Archive for the 'gorgerail' Category

After my first Winterail I figured I shoul post my thoughts, coming from someone who both loves good railroad photography, and someone who runs GorgeRail which is a smiliar (but smaller) show.

Shows: The shows were overall very good. The quality and format of the shows was very comparable to GorgeRail. In fact, one of the best shows was Jeff Bass‘ “Tones, Textures, Colors, Faces. Railroading” which was origially presented at GorgeRail 2005. Other shows which stand out for one reason or another were George Hiotis’ “Suburban Symphony” which was a brilliant exposition of the many facets of big-city transit railroading and “Wheat Country” by Bob Clarke, Ruth Hillis and Mark Perry, which was a very nice show which wasn’t about trains, but rather included trains as a part of the overall image and photographic portrayal of life in the rural farmlands in the center of the continent.. The video presentation of Bay-Area steam from the 50’s was very nice, as was Kit Courter’s “While You Were Sleeping” which is easily the best nighttime-photography exposition I have ever seen. A couple shows stick out as needing some improvement (at least from my perspective). One was Tim Tonge’s Abo Canyon show, which was far too repetitive and would have been a good show if it was half as long. Warren McGee’s NP presentation had some great photographs, but the poor audio recording was frustrating for the viewer. The show on the 3751 had some very nice photography and did an excellent job of capturing the human element to the operation of a steam locomotive, but there were far too many pans/zooms and other effects in the show which became distracting.

Facilities: The theater facility was adequate and appropriate for the number of attendees. At first I questioned the length/duration of the the intermissions, but I realized that the logistics of getting 1,000 people in/out of the theater and to/from the restrooms required the intermissions as planned. I do wonder if it might have been more efficient to show a couple shows before going to a 20-25 minute intermission rather than having a 20 minute show followed by a 20 minute intermission. For my money, I’d like to spend as much time watching shows as possible. I’d heard the rumors of the top of the theater being hot and stinky, and those rumors were confirmed. Our seats were near the front, but I walked up top, and it was much warmer, and noticably smellier. The ventilation system apparently wasn’t functioning properly, but since this is an ongoing issue I would expect the show organizers to be on top of things.

Show Organization: I was especially interested in watching the flow and organization of the slideshows. I ended up learning a few new tips/tricks which we’ll implement at GorgeRail but overall things were as I expected. Timekeeping was pretty good, with things never falling more than 5-8 minutes behind the advertised schedule. From a technical standpoint the show was flawless… every presentation was played without any technical issues, and the audio seemed very good (with the exception of the Warren McGee show, and that was a problem with the show, not the presentation setup). I commend Vic and Evan on maintaining an efficient flow to the evening.

Overall: I had a great time. The overall quality of the shows was very good, the event was well-organized, and I had fun. Would I go again? Definitely.

Stay tuned for my thoughts and opinions on the Friday night pizza party / slideshow hosted by Railfan & Railroad.

I’m excited to announce a few new things related to GorgeRail.

First, we’ve added another presenter to the lineup. Scott Brons will be showing The Yakima Valley and Stampede Pass Subs, a look at railroad activity on the line since the reopening in 1995.

If you’ve been considering riding Amtrak as part of your journey to or from GorgeRail, you can save 10% off the lowest available fare by using a promotional code that Amtrak is providing for GorgeRail attendees. More information can be found here.

Registration is moving along swiftly. We now have more people registered for this year’s event than we did at the time of the event last year. If you haven’t yet purchased your ticket, you can do so at anytime… register early to avoid any last-minute hassles (or the potential for the show to sell out).

All of the presenter information, registration details, and more can be found on the GorgeRail website

Lately I’ve had a couple people ask about what gear I use so I figured I’d post something that I can point to.

