Delaware-Lackawanna shops, Scranton, Pennsylvania, October 13, 2005.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: I was researching and photographing for my book Working on the Railroad, when I made this image in the rain at Scranton.
Exposed on Fujichrome Provia 100F with a Nikon F3T fitted with a 24mm f2.8Nikkor lens fitted to a Manfrotto tripod. Exposure calculated with a Minolta Mark IV light meter. (Note the code lines.)
The former British Columbia Railroad Alco Century was my primary subject. Here the combination of raw unpleasant weather, harsh sodium lighting, and a scene festooned with junk, litter and tired look side tracks meets all the aesthetical requirements for a great photo. No?
Dusk at Killucan Cabin, May 3, 2002. This was a favorite place of mine to make photos, and before the cabin was closed, I spent many afternoons and evenings here.
Signalman Donal Flynn stands at the base of the cabin poised to hand the electric train staff hoop to a Dublin-bound passenger train (seen, headlights dimmed, approaching in the distance). Exposed on Fujichrome with a Contax G2 with 28mm Biogon Lens mounted on a Manfrotto tripod. Exposure calculated with the aid a Minolta Mark IV light meter.
This image was exposed several years before Irish Rail implemented the signalling program that converted the Sligo line to Mini-CTC with remote signaling control and colour-lights. Yet, for me it is evocative of the cabin at the end of its useful life.
The final hints of daylight are symbolic of the cabin’s fate; Soon the light in the sky will fade to darkness and the cabin will close.
In response to my recent nomination by Phil Brahms and Blair Kooistra for the Facebook Night Photo challenge, I’ve selected five groups of photos that I feel might be interesting to review on Tracking the Light.
I have to admit, I’m not clear on the rules for this challenge. As a result, I’ll follow my standard policy and just wing it. Who needs rules anyway?
Among the difficulties in selecting photos for this challenge has been simply finding them. For the most part I’ve not organized images in regards to the time of day they were exposed. A related problem is the large number of night views that I’ve attempted over the years.
Lastly, what makes for a successful night photo?
Over the years, I’ve made hundreds of night photos at Palmer, Massachusetts. I exposed this image on an exceptionally foggy May 1985 evening. My subject was the old Palmer Union Station near the crossing of Conrail’s Boston & Albany line and the Central Vermont Railway. Today this old station has been restored and serves as the Steaming Tender restaurant. Tracking the Light viewers will find it a familiar subject, as I’ve often featured images in and around this building. Exposed on black & white film with a Leica 3A with 50mm Summitar lens.More than 11 years later, I exposed this view at Palmer. Here I’m looking west with the station at my back. A southward New England Central freight is waiting north of the diamond. Exposed with a Nikon F3T with 28mm lens on Fujichrome Provia 100F. December 6, 1996. Color is an added complication for night work. Would this photo be more effective as a black & white image? Or would the effect of the red signal lights be lost?
Tracking the Light; Five photos on the old Pennsylvania Railroad.
A Post-Prologue to a Night Photo Challenge . . .
On December 1, 2014, I’d met my latest deadline, and so I finally had a few minutes to make photos before charging headlong into the next project.
My brother Sean lent me back my old Bogen 3021 tripod, a piece of equipment I’d not seen in many years. I’d bought this new in Rochester in March 1989 and dragged it all around North America in the early 1990s. At some point, I upgraded to a newer tripod and gave this one to Sean.
Former Pennsylvania Railroad station at Overbrook, Pennsylvania. LX7 photo, exposed at ISO 80 f3.2 at 2.5 seconds.Rainy Night on the Main Line at Overbrook. Lumix LX7 photo ISO 80 f3.2 at 1.3 seconds. Auto white balance.A SEPTA Silverliner V pauses at Overbrook on the evening of December 1, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo. ISO 80, f3.2 1.3 seconds. (Exposed in ‘A’ mode using a + 2/3 manual override.)
It seemed like overkill to steady my Lumix LX7 on such a heavy tripod, but it did the job.
It was cold, wet and dark, but that worked fine for me. I exposed a few photos at Overbrook, Pennsylvania, and a couple of more at Wynnewood. No GG1 electrics passed me that night. Not for a long time.
Former Pennsylvania Railroad four-track Main Line west of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Lumix LX7 photo exposed at ISO 80 at f2.1 for 8 seconds. Auto white balance. I’ve experimented with this angle as a night photo before, and so this is really just my latest effort.Former Pennsylvania Railroad four-track Main Line west of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Lumix LX7 photo exposed at ISO 80 at f2.0 for 8 seconds. Auto white balance. This is from the same location as the previous image, but looking west. Would this photo be improved with a train blurring by?
Tomorrow, I begin the first of five night photo-challenges as given to me by Blair Kooistra and Phil Brahms via Facebook.
Tracking the Light Daily Post: A View from a Favorite Location.
For this photograph, I’ve selected an off-center composition and used strong side-lighting and selective focus to increase the sensation of depth.
Autumn on the Boston & Albany in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. An eastward CSX freight descends Washington Hill at the old Middlefield station-location on October 7, 2004.
On August 15-16, 2009, I’d been camping in California’s Feather River Canyon near the curved Rock Creek trestle. In the early light of dawn, I made a series of photos of this Union Pacific container train crossing the bridge.
Exposed on Fujicrome with a Canon EOS 3 with 28mm lens. I gauged my exposure on the sky, intending to make a silhouette of the train and bridge.
This image features the tail-end ‘Distributed Power Unit’ (a radio controlled remote locomotive). After making this photo I followed the train west down the canyon and made more images.
Thankfully Union Pacific paints its bridges an aluminum color which helps visually separate the girders from the inky blackness of the trees beyond. Would this photo work if the bridge were painted black?
This is the second of three posts in my three part series covering San Francisco’s Streetcars. Shirebooks recently published my book Streetcars of America co-authored with John Gruber.
A cable car crests Lombard Street just after sunrise on a September morning. See Shirebooks Journal for Brian Solomon’s feature on San Francisco’s Cable Cars.
I prefocused and zoomed the lens to keep pace with the nose of the train. Although it may not be immediately evident, this train is moving away from the camera.
Working with a Nikon N90S with 80-200 zoom lens and Fujichrome Provia 100 I made this zoom-pan of a Series 100 train blitzing the station at Shizuoka, Japan.
The trick to making a zoom-pan is use a relatively low shutter speed (1/15 to 1/30th of a second) and use the zoom to keep pace with the train’s motion. This is actually easier to do with a fast moving train. In this case the Series 100 train was traveling at more than 130mph.
