Nostalgia & History > The McPherson Files... First Attempt At Night Photography

I took a photography class through my senior year of high school.  By this time I had been playing around with cameras for nearly a decade, so I had something of a head start on the rest of the class (i.e. I knew what a shutter was, which hole to look through, and which end to point at the subject).  The result was that I had finished the entire course load for the whole year by the end of the first quarter.  The fringe benefit of this was that I ended up being able to get several rolls of black & white film and go screw around with it.
 
These two images are a result from that class and are my first attempt at night photography, taken with my little Olympus point-and-shoot camera.
 
On November 27th, 1989, I took these night shots at the Carbondale Amshack as the southbound Illini wrapped up its daily run from Chicago.  The first shot shows the train minutes after arriving, while the second was taken as the train’s cars were being spotted on the Rock Track for the night.
 
I aced the class, and got some darkroom experience while I was at it.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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Your first attempt turned out great.
Gary

Nice, thanks for all your posts.

Bob Jordan

Many photographers today think night work is nothing more than point and shoot with a digital phone.  Back in the good old film days, you had the knowledge ahead of time generally what shutter speed and aperture to use and 'fast film'...ASA 200 perhaps? 

Of course, the magic 'secret' to night photography then as now... bracket, bracket, bracket.  Although with todays newer cameras, ISO 8,000 and up works wonders, especially for moving trains.