Other Art, Graphics, or Hobbies

Msmoto

It was suggested that when one of us has interests sort of in the same creative vein as taking pictures, we post them in a thread.....so, this is open for about any image, along with maybe a short story of the whys and wherefores of the posting.

I love product photography, and this goes with a love of music. Thus, while I have posted some images prior, I will stick up one here showing another hobby, listening to music on pretty good stuff. My image of my latest turntable, a Pro-Ject RPM 5 Carbon, with a Sumiko Blue Point no. 2 cartridge. This really plays the old LP's with amazing clarity and a huge sound stage.



About anything can be on this thread, just so it is in good taste.

Ironheart

My hobby is collecting fast transportation:

More to come in this series

NSXTypeR

Ironheart said:

My hobby is collecting fast transportation:

More to come in this series

Haha, my other hobby is very similar to yours... except I have no disposable income.

My dad is a mechanic, so I'm a gear head by default.

I pretty much like anything with wings, wheels, rolls or has some sort of internal combustion engine, steam included.

dissent

When not spending gobs of my free time out and about looking for photography subjects, I may be engaged in my other time-sucking hobby - family history. Which also, occasionally, involves use of a camera.

This is a pic of an interesting stone under a tree at the Hope Cemetery in Galesburg, IL.

webmastadj

Some may say I have too many hobbies. Even though I work as a network engineer by day, I spend some of my free time working on network designs for fun and learning. Not sure if you can consider that a hobby as it is technically my job. The one hobby that has stuck with me is web programming (hence the screen name). I have been programming for years and still enjoy the challenge and problem solving it brings. I have done programming projects for work, for friends, for myself, etc. In the past year I have entered the world of building electronic circuits as well. Building out LED smart lighting and programming circuits to control the LEDs based on triggers such as temperature, motion, light, etc.

All of those are mostly indoors, in front of a computer or workbench for hours at a time. Photography I am using as my excuse to get out more. I already have the computer equipment for the hobby and all I needed was the camera. Also works as a good release when a programming project or work is frustrating me. Granted after taking the photos, I end up spending another 2 hours in front of the computer for post-processing / organizing so sometimes I think it is countering my “get out more” argument.

Oh yeah, I also enjoy running. I do a few half marathon races a year along with a handful of 5k races. It is another way I try to counter act the effects of sitting at a desk all day.

NSXTypeR

Interesting set of hobbies, webmastadj. As a bit of an offshoot from photography for me, I enjoy video games a lot. I've been a gamer all my life, started off with the Nintendo SNES, N64, Sony PS2, PS3, and now PS4. I've actually been watching a few tutorials online about the Raspberry Pie, as I'd like to make an emulator similar to the NES Classic. It would involve a little bit of soldering and programming with Linux, which I've dabbled with sort of in the past, but nothing too serious.

On a bit of massive side note, I like many others here, are an automotive enthusiast but I happen to like older cars more than newer ones. Does anyone know of any car museums on the Eastern seaboard of the US? I know the West coast has a lot, like the Petersen Automotive Museum in California. There's also the Mullin Auto Museum as well in CA.

The only other auto museums on the East coast that I know of is the Simeone Foundation Auto Museum and the Lane Auto Museum in Philadelphia and Nashville, respectively.

ggbutcher

For me, there's so much recursion in this question, kinda like trying to say, "John Elway" in Pig Latin; with that and a six-pack of beer, you can entertain yourself all weekend...

I have a few other hobbies, and they all sit in a few common themes. I've loved trains since I was a kid, both the real ones and models. In the modeling, I've applied an interest in computer control and programming, which is also the root of my professional life. And photography permeates both and has a charter of its own - taking pictures of trains, writing software for image processing, and I just like finding interesting compositions. Work is a funny thing in this milieu; I never aspired to an engineering career (actually, never aspired to much, to my long-suffering wife's chagrin) yet here I am, and my hobbies have provided the skills to open opportunities in it. 'Nuf 'bout work, 'cept to say it gets in the way of the photography hobby, kinda.

I travel a bit for work, and the only thing of the above I can find the opportunity to work on is the software. Sitting in hotel rooms in the evenings with nothing else to do but pound on the laptop keyboard, I've written a number of titles for both work and personal satisfaction. And that get's me to my picture post, a screenshot of my image processing program, rawproc:



There's even more recursion in the above picture: I opened a NEF in rawproc (imaginative program name, don'tcha think?), worked it a bit, took a screenshot of the program, saved it to JPEG, then opened the JPEG in rawproc to shrink it to the 640x4something imagefor posting. The program is organized to precisely my needs: floating point processing until the result image is saved, the particular tools my subjects need (I actually use my D7000 in-camera flash, so last night's project was to incorporate a red-eye tool that doesn't glop up the image), and lightweight to run on cheap tablets and laptops in the field (above work was done on a Surface 3). All that said, it's not very forgiving - no presets, no enforced order of operations, open the raw data and it's entirely up to you to make it pretty, or screw it up. Think of manual transmission in cars... However, with it, I can work most any raw to a web-ready image in about a minute. I've also rolled the homegrown image library into a command line program, img (another catchy name) that can batch-process, like this:

img *.NEF gamma:2.2 blackwhitepoint resize:640,0, sharpen:1 album/*.jpg

Kick it off, go for coffee.

