Using strobes or Speedlights to freeze moving trains, (Operational info)

Let me be frank I am not the best at this and don't claim to be, but that said there's a lot for you to learn from me. First of all here are my tools.

Required on my outings
2x Ailen Bee 1600 (rated at 640 watts)
1x Promaster 300c (300 watts)
2x Neewer C300 (300 Watts) (Rarely used but can be good cheap strobes)

*All my strobes are softboxed, or umbrellaed, explanation will be later on.

Puresine Ion inverter

*Battery powered speed-lights can be substituted for strobes.

*On my lights it's important to note that the watt ratings, this is really important as you know what you can run off your power source. It's a very fat chance there will be an electrical socket conveniently located near your shoot location, so an inverter is important, but make sure your inverter his not too limited. Ideally you want to have an inverter attached to every strobe, but if you can't you can run extension cords and run them off one inverter. This said my Pure Sine inverter has a 1000 watt limit and that usually limits me to using one Ailen Bee and my Promaster 300c. In a few weeks I should have my new inverter that plugs into my vehicle and inverts 12 volts into 4000 watts of power. That should run not only all my strobes but my laptop to. Also watt ratings are important in deciding which strobes to work where as some are just simply more powerful. Ideally it's best to have the same model for all your strobes, but I don't.

Sturdy Tripods, and weights to tie to them prevent wind gust from blowing them over.
Nikon D5300

*I have 3 DLSR cameras but my Nikon D5300 is my favorite for this operation because it has an ISO capacity of 12800 this allows me to softbox my strobes. It's a fat chance that any train crews stare directly into them and get blinded, but with the magic of high ISOs I am able to still get decent lighting with my strobes softboxed. When a train rolls passed me it's just like they rolling into a studio. In my last blog I mentioned the blinding myth and how the odds of it are slim.

Other options are slaves, remotes, and other things I may not mention or use. I have some slaves and remotes in repair so currently I don't use them, but it is ideal to have them. I usually use slave mode to activate all my lights with my camera's main flash.

Another piece of equipment that is not required but surly nice to have is a scanner, if you can listen in and get a good read, you might can set up and have minimal wait time for the train you're after.

Location, Location, Location

Important, when you're doing this to pick a good location. Setting up in the woods in the middle of nowhere probably is not a good idea. Nothing attractive and the chances of scaring the crews are high. You also want to set up on public land, or maybe privately owned land that you have permission to operate on. But a good rule of thumb is obviously avoid trespassing on the railroad. If you cannot tell where railroad property begins and ends a good rule of thumb is stay 15 yards away from the track. Usually if you end up in a situation I call a grey area, you're not going to have an issue, but getting too close or on the tracks will get you into trouble. It also helps if your first time doing this, is on a crew you know well. Maybe you know a railroad crew, that you hang out with. For me I knew NS E13's crew well and my first outings were all on 6th street in Augusta. It gives you a little first timmer leeway to make your first timmer mistakes. You will probably look far from O. Winston Link on your first outing, but it's just like your first kiss, you probably won't do it right but if you never do it you never improve.

General set up, really there is no general set up. First and foremost be ahead of the train so you can set-up in a timely manner and get test shots in. The test are crucial so you know if you got any malfunctions. One strobe not firing can ruin the entire shot so keep that in mind. So the test are important, and then you can set up your light layout accordingly. A rushed set-up very rarely yelds any good results. I think I'm batting just over .250 when I have to rush in there. 25% is not good odds.

Set up your lights according to how you desire the shot to come out. You got to develop a little psychic ability to foresee what you're perusing and what effect you want. Is there any interesting background you would like to light up? Also make sure you do not blow out the ground, which is a common mistake I make. Then you got to adjust your camera's settings to optimal settings to allow the right amount of light in without it being too dark or bright. There is no one size fits all here, you will have to figure out these settings pretty much no two nights shots have the same settings unless you're trying to dupe yourself or somebody.

