Hamburg - Moments

avec un arbre

expired film 10/2017

pentax pino 35

fixed focus, 38mm coated glass triplet lens, set shutter 1/125

3 light settings, 3 film speeds

Pictures with Zeke, Joaquin, Garett and Andy at their house. The kids are Jewish, Mestiza (Mexican Indian/Spanish) and Cherokee. I love taking pictures of siblings, but it was also neat to work with brothers. Somehow I managed to get a bunch of sisters together, but this is the first brother set. They're the same as girls in the sense that they are young and respond well to the camera. I like how two brothers can have the same parents but such different hair. I suppose that will also be more evident when I put my eventual self portraits up with Rachael's.

Joaquin was a total ham. You can see in some pictures he's literally dancing in the background. Or the foreground. But hammy kids always love the camera, so I love them. Zeke, the older boy was not as energized, but he had a quiet brooding intensity that photographed well, too. I've learned so much about working with young people on this project. I can say I'm a fan of their energy and passion.

A snap from Catch Up show with Hugh Frost

This beautiful cow paid us a visit in our yard last summer. Looking forward to more visitors this summer.

When people come up to visit Alaska, a lot of people are worried about being attacked by a bear but are comfortable getting out of their vehicles around moose. The facts are, moose attack more people each year than bears do. The cow moose are very protective of their young and will stomp anything that comes near until they think the threat is over.

There is a video out of a man walking out of the library at UAA and unknowingly, gets between a cow and her calves. He paid for his mistake with his life. There is also another video of a cow moose chasing a grizzly bear away from her calves.

There are sure signs of a moose that is irritated, first, the hair on their neck will stand straight up, the second, their ears will be pinned back. Seeing these signs means you better retreat quickly and put something between yourself and the moose.

A peek at my sister's bottle collection.

Rolling into Kennard after meeting a rather short Z

Running east through Woodbine

Believe it or not, this was meant to be a warm up build for a summer of building. Then I kinda stopped building.

Here's the annual tropipoc build, I guess. Not quite finished, never going to be. Just wanted to get this photographed because I'm gonna scrap it soon. I got a few other things I wanna do before I go back to school, but that means taking this apart. Maybe there'll be detailed images on my insta, maybe there won't.

On a sunny, summer afternoon, the crew of LHU20 has finished their work and tied down their power just off of UP's Seabrook Industrial Lead in the far eastern reaches of the Port of Houston.

UP 556 was built in April 1975 as UP 2056, a GP38-2. It received its current number in July 2001 and was rebuilt into a GP38N in April 2019.

LHU20 04

UP GP38N #556

UP GP40N #1438

Bayport, TX

September 4th, 2025

Don't Give Up

Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush

In this proud land we grew up strong

We were wanted all along

I was taught to fight, taught to win

I never thought I could fail

No fight left or so it seems

I am a man whose dreams have all deserted

I've changed my name, I've changed my face

But no one wants you when you lose

Don't give up

'Cause you have friends

Don't give up

You're not beaten yet

Don't give up

I know you can make it good

Though I saw it all around

Never thought I could be affected

Thought that we'd be the last to go

It is so strange the way things turn

Drove the night toward my home

The place that I was born, on the lakeside

As daylight broke, I saw the earth

The trees had burned down to the ground

Don't give up

You still have us

Don't give up

We don't need much of anything

Don't give up

'Cause somewhere there's a place

Where we belong

Rest your head

You worry too much

It's going to be alright

When times get rough

You can fall back on us

Don't give up

Please don't give up

Didn't get to go out and shoot this weekend, so I headed to the PC instead.

Was out for a walk this morning to clear the head after a hard week at work, and even though it was 8:00am, it was quite hot already.

As I was ambling through the streets, everything looked so dry, even in the suburbs of Sydney. For anyone reading this from overseas, Australia is in the middle of a catastrophic drought at the moment, really affecting our farmers in our regional areas.

