Railway Photographs By Ben Wheeler

Welcome

Thanks for visiting Railway Photographs By Ben Wheeler.

I have been doing railway photography for around 15 years now, starting at the tender age of about 5 with no more than a compact camera and some print film. I didn't take it seriously until I got hooked up with the internet about 6 years ago, where I discovered and admired the work of several railway photographers which I'm now good friends with and often chat to at the lineside. It inspired me to make a real effort and to start practicing my hobby properly. I didn't come into contact with an SLR camera until 2002, when a Minolta 404 SI Dynax found it's way to me. I used this camera for a few years with print film, before moving on to a Nikon F65 SLR camera. Initially I spent a year or so using slide film with my Nikon F65, but it wasn't really my cup of tea and at the end of 2005 I purchased a Nikon D50 digital SLR. For it's price and fairly low megapixels, this was a surprisingly good camera. It was after I'd got the D50 that I really started to see some potential in my pictures.

In time, I managed to get several images published in magazines such as Rail Express and The Railway Magazine. Finally, in 2007, I landed a Nikon D200 digital SLR. I'm still using this camera today and it can be excellent when you find the right "glass" for it! With this, I use several lenses but mainly a Nikon F3.5 18-55mm "kit lens" (which I only use because of it's good auto-focus, this is the same lens which I used with the D50) and also a Sigma F2.8 28-70mm lens. This lens usually only comes out to play for static work though, as it has a tendancy to focus on the background or foreground instead of the train! I'm hoping to get a Nikon F2.8 17-55mm soon, as this appears to share the auto-focus quality of the 18-55 but matches the image quality/optics of most other "professional" lenses from the higher Nikon/Sigma range.

Hope you enjoy viewing my pictures and notice improvements with them as time progresses. I don't consider myself to be an absolutely excellent photographer --- I take awful shots sometimes, just as everyone does, but try my best most of the time and aim to use this gallery to illustrate that. If you wish to use any of my pictures for publication in any form, then please don't hesitate to contact me, either using the "contact me" box on the opposite side of this page or via e-mail at: benwheeler03 (at) yahoo.co.uk.

Alternatively, I can be contacted using Microsoft's "MSN" messenger program at benwheeler03 (at) hotmail.co.uk

Regards,
BW, April 2009.

Top Photographs of All Time

1	37425 passes the gallery at Crownthorpe on 29/3/09 during the MNR diesel gala.	Class 37's	(425)
2	66718, Asfordby, 29/4/09 (6Z27 Peterborough VQ to Rotherham Booth's Scrap Yard).	Class 66's / 67's	(260)
3	47727 + 47739, Burton upon Trent, 26/3/09 (6Z48 Burton to Dollands Moor empty IHA's).	Class 47's / 57's	(192)
4	9701, Cossington, 21/4/09 (1Q12 Derby RTC to Selhurst). Anyone else getting sick of these things now?	Units / HST's etc	(191)
5	37425 + 60059 + 66144 + 67008 (!), Dereham, 29/3/09 (MNR diesel gala, final working for the guest locos).	Class 37's	(181)
6	60011, Cossington, 25/4/09 (6E38 Colnbrook to Lindsey tanks).	Class 60's	(143)
7	56040 is seen on the outskirts of Dereham on 29/3/09 with the final working of the Spring 2009 diesel gala.	Class 56's	(130)
8	47832, Breydon, 23/5/09 (13.10 Great Yarmouth to Norwich "drag", 90008 on the rear).	Class 47's / 57's	(127)
9	31459 propells some test coaches and DBSO 9702 through Thurmaston (near Syston) on 18/4/09 with 4Z10 Selhurst to Derby RTC.	Class 31's	(122)
10	66152, Cossington, 23/4/09 (6E67 Peak Forest to Peterborough Eurotunnel box wagons).	Class 66's / 67's	(121)

Most Recent Collections

	Wed 24th Jun 09	0. A few local bits (added 24/6/09)
	Tue 30th Jun 09	0. A Selection of recent phots (added 30/6/09)
	Thu 11th Jun 09	0. Another local 60 move (added 11/6/09)
	Sat 13th Jun 09	0. ECML 92 (added 13/6/09)
	Sun 24th May 09	Class 25's / 26's / 27's
	Fri 10th Apr 09	Class 31's
	Sun 24th May 09	Class 33's
	Fri 10th Apr 09	Class 37's
	Sun 24th May 09	Class 44's / 45's / 46's
	Fri 10th Apr 09	Class 47's / 57's
	Fri 8th May 09	Class 55's
	Fri 10th Apr 09	Class 56's
	Sun 5th Apr 09	Class 60's
	Fri 10th Apr 09	Class 66's / 67's
	Fri 10th Apr 09	Class 73's
	Fri 10th Apr 09	Units / HST's etc