commentary/CHRISTOPHER P. D’AMATO
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contributors. Not only are they fine modelers, but in many cases they are also excellent writers and photogra- phers. Unlike many publications, which use professional writers and photogra- phers, we rely on our fellow hobbyists to report on their projects and share their techniques. In a specialized field like ours, it is important that the authors know their subjects. Let’s face it, a lot of model railroading involves dealing with arcane subject matter and things that most people would, if they gave it any thought at all, consider trivial minutia. (e.g., How many ribs are on the end of that boxcar? What are the spotting fea- tures on the different phases of a partic- ular locomotive and which railroads owned which models? Or, what are the differences between the various classes of a certain freight or passenger car? etc.) To think, however, that simply be- cause someone has a knowledge of a certain subject or has built an excellent model that they will also be able to write about it in a coherent and engag- ing fashion and have the skills to photo- graph it under typical (read less than ideal) layout or workbench lighting con- ditions, is asking a lot. Writing and pho- tography are two skills that require a lot of study and attention to do well. Yet, time and again our creative contribu- tors come through. So, to anyone who has ever sat down at a keyboard or picked up a camera to prepare an arti- cle for his or her fellow modelers, you have our sincere thanks and gratitude. The model railroading community is a small one and to keep the hobby moving forward we continuely need people will- ing to share their ideas and knowledge. Our cover story (the first of two parts) is a good example of this. Mark Dance and his friend, Tim Horton, teamed up to offer us a look at how
A
fter 33 years of working on RAIL- ROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN, I am still amazed by the talent of our
Mark operates his N scale layout using a system he developed based on proto- type practices he has adapted for the layout room and the knowledge he’s gained from operating on other model- ers’ layouts. While Mark lays out a clear explanation of how and why he does things, Tim puts his camera skills to work sharing with us some of the scenes found on Mark’s layout. Being a multi-level layout, this isn’t always easy, but Tim’s
resourcefulness not
only got the job done, it also provided us with a wonderful snow scene for this month’s cover. I’ll let Tim recount how he did it.–C.P.D.
T Shooting this month’s cover
he photograph on this month’s cover of RMC was recorded at Farron on the upper deck of Mark’ Dances Columbia & Western layout. The depth of field required for this composition can only be obtained via focus stacking (the digital combina- tion of multiple images recorded at dif- ferent focal depths to provide greater depth of field). This dictates a perfectly steady position of the camera to elimi- nate any movement between succes- sive images.
This particular location on Mark’s
layout presented a challenge with re- spect to access with the camera, as there is a gap of only five inches be- tween the bottom edge of the lighting valance and the front edge of the lay- out at this location. There was also a desire to avoid any damage caused by contact between the camera and the delicate snow scene. For this photograph we re-used the front-silvered mirror employed for the photograph on pages 54-55 of the May 2013 issue of RMC. This enabled the tripod and camera to be positioned in the adjacent aisle, thus guaranteeing a stable setup for the multiple exposures required. A cloth was placed on the FEBRUARY 2014
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