Sal Sees a Theorbo

Regular readers of Travels with Sal know that I've been taking violin lessons.  (See this post from August and this post from October for details.)  Well, after experiencing the ease of tuning offered by the ukulele, I found tuning my violin to be ridiculously difficult.  At each lesson I would hand the violin to Jessica -- my patient teacher -- to tune.  At home I attempted it, but it was a very frustrating process, as the pegs kept slipping.  The result of this was fewer practice sessions, as I experience enough frustration in my daily life already.  Music is supposed to be a stress reducer -- not another source thereof!

After much slipping (by the pegs) and swearing (by me), I decided there must be a better way.  I have geared pegs that look like tension pegs on my Walnut Flea, which made me think there should be similar pegs for violins -- and there are!  There are Pegheds for violins!  Jessica did not encourage me to get them, for reasons both philosophical (wooden pegs have been used for hundreds of years), and practical ($$$), but I wanted to go ahead anyway.

Despite her reservations, Jessica recommended a fixer of violins named Reese Williams, so I called for an appointment and went to see him.  Mr. Williams made some recommendations about my violin and suggested that I start with adjustments to the existing pegs to make them work better.  We could talk about the Pegheds later if I still wanted them.  I agreed to this and returned the following day to pick up the easier-to-tune violin.

I also brought Sal with me, so I could get some photos of her with an amazing instrument Mr. Williams had been working on -- a Theorbo!?  (Click on that bold word to learn all about the Theorbo.)  It was in the workshop when I dropped off my violin.   I'd never seen anything like it, and it seemed to me that a photo of it with Sal would be necessary.  I think you will agree that Sal and the Theorbo make an interesting pair.

The Theorbo had been moved from the workshop into the front room, as it was ready to be picked up.  I wonder what sort of vehicle the owner drives, and how he maneuvers this giant instrument through doorways and around corners.

Looking at the many strings on the Theorbo, it seems silly that I find it so challenging to play the ukulele with its paltry four strings!

If, after seeing this really cool instrument, you are still interested in the fate of my violin, I will tell you that the old pegs work much better now...  but I still want the Pegheds!

Sal Enjoys Bedford's Christmas Lights (despite the disaster that ends the evening)

On Saturday my sister and I spent the afternoon baking cookies to send to our brother, and then decided to take Sal to Bedford to see the Christmas lights.  If you read my post from last week you know that I was trying to figure out how to get the best possible pictures of Sal with festive holiday illuminations.  I was not satisfied with the photos I took, so before leaving for Bedford, I spent a few minutes with a book about my camera.  I've had the book for years, but never really read it, because I never needed to.  The camera takes great pictures without help from me, so learning about all of its awesome features wasn't necessary.  Saturday's perusal of the book informed me that my camera has an automatic bracketing feature.  Turn automatic bracketing on and when you press the shutter, the camera will take one picture at the exposure it thinks is ideal, and then one less exposed and one more exposed -- the idea being that one of these shots will be good.  This sounded like a great idea, so I decided to try it -- inside the warm house.  Here is a sequence of three pictures from one press of the shutter button.  (Yes, I have a lighted Hello Kitty in my dining room for the holidays.  And yes, she's hanging around with two gnomes.  I never claimed to be a great interior decorator...)

The camera's preferred exposure.

Less exposed.

More exposed.

I thought the results were pretty cool, so I decided to use automatic bracketing for the Bedford photo shoot.  We made the drive and found a beautiful display on the square.  Bedford has all these wonderful lights because it shares its name with the city in It's a Wonderful Life  --  perhaps the most beloved holiday movie of all time.  (The city in the movie is actually Bedford Falls, but that's close enough to give Bedford a reason to go all out for the holidays.)  The scene was truly enchanting, so despite the bitter cold, we began to figure out some shots and snap away.

Sal isn't in this picture, but I had to take some establishing shots to show how pretty the square looked.  This was taken from across the street.

Another establishing shot.

After taking test pictures at the gazebo last week, I thought it would be a good idea to get a flashlight to shine on Sal, but then I forgot.  I remembered when I was trying to figure out how to take a picture of Sal with this monument.  I tried many pictures of this scene in a vain attempt to get the whole very tall monument -- with statue on top -- into the shot.  It didn't work out, and later I noticed that if the pole Sal is leaning on is straight, the monument looks crooked.  Argh.  Even though this isn't a great picture, I had to include it after all the effort I put into it.

Anne says that this Santa looks a little creepy, and I agree.  The lighting gives a sinister cast to his face, don't you think?

