Years ago, my late friend and fellow photographer Brian Jennison described this effect as ‘around the corner light’.
I stood in the shadows under a tree at Gap, Pennsylvania looking west. The sun was setting in the tangent between Gap’s two restrictive curves. I centered Amtrak Keystone 656, led by ACS-64 no. 600 David L. Gunn, as it leaned into the near curve.
He doesn’t know what it’s all about, but Seamus-the-Dog was sitting the back seat of the car to watch the train roll by.
Exposed using a Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Z-series Nikkor zoom lens.Greatly enlarged portion of the lower image.
Tracking the Light Examines Railroad Photography Daily!
Tuesday morning, I delivered my class on Steam Locomotive Photography at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
As part of the class, students were encouraged to wander among and photograph the museum ‘s exhibits. I’d organized with Museum Director Pat Morrison to temporarily remove a few of the protective barriers around key steam locomotives in order to allow for better photographic access.
I chatted with members of the class, offered advice on equipment and discussed details of locomotives and photography. I also made these detailed photos using my Nikon Z mirrorless digital cameras.
My next class at the museum is scheduled for Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
The other evening, mist blanketed the Susquehanna Valley.
Kris, Seamus-the-Dog, and I went out looking for trains.
The signals at Washington Boro were lined for an eastbound on the Port Road Secondary. A distant rumble indicated an approaching train, and all the pieces of our adventure came together. Norfolk Southern 36A (Enola, Pa., to Edgemoor, Delaware) appeared, its headlights piercing the evening fog like the eyes of a primordial beast.
We followed the rolling mass down the valley and arrived at Safe Harbor with ample time to watch the freight pass beneath the immense viaduct that one carried the Atgen & Susquehanna Low Grade.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6-III. NEF RAW Files processed using DxO PureRaw5.
DxO is offering a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO PureRaw5, FilmPack 8 and other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% discount to any new customer at shop.dxo.com.
Last summer, I made a series a variations on a back-lit photograph that I’d exposed looking west at Shelley Drive near Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania.
The other evening, Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I returned to this location to catch a pair of AmtrakKeystone trains. In post processing. I repeated the exercise with one of Nikon files of the second train (Amtrak 656).
For me this has special significance: One of the last serious conversations I had with my father on photography was regarding last summer’s sequence. He had preferred the hard, unprocessed silhouette compared with my more interpretive digital interpretations.
Since that time, I’ve found some his black & white negatives exposed in the same vicinity more than sixty year earlier. I’m sorry that I cannot share any these photos with him.
Below are five variations of my image, plus a surprise . . .
Amtrak Keystone 656 at Shelley Drive; constrast, color temperature, exposure and highlights/shadows altered for cosmetic interpretation.Amtrak Keystone 656 at Shelley Drive; heavy constrast, color temperature, exposure and highlights/shadows altered, plus a mask applied to the sky for heavy adjustment to alter appearance. Amtrak Keystone 656 at Shelley Drive, NEF file converted to DNG file with lens correction and nominal contrast adjustment, but without heavy cosmetic adjustment or interpretation. Scaled from the Nikon NEF file.Amtrak Keystone 656 at Shelley Drive, NEF file converted to DNG file with lens correction and nominal contrast adjustment, followed by additional cosmetic alterations to contrast, exposure, color temperature and shadow/highlight changes.Did you spot the bird? [Upper left to the left of the catenary poles]. Initially, I thought this might be an errant bit of dust on my Nikon’s sensor. Only after extreme enlargement did I notice that this was in fact a bird in flight. Not a bird in hand, but one in the sky. Sometimes details matter.
Tuesday March 10th, I’m giving a class on Steam Locomotive photography at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
I intend to offer a brief history of the locomotive and how more complete understanding of steam locomotives can help lead to better contemporary images of these historic machines.
Students will have the opportunity to photograph the museum’s collection and I hope to offer helpful insight in techniques and strategies for making more effective steam images.
In November 2021, Kris and I were invited to attend a Trains Magazine photo charter with Soo Line 2-8-2 1003. This popular event attracted a wide variety of photographers and enabled creation of some memorable images.
Here’s an hidden gem from my black & white negative collection.
In December 1984, I was in my first year of college. On weekends, I’d catch up with my rail-photographer friends to make explorations of New England operations.
