Archive for November, 2006

On the eve of Thanksgiving I leave you with this photo of how we should all travel over this holiday weekend.  Don’t they all look relaxed?  Travel as you wish.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Check out this blog post on the New York Times site where they’ve taken three different sized images — 13 megapixels, 8 megapixels, and 5 megapixels — and blown them up to 16×24 then asked John Q. Public to tell the difference.

Folks couldn’t tell.

As the commenters rightly point out, there are other factors which aren’t divulged in the experiment, but regardless of those other factors, it reiterates something I’ve long believed and stated: megapixels aren’t the most important thing.

Oh… and you railfans might notice a familiar name down on comment #51 on the site…

One can’t put away their camera just because the weather isn’t sunny… here’s one from the archives; this was shot at Cruzatte on Pengra Pass a few years back:

This morning was a busy one at Vancouver.  The Vancouver Terminal DS (RWN, aka nomosantafe) efficiently moved 10 trains and two light power moves through Vancouver Center in 2 hours.  I have to admit this was one of the smoothest busy periods I’ve ever witnessed there because for a change no tempers flared and all the trains arrived without crews dieing!  RWN had ‘em on the move timing several of the meets at the Columbia Draw almost perfectly.  Amtrak train 500 was on time and 501 was about 10 minutes late due to delays up north.  Of course the Columbia Draw had to have 3 openings of its own which tagged 501 for about a 3 minute delay.

The conductor on Amtrak train 501 stays out of the rain while he watches the Columbia Draw close.

Time for the brutally honest feedback. In the next couple of months I’ll be doing some redesign work around Dogcaught.com and I’m looking for opinions. I have a general idea of a few changes I’m going to make, but if there’s something you love or hate around here, please respond with a comment. I’m curious what folks like about the current design and what’s on the page, and I’m also curious what folks think might be missing or should be changed.

note: I’m already aware that the current site design doesn’t work well at lower screen resolutions due to the width of the photos.

Tell me what you think. I can’t make any guarantees as to what will or won’t change but I’m open to ideas. Please share! If you’d rather not post a comment here publicly you can e-mail me privately and give me your thoughts as well, although I’d encourage folks to leave a comment so others can possibly expand on or respond to ideas.

I’m currently in the market for a good tripod.

I just popped over to check out the Fred Miranda review page for the Bogen/Manfrotto 3021:

Based on the “Recommended By” numbers, this must be one damn good tripod!

Even though GorgeRail is over 6 months away, I’m starting to look at the slideshow and find out who is interested in giving a presentation this year. If you’ve thought about presenting, I’d love to hear from you.

What sort of material are we looking for? We’re not too picky… pretty much anything railroad-related is fair game, whether it be modern or historical. In general, shows should be no longer than 20-25 minutes (longer than that and folks tend to lose interest, even with a good subject). I ask that shows have pre-recorded audio of some form, whether it be music or a verbal narration.

If you have a show idea, please send me an email at ahockley@gmail.com and we’ll talk. In the next month I’ll be looking at possible shows so that we can announce most of the lineup when ticket sales begin in January.

Today I learned of a website focused on photography that I hadn’t previously looked it. Check out PhotographyCorner.com - they have an interesting variety of content on their site. There’s a forums section which contains most of the typical topics you’d expect, from gear to technique as well as a “Feedback Corner” if you’re specifically looking for critique. There’s also a gallery section, they highlight a “photo of the month”, and they also have the “Contest Corner Challenge” where members submit photos for a themed contest. They have a directory of links, although at first glance it appears that it is a paid listing of advertisers.

When you have a few minutes to spare check it out.

During the rains Sunday and Monday last week all rail lines in and out of the Northwest were closed at one point.  You can read more details about some of the issues here.  I headed into the gorge today to see what happened to the Fallbridge sub at Skamania.  What I found was Duncan Creek at Skamania Landing Rd. had risen and then deposited quite a bit of material around the BNSF bridge.  You know, fun flood stuff like TV sized rocks, silt, and logs.  A contractor had cleaned most of the mess up and had the stream flowing smoothly again.  To help me, BNSF gave me a bunch of trains to include in photographs of the area.

A westbound BNSF grain train crosses the recently flooded Duncan Creek as it slows to a stop for a meet at West Skamania.

Evidence of the scouring caused by the rise in Duncan Creek can be seen on the west bank of the creek.  The contractor has placed natural rip rap at the base of the bank to prevent further erosion.

An H-EVEBAR9 streaks past the stopped grain train.  Silt and small rocks still litter the area around the Skamania Landing Rd. crossing.

I wrapped up my big trip in September with a couple of short days on the Moffat Route west of Denver. I had about six hours each day for railfanning. The slower pace of trains here was a big change… I was used to seeing 3-4 trains an hour in the Powder River Basin and on Crawford Hill; on the Moffat line I saw three trains on the first day and five on the second. Here’s a few selections from those two days:

Trees are starting to change colors as the California Zephyr rounds the curve over Highway 72

A loaded coal train snakes around Big 10 curve

The classic Moffat Route shot of a train approaching Blue Mountain Road

Near Tolland, there’s snow on the ground as a westbound manifest crosses a creek

My house was blue flagged last night while my wife hosted a clothing show so I grabbed the camera and tripod and headed for the depot.  In the back of my mind I hoped the rain would stop long enough for me to set the camera up and capture some night photos, but didn’t expect it to happen.  When I arrived it was still raining so I captured the V-CHCPTL coming through Vancouver Center (not shown) using my window mount while sitting warm and dry inside my vehicle.  Soon after the rain let up and allowed me to get out.

After unloading a substantial number of passengers, the conductor on Amtrak 509 verifies the slow order at MP 8.9 with the engineer before radioing the highball from the Vancouver depot.  Exposure: 3.2 sec @ f/5.0 62mm

As left the depot I found the inspiration for this post.  The carmen have blue flagged a cut of empty grain cars in the grain yard while they charge the air system and perform their inspection.  Exposure: 20 sec @ f/5.6 70mm

Here in Washington we don’t get quite the brilliant displays of fall color often seen on the east coast, but we do have a few trees change color. Coupled with the low sun angles and short daylight periods this can create some interesting lighting and color situations. Here are a few photos from last weekend representing autumn in our area on the Seattle Sub:

Some older UP power leads a manifest near milepost 48

There are plenty of shadows by mid-afternoon

Colors and curves at Steilacoom

Not always does the sun shine in Washington.  I know, that’s a shock to many but it is the truth.  So do I stop using the camera?  By all means no, our weather provides some interesting opportunities to combine it with railroad photography and come up with something different. 

What better to shoot on a foggy day than a marine scene?  An empty Union Pacific garbage train (U-GLSE) crosses over bridge 14 at West Tacoma on a dreary October 28, 2006.  You can see more from this weekend over on railroadforums.

I should have some images from the weekend to post shortly.  In the meantime, enjoy something I found while reading my favorite local photoblog, Portland Ground:

Amtrak Train pulls into Union Station from Seattle