A few months ago I bought an inexpensive solid state video camera to just leave in the car and capture random subjects with. The image quality isn’t too great (the sound is particularly inadequate), but its not bad for the price. It won’t cut it for the occasional Weather Channel broadcast video, but its so small that you can get away with shots you wouldn’t want to attempt with something more expensive.

While shooting the sunset from the Duke Raleigh Hospital parking garage on Wake Forest Road for the recent March photo series, I set the video camera up to record the scene while I took photographs. This video is about 1 hour reduced to 25 seconds.

Notice the Wake Forest Road I-440 beltline exit traffic.

Now what is a scenario where you might not want to risk an expensive piece of equipment? A 250,000 pound train locomotive running over top of the equipment might qualify.

A note on the recent train “themed” subjects: My wife’s Dad is a locomotive engineer for Norfolk Southern and is 2 months away from 34 years with the railroad. If you ask him, he’ll tell you (to the day) how many days he has left until retirement. That being said, Beth and I thought we’d capture him in action while we still have the opportunity.

Raleigh had its first snow event of the winter on January 18, 2007 (coincidentally almost two years since the snow disaster). I was out shooting video and grabbed a few shots to post here. The snow accumulation was short lived at precipitation changed over to rain by late morning.

Snow lightly covers cars, sidewalks and Fayetteville Street in Downtown Raleigh.

Portions of the following video were seen on The Weather Channel. Click to play:

The snow fell moderately just before sunrise.

Snow falls in front of One Progress Plaza.

The classic view with snow.

Predawn Fayetteville Street and snow.

Snow rests on the North Carolina State Capitol dome as a man crosses the street.

My dog Beau gets a taste of her first Raleigh snowfall.

Back on January 19, 2005, Raleigh received an unexpected snowfall of less than one inch a few hours before the 5 o’clock rush hour.  The temperatures leading up to this day were persistently cold, creating ground temperatures at and near freezing and allowing the melting snowfall below motorist’s tires to freeze into an icy sheet on the roadway.  Just about everyone out and about that afternoon immediately had to drive with extreme caution as traffic jams and gridlock befell the entire city and surrounding area.  As darkness arrived the air temperatures dropped and further solidified the scenario that many Raleigh residents won’t forget. Many people became captives of the slick streets and roads for hours.  I was downtown right after the snowfall and documented a few of the common scenes from the day.

After witnessing all of that, I came to a conclusion that many people may not be aware of the benefits of driving in first gear in a situation like this.  For example, the following clip shows how my car was able to make its way up a section of South Saunders street without slipping.  Just about everyone else could not make it up this small incline without losing traction.

The following people felt that flooring it would get the job done:

Granted, first gear isn’t always going to help, but its a better idea than that.

So…do you have a story from that day?