Photo of the Week 121 – Speeding to Dublin

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.

on Flickr – Full-Size

Camera: Nikon D40

Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm

Exposure: 1/500 sec

Focal Length: 200mm

Focal Ratio: f/5.6

ISO: 400