Bang, Zoom Go The Fireworks! (Part Two)

Keeping this one simple, guys. Germantown's fireworks, shot on Kodachrome 64 slide film (!) in 1996 (except for the first two frames, which were taken in 1998 - when it was obviously much less windy). Seeya!

The Map Stayed Closed

More shots from the "Cruising Years." We wandered farther and farther from home (Germantown, MD) - deeper into West Virginia, and into the Ohio Valley - in search of whatever caught our eye. When we came across the cool sign for Coolville, OH above, it was time to turn around and head back east, so we didn't get to see the town. Bet it was cool, though.

Here today, gone tomorrow. Identical compositions, shot from the same spot in Cambria, WV in 1997. The power plant at Haywood is only a couple of miles away, so the second shot is a good indication of just how thick the fog between the hills can get.

Two frames of former Western Maryland Railway's old shay locomotive #6 at Cass, WV in 1997. These heavy little brutes were used for decades to haul timber down from the mountains, and required a unique design in order to handle the steep grades they had to climb. They had one long set of connecting rods that powered all the wheels under the engine and tender, rather than just a few drivers under the boiler. It's the steam locomotive equivalent of all-wheel drive.

Cass, WV may be synonymous with the tourist railroad now, but it was born as a logging town. The forests have mostly grown back, but a few decades ago the dilapidated mill shown above was busy, the trains carried timber and the surrounding hills were nearly devoid of trees.

"Tobacco Barn - Southern MD - 1998." Hastily shot by [Maris] from the car. You would think shots like this would be easier to get in Southern MD, but no. Apparently, tobacco is very shy.

Closer to home, we couldn't resist the light on St. John's Episcopal Church in Olney, MD - 1999.

Hard to resist the sunset light on the old town hall building in Poolesville, MD in the summer of 1998.

"Sunset Over Ohio Corn - Rt. 7, OH - 1997." He wants you, too, Malachai! He wants you, too...

Roads To Nowhere

Time to drive into the middle of nowhere and find ourselves. In the second half of 1997, I put 30,000 miles on my car - and I wasn't always the one driving on these road trips. [Maris] and I fell in love with much of West Virginia, starting with the Scenic US Route 50 and venturing southward from there. Above, I'm pretty sure the two opposing road signs are trying to tell us "Look! The Center of The Universe! It's right here! Where are you going?"

Scenic US Rt. 50 - somewhere in West Virginia in 1997. Not always sunny, but trust me when I tell you it's the kind of road on which you'd want to shoot sports car advertisements.

"Another Planet's Barn, WV - 1997." A companion photo to one from my last post, this scene was downright surreal to us, as we had just emerged from hours of driving through some deep, dark woods.

"Cave, WV - 1997."

From Point of Rocks, MD: "Leaves in ballast." Look - dewdrops!

"Church and Fallen Leaves, WV - 1997." I'm too lazy to look up the location in [Maris'] notes, but this is one of our favorite shots, and one where we began to seriously collaborate on composition.

"Cass Scenic Railroad's #2." Shot as it pushed a trainload of tourists from Cass, WV to the summit of Bald Knob in 1997.

Another big-time collaborative effort, this one from an October, 1997 trip to Snowshoe, WV. "Barn and Tree Near Snowshoe." We're not into witty titles, as you might have guessed by now.

"Road from Spruce Knob to Nowhere." This shot is from our second visit to Spruce Knob (West Virginia's highest point). On the first trip, we took a wrong turn leaving the mountain and really did end up on a road to nowhere - and with Very Little gas. I still don't know where we were for about 3 hours.

"Always in motion is the future..."

I've fallen behind in the scanning of my pre-digital photos, so whilst I tackle the closet full of material from the late 1990s through mid-2000s, please enjoy this sampling of Things To Come. Above, "Keys Color" - Key Largo, FL - 1993. Yes, that is indeed an old truck trailer.

"Another Planet, WV" - 1998. It started with quick jaunts in [Maris'] convertible, into the Appalachian foothills of Frederick and Washington Counties in Maryland in 1996. By 1998, we were deliberately getting as lost as we could in some of the most sparsely populated areas of West Virginia. The scene above presented itself just moments after we emerged from hours of driving through thick forest, so it struck us as a completely alien landscape.

Speaking of alien landscapes - "Beech Trees on Clingmans's Dome, TN" - 1998. We also attempted to reach the highest points of all the states within driving distance, and this photo was taken not far from Tennessee's high point.

Churches! Early in the top-down "Cruising Years," we photographed every church we could find. This was often exceedingly frustrating, since so many of them are draped with unsightly wires, wedged between ugly downtown buildings or obscured by obnoxious signage. This one, on US Rt. 11 in Virginia in 1998, was very cooperative.

