The Sandman's Fine Overhaul

Monday, December 15,2014
Mostly sunny,windy, and cold from the wind

The Sandman's Fine Overhaul

   Yesterday's post was about Mr. Tom Sander's photography, and as I promised, I said that I would present his overhaul of the truck that I presented then. Tom's company name is Sandman Overhaul, hence "the play of words" in today's title. Tom takes old toys and customizes them for special orders from clients or on  his own initiative with nicely thought out ideas. I've written about Tom and his fine restorations-overhaul many times, and it's always fascinating to see what can be done when you have talent combined with knowledge and experience.

Please click here to visit this very interesting website

You can see how much work is involved when you see the two truck cabs below. 

Tom removes all of the old original paint, smoothes out the surfaces if needed, 

then adds probably primer-sealer undercoats and then the final paint colours.

Below are some of the ingenious ways that Tom improvises to provide overhaul details 

to his fine truck restoration and customization.

Below is a small stainless steel cut that Tom cuts carefully 

to add a nicely-rounded rear tractor fender

I haven't still-fished in years, so I  was wondering what had replaced lead sinkers, and now I know!

Brass sinkers.  Tom carefully cuts them to proper size and proportion, and then mounts them to 

the font, et voila (French for and here it is) headlights!

Ingenious!

And for those fine tall exhausts/mufflers you can see how Tom uses 2 separate pieces for each smokestack. The inner brass-coloured tube is the support, for the outer  silver-toned steel pipe.

I didn' want to  write too much since as the old expression goes:

"A picture is worth a thousand words".

Tom's photos are in fact worth a whole chapter go 20,000 words, but this is

a blog post, and not a book, and I don't think you wanted a book!

Thanks Tom for helping with the illustrative photos to explain what you do.

I couldn't have written it that good!

Thanks for dropping by,and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Master Toy Restorer Excels in My Photo Course

Sunday, December 14, 2014
Partly sunny and colder

The Master Toy Restorer

Excels in My Photography Course

  Yesterday,I  got an email from Mr.Tom Sanders who restores  old toys to impressive  renovations and custom  work. This was "out-of-the-blue" (an expression meaning I was not expecting this and I was very surprised). He sent me a nice set of his current work on some toy trucks. However,the images were small,and I mentioned that to Tom. No sooner had I finished adding the post yesterday, when I went to my e-mail, and there was another e-mail from Tom. This time with larger photos. I could see that Tom was working with photo lights because there was a nice background light that added depth and drama to the photos.  A background  light is a photo light that lights the back area behind a subject or person. It's purpose is to separate the subject from the background, add a sense of depth (3D), and also add mood and drama.  I mentioned to Tom that I liked this,bout would go with my whitening effect, and would add a post for him tomorrow.

   I went for my afternoon coffee and break from the computer (can't sit all day around without some movement and change), had my coffee and chatted with some people that I know at the coffee shop. When I came home, I checked my e-mailand once again, I had a fine collection of even more photos from Tom.This time the photos were against a white background.

  I had to write Tom immediately. I wrote to say thanks,and that I wish that I had him as one of my photography students.Anyone who can read my compliments and then improved on them as if they were "suggestions" deserves an "A" in my photography class.  For those who don;t know, I taught professional photography for almost 33 years, and still am a photographer. 

  So for this post, I decided to present the photography of Tom Sanders in the 3 sets of images that he sent me.  Tomorrow, I'll present the improvement on the truck and cab, with his explanations.  If Tom lived near me, I would become his "Santa's helper" and learn how to revitalize old toys.

Please click here to visit Tom Sander's excellent website

Photo Set #1

Here is the first set go photos that Tom sent me. They're excellent, but I wanted larger photos to show everyone. The reason that I say "excellent" is that the photos have strong camera angle, are in-focus, and have nice lighting and exposure.

Set # 2

Now we're talking!

I did some minor clean-up on the grey foundation (what the toy is resting on). I

didn't do a 100%  job,and I'll have to work on that in the future.

Now the truck really shows all of its beauty and Tom's excellent craftsmanship!

The nice orange highlight  in the back ground( a photographic term for a bright area) 

adds an extra quality to the photo.

A low camera angle adds strength to a subject or person in a photo.

It's "psychological" in the sense that the viewer is "looking up" to the item or person. 

The opposite effect happens when photographing from a high came angle.

Set # 3

I did minor "cleaning up" to the foundation, but 99%  is all Tom's work.

I like a white background and foundation because it presents the item by itself, and the viewer only has the item to look at.

I've written other posts about Tom,so if you're interested,simply

 do a search and you'll find examples of his other fine work.

 Tom's second set of photographs would be excellent for advertising and adding that big of drama to attract buyers  or collector of toys. The set above (#3) is great for a catalogue or even as  cleaner and simpler advertisements. 

Either way Tom gets an "A" or even an"A+" in my photography class.

Thanks for dropping by to visit,and as always

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com