Southern Pacific 2472 #3 Canvas Print

Southern Pacific 2472 passes by the signal arms near the Sunol Depot in Niles Canyon. Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1921, and used by the Southern Pacific Railroad until its retirement in 1956, No. 2467 was restored to operation by the Pacific Locomotive Association in 1999. The 150 ton steam locomotive now runs through Niles Canyon as part of the Niles Canyon Railway.

It all started when I was about 5 or 6 years old and I got my hands on a well used Kodak Brownie Target Six-20. I would wander the neighborhood, carefully selecting the 12 exposures, and then run the roll of black and white 620 film to the Fotomat in the parking lot of the nearby grocery store to get it processed. I eventually progressed to a Kodak 110 Instamatic, that I earned by selling newspaper subscriptions, and then in 1977 my parents gave me an Olympus OM-1 SLR for Christmas. The OM-1 opened up a whole new world for me. It was a real camera and felt solid in my hands, but it was also a completely manual camera. No autofocus. No autoexposure. It forced me to learn the relationship between shutter speeds and f-stops, how to control...