Well, I'm done with classes. On Monday, May 24th, I finished calculating the grades and I uploaded them into the system. I am officially done with spring semester 2021, although I am hunkering down right now waiting for the angry emails from students who will complain about their grades. But I have evidence, so I will be able to rebut any claims of error, but still, I hate these confrontations. Students twenty years ago were not this way.
Since Tuesday was a nice day, and since I needed to reward myself, I planned a trip to the So Cal Railway Museum. It was warm and the clouds were amazing in the sky, just beautiful clouds that I thought would make the perfect backdrop for outdoor photos. Plus, I was itching to use the 8x10 camera again. After all, I though I had now fixed (patched) the leaks in my repaired camera. So, time to go on a trip.
I left at about 12:30, bearing in mind the delays on the 15 freeway that is undergoing work and generating many complaints on the online groups for commuters. I found little traffic, although I did see massive swirls of dust which didn't bode well. I didn't want to try to photograph in a dust storm. When I was on the 74 freeway heading east to Perris, I actually saw what looked like a column of smoke. It had the makings of trouble, and I saw a Channel 7 news van heading in that direction. I was actually behind the van in the residential streets before it turned around. Who knows what it was looking for? The column disappeared as I ventured further east.
Finally, I got to the museum and found it semi-deserted. Only two cars were in the parking lot, and there were no attendants in sight anywhere. There is no admission fee, only on weekends and only if you want to ride the trains. I took my bag with the 8x10 Willtravel, and took my heavy backpack with three black and white film holders and one slide holder, and went to where I wanted to go, which was the area to the north with the old railway cars. It is by far the most picturesque locale for me.
I had arrived at about 1:20 p.m., and I ended up taking 7 images. I started with one slide image, then took six black and white. I thought I was working lightning fast, but before I knew it, it was 3 p.m. and time to leave. It was also very hot there, I felt very uncomfortable and had to take my facial mask off during part of the time. There was no one there anyway, except for the last bit when a worker in a cart parked a discrete distance away from me and watched for 5-10 minutes to see what I was doing. I also noticed a couple eating something at one of the park tables a distance away, but it was far and I had my privacy.
There were familiar scenes, but I tried to photograph new perspectives. The old and rotting railway cars are very good subjects, and I still have to wait and see how they came out. I also wanted to photograph a black engine car, and I did. The clouds in the sky will hopefully show up clearer in my wider shots, but most of my shots were closeups.
Here is my second-to-last shot. The very light car in the image was a type of faded yellow color, and I was tempted to photograph it in slide, but decided not to. Slide film is very expensive, about $15 a sheet, plus $10 to develop it. When you add postage and taxes, it is easily $30 a sheet or a little more, and that scene was not worth $30 to me.
Without further ado, the image. These are screen grabs because this blog site will not allow me to upload massive 30+ Mb size images.
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