The trains consisted of the RPSI Cravens coaches, and were worked by the RPSI’s 0-6-0 steam loco No.186. The trains were a little more special because No.186′s boiler certificate will expire later this year, so this could well have been the last time she’ll be on this line for a decade or more. Once her certificate expires she’ll have to be fully overhauled, and given that the RPSI is a volunteer group, that will take quite some time. No.186 has proven herself to be a remarkably reliable engine over the last few years, and I’ll certainly miss seeing her around.

The weather forecast for the day was awful, but thankfully it turned out to be a little too pessimistic.

The first train of the day departed Dublin at 10:50am, and was scheduled to do the journey out to Maynooth in about 45 minutes. I decided to meet the train at my new favourite location, Donaghmore Cemetery, located a little east of Maynooth near Pike Bridge and milepost 13¼. The track runs on a slight embankment here, so you get a nice view of the trains with the old walled cemetery framing the left side of the shot.

My plan was to shoot video and stills in the field next to the cemetery, and to set up my little GoPro camera next to the line on a little tripod. Things didn’t quite go to plan when I foolishly started to tinker with the settings on the GoPro (over a wireless connection) a little too close to the train’s due time. The train was 5 minutes early, and I missed the shot. I did still get usable video and stills from the field, but no closeup of the train. I was also unlucky with the light, the forecast had been for wind and rain, but instead it was windy and partially overcast – the sun had been out until about 30 seconds before the train arrived, and this would be the pattern for the rest of the day.

View Large on Flickr

I wasn’t sure how long the train would stay in Maynooth before starting back towards Dublin so I didn’t want to move too far to capture the return leg. I decided to set up on Matt Goff bridge on outskirts of Leixlip village which gives a nice view of the line as it snakes down hill through the s-bends between Blakestown level crossing and the bridge.

Because there is no longer a turntable in Maynooth, No.186 would be running ‘backwards’ (tender-first) on the return leg. This makes her less photogenic, but still worth shooting IMO.

My plan was to set up my main video camera with a zoom lens to capture the train rounding the curves in the distance, and to use the GoPro to capture the wider field of view. I shot some test footage and it looked great, but, as had happened earlier, the sun went away just as the train approached, and this time the wind picked up too – adding a lot of camera shake to the video.

View Large on Flickr

The afternoon train departed Dublin at 2:15pm, and I had planned to meet it at Louisa Bridge in Leixlip, but, at the time I would have had to leave for Louisa Bridge it was raining heavily. By the time the rain stopped I only had enough time to get as far as Donaghmore comfortably. Having been disappointed to miss the closeup shot in the morning, I decided to have a second try at it, and to experiment with a different point of view for shooting my main shots as well. Once again, the sun went away about 30 seconds before the train arrived, but, I did get my closeup shot this time!

View Large on Flickr

For the final shot of the day I’d planned to move to the 13th lock near Blakestown level crossing, but once again the rain interfered with my plans. I could see a very heavy shower on the horizon, so I decided to shelter under Pike Bridge, and to try to capture the train from there, using the bridge as a nice frame for the shots. I set up my D5100 on my tripod to shoot video, turned around to set up the GoPro for a reverse view, and heard a bone-chilling clatter. The bridge had acted like a funnel, amplifying the strong gusts of wind, and blown my tripod over. The D5100 didn’t survive it’s fall. After uttering some choice expletives, I set the GoPro up on my main tripod, and captured some usable footage anyway.

View Large on Flickr

I always try to choose the location for my final shot of any steam special shoot such that it allows me to get a shot of the train heading off into the distance. The nice thing about bridges is that they have two sides, so as soon as I captured the train approaching the bridge I turned around ready to get the final ‘off into the distance’ shot. Conveniently a dog stopped just in front of me to watch the train, so despite the poor light, I really like my final shot of the day.

View Large on Flickr

I collected all my shots from the day into a set on Flickr:

And I uploaded my video to YouTube:

As usual, the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) ran two Santa Specials a day from Dublin to Maynooth to Dublin on the first three weekends of December. The trains were all scheduled to be hauled by the societies recently overhauled 2-6-0 steam loco No.461, which has been painted in the beautiful old CIE green livery. The same loco had been scheduled to run the 2011 trains too, but she was not ready on time, and all the 2011 Santa Specials from Dublin had to be hauled by diesel locos instead. Having missed the Santa Specials No.461 went on to make a decidedly unreliable return to steam over the spring and summer of 2012. Apparently No.461 took a while to bed in after her previous overhaul too, but apparently she did become very reliable over time. Hopes were high that she’d prove herself with the Santa Specials. She almost made it through the whole season, but the last two days proved too much for her, and the final three of the twelve trains had to be hauled by diesel locos.

