With the boys on vacation from school, I planned to sleep in Friday morning. I set my alarm for 7:30, but before it went off, I got a call from my boss, Judy Meyer, about a train derailment in Leeds. I have been to numerous derailment’s over the course of my career, with very few being the dramatic scenes that you often see on the news where the cars are on their side or look like an accordion. When she told me that it was on Route 219, I knew exactly where and what it would be, I had been there before and figured the photos would be nothing spectacular.
I brushed my teeth, stopped at DD for a cup of Joe, and didn’t bother to speed getting there as I knew it would be an all day affair. The cars simply jumped the tracks, and looking at it from far away, you would not notice anything amiss until you got closer.
About the only thing that surprised me was that I could get close to the scene and the usually grumpy workers didn’t seem to care that I was there taking photos, and in fact, two mugged it up for a photo. That was the best part of that assignment. I worked it for a while until I got a decent enough photo, then headed back to the office to upload it to our website.
It was only 9:00 when I finished and it was turning out to be a spectacular day. On our events calendar was a note about a fishing derby in Monmouth. I decided to check it out. I was not disappointed. I got a great photo that would turn out to be the lead photo in the next day’s paper:
I had to park up the street and walk a half mile just to get to the lake, so I contemplated just bringing my still camera and bag. However, the allure of video, and the potential for getting great video was there, so I opted to bring the whole shebang. When I closed my trunk, I had an epiphany. Last week when Ryan and I were packing for his departure, we came across a bag of paracord that had been in his backpack that he had emptied. He would not be bringing it with him and offered it to me. It was in my car trunk now and I had an idea. I cut off about 20 feet of it and stuffed it in my bag, grabbed my extension pole and started hoofing it. About half way down the road, the local photographer from our competing newspaper drove past me on his way to the parking lot that was already full, but he obviously knew the guy at the entrance and was sure he told him he was just going to shoot and scoot, which he did. He commented to me that the day before, the lake was covered in water and he wasn’t going to venture out. It was that much more of a challenge to get a better photo and a bonus video. He shot a few photos and jumped back in his car. I never did see any photos in their paper from it. I have my suspicions. Anyhoo, I had shot a bunch of overalls and zoomed in on some of the fun that was going on and then focused on this family that I shot a bunch of stills. There was no story to go along with the photo, so I only needed one. I shot the photo above and knew I was all set with stills, so I began to shoot only video. Make note of the blue handle of the fishing pole he is holding. If you take the time to watch my video, CLICK HERE TO SEE IT, you will understand the significance in the blue handle at the end, and understand why I included the part about the paracord.
------------EXPOSED IMAGES------------The backstory from Maine Photojournalist Russ Dillingham 