Please vote for a winner for Trackside with Trains.com Vol. 184, Railroad Diamonds:
http://trn.trains.com/en/Trackside/2012/05/Vol%20184%20Railroad%20Diamonds.aspx
We are featuring three reader submissions this week!
Also, let us know what you think of the photos.
Thanks and have a great week!
I went with Scott Espin’s photo as it is a imaginative interpretation of diamonds, not the common railroad meaning.
I went with the guest photographer’s shot of the diamonds at Savanna, because I know the place, and the photo location (been there!), and know what he went through to get that shot. Timing is everything for a glint like that!
(I was surprised that there weren’t a lot more entries this time. Of course, I’m coming from an area that’s a veritable diamond mine, so I have to consider that they may not be as common elsewhere.)
Are there any parameters regarding safety such as “Do Not Trespass On Railroad Property To Capture An Image” considered during the selection process of images to be voted on for Trackside topics?
The recent Trains article expressing safety concerns about the taking of high school Senior Class graduation photos upon railroad right-of-way seems to lose effectiveness when Trackside images that seem they could only have been taken on railroad property (not the one at Savanna IL, for which I voted ) are then selected for Trackside submission and voter evaluation. SFTROS.
Went with Don’s photo, mostly because the low sun angle brings out so much detail (especially when enlarged); although it did take a bit of deliberation, as Tom’s and Shawn’s shots were also quite interesting. Thought for a bit about Alex’s (at least his had a train), but I felt that the theme was not represented sufficiently.
Thanks everyone for the nice comments, and for the support my photo has received so far. Anyone who has been on that bridge in Savanna knows that the hardest part of shooting photos there is that you are shooting through a chain link fence. With a digital 35 mm SLR camera, not the easiest thing to do. Usually, the fence manages to get in the way. I almost submitted this photo (below) which has the additional diamond of the fence. But I liked the close up of the diamonds more, like I said in my photo comments, I didn’t know what I had until I got home. When I first looked at it, those diamonds just jumped out at me.
Don
Scott’s bridge with diamond pattern was most inspiring. Don Dieckmann’s picture not included in the voting was more of what I hoped to see and would have voted for were it or similar shots included…diamonds with trains crossing and waiting and signals or smash boards: some kind of excitement or promise of. Maybe I’ve ridden too many NYC subways and across too many diamonds on commuter roads, been to too many country settings where even two single tracks crossing with attending signals or boards presented an air of something to come. None of these pictures came close to railroad excitement but were as cold as the steel laying on the ground.
Angela, I submitted my vote for Shawn Levy’s version of “diamonds”. Like the setting, and it certainly qualifies for the theme…and I like the quality of the photo…and it’s unique. Not too many {scenic}, railroad photos to find like this…