Among the hundreds of 120 black & white negatives I exposed during my autumn 2003 visit to San Francisco was this view from a cable car.
San Francisco’s cable cars are world renowned, yet today’s modest network of cable-hauled streetcars represent just a small fraction of a once extensive network. In the 1950s and again in the 1980s, San Francisco came alarmingly close to abandoning the last vestiges of the network. Today, it is treasured and among the most popular rail-based attractions in the Bay Area.
I exposed this view using the field-finder on my Rolleiflex Model T; this pop-up viewer is simply a little metal square that allows the photographer to approximate the field of view.
Honestly, I’m a little disappointed in the imprecise placement of the leading cable car in the window.
Tracking the Light examines the details of railway photography!
On my Autumn 2003 visit to California, I spent many days traveling on and documenting the San Francisco Municipal Railway.
Of special interest was the ever-popular F-Line that runs between Castro Street and Fisherman’s Wharf using a collection of historic streetcars, many of which are owned and maintained by the Market Street Railway.
On a pleasant October afternoon, I made a series of black & white photos of an F-Line PCC taking the dogleg from Market Street to the Embarcedero.
Soft Mediterranean sun made for perfect conditions for Kodak Tri-X, which I exposed using a 1950s-vintage Rolleiflex Model T. A roll of 120-size Tri-X would allow for just 12 square frames, so I’d compose each image carefully.
The Rollei’s square format enables distinctive images. While some photographers might shoot square and crop rectangular, I prefer to work with the square frame to make the most of the shape and present the images full-frame (without cropping).
The other day I began scanning a batch of black & white negatives that I exposed on an extended visit to California in autumn 2003.
Among these was a 120-size roll of Kodak Tri-X from a trip to the Sierra with John Gruber. On the morning of November 11, 2003, we chased a westward BNSF freight operating via trackage rights on Union Pacific’s former Western Pacific line.
We had found this freight near Reno Junction in the morning and followed it on California Highway 70.
At the famed ‘Keddie Wye,’ I made a portrait of John with his famous Nikon F, as we waited for the train to roll west.
Today, the photo of John means a lot more to me than the pictures of the freight.
BNSF westward freight on the former Western Pacific at Spring Garden, California on November 11, 2003. Exposed on Kodak Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss Tessar.John Gruber at the ‘Keddie Wye.’ Exposed on Kodak Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss Tessar.Exposed on Kodak Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss Tessar.
On Christmas Day I decided to make a few photos of Seamus-the-dog with my old Canon EOS-7D. I’d bought this digital camera back in June 2010, and for nearly five years it was my primary digital image making tool.
When, I went to download the camera, I found a variety of older files that I’d ‘locked’ onto the camera’s CF card.
Although these images have been preserved elsewhere on hard drives, I thought it was fascinating that after more than 10 years, these old digital files had survived on the original card. So, I downloaded a few of them for advanced digital processing.
I’d always prized my Canon for its exceptional ability to reproduce color.
I imported a select few of the Canon RAW IMG files, and then converted these to DNG format using DxO PureRaw, which corrected lens defects, minimized noise, and improved overall appearance.
These photos were among a selection that I’d exposed at North Carolina’s Spencer Shops ‘Streamliners at Spencer’ event in May/June 2014, and feature Soo Line FP7 2500, a General Motors classic preserved by the Lake Superior Transportation Museum.
Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with a Canon f2.8 200mm lens s et at: f3.5 1/500th second, 200 ISO; Canon IMG files converted into a DNG file.Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with a Canon 20mm lens s et at: f4.5 1/500th second, 200 ISO; Canon IMG files converted into a DNG file
Tracking the Light examines digital photography almost daily!
Back when Seamus was just a wee pup, Kris and I had brought him over to Christiana to roll by Amtrak’s Keystone. I made a photo of him watching the train race past.
Seamus is now a full grown dog, so yesterday—Christmas Day—I thought it would be nice to make some follow-up photos from the same location.
