i need train photo ideas: sugestions?

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DatHak512

Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2004
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i think that's how you spell sugestions.

anyway, so i work for my college newspaper and i have to shoot for an article about a train that runs through our campus a few times a day. does anyone have any ideas for a cool composition?

i was thinking just a wide angle of the front of the train at close range, while i'm laying fairly close by on one side of the track. what do you guys think? thanks.
 
tracks.jpg
 
PS-RagE said:
: picture here :
Click to expand...
thanks, i'll definitely get something like that shot in there. (not a bad shot you have there, either : )

..you don't have anything with the train actually in the photo, do you?
 
Actually, I'm not entirely pleased with that shot. It was a crummy, hazy day and the sky ended up being blown out. I suppose it would have come out better also had the lens been set at its hyperfocal distance.

Nothing with the actual train. I would be flat had there been one! :eek: (actually, I was very close to the crossing so I could hear the bells - at least that is what I told myself as I lay down on the tracks)
 
hrm... well thanks for the reply anyway :p did you use a UV filter?
if anyone else has any bright ideas, lemme know!
 
I've probably posted these before, but what the heck...

DSCF7858_train_coming_sm.jpg


DSCF7855_train_going_sm.jpg


Roughly 4-8 second exposure with a rear sync flash, IIRC. Fun pictures, but maybe not too practical of an idea for your purposes.
 
since it's a journalistic photo, you may want to figure out how the train impacts the students, and then work from there. If you just show a shot of empty tracks, what does it say? It doesn't really say anything, except that the train doesn't exist.

I don't know anything about the train holding up pedestrian traffic, but it might be cool to get on one side of the tracks, and photograph the waiting people through the gaps between cars...if the train is going fast enough, you can get a little motion blur, and kind of a half-filled gap but still see people on the other side. Might be kind of tight.

Good luck!
 
now there's not a bad idea... not too exelent for puerly journalistic purposes, but i'll give that a shot or four along with some more standard angles / compositions. thanks.


okay, you got me: is that snow or what on the ground there?
 
You dont happen to goto A&M do you?

But perhaps a picture with students and the train all in one shot.
 
If you could rig some sort of overhead apparatus, I think that would be a unique view, especially with time lapse.
 
mdude85: i think you must have posted while i was writing my response to HorsePunchKid... that's a really good idea, and i'll try that because i know that people get stuck on one side or the other of the train when it rolls through. (i can attest to that first hand).

dia19: nope, i don't go there, sorry. :) i go to Grinnell College.

maxelhombre: this is another good idea.. although i'll have to make sure the rig is high enough :eek:
 
Yeah, I did wonder about that. I'd go to homedepot and buy some metal pipe (or even pvc if it doesn't flex). That way, you'd always be holding the camera. A remote release would really help, otherwise you could use the timer.

As I'm thinking about this, I bet there's a bridge/overpass that you could stand on to get a similar shot (but then you wouldn't get to build anything).
 
i love trains and trainyards. for photos and drawings :D

motion shots are really fun, especially if you can focus on something behind the train like a tree or building so that you can see it transparently behind the train. not sure how that would work as a feature shot though. (are you majoring in photo-j? i am a journalism student)

night shots in yards are really beautiful...i shoot film still so this is a bad enlargement from a scan of a 4x6 (i lost the negative :( ) i added a blue filter to it as well. it was quite nice with the full range of colors.

edit: forgot link-

http://pic.bromidic.com/albums/userpics/10001/train_night1~0.jpg
 
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