Well I certainly don't consider myself a master, but thanks for the kind words. I have not done a lot of still photography over the last 30 years due to my attention toward video. One thing I do strive for is decent composition if nothing else. Photography of trains, or airplanes, or whatever is always a challenge. I once saw a show about railfans in South Africa with a couple of well known guys, and the goal was to get there at first light to get that perfect shot, or glinting sunshine, etc. Maybe you get it 10% of the time and thats it, but its all about the challenge and enjoying good steam action along the way!!!
As for zooms, I know a lot of guys don't use them, but I like to zoom some and pan. The nice thing about a zoom is that you can bring closer things that otherwise would be hard to see.
In video, or stills think the Chama River Bridge shot and Jukes Tree.
You can zoom and see the train coming out of the bridge, then reset to get it passing the closer Jukes Tree.
With aircraft I zoom in for the take-off(Sometimes), then go wide for the pan as goes by, then zoom in as its climbing to fill the frame with the aircraft. I have a 20x zoom and it gives you shot of the aircraft in flight you would not be able to obtain with say an 8 or 10x lens. Watching the gear go up and the banking is nice.
On trains, the zoom helps for shots across valleys and showing topping of grades like Cumbres. I try to combine zoom and wide sometimes on the same scene to give perspective though, otherwise too much zoom can be annoying.
The photo in question though above can be tough due to the mid-morning departure as far as lighting is concerned. Its a nice place to watch the departure though, and the classic tank and coaling tower are unusual props for sure.
I applaud the effort to get down there and have the eye to go for this scene.
Cheers,
Greg
