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?

We Called Out to Our Gods, But They Weren't Real

Sunday Drive

The weather in South Park, Colorado is amazing for driving during the summer. Anywhere from ten to twenty degrees cooler than the surrounding land outside the mountains, it stays cool throughout the summer. On this day, two couples decided to make that trek on their motorcycles.

Pike's Peak Cog Railway Departure Platform, Winter 2016

I think I can, I think I can... But the little engine that could... Couldn't. Cog railways are interesting. They exist in places where the rails are too steep for traditional friction rails. Instead, a central toothed rail interacts with a drive cog in the train, which pulls the train up the mountain. In places, the Pike's Peak Cog Railway has a grade of around twenty percent, with a severely tilted horizon line.

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.

Naval Power

BB-64, also known as the USS Wisconsin, is an Iowa-class battleship. Her keel was laid down in 1941, with her launch taking place two years later. One of the Navy's most powerful WWII battleships, her main guns could fire projectiles weighing over a ton for a distance of twenty miles. She remained relevant through Desert Storm, receiving a chemical warfare and tomahawk missile package in place of several guns and other outdated equipment. Finally, in 2006, she was permanently retired and became a museum ship in Norfolk, Virginia.

Steam Engine 250

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.

Displacement

This is the anchor room of the USS Yorktown, which is a 41,000-ton Essex-class aircraft carrier. Each link in the chain weighs around 227kg, if I recall correctly. I'm particularly fond of the symmetry of this shot. It doesn't work quite so well in color, as there are two color splashes on the left side that distract the eye from that, but it works here.

The Clipper Atlantis

There's something nostalgic and romantic about propeller airplanes. In our world of turbine jet engines and high-speed takeoffs, the propeller plane has been forgotten by all except for the personal craft. Faster, more efficient jets have replaced all of the old designs. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying we need to go back. I'm not one of the rose-tinted "past is better" types. I just like looking at old propeller airplanes, which have fallen into a smaller and smaller niche of uses every year.

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.

60 Years Strong

The Corvette is an American tradition. Almost always fast, almost always good looking, the Corvette and the Mustang are the only two sports cars I can think of that never had a gap in production. I feel like between the two, only one of them kept a sports car look and feel ever since its inception.

Cream-colored Dreams

It is always interesting to watch the evolution of a car's design. From beginning to end. Porsche's designs have changed heavily, even while some of their cars remain almost identical from year to year. Once upon a time, they didn't build small, sporty coupes. They built luxury cars for the German elite.