Waitin' For a Train - By Gord Barker

    Friend, ''Do you think of your Dad very often?''  Me, ''Every time I hear a train.'' 

''All around the water tank, waiting for a train. A thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain.''   *Jimmie Rodgers, ''Waiting For A Train''  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbzc77Tz6PA

     So I went to Woodstock, Ontario as part of a little tour of Southwestern Ontario. I had rented a car for the weekend to attend a friend's wedding and had a little rental time to use up. On the way to Woodstock, I got the urge to do some train photography. I had photographed trains there before back in the dinosaur days of film. 

     Trains have always had a strong symbolism in western popular culture. Fundamentally they symbolize escape. A ticket to a better place. Opportunity. As a kid growing up in small town Northern Ontario, the train was, quite literally, my ticket to the opportunity and adventure of the outside world. Also my Dad was a brakeman/conductor on the Ontario Northland Railway. I come by my love of trains and all things railroady quite honestly.  

     I navigated to the train station in Woodstock. It was a bit depressing. It was a dull cloudy day with a light drizzle coming down.  The station was run down and badly in need of work. I made a few uninspired  shots of the scene. While I was there, a homeless guy came out of the station's waiting room. He said Hi and asked how I was. I considered the drizzly weather and the grey desolation of the scene around me, "Well, I've had better days." His response, ''Yeah, me too. But I'll rebound.'' After that he stretched out on the concrete by the waiting room door and promptly fell asleep.

     I hung around a bit longer, hoping a train would show up. I was about to leave when a car pulled up and a young family as well as an older couple got out.  I could only surmise that  Grandma and Grandpa had driven their offspring to the station to catch a train. I could hear the young children chattering excitedly in anticipation of their train ride. Traveling by train can be a little like Christmas. The anticipation is almost as exciting as the main event. I decided to wait a bit longer. Clearly a train was coming               

I have to admit that I was getting a little excited too. My inner photographer kicked in. How was I going to shoot this? Colour or black and white?  Black and white. It was a dull overcast day and colours would be muted anyway. Camera and lens choice? I had my 16mm wide angle (Thanks Dean) already coupled to my old Fuji X-T1 body (Thanks Tom) in my camera bag. (Thanks Jim Domke) If I got close to the train, the natural slight  distortion of the wide angle would render it big in relation to  it's surroundings. It could make for some interesting shots. The Fuji X-T1 camera is an older model released in 2014. By today's standards, it's positively ancient. But mine still works perfectly and would be more than adequate for the job. You really don't have to have the latest wiz-bangery to make a decent photograph. Both the camera and lens are weather resistant so I wasn't too worried about them surviving the drizzling rain. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The train arrived and I went to work. Get in close. Check the focal point. Check that the shutter speed is fast enough to eliminate camera shake and subject motion when the train starts to move. Stop down the lens for better depth of field, ISO be damned! You're shooting a big subject! Compose the shot. Get in close. Move back to show the subject in relation to its surroundings. It's raining out. Check that there are no water droplets on the front of the lens. Wipe them off if necessary. Work the scene! Work fast! At best this train is only making a five minute station stop....Did I mention that I love being a photographer? 

                                              I got the shots I wanted.

    As I drove away from the station scene in Woodstock, I couldn't help but think of the words of the homeless guy I saw there. ''I'll rebound.'' Although my situation wasn't nearly as dire as his, I couldn't help thinking that I had made a bit of a rebound myself. After almost giving up, I had made the photographs that I wanted to make. I did it under crummy conditions. I made the photographs with second-hand gear that I had purchased  from some photographic friends.

    I know. As rebounds go, this was a pretty minor one. But maybe, just maybe, it's the culmination of the little rebounds that result in achieving  bigger ones.

...more later

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