Another important shop tip is, make sure you know what the dew point is. Do not let your camera's temperature drop the Dew point. This will cause your lens to immediately fog up as as the train approaches your set-up as the locomotive's lights reflect off your camera and 75% of the time your outing is ruined when this happens. Not only that but obeying the dew point rule adds more life to your camera as this dew can damage it.

Next it's show time power on all appliances, as the train is approaching focus in your lens good and swap it to Manuel focus, this is important because Autofocus on a moving train at night has a tendency to select the wrong subject and will sometimes roll out of focus. Fire a final test dump to notify the crew that they are about to get a flash of light, this way it does not surprise them of your presence as bad. Then be patient and try and get the shot at the perfect moment.

I like the results of this photo only thing I didn't like was how the pavement got blown out. But other than that everything else went as planned and next time I use this location at night I will angle my strobes a little higher.

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.

Banning cameras from events and businesses: the double standard!

I want to hit this right on the head here. There's a trend where people get kicked out events or businesses for having a camera in their possession. In reality trying to ban photography is about as productive as prohibition these days.

I've seen video of infamous events like the 1992 Riverport riot touched off by Axl Rose and recently Queen's of the Stone age's Josh Homme kicking a female photographer in the head. I myself have had some bad interactions very few thank god. But those few make you realize how a camera can make you a target.

But the big problem now days is Cellphones. One would think that if they ban the use of DSLR and bridge cameras that they would also ban cellphones to. This is the double standard I am speaking of. Cellphones cause many problems for this rule.

First of all they are easy to conceal, and anybody really wanting to do something real malice like up-skirt would likely use one. Second of all, you never really can tell the intentions, I've had some instances where I was being videoed and didn't find out until months later. That event was not malice or upset me but the same thing can happen.

Now provided some establishments do actually ban cellphone photography to, but not every establishment that wants to ban photography has caught on to modern times yet and realized the issue.

So, I've had a few of these events.

I attended a Goo Goo Dolls concert in 2010 at First Tee in Augusta. Nothing bad really happened and I had a good time, the problem is this, they tell you straight up my camera is not allowed on grounds they don't want recordings of the event. I respected their wishes and most my friends were disappointed when I came in without my camera. I look in the crowd and see cellphones raised, check on Youtube and Facebook and what do I see? The exact thing That the staff of the event said they were trying to prevent. So while I was not allowed to use my camera for the reason they didn't want any recordings, seemed like everybody else did the exact thing and got away with it.

Another story I want to tell you comes from the Augusta Mall and the Rent-a-cops. So I'm sitting in the food court with my Nikon D3000 and eating my sub, when I see a bird flying around the complex. I wanted a photo of the critter and I got one. I'm immediately confronted by a mall cop he approached me like Barney Fife, I could swear I could hear the dramatic music used in the Andy Griffith Show episode "citizen's arrest" playing. He tells me this is private property and I need to cease and desist. The people seated near my table saw it and thought he was being a jerk just like I did. I bet he won't tell this to all the cellphone selfie people to. I reckon he was just bored because there was not fight or shoplifter. I'm glad he is not a real cop, with his attitude he just might have been one of the minority of cops you hear about in horror stories. If that really is a rule there, they are only hurting themselves.

I even once had the muscles of authority flexed on me at my own high school Alma-matta in 2013, where ironically in 2009 I won awards for my work as yearbook photographer. It was a new assistant principal who told me photography was not allowed unless you have a media pass. Seemed she was the one who made this rule, as nobody else had a problem, and still a good bit of the staff there knew me from my days as a student and knew about my work behind the camera. After getting the embarrassing sendoff I log onto Facebook and see hundreds of Cellphone photos from the same game. Still do see them til this day as well. Did all those people with cellphones have media passes to? Where is their embarrassing send off? I probably should have filed a formal complaint, but on a somber note my mom's cancer battle that she would eventually lose was determined to be terminal and at the time pushing back and winning a personal battle was not as important as my mom's health.

