On our nocturnal tour of Irish Rail’s Cobh Branch with our friend Will, Kris and I paused at the station at Little Island, where we photographed the 2100 (9pm) Cork to Cobh train making its scheduled station stop.
Since my last vist to this suburban railway station, Irish Rail has erected a huge modern footbridge over the tracks. This was not yet open to the public, so we made our photographs from the old iron footbridge.
I had my Nikon Z7-II mounted on a mini-Gitzo tripod to allow for a slower shutter speed with relatively low ISO.
In the gloom of a cold winter night, we followed the old Reading Company tracks to the station at Manheim, Pa..
This preserved building is now maintained by the Manheim Historical Society. A few restored freight cars are displayed outside along with a Pennsylvania Railroad caboose, plus railroad artifacts such as historic baggage carts.
The tracks are operated by Norfolk Southern.
I exposed these photos with my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens mounted on a tripod. In post processing I adjusted the NEF RAW files to adjust color temperature, lighten shadows, control highlights and reduce contrast.
During our visit to Lititz, Pa., I made these photos along the old Reading Company tracks that bisect the town.
The caboose on display was once operated by Central Railroad of New Jersey and has been convincingly dressed to resemble similar cars that had been operated by the Reading.
Nearby is the replica passenger station, a structure that during daylight hours serves as a welcome center.
Although the end of track is about a block away, Norfolk Southern still serves this route. We caught a glimpse of a railroad HyRail truck and a rail-defect detection vehicle on the night of our most recent trip. However, we were unable to make a photo of these vehicles at work.
On our evening drive, we called into the former Pennsylvania Railroad station at Christiana, Pa.
With my Nikon Z7-II firmly mounted on my old Bogen tripod, and working with available light I made these photos using time exposures. Details below:
Nikkor 24-70mm lens at 70mm, 1 second exposure at f4.0, ISO 200.Nikkor 24-70mm lens at 28mm, 3 second exposure at f4.0, ISO 200.Nikkor 24-70mm lens at 29mm, 6 second exposure at f4.0, ISO 200.
I mounted my Nikon Z7-II firmly on my old Bogen tripod to allow for slow ISO and long exposures to make these night photos of the holiday lights at the Strasburg Rail Road.
I played with the color temperature presets to find the best combination for capturing the hues of the colored lights. The setting shown in each caption is that calculated by Adobe Lightroom using the Kelvin scale.
Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm set to 41mm, color temperature setting = 3,450 degrees Kelvin; exposure f4, 10 seconds, ISO 200.Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm set to 41mm, color temperature setting = 5,300 degrees Kelvin; exposure f4, 8 seconds, ISO 200.Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm set to 41mm, color temperature setting = 6,000 degrees Kelvin; exposure f4, 10 seconds, ISO 200.
