Western Railroad Discussion > Giving in to the darn clouds

Oh, the unbridled joy of shooting with big white “dumpling” clouds backed by a deep blue sky! For outdoor photographers it’s pretty hard to top, especially in April when the whole world is turning spring green. Trouble is we run the risk of those same big fat dumplings playing peek-a-boo with your blazing sunshine. It can get pretty crowded up there in the wild blue yonder! What to do?

Gasoline, time & location effort has already been invested. Right? So take your best shot anyway. Pixels are free, and life is indeed short…

1. UP 4024 running westbound, or northwest, “as the crow flies” is radiated by precious few rays of sunshine which was gloriously full less than 2 minutes before this shot.

2. Converted to a black & white version. Something I rarely do...
(Photo taken April 18, 2019 near Duluth, KS)

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Locve the clouds in your pix, Sir Lance!   Well dpme!  Very dramatic!  And, oh, the way you got the trains is superb!  Applauds

How about with a little help from Photoshop?
Bill Pyper
Salem, Oregon
 

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As I instructed a young sports editor on the Mojave Desert News years ago, always have the sun BEHIND you if at all possible...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

MojaveBill Wrote: > ... always have the sun BEHIND you if   >> at all possible << ...

REALLY??? Thanks for the advice, but guess what: I was indeed set up for a fully sun-lit shot. And maybe it's really stupid of me to assume you actually read my thread title. But with the clouds taking away the fully sun-lit shot I was set up for "my shot" turned 90 degrees on the spot, and the new subject became THE CLOUDS THEMSELVES. Especially with the sun streaming through like it was. So how am I to keep the sun at my back while shooting the drama of the sun streaming through the clouds? The train instantly became a secondary, very much minor part of the image. I had NO intention of shooting a washed out image, so that all the rivets could be counted, when there was interesting cloud detail in the sky. If anything, the train was to be a dark silhouette and the newly 'main subject' clouds were to be the main body of the composition. And that's what I exposed for. Thanks anyway...

Lance/199