On this day in 2010, I composed this photo of the steam crew for the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Santa Special. They were reading about the pervious weekend’s adventures in the Sunday Independent.
Exposed using a Canon EOS-7D.
Tracking the Light explores railway photography!
Six years ago, I traveled with the RPSI to Killarney, Co. Kerry behind Great Northern 4-4-0 No. 85.
In the evening the train was stabled in the sidings at Killarney station where I made some photos using my old Lumix LX7.
A beautiful sunset made for a cosmic silhouette. Exposure in these situations is always a challenge. In this case, I exposed for the sky, allowing the train to go dark. Since I used the RAW format, the camera captured plenty of data in the shadow areas that was easily recovered in post processing.
Last night, I re-processed the camera’s RW2 (RAW) file using DxO PureRaw to correct for lens defects and demosiac the file among other improvements. This outputs as a DNG file that I imported into Lightroom for cosmetic adjustment.
Below are two scaled versions of the same image. The top is the output directly from the RW2 without PureRaw or Lightroom changes. The bottom is following conversion and cosmetic adjustment.
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On August 25, 2013, I traveled behind 2-6-0 461 on the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s The Marble City that ran from Dublin’s Connolly Station to Kilkenny and back via Athy.
At various stops along the way, I made digital photos using my old Canon EOS7D with a 28-135mm lens.
Although I’ve previously published some of these photos on Tracking the Light, for this post I’ve re-edited my selection and made a variety of up-to-day post processing adjustments using Adobe Lightroom, which I didn’t use back in 2013.
Hard to believe this was ten years ago!
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On August 23, 2003, I made these studies of steam locomotive drivers at the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Whitehead shops in Northern Ireland.
I was working with a vintage Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss 75mm lens and loaded with Kodak 120 size Tri-X.
I processed the film in my old Dublin apartment on Synge Street using the following recipe:
Ilfotec HC mixed to a dilute ratio, stop bath , two fixer baths, long rinse, perm awash, the toned in Selenium 1-9 for 9 minute, second rinse.
The Selenium provides better highlight definition and superior contrast.
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Last month while traveling on Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Cobh Rambler, I exposed two rolls of Kodak Tri-X using a Nikon F3.
This week I processed and scanned the film. Black & white film suited the gloomy dark and very wet weather.
Among my favorite images from the day were photos I made of my friends and railway staff on the trip.
Thanks to everyone at RPSI and Irish Rail who made this trip a rewarding experience and a photographic success!
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Arriving on Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Cobh Rambler, I photographed four trains at Limerick Junction during the train’s brief pause.
The weather was dire, but that’s all part of the challenge.
More photos from the Cobh Rambler soon!
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Here’s the transfer last night from Dublin’s Inchicore Works to Heuston Station for today’s RPSI diesel tour to Cork and Kerry, titled the ‘Cobh Rambler.’
Wednesday, 11 September 2019. I made my way to Ballinasloe, County Galway to photograph the arrival of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s heritage train operating on the Steam Dreams tour.
I made this portrait view using my FujiFilm XT1.
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