Using Strobes and speedlights for moving trains

In 2014 I started a new era in my photography. I had seen others do it, and I was always on the sidelines thinking I would never have the budget to do this. Around October I acquired my first strobes and now am able to do something previously impossible for me. Freeze moving trains at night. Among railfans this practice comes up as con-traversal, but most who criticize it are not railroaders or photographers for that matter so I want to touch base on a few things and debunk some myths.

"Strobes blind crews."

False, the strobes and speed-lights are designed for photography purposes on human subjects. Usually softboxed, but if not under a softbox or umbrella, staring directly at them is really the only way they can blind you. I made a dumb mistake on a setup day back in my Lifetouch Church Directories days where I plugged in an un-boxed Paul Buff 800, my hands were at the back of the strobe so I accidentally hit the dumb button. Blasted myself in the face and had a little bit of a headache and the image of the flash bulb sired in my eye for about an hour, lost a little eye sight for a short period of time, but I had stared directly at it. Train crews will not be staring directly at your strobes. or close enough to get this result. It's not good for your eyes to have this many incidents, but you're probably an idiot if you have this many incidents where you've rendered yourself blind as a result. I operate with a Nikon D5300 at max ISO of 12800 so I can get away with using softboxes and umbrellas as my ISO compensates for the small loss of light.

"Strobes scare crews"

This is partly true, but only on a rare occasion and depends on the circumstance and who is on the crew. To minimize the chance of one of these rare incidents. I fire a test dump as the train is approaching the crew sees the light and is not surprised by my presence usually. I would also be careful about which location I chose. Setting up in a pine wooded area that is always isolated ether day or night will scare crews much more likely than inhabited areas.

"It's illegal"

Totally false! The only time it is illegal is if trespassing or harassment is involved. Of important note though there is always a chance a train crew can call you in even if you're not violating the law. These cases are rare. I do my best to make sure I am not trespassing anytime I perform this operation. Sometimes it's hard to tell where railroad property starts and to date none of my strobe operations have involved trespassing, I plan to keep it that way. Even still there have been incidents where a crew calls it in to the dispatcher and the operator was breaking no laws. I keep a scanner clipped to my waist so if a crew does call me in for a legal operation I will hear it and prepare an exit from the area. Most law enforcement are reasonable, but I prefer to avoid the confrontation completely as their response time will usually be over 20 mins and by then I can leave the area. The practice has been around for years but as technology gets smaller and cheaper more people can now do O. Winston Link style photography. The practice will only become more common in future years.

I also want to combat a elitist snobbish attitude where people say if you're not producing O. Winston Link quality don't do it at all. Stop it right there, everybody starts somewhere, if you think your first image with strobes is going to be flawless and epic no matter what the subject is you're delusional.   

On more unrelated thing that often comes up is yellow vest so the crews can see you better. Yeah, don't be that guy, that's technically crew impersonation may be perceived  as a threat and may scare crews worse than use of strobes as they were not informed of any crews out trackside and might cause panic for crews and the dispatcher. Not only that, but when I am doing any night photography operation don't matter if it's rail related or not, I usually DON'T WANT TO BE SEEN! I'm carrying thousands of dollars of equipment, and it's not so much a law enforcement reaction that bothers me as much as a more likely run-in with a thug. I am very anti-social on night treks especially solo ones and I often prefer not to communicate with anybody I may see or encounter. So wearing a bright vest is the last thing I want to do when you never know who might wanna rob me, beat me or whatever you can imagine. Less a person sees the less chance of any confrontation.

The above photo is one that "almost" got published in Trains magazine. This is the site of the 2005 Graniteville train wreck, on the 10 year anniversary in 2015 I staked out the location to catch Norfolk Southern train E13 passing the crash site. It was not my best work, but I'm OK with the result.