Trackside with Trains vol. 157 - Summertime - live to view and vote

PREDICTABLE!  Where's the sweat, the twisted rail, the heat mirrors, the bare chests supporting arms pounding rail, the bikini clad ladies for that matter?  Give the reader Pat  the nod for showing up alongside the pros who have produced nothing hot!  I looked at the pictures but did not read the explanations...the pictures are the only explanaining I need and use.

henry6

PREDICTABLE!  Where's the sweat, the twisted rail, the heat mirrors, the bare chests supporting arms pounding rail, the bikini clad ladies for that matter?  Give the reader Pat  the nod for showing up alongside the pros who have produced nothing hot!  I looked at the pictures but did not read the explanations...the pictures are the only explanaining I need and use.

I didn't read the captions, either.  A few looked hot.  First the shot of the chicken-white legs in shorts in Minnesota.   Tom Nanos has the beach in the background, and I'm sure that shot will win (shots from the cab always seem to win in these..). Elrond Lawrence has palm trees.  To me in the ice-covered northeast, palm tress = hot, no matter the ambient temperature. Lustig's shot also looks hot...

/shrugs.

While the beach shot came close, nothing says summer like golf, especially here in the north woods.

Wow, what a dissapointing selection. I think the one I sent in says "summertime" more than most of these do. I think it is about time to allow more than just one reader selection in each contest, as your "pros" just don't seem to be able to bring it. In the last few tracksides, the reader has consistently had a better effort than the Trains pros. Allow more reader submissions in the contest, and you may find some new talents you had not previosly seen.

I'm not sure what I expected for the "summertime" theme...but these weren't it.

Many could have been spring or fall...at least one could have been winter (the one with the palm trees)...so there wasn't really a lot of obvious theme adherence to the submissions.

That being the case, I opted for Jim Wrinn's entry...only because it did look summerlike...and Alco RS-2s are always gorgeous (in my book).  Not much prejudice, huh?

Where was Drew with something hinting at heat distortion?  He's really the one I thought would have something I'd like this time.

Tom - Nashville

I too was expecting at least one entry with the heat haze shimmering.  For me it cam down to a choice between the two Toms, and ultimately decided the golf picture was the more natural.

John

Jim Wrinn and the Rs-3's, beautiful locomotives in pristine condition and summer time fun. I voted for it!  For some reason people, or lots of people in a photo with trains don't do it for me. I would think it would be time to get real creative, but I wouldn't have minded a single  bikini clad girl hanging off the front steps of any locomotive. laughs! Or how about a sunset/ beach shot with the Train in the foreground.

Mike Dannemans Shot. 2nd,,, My son would love it because he plays golf, but again I would have liked it better without the golf carts and people, or just the golf carts and Locomotives. It was predictable that it would win though, or at least garner a lot of votes.

I am kind of with Tom. The summertime theme, didn't come through to me like,, Oh! there it is that's it with no doubt.

Also why all the photographers all of a sudden. It made me think they were throwing a lot at us so we wouldn't notice the regulars. To many shots I think. Fewer shots, more focus on the theme, less chatter. And you can throw in a bikini clad girl too! anytime!

I was reviewing the photos and being the graphic artist that I am,,something about the Tom Nano's photo doesn't look right. Maybe I'm mistaken but the engineers hat and hair look like a overlay, In other words outlined, copied, and layered over another shot. Like say for instance you could cut the window part out and replace it with a beach scene if it wasn't a beach scene.  or it could be that he outlined an area (like the Engineer) and added contrast. Is it allowed or permitted to doctor or enhance photos? If it is then I apologize, but if not...well who knows? Maybe my eyes are playing old timer tricks on me,,or maybe I'm on the computer to much! Laughs! if I'm mistaken accept my apologies!

Geeze Louise, can summetime really be that close?  I certainly enjoyed the many aspects of summer that this collection repesents--but Andy's shot seemed to be calling for my vote.  Or was it the cow?

Thunderhands

I was reviewing the photos and being the graphic artist that I am,,something about the Tom Nano's photo doesn't look right. Maybe I'm mistaken but the engineers hat and hair look like a overlay, In other words outlined, copied, and layered over another shot. Like say for instance you could cut the window part out and replace it with a beach scene if it wasn't a beach scene.  or it could be that he outlined an area (like the Engineer) and added contrast. Is it allowed or permitted to doctor or enhance photos? If it is then I apologize, but if not...well who knows? Maybe my eyes are playing old timer tricks on me,,or maybe I'm on the computer to much! Laughs! if I'm mistaken accept my apologies!

My sentiments exactly.  The engineer seems to be a bit overdressed for the beach scene behind him!  I mean I never heard railroaders complain that the airconditioning in the cab worked.

Well maybe I'm right then! On an overlay you have to either smudge slightly around the outline, or use a softening tool to blend it. I have done many many of them for on-line magazines etc. Didn't think about the air conditioning part?

I voted for Andy and the cows.  To me it looked like a very hot summer day in a field somewhere in mid America.  Could have been a kid riding his bike to the local swimming hole to cool off that took some precious time to stop and capture the moment.

