Switch Face (Hidden Faces All Around Us)
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At the Scheidplatz square is a major interchange of the same name from bus to tram to subway.
Here we are on tram tracks while in the distance one line 12 tram is about to leave (away from me, just to state that).
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
A Cement dust laden CBFX Switcher, an EMD SW1500 doing its job at the Giant Cement Co at Harleyville, SC.
A local crew works the tight quarters of the Louisville & Nashville team tracks in Frankfort, Kentucky. Today, things aren’t so tight. There is only one track and the station has been razed.
Spent part of my Sunday walking through the wonderful beech forest at Ekedalen. This shot is made by 4 portrait photos stitched together to get a wider shot and to make sure at least parts of the tree tops are visible. It was my first visit there, but for sure not the last...
El 310.022 de Adif maniobra con unas plataformas de contenedores vacías en el cargadero de Laumar de Vicálvaro.
Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili...
If you're interested, you'll find a more detailed closeup here (it's the 8th photo from the top): www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (it's very brief but pretty unusual: a tiny wall lizard attacks two young great tits): www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqkSsyrm7E
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: MY LONG AND ARDUOUS JOURNEY TO BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
If you've set yourself the challenge of exclusively shooting the wildlife in your own back yard, you might find - as I did - that bird photography is really, really hard.
It's not that reptiles are easy to photograph either, mind - but at least the ones in my garden stay (for the most part) on the ground, and one can learn how to carefully approach them with a camera. They're also clearly egoists, which from a photographer's point of view is is a great character trait: if a lizard detects a human in its vicinity, it's only interested in saving its own skin, and it won't alarm its buddies.
But birds... oh man. Over the years, my feathered friends and I have developed a lovely routine that now defines our peaceful co-existence. As soon as I as much as open a window (let alone the door), I'm instantly greeted by an eruption of panicky fluttering and hysterical shouts from my garden: "SAVE YOUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND FLY FOR YOUR LIVES: THE HAIRLESS, PINK MONSTER IS COMING!!! (Yes, I speak bird, and I know that this is exactly what they are shouting 😉).
Needless to say, with the exception of the redstart I already showed here, all my efforts to get the kind of detailed shots I usually strive for with my nature photography ended in complete failure and utter disillusionment. I was ready to give up on stalking the winged misanthropes in my garden altogether, but then winter came - and changed everything.
One day this past January I observed my neighbor Signora P - a kind, elderly Italian lady - putting something on the low garden wall in front of my house. At first I thought she was just putting some treat there for her cat Romeo; the young tom patrols that wall constantly (it's his favorite spot in the garden, and during the warmer months he usually lurks in the thick foliage next to it to prey on lizards).
But once I detected a lot of movement on that wall through my window, I understood she had put a little pile of bread crumbs there; she was feeding the birds who soon arrived in flocks. This was certainly well-intended on my neighbor's part, but her noble action came with a catch, and I'm afraid quite literally.
When I took a stroll through my garden the next day I discovered a suspicious amount of feathers on the ground next to the wall. Romeo had apparently switched from his low-calorie summer diet (lizard) to more energy-rich meals consisting of "fowl" (it was winter after all, so from a nutritionist's point of view this made sense).
I would find fresh traces of Romeo's victims (mostly feathers, but also the odd wing) in my garden over the following days; so my first intuition that my neighbor was feeding her cat hadn't been that far off after all, as Romeo was now clearly being "served" fresh birds on a daily basis. And although the hungry visitors seemed to be aware of the danger and became slightly more prudent, they just couldn't resist the tasty snacks Signora P put on that wall - and neither could Romeo.
It was obvious that I had to act, but talking to my neighbor - who is as stubborn as she is kind - would have been futile, I knew that much. I pondered the matter long and hard - until a light bulb went off in my head. The idea was genius. If successful, what I had in mind would not only increase the birds' chances of surviving Romeo's appetite, but also greatly benefit my own photographic endeavors.
I started to enact my master plan the very next day by buying a giant bag of bird feed (consisting mainly of sunflower seeds) from the store. Then I dragged a huge piece of a tree trunk (approx. 120 cm in height) that we normally chop firewood on in the shed out into the garden and emptied almost half of the bag's content on top of it. Signora P's buffet for birds (and cats) was about to get some serious competition 😊.
My reasoning was as follows: not only would the birds be lured away from the fatally low garden wall to a place where they were safe from the cat - there was nothing around that tree trunk that provided cover for a predator, and the birds had a nice 360° view around it at all times - but I was also able to photograph them while hiding in the shed.
However, in order for my plan to work there was one little extra measure I had to take, and it was one that risked lowering my own life expectancy considerably once the owner of the property - my mom - discovered it. You see, our shed is completely windowless, so if I wanted to use it as a blind, I had no choice but to cut a hole into one of its wooden walls... which I promptly did (I figured all's fair in love - and photography 😉).
Granted, I have absolutely zero carpentering skills, and it showed. That hole was an ugly mess: the shed's wall seemed to have had an encounter with Jack Nicholson's ax-wielding lunatic character from the film 'The Shining'. Needless to say, I was incredibly proud of my work (I mean, come on: there now was a hole where before there wasn't a hole, and it was big enough for the lens of my camera to peek through, so it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned).
