Low morning sun diffused with light fog (mist) from the Connecticut River made for nearly ideal lighting to capture this station’s classic architecture.
Tracking the Light is on autopilot while Brian is traveling.
Forty years ago in Mrs. LaFond’s Fifth Grade class (Main Street School room 22) we were tasked to research a National Park. I think the big name parks were more popular, the likes of Yellowstone and whatnot.
I asked if I could research and write about the Joshua Tree National Monument. At the time this wasn’t a full National Park, but Mrs. LaFond agreed, and so I wrote to the Park Service and they sent me some literature about the odd ‘trees’ and the National Monument.
So why was a ten year old living in Monson, Massachusetts interested in Joshua Trees?
At that time, I’d taken a interest in the Santa Fe Railway, stemming in part from some Lionel F3s that my dad had bought us a few years earlier. This manifested into a desire to make an HO scale model of the desert. I’d read about Barstow, California, and the nearest relevant Park to this Santa Fe hub was the Joshua Tree National Monument.
Fast forward to the early 1990s. My friends and I made regular trips to the southern California desert to photograph trains, and finally had the opportunity to see a real live Joshua Tree.
Last weekend, I was exploring the Mojave Desert with fellow photographer David Hegarty, with an eye on photographing Union Pacific and BNSF trains. Again I had the opportunity to place a Joshua Tree in some photographs.
Here are several views of a heavy BNSF ‘earthworm’ grain train crawling upgrade across the desert floor. (The nickname stems from the prominently brown color of the grain cars, their curved body shape and the crawling effect of the long slow moving consist across the landscape). I’ve juxtaposed the freight with a scruffy Joshua Tree. Knowing what you do now, which do you think is the main focus of my photographs?
Here’s an irony: after all these years I’ve never been to the Joshua Tree National Park [https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm ] (upgraded in 1994). I have visited Barstow on several occasions. This features a massive yard and a fascinating old Harvey House and railway station, but is a shocking bland town; ugly, sprawling and commercial.
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Here’s an exposure quandary. A bright white Metrolink F59PHI in blazing California afternoon sun against a varied background of trees and mountains..
Without careful metering and a bit prior experience It would be easy enough to underexpose a photo like this one. (Producing a result that is too dark)
Why? Because the camera meter doesn’t know the locomotive is white, and if relying on many auto exposure settings, metering tends to over compensate as the white engine reached the center of the frame.
On the flipside, the row of trees at the left could fool also the meter into compensating for the relative darkness and thus producing an image that is too light overall with the front of the engine grossly over exposed.
What’s the solution?
Before the train comes into view, make a series of test meter readings while aiming a sunlit neutral portion of the scene such as the ballast. Then observe the relative difference in exposure between lighter and darker areas, make a test photo or two, and if your camera has a histogram check to ensure that the bulk of the exposure is in the center of the graph. Then set the camera manually based on this information.
In my situation, I made a slight adjustment as the locomotive came into view to compensate for the bright white nose section. This meant I needed to stop down (see the aperture to let less light in) by about 1/3 of a stop.
In both photos, other than scaling for internet presentation, I did not alter the files in regards to exposure, contrast, color or sharpness. These images represent reduced versions of the in camera JPGs (althouth I simultaneously exposed RAW files as well.)
I made this view on July 31, 2011.
If you are viewing today’s post on Facebook or other 3rd party sites you my need to click on Tracking the Light to see the full image.
On my theme of ‘getting the angle right’; or rather how slight adjustments in elevation can alter perspective, compare these two recent views of Amtrak 768 Pacific Surfliner at Fullerton, California.
Both were made with my FujiFilm XT1 digital camera and a telephoto zoom lens.
The top view was made from my standing height and aims to include the footbridge.
With the bottom view, I’ve taken a more extreme telephoto focal length while placed the camera very near to platform level. Composition was aided through use of the fold-out rear display. This allows me to hold the camera near to the ground while being able to look down to see the image. (A handy feature of the XT1).
The low angle telephoto is a good means for making a more dramatic view.
