Oops! - learning photography by making mistakes

[lakeview770]

The first few weeks of trade training was go out and make mistakes, the instructors insisted we did so we could learn. We then had to process and print our own films again to learn from our mistakes. But the biggest mistake I made was trying to get a shot out of a Wessex and not get the hot exhaust gases I had to hold the camera at arms length and fire away, at which point sir Isaac Newton tapped me on the shoulder to move from the doorway. Hassleblad 500cm say hello to gravity, so now I use a neck or wrist strap.

 

Andy

[Peppercorn]

]Make sure you allow enough time for the auto functions on the camera to work. As a supplementary, make sure you're tall enough...

[4630]

Always remember to check (and re-check) the settings on the camera before taking the image.

 

Unsurprisingly, a shutter speed of 1/30th didn't produce the result that I was looking for. 

 

You'll have to take my word for it, but it's a Voyager working 1M46, 11.45 Bournemouth to Manchester Piccadilly taken (badly) at Redbridge on 15th January 2015.

 

 

 

 

[coachmann]

A fuller description of an event in post #24..........

I got a phone call telling me of a major derailment at Llandudno Junction. Tragic....I had no film and no one was yet open, so I put in a roll of 120 film that friend Joe House had given me some days earlier and set off. On the basis of if you don't ask you don't get, I introduced myself to Mr.Dale (area boss) and asked for permission to go down on the platform and to my surprise I got it. From memory a sandbox had fallen off a Class 40 and it derailed with its non-stop freightliner while passing through the platforms. I dashed home and developed the film onto find it was was all black! Joe didn't give anything away that was any good! Result, embarrassing phone call to editor.

 

Again at Llandudno Junction, a Class 47 on test from Crewe Works after upgrade failed with seized brakes. I used up the black & white film and was about to leave the yard when the train fitters told me to hang around as one of "their own" engines was coming to the rescue. By this they meant a Class 37 that they had just refurbished. I had no film so I tried the local chemist for 120 film. The shop assistant had never heard of it but luckily the owner had overheard the conversation and gave me a roll of colour film. It turned out he was H.Rogers Jones, a well known local railway photographer. I was apprehensive about using colour as I needed an exposure meter and had none, but beggars couldn't be choosers! I duly photographed the fitters and drivers beside the train and took some lineside shots, but it was the shot of the fitters beside the train that reached the centre spread of one of the railway monthlies (RM I think). They were well chuffed.

 

Lesson learned..........Always keep a good stock of film in the cooler!

Edited January 16, 2015 by coachmann

[Peppercorn]

Always remember to check (and re-check) the settings on the camera before taking the image.

 

Unsurprisingly, a shutter speed of 1/30th didn't produce the result that I was looking for. 

 

You'll have to take my word for it, but it's a Voyager working 1M46, 11.45 Bournemouth to Manchester Piccadilly taken (badly) at Redbridge on 15th January 2015.

 

Oops RMWeb.JPG

Could go into creative photography?

Cliff

[SRman]

In the days of film, my wife ruined a couple of films by forgetting to rewind them before opening the back of her camera.

Fortunately, that never happened to me!  

[4630]

Could go into creative photography?

Cliff

Thanks Cliff. I did think about doing that but on balance felt that as I wasn't consciously trying to be creative when I took the image it would be better off here.

[Trevellan]

Note to self: when using a medium format film camera with interchangeable magazines, don't compose an image in 6cm square format when the magazine attached is 6 x 4.5cm format...

 

[EddieB]

You have my sympathy, Trevor.   I had a set of 6x4.5 masks for my Mamiya Press camera, which I'd forgotten I'd left in place until I'd shot of a whole roll framed as 6x9.  Thankfully I'd replicated most of the shots on 35mm.

[Trevellan]

You have my sympathy, Trevor.   I had a set of 6x4.5 masks for my Mamiya Press camera, which I'd forgotten I'd left in place until I'd shot of a whole roll framed as 6x9.  Thankfully I'd replicated most of the shots on 35mm.

 

Thanks. In my case I was using a waist-level finder with a transparent cropping guide on top of the focussing screen. It worked well until I had a senior moment and forgot which magazine I had attached.

 

In the early 1980s I gave an occasional airing to an elderly Ensign 820 Selfix which, as the name implies, could shoot 8 on 120, or 12 when two small hinged masks were swung into place prior to loading film. It also had a sliding mask for the viewfinder which relied on the operator remembering to alter it according to the chosen format. I usually did!

[Neal Ball]

Another handy tip.....

 

If you lose your lens cap, return to the same spot 6 months later at the next Gala of the West Somerset Railway to collect it :-)

[Graham Walters]

Some tips :

 

1) If possible when taking pictures of trains arriving or static in stations, do it from the opposite platform, that way you wont get other people and platform clutter in the frame.

 

2) When framing a picture, look all around the viewfinder to avoid the finger, camera strap, lamp post coming out of someones head picture.

 

3) When taking pictures into a shaded area, or an engine shed, expose for the light in the shed, then take another couple one stop either side.