This technique takes a bit of practice, so it helps to experiment on a really busy high-speed railway line such as the New Tokaido line. When I made this photo in April 1997, there were about 10-11 trains in each direction every hour over the line.
I made several of these ‘zoom-pans’ on color slide film. I didn’t know how well I’d succeeded until weeks later when I reviewed my slides.
This photo appeared as the title-page spread of my 2001 book Bullet Trains published by MBI. The book took a look at high-speed railway networks around the world.
On June 14, 1993, the world’s largest operating steam and diesel locomotives worked together on the Oregon Trail Special. Brian Jennison and I photographed these massive machines at Quartz on their ascent of Union Pacific Encina Hill east of Baker City, Oregon.
Kodachrome 25 exposed with a Nikormatt FTN with Nikkor 28.
It may surprise some readers, but the full moon provides the same light color balance as the sun, just at a significantly lower intensity.
This is one of the many differences between the way a human eye interprets a scene and a photographic image.
Where to the eye moonlight—even the full moon, appears dark, a camera can capture a moonlit scene so that it has the same color and illumination ratios as daylight. The difference isn’t with the scene, it is with our perception of it.
Complicating matters are the ways cameras collect light. Back when I used Kodachrome 25, very long time exposures rarely turned out as I hope they would. The film’s ISO rating in very low light was irrelevant.
The primary reason for this condition was a combination of the film’s long reciprocity curve and its very poor sensitivity in extremely low light. Essentially in moonlight, the film lost its effective sensitivity.
Basically this meant that Kodachrome was optimized for daylight situations and its ratio of sensitivity was not proportional in very low light (and effectively lost its ability to record images). So, when I left the shutter open for hours in moonlight, the film was incapable of recording an accurate image.
Even when I’d calculated the theoretical correct exposure. All I’d get back from the lab was a fairly dark slide with a few overexposed specular highlights (bright spots). Not very inspiring.
In the mid-1990s, Mel Patrick encouraged me to experiment with Fuji Provia 100F in moonlight. This was a modern film. Not only was it vastly more sensitive in low light, but it provided a much better color rendition in night situations. While the film still suffered from the reciprocity effect, I found it possible to calculate and compensate for this failing.
Yet, even with this improved film, moonlight exposures still required very long exposures, sometimes up to an hour or more.
Mel had made some outstanding railway landscapes by moonlight, and I tried to emulate his successes.
Cumbres Pass by the light of the moon. A long time exposure made using the full-moon as the primary light source. Does this look like daylight? The star trails in the sky are the tip-off.
A difficulty was finding situations where there was virtually no man made light, since mercury, sodium, and incandescent lights not only tend to be much brighter than moonlight, but cause objectionable color casts and harsh contrast (a topic for another day).
While there are relatively few places in the eastern United States that are completely free from man-made light (even in the wee hours), in the West, clear open skies (and a dearth of population and objectionable light) abound.
I made this image at the summit of Cumbres Pass, Colorado in September 1998. My car and my tent can be seen in the distance. I don’t recall offhand, but my exposure was about 40 minutes at f2.8 using a Nikon F3T with Nikkor 24mm lens. My camera was firmly mounted on a Bogen tripod.
Tight crop of the same Fujichrome colorslide. I don’t think this image is critically sharp, but keep in mind the shutter was open for more than half an hour, and even a gentle breeze will create a slight vibration.
Are you seeing the whole picture? Tracking the Light presents: A Glinty Electric Bus.
Exposed on Fujichrome using a Canon EOS3 with 100-400 IS Zoom lens. Forest fires east of San Francisco made for an extra rosy sunrise.
Did I notice this scene in my rear view mirror one morning in the 1990s? I think so. Anyway, a memory of a image—something like this was nagging me.
On the morning September 3, 2009, I set up on Hayes Street in San Francisco with my 100-400mm lens. Just after sunrise I exposed a series of images of an electric bus (trolley bus) catching the glint of the rising sun as it crested Alamo Hill.
For me the wires make the photo interesting. Not only do the dual wires power the bus, but they visually tie the scene together.
I like the dramatic lighting and monochromatic effect of the silhouette. I’ve carefully included the pole at the far left to visually anchor the wire network to the ground. This also adds balance.
There’s a famous vista made just to the left of my location. It features a staggered row of gingerbread style Victorians with the San Francisco skyline. It is an iconic setting that appears on post cards, calendars, books and etc. You’d recognize it if you saw it. While the clichéd vista is typically exposed in the afternoon from the park, my view is from the street in the early morning.
PKP at Brzeszce, Poland on the 18th of August 2006.
Poland is a great place to make railway photos. There’s tremendous variety and something new at every turn.
Polish National Railways class ET41 electric with coal train at Brzeszce, Poland. Exposed on Fujichrome using a Nikon N90S with f2.0135mm defocus lens.
I made two trips to Poland in 2006, largely to photograph freight trains. Denis McCabe and I were exploring coal lines in Silesia when we found this location where lines cross near Brzeszce. The north-south line was an unusually busy route. We didn’t need to wait long between trains.
For this image, I opted for a cross lit shot. Taking this angle with a medium telephoto from the ‘dark side,’ allowed me to emphasized the front of the locomotive, while including interesting elements such as the long train of coal cars and the overhead Warren-truss bridge in the distance.
The engine driver is illuminated nicely too, which adds a human element often missing from modern railway photos.
Today’s Tracking the Light displays two images exposed about a year apart from the same overhead bridge near Orbisonia, Pennsylvania.
In both instances I’m photographing the first train of the morning working upgrade away from Orbisonia station using a telephoto lens.
East Broad Top 2-8-2 number 15 working on rusty rail near Rockhill Furnace in October 1996, exposed with a Nikon F3T with f4.0 200mm lens.On September 20, 1997, East Broad Top 2-8-2 number 14 tackles the same grade as pictured above. Exposed using a Nikon N90S with Nikkor f.2.8 80-200mm zoom lens.
Although the location and time of year, and overall scene are similar, I’ve produced two different images, owing to slight differences in my angle and the lighting, as well as the position of the locomotive and its exhaust smoke. In addition I was using different camara-lens combinations.
Subtle changes can result in significantly different photos.
Should I head to the mainline (Conrail’s water level route) or explore branch lines? Do I stick with Conrail or seek out a short line? These were among the quandaries facing my photographic choices when I had some time off from college.
As a photography student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I had a full schedule of classes, labs, and projects. I was a ‘work-study’ student, which implied I had to spend about 25-30 hours a week toiling for peanuts on top of classes, assignments & etc.
