Tag Archives: Soviet

Brian’s Field-Finder Cab-View of a Soviet Electric.

June 2, 2016 brian solomon 1 Comment

To see the full image click on Tracking the Light.

In July 2002, I spent a week in Estonia photographing railway operations.

It was organized for me take a cab-ride on an empty oil-train in a recently imported former Union Pacific General Electric C36-7 diesel.

I wrote about this adventure in my recently published book The World’s Most Exotic Railway Journeys produced in the UK by John Beaufoy Publishing Limited. (Available on Amazon).

I was working with three cameras. Previously I’ve published color views exposed with my Contax G2 rangefinder and Nikon N90S single-lens reflex, however until today most of my black & white photos remained unpublished and unseen.

I made my black & white photos using a Rollei Model T twin-lens reflex (120 size film camera). So, rolling along at about 30 mph east of Tallinn, I made this view of a Riga-built Tallinn-area electric suburban train.

Exposed with a Rolleiflex Model T twin-lens reflex fitted with a 75mm Zeiss Tessar. Kodak Tri-X processed in Ilford ID-11 1:1 with water. Scanned at 3200 dpi with a Epson V600 flatbed scanner. Scaled for internet presentation using Lightroom; however there was no post-processing manipulation to density, contrast or sharpness.

Significantly,I made this image by using the Rollei’s field-finder— which is nothing more than a pair of open squares that allow you to frame up a photo while holding the camera at eye-level.

Normally, I’d focus using the camera’s built in magnifying glass on the waist level viewer (which supplies a view through the top lens arrangement that projects onto a Fresnel screen. The down side of this viewing mechanism is that you must look down into the camera and the image is in reverse.

So exposing photos from a moving locomotive cab using the waist-finder is not only impractical, but can lend to sea-sickness.

Another advantage of the field-finder is that you are actually looking at your subject without any distortion caused by a lens. In today’s photography it rare that you actually see your subject at the time the shutter is released. You’d be amazed how this direct viewing can improve composition.

Also, the Rollei’s mechanical shutter release is virtually instantaneous.

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Soviet Flashback

August 18, 2015 brian solomon Leave a comment

Yesterday I posted a few photos of the Helsinki-Moscow sleeper Leo Tolstoi, which reminded me of some photos I made on a visit to Tallinn, Estonia back in 2002.

At the time, second-hand General Electric C30-7As and C36-7s were being delivered from the USA to supplant Soviet Era M62 diesels.

I thought the old Soviet machines were pretty cool.

Exposed on Fujichrome slide film using a Contax G2 rangefinder.

Why do I keep thinking Timken's Four Aces? ERV's Soviet-era M62 1111 poses for a portrait at Tallinn, Estonia in July 2002. — Why do I keep thinking Timken’s Four Aces? EVR’s Soviet-era M62 1111 poses for a portrait at Tallinn, Estonia in July 2002.

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VR train IC 714 at Oulu, Finland ready to depart at 6am 23 July 2015

July 23, 2015 brian solomon Leave a comment

Just a little while ago I exposed this view of a Soviet-built Sr1 electric at Oulu before boarding the train with Markku Pulkkinen for Kontiomäki.

Exposed with a FUjiFilm X-T1 on 23 July 2015.

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DAILY POST: L’viv—Railway Paradise

January 11, 2014 brian solomon 3 Comments

Ukrainian Adventure, 2007.

An eastward Ukrainian Railways passenger train catches the evening glint in L'viv. The Soviet-built passenger cars took their queues from Milwaukee Road's lightweight Hiawatha cars from the 1930s. — An eastward Ukrainian Railways passenger train catches the evening glint in L’viv. The Soviet-built passenger cars took their cues from Milwaukee Road’s lightweight Hiawatha cars from the 1930s. Exposed on Fujichrome slide film with a Contax G2 with 45mm lens.

For me, a casual visit Ukraine in July 2007 was a great opportunity to ride and photograph former Soviet Railways.

Although the weather was scorching, the sun remained out for days and the quality of light was fantastic.

My favorite place was L’viv, a former Hapsburg provincial capital (previously known as Lemberg), and one of the great un-sung European cities. I found the railways here accessible and very easy to photograph. The city itself was completely fascinating: dusty cobble stone streets with trams everywhere. The beer was cheap and the vodka cheaper.

L’viv’s railways were some of the busiest I’ve ever seen. Here heavily built double track electric lines were saturated with a mix of local electric multiple units, very long intercity passenger trains, and an unceasing parade of heavy freights. In addition to electrics, occasionally a matched pair of 2M62 diesels would chortle by.

Still photographs cannot convey the traffic density; no sooner than one train was out of sight, and the next could be heard grinding along.

Among the wonderful things about Ukrainian railways; lots of carload traffic and virtually no graffiti!