
Los Angeles Union Station first opened in May 1939. The station now serves as a major transportation hub in Southern California to anyone wishing to commute into the Los Angeles area. It provides service to approximately 60,000 passengers a day via the Amtrak, Metrolink, Metro Red Line, Metro Purple Line, and Metro Gold Line rail lines.
The architectural work that was done on the ceiling inside Union Station is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. As you’re walking towards the hall to the Amtrak and Metrolink lines, you are greeted with this amazing view from above. The design work that went into this station is of Spanish Colonial and Art Deco influence. Just keep in mind that security has a strict no tripod policy at this station, which makes capturing photos rather tricky at night time. I didn’t have a lot of time to work with since the last Metrolink train out of Los Angeles was about to leave and missing it meant taking an expensive taxi ride back into Orange County.
Using the rule to never use a shutter speed that’s slower than my focal length, I was limited to approximately 1/40 of a second. Any faster and the shot would not be sharp enough. Opening up my aperture was an absolute must. I could have opened up to f/4.0 but I typically don’t like shooting at the largest aperture a lens is capable of, which put me at f/5.6. Unfortunately though, the exposure was still too dark. The Canon 5D Mark III is known for it’s incredible low light performance and this was the perfect opportunity for me to put it to the test. I had to crank the ISO all the way up to 2500 before I was able to finally expose this shot the way I wanted, a task that my old 40D certainly would not have been able to accomplish.
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