Bill Jennings's Photoblog
Morning Express
Posted by Bill Jennings ((Bay Area Northern Calif), United States) on 24 May 2009 in Transportation and Portfolio.
I was playing with panning to capture movement in a frame - and found a great place to try this: the Randall Museum in San Francisco hosts the Golden Gate Model Railroad club.
Toto and Gordo got to "drive the train" (volunteers from the club let kids turn the throttle up and down on certain Saturdays). I got to play with the camera. Tricia entertained Sweetpea while "boys will be boys".
Just made it home after a month of travel - posted a few photos from my journey to within 48 miles of the antartica circle: at nearly the longest day of the year: hence, there was 21 hours a day of sunlight...
Thank you for your patience while I was out of touch.
I do hope you followed Bob Kelly's blog (my roommate) while he is still traveling - he is now on Easter Island - and will be updating his blog for some time to come - please check it out!
StarCosmosBleu from Bedford.Qc, Canada
Sense of motion,speed, very well done...great work...i which someday to accomplish this art of timing and movement...great idea and area for practice...bravo
24 May 2009 5:17am
@StarCosmosBleu: the trick is now for me to pull this off on something that's moving faster, and not so forgiving an environment... I may keep practicing at the museum. thanks for the kind words on the photo.
jamesy from christchurch, New Zealand
absolutely stunning so perfect I can feel it moving 5 stars from me
24 May 2009 8:40am
@jamesy: thanks jamesy for your five stars! of course your visit was even more appreciated.
LESLIE from norwich, United Kingdom
Fantastic --- you could have fooled me into thinking it was the real thing..... WELL DONE ******
24 May 2009 8:50am
@LESLIE: The paint is too perfect to be a real locomotive: but it does cause you to pause for a second, without a frame or reference or something in scale to compare to. Thanks for the six asterisks at the end!
Marie-Hélène Ammor from Casablanca/Paris, Morocco
Not so easy and you captured it very well !! I have the sense of speed while the train is perfect !!
24 May 2009 9:33am
@Marie-Hélène Ammor: Thank you Marie-Helene : it was much easier on a model train, than it may have been on a real one. I had fun playing with this: someday I hope to move to larger, faster subjects.
@zOOm: Thanks zOOm - it's harder than it looks, didn't know that until I tried it. I had fun playing...
Betty from New Jersey, United States
Just fantastic, excellent capture of motion! Very well done!
24 May 2009 11:04am
@Betty: Thanks Betty - glad you liked the motion capture.
@jeri: Thank you.
@Onlymehdi: Mehdi - you're the best, thanks for the kind words.
@Karthik: Thank you Karthik !!!
@Jenn: thank you Jenn: you're the second canadian woman that liked these colors on this photo: wonder if there is something to that? Thanks for the kind words.
Candice from Asheville, United States
I love this photo...and so does my son!!! The color and motion is great.
24 May 2009 4:55pm
@Candice: Should I send you a larger resolution soft copy for your son, one of my newest fans? My sons absolutely love trains: we had a travel day today, and trains were part of the journey: and they loved it.
@Heather J. Woodland: Thank you Heather - appreciate you dropping by, and leaving such a kind comment.
Susan from Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States
great catch!!! weird, but my first thought was "must be model train"....don't know why, other than to get a shot like that of a real train, unless you're standing somewhere, with knowledge that the train is on it's way, you'd have to be might lucky to get a shot like this one...... You did quite well to do this in a museum....so if it didn't work the first time, there was plenty of time to try again!!! Glad you succeeded!!
24 May 2009 5:19pm
@Susan: I tried about twenty times as the engine roared by (many times different speeds, and sometimes on different levels: it's a big track: and kids were "driving" the throttle). Your instincts are good if you first thought it was a model. I am still happy with it, as it helped me learn a new skill.
@john4jack: thank you Jack
Judy from Brooksville, Florida, United States
You did a super job of panning and stopping the engine's motion.
24 May 2009 9:45pm
@Judy: thanks Judy for your kind words on the panning and motion capture.
@Steve Rice: Thank you Steve. I had fun playing to get this. It's all natural light, and that was the hardest part of capturing the image indoors with motion.
@Mirza Ahmad: Thanks Mirza, glad you loved it.
Mariana from waterloo, Canada
Excellent photo. Love the motion and colors of course :))
25 May 2009 12:45am
@Mariana: Of course, how could you not like the colors? Love to hear your kind words, and always am thankful for your visit.
Barbara from Florida, United States
Superb panning. My first thought was, you are too good at this. I like the motion blur giving nothing to scale the train and fool the viewer. It appears remarkably real rushing into the frame.
If I could I'd give you more than the 5 stars. Very well done, Bill.
25 May 2009 2:35am
@Barbara: Thank you barbara for your five stars - of course, I had the luxury of multiple tries: and I picked one I liked the best. For me, I found the engine too "clean" to look real.
@Tiff: thank you tiff.
@Moridi: Moridi - thank you for your kind words and visit
Sugata from Newark, United States
This one has come out really well. I tried panning at a local bicycle race last month - it certainly is fun!
25 May 2009 5:32am
@Sugata: Love to hear more about your bike race experiences : any photos coming?
@Tracy: Thank you Tracy for your kind words on this photo.
@Magda: glad you were inspired to try this someday - it was fun for me.
@Kris: thank you Kris, it was fun to capture it.
Sugata from Newark, United States
I already posted this! The next day one of the people in that racing photo contacted me and asked for the photo. This was the first and only time that a stranger in a photo taken by me had seen it online and contacted me!
27 May 2009 11:38am
@Sugata: It's a great post - thanks for pointing me to it. It's fantastic, and much harder than catching a model train !! Thank goodness your stranger wasn't upset you posted a photo of him, and instead wanted it. Great job!
Helen from Melbourne, Australia
Now THIS is fabulous. I haven't had time to check up o your blog and WOW! Everything about this photo works; composition and technique. I bet you were pleased and proud of this when you viewed your day's shots..
30 May 2009 10:53pm
@Helen: Yes, I was happy with this shot - it came out better than expected for my first day trying to pan and capture motion. Glad you dropped by today.