Oh, and there's camping and fishing. Colorado is a target-rich environment for those. Oh, photography too. And there are a lot of trains here. geesh.

You'd think skiing, but we've been here almost 27 years and haven't been. Used to golf, but got married . Grandkids are a nice hobby, in their own way. Photography there, too, hence the redeye tool...

Enough, already.

framer

This to most is really boring stuff but years ago I started collecting old software and drivers. The best stuff is pre 80 but most is pre 86. You might be shock at what information is found on old floppy disks. Anyway that interest lead me into collecting a few old computers to run and maintain my collection. Below is not the oldest but one I cherish the most. This IBM PC 5150 is from the 1st batch IBM put out. It still has the original SSDD floppy drives. I have the original BIOS but it is not in the machine so I can use more memory when I need. Most of these units were upgraded so I was shock to find one in original condition about 10 years ago. It's the 3rd oldest serial number I've seen on the internet. I bought it for under $50 with non-working floppy drives which I was able to fix. Here a few images:


















This type of collecting take programing, mechanical and digital electronic skills. I get satisfaction as payment the wife say's whatever...

framer

heartyfisher

@framer Do you have "Elite" ? :-)

Ton14

@framer So fun to see this one, I worked 25 years for IBM (Netherlands), had all the PC's from the beginning and gave them to a museum in Rotterdam 15 years ago.

framer

heartyfisher said:

@framer Do you have "Elite" ? :-)

More info needed. Program or computer, age? Too many things have used that word in marketing.

framer

heartyfisher

:-) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/games/11051122/Elite-the-game-that-changed-the-world.html

framer

I see a program called Wing Commander in that screen, 1990 vintage. My fltsim was from late 1982.

Was your Elite ever ported to an IBM? I will check my files if it was.

framer

heartyfisher

Elite_(video_game) it was... I have played it on IBM PCs.

framer

I shall look for it, I've got boxes of old 5 1/4 inch floppies with games on them that I've never tried to play.

framer

heartyfisher

it's an old old game now.... you can even play it in an emulator on a browser now.

framer

Found this elitehomepage.org/index.htm

It still lives in original form. I started it in DOSBOX at work. I have played it but never got into it 30+ years ago. I'm going copy it to a 5 1/4 inch floppy and try it on an old PC.

framer

heartyfisher

Had a look at your link !! I am tempted to spend a few hrs on it in the browser again ;-) !! ahh... the memories .... I have to get a new PC first (Mine died recently) .... dusted off an old laptop ... its awesomely nostalgically slow!! LOL !!
how slow? 415 Passmark LOL !! cant wait to get my new PC (Passmark 12,000+) will be a nice upgrade from my old laptop ;-) Tech sure leaps along... can't wait to process some photos !!

Msmoto

I saw someone said they may have too many hobbies.... mmmmm...... no such thing. Unfortunately, for me at least, the problem is I neglect one while pursuing another. Like my rather sparse attendance at NRF.

Maybe I can try to be more attentive. And, one of my primary hobbies, music, this is going well, now, I have gotten into the habit of visiting lots of Goodwill stores to purchase old LP records.

No old computer stuff, that I can understand.... Actually at the racetrack this past weekend, VIR, one of the race technicians showed me some stuff on my phone about getting photos from Flickr in a "screen shot" them through "Air Drop".... how cool.

Oh, about the hobby of collecting fast transportation.....

This one goes pretty fast...



Well, off to listen to some old LP's.

FreezeAction

Slow cooking outside is a hobby.

FreezeAction

Gardening is another hobby

heartyfisher

FreezeAction said:

Slow cooking outside is a hobby.

Wow that looks so so yum !


@FreezeAction what are those plants ? all in a row ....

FreezeAction

heartyfisher said:

FreezeAction said:

Slow cooking outside is a hobby.

Wow that looks so so yum !


@FreezeAction what are those plants ? all in a row ....

Okra, best fried... They are chest high now.

Msmoto

No garden.... because I am always out traveling...... Utah 128 next to the Colorado River Valley, starting at Moab heading north toward Grand Junction, CO.

natyatco

Nice, I would like to have a trailer as well. My family used to rent RV that we used when we go camping and fishing.

Ton14

Flying, Tow pilot for gliders in a Robin D400 in Aosta Italy and clubs in Holland. The main part flying antique airplanes on airshows as The Tiger Moth (1938) the Piper Supercub (1954), the Fokker-S11 and the Harvard ND16 (1942), same as the Harvard T6. Never the Spitfire, we have one in The Netherlands. So 20 years as a little boy in a toyshop. How much fun can you have. You understand that I liked the airshow photo's a lot. .Always wanted, but never done was travel with a trailer like Msmoto's, I had a caravan behind a Jeep, smaller.