My camera body is a Canon EOS-300D also known as the Digital Rebel. It’s a 6.3 megapixel DSLR. I got this body in December 2003 and have been quite happy with the results. There’s newer, better bodies out there, but I’ll be honest I only have one complaint with the 300D, and that is that I wished it had a bit bigger buffer… the buffer will only hold 4 RAW images. I have the battery grip BG-E1 which I value more for the vertical controls than I do for the second battery compartment.

I pretty much always shoot in RAW mode. Sure, the files are bigger and require more post-processing, but RAW gives me the flexibility to make color and white-balance adjustments that I don’t always want to trust to the camera in the field. If you’re attending GorgeRail, Paul Petersen will be doing a workshop on digital image processing, and he’s a great source of knowledge for everything you ever wanted to know about RAW.

I carry around a few lenses and am looking to add a few more.

When I bought the camera I got the “kit” with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom. I’ve been satisfied with this lens; it’s definitely worth the $100 which it cost me. It’s not the fastest lens in the world but it’s very light and the optics are pretty good. It’s a decent lens for roster shots.

My main everyday walkaround lens is the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom. It runs around $425 and is a great value. I find it to occasionally be a bit soft but not very often, and not enough that I’m gonna chuck this and replace it with primes (well, at least not yet). The IS is great for hand-holding. I use this lens for almost all of my around-town roster shots and close-ups. About the only time I use the 18-55 is if I need to go wider than the 28mm on this lens.

I also have the EF 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, which is a bargain with a street price around $70. This is an entry-level lens, without USM focusing, but the speed is great for low-light situations and the price can’t be beat. Specifically related to railfanning, if I need to do a low-light roster shot I’ll throw on this lens.

My newest lens is the EF 135mm f/2L prime. I wanted something fast around this focal length. I have been quite happy with this lens, which works nicely with the Canon 1.4 extender to give me a f/2.8 prime around 190mm.

My big lens is a EF 300mm f/4L IS prime, which is excellent for long telephoto shots. This lens is tack-sharp. It can be handheld with the IS although I usually use it on my monopod which works out well. My only complaint is that shooting head-on telephoto shots in low light often causes the autofocus to hunt due to the locmotive headlights. Pre-focusing is your friend.

I carry everything around in a LowePro Mini Trekker AW which is a backpack-style bag which has ample space for two bodies and several lenses. It has several pouches inside as well as a couple outside zippered pockets. The “AW” in the name stands for All-Weather, which is because of the built-in fold-away nylon cover which covers up the whole thing if needed. Given the downpours we can have up in this area, the rain cover is a nice feature.

I have a Bogen 681B monopod with a 3229 tilt/swivel head. This is a sturdy monopod which I use almost all the time except for quick grab shots. I also have a cheap Vivitar tripod that I use for night shots. When using the tripod I’ll usually use a remote shutter release.

That’s the majority of what I carry around all the time to take pictures. The few other random things in my camera bag aren’t of much interest (lens cleaning supplies, a washcloth to dry off lenses, and some sporks).

For those of you coming to GorgeRail (or for those of you who need just a bit more arm-twisting), here’s some links related to railfanning in the area…

Railfan Guides:
Funnelfan’s Columbia River Gorge Railfan Guide
Railfan Field Guide: The UPRR in Oregon

Gorge Photos:
Northwest Trains - Postcards from the Columbia River Gorge and elsewhere
Swamiphoto
BNSFFoamer.com
Steve Eshom Photography
GorgeRail 2003 Photos from Steve Eshom

If you know any other good Gorge links which should be on this list, leave me a comment…

I’m excited to announce that tickets are now available for GorgeRail 2006, to be held the weekend of May 19-21st in The Dalles, Oregon. This year we’re featuring presenters from Maryland to California, with show topics covering everything from Alaska to China.

All of the details and ticket purchase information can be found at http://www.gorgerail.com

GorgeRail 2006 hit a significant milestone today… details will be made public in the next couple weeks, but I have to say I am really excited this year… I have a gut feeling this is the year we end up big. Stay tuned.