In previous years I (Ben) have nipped over to the KWVR a few times in the winter to take some abstract, long-exposure pics of the railway running in the dark. The Beer Festival in October offers a good chance for this sort of pic, but it does mean fairly late running, and having to be out and about until 11-ish.
The Christmas timetable however offers trains in the twilight around 4.30pm, then properly in the dark around 5.30, which is a rather more civilised and less potentially dodgy time to be out taking pictures. Plus the very cold weather produces interesting steam effects. Normally I've been working, or taxiing Amy and The Childs to choir practise around this time of year, but with the lurgy putting a stop to all that sort of thing, it gave me chance to head out for a bit of pre-teatime railway photography.
The first weekend of running after the lockdown saw the sky still a bit light at 4.30, but it made for a nice image.
...but the shot afterwards, up at Haworth/Mytholmes Tunnel was rather better.
It being rather wet, we (me, Elder Child, and Father in Law who is in our bubble) took a socially distanced walk up to Haworth, but the angle of the pic wasn't great for a train in the dark.
We walked down to Haworth Station instead for the shot, but there wasn't enough space to set up the tripod without blocking the footbridge, so the shot didn't turn out well.
The following weekend, same time, we headed out to Oakworth for more of the same. The above shot, with the lens open for about 20 seconds, was alright, but showed I still needed to experiment a bit with the settings. It's been a while since I've done any of these shots, and stupidly I didn't keep notes about the camera settings from a few years ago (on top of which, I'm using our old camera as the weather was too manky most nights to risk the decent SLR).
Interesting how, further down the suburban end of the valley, the sky can be a noticeably different colour. I quite liked how the streetlamp catching the wall and plants in the foreground added to the picture.
I decided to try a shot at Bridge 11 (well. I've done a lot of pics there in 2020, so it seemed fitting). The train was going nice and slowly, mainly because (apparently) of the increasing problem of trespassers dicking about in the tunnel here...
Normally I wouldn't go up into the woods near Damems in the dark (hell, even during the mornings during the last few months it meant running a gauntlet of loose angry dogs, scrambler-bike-riding buffoons on the footpath, and gangs of piss-head teenagers). That said, the clear sky and the moon was beautiful, and I thought I'd risk it.
Yes, I did stand in the river for this shot. And I was passed on the way out of the woods by the inevitable gang of hooded yoofs too, but I'd already got the shot and escaped, so dodged a potential mugging.
Back up to Haworth, which proved a little more civilised than Ingrow.
Interesting effect with a panning shot.
There was only one weekend left, but I'd done a recce up near Oakworth in daylight to find some locations...
It was a reasonable spot; I went up there with Elder Child, but the focusing wasn't quite right as we were spooked a bit by the fact a couple of people were stalking us in the woods. All we spotted were two silhouettes of chaps talking about us, then as we were leaving there was a particularly loud 'crack' of an air rifle. We reckon we got the wrong side of a couple of idiots out poaching for rabbits in the adjacent fields.
Rather better down the path under that bridge. The train was going very slowly, and those same voices followed us off the path afterwards... nothing worth reporting as we didn't have a clear view of our mystery watchers in the dark (and past experience of ringing the police would indicate they couldn't care less), and whoever it was following us left us alone when we reached the busy road. The joys of evening photography.
We headed up the flooded paths up towards the tunnel, and I tried to recreate a shot I took about 5 years ago; the noise of the water rather drowned-out the noise of the train so we didn't realise it was there until it was almost too late, but I managed a couple of shots.
Finally, up to Ebor Lane. Not the angle I wanted, but there wasn't time to get somewhere better. The floodlights on the right kind of add something to it; and the reason I wanted to try for the pics whilst I could get it. With Skipton Properties insisting on building over every scrap of land in the valley, it won't be long to the building work here will mean it's too busy to get photographs at this location.
Well, I managed a few shots this year... I had more time to try, with less other obligations before Christmas compared to a normal year, but all the frustrations of waiting in the cold and the dark, and the antisocial behaviour of a few locals, reminded me why I stopped trying for these kinds of pictures. I'd idiotically assumed it would be a bit better (safer) at 4.30 compared to 9pm, but more fool me. Next time I want to do something like this, I'll try and do the shot with miniatures...
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