Trains

I went to the New Forest on Friday, partly in the hope of getting some stunning pictures and partly in the hope of getting a stunning pub lunch. At least one of these things happened...

If anybody wants to know a brilliant food pub in Brockenhurst, do let me know.

Unfortunately this isn't a blog dedicated to the amazing Ringwood beer-batter, so you get to see some patchy shots of a train instead. Sorry! 

I was trying to do clever things with perspective, especially with converging lines. There weren't an awful lot of bright colours about as it was a dull, overcast day, which sort of knocks out my default photographic position - which is basically to get pictures of brightly coloured things. I had a fair amount of success from the various paths snaking through the forest before we came to a bridge over the mainline from Bournemouth to London. Fortunately, in the ten minutes or so that we were sat reading a map at this bridge there were at least five trains, two of which you can see now:

This first picture has a real sense of movement about it - obviously any shutter speed slow enough to get a sharp picture on an overcast day like last Friday is guaranteed to give some motion blur on something as fast as a train. I like the way all the elements of the photo radiate out from the centre, but it still feels like a bit of cliche to me. My second attempt is probably very deep and meaningful:

This is clearly a statement about how the daily commute to London imprisons people, or how the rural delights of the New Forest are closed to those people who spend all day zapping between cities. Clearly. Well, no. Actually, there was just a barbed wire fence in the way and I figured rather than try and work round it, I'd just include it. Lines are lines are lines, and by aligning the train track with the wires I hoped I could get a bit more of a sense of movement...unfortunately (or fortunately, if you liked the whole commuters-don't-get-to-see-the-countryside angle) the barbed wire was a bit more prominent than I was hoping for.

Either way, it seems to have come out as an interesting image. Hopefully.

More New Forest exploits soon, unless I get some nice photos of Suffolk that take priority.

J