lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Actually I like my Wife's shots better. But these are all mine posted here. We shot from the Interstate 10 Alternate Road, Exiting the I-10 at Haugen-Lehmann Ave. on Tuesday, October 15, 2019 at about 10:10 a.m. I used a Pentax K-5 Camera and an Asahi smc-Pentax-FA 50mm 1:1.4 Lens. That is a "vintage" film Autofocus lens. I tried a shooting technique I do not usually do. I set the camera for AF.C and not the AF.S I normally use. I seem to have used it incorrectly and tried to take a long sequence of shots in burst mode by holding the shutter down for several shots. As the Train got closer that became a problem. As the camera-lens combination was not refocusing as the engine got closer. So my last few shots of the engine are OOF, especially at the leading edge. I only used the sharpest few. I took about 62 shots in total. Luckily I did lift and repress the shutter from time to time. My wife on the other hand was using a faster Camera-Lens combination of newer camera and lens, and shot in rapid bursts so she would get say a focused image followed by several nearly identical soft ones, over and over. She took about 90 shots but with many being nearly the same, both sharp and soft. Anyway, back to what I understand with AF.S. I'm not a BIF shooter so I'm more used to static shots.

View of Tracks At Banning Pass With Electrical Power Windmills

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Here I Started To Have Some Focusing Issues.

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Not Totally Sharp.

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Trailing Pulling Diesel Engine.

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Ps & Nik B&W Conversion. My Fave Thus Far.

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Ps & Nik B&W Conversion Sepia Toned. Nice!

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Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

jederick Loc: Northern Utah

Nice series, Mike...can't imagine the amount of iron that went into the "Big Boy"!!

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Yes, I've thought of that too, somewhere I've read how much the engine weighs! Thanks for looking and commenting.

- Mike

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Nice set.

don1047 Loc: Colorado

Love 4014. I've seen it at Pine Bluff, WY and Harriman, WY. I plan to see it next month in Strasburg, CO. An awesome machine. 1.2 million pounds.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

I think picture #4 is the best and you should make the following edits to make it an exhibition quality print:

1) Using the spot healing brush in Photoshop or a similar program, remove the milepost and the electronics control box from the foreground by the tracks

2) Reduce the color saturation so it looks more natural

3) Mask the locomotive and slightly increase its brightness and reduce its contrast so more detail is brought out

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Yes, I agree the color is unnatural looking, well beyond where I usually go. Most times I process my digital images to look like good film prints I might make if I'd shoot film. That is had I shot it with a 6x6cm or 6x7cm medium format camera that I no longer have. I had some problems with the shot as it was shot from the shadow side of the Engine. I knew the meter would be confused and yes, the sky was a bit blown-out so I deepened the blue and tone in it by playing a lot with some of the color channel sliders in ACR. I only did finishing touches with Photoshop. Yes, I can take the post and box out. I had Clone Brushed out some people and other distractions from some of my shots and some of my wife's (not shown here). These were mainly my first batch. I am not happy with them yet. Some of the B&W and Sepia versions of these and my wife's are better. But, I'll likely rework everything. Everything was shot RAW! Thanks for looking and thanks for the confirming advice.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Please let us see your final edits. As far as the lighting issue, we have done a lot of preparation although much of it had nothing to do with 4014. I have been repeatedly going to the Cajon Pass, our choice for the Big Boy photographs, for over a year making thousands of exposures and exploring all of the nooks and crannies along with a friend who owns a 4 X 4 Ford F250; a necessity if you want to explore many of the dirt backroads. Although I originally thought that Sullivan's Curve would be the most dramatic location to capture the train, I also determined that during the time window during which the train would go through the curve, the train would be fully or partially in shadow on both days. On Thursday, October 10, we made our final trip with the goal of verifying the lighting conditions that would be present for both the Saturday and Sunday pass of the Big Boy at a point that by looking at a topographical map of the Cajon Pass and by previous observations seemed likely to provide proper illumination of the Big Boy both on both days. Preparation always pays off https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-614733-1.html.