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Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Mid-Century Moto Mecca Makeover

Workspaces between 485 and 705 squarefeet.
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Grant Gunderson

Well-known member
Joined
May 17, 2013
Messages
2,343
Location
Bellingham, WA
Gregor, your going to look back some day at the time you spent biking with the kids as some of the best quality time you had with them growing up.

It’s so good that they are taking to it and learning to work on their bikes, soon they are going to be like I want to change this or that to make it better. Once they can start customizing it themselves so it’s really dialed in for how they like it they’re going to take to it even more. It’s a really cool process to watch. I feel a proper fitting bike with good geometry is half the battle in getting kids into it. The other half is getting their friends into it as well so they have the social aspect too. So it’s amazing the racing club has taken off so well for them.

You guys should come ride in Bellingham. Especially once we start to get a little moisture again this fall. You should also put the TuneUp festival on your calendar for next summer. It’s a big enduro on Galbraith with a 3 day concert and everything bikes mixed in, including some amazing dirt jump contests to watch as well as some impressive trials riding.
 
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sakurama

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
1,464
Location
Portland - the cool one.
As Ron mentioned, I left out the pizza popup. Partly because it's happening so fast I don't think we're ready. Last summer the kids and I took an opportunity to do a pizza popup in our little downtown of Multnomah Village. We had a handful of good nights but generally we weren't doing much business. They put us in the back of the bar on porch and no one really knew we were there.

But we did have one big night during the towns little festival and the kids earned real money splitting $1000. We had another good night at the MotoCorsa event selling out in just over an hour. We wanted to do it again this summer but it's been busy and we never found or secured a good location. Until this past month.

i-99LptDg-X2.jpg

This is a photo from last year. Lucas is about a foot taller now.

We always wanted to do one at our coffee shop which is just a couple blocks away because they close at 3pm and finally we asked if they'd let us do a takeover and they gave us the month of August on Friday. So this week we're going to do our first one.

But for this one we're spinning the pizza thing off as its own business. The name is LUNA Pizza and my brother suggested it and then did the design work for the logo. It comes from LUcas and NAdia and after all the options was the one we landed on. Here's the Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/lunapizzapdx/

i-t8C8hNS-X2.jpg

So if you're around this Friday from 5-8pm come by. We're a little nervous about this since both Judiaann, myself and the coffee shop have all put out the word and Judiaann's social reach in the food world is pretty good. No idea how it will go but we're planning to make 60-80 pizzas to start this Friday and will go until we sell out. Our goal is to get to 100 for the night.

So I'll have more as this gets off the ground. Including some shop stuff because we needed more turning peels and regular peels so I've got to make them this week. Oh, plus 30,000 grams of pizza dough. Yikes.

G
 
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sakurama

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
1,464
Location
Portland - the cool one.
So the other thing that I've been trying to do this summer is rustle up work because it's been a pretty slow year/summer. In some ways I feel like I'm captaining a sinking ship with my photo career but in another way I'm trying to appreciate the beautiful sunset while the ship slowly sinks deeper and deeper...

Part of what has always been fun for me is to invent or make new tools for creating photos. As cameras get better and phones replace cameras I tend to lean into what AI or an influencer can't do which is create light. Okay, AI is getting better but for the moment I am still more creative and I can create light in ways most people can't.

i-wj2TcX6-X2.jpg

And one of the most fun things is to create new ways to modify light. One of them that we (the royal we which was Gregory Heisler and myself) loved was this very niche modifier from Broncolor called the Satellite. It was a giant parabolic reflector that you'd bounce a head into and it would focus that into a parallel beam that was very strong and, from a distance, indistinguishable from daylight.

i-QPmg9dT-X2.jpg

I owned the smaller version for years but it was never intended for the newer battery powered heads that I use now and so I sold it and instantly regretted it.

i-Q6t8GCp-X2.jpg

So for the last couple of years where I've been doing more architecture and hotel work I have been scouring ebay for a replacement. They are exceedingly rare and almost never show up and when they do they want crazy money for them. And I'd still have to modify it. So I thought I'd make my own that works exactly like I want.

i-q8pj4Hg-X2.jpg

I found the reflector dish on Edmund Scientific so I just needed a way to mount it to my strobe head. The original design mounted the reflector to the stand and the head was mounted to that but the battery heads are too heavy for that.

i-LfR6v3Q-XL.jpg

I'd originally imagined making this adjustable with an Acme thread since I had some in the shop. When I welded the nuts to a tube I got the orientation wrong and they bound as a pair. Another option I'd considered but abandoned was a linear bearing. I'd ordered one from McMaster and decided to go with that instead.

