Tag Archives: 1986

photography, Tips and Technique

Visit to Westport—June 25, 1986—Five Photos.

3 Comments

I was sifting through some old 120 black & white negatives yesterday and found these photographs from a morning’s photography along the old New Haven Railroad in Connecticut from June 1986.

I started the morning in South Norwalk, then moved down to Westport.

Most of the photos from the morning were exposed on Kodachrome slide film, but I made a few select images on Kodak Tri-X using my father’s Rolleiflex Model T using a 645-size ‘superslide’ insert to obtain a rectangular crop.

Amtrak 904 leads the eastward mail train at Westport at 9:18am on June 25, 1986. Kodak Tri-X with Rollei Model T exposed at f8/11 1/500 sec and processed in Kodak D76 at 68 degrees.

Most interesting to me now are the views of Amtrak’s eastward mail train behind AEM-7 904. This carried a group of baggage cars at the back including some from VIA Rail.

While I have detailed photographic notes from the day, what I don’t have recorded were my thoughts on the experience at the time. This was one of several similar trips I made to former New Haven electrified territory in the summer of 1986.

Amtrak mail train with a VIA Rail baggage car.
Catenary masts at Westport draw.

Tracking the Light Posts Every Day!

photography

Double-Headed Meatballs at Bridgeport.

Leave a comment


For me the AEM-7s will always be ‘meatballs’. This name is twice-removed metaphorical allusion. The AEM-7 was derived from the Swedish class Rc electric. The allusion to meatballs is a reference to ‘Swedish meatballs’ and thus shortened to just meatballs, with Sweden being implied.

On December 27, 1986, my old pal TSH and I paid a visit to Bridgeport, Connecticut on a tour of former New Haven Railroad properties.

I made this photograph using my father’s Rollieflex Model T with 645 ‘super slide’ insert.

In my mind the composition made perfect use of the rectangular window. I wonder what I would have come up with if I’d exposed the view as a square?

In my notes, I have a photographic log sheet with details from our December 27, 1986. This should include time, film-type and exposure information, as well as the train number/name. Unfortunately my notes are nearly 3,800 miles away!

In the days after exposing this photograph I made a large print, 11×14 or 16×20 in size, which has sadly vanished. Perhaps, someday I’ll make another.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!


photography

Belfast & Moosehead Lake, Unity, Maine, August 29, 1986

Leave a comment

 

 

27 Years Ago Today.

I spent a pleasant and memorable week photographing in Maine in August 1986.This was shortly before I began my studies at the Rochester Institute of Photography, and represented a moment of visual freedom, unburdened by demands of professors, intellectual assumptions, or assignment deadlines.

Belfast & Moosehead Lake
A Belfast & Moosehead Lake General Electric 70ton diesel leads a short freight on poor track near Unity, Maine on August 29, 1986.

On August 29th, Brandon Delaney and I had photographed the Maine Central. At Burnham Junction we stumbled upon the Belfast & Moosehead Lake working the Maine Central interchange.

Although this wasn’t my first experience with B&ML, I was delighted to catch this elusive operation at work. We chased the train back toward Unity. I made this image featuring a classic farm with barn and silos.

I exposed it on 35mm Kodachrome slide film using a Leica M2 with 200mm Leitz Telyt telephoto lens mounted with a bellows using a Visoflex viewfinder arrangement on a compact Linhof Tripod. Although cumbersome, this was my standard arrangement for making long telephoto views. Exposure was calculated manually using a Sekonic Studio Deluxe handheld light meter (photo cell).

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta