{"id":1533,"date":"2013-03-02T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2013-03-02T14:18:15","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T19:18:15","slug":"csx-hopper-train-keyser-west-virginia-october-18-2002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/csx-hopper-train-keyser-west-virginia-october-18-2002\/","title":{"rendered":"CSX Hopper Train, Keyser, West Virginia October 18 2002"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Train<\/a>
CSX westward hopper train approaches \u2018Z\u2019 Tower in Keyser, West Virginia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was the icon-image used to advertise my November 2008 Silver & Steel photographic exhibition. I\u2019d exposed it six years earlier on a three-week autumnal photographic exercise that began in Vermont, and brought me as far west as Omaha. I returned east via Cincinnati, Roanoke and Washington D.C.<\/p>\n

The photograph was among those made on the outward leg of the trip. I\u2019d met some friends for a few days of photography on CSX\u2019s Mountain Subdivision, the old Baltimore & Ohio \u2018West End\u2019\u2014the original B&O mountain crossing. On the morning of October 18th<\/sup>, we found this westward empty hopper train working west through the fog covered Potomac River Valley. Getting ahead of the train, we exposed a sequence of images of it near \u2018Z\u2019 Tower at the west-end of Keyser Yard. The sun had begun to burn off the fog, some of which still clung to the river valley and surrounding hills making for a cosmic setting worthy of the old B&O.<\/p>\n

Working in silhouette can be tricky; low light and fog helps. An image like this works when the main subject is clearly defined from the background. The ditch-lights on the leading locomotive are crucial to maintaining compositional balance both identifying a focal point and indicating action; without the lights the image takes on a completely different character.<\/p>\n

I was working with my Nikon N90s and a Nikkor f2.8 180mm lens and Fujichrome Astia 100 film. Fuji introduced Astia in 1997, and supplied it concurrently with its Provia 100. Astia offered a slightly warmer color balance, and a rich black, remaking it an ideal medium for autumnal situations. Unfortunately, Astia was replaced with Astia 100F in 2003. While nominally sharper, I never found the Astia 100F as pleasing as the original Astia. Asked about this film choice, my friend Brian Jennison, once exclaimed, \u2018Its nastia with Astia!\u2019 Indeed it is!<\/p>\n

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