Just like a scene from any Superman comic, the young(ish), enthusiastic reporter/photographer has a hot story that he’s just dying to write, only to be told "Your pictures are crap, kid!". Yeah, I really just used a comic book reference to set up my story – I admit it, I’m a geek.

Aaaanyway…

The truth is, I do have an article that I’m itching to write, for one of the trade magazines, but over the past few days, I’ve discovered that I have a LOT to learn about photography and publication. Most of the photos that you’ve seen in this blog are 8 megapixel photos taken with my HTC phone. They’re good pictures, compared to the old Canon point-and-shoot camera that I own. In terms of magazine use, however, they’re crap. There simply aren’t enough pixels to make the photos look good on paper. The phone also has other limitations, mainly with depth-of-field. Bottom line – if I’m going to pursue magazine publication, I need a better camera.

After a few days of research, I decided that I wanted one of the new "super-zoom" cameras, also known as "bridge" cameras, because of their placement between cheap point-and-shoot cameras and higher-end DSLR’s. I found one at a great price, with loads of features, at Tiger Direct, with lots of positive reviews on various sites around the Internet: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati…=ITD&body=MAIN

The camera arrived today, and I’ve spent all evening playing around with it. There are a LOT of bells and whistles on this thing. Some of them I know how to use, most of them I have no clue, but it’s very clear that this is a great camera.

Here’s one of the cell phone pictures:

Much better field depth (notice the trees in the background – blurry in the first photo, sharp in the second), and vastly higher resolution.

One more, taken from the far end of the layout, showing the "super-zoom" capabilities of the camera:

The same photo, with subtle clouds of steam added:

It’s going to be fun learning to use this new tool, and I can’t wait to see what shots I can pull off with it!

CHINA: ‘Design flaws’ in the signalling on the Ningbo – Wenzhou high speed line led to the fatal rear-end collision near Wenzhou on July 22, according to the recently-appointed head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau An Lusheng. The accident is now reported to have killed 39 people and injured 192. Appearing on July 28 before the independent investigation panel established by the State Council, An said that ‘having been struck by lightning, the signal system at Wenzhou South station failed to turn a green light to red’. On the same day, the Beijing National Railway Research Design Institute of Signal Communication issued an apology for the accident. The findings of the investigation are expected to be released in September. Premier Wen Jiabao told official news agency Xinhua that the investigators would ‘pay careful attention to public opinion and reach a responsible result’. Speaking during a visit to the crash site, Wen insisted that safety remained ‘a top priority’. Those found responsible would be ‘severely punished’, as would ‘those who hold responsibilities of leadership’. Three senior officials at the Shanghai Railway Bureau were dismissed immediately after the accident. Opened on September 28 2009, the Yongtaiwen Railway between Ningbo and Wenzhou South is equipped with lineside signals overlaid with CTCS-2 to provide automatic train protection. This has a similar functionality to ETCS Level 1, using balises to provide intermittent updates to the on-train equipment. The line is designed for mixed traffic operation with a maximum speed of 250 km/h. Although An’s statement indicated a wrong-side failure, unofficial reports quoting railway insiders suggest that the signalling may have failed safe following the lightning strike, and that operations had been resumed using radio dispatching. There have also been suggestions that train D3115 between Hangzhou and Fuzhou was halted by activation of an emergency passenger alarm 23 min before the collision, but this information had not been relayed to the driver of the following Beijing – Fuzhou train D301. The investigators are understood to have recovered some parts from the damaged vehicles, which had been broken up and buried beside the crash site within 48 h of the accident. What happened at Wenzhou? Read the Editor’s Blog in our Community section.

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Hey rails, in a related subject to my prior post "DCC EQUPPED CONCERN", I would like to hear from any of you who own an HO Spectrum 2-6-6-2 with sound. I am teeter tottering on buying one but am concerned about the ‘sounded’ versions. Sorry if this is an old subject. I tried to find a discussion about it in the forum but couldn’t.. I assume they run nice but is the sound correct in that the 4 cylinders wind up out of sync as they should ? Or does Bachmann cheat here and the chugs remain (wrongly) even .. If it is even then I’d either skip the purchase all together and find a mallet that is correct (out of sync) or buy it without sound and use my imagination..

It was announced a few weeks ago that Modesto & Empire Traction finally sold one of the 70Tonners, #613, ex SP #5119. It is currently enroute to the museum in Campo,CA. Might even have arrived in the last couple hours. This is the second one to be saved, #600 being saved by the MET itself.