A New Day Has Dawned

Bienvenue!

Mais, yeah, chère!  What’s happening, my homies and honies?!?!  At long last, it’s finally here!  Welcome to Jimbaux’s Journal, my long-awaited, long-delayed personal photography blog, where I’ll dispense random pictures and random wisdom in my own unique style!

I’m extraordinarily busy right now, and not only will this post be very brief, but I still can’t figure out how to get the tab for the “About” page at the top of the site.  So, in the meantime, check it out here, and make sure you get on the Facebook fan page, as that is really the only way to be updated regularly about site updates.

2011 will be a year of hope and change for me; I can see it!  I can feel it!  I can stop using exclamation points!

This isn’t much of an introduction.  That will come later, and I’ll formally introduce Jimbaux’s Journal to the world on the NOLA Post in a few weeks.  My hope is that by that time, when readers of the older publication are introduced to this one, there will be enough content to peruse.

Again, I’ll have more to say later about what this site means, its goals, its purpose, etc., but I’m too busy for that now and need to get this post out.

Can You Shut Up and Get To The Pictures?

Well, yes, most certainly, dudes!  We’ll start in what is a most appropriate photo location for me: Chacahoula, Louisiana, USA, along the ex-SP Sunset Route.  This is one of my favorite locations for westbound trains, especially relatively short trains like those that we’ll see here.  Due to the  tree-tunnel effect of this shot, it’s a standby in any type of weather condition or any type of atmospheric/lighting condition.  In other words, it’s a good shot at almost any time of day at almost any time of the year.

Last Friday (14 January 2011), I went out there to shoot the westbound Sunset Limited and the UP local that normally follows it.  The latter, officially known as the LLS51 and affectionately known as  The Chip Local, is my favorite train on this line.  It is short, often has cool power, and has cool cars.  So, away I went!

First is the shot of the #1, Amtrak’s westbound Sunset Limited.

This is a shot that gets a bit tiresome since the train always looks the same.  However, varying conditions of lighting and vegetation make this shot interesting at different times of the year.  Anyway, I’m not entirely happy with my post-processing work here.  I always seem to have to jack around with the blue channel, but I seem to have failed here.  What do you think?

The Chip Local

The train is called this because for what seems like forever, Chip Ledet has held down the conductor job on this train.  Ledet went to work for the Southern Pacific in 1968.

I really think that the lease blue-and-white power is cool, don’t you?  Yes, Whiskey, I know how you hate  lease power, but you’ve got to like the shot, right?  Bah, enough!

A quick lesson in geometry and how it relates to composition can be had here.  Compare the two images above, and notice that the angle between the optical axis and the right-of-way is slightly smaller in the second picture, a result of some readjusting that I did between the shots.  I just pulled my truck closer to the track, and, yes, I was standing on top of my truck for both of these shots.

A Rooster is a Rooster, And a Chicken Ain’t Nothin’ But a Bird!

So, before any of you ask, those of you that did not know me as a teenager don’t remember that “The Rooster” is an old nickname for me, hence the graphic that I, in my pathetic drawing talents, created as my avatar.  I’m working on getting something better.

Let Me Up Because I’ve Had Enough!

I’d write more, since it would be appropriate since this is the inaugural posting, but I’m tired, irritated, and I have plenty of stuff to do!

Just like on the NOLA Post, you can post a comment below, and you need to provide an e-mail address to post a comment, but only your name and not the e-mail address will be displayed.

All for now . . .

Jimbaux