Laughing Frog Images Archives - Page 3 of 15

San Dimas Rodeo 2010

Posted on April 4, 2016March 27, 2016 by Kurt

San Dimas Rodeo 2010 is just what it says – a gallery from the 2010 San Dimas, CA Rodeo.

I’m not going to rehash everything I said about the 2015 event in a past post – just click here if you want to read about the rodeo and here if you want to go straight to the San Dimas Rodeo2015 gallery.

All I’m going to do is invite you to check out the San Dimas Rodeo 2010 Gallery if you’d like to check it out. It’s a fun little diversion from whatever you might be doing…

Like the 2015 gallery, it’s all view only so I don’t run into any issues with releases, licensing, etc. As such, all of the images are straight from the camera.

It’s here for your enjoyment – and hopefully, you’ll check out some other galleries on Laughing Frog Images and perhaps buy a print or two to make you smile when you look at it (or cover up a hole in the wall!).

Think this might leave a mark?

I’d love to say that I got this image because I’m such a fantastic and skilled photographer (well, I might be something close to that, or so some might say).

The reality is that to get an image like this, several things have to come together. The right lens helps. So does the right angle – as you can never predict which way a bull is going to go, the right angle is really a bit of luck. The right lighting helps – I sat where I sat for optimal lighting, at least as long as the bull tossed the rider in the right direction, so perhaps the right lighting is a little bit of luck. Timing – well, one can argue that’s either skill or luck. Then, beyond the lens, and the lighting, and the timing, you need the event itself. That moment in time where it all comes together.

That day in October 2010, it all came together for this perhaps once in a lifetime image.

Enjoy!

It’s partly cloudy in Terra Alta

Posted on April 1, 2016March 27, 2016 by Kurt

It’s partly cloudy in Terra Alta, WV.

About a month ago, we saw Chessie System GP40-2 4162 in bright sunshine at Salt Lick Curve.

That was two miles west – and down the hill. The weather can change dramatically between Rowlesburg and Terra Alta, let alone from any point in between. It’s partly cloudy in Terra Alta, WV on February 21, 1988.

We’re at the Main Street crossing in Terra Alta looking west. We’re on the north side of the tracks, which puts this side of the train in a bit of a shadow. However, this view allows you to see where the world ends about 17 cars back. Well, the world doesn’t really end there – it just looks like it does. That the train disappears from view in such a short distance gives you an idea of what the grades are like on this line.

It's partly cloudy in Terra Alta as Chessie System GP40-2 4162 leads an eastbound coal drag on 2/21/1988. — It’s partly cloudy in Terra Alta as Chessie System GP40-2 4162 leads an eastbound coal drag on 2/21/1988.

Eastbound coal drags have a hellacious climb out of the Cheat River valley that ends here – the 4162 and sisters won’t notch back until the train has rejoined us at the top of the world.

I haven’t watched a train pop up and enter Terra Alta in about 20 years. Time flies, but I digress. Way back then, it was quite a spectacle as you heard the train long before you saw it. The rumble of the prime movers and the whine of the turbochargers and fans (yes – a rumble and a whine at the same time) would get louder, and then you’d see the lead locomotive appear from top to bottom as it climbed over the edge. Within a couple of hundred feet of appearing, the whistle would blow for the Main Street crossing – exactly where would depending on how fast the train was going when it crested the grade.

Fast is a misnomer, as that was typically somewhere around 13 mph. Mountain railroading isn’t fast railroading… If it gets to be fast railroading, then there’s probably going to be a problem… And yes, that’s unfortunately happened on the West End, and it’s cost some lives over the years.

Things have changed on the West End. Yes, coal still moves east, but not as much due to factors and reasons far beyond the hills of West Virginia. Gone are the EMD GP40-2 and SD50 locomotives that dominated my time there. Quieter, more powerful General Electric locomotives predominate. I’ve heard that the informal road that used to be the third track that was a key element in making the images in the Chessie & CSX: The West End Gallery is now blocked by locked gates.

