Post your Train shots!
- Thread starter Rick M
- Start date
Great Pictures. I live about five miles from B.N.S.F. and Union Pacific high traffic lines. Used to shoot a lot of trains there in the days when I was using film. Sad to say, the negatives are long gone. I still have the photos though. I will post some knew ones taken with my new camera soon.
I've got many lost negatives too. As for your pictures scan them for safe keeping. Looking forward to seeing some of your shots. :encouragement:
Welcome to the forum barns1.
You might want to start a new thread with that question.
I store my photos by year, month and date. My main program for editing and cataloging is Darktable but I run Linux.I also store by year-month-date with a brief description of what is in the file folder. Back up your photos, up if your hard drive crashes & you don't have them stored elsewhere you will lose them. I back up to the cloud using Carbonite & also on a mirror drive. I'm no expert & far from very knowledgeable about the digital world, but I'm slowly learning.
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I do pretty much the same, naming files such as '2017-03-12 Chicago IL'. This makes it easy to find shots. If I take a number of photos on the same day at the same place, I'll add count digits such as '2017-03-12 02 Chicago IL'. I file in Folders such as Trains - Locomotives, Trains - Prototype (most of my files end up here), Trains - Model, Trains - Towers, Trains - Rolling Stock, etc.. I back up often using a portable hard drive. Sometimes I'll add some information to the file, such as the Train Number or a note of interest.
I also have a folder named Trains - Historic for old photos found on the Internet that are of interest to me. Each file name here also contains [Not Taken By (my initials)] so that as my memory grows weak with age or a friend someday inherits my photo files, there will be no confusion about these.
I keep only the best of what I shoot and delete the rest. To have thousands of shots on file named DSC_xxxxx.jpg wouldn't serve me well and with a digital camera, the file count can get out of hand quickly.
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As far as deleting photos that are up to snuff. I'm pretty brutal with culling out the shots that are not top notch. Knowing what I know now I'm sure many of my early digital pictures that I culled could now be saved. I've gotten better with post processing in the digital darkroom. I still have a way to go, always learning.
Thankfully I dated and labeled my 35mm slides, so someday when I scan them, all will be in good order for digital file names. My old negatives and prints from the mid-70's are another story, but I do have some notebook papers where I kept a general diary of subjects and dates, so at least I have something to go on with them.
Thank you Chuck. I've been hoping to get this shot for a while and always carry my D5100 along when I'm in this area. I often detour down a country road so that I can check the signals at this spot. The line sees perhaps six trains a day, with maybe only two suitable for good daylight photography. I lucked out with this grain extra.
Their may have been a bit of luck, but your persistence is what paid off Sandpatch. Good idea to carry a camera with you. I have a Nikon J1 that lives in the back of my car for those times I get a chance to shoot a train or something else interesting in my travels.
Do you have a scanner that you use? I have an 20 year old Bearcat that I use, but I'm thinking of moving to a better model. Any idea what's the best these days?
I have seen an app that is supposed to turn your smart phone into a scanner. Haven't tried it yet. The scanner is just a other thing to carry.
Interesting I have not heard of that smart phone / scanner. I find the scanner useful, I can hear the defect detector talking to a train & know one is coming. Yes it is another thing to carry, but I travel pretty light as far as camera gear goes. I mostly listen to the scanner in the car while waiting.
You and I probably have the same Uniden/Bearcat scanner; mine too is 20 Years Old! Mine works okay, but its sensitivity is not so good. About 30 Years ago I bought a specialized telescoping antenna for my previous pocket scanner that continues to pay dividends. It's unwieldy, but has some sort of load coil at the antenna's base that makes it sensitive to the railroad band. If I'm going to sit at one spot for a while, I put it on and the sensitivity of my scanner is hugely improved.
Last fall I met a fan who carried a BaoFeng BF-F8+ and I was really impressed. They're inexpensive and his was picking up all sorts of transmissions mine missed with my stock "rubber ducky" antenna.
Last fall I met a fan who carried a BaoFeng BF-F8+ and I was really impressed. They're inexpensive and his was picking up all sorts of transmissions mine missed with my stock "rubber ducky" antenna.
I fabricated a mount in my pickup to quickly hang my scanner on and to be able to read the display. Gotta dig my my old skool magnetic automotive compass too, right?
Next, I want to built a patch cord to play the scanner audio through the stereo. Where's a Radio Shack when I need one?
Next, I want to built a patch cord to play the scanner audio through the stereo. Where's a Radio Shack when I need one?
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