| Today special tools are available that are built to accommodate the different scales in which a modeler is working. This makes the job of working on very small objects much easier since the tools match the job. Especially in model railroad clubs, members share different techniques, tricks and suggestions for the purpose of helping each other and, in turn, helping the club. Some clubs that are large enough have their own wood and metal shop tools in the club, ready for anyone to borrow at any time. Clubs sponsor different charities and events, raising money that can be used to buy needed equipment for the club (Interesting Model Railroad Links, 2000). |
| The topic of photography and model railroading is continually improving. It is often hard to tell that what you are looking at is really a model. The photographer is an artist in every sense of the word. Visualizing a scene, setting the lighting and focusing the camera is more than just aiming and firing. Anyone with a disposable camera can take a very good picture. But not everyone can take a great picture. Although highly subjective, great pictures are usually well-thought-out and planned in the model world. With the highly developed digital and analog cameras of today and endless techniques that can be learned from books and articles, photographing a model railroad scene that looks like real life is not rocket science, but still applies the same principles photographers have been using for years and years. |
| One of the main purposes of this type of photograph is to capture a scene that happened, or could have happened, in full scale, but instead it is in miniature. This requires that the objects used in the picture be in the same scale. Herein lies the necessity of preparing the scene before it is photographed, as well as deciding the proper lighting and where the sun might be setting. Sometimes this effect can be accomplished by taking the entire scene outside on some structure and using the backdrop of Mother Nature to give the correct lighting, choosing the correct angle and snapping the picture. It is amazing what can happen when everything is in place. Photography offers that snapshot in time to look at forever and imagine what was going on just as that train passed by. |
| Several times a year, Model Railroader magazine has contests for the best original photographs. Some people have won over $1,000.00 for just one picture (NMRA, 2001). Sometimes you have to look twice to see if it is a model really. |