Thank you everyone!

The Japanese refer to this style of photography as “wabi sabi”; perfection through imperfection.

This was an interesting challenge to experiment with. So many times I see myself on autopilot, viewing and capturing a scene in a similar way repeatedly - striving to get it as close to perfect as possible in camera. I had to tell myself the scene is intriguing, but now go against the grain and break the usual routine and habits. It didn’t hurt that I’ve visited this railroad many times over the years and already have these photos in various seasons, weather, and light - which gave me the latitude to play and not be afraid of failure. And yes there was failure, in some instances the photos looked absolutely horrible.

I sometimes hear that so much of today’s digital photography is too sterile, clean, crisp, and over processed, lacking character and soul. I’m not sure if soul was achieved; that’s up to the end viewer. Regardless it was fun branching out into the unknown. I look forward to how this exploration finds its way into my overall image vocabulary...

Matthew