For more about Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner see: amtrak.com/pacific-surfliner-train
Dublin’s LUAS (not an acronym) is the name for the city’s modern light rail system.
By contrast, the Los Angeles Union Station is now known by its initials LAUS.
Historically, it was called the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, and called LAUPT.
I featured this great terminal in my recent book: Railway Depots, Stations and Terminals, published in 2015 by Voyageur Press.
The other day I revisited the station and made my first digital photographs of the buildings and trains there. (A station is more than just a building or buildings).
Here’s an excerpt of my text:
Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT) was completed in May 1939. It is a rare example of an Art Deco era railway station and one of the few stations that opened during the streamlined era. It’s modern interpretation of the Spanish Mission style design is largely attributed to the LA-based architectural team of John and Donald Parkinson.
Tracking the Light is Daily.Not long ago the old IRT Flushing line was extended west and a new terminal station called 34th Street-Hudson Yards was opened. This is located near the Javits Center and just a few blocks west of Penn-Station.
My digital guru Eric Rosenthal recommended this to me as a photo subject. The station is unusually deep and features very long escalators.
I exposed these images with my Lumix LX7. The underground views were made at ISO200. One of the advantages of the LX7 is that it has a very fast lens. In other words the lens has the ability to let in lots of light.
The advantage of this feature is that I can use a relatively slow ISO setting in the subway and still get excellent results hand held.
Here’s recent view with the Lumix. All that blue sky confused my exposure!
Lots of BNSF AC4400s at Los Angeles Union Station working the LA-end of Metrolink trains.
Tracking the Light is on autopilot while Brian is traveling.
The old IRT Flushing line is the first train-ride that I recall.
My dad brought me on this run before I was taking photos.
I made these images last week using my Lumix LX7.
New York City’s Number 7 Flushing Line’s curving undulating elevated structure offers a multitude of angles.
In the evening rush-hour, Flushing trains run at very short intervals, with outbound expresses using the middle track.
For my money, the number 7 remains one of the coolest transit lines in the City. (And not just because of the photography! The AC actually works on some of the cars.)
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CSX daylight operations through Palmer, Massachusetts can be a bit sparse these days.
This morning, I was on my way back from some errands and I noted that the local freight (B740) was holding on the controlled siding at CP83 and a New England Central local was stopped south of the Palmer diamond. So I pulled over and parked.
The points at CP83 were made for the main line and the westward signals were all showing red. Armed with this information I concluded that an eastward freight must be close at hand.
I walked up to the South Main Street bridge and gave it a few minutes. Before long an eastward intermodal train came into view with a relatively new General Electric ‘Tier 4’ six-motor in the lead.
My guess is that this train is CSX symbol freight Q022 that runs to Worcester, Massachusetts (but if anyone has better information, I’m open to amending my guess).
Sunny morning. New York City. Haven’t been to Staten Island in a very long time.
Ferry’s free!
So away I went.
Photos exposed using my Lumix LX7.
(PS. Stay tuned for more New York photos.)
Tracking the Light posts Daily.
Last week I had a few minutes between trains, during which time I exposed these views of the Chicago Transit Authority’s famous ‘L’ at the Chicago Loop.
Although it is common misconception that the ‘loop’ is so named for the circular arrangement of CTA’s elevated railway downtown, the name pre-dates the ‘L’ and actually stems from Chicago’s cable car days. (Chicago, rather than San Francisco, once held title to the world’s most extensive cable operated streetcar network.)
Photos exposed using my FujiFilm X-T1.
A week ago, I traveled with John Gruber and Scott Lothes for a day’s photography on the Wisconsin & Southern,
A couple of days previously, John and I had made some photographs exploring the line to Reedsburg (see previous posts). So armed with that experience plus good information on operations, we set out with Scott for another run.
Among the three of us we have a bit of photographic experience and a lot of railway knowledge, so we were in good position to make the most of the day. I always like learning from fellow photographers as everyone has their own way of seeing.
