It has been almost a year since we added a 50-140mm Fujinon telephoto zoom to our arsenal of lenses for the Fuji X-T4.
I often like to play with . . . I mean experiment with . . . different types of equipment. So a few days ago I took the X-T4 out to make a few photos of Straburg Rail Road’s outbound midday train. Usually it is in Kris’ capable hands. I exposed these views at Blackhorse Road using the 50-140mm lens.
I’ve always liked the color palatte and sharpness offered by the FujiFilm digital cameras, and these photos exemplify the warm saturated tones offered by the X-T4.
Strasburg 89 near Blackhorse Road; exposed in RAF (RAW) format using a FujiFilm X-T4 with 50-140mm lens. Processed in Lightroom.Strasburg 89 near Blackhorse Road; exposed in RAF (RAW) format using a FujiFilm X-T4 with 50-140mm lens. Processed in Lightroom and cropped slightly from the original file.
We arrived at Reading & Nothern’s East Mahanoy Junction a good five minutes before the Fall Foliage Excursion returning from Jim Thorpe was due to pass.
This is a neat place on the former Reading Company to make photos. In the last couple of years, I’ve made images here from a variety of different angles.
For these views, I was standing on Slate Road from a position that offers a bit of elevation.
As the train came into view, I used my Nikon Z7-II with a 70-200mm zoom to frame up of the leading locomotives in the shadowed curve on approach to the junction, then made a series of wideangle photos from the same vantage point of the train in back lit autumn sun using my Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
On my August 1984 trip to Montreal, I carried two Leica 3A rangefinders.
One was loaded with Kodachrome. The other with Kodak Tri-X.
The problem was that on the B&W camera, I was using a pre-war (1930s vintage) Leitz Elmar with uncoated elements. While sharp, this tended to produce low-contrast images that exhibited a variety of artifacts.
Complicating matters, the I had bulk-loaded Tri-X into cassetts that I’d used again and again. In this instance, the cassette suffered from some minor light leaks and scratched so of the negatives.
The shutter on the old Leica wasn’t the best. While it did ok at a 1/200th, and 1/100th (no 1/250th or 1/125th as on more modern cameras), most of the other shutter speeds were a bit random.
And if all that wasn’t enough, I did a pretty poor job of processing the film! I don’t recall exactly what I did, but from the looks of the negatives, I was using nearly exhausted developer. To compensate for the weak solution, I upped the temperature and the time. The results were very low contrast with comparatively high-grain.
Back in the day, I’d deemed the negatives too challenging to print, so I put them in a glassine envelope largely unprinted.
Despite all that, I’d managed to make some interesting compositions, if not great photographs. The other day I scanned the whole roll.
The photo displayed here iswest of Montreal at Sainte Anne-de-Bellevue along the parallel Canadian National and Canadian Pacific double lines.
I had taken a suburban train from Windsor Station. And made this view of an eastward VIA Rail LRC train with MLW diesel coming out of the afternoon sun.
Unmodified scan of 35mm Kodak Tri-X negative exposed using uncoated Leitz 50mm Elmar with a Leica 3A rangefinder processed in some sort of low-grade soup that barely qualified as developer. Slightly improved version of the above photo. This was modified in digital post processing to increase contrast, remove spots and adjust exposure.
The following year, as my second camera, I brought with me to Montreal my father’s vintage 1960 Rolleiflex Model T, which used 120 size film and had an excellent Zeiss Tessar lens (coated!). Loaded with Plus-X, this produced vastly superior results.
Live and learn.
Tracking the Light Explores Photography Every Day!
Years ago I photographed Norfolk Southern’s executive F-units leading the company office car train on various occasions.
Last Saturday, Kris and I intercepted these famous streamliners working Reading & Northern’s Fall Foliage Excursion on its return run from Jim Thorpe to North Reading.
It was a gorgeous clear afternoon and the autumn leaves were beginning to pop. We investigated a variety of places to make photos and ultimately settled on Tippets Road near Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania.
I wanted to make the most of the autumn color, while featuring the F’s classic ‘bull-dog’ nose and car body style construction.
I made these photos while working with both of my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras. Kris made photos with her FujiFilm X-T4 mirrorless camera. Seamus-the-Dog took it all in from the back seat of the car.
