The Orient Express Train through Switzerland

Orient Express train Switzerland….

Another commission from Orient Express Hotels Train & Cruises, my brief this time was to photograph the Orient Express train on it’s route through Switzerland.

Working again directly with the client on the project, we travelled to Switzerland and carried out a preliminary recce of the route, where we eventually found several possible locations, one favourite in particular by Lake Lucern. The track here ran through a vineyard with a view of the lake behind, perfect for the semi panorama scene I’d envisaged for the main shot.

A meeting with Swiss Rail was arranged to discuss the possibility of actually stopping the train by the lake for a few minutes, or just long enough for me to get the shot’s I needed.
Luckily our contact from the network turned out to be extremely helpful, and he put the arrangements in place to make it happen.
A short time later we flew back out to Zurich for the actual shoot, and travelled to our location by the lake on the pre arranged day.
I’d positioned my camera from up a hill looking down on the whole scene, with a few people in the vineyard working, they were got into position for when the train arrived.

Eventually the train came into view, pulling around the curve of the track gradually slowing down as it worked it’s way more into the vineyard. I signaled for the train to stop at a certain spot and managed to get as many shots as possible in the few short minutes I had.