Uncle Sam on the Fourth of July

The Declaration of Independence is our founding document, so July 4 is our Independence Day.

Veteran's Park in Poway, Nov 11, 2025 (Veteran's Day), 11:37 AM

Armistice Day was the end of World War I:
"the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" in 1918.

This is a special nod and military salute to all who have served.

A Note From Uncle Sam for 2026

As detailed in the history, I have served as the Old Poway Park Old Fashioned 4th of July Uncle Sam since 2007. Skipping the COVID year of 2020, 2026 will be the 19th year I have done "Have Your Picture Taken With Uncle Sam" in the Old Poway train park!

Traditionally, I go to the ceremony held at the Poway Veteran's Park on Veteran's day and take pictures of them shooting the cannon. But in 2025, the pesky residents did not want cannonfire in their neighborhood, so we were forced to hold a less noisy ceremony. As you can see, the bell in the park has been fitted with it's clapper, and it is ready to ring.

People love to tell me stories about how they have been having their picture taken with me for the last umpteen years. One person claimed 20 years, which I was obliged to correct. My time doing this has been carefully documented, so feel free to go read the history.

Sample Images from 2025

To see sample images from all the years past, Go to the sample pages. This is just a small taste.

The Nerdy Stuff

The 2024 celebration used new hardware and software. In past years the photos were placed on the Internet after the event, so folks had to wait until the evening of July 4 to download the electronic version of their photos. In 2024 the photos were uploaded using a Wi-Fi hotspot, so the Internet version was available immediately after the photo was taken.

Also, a Q-R code was added to the printed photos so the electronic version can be quickly brought up on the user's phone.

When we were using the old digital cameras, we could use the flash to indicate when the picture was taken, but the new camera is just a webcam, and doesn't have a flash. So in 2026, I added sound capability so that when a picture is taken, it produces a noise. A noise is also produced when a file is sent to the printer.

Here is a summary of the equipment and software currently in use.

• The computer is a standard Windows laptop running a recent version of Windows.
• The camera is a Insta360 Link PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) 4K webcam. Software provided with the webcam is used to aim the camera and frame the picture.
• The printer is made by Dai Nippon Printing (DNP), the world's largest printing company, which I did not know until I read it in Wikipedia. I use a DNP DS-RX1 dye sublimation photo printer. While the printer itself is somewhat expensive, it is fast, and does not cost very much for each print.
• The software includes the webcam controls, the image processing suite ImageMagick which is used to compose the printed photos, and a user interface written in the Python programming language to implement the process flow. Q-R codes are created using a Python module.
• The network is a Wi-Fi hotspot running on a normal user mobile phone. It is used to upload pictures to the Internet on the fly.
• The Web site, which you are reading now, is built using old-school methods -- a text editor and lots of elbow grease.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm basically a nerd, and this is one of my longer running projects.

Move on to sample images from each year.
Skip to the previous guy and how I was recruited.
Skip to changes over the years.

Contact Poway's Uncle Sam