The 2024 Holiday Train

1/15 second, F 7.1, ISO 1600, Daylight White Balance

The Holiday Train rumbles along its San Francisco Peninsula route twice in one weekend. On the first night, it stops at alternating stations along the Caltrain's route from San Francisco to Santa Clara, and repeats the trip on Sunday and stops at the stations it missed on the first run.

The Nuts And Bolts: This photo relied on a high ISO setting to achieve detail in the background. The rail car was turned into a stage, and was artificially lit. Machines directed artificial snow toward the audience. I was using a Fuji X-T camera with a Godox V1 flash with a diffuser dome with the head tilted to 45 degrees up. The lens was a 10-24mm F 4.0 zoom.

Working The Crowd: It is always a challenge to work a crowd like this. With so many people it can be difficult to get the ideal shooting position, and the rapidly changing lighting conditions force on-the-fly exposure adjustments, especially to the flash output. I love the quality of light the V-1 provides, but my complaints about the control layout are still valid. These units often dedicate a single control point to several different functions, making a simple misplacement of finger an invitation down the rabbit hole of inadvertent control changes. I explored the flash "lock"options, but when activated, it locks everything, including flash output in the manual mode.

Similar problems occur in the Fuji camera bodies. After my experience on Saturday, I deactivated all of the programmable function buttons. This makes it harder to change things like White Balance, but  changes in these settings are infrequent, however tedious.

Visual Elements: When I arrived on location, I try to locate anything that will help "fill out" the story. I was first drawn to the San Mateo train station sign, and experimented with compositions that would include it. I made a few test shots, and found that I couldn't create a composition that would show both the sign and the Holiday Train in any detail. I decided to eliminate the sign and focus on Santa, or one of his helpers. 

Holiday Train in 2023

When I photographed the event in 2023, I was able to the this shot of Santa with the spectators, along with some detail in the train itself. The crowd was held at bay by a police barricade. The distance between the train and the barrier was about eight feet, so the position of my subjects would be critical. And the train could only stop for twenty minutes, and Santa needed to shake as many hands as possible in the 100 foot long reception line. Needless to say, everybody was hustling. I remember feeling lucky to get this shot, as Santa was working the fence line and stayed in this location for only a minute and I was able to get only three shots before he moved to the next group of visitors. Also notice that the shot was made at a 45 degree angle to the train, giving me more background to work with. 

Holiday Train in 2024

Handedness: When photographing a right-handed subject, try to position yourself on your subject's opposite side. This minimizes the chance that a raised arm will condeal your subject's face. In 2024, Santa seems to be a southpaw, and my position on his right gave me an unobstructed view of his face. There wasn't enough context for me to submit the image, but it does illustrate how the photographer's position plays a role in the outcome of the photograph.

Flash To Subject Distance: This is an important consideration when working with on-camera flash. When I mount a diffusion dome, I normally tilt the flash head at a 45 degree angle from the horizontal. This increases the distance from the lens axis to the light source, which gives a bit more modeling (shaping) to the subject. This 2024 Santa shot was taken at a greater distance, so the effect of the higher flash position is minimal.

Since a Santa shot proved too elusive to pursue, I moved away from the barrier and headed towards the sound of Christmas carols. I found that one of the Holiday Train cars had been configured as a small stage, and carolers were already singing holiday songs. I saw kids trying to catch the flakes of artificial snow and decided to work that shot. This first attempt showed that there was enough existing light to illuminate the singers, so I only had to worry about my flash and who to illuminate. The shot definitely had legs, so I started to work my way closer to the stage.

When I got close to the barrier, I found that the children, perched upon their father's shoulders, might make an interesting frame for the train car. This photo was made before the train's departure, and I thought this would be the Money Shot. However, the more I looked at the image, the less I liked it. The singers in red seemed to compete with the two kids reaching for snowflakes at the right edge of the frame. I was happy that the snow was very visible, but the harder I looked at the image, the less enamoured I became. I felt I had created two different images that competed for the viewer's attention. I went back through the images, looking for one that "worked better".

