Matt's birthday will hereafter be easier to remember.
Our first grandson, Nicholai Harlen Krasin, arrived this evening, weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces, and measuring 21 inches. Parents and baby are doing well, but two elder sisters will have to adjust.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Happy (belated) Birthday, Matt!
Congratulations Carl and Pat!
-ChrisWest Chicago, ILChristopher May Fine Art Photography"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." ~Ansel Adams
Mookie wrote:Future management for UP?
Wishful thinking there...you can still count on one hand the number of times the girls have even seen a train (they like Thomas and their other train toys, though).
Baby Nico had a very healthy color when we got to see him--almost looks like he came out with a decent haircut! He won't be starved for attention, for sure! My sisters will be coming from Michigan to see him on Thursday (at least that's the plan).
Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!
CShaveRR wrote: Matt's birthday will hereafter be easier to remember.Our first grandson, Nicholai Harlen Krasin, arrived this evening, weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces, and measuring 21 inches. Parents and baby are doing well, but two elder sisters will have to adjust.
Congrats Carl and Happy late Birthday to Matt!
Dan
Congratulations Carl & Pat and family.
Happy birthday Matt.
Here's one for Max, a shot of C&NW #8646 leading a short container train through Wheaton. Busy day, but this was the only photo to turn out. Nonetheless, I still think I over did the color saturation and underdid the brightness/contrast. But, there it is.
We saw at least 8 trains in the short 75 minutes or so we were there. I had a devil of a time getting the right exposure, composition and lighting. There were fair weather cumulus clouds parading overhead, and that was messing with the sunlight. There might be one other photo of 8646 that I think I can work with and tweak it so it looks better, but out of nearly 50 photos from Saturday's outing, this is the only one I thought worthy.....
Wow, Tim. Nice Catch! (Not sure how I missed this when you posted it).
Meanwhile, I have some pretty exciting news. As of tomorrow (at least according to the tracking number), I'll be the proud owner of a Pentax K20D. This will be the first time I've ventured past 6 Megapixels. I loved my Canon D60 (which still seems to be putting out great pictures for Chad), and I'll be hanging onto my Pentax K100D as a back-up, but the K20D is pretty much THE camera I've been waiting for, for a long time. At 14.6 megapixels, I should be able to get close to medium format film quality in a much smaller package. It's weather sealed, so I won't have to worry too much about shooting out in the rain. The Shake Reduction is supposed to be a much improved design over the SR on my K100D (which I already love). Having a vertical grip will be a treat again. All in all, I really can't wait.
I should be out taking her for a test run this holiday weekend, so I'll be sure to post some results.
Thanks, all! The little guy's two weeks old and I still don't know for myself what color his eyes are! He makes his wishes known with a strange, squeaky little cry. In spite of those things, he's eating well (pooping even better, according to my daughter!), and the doctors have pronounced him very healthy.
His older sister expresses surprise at the things he can't do yet; his younger sister has just taken possession of him ("My baby brother!").
Tim, I have yet to get to that spot west of Wheaton. It isn't often you can catch an entire train like that. (At least I know why I didn't see it before--we were up in Michigan when it was posted, and I neglected to "open" the lounge when I came back.)
We caught five trains in our hour out this morning, including the first female engineer I've seen on our main line, piloting a very long stack train inbound.
And Chris, congratulations on your upcoming acquisition! I'm sure the results will be stunning.
Finally, belated birthday greetings to Chad! Hope it was a good one for you.
chad thomas wrote:Thanks Carl. It was a nice relaxing day at home (for once). And Chris, congrats on the new camera, and I am still enjoying the Canon.
Happy belated birthday, Chad!
Glad you're still enjoying the Canon. I've managed to play with every digital Canon made with the exception of the 1Ds Mk. III, and I still think The D60 produces the nicest colors straight out of the camera of any Canon. I love my Pentax gear, but post-processing takes longer than it did with my D60 shots.
I took and tweaked my other photo of #8646 taken that same day.... a bit of a close up. I cannot say enough about my camera's zoom capabilities.
Anyway, here it is.
Here is the kind of lighting that makes taking photos difficult. In the photo below, you can see the shadows being thrown by the fair weather cumulus clouds floating overhead. I like this photo because of the pattern created by the various heights of the train cars, what I don't like is the striping caused by the cloud shadows.
Oh, and Happy (belated) Birthday, Chad!. Have fun with the camera!
Tim - that was a neat train - especially in today's world of unit trains.
Post processing would certainly be a challenge if you tried to 'flatten' the shot out - burn a little here, dodge a little there.
