BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: Provincial Supertramp

provincialsupertramp.blogspot.comI was contacted by “Provincial Supertramp” due to my work as a rail advocate and a rail-centric blogger. In her email she detailed her intention of traversing America by train and disclosed her desire to blog about her travels, trials, and tribulations - but that’s not all.

Provincial Supertramp, a twenty-something female from Sacramento, California, and a self-professed rail enthusiast, hopes to help change the perception of rail travel in the process. Not only will this blog appeal to anyone interested in railroads and the state of train travel in America, but Provincial Supertramp is one of those “artsy” writers that have a unique blend of perspective, insight, and honesty. 

According to the first post on her blog she will make a difference:

“How could we, as a nation, have forgotten so quickly something so glorious as all that? 110 years after the first train ran in the United States and the railroad catalyzed the country’s industrialization, modern commerce, vast geographic expansion, and the development of our national identity, our modern railway system appears to have been sidelined by an American obsession with the speed, control, and cutting edge technology of automobiles and jet airplanes. While we relied almost solely on railroads for intercity travel and freight until the 1920s, and they played an important role in all of our most crucial moments in history, in the past 60 years trains have rapidly lost their place of honor amongst American modes of transit. Seeing this travesty, I have taken it upon myself to endeavor to single handedly restore the honor and glory to this historic institution.”

Wow, that is a lofty, and noble, cause. I wish her the best of luck. As someone who firmly shares her opinions regarding the value and worth of rail travel, I support her. As such, I encourage you check out her blog and travel with her as she “sees America,” both visually and socially, from the best vantage point possible - on a train. “All aboard!”

Amtrak's Pomona Station

On Labor Day this year I found myself out and about in the local area looking for trains to shoot.  I was following the Union Pacific’s Alhambra and Los Angeles subdivisions, which parallel each other closely in this portion of Southern California.

Poster for Amtrak’s Sunset Limited

Eventually I reached the Amtrak station at Pomona. Pomona, named after the Roman goddess of agriculture and abundance, was once a budding citrus producing region on the eastern fringe of Los Angeles County. It is more of a industrial and residential community these days and also is the home of the famous Los Angeles County fair, the world’s largest county fair.

The station was built in 1940 by the Southern Pacific Railroad and now serves as a virtual placeholder on the Amtrak schedule since it is no longer staffed and offers virtually no services to Amtrak passengers other than affording them an opportunity to get on or off the thrice-weekly Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle service that stop at Pomona. The southern platform serves as a stop for Metrolink’s Riverside Line and sees quite a few commuters on a weekday basis. Union Pacific does run intermodal and manifest traffic on both subdivisions through the station complex as well.

Schedule of trains that stop at Pomona, California

Seeing as it was a holiday for nearly everyone, the station and platforms were literally deserted so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to grab a couple of shots. I set-up at various locations on the south side of the complex and took a bunch of shots to be processed as HDR photos.

Pomona Station 1 - Southwest elevation.
[9/6/2010 - Alhambra Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

Pomona Station 2 - Southeast elevation.
[9/6/2010 - Alhambra Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

Pomona Station 3 - Pedestrian bridge southwest elevation.
[9/6/2010 - Alhambra Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

Pomona Station 4 - View of the pedestrian bridge and tracks.
[9/6/2010 - Alhambra Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

Pomona Station 5 - Southeast elevation of station and pedestrian bridge.
[9/6/2010 - Alhambra Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

Inspired by a Book to Try Something New

I found myself needing to drive to work in downtown Los Angeles on a Friday a couple of weeks ago. I mistakenly thought that, since it was Friday, the traffic would be “Friday-Lite,” which is how the traffic reporters tend to describe it. It wasn’t.

I knew that going home would be bad, as is typically the case as commuters and people heading out of town for the weekend cram onto the too few freeways leaving Los Angeles. It turns out it wasn’t just bad, it was miserable. In the time it would normally take for my to complete my commute by Metrolink train service, I wasn’t even halfway home. I started to think about options to sitting in the “going nowhere” traffic jam I found myself in.

As any respectable tech-head would do, I worked my way to a Frys Electronics superstore, a mecca of sorts for us geeks, to spend a few idle hours while the traffic died down. I methodically walked up and down the aisle looking for the cool stuff that I just had to have. Considering the time I spent in there, I walked out with very little damage being done to my wallet. I spent only $100.

Creative Night : Digital Photography Tips & Techniques by Harold Davis

One item I purchased was a book on night photography. The book is titled “Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques.” (It is authored by Harold Davis and published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.) I have always been intrigued by the mystic, insight, and beauty garnered by night photography, couple that with the fact that I find myself in the dark quite a bit with Deb enjoying her stargazing activities, and it was a perfect book for me. To wit, see this post: Steel and Stars.

After getting home and settling in I began to read the book. (This is one of those books that I don’t even want to flip through pages - I just want to be surprised by the material and photos. Weird uh?). I found the material informative and written well. I like the author’s style and flow.

After reading the first few chapters I had already deduced that this was money well spent and I looked forward to trying my hand at capturing all that the nights have to offer. So after reading seventy some odd pages I was sufficiently inspired to get off of my ass and go out into night. I headed east.

I found myself searching for a suitable test subject on which to practice the techniques I had just read about. One location came to mind because of it’s abundance of passing trains and suitable lighting - the train station at San Bernardino, California, some twenty miles east of me.

As I set-up for the first shot, I opted, perhaps foolishly, to try to also capture the scenes in HDR. I now realize that I should have taken more individual images to capture the entire dynamic range of the exposures, but the longer shutter times required for night photography coupled with my haste, precluded me from making the right choice at the time.

Nonetheless, I offer the following shots of my first efforts to capture night scenes, in HDR also. I definately am looking forward to improving my abilties and plan an taking many more exposures like this in the immediate future:

San Bernardino Amtrak and Metrolink Station at Sunset - [9/25/2010 - San Gabriel Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry. San Bernardino Metrolink Platforms - Night Test Shot 1 - [9/25/2010 - San Gabriel Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

San Bernardino Metrolink Platforms - Night Test Shot 2 - [9/25/2010 - San Gabriel Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

San Bernardino Metrolink Platforms - Night Test Shot 3 - [9/25/2010 - San Gabriel Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

San Bernardino Metrolink Platforms - Night Test Shot 4 - [9/25/2010 - San Gabriel Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

San Bernardino Trackage - Night Test Shot 1 - [9/25/2010 - San Gabriel Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.

San Bernardino Trackage - Night Test Shot 2 - [9/25/2010 - San Gabriel Subdivision] © Copyright 2010 Joe Perry.