EARLY SPRING IN THE ALDER FOREST

A Trail Through the Alder, 2013

I have not really been photographing like I usually do. I am feeling the urge to do some new work.

MORRIS GRAVES MUSEUM OF ART

Sky Dance, 2013

A print of this image is showing at the Morris Graves in the Northwest Eye exhibit. The show is worth seeing.

BEACH GRASS ON THE LOST COAST

On the Lost Coast, May 2013

I seldom create high key imagery, but this one seemed to be made for it.

THE EAST SIDE

Mt. Tom, 2009

The east side of the Sierra.

TIME WARPS

A Link to the Past

This old hunk of odd-ball railroad equipment provides a link to the past. I do not think that I live in the past, but I do respect and honor all the places that I have been and most of my past. The locomotives that were brand new when I came into this world are mostly gone. A few are still used on short branch lines, and a few more are in museums.

This item is some sort of maintenance of way equipment. It looks like it was home-made.

SUNSET AT RIO VISTA

Limited Sunset, 1995

Here is another idea of where my style was about twenty years ago. It has developed, but some of the essence has been there a long while. I showed a black and white version of this where the RR crossing sign was cut partially off. I think I liked it that way.

MORE BACKROAD PHOTOGRAPHY

Oaks on a Small Hill, Humboldt County, 2013

This is a black and white interpenetration of a scene that I do not think worked very well in color.

In Color

Springtime on a Backroad

On a Backroad in Humboldt County, April 2013

A beautiful spring day in Humboldt County. We were practically alone out there. I love it that where we live there are still places for one to find solitude.

THE ABANDONED MOJAVE STATION

The Shell of Southern Pacific's Mojave Station, c.1993

As with the section gang housing that I wrote about in an earlier posting, the SP was determined to rid itself of as many fiscal drains as it could. I recall hearing that the property tax burden was enough motivation for them to abandon round houses, crew quarters, medical clinics and stations.

When I was working the railroad in the seventies, we always picked up train orders here. For east-bound trains this was the end of double track for trains proceeding on to Los Angeles or Palmdale and the Cutoff. Either way, the eastbound train had to have orders because we were running against scheduled trains that had the right over our extra or non-scheduled trains.

Up until about 1970 Mojave was a small but busy hub of railroad activity. It had a functioning yard with a crew on duty perhaps day and night (I would need to fact check to be sure), several local trains a day, and what I recall was called a station agent or telegrapher. I think all were gone by the time this photograph was taken.

SO, YOU THINK I LIKE TRAINS?

Steam Engines at Silverton, 1992

I would much rather photograph and experience trains from the ground than to be riding on them. Don't get me wrong, riding is fun, but the photographs are from trackside. Lisa and our friend Terry rode one of these up the canyon from Durango, and I met them here.

BLOSSOMS ALONGSIDE A DIRT ROAD

Blue Blossoms, 2013

I took this photograph a couple days ago while on a photo outing with Pam and Hal. I shot nearly every thing hand-held, and enjoyed the freedom that provides. Doing so prevented me from "focus stacking" this image, but, as Hal would say, "what the hay (hey)".

STACKING

My First Attempt at "Focus Stacking".

I see lots of potential in utilizing this process. This image is a composite of three. The first is focused on the foreground flower, the second on the upper right blossom, and the third should have been on the left flower. This image has a tremendous depth compared to the individual images.

All were shot at f 22, yet that alone was just not enough to capture it all.

Focus on Near Blossom

Focus on Far Blossom