I have to admit that the old Chicago & North Western line between Madison and Reedsburg isn’t my strongest field of interest. When I lived in Wisconsin this line (then still operated by C&NW) was largely nocturnal. However in more recent times, John and I have made daylight photos.
Until a few months ago the route still featured some vintage wig-wag grade crossing signals, and these had been the focus of my earlier efforts on the line. Since these are gone, we were able to take a more diverse approach.
The Reedsburg line is now but a branch on the sprawling Wisconsin & Southern freight gathering network, but historically the line was a key Chicago & North Western mainline between Chicago, Madison and the Twin Cities. For me this legacy makes the line more interesting.
We picked up the train at Wisconsin & Southern’s Madison Yard, and over the next few hours intercepted it more than a dozen times.
Sunny weather plus a single clean SD40-2 running short-hood first put us in a good position to make satisfactory images. On the previous run John and I needed to make do with the engine running long-hood first, which is a more challenging subject to photograph.
Here are a few digital photos from our second chase. Any favorites?
The Illinois Railway Museum has one of the best collections of North American railway equipment. Hundreds of pieces of equipment spanning more than a century are on display.
It’s great to be able to inspect a traditional 4-4-0, and a Forney Tank engine. I’m fond of classics such as the Santa Fe 2900-class 4-8-4, Burlington’s 4-6-4 Hudson and its streamlined Budd-built Nebraska Zephyr, and of course the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 in Brunswick green.
The old diesels are neat, and there’s great array of old streetcars.
But then, what’s this? A Wisconsin Central SD45? Wow, nice to see that one of those was saved, but it just doesn’t seem that long ago and I was out catching these on the mainline.
And wait, what about this Metra Bi-Level electric? Weird to see THAT in a museum.
Two Chicago & North Western DASH9s!
Now I just feel old.
Views exposed with my FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera with Zeiss 12mm Tuoit.
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During the last week (July 2016), John Gruber and I were rewarded by our efforts at photographing Wisconsin & Southern freights on the move. John’s been documenting this route for decades.
On this day we’d picked up the Reedsburg Job near Merrimac and followed it west.
At this location near Baraboo, I asked John to stop the car near the top of a hill, rather than drive closer to the tracks.
So, is this how motorists perceive the Wisconsin & Southern?
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I can’t say its a first; but it is the first time in awhile that I’ve been on Amtrak 448 (Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited) when it departed Albany-Rensselaer station precisely on schedule—3:05pm.
Things have certainly improved. Hooray for Amtrak!
Brian is on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited
I made these views using my Lumix LX7 this morning east of Cleveland, Ohio on the old New York Central Water Level Route from Amtrak 48, the Lake Shore Limited.
I up-loaded them to my laptop, processed in Lightroom (to add my name and scale the file) and transmitted them to Tracking the Light a few minutes ago while riding on the train over the Boston & Albany.
Tracking the Light is Posting from the Train!
I made these views with my FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera of the former Chicago & North Western Chicago-Madison-Twin Cities mainline at Evansville, Wisconsin.
John Gruber was giving me a tour of the line. He explained that in its heyday this route had been a double track mainline with a top speed of 75 mph.
Today it is a truncated vestige of that earlier era. The tracks are now operated by Union Pacific to serve local freight customers. No fast Pacifics with varnish in tow any more.
To ensure new material daily, Tracking the Light is coasting on autopilot while Brian is traveling.
Earlier this week John Gruber and I visited Kenosha, Wisconsin to ride and photograph the vintage PCC streetcars that serve the town.
The cars are beautifully maintained; the line is short but interesting. Cars operated about every 15 minutes during the day. The fare is just $1.00—a true bargain.
On the downside, it is a bit difficult to figure out how and where to board the cars. A little bit of targeted advertising would go a long way.
During our short visit the weather was fantastic.
For more information on Kenosha’s cars see: http://www.kenoshastreetcarsociety.org
To order the book on American streetcars that John and I authored see: American Streetcars.
Brian Solomon’s Tracking the Light posts something different daily!
