Trackside with Erik and Mike Vol. 3 - March 1, 2004

[Anonymous]

#2 was a beautiful shot , But I chose #1 because of the way the train snakes its way along through the countryside & that you can tell that this set was earning its pay by the detail of the heat radiating from the units through the wintery landscape. The light just gives it that twilight flavor for the season. & last but not least, I usually prefer to see freight over passenger but not always. "Thank You Erik & Mike "

[Anonymous]

I voted for #1. I like seeing a train on a curve. I enjoyed the depth of the photo. Very good!!

#2 was also great!! Tough choice. Keep them coming!!!

[Noah Hofrichter]

I Voted for photo 2 because I liked the snow whisping off. Although I do agree with chuckrail, that the photo of the WC train was better.

Noah

[Anonymous]

#2 Better Lighting
#1 is just BLAH!!!

[Anonymous]

Got to be photo 2. Who can resist a Metra speeding through the snow? I can't.

[Anonymous]

Tough One this week. Both shots are Great, but I just had to go with #2. Hard One. And I like CN too. If I had to chose Subject matter I would have gone with CN, but the Metra is just a classic. My fav though is the night shot .
-justin

[Bergie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by railpac

snip

Erik, or Mike, what do you think of this shot that I took not that long ago?

Your shot looks good, but it appears as though UP ran out of car wa***okens. [:D]
Erik

[Bergie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by winepw

I am really torn here, because I like the snow effect of #2, but prefer the composition of #1.

After all the talk of how to use different settings on the camera, I am surprised to see an example of under-exposure for voting.

I played with #1 a bit in Photoshop, and it did improve it to the point that I'd rather have #1 as my wallpaper than #2; which was one of the criteria I used to pick a favorite.

Ultimately, I voted for #1.

Just a point of clarification. Mike and I have agreed not to enhance photos in PhotoShop (or any other software) because we feel it would turn into a competition of who is better at using PhotoShop, not who took a better photo. We've decided that cropping will be the only enhancement allowed on photos in this series.

Erik

[M636C]

To address the telephoto question by higssy and taken up by bnsfjth, I've been using a Canon 75-300 with my EOS 10D, which has the same format as the Digital Rebel (or EOS 300D outside the USA). I've been quite impressed by the photos I've taken just hand held at maximum zoom. Of course, it has been summer here in Australia, and we've had some beautiful clear days without haze to affect shots at long distance. But with that magnification, a tripod must help. We have so few trains here, we tend to follow them through the steep and curved sections in the mountains, getting a single train in four locations. This makes it difficult to set up a tripod at each spot. But I have used a tripod with success before with my film camera, an EOS 50e (called an Elan IIe in the USA, I think).

Peter

[dabhid07]

I went with #2 because of the plume of snow that the train is pulling along with it.

I agree with the people who said that #1 is too dark. I like the composition, but the colours are all too grey. This could be the excuse you need to do an article about the Digital Rebel's white-balance settings.

And to be honest, I like Erik's Wisconsin Central GP38-2 picture better than either of the official choices. (And I'm not saying that just because I prefer GP38-2's. <g>) The golden sun off the nose of the engine and the haze in the air remind me of (too many) cold mornings standing along the track waiting for the perfect shot.

[Anonymous]

Hey Erik,
almost forgot, congrats on the new addition to the Bergstrom family, and good luck, you'll need it [;)].

[brilondon]

I like the second photo only because of the great lighting. The first was excellent though but it was off centre and to dark to make out the details of the GP 40. Did I mention that I don't especially like the GP 40s of CN. They became too generic back in the early 80's and are still all too common.

[M636C]

I thought I might make a comment about exposure, and the brightness of the two scenes in this third episode of "trackside". When I first viewed these photos (at work, just before heading home) I was unable to view photo number one at all clearly, and similarly the WC Geep shot by Erik seemed very dark. Because of interaction with the firewall at work, some pictures (those of the cars) didn't load at all. Anyway, when I got home, I checked out the web site again, on my laptop with its LCD screen. Suddenly, photo number one was clear, and the cars trailing off to the left became visible for the first time. Photo number two looked better, but not dramatically. Erik's WC Geep however, looked like a great shot, much better than it had on the old (seven or eight years?) monitor at work. Thus, when looking at a photo you must consider whether you are seeing it as intended, or in a degraded form due to the setting of your monitor. In my case, the work monitor hasn't been serviced or seriously adjusted since it was installed with a 486 system unit years ago, and has been retained through two upgrades of pentium system unit. The e-mail, word processing and spreadsheets don't look very different, but for viewing photographs other than the clear, bright, type it is seriously lacking.

Erik and Mike, what types of monitor are you using to make up these articles. If they are LCD type, could you perhaps check the vision on older monitors, to see the range of brightness that other forum members might be seeing. Even the opening photo of the CP SD under the bridge looked a lot better on the LCD screen.

And I'm going to have to play with my work monitor before I go blind!

Peter

[Anonymous]

Photo 2 is dramatic in that it is using the snow to create an impression of speed in much the same way as art deco artists use speed stripes.

evan james

[Anonymous]

[#welcome] I liked shot 1, there is more in there to catch your eye,( which is what i like about railroad photography, or railroads in general.)
Shot 2 was alot clearer and still looked good but shot 1 gets my vote.
Good luck to the both of you.
Keen as Railfan,(TRANZ RAIL.NZ)&(UNION PACIFIC.USA)
[tup]