Nostalgia & History > Photographer Influencers

I think it is fair to say that the railfan hobby is a very visual one, from just sitting trackside watching trains to taking anything from simple snapshots to preserve a memory to getting more artsy and technical, or even going in for movies and video. Of course of later years we also have drones to enhance the recording of those visual experiences. That is not to take away from audio, which I contend to also play an important if not integral part of the hobby and experience. Anything from listening to the horns and sounds of trains making their way through the darkness as you lay in bed, to highly technical recordings that are either stand alone or part of the visual experience. Over the years there have been many standard setters in both mediums.

I began taking photos at an early age, simply because I wanted to preserve a view of what was there for the future. Much of the railroad fabric of the past was gone or quickly disappearing when I picked up the camera in the mid-1960's, and I was always curious when looking at the skeletal remains of the past what it really looked like when there was a train there. So that was the initial primary incentive, and I was terrible at it, some might say I still am ! But I kept taking photos anyway. Eventually as I got more into it as Conrail came about and even more started to disappear or radically change, another incentive happened. Taking pictures gave me a reason to hang around and take in and learn what railroading was all about. it didn't hurt that it led to meeting and interfacing with train crews and other railroaders. As time went by, my photos got better, in my opinion anyway, and I began looking at the works of others in Trains and Railroad Magazine as these were about the only sources I really had. 

So one question I have for those who do take photos, why did you start and who influenced your style ?

I've been thinking about that lately in my case. I'd have to say the following:

Phil Hastings
Don Wood
Stan Kistler
Jim Shaughnessy

The above for overall composition. They are easily googled and many of their images have appeared here on trainorders. Their images just somehow "spoke to me" and I tried to incorporate their compositional techniques. Another one that comes to mind is John P. Ahrens for his use of perspective and angle.

Others were:

Sam Reeder - a local guy and friend who used a cheap 35mm camera but worked his images to the fullest extent. Not a sharp lens, but his work captured a certain "you are there" and an action element of "drama". I don't know for sure just what it was, but I liked it.

Karl Korbel - Another local Upstate NY in the boondocks guy who gave me hundreds of B&W photos of the Unadilla Valley RR and some NYO&W prints.  Karl taught me more than anyone to incorporate some sense of surroundings into the scene. Don't make it sterile. Include a building, freight house, street corner, restaurant, just something to give the photo "place" and identity. To this day I disdain sterile photos. They could be taken anywhere. I also like to include people when possible, even if it is just a hand wave out the window or passersby. I call that adding life to the picture.  One rather well-known photographer was next to me in Binghamton, NY one hot humid morning many years ago as the local freight north was coming up through the yard bob-tail first with the rear door open. Brakeman Jim Doliver had been out switching and working up a sweat, and as they started north stood in the breeze of the open door to cool off. To me, that was the photo. The "pro photo guy" was cussing, not loudly, but cussing Jim to close the door. I realized that was not my style. I wanted life in the photo. I wish I knew which yellow box that slide was in because I would scan and post it.

In college I used to read many of the photo magazines in the library to get inspiration and knowledge. Also, I took as an elective a course in photojournalism which I find very much influenced what and how I shoot. Putting a story behind the image and putting the image into a bigger context of life.

I tried 8mm and Super 8MM movies for a while. I realized I was terrible at that, and it was very expensive and not for me. I also did a few sound recordings, but found I needed higher end and more expensive equipment than I could possibly afford. Anyway, it was more satisfying listening to O. Winston Link recordings.

Taking photos trackside eventually led to a career on the railroad .....  but rarely combing any railfan photography with work. That was taboo, other than recording and documenting work projects, most of which I do not have images of for myself, nor would they be very interesting anyway. 

Just wondering about everyone else.

Sam Reeder Photos

1. The Amtrak Niagara Rainbow near Verona, NY on May 10, 1976 on the former NYC Mainline. Not a traditional way to snag an 80 mph Amtrak on the big mainline and make it look very rural and backwoods.

2. An Amtrak excursion arrives in Thendara, NY on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in 1999 much to the surprise and delight of the locals. Bringing life and the drama of the arriving train to the image

3. An Erie Lackawanna freight rips down the hill alongside the Chenango River approaching Chenango Forks on the way from Binghamton to Syracuse in 1967. You almost expect to feel the on-rushing breeze of its passing. Angle, perspective, the river, pole line, and distant TCS signals all come together.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/25 08:24 by train1275.

