As of this morning i said
"Not much time on the layout latley. The track still won't line up but I think i'm just going to use flex track to fix that problem." border="0" width="15" height="15" /> Yesterday I looked my house up on google maps, on the way home I always see track just heading off into the distance and I always wondered were it went to. Well after I looked up my house on google maps I looked around for the tracks near my house on google earth, I followed them, and to my very surprise 10 min. from my house there is a big old train yard!!!! I never expected that comeing... well I might go check that out today and do some rail fannig...I hope." (in another thread)
this after noon I said
"Hey guys,
Well tried to go to that yard but it's NS property so we couldn't. =[ So we went to the local commrence building (an old station) to go railfanning there because less than 15 ft from the back of the buliding is active freight tracks. No luck there.... I went with my parents because they don't want me to go railfanning I tried to act responsible and alll and be safe. When I got home I asked my mom "So what do you think about me railfanning every once in a while?", her response "Absolutly not." I'm upset at her but didn't act like it. I guess the reason she won't let me is because her freind commited suicied on the tracks.... I want to railfan very badly but I don't know what to do. Anyway at the commrence building they had a retired caboose on display it's a NW caboose. Got some pics. of that. I'll get them up later.
well be back later...
-Jake"
-Jake
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
Well, yesterday I went railfanning. For the solstice, you know.
Waited at two locations between 8 and 3, and got 8 westbounds. No eastbounds. I was waiting for eastbounds, the light was good for them! And I didn't see a single eastbound until 6 o' clock, when there were two eastbounds, one westbound, and that makes ONE train I saw in good light!
Here are rejects that I thought still looked kind of cool, but I don't know why I sent them in...
http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=385893&key=331057439
http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=385850&key=0
And here's the ONE train I saw when I wanted to see it!
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191049
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191005&nseq=1
Then I was going to head to a not-well-known location called Massive, with nice curves and a great backdrop, but they close the highway at 6 to protect wildlife, I discovered. YEESH! So much for taking advantage of soltice sun!
Go here for my rail shots! http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=9296
Building the CPR Kootenay division in N scale, blog here: http://kootenaymodelrailway.wordpress.com/
trainboyH16-44 wrote: Well, yesterday I went railfanning. For the solstice, you know.Waited at two locations between 8 and 3, and got 8 westbounds. No eastbounds. I was waiting for eastbounds, the light was good for them! And I didn't see a single eastbound until 6 o' clock, when there were two eastbounds, one westbound, and that makes ONE train I saw in good light!Here are rejects that I thought still looked kind of cool, but I don't know why I sent them in...http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=385893&key=331057439http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=385850&key=0And here's the ONE train I saw when I wanted to see it!http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191049http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191005&nseq=1Then I was going to head to a not-well-known location called Massive, with nice curves and a great backdrop, but they close the highway at 6 to protect wildlife, I discovered. YEESH! So much for taking advantage of soltice sun!
Nice pictures, gosh I thought the rejects wern't bad either.
That's why I posted them here!
Anyways, got a roll of slides back today, and found one shot in there that I thought I'd submit. (My mum shot most of this roll...so...yeah...)
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191059&nseq=0
This was a train that used to be part of this one, before it popped off southwards: (rejected for high sun)
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b274/trainboysd40/Okanagan%202007/KPR26322.jpg
Nice shots as always Matt. I'm actually suprised rp.net rejected that last one (of the GATX rail locomotives), as it seems to fit all of their guidelines to me. The high sun really isn't noticable because of the angle, and I've seen them accept shots like that before. But, I've come to understand that you can't understand the thought processes of some of the screeners at rp.net (which is pretty much why I've stopped submitting things there for the most part, and I have ambitions to start my own website to display my photos instead)...
Noah
You really do have big dreams, don't you?
I agree, the screeners...they're...a little odd. But hey, if it's a really good photo even the weirdest screener won't deny it! (With an exception, as I've discovered....)
Anyways, I re-uploaded some oldies, and a few got on...as well as one more from the other day.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191216
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191213
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191191
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=191187
That makes 83!
Okay. I am back and I have a new CAMERA!!!!!!!!
So I have been learning about it steadily as I go and so far I have a few techniques down. Here are a couple of shots I took with it.
This one is my favorite so far..except there is one problem with it. Unfortunately the sun was to low in the sky so I was not able to get a full sunny nose shot. Let me know what else is wrong with it.. I am practicing up for Railpictures. My next place to railfan will be this Tuesday in the morning. So the sun should be good for the Saunders area. Oh yes, this shot wa taken at Saunders in Superior, Wisconsin. The train was already up to track speed which is 45 MPH. And I was quite happy I got it pretty clear without the blur of the moving train.
Okay, here is a CN local crossing under the BNSF at Saunders. What do you guys see wrong with this one? I would like to know what I can do different to get a better shot.. I know the right light setting probably makes the difference but what tips do you have for me.
Okay another BNSF empty coal train. This one was interesting with the signals in the back ground all lit up. I also like this one.
And for a few of you who are WC fans. The last remaining WC SD45 is now in Duluth.
Thanks for any help.
James
MilwaukeeRoad wrote:WCfan is going to be really happy to see that last picture.
Got that right! Now I just need to gte a picture of my own.
My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JR7582 My Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcfan/
Matt, I do have pretty good ambitions sometimes, but I think I should be able to actually pull the website off. It won't be anything great, but I should be able to make it a decent place to display my photos. I've kind of been practicing with website design and HTML coding by building a website for my model railroad club here. Once I get that done (and I've got a big update to the website to put up sometime in the next few days), then I'm going to move onto getting a site of my own up and running, and still maintaining the SWSC website some of the time too.
James, pretty nice shots with the new camera. One thing you mention is that you were worried about motion blur with the train. What mode are you shooting in with the camera? If you're just using auto or "P" on the dial, I'd really recommend learning how to go about using the other functions, especially shuter priority and aperture priority. They'll give you a lot more flexibility.
Most of the time I shoot in "Tv" mode, which is shutter priority. This allows you to select the shutter speed by moving the dial just behind the shutter button. The camera will automatically set the aperture for you. On a sunny day and with ISO 100 or 200, I usually shoot around 1/320 for a 10mph train, 1/400 for something in the 10-25mph range, 1/500 for something going 25-50, and 1/640 for something moving really fast like Amtrak. Anything stationary I usually go down to 1/100 or 1/200 to get a greater depth of feild. Adjusting your shutter speed manually and not letting the camera set it (as the camera often sets the shutter speed too slow for a fast train) will help you to avoid blurring the photos. Other people might use different settings, but those are the guidelines I was taught to use, and they seem to work pretty well for me. Of course, under low light or odd conditions I do sometimes have to adjust for conditions, but for the most part this works well.
There is also "Av" mode, which is aperture priority. I find this useful for something like model railroad photography, where you want a really good depth of feild to put everything in focus (something like f14 to f 22). For this though I usually use a tripod, as the shutter speed is automatically set so low that it becomes hard to keep the camera steady enough.
Good luck learning how to use the new camera to get the best photos. I look forward to seeing some more of your work!