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Alaska Train

Here is a shot of the train we took from Seward to Anchorage a couple of years back. It was at the end of a cruise, and the only way back to the airport was a four-hour train ride through the mountains. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

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Alaska Train

I ended up roaming the train, back and forth through the cars like a kid in a candy shop. I would stop between the cars to take pictures of the scenery rushing by. This is how travel was meant to be.

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If you stayed in your seat, they would come around and take your order for food and drinks. Unlike an airplane, you have a lot of space to stretch out and enjoy the meal. But I was on my feet most of the time, quite often at the front near the engine snapping photos like this.

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Train to Anchorage

I took this on a train to Anchorage Alaska as I stood on the platform of a rail car just behind the engine. It is fair to say I got a good dose of diesel fumes that day, especially in the tunnels. But I wouldn’t have traded it for anything, it was an awesome experience. 

The more I ride trains the more pictures I have of coming through tunnels. It invariable evokes the metaphors of pulling through and the light at the end. These are things we all experience and it’s natural to find corollaries in the world to represent our inner thoughts.

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Train to Anchorage
Train to Anchorage Alaska

As such I wax philosophical about images because sometimes I find it more interesting that what my camera settings were or what I was doing at the time. I’m interesting in interpretation and how we relate to images.

I prefer to find a hopeful meaning in an image. For me it’s important to be open to the possibility of good things. I think good things are not by chance, rather a state of mind; that’s what optimism is.

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I am fortunate to have traveled the rails on a high mountain pass and experience re-emerging into the light from a tunnel. It is at once visceral and metaphorical. What more could I want?

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Switching Yard

This is a rail yard in Vancouver that’s adjacent to a busy commercial port. I happened to be walking over a bridge and thought it interesting, however when I looked at the surrounding buildings I could almost imagine I’d been transported back in time to another era. When I was young we had tracks in our back yard. For a while after moving away I had a hard time falling sleep because there was no sound, it was too quiet. I wonder if the folks living in these buildings go to sleep with the rumbling of the trains. In an odd way, it’s quite soothing.

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Follow link to purchase a limited edition print of this photo.