Unfortunately my health proved to be even less reliable than No.461, and caused me to miss three out of the six days, and hence six out of the twelve trains.

Day 1 (1 December 2012)

The weather for the first day of the 2012 Santa Special season could not have been better with beautiful clear blue skies all day.

In the morning I was waiting for the outward leg of the first train at Pike Bridge just east of Maynooth, and I caught the return leg at Matt Goff Bridge just next to Intel Ireland in Leixlip. Because there is no turntable in Maynooth anymore, the return legs from Maynooth back to Dublin have to run tender first (i.e. with the loco facing backwards but at the front of the train).

In the afternoon I headed for Leixlip, meeting the outward leg at Louisa Bridge on the western edge of the village, and then headed back towards Maynooth to meet the return leg at Donaghmore Cemetery near Pike Bridge.

My favourite shot from the day was probably the one taken at Louisa Bridge which I’ve included below. The shot needs a black background to really shine, so click on the image to see it large and on black over on my Flickr stream.

(Click to Enlarge)

Days 2 – 4 (2, 8 & 9 December 2012)

On the second day I had the start of what would turn out to be a very nasty cold indeed, but I felt well enough that I would have gone out had the weather been OK, but it wasn’t. It was cold and wet all day, so I decided to play it safe and stay home here it was warm and the dry.

By the time the weekend of the third and fourth day rolled around the cold that was just starting on the previous Sunday had turned very nasty indeed. I was so miserable that I didn’t feel up to going out and shooting even though the sun shone all day.

Day 5 (15 December 2012)

Thankfully I was over my cold by the final weekend of the season, and was very keen to get out there with my camera.

On the Saturday morning I decided to try out a new location, and set myself up in a field next to the beautiful old cemetery at Donaghmore near Pike Bridge. The weather forecast had been for a beautiful sunny morning, but alas Met Eireann got it wrong, instead it was dull, overcast, and very windy. The shot I was able to get was beautiful, but very bleak. Most of my train shots have a happy colourful feel, this one is very different. Bleak though my first shot was, it did show that the location had promise, so I resolved to try again the next day.

(Click to Enlarge)

For the return leg that morning I moved the short distance to Pike bridge, where I could get a good view of the train passing under the bridge and past the small harbour on the Royal Canal located just east of the bridge which served Carton Estate, the seat of the Dukes of Leinster. I didn’t know it at the time, but this would be my last view of No.461 in 2012.

(Click to Enlarge)

That afternoon I was hoping to get my first shot of a steam train at milepost 13. This is a location that only became usable this year when Waterways Ireland cleared a lot of the trees and bushes that had blocked the view of the railway line along this part of the Royal Canal. The train was late, and as the delay got longer and longer I started to fear that No.461 had run into trouble. Sure enough, about half an hour after the train was due into Maynooth, a single headlamp appeared in the distance without any accompanying clouds of steam. Soon the distinctive sound of an Irish Rail 071 class diesel broke the silence, the train was being pulled by loco No.083. This was my first shot of a diesel loco at milepost 13, so I still got a first, just not the one I was hoping for.

(Click to Enlarge)

For the return leg I moved to Matt Goff Bridge in Leixlip again, but because of the delay in getting to Maynooth the return leg was also delayed, and the short winter day had run out of good light before the train arrived.

Day 6 (16 December 2012)

The morning of the sixth and final day of the season started off fantastically, the sun was shining in a clear blue sky, and it was even quite warm for a December day in Ireland. Having decided that my new location at Donaghmore had potential, I headed back to capture a train in the sun. I was hopeful that perhaps No.461 could have been repaired overnight, but I wasn’t surprised when another 071 class diesel loco came into view instead, No.076 this time.

For the return leg I headed to Blakestown level crossing at the 13th lock on the Royal Canal. I set up my camera along the banks of the canal just beyond the level crossing the the lock, where there is an uninterrupted view along a very picturesque section of the canal. I was able to use a hiking signpost for the Royal Canal Way to add foreground interest to the shot. Conveniently, the little man on the sign was painted on in almost the same shade of yellow as the speed limit sign next to the track and the front of the loco.

(Click to Enlarge)

By the afternoon the weather had completely turned. It was raining so heavily that I didn’t think I’d be able to get any shots at all, but just as the train was due the rain died down and the sun even came out for a few minutes. It turns out the very bad weather was a blessing in disguise, providing simply superb storm light, and even a subtle hint of a rainbow!

(Click to Enlarge)

The weather continued very showery, so I decided to play it safe for the return leg, which would be my last opportunity to photograph a special in 2012, and set up my gear under Pike Bridge. This allowed me to use the bridge both as shelter, and to frame the train as it approached. I could also get a second shot by running out the other side of the bridge to catch the back of the train as it vanished off into the distance. The first shot worked really well, and is my favourite shot from the season by far, and I quite like the other shot I got too. I’ve included both shots below.

