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  • Amateur Photographer

    Ditch the sticks

    Apr 16, 2018 11 minutes
    Source:   The time saved setting up a tripod allowed me to take up prime position in the engine shed for the first shot Sony A7R III, Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master, 1/15sec at f/4, ISO 3200  

    By shooting handheld I was able to work quickly between the different staged scenes Sony A7R III, Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 G Master, 1/25sec at f/4, ISO 3200

    At a glance

    £3,199 body only

    • 42.4MP full-frame BSI CMOS sensor

    • ISO 100-32,000 (expandable to ISO 50-102,400)

    • In-body five-axis stabilisation

    • 10fps

    • 3in touch-sensitive LCD

    • Dual SD card slot

    When you have a desire to photograph a particular subject at a particular location, you’ll do almost anything to try to make it happen. Something that’s been on my bucket list for a while is to revisit the former Great Western Railway shed at Didcot to capture some evocative night-time shots of the bygone age of steam. Like many photo assignment ideas I think of, getting permission to access the location is the first hurdle to overcome. A search online takes me to a few low-light images of suitably dressed enginemen taken inside Didcot’s iconic shed. Unbeknown to me, Didcot Railway Centre has become a popular location for filming and photography in recent years.

    Widening my search takes me to Timeline Events – a company dedicated to bringing heritage and photography together to recreate scenes from the past, with a focus on British transport and industrial heritage dating back to the Victorian times. As my luck would have it, a space was available on its next organised shoot at Didcot, which promised great atmosphere at night, with re-enactors playing the roles of former railway staff to give scenes with added human interest. Without a second thought, I booked myself a ticket. All I needed now was a camera – one I could rely on to deliver sensational results in what would be an extremely demanding environment.

    Having previously put the Nikon D850 through its paces in low light, it seemed only right to find out how its closestsensors, has changed the way we approach many shooting scenarios. This got me thinking. What if I attempted the evening shoot at Didcot without a tripod and ditched my sticks? For as long as I’ve been a photographer I’ve always used a tripod when shooting at night, but this felt like the ideal opportunity to take a chance and rely solely on my handheld technique.

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