Another great subject is tourist railroads, which often welcome camera-toting visitors. Unlike a freight railroad, the employees and volunteers on a tourist road or museum usually don’t have any qualms about having someone take their photo. And most museums offer visitors the endless opportunities to get up close and personal with the operation, so long as you don’t put yourself or anyone else in danger. Take the image on page 54, taken in 2008
at the Mount Washington Cog Railway shops in New Hampshire. On a rainy spring day, a few shop employees were working on the railroad’s newest diesel locomotive and didn’t mind striking up a conversation with a few visitors about what they were working on. After a few minutes, as the two guys went back to work, I was able to compose a photo with the new diesel and the abandoned steam locomotive that, to me, tells the whole story of transition at “The Cog” in the late 2000s.
The Shots that Tell a Story
How do you start telling your story? Whenever I start shooting a subject or an event, either for work or for pleasure, I have a mental list of photos I want to get. That is especially important when you’re putting together a story for a feature magazine like RAILFAN & RAILROAD. A few years ago, when putting together a story for this magazine about Montana’s Mission Mountain Railroad (December 2012 R&R) I started tracking down images that showed the scenery the railroad traversed, the industries and communities it served, and the people who worked there. Together these images told the story of that operation and, in my opinion, are crucial to putting together a complete article. Imagine you are taking your readers on a tour of someplace they have never been (and might not ever visit in person). Would a reader (or even the editor) understand what your story was about before even reading the text? Finding photos that are visually different
from each other is also important. On most assignments — be it for the newspaper, a railroad magazine, or myself — I look for five different types of shots. The first is a wide-
establishing shot that sets the scene or brings you into the story. Next up, a portrait of someone important to the story. Then a detail shot that shows the viewer something they may have overlooked. After that, I’d look for an action shot that shows viewers what the story is all about. And lastly, a closing shot that ends the story. This simple formula has been used by photojournalists for decades, and the variety of compositions keeps the reader engaged.
One Shot Not every subject warrants an entire
photo essay, and sometimes I just want to tell the entire story in one shot. To do that, I try and include details that cue the viewer into the who, what, where, when and why. For example, take the image on page 55, of a BNSF intermodal train crossing the Two Medicine River near East Glacier Park, Mont. This is arguably one of the most photographed railroad locations in all of Montana, and having lived in the northwest corner of the state for nearly five years now, I’ve lensed it many times. However, in June when I was presented the opportunity to shoot a BNSF train with one of Norfolk Southern’s heritage units, in this case “Penn Central” No. 1073, I opted to go with the classic location because it conveys the most information to the viewer. Even if you have never been to Montana, there is a good chance that if you’ve been reading railroad magazines for a long time, you have seen that location before and probably associate it with Marias Pass.
philamemoriesv1.qxd 3/22/2010 1:55 PM Page 1 Approx.
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Some photographers despise people “ruining” their shots and work extra hard to exclude them. However, some of the most important images you can capture are ones of people. Although many of us are often interested in railroads because of the locomotives and locations, it’s people that make the whole operation work. Be it the engineer at the controls of a massive locomotive, a dispatcher at his or her desk, or a passenger waiting on a platform, those people are why the railroad runs and exists. And
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