Once the train passed we zipped off after it to make more images in the late afternoon light!
I found it interesting that on the previous weekend we found fellow photographers at every bend to make photos of steam locomotive 2102, but on this day when photographing the F’s on exactly the same route, we only saw only other person making photos between Tippets Road and North Reading. This was especially remarkable considering the beautiful autumnal conditions!
Last Saturday was warm and clear. We had a late start, but decided to make another drive into coal country to photograph Reading & Northern Autumn Foliage Excursions.
Since we had a little time, we explored a few different locations. Kris liked the view from a grade crossing between East Mahanoy Junction and Haucks (compass north of Tamaqua, Pa.) at milepost 105. This was once a very railroad intense part of Pennsylvania. Today several lines still converge on this area.
We didn’t have long to wait and Reading & Northern’s return trip to Pottsville passed us with three vintage Budd RDCs!
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
Soon we were searching for another location to catch R&N’s F7s with the train from Jim Thorpe bound for Reading Outer Station. Stay tuned . . .
A beautiful autumn sunset made for a perfect situation to photograph Lehigh Valley number 40 which resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
In the 1950s, my father rode this car from Jim Thorpe to Hazelton and made several photos of it in revenue service.
Years later, we traveled together on RDCs on former New Haven lines in New England.
One of the former New Haven RDCs later came to New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railroad, where I had the opportunity to be qualified as a ‘motorman’, and on several occasions operated the car in revenue service.
In 2022, Kris and I took Conway Scenic Railroad number 23, ‘Millie’, on a spin to Conway, NH., and back for our pre-wedding special with many of our friends and family on board.
Every so often someone tells me that they don’t like Budd RDCs. I dismiss them as daft.
In April 1984, the Monson Jr-Sr High School Band had a musical exchange with a school band in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
The day of the joint concert, the 3rd Trombone took a bus to South Braintree, changed for the Red Line, paid a visit to South Station, photographed some former New Haven Railroad RDC’s, took a spin on the Orange Line to Sullivan Square, and eventually arrived back at the concert to play his note.
Unforntunately, karma caught the 3rd trombone, who did a subpar job of processing the Kodak Tri-X exposed on the big adventure.
These days, catching four vintage RDC’s in commuter service would be a major coup.
On our October 5th trip, we were driving back toward Jim Thorpe following the former Central Railroad of Jersey line that now serves as a link between two key portions of the Reading & Northern empire.
As we approached R&N’s new station at Nesquehoning, Pa., where earlier in the day we had photographed steam locomotive 2102 on its eastward journey, we spotted the headlights of a westward train.
It was R&N’s RDC trip returning to Pottsville (via Port Clinton).
I turned the car around, parked, and Kris and I jumped out to make photos. (And Seamus rolled the train by from inside the car).
Pictures taken, we raced after the two-car pocket streamliner, catching it again a few minutes later at Panther Creek.
I’m a big fan of the Budd RDC, so this was a bonus! It was an unexpected delight that added to our wonderful day following trains in coal country.
Grab shot at Nesquehoning; Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens.Reading & Northern’s pair of RDCs passing the Panther Creek location sign. Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens.
I’m always trying to come up with catchy titles for my individual Tracking the Light Posts to entice you to read them.
I could have titled this; ‘2102, again.’ Or ‘Yet Another Photo of old Reading Company Rails,’ or perhaps, ‘OH YEAH, THIS was worth the wait!’
In retrospect, perhaps that last one was better . . .oh well, there’s always tomorrow’s post.
On the afternoon of October 5th, Kris and I were poised at Zehners, near South Tamaqua, Pa., waiting to catch Reading & Northern’s 2102 leading the return leg of the day’s Fall Foliage Excursion that had run between Reading Outer Station and Jim Thorpe.
Low sun made for dramatic lighting, and it really was worth the wait! Sometimes it pays to stick with it, even when you’ve been out all day making photos.
I made this series of photos using my Nikon Z mirrorless cameras.
There’s no junction at Lancaster Junction anymore.
Reading Company’s Reading & Columbia route split at Lancaster Junction. One line continued toward Landisville where it crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad on the way to Columbia. The other line, curved to the left and went into Lancaster, Pa.
