Useless facts

My most SATISFYING ever. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

“If you wish,” I said to the clerk at our tiny West Bloomfield Post-Office; “I could give you the useless facts on that calendar-picture, which I consider one of the best I ever snagged.”
“Oh goodie,” the girl smiled silently. “I never know what he’s talking about, but he’s talking to ME.”
Every year Shutterfly® makes me 75-80+ train calendars which I give to relatives and friends as Christmas presents.
One goes to West Bloomfield Post-Office, where I mail ‘em. They appreciate it, and hang it as their office calendar.
“Where’d-ja get that calendar? It’s great!”
“A guy in town made it. The pictures are by him and his brother.”
“That picture had a lotta planning,” I said.
“For years I been tryin’ to get that beautiful station in a train picture.
I always failed. —A) The train was too far from the station, OR —B) it blocked the station.
A while ago I noticed if I shot from this location, under an interstate overpass not visible, it worked.
—Problem: I need eastbound on Two, the track nearest the station.
Two is normally westbound, but the tracks are signaled both ways. Occasionally the dispatcher sends a train east on Two. But the only train I can depend on is Amtrak’s eastbound Pennsylvanian.
It makes a stop at Tyrone (“tie-RONE;” as in “own”), and does it on Two so passengers don’t hafta cross tracks.
—Next problem: This location is not station-property. People park randomly under the interstate overpass. I hafta make this location work amidst scattershot parking.
My brother was driving — I let him drive. Getting to this location was a wild charge between decrepit buildings, and cars parked hither-and-yon.
I probably coulda done it, but am more easily discouraged than my brother. So I let him drive.
—We’re cheating here. My camera takes multiple shots, and compared to film digital images are cheap.
This is probably the last or second-to-last of five or six shots.
Plus the train had stopped at the station, and it was cloudy.
If the sun were out, the interstate overpass woulda shaded the locomotive.”
“Wow; I never realized so much planning was involved,” the girl said.
—“More cheatin’,” I added. “I use Photoshop-Elements®, and it allows me to boost color-saturation. Gotta be careful though; too much looks obvious. I wanted to enhance that station.
That also boosted the locomotive. So the blue is a bit deeper.
Ya can’t overdo it. It could look unreal.”
“Looks fine to me,” the girl said. “I never woulda known.”
“The camera image wasn’t bad,” I said. “But not as good as slightly boosted.”
I left. “I never know what he’s talking about, but he’s talking to ME.”
And unlike some, she loves it.

• My brother is Jack Hughes; 13 years younger than me. (I’m the first-born, he the fifth [of seven].)