The train-spotter was quite looking forward to a weekend get together with a bunch of travel photographers. It would be a chance to see what this travel photography thing was all about. Sure, he'd seen the shots, but what makes them tick. How much planning goes into those great shots, or aren't they planned at all. Maybe they are just lucky snaps of merry holiday makers who happen to travel with oversized pro cameras instead of the standard puny little point & shoot. No that couldn't be true. Travel photographers must be just like hardcore train spotters only with a much wider subject matter.
Editor's Note: Thumbnails are links to larger images
The train-spotter thoroughly planned the tour in advance, he bought a good map showing the railway lines and minor roads in sufficient detail to be able to find the railway. No tour should be even considered without this basic necessity. He downloaded the railway timetables from the internet and used Google Earth to check for locations which might offer good potential. He made a point of finding the path which would lead up to the largest viaduct of the Soller railway. This was a "have to have" shot and not being able to find it would not be one of the reasons preventing him from getting the shot.
He expected those travel photographers would come likewise prepared, firmly focussed on their own essential shots, prepared to do anything necessary to get them.
"Lets have lunch and get to know each other." Now train-spotters have never been known to be really social people and this one was no exception. No way he was going to waste glorious sunshine in the middle of the day eating when there were trains to be shot. Food is unimportant, you can always eat later. In fact it's a common misconception that you have to eat three times each and every day. No harm in skipping a few meals now and then. Besides that's why the hardened train-spotter travels with an ample supply of muesli bars and chocolate.
It wasn't mid summer and Mallorca isn't that close to the equator either. No reason not to shoot the entire day. So while the travel photographers dined, the train-spotter went off in search of his "have to have" viaduct shot. It took him half an hour to actually find the road which lead up to the path which lead up to the viaduct. Then it took him another hour to drag his sorry body and his far too heavy camera bag up the hill. And another half an hour to find the best possible angle. Once he'd done all this the sun had disappeared behind thick clouds. Even if it had still been shining the sun was already on the wrong side of the viaduct for the shot he needed. So all the way down he came. Next day the hike would be repeated, yes train-spotters are a persistent lot, but in the end all the effort would pay off.
Sunrise shots are essential for the train-spotter. Any successful tour needs at least one good sunset or sunrise shot to be classed as such. Even if the weather is not 100% promising beforehand you need to be there and ready. Sleeping and resting are all things that can be done at home or at work or during your next reincarnation as a dog. They have no place on a photographic tour until you've got that one shot that makes all other shots surplus. The train-spotter didn't exactly know what went wrong but no travel photographers were seen or heard near sunrise time. Okay, he got up for nothing twice, waiting for the cloud to break, which didn't happen until it was too late for an exciting light show. But once he was rewarded for his efforts. One out of three, not a bad score. Train spotters have been known to do worse.
A mountainous country, even a small island like Mallorca can have vastly differing weather between various parts of the island. So if the weather is poor where you are, it's always a good option to move around and try a different area. This should be easier for the travel photographer than it is for the train-spotter as the latter can only go where there are railway lines, which severely limits his scope to move around. So after the travel photographers slept through the sunrise, they had a sumptuous lunch as the murky sky along the coast didn't make them feel like doing any shooting. The same time the train-spotter was busy moving around and as the sun moved with him he was rewarded with some good scenic shots in the warm, sunny interior parts of the island.
On the final evening the train-spotter and the travel photographers actually got together and compared pictures. Somehow between eating and sleeping the travel photographers had actually gotten some fine shots! How did they ever manage it? This all left the train-spotter confused, still wondering how to define a travel photographer, but the definition probably wouldn't include the word "hardcore"...
The accompanying images are some of the best shots taken by the participating photographers.
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
Comments on TPN travel photography articles? Please feel free to send them to editor@travelphotographers.net. We would be pleased to hear from you!
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