View allAll Photos Tagged rustoleum
Long write-up for today's batch of awesomeness.
First off. This whole covid thing, the election, working from home, not being able to go out, not seeing friends/family, etc. Has me, and I'm sure everyone else frazzled. Having a project to work on, in my case hiking out and shooting photos of graffiti on trains has been the one thing that's keeping me sane at this point. Hoping to see some new pieces from writers that I respect is like opening a pack of baseball cards and finding your favorite players rookie card for me. Yeah, it sounds goofy, but I've been having fun, staying sane, and seeing and capturing some amazing pieces of rolling art.
So I had this weird Monday vacation day on 11-2-2020. I decided to drive out to one my my benching spots and hang out for the day.
The plan was to set up a time lapse camera, and then just hang out and bench freights for 5-6 hours. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze, 88F. high. No clouds makes for a very boring time lapse between trains coming by. I also only brought my little Small Rig clamp for the time lapse camera and couldn't decide where I wanted to clamp it. I should have just brought a tripod.
Out for a few hours before the BNSF guys in their truck rolled up, got out and started walking toward me. "Great!" I thought. They're going to try and chase me away. Nope, they walked over to one set of tracks, walked across the bridge inspecting the tracks, then under the bridge inspecting the bridge, got in their truck and left. I like that. I don't bother you. You don't bother me.
A while later I see tree guy coming back home. I don't know his name, but there's a guy who lives in/under a tree that's next to the trail I hike in on. Once he's in there you'd never know it. I've seen him, he's seen me, and we don't bother each other.
The whole time I'm there I'm using my little Tascam recorder to record train audio every time one comes by so I have audio for the slideshow videos I've been uploading on YouTube. Well, this time I forgot it out there. Didn't dump my photos until Tuesday night and discovered it missing. Woke up early, drove out and it was still there. It recorded for almost 5 more hours before the batteries died. Glad to have it back, I thought tree guy might have found it.
Dont Really need the Last A and R if there the same letters as the first 2, haha.
just some practicing. simple before connections and all that.
crit and tips??
I don't know if anyone ever reads my descriptions, but I write them anyway, so there!!
Was out today (August 20th 2021) on a forced vacation day, from 9:30AM til' almost 4PM. 80F today but it felt like 100F. This is a very active line and I probably flicked 20 freights today. 750+ flicks. By the time I get rid of a few duplicates, and bad ones, I'm guessing it'll be about 700 +/-. 700 to straighten, fix any color issues, upload, and also ID the writers. It's lots of time and as you can imagine, it's a lot of work, but so far it's been fun. I'm trying to not rush myself to post before I'm ready. I already have the flicks, and they're timeless. So getting them posted ASAP!!!!!! is not really my concern. Duh..
Had an interesting interaction with a guy while out there. Guy with backpack had walked back and forth across the tracks a few times. The lat time I saw him he was on the other side of a set, about 100 yards away. Next thing you know he's coming closer..... Closer..... And I'm like WTF? I'm way out here minding my own business. He walks within' like 10 ft. of me and I say "How ya' doin'?" he says something, and then says "Trains?" and I say "Yep." and he says "Oh.." and walks away. I think he was feelin' me out, as there's a small population of people who's homes are shall I say, mobile. I've talked to a few of them, and have never had a bad interaction, I just don't like people walkin' up on me when I'm trying to get away from the rest of the world out by the tracks. I go out there to get away from people, not to interact.
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I follow some other amazing photographers on flickr, but for this I will talk about the ones who flick the freights. There are a few that I really love. Some it's because of the great locations they shoot at, and others it's the amazing little details they manage to capture. For me (right now) I don't have the luxury of walking the lines and seeing pieces static. 99.999% of my flicks the freight is rolling by at 10-50 mph and sometimes I don't really even know what I have until I get home, dump the memory cards and go through the photos. Because of this, most of my flicks are just straight on shots and documenting what I saw and where. I saw this freight here, on this date, here's what was on it, and i captured it. Buffed or scraped next week, well I have it on "film" for future generations (sounds corny, I know). There are times when a freight will stop in-front of me, and I'll walk up and get some shots of monikers, but it's rare.
Obviously in any area there are sidings where freights park for extended periods, I know a few spots, but as I get older, and older, do I really want to leave my car parked on the side of the road and walk 2 miles to capture some little details I might normally miss? I'd love to, but it's just not practical for me at this time, any many other people do it better than I could. Retirement is getting closer every day, maybe then, when my weekdays are free. :-)
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During the Covid lockdown, I was working from home, and I was getting out benching like 2 & 3 times a month. Back at work, I'm lucky to have the energy to get out once a month. Every time I do manage to get out, I come home and my batteries feel re-charged. It's been so f-ing hot here in SoCal though, I can't wait for cooler weather and some clouds in the sky.
As always, thanks to the writers!
To see the rest of my freight graffiti flicks click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/siamesepuppy/collections/7215771678...
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Saturday, out on a beer run, brought the camera and ran out to one of my spots, flicked one train. I waited for another further down the line, but it was taking forever, and it was hot so I drove back home.
BUT!! It actually turned out kinda' cool, because I caught a bunch of railroad equipment on its way to repair some tracks down the line. To be dropped off somewhere in the middle of the desert, where guys in orange or green vests' in hard hats with clipboards will point at other guys to "Get to work!" and yell incoherent instructions. Was happy to see this equipment roll by on a Saturday to reminds me that I had one more day off before going back to work.
As always, thanks to the Writers, my fellow Benchers and Railroad Workers across the globe. You're all doing good work!
Stay safe out there guys!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Instagram here: @soilentseven
SoCalFreights.com
irregularphotos.com
Long write-up for today's batch of awesomeness.
First off. This whole covid thing, the election, working from home, not being able to go out, not seeing friends/family, etc. Has me, and I'm sure everyone else frazzled. Having a project to work on, in my case hiking out and shooting photos of graffiti on trains has been the one thing that's keeping me sane at this point. Hoping to see some new pieces from writers that I respect is like opening a pack of baseball cards and finding your favorite players rookie card for me. Yeah, it sounds goofy, but I've been having fun, staying sane, and seeing and capturing some amazing pieces of rolling art.
So I had this weird Monday vacation day on 11-2-2020. I decided to drive out to one my my benching spots and hang out for the day.
The plan was to set up a time lapse camera, and then just hang out and bench freights for 5-6 hours. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze, 88F. high. No clouds makes for a very boring time lapse between trains coming by. I also only brought my little Small Rig clamp for the time lapse camera and couldn't decide where I wanted to clamp it. I should have just brought a tripod.
