Extras and Outtakes
So what do I do with the extra photographs? You know, the images good enough to expose and edit, but not good enough to make my first, second or third presentations?
I exhibit them here! Hooray!
Sometimes we can learn from the outtakes.
Any favorites?
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This is part 3 in my series on photos of the January 2019 Amherst Railway Society BIG Railroad Hobby Show.
Previous views were exposed using my Lumix LX7 (see: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2019/01/27/2019-big-railroad-show-a-dozen-more-photos/) but these photos were made using my FujFilm XT1 fitted with a 90mm f2.0 telephoto lens.
The combination of a long focal length lens, with close focus and very wide aperture allows for a shallow depth of field. This technique enabled me to highlight select subjects in the image area while allowing potentially distracting elements to blend into a sea of blur.
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The annual Big Railroad Hobby Show takes place this weekend.
I’ll be there on Saturday making models look like full size trains, and visiting with friends.
These views are from the 2011 show. Hard to believe that was FIVE years ago.
I find the show to be a like a big railway Brigadoon. It exists for a little more than 48 hours and then vanishes into the mist for another year.
See Amherst Railway Society’s site for details: http://www.railroadhobbyshow.com
Hope to see you there!
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Today, January 24, 2015 was the first day of the annual Amherst Railway Society Big Railroad Hobby Show, or as Mike Gardner likes to call it, ‘The Big Shoe.’
Snow in the morning resulted in a quieter that usual day. I arrived about noon and had ample opportunity to breeze through all four buildings and meet with friends.
Below is a sampling of images. Were you at The Big Shoe? Maybe you are in one of the photos!
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West Springfield, Massachusetts, January 25, 2014.
This past weekend (January 25-26, 2014) was the annual Big Railroad Hobby Show sponsored by the Amherst Railway Society.
It fills four buildings at the Eastern States Exposition grounds at West Springfield, Massachusetts and attracts tens of thousands of visitors.
For railway enthusiasts it’s an epic event and an annual pilgrimage. The show is the living testimony of the late Bob Buck—long time show director and proprietor of Tucker’s Hobbies.
Through clever marketing, unceasing persistence and a life-long passion for trains of all scales, Bob built the show from a small railroad hobby event into a massive one.
This weekend’s show was another well-attended event. It was a virtual sea of trains and people. Here are a few photos of people I met at this year’s show and exhibits that I enjoyed.
Did you attend? What was your favorite exhibit?
Stay tuned for more photos tomorrow!
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This weekend (January 26-27, 2013) is the annual Big Railroad Hobby Show sponsored by the Amherst Railway Society. It fills four buildings at the Eastern States Exposition grounds at West Springfield, Massachusetts and attracts tens of thousands of visitors. For railway enthusiasts it’s an epic event and an annual pilgrimage. The show is the living testimony of the late Bob Buck—long time show director and proprietor of Tucker’s Hobbies. Through clever marketing, unceasing persistence and a life-long passion for trains of all scales, Bob built the show from a small railroad hobby event into a massive one. Although Bob passed away in October 2011, the show remains one of his legacies. Last year the society honored Bob with a minute of silence before the show opened; I’m told you could hear a pin drop across the exposition grounds.
My interest in the show is a direct result of my friendship with Bob. Not only was he one of my most enthusiastic supporters, encouraging my photography from a very young age and promoting my work (and later my books), but also he urged me to photograph the show, sometimes commissioning me to make both publicity and documentary images.
For the photographer the show is a visually intense and challenging image making opportunity. Thanks to Bob I’d been photographing the show for more than 30 years. In my younger days I’d fumble through the day and churn through 6-8 rolls of 35mm black & white film, and then try to find a half dozen useable images. While digital photography is a godsend, it hasn’t got that much easier. What’s the difficulty? Thousands of people are packed into the grounds all jostling for views of layouts, while haggling over boxcar kits, rummaging through back issues of magazines and regaling one another with tales of the year’s events. At every step you are confronted with someone bumping you, standing in your way, or thrusting an elbow into your lens. Garish and harsh artificial lighting makes for odd contrast and peculiar color balance while inserting unwanted highlights all over the place. The disparity of scale between the spectators and railway models presents a depth of field nightmare. For the casual viewer the show is pure sensory overload. For the photographer it’s chaos.
Yet, I always bring my cameras. These days I primarily aim to make photos of my friends, my heroes, and the model trains that catch my eye. It’s a complete contrast from my efforts working with ‘prototype’ trains. Yet, when photographing scale trains, I apply many of the same techniques that I use for the larger ones. Here’s just a sampling of today’s efforts.