I also often try to avoid all hangouts that enforce this double-standard rule. It's probably best to boycott any business or event that enforces the double standard, because even if you do not have your gear strapped to you if you're known as a photographer just your title can cause you problems in extreme cases. Bottom line is, if my camera is not allowed cellphones better also not be allowed.

Quarterbacks are both important and overrated.

Every time I turn around I see media sources often treating Quarterbacks like they are the only payer on the team. Yes they are team leaders, and yes they are offensive drivers. However, not including special teams there are 21 other guys on the field starting as well.

I was recently in the locker room at my local Gold's Gym in North Augusta between workouts. Colin Cowherd was on the TV. He was talking about how he's never consider certain position players for MVP in basketball and football. He took a stab at centers in the NBA, pretty much saying no center can be a MVP versus a forward. I'm guessing Mr. Cowherd does not believe in defense on the Basketball court. Then he compared NFL defensive ends in the same light. Mr. Cowheard has a history of making dumb remarks like this though.

My first thought was James Harrison. The huge defensive end for the Steelers. Remember Superbowl XLIII anyone? MVP was wide receiver Santonio Holmes. However let's not forget the true turning point. If this play had not happened. The Steelers would have lost the Super Bowl. They eventually won 27-23, that's a 4 point margin. The situation was like this, 1st and goal the half time clock was winding down. Steelers up 10-7. I still question why they did not run the ball instead. Maybe the coaches thought it would have been too predictable. We saw the Same thing happen to the Seahawks against the Patriots in 2015.

 The play in question was extremely rare. Not only did the Heavyweight, Harrison intercept a pass, but he hauled it all the way down the field. Keep in mind he is a heavyweight so he is far from the fastest person on the team. He made use of the stiff arm, juke, and hurdled a few people in this 100 yard run. Something you would never expect from a defensive end. Now let's imagine this didn't happen. Whether or not the Cardinals scored the halftime clock would expire with the score still being 10-7 or 10-13 or even 10-14 if they went for a two pointer it would be 10-15. Imagining all the other drives in the game still occurred as they did the closest the Steelers would have got to victory would have been a 4 point deficit. The James Harrison interception really made the difference for the Steelers. I think he was the real MVP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEIyUBf0X8E

As somebody who can't stand the Patriots, Superbowl XLII is my favorite. The MVP was Eli Manning, he did put up a good game, but defense anyone... For those who don't remember the 2008 Patriots were threatening the first perfect season since the 72 Dolphins. Tom Brady had a stalwart offense with many weapons that benefited his pocket passer style. To defeat the Patriots the offense needs to be shut down. The final score was 17-14, of special note is these two teams met before the playoffs that year and both teams scored in the 30s with the Patriots only winning by a field goal. Both defenses stepped up their game. However, Tom Brady was sacked several times by a strong blitz by defensive players like Michael Strahan and a forced fumble did not help matters for the Patriots. Most people look at the helmet catch as the most important moment and let's not take away from it, but let's not forget that the strong defense shut the Patriots down. Eli Manning and Tom Brady's QB stats nearly mirrored each other. It came down to which defense gave their quarterback a better situation. By smothering Brady the Giant's defense limited him from his true potential of 30+ points against them down to 14. In essence I think just about any defensive player deserves MVP before Eli Manning did.

Now to also play devil's advocate, and say what if. The offensive line is important. So what if there was a game where the backs were totally untouchable because the line let nobody by? Most successful Quarterbacks, like your Bradys, Mannings, Rodgers, Rothelsbergers, and many more are not known as duel threat quarterbacks but pocket pocket passers. Because their lack of hustle and scrambling ability, escaping the sack is tough, so it's very important to have a great offensive line. Many of these star quarterbacks are on the list of active leaders in the times sacked category. I want to stress they are smart passers but they often have more than enough time to stand in the pocket and scan the field for an open receiver. However when the line collapses they are most often sitting ducks. A strong blitz can smother a pocket passer much easier than a duel threat quarterback. John Elway and Brett Farve, both greats in many categories but both are the top two sacked Quarterbacks of all time. Their least successful games were games where they were sacked multiple times. Let's remember that when a quarterback is sacked it is not usually his fault, that is a failure of the offensive line.

