Midnight Train

I just looked at Luke's image in Avian with his new D7100.. It's an epidemic!
Great use of multiple flash, like the timing of the shot with the "Kent" building balancing the comp.
I can almost hear it roaring by!

You must have given the engineer quite a start with your flash going off. I might burn down the rock below the track on the left? This turned out well.

Another great image of rural America Kent.
Bob

Hi Kent,

I have been enjoying your photographs of trains for a while. They are unique w.r.t. to subject matter and are really well done. Given the fact that you shoot at night, it is all the more impressive.

I was curious, however, about your use of strong flashes. How do the train engineers respond to this sudden burst of light? Must be quite a scary and shocking experience for them.

Train crews don't care about the flash, as long as I don't set them between the rails. In the outdoors these little flash are hardly noticeable. They see me in their headlights standing by the tracks, with a camera on a tripod, and figure it out. I've been doing this for seven years now and they know me. They get on the radio and say something like, "Hey there, flash foamer!" (A foamer is railroad slang for rail fan, someone who "foams at the mouth" when they hear a train coming.) They usually give me two toots on the horn as they go by. These kinds of shots are a lot of fun to do. They do require a lot of previsualization as don't see the shot until after you take it.

Harley--the ballast and ground has a coating of snow. It was lightly snowing at the time.

Kent in SD

That's got to be tough getting the focus right. Unless, I guess you focus on a predetermined spot before it gets dark, or when the train's light hits the rails where you expect the train to be when you press the shutter.

Another difficult and excellent train shot!