Image of the Week: Zach Ashcraft

“It took 2 trains and about 60 images, but we finally walked away with this image that both the couple and I were incredibly happy with”

When this couple hired me to shoot their wedding, they let me know that they wanted to do a photoshoot in full wedding dress somewhere in Downtown Dallas. Needless to say I was excited about that opportunity! We decided on a session in Fair Park, where the Texas State Fair is held every year. Its home to some beautiful Art Deco architecture from the 1930's. We met 2 hours before sunset in hopes of getting some great natural light.

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As we were wrapping up the shoot, we began walking to our vehicles which were parked past the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) station. While waiting on a train to clear the tracks we took a few more photos. At some point I had the idea to try and capture the train passing behind the couple. After several attempts and several failures I realized this was not going to work, since the train was moving too slowly through the station to create much of a blur. 

Once the tracks were clear, I had the couple cross to the other side of the tracks while I switched from a wide angle to an 85mm lens. This resulted in a lot more motion from the train in the foreground, though it gave me an incredibly tight window to capture the couple through the train cars. I had locked focus on the couple and just before the train passed in between us I started firing away in burst mode. It took 2 trains and about 60 images, but we finally walked away with this image that both the couple and I were incredibly happy with! 

Technical Details: Nikon D810 + 85mm 1.4G 

64 ISO, 1/30 second, F/9

Agfa Vista 100 with minimal post processing. Mostly contrast added to the train cars for a bit more definition and color. 

Check out all the 60 frames from zach