Train Pics

Today's my dad's birthday...so I'm writing about Trains and pictures of Trains. My dad has a bit of an obsession with Trains. There's this website that he likes to look at to look at pictures of trains. And at one point in his life he used to go take pictures of trains with a with real camera - back in the days before digital - and then develop the pictures in his darkroom in the basement. He had pretty much stopped taking pictures when I was a kid and then got interested again after he retired. I'm not sure if I would have my fabulous DSLR if my dad hadn't gotten one first. In fact, mine is just a newer version of the same one he has.

Anyways, there was a point to this before I started rambling. A few weeks ago, my dad was lamenting the fact that he couldn't find any good trains to take pictures of because we don't have nice scenic places to take pictures (like the ones in Colorado with the mountains in the background, or the ones in western Kansas where there's just flat fields all around, etc, etc, etc). And you have to really know the train schedules or have a scanner otherwise the chances of finding a train in the few scenic type places and being in position to take a picture are slim.

Last Saturday, Claire and I were on our way back from the mall and we drove past this little park with a little pond and I noticed a train, just sitting there. Trains that aren't moving are much easier to take pictures of, particularly when you have a toddler in the car so you can drive around a bit trying to get as close as possible without leaving the car. Unfortunately, since my original plan was just a trip to the mall, my (dad's) telephoto lens was sitting at home on my desk. Which means I was still pretty far away. If I'd been willing to get Claire out of the car, I could've walked around the pond to the otherside right by the train and gotten some good pictures. But it was almost lunch time.

Here's the picture...for my dad - and since my dad doesn't look at my blog, hopefully my mom will show it to him.