(Click to Enlarge)

(Click to Enlarge)

I’ve gathered all my best shots from the season into a Set over on Flickr:

The core idea is that you need to take as much control away from the camera’s computer as possible, so that you can push the device right up to it’s limits. To do that you need to understand how your camera works, so the talk starts with a primer on the theory of photography.

The talk is very heavily illustrated with example photos, and each example comes with a description of the settings used when shooting it.

I was asked in the talk to upload the slide deck, so I have (sorry it took so long).

Click to View Presentation

I’m not releasing these scripts as a polished software package that’s ready to use, but rather, as a starting point for anyone who wants to create their own watermarking scripts. If you’re not prepared to get stuck into the command line and a little Perl (VERY little is needed mind), these scripts are of no use to you!

The scripts rely on the free and open source ImageMagick command line image editing tools, so you’ll need to install ImageMagick before you get stuck in. If you’re running OS X, I’d recommend installing ImageMagick via the free and open source MacPorts package manager.

All the core functionality provided by the scripts is contained within a single perl package, WebifyImages.pm. Any customisations you want to make to the watermarks will need to be made here. The code is well commented, but, unfortunately, it dates back to before my conversion to the Perl Best Practices religion, so it barfs out an embarrassing number of warnings when run through perlcritic. I do plan to re-write it some day, and when I do I’ll be making it object orienting, and ensuring that, like all my recently written code, it passes perlcritic.

All command line interactions with the functionality contained within WebifyImages.pm is accessed through the perl script webifyFn.pl. Once you have the scripts up and running, you should never have to edit this file, it really is just a wrapper. If you add any new functions to WebifyImages.pm you’ll need to be sure to add an entry for them into the $WebifyImages::functions hashtable or they won’t be accessible via webifyFn.pl.

Installing the Scripts

I haven’t written an installer script, so you’ll have to do a little work by hand here. Again, don’t even bother starting with this until you have ImageMagic installed, and know where on your system the binaries for it are located. If you follow my advice and ImageMagick install via MacPorts, the binaries will be located in /opt/local/bin/. If you want to check where they are located, just run:

This should return something like:

This shows that my ImageMagick binaries are indeed in /opt/local/bin/.

1. Unzip the download package, and copy it’s contents to a folder of your choice on your system. I recommend something like ~/scripts/webifyImages/ (where ~ is your home directory)
2. Open the file WebifyImages.pm and make the following edits:
   1. Set the value of $WebifyImages::HOMEDIR to the location you extracted the zip to. If you used my suggested installation location, you won’t need to make any changes here.
   2. Set the value of $WebifyImages::IMAGEMAGICK_BIN to the location where your ImageMagick binaries are installed.
3. Open the file webifyFn.pl and edit the use lib directive on line 33 so that it contains the absolute path to the folder where WebifyImages.pm is located.
4. If your OS’s copy of Perl is not located at /usr/bin/perl, you’ll need to edit the first line of both WebifyImages.pm and webifyFn.pl to reflect the path to your instance of Perl. (this location is the default on OS X and most versions of Linux, so you probably won’t need to change this)

Customising the Scripts

The first thing you’ll want to do is create your own versions of the image files containing the URL that will be stamped on the images. You’ll need to do two versions of your image file, one on a white background, and one on a black one. I’ve included the Pixelmator files I used to generate my image files in the dev folder inside the archive, if you’re a Pixelmator user you might find them helpful. Once you’ve created your own image files and saved them somewhere, update the values of the variables $WebifyImages::URL_ICON_ONWHITE and $WebifyImages::URL_ICON_ONBLACK in WebifyImages.pm with the new file paths.

Once you’ve done that you’ll also need to update the URLs in the functions insertUrl() and insertSemiTransparentUrl() on lines 224 and 236 of WebifyImages.pm.

At this stage you’re ready to start using the scripts, but you may want to do some more customisation.

If you want to change the fonts used by the scripts, you can edit the variables $WebifyImages::SCRIPT_FONT, $WebifyImages::SANSSERIF_FONT, and $WebifyImages::CAPS_FONT in WebifyImages.pm.

If you use a license other than Creative Commons Non-Commercial, Non-Derivative, Attribution, then you’ll need to create your own image file to represent that license (or download a different CC icon from the Creative Commons site if you are using a different flavour of CC), and edit the variable $WebifyImages::CC_ICON in WebifyImages.pm with the path to your image.

Using The Scripts

The first thing to make VERY clear is that THESE SCRIPTS ALTER THE IMAGES THEY ARE APPLIED TO. They are designed to be used on images exported from an image management package like Aperture or Lightroom, and are NOT designed to be used on your master images!

