I suppose I’m glad I’m on this train. . .
— John Cale, “Half-Past France” Here’s the trick to show reporting: accomplish as much as possible ahead-of-time. Thus my decision, while riding the Amtrak train from Albany, NY to Montreal for this year’s Salon Son et Image, to write about the journey itself, and to illustrate my post with a photo of something I’d seen along the way. But that turned out to be easier said than done. Photographing beaver lodges, ice-fisherman, or even the bald eagles one sees on this route is tricky, especially when the train is moving, which it sometimes is. I was taken with the customs depot at the border—who could resist the small, windowless buildings, the automated security cameras, the razor wire tinseled around the rooflines?—but photographing them, as I learned in past trips, is an exquisitely stupid idea, as people who are cleverer than I about traveling would surely know. Thus we are left with the Amtrak station at Rouses Point, NY, which is closer to Canada than Ted Cruz. Travelers in Europe, Japan, China, and numerous other parts of the civilized world: Compare and contrast.
— John Cale, “Half-Past France” Here’s the trick to show reporting: accomplish as much as possible ahead-of-time. Thus my decision, while riding the Amtrak train from Albany, NY to Montreal for this year’s Salon Son et Image, to write about the journey itself, and to illustrate my post with a photo of something I’d seen along the way. But that turned out to be easier said than done. Photographing beaver lodges, ice-fisherman, or even the bald eagles one sees on this route is tricky, especially when the train is moving, which it sometimes is. I was taken with the customs depot at the border—who could resist the small, windowless buildings, the automated security cameras, the razor wire tinseled around the rooflines?—but photographing them, as I learned in past trips, is an exquisitely stupid idea, as people who are cleverer than I about traveling would surely know. Thus we are left with the Amtrak station at Rouses Point, NY, which is closer to Canada than Ted Cruz. Travelers in Europe, Japan, China, and numerous other parts of the civilized world: Compare and contrast.