Thanks to a suggestion from Anne, I got this picture of Sal with one of the choir members in the gazebo on the square.  The guy is a bit of a stiff, but that's okay.

When I saw the creche pictured below, I immediately had the naughty idea of putting Sal into the manger.  I mentioned it to Anne, who confessed that she had thought the same thing.  Great minds!  We walked over and saw that the Baby Jesus was molded into the manger, and there was no room for Sal.  (Cue slightly ironic laugh.)  I suggested putting Sal next to Mary instead.  In previous years I have read about pranksters who steal the Baby Jesus from outdoor displays such as this one, so we figured we probably were being photographed by a security camera.  Since we were not doing any harm, however, we had nothing to fear.  Religious folk may believe that what we did was in poor taste, but who could resist such temptation!?  (Ba dum bum.)

I think ukulele music would have been very soothing to a poor baby lying in a manger surrounded by smelly livestock.  What better gift could anyone have brought?  We were merely adding a suitable baby gift to the scene.  (What would make a baby happier -- some gold, frankincense, and myrrh -- or a relaxing lullaby strummed on a ukulele?)

 I think this is a lovely peaceful scene -- and Sal makes it complete!  Too bad there is a light fixture sticking up in the middle of the photo -- but the light it gives is necessary.  Perhaps in the future the fixture could be hidden inside a hollowed out sheep or something.

We took a bunch of other photos after this -- none of which were good enough to use -- and then the disaster portion of the evening began.  The screen on my camera went black.  I turned the camera off and on, but the screen stayed black.  We were afraid that the extreme cold (the high temperature for the day was in the 20s) was affecting the camera, so we went inside a nearby church that was unlocked due to a holiday party.  We were standing inside the door, hoping the camera would recover, when a young man entered.  We ended up having a conversation about ukuleles, and he told us that he knows an 85-year-old man who plays the ukulele at the Rusty Nail in Ravenna.  (I plan to call and see when the man is playing and hope to go see his show.  This might be a fun outing for Sal!)  We found out that this young man was coming to the party to play Santa.  He said that he was "the skinniest guy in the place,"  and was going to have to use lots of pillows to play his part.  (He did look awfully young, thin, and clean-shaven to be Santa, but I'm sure that with the addition of a red suit, white wig, and beard he did a fine job.)  Anne and I went back outside to resume our photo session, but the camera wouldn't work and we were cold anyway, so we got in our cars and went home.

DISASTER UPDATE:  I tried the camera again after I got home and over the next couple of days, and it is truly broken.  I am very sad because I really love this camera!  Since it's several years old it's probably not economical (or perhaps even possible) to get it repaired.  I would have to pay to have it evaluated and then who knows?  If I end up buying a new camera, I wouldn't buy the updated version of my beloved G11, because the G15  doesn't have the swiveling screen that was one of the G11's coolest features.  And unfortunately the camera I would want to buy instead (the Sony NEX6) costs much more than I should spend.  Sigh...

TWO DAYS LATER... HAPPY NEWS!  My techie son suggested that I restore my camera to its original settings to see if that would make the screen come back on.  I tried it and it worked!  Hip Hip Hooray for Christopher!!!

Sal Sees Lots of Model Trains

Just around the corner from where I live is a restored train depot housing the Cuyahoga Valley and West Shore Model Railroad Club.  Twice a year they have an Open House.  I've been wanting to go for a long time, but there was always something preventing me -- mostly the necessity of holding down a job instead of spending all my time having fun.   Starting Travels With Sal made me determined to find a way, so I decided that I would squeeze in a quick visit to the May Open House on my way to work.  I was actually on my way there when I was prevented by circumstances beyond my control.  (If you'd like to know what happened, read I've Been Hampered by a Railroad -- the post about that truncated outing.)

After the May debacle, I was even more determined to make it to the December Open House, and this time I was successful.  I asked the gentleman collecting the $3.00 admission fee if I could put Sal into some of the train layouts, and he said I could put her wherever I wanted -- as long as I didn't break anything.  In the "it's a small world" department, this man told me that he does not have a blog, but he did take a Build-a-Bear across the country and dip its foot or hand (I forgot which) into the Pacific Ocean.  (One of the coolest things about doing Travels with Sal is talking with people and hearing their stories.  Everybody has an interesting tale or two to tell!)

