Category: photograhy

Thwarted

We had big plans for a pleasant Sunday drive yesterday, but the fog we’d expected to lift only got thicker as we went. Our target was the Sax-Zim bog, known among bird-watchers for its owl sightings, but as a retired truck-driver, I knew how dangerous fog can be, and I started to have second thoughts. That was the first strike against us.

We were carefully tip-toeing along when it came over the radio that there had been a terrible wreck about 20 miles ahead. Three young people were dead. That was the second strike, and yet we proceeded.

About a mile further we came upon a vehicle rolled over in the ditch. Fortunately, its occupants had already been rescued, but that was it–strike three! Okay, Universe, I get the hint.

We turned around right there and went home. I often go the extra mile for a good shot, but I also try to make sure it’s not my last. There would be no owls on this adventure.

–Photos by me

Mining Memories

My son Aaron and I took a trip to the (Mesabi) Iron Range in Northeast Minnesota the other day to check out one of the largest open-pit mines in the world, the Hull-Rust Mine near Hibbing. Although I worked on the other end of the range, this was the first time I visited the Hull-Rust.

Seeing the 240 ton production trucks really brought me back. I’d spent a good chunk of my life in one of them, and, in fact, almost lost my life in one.

On a midnight shift back in the 90’s, the catskinner accidentally backed me up under high-voltage power lines, and when I raised the box, night became day as 100,000+ volts coursed through my truck. The windshield and gauges blew out, the tires blew, and after I managed to get out, the whole truck burst into flames. I was ok, but it was a million-dollar loss for the mine.

Standing here today, I must say that we sure dug some big holes in the ground.

I never thought I’d say this, but I do miss it… a little.

–Photos by me

In the Fog

With the fog so thick last night, I decided to walk down to the railroad tracks with my camera. As I stood around waiting for a train, I wondered how it is that deer get hit by them (it happens around here every so often). How could it be that when the massive, thundering beast is bearing down on them, standing right in the middle of the tracks seems like their best option?

Anyway, it wasn’t long and a train suddenly burst out of the fog with a deafening roar. I was only a few feet from the tracks, and when it was upon me, horn blasting and ground shaking, I almost panicked and ran onto the tracks myself!

in thick fog, the train

tears a hole in the dark night

and rolls it along

–Photo by me