The Photobear loves trains. As promised, these are the other pictures at Epcot. They change the trains around periodically, and I like the steam engine. If you notice the big round things on top are pennies. That should give you scale of the engine size. That would be the 'O' scale, which is twice the size of the popular HO.

There is a second train passing the steam engine. Yes its cool.This one is an Amtrak replica, see, its says Amtrak on the front. Good thing the Photobear is so observant.

I made sure to have plenty of depth of field, so the entire train is in focus. This makes the picture appear sharp which it is. Just a little phototip.

The Photobear likes trains. That simple statement can go a very long way to messing up your hobby like photography. So the best thing is to combine the two things. Here is the train at Heritage Park, located in McDonough, Ga. ( I-75 exit 218, go east about 4 or so miles, hwy 81). This train is a type similar to the one that ran over a washed away tressle back in 1903 or was it '06? 36 people died in the wreck, their bodies were laid out at the square, now they say the square is haunted. I don't really understand why a ghost would haunt the wrong place. Maybe they are as smart as we are. This train is a 2-4-0, very similar to the type that opened America when the railroad began crossing our country.

Here are the driving wheels, they're not very large. That limits speed but increases pulling power.

Photonote: the overcast day made the shadows dark so I set the camera to fill flash. The new automatics do this so easily, not like older cameras which required much calculation to fill, or you had to quess.

If you look carefully both driving wheels are linked together by a bar and that arrangement is rotated by the forward steam piston. How simple an idea.

This view is the last thing a cow sees if its on the tracks.

Naturally I have to slip a picture of the model train display at Disneys' Epcot. The red and yellow trolleys are crossing near the tiny village. This is in 'G' scale. Sometimes they put out a steam replica engine, and somewhere I have a picture of it. I promise to put it out later.

The Disney shot was taken with my Nikon D70s 18^70mm, and the others I used my Nikon 4300. One day I'm going to run across a running steam engine. Click Click.

Eeeww!! Giant bug!

I discovered this fellow hanging from my carport wall. At first, I thought what you did, eek! Then, I looked again and realized it was a skin of bug. (Bug: a creepy crawly thing with more legs than a dog.) These guys live underground for years and suddenly they all surface, shed their skins, spread their wings, which are under the skin, fly off, meet girls or a guy, have bug marriage, lay some eggs, and die. What has that to do with photography?
Why? that would be macro-photography. The technique of taking a picture of something small and making it fit the view screen. For this, I have a macro lens. Being the thrifty type, I spotted the lens in a pawnshop attached to a Nikon N2000. I really didn't want the body, but did want the lens. And it wasn't that expensive. I'll sell the body separately on ebay. I still have the body, it's a good unit, oh well.
I set the lens at 1:1.5. umm.....did everybody get that? No?
That is the ratio of image to object. The object (bug) is one and a half times the size as the image. Translation: picture of bug is real big on the film ( or digital medium) which allows us to see details we normally would not see. Look carefully, there are white net like fibers across the face of the bug, those are mold filaments.

Being in photography there is no free lunch, note the items that must be thought about before taking the picture. When shooting really close the depth of field (the area that is in focus) is very narrow. You must take care that the little sharply focused area is on something important, normally the eyes. Flowers don't have eyes, so good luck.
The greater the magnification the greater the camera shake. I found that around 1/4 sec exposure the picture had some blurring. To get sharp pictures at this magification you need longer shutter speeds, at least 1/2 sec, longer is better, which is what I did. 1.3 seconds, this allows the camera to stop vibrating and get a sharp image. Almost all SLRs act this way, with few exceptions, ( I said this to placate those who believe Their Wonder Type will not vibrate this way.) Lastly, you must have a steady tripod. Period. I recommend this as your second piece of equipment to buy. Period. A steady camera will maximize the lens' taking ability, an unsteady mount reduces the worlds sharpest lens to at best, soft.
Hunt for that macro lens, and if the photojourney takes too long, get a set of close-up filters and mount them on your lens. I used a Nikon 135 with a +1 filter as my butterfly outfit for years. And it never let me down. Review the last blog with the cell phone and close-up lens.

Quik photonote: Name brand macro lenses are rather pricey (Nikon calls theirs Micro) and come in different focal lengths which cost more as the lenses get longer. There are some third party brands which are substantially less. Mine is an Elicar, and on the web it has a good reputation. The next route is to buy a zoom lens with a "macro" feature. This is usually 1:4, at best a close-up lens, but it will make a nice picture, my 'macro' zoom lens works fine, it just weighs a metric ton. But that weight steadies the shot. My cake, eat it too.