by Steve Eshom on November 20, 2009
I’m stealing the title of this post from Moose Peterson. I’m doing it for a reason though as I want dogcaught readers to think about the most important ingredient before they click over and read Moose’s thoughts on the topic.
My feeling is Moose is right on and there are many I times I wish I didn’t have a day job so I could spend more time where I enjoy being. The realities of life aside, I do find the more time I spend out photographing the more comfortable I get with making just the image I want to see. The times when I head out with just photography on my mind I am more motivated and energized than at any other time. I think I’ll go photograph something tomorrow.
Thanks for the thought provoking moment on a Friday night Moose!
Technorati Tags: train, railroad, railfan, photo, photography, inspiration, moose peterson, technique
by Steve Eshom on August 26, 2008
Thanks to ObsCar I ran across an article by Jeff Brouws where he discusses railroad photography and what makes compelling railroad photography (Please read A Word on Jeff Brouws on the page preceding Jeff’s article).
“…it’s also important to note: when you realize everything in the railroad landscape is potential subject matter, it’s liberating and opens up pictorial possibility” — Jeff Brouws
In the article Jeff briefly touches on some of the history of railroad photography aesthetics and offers 6 attributes that differentiate the railroad photographs of the likes of Steinheimer, Hastings, or Shaughnessy from their predecessors.
“Rail photographers of the 3/4 school were concerned with one thing: documentation, not interpretation, emotional content or aesthetics” — Jeff Brouws
Jeff continues his discussion with examples of non-railroad photographers and their approach. He points out that their view point was not primarily the trains but of subjects related. Their success was based not on a compelling railroad photograph but how the photograph supported their subject and continued their story. In fact in the discussion of Joel Sternfeld’s A Walk Along the High Line Jeff makes a strong point urging railroad photographers to look at things differently than they have because there are so many opportunities that exist.
I encourage readers of this blog to take 30 minutes and read Jeff’s article. I believe you will come away with a fresh viewpoint about railroad photography and possibly photography in general.
http://www.rlhs.org/rlhsnews/pdfs/nl28-2.pdf
Technorati Tags: trains, railroad, railfan, photograph, photography
by Steve Eshom on July 9, 2008
Back in March while the UP was still detouring around the Frazier slide I spent a couple of days chasing around the Oregon Trunk. During one trip I finally photographed something I’ve wanted to photograph since I started carrying a DSLR. That something is a panorama including a train. Of course this requires the train to be stopped so just the right circumstances had to be present to make this work. In March everything lined up….
- A northbound UP detour took the siding at Oakbrook, OR. The DS did not give them permission to leave the SSS Oakbrook in reverse. Because of this the conductor had to walk up from the rear so the engineer pulled just far enough into the siding to clear and then stopped. This meant the train was not around another corner at the NSS Oakbrook allowing more of the train to be viewed.
- The sun was out and generally pointed in the right direction.
- I could see nearly the entire train ( no trees or other obstructions).
- I had the thought to remember to take the panorama instead of just shooting one shot (ahh, at age 41 this can become an issue).
This image is a 31 photo panorama (3 horizontal passes) that measures 13,481 X 4021 pixels (45″ X 13″). On disk it is 1.6GB (TIFF files including layers). The original images were all processed together using Lightroom’s sync features and then exported as separate TIFFs. I used Photoshop’s photomerge to combine them to form the large image. Rendering takes about 20 minutes. The best statistic of all is I had a blast putting it together!
The Q-RVPW1-06 stops just inside the SSS Oakbrook. This train is detouring over the Oregon Trunk because of the massive slide at Frazier in the Oregon Cascades.
Technorati Tags: trains, railroad, photos, photography, BNSF, UP, Oakbrook, Oregon, Frazier slide, detour
by Steve Eshom on June 28, 2008
As I mentioned in a previous post railroadforums.com‘s advanced topics challenge this month is ‘creative panning’. To create a contest entry I shot quite a few photos through the month of June. I ended up with about a half dozen I really liked and now I’ve posted my favorite from the month in the contest gallery. If you are a rrf.com member, please make sure you vote for your favorite image when Leia releases the poll next week.
In my previous post I mentioned some items that I had learned while experimenting. At the end of the month here’s my favorite tips on panning.
- Use a tripod. The tripod helps with some of the unwanted vertical motion blur. Of course you still have to keep up with the train as it moves across the scene!
- Shutter speed I found had to be regulated by train speed. Generally trains moving 20 m.p.h. or slower need a 1/10th second shutter speed or slower to capture decent motion. From there 1/15th second worked well up to around 35 m.p.h. and speeds above that worked well with 1/20th, 1/30th, and 1/40th of a second.
- Use tracking focus (called AI Servo on Canon gear) to continually refocus as the train moves by the camera.
- Take plenty of photos and throw away those that are not focused or panned just right.
- Enjoy!
Besides the one I posted at rrf.com here’s a few of my other favorites.
Torn Tarp
Building America
X-KAL
Technorati Tags: trains, railroad, photos, photography, pan, panning, vancouver, washington
by Steve Eshom on June 4, 2008
rrf.com is at it again with another advanced topics challenge. This month it is ‘creative panning’. Of course with trains there’s always movement so panning opportunities abound! (well at least there should be some movement eventually, maybe, someday) On Sunday, the first day of the challenge, I tried my hand at a couple of pans and had mixed results. My photos ranged from completely blurry to pretty sharp and dramatic. Some of the things I noticed are:
- Slow moving trains in bright light are difficult to pan. When it is so bright the shutter speed has to be so slow that getting the wanted blur causes unwanted blurs. A couple of my attempts were at 1/10 @ f/22 which is the minimum aperture for my lens.
- Sharpness is difficult to achieve when attempting a pan. There are two causes, the slow shutter speed and where the focus point is set. I found I have to pre-focus the camera at the spot where I want to take the image and then track the subject into that spot. I’m also going to try using my camera’s tracking focus to see how that works out.
- Trains moving above 40 m.p.h. gave the most dramatic pan effects.
To help with some of the observations I’m considering trying the tripod. This will require carefully levelling to make sure I can successfully pan along a level horizon. I’m sure some practice with it will also be required.
It should be fun to work on this throughout the month!
The M-PTLPAS crosses Eighth St. and heads out of town.
Technorati Tags: trains, railroad, photography, photo, vancouver, washington, bnsf, creative, pan
