New book! Trains of the West in 7 days

Trains of the West in 7 Days by Travis Dewitz | Make Your Own Book

Story behind the photo.

Many of my photos tell the whole story within the image itself while others can't even begin to capture half of the story that it took to get the image in the first place. This is one of those photos that has just as interesting of a back story to the photo as the  photo has captured itself.

The last couple of weeks has had the last two surviving Chicago & Northwestern (CNW 8701 and CNW 8646) units traveling the Union Pacific mainline between Proviso and South St. Paul together.  I had already had the privilege to catch the CNW duo pulling freight on the Altoona and Wyeville Subdivisions in recent days but the timing that was about to happen was unexpected.

It was just after 11pm on the 24th of April, 2009 when the CNW duo led MSSPR into the Altoona yard. A large thunderstorm was also making an appearance over the Chippewa Valley at the same time. I ran from my house into the pouring with my camera in hand. I jumped into my Trailblazer and raced to the east end of the yard to catch MSSPR switching out it's train. The pouring rain was relentless as lightning started to fill the sky. 

MSSPR was almost ready to depart Altoona, WI so my time was running thin. I needed to find a place to park to get a few remaining shots. I drove my Trailblazer down a very sandy access road to a spot near the tracks. I started to turn my truck around so I could make a quick exit if needed. Between the sand and all of the rain the road had become a very poor place to turn around a truck on that had lost it's 4wd capabilities on a previous chase a few weeks prior. I was stuck.

With no time to waste I needed to get trackside before the CNW units led their train out of Altoona. I ran out into the pouring rain that was dumping from the sky with no protection at all. The mad dash from my home left me without any of my camera rain gear or my own. I set up my camera and tripod and did what I could to cover my Canon 40d body with my own. The front glass of my 24-105 f4L had to be wiped dry in between every shot to keep as many rain drops as I could from ruining my shots. I took one shot after another trying to capture the lightning off in the distance a bit while only thinking about how I was going to get out from my stuck position in the middle of the night and in the storm. As the lightning bolt I captured spider webbed across the sky above my head and the code line pole I was crouched below, I decided the storm was much closer then I thought and I ran to the stuck truck with my gear in hand. 

I first took the time to wipe my camera and lens as dry as I could even though I was soaked to the bone. Water resistant doesn't mean water proof and I didn't want to take that big of a chance. Now it was time to handle the task that was clouding my thoughts until that bolt of lightning flashed over my head and broke the dreaded feeling of being disabled. Surprisingly my truck found it's way all the way around and back to the paved road after only a few forward to reverse rocking motions of the truck to get all the way around and off the rain soaked sandy two tire rutted road. 

The image above captured the rare units working at night in a thunderstorm pretty well but didn't  show the dreaded feeling of being stuck, the excitement of railroad and storm coming together or the lack of available time and lucky timing to capture a working train and a lightning bolt together.

A great month to read a railroad magazine!

A big thank you goes out to the editors for the honor of being published in the pages of your magazine.

TRAINS Magazine - October 2010
DMI&R unit heading into Proctor, MN



Railroads Illustrated - DINA -September 2010
BNSF Rice's Point Yard in Duluth, MN
Taken from Skyline Dr.



Railroads Illustrated - DINA - September 2010
EJ&E led train heads out of Two Harbor, MN

A Great Severe Weather Wisconsin Summer

The storms have been rolling into Wisconsin all summer long and have been a blast to get out in finding trains to shoot. I have been able to connect a few times with hopes of a few more yet this year. With todays temps all ready in the 50's I may not get another chance. 

The local Union Pacific job enters yard limits in Altoona, WI just as the storm front passes over the city.


The conductor works out in the rain as this Union Pacific job switches out Banbury Place which use to be the old Uniroyal in Eau Claire, WI.



A CSX led extra heads west on the Union Pacific Altoona Sub towards Saint Paul, MN. The setting sun paints the scene with an orange glow as I head for shelter in my Tahoe.



A BNSF train heads up the Mississippi River on the St. Croix Sub towards Minneapolis trying to out run another round or severe weather.

You Just Need to Be There

Being there is the first step to any photo. Sometimes the photo you want requires you to be there, in horrible conditions, but that is what needs to be done to get the shot you may want. Being there is what I needed to do when the weather service predicted the first big snow storm of the 2009 winter season in Western Wisconsin. The storm started to put down some heavy snow which I knew I needed to shoot in. I stayed out in the early hours of the night before capturing what I could locally knowing tomorrow was going to be the chase.

The local Altoona job was switching out Banbury Place (old Uniroyal plant) in Eau Claire, WI. I found myself a stack of pallets to gain elevation to shoot over the fence along the Union Pacific right of way. In the process, the night security guard found me and advised I should find my way off the stack.

The next morning I found plenty of snow and a soon to be departing Eastbound MSSPR. Most roads were not plowed yet and trying to find spot to park out of the way was a challenge. Glad I had 4wd. The recent trackwork from Altoona east has increased the track speed and with the weather conditions my chase ended at Fall Creek with some flying snow. Road conditions

were very poor with not much improvement until around noon. The La Crosse local was working it's way up river as a county plow was working the roads around Cochrane. The snow wasn't coming down heavy any more but the just above 0 temperatures and strong wind made it a tough day for the crews on the ground.

The snow picked up a lot later in the afternoon as another wave pounded the area. Nothing beats heavy fresh snow and a fast train.