So, with this in mind, I decided to process a shot from country NSW.

We went to visit some family friends back in 2017, and they kindly allowed me access to their farm. It went on for what seemed like forever, with old worksheds and machinery scattered throughout. I captured this old wagon in the late afternoon light, and the original image I posted back then turned out rather well. Griffith is one of the lucky areas, as they seemed to get quite a bit of rain, and it was lush green. However, this is one of only a handful of rural country images I have in my collection, so, I had to manipulate it, to suit the lyrics of the song I wanted to post with it.

So, this is a 3 image blend.

The wagon is from Griffith in 2017, the pink sky on the horizon is from Potter Point in Sydney in 2016, and the Milky Way is from Cathedral Rocks earlier this year.

Blended together to give my final drought image.

Hope you like "Dont Give Up"

Cheers, Mike

Sussex, England.

I have driven by this scene many times but have not seen a train in a good position.

As a side note, my computer has given up... editing is not as easy right now.

So heres the full story: The day prior to this, ZMQG4s lead ace (seen 3rd out) suffered an engine block failure and was shut down indefinitely. Rather than run the BN ace around, they parked it in nowhere southern Illinois. Now a day behind schedule, IG4SI was supposed to drop a CSX unit to rescue IG4SI, and clearly that didnt happen. So an extra board crew out of Dupo had to drive up to Bloomington, steal their local power, and bring the now 2 days late stack, into G4... running under IDUG4X-20.

Props to the based crew that chatted with us while they were parked south of Gardner later that evening.

Anyways, heres the rescued stack screaming through Odell in notch 8.

This is the top 2 cms of the total 12.5 cms length of a telescopic, pocket magnetic pick up tool.

Macro Monday theme; Desk

Happy Macro Monday folks !!

This is a close-up HDR photo of the backlit folds in a plastic bag.

A westbound Union Pacific manifest tackles the grade in Cache Creek Canyon at La Rose on the eastside of the Tehachapi grade. La Rose lost its place in the timetable following the double-tracking of the east slope between Mojave and Cameron in the 1920s.

UP 2595 ~ MWCRVB ~ La Rose, California

Union Pacific's Mojave Subdivision

09.17.2016

First shot at photographing drops out of liquid surfaces... fun. Just milk and food color...

London Eye

Mach 2018

With the San Gabriel Mountains looming large in the background eastbound Union Pacific tonnage eases down the Cajon grade at Lugo behind a solid consist of EMDs.

UP 8912 ~ MWCNP ~ Lugo, California

BNSF's Cajon Subdivision

01.10.2015

Charlie, my aunt's dog, is charged up with static electricity after rolling around on the couch.

got my first chance to see Union Pacific's veterans locomotive 1943. Mother nature wasn't too cooperative, but I gave it my best shot with the weather conditions.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almshouse

Bamboo brush for scraping grated ginger (see comments)

Chicago & North Western Heritage painted engine, Union Pacific 1995 departs Westbound out of the siding at Yarmony and follows alongside the Colorado River as it approaches the crew change location at Bond.

I often take my camera with me when I go to fill the feeders up - just in case. On this occasion I struck lucky, there was a squirrel already feeding when I went out, so I stood back and waited for it to move away which it did after 5 minutes or so, having given me the chance to get a few snaps.

I then filled the feeders up and stayed close by to photograph the small birds hoping for the Nuthatch to appear.

I don't know who was the more surprised when the squirrel reappeared on the branch less than 12 feet away from me. It looked me up and down a few times shaking its tail and then went to the feeder.

This is one of the shots I managed; many of the others are not full body as I was too close and in some I can see my reflection in the eyes of the squirrel.

Still wearing its 'as delivered' red frame stripe, UP 5444 and a trio of SD70Ms, drop down grade between Allard (Bealville) and Caliente with westbound tonnage bound for Roseville, California. This photo was taken from above tunnel 1, in the distance a sharp eye will spot the train's rear DPU which is approaching tunnel 2.

