Monday, January 25, 2010

Bridges With Roofs - Part One

Sauck's Bridge - Gettysburg, PA - 2002

Snooks Covered Bridge - Bedford County, PA - 1998

Covered Bridge whose name I'm too lazy to look up (and my intrepid little Chevy) - Somerset County, PA - 2001

Damp Covered Bridge - Frederick County, MD - 1997

Near Harrisonburg, VA - 1998

Hall's Mill Covered Bridge - Near Everette, PA - 1998


Hughes Covered Bridge - Washington, PA - 1997

Thanks for visiting - Ciao!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Trains of New England

Okay gang - before we wrap up the 1998 trip to New England, here are a few parting shots to illustrate the fact that yes, there are trains and mountains here. The shot above is probably only remotely interesting to railfans - and even then, not very. This southbound Amtrak train, stopping at Kingston, RI station, is unremarkable. The diesel engines, however, would soon be replaced by electrics, as the infrastructure was nearly complete in the project that electrified the Northeast Corridor from Connecticut to Boston. Okay - even *I'm* bored...

The little rolling tourist trap above is the Old Colony Scenic RR in Newport, RI. Under-appreciated old equipment, but oh, the VIEWS...

A saddle-tank steamer, relegated to holding a paper company's PR office in place. Maine. The way life should be.

Yorkrail GP-9. I know it doesn't look like much to you non-railfans, but trust me - that machine is OLD. And that's cool. Think "'55 Chevy..."

Near Mt. Washington, NH.

Mt. Washington Cog Railway. Note the inclined boiler on the locomotive. Utterly unique. Best tourist trap east of the Mississippi.

... it climbs THIS...

... and pushes coaches full of people ...

... using the cogs in the center "rail" and a gear-like wheel - not unlike old wooden roller-coasters. It's hard to describe, really. Go there. Try it. Love it. Tell 'em Joe and [Maris] sent you. They'll say, "Who?" but that's okay.

You'll end up in the sky. No cell phones, please.

I know it's not America's highest point, but it's somehow exceedingly impressive. One of the windiest places on the planet.

Alien Landscape - Mt. Washington, NH - 1998.

Muchos Gracias for the visit, guys. Keep those cards and letters coming. More to come. Ta...

Saturday, January 16, 2010

More Fun In New England

Our first trip to New England (in 1998) resulted from a check of the national weather map the night before our week off. We were simply following the sun, but we ended up falling in love with the whole region - especially the rural and coastal areas. Above is Spring Point Ledge Light near Portland, Maine, shot with a hand-held 500mm mirror reflex lens at a range of about 3 miles.

Point Judith Coast Guard Station, RI.

Kingston Station, RI. I want to pick this building up and bring it to the old B&O in Maryland.

Boston Harbor and Graves Lights, MA. This photo makes me crazy. It is fraught with technical problems, but I love the composition and the hazy softness. I will definitely re-shoot this, someday.

Cemetery - Salem, MA. OLD, spooky, haunted graveyard! Pilgrims and witch-hunters - oh my!

New England Church #9 - probably somewhere in Massachusetts.

Whaleback Light, ME. Another one that will need to be re-shot, but just in case it's gone next time we get up that way - here you go!

Turning inland from the Portland, ME area and making a few wrong turns, we found ourselves deep in moose country. The moose we encountered were entirely too cranky to allow us to photograph them, so we settled for this moose crossing sign.

There were supposedly wild snowmobiles roaming the mountains, as well. We didn't see any, though.

Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge - Cornish, NH. "Walk Your Horses Or Pay Two Dollars Fine." We ran ours, because we are daredevil outlaws livin' on the edge.

Bath, NH Bridge. Their fine was half as much as in Cornish, so we met them halfway and just trotted our little Chevy horses. It seemed like the right thing to do.

Thanks for stopping by. Next up, a last look at New England 1998, including weird trains!

