View allAll Photos Tagged Lesson
IT’S 7:30AM in a small AirBnb in the sleepy mill town of Millinocket, Maine. It’s a gray and miserable day, low 60’s with light rain, as my dad would call it, “Good old Irish Weather.” And I don’t yet know it, but I have just violated one of the golden rules of railfanning.
My friend Liam and I had come up to Penobscot County to check several things off the bucket list, and we’ve had a successful, yet grueling four days running up from NYC and around the whole of northern Maine. For our last full day up north, we had one last thing to catch: New Brunswick Southern. Liam had proposed a 5am wakeup call to catch 905’s run from Brownsville Junction to Mattawamkeag and back. A friend of ours had tipped us off the crew would go on-duty around 6am, run to Mattawamkeag, pick up cars, and run back. After three straight 14+ hour days with 5am wake up calls, I was frankly exhausted and begged for us to go straight for Mattawamkeag to get an extra hour of sleep. Liam at this point had much more experience in the Class II/III chasing department than I did, and rightly pointed out it would be worth it to watch them leave Brownsville. But out of pity he relented. After all I reasoned, we would get almost no light with cloud cover at 6:30am, so we may as well just shoot the return run. As long as we got to Mattawamkeag in time, what could go wrong?
What could go wrong?
Now I may be an atheist, but some higher authority heard that and saw an opportunity that was too good to pass up. As we turned up in Mattawamkeag and saw a small yard completely devoid of railcars.
Fuck.
We immediately hop back in the car and race all the way back to Brownsville Junction and are greeted with not an engine in sight. And thus, my insistence to get just a little bit of sleep starts to set in the delusion. Is 905 even running today? What if it ran somewhere unexpected this morning? The endless possibilities rear their ugly heads like a Hydra, constantly multiplying, feeding off each other. I don’t even know why, but we decide to drive a few miles down the line to the edge of Schoodic Lake. As we near the crossing, we think we hear a horn. We burst out of the car into a boat launch parking lot, cameras in hand. A lone fisherman sees our commotion and yells over to us,
“What are you all trying to see?”
Liam yells back, “The train!”
“Oh yeah, it just went through about two minutes ago!”
—————————————————————
I don’t remember if Liam and I even spoke on the car ride back to Millinocket. I had played my hand in Vegas and unsurprisingly, lost. Our morale was shot. We had no idea if anything else was running today. We may have to shelve NBSR for another trip.
Thankfully, whatever deity is out there decided to take pity on us, and we pulled up to Millinocket Yard to see the 910 crew building a train to take out around 1. The shots attached are grainy film photos from that chase, when I decided to finish my FM11’s roll of film getting them crossing ME-11 southbound on the Millinocket Sub. The weather that day was almost mystical, with a light mist and fog blanketing the hills and forests, every bend and turn opening up ahead of us like something out of Harry Potter. It was a redeeming chase, and we went back to our BnB that night with a fully checked list. And it taught me a valuable railfanning lesson: Do not risk yourself by tempting the fates.
While I am certainly nowhere near as well travelled as some of my peers, this hobby has taken me to places I would never have conventionally gone. The states, counties, cities, towns, and vistas I have had the opportunity to visit, even in my own backyard, in just a few short years have been an incredible experience. Recently when I open the news and social media, I can’t help but wonder if people see the same country that I do. How could people possibly be so hateful towards such a breathtaking, diverse, and opportunistic land? My friends at college often ask me why on earth I do all of this. Why do I spend weekends and evenings and vacations in trains, planes, buses and cars going who knows where? And I’ve only ever been able to come up with one response: How couldn’t I?
my wife bravely trying to learn Italian - and our cat ignoring all lessons practicing civil disobedience
Ahhh, the lessons learnt by a seasoned Wide Angle Photographer attempting to use a telephoto lens. This was captured late last year up in the snow fields on NSW, Australia. A major storm was passing overhead that continued to filter pockets of light down onto the valleys. So I attempted to isolate the river stream while capturing a pocket. It worked...or so I thought till I got home and realized it wasn't in focus. Damn!! Still, I liked the composition, so I posted it as a reminder to myself to go back and do it more carefully. I do have to cut myself some slack I guess given the howling freezing cold winds that where tearing me apart. I'm sure they contributed to some of the blame.
Thanks for looking
Just because you are in the sanatorium or children's home hospital, lessons will still have to be done.
Leica M6TTL; Noctilux-M; Fujichrome Sensia This was shot @ f 1.0
I love how the Noctilux is able to pick up all the nuances of subtle colors.
never trust a restaurant what which places their braggery in quotes.
perhaps someone actually once said this place had
"cajun food at it's best."
but i'm pretty sure that someone might've been awfully drunk
and would've probably said the same thing if he was served
a deep fried bicycle tire.
ENAI SWIM offers swimming and survival skills lessons for babies and young children with real results in as little as 4 weeks. Lessonsn offered in Thibodaux and Houma, Louisiana.
ENAI ofrece clases de natacion y sobrevivencia en el agua a bebes y niños con resultados reales en tan poco como 4 semanas. Las clases las damos en Monterrey, NL, Mexico.
Know the artists behind Disney: Mary Blair. And the portrait of Mary Blair to the right was created by non other then Michael Netzer, who is known for his work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
Sometimes in village schools, classes can be small.
One of the black & white photos now automatically
colourised.
visit colourise.sg/
for free uploads of your B&W photos.
This is Polish Version. The Star Wars arts is by Joe Hogan:
Anyway guys sorry i didnt upload anywith. The Art School started and i didnt know there will be so much work to do. Maybe in weekend i will find some free time to decaling.
This goes way back to the big 11-hour hike out to three waterfalls along Ruckel Creek with a few great photographers: Victor, Ara, Greg, and John. The best bushwhack I've been on yet. Great time.
It's funny, although we hadn't planned on it, John took a shot similar to mine.
Someone named Zach, who I've never met, went up here over winter and took a shot from this location as well. It's the second shot from the top of the page here. Thanks to Greg for providing me with that link.
On the left: The pink 'leotard' is from Blaze (not free) - There is a pink skirt to go with it, but I just left it off. I think it looks better like this anyway. The hair is from ::69:: (1L) and the shoes....50's flats!
On the right - This ballet dress is free! from Baiastice. You get it in a little box with a spinning ballerina! So lush! Again hair from ::69:: (not free) and shoes from 50's flats (1L)
Pose is also free from "sunflower poses".
I think we over-filled our summer. My kids were out of sorts today, because there hasn't been a lot of time for just play. Or maybe just because it's been rainy outside.
On the other hand, each day when we get to the pool, they all pretty much grin for an hour straight. I'm glad we're doing swim lessons again this year.
girl #1, brown hair, blonde highlights, in blue dress brown zoris (flip flops)
girl #2 black hair, blonde highlights, in blue dress pink zoris
girl #3 brown hair, auburn highlights in yellow dress brown zoris
girl #4 black hair, in yellow dress pink zoris
all four with flowers behind their left ear :)
fabulous lesson in group coordination. matchy matchy but not the same.
ENAI SWIM offers swimming and survival skills lessons for babies and young children with real results in as little as 4 weeks. Lessonsn offered in Thibodaux and Houma, Louisiana.
ENAI ofrece clases de natacion y sobrevivencia en el agua a bebes y niños con resultados reales en tan poco como 4 semanas. Las clases las damos en Monterrey, NL, Mexico.