This was an early attempt at getting away from the more 'traditional' Tehachapi locations that I had grown up with :}

UP 5444 ~ MWCRV ~ Tehachapi Pass, California

Union Pacific's Mojave Subdivision

07.31.2010

Up Before Dark

Walking along the lake I spotted a tree full of Robins gorging themselves on the fruit. They pretty much ignored me which allowed me to get close..

UP 5919 West at Loring just after sunrise this AM on a very cold and frosty morning.

AND THEN YOU WONDER...MAYBE IT'S TIME TO JUST GIVE UP

∶

ANTHALON EVE EYESHADOW

LOWLYFE HARUMI TOP

LUEUR FLAME NAILS

DOUX GRETA

IMBUE DISTRESSED DENIM SKIRT

MAZE SOFT THIGHS

PSYCHO PILLS WOLFIE BOOTS

ROULY MESH TIGHTS

VIBING KINSLEY RINGS

∶

INSTAGRAM • FACEBOOK

[17:36] Taladis Tower wrinkled his nose as he came down from the small ramp. Reaching up the dark cat pulled the cigar from his mouth - tossed it to the floor and proceeded to step on it. He walked forward and leaned on the railing that led to the beach, looking over at the Cyborg Zero.

[17:39] Damienn Kiranov is blatantly amused when he sees the black cat walk up to the railing. He takes a drink from his flask, then puts it back in his pocket. A wry smirk crosses his lips as he speaks. "Well well well. Look what we have here. Sure as hell took you long enough. Surprised?"

[17:41] Taladis Tower grumbled in response to the man's comment. Instead, he moved down the sidewalk - as he walked he was unwrapping the gauntlets around his wrists. He tossed them on the ground as he continued to walk, only leaving the wrappings on his hands. Closing his fists, he just looked at Kiranov with that cold expression.

[17:43] Damienn Kiranov yawns. "Oh God. Now we go to this again... What are you gonna do now? Hmm? Seems kinda pointless to start a brawl when we don't have an audience."

[17:44] Taladis Tower wrinkled his nose at Kiranov's comment before practically growling out, "This isn't about people watching." His ears falling against his head, "You were supposed to be dead."

[17:45] Damienn Kiranov laughs and shakes his head. "You've got to be kidding me... Do you really think they would've left out any explosives training when I worked as an operator?"

[17:47] Taladis Tower grumbled lowly, "I don't care. I walked away because I expected you to be dead. You shot me, you left me for dead. I left /you/ for dead, you were just supposed to die. Now - we're somewhat at a crossroads, aren't we?"

[17:49] Damienn Kiranov pops his knuckles and takes his flask out of his pocket. "I guess we would be. So, what's your choice? I could care less about continuing this boring rivalry, since you're not the one I was looking for." He takes a drink from his flask, then pockets it.

[17:50] Taladis Tower watches Kiranov's movements carefully. Tal's cold gaze soon locking on the man's face once more. He wrinkled his nose, a grumble escaping his lips, "Next time that I see you? This won't be 'boring.'" Tal growled as he turned away, then knelt over to pick up his gauntlets before wandering off.

"A heavenly view from above

Lifeless skies embrace stars

With the enveloping heat of the sun

And with the light that blinds us

The smell of cosmos is all around

Going up to the life pedestal

Something new is about to come

It was close, now it's gone..."

Motorama: youtu.be/HzTmUHOz1a8?si=GKPRpND3DYeCVish

Explore position: 84 on Wednesday, February 28, 2024

K212 rolls north along the Clear Fork River near Holton.

UP 6584 West at Loring, KS on the UP Kansas Sub.

Part of the Esjan mountain range, if I'm not mistaken.

This view was like a 5 minute walk from where I stayed in Reykjavik. Those people are spoiled.

Wondering,just how fare up this Tent Pole,the Snail went.

A Snowy Owl on the beach with surf crashing behind it