Greetings,
It's like a field of daisies, it tough to decide which one to
pick.
Let's see, during my formative railfan years it was easy to decide which
camera body to use, because I only had one a Nikon 2000. My problems
came in when I'd back out a roll of film, lets say print film (Kid
pictures for grandparents) and load in a roll of B/W or slide film
(trains). I figured I was smart guy and I'd remember which roll was
which and where to reload it when I was done taking train
pictures.....wrong. Murphy's law for railfans must say the better the
subject matter or the lighting the more likely you'll screw up.
Needless to say I've got a whole collection old overexposed kids wearing
party hats trying to "blow out" the Kirkwood Depot.
I thought I'd fixed this problem when I got my second camera body
(i.e., Nikon 8008S) because I was going through withdrawal as my poor
little N2000 was getting overhauled but no, things still got confusing.
Now with two bodies with one set up for B/W (yellow or orange filters)
and the other for slides it was just a matter of time before the lens
with the colored filter mistakenly got switched onto the body that was
shooting color slides. The good news is I've got great color foliage
(orange) shots (ala New England in the fall) here at eastern Missouri
one summer; the bad news was the BN power was orange, the ballast was
orange, and the sky was orange. The only other color that wasn't orange
was on my face and that was several shades of red. In retrospect I
think that might qualify as the first "pumpkin" I shot; too bad it was
back in 1993.
On a side note here are a couple of rules that always seem to come true:
No matter when you go out to take pictures and it's a slow day, some
body will walk up and tell will you "you should've been here yesterday.
The further you travel to a location, the more likely you run into a
derailment, or maintenance window. The same window will always release
trains with the sun to there back, never into the sun. In my case the
derailment at Lomira WI, back in November ruined any chances at Byron
Hill pictures on the WC that day. At least the Packers beat the Cowboys
that weekend.
If there are multiple tracks, with one being the most photogenic,
you can bet that the train will be on the other.
The longer the lens you use the more likely some one will step in
front your shot at just the "wrong" moment (e.g., 400mm lens plus one
EBT steam and large woman and a b/w poka-dotted sack dress).
If the nature calls and you've step back way from your tripod to
"water" a tree, you can bet there's a train coming. It will knock down
your tripod.
Drive to another spot and just as you head down the road you'll see
one in you rearview mirror.
Go trackside and wait for that one lone cloud to shade the spot
you've been lined up on all day and whammy that's when the train comes
(Wyoming clouds are intelligent lifeforms). I think the Vince and
Skully of X-files fame will investigate this next season.
You're batteries will die at the point furthest from civilization.
I can verfy that the town of Hermann MO doesn't know of AAA batteries
(my Nikon 2000 eats those for breakfast in below freezing weather).
With that I'll call it quits and let you guys take it from here.
Greg Anderson
St. Louis, MO (a displaced Wisconsinite)
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