You Are Never Too Old To Screw Up A Photograph!

This is my "mistake."  As you can see the single photograph I thought I was making is actually
twelve images merged in-camera.  Below I've explained what went wrong. (click to enlarge)

So...

I wanted to make a photograph of an Amtrak train traveling around a curve in a rural area.  No roads, houses or businesses visible.  I drove about 60 miles to a place I knew Amtrak would pass at a reasonable time of the day so I didn't have to leave home at "0'dark thirty."  (That's really early in the morning for those of you who have not heard that phase before.)

Unfortunately, my planning and timing were off and I arrived about five minutes before the train was scheduled to pass my location.  So, I felt rushed.  Not a good way to start.  Once I parked my vehicle, I had to walk about 1/8th mile to reach the place where I wanted to photograph the train.  I decided to use my OM-1 with the 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens as the sequence of photos I anticipated making would require a good amount of zoom range as the train traveled far to near..  Unfortunately, my X-T5 with the 16-55mm f/2.8 lens did not provide enough focal length at the long end for this particular circumstance.

As the train would first come into view, I would use 200mm (in 35mm terms) and then zoom out as it traveled closer and closer to me, finally ending the with me shooting the last of the sequence at 12mm (24mm in 35mm terms).  As I walked toward my spot, I set my camera to Manual mode, 1/500th sec. @ f/5.6, 10fps, Auto ISO, raw, AF-C and 'train subject detection' activated.  A five hundredth of a second is slower than I normally would set my shutter speed, but I anticipated the train traveling at only about 30mph around the curve.  Once I arrived, I practiced composing and zooming a couple of times, just to develop a little muscle memory.  Also, I refined my exposure by adjusting the exposure compensation dial.

I had everything planned out and I was ready.

Almost immediately, less than a minute, I heard the locomotive coming around the curve and it appeared before me traveling at an estimated 30mph.  I raised the camera to my eye, zoomed to 100mm and positioned my composition as I had planned.  Looking in my viewfinder, I noticed orange "blinkies" (except the Olympus/OM overexposure warning doesn't blink but shows a steady orange) indicating that some of the sky was now being blown out.  I decided to quickly dial in -0.7 exposure compensation.  

(click to enlarge)

On the top of my OM-1, just behind the shutter button are two buttons.  (see photo on right)  The one to the left is the exposure compensation button.  You push it and rotate the rear dial.  The red record button is to its right and is factory programmed to engage high resolution handheld mode creating a 50mp image file. I've left it programmed that way as I've been testing that feature each time I’ve go out with the camera.  Yep, you are ahead of me.  I'm sure you are guessing what happened.  While looking through the viewfinder as the locomotive entered my composition I inadvertently pushed the red button instead of the exposure compensation button thereby engaging the 50mp high resolution handheld mode.  :-(

In that mode, the camera takes 12 exposures and combines them, in-camera, into a 50mp file.  As soon as I pressed the shutter button, I knew what had happened as there was no sound, the screen went black with a line was progressing from left to right across the EVF telling me the camera was processing the exposures.  I felt like an idiot.  (I’ve been called much worse!)

You see the result at the top of this post.  I screwed up.  I should have checked the exposure one more time and made the adjustment before the train came into view.  I thought I had everything set correctly but...  Oh well.  It happens even to us old and very experienced photographers.

There are a couple of lessons to be learned.  First, no matter who you are and how experienced you are and how well you plan things, mistakes happen.  Don't fool yourself into thinking you are immune.

Second, if you think everything is ready to go, check it all again.  Think it through again.  How many times have we completed a task thinking everything is as it should be but when reviewing what we just finished, we find something, even something small, amiss.

On the bright side, this mistake gives me an excuse to go back and do it again!  I'm looking forward to that.

One more thing!  That orange button is no longer programmed to activate handheld high resolution imaging.  Lesson learned. 

ADDENDUM 

The other day, I went out to redeem myself.  I wanted to make a successful Amtrak photo.  I didn't drive the distance to the place shown at the top of the post but to another familiar location a bit closer to home.  (I had an ulterior motive.  Where I did go has an excellent long established restaurant with a delicious breakfast!)  That meant no curve.  But the other challenge was the sun backlighting the scene from the top right.  Not optimum but workable.

I arrived about 15 minutes before the Amtrak train was set to arrive at my location.  I checked the Amtrak live tracking app on my phone and it appeared the train was 5 minutes ahead of schedule.  I decided upon my composition, set my camera, double checked everything and waited to hear the distant horn alerting me the train is coming near.  In this location Amtrak travels at about 79mph.  

I then heard a horn.  But wait.  It was in the opposite direction.  In the distance I saw a headlight of an eastbound freight train coming toward me.  I quickly changed locations and camera settings since the sun would now be behind me.  I decided on a place to stand and a wider focal length as the train would pass about 12 ft. from where I was standing. 

Now, I worried that the usual slow freight train would still be passing when the Amtrak train passed on the track on the other side of the one the freight was on.  The freight train was an intermodal (commonly referred to as a "stack" train) and they move very quickly.  Before I knew it, the freight train came roaring by me at about 60mph.  As a bonus it was relatively short.  As soon as it passed, the Amtrak train appeared from the opposite direction and, again quickly going back to my original composition and camera settings, I photographed it.  Two trains in the span of about 2 minutes.  I'll take that.

One other difference between the two outings.  For the two images below I used my Fujifilm X-T5.  No danger in pushing wrong buttons or not having the right settings.  The camera’s dials make it easy to set and check those settings to ensure they are where you want them.  In this particular case, the X-T5 has a dedicated exposure compensation dial while the OM-1 does not.  It should.  Three dials, each dedicated to a specific exposure function, for me, is preferable.  As I have mentioned many times, the X-T5 just works in every way for me.

Here are two of the images I made.

Eastbound Norfolk Southern intermodal train. (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-T5; 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 16mm; 1/2000th sec. @ f/8; ISO 800

A westbound Amtrak train working its way to Washington, DC. How would you like to live
In that house on the right next to the tracks!  I’ll pass on that.  (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-T5; 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 20mm; 1/2000th sec. @ f/8; ISO 800

Redemption!  I employed the lessons I learned from the previous outing to photograph a train and achieved success.  After all, you CAN teach an old "Photo Dog" new tricks!

For those of you who have no interest in trains, bear with me.  It is an easy target and gets me out of the house for several hours!  

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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