Over the last year and half, Seamus has become in tune with passing trains and waited with Kris in expectation.
Much to our delight, Amtrak 670 blitzed by on schedule .
May 2024; Kris and Seamus roll by Amtrak at Christiana, Pa.Seamus was just a wee pup back then.Fast forward to Christmas Day 2025; Kris points out Amtrak 670 approaching Christiana.And there it goes. ‘Hey Seamus, did you catch the number of the engine?’
Tracking the Light explores railway photography daily!
On this day 43 years ago, my father brought my brother and I to Warren, Massachusetts to roll-by Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited—Train 448—working its way east to Boston on Conrail’s former Boston & Albany main line.
Back then, there were no cell phones, no internet, and certainly no asm.transitdocs train tracker app with up to the minute train information. Instead, it was it a matter of consulting the timetable and waiting patiently trackside.
It was Christmas Day, so Tucker’s Hobbies—located up the hill to the right—wasn’t open for business. We stood patiently on the Rt 67 bridge over the tracks, where my friend Robert A. Buck—Tucker’s proprietor—had over the years made many photos of Boston & Albany and New York Central trains.
In 1982, the railroad was still double track (would remain so for another four years). Before Amtrak passed, a set of Conrail light-engines (engines without a train behind) rolled west on the No. 1 main.
Finally, we could hear the train as it came into view at the curve near the old Warren freight house. Using my Leica IIIA with f2.0 50mm Summitar loased with Kodachrome 64 film, I marked the passage of our Christmas train. This featured F40PH 208 in the lead, wearing its as-delivered ‘Phase II’ paint (although the modern-day ‘phase’ description was decades in the future.)
As I wound my camera, the train roared below us, its shadow chasing it up the valley.
On Christmas Day 2025, my old Leica sits on a shelf in my office where I can glance at it as I work. Its presence brings back memories of photographic adventures 40 years gone-by.
Long-time readers of Tracking the Light will remember that I posted this photo previously—thirteen years ago!
Last Saturday, Kris, Seamus-the-dog and I caught up with our friend and fellow photographer Pat Yough at Esbenshade Road in Strasburg to watch and photograph the railroad’s Santa Paradise Express trains.
Seamus enjoyed watching the trains pass from the safety of our car as we made photographs.
Clear winter sun and brisk conditions made for stunning displays of steam and smoke. I exposed these photos with my Nikon Z7-II, but also made images with my Z6-III and my dad’s old Leica M4 (loaded with Kodak Ektachrome). Kris worked with her FujiFilm X-T4 digital camera.
After a little while we moved on to another location to make productive use of the light and intensive railroad action.
Tracking the Light explores the joy of railway photography!
On a September 2008 evening in Plzen, Czech Republic (Czechia) , I made this pan photo of a tram advertising the city’s most famous beer, Pilsner Urquell.
I was working with a Canon EOS 3 fitted with a 100mm f2.0 lens and loaded with Fujichrome. I scanned the photo the other day using a Nikon LS5000 slide scanner and processed the TIF file in Lightroom.
I like this image because it conveys motion, shows passengers inside the tram, and combines three of my favorite things in one image.
I like Pilsner Urquell, but my preferred Czech pilsner is Gambrinus, (brewed at Pilsner Urquell’s Plzen brewery).
What better way to preserve a locomotive painted in a heritage scheme than to photograph it on film?
Last October, AmtrakP42DC number 130 was assigned to the Pennsylvanian (New York-Pittsburgh, Trains 42 and 43). This is one of several GE Genesis-series diesels that have been painted in heritage schemes that represent Amtrak’s myriad periods since it began operations in 1971. This particular paint scheme is considered to be “Phase II” and was introduced with the GE E60CH/E60CP electrics fifty years ago.