My point is that I had very little free time, and rarely a full day off, and so when I made time to make railway photos, there were tough choices (like mainline versus branchline; Conrail versus those other outfits).
Now and again I’d cheat. (I don’t mean on exams). A bright sunny day? Now who will miss me in class?
Unfortunately on a glorious October day, one RIT’s photo professors and I had the same idea. We were both photographing the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville freight. We crossed paths at Avon, New York. We knew that each of us should be someplace else, and we knew where that was. He said to me, “I won’t say anything . . .”
October 26, 1987 was a clear and bright day. Conrail’s WBRO-15 had 37 cars for the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville. I didn’t go to class. Kodachrome 25 exposed at Avon using my Leica M2 with 50mm lens.
Often I’d head to the mainline. My time was short and I wanted results, and Conrail rarely disappointed. Sometimes I’d select a known good spot, and work through my exhaustive reading list while waiting for a headlight to appear.
Other times, when the sun was out, I’d take a more aggressive approach and select my locations purely based on photographic merit and move from place to place as suited the action and the light.
On January 8, 1989, a rare Conrail C30-7 (one of only ten on the roster) leads a westward empty coal train through Rochester, New York. I exposed a sequence of photos using my Leica M2 with a 200mm Telyt fitted to a Visoflex. In retrospect that was a bizarre and awkward camera-lens combination for making moving train photos. But I used it all the time with great results. A thin layer of high cloud softened the sun.
An eastward KCS train 29 works its way upgrade through a tunnel and kudzu covered cutting. It was the dead of winter so the vines had died. I wonder what it’s like here in July? This is the former Mid South, nee Illinois Central east-west route, now part of the KCS-Norfolk Southern Meridian Speedway joint-venture.
KCS 29 had changed power and crews at the Vicksburg Yard and at 1pm on January 21, 1996 was working east upgrade. Exposed on Fujichrome 100 using a Nikkormatt FTN with Nikkor 35mm PC lens. Lens set at f4.5, camera at 1/125th of a second. Slide scanned with an Epson V600. Contrast adjusted in post processing.
In January 1996, I was the guest of Gerald Hook. He’d invited me to Baton Rouge to give a presentation on how a magazine was produced to the Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. At the time I was Editor of Pacific RailNews and had a bit of insight into these matters.
Gerald gave me a tour of area railroads. On January 21, 1996, we drove from Baton Rouge to Vicksburg, Mississippi to meet with Danny Johnson, who led our expedition.
It was a great day to explore railroads! Thanks guys!
On the morning of April 29, 2002, I was changing trains with John Gruber and M. Ross Valentine at Chojnów, Poland. We were on our way from Żagań (Zagan) to Dresden, Germany. (see earlier post: PKP Class SU45 at Sunrise, Chojnów, Poland, April 29, 2002.)
The old station at Chojnow was once a fine facility but had seen better days. The tracks, although highly polished, were tired looking and overgrown with grass, the station building was in need of fresh paint, while the platforms were crumbing and everything was covered in layers of graffiti and grime.
In other words, it made for a fascinating place to make some photos with the rising sun while waiting for a minor cross-border express train. A long electric freight had just entered the passing siding to clear the mainline.
Sunrise at Chojnów, Poland on April 29, 2002; exposed on Fujichrome with a Nikon N90S fitted with a Nikkor f2.0 135mm DC ‘defocus’ telephoto. Using narrow depth of field, my intention with this image is draw attention to the freight train on the siding in the distance, thus making for a graphic photograph with multiple points of interest. I wonder how well this works on a small computer screen; my intended audience was using a slide projector in a darkened room with the image enlarged to more than four feet across. Sometimes these images make the media transition, other times, they don’t.
In the mid-2000s, PKP reminded me a lot of Penn-Central in the1970s.
In my travels around Poland, I’d photographed many stations and lines in various states of functional decay; a tenuous state. When a railway reaches such a condition, it will either vanish altogether, or find itself ripe for investment. In either case, it will be forever changed.
Sunrise at Chojnów, Poland on April 29, 2002; exposed on Fujichrome with a Nikon N90S fitted with a Nikkor f2.0 135mm DC ‘defocus’ telephoto.
In the 1980s, I often bemoaned the ‘telegraph wires’ as I called the code lines that lined most mainlines.
Conrail’s fomer New York Central main line at Churchville, New York on April 10, 1987. The infamous code lines were lurking on the south side of the tracks. Exposed on Kodachrome 25.
It seemed like more often than not, railroads placed these multiple-tier code lines on the south side of their mainlines. This inevitably interfered with my photography and plenty of otherwise good photographic locations were fouled by the rows of poles and the wires between them.
In early 1989, when Conrail was cutting down the old code lines east of Buffalo. I thought, Hurray! Good riddance!
However, I quickly realized how wrong I’d been. In fact I’d been photographing the wires for years.
On the afternoon of February 25, 1987, at Churchville, New York I exposed this Kodachrome 25 color slide using my college roommates’s Canon A1 with 50mm lens; f4.5 1/250th of a second. The poles and wires were my primary subject, the westward Conrail intermodal train was included for incidental interest.
Yes, the code lines made for a visual challenge. And, undoubtedly these sometimes got in the way. But they were part of the railroad. Traditionally, they were key to its operations and often serving as a crucial part of the signaling system. They had been there since the steam era. After all, the railroad was more than just locomotives rolling along at speed.
It occurred to me how I’d often improved my photographs by working with the wires. The visual elements and patterns added by the army of time-worn polls connected by rows of cables made for more compelling images.
Conrail C30-7A 6593 leads symbol freight PXSE -9 eastbound at mp397 South Byron, New York. Exposed on K25 using a Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron. ‘Full sun setting’-240 foot candles according to my Sekonic Studio Deluxe. Camera set at: f4.5 1/250th of a second. Here’s I’ve worked with the code line, using it to frame up the passing freight.Sunrise at Donahue Road in Batavia, New York finds PXSE rolling east and SENF (Selkirk-Niagara Falls) roaring west. For me the code lines and morning glint light made this a favorite sequence. Exposed on PKL (Kodachrome 200) using a Leica M3 fitted to a Visoflex with 200mm Telyt lens mounted on a tripod. f6.3 1/250th of a second.Sunrise at Donahue Road in Batavia, New York with SENF (Selkirk-Niagara Falls) roaring west. Exposed on PKL (Kodachrome 200) using a Leica M3 fitted to a Visoflex with 200mm Telyt lens at f8 1/250th of a second.
After the code lines were gone, the brush started to grow. And that’s now a much worse photo-hazard than the wires ever were.
They are easy to use. It’s like stepping back in time. Sort of.
