Steam & Excursion > Pere Marquette #1225 - pacing myself - from the shoebox

Going through some "seconds" in my collection and came across this guy.
Not as sharp as my all time favorite PM 1225 photo but still a pretty
wild shot worth viewing by eyes other then my own (premire!).

From August, 2003 - Northern Michigan.

/Mitch

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Now that's the way a steam locomotive should be run, for us rail buff personel of course. Great shot!

Ed K. cp Laurel Run

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AWESOME photo!!!!

Ed...where was the 2101 shot? Looks like Sand Patch Grade!!!
I rode one such trip from Cumberland to Pittsburgh. I didn't think 2101 was going to make it up the hill
for awhile there! Good Times!!!

Greg Scholl

Greg, I shot that at Fairhope road crossing, Fairhope, PA. On the Sand Patch line.

Ed K.

Was this the one-way trip to Pittsburgh? Do you remember seeing a helicopter flying near the train on Sandpatch? It sure messed up a lot of photos and my buddies sound recordings from the 2nd or third coach we were in(open window back in those days...more fun than hermetically sealed).
Greg Scholl

Can't say I remember a helicopter, Or if it was one way, we were camped at Fairhope Rd. taking diesel pix, this was a pleasant surprise! I agree about Amtrak's hermetically sealed trains these days!
Ed K.

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How dare you shoot diesels when there is a good steam trip running on those rails!!!!
For Shame!!! :) Gotta go...Christmas rush still going, and now its time for the last minute crazies!!
Greg

Mitch, great shot of the 1225. It has the patented MGoldman motion look about it.

Mgoldman Wrote:
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> Going through some "seconds" in my collection and
> came across this guy.
> Not as sharp as my all time favorite PM 1225 photo
> but still a pretty
> wild shot worth viewing by eyes other then my own
> (premiere!).
>
> From August, 2003 - Northern Michigan.
>
> /Mitch

Okay Mitch I'll bite....It's not nice to fool mother nature!!! Or in this case Father Greg!!!!

Its a neat shot but one that you are not sure if you like it for the right reasons or not. My first thought was that something looked a little weird, as I thought the smoke looked kinda funny, but then smoke can look weird. Then I noticed the slightly blurred weeds below the wheels, and the trees, and then the ballast. The rods were not blurred, or not as much as we are used to seeing from an Mgoldman
production, yet the other stuff being somewhat blurred gives the shot a unique effect.

The "fooling" part of the things is this. The engine is probably doing 15-20 mph, as the smoke is
laying down as if the engine is drifting. Bell is ringing so I suspect they are coming into a depot or
some such, perhaps slowing down. That may explain why the rods are not blurred, as they are not turning
very fast.

The one thing I really like is the fact that even though the shot is taken from the wrong side(dark side), you got the motion and the side of the engine looking pretty good, whereas most photogs would get that too dark.....A nod on the digital cameras where you can see what you get first I suppose.

For some reason the front of the engine also looks a little "Different" and the entire shot has this
mysterious look to it. So while it was not the intended results you wanted, it still an interesting image.

One aspect I really liked was the framing and composition. Its in your face close-up, and well centered. Now if you could just photoshop out the tender and crew car, and put a couple of refers behind tender it would be 1950(except for all the Craft changes he made in April of course).

One thing about steam photography, you have to work with the hand you are dealt. If the engine doesn't have the great performance, sometimes it is never going to be a great image. Not always the
case of course, but look at the great action on the two Ed K images. Both show by the smoke there is
some real excitement going on. 765 at speed, probably doing 60 per, and 2101 hammering on Sand Patch.
Ed got lucky with his 2101 shot cause he was just there anyway, but what a winner!!! 2101 is probably doing 10 mph struggling up the grade, and the sound is deafening. 759 is flying by, and the hope of another shot could be a pipe dream unless you drive 50 miles down the road. Those photos speak to me!!!

Mitch's shot speaks to me also, but the engine performance is not there!!! Not a negative, just an
observation. A train hauling down the main is always more exciting. So, with 1225 on that excursion you
did the best you could, trying to make something out of nothing, and I think you achieved that. I guess
you have to be more creative today with less opportunities.

Not to knock the steam-era great photographers, but like my brother and I discussed, they had so much more to work with. Steam was an everyday thing, and locations were steeped with railroad ambiance that
today no longer exists. That subject is worth a whole thread itself, so for now adios. Keep up the good work...Thanks for posting the shots Mitch and Ed, which gave me food for thought/s!
Greg

That first photo is actully a painting.
Note the brush strokes!
Absoutely great!

Jim Baker

JimBaker Wrote:
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> That first photo is actully a painting.
> Note the brush strokes!
> Absoutely great!


I believe it's a real photograph in long exposure settings, which creates the streaking effect thus looking like brush strokes. There's another shot on here somewhere of this same angle, but sharper and very much real.

Thank you for sharing that.

Thank you to all who commented and enjoyed my "sloppy seconds".
I really do like the photo, don't get me wrong, but it ended up in the
shoebox only due to the better sharpness IMHO regarding this photo taken
within a mile of the previous photo.

These are actual photos, untouched or modified. The paint look is odd, but
something that I've noticed often in many PM #1225 images. I believe the
engine was doing trackspeed - maybe 40 mph or so - I don't recall that it was
slowing to a stop. I took both photos hanging out of a rental car pacing the
engine at equal speed. This was taken long before I started shooting with
pixels. No EXIF info on the back!

Happy Holidays all.

/Mitch

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Don't care how many times I see that picture...my jaw drops.
Thanks for sharing it again.

Mgoldman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you to all who commented and enjoyed my
> "sloppy seconds".
> I really do like the photo, don't get me wrong,
> but it ended up in the
> shoebox only due to the better sharpness IMHO
> regarding this photo taken
> within a mile of the previous photo.
>
> These are actual photos, untouched or modified.
> The paint look is odd, but
> something that I've noticed often in many PM #1225
> images. I believe the
> engine was doing trackspeed - maybe 40 mph or so -
> I don't recall that it was
> slowing to a stop. I took both photos hanging out
> of a rental car pacing the
> engine at equal speed. This was taken long before
> I started shooting with
> pixels. No EXIF info on the back!
>
> Happy Holidays all.
>
> /Mitch

Very Nice Mitch. Steam-era barn too!!
Happy Holidays.
Steamingly,
Greg Scholl