Most fans I know are at least semi-serious about rail photography. They have DSLR or maybe the new mirrorless cameras with impressive lenses. Phone cameras are OK for these people, but not for serious rail photography. (no flames please if you disagree).
So I’m wondering if the Forum gurus can create a subforum for rail photography. For example, composition and lighting, do’s and don’ts (like trespassing on RR property) How to crop and adjust exposure. How and why to convert to black-and-white. Places to publish your photos beyond just flickr. These are just a few quick ideas.
Actually, I’d go to such a forum. I’m not serious about photography–I only use a cheap camera (which declares that it has “44 Megapixels”–yeah, right)–but I do try to take nice pictures.
Why not create a tag that could be used when discussing the photography or something?
You’ve hit upon a cool subject, but if recent forum activity is any indicator, the thread will be removed as non-railroad, even thought the thread implies railroad thinking.
Railfans now have an uphill battle. Case in point: Nikon cameras. They, of all people, should understand photography. But, of all the zillions of processes their digital cameras have, they don’t have anything to simulate water bath processing! Those at Nikon probably came after that generation and never heard of such a thing!
Great secrets of rail photography brought a whole generation of TRAINS subscribers in the past, so to chase people away here that are interested in photography is self-defeating. There must be a great flaw in the realm of higher education for that to exist.
I’ve always been interested in posts on ‘better railfan photography’ going back to suitable daylight filters for Ektachrome and application of the zone system for negatives.
What I’m not interested in are weird third-person rants about how certain camera manufacturers don’t make the same design decisions as the poster, or won’t repair the perceived problems for free.
We had a topic-coding system in the old steam_tech Yahoo group that would let us flag things like “OT” and “YAK” so that people with a serious interest in steam would know before opening a post that it was ‘off topic’ or ‘bull session discussion’ and not have to download or open it if uninterested. The current Discourse forum doesn’t do much of a job of separating posts in the feed by category, so I suggest doing just as advised in the previous posts: use something like “PHOTO:” when starting a new topic, so anyone not interested can simply ‘turn the page’ without need for modac.
Zug, Your vote was cast. “No”
But posts following yours seemed to out voted you.
Personally I had a certain gripe and Nick created a “thread”(? category) for people to use (thread = speaking to my gripe, just like you have one).
Result Zero takers. Hopefully that will change.
Same (create a thread- topic- category- whatever) could be done here. Leave it to those who DO see merit. Firecrown seems to WANT all bases covered.
Although I do hope moderators will steer posters to the place that Nick created (upon my request).
I know for me, I have to sort through posts that I detest (just as you see no merit in photo tips etc.). If they are tucked away somewhere, I will not go there. To each his own. endmrw0606251018
A word to the wise: Some years ago, a thread here at the TRAINS Magazine forums had over 1000 views a day! Astounding! The kingpin of that thread left and took nearly 10,000 photos with him! Likely such viewer counts while we would marvel at the number of them, Kalmbach saw them as a drain on the bottom line. There always seems to be an opposite way of looking at things.
If you are serious about photography, you may want to take a good class or two. Here at the forum is a waste of your time. Other sources are much more worthwhile. Also, realize that photo secrets are never said. Even some of the greatest railroad photographers lack knowledge of those super secrets!
I never looked at anything except General category in the Kalambach days. Now I have found myself wasteing(?) loads of time looking at photos on the website Firecrown has created. Those who are photo nuts need a place also. Not withstanding the comment made by some who are very serious about this subject.
Firecrown’s website, I think, is geared for RR hobby folks. Some much more serious than others. It is a place to share all facets of the hobby. An expert can share with a novice. regards to ALL mike endmrw0606251557
I don’t know how I warranted two replies. I don’t care if firecrown creates a photo category. I just don’t think the op should get his hopes up it will be used much, going by past history.
On the Model Railroader forum, there are a number of threads with plenty of photos of all kinds.
On the Trains Forum, if you are interested in a certain photo technique or a certain subject, start a thread on it and post photos. If there is really interest from others, you’ll find out.