Every day, people shuffle through their lives, looking but not seeing. We are all engrossed in our thoughts and miss the beauty of the things that are common to our environments. When we take trips to "exotic" places we see things we aren't used to seeing. We say to ourselves, "Wow, this place is really interesting!" In reality, the place we live is just as interesting but we've grown so accustomed to the "things of the every day" that we no longer see them. There is a grace and beauty all around us. I believe it's one of the jobs of a photographer to create images that help us to see that beauty, what I call the "beauty of the every day."

One of the things most of us have in our every day environments are trains. We tune them out. They are large, noisy, and usually dusty/greasy. They wake us up at night, and they can delay our frantic morning drives to work. We have generally learned to not see them. If a photographer were to look a closer look, what they would begin to see are bold lines, textures, patterns, colors, and all the other basic elements of a strong image. It's all in there, in the train. You just have to teach yourself how to "see" it. Trains were born about the same time as photography was. Some of the earliest photographs are of trains. Just as trains link us geographically, from place to place, they can also link us to the places of the past. There is a lifetime's worth of dramatic images to made of your nearby railroad if you only begin to see them.

I don't post my photos too often on internet forums, but do post a few. What I hope to show is how I've come to see trains as art. I generally don't take "documentary" type photos of them, but rather photos designed to evoke a sense of wonder and emotion. I don't always succeed in that, of course, but it is my goal.

For my first shot I'll post this one. I live on the Northern Plains. We have many small towns, many fields of grain, and trains to haul this grain to distant markets. First the trains came, then the people followed. Here's a photo of a grain elevator built by those first farmers a century ago. The elevators are no longer in use; the trains no longer stop in the town of Russell, MN. They roll through night and day, blaring their horns, not even slowing down. The now abandoned elevator still stands by the tracks, watching both trains and decades roll by.

This shot was made with D300, Nikon 17-55mm f2.8, Gitzo tripod. I lit the elevators with two Alien Bee B1600 monolights (full power) each powered by a Vagabond battery. I used a CyberSync radio trigger to fire the first flash, and the built in optical to fire the second. Radio signals will not travel through an engine, so I had to run a sync cord under the rails and put the receiver on my side of the tracks. The train was moving at track speed (~40 mph.) I see control and use of light as being maybe 90% of a photo, but good luck in timing the shot can also be important. I only get one try.
BNSF Marshall Sub, grain train.

Kent in SD

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Wow, what a great photo. Bet it woke the crew up as well.
John

....awesome effort...my Dad was a railroader, and I continue to be drawn to these huge powerhouses....great shot!

Great idea and execution.

Might play around with a little longer shutter speed to give a sense of the train moving by, although this static image works very well.

I wonder if the person(s) in the engine noticed. It would would be quite a surprise while plowing through the central Mn farmland I expect.

Steve--

Thanks for the suggestion, but what I was after was a very crisp and sharp silhouette. These are harder to pull off than I first thought. The places to do it are limited where I am. I've often lit up grain elevators while waiting for a train to come. Those were shots where I also lit the train. While taking meter readings and checking the histogram I began to see grain elevators in a new way. They're more than buildings, they are a huge white or stainless steel projection screen! That was a new of seeing things that changed my approach to taking these kinds of photos. As for surprising train crews, sometimes I do but usually not. I pop the flash a couple of times when they're about 200 yards out to let them know I'm there. Train crews within two hours of my home know about me. They call me the "Night Foamer." Note I did not point the high powered monolights at the cab from that close range, but rather pointed them at the elevators. Now that I know the technique works, I've found a long glacial morraine that parallels some tracks almost perfectly. In just a few weeks it will be blanketed by white snow, turning it in a projection screen 40 ft. high and a quarter of a mile long. I've already taken the shot in my mind. I might set up multiple cameras along the tracks (using radio triggers) and stitch the shots together. It would be cool if I could pull it off.

BTW, shutter speeds are almost irrelevant for this kind of photography. The determining factor is flash duration.


Kent in SD

very nice execution of a neat idea , i would have preferred a bit of light on the roof of the left structure to complete the picture


J

I thought of that, but didn't know how to get it up there without spilling light on the train. At that time I did not have my 20 ft. lightstand yet, and had no snoots with me. I tried lighting it with a 13 ft. light stand and using Buff barndoors, but I was getting light spill where the train was going to be. (Buff barndoors are "weak.") When I tried putting 13 ft. stand to my far left, it created some nasty shadows too. There was nothing else taller nearby to attach a light to either. How would you have done it? Two shots, layer in post?


