk about the latest things going on in the area with their neighbors. Because, remember, back during the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries most folks did not live in the large cities being scattered about in small towns and communities (and most of those were in the country). So, with no other means of transportation other than either on foot or horseback traveling was often long (compared to today) and not that comfortable which made for fewer trips to town and usually only when necessary.

However, the local (and often small) hometown depot was not the only type of railroad station constructed and as the railroad industry progressed and grew, so did its stations which became more and more ornate and grand, ultimately culminating in this country's (and perhaps to even some extent the world's) greatest and most stunning station to ever be built, New York City's grand Pennsylvania Station (better known as Penn Station) constructed by the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and opened in 1910. These large and grand stations, however, worked on essentially the same principal as their smaller siblings with folks mingling and coming together. The one difference, of course, is that these larger stations moved many more people and often included additional features such as restaurants, shops, and other amenities. One other difference is that large stations typically did not take small, local, freight shipments to either be loaded of offloaded as this work was handled at a specialized freight depot designed simply for that purpose (to load and offload freight shipments).

Railroad stations built during the 19th and early 20th century also were true works of art, many with designs which reflected the Victorian or Roman eras as well as being constructed many times from the very same materials such as marble and crystal, which is a big reason why many are preserved and so coveted today (especially after the loss of Penn Station which used countless tons of many different types of marble in its construction). Even the stations and depots from that same time period built from wood and/or brick also were constructed with beautiful designs in mind (many of these are from the Victorian era), which is why those smaller towns and cities who have preserved their stations and depots take such pride in them and realize their beauty is unmatched (and many times these buildings are the centerpiece efforts in revitalizing their downtown areas, whether the tracks still remain in place and used or not).

As the automobile came of age, however, and our highway infrastructure became much more reliable the local railroad station fell from importance and no longer was the most essential building in towns. As the 1950s came so went the local depot in most smaller towns where the car or truck was much more accessible and reliable for the short to medium travels folks in those areas made (it was also a huge financial drain on the railroads to maintain these smaller depots where the little passenger traffic there quickly dried up after World War II, so they were very happy to discontinue these trains and shutdown the depots if possible). And, by the 1960s even the larger and more prominent railroad stations were not immune to closure or demolition, as was the case with Penn Station.

Penn Station in many ways would be the spinning image of the rise and fall of the railroad industry itself through the 1970s, as the PRR was desperate for cash during the 1960s and ordered its demolition to sell off the property and air rights. While many other railroad stations would meet a similar fate between the 1950s and 1970s, the loss of Penn Station signaled a change in this country's attitude towards its historic structures as the outrage in the aftermath of its loss triggered a movement to preserve these buildings (the result of which thwarted later efforts to demolish the New York Central's beautiful and breathtaking Grand Central Terminal, also located in New York City).

While Penn Station is no longer with us and the local depot's use for both freight and passengers has long since disappeared in favor of more efficient and faster means of transportation, the grand station's loss was a wakeup call to this country, and aside from Grand Central Terminal a number of other large, and small, stations and depots across the country have since been saved and preserved for use as both hometown community buildings to their original intent, as a place for passengers to catch their train to wherever their journeys may be taking them.

About the Author

Adam Burns has studied railroading and its history for much of his life. His website, American-Rails.com, covers the industry in great detail highlighting topics from steam and diesel locomotives to museums and excursion trains.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

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