iron age

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 10:27:02 -0800

Except for car traffic on nearby Railroad Avenue, the rail yard in Snoqualmie, Wash., is eerily quiet. The vintage locomotives and freight cars that occupy two side tracks are asleep, long ago retired. This is a motley lineup. Rust and moss drip from trains. The grounds are littered with railroad junk. Yet these iron beasts are impressive, even in in a state of decay. Trains are celebrated in the town of Snoqualmie, located in the Cascade foothills east of Seattle. Tourists can visit the Northwest Railway Museum, housed in a Victorian depot built in 1890. Train rides through the upper Snoqualmie Valley are offered on weekends April through October. Another tourist attraction, 270-foot Snoqualmie Falls, is located a few miles west. The town got the attention of filmmaker David Lynch in the 1990s. Exterior scenes of his TV drama Twin Peaks were shot here.

kodak gold is golden

Tue, 1 Oct 2013 00:50:28 -0700

Kokak Gold 200 is cheap. It’s sold at the local drugstore. Shouldn’t be taken seriously by serious photographers, right? Wrong. I shot three rolls in the wheat fields of eastern Washington and it rocked. For landscapes I typically choose high-saturation films like Fuji Provia 100F and Velvia 50. On this trip I wanted to capture softer, more natural tones. This color negative film, shot with a Nikon F5, didn’t disappoint.

gasoline alley

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 11:05:31 -0700

Gas pumps today don’t merely deliver fuel. They entertain with video screens. They talk to you and flash digital information. The pumps and gas stations of yesteryear offered basic, no-frills service. You even got your windshield washed. The winged lights, above, stand guard at a gas station in Othello, Wash. The other images were also shot in state.

FIELD TRIP

Sat, 24 Aug 2013 21:32:19 -0700

Acre for acre, no state in America grows more wheat than Washington. I believe it. I spent four days driving through sprawling wheat country. The farmland seems endless, melting into the horizon. The fields are works of art, adorned with colorful stripes and swirls. Film images on this page were captured with a Mamiya 645 Pro TL and Nikon F5.

old times

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 10:52:32 -0700

Sprague, Wash., is showing its age. Dozens of old, rusty commercial trucks are parked on a corner lot. It’s an open-air showroom of unrestored classics. Down the street, Dots Farm Junk, an antique store, sells old cars and parts. But not everything done here is old school. Farm Junk sells auto parts over the Internet. Sprague is located west of Spokane off Interstate 90. Images were captured with two film cameras, a Mamiya 645 Pro TL and Nikon F5.