Kent in SD

Post some more please Kent.

There are many here without your skills who are only too happy to appreciate your work, but more importantly learn from such posts

Thankyou

tim

Love your GN avatar! Am from Iowa and a fan of the late and lamented Rock Island. As you can imagine, more than a few abandoned grain elevators grace the countryside of Iowa.

I really liked the feeling and emotion that you captured with the photo; of a time gone by. Do you get Trains magazine? The photography in it can be quite stunning; especially when they show photos of the late Winston Link (I hope my memory served me correctly with that name).

Regards,
Pete

creative and original. Nice job !

Guy

codetalker wrote:
. Do you get Trains magazine? The photography in it can be quite stunning; Pete


Thanks, Pete. Yes, I get Trains Magazine. Are you a subscriber? Take a look at the cover shot on the March 2009 issue, and check the name of the photographer.


Kent in SD

Shoot! I send my old Trains magazines to my brother-in-law's 5 y.o., who is an avid fan of All Things Warbonnet and NS. Did you shoot the cover? Refresh my memory on what it was. Very cool!

One of my night shots was the back cover for the March 2009 issue of Trains. I'll try to remember to post the shot here some time if you're interested. It was a BNSF engine going over a steel trestle, and when you look under the trestle I had lit a white barn up in the background. It was from my first season as a night shooter. I lucked out.

O.Winston Link was, IMO, one of the giants of photography. He was every bit as good as David Plowden, Dorthea Lange, David Middleton, and "St. Ansel." Remember, O.W.L. never saw his compositions until after he took the shot! He shot 4x5 and only had ISO 400 and generally used f8. That's an astonishing amount of light! No one has equalled him in the 50 years since. While he's an inspiration for me, I will never approach his quality. I'm just the Night Foamer; he is The Master.


Kent in SD

Hello Kent. Thanks for your post, appreciate the technical details. I'm glad you're an O.Winston Link fan

** If you don't want these images in your post, please tell me and I'll remove them immediately **

Just for the sake of discussion (Trains as Art), I don't think you'd necessarily have to do an abstract for it to be art. For example, in this shot I was trying to create the illusion of speed in-camera, and I have some shots where I've dragged the shutter front sync and rear sync, just trying to get something I liked. Here's an example shot using a combo of dragging the shutter and using a series of SB-800s. It's certainly not an 'ordinary' shot, and since everybody else had gone home, it must be a bit different than the everyday shot


On the other side of my mind, I also think that there are times when ambient light (whether natural or artificial) is kind of artistic in itself, combined with color composition and certain lens features and such, it can make a pretty decent shot, kind of like this:

Sorry, I almost forgot ...

This shot was made with D300, Nikon 17-55mm f2.8, Gitzo tripod. I lit the elevators with two Alien Bee B1600 monolights (full power) each powered by a Vagabond battery. I used a CyberSync radio trigger to fire the first flash, and the built in optical to fire the second. Radio signals will not travel through an engine, so I had to run a sync cord under the rails and put the receiver on my side of the tracks. The train was moving at track speed (~40 mph.) I see control and use of light as being maybe 90% of a photo, but good luck in timing the shot can also be important. I only get one try.
BNSF Marshall Sub, grain train.


So you're taking studio gear to the site.... I've been trying to work with SB-800s and CLS and it has been a dismal failure. In O.Winston Link fashion I've been thinking I would take me a spool of wire and just hardwire me some sync cords, very frustrating stuff to say the least. I might just sell my SB-800s and go the way you have, you certainly have a lot more power. Night shots have truly been frustrating.

Kent - yes indeed, I would be interested in the BNSF shot. Jack - really nice shots! I really like the second one.

I would really like to get into some railroad photos at some point - I don't know whether all really appreciate how technically challenging it is.

gugs wrote:
creative and original. Nice job !

Guy

+1

Agreed... creative and original!



ps... JackO those are awesome shots too... LOVE the first one for the sense of speed and the second for the colors!

Great shot Kent, love it. I really appreciate your explanation of the process you used.

Thanks for posting, Terry

Jack OBrien wrote:
So you're taking studio gear to the site.... I've been trying to work with SB-800s and CLS and it has been a dismal failure. In O.Winston Link fashion I've been thinking I would take me a spool of wire and just hardwire me some sync cords, very frustrating stuff to say the least. I might just sell my SB-800s and go the way you have, you certainly have a lot more power. Night shots have truly been frustrating.