I chose this earlier frame, which placed the emphasis on the singers in the background. The two kids now serve to frame the image, and since they are both facing the stage, help direct the viewer's attention to the train. They are now more a framing element and less a distraction. I also left the spotlight in place to help the view understand why the snowflakes were now visible. The overexposure of the singers was necessary to make the snow more visible, but considering their relative size and the detail obliterating nature of newsprint reproduction, probably not a great loss. When I get down to San Mateo and get a hard copy, I'll know for sure.

The Civil War Reenactor

Period reenacting is a pastime enjoyed by a variety of people for a variety of reasons. Historians, campers, and people wanting to visit a simpler time make up the ranks, and all with varying levels of commitment to historical accuracy. Think about the Renaissance Faire. Here history  mixes with commercialism to provide visitors with an historical experience in a way that is financially sustainable by modern standards. Another group are the Buckskinners, who enjoy practicing the survival skills used by the trappers that followed in the footsteps of the Lewis and  Clark Expedition. Perhaps the best known are the Civil War Reenactors, who may take on the personas of members of  a specific group such as Mosby's Rangers, or a unit, such as the Confederate States Marines. 

My editor and I have long been casting about, looking for a reenactor living in the Journal's service area. I managed to make contact with Belmont resident David You, a cannoneer from the Confederate States Marines Artillery and Infantry Unit. We agreed to meet at Twin Pines Park in Belmont, and since we were on public property, decided to bring a minimum of period correct "props", settling on a simple tin cup, which happened to be made from stainless steel. He is dressed in period correct clothing and not a formal uniform, as the cash-starved South could not always provide clothing, shoes, and other accoutrements to all of its enlistees.

After walking about, we found a grove of tree stumps where the high-noon sunlight just skimmed the treetops and provided some accent lighting from high and behind. Front lighting was provided by a shoot-through umbrella and light stand combo. This kit is always in the trunk of my car for lighting shots that don't require a lot of complicated lighting. I positioned the light about three feet from my subject, just above my subject's eye level. You can see from the shadows on the right side of my subject's face that the light was very close to the lens axis.

Due to the angle of the sun, some flaring did occur, and you can see flare spots scattered about the upper portion of this frame. When I repositioned myself so the shadow of the umbrella shielded the front of the lens, the spots went away. Unfortunately, I was not able to duplicate the exact pose, and the CSA embossed on his belt buckle was not seen in subsequent images. And while I had asked for David to bring a cup, I forgot to bring some black coffee to fill it, although I doubt anybody would  have noticed that his cup was empty.

This diagram will give you a rough idea of the placement of the light in relation to my subject. The camera position is low enough to prevent the edge of the shoot-through umbrella from appearing in the frame. One problem with using shoot through umbrellas is that light can reflect back from the umbrella causing the image to lose varying levels of contrast. This could be prevented by using almost any softbox, but at the cost of having to carry a package much bulkier than a simple double-fold umbrella.  I will certainly make the effort to carry a softbox if the situation justifies it. But for portability, a simple double-fold shoot-through umbrella and a compact light stand just can't be beat.

Getting In The Mood: After I made the photo, I started playing around with converting it to sepia-toned photo that looked more "period correct". I found two on-line tutorials: One to recreate the sepia look, and one to create the feathered oval vignette that was so popular. After a few minutes of experimentation, I created this version of the first portrait. I may visit the technique again, as I would prefer the sepia coloration to be more pronounced. 

I enjoyed shooting this assignment. The simplicity of the setup gave me lots of time to get to know my subject, and produce a very nice image in a relatively short period of time. Digital imaging certainly simplifies the process because the instant playback allows the photographer to catch any mistakes in real time and reshoot the pose in a few seconds. And with the tools available in post production, it's easy to re-think the image, and just maybe create something more in step with the period look the photographer is trying to recreate.