Now all I had to do was wait for the birds to discover the tree trunk. In the meantime I started to mentally prepare myself for the inevitable confrontation with my mom and go through possible explanations for that splintering hole in the wall (it was either gonna be a rabid woodpecker attack or an emergency rescue mission with a feeding tube for a little kid that had accidentally locked himself inside the shed - both seemed valid options, though I slightly preferred the locked-in kid due to the involved drama and heroism 😉).
A whole day went by, and not a single bird visited the sunflower seeds. I had expected that it might take a few hours until the first of the ever curious great tits or blue tits would show up, but given how tiny my garden is, an entire day seemed excessive. Then another day came and went: the birds kept flocking to the bread crumbs on the wall, and my tree trunk kept collecting dust. To add injury to insult, a few fresh feathers on the ground were proof that Romeo was still feasting.
It was incredibly frustrating: I provided my winged guests with a much better view - plus a higher chance of surviving the cuisine - than Signora P's place; I risked (almost) certain death at the hands of my own mother (OK, the act of vandalism on the shed I had committed for my own benefit, but still), yet the birds kept ignoring me.
Then, after three days, just before sunset, I spotted a single blue tit on the tree trunk picking away at the sunflower seeds.
When I got up the next morning I immediately realized that the loud noise that accompanies each and every tit activity had shifted from the wall to the shed. At last the dam had broken: there was a flurry of movement around the tree trunk, and I counted at least 5 different species of birds feasting on the sunflower seeds.
From day 4 onward my plan worked beautifully: the birds now indeed mostly ignored Romeo's "snack wall" and kept to the tree trunk. And yes, I was able to play peeping tom from behind the shed's wall and photograph them!! 😊
Thus, dear readers, I finally managed to produce some acceptable bird photos, and I had even saved my feathered friends from a deadly foe in the process. All through winter and spring I took advantage of my new bird hide, and in late May I started mixing some cherries with the sunflower seeds. The idea was to attract a Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), and as you can see, it worked!
It took me almost three weeks and more than a few tricks to capture that clever fella, but given how long I've been rambling here already, that's a story for another day. As for my mom, she still doesn't know about the hole in the wall, so please don't snitch! 😉.
I hope you like the photo and wish you all a wonderful weekend! Many greetings from Switzerland, and as always: let me know what you think in the comments 🙏 😊 ❤!
P.S. if anyone has their own funny tale about the obstacles we photographers are prepared to overcome for a desired photo, please write it in the comments: I love such stories 😊
Job 1 has arrived in Jackman behind consecutively numbered 9021 and 9020 and have begun switching the logs at Jackman to be taken back east by Job 2.
CSX 2625 and 5353 intercept traffic on Tarragona Street as they hook up to a pair of boxcars spotted on the spur to W.R. Taylor Company. Since W.R. Taylor only has one unloading spot, the crew will pull both cars from the siding, re-spot the load and take the empty car back to Goulding yard. This unique switching operation takers place as needed but sometimes as often as twice a week, depending on demand, but almost always at night. This day the crew wanted to stay ahead of an approaching storm and had no cars to switch around at the port, and thus they managed to get to W.R. Taylor just as dusk started to set in. While this type of scene might have been commonplace 50 years ago, nowadays this operation is one of only a handful of instances left in the entire country where a carload customer is switched out from street running trackage. Pensacola, FL
Susquehanna C420 2002 drills cars on the former Erie main line in front of some of the most-photographed brick buildings in the east.
A switch engine in Nebraska caught on film. Reality So Subtle 6x6 pinhole camera, Ilford film and caffenol developer.
Every so often you just have to switch things up!
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Freeport McMoRan 49 switches cars at the Morenci Mine before making the trip down the 4.5% grade to the interchange with the Arizona Eastern in Clifton, AZ.
The brakeman of Boston & Maine’s Groveton switcher looks down the track at the next cars to grab as his ride approaches.
BNSF’s Sandpoint local has finished switching empties for the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad at the east end of the yard in Sandpoint at Boyer, Idaho, on September 26, 2021. As an eastbound BNSF stack train curves by on the main line, the power will soon head west in the yard to pick up interchange from POVA before heading back to Spokane.
switch off, go out, sit down, take a rest and enjoy autumn.
roidweek has been such a blast, so much inspiration this week and i still haven't seen more than the half of the pool.
thank you all for being a part of this incredible community - you all are awesome!
roid week day six 2/2
triptych
- polaroid SLR680
- impossible project COLOR FILM FOR 600
it's RoidWeek 2016: RoidWeek 2016 Group
you can find me or my work here:
The Everett Railroad switches out their yard in Hollidaysburg, PA. Powering the train is a GP16 that's been down here for decades along with a newer B32-8 acquired from Norfolk Southern.
A Lycoming Valley pup drops of a flatcar loaded with steel plates on the northwest end of Newberry Yard.
Sorting cars brought in from interchage, the two center cabs pass by a building that's seen better days.
Respondek's brightly painted, IT inspired GP40 works a cut of hoppers in their park in Granite City, IL.
US&S switch levers light the board up like a Christmas tree. These are the types of sensory experiences this dispatcher misses most!
Soo Line GP9 No. 556 drills cars at the small yard in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on the afternoon of May 6, 1985.
While I am fully in support of the Snowplow Sunday movement, there are many of us who can't participate due to lack of material. I believe others have started the idea of Switcher Sunday, and this is my offering fot this week.
After the sun has dropped below the horizon, a Lehigh Valley SW8 works one of the hump receiving tracks at Allentown Yard.