I too initially preferred the grain train shot. I particularly like "going away train shots", that easily focus the viewer on fact that the train is actually going somewhere, to a perhaps exotic and unknown (to the viewer) place. I also very much liked the composition. It is also nice to include at least some of the train, besides the engine. That the subject of this great photograph is well placed in natural balance and context, within its native habitat, makes it an excellent artistic work.

But then I took a 2nd look at the landscape shot, and noticed something I hadn't before; the expansive drama of rushing waters and rushing trains, side by side. An expansive feeling is given, because both seem to originate in the same place, but then the picture expands out dramatically as they both rush on - the water with its dramatic violence, and the train with its subliminal precision.

Both compositions are excellent. That both can be "interpreted" as saying something about life, or human feeling, or common experience, qualifies them both as fine art.


They most certainly are several orders of magnitude, better than any "3/4 roster shot" I've ever seen. But then, I find no real use for a roster shot of anything anyway, other than as a technical illustration, or perhaps as a document to be filed away with the insurance papers.

Anyhow, keep 'em coming - You did great!

OPB