This abandoned train was sort of a spur of the moment shot. I wanted to do a door shoot that would hopefully be unique from all the other entries. I stopped at a couple of cemeteries to take a few pics of some mausoleum doors, but they didn't hit me as anything special. I was losing light anyways and decided to hit the road.
As I was driving near my office, I remembered this old abandoned train - the same one where I used the track for a Centered challenge. I figured these boxcars would have doors. A big plus was that the sun was setting and the sky was giving off some great color.
I didn't have much of my camera gear with me (no grad ND) and had to improvise. With the setting sun, I could only expose for the sky or the train. Well, of course I needed both somewhat so I exposed for the sky and locked it in, pulled out my flash, set my 12 sec timer, walked over to a 90 degree angle to the train outside of the frame, waited for the shutter to trip, fired the flash during the 1/2 second shutter opening, and walked back to check and make sure the overall exposure would work. This took a few tries to get it right, but I didn't have to take very many shots - maybe 3 or 4.
Made some broad exposure/color/lighting changes. I tweaked the curves quite a bit - mainly for the sky. Adjusted the levels individually, and bumped the saturation a bit. A little contrast change for the shadows and highlights. Resize and usm to finish it off.
I even got a little word bonus on this shot. Just to the left of the doors, the wording ends with, "all [d]oors are open." It's kinda faded, but it is visible and readable. Hopefully the voters will see it too and vote accordingly. ;-) And no, I didn't open the boxcar doors. They were already like that when I walked up.
I think the shot is pretty solid. The only thing I can think of where a person would vote it down is due to the overgrowth in the lower left(something I could have knocked down but didn't really have time for). I'm sure someone will leave the obligatory "distracting" comment, but I honestly do not feel that it distracts from the overall shot.
6.7 would be my dream score. 6.3 is probably a little more realistic.
Statistics
Place: 18 out of 156 Avg (all users): 6.2186 Avg (commenters): 7.3750 Avg (participants): 6.1698 Avg (non-participants): 6.2346 Views since voting: 1336 Views during voting: 340 Votes: 215 Comments: 10 Favorites: 2 (view)
Congratulations on top 20. Your exposure work is great. Thanks for the detailed information as well. Most unique submission as this is the only box car doors in challenge. Thirty years ago I road boxcars from WI to CA so I can really appreciate your photo.
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