Tag Archives: #bad photography

photography, Tips and Technique

Best of the Worst!

The other day plowing through my old yellow Kodak boxes, I found one marked in pencil ‘RR-BAD, 2nds & 3rds’.

Translated from my teenaged sorting classification system this was code for ‘real garbage, but not so bad that it should be thrown away’.

Without opening this box, hidden away in the dark for more than three decades, I joked to Kris Sabbatino, “these slides are marked as ‘Bad’, so they must be the best of the lot!”

I explained further, “In my younger days I’d dismiss a photo for the slightest perceived imperfection and classify it as ‘junk’. I know better now! Any box that’s coded as ‘garbage’ is filled with lost treasure!”

Sure enough when I opened this yellow box last night and examined it closely, I found host of fascinating photos. Many only a quick correction away from public presentation.

So what was wrong with this view of a Bangor & Aroostook GP7 at Northern Maine Junction? I’d exposed it on Kodak Ektachrome back in July 1983, and missed my ideal exposure. The original is a bit hot (too light). But that’s a quick fix using Adobe Lightroom.

What you see here is my corrected scan of the original overexposed slide. Not all that bad after all!

Northern Maine Junction near Bangor, Maine on July 3, 1983.

So what else was in my garbage file?

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photography

My Worst Railway Photo?

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Is this my least successful railway photo?

I exposed it a while back on a visit to Belgium.

Standing on a platform in suburban Brussels, I attempted a 90mm telephoto view of an outbound electric local train.

The weather dull, relatively dark and hazy, in other words the light was about as unappealing as it can get. Also it was early Spring, so the trees were leafless and the landscape bleak.

Suburban Brussels is not Tehachapi, or the Swiss Alps, or the Rhein Valley. If you say ‘so what?’, you misunderstand me.

It was not a great setting to begin with.

As the train approached one of the passengers on the platform drifted into my field of view, obscuring much of the scene as an out of focus blob. This resulted in the further complication of confusing the camera’s autofocus system at the last instant, which instead of honing in on the rapidly approaching train, sharpened a corner of platform instead.

Oh, and the train is adorned with graffiti tags.

So this image was pretty much a ‘fail’ on all counts, except possibly exposure. I seem to have got that about right.

Not every effort results in success. But we should learn from our mistakes, or at least laugh!

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photography, Tips and Technique

April First Tip; Oops! Don’t you hate when this happens.

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Tracking the Light is on ‘auto pilot’ while Brian is traveling.

Not every photo works as planned.

Sometimes it takes too long to get the camera organized.

Sometimes we should be better prepared before the train comes into view!

Not my best effort with the Lumix!

Here’s a bad view of Irish Rail 082.

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Tips and Technique

Ooops! More Lousy Railroad Photos.

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Here are some recent examples of photos gone wrong.

It would be grand if every time I pressed the shutter I made a calendar perfect picture. (If, of course, I wanted to illustrate calendars all day long).

Trains move while I’m trying to make photos. If I don’t get everything set right, move at the wrong instant, or the technology slips up, then the moment is gone by the time I get it together.

Many times I get what I’m aiming for, but sometimes I goof it up.

Yes, I make lousy photos. Sometimes.

Auto focus failure. Large amounts of infrared light, the lack of a defined focus area, or low contrast can confuse a camera’s autofocus system.

This is really hopeless and I’m not even sure what I was aiming at. Great use of pixels, eh?

Too late! There was a photo opportunity, probably about a second before this exposure was made. There’s also too much foreground. Ah well, it was a dull day anyway.

I previously published a better version of this effort. Here the framing is off, the level is wrong, and I shook the camera. A bad photo all around, certainly one for the bin! (Trash).

Oh no a post got in my way, and I included fellow railway enthusiasts. And it was cloudy and I’m tight to the platform. It’s just ALL WRONG. Time for a beer.

Too often the cause of the lousy photo is malfunctioning technology, or my over reliance on automated camera functions. Other times it’s just me. People make mistakes. Luckily no harm comes if I make a bad photo.

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