I was at Gap, Pa., with a Nikon F3 loaded with Velvia to catch the westward Pennsylvanian and was fortunate to find 130 in the lead. A week or so later, I made another Velvia slide of the same locomotive, this time traveling eastward with train 42, as view from Amos Herr Park in Landisville, Pa.
Notice the way Velvia handles the blue sky and clouds.
Both slides were scanned using a Nikon LS-5000 slide scanner.
Tracking the Light works with both film and digital media.
On December 21, 2015, I exposed this photo of Amtrak’s Christmas Tree at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station using my Lumix LX7.
I processed the original Lumix RAW file using PureRaw. This shows the entire image capture, which owing to the pecularities of the lens design produces an oddly shape field of view.
I imported the PureRaw conversion into LightRoom and cropped it to produce a classic rectangle.
Do you wonder what someone in the future might think of the uncropped RAW image? It might be difficult comprehend that at the time of exposure, I never saw the wildly distorted image as captured in the RAW file.
Lumix RAW file after conversion into PureRaw and before input into Lghtroom.This is the same image as above, following cropping and cosmetic adjustment to shadow areas and color balance.
Tracking the Light Posts about railroad photography!
Christmas decor at the preserved former Pennsylvania Railroad station in Christiana offered a suitable seasonal opportunity to test out an unusual nocturnal camera lens combination.
My 1990s-vintage Nikkor f2.0 135mm ‘defocus’ lens is a heavy piece of glass. I’ve used this occasionally with my Z6 mirrorless camera to make digital images, and this lens offers a distinctive quality that allows for classic railroad telephoto views.
Coupling the traditional lens to the Z-body requires a Nikon FTZ adaptor.
I’ve been waiting to try the fast 135mm lens with the new Z6-III to see how it works with the more advanced sensor and see if it is sufficiently sharp.
I set up the Z6-III on my 3Pod tripod and exposed several images. This one was made at f2.0 (wide open) at 1/13th second at ISO 400. Upon inspection, I found the photo is sharp. More to the point, if I were to set the ISO to 6400, I could use a 1/250th of second shutter speed, which is fast enough to stop a moving train . Focusing will be a challenge.
That will be a test for another night! Stay tuned . . .
NEF RAW file scaled to JPG for internet presentation without cosmetic alteration. (No adjustments for exposure, contrast, color balance or color temperature).Greatly Enlarged portion of the above image.
On this day in 2010, I composed this photo of the steam crew for the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Santa Special. They were reading about the pervious weekend’s adventures in the Sunday Independent.
Exposed using a Canon EOS-7D.
Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland, December 19, 2010.
The third class in the autumn series of my Railroad Photo 101 class was focused on making images of holiday trains.
I had a great group of students and my presentation was well-received. Before the serious part of my talk, Museum Director Pat Morrison opened the hall for us and allowed myself an the students inside some of the trains on display.
I used this opportunity to make detailed photos of the equipment inside and out, while aiming to capture the museum’s holiday decorations.
Today, Tracking the Light expores holiday rail photography!
Last year for Christmas, my father sent me an Amazon gift card to buy some film. With this I ordered a single roll of Velvia 50—which can be a difficult commodity to find these days.
Sometime in January, a package arrived from Japan with my one roll of film.
I saved this for just the right time and exposed it in October, making 36 carefully composed photos using a Nikon F3, mostly with my f2.0 35mm AF Nikkor lens.
At Molino, Pa., on October 18th, I made these three photos of Reading & Northern’s RDCs on their way from Pottsville to Jim Thorpe. I scanned the slides with a Nikon Coolscan LS5000. I’ve presented the uncropped scans below.
There’s a lot more to it than that, but let’s just say I’m happy I made these images, and sorry that I can’t share them with Pop.
Tracking the Light shares railroad photography almost daily!
I was searching through my hard drives for some photos when I came across a large batch of unidentified images from a trip to Austria in October 2016.
This was a very productive adventure, but I never properly sorted my photos.
I made these on a rainy night using my Fuji X-T1 with 28mm pancake lens with the camera set to 1600 ISO—which was just about as fast as I’d push the camera.
