Train Set

CP Rail

All I want for my birthday is a train set, like this. Or, I will settle for a lens; either a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM IS or Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM. Your choice to gift wrap one of the three. CP Rail may not like their engines to be given away as gifts. Which means one of the other two is a better choice. I would not turn down both. ;-)

Located in Hopkins along Excelsior Blvd near the Coffee Depot. Here we have a single image tonemapped photo. Not a multiple image HDR photo. There is much difficulty in obtaining three photos of -2, 0, and +2 exposure compensation photos of a moving train.

About a half an hour of tweaking this image to bring out the clouds in the overexposed sky. More tweaking to bring out the detailing of the wheel assembly, rails, and the accumulated dirt on the engine. I neglected to watch out for the feared halos that can occur with over processing. Note this affect above the train. I spent too much time messing around with this image so I left it be.

Early Morning Freight

An early morning in Hopkins; the railroad engineers ready the engine for a pickup.

I was not prepared for a black and white photo for B & W Saturdays. Instead, I chose this colorful photo I took on Friday morning on my way into the office. A quick stop in at the Coffee Depot, then a walk up the bike path toward these three engines. They had just entered the cab when I shot the three necessary photos for HDR.