Yes you can play with pictures on a PC, but I’m both old enough and sad enough to have played with an old-fashioned thing called an ‘enlarger’ in a smelly, toxic place called a ‘darkroom’. Guess what – there isn’t a whole heap of difference in what’s possible with a PC. Except of course it’s faster, more consistent and easier.
And what’s all this nonsense about recording historical accuracy? Surely a Heritage Railway is a recreation with varying degrees of effectiveness. Sure they’re good – but I haven’t been to one yet that’s as good as Kingmoor in 1967 (or Dongchang in 2008, but that’s another story).
It strikes me that railway photography is stuck in a time warp, so let’s chuck the shackles away and move along. Colin Garrett (who I respect deeply) started his ‘new approach’ more than 40 years ago – so I think its long since overdue that conventional ‘front three quarters, rods down’ thinking gets a damn good kicking.
Rather than just pontificate from the comfort of my armchair, I try to do this, every time I go out with my camera. Sure it’s got me a reputation at the lineside for being some sort of deranged weirdo, but I can live with that.
On April 30 Russ Hillier organised a Photo Charter with Sir Lamiel on the Great Central Railway. It was a dull, wet day, so the perfect time to chuck convention right out of the window and dare to be different.
I’ve published twelve pictures from the day on this website, chosen to show that so-called ‘effects’ can be done either in-camera or on PC. I always try to get the shot as right as I can at the time of taking, but I’m not afraid to Photoshop my way back to the original idea I had at the lineside.
As a photographer, I think it’s my role to capture the spirit of what’s going on. We get emotional about steam because it moves us in the soul. So let’s use our eyes first and only then our cameras and whatever tools we choose to finish the job.
And like all Charters, we had a damn good laugh…!
Check out my Great Central Railway pictures.
