A friend of mine from church is a real avid steam train buff and he knows the schedules of all the special trains that run on the North Wales lines.
On this occasion he invited me to join him at Llandudno Junction station to photograph the 'Duchess of Sutherland' as it stopped to take on water.
I found it impossible to get the quintessential photo of the train next to the platform with a pair of lovers kissing goodbye under the staion clock (dream on), as the platform was completely filled with onlookers and other photographers.
So instead I changed my perspective (literally and figuratively) and went for shooting details with my long lens. That way I could isolate interesting stuff and people from the background clutter.
This particular shot of the train driver, squinting into the evening sun just before the signal to depart, was one of my favourites from the shoot, and converting it to mono with a sepia tint and a hint of grain seemed to me to be the natural thing to do to bring out the romance and mystery of this bygone era.
Filename - train driver 01.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 100-400mm zoom @ 190mm
Exposure - 1/500sec @ f8, ISO800
Location - Llandudno Junction, North Wales
This image - 800x640px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Fast shutter speed used to freeze movement.
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