Steam Recreations

About Don Bishop Photography & Steam Recreations

Welcome to my website and thank you for taking the trouble to look it up.  Inside this site you will find details of PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS on both landscapes & steam railways - these are an excellent starting point for new users of DSLR cameras, fine quality prints for sale of both steam and landscape subjects and our commercial and business photography. Just click on the links towards the top of the page to access the various areas of the website.

Don Bishop has been a keen enthusiast photographer for over 20 years, concentrating for the majority of that time on photographing his other great passion - steam trains. Based in Somerset he has travelled all over the UK, often covering many miles out and back in a day, taking pictures of steam working on UK heritage and mainlines. His images are regularly published in magazines (in particular Heritage Railway, Steam Railway & Railways Illustrated) along with written articles on railway subjects and photography, books and on calendars, cards and video/DVD covers, especially of the West Somerset Railway with which he is closely involved and has been for 21 years. Don was a key member of the WSR's Special Events Planning Team (SEPT) until recently, now taking a break due to his business commitments, and is a director of the West Somerset Railway Association. In the past he spent much of his time organising and planning the big gala events on the line each year. Don is also a member of the 5029 Nunney Castle mainline support group.

He has had two books published of his images of the West Somerset Line in 2005 - Moods of the West Somerset Railway & April 2009 Spirit of the West Somerset Railway, (both Halsgrove Press). Two of his WSR images even appeared on the sides of a mainline Sprinter train unit for Wessex Trains, this unit is still seen around the South West region today.

NEW BOOKS

We are pleased to announce that further photographic albums of steam will be published by Halsgrove Press from  Spring 2009, starting with a pocket sized "Sprit" series volume of more of his work on the West Somerset Railway, published on April 22nd 2009. Following this on the 22nd July 2009 will be a volume on the excellent South Devon Railway. This volume will show steam scenes from the late 1990's through to spring 2009, including the 40th anniversary gala, and will aim to show how the line has managed to recreate many excellent classic Western branch line scenes.  In late 2009/early 2010 a second "moods" series book will be published of the WSR and will concentrate on Don's passion for steam trains in the landscape and will feature scenes from the WSR right through until Spring 2009.  In 2010 expect to see further volumes on the Swanage and Bodmin Railways.

More recently Don has expanded into scenic landscape photography and taking on commercial photographic work and has decided to become a full time professional freelance photographer. He attained an Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society (ARPS) in October 2006 after a 1st year as an LRPS member. He has had a number of landscape images published including covers of Somerset Life magazine and images are also available via "The Travel Library" website and some work from the National Trust picture library.

As part of his involvement in steam railway photography Don has organised many special events and photographic charters. Steam Recreations was founded by Don in 1994 to offer more railway photographers a chance to attend some of the then new private photographic charters. Under this banner Don has now been running photo charters over a 15 year period and over 80 charters have operated at locations all around the UK where correct locomotives and stock can be brought together to recreate past railway scenes, but with an emphasis on the West Country.

Traditionally these charters have been for experienced railway photographers, and events of this nature will continue to be part of the portfolio, however less experienced photographers and those with a passing interest in taking photos of steam trains are very welcome.  The events are designed to appeal to photographers of all ages and abilities, they give participants the chance to photograph steam railway scenes from the past when the host railway would not normally be running a public service and it is therefore possible to do something a little different such as recreating a goods train or using older carriages that would not normally be seen in public use.

A difficult element of steam photography is knowing where the best locations are and how to make the best use of the available light, attending a Steam Recreations photography event will assist you to overcome these issues. Where a private charter train is involved this will take you to a suitable location where you will alight, for this reason you need to be able bodied and reasonably fit, and the train will perform a run past for the cameras.

Don also offers a variety of photographic workshops on both landscape and steam railway themes. The steam railway workshops are designed to help either photographers perhaps not accustomed to taking pictures of steam trains to learn the special technique required or those more accustomed to the hobby  who would like to learn about taking pictures which put the train its landscape rather than just a train picture. The landscape workshops are for any keen photographers or those new to photography who may perhaps have recently obtained a digital SLR camera and want some field tuition on its use and capabilities. Our landscape and steam workshops are often held on a "one to one" basis on a date of your choosing. 

If you are interested in joining our photographic events, then proceed further into our site for details of forthcoming events, workshops and to see some images from past charters and other steam railway scenes along with some stunning UK landscapes.

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