day 336

ISO 100, 16mm, f/16, 5.0 sec.

Day 336 - Dear pixel gods

Thank you!!!

I've got a couple of things happening here. I decided that for my last 31 days of this 365 project I wanted to focus on taking pictures around Salem and if I can at my favorite twilighty time of night.

The weather this week has been really wet. When the sun started to break through, I asked my boss if I could bail early so that I could get that twilighty time and he obliged.

Not really knowing where I was going I headed for the river front. The after work traffic was awful. I wasn't patient enough to wait for the traffic, so I went with the flow and headed towards one of the museums. On a whim we decided to walk over to the train station.

The next passenger train wasn't coming for another two hours and I set up behind the depot waiting for the light.

I wasn't expecting the freight train that blew his whistle behind me. So I left my settings where they were and started walking as fast as I could to the other end of the station. I sat the tripod down and this was my first click.

ISO 100, 16mm, f/2.8, 0.5 sec.

The same settings lost the motion of the train completely so I adjusted as quickly as I could to a faster shutter speed and moved my camera ever so slightly to the right to pick up the train and the station.

You can almost feel the wind of the train going by.

ISO 100, 16mm, f/16, 15.0 sec.

And then, the train was gone as quickly as it arrived. I went back to my original spot and got the image I originally was out to get.

Just to add one more spin. I am currently reading David duChemin's book Within the Frame. This morning I was reading about the creative muse. He talks about lack of inspiration, and what if I have just taken my last good picture.

In a few paragraphs later he writes, "Forget the absence of the muse. Head out without her. Wander until your eyes open; then you'll find the muse is already there, waiting."

He was right.