Out for a few hours before the BNSF guys in their truck rolled up, got out and started walking toward me. "Great!" I thought. They're going to try and chase me away. Nope, they walked over to one set of tracks, walked across the bridge inspecting the tracks, then under the bridge inspecting the bridge, got in their truck and left. I like that. I don't bother you. You don't bother me.
A while later I see tree guy coming back home. I don't know his name, but there's a guy who lives in/under a tree that's next to the trail I hike in on. Once he's in there you'd never know it. I've seen him, he's seen me, and we don't bother each other.
The whole time I'm there I'm using my little Tascam recorder to record train audio every time one comes by so I have audio for the slideshow videos I've been uploading on YouTube. Well, this time I forgot it out there. Didn't dump my photos until Tuesday night and discovered it missing. Woke up early, drove out and it was still there. It recorded for almost 5 more hours before the batteries died. Glad to have it back, I thought tree guy might have found it.
Wasn't going to upload these for a couple days, but had a slightly disturbing conversation with my Father tonight about a previous neighbors immanent demise, and I realized that I may not live forever, so here you go.
Last day of the first month of 2021. Got out to the depot/yard at 10AM. Beautiful weather. The night before I'd invited my Nephew to come out benching with me. He'd never been out and I'm sure didn't know what to expect.
Well, I brought him to the yard because I thought it would at the minimum be interesting to him watching the crane operators loading the containers on the cars. Well, when I got there the nearest tracks were loaded with freights blocking most of the view, and half of the cranes weren't operating anyway. Didn't really bother me because as an active bencher I'm used to waiting for something interesting to happen.
I apologized and assured him that "Any minute" a freight could roll through with some amazing pieces on it. And 3 or 4 did while he was there. I shot my flicks and talked to him about what he saw. Said he saw some really cool pieces and even mentioned some hand re-painted numbers on the cars. Somehow he already knew that the writers shouldn't be covering the numbers. He knows zero about graff, and understood this. How is it that so many writers don't understand this?? I'm not sure the Nephews' a fan of graff. I really haven't talked to him about it much. He did ask me how people didn't get caught, or in trouble for doing it. I tried to explain layups, people sneaking into yards etc. And to his credit, he never sounded judgmental. He just had questions.
Anyway.. Had a fun time, and shot some nice pieces. I used the same 7.5mm lens I've used there before but used a Lightroom lens correction to flatten the images so they don't have the fisheye effect. Not sure which I like better, flat or fisheye. Both have their appeal.. The furthest I can stand from a freight on the first rail is about 15ft. so the ultra wide angle is necessary. I can get a whole autorack in one shot. It's actually pretty cool.
As always, thanks to all of the writers!
For freight graffiti slideshows hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Headed out today at about 11AM. I could take the freeway to this spot, but it's a curvy scenic drive and most of the way there I can look over to my left and see the train tracks up against the side of the mountain, and sometimes cruise along with a train chugging up or down the mountain in my peripheral vision.
Arrived a little before 11:30AM. the sun was out and there was a little breeze. I want to say it was close to 70F. when I arrived, but it was probably cooler, and I didn't have a jacket and I regretted it later as the sun kept going behind the clouds and the breeze kept turning into "wind chill". Every time it got too cold for me to stay, the sun would come back out.
I seemed to be the only one up there on a rare, for me, Monday off. Some BNSF workers had trucks about a half mile down the road from me, and over the course of the day I ended up seeing them come and go a few times doing what they do to maintain the tracks.
Started off the day with one train I think and then I wanted to head over to the bridges to hide a copy of my book for someone to find. I wandered around under the bridges for 20 minutes or so, caught a few new pieces there, figured out a nice dry spot to leave a copy of the book and headed back up to the surface. Like a Morlock coming to the surface to snatch an Eloi.
This spot is pretty "railfan" friendly and I saw some people come and film trains, which seemed weird for a Monday, but.. I was out there.
Wandered down to the other end of this massive flat area next to the tracks and got some photos of the stacks of rails, ties, and other railroad related stuff that BNSF takes out of commission, and just seems to stack here out of the way.
Left at 5PM.
Got out of the house, caught some great pieces today and had some fun. Nothin' wrong with that!
Side Note: Sorry about the lack of freight uploads, work, life, and working on another book is keeping me busy.
Long write-up for today's batch of awesomeness.
First off. This whole covid thing, the election, working from home, not being able to go out, not seeing friends/family, etc. Has me, and I'm sure everyone else frazzled. Having a project to work on, in my case hiking out and shooting photos of graffiti on trains has been the one thing that's keeping me sane at this point. Hoping to see some new pieces from writers that I respect is like opening a pack of baseball cards and finding your favorite players rookie card for me. Yeah, it sounds goofy, but I've been having fun, staying sane, and seeing and capturing some amazing pieces of rolling art.
So I had this weird Monday vacation day on 11-2-2020. I decided to drive out to one my my benching spots and hang out for the day.
The plan was to set up a time lapse camera, and then just hang out and bench freights for 5-6 hours. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze, 88F. high. No clouds makes for a very boring time lapse between trains coming by. I also only brought my little Small Rig clamp for the time lapse camera and couldn't decide where I wanted to clamp it. I should have just brought a tripod.
Out for a few hours before the BNSF guys in their truck rolled up, got out and started walking toward me. "Great!" I thought. They're going to try and chase me away. Nope, they walked over to one set of tracks, walked across the bridge inspecting the tracks, then under the bridge inspecting the bridge, got in their truck and left. I like that. I don't bother you. You don't bother me.
A while later I see tree guy coming back home. I don't know his name, but there's a guy who lives in/under a tree that's next to the trail I hike in on. Once he's in there you'd never know it. I've seen him, he's seen me, and we don't bother each other.
The whole time I'm there I'm using my little Tascam recorder to record train audio every time one comes by so I have audio for the slideshow videos I've been uploading on YouTube. Well, this time I forgot it out there. Didn't dump my photos until Tuesday night and discovered it missing. Woke up early, drove out and it was still there. It recorded for almost 5 more hours before the batteries died. Glad to have it back, I thought tree guy might have found it.
Long session today (9:30AM - 5:30PM) at my least favorite spot to flick graffiti, but one of my favorite spots for the amount of traffic this spot gets. There's also a crossing here, so lots of horn action! The engineers also know "railfans" come out here so sometimes they get a little creative with the honking.
Grand total of flicks taken, 803, total being posted, 616.
Right out of the gate I fucked up big time. First train I saw go by as I arrived was an Amtrak. Got down to the spot and immediately I hear the horns coming from behind the hill. Get the camera out, lens cap off and 30 seconds later and what do I see, autoracks, and lots of them. Sweet! I get in position, and they're coming by quick. I'm just barely framing them up and snapping the flicks. Saw my first Ichabod E2E car, Green/Black. Woah dude!! Cool. (my inner SoCal surfer came out). and then it's gone.
