{"id":3228,"date":"2013-07-19T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=3228"},"modified":"2013-07-19T09:27:17","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T13:27:17","slug":"happy-birthday-tracking-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/happy-birthday-tracking-the-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday Tracking the Light!"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Tracking the Light\u2019s first full year.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Benburb<\/a>
Benburb Street LUAS Crash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was exactly one year ago (July 19, 2012) that Tracking the Light made its debut.<\/p>\n

In the last year this site has had nearly 24,000 visits.<\/p>\n

Of the nearly 235 posts, the following topics have been the most popular:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gallery Post 1: Sperry Train at Islandbridge Junction on August 30, 2012\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 LUAS Tram Crash on Benburb, Street Dublin September 10, 2012\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Installment 1: Central Vermont Railway at Windsor, Vermont<\/a><\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gallery Post 2: Looking Back on Irish Railways 1998-2003<\/a><\/p>\n

5)\u00a0Tracking the Light Extra! Breaking Views!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Irish<\/a>
Irish Rail 0117077 leads a wagon transfer over the River Liffey at Islandbridge at 4:25pm on April 10, 2013. Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the posts that drew the least interest:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0Sunset at Bonn, Germany, August 1998<\/a><\/p>\n

2) Chicago & North Western Station, Chicago August 1984<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Deutche<\/a>
Deutche Bahn InterCity train 522 Berchtesgadener Land (Berchtesgaden\u2014Hamburg) catches the glint of the setting sun at Bonn, Germany. Compare this view with that of Amtrak\u2019s Lake Shore Limited catches the glint at Palmer, May 28, 1986. (posted December 7, 2012). Exposed on Fuji Sensia II (ISO 100) slide film using a Nikon F3T fitted with f2.8 135mm lens. Exposure calculated manually with a handheld Sekonic Studio deluxe light meter (approximately f8 1\/500 sec).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chicago,<\/a>
Chicago, August 19, 1984. Exposed on Kodak Safety Film 5063; bulk loaded Tri-x 400, exposed at ISO 400, processed in Microdol-X.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result of my careful marketing analysis, I\u2019ve determine the best ways for Tracking the Light to go viral are:<\/p>\n

1) \u00a0 Encourage Sperry to plan a safely staged ‘derailment’ on Dublin<\/a>\u2019s LUAS<\/a>\u00a0route (to demonstrate the dangers of hidden rail fractures, perhaps) using former a Central Vermont Railway switcher painted in Irish Rail<\/a> grey and then photograph it on a dull day using my Lumix LX-3. (Along the lines of the theatrically arranged ‘cornfield meets’ of the late Victorian era.)<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hire a Korean guy with sunglasses to dance around near the tracks. (Gangnam Style<\/a>) \u2014hey, with more than 1.5 Billion hits, something must be working, right??<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Offer free Twinkies to all Tracking the Light subscribers.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Plan a merger with LeakyWiks.<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Encourage everyone who enjoys the site to spread the word (and links) with their friends and urge regular visitors to subscribe! (there\u2019s a box for comments toward the bottom of the posts and a box to tick that enables the subscription feature\u2014admittedly this is a bit Kafkaesque, and hopefully I\u2019ll find a better means of enabling subscriptions soon!)<\/p>\n

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Incidentally, my elaborate plans to import a German electric for demonstration were to be aborted, unfortunately Amtrak didn\u2019t get the memo! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Thanks again for checking Tracking the Light!<\/p>\n

Brian Solomon<\/p>\n

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\"railroad<\/a>
Chicago & North Western’s Chicago-Omaha mainline at sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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