Need anymore proof that a quarterback cannot win it all. Look no further than the Browns. They have been through nearly 30 QBs in a span of 17 years. Some could have very well blossomed into stars, however unlike Brady, Manning, Farve, Elway etc, these poor QBs had no team around them. Their front office pretty much looked at obtaining a QB as the holy grail and a turning point. At times they were not even smart in choosing their QB like when they got Johnny Football or when they drafted then 28 year old Brandon Weeden, a QB with only maybe 4 years shelf life at the most. Instead they could have drafted now 28 year old Russell Wilson. Good results not guaranteed of course because Wilson has a team with the Seahawks. The Browns put together such awful teams that I'm not convinced they could win if they cloned Bart Starr and made him their QB, looking at what he would have to work with.

I urge readers to think outside the pocket when considering a game MVP.

The Accident: December 2007

Later this year a notorious accident I had on bicycle will be 10 years old. The hit was so hard I can still feel it today.

December 4th, 2007 started like almost any typical Tuesday, except I left home early that morning, because I had some extra duty as yearbook photographer to perform. For those of you who don't know at the time I was a junior at Midland Valley High School at the time. I didn't own a vehicle or hold a driver's license. Therefore, in order for me to get where I needed to be on time, I was my own transportation. My morning and afternoon commute normally consisted of a 2.7 mile trek that would almost always place me on Anthony Drive, Duncan Road, and Mustang Drive. I very rarely deviated from this route.

I remember waking up before 5AM. I had hit the shower hand cleaned up ate breakfast before 6AM. I was on the road by about 5:50. The morning was a cold one with temps in the upper 20s to lower 30s. I had a coat on with a hood. The weakness of this was the hood was on so tight that my neck could not swivel like usual, it created a bit of a blind spot. Riding in the cold was nothing new to me and riding like this was also nothing new. I eventually swapped to a ski mask following this accident. I also had a camper's back pack that had about 15 pounds of text books, good for about half my full text book load. If it hadn't have been for lockers and I had my full 30 pound load I would have been hurting even worse. The book bag was fastened to me by a harness with two cross straps. One around my waist, and one around my chest to prevent load shift. Strapped under these cross straps was my camera satchel. My Fujifilm Finepix S5200 survived this and many accidents in my padded camera satchel and I still own it today, just don't use it a lot.

After stopping at a convenience store on SC. hwy 421 commonly referred to by locals as the depot, I cruised down Anthony Drive to head for the school. After crossing the railroad tracks near Railroad Street Anthony Drive drops off down hill. It's not the steepest grade in the valley but on a bicycle you can pick up some speed. I was capable of good speed on a bicycle even then. My flat ground speed with no load was around 38mph. I had blazed fully loaded past the school resource officer who clocked me at 20, which was impressive for the fact my book bag was loaded. So, to give you an idea of what y impact speed would have been around 38-40mph. I was aggressively pedaling as I started to descend the hill, and even with a 15lbs load, I could easily make that speed on a down hill grade with my 21 speed mongoose mountain bike. 

The route includes a bridge that crosses Horse Creek. I was running wide open as I approached the bridge at this point an unknown vehicle approached my blind side. I was aware of was behind me and moved over to give him room to pass. The incident happened so fast. As he passed somebody in the vehicle threw what I think was a half filled 1 liter Mountain Dew bottle out the window. The bottle hit me in the back of the head, knocking my coat hood over my face. Instantly after impact I was frantically trying to brake, but not even probably a hundredth of a second after impact, my bike hit the front of the guard rail. The guard rails are designed to collapse when hit by a 2 ton vehicle, however a 20 pound mountain bike with a 150 pound rider slamming it at the speed I was going was sure to make me hurt. 

