2012, Day 187 - Evening bustle

The warm weather seems to be settling on the Pacific NW now and the forecast promises weather that is consistently warm and free of rain.  I am not a warm weather kind of person, it is part of the reason I fled from California to the coolness and rain of Portland ten years ago.  Still, having grown up in California, there is something that I love about cool summer evenings.  They provide respite from the heat of the day and the world looks so different as most of the city slumbers.  It also feels naughty being up so late and walking the dogs.  I love that calmness, the relative stillness of the late night.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
21mm, f8, 1/6 sec @ 640 ISO

2012, Day 80 - Midnight maintenance

This photograph was the one after which I said to myself, "I'm done."  In reviewing it on the back of my camera I was certain that I captured what I wanted.  That's not to say it is perfect, I would have preferred that the Union Pacific obelisk further from the center but to the right there was a huge floodlight that would have been distracting and to my left there were a lot of trees and brambles that would obstruct the view because, you see, this was taken from the concrete barrier along the side of a freeway onramp.

I sat there, checking my composition, looking over my shoulder to make sure there were not semis coming (their draft was tremendous and could have caused camera vibration), and trying to keep warm.  When the trucks weren't barreling past you could hear the ding ding ding of the warning bells as train after train entered the rail yard.  I like that all the distractions of real life are absent and the yard have a feeling of tranquility, the stillness that we witness only at night.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Sigma 50/f1.4EX
50mm, f5.6, merged layers of 2.5, 5, and 10 sec @ 200 ISO