The other day, John Gruber met me at the Metra station in Lake Forest, Illinois and we had lunch with Art Miller and David Mattoon.
Art recalled that I was among the very first speakers at the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s conference held at Lake Forest College every year.
That was back in 2003!
On my 1984 visit to Chicago I’d made photos and traveled to/from the old North Western Station.
Wow, have things changed.
Yes, I’ve made some visits between then and now, but it’s been a long time.
The old station was torn down not long after my first visit and replaced with an epic glass box. Today, this is known as the Ogilvie Transportation Center.
In the mid-1990s, about the time that Chicago & North Western was folded into Union Pacific, the station’s Bush train sheds were demolished and replaced with more modern platform coverings. I made a few photos during that transition.
Still, it seems a bit strange for me to see the former North Western Station in this modern format. My impressions from 32 years ago remain only in my memory and few photos that I made with my Leicas.
Tracking the Light post new photos every day!
On arrival at Chicago Union Station, I exposed these views with my Lumix LX7.
I boarded Amtrak’s Cardinal, train 51, at Trenton.
A little more than 28 hours later, having traveled through 10 states plus the District of Columbia, I arrived in Chicago, where I had 45 minutes to walk to my next train.
I enjoyed the seemingly endless panorama, but was happy to get some fresh air upon arrival.
Here are some views from my journey exposed with my Lumix LX7.
The other morning I boarded Amtrak’s Cardinal for Chicago at Trenton, New Jersey.
While waiting for my train to arrive I made a few photos with my Lumix (and some others on film).
Here’s the Lumix views. Stay tuned for some views from the train; 28 hours via West Virginia.
This afternoon on the way to catch Amtrak 57, the southward Vermonter, my dad and I stopped in for a visit to the Connecticut Trolley Museum at East Windsor for old time sake.
Three cars were on the line today. We went for a spin on a vintage 1902 Brill-built open car.
These photos were exposed using my Lumix LX7, downloaded to my laptop on board Amtrak 57, manipulated in Lightroom, and then uploaded to Tracking the Light courtesy of Amtrak’s WiFi. From my camera to the world: a demonstration of the miracles of modern technology.
(A contrast with my black & white processes).
Tracking the Light posts at least once per day!
I exposed this view of Irish Rail 071 class diesel number 079 at Sligo using my Rolleiflex Model T loaded with Fuji Neopan 400.
I processed the film at the Gallery of Photography at Meetinghouse Square in Dublin using Agfa Rodinal Special concentrated liquid developer.
Final processing was accomplished digitally using Lightroom.
The benefits of familiarity; knowing your locations.
Take the Bellows Falls Tunnel on the Connecticut River line. Back in 1988, I’d photographed a southward Boston & Maine (Guilford) freight in the afternoon and noted that late in the day, when the south portal was in shadow, a shaft of light illuminates the train on the north side of the tunnel.
The location and effect were filed away for future reference.
A couple of week ago, on June 18, 2016, Pat Yough and I were following Amtrak’s Exhibition Train on its way south from Claremont, New Hampshire. At Bellows Falls, Vermont the train paused to refuel, and this resulted in the leading locomotive, Amtrak F40PH 406, pulling past the grade crossing near the station.
I noticed it had gone just far enough to bask in the window of sun near the north portal of the tunnel.
This opened up opportunity for photography.
Below are a examples angles exposed from the south portal, a location reached by a narrow street from the center of town. I like the relative abstraction of tracks and engine appearing to float in a sea of darkness.
Back in the day, summer always meant that my father would bring my brother and me to one of the New England Trolley museums. Back then we’d ride back and forth and Pop would read the Sunday newspaper.
I’d make photos with my Leica.
This year for Father’s Day, I brought Pop to Connecticut’s Shore Line Trolley Museum located near East Haven, Connecticut. We used to know this as the Branford Trolley Museum (it is operated by the Branford Electric Railway Association).
Pat Yough, visiting from Pennsylvania, joined us and we all made photos. Turns out that fathers are admitted free of charge on Father’s Day. So that was a bonus.
