July 2, 2008 | Comments (12)
We entered the station and proceeded up a ramp to the main concourse, the first area that passengers disembarking from their trains would see. The massive space demanded photographs, and I immediately set my bag down and began to set up my tripod. Just when I had gotten the camera mounted to the worthless Bogen, the tripod tipped and my camera crashed to the floor for the second time, on the first day, of my trip. Some may be quick to blame intoxication, but the rush of air and the sound of wings flapping let me know that I had been the victim of an attack by the rare camera-loving Detroit bald eagle. Unfortunate, yes, but clearly unavoidable...under the circumstances. Dismayed by the clunk of camera equipment hitting the stone floor of the concourse I turned to survey the damage. The camera appeared reasonably in tact, except that it had vomited my film...my $7.50/roll Fuji Pro 160S...the only color film I had from the Wurlitzer...all over the floor. Ordinarily, I would have cursed the photography gods and possibly smashed the wretched tripod to bits. However, something in my head (maybe the booze) told me that this was par for the course for this trip. I resolutely tossed away my now worthless color film, loaded up some Fuji Neopan 1600, and began photographing again.
What a camera story! Fortunately, there was no serious damage, apart the loss of the Fuji film.
This series about the station is quite impressive. And a great document of this massive architecture, which reigned at that time.