Random Photos

[Averagesupernova]

@berkeman I'd suspect the boards set in the chassis one above the other. Of course I'm not the one who has the assembly in front of me on the bench. Having done lots of circuit board repair over the years, my heart kind of sinks when I see something like that. First, I don't consider it a very good design when it can get that bad other than if it were a lightning strike. Second, it's not something that's acceptable to repair unless just for personal or nostalgia and that goes against my grain.

 

[nsaspook]

@berkeman I'd suspect the boards set in the chassis one above the other. Of course I'm not the one who has the assembly in front of me on the bench. Having done lots of circuit board repair over the years, my heart kind of sinks when I see something like that. First, I don't consider it a very good design when it can get that bad other than if it were a lightning strike. Second, it's not something that's acceptable to repair unless just for personal or nostalgia and that goes against my grain.

You nailed it. We replaced the bad module.

It didn't trip the mains breaker or blow the fuses in the power modules. It shut down when the area smoke alarm EMO'd the entire tool. It looks bad and is bad but the total power of the supply makes it harder to detect 'small' faults.

2.5KW into the testload.

 

[jtbell]

Yesterday I passed through Marion NC, where Bigfoot is a big thing. Their annual Bigfoot Festival was two weeks ago.

The local radio station has adopted the theme.

 

[jtbell]

On the other side of the Blue Ridge Parkway from Marion, Spruce Pine has its own festival coming up next week:

 

[Ibix]

Aliens to the left of me,
Bigfoots to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

 

[jack action]

Aliens to the left of me,
Bigfoots to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

With the railroad tracks in @jtbell 's photo (beautiful picture, by the way), I could only think of the following Simpsons episode while reading your post:

​

 

[jtbell]

From the "Big Train Show" in Johnson City TN. Cute not only for the layout, but also the background chatter and the owner eating lunch.

 

[BillTre]

 

[dwarde]

 

[docnet]

This picture is probably edited because there's little chance it's a coincidence.

 

[renormalize]

This picture is probably edited because there's little chance it's a coincidence.

View attachment 346380

Yeah, the black car in the background looks like it was passed through a wormhole! Probably an AI manipulated image?

 

[Ibix]

Also the girl in blue is holding two cups, and her right hand seems to be fitted backwards. (Edit: or it's the girl in brown's hand, but her arm is missing as docnet proposed while I was typing.)

Nice optical trick, though.

 

[docnet]

It definitely seems AI generated. They might not even be real people for all you know.

 

[BillTre]

 

[Ibix]

It definitely seems AI generated. They might not even be real people for all you know.

I think of it as a more sophisticated version of the "two faces" trick image in #1961 at the top of this page. That's a clever cutout that co-opts the woman's features and your pareidolia to construct another woman. This one co-opts other image features to do its trick, and they've had to adapt the image to make it truly work.

I'd guess it's actually originally exactly what it looks like - a photo of three young women having a cup of coffee at a street cafe, probably destined for Shutterstock or something. And somebody saw it from a distance and saw a face, came closer and saw the women, commented on it, and somebody amped up the effect for giggles, I suppose.

 

[docnet]

 

[BillTre]

 

[morrobay]

Summer in the City

 

[docnet]

Summer in the City View attachment 346430

is that the great lawn in Central Park? I don't recognize the buildings.

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

is that the great lawn in Central Park? I don't recognize the buildings.

Sheep Meadow farther South

 

[Tom.G]

is that the great lawn in Central Park? I don't recognize the buildings.

Aww, for a surprise,

Spoiler

ask Google maps to show you Morrow Bay, then use the Zoom function a bit.

 

[DennisN]

Helios magic revisited (experimental photography)

I reversed the front element on my vintage Helios 44 (13 bladed) and took it for a test run.
It was very, very fun, resulting in very weird photos as I was expecting...
First I'd like to show how the gear looked like, because that also looked weird...

But my cat interfered...

"What are you doing? I'm going to sit here."

"There. Now I'm completely obstructing your view."

Finally, here's the gear:

Top: Sony A7R with a M42 adapter, a Helios 44 and a lens hood.
Bottom: Helios 44 with a reversed front element. Four pieces of blu tack were also put between the front element and next element, since otherwise they would be touching which would not be good. When I think about it I should probably have put some thick paper as a separator instead of blu tack, but then again, this is experimental photography, so it's ok to take some chances .

