Tag Archives: #Pacific Bell

photography, Tips and Technique

Southern Pacific Reflections, Redding, California.

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In May 1992, I was on my way back to San Francisco from a visit to Southern Pacific’s Siskiyou Line. I stopped at SP’s Redding Station and made this afternoon image of a locomotive reflecting in the window.

Someday, someone might want to know what the Pacific Bell shelter was for, and wonder about the curious device positioned within!

Notice that I carefully included the station name in the view.

I exposed this on Kodachrome 25, which was a good film for daylight scenes but tended to do a poor job of rendering shadows. Yet, because the shadow areas under the station canopy are a bit dark this effect helps emphasize daylight on the locomotive reflected in the glass.

Pay close attention to the effect of color balance on this scene. Subtle changes in color can alter the way we see an image and affect the emphasis. In this view my careful use of lighting and focus keeps the eye trained on the main subject, while allowing other elements to remain prominent. What is more interesting? SP’s GP38-2 or the push-button telephone?

How would I make this photo digitally? First of all, I’d preset the white balance to ‘daylight’ rather than use the automatic setting. This would give the shadow areas a slight bluish tint, while maintaining more natural colors in the reflection.

Secondly, I’d set the exposure manually, and pay careful attention to the density of window reflection, while allowing the rest of the scene to go a bit dark (about ½ half stop).

Tracking the Light Posts Daily.