Last train of the day at Rawtenstall. I must have misread the timetable as I didn’t think Tornado was timetabled for this train, but I nipped over anyway to experiment with some low light shots, and was pleasantly surprised to see Tornado hauling the train in. It wasn’t as dark as I’d expected or…
Category: Low Light Photography
#138 – Two Views
Despite sending in photos to the railway mags, I’ve never had any published. I presume it’s because they’re either too alternative (possible) or not good enough (probably more likely!). I’m not losing sleep over it, I don’t photograph with the intention of publication, I do it as I enjoy the challenge of doing something different….
#136 – Sunrise Over London 2
Panasonic Lumix LX-3, ISO 400 I’ll admit that I’m not overly happy with the composition of this, but I was in a moving plane over which I had no control, so I was reduced to taking snapshots really. Actually, seconds after this was taken, the cabin lights went on for landing resulting in all kinds…
#134 – Sunrise Over London
Panasonic Lumix LX-3, ISO400 **Another off-topic post** There aren’t many consolations to flying back into the UK from Boston at 6 on a Saturday morning. The two things that did make it worthwhile were 1) business class (I wasn’t paying, the company was) and 2) watching the sun rise over London. Panasonic Lumix LX-3,…
#81 – White Balance Nightmare!!
I’d only had the camera a few weeks when I took this, so I suppose that’s my excuse for not fathoming out how to take a manual white balance for this scene. In actual fact, i struggle the whole night with the sodium vapour lighting, but for the most part I was able to correct it in…
#65 – over-reliance on technology?
Stabilised lenses (VR in the case of the Nikon system that I use) are a fantastic innovation that has allowed me to take photos in circumstances that would be impossible with a normal lenses. However, I learnt an important (but cringingly obvious) lesson the other night – by and large, they work best when the…
#64 – Guesswork / bulb mode
Sometimes, you run out of pre-set exposure times on your camera and you have to resort to the ‘guess’ mode, AKA Bulb. This particular scene was tricky as the big floodlight in the background kept being turned on and off, which made exposure a pain. After several tests, I ended up thinking f*ck it, counted to…
#59 – Hand held vs tripod
I’ve always regarded tripods as a necessary evil. I hate their weight and the fact they’re so big, unwieldly and time consuming to set up and such like. It’s for these reasons that some people like using tripods, as it forces them to slow down and indulge in a more contemplative type of photography. Each…
#58 – Paddy’s Hole
Fishing boats at ‘Paddy’s Hole’ on South Gare on the River Tees. I liked the contrast between the little harbour in the foreground and industrial Teeside in the background, and of course the setting sun always makes for a nice sky:) I took this when the light was fading rapdily, and as I didn’t want…
#57 – sunset
I always moan at how in the UK we don’t get those lovely skies we see in those fabulous photos of steam in China. This is as good as we get in Preston. I wanted to capture the young lady at work on the engine, perhaps need a bit of dodging to bring her out…
Mechanical Landscapes 