Sunday, February 21, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Ubique!
Ay it's been a while since my last post. Have been quite busy working at AGS for a little over a month now. Done everything from e-mails to new agencies, envelope stuffing, editing promotional flyers, in general just stuff. They've got me digitizing the archives finally. I've spent the last 3 weeks photographing leather bound volumes of the Society's minutes one page at a time. It's a long and slow process and it's difficult to ignore the hand written text that's over 150 years old. It's interesting to see just how well previous generation's handwriting was compared to today's chicken scratches. I managed to give AGS some ideas on how to make digitizing easier and more efficient than just simply holding a point and shoot above the page and snapping away.
I convinced the AGS staff and a Prof. Fritz Nelson (University of Delaware, polar geography specialist) that we needed a copy stand with some lights and that would hold a camera still directly over the material we were digitizing. Sounds simple at first but being New York City nothing is ever quite simple. After a 2 days of arguing with Adorama Camera over non-profit tax exempt forms, we managed to procure a very large copy stand and some lights. Not a bad price either. However we ran into some trouble not realizing that 100 year old pages don't lie flat for reproduction. So I then thought of some ideas that could be used to hold them in place. Paper clips were suggested but they can damage the paper by introducing creases and rust. We tried fingers, but that leaves no hand free to fire the cable release for the camera's shutter. After failing with metal rulers, we came to sheets of non-reflective glass and then non-reflective plexi-glass as the current solution. Glass was determined too heavy and could cause damage to the already crumbling book spines. So plexi-glass is what I'm using now. It works well, is light, flexible and seems to get the job done.
I finished digitizing 13 volumes of 200 pages (1852-1903) each last week despite the mid-week blizzard (unusual for NJ, a reminder that I've got to get away from the east coast.) Now I've moved on to 20th century material and a larger size volume. More to come with digitizing old aerial oblique photographs of South America that were used to design the "Millionth Map" see links: http://www.life.com/image/72399641 ; http://geography.about.com/od/historyofgeography/a/millionthmap.htm It's huge, 1cm = 10Km. All done by hand to mylar and then copied.
Also got to take a look at AGS's Flyer's and Explorers Globe, which was made in 1903 and still sent around the world today to the first people to take on unique expeditions. Some notable people who have signed it are: Amelia Earhart, Dr. Livingstone, Neil Armstrong, Bertrand Piccard to name a few. The last person who was supposed to sign it was Steve Fosset for the first solo, non-stop fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world. Unfortunately Steve died in a plane crash in 2007.
Here's some images of the globe:
Nothing much else happens, I ran out of heating oil on sat night and was staying warm using a wood stove and splitting wood all Sunday morning. The delivery truck came Monday morning and topped off the tank. I got to photograph some deer that were eating my bushes but that's about it besides eat, sleep, commute, work, traffic and not enough sleep. I'm thinking of some things to do after I finish up here at AGS in mid April after the American Association of Geographers Annual Conference in DC. (Managed to get a free ticket and will hopefully meet up with faculty from U Hawai'i at Manoa!) A friend from Portugal and I are planning a transcontinental road trip form NJ to CA just to see what happens. Hopefully I'll be able to sell my VW and get something a little more sporty and spartan for the drive ;) Lastly John Mayer live at Madison Square Garden next week with an old friend from Japan!
Here are some more photos from Wall St, the South St. Seaport, home in NJ and underground at 34th St. Penn Station:
I convinced the AGS staff and a Prof. Fritz Nelson (University of Delaware, polar geography specialist) that we needed a copy stand with some lights and that would hold a camera still directly over the material we were digitizing. Sounds simple at first but being New York City nothing is ever quite simple. After a 2 days of arguing with Adorama Camera over non-profit tax exempt forms, we managed to procure a very large copy stand and some lights. Not a bad price either. However we ran into some trouble not realizing that 100 year old pages don't lie flat for reproduction. So I then thought of some ideas that could be used to hold them in place. Paper clips were suggested but they can damage the paper by introducing creases and rust. We tried fingers, but that leaves no hand free to fire the cable release for the camera's shutter. After failing with metal rulers, we came to sheets of non-reflective glass and then non-reflective plexi-glass as the current solution. Glass was determined too heavy and could cause damage to the already crumbling book spines. So plexi-glass is what I'm using now. It works well, is light, flexible and seems to get the job done.
I finished digitizing 13 volumes of 200 pages (1852-1903) each last week despite the mid-week blizzard (unusual for NJ, a reminder that I've got to get away from the east coast.) Now I've moved on to 20th century material and a larger size volume. More to come with digitizing old aerial oblique photographs of South America that were used to design the "Millionth Map" see links: http://www.life.com/image/72399641 ; http://geography.about.com/od/historyofgeography/a/millionthmap.htm It's huge, 1cm = 10Km. All done by hand to mylar and then copied.
Also got to take a look at AGS's Flyer's and Explorers Globe, which was made in 1903 and still sent around the world today to the first people to take on unique expeditions. Some notable people who have signed it are: Amelia Earhart, Dr. Livingstone, Neil Armstrong, Bertrand Piccard to name a few. The last person who was supposed to sign it was Steve Fosset for the first solo, non-stop fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world. Unfortunately Steve died in a plane crash in 2007.
Here's some images of the globe:
Interesting?
It's getting very crowded up there. Now people just sign and don't bother plotting routes.
Amelia Earhart's signature in the Pacific.
Aldrin, Armstrong, Collins 1969. Picture on a wall at the AGS.
Nothing much else happens, I ran out of heating oil on sat night and was staying warm using a wood stove and splitting wood all Sunday morning. The delivery truck came Monday morning and topped off the tank. I got to photograph some deer that were eating my bushes but that's about it besides eat, sleep, commute, work, traffic and not enough sleep. I'm thinking of some things to do after I finish up here at AGS in mid April after the American Association of Geographers Annual Conference in DC. (Managed to get a free ticket and will hopefully meet up with faculty from U Hawai'i at Manoa!) A friend from Portugal and I are planning a transcontinental road trip form NJ to CA just to see what happens. Hopefully I'll be able to sell my VW and get something a little more sporty and spartan for the drive ;) Lastly John Mayer live at Madison Square Garden next week with an old friend from Japan!
Here are some more photos from Wall St, the South St. Seaport, home in NJ and underground at 34th St. Penn Station:
Started to miss Japan and yaki-nikku so I tried this place.
Bowl of guy-don. Looks alright, tastes like microwaved poly-urethane and cardboard with nikku-tare.
Not worth the $10 I spent. Though I do miss the Ito-en brand of Oolon-cha.
A cold, wet day at the Seaport. My tolerance for east coast weather has reached it's threshold.
Just another view of the "Ambrose" lighthouse boat at the Seaport, I like the contrast.
"Guitar Ron" underground at 34th st. jamming to Wes Montgomery and Hendrix.
This little one came to visit during last week's blizzard.
Don't worry I'm not that good of a wildlife photographer. Both these images where shot through windows. However I was less than a foot away for this one. Deer don't see well through glass I don't think.
Cozy.
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