Photo of the Week: #005

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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 made plant to go out at the soonest convenience.  And thus I got a series of three photographs with the 85mm lens of a Westbound BNSF grain train entering the yard in Missoula, at dusk, just as rain began to fall.  Units #6989 and #5197 are heading up the train as it rounds a corner through Hellgate Canyon.

While I wouldn't call this the greatest photo in the world, it is a good test of a telephoto lens taken in low light.  The settings were f/2.0 aperture, 1/30th of a second shutter, and an ISO of 1250.  While the trains were moving slowly, there was just enough speed to prevent a completely frozen image.  This is a problem I've been dealing with as I try to photograph trains at dawn and dusk.  The lack of light necessitates high ISO's, open apertures, and slow shutter speeds. But practice makes perfect!

What I will try to do in the future is to have an f/stop of f/2.8 or narrower, an ISO under 1600, and a shutter speed of at least 1/60th of a second.  Overall, though, I'm satisfied with the image and its quality.  Its also at a location which is easy to replicate at all times of day and night.  I was situated right under a billboard, my back against the steel leg closest to the track.

And so ends this week's installment of "Photo of the Week".  Stay tuned for more, and I'll try to keep this going for as long as I can before the need to focus on school takes over again.

--James Willmus