Why Hello, Rusty!

(It takes a couple of blizzards to get me to be consistent with this blog, apparently.)

Back when the land was less white and we were enjoying an unseasonably warm spell instead of the blizzard-filled one of the moment, Jay and I went to the country and visited the little town of Sykesville. Most of our time there was spent walking the pair of railroad tracks that run through the town, one old, one new and shiny (read: still used). There was a bit of a trainyard, of sorts, and we found an old blue caboose, sitting, rusting, posing.

Pointless Digression: There is a breed of photographers that cannot resist photographing the dying, decrepit, tumbling apart, and abandoned things of the world. There were many of these photogs at my school, GVSU, which led to a personal resentment of old barns and rusted things. I really cant blame them- in the farmland of Western Michigan those were the marked things in the landscape. I understand the psychology of it too- photography is tightly connected to documentation and when something is so obviously headed toward disintegration, there is an urge to record proof that it was there. I just saw too much of it for awhile. Obviously, I'm not of this documentor breed, though I appreciate the beauty that often comes from slow destruction, hence the following. Digression end.

So, the caboose was posing there for me in all its rusty beauty, with an overcast sky that allowed for capturing all the colors and textures it had to offer. Enjoy:

Well, Maryland has given up and as the snow begins to fall again, schools are reporting they'll be closing for the rest of the week. I'm guessing I'll get at least one more day at home, myself, so I hope to post up some more rusty stuff from Sykesville tomorrow.