Tag Archives: #Esbenshade

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

A Scene Seen So Many Times

Often in our drives around Strasburg, I’ve gazed across the field near the Esbenshade farm, as Strasburg Rail Road’s returning excursion was on its last leg to the East Strasburg station—its engine gliding along, firebox a-glow, and a wisp of condensation and smoke trailing from its stack.

A couple of weeks ago, I was 30 seconds ahead of the returning train, and noted there was no traffic behind me. I saw a clean place to pull over, and I thought, ‘now’s my chance!’

My Z7-II was fitted with the ‘big zoom’ (70-200mm), and I lined up my shots just as I’d seen them so my time from the car, carefully aiming to place the locomotive neatly against the background, while timing the turn of the drivers to catch them ‘rods down’.

Soft Spring sunshine helps.

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Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Ektachrome at Esbenshade Road

Last summer, Kris, Seamus-the-dog and I caught Strasburg Rail Road’s evening train returning from Leaman Place from a vantage point along Esbenshade Road.

I exposed this photograph on Kodak Ektachrome 100 color slide film using a Nikon F3 with f2.0 35mm lens. To make the most of the foreground crops, I made an off-center composition with engine 89 at the center left of the image.

Ektachrome allows for traditional color rendition and contrast that I find distinctive from modern digital images.

This film was processed by AgX Imaging of Sault Saint Marie, Michigan (https://www.agximaging.com) and returned to me last week. I scanned the original photograph using my Nikon LS-5000 slide scanner driven by VueScan 9.8.49 software.

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Mastodon Sunset and New Wheels

Tuesday we collected our new car.

Friday evening, Kris and I went for our first proper drive in it with Seamus in the back: just a few miles over to Esbenshade Road in Strasburg, Pa., to roll by the 6pm train.

There were layers of dust and smoke in the western sky that made the sun appear fuzzy and reddish orange with sky a tangerine—mauve-like gray.

I made these photos as the train passed us with 4-8-0 475 working tender-first. I’ve included a few views of our midnight blue Honda CR-V Hybrid. In these photos it had less than 80 miles on it!

Photos exposed using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras. NEF RAW files adjusted in Lightroom.

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