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Since voting is coming around again for SOTM on the SPORRS site, thought I'd provide some comments on a few of the recent images (and one not so recent). Keith Wilhite is one of the few folks I know who uses a lens bigger than 300mm for railroad photographs. I've seen the 500mm mirror lens he used on the BN 6519 at Avondale, TX, and it is one impressive looking piece of glass. More important than the size of the lens itself, of course, is the resulting image - and this shot of the train splitting the signals on the hogbacks of the FW&D line north of Ft. Worth not only does a crystal clear job on the track profile (the naked eye kind of interpolates thus much into the scene when you are out there as well, so the lens simply brings it to "reality"), but also makes that neat 7-unit consist really stand out as the power center for that train. Nice shot Keith! Robert Palmer's shot of CNW 6861 at Logan, Iowa, is to me a classic around the curve composition with a twist - the way the shot is framed, the grain elevator becomes the perfect central axis around which the whole scene, literally, revolves. One of my favorites out of recent postings. Dave Cohen's "junk" shot of UP 2502 passing in front of a cemetery...somewhere...(reminds me of the Sheffield area in Kansas City; am I close?) caught my eye because of the textured background, the architectural emphasis, and implied caesura dividing the composition into two halves (sorry for being redundant) - but I wish the locomotive was forward another fifteen feet or so. As it is, to my eye the balance of the shot is off by just a hair... And I still like Richard Barnes' shot of BNSF 775 at Topock, AZ a LOT. Not only do the darkened mountains in the background make for a much greater presence in the landscape, thus underscoring the immensity of space in the natural landscape (and the very western perception of that space), but it also really pops out the red nose of the warbonnet, which, generally, speaking, is always a good thing. The contrast of the image automatically causes your eye to go right where you want it to - to the lead locomotive - and then to back off to take in the whole landscape. Reminds me of a Thomas Cole landscape painting. Patrick Lenahan Dallas, Texas ======================================================= -> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects' -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/ -> Message © 1998 SPORRS® - All Rights Reserved =======================================================
