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Greetings:
Another month of voting has passed and once again the number of
messages seemed to dry up. It's like the voting process leaves everyone
emotionally spent and hung-over. I wish some of the energy devoted to
steam rumors and camera equipment could be directed at commenting on the
images posted to main page of SPORRS.
So I'll try and lick this issue off by saying that I was one of the
six who voted for the shot that one this past month. Why did I like.
First off it was intensely colorful (at least in the orange spectrum and
I really like the strong contrast between the dark train and the bright
orange sunset/sunrise. The real kicker was the one-in-a-million chance
of getting a train (a short one at that) to slide into the scene just as
the setting sun hit the head. I'm curious to hear about the
photographer thought out the shot before the train appeared in the view
finder. Did you think you had the shot at the time you trip the shutter
or was it a pleasant surprise once the slides got back?
The other shots were all pretty good and were right there in terms
of lighting and composition but the luck off having everything come
together like it did on the winning shot is like winning the lottery.
The other shot that I liked was Richard Palmer's Amtrak curving
through the caternary with the Philly skyline in the background. It was
the best submission (in my opinion) that Richard made since I've started
subscribing. It's one thing to capture a nice shot out west (higher
elevation, less pollution, great scenery.....) but it's another thing to
get a great shot out east especially in a extremely urban environment.
Hell I know some people who so narrow minded that they won't even bother
with a Amtrak shot let alone one of those Genesis engines.
As for next months shots I think Novak's and Reay's shots have us
off and running. I like the shots and love the variety they add to the
page of thumbnail images. My favorite is the CP #4222 lead train
(Reay's ?). Good s-curve nice light, rural scenery and rich colors
gives it a freshness and crispness that is missing from some of the
other shots posted to the page. I suspect that the scanning helped
preserve this crispness.
I think this last point is important and often overlooked by us. I
suspect there are shots posted on the page that look bland and flat, but
look real nice in person. This difference is I suspect directly related
to the art of scanning. I've watched Dave scan some of my shots and get
real creative with color tables in order to tweak the shot into looking
like the slide. The process of working with these color tables and
layers is every bit as critical as the actual exposure. Not to poke fun
at anyone in particular but I think this forum would benefit from seeing
the same slide scanned by two or three different SPORR contributors and
then post the shots up on the site for comparison. This would
illustrate the difference between scanner, photo shop software, and the
artistic eye of the person doing the work.
Greg Anderson
St. Louis
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