Steam Train

[CNelson]

I took this shot a few years ago and ignored it until the persistent rain outside drove me into my archives in search of something to play with. The train is Yreka Western Railroad and, according to its website it's currently not in operation because of a number of factors, chief of which is the economy. Many tourists would travel to Yreka, CA to ride this live steam train but not enough now to keep it going. Hopefully it will recover. I thought some train fans might like to see a train shot.

Chuck

[Donald]

Chuck

As I've written before, this style is not my thing. But you are the master of it. That is an impressive piece of artwork. It does evoke emotion. My only 'criticism' is in relation to the size of your signature. It does detract from the image.

[CNelson]

Thank you Donald. I recall that this is not your favorite style and that's OK. It's a reminder to me to keep my style in reined in. I don't always process to this style but this image wasn't interesting to me until I gave it some punch. When I processed the image originally with the software I had at the time it didn't interest me. This time I went back to the original RAW file and used Lightroom 2 and CS4 to give it some life. I was able to separate the train somoke/steam from the cloudy sky and that made a difference.

I'm sorry about the name/logo on the image but the website platform I use recently designed the slideshow feature to show at full screen. It looks great but with a screen print a useable copy of my image can be obtained so I decided to add back my logo as a watermark for (whatever limited) protection. It is a bit of a "finger in the eye" so I limit it to the lower corner in compromise. While I'm in no danger of earning significant money on the website, it is a commercial venture to some degree and I decided I should take reasonable steps.

Chuck

[Steve S]

I really like this chuck. Beautiful shot!!

It looks like the train is lacking some small scale contrast though.