After hitting the guard rail, I was thrown from my bike airborne, for a brief second I remember seeing the tail lights of the perp's vehicle but couldn't make out anything else. I landed on the side of the guard rail opposite to the road. My bike landed not too far from me. I ended up in the mud. Because I was on the opposite of the guard rail nobody passing by could see me injured or knew of my presence. I layed on the ground for 10-15 minutes, pretty much shouting nothing but cusswords. The accident was about 6:30AM Eastern daylight time. I had just suffered the singled hardest hit I had ever taken.

I had been injured much worse than this in other accidents, but one thing that was key, was during this accident I was much more limber, due to the fact that I didn't see the hit with the guard rail coming. So, I didn't tense up like when I sprained my ankle in 2012 or contusioned my elbows in 2014. Had I saw it coming and panicked I likely would have been seriously injured if not killed. The amount of Gs I took in the incident were probably pretty impressive. The bottle strike was not what injured me, it was the collision with the guard rail. 

Eventually rage would take over and I would pull myself up. I knew I had pulled several abdominal, arm and neck muscles. I knew the rational decision would be to turn around and go home. But after getting hit this hard, knocks the sense out of people, and I still wanted to go after this guy regardless of the odds of actually finding him. I had had an accident that was totally uncalled for and totally unnecessary. Don't get me wrong I never was somebody to get in fights, but this time was one time I was really wanting to find whoever did this and hurt him, good thing I didn't because I was in no shape to be fighting anybody. I highly doubted it was anybody who went to school with me, but I limped up there anyway to see if anybody knew anything and instantly regretted it on arrival. I had aggravated my pulled muscle injuries, and pretty much walked into the school looking like a drunk. My friends were trying to find out who was responsible for the incident but nobody ever found out. It all happened too fast for me to even get a description of the vehicle making filing a police report pretty much impossible. I had a suspect who didn't go to school with me, and had a run in with him before but never had proof he was the perp.

I lasted until 4th period English class before my mom picked me up. I spent the remainder of the day in bed and missed the next day of school. I would be off the bicycle for only 4 days. Though knowing what I know now I actually had no business riding bicycle for a month. I didn't know until a few years later I had suffered a grade 1 concussion. I was suffering from intermittent headaches for weeks following. It was nothing that made me nonfunctional, but having another accident would have definitely not been good for me. Worth noting is my head never took any direct hit other than the bottle strike, and the bottle strike was not hard enough to cause the concussion. The concussion was a result of impact force with the guard rail.

I wouldn't let this accident scare me from riding. People suggested I retire, but I knew I couldn't allow this one incident to terrorize me into giving up something I like.

The Thunderstorm Outing

For three months prior to September 4, 2014 I had been researching and experimenting on how to catch lightning. Pretty much crashing and burning in disappointment. I had recently been hired as a Sales Associate at Dollar General, my first job since my mom's death earlier that year. The past year had been one of the worst of my life, and I needed something to help re-kindle me. That would turn out to be probably the most epic image I would ever take in my life. I may never top it. I had taken a lot of mental and emotional shots, some that made me question if I even wanted to be a photographer anymore. Some people resort to drugs or other addictive substances during bad periods of life, I never did. My escape was dangerous, but it was nothing like any addiction. I had always been known for some crazy antics through high school. I had to bring my crazy back! I just needed new motivation, even if the motivation would be something as dangerous as fooling around with thunderstorms. I needed a sign from god that I still had what I worked for all these years despite all the rage and disbelief I had experienced at the time. I had actually been pretty good at putting on a smile when antagonized, but setbacks had me losing that.

This blog is simply to dissect the work and danger that goes into this type of photography. There is no doubt that lightning is dangerous, and unpredictable, but to freeze it in the most epic fashion takes both nerve and skill. I suffered a lot of growing pains in the three month quest.