Sat down and looked through photos on little 3 in. screen on back of camera, not good. I zoom in, but I can't tell if photos are sharp or not. Lighting seems ok, but can't tell if sharp. Go to take a quick snap of a little tag on a fence post and camera will not focus. WTH?? Camera was switched into manual focus mode from a project I was working on days previously. ARRRGH!! So out of like 30-40 autoracks, they're all blurry.
Still posting 3 of them, just to document, but I will call them out as bad photos. I was so pissed that I almost went back to the car. Glad I didn't. Throughout the day I caught some really nice pieces from some of my favorite writers. I didn't give up, and came home with gold, as you'll see going through this latest set.
FYI I managed to catch up with some of the day's last autoracks and got shots of them in way better light. So 8-10 pieces shot today have doubles that were shot in two different locations.
Also ended up meeting up with (YouTube) Railroad Fans of the Cajon Pass. He was just down the road from where I was and came down for a bit. He even brought that vicious dog "Buddy" with him. Glad I survived the encounter.
If you want to see some of these cars rolling, here's the videos he shot while I was there. If you look close or not so close in one vid, you might see me in action down the line. Anyway......
As always, thanks to the writers, fellow benchers, old, and new friends, Stay safe out there!!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Long write-up for today's batch of awesomeness.
First off. This whole covid thing, the election, working from home, not being able to go out, not seeing friends/family, etc. Has me, and I'm sure everyone else frazzled. Having a project to work on, in my case hiking out and shooting photos of graffiti on trains has been the one thing that's keeping me sane at this point. Hoping to see some new pieces from writers that I respect is like opening a pack of baseball cards and finding your favorite players rookie card for me. Yeah, it sounds goofy, but I've been having fun, staying sane, and seeing and capturing some amazing pieces of rolling art.
So I had this weird Monday vacation day on 11-2-2020. I decided to drive out to one my my benching spots and hang out for the day.
The plan was to set up a time lapse camera, and then just hang out and bench freights for 5-6 hours. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze, 88F. high. No clouds makes for a very boring time lapse between trains coming by. I also only brought my little Small Rig clamp for the time lapse camera and couldn't decide where I wanted to clamp it. I should have just brought a tripod.
Out for a few hours before the BNSF guys in their truck rolled up, got out and started walking toward me. "Great!" I thought. They're going to try and chase me away. Nope, they walked over to one set of tracks, walked across the bridge inspecting the tracks, then under the bridge inspecting the bridge, got in their truck and left. I like that. I don't bother you. You don't bother me.
A while later I see tree guy coming back home. I don't know his name, but there's a guy who lives in/under a tree that's next to the trail I hike in on. Once he's in there you'd never know it. I've seen him, he's seen me, and we don't bother each other.
The whole time I'm there I'm using my little Tascam recorder to record train audio every time one comes by so I have audio for the slideshow videos I've been uploading on YouTube. Well, this time I forgot it out there. Didn't dump my photos until Tuesday night and discovered it missing. Woke up early, drove out and it was still there. It recorded for almost 5 more hours before the batteries died. Glad to have it back, I thought tree guy might have found it.
Lots of stackers (Again), some grainers, and a few boxes, but also some great pieces.
Anybody ready my descriptions? I always wonder..
Finally got out of the house around noon after wavering between going out, or staying in..., to drive out to one of the local yards to shoot some freights, and finally get to check out their railroad museum. Blue skies, a little wind (7MPH) and I'm guessing like 70F. Perfect day. Sorry for anyone back East who are going through extreme cold weather. The museum was really great, and I'll have to go back and spend a bit more time looking around, and maybe taking some photos/video so you guys can check it out too. Only stayed for a couple hours today.
This yard I only have a platform that's about 15 ft. wide. The first track, the trains run about 6 in. from the edge of the track, so in order for me to catch a whole car, including autoracks, is to use a super wide angle lens. I've been using this crazy wide, $140, 7Artisans 7.5mm "Fisheye" lens when I go here. Sometimes I correct the fisheye look, sometimes I don't. I did a bit of correction on today's photos. Just cropping, straightening, and lens correction. No color. Lens is fun to use, but that fisheye!!!!!!!
They're not perfect, and you'll still see distortion... Still, caught some great pieces, and had fun, and isn't that what it's all about. Getting out of the house, away from work and seeing some great art rolling by. Any day you can go out and see some art makes your life better. Get out and bench!!! Don't just look at photos online. Go out to your local tracks/yards, and hang out for a few hours. See the cars up-close, feel them in your feet, smell the brake dust in the air, and hear how loud they actually are when you're not in your car with the windows rolled up waiting to cross at the RR crossing.
Towards the end of my visit, about 25 foamers showed up like really quickly to shoot what I found out was a "Special" train rolling through today. Something to do with next week's Super Bowl. You'll see the photos in this set, it's the three 25th Anniversary engines, stickers and all, along with 10-15 silver luxury people cars. Why three engines for only 10 or so cars?? I Dunno. I have video of this line I'll upload at some point. It really was quite amazing seeing this roll through. Like 3 minutes after it was gone, there was nobody left at the rails but PasadenaSub Colin ( www.youtube.com/c/pasadenasubcolin ) and myself..
Thanks to all of the writers. Stay safe out there, both writers, and fellow benchers.
To see my freight graffiti videos click here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOdGrtyTsyWVhLVHkwY0_-iu8P...
Out of the house for the first time in like 5 days. Hiked out to my spot, and within the first 5 mins. saw my first "Rail God" piece of the day!! Just going to say it, Sundays suck for trains. First couple of trains in the first 20 mins. I would guess. Couple hours later a couple more.
One point there was a sketchy dude coming my way, and the only way to avoid him would have been running along the tracks but he kept to himself and continued on.. Spent a couple hours awaiting one last train before I went home and there ended up being a couple.
One last freight as I was heading back to civilization caused me to run back to the tracks, while opening my bag to get the camera back out for the one last freight of the day, and caught the last "Rail God" piece on that freight.
Every bit of this better than being stuck at home avoiding "the virus"... Anyway, saw some cool pieces today, got some sun, and avoided everyone.
Long write-up for today's batch of awesomeness.
First off. This whole covid thing, the election, working from home, not being able to go out, not seeing friends/family, etc. Has me, and I'm sure everyone else frazzled. Having a project to work on, in my case hiking out and shooting photos of graffiti on trains has been the one thing that's keeping me sane at this point. Hoping to see some new pieces from writers that I respect is like opening a pack of baseball cards and finding your favorite players rookie card for me. Yeah, it sounds goofy, but I've been having fun, staying sane, and seeing and capturing some amazing pieces of rolling art.
So I had this weird Monday vacation day on 11-2-2020. I decided to drive out to one my my benching spots and hang out for the day.