 

4) Learn to pan the camera when taking pictures of moving objects, this enables you to use a slower shutter speed giving better detail, but it will blur the background.

 

5) When ever possible use a tripod, or lean against a wall this will steady your pictures and aid the camera's focus.

 

6) Use the longest lens possible, it lets you get closer, without getting closer.

 

7) Use a hood or daisy to stop glare and reflections.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Graham Walters

[jbqfc]

a moving train and slow shutter speed do not mix

 

37405 DARLINGTON by JOHN BRACE, on Flickr

 

43112 Darlington by JOHN BRACE, on Flickr

[DaveF]

Some tips :

 

1) If possible when taking pictures of trains arriving or static in stations, do it from the opposite platform, that way you wont get other people and platform clutter in the frame.

 

2) When framing a picture, look all around the viewfinder to avoid the finger, camera strap, lamp post coming out of someones head picture.

 

3) When taking pictures into a shaded area, or an engine shed, expose for the light in the shed, then take another couple one stop either side.

 

4) Learn to pan the camera when taking pictures of moving objects, this enables you to use a slower shutter speed giving better detail, but it will blur the background.

 

5) When ever possible use a tripod, or lean against a wall this will steady your pictures and aid the camera's focus.

 

6) Use the longest lens possible, it lets you get closer, without getting closer.

 

7) Use a hood or daisy to stop glare and reflections.

 

 

Also remember that all inanimate objects gain the power of sudden movement when a camera is nearby.  

 

So a telegraph pole will suddenly appear right behind a chimney!

 

David

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Or when the film slips in the camera and you get three shots in one.

 

Can you spot the three different classes of loco?

[Trevellan]

Or when the film slips in the camera and you get three shots in one.

 

Can you spot the three different classes of loco?

 

I think you could entitle that picture Metamorphosis!

[Andy Y]

Can you spot the three different classes of loco?

 

I had to blow it up but there's a stealth centre-headcode Peak hidden in there behind the other in addition to the EM1.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

That's right Andy; a Class 76 on a freight, a Class 44 on a freight and a Class 45 on a passenger.

[eastwestdivide]

Or here, failing to learn from mistakes. 

 

3 weeks ago:

 

today:

 

I knew I messed the timing up a few weeks ago, so I made sure the energy-saving switch-off was turned off. I was too quick with the shutter this time, and by the time I got the second shot in, I had the same result as before. Third time lucky?

 

A new road bridge over the Don Navigation and the railway at the bottom end of Tinsley locks, linking Meadowhall with the A6178 bypassing a massive roundabout at M1 J34.

The Dewsbury-Hope empty cement train.

[40F]

That's right Andy; a Class 76 on a freight, a Class 44 on a freight and a Class 45 on a passenger.

 

Surely one is class 40 one a class 45

[Reading General]

Aside from other errors (angle of the sun, and exposure) do not try to get 37 exposures from a 36 exposure film,

or at least if you do take the first shot of something unimportant 

scan0067a.jpg

47094 at Newton Abbot working loaded clay from Tavistock Junction to Dover for export, 5/11/81

 

cheers 

 

Great shot of a capri and Cortina though

 

[Glorious NSE]

I knew I messed the timing up a few weeks ago, so I made sure the energy-saving switch-off was turned off. I was too quick with the shutter this time, and by the time I got the second shot in, I had the same result as before. Third time lucky?

Looks to me like a good place to switch to continuous shutter and just hold your finger down as soon as you hear it, followed by deleting lots of shots with missing bits of engine!

 

For my contribution - try not to drop your lens covers when pulling a quick lens change on a footbridge, they can roll a long way, and unerringly seem to go straight for the gaps in the railings. If anyone in Hinksey yard finds a Canon lens cover it's probably mine... 

[eastwestdivide]

It was a case of seeing, not hearing the train coming, as there was a cascade of water over the lock gates blotting everything else out. Luckily realtime trains on my phone showed how it was running, so I was all eyes on the track, even if that did make my conversation with the itinerant lock keeper a bit stilted.

And yes, continuous shooting, I need to test that out a bit. I steered clear of it with my previous camera, as you got to 3 shots really quickly, then it paused at the decisive moment for buffering purposes.

 

Next mistake, I saw some wispy fluffy plants lineside by the ECML and thought of a visual pun with Old Man's Beard and Bearded Man's Old Trains, but after getting home and examining the photos, they turned out to be thistles. This'll do for now.

[eastwestdivide]

As a footnote to post 44, I tried continuous shutter. Result, although the sun went behind a big dark cloud.

 

and the sequence:

[KeithHC]

Took a one day course at my local Camera Store how to use your D-SLR. Firstly it was an excellent course and taught me how use my camera properly not bad since I started taking photos over forty years ago and digital since 2004! The course was taken by a professional photographer(he's got a BA in photography). However he has a mantra about being a professional. Whats the difference between an amateur and a professional. The professional has made all the mistakes.........

 

Keith HC