Flickr Study

CV RS11 doing some work on the Grand Trunk in South Paris, ME 1980.

Quite a while back (years) I found Flickr to be useful, but being one more "thing" to keep track of,  I did not give it the time I should have for my own photos.  This put me way behind the curve.  That changed only slightly a couple of years ago when I saw more and more rail photographers posting things from their own Flickr accounts.  I gradually noticed that Flickr opened up a vast world of personal rail photo galleries where people did their own thing without the filtering (or lack thereof) of a traditional photo gallery site.  I gave it another look and decided to play with it.  So, this post is really me talking to myself about utilizing some 'new to me' stuff.

While posting here on Blogger and Facebook was easy enough to keep track of, I had numerous on-line places to keep track of at work too.  Flickr felt like "a bridge too far".  That turned out to be untrue, at least in theory.  The latest software updates to all these on-line media sites allow you to 'drop and drag' photos very smoothly as well as post in one place and share to the other media easily.  This was superior to my previous experiences.  As these technical advancements made my tasks easier and easier, I was gradually, unknowingly doing it all backwards.  Flicker supplies links that I can post to the other places.  I can still add the lesser but story worthy stuff separately as before.  So here is a trial run.

A NB CSX autorack crosses the trestle at Catskill, NY 12/28/11

The top photo is an "embed" link provided for a single photo I recently put in my Flickr account.  I simply hit 'share', chose 'embed' and then chose a 640 x 427ish size.  Most likely I'll use a larger size in the future since Blogger will show you full sizes behind the "thumbnail" used in the Post.  I then copy and paste the link provided right into this blog where I want the photo to appear.  For me it's slightly simpler than uploading photos to 3 places on my slow DSL provider.  Even "slightly simpler" means it is now quite useful rather than an "extra" thing.  So I repeated the process for the preceding photo but this time I used Blogger's editing tools to resize and place the photo like I usually do.  It seems to work like before. 

Below, I used the similar feature to provide an album of photos.  This is my local stuff, most of which is already here on Blogger.  The photo is the first photo in the album but you should have access to the rest of the photos from this one.  All of the photos above are hyperlinked to their home on Flickr.

My "Local Maine" Album.  This shot is in Peru on the Rumford Branch.

I know there are things I can do to "pretty it up" and fine tune.  But this is the fun exploration phase rather than a finished product.   You should have access to the items I targeted.  If you have an account you may see more photos at the links.  That might need some testing with someone else's account since my devices all have Flickr access.

Anything that allows technology to make photo sharing easier is fine by me!
Don't bother telling me about better sites or ways to do this.
Patience.  I'm slow but steady.
Besides, do you really want to deal with an old fart who talks to himself.

BC

Spring 2016 Has Sprung

This particular spring brought me to Lewiston Jct. Maine a few more times than usual to play with new cameras.  This of course is directly related to the tendency of DSLR cameras to have shorter lives than the old film cameras did.  Part of that obsolescence is due to advancements in the technology.  The rest is due to the longevity of the hardware.  My Olympus DSLR camera still works but has been falling to pieces and falling behind technologically.  After 11 years I'd had enough.  I had purchased the DSLR to replace an Olympus OM-2 35mm fill camera that lasted 30+ years.  I sprung for a Nikon this time.  Regardless, I got down to "the Junctions" more than usual.

To try out the camera on rail subjects, Lewiston Jct. came to mind.  I naturally played with the settings around the house first but a nice sunny day beckoned.  The photos below do not show off any skills on my part or excellence on the part of the camera, but the bright orange of GWI is kind of "springy" and the afternoon sun on a clear day is just plain nice to absorb.  These first shots were from Saturday 4/9/16 and show some subjects that I haven't posted for a while. 

The rest of my "learning curve" photos are from earlier sessions, starting with this catch of a legitimate "heritage unit" at Waterville on 3/19/16.  You might call this a bit of spring color.

Then there are a few more "springy" (at the time very wishful thinking) items back at Lewiston Jct.  on 3/11/16.  The slugs were on display in rare fashion.  I was particularly interested in how the new rig handled shadows and light variations. 


 

Yes, I took a nearly identical shot of 3007 on this trip too, same as up top.  Couldn't help myself.



Hopefully I've at least added some seasonal color to this recently neglected blog.

BC