Working on the Railroad

Went to the Gold Coast Railroad Museum today with the family. The trip was a nice family outing and offered me the opportunity to do a bit of location scouting for my trip back next week. The Museum wasn't what I had expected, actually better. I'm a big history buff and even the grounds the museum are on have a huge history. So I was amazed none the less about it's history. The grounds where originally an airfield for Navel Airships (Blimps :)) during WWII. They used to patrol the East Coast of Florida for German U-boats (Submarines). Any how, back to the railroad. The museum has several displays that you can actually get in and walk around and a real Diesel/Electric locomotive that you can ride in. For those of you not in the know about locomotives (like myself), the locomotive I'm referring to is like the ones that hold up traffic at the most in opportune times. Only this one is a bit older and a single engine model. My daughter thought it was great, especially when she was asked if she wanted to blow the horn.

Next week I will try and do a better write up about the museum and some more/better facts about some of the equipment. The below photographs are not prize winners, but give you an idea of what this wonderful museum has to offer. A side note, these where taken with the infrared Digital Rebel XT and as such part of my infrared experiment.

Infrared Shooting Day 1

Yesterday was my first real outing with the IR camera. I was supposed to be up at the crack of dawn like I've done so many other times to head out to the Everglades. Saturday was different for a couple of reasons though, I over slept and I was going out to shoot Infrared only. I went to my normal spots for wildlife to see what animals looked like in IR. Since Winter never really came and is already gone for the most part, the bird activity was pretty slim. The one and only bird was a Great Blue Heron that seemed lost or too lazy to leave with the others. So my IR wildlife experiment was limited.

I reconfigured my gear for landscape work and went for the long drive to the Southern most point of mainland Florida. I made several stops along the way, taking shots and adjusting settings. I tried White Balance bracketing with little success, I've never actually tried it before so it could have been my lack of experience. Focus seems to be my biggest problem with the IR conversion. I had the camera calibrated for the 50mm f/1.8, which I don't use that much. To have the camera calibrated for my 24-70mm would have required sending the lens as well as the camera. I wasn't all that comfortable sending the camera let alone the lens as well. Here are a couple of my better landscape shots from Saturday.

If you want to see more of my infrared trip to the Everglades, visit my gallery at Everglades Infrared The shots in this gallery have very little Photoshop work done on them, mostly just Levels and a little Sharpening. More too come as I learn more about Infrared Photography.