Trains.com

Train Picture rejected on Railpictures.net

7292 views
44 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 25,022 posts
Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 8:51 PM

DavidH66
...like this one.

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

  • Member since
    November 2011
  • 77 posts
Posted by nycstlrr on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 9:36 PM

tree68
 
DavidH66
...like this one.

 

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

 

Yeah but 95% of the people just starting out with a $50 point and shoot can get a shot like that. Railpictures is a joke.

  • Member since
    June 2011
  • 404 posts
Posted by DavidH66 on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 10:16 PM

nycstlrr

 

 
tree68
 
DavidH66
...like this one.

 

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

 

 

 

Yeah but 95% of the people just starting out with a $50 point and shoot can get a shot like that. Railpictures is a joke.

 

 

This is Sid Vaught, he's been photographing trains longer then I've been alive.

 

 

  • Member since
    November 2011
  • 77 posts
Posted by nycstlrr on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 10:49 PM

DavidH66
 
nycstlrr

 

 
tree68
 
DavidH66
...like this one.

 

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

 

 

 

Yeah but 95% of the people just starting out with a $50 point and shoot can get a shot like that. Railpictures is a joke.

 

 

 

 

This is Sid Vaught, he's been photographing trains longer then I've been alive.

 

 

 

I don`t care if it is the pope. It is a shot any beginner can take. A name does not make the photo!

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, March 17, 2016 6:52 AM

There are artists with a camera and there are picture takers.  The artist sees the 'story' in what is shot - subject, background, meaningful human interaction, light and shadow.  The picture taker sees the subject - and that is all that is seen. 

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Canterlot
  • 9,575 posts
Posted by zugmann on Thursday, March 17, 2016 7:10 AM

DavidH66
This is Sid Vaught, he's been photographing trains longer then I've been alive.

Age doesn't really matter.  I've known guys that have been shooting 50+ years and still suck, while there's 12 year olds that take mind-blowingly awesome photos. Either you have the photographer eye or you don't.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
  • 13,540 posts
Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, March 17, 2016 7:30 AM

I agree with Zug in this matter.  I've been taking pictures since high school, starting with an Argus C-3.  I always wished that I could shoot photos even half as good as those of Richard Steinheimer, but even in my youth, I knew that I wasn't in his league and it just wasn't going to happen.  Nevertheless, his work provided a goal to aim for and I would like to think that I'm better than I was in 1969, even if not by much.

The question that you need to ask yourself is:  Why am I taking these pictures?

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 25,022 posts
Posted by tree68 on Thursday, March 17, 2016 9:44 AM

BaltACD

There are artists with a camera and there are picture takers.  The artist sees the 'story' in what is shot - subject, background, meaningful human interaction, light and shadow.  The picture taker sees the subject - and that is all that is seen. 

I'm a big advocate of the "rule of thirds."  I regularly share that concept with folks simply because it can turn a routine snapshot into a keeper.  After a while, it becomes automatic.

Some years ago, when an aunt owned a waterfront cottage on Lake Ontario, family would visit for vacations.  My sister (and others) made a nightly pilgrimage to a beach that had a nice view of the sunset, and would take pictures.  One evening I was with the group and decided to take a few steps back, framing the setting sun with a tree and a bench.  Turned a boring shot of a bright dot on the horizon into a framable image.  It's all about the composition.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • 56 posts
Posted by Benchedthatpiece on Thursday, March 17, 2016 12:23 PM

I think Railpictures is overrated. I was looking at some of the shots on there a few years ago and was like man these are awesome. Then I would see some and wonder how they made it on there? I take pics for me and me only. If I share them and people like them that's fine and if they don't that's fine as well. The main thing I want to do is stay trackside as much as possible and if I can improve my photography skills in the process that's a nice bonus. : )

Jay

  • Member since
    June 2011
  • 404 posts
Posted by DavidH66 on Thursday, March 17, 2016 4:42 PM

nycstlrr

 

 
DavidH66
 
nycstlrr

 

 
tree68
 
DavidH66
...like this one.

 

Pretty run-of-the-mill 3/4-ish roster shot - but clear, sharp, and with excellent lighting.  And those seem to be requisite requirements on such sites.

 

 

 

Yeah but 95% of the people just starting out with a $50 point and shoot can get a shot like that. Railpictures is a joke.

 

 

 

 

This is Sid Vaught, he's been photographing trains longer then I've been alive.

 

 

 

 

 

I don`t care if it is the pope. It is a shot any beginner can take. A name does not make the photo!

 

 

Exactly, Sid's done better, but because he has a name, a lesser quality photo of his got by the screeners.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, March 17, 2016 6:03 PM

Benchedthatpiece

I think Railpictures is overrated. I was looking at some of the shots on there a few years ago and was like man these are awesome. Then I would see some and wonder how they made it on there? I take pics for me and me only. If I share them and people like them that's fine and if they don't that's fine as well. The main thing I want to do is stay trackside as much as possible and if I can improve my photography skills in the process that's a nice bonus. : )

Jay

All photo screeners don't have the same eye.  Art and it's acceptance or rejection is in the eye of the beholder.  On a day to day basis even the same screeener may see things differently.  There are no absolutes in subjectivity.