My quest to catch lightning started in June, just before I begin working at Dollar General. I didn't have any settings in mind, I would learn from experimentation. I knew the odds of my success in this method were low, but in the past I always learned from experience. I was pretty much doing 30 second time exposures consecutively, and toggling F/stops, shutter speeds, and ISOs. I was learning what would blow out lightning shots and what wouldn't. I wanted to catch it striking over a locomotive, and that night it was possible. My goal was not to simply catch lightning in the sky, but to catch it with a co-subject.

This was the first ever lightning I caught. Nothing amazing to see. My newness definitely showed, but the encouragement was this was first contact for me. I had managed to catch the lightning, but it is now time for better composure.

Over the next few months when not working or hanging out with friends I was well vested in figuring out how to catch this at it's best. I did more research, found that I need an f/stop between 10 and 16 and leave the ISO at 100. Shutter speed would remain at 30 seconds. Any higher would allow blown out skies and the bolts would just be a flash of bright light, and lower and catching the bolts would likely not happen. Those were the limits of my Nikon D3200. Another tough lesson was not letting my lens fog up.

I also acquired some new technology. A shutter remote to reduce shaking, and found out my android and laptop could help me track lightning accurately. This was important because now I could tell where the bulk of the lightning was striking, and try to line up with a subject where the lightning could be viewed clearly.

When I had nights off I glanced at radar maps and lightning trackers almost every 15 minutes. I had sufficient gas in my truck always ready to deploy if I felt necessary. I wanted this shot so bad that I had given up a few chances to hang with friends. I knew in the back of my mind that if I can nail this it would be epic. I had suffered about 5 disappointing outings before it finally happened.

So, September 4, 2014 came, everything was perfect. I didn't have to work until 3PM that day . I was watching my radars that night and saw a storm cell poping up over Barnwell County. It was 12AM. As it drifted closer to Jackson I decided to deploy for Aiken to the Aiken Railway's small yard. There three locomotives, and a station sat.

I remember climbing into the truck that night and feeling some chills. I kept hearing voices saying tonight is the night, you're gonna do this. I remember blasting "Welcome to the Jungle" by GNR on my radio, that had always been motivation music for me. I came to play tonight. I had my umbrella, new tripod, my remote, D3200, maglite flashlight, android, and laptop all ready. Part one of my operation focused on the Southeast end of the rail yard where LTEX 1543 and AIKR 4202 were positioned on a side track on Williamsburg street. I had arrived around 1AM I think. Lightning was striking but it only took 15 minutes for it to fizzle out. I felt defeated, and went back to town via park avenue. I used the wifi from the Aiken Brew Pub to check on the map and see what happened. All the sudden lightning struck from the North West. The creeps came back, and I heard voices saying this was it I had a job to do. I saw the storm strengthening. There was a lightning bolt from it every minute. This is what I had waited for. I drove back down to the yard and this time I focused on AIKR 4201, positioned facing the West Northwest with the short hood looking right at me. The storm was approaching Graniteville, and from my apps, no lightning was hitting in Aiken yet so odds were I would be safe. (DON'T ALWAYS COUNT ON THAT THOUGH JUST BECAUSE I DID).

I had spent about 45 minutes standing in the storm with an umbrella over my head toggling settings. Missed a few and blew out a few until I cranked it down to F/10. Suddenly, a loud crash, I finally got what I want but this one was close. It was 3:14AM when I got the shot.

I did not fidget, and allowed the shutter to close before snatching up my camera. When I saw what I caught, I was doing a touchdown dance, and almost spiked my camera until common sense set in. Then another close crash of lighting and I knew I had to get out of there immediately, because the storm was over me and I was in fact in danger now. In fact the lightning in the photo was really too close for comfort, looks about a mile away from my position. I needed to get out fast and I wasted no time.

This operation couldn't have went more perfectly as the lightning bolt was caught in all it's glory, and it was so bright you can see the rain drops suspended. The self-fulfilling prophecy I had been feeling had come true. After removal of a water-bead that had got on the lens and a little sharpening this was the final result.

