It used to be a lot easier to take night shots. There were more local trains, hence more locomotives would be sitting in railyards overnight where I could shoot them. The towns near home were small enough that no one seemed to mind a few crazies setting off flashbulbs in the middle of the night. Very few other people were nutty enough to venture outside on a frigid winter night. The guys I hung with were into this, including the one buddy who was an engineer. It was easy for him to leave his train where it made a good scene for us at the end of his workday.One of the neat things about nighttime shots is that it doesn't matter what the weather is. Could be cloudy, clear, hot, cold, it didn't matter in the dark. This particular scene was taken on a bitterly cold night at the end of January. The temperature was about zero degrees. Because of the cold the night was crystal clear, zillions of stars were visible. There had been a fresh blanket of snow earlier in the day, so it was clean and relatively undisturbed. Even though I was bundled up almost to the point of not being able to move, by the time our session ended I was frozen to the core. I ran the car heater on high all the way home.
I'm sure happy to not have to put up with that kind of cold anymore.
This is a great night shot! It was worth the time spent in the freezing cold weather. Zero degrees is bitterly cold and I'm sure you were miserable waiting to set up and take this photo but as I know all too well, your adrenaline for capturing the photograph kept you in the moment. Great stuff once again! I'm seeing and reading stories that I've not seen or heard before.
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