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05/18/2003 01:22:38 AM · #1
A couple of us took a short fieldtrip to the Golden Spike Nat'l Historic Site today... Here are the results of the day's work, straight from the camera:

Promontory Gallery

The sky was very overcast, so I had a difficult time with the landscape shots, but I was very pleased with several of the close-ups and a couple of the shots with people in them (my greatest weakness is with 'people shots').
05/18/2003 02:06:37 AM · #2
Very nice Paul.Those old trains are really something.Lot of work to keep them looking so bright and clean.
05/18/2003 02:34:55 AM · #3
wow, those look vaguely familiar. Those turned out awesome. I love the close up gear ones. Those people ones too turned out awesome. You got some really good ones of the actors. I love the one with the old man hitting the spike in. Very nice!!
05/18/2003 02:58:49 AM · #4
Nice stuff, Paul! My family and I were going to go out there a few weeks ago for the Transportation challenge, but we left late and it would have been closed by the time we got there. I forgot all about today's big event there.

If you don't know, Golden Spike Nat'l Monument is where the east and west continental railroad met. Where the tracks met, they hammered in a golden spike. They re-enact the event every year.

It's kind of a funny story, but no one told either team where to stop, and they were rewarded for the amount of track laid down, so each team passed each other by, I believe for some miles, until someone said "stop!" and they found a common middle point.

Also in the area is Kelton, a ghost town I have visited many times. No buildings left in this remote site just north of the Great Salt Lake, but a lot of foundations, broken glass and old shoes. It's kind of weird to think that Kelton was once one of the largest cities in Utah. If you have a good vehicle, it's fun to follow the old tracks through the alkaline desert.

Sorry Paul, back to you: My favorite shot is number 31: the man holding the hammer just about to swing it. It has a lot of tensiveness in it. He shows himself to be a good actor there!
05/18/2003 04:21:49 AM · #5
Hey Paul here is the panoramic one that I took today.

Promentary Summit's Meeting
05/18/2003 01:05:06 PM · #6
Jeremy, your panorama turned out fantastic! A couple of questions-- how many frames did you put together, and what software are you using to stitch the images?

And thanks for the kind comments, David. This was the first real "shoot" where I tried to capture what attracted me to the scene-- taking a cue from a forum post you made earlier this week about improving shots. For the first time ever, my wife even made the comment that she was impressed by a couple of them!

I was struck by the whole sense of place and tremendous accomplishment, the juxtaposition of machine against 'wilderness', and the technology of the day-- still amazing even now! I've got a few favorites myself, and am going to fine-tune them a bit on Photoshop side of things to finish them off. Surprisingly, I've even got a few shots of people that turned out ok. I liked 13, 18, 28, and 31-- all for the emotion I was able to capture. On the still life side of things, I thought 12, 36, 38, 42, 50, and 51 turned out quite well.

David, you're quite right about Kelton. It is amazing to consider the whole boom/bust nature of the region. Towns all across the old transcontinental line such as Kelton, Terrace, Watercress, Lucin, Tecoma... quite large cities that have now faded into the alkali mud of the desert. Even on the new Lucin cutoff, there are towns that no longer exist due to the fact that the trains no longer need to stop every 30 miles or so to take on water.

I'm quite familiar with the area, and yet there is still so much to explore. My wife's family owns a small homestead below Pilot Peak, and we visit regularly. ATV's get us over the rough roads, so we can cover a lot more country than by conventional transportation.

Anyway, I've evangelized about the place enough... thanks again for your feedback!



Paul.
05/18/2003 02:00:10 PM · #7
I like this photo best out of the entire set... I have actually been looking for things like this myself... great capture :)

05/18/2003 06:13:28 PM · #8
I'm anxioius to get out to the Newfoundland Mountains again sometime soon. That's the range that sticks right up out of the salt desert. Very interesting place!

Hey Paul, are doing the America 24/7 thing? Some of these shots would be terrific for that!
05/18/2003 06:33:26 PM · #9
Hey Paul, there were 6 frames put together for that panoramic. As for the software it's from ArcSoft. This months issue of Popular Photography comes with a CD with a bunch of different software on it to try out and then if you like it you can register them for $39.99 a program. That Panoramic software works well. Then there is one that does collages(SP??), slideshows, and some other things.

Here are a couple more links to a couple of the shots I took yesterday.
Golden Spike Rests
Handing over the Spikes
The 119 Comes
The Chain
05/18/2003 06:51:44 PM · #10
Originally posted by dsidwell:

I'm anxioius to get out to the Newfoundland Mountains again sometime soon. That's the range that sticks right up out of the salt desert. Very interesting place!

Hey Paul, are doing the America 24/7 thing? Some of these shots would be terrific for that!


David, I signed up for the America 24/7 thing, but didn't really think I had anything worthwhile to submit... perhaps I'll give it a shot, however! (Any recommendations? I got the impression they were looking for more poeple shots than still life ones.)

I must agree that the Newfoundlands are an amazing range! I've only been out there twice; it's so far removed from civilization that it's a bit of a trek to get there.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of the area before I got into digital-- they're scanned in from film prints. The quality isn't the greatest, it at least gives a bit of a feel for the area.

Perhaps the most interesting area to me is the abandoned tramway that is still in place at the Desert Flower #1 mine in Packrat Canyon. It amazes me how much effort had to go into getting everything operational.
Abandoned ore cart
View down the tram cable

The Stone House area (on the West side of Newfoundland) is also pretty neat; the elements have really taken a toll on the house itself, but there is plenty of other neat stuff around to take a look at.
Remains of the old Stone House (2001)
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