As I've said before, there's nothing like going around shooting with a modified lens like this.
It is incredibly fun, and you can forget all about taking normal shots with it. It won't happen.
You are basically going around like Alice in Wonderland.

An added bonus (optimistically) or disadvantage (pessimistically) is that (1) it is hard to prepare the shots because of the crazy lens behavior and (2) the preview in the viewfinder doesn't really reveal the end result (to me, at least); some shots you think will be cool do not turn out to be that cool, while some you think may not look cool turn out to be very cool. I think that is very fun!

Also note that very little editing has been made to the shots below; they are almost straight out of the camera.

A magic yellow rose:

Cornflower:

At the pond:

Cone in focus:
- this is a shot I did not think would be anything, but when I got home and looked at it I got
very pleased with the crazy bokeh in it.

The haunted cones:
- another shot I did not think would be anything particular. But I really like it beacuse it looks so strange, almost like it's a spooky, haunted garden or something. In reality it is only ordinary
conifers with cones.

 

[Flyboy]

… right, who adjusted the LOD parameters? I think you mixed up some units…

 

[docnet]

Helios magic revisited (experimental photography)

I reversed the front element on my vintage Helios 44 (13 bladed) and took it for a test run.
It was very, very fun, resulting in very weird photos as I was expecting...
First I'd like to show how the gear looked like, because that also looked weird...

But my cat interfered...

View attachment 346549

"What are you doing? I'm going to sit here."

View attachment 346550

"There. Now I'm completely obstructing your view."

View attachment 346551

Finally, here's the gear:

View attachment 346552
Top: Sony A7R with a M42 adapter, a Helios 44 and a lens hood.
Bottom: Helios 44 with a reversed front element. Four pieces of blu tack were also put between the front element and next element, since otherwise they would be touching which would not be good. When I think about it I should probably have put some thick paper as a separator instead of blu tack, but then again, this is experimental photography, so it's ok to take some chances .

As I've said before, there's nothing like going around shooting with a modified lens like this.
It is incredibly fun, and you can forget all about taking normal shots with it. It won't happen.
You are basically going around like Alice in Wonderland.

An added bonus (optimistically) or disadvantage (pessimistically) is that (1) it is hard to prepare the shots because of the crazy lens behavior and (2) the preview in the viewfinder doesn't really reveal the end result (to me, at least); some shots you think will be cool do not turn out to be that cool, while some you think may not look cool turn out to be very cool. I think that is very fun!

Also note that very little editing has been made to the shots below; they are almost straight out of the camera.

A magic yellow rose:

View attachment 346553

Cornflower:

View attachment 346554

At the pond:

View attachment 346555

Cone in focus:
- this is a shot I did not think would be anything, but when I got home and looked at it I got
very pleased with the crazy bokeh in it.

View attachment 346556

The haunted cones:
- another shot I did not think would be anything particular. But I really like it beacuse it looks so strange, almost like it's a spooky, haunted garden or something. In reality it is only ordinary
conifers with cones.

View attachment 346557

Wow. amazing photo effects, I really like them. Too bad it was overcast, I think plants and trees look much better in the sun.

 

[jtbell]

On the sidewalk this morning, down the street from the local McDonald's. Finders keepers, losers weepers?

No, I didn't take it, because I didn't know how long it had been there.

 

[Arjan82]

No, I didn't take it, because I didn't know how long it had been there.

Leaves me wondering, would it have made a difference if you did know?

 

[jack action]

Leaves me wondering, would it have made a difference if you did know?

Five-second rule ...

 

[jtbell]

Five-second rule ...

I was thinking some ants might have already made their way inside via the tear in the wrapper.

Or I might have stood up to find someone glowering at me, "What're you doing with my breakfast, dude?"

 

[jtbell]

Five years ago this month, I visited the Carolinas Aviation Museum, whose centerpiece was the Airbus 320 that was serving on US Airways flight 1549 from New York (La Guardia) to Charlotte when it struck a flock of geese and was forced to ditch in the Hudson River, in January 2009.

Artifacts from the event included the uniforms of Capt. Chesley Sullenberger III and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles, behind a stuffed goose similar to the ones that hit the aircraft.

About a month later, the museum closed in order to move to a new facility. This morning I learned that it finally re-opened on June 1 as the Sullenberger Aviation Museum, not far from the old facility.



I'll have to visit it the next time I go to Charlotte.