Re: Early RR photographists

While it is no trouble imagining why one would be inclined to go to some trouble today to photograph steam operations, due to their novelty, ... in the context of the times that Perry, Poor, and Kindig were shooting a lot of their stuff, steam was nothing out of the ordinary. In a modern context, it might be like me driving to hell and back to photograph subdivisions being built! For anyone unfamiliar with driving today's roads from Denver (where Perry lived) to say ... Lizard's Head Pass on the RGS, it could be a 5+ hour drive via Durango! For Perry, in his '35 Chevy, on rough and unpaved roads, this took unbelievable devotion! The kicker is that these guys did it ALL THE TIME! I'm trying to imagine what Perry told his wife about heading out for the 11,000th time to go shoot pictures of something so commonplace! And what about film and developing costs? Not to mention gas and other expenses! I'd get about as far as the front door before my wife dropped me with a brick! ;-D We all owe them such a huge thank you for what they did, but I am always left wondering, at a time when steam railroading was common everywhere, .... what made these guys tick?!!!! They spent one helluva lot of time AND money to pursue something that today is unusual, but in their day was as common as dirt!