Twenty years. Long post.

[Archives1]

Most of you have seem my cute little squirrel on my profile. Not a lot of you know just how deep photography runs in my blood. My father was a photographer, even had some published photos in our local paper (I still have them). Sadly, my father passed away in 1993 in a tragic accident. Years later I needed an elective for grade school and took photography. I ended up using my fathers 35mm film cameras and learned to develop black and white film. I fell in love with it. Sadly as the class ended so did my ability to get film and have somewhere to develop it. That Christmas I was surprised with my first digital camera. A Kodak EasyShare ZD710 'that I still have.'

As a young photographer I never thought that a photograph that I took on 7/16/2001 would still have such a impact on my life. My brothers and I were visiting my uncle in New York City. We took in the sights and experiences of the big city for the first time. Being some one that loved photography, I took enough photos to fill the small memory cards I had never thinking about the impact those photos would have. But just 57 days later this photograph that I took was no longer possible of being recreated. The world had change. Evil had attacked us. Back home at in Florida I watched I horror as the events of 9/11 unfolded before my own eyes. This photograph means a lot to me. It shows what we lost, but also the strength of our nation to rebuild a grow together though tragedy.

Photography will always be in my blood and I will never forget where it all started for me.

 

[Archives1]

FLguy. Darn! And here, all along, I thought that was a horse's hoof! Guess I need a newer computer with a better screen!
So much is gone. My dad's camera was a war surplus 35mm camera, the slide projector a jury-rigged war surplus microfilm projector. Mine was a Cannon AE1, butthe 1st was a Kodak Brownie, the 2nd a Poloroid. I'm not sure electronic photos are better, maybe not as good. You spent time composing, not wasting film. You focused, you set the fStop, chose the speed (and the film's speed), used filters and an exposure meter, a color meter, and corrective filters.
"Real" 35mm film was still available until about the 2010s, then mostly the large-format, but you ordered foreign. The only way to get 35mm processed is overseas - Japan was doing it in the 2010s. Don't know about now.
The National Parks we loved? Now so overcrowded you need reservation for a back-country hike. Float the Colorado River? 3 years waiting list. You probably can't do it, now, due to drought. I floated the Glen Canyon (1963) - just before it was flooded. Now it re-appears (sort of), with a "bathtub ring".
In his photos is a world gone. The Sante Fe railroad's Santa Fe Chief. You can see that Amtrack doesn't compare! Squirrels, now? Those Chicago park squirrels are probably still the same! Up here, squirrels are so small, newbies think they are chipmonks - but my dad' photo's of the chipmonks in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park are still capable of bringing back the memories.
The Chicago skyline and the neighborhoods and lakefront have changed - not sure for the better.
Thank you for your final photo. If you took it, you have a good eye.
If I did the upload right, this the restored Big Boy.

 

[Archives1]

ThatFLGuy and AlasSouth both amazing photos. I too love photography when I was younger and we had print film. I still love cameras and pick up antique ones when I can find them on the cheap. Photography isn’t the same for me. People now take hundreds of pictures to get one really good photo. As AlasSouth said at times we used multiple gadgets to make things work not software. Anyway time certainly moves on doesn’t it? Again great photos! If I could easily lay hands on one of my good ones I would share also.

 

[Archives1]

HI FlGuy, that is definitely a photo to cherish!!!And the fact it was taken on July 16, 2001, really literally brought chills to me!! That was in just a little less than two months and then the world changed. For the better?? Definitely debatable! With how people are acting today, it's frightening. But we shan't get into that now!
And @AlasSoutn, like FlGuy's picture above the pic of the UP big Boy is also something to cherish as well!!! Like the twin towers, it's something, a way of life, that is gone today. Sure we have restored engines around like Big Boy (thankfully there are people who like to restore things) but the allure of a trip on a train pulled by those huge steamers is now gone too. It's a whole new world and you have to be brave to face it!!

 

[Archives1]

I experienced the plane hitting the pentagon. It was horrifying. The smell the sight. It’s forever etched in my brain.

 

[Archives1]

I can only imagine!! How close were you to that?

 

[Archives1]

I can't imagine how that farmer felt.

The restorers & preservationists certainly deserve praise. Those big old steamers couldn't travel on so much of the RRs today: the track and bridges haven't been maintained for that enormous weight, the infrastructure to "feed" them is gone. Even to provide water fast is gone, but that one could be fixed. Then imagine trying to train the Engineers! Running one of those was not simple. Read up on the engineer & the fireman.
You could make the case that they helped win WWII, very easily.
The cost of maintaining them is enormous, as such things go, but I think the benefits outweigh that. Kids, today, don't know how we built this country with them. We didn't need the Interstates and all those cars with one or 3 people in them - RRs went everywhere.
If just one RR, coast to coast, or Chicago to west coast, could run one steam passenger train, just imagine the demand! The people waiting trackside to witness & photograph them! Now, you could put women in the cab! I'd come down to the lower 48 just to ride. Arrive in Chi-Town and transfer to the Soo Line to visit family in Michigan.
Check out YouTube - type in: How To Fire Off a Steam Engine from Cold Iron. See, even some of the specialized language is going going gone.

 

[Archives1]

Alh63: find a good print photo - or 40 - and take them to Fred Meyers (Kroger), & probably Wal-Mart. They'll convert them to digital and hand you back the originals. Price is decent, too. They may even have self-service machines. Got 500-1,000? Send them off to one of the 3 big companies - they come back, and the cost is even cheaper. The can color-correct and restore, too.

 

[Archives1]

Thanks. I may go through some of them this winter when I am bored.

 

[Archives1]

@billliveshere right by the pentagon. I worked for a web hosting company and our building was just down the road. The plane flew over one of my coworkers car and into the pentagon. I couldn’t go home for close to a week. They wouldn’t let us back into the district. I had to stay at a friends house in Virginia. One thing I can vividly remember is the smell. I’ve never smelled anything like it.