Today, the railroad is operated by Norfolk Southern, and only the branch to Lancaster remains. The route beyond Lancaster Junction is now a trail.
I’ve made a couple of visits to this spot in recent weeks. I wished I’d seen this location in it heyday, but I’m happy there’s still some trackage here. Maybe someday, I’ll catch an NS local freight on its way to or from Lititz.
Lancaster Junction looking toward Lancaster; the old route on the right is now a trail.Looking toward Lititz.
In the mid-1980s, I made numerous trips to photograph Conrail’s Boston Line—the former Boston & Albany—at Stateline Tunnel. This short, curved, twin bore tunnel is located a few miles west of the Massachusetts-New York Stateline in Canaan, New York.
On the morning of Aug 24, 1984, my pal TSH and I spent several hours at the tunnel waiting for trains. Four decades earlier, my friend Bob Buck had photographed at this same location, and I was familiar with his photos of B&A’s Lima Berkshires, New York Central Mohawks, and new Alco FA diesels at the tunnel.
I made this view of Amtrak Train 448—Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited—approaching the west portal on the eastward track using my pre-war Leica 3A 35mm camera loaded with Kodak Tri-X.
This was an early favorite photo of mine and for years I had a mounted print of it on my wall.
The negative had been missing for decades, but resurfaced the other day while I was going through boxes in our new house.
I scanned the original 35mm negative using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner and processed the image using Adobe Lightroom.
More than 40 years have passed since I exposed this image. It just doesn’t seem so long! Today, Bob Buck would have been 95! Happy Birthday Bob!
With the sun over our left shoulder, we set up in Nequehoning near the new Reading & Northern station to roll by class T-1 4-8-4 2102 on its run to Jim Thorpe.
This is an amazing machine. Seeing it on the move never gets old.
I made this sequence of photos using my Nikon Z-series cameras.
Sunday evening, we waited out the sunset at Esbenshade Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
Strasburg Rail Road had scheduled a seasonally themed late-departure. I figured this would be an ideal opportunity to make some sunset views of the train.
The orange globe of the sun was nearly at the horizon by the time old 89 worked up the grade toward Paradise Lane.
To make the most of the sky, I exposed this sequence manually rather than relying on the in-camera meter to intrepret what I was tying to preserve digitally. Key to my exposure was the desire to capture the defining shape of the sun and not merely as a fuzzy blob.
I needed to make a variety of changes to the RAW files in post processing, and I think the final results speak of success.
Near South Tamaqua, Pa., at Atlas (also called Reynolds), Kris and I rolled by last weekend’s Fall Foliage Excursion operated by Reading & Northern.
This is a popular place to picture R&N’s excursions. I opted for a broadside view to capture the engine in action as well as the cars behind it.
So much of the focus on R&N’s excursions is about locomotive 2102, I thought it is important to make images of the cars. Since last autumn, several have been freshly painted and the railroad offers an interesting variety of passenger cars.
Photos were exposed using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras.
On Saturday (October 5, 2024) Reading & Northern 2102 made a stunning display of steam and smoke as it started out of Port Clinton on the next leg of its journey toward Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
Kris and I stood along with other photographers looking across the old canal basin toward the bridges over the Schuylkill River.
This place has been a cross roads of transportation for the better part of two centuries.
More than 60 years ago, my father made photos of Reading T-1s on Iron Horse Rambles at Port Clinton.
As the gigantic steam locomotive accelerated away from its station stop and eased its train across the Schuylkill, the bark of its exhaust resounded and echoed across the narrow valley.
I made a series of photos using three cameras. One of my old Nikon F3s was loaded with Kodak Ektachrome, while I made telephoto views with my Nikon Z7-II, and wide angles with my Z6. The film is still in the F3.
Saturday was a beautiful clear October morning. I walked up to the station at Port Clinton, Pennsylvania to photograph the arrival of locomotive 2102 from North Reading on its journey to Jim Thorpe.
I felt like a wee plastic man on a really big HO-scale railroad.
Back lit lighting made for dramatic images, but then required a bit of contrast control and selective lightening for final presentation.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom lens.