i-rw22f5x-XL.jpg
i-xPk96fR-XL.jpg

The plan was to weld the struts to that machined center and each other and then weld that to a 1" aluminum tube so that the dish was the part that moved off the head. My dish was much lighter as it didn't have the plastic surround the original used.

i-2wsrzQd-XL.jpg

Haven't welded aluminum in a while but Claude helped me dial in some settings. It's the conflict of AI stealing jobs but also being very helpful while doing it.

i-tM2W4jZ-XL.jpg

All parts fabricated...

i-xCmgRhT-XL.jpg
i-kqrxqpX-XL.jpg
i-Djzhdk6-XL.jpg

Not winning any awards for those welds but they're more than serviceable for the job.

i-dhmbTR4-XL.jpg

I originally didn't want to use the linear bearing because I was overthinking it and wanted to design a rack and pinion geared adjustment for the focus. The dish has a sweet spot - its focus point - but there's still a little room to adjust the beam pattern and spread by moving the dish to bulb relationship.

i-kmVG3jj-XL.jpg

But thankfully the inherent friction of the linear bearing is more than enough to hold the dish in position and while it would be nice to make some kind of geared adjustment it's easy enough to push or pull the dish to focus it.

i-LBhscjX-XL.jpg

"Version 1" is designed to be used with both strobes and LED lights since I'm doing more video now. I've had a couple of jobs since completing this but they haven't needed this particular solution so I still haven't gotten to use it yet for an actual job but in testing it's doing just what I want...

i-N4n3Qz9-X2.jpg

You can certainly do more with light in here but there's no drama to this shot. No singular focus or thing to draw you in.

i-NkKfXmF-X2.jpg

The same shot with a slightly darker exposure and a single strobe with my new reflector placed out in the middle of the back yard. Having a strong shaft of "daylight" that is streaming in the windows adds a sense of time and space. Time in that your mind knows by the angle of the sun that this shot is either morning or late afternoon. Depth in that there are deeper shadows and strong single light source that dominates the shot. Together they create an image that feels warmer and inviting.

So while the ship is sinking I'm designing fancy new oars, hoping to stay afloat by perfecting my paddling technique and enjoying the opportunity to invent and fabricate my own solutions to problems that won't exist in some near off future. The other benefit is that while you're actually working on something physical you are thinking and imaging other solutions along the way. That process is very satisfying and only happens while you're interacting with reality. Something AI can't quite do... yet.

Gregor
 
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sakurama

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
1,464
Location
Portland - the cool one.
The other half is getting their friends into it as well so they have the social aspect too. So it’s amazing the racing club has taken off so well for them.

Nice!
You say, picking up and returning kids?! Are the parents not responsible for that? They should be grateful that someone teaches them something and entertains them.
Thom

Yes, parents normally do the pick up and drop off but Nadia's friends' parents were all busy and the commitment was difficult so I volunteered to make it easy as possible for her friends to join. Now that they are more invested and their parents are seeing them really enjoy it I'm not having to transport all of them all the time so that's helpful.

So yes, as Grant says, getting their friends involved really makes it more fun for them and then they all make friends with other kids on the team and now there's this whole new friend group that revolves around practice and racing.

Props for coaching. I am an L3 NICA coach so I get the time commitment.

It’s also one of the most rewarding experiences I have had. And my kids are just getting to be old enough.

Thanks. It's a LOT of training and time but I really do love it. I would like to move to L3 but I'm afraid the coach will give me even more responsibilities so I'm going to hold for now at L2 and maybe do L3 for next season.

G
 
OP
S

sakurama

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
1,464
Location
Portland - the cool one.
We've used two for everything so far but if we get as busy as we anticipate we're going to need a third and Ben has offered up his for Friday. I'm still not completely happy with the Roccbox for what we're trying to do but we have it pretty dialed in so it's too late to reinvent things for this month. If we work a deal that lets us keep this going in some way we'll need to come up with a new solution.

G
 

burger

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
1,014
Location
Erf
i-N4n3Qz9-X2.jpg

You can certainly do more with light in here but there's no drama to this shot. No singular focus or thing to draw you in.

i-NkKfXmF-X2.jpg

Photo A looks like a decent AirBnB listing, Photo B could be in a magazine. You do good stuff. You must feel like John Henry at points. Except with John Henry the machine was replacing labor. Labor and art are different things. What you do is not just the physical work, it's irreplaceable things: creativity, problem solving, and the undefinable quality of an eye that sees things and how to capture them. I don't think art can be reduced to an algorithm.
 

