A series of urban trains. The b&w series taken around shimokitazawa where the tracks are being moved underground to reduce noise and ease surface traffic. One shot of an out bound "romance car", this version has the conductor and engineer in the back and front respectively (no panorama for the passingers on in this model).
The square shot for KT...
The color shots from a recent trip to hakone hot spring area.
#2 is cool with the perspective of looking from above the track. But #3 has a really nice depth to it with the train tracks and overhead lines coming out at you. Fantastic! Is this with the new Mamiya?
community and spread out at major stations to cover a huge area. This is a "private" line, owned by Odakyu group (as far as I know).
The Mamiya is resting until I sort out the scanning issue, most likely in the new year as I am off to Germany at the end of November for business and then the normal year end activity. Most likely Meiji Jingu Shrine at on Jan 1 or 2...
While the last three are most "classically" composed, I prefer the earlier photos -- in particular the first one -- for the subject matter and utter clarity of the images. So clean! I think of the decrepit state of the railways here in the US (Warren Buffet notwithstanding) and marvel at the creation of new rails. Probably helps that my grandfather and his brothers were all railroadmen -- brakeman, turntable operator, and boilermaker...
Any chance of old photos from your grandfather and/or his brothers? I am sure it would be an interesting bit of history. Just recently I have been considering the SL tour here in Japan, taking a ride on the old steam engine train (it's not that expensive of a tour, but quite popular).
Recently a location in Kanagawa (near Yokohama) was named the "best spot" to take train photos. I can just imagine that it's sooooo crowded with film and digital shooters . Knowing the best secret spot to take train photos is my target...
Thanks Kelvin that image just screamed square format
November 8 2009, 5:01 PM
and you are correct about the human element in all that construction. Down in the mud making it happen. A series on the train workers would make a good study.
They express so many things: movement, routine, farewells, welcomes. There's a sort of romantic association that doesn't clash with technology, and which is more intimate than what happens at airports (and now more than ever). There is also the way these systems sort of divide the city when they are planned and built because they didn't exist before many buildings already in place. You'd have to have planned for the system to be built at the same time as the city, which is very unlikely except in "new towns", suburban developments and new modern cities (very few). So it has always represented a challenge for planners and engineers (and architects, but nobody listen to us anyway in regard to these matters, as in highway planning). Still... the view from a train is so much nicer than from a car and the city looks completely different when the tracks are elevated.
Too bad the last time I went to take photos, they stopped me. You know... 9-11, etc, etc. Me, the terrorist with a D-Lux 4, full of explosives.
Anyway, what I meant to say is that I don't get tired of your train series. I do like them a lot. For me, it's actually like looking at a city I've never visited from a very particular perspective. (#4 is nice!)
I spend a couple of hours per day in a rail vehicle, we call them trains and in some cases it might be part of the Tokyo Metro system, a private rail company, or one of the JR groups (Japan Railroad was kind of privatized and broken into group companies). JR is the most like a traditional train as we might imagine it. The Tokyo Metro (here in Tokyo of course) is not really a lite rail, but the size of the car can be different line by line (e.g. the Ginza Line or the very old Maranuchi Line with the smallest tunnels). The tunnels can be piled 2-3 deep at some crossing points.
Long distance trains are always fun. Just grab a bento (box lunch) and a beer and you are all set for the trip. Of course you must take your mandatory nap as the train rocks through the country side - one or two beers helps that process .
Many of the private lines (e.g. in the Tokyo metro area) were build to speed commuters to company owned housing developments and they built their shops (department stores) at the terminal location. Each line in has it's own look and feel. I guess since most of Tokyo was rebuild in the late 40s and early 50s, there was some opportunity for these large companies to get some special treatment from the city planners (actually until recently all city planning was done at the central government level and only in the last years has responsibility been given -in a limited way- to the cities or prefectures). Public works and the funding distribution (local vs. central) is a big topic this year...
Thanks for the words about the train series, I am thinking to do a mini series on the workers or other aspects...
It might be interesting to include a full size crop of part of that image. Film -> scanner (tiff format) -> post processing software (Canon DPP & Elements if I need to straighten) -> TIFF to JPG conversion... maybe I have some noise inducing steps in my workflow and for sure my process is not as professional as others.
Great that you got your film shipment and interesting to see what you think of Neopan 1600.
long shadows of the afternoon light 'almost' straight down the tracks. Looks like we might catch some rain this week, but autumn is normally a great time to be out and about with some warm sunny afternoons still possible.
. Knowing the best secret spot to take train photos is my target...
