Happy Holidays to Meat Eaters and Vegetarians Alike

storyboard for Remagen Quarry battle.

storyboard for Remagen Quarry battle. I so need more corkboards this size!

first rough edit in progress

Computers are great but sometimes they lack the speed, deftness, and infinite possibilities of a pencil and paper. I have covered a wall in corkboards and am now trying to get my first (very rough) rough draft pinned to it. Its far from over, but at least its a start!

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Remagen bridge in tidioute PA - after action report

What could I say except that the Remagen bridge event in Tidioute Pa was one of the best living history events I have been to - bar none! I found it to be just about everything I was looking for. The bridge in Tidioute even resembles the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine, which the event centers around.

As Steve Leiss remarked "this is great, where else can you camp right by the Alleghany river in the mountains of pennsylvania?" And he wasn't kidding, as opposed to the oppressive heat that most of us had been enduring, it was nice and temperate at the campground. We could literally see the river from there - which hopefully didn't make the kayakers and innertubers exceedingly nervous when reenactors test fired their weapons near the shoreline.

Presently, only 250 reenactors are allowed in (but I bet they change that later because of popularity). I was one of those lucky few. Armed with my camera, I got to ride in on a vintage 1941 truck and was dropped off in a remote end of a stone quarry. There was no armor but folks brought out all the fun toys; heavy machine guns, mortar crews, bazooka teams, motorcycles with sidecars, and of course the ubiquitous jeep. During the battle the pyrotechnics team lobbed "rounds" into the sky where they left their white, billowy, signatures and alerted us all with a distant "BOOM" which ominously resonated off the nearby mountain range. The battle lasted only a few hours which I thought was great, not too little & not too much.

After the private tactical, we had a few hours for R&R before the main event. Once again, armed with my camera, we all piled into the 1941 truck. Unlike many events which shuffle you off to an obscure place, we headed right straight into the town. We were dropped off in a street lined with eager, enthusiastic, spectators. (someone suggested that several thousand were in attendance) We took our positions and the battle began with a nice little touch, civilians, something you rarely see at a reenactment, but obviously existed at the real event. They did what I would have done; they beat a hasty retreat to avoid the crossfire.

After that, it was "trigger time"! The American forces slowly advanced and the German forces returned fire and fell back. It was deafening at times but it was thrilling playing out this drama in an actual town, in front of the spectators who seemed to be loving every minute of it. The German forces retreated across the bridge and took up defensive positions to destroy the bridge and cut off the Americans. Heres another one of those wonderful things about this event, there was an entire pyrotechnics team for the "blowing the bridge" segment. When crossing the bridge, I saw wires and fireworks left and right. I thought to myself "Now that is one hell of a lot of fireworks". Once they went off, I knew I was right! I've yet to see a pyro display even half as good as this. At one point, the entire middle of the bridge was obscured by smoke. Gradually the silhouettes of GI's began emerging into sharp focus and then the most fierce fight began. (the German forces were ordered to fight to the death). Eventually the GIs took the hill and the battle ended. The crowd, who lined the hill, the streets and everywhere they could fit, went crazy!! They sent up a cheer that I had yet to hear at a public battle. Afterwards there was an palpable excitement in the air. I saw reenactors entering local stores where they were greeted, one and all, with gratitude, enthusiasm, and sometimes even a free coffee. During the ride back to camp, townsfolk were tossing us bottles of water to quench the thirst we'd built up. They shouted praise to us and could not have been more supportive. One reenactor, John Veglak, remarked that "to be period correct, they should have been throwing wine bottles instead" which got a pretty good laugh from me.

Once back at camp, gear off, it was time to get some of those "refreshments" that John mentioned. And that was an easy task since the restaurant/bar was right next to camp! needless to say, the rest of the night went well.

Yesterday I opened my email and...

I was thrilled to receive my very first Movie donation yesterday. It was twenty-five dollars so, no I'm not rich quite yet. :-)
Nevertheless that donation will help get me to the next shoot.
And, in addition to the pragmatic concerns, when you work really hard on a project, its so rewarding simply to have someone give a vote of confidence for what you're trying to accomplish. They picked out a specific photograph as their gift, so I know that they liked that as well. That feeling never gets old. I really think this project is worthwhile and I'm tickled to know that someone else does too.

'88 at Va Beach

This sucker was so loud that it cuts the sound out completely for the actual report, the echo is actually what you hear.

Dauntless Torpedo Plane - flyby

This guy was my favorite! Pilot had a blast that day and so did we.

After Action Report - Va Beach Airshow

just got back from Va Beach Airshow. Another great event, it was 360˚ of living history. That includes overhead, as the museum's large collection of aircraft took off, buzzed overhead, and landed close enough to the camp that you could see the pilots face. (and to get a great picture) The motor noise buzzed and rumbled throughout the show. Its a noise that you can really feel in your chest and makes you wonder how intense the takeoff experience had to be for the deck crews on carriers. The museum even has a flying PBY, a elgantly beautiful aircraft which does not ever look as though it should stay aloft due to the slow speeds it seems to cruise at. Of course this ability is what made it a great ocean rescue and recon plane... but wow, its just unreal to watch.

Not all of the excitement was in the air. Our Allied War correspodent group was oddly placed in sort of a "battle of the Bulge" formation, surrounded on three sides by Axis reenactors. Upon discovering our perimeter, the German forces advanced upon us, armed with exotic and surprisingly tasty mixtures of Booze which caused heavy casualties the next morning.

The crowds were great and enthusiastic and the weather was good until the last afternoon when rains grounded the planes. We stayed a bit late to watch a german unit fire a few blank shells from the museum's '88 gun. Luckily for us, about that time the skies cleared up enough that a few planes went up again and we got sort of a "private show" when a Dauntless, and a P-51 each buzzed the airfield as we eagerly watched and soaked up the experience in the hopes that we could take it home with us.




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Contax is out of the mold!

I did it again1 I covered a vintage camera in goo ... and pulled it back out again all squeaky clean. I never get tired of making molds. Do you remember the first time you ever made a xerox? Its kind of like that... but in 3D

new pix are up!

New Hand colored B/W photos are up!
click here

new disguise cam on the way

I should be pulling a Contax out of its mold by Friday. That means that Axis reenactors (as well as Allied) can now have a disguise cam for point shoot cameras. pix and prices to follow. stay tuned! -edg

does anyuone have an extra Half Mil I could borrow to buy a tank?

and does anyone remember this movie?

I recently supplied a Toymo-35 for Lynchpin Pictures short film "Common Ground". Looks pretty good from the stills but I can't wait to see more. Toymos are now available, prices vary from $180-$360. Holler at me if you've been thinking about a Toymo or if you want to de-farb your point-and-shoot with an Argus disguise cam.

animation test

this is just a short animation test I shot yesterday
I just wanted to try out the character.
can you tell what he's doing?

Goooooood morning Fort Indiantown Gap!!

Can you still feel the cold?
Friday morning.

argus disguise cam

At long last, and after many long pauses, I've finally completed the Argus disguise camera!!
With FIG rapidly approaching, I have a thousand things to do.
If you want to see it in action and up close, come see me at FIG!
See for yourself its pretty great. At least i think so ...but I bet you'll agree.
Hope to see you there.
-edg