CMB41

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 31, 2018
Messages
94
Location
california
So the other thing that I've been trying to do this summer is rustle up work because it's been a pretty slow year/summer. In some ways I feel like I'm captaining a sinking ship with my photo career but in another way I'm trying to appreciate the beautiful sunset while the ship slowly sinks deeper and deeper...

Part of what has always been fun for me is to invent or make new tools for creating photos. As cameras get better and phones replace cameras I tend to lean into what AI or an influencer can't do which is create light. Okay, AI is getting better but for the moment I am still more creative and I can create light in ways most people can't.

i-wj2TcX6-X2.jpg

And one of the most fun things is to create new ways to modify light. One of them that we (the royal we which was Gregory Heisler and myself) loved was this very niche modifier from Broncolor called the Satellite. It was a giant parabolic reflector that you'd bounce a head into and it would focus that into a parallel beam that was very strong and, from a distance, indistinguishable from daylight.

i-QPmg9dT-X2.jpg

I owned the smaller version for years but it was never intended for the newer battery powered heads that I use now and so I sold it and instantly regretted it.

i-Q6t8GCp-X2.jpg

So for the last couple of years where I've been doing more architecture and hotel work I have been scouring ebay for a replacement. They are exceedingly rare and almost never show up and when they do they want crazy money for them. And I'd still have to modify it. So I thought I'd make my own that works exactly like I want.

i-q8pj4Hg-X2.jpg

I found the reflector dish on Edmund Scientific so I just needed a way to mount it to my strobe head. The original design mounted the reflector to the stand and the head was mounted to that but the battery heads are too heavy for that.

i-LfR6v3Q-XL.jpg

I'd originally imagined making this adjustable with an Acme thread since I had some in the shop. When I welded the nuts to a tube I got the orientation wrong and they bound as a pair. Another option I'd considered but abandoned was a linear bearing. I'd ordered one from McMaster and decided to go with that instead.

i-rw22f5x-XL.jpg
i-xPk96fR-XL.jpg

The plan was to weld the struts to that machined center and each other and then weld that to a 1" aluminum tube so that the dish was the part that moved off the head. My dish was much lighter as it didn't have the plastic surround the original used.

i-2wsrzQd-XL.jpg

Haven't welded aluminum in a while but Claude helped me dial in some settings. It's the conflict of AI stealing jobs but also being very helpful while doing it.

i-tM2W4jZ-XL.jpg

All parts fabricated...

i-xCmgRhT-XL.jpg
i-kqrxqpX-XL.jpg
i-Djzhdk6-XL.jpg

Not winning any awards for those welds but they're more than serviceable for the job.

i-dhmbTR4-XL.jpg

I originally didn't want to use the linear bearing because I was overthinking it and wanted to design a rack and pinion geared adjustment for the focus. The dish has a sweet spot - its focus point - but there's still a little room to adjust the beam pattern and spread by moving the dish to bulb relationship.

i-kmVG3jj-XL.jpg

But thankfully the inherent friction of the linear bearing is more than enough to hold the dish in position and while it would be nice to make some kind of geared adjustment it's easy enough to push or pull the dish to focus it.

i-LBhscjX-XL.jpg

"Version 1" is designed to be used with both strobes and LED lights since I'm doing more video now. I've had a couple of jobs since completing this but they haven't needed this particular solution so I still haven't gotten to use it yet for an actual job but in testing it's doing just what I want...

i-N4n3Qz9-X2.jpg

You can certainly do more with light in here but there's no drama to this shot. No singular focus or thing to draw you in.

i-NkKfXmF-X2.jpg

The same shot with a slightly darker exposure and a single strobe with my new reflector placed out in the middle of the back yard. Having a strong shaft of "daylight" that is streaming in the windows adds a sense of time and space. Time in that your mind knows by the angle of the sun that this shot is either morning or late afternoon. Depth in that there are deeper shadows and strong single light source that dominates the shot. Together they create an image that feels warmer and inviting.

So while the ship is sinking I'm designing fancy new oars, hoping to stay afloat by perfecting my paddling technique and enjoying the opportunity to invent and fabricate my own solutions to problems that won't exist in some near off future. The other benefit is that while you're actually working on something physical you are thinking and imaging other solutions along the way. That process is very satisfying and only happens while you're interacting with reality. Something AI can't quite do... yet.

Gregor
Nice! I think Profoto had a similar dish back in the late 80’s? I owned that version. A lot better than lugging an HMI with a ballast. You should try to get a utility patent on yours at the very least
 
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