Panasonic’s new camera comes with a fantastic lens and sensor combination, but what if clarity seems too sterile? Perhaps, you want to get the effects (and defects) characteristic of old film cameras? No problem!
The LX100 has a button on top of the camera called ‘filters,’ which alters the color, contrast, exposure and sometimes the focus of digital files to emulate a variety of effects that were once characteristic of older camera-film combinations.
The advantage of the ‘filters’ feature is that the effects are done ‘in-camera’ without the need to fiddle around with photo-shop or other post-processing software. The button opens a menu and you simply select the desired filter. This shows you the treatment on screen and in the viewfinder.
In my early days of photography, I experimented with a variety of older cameras, and sampled various film types. My skills weren’t yet developed and my results were a bit random. The LX100’s filter mode allows me to step back to those early experimental times when any photographic result seemed like success.
The best part of filters is that you can easily switch from one mode to the next and back to normal again quickly. Below are some of the filter results. I’ve given these comparative names in ‘quotes’ that I felt were more appropriate than Panasonic’s, but put the camera-filter name in [brackets] for reference. Just so you know. Ok?
Do you have any favorites?
‘Cheap 400 speed print film with drug store processing’ [High Key].‘Whoops, I sent my print film in with a slide mailer’ [Cross processing]‘Underexposed Ektachrome 200’ [Expressive].‘Fogged color print film’ [Impressive Art].‘Underexposed Kodacolor 100’ [Low Key].Black & white that I processed with exhausted fixer. [Sepia].Black & white printed with exhausted Dektol developer. [Monochrome].Overexposed, overprocessed Tri-X that I processed in the sink. [Rough Monochrome].Instamatic attempt with color print film. [Toy Effect]‘Light leak.’ “Oh no! I think I opened the back of the camera”. [Sunshine].‘This is my friend’s cheap HO layout’ (What a fool, he’s tried to model Palmer!). [Miniature Effect].‘Bargain film, only 6 months past the expiration date!’ [Old days].‘Kodak sent me a note with my slides, it said they had a “unique laboratory occurrence” and a free roll of 24 exposure K64.’ [Bleach Bypass].‘Drugstore processed black & white’ [Silky monochrome].‘I think there’s something wrong with my light meter. This was some Ilford HP5 that I processed and the negatives were a bit ‘thin’. [Dynamic Monochrome].Funny, there didn’t seem to be a filter for ‘Kodachrome 25’.
It isn’t fair to judge a new camera after only a few hours of working with it. I find that it takes a while to get used to any new equipment.
In April 1990, I was given the loan of a Nikon F3 SLR. After a month of putting it through its paces, I knew I had to have one. Yet, I wasn’t fully comfortable with the camera for at least 6 months.
As mentioned in the previous post, last week Eric Rosenthal loaned me a brand new LX100. So I brought it out for some tests.
I found this to be a very powerful tool. It looks and feels much like a traditional rangefinder, yet has many electronic features.
While making a basic photo with the LX100 is straight forward, the camera’s multitude of buttons, dials and layers of menus needed to access the camera’s various modes, color profiles, filters, and features, plus video and panoramic options isn’t intuitive. In fact it’s intimidating.
To really give the LX100 a fair treatment, I’d need several weeks to properly figure it out and become comfortable with its operation.
However, I was able to make a variety of interesting photographs of which a few are presented here. Other than scaling the Jpgs, I’ve not altered the images in post processing in regards to color, contrast, gamma, or other visual effects.
A rangefinder makes panning easier because there is no interruption by a mirror flapping up and down. The LX100 has a built in viewfinder which comes on when you put your eye to it. Exposed with a Lumix LX100 at ISO 400 f3.5 1/25th of a second. Autowhite balance. Image stabilizer ‘on’.Amtrak’s Vermonter pulls by its conductor at CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts. Lumix LX100 at ISO 400, f3.5 1/20th of a second. Auto white balance. Image stabilizer ‘on’. Uncorrected JPG file scaled for internet presentation. I selected a slow shutter speed to allow the train to blur.Daylight was fading. I changed the color balance from ‘auto white balance’ to ‘daylight’ in order to preserve the twilight effect. There is a button on the back of the camera that makes this a relatively quick adjustment. Exposed at ISO 200, f2.2 at 1/40th of a second. My feeling is that the camera meter under exposed this by about 1/2 stop. However, there are several metering modes, and I may not have used the optimal setting for this difficult lighting situation. My feeling is that working with a camera in low light tells more about its capabilities than just using it in bright sun. In this view, the locomotive is trailing, and thus shoving at the back of the train as it departs Palmer for Springfield, Massachusetts.The rear screen makes it easier to hold the camer low to the ground. I used this strategically placed puddle to make a reflection of the old Palmer Union Station. Exposed at ISO 200, f4.5 1/1300th of a second. Auto white balance. Image stabilizer ‘on’.CSX’s westward home signal on the mainline at CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts.
So is the LX100 a good camera for railway photography?
If you desire the ability to manually control a digital camera, and prefer traditional dials over toggle switches, along with a built in view finder in addition to a rear screen, the LX100 is a great option.
The camera reacts quickly. It has a ‘burst’ feature that allows you to take three images in rapid succession. It can make RAW and JPG file simultaneously. The lens is fantastic and the sensor is amazing, so the images are exceptionally sharp.
On the downside, it uses a fixed lens that is limited to a 24-75mm range (in traditional 35mm film camera terms). Its menu navigation is counter-intuitive. For a small camera it is pretty heavy. And, it’s relatively expensive, B&H Photo in New York advertises it for nearly $900, which is three-times what I paid for my LX7 a few months ago.
What can I do with it? How comfortable is it to use? How do the photos look?These are some of the questions that I have of any new Camera. The LX100 has been eagerly awaited and only recently released.
Last week Eric Rosenthal, my digital photography guru and new equipment advisor, lent me a brand new Lumix LX100 to play with. Unfortunately, I’m facing a series of tight deadlines, so I really only had a few hours to put the camera through its paces.
The new Panasonic Lumix LX100. Exposed using my Lumix LX7. I played around by comparing the two cameras.
This wasn’t enough time with the LX100, and I could have spent days working with it! The LX100 is a versatile piece of equipment with lots of features, so I had only begun to play with it when it was time to get back to work.
As regular followers of Tracking the Light are aware, for nearly five years I’d worked with a Panasonic Lumix LX3 (among other cameras). In May I sampled the newer LX7 and in June I bought one. The LX3 was a great camera (I exposed more than 64,000 images with it, before the LX3 expired following a series of mishaps), and the LX7 is a worthy successor. (I’ve never seen an LX5, which was briefly offered as the replacement for the LX3).
