Monster Invasion: Mitchell Park Domes Garden Railroad Show

Every year, Milwaukee's Mitchell Park Domes presents its garden railroad show, and each has a specific theme.  This year's theme is "Monsters" as in movie monsters. 

The main set is always the same with bridges, a desert area, a monorail, and a colorful residential area.  But this year, they added a cityscape (where a giant gorilla hung from a skyscraper), a drive-in theatre (where, strangely, Elsa from "Frozen" was on an adventure with the pair from "Monters, Inc.") and fake movie posters featuring the monsters, as well as Thomas the Tank, around the perimeter.

I loved both the cityscape with its Town Square and soldiers on the rooftop.  I also enjoyed the colorful town.

There's still plenty of time to visit this year's garden railroad show.  The Mitchell Park Domes is open seven days a week and the show runs until March 6.

**Update: The Mitchell Park Domes is closed indefinitely due to "falling concrete".  I never experienced this problem, but it is serious enough for the county to close one of its most famous tourist attractions until further notice.  Such a shame, but I hope they can fix the problem quickly and safely.

 

Mini-Landscapes: Mitchell Park Domes "Steampunk Railroad" Exhibit

Well, I have to say this has been a winter for the record books in Milwaukee, and not in a good way.  It has either been snowy or freezing cold since late November, which has really put a damper on my photography.  But, I found an excuse to bring my camera out of storage from when I moved and use it again.  Even though the high today is 10, I went out to my favorite indoor botanical garden, The Mitchell Park Domes for the last day of their annual model train show.  This year's theme was "Steampunk" which I only know about through a couple of friends who do this type of art work.  If you don't know what Steampunk is, the Domes provided this nice sign as a description:

 



The exhibit seemed to focus on the Old West, complete with little industrial towns, bridges, tunnels and a train depot.  The way they planted the featured winter flowers was interesting, too, making them look like pink, red and purple trees dotting the landscape.

I started out taking photos with my 35 mm standard-length lens, which showed off the Old West design nicely.  But then I decided to switch lenses to my 200 mm telephoto lens, just to see if it made a difference.  It really did!  I was able to get close enough to make each area of the setup look like mini-landscapes and that's when the real fun began:

In addition to the train set-up, they had little vignettes around the perimeter of the Show Dome displaying the arts and crafts examples of Steampunk:

I'm glad I forced myself to get out into the cold to head to downtown Milwaukee and see this exhibit.  The Domes always has such great displays, every season, and this was one of their best yet.

Composition Class #2: Texture

This past Wednesday, I had my third Photography Composition Class, and the second where an assigment was due.  This week's assignment was Texture.  I had seen other photographers participate in Texture photo challenges before, and they were all quite inventive, so I was intimidated at first.  But, the teacher always shows examples of photos that fit the theme at the end of the lecture, and they were mostly pictures of everyday places and objects, but the photographers captured the texture using lighting at an angle which enhanced the contrast.

For the photo at the top and the ones above and below, I got up early and went down to Frame Park in Waukesha since I knew that their small botannical garden had stone walls, decorative pots, and wooden trellisses.  I really liked the different formations in the stone wall above, and the one below looked to me like a Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass window with the different lines etched into the stone.

Another reason I was happy to participate in the Cream City: Milwaukee photowalk to the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum was that I knew there would be a lot of texture to be found on the old rail cars.  The photo below was actually taken of a large door to the museum itself.

The photo below is my favorite one of the assignment.  I was on the Chicago Electric out to Mukwonago, and we passed this train with a lot of rust and chipped paint.  Unfortunately, since we were moving, I couldn't get a good shot at the time.  When we got back to the station to start the walk, I waited until the Chicago Electric pulled out again and started shooting.  The teacher liked this photo as well, and gave me my best compliment about my work so far:  He said that there was a lot to look at in my photos.  I hope that's true.

My class isn't being held this week due to it falling on July 4.  So, when we go back on the 11th, we have two assignments.  One is light and shadow and the other is lines and circles.  I'll have to think hard about the best places around town that offer both.  But, it's fun to go out hunting for shots, so I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Photowalk #2: East Troy Electric Railroad Museum

Saturday afternoon, I participated in my second Photowalk with one of my Flickr groups, Cream City: Milwaukee.  One of the members, Randy, suggested the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum since they were having their Train Fest, and he knew there would be more trains on display than on any of their normal days.  I thought this was a great idea for a visit, especially since I wanted to continue my "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" theme of photos that I have been taking lately.

Normally, the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum offers train rides to and from The Elegant Farmer in Mukwonago, a popular area tourist attraction that is a working farm and has wonderful produce, dairy items and baked goods for sale.  They are best known for their fresh, homemade apple pie in a bag.  The train ride only costs $12.50 and you can ride the train unlimited all day.  I decided to make this outing a full train experience by buying a ticket and riding the Chicago Elevated to the farm and back.  The trip takes about a half-hour one way, but not only do you get the experience of riding on a historical train, you get to see some really nice rural scenery along the way.

I didn't go into the Elegant Farmer on Saturday since I had to get back to the station on the next train going back for the photowalk.  But I did spend some time taking photos at the train station.  The red train, above, is used primarily for the museum's special dinner train service which costs $68.25 per person.  This particular train travels from East Troy to Phantom Lake, and diners get a four-course meal including appetizers and desert, as well as access to their onboard bar.  For the Train Fest, this train was also used during the day for a wine and cheese trip (not sure how much that cost) which traveled back and forth to The Elegant Farmer. 

Before the Chicago Elevated train departed the station, I was able to board and take some pictures of the historic interior.  You can see them below.

Once I got back to the station, I met up with my fellow photographers and the photowalk began.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the historic trains that were outside that day were being put away by the time we started at 2:00.  But, we were granted access to the garage where the trains are kept, and, despite a lot of dust and some oil on the ground, we all had a lot of fun going onto the trains and getting our shots.  I decided to make this even more of a challenge by only using my telephoto lens, and, except for having to back away from the trains for some of the longer shots, I'm glad I made the decision.  The shots below were taken inside and outside the garage.

After we took our pictures inside the garage, we went around the small downtown square and had ice cream at this really cute, old-fashioned parlor.  The parlor even had antique cameras on a hutch against the wall.  We then returned to the East Troy station, and I took a few shots of some of the memorabilia they had displayed inside.

I had a really good time at the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum, and had fun getting to know some more of my photowalkers.  It is a great way to spend an afternoon, and it's always a learning experience to see how others interpret the area we visit.

If you would like more information on the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum, visit http://www.easttroyrr.org/index.html.  For more information on The Elegent Farmer in Mukwonago, visit http://www.elegantfarmer.com/.