As difficult as churches can be, covered bridges can be even worse, usually due to signs or trees. This photographer-friendly structure is "Covered Bridge #32" in Groveton, New Hampshire - 1998.

Lighthouses! I keep promising lighthouses, so here's a peek at the many dozens of east coast lights we've shot so far. Above is "Bass Harbor Head Cupola," Bass Harbor, Maine - 2004.

"Joe on American Shoals Light, Florida" - 2000. [Maris] shot this from a wildly pitching little 17-footer while our guide threatened to take off with her, leaving me stranded miles from the nearest Florida Key in the middle of our honeymoon.

"Fort Jefferson Moat Wall" - Dry Tortugas, FL - 2000. This fort is about 30 minutes (by seaplane) west of Key West, but it might as well be in the middle of the Caribbean. This is a contender for the title of My Happy Place.

Oh, and we've got PANDAS! [Maris] and I are well-nigh obsessed with these animals, and have been visiting the current residents of the National Zoo's Panda House since they moved in. We have eleventy frillion shots (and hours of video) of all three bears. Above, Mei and Tian's cub Tai Shan hones his climbing skills in January 2006.

THANKS FOR HANGING OUT WITH ME!
More soon...

More Critters!

Here are a few more images - taken at various points on my photographic learning curve - of the creatures that fascinate me. All were shot on film and then scanned. Above, seagulls atop the Sunview Motel in Rehoboth Beach, DE in 1985. I was too comfortable to get up from my beach towel, so this was shot using every millimeter of my zoom.

Still unwilling to move, I shot this beggar at a range of about 12 feet. Rehoboth - 1985.

Who can resist a kitten? Not me. Especially not little Tarzan, captured here with his "Dad" in Damascus, MD in the first few days of 1995.

Butterfly and roadside flowers along Route 3 in Virginia's Northern Neck - 1999.

With slow film, inadequate light and no flash, I wasn't quite able to freeze this peacock as sharply as I'd have liked (didn't quite nail the manual focus, either), but I find his colors and downright hostile expression to be irresistible. St. Augustine, FL - 1999.

I've always loved sandpipers, but they are really tough to photograph. The rascals in this shot were scampering along the surf at dawn (DAWN! I was up at dawn, once!) in Naples, FL in 1999. I caught them just as one bird decided to go rogue and reverse direction.

Odd Bird Out - near Pier 39 in San Francisco, CA - 1987. On the other side of the railing is a 25-foot drop to a busy highway, so I don't know what this web-footed little guy was thinking. Also not sure what kind of bird this is. Anyone?

Speaking of animals that are hard to photograph...
Hummingbird Pit Stop - Lancaster, VA - 2001.

Squirrels, on the other hand, are more than happy to sit up and strike (and hold!) a pose for the camera. This is one of my mother's overfed little rodents in Rockville, MD in 1991.

I have hundreds of better shots of DC's current giant pandas, but this 1996 image of a pensive old Hsing-Hsing alone in his yard conveys more about the species - and about this bear in particular - than I can put into words here.

THANKS FOR VISITING. Coming soon - the cruising years: mountains and barns and churches and all sorts of oddball discoveries from the mid-Atlantic states...

Trains: The Chase Continues

Okay. It's late. I haven't much to say that's of any value, or even the least bit interesting. Here be some more photographs of trains, taken between 1991 and 1996 on The Met. Above - Ex-Reading Lines GP39-2 - now CSX #4317 - leads empty auto-racks west through Germantown's MARC station in 1993.

Idling power at the head end of Q401 waiting for the call from the dispatcher - Brunswick, MD - 1996.

Sure, I could have cropped out the "S" curves in the foreground, but why? That's the best part of this 1991 shot of eastbound Q216 east of Germantown, MD.

The roundhouse to the right is long gone, but the turntable on which we find CSX #6103 is still in use today. Brunswick, MD - 1994.

EB "pigs" emerging from the old B&O tunnel at Monument Street, Baltimore - 1994.

Eastbound CSX freight crossing the Thomas Viaduct, one of the oldest bridges of any kind in the US - and still solid as a rock - between Relay and Elkridge, MD - 1992.

By 1995, the "Back Shops" area at Cumberland Locomotive Facility was littered with old GP30s awaiting delivery to regional/short-line railroads, museums and . . . . . . scrap yards. This is #4210, wearing rust (and maybe fire damage - upper right) like badges of honor, in the summer of 1995 at Cumberland, MD.

One of my favorite shots of the MARC F-units in action. This is #82 as it scampers past Randolph Road near Rockville, MD in 1991. I was born out of time...

More More More... Soon... I Promise...