Pacific Surfliner - End Of The Line

[Chris Dodkin]

The Circular Polarizer for my 300 and 600 lenses arrived from EBAY, so I thought I'd give it a spin on the 300 f2.8L lens today.

Took a late lunch and drove down to the end of the line for the Pacific Surfliner - Santa Fe Depot in San Diego.

Here's the Surfliner, waiting to head back North, the Coaster train is just leaving in the distance, whilst a Continental airliner comes in on final approach to San Diego's Lindberg Field.

Canon 5D2 - 300 f2.8L - f8 +1 EV - ISO 250 - 1/250

The Santa Fe Depot was built in 1915, and is a Spanish Colonial Revival style station, with a magnificent pair of tiled domes atop its twin campaniles.

These days, the station is surrounded by 21st Century construction, with high rise glass buildings towering above the old structure.

Here's the old contrasting with the new, one of the campanile domes framed by the ultra modern First National Bank building.

Canon 5D2 - 300 f2.8L - f8 - ISO 200 - 1/250

 

[Pete Askew]

What a great pair of shots Chris. Like the business of the first and the contrasts in the second. I guess you have killed some refection sin the second with the polariser.

 

[Hamish Gill]

good moment caught in the first one with the plane in the back ground eh?
how long did you wait there to get that shot?

 

[Paul Lange]

It seems that you have manged to take pictures of trains and not make the whole thing look train spotterish. The last shot is just lovely!!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Pete - the polarizer did a great job on the glass reflections - the side of the building to the left of the image was very light coloured under normal illumination, but a quick twist of the CP had it a nice contrasty blue colour

It also improved the blue sky in shot #1.

Hamish - I waited 20 mins to get a clean shot with a plane it it - I kept missing them because I wasn't paying attention.

Paul - I've been after that last shot for a while, and the new CP filter gave me the perfect excuse to go get it. Might give the train thing a rest now.

 

[Ralph Thornton]

Enjoyed your Surfliner photos Chris. This last one was one of the best, especially with the jet in the background. Maybe now it's time to show us the interior of the Surfliner?

 

[Pete Askew]

Don't encourage him. His wife will kill you!!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Not if I take her on the Surfliner for a romantic weekend in Santa Barbara...

 

[Pete Askew]

Yes, but you are supposed to gaze lovingly into her eyes and not be disappearing off every 5 minutes to take a shot!!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Good point!

 

[Ralph Thornton]

Not if I take her on the Surfliner for a romantic weekend in Santa Barbara...

Common Chris, go for it. You'll both have a great time and I'll get to see the interior of the Surfliner (I hope).

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Pete, here's the effect of the Circ Polarizer on two identical frames from yesterday.

You can see that rotating the filter changes the light reflection from the glass - I went with the one on the right as I wanted to contrast the sides of the building with the small area square on to the camera, which is lighter on this frame.

Ralph - I'm game, although I'm not sure the insides are much to write home about!

 

[Pete Askew]

That certainly helped to balance the image up and gave the separation you were looking for. Although I have polarisers most of my image making doesn't require them most of the time (aside from some techincal stuff). I did buy one for the RF's last year though. You have 2 filters, one for the lens and one that sits in the hotshoe. They have a sclae on them and you view through one and match the settings on the other. The one for my Mamiya 7 uses a different apprach and can be swung from the lens to cover the viewfinder and retains it orientation due to the clever way the lever is arranged.

 

[Darren Bradley]

Great shots, Chris! I do like the effect that CP had on the first shot. I was wishing the background was more in focus to see the Coaster and the plane were more in focus, but even with a more narrow aperture not sure what you could have done, given the lens. Did you try any that way? It may havd been too busy, anyway.

For the second shot, you do know that glass building is meant to represent a champagne glass with bubbles, right? You did a nice job of showing it there.

 

[Pete Askew]

Champagne Glass. Now that is interesting! And I'm sure they are delighted with the imagery; merchant bank, giant champagne glass, global recession triggered by the banking sector...

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Darren, didn't know that about the bank building - but now you mention it, it's a clever effect!

RE DOF on the train shot - I went completely the other way and did a shot wide open at f2.8!!

 

[Pete Askew]

And that I like!