Here’s another take on what has become a familiar setting for my railroad action images.

Last week, after photographing at Cola in Columbia, Pa., we followed Norfolk Southern’s eastward 632 unit coal train on its way down the Port Road Branch to the bridges at Safe Harbor.

This location is easily accessible in the evenings and offers considerable man-made ambient light, much of it from lights around the hydroelectric dam and related electrical infrastructure (which supplies high-voltage alternating current to Amtrak).

This evening, low-hanging clouds over the Susquehanna River made for a dramatic sky beyond the bridge, while lights behind me helped illuminate the railroad. I opted to make vertical pans of the eastward train.

To do this successfully, I had to turn off my Nikon Z6-III’s image stabilization. While this may seem counterintuitive, it is necessary to pan without image stabilization because the system will actually prevent a sharp image of the panned subject as it tries to “correct” for the camera motion.

After exposure in RAW, I processed the files using PureRAW 5 (which I’ve described in detail in earlier posts) and afterward made nominal corrections to shadows, highlights, and color balance in order to make the most of the data captured.

I am very satisfied with the way these images turned out. They really capture the majesty of the enormous trestle while portraying the coal train in motion and making the most of the clouds and foreground.

Tracking the Light Examines Night Photography!