RustedRail's Ramblings is where I share some of my favorite photos along with other thoughts on life.

Towards art, my journey

July 17, 2014 • 2 Comments

A big challenge for me has been to embrace the idea of becoming more "artistic" in my image making.
Mabry Fall ReflectionsMabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway is the most photographed location on the route.

Visitors can enjoy the chance to see how life "was back then" through living history demonstrations on the weekends during the season.

Spring flowers abound and everyone should experience the beauty of a Blue Ridge fall at least once.
I was born and raised in the "realism" camp of photography where especially railroad photography was designed to capture the actual moment. There was not a lot of room for artistic interpretations and photoshop was (still is in many circles) a crime.

In the age of digital cameras and YouTube there are millions of railfans photographing and videoing almost every square inch of rail in the US. A lot of those images start to look alike, even to a buff to me.

When I go out railfanning these days, I find myself searching for the less obvious, the historical, or the unique. Something different than the me too shots of the next train, or a special paint scheme.

I believe that we are each capable of creating something "better".
Taking what we "see" with our camera and making it into something that tells an entire story visually.

The end result isn't "photography" per se, but more digital art. I've never had any talent with a paint brush or drawing, but I've found a way to express that desire to create. It is my own way to be an "artist", something I never thought I'd call myself.

Fun Along the Road

January 18, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Fun along the Road by John Margolies is trip across America to find all of the Quirky "Americana" type places that used to line the highways of the United States before the advent of the Interstate System.

Some of his finds are known nationally such as "Rock City" in Chattanooga, Tennessee; famous for its painted barn advertisements throughout the Southeast.

Others are smaller places, many now closed and demolished, which survived on the drive by traffic on the adjacent highway.

Margolies photographed these locations during years of road-trips which totaled over 100,000 miles.

For example, it is interesting to find out for example how many "Paul Bunyan" giant statues have been erected over the years in many different states.

Margolies wrote many books on similar topics and most of them can be picked up quite inexpensively now on the used book market.

River Reflections

August 16, 2013 • Leave a Comment

River Reflections

The old Southern Railway bridge is still used by trains and leads from South Carolina (on the far shore) into downtown Augusta, Georgia. Usually the surface of the river is rippled by boat traffic or wind, but this day it seemed extra "smooth" and ready to be photographed.

Why Post Process?

When I started in photography and even digital photography I was completely of the school that post-processing was somehow "cheating" or bad. The idea was to get the perfect "Straight-from-the-camera" shot that accomplished everything you wanted it to.

Later on when I moved to Lightroom; I discovered Silver Efex, which is now part of the Nik Collection by Google package, which allows you to create a variety of black & white conversion effects.

I use SilverEfex Pro 2 for 90% of my black & white conversions and often use ColorEfex Pro 4 on color shots or to pre-process before moving to silverefex to finish up.

I really like how you can control the amount of the effects to best come up with the results you want. Each image requires a different combination to end up with what you want. You get those options.

I've learned that I get the most enjoyment from photography by post-processing to make them "my own". Taking a RAW file and tweaking it to come up with an image that "says" what I want it to. Sometimes it is easy, but sometimes it can be a long process. But the end results are worth it to me.

Around and Around

August 13, 2013 • Leave a Comment

shapes and angles

Sometimes we feel life is just going around and around and we aren't going anywhere

Or... we pay to have that feeling.. just to enjoy the view from the top.

#transportTuesday

Looking for trains or why I am a railfan

August 02, 2013 • Leave a Comment

I still find it interesting when I first describe my "railfanning" hobby to others.

The idea that I'll go and spend time looking for trains or taking photographs of them seems "strange" or odd.

Well.. it's just something I enjoy doing. Why?

The easiest answer is I like trains. I have thought they were cool since I was a young kid. My dad built us an HO-scale model railroad in the garage (we didn't have basements in California, and we used to run them around the plywood with a few buildings and a "Plaster of Paris" mountain in the corner. I really enjoyed going to Balboa Park to visit the huge model railroad museum there (which still exists http://www.sdmrm.org/ ) and also our trips to Los Angeles on Amtrak. These days, I enjoy photographing railroads too. They are never the same and make for interesting subjects.

Also, I like history. When I look at the names on the side of boxcars you can usually see a few from railroads that don't exist any more. Some times they might have merged into a current railroad, but many times they have just been abandoned. I see those names and it reminds me of their stories.

Finally, I like transportation. Trains move things. Even when they are empty they are on their way to bring another load. Be it a hopper full of coal for a power plant, a tankcar full of chemicals, Amtrak train full of passengers, a container load of toys for Christmas, or whatever. Without trains, America would stop.

So while other folks get excited over sports, hunting, running, or whatever; I'll stick with my trains. See you by the tracks.