By the Railway

I’ve always loved the view from the window of a train. I love the fact that the sights you get are ones you don’t get anywhere else; the backs of people’s gardens, the view from the railway bridge, the angles you can only get from being on the tracks in one form or another.

For about as long as I’ve been running this blog I’ve been toying with the idea of spending time shooting by the trackside around the country.

This, sadly, isn’t that project. In my head to do that true justice I’ll need special permission from National Rail and a high-visibilty jacket. Instead, consider this a taster for what might eventually come to fruition.

Over the last month or so I’ve taken a handful of random shots of the sights from trackside on some of London’s railways. The first was one I noticed from a multi-storey car park.

1/500sec, f/5, ISO 100, 60mm

I couldn’t help but notice the fallen box, framed by the bushes on all sides.

A week or so later, I was travelling through Waterloo Station at night, and loved the curve of the platform with its lights enough to stop in my tracks and grab a picture, risking irking my wife in the process (this I do often).

1/20sec, f/4, exposure bias -2.0, ISO 160, 24mm

The week after that (because I am just excelling at writing skills today) I found myself at Waterloo again (wait, that’s silly. I use the station every day for my commute, I didn’t just ‘find’ myself there) waiting for a train, and liked the framing of this passenger waiting by the track.

1/343sec, f/2.4, ISO 50, 4.1mm [33mm equivalent] (iPhone photo)

To complete the set I took a photo when the train arrived too.

1/285sec, f/2.4, ISO 50, 4.1mm [33mm equivalent] (iPhone photo)

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