The plan was to set up a time lapse camera, and then just hang out and bench freights for 5-6 hours. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze, 88F. high. No clouds makes for a very boring time lapse between trains coming by. I also only brought my little Small Rig clamp for the time lapse camera and couldn't decide where I wanted to clamp it. I should have just brought a tripod.
Out for a few hours before the BNSF guys in their truck rolled up, got out and started walking toward me. "Great!" I thought. They're going to try and chase me away. Nope, they walked over to one set of tracks, walked across the bridge inspecting the tracks, then under the bridge inspecting the bridge, got in their truck and left. I like that. I don't bother you. You don't bother me.
A while later I see tree guy coming back home. I don't know his name, but there's a guy who lives in/under a tree that's next to the trail I hike in on. Once he's in there you'd never know it. I've seen him, he's seen me, and we don't bother each other.
The whole time I'm there I'm using my little Tascam recorder to record train audio every time one comes by so I have audio for the slideshow videos I've been uploading on YouTube. Well, this time I forgot it out there. Didn't dump my photos until Tuesday night and discovered it missing. Woke up early, drove out and it was still there. It recorded for almost 5 more hours before the batteries died. Glad to have it back, I thought tree guy might have found it.
Long session today (9:30AM - 5:30PM) at my least favorite spot to flick graffiti, but one of my favorite spots for the amount of traffic this spot gets. There's also a crossing here, so lots of horn action! The engineers also know "railfans" come out here so sometimes they get a little creative with the honking.
Grand total of flicks taken, 803, total being posted, 616.
Right out of the gate I fucked up big time. First train I saw go by as I arrived was an Amtrak. Got down to the spot and immediately I hear the horns coming from behind the hill. Get the camera out, lens cap off and 30 seconds later and what do I see, autoracks, and lots of them. Sweet! I get in position, and they're coming by quick. I'm just barely framing them up and snapping the flicks. Saw my first Ichabod E2E car, Green/Black. Woah dude!! Cool. (my inner SoCal surfer came out). and then it's gone.
Sat down and looked through photos on little 3 in. screen on back of camera, not good. I zoom in, but I can't tell if photos are sharp or not. Lighting seems ok, but can't tell if sharp. Go to take a quick snap of a little tag on a fence post and camera will not focus. WTH?? Camera was switched into manual focus mode from a project I was working on days previously. ARRRGH!! So out of like 30-40 autoracks, they're all blurry.
Still posting 3 of them, just to document, but I will call them out as bad photos. I was so pissed that I almost went back to the car. Glad I didn't. Throughout the day I caught some really nice pieces from some of my favorite writers. I didn't give up, and came home with gold, as you'll see going through this latest set.
FYI I managed to catch up with some of the day's last autoracks and got shots of them in way better light. So 8-10 pieces shot today have doubles that were shot in two different locations.
Also ended up meeting up with (YouTube) Railroad Fans of the Cajon Pass. He was just down the road from where I was and came down for a bit. He even brought that vicious dog "Buddy" with him. Glad I survived the encounter.
If you want to see some of these cars rolling, here's the videos he shot while I was there. If you look close or not so close in one vid, you might see me in action down the line. Anyway......
As always, thanks to the writers, fellow benchers, old, and new friends, Stay safe out there!!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
It's been over a month since I've been out benching. Damn, I've missed being out by the tracks. Went out to my local yard and benched for 5 hours. 20+ freights rolled through while I was there. Missed a few others
because they had one parked on a closer track for a couple hours. Born and raised in Southern California, but the heat kills me, I swear I shoulda' been raised in Colorado, or some other cooler state. Weather was OK. Hot (90+f), but there was a breeze. If it gets any hotter here, I'm going to be going out maybe once a month for the next few months.. Benching naked is frowned upon around here, and I don't want to get my
bits sun-burned.
Fujifilm X-E3 with 23mm F/2.0 lens & Fujifim X-Pro3 and 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.
Hope you guys/girls enjoy checking the flicks as much as I enjoyed being out there spotting them!! I saw a lot of great pieces, and a lot of not so great pieces, but I was happy to be out there.
As always, thanks to all the writers ! Stay safe out there !
=====================
To see the rest of my freight graffiti flicks click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/siamesepuppy/collections/7215771678...
For freight graffiti slideshows hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Long session today (9:30AM - 5:30PM) at my least favorite spot to flick graffiti, but one of my favorite spots for the amount of traffic this spot gets. There's also a crossing here, so lots of horn action! The engineers also know "railfans" come out here so sometimes they get a little creative with the honking.
Grand total of flicks taken, 803, total being posted, 616.
Right out of the gate I fucked up big time. First train I saw go by as I arrived was an Amtrak. Got down to the spot and immediately I hear the horns coming from behind the hill. Get the camera out, lens cap off and 30 seconds later and what do I see, autoracks, and lots of them. Sweet! I get in position, and they're coming by quick. I'm just barely framing them up and snapping the flicks. Saw my first Ichabod E2E car, Green/Black. Woah dude!! Cool. (my inner SoCal surfer came out). and then it's gone.
Sat down and looked through photos on little 3 in. screen on back of camera, not good. I zoom in, but I can't tell if photos are sharp or not. Lighting seems ok, but can't tell if sharp. Go to take a quick snap of a little tag on a fence post and camera will not focus. WTH?? Camera was switched into manual focus mode from a project I was working on days previously. ARRRGH!! So out of like 30-40 autoracks, they're all blurry.
Still posting 3 of them, just to document, but I will call them out as bad photos. I was so pissed that I almost went back to the car. Glad I didn't. Throughout the day I caught some really nice pieces from some of my favorite writers. I didn't give up, and came home with gold, as you'll see going through this latest set.
FYI I managed to catch up with some of the day's last autoracks and got shots of them in way better light. So 8-10 pieces shot today have doubles that were shot in two different locations.
Also ended up meeting up with (YouTube) Railroad Fans of the Cajon Pass. He was just down the road from where I was and came down for a bit. He even brought that vicious dog "Buddy" with him. Glad I survived the encounter.
If you want to see some of these cars rolling, here's the videos he shot while I was there. If you look close or not so close in one vid, you might see me in action down the line. Anyway......
As always, thanks to the writers, fellow benchers, old, and new friends, Stay safe out there!!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Long session today (9:30AM - 5:30PM) at my least favorite spot to flick graffiti, but one of my favorite spots for the amount of traffic this spot gets. There's also a crossing here, so lots of horn action! The engineers also know "railfans" come out here so sometimes they get a little creative with the honking.
Grand total of flicks taken, 803, total being posted, 616.