I imported the original RAF Raw file into PureRaw to denoise the photo and correct for lens imperfections. I was extremely impressed with the results, which are so much better than I could have anticipated at the time I exposed the photos. For presentation here, I made a variety of color and contrast corrections to the final image using Adobe Lightroom.
For me these images nicely translate the nocturnal urban environment of the cosmopolitan Austrian capital.
A few years ago, Amtrak introduced its ‘Phase VII’ paint scheme that features two-tone blue/navy body with a bold red, white and navy nose section. As applied to the common P42 Genesis diesels this represents a pleasant and colorful contrast to the old ‘Phase V’ scheme that had predominated for the last two-decades.
In recent months, several of these repainted locomotives have made an appearance on Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian (New York-Pittsburgh) which have made for photographic opportunity.
Toward the end of October, I caught Train 42 (eastward Pennsylvania) winding through the curves at Gap, Pa., with engine 112 in the lead.
I find it fascinating to see these relatively old locomotives dressed in a modern scheme. It is approaching 33 years since the Genesis body style came on the scene with the 800-call P40, and many of the P42s are now approaching 30 years years of service.
Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm lens set at 200mm.Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm lens set at 200mm.
We paused at New Freedom, Pa., to inspect the historic railroad equipment and take Seamus for a walk.
I used this opportunity to make some photos my NikonZ cameras.
During our brief visit, the Northern Central Railway was boarding its midday Santa Express for its run up the valley of Codurus Creek toward Railroad, Pa.
What better place to explore railroad heritage than in this historic area?
The former Pennsylvania Railroad Northern Central route passes Railroad Park in the appropriately named borough of Railroad, Pa.
Kris, Seamus-the-Dog & I, revisited this iconic location last weekend to withness the passing of Northern Central Railway’s Santa Express holiday train.
This was powered by a former Pennsylvania Railroad GP9, one of only a few to survive into the modern era.
Tracking the Light Post explores the peculiarities of railroad photography!
Keeping the sun’s rays from hitting the front element of the lens is a key to making successful back-lit digital photos.
For this pair of images, I was working with my Nikon Z7-II at Port Clinton, Pa. I liked the SD40-2 ‘snoot’ (with the extended nose section built for 1970s-era solid-state radio control equipment—nearly 3 feet longer than the nose on a conventional SD40-2).
Below are two versions. The top shows sun flare. For the bottom photo, I manually shaded the front element to minimize flare. One of the advantages of digital photography is being able to immediately examine the results for imperfections and compositional snags.
Reading & Northern SD40-2 3058 is former Union Pacific 3246. I wonder if I’ve crossed paths with this machine in my travels across the West?Controling flare and adjusting contrast and level made for a superior image of Reading & Northern 3058. Exposed in late autumn sunshine using a Nikon Z7-II.
Tracking the Light Posts thoughts and techniques on railroad photography!
On this day, 11 December 2014, I was experimenting with a FujiFilm X-E2 with 18-55mm f2.8-4 Fujinon lens that fellow photographer Pat Yough had lent me.
At the time, I was intrigued with the FujiFilm X-series digital cameras for their exceptional sharpness, excellent color rendition, and overall ease of use.
In the evening we visited SEPTA’s Glenside Station on the former Reading Company, where I made this series of photos during a snow squall.
Later in the season, Pat loaned me a FujiFilm X-T1. I preferred this Fuji over the X-E2, and bought one about a month later. I’ve been using FujiFilm X-series cameras ever since, and still make occasional used of my X-T1s (I acquired a second body in 2019).
I processed this FujiFilm RAF RAW files using Adobe Lightroom and manually adjusted color temperature to minimize the effects of sodium-vapor lamps.
On April 21, 1991, I followed a set of Southern Pacific light engines on the Mococo Line to Tracy, California.
