DSC02063 (2)
Aug, 2015Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken just outside the small town of Booneville, Iowa. My son and I had spent the majority of the day traveling central Iowa looking for train cars with graffiti. We have been working on putting together a photo book of the beautiful graffiti we often find on the trains. We knew we wouldn't find any train cars down this particular set of tracks but were were intrigued by the trestle bridge.Time
This would have been late afternoon, early evening. The light was coming and going as there were legions of large fluffy clouds scattered across the sky. We got lucky and ended up getting a nice little break while we were there shooting.Lighting
Luck, luck, and more luck. We came across this site at the perfect time, the sun was beginning to dip toward the western horizon lending a nice glow to the picture. This was a product of all natural lighting.Equipment
I shot this with my Sony A58 on I believe a Sony 200MM lens. No tripod was used, I actually just laid down on my considerable belly and sat the camera directly on the train track. I tried several different focal lengths and lenses and this is the one I liked the most of the grouping.Inspiration
We were getting ready to wrap up the shoot for the day when we spotted this trestle bridge just a short walk down the tracks. We pulled into a nearby Coop and hiked down the trail. The walk down to the bridge was interesting. We found everything from soda and whiskey bottles, to a fully decomposed skeleton of what I believe to be a rabbit left on the tracks. Even a nice pair of ladies Nike running shoes where left alongside the track. My son decided to scale the bridge and take some shots from an elevated position so I decided to see what I could find if I did the opposite. I enjoy trying to find a new or odd perspective on commonly photographed subjects. I experimented with this shot for a little while and was very pleased with results.Editing
I did some minimal light and shadow adjustments, and adjusted the contrast a bit. At the time I didn't have photoshop or lightroom (I'm still struggling to figure out lightroom if I'm honest) so the processing was done with the extremely limited windows photo program on my laptop.In my camera bag
It depends on the type of shoot I'm doing but I keep it pretty simple. I run with my Sony A58, the 18-55mm lens, and the 200mm lens. I don't usually drag my tripod along unless I am shooting at night, or going to out trudging through nature where I think there may be some use for long exposure shots.Feedback
Honestly, if you have a teenager in your life, or someone with boundless energy, follow them. I have gotten nearly all of my favorite shots while out with my son. In fact he's the one that gave me the photography bug. He's just so willing to trudge through, around and past limitless obstacles to see what lies ahead. Left to my own devices many of my favorite locations would still be unknown to me. Specifically to try to capture photos similar to this, be open to getting dirty, and trying to find those odd angles. I have attempted this technique now on several occasions, and while this particular shot is my favorite, they have all turned out very well. Experiment with different focal lengths, try different lenses, different lighting. I also keep a notebook in my bag, so when I capture something like this that I really like, I can note the details of the shot so I can use them as a starting point the next time I want to try something similar. (yes an actual paper notebook, I'm a little bit analog and a little bit digital)
