Roger,
Interestingly, a discussion of writing articles and publishing photos of our
layouts came up last night at an operating session on an N scale layout. There
were N scalers, HO guys, and one S guy (me!) involved. What was clear is that
an individual modeler has to have an interest in that aspect of the hobby, not
just a layout that would be "magazine worthy". In our operating group there
are probably 6 layouts that could easily be featured one of the mainstream
magazines but the modelers have other priorities. One fellow there last night
who has a fantastic HO layout said he would rather work on the next layout
project than dedicate the time to take photographs and write a piece. And
that's just fine. Ours is a wonderfully diverse hobby and it's simply a matter
of what's of interest. I suspect that the reason more S modelers that have
models and layouts that could be published don't do so is simply that they have
other priorities. Those of us who do enjoy preparing articles are a small
percentage of all S gaugers, but probably no smaller a percentage than in any
other scale. But that relatively small number results in a small number of S
layouts appearing in the magazines. I would restate what I have before,
however. It is not that difficult to prepare photos and text for publication.
I use a camera that costs about $400 and two very old photo floods that new
probably cost less than $50. There isn't anything that mysterious about
requirements for publication of photos other than that they are well lit and
well focused...the same thing you want in a family snapshot. That don't have
to be contest winners to be appropriate. JPEG format, the format that comes
directly out of the camera, is acceptable and even inexpensive cameras these
days have more than enough resolution and their autofocus features work fine,
especially in the larger scales like ours. The text can be submitted as a Word
document, the format most everyone uses for reports, etc. For those
interested, photography and writing articles for magazines becomes another
challenging and creative aspect of our hobby. As I've said before, I'd be glad
to chat off line with any one who would like some encouragement or support.
Brooks
>
> Make that 198! It would be great if your neighbors could share some pics of
> their layout with at least the S community.
>
> Thanks, Roger
>
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
