For William (Bill) Beecher, railroad photography has always been a journey, never a destination. He was born into a railroad family, so railroading is in his genes. He and his twin brother were barely out of diapers when they were riding trains with their locomotive engineer father in the early ’70s, and Beecher was already captivated by the thought of being able to capture the spirit and drama of everything he was seeing and experiencing.
The railroad books and magazines his dad brought into the home fueled his desire to start traveling and shooting, and when his grandmother presented the twin boys with their first cameras at the age of nine, they were ready to start a photo revolution. As time passed, and Beecher was able to upgrade his gear and his shooting techniques, anything seemed possible.
It would take a high school diploma and the end of a recession to find Bill Beecher riding locomotives for a paycheck in the early ’90s.
“That was my chosen path, and a logical extension of, my photographic journey,” he recalls. I grew up in Milwaukee, which just happens to be the center of the railroad press universe, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and learning from some of the best in the industry. Kalmbach Publishing, the local publisher of TRAINS Magazine, has always had talented people and has always been very accessible to me. I’m also eternally grateful to family, friends, and scores of other people I met along the way who’ve left an indelible impression on me, and on my work. With the digital revolution, chromes have eventually given way to RAWs, and now 25 years and thousands of images and miles later, I find myself working as a locomotive engineer for a major class 1 railroad in the upper Midwest. That has given me unprecedented access to observing people and operations that few people understand, have even seen, or know exist.”
As you can see by studying his straightforward, masterfully composed, heartfelt images, Beecher is not drawn to huge grandiose scenes — his style or genre is essentially photojournalistic.
“I guess you could say I lean toward being up close and personal in my approach,” he observes. “Whether I’m shooting tight telephoto shots or super wide ‘in your face’ images, I like to fill the frame fully with information, and that seems to be where I’m most comfortable. It’s been said that Midwest photographers have to work harder than those out toward the coasts to capture compelling images, and I would agree up to a point. However, the amazing advances in sensor quality have literally changed the game, making photography more of a 24-hour endeavor, throwing the old rules of reciprocity right out the window and making even the ‘flyover’ Midwest look dramatic at times!”
As Beecher’s outstanding railroad images were published in the leading train magazines and he was selling his iconic train photographs online to supplement his income, he began upgrading his equipment.
“The main rule of thumb for aspiring photographers is always to buy the mount everyone else has so you can borrow their gear,” says Bill with a smile. Canon’s offerings seemed to be the local favorite, and I have zero complaints with their cameras or lenses. Today the Canon EOS 5D Mark III is now my everyday shooting camera, although I’m also intrigued by the mirrorless bodies now being offered by Sony and Fuji. As the father of five beautiful children, I’ve always prioritized their well-being over buying the latest equipment. But that being said, I think technology has done a great job in lowering the cost of gear that lends itself to spectacular results.”
“For the last two years I’ve had the pleasure of working with Dave Metz and Rick Booth of Sigma Corporation of America on a national ad campaign in TRAINS Magazine,” Beecher continues. “It features Sigma’s amazing new lines of Contemporary and Art optics being used to cover the American railroad culture. The Sigma Contemporary 150-600mm and the 100-400mm f5-6.3 DG OS HSM are superb telephotos that are always with me. Also, Sigma’s Art 12-24mm f/4 DG HSM, is an exceptional ultra-wide-wide angle zoom that’s always mounted on one of my full-frame bodies wherever my travels take me. Sigma’s vision in realizing the untapped potential of this largely ignored American railroad genre has done a lot to further the legitimization of the art, and we can all thank them.”
As Bill Beecher sees it, the future of railroad photography will be dominated by video, which will become the major capture medium.
“Video has come a long, long way since the days of shooting Beta and VHS,” he says, “and with Full HD 1080p and now 4K, it’s evident that video is becoming the medium of choice for railroad photographers because the quality is so phenomenal. People want video, I mean, why wouldn’t they? Here you have a big moving object that makes all kinds of great noise and has all kinds of great visuals — trains were made to be captured on video!”
To prove his point, Beecher, his brother Marshall, and a group of friends hold what is probably the most relevant railroad multi-media show in the Midwest once a year called(surprise, surprise), Beecherfest.
“It’s not your average slide show,” notes Beecher. “We host around a dozen pre-selected national photographers with shows ranging from classic glory day screamers, to down and dirty, everyday up-to-date topics. When the newer video and audio tracks hit the screen, the excitement jacks up! People are amazed at the quality. Railroad photography is not only alive and well, it’s on a roll (pun intended). Even print magazines are adding more online content, and producing video programs on a wide variety of railroad-related topics — the potential is just beginning to be tapped.”
Moving forward, Beecher is experiencing the excitement of getting comfortable with his new drones, and committed to using all this great new technology to its fullest. And he plans to produce even more videos and images for publication and production this year than last year.
“I work like an idiot (about 60 hours per week as a locomotive engineer) but I love what I do, which makes continuing to document the changes of an industry in transition my ultimate body of work,” he adds.
William Beecher is a regular photo contributor to TRAINS and RAILWAY AGE magazines, and also a video contributor to C-Vision Productions. You can find him at @wm_beecher on Instagram and family_man_system on Flickr. “If you would like to interact please reach out — I’d love to hear from you,” Beecher adds as he chugs off into the sunset.
