October 6, 2018 – Against the night sky glow from Evansville, Indiana the headlights from CSX E306 lights up the railing as it heads slowly down the viaduct at Rham, Indiana with its empty coal train after crossing over the Ohio River on the Henderson Subdivision. Nikon D800, 4 min exposure at f/11 at ISO 100 with a Nikon 18mm lens. – #jimstrainphotos #indianarailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad
October 6, 2018 – Two CSX empty coal trains sit at the north end of Howell Yard in Evansville, Indiana as they wait for crews to take them to their destination. Nikon D800, 3 min exposure at f/16 at ISO 100 with a Sigma 24-70 @70mm. – #jimstrainphotos #indianarailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad
October 5, 2018 – Did some night railfanning tonight with fellow railfan Ryan Scott around CSX Howell yard at Evansville, Indiana. This photo shows a southbound CSX Q503 as it moves slowly through the yard and at one point coming to a stop, during my 3 minute exposure. Lens: Sigma 24-70 at 70mm f/11, on a Nikon D800 full frame camera and the ISO was 100. – #jimstrainphotos #indianarailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad
During my recent trip to Chicago to photograph trains I caught this light painter at work along the shoreline as I was shooting the Chicago Skyline at night. Hope everyone enjoys something a little different!
September 1, 2018 – St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad steam locomotive 1630 sits in the station at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, waiting for it’s 8pm run, as the last light of day begins to fade from the sky.
According to Wikipedia, the locomotive was built in 1918 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for use in Russia as a class Ye locomotive. However, it, along with approximately 200 other locomotives, remained in the United States, due to the inability of the Bolshevik government to pay for them, following the Russian Revolution.
1630 was converted from 5 ft (1,524 mm) Russian track gauge to 4 ft 8 1/2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. After being re-gauged, #1630 was sold to the USRA and was numbered 1147. Shortly after, 1147 was briefly leased for use on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
In 1920, the locomotive was sold to the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway, where it was used as a mixed traffic engine. In 1951, the locomotive was sold to Eagle-Picher, who used it to haul lead ore from a mine to their smelter.
In 1967, the locomotive was donated to the Illinois Railway Museum, in Union, Illinois, where they began restoring it in 1972, it returned to operating condition in 1974 and made its first revenue run. Sometime after arriving at the museum, 1630 was restored from her Eagle Picher appearance back to her Frisco appearance. 1630 was taken out of service in 2004, and after more than six years undergoing repairs and a federally mandated rebuild, it was returned to operational condition on October 30, 2013.
On Memorial Day weekend 2014, the locomotive returned to excursion service. In 2016, the locomotive received a cylinder overhaul, which according to Steam department curator, Nigel Bennett, made the locomotive, “probably more powerful than she has been since her [sic] first arrival at IRM in the 1970s.” The locomotive, during Memorial Day weekend 2016, pulled 137 empty coal cars in storage at the museum as what was considered to be one of the longest revenue freight trains powered by a steam locomotive in at least 25 years as said by IRM’s Steam department curator. – #jimstrainphotos #illinoisrailroads #steamtrains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #illinoisrailwaymuseum #steamtrain
September 23, 2014 – The last light of day reflects off the side of a eastbound Union Pacific intermodal with 8059 leading at Lordsburg, New Mexico on the Lordsburg Subdivision. – #jimstrainphotos #newmexicorailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #up #uprailroad
June 9, 2018 – “Southern Ghost!” NS Heritage unit 8099, the Southern, prepares to pull away from another engine in the early evening fog at the Norfolk Southern yard at Princeton, Indiana. This unit has and is being used as the leader lately on the Duke Energy coal run between Alliance and Francisco load-outs. – #jimstrainphotos #indianarailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #nsrailway #nsheritageunit
June 9, 2018 – Here we find a crew getting NS Heritage 8099, Southern Unit, ready for pickup by an, Duke Energy coal train, at the NS Yard Office in Princeton, Indiana, after storms passed through the area.
