{"id":2613,"date":"2013-05-26T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T11:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=2613"},"modified":"2013-05-26T17:20:37","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T21:20:37","slug":"drowning-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/drowning-the-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Drowning the Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Something a Bit Darker: \u00a0Enigmatic or just playing around?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Palmer in Gloom and Rain, May 24, 2013.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday evening May 24, 2013 wasn\u2019t the driest night in recent days. I was in Palmer, Massachusetts<\/a> to meet some friends for dinner. On the way in, I timed my arrival to intercept CSX<\/a>\u2019s westward Q437 (Worcester, Massachusetts to Selkirk, New York). I\u2019d learned that one of the specially painted \u2018Diversity in Motion\u2019 AC4400CWs was leading.<\/p>\n

The day was in its final moments with just a hint of blue in the sky. The signals at CP 83 (dispatchers control point, measuring 83 miles from South Station, Boston) lit up moments after I arrived. That gave me about six minutes to think up a photo solution. Since the car-park (parking lot) at Steaming Tender was comparatively empty, I opted for a broadside pan. All I had to work with was my Lumix<\/a> LX3.<\/p>\n

\"Pan<\/a>
CSX Q437 rolls through CP83, Palmer, Massachusetts. Lumix LX3 photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I set the LX3 for 200 ISO, switched \u2018off\u2019 the image stabilizer (I\u2019ve found this tends to interfere with long pans), and selected \u2018aperture priority\u2019 with f2.6 and +1\/3 exposure compensation. Then I set the focus manually and waited. There\u2019s a slow order through Palmer, and Q437 passed traveling not faster than 30mph. I made a long pan and the camera selected a shutter speed of 1\/3.2 seconds. A long exposure, but not long enough. I still needed to lighten the image in post processing using the program’s \u2018curve\u2019s’ feature.<\/p>\n

After dinner, it was raining steadily. Rich Reed, Bill Keay & I returned to CP 83 to observe the arrival of a southward New England Central freight. I made a couple of more long pans in the gloom of night. Then, I placed the camera on an old railroad tie to make one final exposure of the train in the rain.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/a>
New England Central freight arrives at Palmer yard. Lumix LX3 ISO 200 set at f2.6 1.3 seconds, panned hand held in the rain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"New<\/a>
I grabbed a second pan shot, as with the previous image, this one was with the Lumix LX3 ISO 200 set at f2.6. Slightly longer exposure: 1.6 seconds, also panned hand held in the rain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rain<\/a>
Rain at Palmer yard. May 24, 2013. New England Central freight . Lumix LX3 ISO 200 set at f2.5 1\/1.6 seconds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Something a bit different anyway and it cost me nothing but a few moments of my time (and suffering some gratuitous dampness.)<\/p>\n

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