The LX100, while kin to the earlier Panasonic Lumix LX cameras, is a different machine. It is not only more advanced, but it is better built, it features a heavier body, a larger lens (more glass) and a more modern sensor, and so in the hand it feels more like a traditional rangefinder camera.
What I liked the most about the LX100:
1) It has a built-in viewfinder, so unlike the earlier LX-series cameras you need not rely on the rear display screen to compose photos. The viewfinder comes on when you put your eye to it. It has a diopter, so you can adjust it to suit your vision (I wear glasses and for me this is an important feature). The viewfinder is especially valuable for composing photos of moving trains in daylight.
2) The LX100 uses traditional rings and dials, which allow you to set the aperture, shutter speed, focus and zoom-lens manually. While you can manipulate these settings by navigating the camera’s menus, for the most part you don’t need to. This makes it work more like a traditional camera. Again, for making railway photos this is important to me because I can make adjustments quickly and intuitively without having to stare at the display screen in bright daylight and/or when your subject is rapidly rolling into view.
3) Like the LX3 and LX7, it has the option of making both RAW and JPG files simultaneously, which in my mind makes this a tool for making publication quality images.
4) It has an outstanding Leica lens which allows for very sharp images, and at f1.7 allows lots of light, which again is important for making railway images, especially in low-light situations, and allows for shallow depth of field, when that is desirable. Also, the lens stops down to f16, which gives it greater versatility.
5) The LX100 uses a sensor that is larger and more advanced than that on the LX7, and this allows for higher quality images while is specifically designed to make more effective use of the camera’s built-in aspect ratios (the dimensions of the image frame). Like the LX7, it has a switch to select the following standard aspect ratios: 1:1 (square), 4:3, 3:2, and 16:9. I found the average RAW file was about 16.5 MB. (I’ve discussed this feature in previous posts).
But how do the images look? Below are a few rough comparison images made using the LX100 and my LX7. All images were made hand-held. I did my best to approximate the focal length of the lens, and to use comparable shutter/aperture settings. These images are from the in-camera Jpgs and now the RAW files (which are substantially larger). I did not post-process the images or alter them for color balance, sharpness, contrast, or cropping. But I did scale them for internet presentation.
However, WordPress, which is how Tracking the Light is presented, tends to compress images and I find that they never look as good on this site as they do directly on my computer screen. So take that into consideration.
LX100 view at CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts. I wanted to see how the camera handled a backlit high contrast scene. Exposed at ISO 200 (lowest ISO setting on the LX100) at f4.5 1/500th of a second. Auto white balance.LX7 view at CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts. Exposed at ISO 80 (lowest ISO setting on the LX7) at f3.5 1/500th of second. Daylight white balance.LX100 view of the Steaming Tender, the old Union Station at Palmer, Massachusetts. Exposed at ISO 200 (lowest ISO setting on the LX100) at f4.5 1/1600th of second. Auto white balance.LX7 view of the Steaming Tender, the old Union Station at Palmer, Massachusetts. Exposed at ISO 80 (lowest ISO setting on the LX7) at f3.5 1/800th of second. Daylight white balance.LX100 view of the signals at CP83 Palmer, Massachusetts. Exposed at ISO 200 (lowest ISO setting on the LX100) at f4.5 1/800th of second. Auto white balance.LX7 view of the signals at CP83 Palmer, Massachusetts. Exposed at ISO 80 (lowest ISO setting on the LX7) at f3.5 1/400th of second. Auto white balance.LX100 view of Buffalo & Pittsburgh GP40 number 3000. Not all photos are made on bright days. Exposed at ISO 200 (lowest on Lumix LX100). f4.0 at 1/125th of a second. Auto white balance. 16:9 aspect ratio.LX7 comparison view of B&P 3000. Exposed at ISO 80 (Lowest ISO setting on Lumix LX7) at f4 1/50th of a second. Auto white balance. 16:9 aspect ratio. (I didn’t zoom in as tight with the LX7 as I did with the LX100, nominal oversight on my part).LX100 view of the old Hamden Railroad abutments near Three Rivers, Massachusetts. Exposed at ISO 200, f5.6 at 1/200th of a second. Auto white balance.LX7 view of the same abutments. Exposed at ISO 100, f5.6 at 1/100th of a second. Auto white balance.
For the most part, I was trying to match the camera’s output as closely as possible for the sake of appearance. I set both cameras at their respective ‘Standard’ color profiles. (Both cameras have several color profiles to select).
Since the LX100’s lowest ISO is 200, and the LX7’s is 80, this presented a bit of a quandry. If I set both cameras at 200, the LX7 images would have a quality disadvantage, while if I set the LX7 at 80, I would need to use a slower shutter speed or a smaller f stop to make an equivalent exposure. (The caveat is that the LX100 is a more versatile camera by virtue of its superior sensor. Simply, it can do more because it has greater range.)
The LX100 has a multitude of features, modes, filters and etc, which I’ll discuss in a follow up post.
In July 2002, my friends Markku Pulkinnen and his wife Marja-Liisa hosted my visit to Oulu, Finland.
I’d taken an overnight train from Helsinki. Markku and I spent several days photographing VR (Finnish Railways) action around Oulu, before embarking on an adventure north of the Arctic Circle to explore Swedish iron ore railways.
I made this panned image one afternoon of a southward passenger train gaining speed after it departed the Oulu station. This is a common class Sr2 electric, a type derived from a Swiss prototype as used on the Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon (BLS) class 465 and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) class 460.
Exposed on Fujichrome Sensia 100 with a Contax G2 rangefinder fitted with a 28mm Biogon lens. F22 1/30th of second. This was part of a sequence of images. I included an early image in the sequence in my book Railway Photography co-authored with John Gruber.
Although Finland is relatively flat, I found it a wonderful place to explore and make railway photos. In the summer, Oulu benefits from very long days. While the sun goes down, twilight remains through out the night. As result of Markku’s hospitality, I was afforded great insights into Finnish and Swedish railway operations.
It had hardly snowed at all in Rochester when I departed before dawn in my 1973 Plymouth Scamp. I found the traveling treacherous on Interstate 390 , but I was determined to made photos in the snow along the former Erie Railroad mainline.
I arrived at Gang Mills as the storm was clearing to the east. The sun was just starting to poke out from behind the clouds and there was a fresh layer of snow over everything.
I had three cameras with me that day, including my roommate’s Canon A1 that was loaded with a fresh roll of Kodachrome 64 (a gift from Kodak). Using my Leica, I exposed a few photos of eastward Conrail APL Stack Train TV-302 that was changing crews. Then plotted my course east.
