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Putting Away My Photography

Short memoir about the photographic adventures of yesteryears

By GuijePublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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Amtrak's Capitol Corridor running past Alviso's neighborhood, circa 2015

Just the thought of snapping an exceptional photograph at the click of the shutter button while holding the firm leatherette grip at the same time and holding the barrel of the lens attached with my left give me nothin’ but pure joy, the time stops for a moment as my mind that normally, habitually acts like a “rottweiler” starts to calm down escaping to its solitary cave while I’m left to just soak in the present moment.

Photography has been with me since I first received my first SLR in 2013 which automatically accelerated my passion to learn about the settings such as aperture, shutter speed, etc. not to mention leading me into the rathole of wonderful photographs I’d capture to which at the time, seeing my camera for the first time as I’m taking the plastic packaging off of it, I wouldn’t know what kinds of image I’d capture.

Now in present time, I’ve upgraded to my 6th Nikon camera earlier this year and reflecting upon this photographic journey, I’ve been grateful enough to admit that I do enjoy it so much. The joy and passion continues to plant the seeds of the goal to go full-time with photography and content creation because I enjoy the thought of taking more photographs and the editing process to see how I can work my magic even further.

Pleasant memories run in succession, no shortage of warm and wonderful memories from my photography journey to look back on or to write about. Soon to create more memories, for now this is a somber reflection upon a handful of memories behind the shutter button.

SP 5472, Niles Depot, 14 December 2013

14 December 2013: It’s a fuzzy memory but after being obsessed with a portion of photography entailing to creating long exposures, the opportunity arose from one of the last nights the “Train of Lights” was operating before the museum closed for the season until March.

My friends and I decided to head out to capture one of the last operations as the seasonal excursions started to wind down for the actual holidays being around the corner. We wanted to capture an interesting photograph to take home with us tonight and we headed to the end of the line, where the train sat to load passengers, seizing the moment it stood still capturing a long exposure.

To be honest, it was a complete guess as to what I was doing.

It paid off in the end because out came this image which was my favorite from the night.

Caltrain headed into Sunnyvale, March 2014

20 March 2014: It was a slightly slow, uneventful afternoon I spent at the Caltrain Station and in order to escape the situations facing me in my household, I decided to go out for the afternoon to do some photography.

It was the first time I decided to use the additional telephoto lens my mother had bought as a kit with the camera for my birthday and I hadn’t used it as much as my standard kit lens because of the frustrating experience it is to get the object in focus using the manual focusing method I’ve grown accustomed to. I had to take my shot as an inbound Caltrain headed for San Francisco made a station stop at Sunnyvale, taking one of the shots I’ve wanted for a while, a photograph of an inbound commuter passing through the signals at the end of the platform.

Luckily it paid off.

One of Niles Canyon Railway's steam engines, April 2014

5 April 2014: I remember it was sometime flying solo on this voyage where I captured the operations of the same museum which operated the “Train of Lights” several months earlier, and I had been obsessed in capturing these detailed shots of steam locomotives which I desperately wanted a chance to try out my creative eye.

Prayers were answered as soon as I found an advertisement from the Niles Canyon Railway saying they were operating steam engines for a particular weekend. I took a gamble, staying out in Sunol Depot by myself, watching these operations in action. I photographed somewhat close but was at a safe distance from the locomotive which I captured in this shot.

The mallet’s pistons taking a brief break.

SP 4294, "detail" shot of part of its wheel arrangement, April 2015

18 April 2015: Some friends of mine and I headed out to the state capitol to do some photography and witness the resurrection of the saddle tank engine which last operated in four years prior, while walking around the museum once more, I suddenly visualized a photograph I wanted to capture being another detailed shot.

This time, it’s one of Southern Pacific’s massive “Cab Forwards” being displayed in the museum. The sole survivor of its class.

I remember setting up my camera on the tripod and doing a long exposure since it works better than to bump up the ISO and snap the photograph free handed. In editing, the photograph seemed more appealing in “monochrome” than in color.

22 November 2015: Photograph above at the top of the page, I've captured while spending a nice, cool evening trackside in Alviso hanging out with one of my good friends who happened to be there that night.

We met up spending the rest of the evening taking photographs of whatever railroading activity could pass our cameras. Sure enough, I had an impulse to set up my SLR on the tripod, thinking I had a shot in mind, planning out the settings, and taking test shots which led me to the ideal settings to capture the photograph in a superb manner.

I risked missing this photograph when a Capitol Corridor came speeding through the tracks running through the small town placed outside of the bigger metropolitan area.

