Photo of the Week: #007

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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 following parameters:  f/5.6 aperture, ISO 400, and 1/160th of a second shutter speed.  This resulted in an image where the subject is frozen in the scene and the whole image is as sharp as the lens would allow.  The ISO is also low enough not to incur unwanted sensitivity.  Ideally, ISO should be 100, but in low light situations where the subject is moving, higher ISO is necessary.

These are the kind of photographs I hope to make more often, but in better light.

--James Willmus