Right out of the gate I fucked up big time. First train I saw go by as I arrived was an Amtrak. Got down to the spot and immediately I hear the horns coming from behind the hill. Get the camera out, lens cap off and 30 seconds later and what do I see, autoracks, and lots of them. Sweet! I get in position, and they're coming by quick. I'm just barely framing them up and snapping the flicks. Saw my first Ichabod E2E car, Green/Black. Woah dude!! Cool. (my inner SoCal surfer came out). and then it's gone.
Sat down and looked through photos on little 3 in. screen on back of camera, not good. I zoom in, but I can't tell if photos are sharp or not. Lighting seems ok, but can't tell if sharp. Go to take a quick snap of a little tag on a fence post and camera will not focus. WTH?? Camera was switched into manual focus mode from a project I was working on days previously. ARRRGH!! So out of like 30-40 autoracks, they're all blurry.
Still posting 3 of them, just to document, but I will call them out as bad photos. I was so pissed that I almost went back to the car. Glad I didn't. Throughout the day I caught some really nice pieces from some of my favorite writers. I didn't give up, and came home with gold, as you'll see going through this latest set.
FYI I managed to catch up with some of the day's last autoracks and got shots of them in way better light. So 8-10 pieces shot today have doubles that were shot in two different locations.
Also ended up meeting up with (YouTube) Railroad Fans of the Cajon Pass. He was just down the road from where I was and came down for a bit. He even brought that vicious dog "Buddy" with him. Glad I survived the encounter.
If you want to see some of these cars rolling, here's the videos he shot while I was there. If you look close or not so close in one vid, you might see me in action down the line. Anyway......
As always, thanks to the writers, fellow benchers, old, and new friends, Stay safe out there!!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
My first actual vacation day in almost a year. My vacation time hasn't been accumulating any more for months on end. So I take the day off to play the new Animal Crossing game. Get a call at 9:30AM asking where I'm at. "I'm on vacation" - "Oh."
Get another call an hour later and I need to come to work to sign some paperwork. FUCK!!!!! 2 hours later I'm on my way home. Luckily I thought to bring my camera and caught a freight on the way and saw some nice pieces. Making the best out of a shitty situation, let alone bad day off....
Cropping a lot of these pretty tight as I've been shooting with the 23mm from like 25 yards away. I really need to look into getting a 35mm for shots at this location if I'm going to continue using this camera
I love the Simpson's clouds!
Big Hugs! Even though we're supposed to stay 6 ft. apart. :-|
Out for a few hours last weekend, saw a lot of fun pieces, and had issues with freights that kept stopping on the tracks for 30-40 minutes at a time, blocking the other tracks. Why!! I can only imagine what I missed that passed by on the other side of a parked train. I feel like I need to put a sign out there in giant letters that says "KEEP IT MOVING!!!". Oh well. Like I said, I saw some great pieces, and didn't die.
Went out today with one goal in mind. Leave a copy of my book, sealed in a bag next to an awesome piece of graffiti, and then come home and post a photo of the piece and if anyone knew where this piece was, they could come out and grab a free copy of the book.
Planned on leaving it by a really cool MERS piece that I've been seeing for a few years now, ended up leaving it by a newer writers piece @she.bombs she's only been at it for a short while from what I understand, but she's doing awesome work and getting up.
Found a way to climb up and leave a sealed, in a bag copy up high enough that it would take a little work to find it. Cool. On the way out, I planned on benching at one of my favorite spots for a few hours and then heading home.
Got to my spot, got out my HAM radio to listen for trains, got out my camera, and within' a few minutes some dude is walking towards me. I'm alone, and there's really nowhere I can go. As he gets closer I say "Hey, how ya' doin'?" Dude replies "I'm okay". I turn a bit so that he can easily see that I'm armed, and then I notice that he's got a plastic bag in one hand, and a rock the size of a softball in the other hand. He walks within' a couple feet of me, and once he's passed by 6 feet or so, looks back and says "It's ok to be hiking out here right?" "Yep!" I say, and he walks off.
I hear, and then see a UP train coming, which means I need to grab my shit and head to the other trestle and catch it from the other side. Lighting issues.. As I'm flicking this one, I duck down and look under the trestle and see that a BNSF freight is on the other set of tracks. GRRR. The UP ended up being like 25 cars. As I run back to my spot I see an elusive (to me) ICHABOD piece roll by... Missed it.
I catch the last 10-15 cars on the BNSF. Within' 10 minutes or so, I see another sketchy dude walking around under the trestle I was just under, and he's walking around with some sort of stick.
Seriously, I don't need this. I have bills, and I need to be at work on Monday. I left, and drove back home. I felt defeated. In the end, I did what I set out to do, and that was give away a book. ...But the freights.... They'll roll through again one day, or not.
Headed out, messaged my friend or he messaged me? Can't remember but we met up at this spot for a couple hours, but he wanted to move on to another spot. I hadn't been out here in a while and decided to stay and move to another one of my spots nearby. Glad I stayed because I caught a bunch of great pieces later in the day. I know I don't hit a lot of spots but I go where I'm comfortable staying for between 4-7 hours, and not being harrassed by hikers, homeless, or other people. Unless I'm there with friends, I just want to be left alone and catch my flicks.
Short Day & not too many trains...
Last train photo: 5:03PM
I now have three freight graffiti books out.
SoCal Freight Benching: Graffiti on Freight Trains Volumes 1-3 are available on my author page on Amazon here: www.amazon.com/author/silence_seven
Long session today (9:30AM - 5:30PM) at my least favorite spot to flick graffiti, but one of my favorite spots for the amount of traffic this spot gets. There's also a crossing here, so lots of horn action! The engineers also know "railfans" come out here so sometimes they get a little creative with the honking.
Grand total of flicks taken, 803, total being posted, 616.
Right out of the gate I fucked up big time. First train I saw go by as I arrived was an Amtrak. Got down to the spot and immediately I hear the horns coming from behind the hill. Get the camera out, lens cap off and 30 seconds later and what do I see, autoracks, and lots of them. Sweet! I get in position, and they're coming by quick. I'm just barely framing them up and snapping the flicks. Saw my first Ichabod E2E car, Green/Black. Woah dude!! Cool. (my inner SoCal surfer came out). and then it's gone.
Sat down and looked through photos on little 3 in. screen on back of camera, not good. I zoom in, but I can't tell if photos are sharp or not. Lighting seems ok, but can't tell if sharp. Go to take a quick snap of a little tag on a fence post and camera will not focus. WTH?? Camera was switched into manual focus mode from a project I was working on days previously. ARRRGH!! So out of like 30-40 autoracks, they're all blurry.
Still posting 3 of them, just to document, but I will call them out as bad photos. I was so pissed that I almost went back to the car. Glad I didn't. Throughout the day I caught some really nice pieces from some of my favorite writers. I didn't give up, and came home with gold, as you'll see going through this latest set.
