Conway Scenic Railway

Conway Scenic Railway is a treat I would recommend to anyone; not just train lovers. The station and the interior of the trains cars are fully restored and well kept, making it the perfect backdrop for photos. I was inspired by images I’ve seen in history books men and women of the 1930’s-1940’s traveling by train. It gave me ideas for a few creative poses to try. You can be the judge and decide whether I was successful or not.

Long exposure motion blur is a technique I have been itching to try so I decided the train ride would be the perfect time to attempt it. The idea is to use a long exposure period so anything that isn’t moving stays in focus while everything else that is in motion has a blur effect. It was a nightmare trying to keep the camera steady for more than 1/6 of a second. After many attempts I was only able to capture one photo that I believed was passable for social media. Let’s just say, although the train ride is pleasant it wasn’t exactly the smoothest. Not only was there unpredictable movement up and down, the train move side to side as well making it nearly impossible to keep the subject centered. Perhaps I will try again on a newer and smoother train but for now it was good practice. I used my Canon R5 with a 24mm F1.8 macro lens as my all around work horse for this trip. I kept my ISO low and adjusted my shutter speed for the right exposure. I tend to favor shooting with the aperture wide open, but for the motion blur effect, I had an Fstop of 8 or higher to compensate for the extended exposure also.