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Sam Reeder - con'td

4. Wellsville, Addison & Galeton at Knoxville, PA on October 16, 1972. It doesn't get much better than this.

5. When B&M power rode the Water Level rails between Rotterdam Jct. and Syracuse, NY over Conrail. GP9 #1727 in Notch 8 leads an eastbound at Oneida, NY on September 14, 1976. A different perspective from his Amtrak Niagara Rainbow shot and he gets a friendly wave.

Karl Korbel Images

6. An NYO&W train is caught leaving Deansboro, NY on the Utica Division in the late 1950's, shortly before abandonment. Karl was good at looking at an overall scene that you could revisit 20 years later and understand how the railroad fit into it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/25 08:02 by train1275.

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Karl Korbel con'td

7. Steam drama and nostalgia at the Arcade & Attica in Western New York during June 1967.

8. Unadilla Valley Railroad in the last days at Edmeston, NY, a former NYO&W property. Incorporating the elements and scenes of railroading that was soon to disappear and some elements that had disappeared.

9. Another UV image taken just before the 1960 abandonment at Bridgewater, NY where UV interchanged with the DL&W, shortly to be the EL. The incorporation of the crew and the adjacent dairy bar restaurant which was a local landmark (Gatesdale Dairy Bar) on US 20 here.

These photographers and types of images are what influenced me over the years.

And I still hold the opinion that to get a good photo you don't need an expensive camera outfit. It helps to get a sharper more technical photo ..... but you still can nail some great and impactful images with about any device that will take a photo.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/25 08:06 by train1275.

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Thank for these.  They prove not all good rail photography has been widely exposed.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion,IA

Thank you for a very thoughtful essay on the nuts and bolts of rail photography

Interesting post and thoughts. I would suggest you are a big step ahead of many of us with your Photo-Journalism formal instruction. There really is something to analyzing a photo with theoretical comparisons, but there's also something about just looking at a pretty picture. 

For me a big part of the hobby really is looking for classic photography anologies, which often contribute to the pleasing impression. Colors or structure, balance and so on say a lot about the communication of the moment. In this hobby there is also the technical aspects of the subject, or the supporting subjects that can be identified for date or region, perhaps specific event. I'm also a big Landscape photography hound which has same only different strengths in a photo. 

The current hobby printed magazines are sadly lacking in comparison to the older classics but there;s a huge number of interesting pictorial books to work with. There are a few great photography based websites to follow. But for most of us it's just a hobby.

t4p.

A thought provoking post! Thanks.
Gonut

Great post and great photos to illustrate it! 

J. Parker Lamb .

For years I've stared at photos by Richard Kindig, Otto Perry, Hank Griffiths, Jim Ehrenberger and marvel at how much they really covered and how well.
The thought of just "being there" with or without a camera and seeing these scenes boggles my mind. There are others, equally well known. Donald Furler comes to mind.
I know I've  missed many, but the scenes they shot of 30s-40s railroading when the industry was still intact with all the things that made them so interesting. 
Depots, water tanks, roundhouses,towers,coal chutes and each little town had a "face" of the line. A station agent or some other human.
I was just getting to be able to drive when steam went away. My beloved Frisco dieselized way too early. I couldn't afford any sort of decent camera.
Today's railroads leave me cold. So sterile, no presence in smaller towns other than just the tracks. And if you go too close, you may be fair game for the law to chase.
I spent problably 60+ years collecting photos and negatives of Frisco steam by the "good guys". Preston George, Joe Collias, Ivan Oaks, Bill Barham, Kindig and others. Thoroughly enjoyed looking at them and thinking I was born too late. To this day I don't like diesels and was fortunate to participate for 18 years in a mainline steam operation, so I did get a taste of it.
So my hat is off to the tireless and excellent work of the early guys preserving scenes for us to study the detail and see how life was along the tracks.
 

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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>
> So my hat is off to the tireless and excellent
> work of the early guys preserving scenes for us to
> study the detail and see how life was along the
> tracks.
>  

Yes.  Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg mentioned the conditions of chasing trains in rural America in the 1940s.  Long before Hampton Inn, WaWa, Interstate highways with clusters of motels, gas, and fast food, etc. But plenty of "guest rooms", ptomaine palaces, dirt roads, and flat tires.