Pop used his vintage Rolleiflex, which prompted a comment from the motorman,
“You’re still using film?”
Pop responded, “Sure, and you’re still running a trolley. Today is my ‘retro day’”.
They even had an old IRT Subway car on the move. (Pop said, “these aren’t ‘old’, I remember when they were new!”).
It’s Amtrak’s Vermonter in Vermont (although those hills in the distance are across the Connecticut in New Hampshire.)
Vermont’s relatively clear air and elevation compensate for the harsh visual effects associated with summer high light (when the sun is nearly directly overhead).
On June 18, 2016, Pat Yough and I were exploring locations on the Connecticut River line in preparation for photographing the Amtrak Exhibit train that was on display in Claremont (see: Amtrak Display Train-Claremont Junction, New Hampshire; June 18, 2016. [http://wp.me/p2BVuC-46w]), and was expected to make a run south toward Springfield, Massachusetts later that day.
Stay tuned for some of those views!
On a previous visit to Madison, Connecticut, I noted that a long lens would work well in the curve east of the Shore Line East station.
In earlier posts, I presented examples of Amtrak’s Acela against a sunset sky; and a wide-angle view of it blitzing the station. See; Acela Sunset: Miracles of Digital by working with a RAW File and Amtrak Acela at Speed; when one thousandth of a second isn’t fast enough.
The other day Pat Yough showed me some examples he made with his digital Nikon of trains glinting in the curve at Madison. Since to emulate this effort, I’d require a longer focal length lens than I have for my FujiFilm X-T1, I opted to fire up my Canon 7D with a 200mm lens, and joined Pat for another evening’s photography on the Shore Line route.
Often I find that by making repeated trips through the same territory will allow me to make the most of my photography. I can learn where the light and shadow fall, how the railroad operates, and how to work with the various elements at hand to make the most effective images. If I miss something or make a mistake on one trip; I learn from it and armed with this knowledge try again.
In this situation, I needed a longer lens to make the image work. However since the sun is only sets on the north side of the tracks here for a few weeks, I needed to act while the light was right.
The MBTA platforms at Mansfield, Massachusetts feature modern information displays.
As with many modern signs used by passenger railways these use light emitting diodes (LEDs).
You may have noticed that although LED displays seem clear to the eye, in many instances they do not photograph well and appear in your pictures as random spots rather than full letters and words.
This occurs because many LED systems pulse on and off at a rapid rate. You eye cannot detect this pulsing and so you see a steady light, but when a photograph is made at higher shutter speeds, the exposure may capture an LED during the ‘off’ portion of the pulse sequence.
Since the LEDs may not be synchronized with each other, the result sometimes appears as a random collection of spots (each is an individual LED) or if they are synced the pulse may be coupled with a scanning effect that results wide gaps of LEDs in the ‘off’ portion of the sequence. (Such is the case at Mansfield).
This unfortunate effect is especially pronounced when the message is scrolling laterally.
One effective way to expose images of LED displays is to set your camera to a slower shutter speed. This will allow the shutter to stay open for a full pulse cycle.
I’ve found that shutter settings of 1/60th of a second or less will usually work effectively. (It helps to test this, as display pulse rates vary).
Below is a sequence of images that I made at various shutter speeds to demonstrate the effectiveness of slower shutter speeds in regards to the LED display. In each situation I’ve used an equivalent shutter speed/aperture combinations to allow for uniform exposure between images.
In this instance the MBTA train was stationary as it discharged passengers.
Obviously, using slow shutter speeds with rapidly moving trains will present other problems. No solution is perfect.
[Click the link to Brian Solomon’s Tracking the Light for the full effect!]
The long days of June offer distinct lighting. In the morning the sun rises earlier and further north than the other times of the year, and this makes for photographic opportunity if you know where to look.
These days much of the Boston & Albany route east of Palmer is a tree tunnel, but West Warren has a nice vista with characteristic 19th century New England mill buildings complete with a mill-dam on the Quaboag River.
As long as I’ve been making photos on the old Boston & Albany mainline, there’s been a westward intermodal train that passes through the Quaboag Valley early in the morning.