On this afternoon, we caught southward Connecticut River line freight rolling through Greenfield, Massachusetts on Guilford’s Boston & Maine. By this time, cabooses were on the wane. Most Fitchburg route freights were already running without them. Yet, the Conn River jobs still carried cabooses.
I made this trailing view on Ilford FP4 using my father’s Leica M3. I located this negative last month, and finally after more than 40 years in the dark now it can see the light of day.. For presentation here, I made a few cosmetic alterations using Adobe Lightroom to improve the contrast and make the most of the wintery sky
A dusk filled sky made for a rosy sunset at Peach Bottom, Pennsyvlania.
Kris, Seamus-the-dog and I had been exploring locations along the Susquehanna River. I knew there was an eastward Norfolk Southern train expected, but it didn’t materialize before darkness closed in.
I made this view of the former Pennsylvania Railroad bridge across Peters Creek near where the smaller river flows into the mighty Susquehanna.
Someday, I’d like to make a silhouette of a locomotive here.
Tracking the Light Explores the thought processes behind railroad photography!
In the mid-1990s, I made a project out of photographing heritage steam on the former Denver & Rio Grande Western.
In September 1998, while working on my my book Narrow Gauge Steam Locomotives (MBI 1999), I made this trailing view of Cumbres & Toltec class K36 2-8-2 No. 484 ascending toward Cumbres Pass at the Tanglefoot Curve on the eastside of the pass—some of the highest altitude trackage in the United States.
This works for me on several levels. The most basic level is that it shows the locomotive working hard in its element. It follows variation on classic format; three-quarter sun, drive-rods down, etc.
While a preserved locomotive, it is on old home rails and yet I haven’t tried to disguise this image as a photo exposed 30 or more years earlier. Instead, I included ‘Cumbres & Toltec’ in speed lettering on the tender.
Tanglefoot Curve is a snaky-twist in the line that allows the railroad to maintain an even gradient; without over-emphasizing this unusual trackage, I’ve shown the rails on various levels.
Studying imperfect composition can lead to better photo technique.
Among my themes of Tracking the Light is the examination of photos for technical flaws, compositional distractions, and unintenional inclusion of annoying visual elements.
I save some of the ‘perfect’ images as illustrations for publication elsewhere.
The photo below was exposed of an outbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner at Moorpark, California in July 2016.
To my eye this photo suffers from two flaws that detract from the compostion and reduce its visual effectiveness.
The first flaw was my choice of shutter-speed—1/500th of second—which just wasn’t fast enough to ‘freeze’ the front of the locomotive. As a result, the nose of Amtrak F59PHI 452 is ever so slightly blurred. This annoys me, since I used an f9 aperture, and thus could have easily bumped my shutter speed up to at least 1/1000th without needing to adjust my ISO higher. This would have minimized the blurring.
The other problem stems from my release of the shutter a fraction of a second too soon. If I had just waited for the locomotive to roll another two or three feet, it would have nicely blocked the trackside lamp-post immediately to the left of the locomotive. This lamp is partially visible and causes unfortunate visual tension while performing no useful compositional function. The photo would be better off sans lamp.
On the plus side; I find the locomotive’s blue and silver scheme suits the southern California afternoon sun, while the off-center arrangement makes for a visually compelling photo of the Amtrak train in motion.
Those are my thoughts on this ten year-old digital image.
Tracking the Light examines compositional elements
My next class at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Pa., is scheduled for next week, Tuesday, March 10th from 9 am to 11 am.
I will focus on how to make more effective photographs of steam locomotives. Following my concise slide presentation, students will have an opportunity to make photographs of the museum’s historic collection of locomotives.
I hope to offer perspective, technique, while conveying the history and technology of the machines in ways that can aid in making better locomotive photographs.
In January, 1988, I made this portrait of Conrail SD50 6726 at Gang Mills Yard on the former Erie Railroad west of Corning, New York.
Kodachrome 25 was my color film of choice in those days. And it was always nice to find winter sun on a Conrail locomotive. The SD50s were among my favorite Conrail EMDs at that time.
Although I have many photos of Conrail SD50s, this one has never seen the light of day, until now.
