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Since I was a kid, I was interested in trains, since my father used to use them quite often, the main places we went was from Fishbourne to Portsmout Harbour (To go to the Portsmouth historic dockyard) and to Maze Hill (To the Queens House), btw, if you want to place Maze Hill, its the next stop from Greenwich, although, the last time I strayed that far on that line was I think 1992, the last time I strayed that far east though, was 2002, when I ended up at Hither Green, I have many memories of that area during the early 1990’s. Even more so, the EPB’s which got phased out, during the time I was there. Even more disturbing, the colour of the BR Blue and grey EPB’s, which to my eyes, once weathered, went a sort of green colour!!! I would of been 6 at the time. Later on, I can remember the networkers, which to me, smelt like a lavitory! That reconqisable smell was everywhere on the train!!! The other recongisable thing, was the sound of the motors, and they seem to be louder back in the early 90’s than today! Perhaps, I was only on the ABB type of networkers, which are the loudest of all! I also have some memories of Cannon Street, but very little.
Moving swiftly on, I did go to london, but it was once every so often, like once a year. Back then, I traveled with my father, now, I travel on my own, and go all over the place! I must go back to Maze Hill however! ;)
I started railway photography since June 2000, as I was on camp, and I found something interesting to do, but I had gathered a few snaps of trains before that! Including one, that had a 70’s look, but was infact, photographed in 1996! Must be the film quality! The first camera I had, was a 110mm thing, it was mainly used for the holiday I had in Tenerife, at the time, but, I lost the film! :( I can’t remember the name of it either.
So, the next camera I got, was branded “the Big yellow camera”, it was alright at the time I suppose, but was no good for taking photos. It did go everywhere with me, but I lost the photos from that too! There was one I believe of a 2 car class 483 stock going over Ryde Pier Head in July 1998, where did it go though?
The next one after that, in 1999, was a Konica disposable camera, to which I removed EVERYTHING on it, except, the camera was intact! Even the packaging that wasn’t suppose to come off. But it took some brilliant photos! That too came on the IOW with me, but I went to not Ryde side, but Great Yarmouth! Then I went to the Needles. Still I took some nice shots. But it was disposable! :(
So, I had to give it up. Then I went out and got my self an APS camera, my mum brought one 2 years before, but I was not allowed to touch it, let alone, see it. It was a Goldline camera, and only cost £30, not bad for what it was! Add some high quality film (overkill of the camera!) and you got some nice snaps! The quality was soo nice, that I took it everywhere, only to realise, you couldn’t turn the damm flash off! I lived with it though. So, I took shots with this camera from the camp, to the Mellemium Dome, and even to a meet up on the Great Central Railway in Loughbrough!
Realsing that the flash was going to be a pain, I decided to try and buy my own camera, for £40, but I got one cascaded down from my mum, to me! It was a Cannon IXUS camera, it was quite expensive at the time. Only because I incidently damaged a camera! :( But I found out some history about them, and that, someone else, who had the same type of camera told me, that that is one of the orignal (more expensive batch), now drop my camera, and there wouldn’t be a scratch on it, when I did that, I found it out when I tripped up on a flight of stairs at Canary Whalf (DLR station), and didn’t even damage the case!! The only reason why I had it out, is because I was changing the film! I ran out of film! The case however, is not plastic, but Alluminium! It did suffer some damage when I tripped up, but not a lot. Just that the flash won’t stay down, and it would take more than one attempt to load the film!
Its replacement came sooner than I expected! So in January 2003, my mother and I both went out (only to get problems with some bloke who got slaughtered on the line 50yrds down the road, the second level crossing incident that day in Sussex, for those who need reminding!). It was to be digital. And it would be an Olympus C-220 camera! For smart media cards, I needed it to be Smart compatable, since my father has millions of those things! We have plenty here that range in size really, some 32 meg card and 64’s! Such a shame my PDA isn’t compatable with the cards though. The camera though takes some nice shots, and the other one (the IXUS) was meant to be kept, due to my orignal decision for a camera, didn’t have zoom facility, but I changed my mind later, and so this one did! It takes some nice shots though, even without the flash, but you need a steady hand for night shots, as I have found out on numous occasions, as everything becomes “blurred”, it was also a problem with my IXUS camera!
Also, with that, I decided to think carefully where I placed myself to take a shot, I preferr a nice, undisturbed scene, preferbly away from other people, for example, at a certain location at London Victoria. Many photographers, like to have little details, like doors shut, obiviously, you don’t want to make the railway look as if it is unused, so, to add effect, the door could be left open, and maybe, with your friend in the background (or group!) getting on the train, in my eyes, gives it a better effect, since, it makes it look as if someone is using the trains, rather than letting them rot! And apart from that, in most cases, theres nothing you can do about it, but let people get in your shot anyway. The other thing is to position myself far enough to keep out of peoples way, preferbly, so they know that I am not there, obiviously, you get some idiot who likes to be a pain in the butt, and sticks 2 fingers up, or worse, 1 finger up! My advice is don’t bother, at the end of the day it comes down hard on you, unless you want to be embarrased by your friends, and your parents. (I was speaking to Chichester High School (for Boys mainly!) lot, who have a reputation of being pests, and starting on others for no reason!). However, I have only encountered that problem a few years ago, and I have been bothered by then, but generally, I avoid the trains they are using, since I have no need to use them.
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