These Sunsets are going to kill me

Technorati Tags: Photography,sunsets,photos,trains,horses,snow

Yesterday we had the most amazing sunset; purples, pinks yellows and with the snow we had the day before, the world looked spectacular. Unfortunately, as is usual for me – see: When Time is Short and It’s Those Sunsets Again – I was stuck in the car behind 4 other cars, behind a mobile crane that I think had difficulty finding 2nd gear. I figured I had about 5 minutes left of this array of colour and knew exactly the best place to take a shot. Time was running out….fast

Eventually, I came to our village and my turn off too home. Once I had collected my camera, I shot off down the road only to catch up with the “just mobile” mobile crane negotiating it’s way through our neighbouring village where I wanted to take the shot.

The colours were disappearing before my very eyes. I had to do something. So I did; I smacked the steering wheel in frustration and was rewarded with a face full of airbag. Now if any of you out there have never experienced “airbag in the face” before I don’t recommend it. If the shock doesn’t kill you, the punch in the face will most surely finish you off.

So I’m now behind “just mobile” mobile crane; my eyes are full of water, my nose feels like it’s done 10 rounds with Lenox Lewis and I’m trying to stuff the air bag back into the microscopic place it attacked me from. What little I could see of the sunset was fading slowly and my left turn to get where I want is slowly coming up. Please don’t turn left, please don’t.

There is a God, it goes straight on and I, fighting with the airbag turn left only to be confronted by 3 wild horses. I say wild, they were domesticated really just going wild on the bridge I was trying to cross. There must have been about 30 locals trying to coral them back to the field they whence came. Now I love horses, but at that particular moment in time had I a M16 in the boot, well lets just say; they would have been travelling down the autobahn on a truck for an appointment with the nearest French restaurant before you could say “giddy up”.

With the horses safely tucked into their field for the night, I eventually arrived at the location I wanted to be at; the railway bridge. The best of the sunset by now had passed, but there was still a little colour left in the sky to get a semi decent shot and besides I was here now so why not take a photograph. All I had to do was get up the railway embankment, easy!

For the next part of the tale, I feel the need to explain a few things: Firstly; I had, as you will remember, just come from town. That meant I had my town attire on, more significantly my nice leather soled town shoes. Secondly; to save time and because I was moving so slowly behind the “just mobile” mobile crane I assembled the camera onto the tripod in the car. Thirdly; as I mentioned previously it had been snowing the day before.

I quickly grab my tripod and camera from the passengers seat and shot out of the car; big mistake! Leather soles and snow have the same viscosity as Formula One engine oil. The law of physics dictates that with a weight in one hand + over enthusiastic speed = flight; Olympic high jump standard flight at that. Luckily for my camera the human chest is a relatively soft surface for which to land on. I now realise, as I am dusting myself off and getting my wind back, that the 5 meter embankment could pose quite a challenge, with mount Everest proportions.

Base camp one was set up at the bottom of what looked like a path leading up through the brambles and weeds. Here I strapped my tripod and camera to my back to give me 2 free hands, I then re-evaluated the potential of the photograph. Mother nature has left just enough purple in the sky to tempt me, so the mission is a go’er.

With a fistful of bramble and undergrowth in both of my bare hands and my throbbing nose almost touching the steep embankment, I proceed to pull myself up the slope. My legs are windmilling away at 10 too the dozen in an attempt to gain grip and my lungs are doing a core melt down, I decide, not being as fit as I used to be, to take a break. The summit is in site, I can see the shine of the tracks luring me to carry on, so grabbing what I can I get off my stomach I push on.

The last meter of the ascend has to be crawled and clawed. The “bramble windmilling” technique works fine if there is bramble to grab hold off. The nearer to the summit, the less you have. I crawl over the edge and lie wasted next to the track. My hands are blue and my lungs felt like an over used nuclear reactor, but I made it.

With no time to recoup I proceed to pick myself up only to be confronted by the 17:08 express from Horb coming straight at me. The old joke about “What’s the last thing that goes through a flies mind when he hits a windscreen?… It’s arse” came to mind. Most people reading this will think this is a no brainer decision here: jump off the embankment and attempt the ascent again or face your arse going through your brain? Well I actually had to think about it. I did jump off the embankment, but what gets me is the driver of the train. Only at about 5 meters before the impending impact did he hit the horn and I recon he never even thought of braking….The bastard! He could have broken my camera, what would my sons have inherited then? At least they would have saved money on the coffin, just use a flat pack from Ikea

I was more up than down on the north face of the Eigor embankment so scrambled back to the top, this time checking left and right before I got to my feet. Needless to say that when I did set-up the camera, I took 2 looks behind and 2 in front for every look in the view finder.

The resulting photographs after all that weren’t too bad as you can see, although I prefer the black and white image:

Click images to enlarge:

I have made an appointment with Mother Nature today to be at the same spot, just a little earlier, in the hope she puts on the same light show as yesterday.

How did I get down the embankment? Well I didn’t. I walked along the tracks till I got to the station, where I knew it would be level….and safe. I then spent about an hour taking low light shots of the station (see below). I then used the back path to where I had left my car with it’s lights on full blaze and the drivers door wide open. Oh! and an imprint of my star shaped body in the snow next to it.

Have a nice weekend from Coco the red nosed photographer

~ by ducatirider on December 28, 2007.