I know that some viewers might dismiss this as ‘just an engine picture’, but it is a photo of an impressive looking engine—and that was all it was ever meant to be.
Kodachrome 25, exposed using a Leica M2 with 50mm Sumicron.
Metaphorically. (In fact, it was the same old L.A. hazy sunlight.)
I’ve been going through some of my older digital photo files to locate images that might not have made the ‘final cut’ at the time of exposure, and reprocessing them using the latest software.
Working with DxO PureRaw 5, I converted this ten year old FujiFilm RAF RAW file into DNG format. This include processing using DxO DeepPrime3. The end result is a cleaner, crisper file than what I’d originally found out of the camera from my FujiFilm XT1.
At the end of July 2016, I’d visited Fullerton, California, east of Los Angeles on the former Santa Fe, and made this image of inbound MetroLink train 687 with a MP36PH-3C at the back of the consist.
After conversion to a DNG format, I imported the file into Lightroom for nominal processing to improve highlights and shadows.
Although subtle, I was pleased with the end result, which has encouraged me to continue searching through my older images to find hidden treasures.
Tracking the Light Looks Back with a Fresh Eye!
DxO is offering a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO PureRaw, FilmPack 8 or other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% off for any new customer at shop.dxo.com.
In my search for Conrail SD50 photos, I rediscovered this image that I exposed on February 23, 1985 and scanned back in 2010.
My father and I had driven to Selkirk, New York to photograph a Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts excursion scheduled to cross the Hudson on Conrail’s normally freight-only Selkirk Branch.
The crown jewel of New York Central’s low-grade Castleton Cutoff is the immense Alfred H. Smith memorial bridge. Construction for this massive structure began in 1922. It was named for the late Central president who had initiated its construction but died before its completion.
While we waited at the west end of the Smith Bridge for the passenger special, Jim Shaughnessy arrived with 4×5 Graphic in hand and a similar vision in mind.
My dad made video, Jim exposed large-format photos, and I worked with 35mm black & white in my father’s Leica M4. For this view of a freight preceeding the passenger train, I used a Leitz f4 Elmar 135mm telephoto.
That’s Conrail 6721 in the lead. But, I’m looking for 6722 and 6723 (among others), so it’s Back to the Files for me!
On April 1, 2026, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of Conrail. Big Blue was not yet 9 years old when I made this 1985 photograph.
This photo was exposed at Belfast, Maine on a warm morning in August 1980. It was the beginning of a memorable railroad journey with my father over the length of an iconic New England short line.
Congratulations to everyone who guessed correctly!
Soft sunday-afternoon over-the-shoulder sun; classic railroad station and trackside village; plus gently sweeping curve; and a locomotive-hauled train of vintage Amfleet cars. Am I mistaken, but aren’t these the elements for a perfect railroad photo?
Pity the engine wasn’t clean. Unfortunately, the conditions of late winter lead to a thin film of grime and mud gently coating just about everything on the railroad that moves.
Exposed at Christiana, Pa., using a Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
I recently downloaded DxO’s FilmPack8. Over the last few weeks I’d been experimenting with the older FilmPack-7 and I wanted to sample the latest offering to see what I can do with it.
My approach is not scientific, but rather a trip into the past.
I’ve been scanning my father’s black & white negatives and I came across a roll of 35mm Kodak Plus-X that he exposed in 1963. Many of these photos were made around Bird-in-Hand and Paradise, Pennsylvania, near where Kris and I now live.
Some of the photos depicted Pennsylvania Railroad GG1s near Irishtown Road in Bird-in-Hand (I’m saving those for a later post), others show Strasburg Rail Road’s excursions in its early days.
He has some interesting photos made with a Leica M and a telephoto lens.
Saturday, Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I were driving around, and I decided to emulate some of my father’s images of the Strasburg Rail Road using my Nikon Z7-II digital camera. Then I converted one of the images using DxO FilmPack-8 with the Kodak Tri-X plug in.
Although exposed in the same general vicinity as my father’s image from 63 years ago, it is not in precisely the same place. I was aiming to re-capture the spirit of the earlier image, but not recreate it.
I thought they make a neat comparison.
DxO is offering a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO PureRaw, FilmPack 8 or other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% off for any new customer at shop.dxo.com.
