Some great graffiti lately

I haven't updated in a while, and it's too bad, because I've taken some really interesting photos. In the past week I haven't seen much at all though. Lots of chip cars, which never seem to have a lot of graffiti. The boxcars really are the best.

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.

First graffiti captured

I headed out late this afternoon to the railyard to see what there was for graffiti. There was almost nothing, except for one car with a couple of big paintings.

I checked out the locations with easy access and I think I discovered something. The boxcars are kept closer to the terminal, while the industrial product cars are kept further away. I guess this has to do with security. It's the boxcars I'm looking for too. The industrial cars generally aren't very good for graffiti. You need nice flat sides.

Both of these pieces were on the same car. It was a bit of a hike down the hill to get to them, and back up. I didn't want to drive in. The CN police are pretty uptight about that sort of thing. They've been uptight about people walking or biking near the tracks too. I'd take my chances with them if I was biking or walking rather than the no-sidewalk road.

These pieces aren't the most spectacular, but the one was not bad. Kind of a multi-coloured camouflage idea. What do they say? No idea, but maybe I'll figure it out at some point. :)

McLeese Lake: RMV passing by

This shot is one of my favourites. We were heading to Quesnel and I decided to stop near the copper loading terminal for Gibraltar Mine to get a shot of the Rocky Mountaineer train as it passed by.

I was probably within 10 feet of the track as the train passed by. This is not necessarily a safe thing to do, just in case something drops off the train or is sticking out. But, it was worth the risk for the shot. I got another good one here in the winter I will post as part of my journalism portfolio.

The engineer had been accelerating but it sounded like he eased up a bit before he reached me. He was also clanging the train's bell as he went by. You can see him waving in the photo. I'm glad he wasn't on the horn! I bet they would have had a good laugh over that one. I don't know if they get a little nervous with people standing that close to the track. I wouldn't blame him.

If you're interested in buying one of my photos, please email me at: alain@thejournalist.ca. These are substantially pared down photos and the originals are far higher quality. On my 8.2 megapixel Canon 30D I shoot at the highest quality setting inJPEG which gives an image size of 3504x2336. I am considering just shooting everything in RAW format so it will be that much better. I've got 2 gig and 1 gig Ultra II compact flash cards, so they're fast and they will hold lots.

Rocky Mountaineer Vacations first official run to Quesnel

I seem to be a little obsessed with trains. Not that you will ever be able to tell.

I took over 400 photos relating to Rocky Mountaineer Vacations finally arriving in Quesnel on it's new Fraser Discover route. It was quite the event and I caught the train in Quesnel as well as Williams Lake.

The whole event was quite fun.

This picture is the RMV train in Williams Lake. You can see Signal Point in the background.

This is, of course, the Williams Lake train station. I was lucky I caught the train. We were driving along to Quesnel and I hadn't realized the train had stopped briefly. Long enough for me to get ahead of it and get a pile of photos.

And of course, here is the same train arriving later in Quesnel. I got a couple of cool photos in between at the copper loading terminal just north of McLeese Lake. I'll post those tomorrow.

Getting rolling

Welcome to my other blog.

I've always been interested in graffiti. I've never done it, but I like to look at it. I don't look at graffiti the same way I look at tags. I'm not a fan of tags. I have a lot more respect for the effort that goes into a good piece of graffiti.

My blog will be dedicated to posts of graffiti I see on train cars. I live quite close to the rail line, so I see it every day. Some of it is really good and some of it isn't. I'll probably end up posting a bit of both.

If you see any interesting graffiti, pass it along and I'll post the photo.

Thanks
Alain