Western Railroad Discussion > Choices?

I was wondering what people would choose in the following scenario. You would only have a chance to photograph one of two trains. Let's say a westbound has everyday typical motive power that is decently clean, and it's heading into the sun and you can get to a really gorgeous location to photograph it in nearly perfect light. But there is a eastbound with a special unit like a heritage unit leading and it's clean, rest of the motive power is typical. You know of a so-so location to photograph it, but the nose will be dark so your going to try and get more of a side angle, but the light won't be great.  So which one of those two would you photograph?

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/24 02:51 by funnelfan.

Jim Morrison said " the west is the best"

Go for the special heritage led train.  

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I'm a HU hunter and not a very good photographer (I shoot for documentation more or less), so the choice is easy for me.

Keep the sun at your back and over your shoulder if you want a shot to be proud of and show others.  Backlit is fine if you are presenting as black and white.  

Dave

Go for the oddity.   The regular can get photographed on another nice day.

I find clean power to be more of an oddity these days than some sort of special paint scheme unit. I'm going with Option 1.

Posted from Android

I would choose the one that would yield the best-looking big print hanging on my wall.

In other words, go for the good light.

Save the heritage unit for another day when the light is in your favor.

Posted from iPhone

Looks like a painting with H O models set in front of the canvas.  Nice.

Personally i'll go for the better photo location with proper lighting over the heritage unit.  For me a locomotive is a locomotive, they are all the same.

-18_lbs

Good question, very few of the HU would inspire me to give up good light at a nice location. Probably none...

JG

Depends. Are you a photographer or foamer? A photogrpaher will take the better lighting for a more powerful shot. The foamer will chase the heritage unit. A true railfan photographer knows the territory well enough to frame the heritage unit in good lighting due to their intimate knowledge of the territory. 

Knowing me, I'd take a hurried shot of the first one, then book it as fast as I can to catch the HU, only to screw up that shot too!! ;-)

Shoot the Heritage Unit just to document the one-of-a-kind—-being retired and nothing pressing as usual I would then start heading for the other train to get a shot of it as well. I usually average 28000 miles a year on the car and some days just end up being a 300 or 400 mile trip if there is stuff out there to shoot
Brian Stevens

Posted from iPhone

SCUfoamer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
A true railfan photographer knows
> the territory well enough to frame the heritage
> unit in good lighting due to their intimate
> knowledge of the territory. 

This is the first thing that crossed my mind, too, though I guess it amounts to a way of ducking the question as presented. 

My gut instinct would be to try to pull of shots of both; rush the first one and mess up the shot, and then rush to get the second train and miss that too.

In all seriousness though, go with the light.  My photography and satisfaction from this hobby all took big steps forward when I stopped trying to chase everything, and be everywhere.  If you can put in some hours and come away with a well lit shot at a favorable location, then thats a win.

Sometimes there is only so much you can do with the light and angle available, but a mediocre photo is a mediocre photo, no matter what the subject matter. Many of us, myself included have taken literally tens of thousands of photos, the majority of which are forgotten. Given the choice, I’d rather take one great image of common power than one meh shot of a heritage unit any day.

Posted from iPhone

SCUfoamer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------This!!
> Depends. Are you a photographer or foamer? A
> photogrpaher will take the better lighting for a
> more powerful shot. The foamer will chase the
> heritage unit. A true railfan photographer knows
> the territory well enough to frame the heritage
> unit in good lighting due to their intimate
> knowledge of the territory. 

The one that is actually moving and won't break down or get parked.

I asked this question since it exposes a divide in the railfan community in what they choose to photograph. I would call it the Scene vs Train question. I definitely fall on the Scene side of things, choosing to photograph good looking scene even if it means giving up on a interesting train. But there are plenty of railfans that would choose the interesting train over good scene.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR