The Declaration of Independence is our founding document, so July 4 is our Independence Day.
The Declaration of Independence is our founding document, so July 4
is our Independence Day.
Veteran's Park in Poway, Nov 11, 2024 (Veteran's Day), About 11:00 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.
Go to sample images from each year.
Go to the previous guy and how I was recruited.
Go to changes over the years.
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, 2025 is the 18th year I have done "Have Your Picture Taken With Uncle Sam" in the Old Poway train park!
This year lots of people were telling 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.
While the weather was really not very hot, and I tried hard to drink lots of water and soda, I wound up getting rather dehydrated by the end of the day. Sorry for wilting on you. I'll try to do better next time.
This year I was honored to get another shot at big-time local TV, sort of. A roving video journalist set up in our area, and I repeated my pitch from way back in 2011 (see history). It is included in this report (2 min 49 sec, 720p) on inland celebrations of the July 4 holiday.
Following a poor showing in 2023, I got a new camera and rewrote all the software for acquiring and printing the pictures. The next year was successful, thank you, so I'm keeping most of the equipment and processes the same. Actually, in the software rewrite I implemented nearly everything I wanted, so it's getting harder to find opportunities for improvement.
The 2024 celebration had the revamped 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.
Here is a summary of the equipment and software currently in use.
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.