Take the A Train

Ever since I was young, I've always been fascinated with trains!  I can remember being about 5 or 6, sitting in the upstairs window of my Grandmother's house for hours with my brother Joe, watching the trains on the nearby tracks going by!  We of course had model trains.....mostly HO Scale, and a few N's.  Eventually, Joe graduated into the bigger Lionel trains, which is what rounds the parents' Christmas Tree each year!

I decided to visit Oakwoods Metro Park while I was out and about today, thinking maybe I would find a nice spot by the lake to shoot.  As I was slowly driving up the 3 mile stretch from Willow Road, to the Oakwoods Nature Center, I came upon the old railroad tracks that cross the main road.  I stopped on the tracks (they don't get used much, so no safety issues) and looked in both directions, and there was my shot!  I figured what the heck, the lake will always be there, but the clouds in the distance looked very dramatic, and the sun was falling quickly, which meant that if I hurried, I could get a nice dark blue sky to go with the scene!

The rest of the story after the jump......




Last night, I had the privilege of being able to take part in a Google+ hangout with Famous HDR Photographer RC Concepcion (you can watch the recording of the hangout here)!   The hangout was really cool, and RC went over his post processing techniques for HDR, and even gave us a chance to use a series of RAW files that he took at Yosemite, to try our hand at HDR and compare the results to his finished work.  He then walked us step by step through the set of images, and showed us what he did to achieve the end result!

Of course, I had to try out a few of his techniques, so I set out to do today's shot as an HDR!  This meant spending a bit more time out of my nice warm truck, while taking the series of 9 bracketed shots, but I think the end result was well worth the effort!  The sun was giving me issues, popping in and out of the clouds, and messing with my exposure.  I also learned, the hard way, that shooting a landscape with the sun low, and to your back, results in some very unflattering shadows being cast into your photos.  I realized this, of course, after I was back in the truck, which meant I got to go out and shoot them all over again!

The second round went smoother.....the sun stayed mostly behind the clouds, giving me nice soft diffuse light.  Also, a remote shutter release meant that I could stand a few feet out of the frame, eliminating the chance that there may be unwanted shadows in the shot!

I hope you enjoy today's shot.....

-MT