You apply the functionality contained in WebifyImages.pm to images by changing to the directory containing the images in the terminal, and then invoking webifyFn.pl on those images. To make things easier you probably want to add the folder you installed the scripts into to your path. The webifyFn.pl script is invoked in the following way:

To get a list of available functions, and a description of the arguments they expect, run:

That really is all there is to it – you can just use my scripts as they are (with your basic customisations obviously), or you can tinker and edit to your heart’s content!

One of the reasons you’ll get five opinions on watermarking from four photographers is that there is no universal right answer. Depending on why you’re publishing your work, whether you’re an amateur, pro, or something in between, what license you’re sharing your work under, and how high a resolution you’re uploading your images at, the best solution for your needs will change.

Rather than try to convince you all that the approach I’ve taken is the one everyone should take, I just want to provoke some reflection, and to help people who are just getting started arrive at a good solution for their situation. The main thing I want to do is pose some questions that I hope people will find helpful in making their own decisions. I’ll also describe the choices I’ve made, and my reasoning. My aim isn’t to share my choices as some sort of prescription, but rather as an example. And finally, I’ll end with some tips for making your watermarks subtle, if that’s the road you choose to go down.

The Pros and the Cons

Before you can make any sort of reasoned decision, it’s very important to consider the pros and cons of watermarking. Like so much in life, it’s a trade off. There are potential benefits, and potential costs.

The potential benefits are probably the easiest to list, so lets start there:

• Deter image theft – this is the main reason people use watermarks, and there’s no denying that they act as at least some form of a deterrent. They’re only a deterrent though! (more on that later)
• Potentially Strengthen Your Case in Court – depending on the laws in your country, a clear watermark can increase the damages you could be awarded when you’re infringed, by removing all doubt as to whether or not the infringement was deliberate. If someone leaves your watermark in place it’s bloody obvious it was yours and they knew it, and if they take the time to photoshop it out, then it’s really clear they tried to hide the origin of the work!
• Branding – a nice professional watermark that’s consistent across your images can help you set a tone, and, can help people recognise your work
• Facilitate Legal Sharing – depending on your choice of license, watermarks can act as carrots instead of sticks. (more on this later)

There is of course a price to pay for these potential benefits, and it’s very obvious, you detract from your work. How much you detract depends on how intrusive you make your watermarks, but all watermarks distract viewers from the content of your image to some extent.

There is also the very obvious caveat that watermarks are no panacea. They can’t prevent all infringement, they can only deter. The level of deterrent will be determined by the intrusiveness of the watermark, but no matter what you do, a really determined infringer will get around your watermark and help themselves to your work. If you think watermarks will stop all infringement you’re deluding yourself. There’s only one sure-fire way to stop infringement online, and that’s never to upload any of your images anywhere!

Why are You Sharing Your Images?

This is probably the single most important consideration when choosing whether or not to watermark, or how to watermark. What are you hoping to achieve by sharing your work?

Are you sharing for a commercial reason? Or are you sharing to contribute to an online community or some sort?

If you’re sharing your work on a stock photos site, where people come to buy small images for use on the web, then you have no choice but to upload images at a resolution that makes them easily stealable. You need to show them large enough that people can see what you are selling, and, you are selling for use in low-resolution situations like website banners etc.. If you don’t watermark, only the most honest people will buy your work, so, it is eminently reasonable to use a VERY intrusive watermark. Your name in the middle and a giant semi-transparent X across the whole image is not unreasonable in this situation.

By contrast, if you’re sharing your images with a community on Flickr or Google+ or a bulletin board or what ever, then you want people to be able to enjoy your work. What’s the point in asking for a critique if your watermarks is so obtrusive it traps the viewer’s eye like a giant magnet and prevents it roaming around the photo as it should? What is the point in doing that? You’ve gone to all this trouble to share your work, only you haven’t actually shared anything. You still run the risk of infringement, any you get no benefit because no one can appreciate the fruits of your hard work. Utterly futile!

What Size Are you Sharing Your Images At?

The larger the resolution, the more valuable your image will be to potential infringers. Maybe, rather than going overboard with your watermarks, it would make more sense to limit the size of the image you upload instead?

If you’re shooting fine art photography and selling large canvas prints to make your living, does it really matter of some guy has a 500px version of your work as their desktop image? Or even in the banner of his blog? Which is worth more, the small amount of loss potentially caused by infringements of the low-resolution image, or the sales you could generate by letting the small version show your images’s true potential? A large canvas print can easily sell for hundreds of dollars, a small preview image on a stock site is worth a few cent each time it’s used at most! In this case, an obtrusive watermark would be penny wise but pound foolish. And, if someone egregiously infringes, assuming you’ve fulfilled the legal requirements to register your images as required by the laws in your country, you can still sue the pants off them, watermark or not!