Conrail’s TV302 was changing crews at Gang Mills at 8:50 am on November 19, 1986. I had only a few minutes to figure out what to do and I’d never followed the old Erie Railroad east of Gang Mills before. Exposed on Kodachrome 64 slide film with my Leica 3A with 65mm Elmar f6.3 1/200th of a second.
While I knew the line west toward Hornell through the Canisteo Valley, this was my first trip eastward along the former Erie toward Binghamton. I neither had good maps nor a scanner, but I had an eastbound train, fresh snow, sunlight and Kodachrome. (And the desire to make photos!).
Over the next few years, I’d become very familiar with the old Erie mainline in this area, but rarely would I have conditions like this again.
I found the old Chemung station. Not long after I got out of my car, I could hear the stack train roaring along; TV-302 with GP40-2s and nearly two miles of train. That old Canon A1 had a motor drive and I used it! Kodachrome 64 exposed at f9 1/250th of a second with my roommate’s Canon A1 and 50mm lens. 9:50am on November 19, 1986. My Sekonic light meter with incident attachment indicated 320 foot candles (and that is about a stop brighter than normal daylight conditions owing to the snow)Another frame in the motor drive sequence.9:50am on November 19, 1986: In the spirit of the moment I made this trailing view at Chemung, New York. At the time I feared I was ‘wasting film’; today I’m glad I did! Canon A1 with 50mm lens exposed on Kodachrome 64 slide film. f9 at 1/250th of a second.An hour after I let TV-302 go, I found this westward Delaware & Hudson freight crawling along at restricted speed and about to stop. I learned later that snow had knocked some of the code lines down and the signals were displaying ‘stop and proceed’. This image was made east of Owego, New York at 10:53 am on November 19, 1986. Kodachrome 64 slide film, f4.5 1/250th sec.This image was made east of Owego, New York at 10:53 am on November 19, 1986. Kodachrome 64 slide flim. If you look very carefully, you’ll see this signal is displaying a red light, which in automatic block signal territory indicates ‘Rule 291, Stop and Proceed.’The westward D&H freight was soon on the roll again. There was a time when Boston & Maine GP40-2s seemed very common. Looking back, I didn’t make as many photos of them as I now wished I had, and I’m glad to have this 28 year old slide.In the afternoon, I returned to Gang Mills Yard (west of Corning, New York) where I caught a parade of freights. By then the snow had begun to melt. An eastward Delaware & Hudson BUAB was rolling through at 3:50pm. I made some black & white photos of this train with my Rolleiflex, but at that time-period I was experimenting with my processing for a class project, and I’ve never been satisfied with the resulting negative. Perhaps I’ll scan it and see what I can salvage digitally. This is a Kodachrome 64 color slide.
My grandparents lived in Coop City in The Bronx for a dozen years. Their 19th floor apartment had an open terrace that looked across the Hutchinson River toward Amtrak’s former New Haven Railroad line that ran from New Rochelle over the Hell Gate Bridge toward Penn-Station.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, we’d make regular visits. I was delighted by passing of Amtrak trains, and by the time I was ten, I’d figured out how to interpret the timetable to predict when trains would pass.
Amtrak was still operating a fair few former Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electrics, and these were my favorite. From about mid-1978, I’d keep my Leica 3A poised at the ready and if a GG1 were to appear, I’d make a color slide, or two.
While I made a great many photographs, my photographic efforts were, at best, rudimentary. Complicating matters was my general panic when a GG1 finally appeared.
As the train rolled into view, I’d try to gauge the lighting using an old Weston Master III photo cell and rapidly adjust the aperture on my Summitar lens, but my understanding of exposure was purely conceptual. In other words, I went through the motions, but really didn’t know what I was doing.
Also, I was photographing the scene with a 50mm lens, and the tracks were at least a quarter mile distant. Later, I learned to use my father’s telephoto lenses for some more effective views, but by then new AEM-7s had replaced the GG1s.
Recently, I rediscovered a box of long lost Kodachrome slides, including a bunch of my surviving photos from my grand parent’s terrace. This one is one of the few passable efforts, and will a little cropping, and some post processing in Photoshop, it isn’t too bad.
An Amtrak-painted former Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric works toward Penn-Station in April 1980. Exposed on Kodachrome 64 using a Leica 3A with 50mm Summitar lens. The photo has been cropped and contrast and color were adjusted in postprocessing.
Learning technique is every photographer’s challenge. My learning curve was slow, in part because it was often months between the time of exposure and when I got slides back from Kodak. By the time I reviewed my results, I hadn’t remembered what I’d done, and didn’t know what to do to improve future efforts.
By comparison, kids starting today with digital cameras can see their results immediately and have the opportunity to learn quickly. Perhaps, from one of these same terraces, some kid today has captured one of the final runs of Amtrak’s HHP8s (recently retired from active work) or the rapidly disappearing AEM-7s!
The other day, I was searching for some images for a book project, and I discovered a long lost yellow box of Kodachrome slides.
In the 1980s, normally, I was pretty good about labeling my slides. This box simply read, “Buffalo unlabled”.
I thought, “uh oh, what’s this . . . ”
Like, pirate’s treasure!
I’d managed to stamp my name on each slide. And, back in the day, I removed a couple of choice images to make Cibachrome prints. But other than that this roll was untouched. These haven’t been projected, or printed.
Conrail light engines at CP FW, Buffalo. Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Leica M2 with 200mm Telyt lens using a Visoflex.Conrail unit coal train at CP FW, Buffalo. Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Leica M2 with 200mm Telyt lens using a Visoflex.Conrail light engines and a unit coal train CP FW, Buffalo. Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Leica M2 with 200mm Telyt lens using a Visoflex.
Unfortunately, my notes from the day also appear to be absent, so some details on railroad operations and exposure data have been lost to time.
The slide mounts are stamped November 1988, but these may have been exposed on October 28th, as I spent the morning making industrial images around Niagara Falls for a class project at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
I’d walked the old Skyway south of downtown Buffalo to make photos of the steel works. At the time I was impressed by the dramatic lighting on Lake Erie.
Exposed on Kodachrome 25 with a Leica M2 looking west over Lake Erie from the Skyway.Exposed on Kodachrome 25 with a Leica M2 looking west over Lake Erie.
Conrail westward Trailvan (possibly TV79) west of CP 5 on the Waterlevel Route near Lackawanna, New York. Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron on K25.Conrail eastward Trailvan stopped outside of Buffalo waiting for a clear signal. Leica M2 with 200mm Telyt lens.South Buffalo 36, exposed with Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron, K25 film.An old Whitcomb that had seen better days. I wonder what became of this locomotive?