I wasted no time sharing it on Facebook and submitting to railpictures at 4AM before finally turning in around 5. I woke up around 10AM to see my messages blown up everywhere praising the photo. Checked my E-mail and found out that the image had went so viral that the President of the Railroad, Stephen Hawkins, had e-mailed me to congratulate me that morning on getting the shot. It obviously made the Western Carolina Railway's Calendar. All this transpired in the 5 hours I napped. It would go to earn People Choice Awards on Railpictures.net and a lot of other praises.

Nolan Ryan and the Tommy John Surgery Era

Well I figured I'd use my sports writing to publish an opinion related to baseball.

Don't assume by the title that I am blaming Nolan Ryan for the rise in Tommy John surgery. Nolan Ryan retired in 1993. He is one of the best pitchers ever. He is by definition one of the hardest workers ever. I've read that he pitched year-round while many others were not. His numbers don't lie that it benefited him. However, I believe that what was good for Ryan is not good for everybody.

Take a look at this list on MLB.com. http://mlbreports.com/tj-surgery/ 

The first Tommy John surgery was performed on it's namesake Tommy John in 1974. It was revolutionary as this injury normally ended a pitcher's career. But notice throughout the 70's there was only one other Tommy John surgery performed. The next one after 1977 would be in 1985 on David Wells, then steady after that it went from a rate of 1-2 every year up 10 in 1996. This tended to balloon to around 20 in 1999, about 30 in 2002, and from the looks of it in 2012 the numbers get even worse. According to many sources, 1/3rd of active major league pitchers have undergone the surgery sometime in their life. After 1997 you never again see a number of surgeries less than 10 in the Majors. Keep in mind this is not counting the number of high school, college, and minor league pitchers having the surgery. The years from 1985 up when the sunset on Nolan Ryan's career, seemed to bring about this mentality for young and upcoming pitchers that they have to have an overpowering fastball, and be like Nolan Ryan. So, year-round pitching becomes a trend. Keep in mind that pitching is not a natural motion and puts wear on the arm and shoulder. The UCL in the elbow is  flexible, but has proven to be fragile when overused.

I've been watching my hometown Braves for years. during the era of the trio, Maddux and Glavine were not known as overpowering pitchers. Smoltz who got inducted into the hall of fame today was. Smoltz is the first pitcher to go into the hall of fame after having the surgery. I personally find it a travesty that Tommy John himself didn't when you look at his numbers. Smoltz of course would transition to closer and play 7 more years in his career between starting and closing. I really agree with Smoltz said today about year-round pitching. He mentioned that there are many players having the surgery by the age of 14. Another fair reminder is careers usually do not survive a 2nd surgery. I've found often that players who have the surgery at a young age will later re-injure themselves and need it again. The Braves has two promising pitchers coming up a few seasons ago in Brandon Beechy and Kris Medlen. Within just a span of less than 4 years, both of them went from dominating the league to their 2nd Tommy John surgery, and my team is in rebuilding mode. These two were suppose to anchor the rotation for years to come. They dominated hitters during their healthy years. Many stars on other teams ended up having the surgery after their first year pitching. Strasburg, Harvey, and Wheeler are just some examples of guys who maybe one injury away from a 2nd and usually career ending T.J. surgery.

I've also noticed that there is more emphasis on an overpowering fastball in scouting to. For example it is hard to get drafted out of college unless you have a 95mph fastball. Glavine and Maddux were control pitchers with low 90's fastballs, and they still performed better than many power pitchers. I've heard so many people say that they want to pitch year-round to add some heat to their fastball, but really you are not really much more dominate by adding 3 more mph to your 92mph fastball. I am at the belief that that extra heat is not worth ruining a pitching arm.

Somewhere mistakes have been made, as Smoltz pointed out we may never see another 300 game winner again if this continues. The sad thing is, it is preventable. This did not happen much before meaning it is not suppose to happen.

Just because this technique made Nolan Ryan a champion does not mean it will make your children champions. Most likely it will tear up their arms.