At the time, the Mococo Line was very lightly traveled, and simply catching a daylight move on the line was in itself a prize. Better yet, these engines were on their way to collect a loaded sugarbeet train.
I made this image on Kodachrome 25 using my Nikon F3T fitted with a Nikkor 35mm perspective control lens. (Which I adjusted to keep the signals parallel to the film plane).
For more than 30 years this slide, along with a bunch of other ‘out-takes,’ sat in the dark inside the box that Kodak that returned the slides to me in back in 1991. Finally, I scanned it last month.
A sun-lit SD45 passing searchlight signals (and no ditchlights)! This looks pretty neat now!
Strasburg Rail Road’s Night Before Christmas excursion was working upgrade from the East Strasburg, Pa., station with engine 90 leading tender first.
This offered another great opportunity to test the limits of Nikon’s Z6-III with the ‘fast fifty’ (f1.4 50mm).
This sequence was exposed hand held, which allowed me to pan the train as it passed. I had the ISO set to 64000 and this enabled a shutter speed of 1/100th of second at f1.4.
Not bad for hand held at night! A nearly full moon augmented street lights and Christmas lighting near the tracks.
My next Railroad Photography 101 Class will be held on Saturday Dec 13, 2025 from 9 to 11am at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. The theme to this class will be working with holiday settings, including techniques on how to make better night train photographs.
Working with little more than the light of full moon and street lights, I made these nocturnal late autumn images at Christiana, Pa.,
Years ago, I never could have imagine making action photos by moonlight! These images were test of the Nikon Z6-III with a ‘fast fifty’ (f1.4 50mm).
All were exposed with the camera on a 3Pod tripod.
In fact, the action photos could have been made without the aid of a tripod. I guess its just a habit to use a tripod after dark.
Below are several pairs of photos to compare before and after processing using DxO PureRaw to de-noise and correct for lens aberrations.
Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO; NEF RAW file.Same file as above following PureRaw conversion to de-noise and correct lens aberrations; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO.Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO; NEF RAW file.Same file as above following PureRaw conversion to de-noise and correct lens aberrations; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO.Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO; NEF RAW file.Same file as above following PureRaw conversion to de-noise and correct lens aberrations; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO.Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO; NEF RAW file.Same file as above following PureRaw conversion to de-noise and correct lens aberrations; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO.
A few weeks back I tried to freeze Amtrak’s passing at Bird-in-Hand in the gloom of evening, only to be disappointed by my inability to use a fast enough shutter speed.
Fast forward to Thursday night: with a Nikon Z6-III firmly fixed to my 3Pod tripod, I was fiddling with the focus with a Nikkor f1.4 50mm when the rails lit up with an approaching train.
My first few frames were not sharp enough, but the last couple showing the trailing ACS-64 on a westward Amtrak Keystone met with my satisfaction.
A full moon lit up the sky and a street light cast enough light on the passing train; this, combined with a 64000 ISO sensitivity setting, enabled me to use 1/200th of a second shutter speed with the 50mm at its widest opening (f1.4).
I processed the NEF RAW file using DxO PureRaw to de-noise the effects of high-ISO and correct lens defects.
Strasburg Rail Road’s preserved J-Tower made for an ideal static subject to test Nikon’s Z6-III image-making with f1.4 Nikkor lens at ISO 64000.
For point of comparison I made exposures at ISO 100 and ISO 64000.
I then converted the ISO 64000 image to a DNG format using DxO PureRaw which denoised the image while eliminating vignetting and other lens imperfections. I’ve enlarged the tower section of each image to make comparison easier.
My next Railroad Photography 101 Class at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania will be held on Saturday Dec 13, 2025 from 9 to 11am. The theme to this class will be working with holiday settings, including how to make better night train photographs.
