As a locomotive engineer for more than a quarter-century, Alan Nash has spent innumerable hours traveling the vast landscapes of Wyoming, rail and firmament unfurling before him.
Rail lines extend into the horizon. (Alan Nash/@alannash59)
Nash is also a photographer, a hobby that dovetails well with his employment. A huge perk of the job, he says, is the front-row seat it offers to the region’s vast country and unpredictable skies.
While smoke from summer wildfires enhances the light, photographer Alan Nash said, he’s “not sure it’s worth all the destruction.” (Alan Nash/@alannash59)
“It’s the biggest joy my job with the railroad brings me,” he wrote in an email, “would I rather be in bed? Not really!”
A graffiti-covered boxcar rests on the rails. (Alan Nash/@alannash59)
Nash snaps striking images of life in coal country, capturing conveyors and railcars silhouetted against blazing clouds and trains rounding bends.
A coal train rounds a bend as a cumulonimbus cloud turns orange on the horizon. (Alan Nash/@alannash59)
But he also makes images not related to coal, capturing arresting scenes of lonesome structures and skies strewn with sorbet clouds or golden ribbons.
Cumulonimbus clouds mushroom in the sky behind a building near Shawnee. (Alan Nash/@alannash59)
“The draw to the sky is that it is NEVER the same,” Nash wrote. “The anticipation of what is to come every morning and every evening is exciting to me.”
Wyoming’s sky puts on another show. (Alan Nash/@alannash59)
The only thing these scenes have in common, he said, “is that they are always breathtaking … even when there’s not a cloud in the sky … breathtaking.”
Do you have a striking photo of summer in Wyoming? Submit high-resolution entries to wyomingdigest.com’s Summer Snap Challenge by emailing them to editor@wyofile.com under the subject line “Summer photos.” Be sure to tell us when and where the images were taken. We’ll gather the images and publish our favorites through the summer.
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