Travel Photographers Network

Everything you ever wanted to know about train spotting but were afraid to ask… and more!

Text and Photos by Ian Lawrence - All rights reserved.

This is the second of a three part series about steam train photography around the world.

What is this train spotting thing all about?

Going out to see, listen to and or photograph trains. Sounds weird? No it's actually good fun and you get to see the world, read on!

Where to go?

Anywhere trains run in a photographically pleasing environment. As this series is about steam train photography I won't discuss diesel or electric railways and the specific challenges these pose to the photographer. At the moment China is the best place to see working steam in great natural and industrial settings. Working steam means steam trains which run in normal day to day operation even if there's nobody photographing them. Railway museums and preserved railways can be interesting, but don't qualify as real working steam unless they operate as part of the public transport system and are used by non rail enthusiasts.

Zimbabwe is another country which still has real working steam. Due to the poor economic situation imported diesel fuel is in short supply. Steam engines survive as they are cheaper to run with coal found locally. Within Europe Poland deserves a mention, as do the pockets of industrial steam remaining in former Yugoslavia. Many other mostly third world countries still have small working steam operations. Most places can be visited on your own, but I've found that well organised tours simply yield more quality pictures in a shorter period of time. If you've got more money than time, you should opt for an organised tour. If you have plenty of time, you can go it alone.

What camera equipment?

My standard equipment for train spotting tours consists of two film bodies (at the present an EOS 33 and EOS 100), my trusty 50mm f1.8 mark I, a 70-80 f4 L zoom, and a Pentax Takumar 35mm f4 mounted on an EOS adapter. I also carry a polarizer for the shorter lenses and a 1.4x tc. One body is supposed to be a backup but I’ll usually shoot with both, one paired with the 50mm and the other with the telephoto zoom. Most participants on tours have a similar setup, usually with something like a 28-70mm zoom instead of my fixed 50mm. Using two cameras reduces lens changes and prevents dust and dirt getting inside the camera. Digital photographers usually only have one camera, probably due to the higher price of digital bodies.

I use Fuji 400 ASA film. Considering the subject matter, trains can move pretty fast, you need to be able to freeze the action. Many photographers persevere with 50 or 100 ASA, because fast film is supposed to be so grainy. Maybe they are right, but I've seen many photos made by photographers I respect, with lack of depth of field or with motion blur due to using unsuitably slow shutter speeds. I'll gladly trade a reduced maximum enlargement size for guaranteed depth of field and lack of motion blur. Modern 400 ASA negative film can easily be enlarged to 20x30cm, the largest I ever need. My films are scanned for any post processing needed.

What about a tripod? Well I don’t always take one, because it isn't all that useful. I'll tell you why later. You should also always carry something to eat and drink in your bag, as the days are built around the photographic possibilities and not to predetermined mealtimes. You are outdoors as long as the light is good. If the train runs late you may be up in the hills a lot longer than you expected. A flashlight is also a necessity, so you don't fall in a hole finding your way back after those great sunset shots!

How does an organised train spotting tour work?

The tour operator will arrange to visit the best places and see the best operations. These arrangements can be as simple as getting permission to photograph the normal operation, altering the timings of normal operations so the light will be at its best or renting the entire train and paying for it to run on a certain line, a so-called "photo special".

With a photo special the group travels (on the train) to a pretty or characteristic location. The group then gets off the train and the photographers walk along the tracks or into the hills. Once everyone has reached a good position, the train is reversed until it is out of sight. Then the train comes along the track again, passing the photographers (who then take pictures and shoot video), making plenty of steam and smoke until it disappears out of sight (we call this a run past). It will then reverse back to where it first stopped and allow the group back on board. If the train is stationary during the operation it’s called a photo stop. This is then repeated many times during the day. If a photo special has at least 10 run pasts I call it a hard core tour.

Tours with fewer photo stops are usually touristic in nature, with a good breakfast to waste the best morning light, plenty of beer on board the train so you miss the sunset, and extensive use of toy cameras in between. In fact most tour operators offer this type of tour. There are only a few who cater for the real travel photographer. Make sure you know what type of tour you are joining and that it suits your needs. It can be a long journey if you find out it's the wrong tour!

I can recommend the German operator FarRail Tours , which is actually a one man operation. The tour leader is a passionate photographer who is very experienced and will do anything to get that special shot!

These frequent photo stops partially explain my reluctance to use a tripod. Repeatedly climbing off the train and running up the hills, always in a hurry, makes the use of a tripod tiring. One might respond: You’re weak! You need to work out at the gym for a while, and you’ll be alright. So go ahead bring your tripod along!

Now consider this: a train is a moving object. A steam engine has steam and smoke to worry about. You might set up your tripod, as for a car race, having thought out the shot in advance. The train approaches, but when the engine is at the desired position suddenly the wind blows some steam in front of the engine. No shot. Some distance down the road you see a second opportunity. So now you grab you camera bag and run. After a while you drop your bag so you can run faster. Your lungs need more air, you really should have spent more time at the gym. But somehow you just get there in time and nail the shot. The sorry soul behind you lugging a tripod is just approaching the spot where you dropped your bag. Nice of him to watch over it, you say, but he's not in any mood for a joke. He didn't get the shot. Next run past you'll find he has surprisingly left his tripod on board!

I only pack a tripod if I expect good night shot possibilities. Of course if you're the athletic type and can cover 100m in 10 seconds carrying a heavy camera bag and tripod (these people do exist I'm told), please bring it along.

What’s the best time to photograph trains?

As for any photographic subject you need good light. In countries or areas near the Equator. the sun soon gets very high - even in winter. So the morning and evening are the best (or even the only) time to photograph. In areas closer to the poles, good shots can be captured all day. Glint shots just after sunrise and before sunset are specially sought after, just like shots with backlit steam. Once the sun is too weak you can always silhouette the train against the evening sky.

We don't like dark driving wheels on the locomotives, so the type of locomotive and the geographic location determine how long the midday break (when the sun is too high) will be. As on all tours, photographers of differing experience levels participate. Some less experienced guys feel they need to be taking pictures all day long, and the tour operators often oblige by only having a limited break at midday, if at all, when actually a 4 hour break would be better. Of course this is all theory, if you are chasing working steam and the only train of the day runs at noon there's not much you can do about it.

How many photographs do you take?

If it's real working steam you're after, you may only get one good shot a day. The trains run to suit the railway company, not the photographer. Some days you may even return without any pictures at all. If a special is chartered and there is no other traffic on the line to consider, the sky is the limit! You can easily go through many rolls of film in a day. I usually budget 2 to 3 rolls a day on a charter and 1 for line-siding working steam. Line-siding means photography away from stations or depots. The amount of film needed for depot visits varies depending on the size of the depot and local possibilities. It's better to budget on the high side.

And what do your partners do while you are having fun?

Wives and girlfriends don’t come along on hardcore tours unless they’ve been mindwashed, er.. sorry I mean thoroughly trained in the art of railway photography. I did however once meet a spotter whose wife actually carried his tripod around for him ...

About the Author

Ian Lawrence lives in the Netherlands and works as a civil engineer (piping and pipelining). He spends his spare time photographing trains in their surroundings, always looking for the perfect shot in the best light. As the Netherlands don’t have many locations where he can get the type of shots he likes, he travels abroad whenever he can.

More of his work can be seen on his homepage at www.railway-photography.net



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