My father’s image exposed with a Leica M using Kodak Plus-X in 1963, 35mm neg scanned with an Epson V600 scanner, file scaled using Adobe Lightroom.My photograph from Saturday (Feb 21, 2026); Nikon NEF RAW file exposed using a Z7-II with 70-200mm lens, file converted using DxO FilmPack8 with the Kodak Tri-X 400 plug in to resemble the visual quality of that traditional black & white film.Same file as above, with some nominal adjustment to contrast and exposure to make the image more pleasing while retaining the classic black & white film appearance.
It was a rainy evening at Bird-in-Hand. Amtrak Keystone 649 was approaching on the former Pennsyvlania Railroad and I made a series of digital photographs with my Nikon Z6-III.
I kept my f-stop at the widest opening, which allowed me a 1/500 shutter speed at ISO 16000. The streetlight behind the building at right supplied necessary light to better illuminate the front of the cab car.
In post processing, I used DxO PureRaw8 to transform my Nikon NEF RAW file into DNG format. This minimized noise from the high ISO setting and eliminated lens defects.
Then, I made some very nominal adjustments to the DNG file in Adobe Lightroom and imported the DNG file into DxO Filmpack 7 and converted the digital color photo to black and white images using the Fuji Neopan 400, Ilford FP-4 Plus and HP-5 Plus profiles for comparison.
For the fun of it, I’ve included an actual Kodak Plus X black & white image exposed at dusk on December 23, 1988, and scanned digitally using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner. This photo was part of a sequence that I made at Newark Penn Station in Newark, NJ. The lighting conditions were similar to those at Bird-in-Hand, but in the 1980s with I had been limited by the film’s 125 ISO.
I’m in the process of upgrading to DxO Filmpack 8, and recently upgraded from DxO PureRaw4 to PureRaw5. The DxO and Adobe software have proved very useful tools for processing my digital images.
DxO is offering a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO PureRaw, Film Pack 7 or other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% off for any new customer at shop.dxo.com.
A Jpg scaled in Lightroom from an DNG file converted by PureRaw8. This was exposed at dusk using a daylight white balance.Lightroom work window displaying camera settings.Same DNG file but converted using DxO Filmpack7 profile to resemble Fuji Neopan 400.Same DNG file but converted using DxO Filmpack7 profile to resemble Ilford HP-5 Plus black & white film.Same DNG file but converted using DxO Filmpack7 to resemble Ilford FP-4 Plus black & white film.Kodak Plus X black & white exposed at dusk using a Leica M2 with 50mm Sumicron on December 23, 1988 at Newark (N.J.) Penn Station. Although exposed decades earlier, the angle, subject and lighting conditions are similar which makes for a neat comparison.
Here’s another black & white photo from the lost image file.
On December 2, 1984, my friends and I visited Worcester, Massachusetts. I exposed this trailing view of Conrail’s SEPW (Selkirk to Providence & Worcester) leading its train through the crossovers from eastward to westward main trains, and taking the switch that led down the long ramp to P&W’s yard off Southbridge Street.
On this day, no less than six General Electric B23-7s had led SEPW east from West Springfield to Worcester. At Worcester, these had run around the train (with the caboose remaining at the westend).
Back in those days, my photography was very much hit and miss. I was working with a Leica 3A that was loaded with Kodak Tri-X. This wasn’t my original camera, but rather one borrowed from my father.
Exposed hundreds of rolls of film with those antque Leicas. I scanned this image last week.
Conrail’s 50th anniversary will occur this April 1st.
Tracking the Light Explores Railroad Photography Daily!
In the summer of 1980, my brother and I were traveling by train from Rye, New York to Hartford, Connecticut.
We were riding behind E60 957 in a Budd-built Amtrak Amfleet-1.
I made this view with my Leica 3A on Kodak Plus-X, as we came into the restrictive curve on approach to the station at Bridgeport.
The E60s are long gone, as is Kodak Plus-X. But, I have the old Leica on my shelf as a display-piece, and the Amfleet-1 cars are still rolling—yet replacements are on the way.
On the morning of July 30, 1987, I awoke to the sounds of 20-cylinder 645-diesels roaring up the grade toward Gallitzin, Pa. at the back of Conrail freights.
The day dawned clear and bright. Amtrak train No. 40 (Chicago-New York Broadway Limited) was running a few hours behind the advertised. I set up looking upgrade toward Allegheny Summit.
Working with my father’s Rolleiflex Model T set up with a 645-sized ‘Super Slide’ rectangular insert and loaded with Kodak 120 TMY (T-Max 400), I made this image of the Broadway descending the grade at Bennington Curve (several miles from its more famous cousin).
I felt that Kodak TMY was a difficult film. This used a fine T-grain structure but was very challenging to process. I only worked with this emulsion for about two years, because I found the photos were difficult to print.
By contrast, TMY seems to scan well. I scanned the 39-year old negative using an Epson V600 scanner and then imported the TIF scan into Lightroom for nominal adjustment digitally. I wish it had been this easy back in 1987!
120 size negative on TMY film. This was processed in D76 1:1. The scan is without cosmetic processing. Compare with the adjusted file below.Same scan as above, but following nominal changes in Adobe Lightroom aimed primarily at improving contrast and exposure. If you look carefully, you will see my shadow on the right
The top photo was exposed on Kodak Tri-X on the morning of April 12, 1984. I had been aware of Canadian National M420s working the northward freight from New London, and so spent the morning photographing these unusual diesels, when I was expected to be at Monson Jr-Sr High School.
The bottom photo was made last October at almost the same location with a Nikon Z-digital camera. The locomotives at right are former Canadian National GP40-2Ls.
Tracking the Light aims to activate the Time Machine.
December 9, 1984: I photographed an eastward freight on Guilford’s Boston & Maine at Cheapside in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
It had been almost 25 years since the Erie Railroad merged with the Delaware, Lackwanna & Western, and more than nine years since Erie Lackawanna’s operations were melded into Conrail.
I was astonished to see this 50ft boxcar built in 1956 rolling along, complete with catwalks, still lettered for the old Erie! This antique seemed improbable even then, and I’m sure there a story behind this car.
These photos were exposed on Ilford FP4 black & white film and processed in Kodak D-76. I scanned the negatives last week.
For an aesthetic comparion, I’m also including a photo I made last month of a Conrail hopper rolling though Peachbottom, PA., more than 26 years after Conrail’s operations were divided between CSX and Norfolk Southern. I exposed this view digitally and converted the image to black & white using DxO FilmPack7 software which gives me an Ilford FP4 profile. The purpose of this is allow the modern digital image to resemble my efforts from the mid-1980s.
DxO has offered a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO Film Pack 7 or other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% off for any new customer at shop.dxo.com.
Digital NEF RAW image converted to black & white using DxO FilmPack7 software using an Ilford FP4 film profile to provide an authentic looking retro appearance.
Tracking the Light Explores Railroad Photography Daily!
I made this night photo of the old Palmer Union Station in Palmer, Massachusetts in March 1985. This was twenty years before the classic H.H. Richardson designed structure was reincarnated and rebuilt as the Steaming Tender restaurant.
Back in those days the old station building served as Bruno’s Billiards. The canopies on the Boston & Albany side of the station still remained as a vestige of the days when passenger trains paused here.
With my Leica 3A mounted on my father’s Linhof tripod, I made one long time exposure on Ilford FP4. This was a prelude to the many night photos I’ve made in Palmer over the subsequent four decades.
The other day, I scanned the negative using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner and made cosmetic adjustments using Adobe Lightroom.
Tracking the Light explores railroad night photography!
Persistence. Patience. Planning. (And an understanding wife!)
For more than two years, I’ve been trying to photograph an eastward train on the Port Road Secondary from the Enola Low Grade Trail at Safe Harbor.
I’ve made at least 30 visits to Safe Harbor. I’ve climbed the steps to the trail no less than a dozen times.
While I’ve caught a westward train from a perch on the old Low Grade; and I’ve made a nocturnal sequence of a coal train from below the Low Grade trestle, my vision of catching a eastward train had from the bridge had thus far remained elusive.
My friend Dan Cupper had shown me his version of a Norfolk Southern train here, and in scouring the archives at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania I found Kodachrome views of PRR electrics by the late James P. Schuman, which inspired my persistence.
My-wife-Kris, Seamus-the-Dog, and I live just 15 minutes from the bridge.
The other evening, Kris and I were on our evening drive. My thoughts of exploring Marietta were foiled by a serious automobile accident at the intersection of PA Routes 772 and 441 that detoured us eastward. So instead we drove to Columbia, and continued on toward Washington Boro, as we have done countless times in darkness.
At Washington Boro the signals displayed ‘clear’ for an eastward movement. There was still an hour’s daylight in the sky.
My post on February 9th, featuring a Reading & Northern Budd RDC, inspired me to located similar views that I made on black & film of Amtrak RDCs on the Springfield-Hartford-New Haven route.
Among the photos I found among my old negative were these views at Springfield Union Station (Massachusetts) of Amtrak’s RDC-2s 34 and 36 idling between runs on February 15, 1985.
Working with a Leica 3A rangefinder, I’d made these photos on Ilford FP4. I processsed the film in Kodak D-76, and then filed the negatives away.
At the time, there was nothing remarkble about this scene. Today, the photos make for a trip down memory lane. Years after I made this photo, a former boss advised me; “When you look around you can see the flowers or the garbage, it is your choice.” In these photos, I see RDCs in what had been a favorite place to make railroad photographs.
The cold evening air was thick with particulates which made for a rosy red sunset.
Kris, Seamus & I drove west toward Safe Harbor, since I thought there might be some opporunties to silhouette the former Pennsylvania Railroad trestles against the raspberry sky. On the way we passed some deer by the side of the road.
I was in luck and the sky was lit with shades of magenta and violet when we arrived. To make the most of the light, I set my white balance to ‘daylight’ rather than ‘auto’, since the latter has the tendency to neutralize the reddish tones of sunset, which would have countered the effect I was trying to capture.
In addition to a selection of digital photos, I also exposed a few Ektachrome slides.
I kept wondering what it would have been like to catch a pair of PRR P5 electrics grinding across the bridge in silhouette with a heavy freight. Perhaps, someone, somewhere had the same idea as me, but back in the day when P5s ruled the line!
No P5s for me; not even a couple of ten-speed bicycles—which about as good as it gets on the Low-Grade these days!
Summer of 1983: I made this trailing view of Amtrak’s westward Lake Shore Limited on the old Boston & Albany at West Warren, Mass.
I had an eye, but hadn’t yet refined technical skills to make my vision work.
My exposure was off; I failed to control flare from the evening sun; and my film processing was imperfect, which resulted in comparatively dense, yet oddly flat negatives that were difficult to print.
For 43 years this photo languished in darkness. The other day I found it in an envelope and scanned it. Working with Lightroom, I was finally able to present digitally what I was incapable of doing with traditional chemical materials. Below are both the straight (unmodified) scan and my digitally processed interpretation of the same.
The end result places me in a dream trackside again, when Amtrak ran with a lone F40PH and classic Budd-built streamlined cars, and I wasn’t yet 17. I can hear the clack of steel wheels on jointed rail and fading roar of the locomotive as the train raced down the Quaboag Valley toward Palmer and beyond.
Kris and I had been following the Susquehanna down river. By the time we reached Port Deposit, Maryland the blue glow of an icy dusk had settled on the river valley.
No luck catching a freight on the move on the Port Road Secondary this evening, but the rich light led to a few choice photographs.
I made this view looking toward Perryville, Maryland with my Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm lens. ISO 1600, f2.5 1/40th second.A view looking west across the Susquehanna. It was brisk.
For my 11th birthday in October 1977, my father presented me with a Leica 3A rangefinder. Two months later, we were visiting my grand parents in New York City, and we took a trip over to Queens to photograph trains.
Among the places that we stopped was at Woodside Avenue, where I made a sequence of 35mm photos with the Leica of passing Long Island Railroad third-rail multiple units on the six-track line running toward Penn Station. We are looking toward the New York City Transit Authority’s Flushing Line.
Leica 3A rangefinder with 50mm Summitar lens; Kodak 5063 Tri-X film.
I processed this roll of Kodak Tri-X in our kitchen sink using a mix of Kodak Microdol-X developer.
In 1980, I used a version of this photo to help illustrate my Junior High Science Fair project titled Electrified Railroads in the United States, which earned me second place in the competition. Since that time, this strip of negatives had sat in the dark in a group of my early negatives. I scanned it last week and imported the hi-res scan into Adobe Lightroom for cropping and contrast adjustment.