In Conrail times it was symbol TV9 (TV=Trailvan; Boston to Chicago). With the transition to CSX operations this became Q119. Now with revised intermodal terminals and changes to train symbols, I think this morning train carries the Q019 symbol (which runs from Worcester, Massachusetts since the closure of Boston’s Beacon Park yard a few years ago).
In the 1990s, I’d identified West Warren as a place to catch this train on the long days; where the sun rises on the north side of the tracks for about 10-20 minutes. This only occurs over a span of about three weeks, and provides the backlit glint effect that offers a distinct view at this classic location.
The other day, all the pieces came together. The weather was perfect; I was in place at my location with cameras at the ready at the moment the sun illuminated the north-side of the tracks; and CSX’s westward intermodal train passed at precisely the right moment.
On June 15, 2016, I posted two views of Pan Am Railway’s leased Slug Set working in East Deerfield hump service and paused on the Connecticut River Bridge east of the yard.
I asked readers to voice an opinion on their preferred image, while explaining that one was exposed on black & white film the traditional way and the other exposed digitally as a monochrome image.
I’ve weighed the comments, email and Facebook messages and found that the response was more or less evenly split, with a slight leaning to the top image (film). One respondent voiced a dislike of both images (see comments).
Below are the two vertical images with details of how they were made.
Both images were scaled for internet presentation using Lightroom.
Madison, Connecticut: until June 2016, I’d never made a photo there in my life, and as it turns out I was there twice inside of a week.
This isn’t really a coincidence; having scoped the location on June 7th, I returned a few days later to make the most of light on the long days.
I exposed these views from the Shore Line East station of Amtrak’s westward (southward) Acela train 2173 flying along the former New Haven Railroad Shoreline route.
For this angle, I employed my FujiFilm X-T1 fitted with a Zeiss 12mm Tuoit and a graduated neutral density filter (to retain sky detail). My shutter speed was 1/1000th of a second.
I had the motor drive set on ‘CH’ (continuous high), a setting I descriptively call ‘turbo flutter.’ This automatically exposes a burst of images in rapid succession.
Normally there’s only nominal differences between the frames, but in this situation the train’s rapid motion combined with my super-wide angle perspective resulted in considerable changes in the relative placement of the head-end.
Also, as it turns out, 1/1000th isn’t fast enough to stop the action. Maybe next time I’ll try 1/2000th.
Yesterday, June 18, 2016, Amtrak’s Display Train made a special visit to Claremont Junction, New Hampshire. See: Amtrak Press Release
Fine weather prevailed and I exposed these views with my Lumix LX-7. I also made a few photos on Fuji Acros 100 black & white using my old Leica 3A, but those are still latent (in camera).
Tracking the Light posts every day!
It was my second visit to Eagle Bridge, New York inside a week.
On this visit, We’d driven here on spec looking for Pan Am’s EDRJ (East Deerfield to Rotterdam Junction). No luck with that this time, but on arrival I’d noted that there were loaded grain cars on the interchange for the Battenkill Railroad.
So what?
Well, the Battenkill is known to run on weekdays; this was a Friday, its interchange had been delivered, but as of 1:30pm the Battenkill hadn’t come down to collect it yet.
The Battenkill’s primary attraction is its continued operation of vintage Alco RS-3 diesels. While the RS-3 was among the most common types built in the 1950s, only a scant few survive in traffic today outside of museums. (Perhaps a reader can supply a list?).
Battenkill, while quaint in its operation, is not a museum, but rather a functioning freight-hauling short line railroad. see: Unexpected Surprise: Stumbling on to one of New York’s Rarest Railway Operations.
Photographer Paul Goewey, who was traveling with me, looked up the Battenkill’s radio information on his smart phone.
“We’ll go up the line and see if we can find the BK.”
So we drove ten yards and over the grade crossing near the old station and . . .
“There he is!”
That was easy, now wasn’t it?
Battenkill runs as required but Tracking the Light Runs Daily.
