Tag Archives: #panned photo

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Veteran’s Pan

It was a dull June evening at Jefferson Drive in Greenfield, Lancaster, Pa., where I’ve made countless photographs over the last three years.

On this occasion, I planned to pan the approaching westward Amtrak Keystone.

Leading the train was one of the freshly painted former Metroliner cab control cars, while Amtrak ACS-64 No. 642, wearing its Veterans paint scheme, brought up the rear.

Rather than use an extremely slow shutter speed, I opted for a comparatively short exposure that still allowed for a pleasing degree of motion blur.

Exposed using a Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom set to 60mm; 400 ISO, f4.0, 1/640th of a second. NEF RAW file converted to DNG format using DxO PureRaw with Prime3 to minimize the effects of lens defects. Cosmetic adjustments using Lightroom.
Exposed using a Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom set to 60mm; 400 ISO, f4.0, 1/320th of a second. NEF RAW file converted to DNG format using DxO PureRaw with Prime3 to minimize the effects of lens defects. Cosmetic adjustments using Lightroom.

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Pan of a Clean Siemens ACS-64

The grime of mud season has been washed away and the crisp Spring evening sun makes for some nice light.

I arrived at Jefferson Drive about five minutes before Amtrak Keystone 658 was due to pass. (It takes about three minutes to reach this location after departing the Amtrak station in Lancaster, Pa.)

A month ago, I was framing up photos to make the most of evening glint. This time of year, by the time 658 passes the sun is still high in the western sky.

Rather than make a hard glint photo, I opted for a broadside view to make the most of the bright specular light. I set my Nikon Z6-III with a comparatively slow shutter speed (1/250th) in order to make a panned photo making use of speed blur to help separate the Amtrak electric locomotive from the foreground and background.

Here are three photos exposed in rapid succession as the train raced east.

Expose using a Nikon Z6-III with 24-70mm Nikkor zoom set to 70mm, f4.5 1/250th of a second, ISO 100.

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600-Broadside at Atglen

Number 600 is the first of Amtrak’s Siemens Mobility-built ACS-64 electrics. This was named to honor Amtrak president David L. Gunn.

I made this high-speed broadside pan of the class leader as it worked the back of a Keystone train at Atglen, Pa..

I’d set my Nikon Z7-II camera in aperture priority mode and designated the aperture setting at f3.5. This allowed the camera to select the correspodining shutter speed based on the camera’s preselected pattern metering. When I release the shutter, the shutter speed was at 1/800 of a second. (ISO was set to 200)

Owing to the speed of the train, these setting allowed for a slight blurring of the background and foreground, while my panning motion kept the locomotive crisp.

Working with the NEF RAW file, I adjusted the highlight and shadow areas in post processing. I’ve posted two versions below, one is slight brighter with lighter highlights than the other, reflecting nominal changes in post processing settings.

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Botched 1996 Olympic Pan

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On September 10, 1996, I was driving east from Denver to Council Bluffs. Near Kearney, Nebraska, I was following the Union Pacific main line on a secondary road, where I made this panned photo of a westward UP freight train led by SD40-2 1996 specially painted for the 1996 Olympic games.

Working with my Nikon F2 fitted with a 200mm lens and loaded with Kodachrome 200, I panned the unusually painted locomotive to capture the sense of motion.

I’ve always found this photograph unfortunate because: 1) the doors were open on the side of the engine thus spoiling my view of the special paint livery. 2) the distant hill makes for a visually disruptive intersection near the front of the engine just over the top of the short hood.

In retrospect, I’m happy to have the photo, I just wish my execution had been better.

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