Again, if you’re trying to sell images for use at low resolution, then shrinking the upload size will provide no protection at all, so bear that in mind.

Are You a Pro or Not?

Does the protection of your images mean the difference between putting food on the table or going hungry? If it does, then you need to be very careful and do your best to protect your livelihood. That doesn’t necessarily mean using a giant really intrusive watermark. As described previously, that could cost you more in sales than you could ever lose through infringement, but it does mean you need to think long and hard about what you choose to do.

On the other hand, if you photograph purely for the love of it, perhaps it makes more sense to let people truly enjoy your art, and accept the higher risk of infringement. If you were never in photography to make money, then infringement actually costs you nothing. There are no revenues you were counting on that could be diminished, because you weren’t counting on any revenues!

In the past most people probably fell firmly into one camp or the other, you were photographing as a career, or purely for fun. Today, it’s more of a spectrum. Personally, I’d like to make enough from my photography to pay for my gear. Not my time, just my gear. I think most people reading this will fall somewhere between not being interested in making money at all, and considering it a part-time job that compliments their other income. I doubt I have too many full-time pros in my audience.

How do you License Your Work?

The difference between sharing a photo online with all rights reserved, and as public domain is massive. This is also not and either-or question, but again, more of a spectrum.

If you share your work with all rights reserved, then having a watermark as a deterrent makes a lot of sense. If you’re sharing your work as public domain, then a watermarks as a deterrent makes no sense at all! However, even if you give your work away as public domain, it might still make sense to include a subtle watermark for branding.

If you choose a more middle-of-the-road license, where you allow some people to use your images freely in some situations, while still reserving the remaining rights, then some form of watermarks also makes sense. If a condition of your chosen license is that your must get attribution, why not make that easy for people by adding your desired attribution right into the image as a watermark?

I love the somewhat zen idea of turning the idea of watermarking on it’s head, and using it to make legal reuse easier rather than illegal reuse harder. Obviously, if you go this route what you’re looking for is a subtle watermark rather than an intrusive one.

What Have I Chosen to Do?

I mostly shoot for fun, but, I would like to make some money from my work to off-set the price of my kit. I’m a long way off breaking even, but the income I’ve made from photography is definitely non-zero (even if the profit is). I certainly don’t want to discourage people from legally licensing my work, and I don’t want to make it too easy for people to just just help themselves to the fruits of my labour. It’s very important to me that people be able to enjoy my work, so I’ve gone for subtle watermarks. My expectation is that my watermarks will help keep honest people honest, while not distracting from my photos thereby hindering the community’s enjoyment of my work, or discouraging people from from sharing their insightful critiques, tips, or suggestions.

I’ve chosen to only upload relatively low-resolution versions of my images, 1000px in the largest dimensions usually. That sounds big, but when you think about it that’s an absolutely tiny fraction of their full 10Mpx resolution. It allows them to look good in Flickr’s Lightbox view, but not printed out, or even as desktop wallpaper. I’ve also chose to license these low-resolution versions, and these low resolution versions ONLY, as Creative Commons. The specific creative Commons license I’ve chosen is the most restrictive one, Non-Commercial, no derivative works, and requiring attribution.

I’ve written my own Perl scripts which use the ImageMagick command line image editing tools to automate the creation of my watermarks, and I’ve developed a few different designs because different images work best with different watermarks. All my watermarks uses a consistent font, are under-stated, and all contain the logo for my chosen CC license, as well as my URL. The URL acting as the attribution required by the license.

Because I’ve created my own watermarks from scratch, they have a unique look to them, and are quite effective for branding. Because they contain the CC icon, they make is very clear what license the image is released under, and because the attribution is baked into the image, it is trivially easy for people to legally re-use these lower resolution versions of my images.

I NEVER upload full resolution versions of my images ANYWHERE online, EVER. The only way you will get a full resolution version of my work is to license it from me. If you’re a charity, I’ll probably license it to you for free, but you’ll only get permission to use the image for a single given use, and you’ll get no ownership over my image. If you’re a commercial enterprise, then you’ll have to pay, and depending on whether you want exclusive use of the image or not, you’ll have to pay a different amount.

I consider this approach to be win-win. By encouraging legal sharing of lower resolution versions of my images I get free advertisement for my work, but, I protect the commercial potential for my images by never sharing them at high resolution. And, by choosing to watermark in a subtle way, I don’t detract from my work, but do I get to brand my images, and make legal sharing easier.

Designing a Subtle Watermark

Given my choices regarding watermarking, I’m not the right person to give advice on making really obtrusive ones. However, I have spent a lot of time thinking and experimenting with more subtle watermark designs, so here are some tips I’ve picked up over the years.

