Trackside with Erik and Mike, Vol. 2005: Second Chance Shootout

[Bergie]

This week's installment of Trackside with Erik and Mike is now live within the Railroading section on the Trains.com home page. Please read this week's column and then vote for your favorite photo below. Click here to read Trackside with Erik and Mike Vol. 2005.

[alstom]

Erik's photo!!! Not only is it my era, but it is a darker photo and plus it has Conrail!!!! The CN and WC is okay but is no match for Erik's!!!

......................

[jjlamkin]

Sorry Mike, I went with Erik's photo. I liked the content of Mike's but the contrast was kind of strange. It was a hard choice though!

Stay Safe - Look, Listen and Live!
Happy Holidays to everyone!
Jim

[PBenham]

Mike's CN/WC meet wins with me, the pacing shot of the BNSF Dash9 didn't show enough of the unit for me, in my opinion. I like shooting pan shots myself, [;)]preferably with a 28mm wide, to get more train/locomotive in the finished product.[:D]

[Bergie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by alstom

Erik's photo!!! Not only is it my era, but it is a darker photo and plus it has Conrail!!!! The CN and WC is okay but is no match for Erik's!!!

......................

Sorry, alstom... read it again. My Conrail photo is from an old installment.

But thanks for the vote, I appreciate it! [:D]

Bergie

[Noah Hofrichter]

I went with Mike's WC/CN shot. For me, Erik's pacing shot doesn't show enough of the locomotive. And I give Mike extra credit for catching a meet, which is a hard thing to do. And of course there is WC in the shot, which makes it even better!

Noah

[trainboyH16-44]

Mike's shot. I like the gleam, the detail on the engine highlighted by shadows, the colours...

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by alstom
Erik's photo!!! Not only is it my era, but it is a darker photo and plus it has Conrail!!!!

You voted on a photo that is not in this contest!

While I have never liked the Heritage Schemes (never looked very GN to me), I can feel the speed and power in that photo. The locomotive is in the exact position to say it is going somewhere. Any further in the frame and it would be just another loco shot. Any less and it wouldn't have the speed. The Blurred forground and the sharper mountians in the back add to the effect. Just getting the loco in focus is hard to do with a pan shot. Possibly one of the best pans I've seen.

I really liked the CN/WC meet until I looked at the larger image. The WC locomotive is not in focus and sort of ruins the shot. A higher f-stop to get it into focus too, may have changed my vote.

[Anonymous]

I really like Erik's shot. The crystal clear engine jumps out at you compared to the blurred scenery. But I though Mike's was a little bit better. Me liking CN has nothing to do with it . . . maybe.

[Anonymous]

Mike's shot takes more skill. I love pacing shots, and they are SWEET when ya nail 'em, which Erik did!....But, it takes better skill to get a sharp focus on one of two subjects, frame them right and still have the secondary subject as a strong component of the overall picture. There is more drama of railroading there. Just my two cents.

[gemotor]

It's Mike's shot for me. In fact, I would have voted for that shot over the Conrail shot back in Vol. 32. Technically a difficult shot - late light, a huge telephoto lens meaning there's not much depth of field at the f-stop Mike needed to use. But he got it right - the foreground with the CN power was sharp and composition was right on. My favorite photos are always in someone else's camera. The power in the image comes from the CN locomotive seeming to bear down on a meet with the WC train, but there's more there - it communicates a sense of lots happening back on the dispatcher's desk as well as coordination between the locomotive engineers. Just read the CPR cab ride piece in the latest TRAINS to get an appreciation of all that's going on. Now Mike will probably reply that the CN train was stopped in the pass . . . Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A case can be made for each to win.




Theo Sommerkamp

[Anonymous]

Someone cut off part of Eric's engine!

[Anonymous]

I voted for Mikes shot, which also got my vote the last time it was up. It's not only technically a good shot, but it's an even better shot in a journalistic sense - to me it sums up Wisconsin railroading in 2005, the Wisconsin Central fading from the spot light, and Canadian National taking the exWC lines by storm. Something even more true with the take over of the B&LE/DM&IR.

Both are good shots but Mikes just grabs my attention.

-Justin Franz

[stmtrolleyguy]

I had to vote for MIke's photo. I dislike these contests where both photos are totally different! I like the power that Mike's photo portrays, with the smoke from the WC units heading upgrade, and the detail in the truck photo on the closer locomotive. It's rather interesting to look at the two heralds on the locos- the WC is in the shadows, while the CN is in the sunlight.......................One really neat detail (although this is really for the very detail oriented) is the fan gleaming in the sun inside the CN unit.

I do like Erik's photo. It has some neat details, and is definately a good pan shot. The two littel bushes that rise up to the height of the rail add some color to the balast, and the background looks really good. The fact that the mountains are in focus with the train, and the foreground is blurry really gives the impression that the train is moving, moreso that a photo with a blurry fore and background. The number is also a neat little detail, the 4747. Looking at Erik's photo, I can't help but think about the illustration in Trains a few years ago of the first E-Unit painted with the Santa Fe warbonnet in the red and silver-the painting was almost the same position, but with more of the loco.

Overall, both good photos, but I think that Mike's photo has more impact to it. It portrays railroading at its best, and especially returs it to it's origins. All we hear about today is the new, high horsepower locos, with this feature and that feature designed to make it easier to move the train. Something about Mike's photo takes that away, and returns railroading to its primitive form- large locomotives trying to haul large tonnages up grades and around curves that seem to defy reality. It puts railroading in perspective, no matter how high-tech and "clean and user friendly" locomotives get, the challenges are still the same- get the train over the hill, over the road, to its destination. Get that power from the engine to the wheels to the rail and get the train moving.