Is it just me or the photos on this thread are getting better and better? 
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Mellinus arvensis? Was quite small, a little more than 1 cm. So I am happy how this came out without stacking.
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I sense this could be a nice PlayRaw… 
Hello,
To take my mind off things, I finally dug my photo studio out of the cupboard for this fairly simple still life.
An old Zeiss Ikon Nettar II with its light meter, and a photograph of its former owner, which also dates from 1954.
Greetings from the Luberon,
Christian
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That’s a genuinely nice crop!
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@ggbutcher
Glenn,
Your previous pictures a few months ago from your train trip up to Pikes Peak somehow set my mind on a new track: Perhaps I should complement the trips in my youth around Europe on Inter-rail tickets, with a trip now in older days around the US with a USA Rail Pass. (I’m well aware that said particular line is not a part of the USA Rail Pass that Amtrak offers).
So for some weeks I explored the US map, the Amtrak rail map, and various sites for US travel. Your post some weeks ago with info on Colorado museum/tourist rail lines also added to my imagination. (Thanks a lot for the many more detailed texts you have contributed in this thread!)
But then I got down to somewhat more detailed planning starting to think of a schedule and looked more closely at Amtraks Journey planner. I then finally came to realize how scarce the passenger train connections really are in the US:
That one should have to wait this long for a connection at a crossing between two of the main passenger routes on the continent, was beyond my imagination. I knew the US passenger rail system was not very vital at this time in history, but not this bad.
So, at the moment, in my thinking on travels beyond my currently set “travel horizon” US rail travel is regrettably now not high on the list.
Anyhow, your picture from Sacramento beautifully captures the light (-- falling in line with my own current (Edvard Hopper inspired) “project” of light falling into a room).
Keep 'em coming!
Yeah, the long-distance trains are mostly one-daily. As it is, for the Zephyr for instance, that takes six trainsets, as up to three can be simultaneously on the line in each direction. This is a long-standing schedule, and the ridership numbers support that frequency.
Now that we’ve finished that leg of the trip, gotta say I’d do it again, better-informed. We took too much stuff to the roomette, which got quite crowded. One couple we talked to gets two roomettes, one on each side of the car, lets them both sleep in the bottom bunk and they have window access to both sides of the train, oh, and hold hands across the aisle 
. The mattresses are a bit thin. The dining car food is pretty good, a chef rides the train the entire way. The layover in Sacramento was long, but we could have easily walked over to the California Railroad Museum and Old Town if we had a bit more ambition, all within about 1/4 mile, and there’s a hotel nearby so you could extend the layover a day or even two and see stuff in the area.
We’re thinking about doing a similar trip on the Empire Builder to Seattle, in order to go to Glacier National Park.
:
this evening, when i saw the sundowner on my way home, i stopped the car, activated the cam (without checking the settings):
1/500s and auto-iso (25600)
i was lucky i realized that and could take another shot 
(0,5 s and ISO 160)
both without stand, but handheld set onto the roof of my car.
(edit filesize)
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The first one is unspeakably charming and mesmerizing. I like it!
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I’d actually intended to photograph the Milky Way, but the sky was too hazy in that direction.
So I just turned round and took this photo.
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Also my first time really trying a self portrait