Time has a way of changing one's perspectives. It's not usually a sudden change but instead one that happens on its own schedule.
As I have practiced Photoshop and other photo processing software, I have become more adept at creating images that more effectively communicate the feeling I had when I made the image. That is a goal of my prototype photography, and also my modeling - to take the viewer along for the experience.
Here's an image from a 2014 trip to Syracuse, NY, expressly to photograph the last stand of the classic searchlight signals on the former NYC main line. These signals worked into the Conrail era and beyond into the CSX era, and were finally replaced about a year after I made these images with modern color-light signals. This experience was awesome - this train surprised us, following another westbound, and the sky was in the last stage of dusk. The image was a tough one. Last daylight with a camera of that era had a photograph with reds all washed out, muddy shadows and a bland sky.
Back in 2014, my skills weren't enough to even show this image to anyone! Today, while I am still a long way from being an expert with this, I was able to bring the image to a spot in my mind's eye that reminded me of standing there in the cold, shivering, waiting for one more shot. Reds were restored, the sky layered up, and color temperature adjusted. And so here we have Q367, if I recall, the daily Selkirk-to-Chicago manifest train. Today it is complete with Union Pacific power enroute to home rails.
And we have an image that is worthy of the memory: for a moment, it's like being there.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and best wishes into the holiday season!
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