Last month I traveled to the west coast for the photo charters hosted by the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad and Lerro Productions. Three days of bright sun followed by two more of dense morning fog provided great atmosphere and mood. With my cameras I approached these excursions wanting to target dark overtones and the human element within railroading; this collection offers both. What I did not expect was to be so captivated by the brakeman riding on the end car of the log train – I made it a point to focus on him.

Purposely distancing myself from color with this gallery, I removed the distraction of its inherent dynamic emotions, contrast, and visual intensity by working in monochrome to reduce the scene’s essentials. I hope the viewer instead keys in on substance; light, shadow, negative space, lines, shapes, textures, range of tone, minimalism, composition, and relation of elements in the frame. Our eyes see the world in color, with black and white comes the increased opportunity for the observer to instead pause and explore the vital ingredients of each image.

https://www.losttracksoftime.com/p47324941

Follow the above link, and enjoy...
Matthew

I really enjoyed the black & white photos. I had seen some that were in color and the color was so vibrant it was almost distracting and looked touched up because of it. Such beautiful country but personally I liked the B&W better. Thank you for sharing the work. Fantastic photos. Regards, John.

Thank you John!
I seem to go through phases between color and monochrome; recently I've been working mostly in black/white. The nostalgic feel appeals to my eye, as well as the need for my mind's eye to fill in the blanks of where the missing color is.
Matthew

Your welcome Mathew. Not a art or photo critic and just pick my favs as it is what is pleasing to me. Incapable of overthinking it. But the effects for me are undeniably a pleasure and in its own way take me back to a time I often wished I had lived. "Back before Elvis, coke was still cola and the joint was a bad place to be". {ya I know I butchered the lyrics} The year I was born most steam was in its death row, by the time to know what I was looking at it was excursions and tourist RR. So your pics feed my allusions of what the past may have looked like. And I must say I think the #25 and the #2 really compliment the operation as well as the photos. Not sure who the photographer was that did the black and white on the East Broad Top RR but those had a similar warmth about them. Thanks again for sharing the work.
Regards, John.

Beautiful atmospheric photos. One of my favorites is the one of the train on a trestle with the reflection in the water

John,

The East Broad Top photographer you are referring to might be me; it is my long term personal project to document the railroad as it is current-day.

Follow the link below, the images starting with #409 are in the same vein as these OCSR photos.

https://www.losttracksoftime.com/p93350694

Matthew