Tag Archives: #passenger train

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Stainless Steel, Platinum Mist and the Silver Lining to a Puffy Cloud.

Amtrak Keystone 650 was running a wee bit behind the advertised.

I was set up at Leaman Place, east of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

There had been brilliant bright sun light— and there still was all around me—but in the interval between when the train was scheduled to pass my location and when it actually raced by, a puffy cloud had found its way between me and the sun.

There’s an (unmentionable) phrase for this.

Anyway, my going away (trailing) views made use of the softened directional light, which treated the metallic train nicely.

I made these photos with my Z7II and 24-70mm lens set at 40mm; ISO 200, f4 1/1600th sec.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography, Tips and Technique

Irish Rail at Carlow—21 DEC 2003,

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A visit to Irish Rail’s Carlow station on the shortest day of 2003, yielded some classic black & white photos, including these two views. The Cravens were working a scheduled service from Waterford to Dublin.

Working with a recently acquired Rollei Model T (the third such cameras I’d used over a 30 year span), I exposed a single roll of 120-size Fuji Neopan 400. The Rollei made a large square negative, which I really liked.

At the time my choice process for this film was using Agfa Rodinal Special (R09) at a ratio of 1 to 31 parts with water for about 3 mins 45 seconds. In this case I selenium toned the negatives for improved highlight detail.

Final presentation here included scanning using an Epson V750 flatbed scanner and some minor adjustments to contrast and cropping with Lightroom.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

Tips and Technique

Amtrak Veterans Cabbage: Panned at Night.

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The other evening at the modern Amtrak station in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, Trains Magazine’s Brian Schmidt and I set up to photograph Hiawatha Corridor trains during their station stops.

The southward train arrived first, and featured one of the former F40PH diesels, now a cab-control/baggage car in the lead. These are colloquially known as ‘cabbages’, and this one was painted to honor American veterans.

Working with my FujiFilm XT1 and 27mm lens, I set the camera to ISO 6400 and panned the train as it arrived to allow for the effect of motion.

Tracking the Light Posts Every Day.

Tips and Technique

Passenger Trains in Florence [Firenze S. M. Novella]

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In April, I used my Lumix LX7 to expose this view of modern Italian passenger trains, including the Italo (at right)—a privately operated high-speed train—at Firenze S. M. Novella [Florence main station.]

Filtered noon-time light made for a painterly-like setting.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily

photography

Irish Rail Mark4 in Verdant Countryside.

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The most scenic portion of Irish Rail’s run from Dublin to Cork is the final stretch from Mallow to Kent Station Cork.

A few days ago, Ken Fox, Sean Twohig and I made a survey of this area of Co. Cork looking for locations to picture the Mark4 trains, which are among the only regularly scheduled locomotive powered passenger trains remaining on Irish Rail.

I exposed this view between Mourne Abbey and Rathduff. The lush greenery dotted with blossoming gorse makes for a bucolic scene.

Exposed using a FujiFilm X-T1 with 18-135mm lens set at 55mm; 1/500 second, ISO 1000.

 

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