With the exception of a few close friends, nobody knows that I often enjoy a good geek-out by the way of standing around railroad tracks waiting for a train to come. Trains in Canada are notoriously late, thus this is actually tough work. I’ve endured sun burn, bug bites, blackberry bushes and curious looks. Not to mention several encounters with weirdos. However, the pay off has resulted in me taking some of my favourite photos – ever. I’m beyond thrilled to have two photos of mine featured in the Canadian Trains Calendar from Wyman Publishing! My February photo is the feature page on the back cover, too. Despite sitting on approximately 100 cool train photos, these are the first ones I’ve had published anywhere. It’s so great for them to finally escape my hard drive for people to see. A big thank you to AllCanadaPhotos.com for making it happen!

The Royal Hudson, I shot this one at Crescent Beach in White Rock.

CP's 2816, The Empress steaming through Burnaby. Man, did I ever wait for this one, but it was definitely worht it.

My February shot on the back of the calendar. This was actually shot in February too, just days before the Olympics.

Stoked on this!

The Royal Hudson, Surrey, 2009

My uncle has leant me his Pentax 6×7 (67) for a few years now and I was finally able to get some scans into the computer. The camera itself makes me smile every time I trigger the shutter. It’s heavy, a bit awkward, and has a shutter kick like a shotgun, but I love it. When I think about it, with the cost of film and processing, each shot costs me $3. It still gives me the thrill of anticipation, though it’s a very long drawn out anticipation, since a roll of film in the 6×7 lasts me for months.

This shot of the Royal Hudson was taken back in early 2009 as it climbed up Kennedy Hill in Surrey on it’s way to White Rock. Watching it crawl up this grade was nothing short of spectacular. This was taken with a Pentax 45mm lens, I posted a long shot from this same spot here. (Taken with my Nikkon 180mm)