I ended my day in Red Wing, MN catching this Soo Line led local heading back towards St. Paul. The train hustled past the Red Wing depot through the falling snow as the crossing light lit up. What a great end to a great day chasing trains in some tough weather conditions.
All photos can be viewed or purchased at www.travsirocz.smugmug.com

Capturing the Storm

I think storms and trains are a natural fit for railroad photography. Trains have many of the same qualities as storms do as they both can be powerful, loud, graceful, impressive, large, and the list goes on. An image of the two together can have many different moods and feelings ranging from peaceful to scary. I have grown to enjoy the beauty and power of storms and enjoy being able to capture them. My passion to merge storms and trains together was started with some of these early photos. These are some of my first shots where I was able to merge trains and storms together and have eventually become addicted to it and the experience. This is definitely a challenge. Getting a photogenic storm is the first piece. Then you need an active rail line near the moving storm. If this wasn't enough of a challenge, you need a train with good timing to travel through your scene while the moving storm is also in position. Just getting the pieces of the puzzle together can be a nightmare with many missed opportunities. When the pieces fall into place your next challenges begins. These challenges start with keeping your gear and lenses dry. I keep my lens pointed down and away and even under my shirt or jacket just milliseconds before I shoot. If needed, I also keep large ziplock bags handy to place my camera into. Having a dry cloth is also a must. Now that my lens and camera have been kept clean and dry, I turn to shoot off several exposures capturing as much light as possible in an usually low light environment. I usually always expose my photos for the brightest part of the the sky to keep highlight detail. By doing this I am able to keep much of the cloud detail which is crucial to me. This is a fine line as you also need to be able to bring out as much detail of the darker train as possible to avoid noise issues in post processing. Knowing what your camera can do and what it can't do is a big help in situations like this. Can you go over iso 1000, or do you need to stay below iso 400? The reason you need to understand your camera's limits, is so that you can maximize it. Shooting in low light is a big enough challenge to begin with let alone adding speed to the equation. Trying to stop the action of a 50mph train, in low light can be tough if not impossible. Knowing that you can push your camera to 800 iso with low noise can be an opportunity saver. Once you have overcome getting a photogenic storm and train together and having captured it even though it was moving at 50mph in low light, without soaking the camera and having too many rain drops on the front of the lens causing a blurry image; you can consider that a success.

The image at the top was taken in Hillsdale, WY on August 31, 2008. There were two large and powerful storm cells moving together, with a lot of lightning. The sun was fading fast, so I made a bee line to the busy Union Pacific mainline. I really didn't think this was going to come together as no trains could be seen with the sun about to fade to dark. At the last minuets of daylight, a Westbound freight came into sight. This image is dramatic but yet peaceful even though the bottom image taken seconds later is much more dark and eerie. Post processing can shape your image greatly in the direction that you want to present. Composition also plays a big part in how your image is perceived. The top image includes some flowers and is in a color tone that adds to the peacefulness.

The second image was taken May 25, 2008 just as the storm was overhead which allowed the setting sun's light to color the sky orange to the West. The rain soaked surfaces shimmer from the last rays of light as three points of lights can be seen. I can feel and hear the train as it is blowing it's horn through the many crossings of Owen, WI as the excitement builds for the charging forward freight.

The third photo was captured along the shore of Lake Wissota outside of Chippewa Falls, WI. This is a detoured Canadian Pacific train running on Canadian National trackage through a huge downpour. Keeping my gear dry and lens clear was the biggest concern while shooting on this late afternoon. The clearing skies can just be seen in the photo.

These are my first tastes of railroad storm photography and there will hopefully be many more to come. To see others photographer's photos of trains in storms, be sure to visit my Xtreme Weather Railroad Photography Flickr Group.

Low Light with a Little Help

My interest in railroad photography has been shifting more and more towards low light conditions and having an interesting sky is a must. I feel that there is much more depth of emotion and a deeper feel captured in low light settings. This is one reason I have been drawn to low light photography. Learning how to capture moments in this type of light is by far the easiest part of the photo process. The more difficult part of the photo process is processing. It can be fairly difficult to bring out your image as envisioned when shot is low light. This is especially true if you captured the image while trying to preserve the high lights in a bright sky. This can result in a overall dark image which can reveal a lot of noise when the exposure is increased. If the image can be used, the next challenge is being able to bring out details in the highlights and shadows. This part of processing can take time with the use of a program like Photoshop. With Photoshop, you are able to use layers and masks to edit the image in parts rather then as a whole or globally. One program I have just started using is Photomatix. Photomatix is a HDR (high dynamic range) program that can help save a lot of time and work while achieving close to the same results. HDR is best done with three or more images exposed at higher and lower exposures which can be hard to do with a
moving object, like a train. Photomatix can also work with a single RAW file with good results while saving the work of dealing with an object that has moved during the multiple exposures. Photomatix can also do this 3 different ways with different results from more HDR looking to more realistic, which all can be fine tuned. One of the most important parts of post processing to me, is adding some pop. This pop is what makes the whole image worth all the work you put into it. Now while using Photoshop, Photomatix, and getting some pop in my images is hard enough, making them appear 100% real can and still is a challenge to me. The photo on top is of two Soo Line EMD SD60s running through Dayton's Bluff with the sun setting behind the St. Paul, MN skyline. This photo was was processed first in Photoshop with layers and masks. Then to recover some highlight and shadow detail and add the pop was done with Photomatix. I believe this photo came out with a very near real appearance. The other photo of the Union Pacific led coal train in the Powder River Basin was first run through Photomatix. After it was processed by Photomatix I did very little work to it in Photoshop. This photo has a little more of a HDR look. I did not attempt to make this more realistic since I enjoy a moderate HDR look. Many railfan photographers do not like the look of HDR photos, period! This is one issue that I will live with. So, with the use of photo programs and a lot of practice, a lot can be done to make your low light photos end with a pop.