Hi Anders! I think I would half agree with Paul about your train photos. He says too touristic. For me that would mean that you are using cliche composition. I think the issue is rather that you are being a recorder of events rather than an artist.
I haven't thought so much about my goal with these pictures, but when you say it, it may be that my aim is to record and document rather than being overly artistic. Or touristic, for that matter.
In the case of the pictures from the abandoned railroad cars and tracks in the industrial park, the aim definitely was to document how the site once looked like; it is now torn down.
For the excursion pictures, the aim is not that clear cut, but since these excursions are more or less one-off events, one of the most important reasons for taking pictures at all is to "save" what I experience during the ride. And it's quite hard to both photographing artistically and participarting in the excursion at the same time. I have thought of going to some railway on any ordinary day and then I'd have more room to concentrate on the images.
"Touristic" to me means the classic "this is me in front of X, this is me in front of Y" pictures, and those I want to avoid :-)
I would suggest as an exercise that the next time you go "training", you use nothing but a 135mm and take nothing but details... How about Sunday 28 Sept? (My birthday by the way...)
Now, that would really be a challenge! I happen to have a 135 prime, but I very seldom use that, or the 135 position on my 28-200 zoom for that matter. I tend to use 28-50-200 most of the time. Maybe I should do some dedicated 135 mm exercises, just to get a feel for it.
anders ------------------------- http://anders.hultman.nu/
