>>From an observation of all of the latest grumblings about what is wrong with everything from railroad related magazines and AF everything cameras, I have been trying to understand the attitude or mentality of railfans in general. Just about every discussion is concerned with what is wrong with something. There is very little positive mentioned. Is it just a need to provoke a conversation, or is there a unified message here of what kind of person is lured to photographing trains?
If you would take the same approach to other topics as has been directed to AF everything cameras, it would appear something like the following: "I just experimented with using my brand new Binford 36" pipe wrench to drive new 1.5" 4d finishing nails while installing the new trim work in the remodeling project on my house. The damn thing kept bending the nails, wouldn't drive them in straight, and created huge dents in the wood work requiring hours of time filling and sanding smooth the resulting holes. I sent some of the nails off to a local lab for testing and some to a national recognized lab also. The results from both labs were almost the same. The metal of all tested nails had the tensile strength within the recommended guidelines, so the problem has to be with the design of the Binford 36" pipe wrench. Binford really blew it this time coming out with a 36" pipe wrench that can't be used for anything other than tightening pipes. What could they have been thinking of? Is anyone interested in buying a worthless piece of junk before I sell it at Karchmers Iron and Metal for scrap?" Like any tool, AF everything cameras can and will be confused in certain situations. Just like any other tool. But for 90% of the time, or better, they can and will perform their designed functions faster and better than the photographer. Any photographer! What separates the good photographers from the average, is they know when and where to over-ride the camera to compensate for what may be confusing for the camera to interpret ate. If you are out shooting trains at a given location and you have the time to analyse the exposure and pre focus for the shot you have in mind, why would you want to leave the camera on auto-everything? Preset and pre focus it and lock it in! That is taking advantage of the camera's abilities. When you don't have the time to do all of these things, then leave the camera on auto-everything. That is taking advantage of the camera's abilities. I have given examples before, but here is the latest one. The shot that was selected as the grand prize winner on the BNSF '97 calendar is a good example of the advantage of auto-focus everything cameras. I am not usually a run-and-gun shooter. I prefer to pick a location and wait. It allows more time to compose the shot and besides is much more relaxing to the photographer. The latter is a prime concern for me. However, when the unexpected comes up, like a consist of new paint scheme locomotives, the effort to get-the-shot can require the run-and-gun approach. The shot in question was such a situation. I had visualized a shot the day before with the light conditions and location being placed in a mental log of possibilities. When the consist of freshly painted new locomotives showed up unexpectedly, I immediately decided to try and get them at the location noted the day before. I drove down the highway at high speed, but with existing traffic conditions was unable to gain on the train as much as I thought I would. I was barely ahead of the train which ran basically parallel to the paved highway. I turned off of the paved highway down a dirt road running perpendicular to the tracks. At this particular location the tracks and highway were about as far apart as they get. I was doing in excess of 60 mph down the dirt road when I came over the hill. The train was almost at the spot I wanted to shoot it. Before the car came to a complete stop, I was grabbing my camera sitting on the seat next to me and opening my door. When the car finally managed to slide to a stop, the train was there!!!!! I swung the camera up, zoomed in and squeezed the trigger firing off about six to eight shots. There was absolutely no time to focus or determine the optimum exposure. But, I got the shot. A good shot. Was I just lucky? Does this make me less of a photographer? The answer to both questions is NO. It was "I" who determined the location, angle, and composition that I wanted the day before. And it was also "I" that determined that the light conditions were such that this was an ideal time for shooting at that particular location. And it was "I" who determined that I wanted to shoot from farther away from the road crossing between a few clumps of brush. Did the group of four or five railfans standing next to the crossing get a good shot? Possibly. But not the shot that I got. Would it have been a better picture if I had the time to determine the optimum exposure using a separate light meter? No. The exposure was correct. Would it have been a better picture if I had the time to pre focus? No. The focus was correct also. So what could have improved the shot? Nothing. I was already using the best tools I had available to me. And I used them to my advantage. When I have more time, I will use these same tools to determine the exposure I want and to pre-focus on the location I want to shoot. I will then lock the camera in on these settings and patiently wait for the train to come to that location. Here again, I am taking advantage of the best tools I have available to me to determine the desired exposure for that particular shot. My goal has always been to get the best possible picture "I" can. I don't care how "I" get it or what tools "I" get it with. It just doesn't matter to me. As long as "I" get the shot. So let's try to get the conversation on a more positive note. What can we do to get a better shot or where can we go to get a better shot. The subjects may be the same as has been discussed, but we can approach them on a positive note instead of the constant negativism. -> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 Content-Length: 2625
