Rapid Canyon Models

A LORAM rail maintenance train makes its way to Ravalli on November 24th, 2018.  The unusual subject made this a must for me to capture. Maintenance of Way equipment make for interesting subjects to capture.  In this case, I happened up the train as it made its way toward Missoula, presumably to get ready for a track maintenance project, over the Flathead Subdivision on MRL trackage. Composition-wise, this photo is one of my better attempts.  The cloud cover and grey trees are devoid of vibrant color, and no direct light is shining on the equipment.  Despite the muted color tones, the photo still maintains interest through depth and texture.  I feel lucky to get this photograph and it's worthy of making a print, if I do say so myself. Technically, the photograph works well too.  Learning from my mistakes while making the image in POTW #006, I made a conscious decision to bump up the ISO and increase my shutter speed.  What resulted is the fol...

Snow begins to fall heavily as BNSF units 7500 and 6545 run an empty unit train of grain hoppers East to Missoula through Arlee, MT. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! --James Willmus

Three unknown BNSF units are leading a coal train westbound along the Clark Fork River upstream of Paradise, MT.  This route is the flat route that BNSF and MRL trains can take between Missoula and Paradise.  The gentle grades and wide curves make this route the preferred track for loaded trains headed to the West Coast. Composition-wise, I love this photo.  The river, the bridge, the trees, and the low clouds hanging in the cold air make this scene one of the best along the route.  However, there is one glaring problem with the photograph, the trains are slightly blurred!  Ideally, I want a sharp photograph that freezes the action.  Fortunately, some editing allowed me to salvage this image into something usable. The settings for this photograph were: f/5, ISO 100, and an f/stop of 1/30th of a second.  The lens used here is a Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G positioned at 70mm  No auto-focus and no image stabilization makes this lens cheap and lig...

With a light rain, a BNSF grain unit train enters the East end of Missoula Yard as dusk comes to the Montana town.  The train is headed by BNSF Units #6989 (ES44C4) and #5197 (C44-9W). And so with the end of a hard college semester, my work on the site resumes. I had hoped to continue work last month, but unfortunately other obligations prevented that from happening.  Nonetheless, for the next few weeks at least, the blog is back as scheduled.  So with that, let's get started on another "Photo of the Week". Just today I got a brand new pair of lenses for my DSLR, a Samyang 85mm f/1.4 and a Rokinon 16mm f/2.0. Rokinon and Samyang are two identical brands under the same company, so the optics and engineering are all done under the same roof.  In researching these two lenses, I found that they are supposedly some of the sharpest lenses money can buy... all I have to do is get good at focusing. Of course, I wanted to test at least one of the lenses ASAP, so I ...