Sleeping at the wheel

 5AM in September, where does the mind go? Sometimes you wake only to find you been sleeping for 20 years. So busy in the day's activities that you forget time and then one morning you awake and find its all passed you by. Pick Floyd has a song like that but it seems that even after listening to the lyrics for years, over and over again, you don't realize just how true they are. 

I've spent a bit of time behind the camera this year. A couple of pretty pictures to look at every now and then but its still a subterfuge of reality. Too much too soon to take in. Not even a question of where the time go, its just gone.  Gone man, gone!

A few months back this blog rolled over 20 years, twenty! So many people have passed, so many. A head full of ghosts now. Just like the images on the screens. Flickers in the timeline they are. Ghosts within the chemicals of my mind. 

But we have a bunch of pretty pictures. Hopefully not to fill up a data center somewhere, taking up resources. It makes me think of the glass pictures, the daguerreotypes; mercury to silicon.  Papyrus- always back to the Egyptians. Stone note taking.  What is the reasoning, truly, what is the reasoning within the mind? Chemistry, mortality? 

Experience and remembrance. So far this year I got two rides in on a bike and spend several times thinking about riding. As someone once said; "never, not riding". Yeah, riding the wave of mortality right past the events that makeup a life well used. It doesn't seems that way today. Too early to go ride? Noise? Certainly don't want to wake the neighbors; too much noise in the world as it is. Kinda like data centers and the digital foot print of people. Nope, not sure that I'm concerned with what people will think about me in the future. There is a difference between "I'm alive" and "I was here", or is there a difference? I set of eyes behind the camera?  And another song falls into the mind; the Who's 'behind blue eyes' 

Old Ford pickup at the 2026 Cranberry Flywheelers Mill Lot Show. Shot on a Olympus OM-2 with Kodak Tri-X 400. developed with Cinestills Df96 one stop developer and rephotographed with a Sony A7Riii.

1947 Velocette MSS frame repairs moving forward

  OK, it's been awhile since pulling the bike down to the bare frame. I've been waiting to find someone that either repairs frames or if a frame jig fall into my lap. Neither have to date and I don't expect that to change anytime soon.  I have let the issue percolate through the mind for a year or two, maybe three. Of inspiration were some of the Japanese shops creating homemade frames. One thing that got my attention was their use of construction levels to setup frame alignment. ok, cool, worth a look see even if it can be pricy. 

So with the speed of Amazon I got one into the shop this week. It would at the very least give me an idea how much damage is in the frame because after the strip down I noticed that the headstock was way out if you sighted down it's side to the center down tube. 

The first thing I did was throw the frame into the rotating bench vice. I gave it a quick leveling with a tiny level on the center tube and the lower frame tube. It took a bit of fiddling to get it just about right. From there I mounted the laser level on a tripod and sighted it down the (hopeful) straight tubes.  Luckily the center tube and the holes for the rear axel plates were in alignment. At first I was lining up the center and the top tube but then recalled the top tube is bent.  This led me to using the tiny level to 'square' up the frame in the vice.

Here are a few pictures with the laser in play.

As you can see, the head stock is way out of alignment.  Pretty much what I thought was the case and might explain the crack in the down tube at the steering stem. Another inspiration was seeing a few pictures of Burt Monroe's Velo racers this week which got me thinking, if Burt could modify old bikes in his shed then I should be able to work my way forward with hand tools as well, to a point.

With this info I'm comfortable to pick up the hacksaw and get into chopping out the broken downtube. 

Hacksaw you say? Yes, I figure it's the best tool for the job. Inexpensive, slow and with a hint of accuracy. Put in a new 18tpi bi-metal blade and away we go!

Once the first cut was done I could find out just how broken the frame was. It didn't take anything to lean on the down tube to just about break it off.

After an hour or two I hand everything that needed to be cut off, off.  Next was to score and cut out the castings so that I could remove the tubing from inside. Most of the castings are pinned and brazed into place. Removing the pins helps keep from breaking milling or boring tools. I find that the spring loaded punches are the best to help get a good start in centering where to drill. From that point you can center up a larger heavy punch and go to town,

More to follow

A question of Maintenance

 This picture always gets me thinking about repair and maintenance; how often should you go before pulling down an engine or gear box? When I was younger, the mechanical questions were easy; there were very few until something broke. But in older age the thought of preventative to avoid the "break" almost causes one to avoid the chore by not using the product. How does one learn to unlearn?

Late frost in New England

While out walking the dogs this morning I came across a group of frost heaves in the back yard. Not too long ago, about two or three days, we had a fair bit of rain and then a good drop in temperature. It wasn't anything really notable in of itself, but it has been chilly and cold, perfect for this time in New England. Cold and warm at the same time. It almost reminds me of those days, far off in my past youth full living when care free was the play of the day and icicles were to be enjoyed if you could reach them. 

