Showtime

My project involving the steam railway museum is well advanced, but when I was compiling a book of photos I had taken there, I realised that I still needed three or four more shots. So I paid a brief extra visit today.

One thing I have learned during this exercise is that there is always something to learn! And on this occasion, despite going there loaded down with flash equipment and light stands, I realised that experimentation with very long shutter speeds could produce equally good results.

So I took some close-ups of steam engine boiler rivets with the shutter open for as long as 20 seconds and I employed a similar approach for abstract photos of engine wheels and drive shafts.

The picture above was also taken without flash, and with a long shutter speed. It is the inside of a Punch and Judy-type show and I wanted the characters to be largely silhouetted, but the sharpest part of the shot.