{"id":628,"date":"2012-12-01T13:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=628"},"modified":"2012-12-01T16:57:42","modified_gmt":"2012-12-01T16:57:42","slug":"palmer-massachusetts-1101pm-november-30-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/palmer-massachusetts-1101pm-november-30-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Palmer, Massachusetts 11:01pm November 30, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s late, it\u2019s dark, and it\u2019s bitterly cold (ok, it\u2019s been colder). I\u2019m tired and I\u2019m in Palmer where I\u2019ve made countless thousands of images. I left my tripod at home. However, I\u2019ve been eying the odd wintry textured sky, and then the CSX home signal at CP83 clears to a high green. There\u2019s a train coming west, and it\u2019s not too far away. As always, I\u2019ve got my Lumix LX-3. I dither for a couple of minutes. No, I should <\/em>make a photo. I\u2019m here, there\u2019s no good excuse not to. So, I walk to the South Main Street overpass. This was rebuilt in the 1990s in a manner ill suited to photography. A high concrete parapet combined with a chain link fence blocks most places I\u2019ve like to work from. Yet, the fence proves my salvation. (I\u2019ve done this before, now what did I do?)<\/p>\n

\"Railroads<\/a>
CSX Q427 rolls through Palmer, Massachusetts, at 11:01 pm on November 30, 2012.
Notice the photographer\u2019s shadow superimposed on the blur of the train (lower center). Single exposure with Panasonic Lumix LX-3 (equipped with Leitz Vario-Summicron lens) zoom set to 5.1mm, ISO 200, exposed in \u2018A\u2019-mode with +2\/3 over-ride, f2.2 at 7 seconds.\u00a0Entirely exposed with existing light; no flash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I wedge the Lumix into the chain-links, using the fence to hold my camera. I set the exposure using Aperture Priority (A on the dial), and as explained previously (see:\u00a0Installment 4: Lumix LX-3\u2014part 2: \u00a0Existing Light Digital Night Shots<\/a>) I use the toggle switch to manually override the exposure, setting it to +2\/3<\/strong>. This will compensate for the evening\u2019s relative darkness and lighten up the gloomy sky.<\/p>\n

I hear the westward train approaching. It\u2019s about a mile away rolling under the Tennyville Bridge (Route 32). Looking west, I make a test exposure at about 7 seconds, but manage to jiggle the fence in the process. My exposure is spot-on but the is photo softened by blur\u2014no good. I try again, but this time the auto-focus can\u2019t find a focus point and the picture is worse.<\/p>\n

Now the lights of the train are illuminating the signals. I\u2019d better<\/em> get it right this time. I make two more exposures. While the first is too dark, the second is spot-on. In this one, CSX\u2019s Q427 (a manifest freight that originates on Pan Am Railways and is destined for CSX\u2019s Selkirk, New York yards) is racing toward the signal. I\u2019ve got it. It works. Yea! Success.<\/em> I can go back to my car and thaw out, and never mind CSX\u2019s westward Q119 following two blocks behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s late, it\u2019s dark, and it\u2019s bitterly cold (ok, it\u2019s been colder). I\u2019m tired and I\u2019m in Palmer where I\u2019ve made countless thousands of images. I left my tripod at home. However, I\u2019ve been eying the odd wintry textured sky, and then the CSX home signal at CP83 clears to a high green. There\u2019s a … Continue reading Palmer, Massachusetts 11:01pm November 30, 2012<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10,48],"tags":[3786,4537,41,35,39,37,38,40,30,33],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-a8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}