For the most part this summer I have been busy, not only photographing new locations, but also some new trains. While most of us like taking perfect sun shots there is just something about sunlight beaming through fog and trees that adds perfect drama and sets the scene for my mornings. For the most part I am usually having coffee and chatting it up with our local stone train conductor and a good friend that provides me with some of the inspiration for this post. So let's take a look at backlighting and how I apply it to my work. For the most part it is trial and error and takes a few shots (ok more than a few) to get it right and to achieve what you are looking for.
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| Early Morning Shuffle |
On the above shot I wanted to capture the locomotives as they seemed to bask in the rays of the early morning sunlight to achieve this I positioned myself so the trees blocked out most of the sun placing it just out of the frame and making it seem like the heavens have opened up ( they did by the way) for me to capture the moment. Now While most like to follow the rule of thirds with moving trains this sometimes becomes the challenge like in the pic above they have a limited time ( and so do you) to get the trains into position or to the destination and this adds challenges to your photography.
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| Awaiting the command |
On this shot I began by Blocking out the sun using the light pole and the trees focusing the sun into a round beam ( and yes this did hurt my eyes) but it allowed me to capture the scene just as I saw it that morning with the conductor doing his work. Now let's move onto some faster moving trains, the normal ones.
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| Smoking toasters |
Here is a typical morning westbound shot, notice I toned down the sun beams but opened up the shot to show the late summer shadows and the exhaust coming from a pair of GE Locomotives struggling to pull their freight up the hill here in Akron. One final note on this picture was notice how the patches of sun seemed perfectly balanced on the side of the train? This took me more than one try to get right and a year of letting things grow to help balance out the shadows.
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| Morning Glory |
Here is a prime example of using a mixture of Fog, Sun Beams, and Balancing the shadows to create the perfect shot in my opinion. Now while regularly centering the locomotive would not be considered proper I think it did it justice to do so in this picture and allowed the other elements to show up and out for that matter in the picture.
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| Riding Conductor |
While sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the details we forget sometimes just to let it free and go for the gold. The above pic says it all I could have piddled around with the camera to show the details but Nah I decided to silhouette the conductor and cars by under exposing the scene, and while in doing so I was able to capture the sun and sky without it being totally washed out. Also I was able to achieve some of the light reflecting of the rails, (pretty slick huh?) While this is not a complete how to it is just me trying to give you some inspiration to go out and do something just a little different than everybody else. While you know I cannot leave without saying some words of wisdom today's is about waiting on God, sometimes we think we can't wait but one thing I have learned is I can wait on a train why can't I wait on him. While waiting we are not to just be idle much like me with being trackside I always am testing new shots, locations, and angles to see if it works much like waiting on God we shouldn't just set still but, keep moving forward until next time remember God is in Control and take care .
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