Today I’m going to break down the technical information on how I shot this photo of Norfolk Southern’s 8099 Southern Heritage Unit at Princeton, Indiana.
Here’s the technical info on the picture: Nikon 800, full frame camera with a Nikon 18mm f/2.8 lens. Exposure was ISO 200, f/2.8 at 6 seconds as a RAW file with Auto White balance and by default I underexpose my photos by a -.7 exposure. I find this helps me recover the highlights in the picture.
Now, my thoughts… Of course, the photo was shot on a tripod, thanks to Ryan Scott as I forgot to put mine back into my new RAV 4 before the trip. If you’re out shooting after dark, you really need to use a tripod for best results. You can brace your camera on a wall, or something stationary and get acceptable results, but for the best results, use a tripod.
When shooting at night I always set the mirror to lock-up before shooting the photo to help cut down with camera shake and set the self-timer to 3 seconds, so my hands are off the camera when the exposure is made. You can use a remote type device as well, but I find the self-timer works well for me.
Next, take your camera off Auto ISO! If you’re working on a tripod at night, you don’t need the high ISO and by setting it to manual, say around 200-400 ISO you’ll get a lot less noise (grain) in your photograph.
Exposure: I usually set my f/stop to the widest opening, ie: f/2.8 in this photo. If you’re planning on stopping down, I’d keep it at about f/5.6-8. That’s my preference anyway. Shutter speed is always going to depend on the light, but I’d start out at about 10 seconds, shoot a shot and then check your preview. If your photo is too dark, increase your exposure, not your ISO, unless you absolutely have to. If it’s too light and washed out, then shorten your exposure.
White Balance… I shoot everything with auto white balance turned on. This helps me in the RAW plugin to correct the off-color lighting of the yard lights, street lights, etc. best. At least it does for me. The lights to the left of this photo put out a bright orange light, so much so that I find it unsuitable for my taste.
We all have our own idea of how we want our final photograph to look and I’m no exception. I’m to the point these days that when I’m shooting a picture, day or night, I have a preconceived idea of how I want the final picture to look when I’m done processing.
Finding standing water to reflect your subject in will always add impact to your image, but sometimes that’s not an option, so look for other things that can help add impact. However, as an early mentor in my life told me about things in your photo, if it doesn’t contribute to what you want your picture to say, then eliminate it by changing your focal length or camera position. Try your best to shoot the photo in the camera the way you want your final image to look so you don’t have to do any cropping.
Any other questions just post them in the comments!
June 9, 2018 – I spent the day railfanning with good friend Ryan Scott between Princeton, Indiana and La Grange, Ky and this is perhaps my favorite shot from the trip, which was one of the last shots of the day!
Here we find a crew getting NS Heritage 8099, Southern Unit, ready for pickup by an, Duke Energy coal train, at the NS Yard Office in Princeton, Indiana, after storms passed through the area.
We got lots of great photographs, which you’ll see over the days to come and also met-up with several fellow railfans in person that we’ve been friends with on Facebook for sometime! A big shout out to Javid Beykzadeh for helping with our journey around Louisville and La Grange and other fellow railfans Adam Hill, Erik Landrum, Josh Kellerman that were at La Grange, Ky when we all caught the CSX Q231-08 with BNSF 791 Warbonnet street running through there. – #jimstrainphotos #indianarailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #nsrailway #norfolksouthern #nsheritageunit
May 18, 2018 – Southern Steam engine 401 pulls past a barn at the Monticello Railway Museum, in Monticello, Illinois, as the day draws to a close on the Southern Rail Production’s Photo Charter event, as it heads into the shops area. – #jimstrainphotos #illinoisrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #southern401 #southernsteam #steamtrain #southernrailproductions #monticellorailwaymuseum
April 19, 2018 – Norfolk Southern Railway’s “Honoring First Responders” engine 9-1-1, heads up CSX Q501-18 as it sits on track two as CSX Q518 highballs past him on track 1 at Sebree, Kentucky on the Henderson Subdivision.