The clouds were a challenge during the air show. On Saturday we had mostly a flat, gray overcast, and on Sunday we started out with a broken sky, which later went to a full overcast again, in advance of a strong line of thunderstorms.
Of course, any sort of long lens would have helped my efforts, too.
One of the biggest challenges with my Digital Rebel was the autofocus. While I was concentrating on an airplane, my camera was seeing light posts, buildings, people, and a host of other things, and trying to focus on them. Several times I shut the AF off just for that reason. If I had a clear line of sight to the aircraft, the AF worked just fine...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Carl,
Congrats on the arrival of your new grandson from a CP'er.
Tim, a couple of nice shots there. Man, that Chicago area has just got it goin' on!
A belated congrats from me as well Carl.
Tim, a couple of nice shots you've got there, even if the light didn't cooperate perfectly.
I got back yesterday from a three day trip up to the Northwoods of Minnesota on a railfan trip. We were after the last 10 locomotives from the Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range still up there, and we managed to catch 7 of them. The CN is firmly in control up that way now though, and the Missabe will be gone before you know it. I figure this was my last good look at the railroad.
I came away with a lot of darn good pictures too. In three days, I took somewhere just over 600 photos! Of course, I shoot anywhere from 3-10 photos of each train, plus a lot of roster shots of ore cars, trackside equipment, and the like, so it's not as bad as it seems. It'll be quite the task to narrow them down to my best stuff to post though. I'm hoping to have pictures up sometime this weekend.
Noah
Grats Carl!!!
Havent Been around for a while been doing some serisous railfanning with a friend. Me and him are thinking about putting out a DVD (Just a thought). Just missed the Katy and CNW heritage units( Little mad about that, been dying to see the Katy and CNW) I didnt even get a good look at it, another train was in the way, I only could see the trucks of the Katy and the ogo of CNW. O well maybe next time.
Colin
http://myPictures(jacobtrainsimg-img
Whatcha got there, Tim? I keep getting error messages.
Had a relatively dull, quiet weekend here; it'll get really slow over the next couple of days (normal, post-holiday). The perishable train actually made it through well before I left work, and anybody watching trains in Elmhurst should have had a good day.
Grrrrr......
That's my 7 year old son thinking he can post his photos . He took a snap shot with my old digital camera, and wants everyone to see it, and apparently this was his attempt to insert an image. I am changing my password, again!
Not railroad, obviously (although there was a small "railroad" inside the castle to bring supplies up from the dock), but a nice sunset on the St. Lawrence River:
My daughter was using my tripod for her fireworks pictures, so I shot all of mine freehand. Here's one better example:
This annual event brings in enough boats that one can almost walk across from Heart Island to the mainland without getting one's feet wet.
Larry. Nice sunset picture.... I love the colors. And, for a "free hand" shot, the photo of the fireworks is really nice. Thanks for sharing.!
Speaking of fireworks, here are mine from July 3rd, Oak Brook Terrace from the parking garage of the Wyndham Drake Hotel. It's great fun, the parking deck spots are primo, and it's first come first serve, everyone "tailgates" up there before the show starts.
I finally got a tripod for Father's Day, so that made these photos possible. I set the camera on the tripod, and set the shutter for a 2.5 second exposure at f/8.0. I then set the 2 second countdown timer to fire the camera to minimize camera shake.
Larry, is that in the Thousand Islands? I remember Boldt Castle from a tour my family took there [gasp!] 45 years ago. My sister was inspired to take her family back there last summer.
Saw no fireworks at all over the Fourth--they were past our bedtime. That's one thing I miss now that I don't work second shift--Tower A has about the best seat in the house for the shows from all of the suburbs within about six miles. And yes, if one knows where to look between the skyscrapers, one can see the bigger bursts from Chicago's display on the 3rd (we even see U.S. Cellular Field's scoreboard when someone on the Sox hits a home run).
CShaveRR wrote: Larry, is that in the Thousand Islands? I remember Boldt Castle from a tour my family took there [gasp!] 45 years ago. My sister was inspired to take her family back there last summer..
Larry, is that in the Thousand Islands? I remember Boldt Castle from a tour my family took there [gasp!] 45 years ago. My sister was inspired to take her family back there last summer..
Indeed. The castle has changed substantially since you saw it - it's been stabilized and some parts that weren't finished (like the porch) are done now. While the initial effort was to simply preserve it as it stood, there has been more done than that, and the work continues.
We were sitting on the dock at the Boldt Yacht House, which is a tourist attraction in and of itself now.
....All nice fireworks photos. Liked the sundown photo of the castle Larry.
Quentin
Larry and Tim, excellent shots. I especially liked the castle shot, Larry! Thanks for sharing!
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