The spectacle of man and machine versus nature still happens a couple of times a day. For how long remains to be seen. It’s possible to bypass the West End by running northwest to the Monongahela River valley, then north to the Pittsburgh area, and then east – but it may not be practical. Yet.

It’s hard to imagine the West End gone, but it’s not safe by any means.

I don’t know if or when I’ll get back there. If nothing else, I’ve got the Kodachromes…

Does anyone need a used 747?

Posted on March 30, 2016March 26, 2016 by Kurt

Does anyone need a used 747?

Does anyone even know what a used 747 costs? I found some posts that say you can get one for a “couple of million” dollars. And then you need to fill the tanks with fuel… But if you can buy the plane, that shouldn’t be a problem, now should it?

I came upon a dozen or so used 747 cargo planes in an aircraft boneyard of sorts at the Mojave (CA) Air & Space Port.

There’s some interesting history and things that I didn’t even know about the Air & Space Port that you can read about on their website by clicking here.

Some of these aircraft will be parted out and ultimately scrapped in place. Some are in flying condition, and may find a second / third / fourth life.

I don’t know what the history holds for these beasts caught in the shimmering heat waves of Mojave.

Used 747 cargo aircraft in the boneyard at the Mojave (CA) Air & Space Port.

These images are interesting to look at. However, unless you’re into pictures that show the distortion caused by the heat waves, they may never make it onto a wall anywhere. On the other hand, some like the effect. You can decide for yourself!

From looking at the number of cargo 747s – either the air cargo business isn’t what it used to be, or these winged giants are being replaced by new or newer aircraft with a lower operating cost per pound of cargo. Size isn’t everything in aircraft – it’s important for sure, but for smaller cargo that doesn’t require a specialty plane, it’s all about operating costs. That’s part of why we human cargo pieces keep getting squeezed into smaller seats with less leg room – and we seem to be paying more for it, but that’s another story.

Believe it or not, the first flight of a 747 was way back in 1969! I’ve flown on the 747 three times – once in the cavernous coach section, and twice in Business Class on a business trip to Australia. By the way – it’s didn’t seem much better in Business Class for 14 and 16 hour flights – that’s just too long on an aircraft, period.

I found three websites about the 747 that you might find interesting – Boeing 747 on Wikipedia, the official Boeing 747 site, and Boeing-747.com.

Here’s a link to the planes gallery on Laughing Frog Images.

Thanks for looking!

Sunshine and Snow at Salt Lick Curve

Posted on February 26, 2016February 21, 2016 by Kurt

Just over 28 years ago – 2/21/1988 to be exact, there was sunshine and snow at Salt Lick Curve. Oh yeah, there was a train there too!

Sunshine, snow, and Chessie 4162 at Salt Lick Curve west of Terra Alta, West Virginia. Click on the image to be taken to the Trains Gallery.

Chessie System (B&O) GP40-2 4162 leads a train of coal cars east from the bituminous of West Virginia. She’s been climbing Cranberry Grade out of the Cheat River Valley in Rowlesburg towards the summit at Terra Alta at speeds in the high teens. Cranberry Grade is part of the storied West End of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (now part of CSX).

It’s a battle of machine versus nature on this beautiful February day.

Sunshine and snow at Salt Lick Curve happened more often than sunshine, snow and a train came together at Salt Lick Curve, so I’m glad I was able to capture this.

Even more amazing is that the 4162 is reasonably clean, allowing her dress of Enchantment Blue, Vermillion Red and Federal Yellow to pop out from the snow and bare trees (Mrs. Frog would call them “naked” trees, but I digress.)

There are three SD-50 locomotives with their collective 10,500 horsepower pushing on the rear of the train. Hard to believe that the 13,500 horsepower on the front of the train needed assistance, but that’s the West End for you.

