Passenger Trains > Project 430 — In Your Face

At 5 a.m. straight up — four minutes before sunrise on the Fourth of July — Amtrak 27 is in your face at Tokio Road.

This was third to the last of 78 shots I fired off as the train popped out from behind the elevators, and came around the curve. At the time, I didn't think this particular shot, number 76, would turn out.

But, it turns out I was wrong. I think I like this one the best of the bunch. This photo captured the brief moment when both ditch lights were off, the short lull between flashing alternately from left to right. 

Project 430 — which refers to the time I set my alarm to in the morning to get out trackside in time —  is my ongoing summer solstice project to capture number 27 around Ritzville at sunrise. The project began in May, and will continue until sometime in July.          

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Awesome! Do you use bracketing mode at all or at this point do you have exposure dialed in pretty much? 

This is certainly one of the more epic TO series of ever.

For the most part I have the exposure dialed in.

I don't usually use bracketing. Almost never, really.

I usually shoot in aperture mode, while keeping an eye on the shutter speed as I adjust the aperture. If the shutter speed starts going lower than I want, I adjust the ISO on the fly.

For this particular shot, I was using a 400 mm f/2.8 lens. Specifically, I was set to 1/1000th., f/11, at ISO 3200.

To give you an idea of what the track looks like here, these were my GPS coordinates: 47.20583° N, 118.27976° W

Ok.  I LOVE that pic!  Thank you!

That's a cool shot!