METAL WORKING by ROD SMITH

I nominate Rod Smith’s picture of the Black 5 at Ais Gill as this month’s POTM. This is a gritty shot to which Rod’s B/W treatment lends itself. It epitomises the conquest of the gradient by a great metal machine. The long lens used has been zoomed in to the heart of the action, without losing anything important. This was one of the rare occasions where a railway shot in dull conditions has worked well, thanks to the very nice, copious exhaust – so very often in summer, it is too warm for white steam in the exhaust, but the current cool temperatures were low enough for both white steam and black coal smoke. Overall, a well-executed shot in conditions normally regarded as adverse in railway photography.

John Cooper-Smith