If you like you photos, that is fine for you.  If others don't like your photos, this is fine for them.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • 1,881 posts
Posted by Leo_Ames on Saturday, March 19, 2016 10:51 AM

Semper Vaporo

HostThenPost dot org is a web site that allows people to place files so they can then reference them in forums and not have to make their personal computer available to the world to fetch the image each time someone else views the forum posting.  

If you're talking about attaching a file, it doesn't work that way. The file is uploaded to the forum itself and they do the hosting. You only need a 3rd party hosting service like the one you mentioned if the forum doesn't have that feature. 

Been online for 20 years and spent far too many hours on forums during that time and don't know of a way to just share a picture on a forum where everyone that sees it is accessing my own personal computer. 

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
  • 3,293 posts
Posted by Semper Vaporo on Saturday, March 19, 2016 11:54 AM

Leo_Ames
 
Semper Vaporo

HostThenPost dot org is a web site that allows people to place files so they can then reference them in forums and not have to make their personal computer available to the world to fetch the image each time someone else views the forum posting.  

  

If you're talking about attaching a file, it doesn't work that way. The file is uploaded to the forum itself and they do the hosting. You only need a 3rd party hosting service like the one you mentioned if the forum doesn't have that feature. 

Been online for 20 years and spent far too many hours on forums during that time and don't know of a way to just share a picture where everyone that sees it is accessing my own personal computer. 

Yes, you can "Host" photos from your own computer, but you have to have a permanent IP address and your computer turned on 24/7 and expose ("Share") the folder the image is in to the world.  That can be expensive for us mere mortals piddling on the web.

This forum might allow uploading photos to the forum server, (I don't know, some do, some don't), but in this case the photo in question is hosted on a 3rd party server known as:

"HostThenPost dot Org"

Right-click on any photo and in the dialog box that appears click on "Properties" (at the bottom) and you will get a dialog box that shows the URL of the photo...

In this instance it is: (I added spaces to keep the forum software from converting it to a link to the photo and showing the photo instead of the text of the URL):

http // : hostthenpost . org / uploads / 58f2f5ccf834fb26697287f99558b37 . jpg

When anyone then visits the forum to read a posting, the text is downloaded to the visitor's computer along with the addresses of any images.  The user's computer then sends that address out on the web to the server the photo is resident on, and that server sends the photo to the user... That server could possibly substitute a different file for the photo each time someone access the site and everybody would see a different image.

The same thing happens to many of the "subwindows" of the page being displayed, most often associated with advertising.  The forum page contains markers of where to put some piece of information and a web address (URL or IP address) of what to put there.  The user's computer then sends that address out and gets back from some server what to put there.  It could be the same server that the rest of the page is coming from or it could be another one half-way around the world.

If the address is non-existant (the server is broke, disabled, unplugged or otherwise nuked) or somehow blocked (anti-malware might be filtering addresses that are sent out and won't let be sent the ones it flags as being suspect; even the ISP might not accept some addresses), then the user will see something like "Error 404" in the space.  Some web pages contain extra code that can detect that nothing came back and send a different address and keep doing that until it runs out of different addresses.  Some pages are coded such that the information that the user was really after won't show until all the extraneous subwindows have been filled and the poor user is frustrated with how long it takes to load the page.

Some servers even request info from the user's computer for location so it can send different advertising based on locale, or even filter it based on information in a database on what that particular computer has been looking at recently... so if you have been searching the web for "Cars" you might see more advertising for "automobiles" than "lipstick".

Google used to be very notorious for that... my son and I used to send messages via the G-Mail chat feature and we noted that if we mentioned "Cars" there were advertising windows along side that were for "cars", if we then mentioned "computers" the advertising changed to "computers".  It tracked very closely with any subject that was menioned more than once.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • 1,881 posts
Posted by Leo_Ames on Saturday, March 19, 2016 11:56 AM

I don't believe that this forum has an upload feature. You most host your picture somewhere and then link it to your post here (I use something that I believe is called TinyURL when the need arises at a forum like this to share something not already on a server). 

Never heard of what you mention in connection with sharing a photograph at a message board and I can assure you that virtually nobody has ever taken advantage of it for such a purpose. This it seemed much more plausable that you were just mistaken about how the upload feature of some forums work.

  • Member since
    July 2010
  • From: Louisiana
  • 2,310 posts
Posted by Paul of Covington on Saturday, March 19, 2016 2:14 PM

Semper Vaporo
Google used to be very notorious for that... my son and I used to send messages via the G-Mail chat feature and we noted that if we mentioned "Cars" there were advertising windows along side that were for "cars", if we then mentioned "computers" the advertising changed to "computers". It tracked very closely with any subject that was menioned more than once.

   Many people worry about big brother government watching them but don't think about how they are being watched online.   Whenever I do a search on a product, I am swamped by ads for that product every time I sign on for the next week or two.  And the ads are not just on line.   About a year ago, my wife sprained her knee and sought information with her I-phone.   A day or two later I got a call on the house phone offering a deal on knee-braces.   When he asked if anyone had a knee problem, I said "no" (my automatic response to phone solicitation), and he seemed very surprised and asked again.   Sometimes I think we should be more worried than we are about the internet.

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy