A year before this, in October, we filmed in this same field in North Carolina with the same train and the end photograph worked well. There are inherent dangers in returning to the same location if the narrative has not evolved, but at least we had a good year to think about it. If we revisit somewhere, my goals tend to be loftier than before, as we never want to regress creatively.

The first alteration we made was to embrace the colors of the fall and this meant waiting for the first overnight frosts to golden the trees and give our backdrop some proper seasonal glory. So we planned our trip to the Smoky Mountains at the end of October, rather than the middle; we all know 10 days can make a huge difference in the colors of the fall.

It was wet, cold and a bit bleak but that is more appropriate weather for the scenes we were shooting than balmy sunshine. Flat light can be a photographer’s great friend in scenes like this, so long as the rain holds off.

The second addition was to bring in a horse and rider to run alongside the steam train. This is not a job for part time cowboys as the steam and the smoke from the train are uncertain variables for a horse. Ty Mitchell is an old hand at this kind of stuff; Martin Scorsese cast him as the bad guy in Killers of the Flower Moon and he is certainly a bad ass dude.

Ty is as good and game as they come, but even he fell off his horse shooting this sequence; the first time I have seen him do that in our six-year friendship. Huge respect to him for just getting up and giving it another go.

The result is a strong picture with enough layers to tell a full story. I had props at my disposal for the concept to have potential, but the execution here was a little harder than most. But all you need is one good cowboy and one good frame, and eventually we got it.