Re: RailPix Do's & Don't's . . .

KevinM Wrote:
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> I think anyone can display their stuff on Rail-
>lPictures.net, if they put their mind to it.  It is
> a matter of going slow, learning "the recipe",
> showing steady progress and being respect-
> ful.  You have to bear in mind that you are
> asking to put photos on someone else's site
> and they do have a right to totally control the
> content

KevinM (Also) Wrote:
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> The surefire "winners" on RP from a hit-count standpoint are as follows:

VERY Interesting, Kevin.  I've followed links from the NGDF to RailPix several times, but as fewer than one in a thousand of my shots come close to what's usually posted there I've never seriously thought of submitting anything.  I think it'll be fun responding to some of your comments though, so here goes . . .

> - Wrecks.   Doesn't matter how well-composed or {poorly} exposed.

Thankfully, I've never been in one.  And I've never even seen one, other than a minor derailment.

> - Photos containing yards full of stored locomotives

Same as above, except one evening over ThanksGiving weekend 1959 in the C&S yard in Denver, way too late in the evening for pics.

> - Any image containing an attractive woman . . .

It's hard to tell from the pics on pp 315, 317 & 320 of George Niederauer's book on #315 just how attractive Ashley Malcolm really is, and the links to Michael's & Roger's glamour shots of her boarding the C&TS Parlor Car on the thread at [ngdiscussion.net] no longer work, so you'll just have to settle for this one of mine taken on a D&S Fall Special a few years ago[/b:[/b]


> - Images in which the subject is not clearly distinguishable from {viewing} the thumbnail

I have several, like this one, that a lot of folks couldn't distinguish the subject even after clicking the thumbnail to see them full size:


> - Legacy images. Photos shot with film that are more than 30 or so years old are generally pretty popular.  The older the better.  Legacy steam shots are usually well-received.

Are there ANY photos out there shot with film that are LESS than 30 years old?  Well, less than 24 years old, anyway??  Besides JBWX???
I think my most recent film shots are some 6×7 cm Ektachromes from a cloudy and rainy week in 1996.  Here are two:

I'll check my "legacy" archives and see if there's anything else that might be worth posting that youse guys haven't seen already.

> - Drone shots of yards. Drone shots in general get a lot of views because they offer a perspective most people are not used to.

IMHO, Roger and Steve have posted a lot of really good drone "footage" here on the Forum the past few years.
(What's the digital equivalent of "footage"?  Minutes??  Hours??  Mega- or Gigabytes??

> - Images depicting a GG1 in service.  There's a mystique associated with those that not even a Big Boy or Rotary Plow can match.

I was born in Connecticut, and maybe saw a GG1 when I was really little, but we moved to California in 1947 when I was only 4 . . .
>
> On the other side of the coin, there are the "losers."   These are shots that are guaranteed to be dogs.

> - Black and White. While a really good, backlit or contrasty black and white can do reasonably well, an image converted {from color} to black and white to either conceal the fact that it was cloudy, or to try and "backdate" the image will generally fail miserably.

OTOH, some of my favorite images of the past couple of years have been Stewart Rhine's "Phraud-O-Graphs" of the WW&F – some of which may have been B&W to begin with – but some of which I'm sure were converted.  And there's a "B&W" at [chasingtrains.smugmug.com] that I would swear was taken by Ansel Adams except that it precedes a photo of the same train that the photographer claims "is a faded old Ektachrome converted to B&W" and the train is not farther enough down the track for him to have swapped cameras and focused, much less changed film.  And then there's these two of mine that were good enough to get published in TRAINS back in 1976:


> - Vertical or portrait images. You may have noted that the "Top Shot" and "Photo of the Week" slots on the home page do not correctly handle verticals.
>
> - Full-frontal images of locomotives, AKA "down-the-throat" shots. People like to see some side detail on locomotives.
>
> - "In your face" photos . . . . no sense clicking on the thumb if you can already see all the details.
>
> If you really want to taste failure from photographic standpoint, try submitting a black and white vertical of a locomotive, straight-on and in your face.  
Okey-Dokey — Here's All-Of-The-Above, plus extra big for the NGDF, and it's been converted from color to boot:    

>
> - One other thing. You should also know that numerous RP contributors link their shots to other websites such as Facebook to jack their views and potentially get the Top Shot slots on the home page.  We call this "campaigning" or "juicing."  The Top Shots should be the most interesting pictures, not the most heavily linked pictures, but that's just my $.02.

I totally concur, Kevin.   There was a "Fall Colors" photo contest, IIRC sponsored by the C&TS (or maybe The Friends) a few years ago, and photos from people with big bunches of buddies got lots of votes, while some of the better photos (IMHO) submitted by grumpy old curmudgeons who lack big fan clubs got hardly any votes at all.  I think a better way to do it is to have a jury of respected fans and have them review the photos as anonymously as possible.  Of course certain photographers have their own "style", so complete anonymity is impossible, but at least try to be fair.

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender

p.s.  12/05 19:45:  Speaking of dogs, Bosco & Otis are beginning to demand their dinners, so I'll have to postpone further comments 'til tomorrow.

p.s.  12/06 12:15:  It's tomorrow, but now it's time to have lunch, and then take my dogs out for their afternoon walk in the park.  More later . . .

p.s.  12/06 19:10:  Again speaking of dogs, Bosco & Otis are again beginning to demand their dinners, so I'll have to postpone further smart-ass comments yet again.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2020 08:27PM by Russo Loco.