FYI I managed to catch up with some of the day's last autoracks and got shots of them in way better light. So 8-10 pieces shot today have doubles that were shot in two different locations.
Also ended up meeting up with (YouTube) Railroad Fans of the Cajon Pass. He was just down the road from where I was and came down for a bit. He even brought that vicious dog "Buddy" with him. Glad I survived the encounter.
If you want to see some of these cars rolling, here's the videos he shot while I was there. If you look close or not so close in one vid, you might see me in action down the line. Anyway......
As always, thanks to the writers, fellow benchers, old, and new friends, Stay safe out there!!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Long session today (9:30AM - 5:30PM) at my least favorite spot to flick graffiti, but one of my favorite spots for the amount of traffic this spot gets. There's also a crossing here, so lots of horn action! The engineers also know "railfans" come out here so sometimes they get a little creative with the honking.
Grand total of flicks taken, 803, total being posted, 616.
Right out of the gate I fucked up big time. First train I saw go by as I arrived was an Amtrak. Got down to the spot and immediately I hear the horns coming from behind the hill. Get the camera out, lens cap off and 30 seconds later and what do I see, autoracks, and lots of them. Sweet! I get in position, and they're coming by quick. I'm just barely framing them up and snapping the flicks. Saw my first Ichabod E2E car, Green/Black. Woah dude!! Cool. (my inner SoCal surfer came out). and then it's gone.
Sat down and looked through photos on little 3 in. screen on back of camera, not good. I zoom in, but I can't tell if photos are sharp or not. Lighting seems ok, but can't tell if sharp. Go to take a quick snap of a little tag on a fence post and camera will not focus. WTH?? Camera was switched into manual focus mode from a project I was working on days previously. ARRRGH!! So out of like 30-40 autoracks, they're all blurry.
Still posting 3 of them, just to document, but I will call them out as bad photos. I was so pissed that I almost went back to the car. Glad I didn't. Throughout the day I caught some really nice pieces from some of my favorite writers. I didn't give up, and came home with gold, as you'll see going through this latest set.
FYI I managed to catch up with some of the day's last autoracks and got shots of them in way better light. So 8-10 pieces shot today have doubles that were shot in two different locations.
Also ended up meeting up with (YouTube) Railroad Fans of the Cajon Pass. He was just down the road from where I was and came down for a bit. He even brought that vicious dog "Buddy" with him. Glad I survived the encounter.
If you want to see some of these cars rolling, here's the videos he shot while I was there. If you look close or not so close in one vid, you might see me in action down the line. Anyway......
As always, thanks to the writers, fellow benchers, old, and new friends, Stay safe out there!!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Full set of 2012 Welling Court Street Shots here:
www.flickr.com/photos/jimkiernan/sets/72157630217876858/
Ad Hoc Gallery Owners Garrison and Alison Buxton once again curated one of the best Street Art/Graffiti events of the year at Welling Court, Queens.
Over 60 Artists from around the world came and hit the spot!
It's been over a month since I've been out benching. Damn, I've missed being out by the tracks. Went out to my local yard and benched for 5 hours. 20+ freights rolled through while I was there. Missed a few others
because they had one parked on a closer track for a couple hours. Born and raised in Southern California, but the heat kills me, I swear I shoulda' been raised in Colorado, or some other cooler state. Weather was OK. Hot (90+f), but there was a breeze. If it gets any hotter here, I'm going to be going out maybe once a month for the next few months.. Benching naked is frowned upon around here, and I don't want to get my
bits sun-burned.
Fujifilm X-E3 with 23mm F/2.0 lens & Fujifim X-Pro3 and 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.
Hope you guys/girls enjoy checking the flicks as much as I enjoyed being out there spotting them!! I saw a lot of great pieces, and a lot of not so great pieces, but I was happy to be out there.
As always, thanks to all the writers ! Stay safe out there !
=====================
To see the rest of my freight graffiti flicks click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/siamesepuppy/collections/7215771678...
For freight graffiti slideshows hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Windy today. Decided to not go out in the desert and be pelted by dust all day. Drove out to the Santa Fe Depot again in San Bernardino. Ended being windblown all day, just no dust. First thing I see as I get to the depot is someone I kinda' know. PasadenaSub Colin. Kid who's running a nice YouTube channel filming freights, and Metrolink videos. You should check out his channel at: www.youtube.com/c/PasadenaSubColin Also check out my man JonanJello photographing and filming freight graffiti on THE daily! 352 videos and counting!! www.youtube.com/user/jonanjello
Shot today's photos on a few lenses I ended up switching lenses between two cameras. My normal lens for freights is the Fujifilm 23mm f/2, but being so close to the tracks at the depot I mostly used the 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8. It's hard to use anything else that close and capture the pieces straight on. Most of these shots I'm between 10-25 or so feet away from the train. Much closer than I normally shoot when I'm out on a hike. Still getting used to shooting this close. The cars roll by much faster when your this close!
Cameras: Fujifilm X-Pro3 & Fujifilm X-E3
Lenses: 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8, Fujifilm 16mm F/2.8 & Fujifilm 23mm F/2
For video slideshows...
Rust-Oleum presented their kitchen cabinet and countertop transformation kits during a media event in New Orleans, LA.
www.charlesandhudson.com/archives/2011/02/rust-oleum_targ...
My bike. It rules.
Complete modifications include:
- Xtracycle painted with Rustoleum Farm Equipment John Deere Green
- Second handlebars painted to match
- Rims painted with Rustoleum Farm Equipment John Deere Yellow
- 1 single and 1 dual tube envy green Down Low Glow lights
- Planet Bike yellow fenders
- White wall beach cruiser tires
- John Deere license plate (gift from a gear-head)
Had an awesome day today, but. I didn't need to dig another hole to get myself out of. I have enough work to keep me busy for a while. This was supposed to be my "catch-up weekend" I'm working on the next video, I have almost 600 photos on flickr to ID writers on, and I have a book project I'm working on. But... I got the chance to hang out with "Railroad Fans of the Cajon Pass & Buddy" for a couple hours today. So I grabbed my gear and headed out. Really cool, chill dude, and Buddy, well, he's a vicious beast !! If you want to loose a hand, try and pet him!! Foaming at the mouth, growling, etc. Like a smaller, meaner version of Cujo !!! Good Luck to you..
We hit a couple spots, but I only had luck at two. I pride myself in nice sharp flicks, but I ended up throwing out a bunch today because they were blurry. And all of them were shot on my 16mm lens. All settings the same as when I shoot on the 23, but for some reason shutter speeds were low, and I wasn't paying enough attention, so...... slightly blurry photos. There were some nice pieces in there, but who wants blurry graff flicks?! The 23mm is my go-to lens, but I need to figure out this 16mm issue. When you get home and start seeing blurry flicks, it almost makes you sick to your stomach, thinking the whole day has been ruined, but usually it's just a few shots and nothing major. And that's what happened today. Not all was lost.
