Dan is asking us to showcase our Hobbies for this weeks Fun Foto Challenge. This is going to be a difficult one because I have had a number of hobbies over the years 🤣 I’d guess that’s true of most of us…
My main interests over the years have centred around transport. In fact I took up photography to record the transport scene. However my love of transport and trains in particular got me involved in birds and nature. Then in the early 1980’s I got involved in computing and gaming – that was a mix of work and hobby! Bearing in mind that last area, I will include a screenshot from a game as illustration… While it may not be a photograph in the truest sense, it still required me to think like a photographer when lining it up. Then there is Football – an even more recent interest than gaming!
Lets start with one of my older railway shots…
Taken in June 1979 it shows a scene that has so much history. The train crossing the bridge is formed of a Class 501 unit. These entered service in 1957 and remained in use until 1985 operating services on the North London line and the Watford DC lines route. In the foreground is a Lengthman – then a common sight. His job was to walk a specific section of track each day looking for defects. Lengthmen knew their bit of the route like the back of their hands and could often predict potential problems and resolve them long before they became an issue. The train on the tracks below, made up of sleeper coaches, is being shunted back into Old oak Common Depot on the Great Western Mainline out of Paddington. This scene is totally changed now as both lines have overhead electrification.
The trains have moved on and so have the cameras. The previous shot was taken on a Canon AE-1 using Kodachrome 64. I’ve worked through a number of Canon cameras over the years. Probably my favourite in the film era was the T90. In the digital era it has to be the 5D mkIII which I used with the 70-200mm f2.8 lens for lots of football shots. In this shot, taken at an away game against Carshalton Athletic, our keeper Ben can’t quite get his glove to the shot to push it wide…
The same camera but using the 24-70mm f2.8 lens produced this shot of a pair of Cans – Class 86 Electric Locos – hauling an intermodal service through Willesden Junction in September 2014…
I have recently moved from Canon to Fujifilm cameras. There is a bit of history here – I owned a Fuji ST705 before I bought my Canon AE-1. It was a great camera and what struck me most about it was the quality of the Fuji lens. At the time, availability of different lenses for cameras other than the likes of Canon, Nikon and Pentax was poor. Times move on – Fuji now have a very good range of their own lenses that maintain the quality that I experienced with the ST-705. However, having been a loyal Canon user for something like 35 years, what possessed me to change? Well, we all get older and I reached that point when hefting a full frame 5D and the 70-200mm to football matches was getting to be an issue. It was less of a problem for trains as I didn’t carry the big zoom, using a cheaper lightweight lens instead. But there was also another factor – I thought that I was losing touch with my photographic roots. Fuji offered a camera that put back the hands on experience of the rangefinder days… That finally precipitated the change.
I’ve mentioned birds and nature above so we should have a shot to cover that area of interest – Here’s Mrs blackbird munching on the Rowan berries…
I also mentioned the computer gaming and the capturing of screenshots. Here’s one from Euro Truck Simulator 2 that I took earlier today – A shot of my Scania S500 heading north on the Autobahn near Kassel…
One hobby I didn’t mention was Aircraft and Flying. I spent 15 happy years chasing aeroplanes from 1988 through until 2004 during which time I learnt to fly and for a long time owned a share in Piper Cherokee G-BBIL – seen here at her homebase of Andrewsfield…
I do a bit of people watching with my cameras too…
…Often these shots are in public transport situations…
…and sometimes I take shots where the subject is aware but doesn’t realise how it’ll look until I send them a copy – like this shot of our club’s hostess…
I also photo Buses and Trucks – here’s a 460 passing through Temple Fortune…
…And a Dynes recovery truck hauling a bus that had an argument with a tree…
So back to the football and a shot with the Fuji taken as fans and players celebrate a goal…
…And finally back to the trains and a very recent shot on home territory – 66558 climbing through Brondesbury Park with a Basford Hall Yard to London Gateway intermodal just 2 weeks ago…
These are my hobbies but photography ties them all together!
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