Railyard

A few weeks back, I spotted a railyard full of old freight trucks. They were old, many of them rusted, and looked pretty unused to me. They sat in a siding on the far side of an active rail line, dozens and dozens and dozens of them.

And the yard had clearly become a street-artists’ playground.

Pretty much every truck was covered in graffiti- everything from tags and scrawls through to some really beautiful pieces of scripting, cartoons and vibrant colours.

So I had to go and take a look.

Now, as a disclaimer, I have to say here:

a) I do not condone graffiti on objects without seeking permission

b) I do not condone trespassing, whether to paint trains or to take photographs of those said-same trains

c) I do not condone playing in railyards without permission, ESPECIALLY ones where trains are still in active service

That said, for some reason there was absolutely no fencing preventing you from crossing over to this particular railyard, and nor were there any “no trespassing” signs. So paying VERY careful attention to make sure I wasn’t about to kiss a passing diesel engine, I decided to take my lens for a little exploration.

And it was s great shoot. The light was a bit of a mixed bag. It was a sunny, blue-sky day, which meant high contrast in some directions, and heavy shadow on some of the surfaces. However the vibrant colours and the unique subject made for lots of fun angles and great visuals. I was pretty pleased with my time out there.

I do have to stress that I spent a LOT of time looking over my shoulder. When you’ve got a camera to your face, it’s easy to get lost in the framing and the lighting and the composition, and forget where you are. On an active rail-line, that’s not something you can afford to do. I’ve had similar experiences taking highway shots (an oddly popular theme on my blog, in terms of search-engine hits- one of my most viewed)- you have to be quite vigilant to make sure you don’t inadvertantly forget to step out of the way of an approaching car while kneeling for that perfect low-angle shot. So out in the railyard, I got pretty twitchy whenever a train roared past. But happily, photographer, camera and images all made a safe exit from the venue, with the photos below just a handful of the images I came away with.

Hope you enjoy something a little random.