Silver graffiti & train switch

Driving by the rail yard today I saw a couple pieces of graffiti I had to have a picture of. I stopped by later with my camera and spent nearly an hour there and near the lake taking photos.

This first piece of graffiti was a nice one. It was done in silver and the artist had enough time to do the whole side of the boxcar.
I'm not normally a big fan of tags, but I did find a couple of interesting ones. I liked one of them because it was framed by the ladder. The other one required the tagger to go up the ladder. I can picture them up on the ladder, hanging on with one hand and spraying with the other. The effect of that one, with the paint running was to make it look like a bunch of oriental characters.

I'm not sure why I'm not a big fan of tagging. I guess it's because it's usually just black or white. I like the regular graffiti because it's bigger and bolder, a lot more colourful and I guess I can respect the artist for taking a bit more risk in producing the larger piece. There's a certain amount of artistic expression in tagging, but it seems taggers are more inclined to just tag anywhere, which kind of pisses me off.

I don't count this "I love you" piece as a tag because it's not a signature. I just got a laugh out of it. "I love you. Layup in middle o'nowhere. Salty ocean breeze. Butt naked wimmen." It's a modified haiku actually. It goes 8-5-5, while haiku are traditionally 5-7-5. I used to write a lot of them in my highschool and university days. I like the imagery the author/artist brings to this one. It reminds me of my honeymoon at Long Beach on Vancouver Island, except for the butt naked wimmen!





More rail stuff

As part of my rail theme I plan to include pictures of rail-related items. I took a number of photos, and this one was my favourite of the day. It is a locked up rail switch.

It incorporates a number of my favourite elements in photos. It is a closeup, though not quite macro (don't have that lens yet), and the out of focus background due to a shallow depth of field. I like the shallow depth of field. It gives it a bit of an impressionist feel. I really like the composition and colour in the photo as well.

I thought I'd take a picture of the CN no trespassing sign as well. This one is located by the old beach on the south side of Williams Lake. It's not a big beach, and not many people use it anymore. The "beach" isn't so great but the location is private, and despite the railway being so close, it's actually kind of quiet and relaxing.

Speaking of no trespassing, I haven't run into the CN police yet. Apparently they get quite upset with anyone walking on the road there. I understand that. Trains certainly are dangerous. I have a healthy respect for them, give them a wide berth when crossing the track and make sure to not walk on the track. Sometimes those cars are very quiet when one or two are rolling down the track randomly. I heard all the safety speeches when I worked for CN when I was in university a long time ago.