Tag Archives: #Philadelphia & Western

photography

Norristown

In October 2001, my brother Sean and I visited Norristown, Pennsylvania to photograph SEPTA’s Route 100, known as the Norristown High Speed Line. Here it crossed the Schuylkill Valley on a long steel viaduct.

It was a bright clear day, and I made these views on Fujichrome using my Contax G2 rangefinder from a vantage point the north bank of the river. On the walk back from the river, I stepped squarely in some deep mud.

Until the early 1990s, SEPTA operated distinctive Brill ‘Bullet Cars’ on this route. My dad still calls SEPTA’s current fleet as ‘the new cars’, even though at this point most are now the better part of 30 years old!

Norristown, Oct 28, 2001.
Norristown, Oct 28, 2001.

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When Color Just Doesn’t Work—Norristown, PA.

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On our SEPTA exploration January 2, 2019, we visited the Norristown Transportation Center, where we changed from the former Reading Company heavy rail line to the old Philadelphia & Western ‘High Speed’ line.

The elevated station for the old P&W route offers a stunning view of the trestle over the Schuykill River.

A grand view, yes, but the light was about as uninspiring as it gets; I was faced with dull, colorless January gloom.

I made a few photos of a Norristown-bound car scuttling across the bridge.

As color photos these are pretty hopeless.

This is a JPG created without adjustment from the Lumix LX7 camera RAW. There isn’t much color in this scene.

Working with the camera RAW, I de-saturated the image then adjusted the contrast to make the most out of the scene.

You might ask, ‘why didn’t I just make a B&W film photo?’

My answer is: ‘I was traveling light, and didn’t bring a film camera’

I think I’ll just need to return on a brighter day.

Tracking the Light Posts Every Day. Even when its dull and colorless.