26 years after being misplaced, I’m happy to have these slides back in circulation again!
This morning at 4:10 am Central Time, I was interviewed live on the Dave Plier show about my new book, Chicago—America’s Railroad Capital, co-authored with Mike, Blaszak, John Gruber and Chris Guss, published by Voyageur Press.
At 3:35pm on Thursday, February 25, 1988, Conrail C32-8 6617 and C36-7 6622 chugged eastbound upgrade through Warren passing the old Boston & Albany station.
Conrail SEPW at Warren on February 25, 1988. Exposed with a Rolleiflex Model T with a 75mm Carl Zeiss 3.5 Tessar. Kodak Verichrome Pan (VPX) black & white film exposed at ISO 100 f4 1/250th of a second, processed in D76 1:1 with water. Scanned on an Epson V500 flatbed scanner. Image cropped slight from a 645 size 120 negative.
Waiting for trains at Warren, you can hear heavy freight coming for several minutes, as they labor on the grade up the Quaboag River valley. General Electric diesels make a distinctive sound as they gain speed. Usually by the time the train passes downtown Warren, the train is making a pretty good clip.
This freight was Conrail’s SEPW (Selkirk to Providence & Worcester), a working through freight that typically dropped cars at West Springfield and Palmer.
I’d been trackside since the morning, but spent several hours following a Central Vermont local freight working to Belchertown, and this was the first eastbound Conrail train I’d photographed, although I put several Amtrak trains on film.
After SEPW went east, I headed over to Tucker’s Hobbies (which was then on Bacon Street, within sight of the old station) to visit with Bob Buck.
CSXT eastward intermodal freight at Warren on October 20, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo. (Adjusted for contrast in post processing).Warren Station on Ocotber 20, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.
Compare the 1988 view, with these photos I exposed few weeks ago at almost exactly the same location. (I posted a version of the action image in an earlier post, but I thought it made for a nice contrast.)
Since 1988, the old westward main line was lifted (it was out of service since late 1986), the code lines were taken down, the station has fallen into disrepair (it hadn’t served a passenger train since the 1950s) and the line has become rather brushed in. Step back to 1888, and there was grade crossing at this location, but that’s another story altogether.
On July 1, 1995, a vintage PCC dressed in Boston’s MTA orange passes one of the Boeing-Vertol LRVs on Church Street. I’m probably in the minority, but I always liked the Boeing cars. This photo is a little ironic, because only Boston and San Francisco bought the Boeings.
Over the years, I’ve made hundreds of images of San Francisco Muni’s streetcars. There’s a great of variety of equipment from the famous cable-cars to historic and colorfully painted PCCs and other vintage equipment, plus modern European designed trams. The setting is stunning and the weather can be cosmic with wafts of Pacific fog coming over Twin Peaks.
Here’s a sample of a few favorite Muni images.
Cable cars ascend Nob Hill at sunset.Interior of an F-line PCC exposed in May 2008.Cosmic light: an F-line PCC at the foot of Market Street with dense fog flowing over Twin Peaks. Exposed on Fujichrome using a Canon EOS 3 with 200mm lens, September 2009.Muni tracks at 17th and Church Streets.Wild fires make for great sunrises! Cable car tracks at sunrise with the Trans America Pyramid. No filters, no photoshop. Canon EOS 3 with 100-400mm lens on Fujichrome slide film.California Street Cable Car at Market Street late on weekday evening. May 2008.Breda LRVs on Duboce Street, September 2, 2009.Muni N-line service on the Embarcedero, October 2003.
San Francisco is among the many cities featured in my new book Streetcars of America, co-authored with John Gruber. The book is now available through Amazon and other retailers. John and I wrote this compact 64-page soft-cover volume in 2013. It is priced at under $10.
This is among the modern images featured in the book. It pictures two eras of Italian cars on the streets of San Francisco. The majority of the images in Streetcars of America are vintage photos from the 1940s to the 1970s.
It was nearing the end of Irish Rail’s final beet season, which ironically turned out to be one of the busiest campaigns.
Toward the end of the day, my friends and I had positioned ourselves near milepost 90 on the South Wexford line at the top of Taylorstown Bank on the climb up from Wellingtonbridge.
Irish class 071 number 073 was lifting an estimated 775 tonnes of sugar beet and had been in run-8 for several minutes; the roar of its 12-645E3 diesel drowning out the sounds of birds and sheep in the surrounding fields.
The train was at a crawl when it reached the top of the grade. I made a sequence of photos using three cameras. This was made with my N90S with a 400mm Tokina lens fitted to a Manfrotto tripod.
Exposed on Fujichrome, scan adjusted for color, contrast and sharpness in post-processing. My intent was to exaggerate the effect of the gradient on Taylorstown Bank. There aren’t many places on Irish Rail where a 400mm lens is really effective, but this is one of them.
I felt that the 400mm view was the trickiest to pull off, and honestly I considered this among my experimental attempts, as I fired of a whole series of images in rapid succession. I made a more conventional view as the train got closer.
Irish Rail’s Sugar Beet season was a busy time for me, photographically. The season began in early September and usually ran through early January, depending on the volume of the harvest. In the early 2000s, I’d typically be in Ireland from late-October through the early weeks of the new year.
Exposed on black & white film using a Rollei Model T mounted on a Manfrotto tripod at Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland.
While I’d miss the brighter, dryer, warmer days early in the beet season, I’d make up the difference by photographing on the dark, wetter, colder days in November and December.
The atmosphere of the beet season is what I remember. The dampness, the muck, the dirty old four-wheel wagons. The sounds of General Motors diesels accelerating out of passing loops, and working in Run-8 on wet track.
Irish Rail’s staff were always friendly, and between trains there would a welcome cup of tea in a signal cabin or gate keeper’s shack.
Over much of the route traditional mechanical signaling was still the rule. The slap of lever and the thunk of a semaphore blade falling into place was the sign that something was about to happen.
And there was the smell of the beet. Especially in the fields around Wellingtonbridge, County where beet was grown.
The last laden beet train rolled towards Mallow, County Cork in January 2006, a little more than three years after I made this image.
Telephoto View of today’s Amtrak Special crossing the Connecticut River.
See my earlier post on Tracking the Light for a panoramic view of the same train. Half an hour before the special crossed the bridge there was sunlight, but by the time the train arrived the clouds had rolled in.
Amtrak 822 leads an inspection train with one of the Pan Am business cars behind the locomotive. Exposed on Wednesday November 12, 2014 using a 100mm lens fitted to a Canon EOS7D.