Considering, I was only 11 years old, I think I made a pretty effective composition.
Kris and I paused at Tamaqua, Pa., where I made a few photo of Reading & Northern’s locomotive parked in the snow covered yard.
Bright sun made for some extreme contrast between light and dark.
All photos displayed here were exposed using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Z-series zoom lens. In addition, I made a few Ektachrome slides for future consideration.
DxO Film Pack7 is a program that enables the import and conversion of digital files to simulate the appearance of images made with traditional film emulsions.
I began dabbling with this tool the other day, which led me to look back over one of my 40 year-old photo albums, examining the aesthetics of my traditional images.
In the mid-1980s, I routinely worked with Kodak and Ilford B&W films and made 3.5 x 5 inch ‘proof-prints’ from my negatives by cutting 5×7 inch paper stock in half.
Here, I’ve scanned one of my original 3.5 x 5 inch prints, and for comparision also converted a digital file exposed last week (February 1, 2026), using DxO Film Pack7 software to simulate Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP5.
The purpose of this exercise is purely about appearance and nostalgia. Although I’ve selected a retro subject (an old Budd RDC), the intent is to compare the aesthetic qualities of the the simulated black & white with my actual vintage black & white.
I wonder if the Nikon Z6 digital camera had been available to me in 1985, would I have chosen this camera over my stalwart Leica 3A loaded with hand-rolled Kodak Tri-X?
Handmade 3.5 x 5 inch proof print from a 35mm black & white negative. Conrail’s Sunday TV-9 rolls west through Warren, Mass., on February 3, 1985. The Sunday TV9 ran on a later schedule than its weekday counterparts. This was something of a ‘clean-up train’, which often carried ‘bare tables’ (empty TTX intermodel flats) as well as stray carload traffic along with cars of intermodal trailers. In this situation, a lone covered hopper trails behind the GE C30-7As followed by 40ft trailers on flats.Back of the original proof-print, complete with my notation. At the time the GE C30-7A diesels were relatively new.Digital photo exposed on February 1, 2026 using a Nikon Z6 and converted using DxO Film Pack7 to resemble an image exposed on Ilford HP5 black & white film.Same image as above, but converted to resemble a photo exposed on Kodak Tri-X 400. It was this conversion that inspired this post. I have a lot of grainy high contrast photos from the 1980s that look like this one.
DxO has offered a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO Film Pack 7 or other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% off for any new customer at shop.dxo.com.
I conducted my first evening class at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania on Wednesday February 4th. My goal was to impart low-light photography techniques that would enable students to make better nocturnal railway images.
After my presentation, the museum’s main hall was open to students to make photographs. Museum Director Pat Morrison and I had set up some portable lights on several locomotives to provide a change of scene.
In an effort to capture the spirit of the event, I made these images using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens positioned on a 3Pod tripod.
My next class at the museum is scheduled for the morning of March 10, 2026.
The thrill of the unknown is part of of the experience.
I spotted the signal at Washington Boro, Pa., displaying ‘Approach Medium’ (Yellow over Green), so I knew an eastward train was lined up.
At 7:20pm, I began to hear a distant rumble of a loaded train rolling down the Susquehanna Valley. The sound ebbed and flowed and thirty-five minutes later the headlights came into view.
A single GE Evolution-series diesel-electric was leading symbol freight 38V consisting of a trainload of new tractors.
I made this series of photos using my Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm lens.
The files were converted to DNG format with PureRaw, which also minimized noise, improved contrast and eliminated some lens imperfections. For final presentation, I cleaned up color casts and adjusted contrast in Lightroom.
Tracking the Light explores rail night photography!
Sixteen years ago, photographers Pat Yough, Chris Guss and I spent the afternoon following Western New York & Pennsyvania’s Driftwood Turn on the former Pennsylvania Railroad line over Keating Summit.
On the return run from North Driftwood, Pa., I made this long telephoto view of the Alco-MLW powered freight passing PRR position light signals.
At the time I was working with a Canon EOS-3 fitted with a 100-400mm Canon zoom and loaded with Fujichrome Provia 100F.