Full frame image with Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm at ISO 64000 and converted without changes to appearance from the original NEF RAW file.Enlarged portion of the above image with Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm at ISO 64000 converted NEF RAW file.PureRaw-processed file. This was made from the same RAW NEF image as the above photos. It demonstrates the capabilities of the PureRaw software.Enlarged portion of PureRaw-processed file. This was made from the same RAW image as the above photos.Comparison image exposed at ISO 100. Note the lack of noise. This was not processed with Dxo PureRaw.Enlarged portion of the IS0 100 image.
My next Railroad Photography 101 Class at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania will be held on Saturday Dec 13, 2025 from 9 to 11am. The theme to this class will be working with holiday settings, including how to make better night train photographs.
To prepare some material for the class, I went over to Strasburg the other night and made photos of Strasburg Rail Road’s holiday lights around the station using a Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm Nikkor Z-series lens.
With the camera firmly mounted on a 3Pod tripod, I took a series of photos varying the lens aperture from f1.4 (widest setting to f8.0) as a test of the lens abilities. I allowed the camera to automatic adjust the exposure using a matrix metering setting. The white balance was set to A1 (‘auto’) and the color profile to SDR (standard).
The photos displayed here are converted and scaled directly from the Z6-III’s NEF Raw files without any post processing alterations to composition, color, contrast, exposure or any other visual elements of the photo.
This is a work in progress and in following posts, I will explore changes to holiday-night photo RAW files in post processing.
Nikon Z6-III with Nikkor f1.4 50mm lens set at f1.4; 1/13th of a second.Nikon Z6-III with Nikkor f1.4 50mm lens set at f2.8; 2/5th of a second.Nikon Z6-III with Nikkor f1.4 50mm lens set at f4; 4/5th of a second.Nikon Z6-III with Nikkor f1.4 50mm lens set at f8; 2.5 seconds.
If you observe carefully, you may notice that the image exposed at f1.4 has a different color balance and is slightly darker that the others. This likely due to the shorter exposure time and the flickering effect of the LED holiday lights.
Tracking the Light Posts about railroad photography.
I like to keep a camera handy for those fortuitous moments when a train presents a photo opportunity.
One evening after work , Kris and I were driving toward Leola on a errand. I spied a headlight on Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Secondary as we crossed Horseshoe Road.
We continued to drive and when we approached the small yard near the old PRR station, Norfolk Southern’s local freight was just about ready to begin its westward run back to Lewis Yard in Lancaster, Pa.
“This will just take a minute,” I said as I pulled in the clear—off the road. I reached for my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens, and exposed a series of photos as the local began to pull west.
The sky was leaden and the ground was wet; back in Kodachrome days this lighting situation might have been unworkable, but applying modern digital technology I was satisfied with my results. I converted the Nikon NEF files into DNG format using DxO PureRaw, then made changes to contrast and exposure in Lightroom.
A textured autumnal sky made for a painted setting. Knowing the light could change in a heartbeat, I checked the progress of Amtrak train 656 (an eastward Keystone service).
It had departed Lancaster, Pa., and was heading my way. Would the color in the sky hold?
In a matter of moments the rails in the distance glistened from the blue-white LED headlights of an ACS-64.
And there it was!
Captured with my Nikon Z6; f4.0, 1/1250th second, ISO 1600.
Clear sky and bright sun at Hyannis, Massachusetts made for an opportunity to expose some comparative photos.
We had just arrived on Cape Cod Central’s midday excursion train, and I’d ambled to the headend to make photos (as you do).
Below are a couple of examples. The first photo is an Ektachrome E100 color slide; the bottom three are variations of a digital image.
There’s no right and wrong here, just some comparatively contrasty photos.
E100 Ektachrome slide exposed using a Nikon F3 with f2.0 35mm lens. Slide scanned using a Nikon Cool Scan LS-5000 slide scanner.Exposed using a Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera with 24-70mm Nikkor Zoom. NEF RAW file without corrections.Lightroom work window showing the same file as above before corrections.Lightroom work window displaying a range of corrections to the NEF RAW file. Notice the positions of exposure and contrast sliders at the left of the work window panel.