This afternoon Amtrak operated a special train on the New Haven-Springfield line.
Amtrak special at Windsor, Connecticut, exposed at 3:05pm November 12, 2014 using a Lumix LX7. RAW file cropped and converted to a JPG after adjustments for contrast.
It is my understanding that the special began the day at Albany. It was scheduled to operate down the Hudson to Mott Haven, then to New Haven, up to Springfield, then to the Knowledge Corridor and east on Pan Am.
Amtrak’s northward Vermonter (Train 56) was about 18 minutes late, and the special was about ten minutes behind it. One of the Pan Am business cars was located immediately behind the locomotive. This had traveled west to Albany on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited (Train 449) the other day.
This is a cropped version of a photo I made with my Lumix LX7. I also exposed a couple of views with my Canon EOS 7D. I’ll be downloading those shortly!
The National Historic Park at Lowell has transformed 19th century textile mills into interpretive museums. Connecting various museums is a recreated historic streetcar line using electrified former Boston & Maine mill spurs. Most of the time authentic looking replica cars are the order of the day.
A Boston & Maine Alco-built 0-6-0 is also on display.
Lowell’s historic trolley gives visitors a feeling for what it was like to ride a streetcar. Canon EOS 7D with 20mm lens.The classic looking cars look good among the old brick mill buildings. Canon EOS 7D photo.
I visited briefly on my way through town and exposed a few photos of the streetcar against the urban backdrop. On previous visits I’ve traveled on the trolleys and made more extensive photographic studies.
Boston & Maine 410 is a static display at Lowell. It is one of only a few surviving Boston & Maine steam locomotives. Canon EOS 7D
However, owing to the late season, the trolley was working a very limited schedule, and my time was short, so I didn’t go for a spin this time.
Lowell 4131 is a replica of a Brill streetcar. Lumix LX7 photo.
The Lowell trolley is among historic operations covered in the final chapter of my latest book, Streetcars of America, co-authored with John Gruber, by Shire Publications. In this compact 64-page soft-cover volume, John and I offer a concise look at streetcars in North America and feature a variety of vintage and contemporary images, including many made by my father, Richard J. Solomon, on Kodachrome film.
Cover photo by Richard J. Solomon. Exposed on Kodachrome film.
Beginning in the mid-1950s my father, along with many of his friends, made a project to document streetcars on film. Since then he has traveled to many cities in the United States and Canada (as well as overseas) and exposed thousands of color slides.
I began traveling with him as soon as I could stand, and some of my earliest recollections involve trips on streetcars and subway trains.
My latest book Streetcars of America, co-authored with John Gruber, is now available through Amazon and other retailers. John and I wrote this compact 64-page soft-cover volume in 2013. It is priced at under $10
This is a Shire Publications production and features a concise look at streetcars in North America. It reproduces a variety of vintage and contemporary images, including many historic views made by Richard J. Solomon on Kodachrome film. Readers will find that John and I have covered a lot of territory in just a few pages.
Although I didn’t select the cover image, I feel it’s fitting since it features a Boston PCC car. As a child, I lived in Newton Centre, just a few blocks from MBTA’s Riverside Line and here I often watched, traveled on, and photographed Boston PCCs with my father.
This is one of many photos by Richard J. Solomon in my new book, co-authored with John Gruber.
A clear blue dome prevailed on November 3, 2014. Although I was saddled with errands, I took the time to set up a few photos along MBTA’s recently re-doubletracked line at the Willows east of Ayer, Massachusetts.
The schedule shows two trains through this location within a few minutes of each other. My interest was with the bright foliage on the far side of the tracks.
I’ve always preferred late autumn foliage when many of the leaves have fallen, the remaining trees are rusty and almost all the green leaves have turned.
MBTA 2001 works west at the Willows. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D fitted with 40mm pancake lens. F5.0 1/1000 at ISO 200.
I was rewarded with MBTA’s new HSP46 2001 working westward toward Fitchburg. Although some of these new locomotives have been lurking around for about a year, this was my opportunity to photograph one. It was great to get one on the move in bright sun with foliage, I was delighted.
The new design of the HSP46 is unlikely to be confused with anything else. Not, as of yet, anyway. These are being built by Motive Power Inc at Boise, Idaho. Inside are General Electric mechanical and electrical components.
MBTA 2001 works west at the Willows. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D fitted with 40mm pancake lens. F5.0 1/1000 at ISO 200.
!['Cheap 400 speed print film' [High Key].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_HIGH_KEY_P1090498.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['Whoops, I sent my print film in with a slide mailer' [Cross processing]](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_CROSS_PROCESS_P1090507.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['Underexposed Ektachrome 200' [Expressive].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_EXPRESSIVE_P1090496.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['Fogged color print film' [Impressive Art].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_IMPRESSIVE_ART_P1090505.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['Underexposed Kodacolor 400' [Low Key].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_LOW_KEY_P1090499.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
![Black & white that I processed with exhausted fixer. [Sepia].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_SEPIA_P1090500.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
![Black & white printed with exhausted Dektol developer. [Monochrome].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_MONOCHROME_P1090501.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
![Overexposed, overprocessed Tri-X that I processed in the sink. [Rough Monochrome].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_ROUGH_MONOCHROME_P1090503.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
![Instamatic attempt with color print film. [Toy Effect]](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_TOY_EFFECT_P1090508.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['Light leak.' "Oh no! I think I opened the back of the camera". [Sunshine].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Amtrak_39_SUNSHINE_P1090511.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['This is my friend's cheap HO layout' (What a fool, he's tried to model Palmer!). [Miniature Effect].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Vermonter_CabCar_CP83_MINIATURE_EFFECT_P1090537.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['Bargain film, only 6 months past the expiration date!' [Old days].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Vermonter_CabCar_CP83_vert_OLDDAYS_P1090521.jpg?resize=474%2C709)
!['Kodak sent me a note with my slides, it said they had a "unique laboratory occurrence" and I got a free roll of 24 exposure K64.' [Bleach Bypass].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Vermonter_CabCar_CP83_BLEACH_BYPASS_P1090536.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['Drugstore processed black & white' [Silky monochrome].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Vermonter_CabCar_CP83_SILKY_MONOCHROME_P1090530.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
!['I think there's something wrong with my light meter. This was some Ilford HP5 the I processed last week and the negatives were a bit 'thin'. [Dynamic Monochrome].](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Vermonter_CabCar_CP83_DYNAMIC_MONOCHROME_P1090528.jpg?resize=474%2C317)
