Nevada Northern Railway Winter Steam Shoot--Friday

 I had the opportunity to attend the Nevada Northern Railway's Winter Steam Photo Shoot Spectacular, a 2.5 day event held twice each February. I was at the second weekend, with about 30 other photographers, ready to take jawbreaking photographs of trains. I have to admit, I like trains, but I'm not a train fanatic. And I do love photography, but I had a feeling I was going to be with a bunch of semi-pro and pro photographers. So I was definitely going to be out of my comfort zone. But that's okay, that's how we grow, so I decided to just go for it and enjoy the weekend. My husband and in-laws were on kid duty, I had a room reserved at a hotel in Ely, and I had packed lots of warm clothes (it is Ely, Nevada, after all, a place not really known for being warm).

We started out with a safety briefing from Mark Bassett, the director of NNRY. Then we headed out into the yard for some photo opportunities. It was a grey and rainy afternoon, so I was glad there were some bright colors out there.


We started with a freight train with two diesel engines, #5 and #105 (I think--this is where my lack of train knowledge trips me up!)


We bundled up and went out into the yard. These train photographers had come from all over, including Chicago, Connecticut, Washington state, several from California, Utah, and more.


The freight train made some passes.

I tried to find a way to get something a little different. It was my first time photographing with so many others, and I was introduced to the concept of a photo line, a line you stay behind so you don't get in anyone else's photo. The photo line changes as everyone gets that shot and then it's time to move on to the next one.

I really enjoyed the artistic challenge of trying to get a unique shot. I was also content to get some standard compositions, as I don't have many train photos. (I do now!)

The line of school buses across the street caught my eye, a splash of color on an otherwise dreary day.

One of the cool things about the NNRY is that when it closed down, they basically shut the doors on an intact operation. So all the parts are there, being restored over time. These buildings in the background are iconic to the railway.

 

Then it was time to head down the tracks. The lines and symmetry made me swoon--well, almost! I was pretty excited, I have to admit.

We were allowed to go into the caboose and watch the freight train. It was a little rainy at this point.

A few of the photographers getting ready.

Then they did a demo with the crane train, lifting an ore cart off the tracks and setting it back down. It was very cool.

 By then I was very cool--I mean cold, so I checked into the hotel and warmed up a bit.

 Then at 5 pm I went back for the much touted night shoot with professional studio lighting. It felt like a bit of a jostling match to get a spot in the lineup of tripods!

The studio lighting was really nice (ignore the green flare, I just saw it and realized I still need to fix that!). Engine 40 was our main subject.


I also had fun trying some of my night sky techniques between the flashes so I could get some special effects, like the light beaming out in front.

  

After a few shots of the engine and people trying various angles, the models came in. These are NRRY employees who did a good job of looking the part.

I really liked the steamy effect.


And then there were more photos...

It was a fun evening of trying out various camera settings and angles. The crowd was thinning out when I left about 7:30 pm and downloaded photos and charged batteries to get ready for the next day.

Wet Cave with Unusual Water Features

Remember how I said the cave was wetter than usual (for the Lehman Caves Lint and Restoration camp in mid-February, 2017)? It made for some fun photo opportunities! Check out these bubbles.

We're not exactly sure why the water is dripping off the end of a bubble instead of off the end of the formation itself. Perhaps a thin layer of calcite is providing a little extra structure. Or maybe the degassing of the CO2 makes the bubbles form and the conglomeration of bubbles makes one main bubble that's stronger. When we spotted this bubble the second day, it had changed from a single bubble to this:

Not only are there bubbles, there are also spouters (yes, that's the very technical term-ha!), when the water spouts out the side of a speleothem.

These spouters were crazy. And some would change the angle of spouting depending on water pressure (I think). We'd see it spraying out to the side and the next hour it would be almost straight down.


The pools in the cave were filling.


Slowly the rimstone dams will grow. It wasn't that long ago that some of this floor was covered with sand and dirt. It's been restored due to numerous lint and restoration camps.

And I'll leave you with just a few more photos of the hydrological oddities in Lehman Caves during mid-February, 2017:

I love all the mysteries that caves still contain!

Fire and Ice 2017

Last weekend we went to the Fire and Ice Festival at Cave Lake, near Ely. This is a fun event that we've been to many times (with blog posts from 2009, 2011 (Day 1) and 2001 (Day 2), 2013, and 2016). This year we arranged to meet friends there and go ice skating. Desert Girl was eager to put her new ice skates to use and also met a new friend who was willing to help her out. She enjoyed it a lot.

Desert Boy wasn't feeling so well, so he didn't skate long. The ice was really bumpy, so I didn't either. But a couple other kids got to use his skates, so that was good.

Jenny and Meg showed off their prowess on skates.

And although it was cloudy, it was a nice temperature to be out.

We also had sleds so that was another activity.

We also took time to look at the snow sculptures. This was an unofficial one.

There were only seven entries this year, quite a contrast from last year when there were so many fantastic ones. The lack of snow made it a little more difficult for entrants to make big sculptures this year.

This was the winning sculpture, Hi-bear-nation. They won $1000.

Second prize was Quarter Size Charcoal Ovens. They looked really good.

This was a cute entry. There was even a guy ice fishing nearby and I even saw him caught a fish, making it even more apropos.

Watching this lady carve the snow in the 22 degree temperature made us realize how challenging it can be. The snow is definitely a lot more pliable when it's right about freezing. She came in third with this bobcat.

Another event was ice bowling. This became extra fun when we used a kid on the sled as the bowling ball. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. And now we are thinking, Should we enter next year?  If we had a big enough group, it would be a lot of fun and not so much work! What do you think?