BUT WE DON'T EAT EGGS ANYMORE...

About a year ago, Marci and I began a "plant-based-whole-foods" diet. Basically, we don't eat animal protein anymore. So no eggs. Then what would the bunny bring on Easter? Uh oh... Turns out, little eggs made from cardboard are actually more fun to color on! 

ANNUAL

Exactly one year since the last post. Honestly, I didn't plan that. However, it is fitting. This space has become just like the many partially started books which clutter the back corners of seldom remembered drawers, cupboards, boxes, backpacks, and shelves of my life. Blah, blah, blah. Why bother? Seriously. 

The Senior Railfan

I grew up next to my Dad while standing along some random railroad tracks. When I was behaving myself, I got to hold his "other" camera in case he needed to make a quick swap. Usually, one camera was loaded with film and had the telephoto lens while the other camera was loaded with slide film and sported a standard 50mm. These were my formative years as a young railfan, where I was taught that patience always got the best shot. To this day, my Dad is one of the most influential artists in my life. And at the young age of 70, he still gets out for an entire day of "chasing trains." Here is an account of his most recent day of rail-faning. ~b

Got a heads-up from Snowman today that the Norfolk Southern was sending a westbound coal drag over the Ohio Central. It was a beautiful day and I hadn't shot much on the OC lately, so I grabbed the camera and took off in search of the NS coal drag. I was expecting the NS SD70ACes or ES44ACs, but found two of OC's SD40-2s leading a Dash-9 and a Dash-8. 

Ohio Central, SD40-2 #4022 is in the classic OC paint scheme while #3340 wears the new Genesee and Wyoming colors. Seen here at the old Coshocton Ohio Freight House just west of the Depot. photo © Roger E. Beighley, 2015

I chased him only as far as Dresden, but as a little bonus, the OC thru in the southbound train RHT. Got a couple shots of him doing a little street running in Dresden.

Ohio Central train symbol RHT works over the crossings at Dresden, Ohio. On point for this move is OC #3305, which hasn't yet received its new colors and still has its Canadian running lights over the number boards. photo © Roger E. Beighley, 2015.

Bringing up the rear, and with the EOT hung on the knuckle, is another set of Ohio Central units in Genesee and Wyoming paint. photo © Roger E. Beighley, 2015.

I then went back to Trinway and caught up with the NS coal drag again at the crossing just as the sun was beginning to set.

The westbound Norfolk Southern coal drag keeps pace along the old "Pennsy Panhandle," seen here at Trinway, Ohio. photo © Roger E. Beighley

It's Been A Minute

It's funny how things get away from you. It's not so funny how time flees from you. Two years since I've posted here. Two years since I've even thought about it. Because, well... Who cares. It might be someone else reading these words, but more than likely it's just me. Re-reading. 

So, n8tch. What do I want this to be? What is this place? Just trains? Or is this the new "Interlocutor"? Is this the new place where I wander around in my own head, and then ramble babble bit for no good reason other than to make The Mark? Guess so. OK, here we go then. Whoa, did I say two years? Try three. Like I mentioned, time flees!

From the Conductor's Side

Four years of Art School have completely ruined my ability to just look out the window. I'm always more interested in looking at how my view is broken up into panels by the windows themselves or by the reflections on top of other reflections. As far as office views go, you can't do much better than this without being a pilot or an astronaut.

(just so you know, any 'warping' of the image was optical, and not a post effect.)

"Twin Views Times Two, #1" 2010, digital image. Photo by - Anonymous

"Twin Views Times Two, #2" 2010, digital image. Photo by - Anonymous

2011 HEADERS

Changing the Header picture at the beginning of the blog is such a love/hate thing for me. I like each one so much that I don't want to replace it, but I have so much fun making a new one! It may be something I should seek help with. Maybe there's a medication for it. But just so I don't feel bad about the older ones, I will keep all the year's "headers" here in this post.

"Marci and Lu at Mee-mee's house for Christmas" 2010, Digital Image. Photo by Brett A. Beighley

Windows West

I want so badly to get my Lubitel out on the road. How much fun would that old unpredictable plastic lens be? I never worried about specifics when I shot with that camera. Get the exposure close and hope for the best. Focus? Seriously? With a Lubitel? That sort of went against the whole point of using a Russian made "toy" camera. With that camera I was always trying to photograph a memory, or capture a feeling, or illustrate a mood. It gave me an opportunity to bypass photography's more technical aspects and consider the content of my images instead of the technique. And of all my cameras, my Lubitel is still one of my favorites. These next few images remind me in some ways of my time with the Lubitel, in that while being restricted by the technical aspects of the camera, an interesting image will almost always find its way through the view finder of someone willing to look for it.

"West at Night" near Freindsville, OH. 2010, digital image. Photo by - Anonymous

"Westbound at Sunset" near Creston, OH. 2010, digital image. Photo by - Anonymous

"Overhead Bridge" westbound at Sullivan, OH. 2010, digital image. Photo by - Anonymous

"State Line at Sunrise" just east of Lowellville, OH. 2010, digital image. Photo by - Anonymous

"Nova Tower" Nova Tower looking West, 2010, digital image. Photo by - Anonymous

Another Winter Comes East...

I really wanted this winter to be better. I wanted to not put 100,000 miles on the odometer of my other-wise brand new truck. I didn't want to spend one cold night of 2011 sleeping in the front seat of that same truck. Nissan's are nice but they don't make very good hotel rooms. I did not, did not, want to see Connellsville again, but I will. Sometimes, being a grown up is really no fun.

I could just take the layoff. Chances are I would get back to work fairly soon. I might only miss a couple paychecks. The savings account could handle it. Right? (Deep breath, big sigh.) Yes and maybe and perhaps with a little bit of who-knows and I'm-not-sure. The only known thing here is that the savings account would get smaller, and that just isn't very responsible, huh? No. It isn't. I'm a husband, and a father. I'm a provider. I don't get to cry about long nights away from home, and I don't get to complain about horrible weather on the roads, and I just have to stand up and be "that-guy."

Pack the pillow and the blanket behind the driver's seat. This isn't forever. This isn't the way it will always be. It could get better. It should.

"Window Frame #1" from an Eastbound Freight running through south Akron, Ohio, 2010. Photo by: Anonymous

Marci Gets a Trim

Another year. It's strange how you can sometimes feel the weight of the old year shifting away. How you can sense, on that last December day, that things are coming to an end. It's nothing really but a day on a calendar, but we all feel it. And even though it comes in the middle of winter, though everything around us is cold, empty, and grey, there is that contentedness we have with the knowledge that tomorrow is new. The first of January is the lightest of days. It's all possibility. It's hope of maybe doing it right this time around. It's another start. And sometimes, to make it really feel official, you need a new haircut.

"Marci's New Haircut." January, 2011

2010 HEADERS