Dave

Right on!  The pros get enough exposure that it seems unlikely most would make a proactive move to "enter" a Trains Magazine competition beyond their usual cornucopia of regular submissions.  Possibly if the contest were limited to reader submissions, more than one reader might "submit' each time.  Hmmm . . .

That said, and in fairness to the subject matter, I had to choose Alex Mayes' Duluth shot.  I like the way he chose to include the railfan element, when many would be shooing people out of the scene, trying to get something "pure."

Charles Kuehn

ckuehncnwhs

Right on!  The pros get enough exposure that it seems unlikely most would make a proactive move to "enter" a Trains Magazine competition beyond their usual cornucopia of regular submissions.  Possibly if the contest were limited to reader submissions, more than one reader might "submit' each time.  Hmmm . . .

That said, and in fairness to the subject matter, I had to choose Alex Mayes' Duluth shot.  I like the way he chose to include the railfan element, when many would be shooing people out of the scene, trying to get something "pure."

Charles Kuehn

This was my point. Use more reader submissions in the contest. I know they get more than one every week, as I also sent one this week. With an actual "summertime" theme. Give more ametours exposure, and you might be surprised by the good entries you get.

Thunderhands

<p><b>I was reviewing the photos and being the graphic artist that I am,,something about the Tom Nano&#39;s photo doesn&#39;t look right. Maybe I&#39;m mistaken but the engineers hat and hair look like a overlay, In other words outlined, copied, and layered over another shot. Like say for instance you could cut the window part out and replace it with a beach scene if it wasn&#39;t a beach scene.&nbsp; or it could be that he outlined an area (like the Engineer) and added contrast. Is it allowed or permitted to doctor or enhance photos? If it is then I apologize, but if not...well who knows?</b> <b>Maybe my eyes are playing old timer tricks on me,,or maybe I&#39;m on the computer to much! Laughs</b>! <b>if I&#39;m mistaken accept my apologies!</b></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>

I see what you mean, but as with all my photos, if it isn't there when I took the photo, it won't be there in the final version.  In other words, I don't cut & past what wasn't there while I took the photo.

Looking more closely at the shot, I see what you mean, and it's a quite simple explanation.  I had to burn in the beach in the background (yes it was a hot day), and it does seem to show up around Don's edges where it meets the beach.  But as you can see in the screenshot of Lightroom, which shows the original RAW image on the left and the final version on the right, both contain the beach scene in the background.  Yes I did a little "digital darkroom" work by burning in the outside and giving a little exposure boost to the interior, but no layering, compositing or overlaying was done.  Also note the filename in the top left corner, and how it ends in ".CR2", which is Canon's RAW format.  This is exactly as it was shot on July 10, 2009.

Feel free to fire off any further questions.

Thanks!

Tom Nanos

Seems logical, thanks for clarification!

People were saying they wanted hot, distorted rails etc.  I thought Drew's came pretty close to that.  His photo just looked summer.  We are having our summer now and the last 3 days have been 45 degrees C or over 100 degrees F.  We are all looking forward to some cooler days.  Good one Drew.

Well, admittedly, the photo array was not that stellar this time around, but wooo-weeeee, the natives are certainly getting restless here today!  I hope you guys at the mag have steel doors on your offices, because there appears to be a revolution in progress among the viewers . . . . ! . . .Let's just hope those million people marching in Egypt this morning aren't rail picture fans . . .

Well, faked or not, I thought the beach picture was the funniest.  Nothing says summer like a grinning engineer so intent on his work that he doesn't turn his head to look at 300 half naked women on a beach?  Give me a break! 

It was almost a tie between that and . . . . golly, what says summer more than a short train and a cow?

I went with the beach scene.

Andy's shot of the KCS coming out of the Mississippi River valley got my vote.  A close second was the golf shot at Lacrosse.

ed

Lots of nice photos.....several that really depict Summer.  My choice is Tom Danneman's Summer rendition.

LU-Trains

Well, admittedly, the photo array was not that stellar this time around, but wooo-weeeee, the natives are certainly getting restless here today!  I hope you guys at the mag have steel doors on your offices, because there appears to be a revolution in progress among the viewers . . . . ! 

(Quote Trimmed)

Perhaps it is time to start an alternative thread where the rest of us can post against the weekly topic with links to our work. Might get me to even start using my photobucket account !!

WSORatSussex

Perhaps it is time to start an alternative thread where the rest of us can post against the weekly topic with links to our work. Might get me to even start using my photobucket account !!

I'm all for that.  In fact, I've done that once or twice, when I felt I had a shot that was the equal of anything that was submitted.  Others may not agree that my shot was all that good, but...

I would like to see the contest made more of an assignment.  Instead of having contributors dig through their archives looking for a shot to meet the theme - I'd like to see contributors have 2-3 weeks to take a photo that matches the theme.

That makes "summertime" an impossible task in the dead of winter, but is still a good idea - perhaps long and short term goals...  Of course, that would take more time to administer.

tree68

That makes "summertime" an impossible task in the dead of winter, but is still a good idea - perhaps long and short term goals...  Of course, that would take more time to administer.

True.  Maybe some day us forumites can start our own assignment - without the voting system.