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Lights of New England

I'M BACK!! I still have eleventy bazillion more negatives to scan, but for now, let's take a quick trip through New England. In 1998, we drove the coast from Connecticut to around York, Maine (skipping the Cape Cod area, which warrants its own trip), before turning inland. Here are some of the lighthouses we found along the way. Things were still pretty random, back then. Watch for later posts, in which the actual photography just gets better and better. Above: Jameston, RI proves that not all lighthouses are pretty (Beavertail Light).

New London, CT (guarded by police on horseback - they're afraid it will try to make a break for it).

Old Stonington Lighthouse - Stonington, CT. It's made of stone!

Point Judith, RI - as seen on TV, in a recent ad campaign by the US Marines.

Old Scituate Light - Scituate, CT. It has a cool story about little girls thwarting the British here, but we can't remember it right now.

Fort Pickering Light - Winter Island - Salem, MA. Gorgeous spot. Lighthouse and sailboat are just bonus.

Marblehead Range Light - Marblehead, MA.

Goat Island Light - Off Cape Porpoise, ME. This was shot, hand-held, through a 500mm mirror lens - no easy task. I'll just go ahead and say the "soft" focus was my idea. And [Maris] loves it.

Cape Neddick "Nubble" Light - Cape Neddick, ME. One of Maine's perfect lighthouses. More shots of this one are sure to come.

Portland Head Light, at Cape Elizabeth, is Maine's other perfect lighthouse. It's so over-photographed from the sides that I actually waited for a very cold hour for this people-free shot looking straight out to sea. That's Ram Island Ledge Light, off to the left. (More shots of these still to come - we went back in 2004.)

Jamestown, RI sunset.

Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks for encouraging my little hobby. See you in 2010...
-Joe

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

NaNoWriMo 2009

Guess where I was all November! And now, I have a JOB. The posts may get a little scarce for a while. Sorry! Check back, just in case...

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Bottom-feeders - An Ode

Buzzards know carrion when they see it. The scavengers above know exactly what they're doing. Kent County, MD - 1998.

So does this guy, lurking above Shenandoah Junction, WV in 1998.

This one has no idea, but he's learning. The strand of barbed wire is helping. Shenandoah Valley, WV - 1998.

Pygmy goat, near Point of Rocks, MD - 1998. He sees me.

"Whot?"

Shenandoah Junction Cat - 1998.

"Whot?"

Thursday, November 12, 2009

=OUT OF ORDER=

While we're waiting for the photo blog repairman, here's another dose of photographic whimsy. Above, a work train gondola, tagged by the legendary Cool Disco Dan (or some poser - it looks authentic to me, though), Brunswick, MD - 1991.

Skipping ahead to June 3rd, 2004. This is Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth, ME - shot with my 2.0mp Kodak - my first digital camera.

Skipping back. (I'm out of order? No, you're out of order. This whole COURT is out of order!) Alcatraz Island, as seen from Where Everybody Sees It - Fisherman's Wharf - San Francisco, CA - 1987.

Jumping to March, 1993 - this is the aftermath of the wreck of CSX S-216 at Germantown, MD. Those are mushed new cars, retrieved from shredded auto-racks at the bottom of a 40-foot ravine.

Falling WAY back, to Spring of 1982, this is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO - shot on 126 cartridge film with my Instamatic. I kid you not.

Jane and Bubba The Party Snake - Rockville, MD - 1990. Jane loved Bubba.

Hurtling forward through space and time to 1998... this is the view looking northeast from the summit of Spruce Knob, West Virginia's highest point. That's yours truly's shadow at the lower left.

Hurtling back only one year, this is the War Correspondents Memorial in Crampton's Gap, MD in 1997.

Zoom - it's 2004 and we're in Maine. Barely visible through the morning mist is a tiny harbor and a lobster house where they probably don't take American Express.

Six years prior, here's a 1998 shot of the Shenandoah Skyline. There was meteorological shenanigans afoot; that streak of white is a low-hanging cloud deck unto its own self.

Okay -Now I have to get back to what I was supposed to be doing. OR.... find something else to do that isn't what I'm supposed to be doing! Hmmm...
Seeya!