Submitter's name:	Jim Caldwell
Title:	On The Right Track
Gear used:	OM-4Ti + 35 - 70/4 + window mount tripod
Diaphragm:	f4
Shutter speed:	1/60
Film used:	Kodakcolor Gold 100 ASA.
Technical information:	I've been waiting for a foggy day to shoot this! Clipped the window mount tripod on my car stopped on abandoned RR tracks and set the timer. That's me walking down the tracks. Also shot a couple without me in it, but I like the figure.
Subject information:	Foggy landscape - well if you don't have a good landscape, hide it in fog! I've been going by this site for a year and was waiting for the light and atmosphere to be perfect. It finally accomodated me! I normally have transparency film in the camera, but this day I had negative film. I don't know if I'll get another foggy day like this as spring approaches.
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Comment left by: Olaf Greve (no e-mail specified)

This is a great shot! I love the mist and the mystical touch it gives to the shot. One feels the person walks on into an unknown future... The only room for improvement I see here, would have been to take one more step to the right, so both rails would have started out in a bottom corner of the picture (with the person still centred horizontally). Either way, this is a great shot, so the above is nitpicking.

Comment left by: Doro (no e-mail specified)

cool :)

Comment left by: Brian Swale (bj@caverock.net.nz)

Interesting composition, but it works. I like the tonal values, the pastels, and that you still have managed to capture some detail in the shadow despite the strength of the back-lighting

Comment left by: bbbean (bbbean@beancotton.com)

Nice feel. Not sure if its a landscape, but its a good shot. One thing I'd change would be to move further down teh tracks so tat the pavement didn't show. But a wall hanger nonetheless.

Comment left by: Chung Seow Lim (boochap@pacific.net.sg)

very nice and interesting tone...but i would like to shift my perspective little bit to the right, to make it more symmetrical

Comment left by: Eric Pederson (epederso@darkwing.uoregon.edu)

Very nice. I hope you were certain the tracks were abandoned!!! Perfect time-neutral clothing for the mood too.

Comment left by: Chris Barker (imagopus@threeshoes.co.uk)

I like parallel lines, and I can imagine them disappearing .....

Comment left by: Winsor (wincros@earthlink.net)

It has a wonderful vintage quality about it, almost like an old toned black and white. I also like the figure walking bravely into the unknown while we hang back.

Comment left by: Jim Brokaw (jbrokaw@pacbell.net)

I sure hope those tracks are *really* abandoned...! Great shot! Jim

Comment left by: benson (benson@research.haifa.ac.il)

I like this shot. It says something - almost existential- from nowhere to nowhere, nothing very clear. Very clever to put yourself in it - It never would have occurred to me.

Comment left by: Wayne Harridge (no e-mail specified)

Who can complain about Gold 100 when they see this ?

Comment left by: Moose (dreammoose@attbi.com)

Alfred Hitchcock, I presume? A fascinating and evocative image. The asphalt places it at a crossing. I think the mystery would be enhanced by shooting with only sleepers and rails. Then the past would be just as mysterious as the future. The symbolic image of only one man awake walking down the bodies of sleepers aligned by and supporting the straight and narrow path controlled by the rods of steel is very mythic. I do a lot of dreamwork and this looks like a dream.

Comment left by: John A. Lind (no e-mail specified)

Aha! A trick I've pulled a couple times when a convenient pedestrian wasn't available. Most of it has already been said about the fog and murkiness. Has a very powerful vanishing point that pulls the eye into you as it attempts to follow the perspective lines; the treetops are supportive of the strong track lines too. I like how you're slightly off center. I might have moved it a little more up or down (a personal composition method), then centered it vertically and experimented with some to the left and right also, to keep the vanishing point from being too centered. If you didn't do so in making this one, consider burning a few frames with future images like it to experiment with exactly where the very strong, singular vanishing point is placed in it. If you don't already have a TOPE 1, does this one also qualify for that too??

Comment left by: Charles Sdunek (charles@mormons.com)

How do you like that? A landscape and a self portrait all in one. I like it. I was thinking of something similar with some tracks near my home. I dont know whether you intended to have the tracks off center, I know from doing this, its easy to be off a little and not notice it. Good idea and nice shot.

Comment left by: John A. Lind (no e-mail specified)

More for Charles' benefit . . . A strong focal point dead center in the image is too strong for most images. With a vanishing point it typically creates a "bullseye" effect that doesn't look quite right because there isn't strong symmetry in all directions for proper balance to support dead centering. The best I can describe it is "dead center" composition attempts to "force balance" something that is inherently imbalanced. In this image the bottom has greater density than the top. An example of the few notable exceptions are orb webs which have the necessary strong symmetry in all directions to support it.

Comment left by: Scott Gomez (no e-mail specified)

I think the off-center vanishing point adds some necessary tension to this image. Centered, the image would have been far too static.

Comment left by: Mike Lazzari (no e-mail specified)

I like the feel of this shot but would have brought the rails to the left side rather than centered. Also wish that you had hussled ass farther down the tracks before the shutter tripped :>)

Comment left by: Chuck Norcutt (chucknorcutt@attbi.com)

I love it. I'd probably have tried to center it but then I'm compositionally challenged. I'd relly like to see it as a sepia toned monochrome.

Comment left by: Mickey Trageser (no e-mail specified)

All lines lead to you! The composition leaves no doubt about the subject. Nicely done. Good thing a train didn't come by. You could have lost an Oly. Oh, and yeah, a car.

Comment left by: Jim Caldwell (jamesfc@gte.net)

Thanks for all the great comments! I had hoped to shoot some more like this, when I had more time to set up - and perhaps a 'model' with me to walk the tracks, but this was the last foggy day in the spring. The original composition was slightly different, but as I got out of the car, or tripped the camera, it probably shifted slightly. This isn't too far off from the original way I composed it however. Thanks again!

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