After the train arrived to pick up passengers, I walked back to the grade crossing near the village of Port Clinton to photograph the thundering departure of this magnificent machine. Stay tuned!
Yesterday (October 5, 2024), Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I drove up to Port Clinton, Pennsylvania to spend a day photographing former Reading Company class T-1 4-8-4 2102 on the Reading Northern.
Waiting for the magnificent iron horse to make its appearance, I was delighted to catch a pair of Reading & Northern former Reading Company Budd RDCs (rail diesel cars) making a run from Pottsville to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
I’m a big fan of the class Budd RDC, so this was a nice bonus for me.
I exposed these digital images using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens. I help compensate for the rich polarize morning sunshine, I’ve made a variety of nominal adjustments to contrast and exposure using Adobe Lightroom.
I also exposed a few 35mm color slides with a Nikon F3. Those remain in the camera, and it might be a while before I have them processed.
(And yes, we achived our objective and spent most of the day making dynamic photos of the 4-8-4 at work).
Yesterday, I met up with Tracking the Light reader and photographer Andrew Ludasi at Strasburg. We drove to Carpenters to catch the 3pm returning with engine 89.
It was dull afternoon, but the sound of the locomotive in the pastoral setting was rewarding. After the train passed, we discussed cameras, film and photographic technique.
I mentioned that I always liked black & white, and in years past often used black & white film even when I’d had the opportunity to expose color. I suggested that occasionally, I’d convert digital color photos to black & white, and this might be a good idea for today’s photos.
Last night during the processing of my images, I desaturated one of the photos and cropped it to make for a more dramatic composition.
In this image, I didn’t make for a full black & white conversion as I left a hint of color and gave the image a sepia-tint for effect.
Is this better than the full color versions? Today, I can have the best of color and black & white. Take your pick as to which versions you prefer.
Full frame color version; Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Z-series zoom.
I have a few notes from December 16, 1984. Not as many as I wish I’d taken.
I’d started the morning in Springfield, Massachusetts where I met my friends and we continued north to Greenfield. It was pretty dark when we caught this eastward freight, passing the old Greenfield station site. The Connecticut River Main Line is in the foreground.
It was lightly snowing/sleeting. Pretty bleak conditions for photography.
This was early in the Guilford era, at a time when it was common to find Maine Central and Delaware & Hudson locomotives working Boston & Maine trains. In this instance, Maine Central GP38 262 was leading a former D&H General Electric U23B that had been transferred to Maine Central. At the back of the train was a Delaware & Hudson caboose.
Decades later, while working at Conway Scenic in North Conway, NH. I became familiar with Maine Central GP38s 252 and 255, so I find it fascinating to review these photos that I made 40 years ago of sister locomotive 262.
Greenfield MA Dec16 1984
These are thin negatives exposed on Kodak Tri-X using my Leica 3A with a Canon f1.8 50mm lens. Back then, my understanding of black & white processing was pretty basic, and I used a straight mix of Kodak D76 for the standard time. Live and learn.
I started in Palmer, Massachusetts and followed the old Boston & Albany west all the way to North Wilbraham.
Although, I remember the walk. Some of the details are lost to time.
Approaching the Hovey Hill Road overpass in Monson, Mass., I heard a wicked throbbing roar coming from the west.
Today, I know exactly what I was hearing. Back then I only knew a train was close. I scrambled from trackside up to the bridge. Just in time to make these photos.
An eastward Conrail freight passed by on Track 2 led by three former Erie Lackawanna SD45-2s and and an SD40-2 spliced between them. Wow. What I’d do to experience that again today!
So what was I hearing? EMD’s SD45-2, like its pre Dash-2 antecedant , the SD45, was powered by a 20-cylinder version of its 645 diesel. This engine produces a characteristic low-frequency sound; when two or more of the type work in tandem, the synchronizing effect of the exhaust from the valves creates a low throbbing sound that carries for many miles. This is especially noticeable when the engines are working in the middle throttle positions. Twenty years later I made a project of preserving that exact sound, but that’s a story for some other time.
Kodak 35mm Tri-X, exposed with a Leica 3A fitted with a Canon 1.8 50mm lens. Film processed in D-76.Kodak 35mm Tri-X, exposed with a Leica 3A fitted with a Canon 1.8 50mm lens. Film processed in D-76.
