York Day Trip
Yes I am a grown man, no I’m not old enough to remember when steam trains were the norm on the UK’s railways but yes I have a love for them nonetheless. I’m putting this partly down to my dad but mainly down to growing up opposite a shed housing a preserved steam loco – the Union of South Africa (see previous blog for more on that).
Anyone not wanting to read much and just wanting to see what photos I’ve taken – here’s a link for background information or you can just skip to the photos.
For those wanting a bit more context, please keep reading.
The streamlined A4 Pacific class locos designed and built by LNER were the pinnacle of express steam locomotives, built for high speed travel and also for heavy pulling. Only 35 were built and only 6 now survive, 3 of which are still used on mainline excursions and the other 3 are display pieces at different museums.
What’s so interesting about that you may well be thinking? Well 2 of the remaining 6 engines were shipped over to North America many years ago (1 to the USA and the other to Canada) so they have never been together, until now. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Mallard breaking the speed record for a steam loco they decided to get all 6 remaining A4’s together. This involved shipping back the 2 from North America along with getting the other 3 working engines in the UK to York. An event that will never be repeated (the North America engines will be shipped back next year) so I needed to make it along to see them all together.
Here’s some images I got during my visit:
One of the special Head Boards commissioned for this event
Sir Nigel Gresley
Sir Nigel Gresley
Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Bittern
View from the drivers seat on Union of South Africa
Some of the dials on Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa’s footplate
Union of South Africa driving rods
Bittern, Mallard and Dominion of Canada
Not sure she’ll manage to move that
Mallard
Union of South Africa
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dominion of Canada
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National Railway Museum
Following on from the Flash Bounce blog I thought I’d share a few of the images I got from the trip to theNationalRailwayMuseum. This is a place I always loved visiting as a kid and, as I love steam engines, I still feel like a kid when I go now.
Note: this trip has reinforced my want for a new lens, due to the low lighting conditions (and not being able to take too much equipment) I really need a lens that can perform better in these situations (preferable one that has constant f/2.8 to offer more flexibility).
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Flash Bounce
Having recently purchased a Canon 430ex II speedlite I’ve been trying to learn how to use it, granted so far I’ve been mainly using TTL mode (where the camera works out the power needed instead of me) but I figured this was a good place to start before attempting manual mode.
I haven’t had many opportunities lately to get the camera out and play but during a recent trip toYorkwe ended up at theNationalRailwayMuseum. This was a perfect opportunity to get the camera out and with it being so dark in the big halls it was a perfect time to play with the speedlite.
I was mainly concentrating on using bounce go get evenly exposed images (like I said I was using it in TTL mode so did have to worry about power) rather than getting imaged where the nearest part of an engine was way brighter than the rest.
Here’s a few examples of what I mean by bouncing the flash:
Flash direct at subject means the facing side is visible but everything else is in darkness
Flash pointing at the roof but as the ceiling is so high it cannot bounce the light back to fully light the subject
Flash bouncing off the engine to the left of shot and upwards so it lights the subject evenly (although slightly too high)
Flash directed above the subject in an attempt to bouncy it off the ceiling
Flash direct at the subject which over exposed the front and under exposed the rear
Again flash bounced off the engine to the right of shot which gives an even light across the subject although it remains underexposed due to the TTL mode getting it wrong
Flash directed just to the right of the subject and slightly out of shot which exposed the shed door more than the subject
If I remember correctly the flash was aimed at the ceiling but due to the ceiling height it was under exposed (also partly a TTL issue)
To be honest I have no idea where the flash was aimed in this shot but clearly it wasn’t the correct place
Flash bounced partly off the floor and partly off another object out of shot to the left, not perfect (the floor is more exposed than the subject) but an improvement to get even light over the subject
As you can see it can make a huge difference to the images.
