VIA rail from Saskatoon to Vancouver

[Trent Watts]

VIA Rail is Canada's only cross country train across the country from Halifax to Vancouver. I recently boarded in Saskatoon and got off in Vancouver. The route takes you through Jasper, Alberta and on to Kamloops B.C. and arrives in Vancouver over two nights. Because VIA only rents track from CN they are always subject to long delays while waiting for freight trains. This can mean long delays and unpredictable arrival times. This created a disappointing passage at Pyramid Falls on the way to Vancouver. The train usually slows down as it passes the falls so passengers can get a better look at the falls. These falls are only visible on the train as no roads go near the falls. Here are some images taken with an iPhone 15.
All of the scenery shots are taken through the window of the train which are not always clean and have lots of reflection to deal with.

Any suggestions for improving shots with the iPhone through windows are welcome.

Train arrives in Saskatoon.

In Jasper National Park. This is taken from the dome car through the window.

An unidentified mountain.

This is the only image I was able to take with the train going at full speed past Pyramid Falls.

I didn't like the tree covering the falls so used Photoshop to remove it and fill with 'content aware'.

On the way back to Saskatoon the train was able to slow down so I had a chance to take a couple of shots of the falls.

 

[AlanLichty]

Fun train ride - I have often thought about going through the Canadian Rockies via rail given how few ways there are to see the interior of that mountain range. I like your takes on Pyramid Falls.

One way to deal with the washed out effect of shooting through the windows is to use the History Brush in Photoshop. The desired settings would be using Vivid Light as the mode with brush settings of around 10% for both Opacity and Flow. This will locally increase contrast where needed. If you have a lot of layers you may need to set a new snapshot in your history and make that active before you can paint with this tool.

 

[Trent Watts]

Fun train ride - I have often thought about going through the Canadian Rockies via rail given how few ways there are to see the interior of that mountain range. I like your takes on Pyramid Falls.

One way to deal with the washed out effect of shooting through the windows is to use the History Brush in Photoshop. The desired settings would be using Vivid Light as the mode with brush settings of around 10% for both Opacity and Flow. This will locally increase contrast where needed. If you have a lot of layers you may need to set a new snapshot in your history and make that active before you can paint with this tool.

Thanks for those suggestions Alan. I'll give that a try.

 

[JimFox]

The delays do not sound fun at all. That's a bit of a pain for sure. Since it's a 2 night trip, do you have a sleeper room?

I think you did a great job with the waterfall. I am glad you removed the tree in the first one. It really gives a much cleaner look of the falls. The iPhone did a great job capturing it. Everything looks nice and sharp.

Your return images of it do suffer from the harsher light. You had the better light on the way there. Alan gave you some good suggestions for those. As an added suggestion, how about cropping the sky off in both of those? Then you can focus on just the trees and fall?

Amtrak runs similar trains across the US. There is one called the Surf Liner that runs up and down the Pacific coastline in California, and there are others going East/West. I keep thinking I want to do that sometime.

 

[DES]

I'm impressed. I can't say I recall any photos I've taken through bus/train/airplane windows that were usable at all. The photos on the return trip suffer a little but Alan's suggestion may do the trick.

I found the shot from the dome car window to be the most intriguing at first glance!

Darrell

 

[Jameel Hyder]

That sounds like a fun ride with great views. Nice snapshots of the scenery.

 

[Trent Watts]

The delays do not sound fun at all. That's a bit of a pain for sure. Since it's a 2 night trip, do you have a sleeper room?

I think you did a great job with the waterfall. I am glad you removed the tree in the first one. It really gives a much cleaner look of the falls. The iPhone did a great job capturing it. Everything looks nice and sharp.

Your return images of it do suffer from the harsher light. You had the better light on the way there. Alan gave you some good suggestions for those. As an added suggestion, how about cropping the sky off in both of those? Then you can focus on just the trees and fall?

Amtrak runs similar trains across the US. There is one called the Surf Liner that runs up and down the Pacific coastline in California, and there are others going East/West. I keep thinking I want to do that sometime.

Thanks Jim. I appreciate your comments.

 

[Trent Watts]

I'm impressed. I can't say I recall any photos I've taken through bus/train/airplane windows that were usable at all. The photos on the return trip suffer a little but Alan's suggestion may do the trick.

I found the shot from the dome car window to be the most intriguing at first glance!

Darrell

Thanks so much.

 

[Trent Watts]

That sounds like a fun ride with great views. Nice snapshots of the scenery.

Thanks Jameel.