 These pictures of ice crystals remind me of mushrooms and fungus growing up from the ground. I've always wondered about snow, ice and sand. When you would find that the sun warmed the sand and created patterns as it melted faster than the natural unadulterated snow. To capture these pictures became a race of time, so fearful that, by the time I had the camera ready, they would all be gone. So rather than use a tripod which would have allowed longer exposure and stable images with no shake, I shot them hand held. 

After review and critical analysis I found that there were a few that you can find a dandelion seed attached to the crystal. A moment in New England Zen for you. Enjoy the pictures.

Dandelion in ice

Another perspective of the dandelion

Having a day to play with the Sony A7Riii

Had a moment of feeling better this week and with the warmer weather thought to grab a camera for a few shots.  Earlier in the week I saw some pictures from Oil seal and Animal Boat on Instagram. They had a more classic look to them. I figure maybe they were using some sort of filter to edit the pictures.  I figure that it was possible to get a similar feel by modifying the contrast, sharpness and saturation.  These are the results. They might be a touch dark but otherwise have the feel I was looking for.

 

As old  and heavy as the Sony A7Riii  is, I think it was introduced in 2017, I like the feel of its images. When you take in a moment and if you have your head in the game, it is a really good tool to create your vision right within the camera.

 

Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in Boston

 One of the things I rather like doing is photography and videography especially if it involves some type of machinery. About mid August a good friend asked if I could photograph some of his Victorian stoves at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum while they were on display for the month. I don't think I could have gotten there fast enough! It was a real treat to be able to spend a few hours filming at such a location. I should have that footage up in about another month or so. 

While there, I took the opportunity to try the pixel-shift function on my camera. Pixel-shifting is just that; the camera takes a picture then shifts over one pixel and takes another picture the cavate is that whatever you photograph must be completely still and you need a tripod.. Overall my model Sony (A7Riii) takes four of these pictures at which you then use Sony's software to stich the pictures back together for a super large high resolution picture. I'm not sure how well it will translate through the blog page, but have a zoom in on the detail.  And this picture is only at 80% of the full resolution; 42mp uncompressed 80mb time 4 runs out to a picture of 328mb, give or take. I was stunned how when it translated on a cell phone screen.  In fact, you could even read the dials on the lower left of the image. Enjoy!

To capture a memory

 For a few months now I have been following  Photographer/educator David Brommer through different media channels. In that time he has been posting photo assignments to those that are up to the challenge. The most recent assignment is to photograph a memory.  

At first I wasn't sure what that meant or even how to approach it. Having a partial photographic memory it seemed difficult that I could capture a moment from the past without it being today.  A little harder to explain than to show.  So I was going to take a pass on this assignment. 

But the thought percolated within the brain for a bit and soon one memory seems to stand out.  That memory came from a few events and a nightmare when I was around 5 to 7 years old.  My grand parents had a small library in their basement opposite the old workroom full of broken furniture and machinery that ran the house.  A huge oil fired furnace with massive circulators to pump water throughout the house. The noise each time a circulator kicked on; you'd hear the relays snap into action and then the drone of the pump.  On the edge of the furnace was a defunct gas incinerator. We weren't really allowed to go into the work room. Though I would always find my curiosity would get the best of me and quietly sneak into examine the artifacts and tools.

The Library was a little more peaceful ; rows of books on dilapidated plastic and metal book shelves, the type you buy in a box and assemble in an hour or so. A big section of plywood reside on top of two desk as a makeshift ping pong table in the middle of the room. As kids we fight over the ping pong table and who had to go find the lost ping pong ball under the bookcases.

Many of the books weren't really anything special. My grand father was an engineer and grand mother was an English teacher. Between the two there were countless Readers Digest and Time Life book sets mixed in with all manner of engineering.  I gravitated towards the Time Life books.  In particular was a series known as the "World of...".  The World of Biology, The World of Chemistry, The World of...  and so on.  The one really caught my eye was The World of Machinery, or so I think it was.  It had all manner of hand drawn Victorian machines Great and small, some from the great exhibition halls of Europe others contraptions to mobilize and walk for you.

Sometime shortly after spending a few nights in their house and possibly a very long day I had a dream/nightmare of the basement.  in a dark room, only lit by window light were machines on pedestals.  Gears and levers in the darken fear.  The fear was stuck with me for many many years.  And as things can have a funny twist to them. I found myself living in the house later in life. I would make the work shop my own and use it to store or repair machines.

Only a few year ago while "viewing" the room in reflection did I really remember what I was doing now, this was my nightmare as a child, now in full circle

With that, I decide to photograph my memory of theat nightmare. included in the image are "ghosts" of myself as the fear. And in a funny way of how time passes; it is as much a picture that will look at it always will, with my ghost after passing.