Trackside with Erik and Mike, Vol. 70

[lhtalbot]

WOW! Very difficult. Both shots are great. I went back & forth more times than I usually do, trying to find some clincher & could not. Had to go with the gut & picked Mike's. After I voted, I thought "I should have gone the other way.....Erik's is just too good a shot get buried.

Larry in Wauwatosa

[gannbb1]

Mike gets my vote for a very interesting picture. Once again showing railroads at work 24/7.

Erick's picture fails because you have to force your eyes from that bright sun down to the train. Some post processing could make an outstanding picture.

I think the original idea was to put Erick and Mike in a similar position as most of us rail-fan photog's and see what they could do with those very excelent cameras. Thus no post processing and in my opinion the requirement the shots be reasonably current. When you go out to take pictures you make the best of what is available, time, light, train, etc. Reading the "boy's" commentary on how they do that and viewing the results is one of the things that appeals to me about this feature. Of course along with all the other poster's take on the pictures.

Gannb

[zardoz]

...so I'd rather see what you two can do under pressure.  Larry of the NW   

Under pressure is one thing, but under the pall of dreary grey skies not even Ansel Adams could do too much (without post-processing). 

[CNW 6000]

Well I've thought a bit...I like Mike's rainbow shot just a touch better than Bergies sunburst shot.

[sporegonfan]

Good grief. Both photos look like calendar quality shots to me. But Erik's spoke to me a bit more because of the darkness. To me also, the sunset seems symbolic of the tolerance railroads seem to be having to railfans these days: the sun is going down on our freedom to take pictures wherever we want.

 Yes, it was hard to choose, but I thought Erik nudged Mike out just a little here.

[Rocket Man]

Both nice shots. Erik's was too dark/underexposed foreground for me. Had the train been a larger part of the shot maybe it would have worked better, but then you couldn't have gotten the sun the way you did.
I love the use of the wide angle lens in Mike's shot. I believe it captures the vastness of the west and the isolation of the train within. The raindrops worked for me oddly enough. This photo conveys a lot of mood and the raindrops enhanced this. I have never been a huge fan of the UP colors. In so many cases the locomotives seem dingy even when they are clean and new. The grayness of the sky matched perfectly with the gray of the locomotives and made the Armour yellow with red trim and blue wings pop!

As far as setting the parameters as to which photos you guys use, as long as you both are happy, I don't care what you do. Just keep up the good work!

[squeeze]

Tough choice this week. Mike's shot was truely awesome, the only thing with it was the rain on the lens. Bergie's shot was rather under-exposed, while easily done with back lighting, it still gives a surrealism quality.

My vote went with the backlighting effect, which I see is in the minority at this time.

Nice photos this week, thanks for the presentations guys.

[wctransfer]

Went with Mikes! Love the rainbow, and the rain drops blend in with the shot very well!

Alec

[Gunneral]

As the old saying goes Mike " As the sun sinks slowly in the west " your picture tells the story.

[Gunneral]

Oops, sorry, for Mike should read Erik!

[Railfan1]

I went with Erik's photo this time. Great work both of you.

[StephenDx]

Love the forum and the pictures presented, so when they were taken has/is not an issue for me.

As for the voting, I have to run with Mike's pic as it showed trains run all the time. Plus it was the one that grabbed my attention from the email.

The same comment could be said for Erik's shot, "trains run all the time," it is a nice shot but not quite there for me.

Keep 'em coming

[spokyone]

Quote from Erik.
With that in mind, I'm starting a new policy of using any photo that I've taken within a reasonable amount of time for our voting competitions (most likely, one year). I want to use photos that are based on quality, not timeliness, and over the past few months it's been challenging to find both the time and the perfect shooting conditions. (Thank goodness spring is finally here!) I'm confident the quality of our column will improve as a result. After all, instead of using a photo because I took it last week, I'll now be choosing photos based on their overall merit.

Are you going to let Mike use this policy as well?