Train Guard And Tobacco-Pipe

Artist: Colin S Pearson
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Card: US$5.82
Print: from US$99.75

Train Guard And Tobacco-Pipe

MANY THANKS for your votes, placing this photo as the winner in the Film Photography “People” Challenge in October 2009, and I’m honoured to be featured by the Film Photography Group as well!

This photo is of a British Railways Train Guard with his tobacco pipe, checking the railway platform from his Guard’s Van window.

Taken in September 1972 on Ilford FP4 film, in my ergonomically all-time favourite camera, my Asahi Pentax S1a with a Takumar F/2.8 lens. Sadly there are still a number of “old film” artifacts evident in the picture in spite of many hours of careful recovery in Photoshop! This explains why I’ve limited the choice of printed medium to cards and canvas.

After some additional research by my son, I’m now sure that the railway station is Crewe Station (Lancashire), and that the train is one belonging to London Midland Scottish (LMS), not London Midland Region (LMR) as I’d entered into the photo’s IPTC Caption field.

Here’s a close-up of the Guardsman’s badge (or ‘button’), which (provided that it isn’t just a blood-donor’s badge or similar!) might help some UK railway enthusiast discover a bit more about this chap, and the railway network that he worked on.

This is a 100% crop from the film-scan, with some minor contrast adjustments and with no digital noise reduction.
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Train Guard And Tobacco-Pipe belongs to the following groups:

Black and White Photography, Film Photography, Nostalgic Art and Photography and People At Work Available for sale as

Greeting Cards and Canvas Prints

Train Guard And Tobacco-Pipe by Colin S Pearson

Dave Pearson

Excellent. Takes me back to my childhood travelling on the trains (my father worked for British Rail so we got to travel free a lot).
Simon Whittaker

I’d love to rave on about this shot but I’ll just say it is technically fantastic, timeless, evocative and a shining example of the virtues of B&W. Well done.
John Robb

Wonderful timeless (and I use that word with care) image.
Colin S Pearson

@Dave – Thanks Dave. I have another of the back of this chap’s head! I was able to get the focus just right while he looked the other way along the train, and (I still remember!) was so glad when he turned and ‘allowed’ me to compose & click.

@Simon – Thank you Simon. I was a big fan of HP4 and FP4. Maybe I should scan some more of my old B&W negatives!

@John – Thank you. And those tobacco pipes are so rare nowadays..!
onefourseven

An excellent capture!!
Love the expression on his face
Colin S Pearson

Thanks onefourseven. Yes, it’s a bit (ummm…) enigmatic with a wee measure of ‘tolerance’, I think!
KiwiAna

This has a movie like quality, great composition
Colin S Pearson

Thank you KiwiAna.
Jonicool

Wonderful capture!
Colin S Pearson replied

Thank you Jonicool, and sorry for long delay acknowledging your compliment.
prbimages

Excellent shot! There’s something very attractive about this photo. The way the lines of light draw the viewer’s attention in on the face is wonderful.
Colin S Pearson

Thankyou PRB, and I think the wonderful bokeh from that old Takumar F/2 lens helps the lines add-to rather than detract from the photo. I certainly didn’t appreciate at the time how good that lens was!
Colin S Pearson replied

Correction: I’m pretty sure that the 50mm Super-Takumar lens on my old Asahi Pentax S1a was an F/2.8 lens, not F/2 ! A pity we didn’t have EXIF data in those days!
marillu79

love it..so cool !
Colin Powell

Lovely shot, you have balanced the tones realy well, which I know is hard to do. You know FP4 is still a good film (or have you given in to the dark [digital] side?)
Colin S Pearson replied

Thanks Colin, Yes, I fear I’ve tripped over to the dark digital side! I still fondle my trusty and familiar Olympus OM-1 occasionally (even with its hard-to-find meter-battery problem) and my superb Zuiko 50mm F/1.4 lens, but I’ve given away all my B&W ‘wet’ processing gear to the local college’s art department! I do miss film with its unbeatable ’s-curve’ exposure characteristics, and I don’t rule out some experiments with FP4 Plus, or even XP2 some time in the future :-)
rumbarber

classic – a beautiful capture of a lost age (both of transport and pipe smoking!).
Colin S Pearson replied

Thank you rumbarber, and apologies for my very late acknowledgement! I agree about the pipe smoking thing. It was the only form of smoking I could ever ‘enjoy’ being close to! And on the old age of transport theme, my son supports a local railway museum and I’ve been pleased to donate a big handful (8) of superb quality RB cards of this photo for them (hopefully!) to sell.
Scott d'Almeida

brilliant
Colin S Pearson replied

Thank you Scott
Jeff Harris

I like this shot a lot. Nice dof. Must have been a pretty long lens.
Colin S Pearson replied

Thanks Jeff. On the DOF, no, in fact it was just a standard (Super-Takumar) 50mm prime lens on my old Asahi Pentax S1a, and judging by the shallow focus, I must have had it set to its widest F/2.8, or close to that. (You’ll know that the larger frame size of 35mm film gave a narrower DOF than we’d get with a smaller-size digital sensor with a comparable lens focal length.)
eran gilad

brilliant capture, perfect setting dof and pov. The bouquette is superb as well.
Colin S Pearson replied

Thanks Erin. I see that you’ve caught many more once-in-a-lifetime moments in your excellent photography! Freezing time … what a privilege eh?!
trueblvr

This is fab. Has an old time feel to it, I cant help but think WW11
Colin S Pearson replied

Thanks trueblvr. And I note how your work is just brimming with colour by comparison :-)
maxsz 24 days ago

Amazing picture
Colin S Pearson replied 24 days ago

Thank you Max. I really value your comment!