• Keep your logo subtle – you definitely want to design a logo of some form, but you need to be sure it never over-powers your images. You really don’t want the most eye-catching thing in your images to be your logo. If you’re going down that route, why bother with the image at all? Just post your logo! My suggestion would be to avoid colour completely, keep it monochrome. As well as being more subtle, monochrome logos can also be used in black, white, or grey, depending on the image. I’d also suggest your logo purely textual. Spend some time finding a nice free font that matches your personality, and pick a way of laying our your text that you’ll stick to. If your text is going to be spread over multiple lines, consider using a horizontal lines as a separator, and using different fonts for different information. Italic for your name, all caps for your URL, what ever. Once you choose, be sure to be consistent, or you won’t get the benefit of branding.
• Avoid Colour – don’t just avoid colour in your logo, avoid colour in all the markings you put on or around your images. Colour is distracting, especially on a monochrome image, and as soon as you introduce colour, you run the risk of your watermark clashing with the contents of your photo!
• Consider using transparency – a good way to get your watermark to blend in is to make it partially transparent. If your subject is busy, a semi-transparent black bar can act as a very effective background for a subtle semi-transparent watermark.
• Never Place the Watermark near the subject – if you wanted to be sure to make your watermark as intrusive as possible, you’d put it right across the main focus of the photo. So, if you want to make your watermark subtle, it should be no surprise that you do the opposite, and avoid having your watermark anywhere near any of the focal points in your shot.
• Consider Keeping the Watermark off your Photo Entirely – if you want to avoid your watermark detracting from your photo, why not keep it in the image, but get off the actual photo? You can do this by adding a border of some sort around the image, and then adding the watermark to the border. It doesn’t have to be a traditional border around all four sides, I’m very fond for example of using a black bar on two sides of the image, and adding my watermark there. This can of course be easily cropped out by a determined infringer, but if your aim is to keep honest people honest, then it works just as well as an intrusive watermark.
• Less is More – since your watermark will act as a part of your branding, you want people to get the impression that you are someone with taste and a good eye. Try make your watermarks look like something Apple would do, rather than something busy, over-ornate, crass, or tasteless. You’d probably prefer people not think of you as some kind of Austin Powers figure!

Conclusions

What ever you choose to do, make sure you take the time to make an informed choice. Your decisions on watermarking matter. They affect how people can use and appreciate your work, and they effect your branding as a photographer. What ever you choose to do, make it be very ‘you’!

Updates (18 June 2012)

• The Nosillacast episode featuring myself and Allison’s conversion around this blog post has been published as Episode 371.
• I have released an updated version of my image processing scripts.

Anyway, on the 5^th of May 2012 the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) ran a special train to commemorate Dr. Garret Fitzgerald, who passed away last year. Dr. Fitzgerald was a very well respected former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), as well as a former president of the National University of Ireland, and, a former Vice President of the RPSI. It’s because of this link to the RPSI that the organisation paid him this tribute.

The special ran from Dublin to Longford and back, along the Irish Rail Dublin to Sligo main line, and hence, though my home town of Maynooth. The train consisted of ex-DSER (Dublin and South Eastern Railway) 2-6-0 steam locomotive No.461 and the RPSI Cravens Coaches.

I was able to capture the train three times, twice in the morning, and once in the evening. The reason I was able to catch her twice in the morning is that she stopped in Maynooth for water, so I could catch her as she approached, cycle on ahead of her while she had a drink, and then catch her again when she continued her journey.

No.461 has not had a smooth return to mainline working after her most recent overhaul. She’s been notorious for racking up long delays, or, worse still, not making it at all, and having to be replaced at short notice. Sadly, she didn’t snap out of it for this tour. In the morning she was 30 minutes late arriving into Maynooth, and by the time she passed Maynooth again that evening she’d extended her tardiness to a whopping two hours!

You can see all my shots from the day on Flickr where I’ve collected them into a set.

As well as shooting Stills with my trusty Nikon D40, I also shot some video on my Nikon D5100. I’ve edited the video and some of the stills together into a movie of the day’s events which I’ve uploaded to my YouTube Channel. I’ve embedded the video below for convenience:

Last time I reported on a steam special (the Maynooth Shuttles), it was to, yet again, say that, despite our hopes, newly over-hauled steam loco No.461 couldn’t make it. Well, that finally changed this time, when she worked her first passenger-carrying train from Dublin in over a decade. She’s not quite running smoothly yet though, clocking up some very significant delays on this rail tour. Still, at least she’s out pulling trains on the main line!

No. 461 is a relatively modern steam locomotive, having been built for the DSER (Dublin South Eastern Railway) by Beyer, Peacock & Co. in Manchester in 1922. She was initially conceived as an 0-6-0 locomotive, in other words, having six driving wheels with no leading or trailing un-powered wheels, however, the DSER ran into problems with similarly sized 0-6-0 locos derailing because they were too heavy for the track, so, the design of No.461 (and it’s one sister loco) was altered, and two leading wheels were added, making her a 2-6-0 loco.