This area of West Virginia and neighboring western Maryland can have absolutely brutal weather in winter. If you’ve ever heard Oakland, MD mentioned during a weather report, this train is on its’ way there. It was gray and cloudy at the bottom of the hill in Rowlesburg. The weather at Terra Alta was like it was at the bottom, just maybe a little brighter. I don’t have any notes as to the temperature that day, but I do have pictures of the MK Helpers (the SD50s) east of Amblersburg and the train cresting the hill at Terra Alta that might make it here to complete the story.

I do seem to remember getting a flat tire on the wooded bridge over the yard as I was leaving Rowlesburg. I think it was this day. Whatever day it was, driving home with my summer spare on the right rear was no fun…

Fortunately, the trains don’t move all that fast uphill, and I didn’t miss the chase.

This image is not yet on Laughing Frog Images. It will make it to what will probably be a gallery devoted to the West End.

It’s 80-something degrees as I write this, and when I came across the image and saw the date, well, it just called to me to be shared.

Scanned from a Kodachrome 64 slide using a HP S-20i scanner at 2400 dpi.

Rock Art Ranch

Posted on February 24, 2016February 21, 2016 by Kurt

Rock Art Canyon is located on Rock Art Ranch in St. Joseph, AZ. The Canyon is home to a large collection of petroglyphs dating back thousands of years.

It’s an incredible place, and if you find yourself on I-40 heading through northern Arizona, it should be on your bucket list.

Rock Art Ranch is between the Petrified Forest / Painted Desert and Standin’ on the Corner, La Posada and the Turquoise Room in Winslow. It’s about 3 hours from the Grand Canyon, and and 2 hours from Flagstaff. I had read about it some time ago, and researched it before a trip to Winslow.

Petroglyphs photographed in Rock Art Canyon outside of St. Joseph, AZ. Rock Art Ranch should be on your list of places to see near the Painted Desert and Grand Canyon. — Happy dancer or surrender? Click on the image to be taken to the Rock Art Canyon Gallery on Laughing Frog Images.

Petroglyphs are fascinating because we all see something different in them, and we can only guess as to what the creator was trying to convey.

Some are kind of obvious, and some aren’t. At least to me, anyway…

You could have an interesting party with a few friends and your beverage of choice as you sat around looking at these and contemplating their meaning.

You can also spend some time contemplating their purpose. Was it to tell of current news? Past events? Family history? Was it the graffiti of the time?

The ranch is operated by the Baird Family. Tours are available and must be scheduled in advance by calling ahead. There’s a fee, and it’s worth every penny. And then, there’s Mr. Baird himself!

You can learn more about Rock Art Ranch from Trip Advisor and Arizona Central.

As these images were made on private land, they are not available for sale. They are posted in the Rock Art Canyon Gallery for your education and enjoyment.

I’ll be adding more to this gallery over time – I made several hundred images, and it’s going to take a while to get through them all!

Sometimes, your lens is too short

Posted on February 22, 2016February 15, 2016 by Kurt

We’ve probably all been there before – you think you’re prepared for what you’re going to be shooting, and then reality decides to toss you a curve – and, sometimes, your lens is too short.

It seems that when this happens, it simply doesn’t matter which lens you have with you. I’ve had this happen on days when I’ve had a 500mm lens and a 2X teleconverter with me. It’s just the way things go sometimes.

In this case, I was on the north shore of Kauai, and there was what we think was a juvenile Humpback heading east and breaching several times. Why, we’ll never know – but you can learn more about humpbacks breaching here. Those of us that were there would prefer to believe that this was happy breaching on a beautiful day.

So, while us humans were there taking in the spectacle, jaws agape, I decided to pick up my camera a snag a shot. And I did. With an 18-270mm fully zoomed out. Which was fine for the scenic images that I had planned to be shooting. To say that the lens was grossly inadequate for breaching whales is a minor understatement.