This Conrail freight was one of several I saw that bright day, 40 years ago. Interestingly, I never did anything with these images until now. Pity I didn’t have a good tape recorder.
June 1984, I had just graduated high-school, and was aiming to visit Tucker’s Hobbies in Warren, Massachusetts on a Friday evening.
I must have chased this eastward Conrail freight from Palmer, staying ahead of it on Route 67.
Standing immediately west of the old Boston & Albany station, I was poised with my Leica 3A fitted with a screw-mount Canon f1 .8 50mm. I arrived moments before the roar of the engines announced the approaching train.
Three new Conrail SD50s! That was a good catch. These locomotives, although common across the Conrail network, were not often seen in sets of three, and only occasionally operated on the B&A.
At least one of these units survives to the present day as a Norfolk Southern SD40E.
In the summer of 1984, I played with a variety of lenses. I’d dropped my stalwart 50mm Leitz Sumitar , and so tended to prefer either an f1.8 Canon 50mm or my dad’s prized 21mm Leitz Super Angulon.
In August of that year, I was poised at the Palmer Diamond (where Conrail’s Boston Line crossed the Central Vermont Railway in Palmer, Massachusetts) to photograph a westward set of light engines running ‘cab hop’ toward West Springfield Yard.
The sun was partially obscured by a cloud, but the air was crisp.
I made this photo with my Leica 3A rangefinder fitted with the Super Angulon. Among the advantages of this lens was the external viewfinder which allowed for a larger and more precise means of composing photos than the tiny in-camera viewfinder that was designed strictly for a 50mm.
Palmer has changed greatly since 1984. For point of comparison, I’ve included a view of the diamond that I exposed in September 2023.
Conrail single-tracked the Boston Line in July 1986, and the trees have come up obscuring the view that I was once afforded there.
Please activate the time machine and set it to August 1984!
Looking west at Palmer, Mass. New Conrail C30-7As roll west on the old Boston & Albany. August 1984.Looking west at Palmer, Mass., September 9, 2023.
This past Saturday, I gave a 45 minute talk on the Development and Application of the American Steam Locomotive to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
Among the attendees was SUNY-Buffalo Associate Professor David Alff, who presented later in the evening. His topic was on his most recent publication, the Northeast Corridor. He offered a fascinating social history, not just of the modern day railroad, but of more than two centuries of transportation.
Earlier in the day David and I shared a table signing our respective books and I was telling him of my days watching trains from my grandparents terrace in Co-op City overlooking the Northeast Corridor in The Bronx.(New York City).
Here I am signing a book on Saturday. Photo by Kris Solomon
Sitting out in front of the museum is Amtrak AEM-7 915, a locomotive that spent roughly 35 years hauling trains on the Northeast Corridor. I have more photos of this classic electric at Strasburg than I do of it under wire.
Over the last few months, I’ve scoured thousands of my own photos, looking for the most representative and evocative images of Amtrak locomotives and trains for my latest book ‘Amtrak Equipment’ (that I’m now in the final stages of completing). In this process, I was frustrated in locating decent images of old 915 at work. (Although, I found a few of its from years ago, and some of those have appeared on Tracking the Light.)
Last night, I was reviewing some black & white negatives from the 1980s that I’d scanned back in 2016, and I found a sequence of telephoto views that I made with my father’s Leica M3 from my grandparents’ terrace.
I had been making photos here since the mid-1970s, but many suffered from inexperience and ineffective technique. By the summer of 1985, I had perfected my black & white photo technique to the point where I finally able to make some satisfying images of trains from this family vantage point.
In the black & white view below of Amtrak 915 crossing the Pelham River, I was using a Leitz Wetzlar f4 135mm Elmar lens, which was a remarkable sharp piece of glass.
Finding this photo was a Eureka! moment.
915 now rests in front of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg.Amtrak 915 in August 1985 leading a train toward Penn Station, as viewed from apartment 19E, Co-op City, The Bronx, NY.
Among the remarkable qualities of the Nikon Z cameras is their exceptional exposure latitude.
I don’t set out to make bad photos, but every so often I simply have the camera set incorrectly.
