My March 7 blog featured a model of one of the staged new car publicity shots that were so popular in the 1950s and 1960s complete with one of the ubiquitous Foster and Kleiser billboards. Although the billboards are clearly ads, there was some hard-to-define “something” that made them captivating. I decided to revisit the […]
Category: Photography and Lighting
Just A Typical Day
A nondescript boxcar sits silently under a palm tree near the Everett Avenue crossing in Los Angeles in the Don Draper/Mad Men era. When I go out in the field to rail fan, I know going in that the odds are against actually catching a train. I’m fine with that and simply enjoy taking in […]
Menthol & Methyl
In an era of unfiltered cigarettes and leaded gas, the LAJ switch job pulls eastward across District Blvd back to A Yard after a hard day’s work.
Summer of ’62
It’s the summer of 1962 in LA as a motorist idles patiently at the Corona Avenue grade crossing. The vehicle is a 1958 Impala Sport Coupe powered by a 348-cubic-inch, Tri-Power engine with a Powerglide transmission and dual exhaust. Mileage? 9 mpg! That year the Rams drafted Roman Gabriel and Merlin Olsen. Chubby Checker hit […]
East Rail Night Ops
One of my all-time favorite railfan videos is Tolga Erbora’s 2012 piece on East Rail’s night operations. The audio and storytelling are magnificent. Notice the subtle sound of aircraft on approach to MIA. The rain. The EOT shot in the closing clip. Masterful. Watch that first. It occurred to me that I have that exact […]