Park Junction, Philadelphia, PA, 2010.Too many pixels, not enough focus, at flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/44#photography

A single railroad track, receding into the distance, in a lonely urban area behind some houses. Almost everything is in soft focus. A railroad milepost, marked "O QA" is in sharp focus at left. There's a hobo-style graffiti tag on the milepost.

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[–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (12 children)

This was made with a DSLR and a swinging lens to provide selective focus on the milepost at left. This moved the plane of focus to be non-parallel with the sensor, yielding only a sliver in focus.Image was was captured at "Park Junction" in Philadelphia, where the former Reading Railroad once met the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. What caught my eye was the old school graffiti moniker on the base of the milepost, in a style traditionally used by yard workers and hobos to tag freight cars.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    @mattblaze The lower graffiti looks like a frowning face on a railway track (or maybe arms/wings) - do you know if that has any hobo meaning?

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    @davebiff Yeah, that's a very typical hobo moniker tag.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    @mattblaze @davebiff I think I still have my Symbol Sourcebook here somewhere. It’s a designer’s reference book of symbols across a fair bit of history. It includes a section on many of these hobo symbols. If I recall, this one means something like “railroad police/others will rob or assault you here”. At least I hope I still have the book, checking out used copies and they’re not inexpensive!

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (8 children)

    Addendum: Hobo moniker tags are a rathole you can spend a lot of time going down. I recommend the somewhat obscure documentary "Who Is Bozo Texino", which I just noticed seems to be up on Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=gSqMAADNKA8

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)