A Fall Preview

I spent an afternoon in the Apple River valley last week, the area between Dahinda and East Galesburg, IL, along the BNSF’s former Santa Fe mainline. This area is very scenic, for west central Illinois anyway. There are many hills and valleys for the roads and railroads to snake their way through, and the very first hint of fall colors were beginning to show. My main objective of the trip was to find somewhere decent to do a twilight strobe set up, as I figured the valleys would provide some shade later in the day while the sky remained bright. I found such a place earlier in the day, and as the sun began to sink, I came back to the Knox County Road 1020E crossing to get out the strobes and begin testing the set up. Twilight fades very fast, even when your shade is aided by surrounding hills. Luckily, shortly after I’d done my Walter-Payton-style endurance run back up this hill from making a few last minute adjustments, a strange sound began to brew in the valley to the east of me, and shortly, this little local freight flew through the scene, making good time back into Galesburg. I think I’ll be returning to this spot later in the fall, hopefully the trees in the surrounding hills oblige and break out into some nice colors.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 10:36 am. It is filed under Night, Photography, Railroad, Rural America, Transportation and tagged with Apple River, BNSF, flash, IL", Illinois, image, Knoxville, Nick Suydam, Night, photo, Photography, Railroad, stock, strobe, train, twilight, valley. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.