No.461 had quite a turbulent start to her life, spending some time very early on sheltering from the Irish Civil War in Belfast. After the Civil War was over she served the amalgamated Great Southern Railway (GSR), and later CIE, very well until she was withdrawn in 1965. She was restored to mainline running once before, pulling trains between 1990 and 2001.

You can read more about No.461 on the RPSI’s Website.

The two-day Spare Link rail tour kicked off with a light workout for No.461, just a short run from Dublin to the new M3 Parkway station just beyond Dunboyne. This took the train along the recently re-opened part of the old Clonsilla to Navan line, which had closed to passengers in 1947, before being re-opened as far as the M3 Parkway in 2011. I caught up with the special in Clonsilla Station. The junction for the Dunboyne branch diverges from the Dublin to Sligo main line just beyond the station.

The Royal Canal runs next to the Dublin to Sligo main line for most of it’s length between Dublin and Mullingar, and the section around Clonsilla is no different. Just beyond the junction with the Sligo Line the re-opened branch crosses the canal. The original bridge was left in place for many decades after the line closed, but, it had fallen into such a bad state of decay that it was demolished a few decades ago, so a new bridge had to be built. It’s at this new bridge that I caught No.461 as she returned to Dublin with the Spare Link.

When she left Clonsilla she was still on time, and all seemed to be going well, but her day was just beginning. From Dublin she would run the whole way down the east coast of Ireland to Wexford, and that’s when she started to pick up delays. She overnighted in Wexford before heading north again, up past Dublin and on to Howth. Howth is a very picturesque seaside town a little north of Dublin, and is served by a short branch line that diverges from the Dublin to Belfast Mainline in Howth Junction. This branch is electrified, and seldom sees any trains other than the electric DARTs.

The run up from Wexford did not go smoothly, lots of stops because of overheating axels, and, those stops were made more ‘interesting’ by a sticky mid-gear, making starting ‘challenging’. By the time she made it to Howth she was over two hours late. This was a good thing, because the traffic in the area was horrific. Since Howth is both picturesque and close to Dublin City, half the city seems to want to get there any time we get some good weather, and, the weather on the 25th of March was spectacularly good!

I set myself up in Sutton Station, about half way along the short Howth Branch. This is a former Great Norther Railway of Ireland (GNRi) station, and it still retains it’s beautiful original platform canopy.

From the platform in Sutton I was able to capture most of the action near the end of the rail tour. No.461 first passed with the special, followed shortly there after by Irish Rail 201 class diesel loco No.217 running light engine. No.217 relieved No.461 in Howth, taking charge of the Rail Tour for the short final leg back to Connolly Station in Dublin. Finally, No.461 followed the special back to Connolly light engine. I was able to capture all four movements.

You can see all my shots from the day on Flickr where I’ve collected them into a set.

As well as shooting Stills with my trusty Nikon D40, I also shot some video on my new Nikon D5100. I’ve edited the video and some of the stills together into a movie of the weekend’s events which I’ve uploaded to my YouTube Channel. I’ve embedded the video below for convenience:

I was flattered to be asked to contribute five shots to the book, as well an introductory paragraph, and explanatory captions. You can buy the book from the Blurb website, but, since it’s a hard-back book, it’s not cheap. Since the book was not created to make money, and is being sold at cost price, I have no compunction against including my contributions (text and images) below.

Introduction

Having drifted away from photography in my teens, I took up railway photography again in 2007 when I bought my first DSLR camera, a Nikon D40. Although I now have a D5100 as well, the D40 still gets a lot of use, and the five shots I’ve chosen for this book were all taken with it. I shoot most of my railway photography with the f/3.5-5.6 18-55mm kit lens that came with the D40, but also sometimes use an f/3.5-5.6 55-200mm zoom, and an f/1.4 30mm prime. My post processing work-flow is centred around Apple’s Aperture 3, with quite a few of my images getting round-tripped through Photomatix Pro and the Topaz suite of plugins, particularly Topaz Adjust. Most of my shots are taken along a short stretch of the Irish Rail Dublin to Sligo main line centred on the picturesque university town of Maynooth. I like to let the landscape around the railway play as important a role in my shots as the trains themselves.

Photo 1 – Evening at Louisa Bridge

Irish Rail class 29000 four-car DMU number 29025 rounds the sharp corners at Louisa Bridge in Leixlip as it makes it’s way towards Maynooth with an evening Commuter service out of Dublin. The roof of Leixlip-Louisa-Bridge station can be see over the top of the bridge, the train has just departed from this station. The Royal Canal is a very important amenity in the area, and you can see a jogger making use of it on the left of the shot.

