Sometimes You Have to Climb

Image Description: A photograph of a freight train rounding a corner in a canyon. The train is moving toward the camera. There are two locomotives, and the cars trail around the corner and out of view behind the locomotives. To the locomotive's left is a large rocky wall. Behind it, in the background, a highway is visible. Sheer rock walls rise above that. There are grass and trees covering it. A river is visible in the bottom of the frame stretching around and behind the canyon. A sliver of blue sky with white clouds is visible.

Instagram Loves A Square

Image Description: A large red structure fills the entire frame. In the center is a cone, but from this angle it appears to just be a circle. It is surrounded by 10 blades in a fan formation. They stretch to all edges of the frame. It is a railroad rotary snowplow.

Thunder Rolls and Trails Black Clouds

Image Description: A close-up image of a very large steam locomotive. The main drive wheels and a large silver coupling rod is the primary subject of the photo. At the bottom, a rail is visible. A leaf spring is visible behind the wheel in the center.

America, Our History is Exceptionalism

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/america-our-history-is-exceptionalism-551d2c0a359c Image Description: A close-up of the side of a cattle railroad car. The wood is painted red, but faded almost to pink. It is chipped in many places. There is a small metal pipe from the bottom center to top-right corner. Near the top is a gap in the wood, through which darkness and a blurry bit of light is visible. "KEEP OFF" is stenciled in white lettering on the car.

Breathe, Work, Thrust

Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/breathe-work-thrust-6c88d6d6d47a Image Description: A close-up of a large steam engine locomotive piston. The piston and its connecting pipes are black steel with streaks of blue on them. There are bolts connecting various plates and endcaps. To the lower right, extending off-picture, is a silver steel component that drives the wheels. One of the wheels is partially visible. A leaf spring is visible behind the wheels.

An Ode to Civility

For full poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/an-ode-to-civility-4c97bdea12c5 Image Description: The picture is of a highway at night. The lower third of the picture is dark. On the left edge of the horizon, you can see city lights. The horizon extends to the right edge, with silhouettes of trees. Coming toward the foreground and disappearing off to the right edge is a streak of headlights from cars, extending into the city in the distance. The top two-thirds of the photo is made up of dark storm clouds in the sky. In the center of the photo, blue and purple lightning bolts thread from one cloud to another, leaving the sky glowing from there to the right edge.

Zippers Stretched From One End of the Valley to the Other

Will You Walk the Path With Me?

Image Description: A black and white photograph of a mountain valley. There is a road traveling from the bottom left to the top right, disappearing around a mountain bend. A winding river follows alongside the road. The mountains are covered in evergreen trees. Above the treeline, the mountains are barren. The sky is cloudy.

When Will We See Our Destination?

The Last Wild Places Were Saved For Tourists

Happiness is the Road

Have I Seen You Before?

At the Top

Cog railroads are fairly rare. They are built in places where the friction from the rails and wheels will not be enough to keep the train moving. This one is at the top of Pike's Peak in Colorado.

Pre-Flight

Road Iron

Taken at the 2016 Special Olympics Plane Pull at RDU International Aiport.

Transit

Taken from Charlotte's transit system near the Hornets stadium. Infrared monochrome.

Sunk

I passed this with my parents on the way to Aurora, NC, years ago. I totally made them stop while I got a picture. What amuses me even more, though, was what I found at last year's auction for projectredlight.org. I found a painting of the exact same boat and building, just about 5 years prior to my photograph. It was interesting comparing the two with the artist, and how the boat had faded and sank further. Awards and Recognition: roguemark Gallery October 2014

Super Sport

Chevelles are so common as to be mundane. Finding a unique picture of a Chevelle is like trying to take a unique picture of a neighborhood house built from a blueprint. Yes, its possible, and yes, the car might look good, but its so common that everybody's already done it. I decided to get in closer, and focus on this one's stamp of power.

To Rust We Decay

Standing like solemn sentinels, the remains of the gutted engine peered out from the minivan's hood. But this minivan would not be going anywhere. Abandoned by an unknown owner, its engine compartment burned out, and its interior looted, the van waits for its last stop. As all things eventually must, it, too, must go to its grave.

25 Years of Speed

I will maintain for a long, long time that only one American sports car has not lost its edge over time. Sure, the Corvette has looked more interesting at some times than others. Sure, I prefer the Ford GT in all of its incarnations. But only one American sports car has lasted a dedicated 50 years, going on 65 with no breaks. Here's looking at you, Corvette.

Chevrolet Classic

A classic Chevrolet pickup I saw at a car show in Cary. Finding angles that make cars interesting is difficult. You have so many angles that would be fine for an advertisement, but aren't actually interesting to look at. I tend to like viewpoints from closer to the ground, or really close to the car. I didn't like the color of this image so brought it to black and white for some post processing there.

Untitled 03

I captured this from the highway on the way to a Memorial Day weekend hot air balloon festival. I had my friend go to my trunk and get the rented 5D Mark II and Sigma 50-500mm lens for me. We were in completely stopped traffic for most of an hour, and I was able to capture several shots from my car. The festival was an organizational disaster once we got there. There were no balloons set up. Then, we found out there were no provisions to get balloons back from their earlier flights, so they were stuck on the road. Nobody was able to tell us when the evening glow was. Eventually, several pilots told us there wasn't one, so we packed up to leave. On the way out, they announced that they WERE doing one, but by then, it was too late as I was outside the area already. On top of that, only 4-5 balloons had even made it back to the field. Next year, I will probably either not go, or go earlier under the assumption that they hopefully have it together this time.

Power By Ford

I captured this at a car show in downtown Cary. One of the collectors brought down a gorgeous 1971 De Tomaso Pantera. The '71 Pantera was powered by a gigantic 5.8L V8 engine. While I didn't get to hear the vulgar utterances of that massive engine, I did take time to admire the blazing orange paint that this car wore. I've never gotten to see a Pantera in person before this day, so it was a pretty neat car to see. I'm particularly fond of how this picture manages to look more like a Ford stamp on a flat background than an actual photograph. To me, it looks like the Ford brand is floating above an orange surface.

Studebaker Classic

I've only seen a handful of Studebakers in my life. Recently, I had the pleasure of seeing a purple 1958 Studebaker Golden Hawk. Unfortunately, being at a public car show, getting the framing right with a nice background proved to be nearly impossible. I did snap this picture of its grill ornament, though, and finally settled on some processing I felt complimented its age.