Best of 2014: March

Underworld

I have no idea why shooting photos through the windows of moving trains fascinates me. Maybe because where I live, moving trains for people to ride in are pretty rare!

So when I'm in a moving train, it usually means I'm getting a city fix of some kind. This one was in Baltimore last March where I attended the annual Archdeacon's Conference.

Of course, when shooting from a moving train, I waste a lot of clicks--altogether way more affordable than wasting film! I guess that's why my fascination with shooting from moving trains did not emerge until after the digital revolution.

In any case, I don't just hold down the trigger and let the camera auto-fire multiple frames. Rather, I keep one eye on the passing terrain and one eye in the viewfinder and shoot one frame at a time.

Now that's still a gamble on what Henri Cartier-Bresson--one of my photographer heroes--called "the decisive moment." It is a lot of luck when things come together in the frame and my timing is right on. Nevertheless, it is more satisfying to me than the alternative.

So... I love this one. It is the underside of a huge cloverleaf intersection somewhere on the edge of Baltimore. But to me it's kind of cathedral-like. Mundane and majestic. The magic of "and."