Archive for February 2012

0

Wierd Land Art on Ice

I had to trudge over the frozen lake to check this out. Someone dragged three fallen trees out onto Cedar Lake and build a little freelance Land Art. Pretty cool actually, I wonder if it was for the Loppet cross-country ski race that never happened. The trail for the ski race goes right past this.

1

Cattails in the Sun

Golden Brown cattails plus the Golden Hour light equals yummy.

0

Here Comes the Sun

The sun peaks up over the Cedar Corridor prairie. Sometimes it's fun to stare at the sun.

1

False Hope

It's Friday, the end of the week and the end of the series on rusted railroad details. For the end, I decided to go with this beautiful disaster, False Hope caught my eye and inspired me to go overboard on post-processing to turn it into a valentine. I removed all the color except the red and shifted some others to white or red. Don't worry, I'm ok, I just liked the image and the mood it creates. Have a great weekend!

0

Western Fruit Express Company

In 1965, the American Security and Trust Company's leased this fruit-hauling boxcar to the Western Fruit Express Company. Unfortunately, nearly 50 years later, this poor old U. Series piece of equipment appears to have been left outside unattended and subjected to the weather and nefarious spray-can-wielding vandals.

2

Old Number 5059

This is the prow of a retired locomotive at the Minnesota Commercial Railroad roundhouse in St. Paul. Look closely, the number is actually 5059, the 50 has been painted over.

1

Red Great Northern Boxcar

This week,  I'm showing some of my graffiti-covered railroad close-ups.

0

Graffiti-strewn Boxcar

I love taking photos like this. Old rusty boxcars are a tapestry of textures and colors. Ok, I admit, I do a lot of post-processing to draw out the colors, but the final effect is fun to look at. I have a few more, so come back this week and enjoy!

2

The Glorious Engine

Yesterday I ventured out with my buddy Dusty to explore the yards of the Minnesota Commercial Railroad. We stopped in the office to pick up our permission form and went exploring. You'll see a lot of railroad photos on my site, please keep in mind, I am a professional, do not attempt this at home! All kidding aside, seek permission where you can and be careful. Trains cannot stop. You hear all kinds of analogies about how heavy they are, but here's the numbers for an average train: 3 locomotives at 420,000 lbs each with 75 cars at 260,000 lbs each = 20,760,000 lbs or 10,380 tons. That's heavier than than the WWII Cruiser USS Springfield; a 610ft blue-water warship with 56 guns. And... Navy Warships go much slower than the average train, so that whole force=mass x acceleration thingy means it's going to hurt even more.

1

Barrels of Fun

Ever wonder what the Parks Department does with the garbage barrels in the winter? It seems I found where they hide them. Goes to show that in the right light, everything looks good.