# This week's great photo expedition



## radiorickm (Nov 9, 2011)

I recently had the opportunity to "chase" a train for three days, on a photo expedition. My girlfriend is learning photography, so as a lesson we each set up and planned our IDEAL shot of the train.

This train was UP844, one of their remaining steam engines. It was dispatched to begin the celebration of the Centinneal anniversary of the statehood of Arizona and New Mexico.

I had my ideal shot of the locmotive planned as a shot of the train running full speed with the scenery flying by.  Through about 8 months of scouting photo locations, I had an ideal spot picked out to accomplish this. 

The area picked has the tracks running along an access road, then next to that is the interstate. We chose the interstate over the access road, because research into this train revealed it's common travel speed was between 65 and 79 mph. The tracks and the interstate are relatively parallel, and the distance between them is fairly constant. The distance was around 100 to 200 feet, and a 28-70 lens worked out very well.

 Bright day time conditions were checked, and we were only able to get 1/30 second at f22. I figured that I needed a longer shutter speed for the motion blur, so I added a No. 4 ND filter in a Cokin P mount. This allowed me to get my aperture back in the middle of the range around f8, and I was able to get my shutter speeds down around 1/10 second by playing with the settings.

The next challenge was shooting a moving object...the train running 65+ mph from a moving vehicle running 65 + mph, using a shutter speed of under 1/30 second. To dampen the micro vibrations from the road, I wrapped the camera in a winter coat, which isolated it from the vibrations for the most part. I used a mostly open window as a brace and was able to pan and keep the train in frame without too much of a problem. 

Traffic eneded up being a surprising influence. Turnout to the event was MUCH higher than anyone had anticipated, which meant people were everywhere. I figured there would a "couple" of other people to also try my shot, but it turns out at the beginning of the chase there were about 30+ vehicles in a convoy, all trying to pace the locomotive, right where I needed to be. It was quite interesting for a while, mixing in the heavy tractor trailer traffic on the interstate with the lookers, and the other photographers. 

Up front I expected a very low "KEEPER" rate given all the variables. I decided to shoot groups from 1/10 second on the low end to 1/2000 on the high end. When viewed on the screen, I was actually quite surprised at the number of keepers, and their was even a few GOOD ONES. 

Looking back, I don't think there was too much more I could have done to make my ideal image any better.  In the end it was a matter of luck, going to the most prepared of the bunch! 













and here's my favorite,


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