I’ve been working hard at the Ice Park getting the web cameras all ready for the ice carving competiton at the park. One of the things I did last year was to design and build a circuit that would control an antenna rotation device so I could have ‘panning’ of a camera. This year I designed and built another control circuit that would give me a ’tilt’ function. So now I can pan and tilt the camera that is centered on the ‘BP World Ice Art Championships of 2009’ stage. You can visit that camera and control the zoom feature (that was already there when I designed the tilt and pan feature) at: http://12.12.107.3:8000 , this addy only works while the show is open from the end of Feb. until the end of March, but if it’s running, hope you enjoy watching us zip around the area. The show starts on Feb. 24th so this camera will have lots to watch from then until the end of the show on March 22nd. Up until then, you’ll see the volunteers running around getting the place ready. Go here: http://www.icealaska.com to see all sorts of stuff about the ice carving competition and soon all the other 30 webcams will be up an running and pointed towards the many ice sculptures the artists will be feverishly creating within their time limits.
A week ago and then a couple days ago I wandered around the park and got some shots of the preparations we’re making getting ready for the show. Down on the pond they were harvesting some ice…
Must have ice for an ice carving competition.
The heavy equipment is put into action, it's lifting a 2 ton block of ice...
It was as cold and darkish as these pictures suggest...A week later the weather has improved...
Work being done on one of the incidental pieces...
A kid's slide.
Kids love these things.
Off in the distance, beautiful ice ready for carving, soon there will be hundreds of carvers chiseling away at it...
Huge blocks of 'Diamond of the Arctic' ice...
Another kids slide...
Here a team of Chinese carvers work on the large kiddy slides...
I went down to help harvest ice (for once)...
We try to not fall in the pond.
A close up of the chain saw assembly designed just for this task.
Once the blocks are cut, the loader has to pull them out of the pond without falling in!
Stirring those ice cubes around so they don't refreeze in place.
bp's cathedral like center stage.
Here's a big toy, huh?
That's my baby up there on the pole. Then that white box below the camera houses the circuitry for both the pan and tilt functions.
One of the loaders & I get into a staring contest.
One of the extending boom forked loaders. I use to work for Hyster so I love this big stuff. Although it's a Cat.
That’s all for today. As the show progresses I’ll have lots more pictures to put up of the carvings…and that’s the reason I stayed here another year.
Wow, I wish I could come up and see it in person, it looks very purty ! 🙂
It is spectacular. But not until the artists really get started. Single block competition finishes around Feb. 27th. Multi-block carving starts around March 1st. I wish you could come up to see it too!
Dude! You sure get around. Last I looked you were in Mexico. Mid-winter and you turn up in Alaska of all places! Cool. Literally. We hope to get to Alaska this summer in our 2 year old Beaver Coach; we didn’t feel confident the old ’84 Pace Arrow would make to Kenai and back without many problems, so got a new rig late in ’06. Love it, but still haven’t made it to AK, aside from a cruise ship up and 3 week stay in 2003. Our nephew runs a B & B “resort” of small cabins out of Soldotna/Kenai near the river (he went with us in ’03 and never came back). If struggling finances allow, we’ll get up there soon.
If you make it up this year, I’ll be working as the host at Ice Park Campground this summer (like last summer) and will be here enjoying Alaska until mid-August or so. Stop by and say hi!
Couldn’t seem to get your camera to move or zoom, but saw activity along the street; no ice sculptures visible today, 2/25.
The only camera feature that is available on the web is the Zoom, and then only if you know the secret address. When you link to it from IceAlaska, you won’t see the controls since that web page screens them out. The functions that I designed and built, the Tilt & Panning features, were never available outside the WebCam office here at the park.
-Joel
Clackamas, OR