CSX EXPLOSION

Canon EOS Rebel XS, Promaster 19-35 lens @ 19mm, ISO 100, f/20, 1.3 sec

  This evening brought a rare opportunity for me. I was leaving work and driving my way to pick up my daughter from the Boys & Girls Club in Vonore, TN. 

  I often take Old Slag Road through Vonore to avoid the major highway, 411, that is usually crowded and has a traffic light that takes forever to get through. Old Slag Rd crosses a section of railroad tracks that runs over to the Tellico West Industrial Park. I hardly ever see any trains on this section of track. Today, however, there was a train sitting right next to where the road crosses them. I told myself, "If it is still here after I pick Jocy up, I will stop and photograph it".

  Sure enough, when Jocy and I came back through, the train was still there and we stopped to take some shots.  There wasn't any real foreground objects that I could place in front of the train so I elected to set up with the tracks as a lead in from the bottom right of the frame.

  The sun was golden and setting with it's light striking the train quite a bit further down the track and provided some fantastic color.

  Something I have always wanted to try was creating an abstract shot by zooming the lens while the shutter was open. I purposely added my ND8 filter on top of my polarizer and shot at a small aperture to create a long shutter speed so I could accomplish this.

  3 things really jumped out at me when I looked at the final shot. I really love the movement created by the zooming effect. This effect also enhanced the 3 lights that were on the front of the train. Would have loved to gotten a light burst here but the streaks worked out nicely. The last is the way the zoom effect enhanced the golden sunlight on the back end of the train.