The other day, on our Sunday drive, Kris and I spotted Norfolk Southern’s local freight on the New Holland Branch at Leola, Pa. I pulled over and made a photo using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens set to 175mm. The problem was that I had the ISO set at 1000 and the f-stop set to f2.8.
The camera gave me the fastest shutter speed, 1/8000th, which still left my photo more than a stop over-exposed. Working with Adobe Lightroom, I was able to recover most of the data from the NEF RAW file and present a decent representation of the image, including considerable sky detail.
I also made a series of properly exposed photos, but I’m aiming to demonstrate that even in situations of extreme overexposure, it is possible to adjust the file to present a decent image if your equipment has captured the data in RAW.
NEF RAW file, converted to JPG without adjustement. This is at least one full stop overexposed.This is the same file as above, but featured my first round of adjustments to correct for the over exposure. In my opinion, the photo still needed some work.NEF RAW file after my second round of corrections.This is my Lightroom work-window that shows the postion of the slider controls and the degree of adjustments necessary to correct for the overexposed photo.
I consider railway vehicles that were built when I was in high-school as ‘old’ and noteworthy for their longevity. (40 years in service).
Railway vehicles that match me in age are stalwart members of the railway fleet, honorable for their continued operation, and definitely worthy of photography.
Railway vehicles that older than me fall into various categories, but anything that was in motion 80 years ago, used to qualify as ‘ancient’.
I made this photo of an ATAC Series tram on my second visit to Rome in 2017. This was exposed at Portamaggiore. Beyond the tram is a vestige of a Roman wall from the 3rd century. By that measure, the tram, built in the mid-1940s, seems nearly new! Sort of puts everything in perspective.
Exposed using my Lumix LX7.
Portamaggiore, Rome on September 27, 2017. Lumix LX7 photo.
The old Reading & Columbia route of the Reading Company was fragmented during the Conrail-era and what remains is operated by several different railroads.
Historically, the line offered the Reading Company a through-route from greater Reading, Pa., via a junction at Sinking Spring, to Manheim, and Lancaster Junction to the once-important shipping center at Columbia, Pa., with branches to Mt Hope and Lancaster.
Today, the eastern end of this route is operated as part of the East Penn Railroad, with locomotives stored at the old Reading Company station in Reinholds. This continues via Denver and Stevens toward Ephrata.
I began exploring this route after we moved to Lancaster last year. Last week, I made another inspection of this route, making photos of the line using my Lumix LX7. I started at Reinholds and worked my way west.
One of these days, I hope to catch a train on the move over these rails.
Meandering roads southwest of the Susquehanna brought us to Stewartstown, Pa., home to the historic railroad of the same name.
I made these images of some of the antiques on display at the end of the line. For me, the Pennsylvania Railroad flat car was most interesting to look at, but a challenge to photograph.
Arriving in our new Honda CR-V Hybrid, we safely pulled off Route 741 at Gap, Pa., to roll by Amtrak Keystone 656 from Harrisburg. This was running just a few minutes after the advertised.
I set up with my Nikon Z6 and 70-200mm lens, aiming to catch the train against the sunset sky. (The sun was just an orange glob slowly melting into the western horizon.)
We received a friendly blast from the engineer in the old Metroliner control cab as the train glided through the curve at Gap.
I like the trailing view with our new car and Kris in the passenger seat. Amtrak 656 is fading into the distance, but we already know what that looks like.
On Friday evening, Strasburg Rail Road 4-8-0 475 made a stunning display of steam and smoke as it climbed the short grade at Carpenters on its return run from Leaman Place to Strasburg, Pa.
Filtered low sun made for romantic light as the engine emerged from a copse of trees near the Carpenters Cemetery off Blackhorse Road. I made this sequence of photos using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens.
Working with the NEF RAW files in Adobe Lightroom, I made a series of adjustments to improve the apparent dynamic range and color saturation of the photos.
One my tricks for making more effective digital photos with the Nikon Z cameras is to pay careful attention to the in-camera histogram to make sure I have captured sufficient hightlight and shadow detail. This often results in a slightly dark in-camera JPG, but by working with the NEF file, I have ample data to make for a much better full-range final image.
