In mid October I took part in a photographers charter on the Cumbres & Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad. This was a 5 day event, organized by Lerro Productions and FarRail of Germany. I set off early to spend some time in White Sands National Monument (another blog, later) and ended up in Chama the day before the event. We had some very early mornings, which were quite cold, but the experience of riding in an open gondola behind two hard working steam engines before dawn is unforgettable. I find it difficult to shoot both video & stills, the video pays the rent, but with five days and multiple runby's, I was able to shoot both. We had perfect weather for five days, the foliage was pretty much gone unfortunately, but the white aspens still looked good against the firs. We had an awesome pre dawn chase up the mountain in dead still air, the engine could be heard for miles, and in the still air the smoke just hung. Stunning! I did find it quite difficult lugging the camera & tripod on and off the train and up and down hills at altitudes of 8-10,000 feet, and it seemed that others did too, as there was a lot of heavy breathing. A big group, rather more than I like, but it all worked out and I have some great video, and some decent stills.
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