Without cropping, the whale looked like a black dot on a blue rippled background. So I cropped the image. A lot. Just to prove that I got a shot. Notice I did not say “THE” shot, I said “a” (note the lower case) shot.

Is it a killer shot that’s going to grace my wall? Nope, not even close.

Is it going to be my conversation-inspiring screensaver on my computer or phone? Nope, not even that good.

So, why did I keep it?

Easy answer.

Because sometimes, it’s not about THE shot, or the quality of a shot that matters.

Sometimes, all that matters is that you got A shot that makes you smile and think back to what was happening at that moment in time.

And, sometimes, that’s all that really matters.

Sometimes, your lens is too short. A Pacific Humpback whale breeches near Kilauea Point. Kauai, HI.

You can check out more whale shots here on Laughing Frog Images.

Thanks for looking!

San Dimas Rodeo 2015

Posted on February 17, 2016February 15, 2016 by Kurt

The San Dimas Rodeo takes place every year 30-odd miles east of downtown Los Angeles, California.

It’s not exactly where you’d think there would be a rodeo. Not that I understand why the National Finals Rodeo takes place in Las Vegas, but anyway…

San Dimas is perhaps most known for its’ role in the movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure“. I would perhaps argue that it was a town on the Santa Fe Railroad mainline that is most relevant – it’s also the home of the Pacific Railroad Museum. And, there are those who would postulate that it’s the Rodeo that makes San Dimas famous.

Regardless of your perspective, the Rodeo is a step back in time, perhaps to a simpler day, or is it a romanticized event that rekindles the Old West? It’s a lot of things to a lot of people. Regardless of the meanings and metaphors one can find in the event, it’s still men and women versus the animals and in conjunction with their animals. Debates can take place of the virtues of talent and bravery – and which is really the most important factor, sanity versus insanity, and on and on.

For the spectators, it’s an event that evokes laughter, cheering, ooohs and ahhhs, gasps, and apprehension – and all of those can take place in the same minute.

For the photographers, the images evoke skill, concentration, trials and tribulation, pain and joy, strength and brawn, persistence and determination, and more.

A cowboy in the process of being tossed from a bull at the 2015 San Dimas Rodeo. Click the photo to be taken to the gallery.

I’m fairly certain that perusing this gallery will be provocative. Think about what you see here in the faces and the expressions and the images.

To learn more about the San Dimas Rodeo, just click here.

The San Dimas Rodeo is a PRCA sanctioned event. Due to that, plus the fact that people’s faces are seen, and there are things like licensing and model releases and “stuff” to be dealt with, this is a view-only gallery. None of these images will make it to anyone’s wall by my own, but they’re here for your viewing pleasure.

Puukumu Stream meets the Pacific Ocean

Posted on February 15, 2016February 15, 2016 by Kurt

Puukumu Stream meets the Pacific Ocean is one of my favorite images. It has a bit of an unlikely story behind it.

I was on a hiking photo tour of Kauai with Kauai Photo Tours. It was a bit of a last minute thing that Mrs. Frog encouraged me to do, so while I had my basic photo gear that I travel with (Nikon D-7100 body and Tamron 18-270mm and 10-24mm lenses), I didn’t have what I would take on a planned landscape shoot. (That’s another post and discussion!)

So, our group is hiking down to the mouth of Puukumu Stream. Puukumu Stream runs north from the mountains of Kauai between Kahiliwai and Kilauea carrying rainwater to the Pacific Ocean.

My gear is in my bag. We’ve crossed the stream and are heading north northeast to a small waterfall where the stream empties into the ocean. And the group is moving. And my gear is in my bag. And the group is moving. I look to the left and think “hey, that’s a great shot…” And my Icon is in my pocket. So, I stop briefly, pull out the Icon and snap a few in automatic mode, and then keep moving.

Puukumu Stream meets the Pacific Ocean on the north side of Kauai, Hi.

