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What Hides in the Rainforest

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 14 March 2023 in Transportation and Portfolio.

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One never knows quite what they may find wondering through the rainforest on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. This is the abandoned Whitcomb 65 ton Diesel Locomotive and it is being reclaimed by the lush rainforest surrounding it on Christmas Island. I am not sure how long ago it has been left there. It used to pull phosphate trains from the mining sites to the loading chute and now it is home to rainforest flora and no doubt a number of spiders, lizards and crabs. Who knows, maybe even a bird could have made a nest in there.

We did not really just stumble upon it. We had an idea of where it was located but even with general directions it took us a little bit of work to find it. It is located around 50m from a main road but it is sitting in fairly dense rainforest and it was so overgrown when we went there that we could not see it unless we came almost right up to it. We drove and waked past the spot a couple of times before parking the car and walking slowly again to find any possible paths into the jungle. Once we found a small clearing we ventured right in and we found the locomotive hidden between the trees. It is amazing how nature can reclaim man-made objects. As you can see in the photo, there are leaves growing out everywhere and there was even possibly some lichen on the body of the locomotive. It was an unusual and at the same very cool sight. It felt like the engine became one with nature. The jungle has done its bit but the locomotive also seemed to have changed its appearance to match the surroundings. I like how the orange tones on the chassis matched the leaves scattered around.

It was not a straight forward scene to photograph, mostly in terms of composition. That was because of the tight space around the locomotive which meant that it was not easy to get it all in the frame without some trees or branches protruding around it. This was probably the widest perspective I was able to get with the lens I was using. If I went back a little then there would be more branches coming from the top and the foreground would start to get even more messy and chaotic. I took a number of photos from various angles but this one felt to me like the best one to post and share with you. It struck the best balance, in my view, between showing enough of the locomotive while also including the rainforest around it to give the best context to this incredible find. This particular angle was good also because the light was coming from the top right hand corner and slightly behind me and it illuminated the scene very well without any distracting white patches visible between the trees.

Processing was also a bit tricky. The light was overcast and very uniform, and the overall tonality was quite similar around the entire scene due to prevalent green colour cast from the foliage. The goal in my editing was to separate the train from the trees sufficiently to be able to make out what it exactly is but without losing too much of the synergy with its surroundings. To achieve that I worked on colour contrast to build subtle tonal differences and also on shaping the light in such a way that the locomotive would feel a touch more prominent in the scene. Colour contrast allowed me to make the texture of the locomotive pop, and I just love how it came through, while dodging and burning was very useful to make subtle light and general contrast adjustments. This is by far my favourite tool and I feel that it brings out the creative and artistic side in me. I actually work separately on four different layers for dodging and burning - shadows, midtones, highlights and global adjustments. This gives me the best control and allows to target very specific parts of the image.

I already talked a little about photographing abandoned locations and objects when I posted this photo some time ago. If I ever get tired of taking landscape photos, this is the kind of photography that I would most likely be into next. There is a certain magnetism which draws me to scenes like this and I hope you can find it in this photo as well.

Canon EOS R5 3/5 seconds F/8.0 ISO 100 25 mm

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