One of several commemorative locomotives, it’s a SD60E honoring emergency first responders. The locomotive with insignia recognizing police, fire, and emergency services runs on Norfolk Southerns 22-state network and obviously sometimes even beyond! – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad #nsrailway #norfolksouthern
January 5, 2018 – Paducah and Louisville Railway 2104 leads a local as it pulls through the curve southbound, leading up to highway 1337 crossing at Richland, Ky, as the last light of day fades from the winter’s day.
December 29, 2017 – As the last light of the day begins to fade, a Evansville Western Railway local departs Mount Vernon, Indiana and heads south toward Evansville, with it’s headlamp lighting the way.
November 24, 2017 – Westbound Norfolk Southern 375 stops briefly on the main at Georgetown, IN so the units that helped push it up the grade from Louisville, Ky to be dropped off from the rear of its train, giving me just long enough to get off one exposure before it started moving again!
November 4, 2017 – I’m amazed by what the camera can see that the eye doesn’t! When I pulled up to this spot with fellow railfan Ryan Scott, we both looked at the scene and man it’s dark!! I love how my full frame sensor captured all the ambient light and how it turned the slow moving clouds into almost what looks like the aurora borealis in some ways!!!
Here we see a CSXT 1543, a GP-15, tied to Chessie System Caboose 904138 on the City Lead that runs along next to Ohio Street in Evansville, Indiana. The set is used to work the industrial area around Berry Plastics and the caboose is used as the shoving platform.
ISO 100 for 30 seconds at f/6.3 with a Nikon 18mm lens on a Nikon D800.
September 9, 2017 – Southern Railway diesel locomotives 5000, 3170, 2594, with a freight train, sits on the Chickamauga Creek bridge at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum during the museum’s 2017 Railfest night photo shoot.
September 9, 2017 – This is a shot of the first organized night photoshoot I’ve done on a train related subject other than my own. It was great! The photographer standing next to the light stand is Norfolk Southern Photographer Casey Thomason who did the lighting for the Railfest night shoot event and helped to make it happen with the support and help of the fine folks at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, TN. Outstanding job by all!
What’s pictured here is a small portion of the photographers that participated in the event where we shot several different views of Southern Railway diesel locomotives 5000, 3170, 2594 with a freight train and a Tennessee Alabama & Georgia Railway passenger train on the Chickamauga Creek bridge at the TVRM museum.
While everyone jockeyed around for space, for their version of the “perfect shot,” the event got underway about 9pm and it was close to midnight before everyone went their merry way after we did many rotations of the front line of photographers getting their chance for a clear shot.
This photograph I shot hand held, as I was letting a friend that wasn’t aware there was a night shoot during Railfest, use my tripod on the rotations. Casey was doing a 3 second countdown before firing the flashes and so I timed my exposure to start at the 1 second mark which opened my shutter right as the flash went off. Exposure was 1 second at f/8 at ISO 800 on my Nikon D800 at 42 mm on my Sigma 24-70mm lens and shot as a RAW file.
May 13, 2017 – A CSX empty coal train with CSXT 3187 leading, prepares to start loading it’s train at Alliance Coal in Princeton, Indiana.
May 13, 2017 – A eerie quiet fell in amongst all these steel horses as they sat at the north end of the Norfolk Southern yard at Princeton, Indiana as the last light of dusk fell on National Train Day. I drove from Piqua, Ohio to Princeton, Indiana on this day looking for trains to catch and I saw three moving along the way, all in the distance. That’s the way it goes sometimes! I did catch another shot I’ll post later of a CSX coal train in the loop at Alliance Coal.
April 15, 2017 – It’s the late hours of the night as Savatrans (SVTX) 5 lights up the rails, as the train stains, during it’s pull up the Vectran lead with a load of coal for the Sitran Dock, at Abee, Indiana.