Looking back on Winterail 2007

Winterail 2007 Reflections
The Bill Darrough Show was very well received. Putting together that show has been on my mind for over ten years. My son Ken and I wanted it to be a fitting tribute to Bill. Twenty years ago, I spent well over a year printing the over 3000 negatives in the box and came to feel I knew him from the pictures he shot. Working with his negatives was like seeing through his eyes. Erik A. Young, a railroad enthusiast of Jamestown CA, wrote about the Bill Darrough Show on Train Orders:

...the Bill Darrough story was pure grandeur. I can't even begin to imagine taking on such a task at such a young age and accomplish so much. His legacy will live on despite his unfortunate battle with cancer at such a young age. I think Vic hit the nail on the head, as did the show's narrator, with this young man possibly having had the chance of being in the same class as (great train photographers of the twentieth century) Link, Stein, Dunscomb among others. I feel privileged to have been able to see even just a small portion of Bill Darrough's work.

It really, REALLY meant a lot that son Jeff came to the show! It was great having two of my sons at the show.

I got some contacts from this year's show and hope to follow up on these to do a possible sequel show. One very intriguing lead is the possibility there is someone still alive who may have known Bill.

It was great that Ken Rattenne and I showed at the same Winterail as he has been a friend for years and was one of the Kens son Kenneth was named after.

One big change is the step-by-step migration to an all digital Winterail. This year we were able to put up the digital three favorites, complete with title slides with the photographers names and also to be able to put on the screen digital copies of the contest winners moments after the contest was judged. We are working on improving that work flow.

We had photos from that day's breakfast. Also, Ryan Martin shot this photo of the crowd and it was on the big screen the day of the show, shortly after it was shot. I think that was very cool.