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When I visited Preston Railway Station to take this photograph it was eerily quiet. Normally there are taxis queuing, some slowly edging forward on their journey as the front of the queue gets closer, but today – not a single cab.

It was Sunday evening but even so, I don’t recall ever seeing the station so quiet. Not a single train on the tracks either, though I did here the gently rumble of carriages over on the far platforms. Probably a local train heading for the coast.

So, this photograph didn’t really turn out as envisaged. I would have liked a train to have been entering or leaving the station ideally, recorded as a slight blur to show movement. The slow shutter speed would have given me this affect.

I also had a technical hiccup. A tripod is pretty much a necessity when doing this sort of night shot and as I came to take the picture I realised that I was missing the bracket that fixes the camera and tripod together. So it was a case of resting the camera on top of the tripod and hoping for the best.

On the plus side, I like the colours and the shape of the building against the night sky in the final picture but it looks like I’ll have to return again to create the photograph I’d really wanted.

Photo: Nikon D700, Nikkor 16-35mm f4 VR lens, 0.4 secs f5

Paul Melling [paulmellingphotography]