About SMWorks
Welcome to SMWorks, a website dedicated to my photography and all that involves, including stories behind photos and trips, galleries, and - eventually - the ability to purchase prints of some of the best photos. All the photos on this site are my own unless otherwise stated. You'll quickly come to find that my photography is based around trains and railroading. Locomotives, signals, and the infrastructure and people that keep it all moving.
Who am I?
My name is Leo, though online I tend to simply go by SM. I'm from central Illinois, where I found my interest in railroading coming from a young age - one clearly passed down from my grandparents. My day job is warehousing for a local company, but on my time off, I drive across the country in search of interesting rail lines and traffic to capture with my camera. For six years now, I've been taking photos in some capacity, at first starting with a borrowed camera until receiving one of my own. Shortly after getting a car of my own, it was high time to get on the road and get shooting.
Photography is a hobby of mine - one of many and by no means my career - but it is something I'm passionate about. Creating SMWorks allows me to share my photos and the stories behind them.
Photography is a hobby of mine - one of many and by no means my career - but it is something I'm passionate about. Creating SMWorks allows me to share my photos and the stories behind them.
The GearMy day-to-day camera equipment includes the following:
Many older photos were taken with a Canon T6 - which is now used as a backup - and an iMac and Windows 10 PC are used for file management and editing. Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Bridge are the primary editing and organization software I use. For star trails and astrophotography, I use the program StarStax to compile my photos. |
The Store - FAQLooking for photo prints to decorate your walls? SMWorks is now proud to offer prints of some of the best photos on the website. Understandably, you may have some questions about the store - read further to learn more!
Question 0
Why are only some photos available as prints? where are the rest?
There's a few different reasons. One is that the service that currently hosts SMWorks, Weebly, has certain limitations on products depending on your websites payment plans. Thus, not every photo is able to be added. Another reason is that not every photo is optimal for printing. There's no point in going too in depth, but images of certain sizes - such as heavily cropped ones - start to look poor on prints, especially larger prints. Grainy and cropped photos will not turn out nice, and that's something we don't want to sell.
Lastly, quite simply not all photos are print-worthy. Some are just B-roll, they're okay shots for what they are but they lack certain elements to be the best they could be. For me, I only want to sell the very best of my photos. However, if there's still a photo of mine not available you do really want a print of that isn't available, we might be able to do something about that! Send an email through the contact form and we'll see what we can do. Please do note that a 'special order print' like this will likely incur a slightly higher cost due to the extra work involved. Just slight though! Question 2
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