BNSF freight train, June 2019

26 June 2019: It was a hot Summer day while spending time trackside in Modesto Amtrak Station. I was getting back into the habit of taking photographs again as I used to more frequently, especially after purchasing “new” equipment permitting me to return to the hobby.

I spent an entire day at the station, capturing photographs of a slightly busy afternoon when another freight train came running rapidly through the crossing near me, inching closer to the east end of the platform. It turned out to be a massive lashup in the amount of locomotives powering the front end although afterwards, I found out it was just four of the locomotives that had been in tow without any power of their own.

BNSF intermodal at Frost, April 2020

1 April 2020: At the time, the group of friends I surrounded myself with was completely different. They had this mentality of saying “fuck it, we’re taking this chance” when it came to heading down to the southern portion of California photographing in places that were foreign to me and that I only knew from glancing at some of the photographs from some of my friends which lived close to the area. One of the days we spent the entire afternoon at this location in Frost.

It was one of those times I wish I had a telephoto lens to utilize while being on this hilltop but regardless, this photograph was my favorite from the trip. It came out sharper than what I thought I would and it was before upgrading to a constant aperture lens.

BNSF freightliner through Denair, December 2020

28 December 2020: I’ve regularly made trips to this one crossing near my neighborhood before encountering an incident which led me to never visit that spot again. In one of those afternoons trackside, I photographed this manifest speeding by in the late afternoon sun.

It was shortly after upgrading my lens from a regular standard kit lens which gave me subpar quality in my photography and I couldn’t be more thrilled in making that second hand purchase. The mainline was lined up for this freightliner to run through, passing the crossing sending a nice breeze through as I captured my last frame, the sounds of its horn rattling in my brain but made no difference after being thrilled from getting one of the nicer shots I’ve wanted to capture.

Caltrain commuter entering Diridon, March 2021

4 March 2021: This photograph was taken when I was taking a personal voyage, visiting my hometown, and seizing the opportunity to do some street photography. An hour before I had to leave, I decided to stop by the train station I used to photograph at years ago and to capture what I could within such a tight time frame.

Within the time I had, I captured this inbound Caltrain coming into the station in the late afternoon. "Yes, I got it!" I remember saying to myself mentally because I didn't want to ruin the footage I was capturing in the other camera however I'm pretty sure I did say that out loud once I stopped recording on the other camera.

Wouldn't surprise me if I did.

Ten Years Later...

Ten years after jumping into this hobby of taking photographs and shooting footage, It’s left this hunger for wanting to venture out more and capture more “exceptional” shots. Starting a brand new body of work to look back on in equal or amplified pleasure as a creator had me reeling thus being the main reason why I’m starting out a brand new photography page soon uploading newer pieces of work in aspiration to put this newer goal forth into action.

The first order of business is to come up with a new brand name.

I had some ideas but to varying degrees of design.

One of the brand names I'm considering to run with, designed in 2021

While this isn't my first time setting up a brand new page, this is definitely the last move around I'm doing because every attempt was created to drive a certain amount of traffic to the page in addition to the accompanying Youtube channels I'd create for different purposes. One, my main photography content depicting behind the scenes and the second, a page dedicated to the train videography work I'd create.

I'm not going to be in a hurry to get to a certain amount of viewership or anything because the content's going to speak for itself as I've been guilty of doing so constructing new pages in the past.

It is my goal to go full-time with my photography and content creation but I just need to slow down and to not be possessed by the goal so much because the ideal goal is coming around. I just don't want to burn myself out as I was close to doing so instead it reignited my fire to do photography because I've begun to accumulate ideas of what pieces of content I'd like to produce during the next few months. What I'd like is to keep some sort of consistency in addition to higher quality photographs to output.

Fewer pieces of content in between but it may open doors to resources where I can produce more frequently which I'm open to.

Quality will triumph over quantity.

It brings me hope to start putting together a new library in the near future and the ambition to write another piece depicting the stories behind those other frames which for the moment aren't more than pure imagination but will soon become tangible reality.

For now, it's an ode to the wonderful memories of yesteryear.

Author's Note

If you enjoyed the written piece, please do take the time to click on the "heart" icon, share this page to others you'd think will enjoy it, and consider leaving a tip in the amount of a $1 or more.

Any amount would be greatly appreciated, I'm looking forward publishing more pieces of content which you can expect to be nothing less than "higher quality" added to my portfolio.

Thank you so much for reading!

vintage
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About the Creator

Guije

Writing here and there, loving the craft with a lot of passion, full steam ahead into a newer chapter.

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