Freight

A few weeks ago I bought a new camera and we are not yet friends. I was so looking forward a 35mm prime but I’ve found it much more difficult to use than I expected. I can't do what I'm used to doing, I’m not interested in what it shows me and I find I keep retreating back to my super-zoom compact.

But after reading Colin Templeton’s interesting write-up on lenses I went out to challenge myself today with only the 35mm lens. I’m not happy with any of my pictures but the lens did draw me to the railway bridge by the lake. There I came across Les, also toting a Nikon (along with orange shorts, grey sandals and a bunch of keys) who was a train driver for many years and now spends his spare time photographing freight trains. On a week’s holiday he is working his way, bridge by bridge, down a section of the Paddington-Oxford railway line because after it’s electrified in 2016 all photos will have cables in the way of the trains. He asked me how to get to the next bridge, consulted his freight train app, and decided sadly that he didn’t have time to walk there before the next train was due. Thus he did have time to tell me exactly when to be at the bridge at Radley so as to get a picture of a freight train in sunlight with Didcot power station’s towers in the background. I was impressed by his dedication.