Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Blah Shots

I love it when I go out to shoot trains and I get great shots... it's a great feeling. Sometimes, though, all you get is "blah".

This past Saturday, I had some time after noon to shoot trains. In the past few Saturdays, I've gone over to CP to check out the action there. This time I figured I would go over to CN's Symington Yard and see what I could shoot at the shops using my telephoto. You can stand on Lagimodiere Boulevard and get some long distance shots, and I have not done that in quite some time.

That would have been a good idea. However... I heard CN 114 was just leaving Symington so I elected to chase that instead. I went to Bournais Drive just off Dugald to wait for them to roll along. It did not take long before CN 8018 rolled into view. CN 8889 was the second unit.
CN 8018 in Winnipeg

See? Blah. The sky is totally blown out and the shot was really not great to begin with. I think the problem is that the pole line is too close to the tracks. I was not willing to go any closer to the rails, for my own safety.

After the head end passed, I hopped in my car, figuring that I would shoot them crossing the Floodway on the big bridge there. Well, that did not work out because A) they were going pretty fast, and B) the road work that has been done in the area has put a big concrete barrier between the two sides of the highway that prevented me from cutting over to get the shot. I decided to carry on to Dugald to shoot them at the grain elevator.

I beat them to the elevator by a couple of minutes, and set up to get the train and the elevator in the shot. Here it is.
CN 8018 at the grain elevator in Dugald Manitoba

Again, blah. I would have liked the engine to be a bit farther along and a bit more in focus... and since I'm asking for stuff, a blue sky would have been nice!

Oh well, you can't win them all.

1 comment:

Tyler said...

November skies in Winnipeg can be tough!

The train consist, with the series of well cars only stacked one high not too far behind the locomotives, doesn't help things either. The low-level cars tend to break up the train so it doesn't look as imposing in either shot. A solid string of orange Uniglory or happy Evergreen containers would brighten ether shot! :)