The best part of being there on Friday evening was listening to the locomotive exhaust as it slowly ascended the grade. This was the sound of a century-old technology rippling across a pastoral landscape. Something that was once common and unremarkable, and now only exists for our pleasure.
Friday evening, Kris and I went for our first proper drive in it with Seamus in the back: just a few miles over to Esbenshade Road in Strasburg, Pa., to roll by the 6pm train.
There were layers of dust and smoke in the western sky that made the sun appear fuzzy and reddish orange with sky a tangerine—mauve-like gray.
I made these photos as the train passed us with 4-8-0 475 working tender-first. I’ve included a few views of our midnight blue Honda CR-V Hybrid. In these photos it had less than 80 miles on it!
Photos exposed using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras. NEF RAW files adjusted in Lightroom.
I walked by this location almost everyday I was in Dublin, but I rarely ever saw this angle. My common spot was around the corner where I could get a clear view over the wall.
On September 20, 2016, I was working with my FujiFilm XT1, which had an extendable, adjustible rear panel display. I had had some help from fellow photographer Jay Monaghan who assisted me to get this angle.
The light was dull and this suited the angle, which would have been partially shadowed had the sun been out.
Belmond’s luxury Grand Hibernian tour train was departing Dublin and I made a sequence as the train passed.
Yesterday, working with Adobe Lightroom, I made a series of post-processing adjustments to the RAF RAW file, including some exposure and contrast adjustment to the AI-masked sky to bring in cloud detail.
I also lightened the shadow areas, while globally increasing contrast and saturation, and corrected the level.
The first photo is the scaled but unmodified image. The second shows the mask in the Adobe Lightroom work window. The last two are my final interpretations, the fourth features addition of a slight vignette.
On this day eleven years ago, I was with a gang of photographers poised at the beginning of Irish Rail’s quad track in west suburban Dublin at Cherry Orchard. We were aiming to catch the elusive empty long welded rail train on its run west toward Portlaoise.
This was led by locomotive 071, the class leader of Irish Rail’s 1970s-vintage 071 fleet.
Working with my Canon EOS-7D and 200mm Canon AF lens, I made these cross-lit photos from the pedestrian bridge over the line.
I’ve said this before, and its true, there’s neither cherries nor orchards at Cherry Orchard.
On 19 Sept 2013, Irish Rail 071 wearing the recently introduced battleship gray livery, leads the empty long welded rail (LWR) train west at Cherry Orchard.
In my book North American Railroad Bridges published by Voyageur Press in 2008, I described the double track former Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace, Maryland;
“Between August 10, 1905, and May 22, 1906, PRR built 17 deck truss spans on the piers, ranging from 196 feet 6 inches to 260 feet long, with 24 feet 3 inch clearance above mean water level. To clear large ships, a central swing span was installed. “
Earlier this year, Amtrak broke ground for the replacement of this historic bridge. Last week, Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I drove to Havre de Grace, where I made a few photos of trains gliding across the bridge. In the distance is construction equipment, which appear to be removing the piers of an earlier railroad bridge in preparation for the new spans.
These views show Amtrak 195 (Boston-Washington) led by ACS-64 634 with Amfleet in tow. Exposed using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom.
On September 17, 2019, my old pal TSH and I were poised at the south portal of the Bett Tunnel near St. Goar, Germany.
When a southward DB InterCity train burst forth from the inky gloom, I exposed a burst of digital images using my FujiFilm XT1.
Unfortunately the front profile of the iconic DB Class 101 electric caught the glint of the midday sun that resulted in over-exposure.
Working with Adobe Lightroom, I was able to reduce and appropriately adjust the exposure on the front of the locomotive while retaining proper exposure for the rest of the scene. I also recropped the photo and corrected for a 1-degree error in level.
Although it was unintentional, as I made this image in the briefest moment, this offers a subtle near- example of a Fibonacci composition, which is represented in the relative separation of key vertical elements.
For this example, I refer to the simple Fibonacci sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 etc., whereby each succesive number is the sum of the two numbers that precede it. Ironically, it is the imperfect interpretation of the sequence that adds tension to the composition and makes it interesting to revisit.
Unmodified FujiFilm RAF RAW file (scaled for internet).Adjusted image.
