Long Drive From Washington DC

Kathy and I arrived in Washington DC on the Amtrak Cardinal train from Chicago around 6:30pm Wednesday. We walked to our hotel, dropped off our bags and went back out to find something to eat. We were shocked at how empty Washington's Union Station was. I think Covid 19 has taken a terrible toll on the businesses that once filled the main waiting room and the other retail areas. We found something to eat, took it back to our room, ate, took showers and went to sleep. We had to pickup our rental car at Reagan National Airport at 7:00am this morning. Other than a real lack of customer service at the Alamo car rental counter, getting the car was uneventful. We drove to Maryland to pickup my wife's brother who is riding with us all the way back to California along Route 66. We made it all the way to Dayton Ohio where we will stay tonight and visit the National Museum of the United States Air Force in the morning.

While we didn't have time to take photos in Washington during our short visit, here are a couple from previous visits.

Old Iron Horse at Havre Montana

I was sitting in the observation car of the Empire Builder train, busily putting away by camera gear and iPad when one of the tiny screws holding my glasses together decided to come loose and skid across the table. I am widely acknowledged by my family as having very little hand eye coordination but I somehow was able to lunge for the tiny fastener, catching in my hand as it fell off the edge of the table preventing it from disappearing forever. As I was using a tiny screwdriver to reassemble my glasses, the conductor announced that we were going to stop for 15 minutes at Harve, Montana. I hadn't stepped off the train since leaving Portland so I decided to stretch my legs and enjoy the fresh air. The fresh air was cold. The temperature was 47F which is about 50F colder than California. When I alighted from the train the first thing I saw was this amazing old locomotive. I took a couple of photos with my cell phone but being predictably unsatisfied with them, I broke out my Sony a6000 and shot a lot of photos from different perspectives, including 18 photos that make up this HDR panorama. Unfortunately, I don't have any iPad software that can correct the wide angle bowed distortion which appeared when I stitched the six HDR brackets, each consisting of 3 shots spaced every 2ev. I think I also "over cooked" this image a bit. I may replace it later with a version that doesn't make my eyes bleed.

Empire Builder Observation Car Panorama

Now on Amtrak's Empire Builder train traveling across the State of Montana. There has been some amazing scenery to see today. I woke up early as usual, 5:50 am, grabbed my camera bag and walked through several train cars to what has quickly become my favorite place to hang out, the observation car. I ordered breakfast, and settled in to watch the sunrise. Last night my wife insisted she would sleep on the top bunk in our Roomette. However, she found the mattress and tight confines (The curved ceiling is just 6" above your head at one point) uncomfortable and she was unable to sleep. We agreed to switch places which was an adventure given the tight confines of the space we occupied.

This photo was taken using my Sony a99 camera and my now 35 year old Minolta 16mm fisheye lens. I took 6 portrait orientation shots and then imported them to my iPad Pro. I am using a new (to me) photo editor called Affinity Photo. It brings new capability to the iPad including the first good HDR tone mapping software I've found and the ability to stitch panoramas. This photo is my first try using this feature. Since there are misalignments and it duplicated items in the final stitched image, I'll give it a C grade.

Racing Along Southern California’s Coastline

This photo was taken from the observation car on the Amtrak Coast Starlight train. We were just passing through Vandenberg Air Force Base and I could clearly see the historic launch facilities now being used by SpaceX for their military payloads. This has been a great trip so far. Kathy and I are enjoying traveling by train. Taking a shower last night was a bit of an adventure since the shower stall is the size of a telephone booth. Later I was able to provide some entertainment for my wife as she watched me climb into the top bunk of our sleeping accommodations. 

How I took this photo:

This is a 3 shot HDR composite image. I brought my tripod with me on this trip but I'm sure the Amtrak employees would not appreciate me setting it up in the aisle way. Instead I held my camera steady by putting up against the side of the doorway. The train was rocking and rolling but I was able to hold it still so it was in sync with the movement. The longest exposure showed some motion blur out of the windows so I enhanced that.