06Apr12 - Train Yards & Sunsets

06Apr12
RANDOM ADDITIONS

Over the last four weeks, I've been in odd places but the theme has always the same. Shoot the "Random moment". So while at the GM plant, instead of shooting the obvious subject, I opted for the unusual. I found myself at the back of the plant where the CN/CP Railway yard exists. If I had more time, I could have shot thousands of images. However, here are but a very few of the couple hundred I took.

The GM Plant in Oshawa Ontario

Generator stacks

Ramp Tracks

Extra train wheels

Another common theme seems to be sunsets. As Spring approaches, the time frame for Sunsets lengthens making it more possible to catch prettier dusk shots. Here are only a few of my sunsets.

Various beautiful SUNSETS I shot over the last four weeks.

My backdoor sunset

Back yard Sunset

Train yard Sunset

Fast lane Sunset

Having decided that my favourite genre of photography is Black & White photography, I made the decision to better myself at taking and processing Black & Whites. One might think it's one of the easier forms of photography but truthfully, it's not. There are so many elements to B & W photography and because I never do things half assed, I decided to do things the old school original way. I invested in 5 different colour lens filters which I learned (during my hunt to find them) are rarely used by the armature photographer.
The school of thought: Why purchase something to enhance your black and white photos when you can simply edit your images in post processing? Absolutely Garbage. Laziness is the reason its become so hard to find appropriate tools and parts of a kit that a GOOD photographer should have.
Lazy photographer: one who takes the shot and later switches the image to grey scale or monochrome.
Amateur photographer: one who takes the shot, edits it in adobe photoshop using appropriate RBG tools.
Advanced experienced photographer: one who takes their time to screw on one of minimum five various choice lens filter and swap it for one of the other various colours they have in their bag; take the shot, later make edits in Lightroom or Aperture and endeavours to post processes the image to ensure the best Black & White results.

 I was told by (what I can only describe as a young and lazy) store clerk of an extremely reputable photography store that coloured lens filters no longer exist and have been discontinued because people are editing their images to achieve the "same" results.... I just didn't buy what this clerk told me. Many of my favourite photography websites would have been literally reduced to liars. Those sites were the ones responsible for educating me in the very technique of using filters to improve my black and white photography. I opted to drive out of my way to another branch of the same expert photography store.
Aha! It wasn't true. Filters had never been discontinued at all. They simply were not typical stock since "lazy" amateurs were skipping steps in the belief of achieving the "same" result. Oh how wrong indeed they were. "Same" was later discovered to be a poor excuse for "similar".  I put the options to the test and I can now truly say, there is no comparison - similar is NOT the same. When you use an actual lens filter, you get results (that no computer program can achieve). The lazy clerk can disagree with me until the cows come home because I also happen to be a master manipulator of RGB in Adobe Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop. It's simply not the same. 
It is however, another step - but if you look at it the way I do, it isn't an 'extra' step if originally it always was a step! Removing a step out of sheer convenience (aka laziness) doesn't make reverting back to doing it the original way adding a step. So I choose to do it best. Not right, not wrong, not better, just best.