I’ve still been kind of in my slump and haven’t really actively chased trains for quite awhile. Still, if I see a train and decent light, who am I to resist a shot? Such was the case on New Year’s Eve when my girlfriend (visiting from Niagara Falls) and I chanced upon this view of the Beer Run tied down at Tennyson St. We quickly ran and got our cameras and got a couple views each. This was my favorite:
Hopefully 2011 will again draw me trackside to pursue the hobby a bit more. If not, I guess I can hope for Lady Luck to shine on me some more as she certainly did here!
Wow! Nice shot! You have a really good eye for composition and understanding of lighting and exposure. I don’t think I would have even tried a shot in those conditions.
Ed - Some of the other shots that I’ve labeled grab shots probably weren’t but this one definitely was. Sue and I were coming back from my cousin’s house where I had been cleaning salt water fish tanks in preparation for the New Year’s Eve party to be held there later that night. It had been pretty cloudy before we went, so I didn’t even take a camera with me. I had seen the Beer Run tied down at Tennyson St, but didn’t think much of it.
When we went over the grade crossing on Tennyson, I saw that the firey sky was working out perfectly for a background for the tied down Beer Run. I live about a mile away from the crossing, so I hurried home, grabbed Sue’s and my cameras, and proceeded back to the crossing with as much haste as was legal hoping that I’d still have some good light when I got back.
The default focal length in my head is 77mm on an APS-C crop body (about 115mm on 35mm). I’ve used my FA 77mm so much that it’s natural to see compositions with it. In this case, it worked perfectly because I knew what the framing would be and how the 77mm would pull in the Front Range and dramatic sky just enough to pull the scene together. Composition was then just a matter of a little tweak when I got there. Originally, I didn’t have the Moffat Line on the right hand side of the frame, but after taking the first couple of shots, I decided that I really like the glint of the rails and so I moved a couple steps and turned just a bit to the right while shooting to include them.
To me, it’s a grab shot. There are a few hints that I would share, though, with other photographers:
Find a location near you that you can get to quickly if lighting/weather conditions make for interesting shooting. Tennyson St. is the nearest grade crossing to me, and the fact that the Beer Run sits there a lot is an added benefit. I’ve shot it a lot, and I kind of have an idea of what angles/focal lengths/etc. work with it. So when i