Saw some awesome pieces, got out of the house, and made two new friends.
Check out my dude's channel here
Railroad fans of the Cajon Pass
www.youtube.com/channel/UCQR00bLwvLZ08U_r0Ppx8gg
www.patreon.com/user/posts?u=71537063
To see this train rolling by, filmed by: Railroad Fans of the Cajon Pass
Strong Union Pacific Manifest Freight Train Northbound Palmdale Cutoff Milepost 484ish. 4KHDR
Today started out early. I went out to a spot that's not too far away but takes some effort to get out to. This really is a great area, and one of my favorite places to be. For just hiking around, or for benching. It's an amazing place. It's almost surreal how big and crazy the rocks and landscape are here.
Arrived at 9 AM, and after a short hike out to the tracks, the trains started rolling by. One after another, it was a super busy day. I've never seen so many autoracks during a session. Autoracks, at least for me are like rare birds, but today, they just kept coming! Caught pieces I hadn't seen before from some of my favorite writers, and that always makes for a great day out. Weather was great, I'm guessing 80F, but the wind.... The wind kept things pretty cool out. Almost cold, but not quite. Just about
perfect.
I saw a deer!! I've never seen anything larger than a lizard when out here. While waiting for the next train I looked over and saw something kinda' hopping over a double set of tracks about 75 ft. from me. At first I thought it was either some kinda dog, or a coyote, but it was big. I looked over at my bag, in case it ran towards me and I needed to grab it and run, and looked back to see it hop over the tracks, down an embankment about 15 ft. high, onto the access road which is about 20 ft. wide and with two
hops it was gone into the bushes. Really cool !!
Ended up leaving at around 4:30 PM, so a little over 7 hours. With longer days, and the way the sun travels here, it's almost better to show up later. There's a time around noon where no matter which side of the tracks your on, the lighting on the trains sucks. But hey, I'm out, away from society, seeing nature, seeing trains, graff, getting exercise, fresh air, and just plain getting away from my regular life..
Some people do yoga, some people meditate, some go to therapy. This is how I wipe away my daily life a couple times a month for a few hours.
Just wanted to throw in, I know every piece I flick isn't a banger, but I'm documenting graff. Today's toy, may be tomorrows king. And I'll have proof that he or she also was once a toy! Solid Gold!! :-)
As ALWAYS, thanks to the writers!
Writers, fellow benchers, and railfans, stay safe out there!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Instagram: @soilentseven
As usual, I'll be back in a few days to start going through and tagging my flicks with the the writer's names that I can figure out.
================
Oh, also as I'm finishing up editing photos from last weekend, heading into this weekend, I'm watching "Martha a picture story" Documentary about Martha Cooper, one of the OG's in documenting graff with high quality flicks years ago. One of the original authors of the Subway Art book. If you can swing renting it online to watch, or picking up a Blu Ray from Vinegar Syndrome, do so, it's a great film. vinegarsyndrome.com/products/martha-a-picture-story-utopia/
One last side of the road benching day before the rains. I'll most likely be stuck in the house for the next few days because of the virus, and because of the rain.
Waited about 20 minutes for these trains to stop sitting around and get moving. They'll sit 1/2 to 1/4 mile down the tracks with lights on, but stopped. Then the real BRIGHT lights come on and they move. Seems like forever when waiting, but getting good shots. Priceless!
I did manage to get out yesterday after my time working at home to grab some shots of a few great pieces, and a few not so great. But who the fuck am I to judge? People are out there getting up and I'm just documenting what I see. Stay safe out there friends/family.
I know other people post super close up shots of the pieces on the trains, but I feel like a little bit of context is necessary, just like in my 1:1 macro shots. I'm an old dog, and I can't learn new tricks. Sorry.
To see the rest of this album of freight graffiti go here: www.flickr.com/photos/siamesepuppy/albums/72157708879870433
Windy today. Decided to not go out in the desert and be pelted by dust all day. Drove out to the Santa Fe Depot again in San Bernardino. Ended being windblown all day, just no dust. First thing I see as I get to the depot is someone I kinda' know. PasadenaSub Colin. Kid who's running a nice YouTube channel filming freights, and Metrolink videos. You should check out his channel at: www.youtube.com/c/PasadenaSubColin Also check out my man JonanJello photographing and filming freight graffiti on THE daily! 352 videos and counting!! www.youtube.com/user/jonanjello
Shot today's photos on a few lenses I ended up switching lenses between two cameras. My normal lens for freights is the Fujifilm 23mm f/2, but being so close to the tracks at the depot I mostly used the 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8. It's hard to use anything else that close and capture the pieces straight on. Most of these shots I'm between 10-25 or so feet away from the train. Much closer than I normally shoot when I'm out on a hike. Still getting used to shooting this close. The cars roll by much faster when your this close!
Cameras: Fujifilm X-Pro3 & Fujifilm X-E3
Lenses: 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8, Fujifilm 16mm F/2.8 & Fujifilm 23mm F/2
For video slideshows...
Long write-up for today's batch of awesomeness.
First off. This whole covid thing, the election, working from home, not being able to go out, not seeing friends/family, etc. Has me, and I'm sure everyone else frazzled. Having a project to work on, in my case hiking out and shooting photos of graffiti on trains has been the one thing that's keeping me sane at this point. Hoping to see some new pieces from writers that I respect is like opening a pack of baseball cards and finding your favorite players rookie card for me. Yeah, it sounds goofy, but I've been having fun, staying sane, and seeing and capturing some amazing pieces of rolling art.
So I had this weird Monday vacation day on 11-2-2020. I decided to drive out to one my my benching spots and hang out for the day.
The plan was to set up a time lapse camera, and then just hang out and bench freights for 5-6 hours. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze, 88F. high. No clouds makes for a very boring time lapse between trains coming by. I also only brought my little Small Rig clamp for the time lapse camera and couldn't decide where I wanted to clamp it. I should have just brought a tripod.
Out for a few hours before the BNSF guys in their truck rolled up, got out and started walking toward me. "Great!" I thought. They're going to try and chase me away. Nope, they walked over to one set of tracks, walked across the bridge inspecting the tracks, then under the bridge inspecting the bridge, got in their truck and left. I like that. I don't bother you. You don't bother me.
A while later I see tree guy coming back home. I don't know his name, but there's a guy who lives in/under a tree that's next to the trail I hike in on. Once he's in there you'd never know it. I've seen him, he's seen me, and we don't bother each other.
