Western Railroad Discussion > Digital babe in the woods

In the summer of 2009 I finally broke the digital photography ice by acquiring a Nikon P-90 point & shoot. I was coming out of railfanning "dry spell" nearly 20 years long. Right off the bat I became enthralled with the capabilities of digital photography. The P-90 had a very pleasing range from basic wide angle to medium telephoto. I very naively thought I had bought the last camera I would ever need. But as my old railfan instincts slowly re-emerged it dawned on me I would have to upgrade to a DSLR system for more flexibility.

On the day this photo was taken I didn't know I had a mere 23 days left in my active train service career. I knew I was looking at a possible medical disability retirement, and was pretty sure it would happen. I just didn't know when. I also knew I would be moving from Montana back home to Kansas, once the disability was approved. In the preliminary and inevitable commuting trips back & forth I would take advantage of any railfanning opportunities as they arose, without wasting a great deal of time at any one location. Of course I ended up traveling along fabled US hwy 30 through Nebraska & Wyoming multiple times. An easy choice if a person wanted to shoot some RR action without having to stop and lose a lot of time.

So it was that I bombed in at Cozad on an afternoon in May of 2010 to shoot an elevator switcher I had spotted the trip before. It would have been a true hit & run if it weren't for the westbound headlight I spotted. I waited and got one more shot, in a vertical format to capture the scene plus a stormy looking cloud formation. Before the rear end of the train was by the elevator I was back on US 30 and on my way down the road. And thanks to digital technology in a simple point & shoot camera I was fully back into active railfanning. But I sure had a lot to learn about digital photography...

1. UP 7149 with a westbound manifest at Cozad, NE. A very shy private switcher sits in the shadows watching Uncle Pete roll by on the 'big iron' on May 2, 2010.

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

posted from the 7th floor of the Hyatt Regency
in downtown Tulsa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/17 03:24 by santafe199.

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Nice pix Lance, I too went over to the digital side about 10 years ago, came up through the ranks when I was 15 years old with a Speed Graphic, then Minolta 35mm, finally digital, this was the best move I ever made, the possibilities are endless,

Good Luck,
Ed K. cp Laurel Run

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