One at a Time – a series of posts where I examine a single image. Today it’s Training Day.

I am, without doubt, a creature of habit, and thus I habitually use each passing train to train my panning, so, on each passing day, I’m using the train, I’m training.

I love slow shutter speeds, that’s just one of the reasons I adore that analogue come digital mishmash that is the Xpro-2, a simple click of the aperture and I move from auto and dive into the depths of f22 and those lovely long shutter speeds.

When I’m done, it’s a simple click back to full auto, my default setting for street photography, exposure taken care of, I can concentrate on seeing, the most important skill of all.

It would be an understatement of somewhat enormous magnitude to say that it’s not always successful. Like backing black in the casino, it’s a gamble, but when you win, you win big time.

This frame was taken as I was leaving the station at South Norwood. I could see the Thameslink train barrelling through the station at full pelt, and so, with a speedy pirouette (not bad for an ungainly sexagenarian), I captured the shot.

The panning was clean, confident, and disciplined. The sharpness of the train contrasts beautifully with the blur of the platform. That’s not luck but practice.

There’s a sense of speed, but not chaos.

There’s a single soul in the carriage, visible but not distracting. That’s a gift for storytelling: the lonely commuter, the person going somewhere, or nowhere, at the speed of modern life. It’s a frame that says everything and nothing, and I love it.