Tag Archives: #Canon EOS

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

27 Years Ago-Three Days Before the End

Twenty-seven years ago, my father and I drove to Amsterdam, New York, to begin our epic two-day final photo shoot of Conrail. Twenty-three years earlier, at the end of March 1976, Pop and I had spent two days photographing New York-area railroads on the eve of Conrail.

At Guy Park, west of Amsterdam on the old Water Level Route, we watched the evening parade. Working with a Canon EOS Elan fitted with a 75–300mm Canon zoom lens (lent to me by Canon), I framed this view of an eastward multilevel freight catching the setting sun’s glint below the 177 automatic signals.

Last night, I improved a scan of the original slide using Lightroom, darkening the shadow areas to accentuate the reflections, make the glint more pronounced, and increase the drama of the moment.

I’m impressed by the way the Canon lens and Fujichrome film successfully captured the clear signal’s green aspect on the signal bridge. In my film days, I often struggled to photograph clear signals, which tended to overexpose in low light.

Conrail on May 28, 1999. A version of this image appeared in Trains Magazine back in 1999.

50 years after its creation, Tracking the Light marks the passage of Conrail—long live Big Blue!

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

PCC-San Francisco

Today’s post was a random draw. I reached into my ‘scan selection’ and pulled out this slide.

Exposed in San Francisco on September 6, 2009, this is a morning view of the front of a PCC streetcar assigned to the Muni F-Line.

I made this using one of my EOS-3 cameras loaded with Fujichrome.

Tracking the Light Posts Everyday!

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Buir—September 1, 2013

Eleven years ago, I made this side shot of a passing DB Class 146 electric at Buir, Germany near Köln.

To freeze the action, I exposed it at a 1/1000th of a second using my Canon EOS-7D.

In post processing, I made a variety of adjustments to color balance, contrast and saturation.

Canon EOS-7D with 28-135mm Canon zoom.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography, Tips and Technique

Meadville viewed with a Canon.

Over the years I’ve used a great variety of Camera-film combinations.

In 2009, I largely worked with a pair of Canon EOS-3s loaded with Fujichrome.

On an October trip to photograph along the old Erie Railroad, I had one of my EOS-3s fitted with a Canon 100-400mm. The morning of the 6th, I caught Western New York & Pennsylvania’s HNME (Hornell, New York to Meadville, PA) arriving a Meadville.

A dozen years earlier I’d photographed the same Montreal Locomotive Works diesel working the Cartier Railway in Quebec using Nikon cameras loaded with Kodachrome.

I wonder how I might capture this scene today with my current camera combinations?

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography, Tips and Technique

Telephoto Ektachrome at East Northfield

In 1990, I’d bought a second-hand F4 Nikkor ‘prime’ 200mm telephoto. For several years I made great use of this lens to photograph trains across the West.

Through the 1990s, my photography was telephoto heavy.

These days, I’ve shifted my focal length wide.

Most of my digital photos are made with focal lengths between 16-70mm (super wide to short telephoto).

But, when I tend toward the longer telephoto range, I still reach for my film cameras.

Partially because I have several excellent long telephotos for my Canons, but also because when I think ‘long’, I think film.

So when Kris Sabbatino and I visited the Junction at ‘East Northfield,’ Massachusetts on March 8th (2021), I made this long view on Ektachrome using my old Canon EOS-3 with f2.8 200mm lens. This winning camera-lens combo has served me well for nearly 15 years.

Perhaps, it helps that I’m photographing a classic train with 1960s-1970s vintage EMD diesels bracketed by searchlight signals.

New England Central southward 611 approaches the junction at East Northfield, Massachusetts on March 8, 2021. Ektachrome 100 slide film.

Tracking the Lights Goes Retro!