CSX 446...

...sits in a rail yard behind an abandoned warehouse in Parkersburg, WV.

Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

My daughter and her friend are doing a social studies project on the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston.  We went up there after church this afternoon so they could get some first-hand information. 

The photo above is from an area where there were several isolation cells.  They were used to restrain the most violent patients.

Julia-Ann Square, Parkersburg, WV

A few shots from my walking tour in the Julia-Ann Square Historic District of downtown Parkersburg.

Parkersburg Graffiti

This is kind of a test post. I finally broke down and spent $4.99 on iPhoto for my iPad and this is one of the first shots I processed with it. Its nothing like Lightroom or Photoshop but it'll be handy for processing pictures when i only have my ipad.

Kim had some training in Parkersburg today so we came up last night to have a late valentines day get away. While she was in class I went on a walking tour of the downtown area of Parkersburg. There are some really cool old homes in the historic district.

Dr. Edwin H. Welch

The towboat, Dr. Edwin H. Welch, slips past the deconstruction of the Dick Henderson Memorial bridge on Monday morning.  Once the center section between the piers is gone the bridge construction company plans to use explosives to bring down the ends.  Click here to read the Charleston Daily Mail article for the dates and times of the blasts.

Saturday Snow

The Gauley river and a farm near Carnifex Ferry Battleground.

Weekend Shots

Here are three photos from this weekend that I liked.  The Big Yellow Crane is awesome.  The main light in the middle one is an iPad.  It was shot at iso 2500 with a 35mm lens at f/2.

Saint Albans / Nitro Bridge

It's coming down.  They took the first section out on Tuesday and another section out yesterday.  The BYC (big yellow crane) is hooked onto another section now.  It'll be down tomorrow.  It's pretty handy for the bridge company that there's a metal/scrap/recycling company just up the river about a quarter mile or less.  That's where they're taking the sections to be recycled.  It would be cool to know what the bridge might be turned into in the future.  Click here to check out Tom Hindman's blog post of workers at Raleigh Junk cutting the sections into smaller pieces.

It's pretty cool to go on our back patio and see the BYC sticking up next to the bridge and hear the workers yelling back and forth to each other.

Snowy Evening In Charleston

I got out this evening to get some snow pictures from around downtown Charleston.  It was a really nice evening.  Not too cold and just a few people out and about.

The top photo is on Capitol Street and the bottom is on Virginia Street.

Books

I was messin' around in the office with my camera and 50mm lens and got this shot.  I think it's cool, but I'm probably the only one.

True Grit is my favorite movie of all time.  It's also an awesome book.  I read it after the new version of the movie came out.   My aunt and uncle took me to see the original one when I was 6 years old.  I've watched the original and the new version countless times, and in my opinion the new one with Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn is better.  The Coen brothers did a great job with the movie.  It seemed to go almost word-for-word with the book and the characters in the movie talked the way the characters in the book did.  My favorite scene was when Rooster and Mattie met the man on horseback wearing a bear skin.  That wasn't in the book.