The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jun
13
Photo of the Week 121 – Speeding to Dublin
Filed Under Photography on June 13, 2010 at 7:37 pm
For some strange reason I got an urge to post one of my winter shots today, even if it is June. In photography there are only ever guidelines, there are no hard and fast rules. Every guideline can be broken if you do it right.
A guideline I always follow is never to shoot trains as they move away from you, but to catch them coming towards you. I simply hate seeing a shot perfectly composed to imply motion towards you, only to notice the red tail lights on the ‘front’ of the train. Perhaps I’m being a bit too much of a perfectionist, but it really bothers me. This shot however proves that rule are made to be broken. Here we see an Irish Rail InterCity service making it’s way from Sligo to Dublin moving away from up in the frame towards the bridge in the background. To try to imply the motion even for those not pedantic to notice the tail lights, I composed the shot with the back of the train deliberately close to the right edge of the frame.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1/500 sec
- Focal Length: 200mm
- Focal Ratio: f/5.6
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
Another great shot Bart. One thing I note is the 1/500 shutter speed seems to have outdone the refresh rate of the destination sign on the back of the train. I see a bunch of dots that probably should read “You’ve just missed the… service”. 😉
Thanks Allister.
I think what happened is that the destination board was changing. Because Ireland is officially bilingual, the sign changes every from minutes from Irish to English and back. I think I caught it as it was changing.
Bart.