I take both WL X3200 (highest powered monolights I can get my hands on) and also a complete separate system of x8 Nikon SB flash with me. I actually have two complete lighting systems, depending on what I want to do. Usually it's a mix & match deal too. I also have a decent selection of light modifiers, as I learn how to use them. My monolights are actually fairly portable since I power each with its own power pack. In winter I simply load them onto a plastic sled and pull them across the snow.

I have a couple of SB-800 flash but only use them for quick portraits. The CLS isn't very reliable outdoors, even at night with snow covered ground. The range of 30 feet is absolutely NOTHING out here where I live. They are a waste of money for RR shots. I don't think using long wire sync cords is an answer either. For starters, modern flash systems have fairly low trigger voltage. To push enough juice very far down a wire you'd need pretty high voltage. It could well be enough to fry some components, such as camera. At one point Link was using a car battery as his power supply, if that gives you an idea. I've noticed that 15 ft. seems to be about the longest sync cord I can use and get reliable fire, anyway.

My current strategy is to use mega power monolights only when I need that kind of power. One of the things I want to light up is the new Kate Shelley Bridge, in Iowa. To light big stuff or stuff that is far away, you need mega power. However, to light simple trains you do NOT need mega power. A D300 or newer camera can easily shoot ISO 1600. Add an f2.8 zoom and about x5 SB flash and that's the foundation for a very efficient system. Another factor to consider here is cost. Let's look at monolights, new prices (I buy used when possible.) The X3200 I use are $700 each, shipped. I have five of those. Also have two B1600 at nearly $400 each. I have five Vagabond batteries at $300 each, seven Manfrotto 13 ft. air cush lightstands--$100 each. About ten triggers, $70 each, two Pocket Wizards at $145 each, and then there's my two boxes full of light modifiers. What I'm saying is the monolight route gets mega expensive in a hurry! In contrast, I also have about 8 (not sure at the moment of exact number) SB-28. Those run about $100 each, used, & shipped. Triggers are still $70 each, but with lightstands I don't need heavy duty air cush and got x8 nifty lightweight 8 footers for ten bucks each, new! I use NiMH batteries ($10 x 10 sets) and use MaHa's best charger. I also have small grids and barndoors for each SB flash. The cost per light works out to only $200 each going that route. For a thousand bucks, which is VERY cheap when it comes to portable lighting, the x5 SB flash/ISO 800/f2.8 zoom is a very efficient way to light simple trains. Trains don't really require all that much light. As a bonus, about five months out of the year the ground is covered with snow anyway, and that doubles the power of lights. Gary Knapp once told me that just one of my monolights puts out more ws than all of his little SB flash COMBINED! I pointed out that sheer power is usually not as important as the number of locations lights can be placed. He agreed. I'm currently writing an article for one of the choo-choo magazines on the subject, and it's aimed at people not wanting to spend a whole lot. (I.e., under $1,000).

I'm now in my third season doing this, and still consider myself a rookie. I photo 2-4 nights per week, in four states, six different railroads. The learning curve has been very steep, and there's no textbook on this sort of thing. I have a lot left to learn. Besides cost of gear, there's also been the cost of hours away from home in the middle of the night (I'm married, two kids.) It's required a real committment from me to learn. I am comfortable in the outdoors and being alone in the dark at night. The hard part is taking an hour to set up, waiting in below zero cold for the train to come, and then blowing it when it does come! A flash didn't fire, a plug came loose, battery died on the transmitter, a deer knocks two expensive lights over and they slam onto the ice--a thousand things can go wrong. When it does, I don't get the shot. It's very much like shooting large format and all the steps that has. It is kind of cool when I actually pull it off though! The challenge is what keeps me going. Feel welcome to come out and join me some weekend when I'm along the UP double main in either NE or IA. Or, up in North Dakota if you have the clothing for that. (It can cool down at night there. )

I still take ambient light shots, but they aren't my focus any more. When I shoot at night, I start with a black canvas. The light is about 90% of any photo. If I want something in my shot, I put light on it. If I don't want something in my shot, I keep light off of it. Simple concept. This is exactly why O.W.Link switched to night shooting, despite the extensive technical problems he faced. When I control the light, I control the very essence of the image. I push a button, and bolts of lightning streak across the prairie at my command! At least, for 1/1000 sec.

Finally, the number one thing I've learned is that to succeed with these kinds of shots, you have to really, really, REALLY understand light. My years of methodically shooting large format have been a big help. With large format nothing is automated. It forced me to think through every step. Frustrating at times, but it made me learn. The hard way, !


Kent in SD

WOW! Really commitmented
Thanks for sharing your time, knowledge,& photos
I like