Some people describe photography as painting with light, when the light is perfect, even the most ordinary place can look wonderful. Louisa Bridge is not particularly photogenic with that ugly water pipe bolted on to the front of the old bridge, and the horrible graffiti covered concrete wall running next to the track, and yet, bathed in warm soft evening light, it looks idilic!

Photo 2 – Santa Special Steaming Home

An RPSI (Railway Preservation Society of Ireland) Santa Special rounds the turns at Matt Goff Bridge near Leixlip on a glorious December afternoon in 2009. The train is made up of the RPSI heritage set of coaches (now no longer permitted to run on the main line because of new regulations), and worked by 2-6-4T steam locomotive No.4. This locomotive started life on the NCC (Northern Counties Committee) railway in Norther Ireland, and was the last working steam engine on the island, going straight from it’s working life into preservation. The class were nick-named “Jeeps” because they were exceptionally versatile, and designed to run equally efficiently and comfortably in both directions.

I often hear photographers say “she’ll be running ‘bunker first’, so why even bother going out to shoot”. If you follow advice like that, you miss shots like this! The lighting and composition are much more important to me than whether or not the loco has it’s prettiest side forward.

Photo 3 – Speeding to Dublin

Irish Rail Class 22000 six-car DMU number 22042 racing towards Maynooth on a snowy March morning in 2010 with a Sligo to Dublin InterCity service. Here we see the train running down the hill towards an accommodation bridge between Kilcock and Maynooth. Don’t be confused by the numbering on the back of the train, the number 22342 refers to the individual carriage in the set, and not the set as a whole. The six carriages in the set 22042 carry the numbers 22141, 22142 … 22146.

As a general rule, westerners prefer shots where things move in the direction we read, from left to right, and as a general rule, we prefer to see things coming towards us rather than away from us, and, as a general rule, I prefer to avoid telephoto lenses for railway photography. This shot breaks all those ‘rules’, shot at 200mm with the train running away from us from right to left. It’s one of my very favourite shots, and I have it set as my desktop wallpaper to remind me that rules are made to be broken. I believe guidelines are a good thing, they generally push us towards better photos, but, we shouldn’t let ourselves be bound by them.

Photo 4 – Summer at the 15^th Lock

An Irish Rail Class 22000 DMU speeds past the 15th lock on the Royal Canal as fishermen make the most of a glorious summer day below. The boat moored at the jetty is a Waterways Ireland maintenance boat. The moon is visible overhead.

In my mind, the biggest challenge in photography is capturing a 3D world on a 2D medium without it feeling flat. Vanishing points are one way of tackling this problem, and this is one of my favourite examples of that, the parallel lines of the railway line, canal, and towpath all converge at the horizon, giving a pleasing sense of depth to the shot.

Photo 5 – Into the Night

An Irish Rail Commuter train races along the banks of the Royal Canal with a service to Maynooth on a clear Winter evening as the Moon and the planet Venus stand in the sky. The last vestiges of the dusk can be seen on the horizon, as can the lights of Maynooth Station. The headlights of the train, a Class 29000 four-car DMU, are lighting up a 40mph speed limit sign.

This photo has a especial place in my heart because it combines my three passions in one shot, astronomy, photography, and railways!

Having missed the 2011 Santa Specials because of technical issues, recently overhauled ex-DSER (Dublin South Eastern Railway) loco No.461 was suppose to make it’s return to Dublin for these shuttles after a 10 year absence, but, alas, it wasn’t to be. The weekend before the specials she encountered some more technical difficulties on her way from RPSI headquarters in Whitehead near Belfast down to Dublin. No.461 did eventually make it out to Maynooth the next day on an empty driver training run, though even that was not an unmitigated success because she was supposed to run all the way to Enfied, but only made it to Maynooth! Still, by early April she was finally ready, and she worked the Spare Link rail tour over two days (pictures and video coming soon).

With No.461′s on-going problems, RPSI stalwart loco No.186 stood in for her on the Maynooth Shuttles. Through no fault of No.186 the morning shuttle was over an hour late. Apparently someone had carelessly parked a track maintenance vehicle in front of the turntable in Dublin-Connolly station, so No.186 had to run the whole way around (and partially under) Dublin city to get to the nearest alternative turntable in Dublin-Heuston on the south-side of the city.

Still – it was a good day in all, with some lovely sunny periods between some very heavy showers!

You can see all my shots from the day on Flickr where I’ve collected them into a set.

As well as shooting Stills with my trusty Nikon D40, I also shot some video on my new Nikon D5100 (and my iPhone 4 when the D5100′s battery died). I’ve edited the video and some of the stills together into a movie of the day’s events which I’ve uploaded to my YouTube Channel. I’ve embedded the video below for convenience: