Monday Kris and I spent several hours photographing Strasburg Rail Road 2-10-0 No. 90 under blue skies with brilliant sun.
I made this selection of photos using my Nikon Z6 and Z7-II mirrorless digital cameras.
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January 15, 2023: Kris and I spent the day driving to Strasburg, Pennsylvania. We arrived just in time to make photos of 2-10-0 No. 90 arriving with the last scheduled train of the day.
With the setting sun just above the horizon, we had some beautiful winter light to photograph this historic machine in action. Cold weather can offer the best conditions to photograph steam locomotive because of the superior light and dramatic effects of condenstation.
I made these images using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Nikkor zoom lens.
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On Sunday, July 31, 2022, I used my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom to focus on the details of Conway Scenic Railroad’s 7470 and its crew,
Locomotive engineer Wayne Duffett was at the throttle of the 101-year old Canadian-built 0-6-0.
I worked with the Nikon NEF RAW files in Lightroom to get the maximum amount of detail in shadows and highlights while maintaining good contrast overall.
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For Father’s Day, Sunday June 19, 2022, Conway Scenic Railroad brought steam locomotive 7470 out of the roundhouse under steam for display and training.
Presently, Conway Scenic is training a new generation of firemen to help work on the locomotive.
More than 600 people came down last sunday to see the locomotive. This engine should be on display again today, Saturday June 25, 2022.
I made these photos with my Nikon Z6 digital camera for display on the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages and for distribution to the media.
The railroad hopes to operate this 101-year old 0-6-0 type locomotive this summer in exursion service.
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Strasburg Rail Road’s former Canadian National Railway 2-6-0 made for a stunning silhouette against a late winter sky.
Gauging the exposure for these contrasty scenes requires a bit of interpretation.
Since the locomotive is black, I allow it to fall into the shadows, and instead concentrate on retaining detail in the highlight areas of the sky.
This is most effectively accomplished by making test images and studying the histogram that shows pixel distribution across the exposure range. With this tool I aim to avoid excessive over exposure in the highlight areas.
Then in post processing, I work with Lightroom to re-balanace the image by lightening shadow areas and controlling highlight detail.
Below are three examples providing variation on a theme.
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Late season snow blanketed the ground and was still falling, when Kris & I caught former Canadian National Railways 2-6-0 number 89 leading the return run from Paradise.
Paradise, Pennsylvania, that is. We were set up near near Black Horse Road in Strasburg.
I made this photo on Saturday (March 12, 2022); but by Monday the grass was green and the birds were chirping.
Exposed digitally using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera with f2.8 70-200mm Z-series Zoom lens, set at f10, 1/1250th of a second, ISO 200. RAW image adjusted for contrast and exposure using Adobe Lightroom.
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Fresh snow and fierce wind made for challenging conditions on the Strasburg Rail Road at Esbenshade Road.
The subtle texture and stark environment of the windswept cornfields with the a steam locomotive makes for a timeless scene.
I exposed these views on Saturday March 12, 2022 using my Nikon Z6 with Z-series 70-200mm lens.
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This timeless scene was made possible by the Trains Magazine steam photo charter on November 14, 2021.
I was among the dozens of photographers taking advantage of the time machine.
This was among the dozens of images I made that day using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera. It was snowing lightly, which added atmosphere and depth.
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June 6, 2015: I was traveling with Pat Yough to photograph Norfolk & Western streamlined 4-8-4 #611.
I made these photos of the locomotive and its excursions train passing Markham, Virgina.
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As a follow up to yesterday’s post, I’ve included a second selection of photos exposed with my FujiFilm XT1 of last Saturday’s Winter Steam event at Conway Scenic Railroad. (See: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2021/01/04/winter-steam-round-1/)
Yesterday, I presented images scaled directly from the Camera produced JPG files.
To make the most of the images presented in today’s post, I imported my Fuji RAW files into Iridient X-Transformer for conversion into the DNG format, and then imported the DNG conversions into Adobe Lightroom for adjustment.
As previously described on Tracking the Light Iridient X-Transformer does a superior job of interpreting the data captured in RAW by the Fuji X-series camera than simply importing the RAWs directly into Lightroom.
Using the Lightroom sliders I made nominal adjustments to contrast, color temperature, and exposure in order improve the interpretation of the photographs.
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The book High Green and the Bark Peelers describes this then-new bridge (built c1949) which had replaced a traditional wooden covered bridge.
The other day, I walked along the banks of the Saco River in Conway, NH to make this view of Conway Scenic Railroad’s 7470 on its northward run in freshly fallen snow.
The original image was exposed as NEF (Raw file) with my Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera. I imported the file into Adobe Lightroom to make nominal adjustments to color, exposure and contrast. This allowed me to make the most of the directional winter lighting.
Although a largely monochromatic scenic, this is actually a full color photograph. Perhaps I should return one of these days with a film camera?
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