And we continue on with the blog updates – hooray! Here’s Part 2 of the Lerro Productions 2012 Valley Railroad Photo Charter (part 1 is here), which was the night photo session – something that you all know is near and dear to my heart. Things were a bit different than the usual night photo sessions I’ve taken part in before, but that led to some interesting results.
The night session was limited to about a dozen photographers, and featured Valley Railroad Mikado No 3025 in a number of scenes around Essex yard. Also featured in the scenes was the train crew, including one setup where we did portraits of two of the crew members.
The Lerro Productions crew does things a bit differently for their night shoots. Instead of using strobes to light up the scenes, they use theatrical constant lighting – essentially floodlights – to provide the lighting. This lets the photographers try a number of different angles with consistent lighting on the subject. If you’re curious, my first experience with this type of night shoot was at Steamtown for Railfan & Railroad’s Spring TRAINing (here’s the post on the night shoot, and here’s the daytime part if you’re curious). Anyways, with the humid air from the day’s intermittent rain, the steam from 3025 hung in the air longer, giving some interesting scenes. Not long after we finished up the portriats of the crew members, the skies opened up with a downpour, and we wrapped up the shoot. Which was a good thing – we’d have to be back in Essex in about 3 hours to begin day 3 of the charter. Luckily we have a summer place in Old Lyme – about 10 minutes from Essex – so three of us (Steve Barry, Bob LaMay and myself) headed to the cottage to crash for the few hours of downtime we had.
Next up is the results from the soggy, sleep deprived day 3 of the charter.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
