Tempting Fate in 2003

Cal Train rush hour, March 2003, San Francisco, California

The Armada at Fourth and Townsend, Cal Train, San Francisco, California.

Another discussion topic on Altamont Press involves the issue of railroad station photography in the post 9/11 world and this story from England. In 2003 I had a California trip planned, partly to shoot Cal Train, and Muni in San Francisco. My trip was going to straddle late March and early April of 2003. As the war drums begin to pound earlier that year, I began to question my timing. On March 20 the invasion of Iraq began just days before I was about leave placid Vancouver Washington for California. It was perhaps just not a good idea to have a camera around one's neck around railroad property. I informed my boss that I was going to postpone my vacation. The next day, however, I mustered my courage, and the trip was back on. So, a few days later I am at the Caltrain station in the City taking photographs. At one point a nervous security guard approached me and actually asked me if I was a terrorist!  I could do nothing but laugh, as I reassured him that I was just a harmless transit geek, and that I had been coming to San Francisco since 1973 to photograph commuter trains. That statement convinced him that I was not a terrorist, but merely weird.