Skittle Train!

I love trains - or rather the fun colors and all the intriguing graffitti that passes by everytime Im stuck in line waiting at the Railroad crossings. While everyone else is pounding their steering wheels and shaking fists at the train that is causing them to get to their destination all of 5-10 minutes later - Im sitting back and watching a world of art pass me by, waiting in anticipation for the next boxcar to come into view so I can see what has been painted on it.

Im also addicted to door latches, intricate contraptions and door knobs. I am not sure why - but they are fascinating. The photo above is probably my all time favorite shot of mine. Its won me numerous awards and I've even sold a few prints. I upped the contrast and bumped up the blue in this shot - I just love the blue/yellow combination along with the variety of lines and shapes.

Another of my favorite shots. Something about train doors... make me go all woozy and giggly.

I was playing around with the color and hue saturation on the these ones. I think I used them in a graphic design poster for one of my classes at the time. I cant remember now exactly what I was doing with them but I immediately thought "SKITTLE TRAIN!" and thus the series was born. I really need to get back out there and do some more train door shots with my new camera. These were taken with my old Fuji point and shoot -Im interested to see how they might turn out if I use one of my professional quality cameras....

You'll have to come back and visit soon and see what I find!

Old Train Stations Never Die...

A few weeks back, my husband had read in the paper that the old Train depot in Blaine, WA was either going to be moved, or destroyed sometime in the near future - so we figured I had better get up there and take some pictures of it before either of those things happened....

When I pulled up to the little lonely building - I was content to just take pictures of the outside, with all of the peeling paint patches, rusted nails and broken wood panels - and there were giant deadbolt locks on all of the places that had doors and large windows - so I just walked around the outside and then went to the front door to longingly peer inside - leaned my forehead against the cold glass and lo and behold - of all the doors NOT to be locked - it was the front door... So I went in...

The local paper had just done a story on it - so it appeared that someone had gone in not too long before that and cleaned the place up a bit - the floor was near spotless - sadly. I was looking forward to giant cobwebs and creepy dust bunnies to fight in the shadows but alas...all that seemed to be laying about were some old papers on a neatly tidied desk and ...an old file cabinet that proves Yoda didnt actually fade into the sidelines next to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars - but was relocated by the Witness Protection Program as a train station manager in a little town just south of the border...where he was able to use the force to protect against all the evils that may pass between the countries via the railroad...

There really wasnt anything left inside - except there seemed to be a lot of chairs hanging around in various rooms - completely cleaned out but for a lonely chair here and there...

I did find this one rusty ol rail road peg laying on the shelf inside the ticket booth area windows - and couldnt help but give some thought to how it would feel to be that rail peg...laying there on the inside of the glass - able to see all of its other peg friends outside...free to be railroad pegs, free to feel the wind in their faces, the suns warmth on their heads........er..ok..you know what I mean.. ...and then having to watch it all through the glass - freedom just out reach....(too many sappy movies?)



The loneliness of the place did start to get to me though - I started thinking about all of those chairs - how it seemed like this must have been a place where alot of people spent waiting - for loved ones, for long lost friends, for a new life to begin in a whole new world from anything they'd ever known - and I got to feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the idea that hundreds and thousands of people had walked through that door - and wondered where life was going to lead them to next....and I smiled as I left there, anxious to see where mine would lead me.