I thought it might have been a good grab shot. And the more I looked at it later in the day, the more I realized that it wasn’t just a good grab shot, but that it was in fact a great shot!

This image was taken in DNG format with a Nokia Icon in Auto mode, ISO 64, 1/1500 second. Minor post-processing took place in Perfect Photo Suite 9.

Puukumu Stream meets the Pacific Ocean can be found in the coastal and beach scenes gallery on Laughing Frog Images.

This image would be no ka ‘oi (“the best” in Hawaiian) as a metal print or on metallic paper in 1 high x 2 wide format (10″x20″, 12″x24″).

It will be a quiet week

Posted on February 8, 2016February 7, 2016 by Kurt

It’s been busy lately, and it’s going to be a quiet week here at Laughing Frog Images.

One has to take care of the day job and the things that allow this blog, gallery and store to exist.

If you’ve never done so, you can check out the slide show on the Galleries page while things are quiet on the blog and site.

The slide show is a little bit of everything that’s in the Galleries.

Viewing the slide show can do any one of a number of things for you:

Pass time at work.

Pass time while you’re procrastinating about something else.

Help you make your holiday gift list.

Help you make your “hint” list for what you’d really like to get as a gift.

Help you cover that bad patch on the wall.

Dress up a bland wall.

Get yourself a really neat and unique water bottle or mug.

The possibilities are virtually endless.

I hope to get back to a couple of posts a week starting with the week of the 15th…

Until then, be well and take care of those around you as well.

Oh – one more thing, if you like the slide show, we’d appreciate “shares”, “likes”, “pins” and whatever other “stuff” is out there!

This is a very small business that exists on sharing and word of mouth, and we appreciate everything you to to help support Laughing Frog Images so we can keep offering you unique images and the ability to get the image you want on the medium that you want.

The Blizzard of 1996

Posted on January 27, 2016January 24, 2016 by Kurt

The Blizzard of 1996 appears to have been surpassed in the record books by the Blizzard of 2016.

I have to admit that there’s a part of me wishing I was back east for this. And there are many of you now thinking that I’ve totally lost any shred of sanity that I might have still had.

Rest assured that I haven’t.

For you see, the only way that you can photograph a train (or anything else for that matter) in the snow is to be out in the snow.

Makes sense. At least to me anyway.

So, a long time ago (January of 1996 to be exact) in a galaxy far, far away (Hancock, WV and environs), there I was with a cohort driving down a road that I’d never been on before. We had a four wheel drive Ford Explorer, so that was a good thing.

Did I mention that the roads weren’t plowed? That I couldn’t tell just exactly where the road was? That this was long before cell phones?

None of that mattered, because the Blizzard of 1996 had finally ended, and there were trains to be run. Lots of them.

Trivial little things like unplowed roads and and not exactly knowing where the roads were in many cases weren’t going to get in the way of the images to be made.

We’re at HO Tower in Hancock, West Virginia to witness one of the first eastbound freights to move in a couple of days pass through the interlocking plant. The snow isn’t as deep here, as CSX Maintenance of Way forces worked throughout the night to clean the snow from the switches so that trains could run through the plant.

HO Tower is on the CSX Cumberland, MD to Baltimore, MD former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Main Line. There were still a series of towers in use at this time – local switches and signals were controlled by the Operator (the person who worked in the tower). Some of the Operators stayed in their towers for extended shifts during the storm, as there was no way out while everything on rails and wheels couldn’t move. These days, there aren’t a lot of towers left – for the most part, train dispatching is now handled with the assistance of computers in a windowless room that may not even be on railroad property. But that’s another story, and another post.

CSX SD50 #8598 kicks up a nice plume of snow as she leads an eastbound freight past HO Tower.

There isn’t a gallery up for the Blizzard of 1996 on Laughing Frog Images just yet. There’s a lot to scan and process, but there will be a gallery. Someday.

For now, we’ll all just have to enjoy this image.

Subscribe to The Frog