When I go on outings with Sal, I carry a largish bag containing Sal, my camera, my keys, etc.  The gentleman at the door very kindly allowed me to leave this bag in his care, as the tight spaces in the depot would make carrying it a liability.  There isn't much room to walk, as there are train layouts all around with relatively narrow passageways between them.   There are trains of several gauges running in realistic scenes of all kinds -- city and countryside, residential and industrial, etc.  There were many visitors there -- and more arrived every minute -- so it was quite challenging to move around.  Everyone was very polite and considerate as we squeezed by each other and admired the layouts surrounding us.  I spoke with some very helpful gentlemen* wearing shirts indicating that they were members of the Club.  They were obviously very proud of what they have made -- and justifiably so! 

I highly recommend traveling to Olmsted Falls to see this train lover's paradise!  The Open House continues today, and there will be another one next May. 

I love how big Sal looks in these scenes.

Quite a few people stopped and chuckled as I was taking this photo.

This might be my favorite picture from our visit to the Open House.  I love the colors.  They set off Sal very nicely, I think.

I tried to avoid putting Sal directly on the tracks as much as possible, for fear that a train would come by and Sal would cause a derailment.  I'm happy to report that no such disaster occurred, but a train did chug by very shortly after I removed Sal from this track.  Gulp.

Next to the depot there is a caboose, which is also open to visitors during the Open House.  Here is Sal on the brake wheel.  (I was told that one of the functions of the caboose was to help with braking back in the day.)

*As a children's librarian, I can testify that boys love trains!  They love real trains, and they love model trains.  I've never been asked for a "train book" by a girl, but I've been asked for them countless times by guys young and old. 

Sal Goes On an Experimental Photo Shoot

Now that Thanksgiving is in the past, and the last of the leftovers are soon to be eaten, it's time to think about Christmas!

(EDITORIAL COMMENT:  Fie on all who shopped on Thanksgiving Day.  How about spending the day being grateful instead of spending it getting more stuff!?  And fie on the retailers who tempted people to shop on Thanksgiving Day by offering them super bargains.  Those bargains could just as easily have been offered on Black Friday.  This year's attempt to get the jump on your competitors by opening on Thanksgiving will just lead to more stores opening on Thanksgiving in the future.  Soon the whole day will be eaten up -- pun intended -- and we'll all be wondering where our nice holiday went.  What a shame.  Greed is NOT good!)

Enough with the lecture!  Let's get back to more pleasant things.  Yes, I'm thinking about Christmas!  It's time to buy a reasonable amount of gifts, plan some festive occasions, practice Christmas songs on the ukulele, AND, last but not least, take some holiday photos of Sal.  My sister and I are planning an outing to take pictures of Sal with some holiday lights.  I am concerned, however, about how to feature both the lovely lights and Sal in properly exposed photos.  To mention the obvious, lights are very bright, the night is very dark, and Sal is in between!

Tonight I arrived home from work to see the Christmas lights twinkling in the gazebo across the street -- as they always do in December.  It struck me that I could just walk over and take some experimental Sal pictures there.  If what I tried tonight didn't work, I could try something else tomorrow night.  By the time Anne and I do our real photo shoot, I should know what I'm doing!  (As a lazy photographer, I don't use all the features on my cameras, so this will give me the motivation to challenge myself.  For the holiday light pictures I'll be using a Canon Powershot G11.) 

Sadly, the photo session was not a success, but here are two of the pictures anyway. 

Starting with the simplest thing first, I tried the Night Scene mode on my camera.  As a picture of an outdoor Christmas tree at night, I think it's okay, but as a Sal photo, not so much.  She's supposed to be star, but you can hardly see her.

When I realized that Night Scene wasn't working, I tried the Low Light setting.  This let me set the exposure by Sal, so you can see her.  This photo is a more accurate representation of the actual lighting in the gazebo.  Unfortunately, it's too noisy.  I'll be trying some other things in the coming days.  Looks like I'm going to have to leave the comfort of scene modes and move into something more advanced.  Gulp.

Lessons learned and resulting thoughts:
1. Sal has to be in a pool of light or she will not be visible in the photos.  Otherwise, even if I can see her just fine, the camera can't.
2. It's good to take practice photos when it's not freezing cold and windy. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays nice.
3. Some snow would be pretty, but it would probably change everything.  So if it's going to snow on the big picture-taking day, let the snow begin very soon!
4. Using a tripod is a necessity.
5. It was a good idea to do some reading and decide what I was going to do before going outside to take pictures.  I will continue to figure out my plan where it's light enough refer back to the book -- in the house!
6. It's time to learn about my camera and what it can do!

Here's hoping I'll have better shots to share in the following days!  Sal deserves to be beautifully photographed!  :)