The whole time I'm there I'm using my little Tascam recorder to record train audio every time one comes by so I have audio for the slideshow videos I've been uploading on YouTube. Well, this time I forgot it out there. Didn't dump my photos until Tuesday night and discovered it missing. Woke up early, drove out and it was still there. It recorded for almost 5 more hours before the batteries died. Glad to have it back, I thought tree guy might have found it.
Today started out early. I went out to a spot that's not too far away but takes some effort to get out to. This really is a great area, and one of my favorite places to be. For just hiking around, or for benching. It's an amazing place. It's almost surreal how big and crazy the rocks and landscape are here.
Arrived at 9 AM, and after a short hike out to the tracks, the trains started rolling by. One after another, it was a super busy day. I've never seen so many autoracks during a session. Autoracks, at least for me are like rare birds, but today, they just kept coming! Caught pieces I hadn't seen before from some of my favorite writers, and that always makes for a great day out. Weather was great, I'm guessing 80F, but the wind.... The wind kept things pretty cool out. Almost cold, but not quite. Just about perfect.
I saw a deer!! I've never seen anything larger than a lizard when out here. While waiting for the next train I looked over and saw something kinda' hopping over a double set of tracks about 75 ft. from me. At first I thought it was either some kinda dog, or a coyote, but it was big. I looked over at my bag, in case it ran towards me and I needed to grab it and run, and looked back to see it hop over the tracks, down an embankment about 15 ft. high, onto the access road which is about 20 ft. wide and with two hops it was gone into the bushes. Really cool !!
Ended up leaving at around 4:30 PM, so a little over 7 hours. With longer days, and the way the sun travels here, it's almost better to show up later. There's a time around noon where no matter which side of the tracks your on, the lighting on the trains sucks. But hey, I'm out, away from society, seeing nature, seeing trains, graff, getting exercise, fresh air, and just plain getting away from my regular life..
Some people do yoga, some people meditate, some go to therapy. This is how I wipe away my daily life a couple times a month for a few hours.
Just wanted to throw in, I know every piece I flick isn't a banger, but I'm documenting graff. Today's toy, may be tomorrows king. And I'll have proof that he or she also was once a toy! Solid Gold!! :-)
As ALWAYS, thanks to the writers!
Writers, fellow benchers, and railfans, stay safe out there!!
For freight graffiti slideshows/videos hit up my YouTube here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Instagram: @soilentseven
As usual, I'll be back in a few days to start going through and tagging my flicks with the the writer's names that I can figure out.
================
Oh, also as I'm finishing up editing photos from last weekend, heading into this weekend, I'm watching "Martha a picture story" Documentary about Martha Cooper, one of the OG's in documenting graff with high quality flicks years ago. One of the original authors of the Subway Art book. If you can swing renting it online to watch, or picking up a Blu Ray from Vinegar Syndrome, do so, it's a great film. vinegarsyndrome.com/products/martha-a-picture-story-utopia/
Got out of the house on Sunday. Got out, actually saw the sunshine, breathed soem actual fresh air, and loved every minute of it. Despite of what I would assume many people feel, I actually like going in to work. I don't want to work from home. I like to keep home and work as seperated as I can. But these are the times we live in, so I get out on the weekends.
Saw some amazing pieces today on both freights, and under/around the trestles. Was out for 4-5 hours, hiked around quite a bit, thought I was going to be hassled by the train police, but wasn't. Had a great time out there just waiting for the next train to come rolling through so I could see what I could see. 100X better than sitting at home, watching the news, and feeling like the world is falling down around me. Out there, the important thing to me is taking shots at amazing, and not so amazing graff pieces. Just documenting what I see, relaxing and watching the amazing world of graff roll by in front of me.
Good stuff.. Stay safe out there homies.
Check out the rest of my graffiti photos album! GO HERE!: www.flickr.com/photos/siamesepuppy/albums/72157708879870433
s7
It's been over a month since I've been out benching. Damn, I've missed being out by the tracks. Went out to my local yard and benched for 5 hours. 20+ freights rolled through while I was there. Missed a few others
because they had one parked on a closer track for a couple hours. Born and raised in Southern California, but the heat kills me, I swear I shoulda' been raised in Colorado, or some other cooler state. Weather was OK. Hot (90+f), but there was a breeze. If it gets any hotter here, I'm going to be going out maybe once a month for the next few months.. Benching naked is frowned upon around here, and I don't want to get my
bits sun-burned.
Fujifilm X-E3 with 23mm F/2.0 lens & Fujifim X-Pro3 and 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.
Hope you guys/girls enjoy checking the flicks as much as I enjoyed being out there spotting them!! I saw a lot of great pieces, and a lot of not so great pieces, but I was happy to be out there.
As always, thanks to all the writers ! Stay safe out there !
=====================
To see the rest of my freight graffiti flicks click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/siamesepuppy/collections/7215771678...
For freight graffiti slideshows hit up my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/SilenceSeven
Long write-up for today's batch of awesomeness.
First off. This whole covid thing, the election, working from home, not being able to go out, not seeing friends/family, etc. Has me, and I'm sure everyone else frazzled. Having a project to work on, in my case hiking out and shooting photos of graffiti on trains has been the one thing that's keeping me sane at this point. Hoping to see some new pieces from writers that I respect is like opening a pack of baseball cards and finding your favorite players rookie card for me. Yeah, it sounds goofy, but I've been having fun, staying sane, and seeing and capturing some amazing pieces of rolling art.
So I had this weird Monday vacation day on 11-2-2020. I decided to drive out to one my my benching spots and hang out for the day.
The plan was to set up a time lapse camera, and then just hang out and bench freights for 5-6 hours. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze, 88F. high. No clouds makes for a very boring time lapse between trains coming by. I also only brought my little Small Rig clamp for the time lapse camera and couldn't decide where I wanted to clamp it. I should have just brought a tripod.
Out for a few hours before the BNSF guys in their truck rolled up, got out and started walking toward me. "Great!" I thought. They're going to try and chase me away. Nope, they walked over to one set of tracks, walked across the bridge inspecting the tracks, then under the bridge inspecting the bridge, got in their truck and left. I like that. I don't bother you. You don't bother me.
A while later I see tree guy coming back home. I don't know his name, but there's a guy who lives in/under a tree that's next to the trail I hike in on. Once he's in there you'd never know it. I've seen him, he's seen me, and we don't bother each other.
The whole time I'm there I'm using my little Tascam recorder to record train audio every time one comes by so I have audio for the slideshow videos I've been uploading on YouTube. Well, this time I forgot it out there. Didn't dump my photos until Tuesday night and discovered it missing. Woke up early, drove out and it was still there. It recorded for almost 5 more hours before the batteries died. Glad to have it back, I thought tree guy might have found it.