{"id":9904,"date":"2015-02-09T02:08:55","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T07:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=9904"},"modified":"2015-02-09T14:38:41","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T19:38:41","slug":"state-line-tunnel-by-the-light-of-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/state-line-tunnel-by-the-light-of-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"State Line Tunnel by the Light of the Moon."},"content":{"rendered":"

It was an even zero degrees Fahrenheit (that\u2019s about -18 Celsius) when I arrived at the top of State Line Tunnel. A heavy blanket of snow covered the ground and I could hear a heavy CSX eastward train climbing.<\/p>\n

The twin-bore State Line Tunnel is the only true tunnel on the old Boston & Albany. The older of the two bores was abandoned in late 1988 when Conrail single-tracked the line.<\/p>\n

Driving east on the New York State Thruway, I\u2019d noted the eastward freight crossing \u2018Bottleneck Bridge\u2019 east of the interchange with Taconic State Parkway. I knew then, that if I didn\u2019t dally, I could get to the top of State Line in time to roll the train by.<\/p>\n

I recalled a chase many years ago with Bob Buck in the twilight hour. When we arrived at this favorite location, I insisted on making black & white photos with my old Leica\u00a0and\u00a0ignored Bob\u2019s advice to, \u2018Save your film for a sunny day.\u2019<\/p>\n

Back to the present. Despite the cold, I set up my Bogen tripod and attached my Lumix LX7. The train whistled for the grade crossing west of the tunnel. Not much time. I made a test shot at 8 seconds. Too dark. Switching to manual mode, I set the camera for 20 seconds. I made an exposure just as the headlights were illuminating the curve.<\/p>\n

\"Lumix<\/a>
Lumix LX7 test photo; exposed at f2.2 for 8 seconds. This was too dark for my liking, so I increased the\u00a0amount of time the shutter was open to 20 seconds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The lights of the eastward freight have begun to illuminate the curve. Lumix LX7 at f2.2 for 20 seconds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The view of the train in the photo with the Lumix was blasted by the headlights and isn\u2019t very effective.<\/p>\n

However, I had my brand new Fuji X-T1, but I hadn\u2019t the time to figure out how to set it for long time exposures, I did make a few hand-held views at ISO 1250.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My first railway photos with my new Fuji X-T1 mirror-less camera were made of the approaching train at State Line Tunnel. I exposed for the snow and made the photos hand held. Too dark for my liking, but it catches the drama of the moment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then I exposed a view with the Lumix of the freight cars rolling below me.<\/p>\n

\"CSX's<\/a>
CSX’s east ward freight passes below me. The quality of light offered by the full moon mimics the characteristics of sunlight, albeit at a substantially lower luminosity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tracking the Light<\/a>\u00a0posts\u00a0new\u00a0material\u00a0every\u00a0morning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It was an even zero degrees Fahrenheit (that\u2019s about -18 Celsius) when I arrived at the top of State Line Tunnel. A heavy blanket of snow covered the ground and I could hear a heavy CSX eastward train climbing. The twin-bore State Line Tunnel is the only true tunnel on the old Boston & Albany. … Continue reading State Line Tunnel by the Light of the Moon.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9901,"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],"tags":[4537,41,193,2107,156,1042],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2-State_Line_by_moonlight_traincoming_P1140728.jpg?fit=750%2C422","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-2zK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9904"}],"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=9904"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9927,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9904\/revisions\/9927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}