You ever have “one of those days” before where things just didn’t go right from the start? \u00a0Well, I had “one of those nights” last week. \u00a0I found out that the Providence & Worcester would be running an NR-4X to Willimantic under cover of darkness on Thursday night, so I planned on chasing and shooting it between Plainfield and Willimantic. \u00a0Also I asked Nick Palazini if he’d like to join me for some experiments in shooting two cameras at the same time with the flashes. \u00a0That was the last thing that went right on that fateful evening.<\/p>\n
OK, it wasn’t all doom & gloom – I did learn a few things, so that’s good. \u00a0But it did come at a cost – not only in missed photographs, but also a monetary cost. \u00a0More on that in a bit…<\/p>\n
So Nick & I met up at Plainfield around 7PM to figure out what we’d be doing for the evening. \u00a0After talking a bit, it sounded like NR4X was getting ready to head north in the yard, and head west to Willimantic. \u00a0So we went to our first spot – Packer’s Pond.<\/p>\n
We got there a bit ahead of the train, so we had time to set up. \u00a0But this is where things started to go awry. \u00a0While unpacking, I dropped one of the remote triggers for the flash, and the battery cover popped off. \u00a0Well, needless to say we couldn’t find the damned thing, so I found a Velcro strap, and used that to secure the batteries in the remote.<\/p>\n
With everything in working order, we made our way down to the bridge over the outlet to Packer’s Pond and set up the two Lumedynes (mine and Nick’s). \u00a0With those set up, I linked up the two cameras with my homemade cable and modified remote trigger. \u00a0But then the next problem cropped up – with the two cameras linked, they just kept firing away on their own.<\/p>\n
While trying to figure that out, we spotted lights approaching from the east – crap, here comes the train! \u00a0With the flashes set up, I managed to squeeze off one mediocre shot of NR4X crossing the bridge.<\/p>\n[cpg_imagefixthumb:10871]\n
OK, sure, we’ve got some issues, but I figured our best bet would be leapfrog the train, and head out to Baltic where we could set up and experiment well ahead of the train’s arrival. \u00a0So we packed up and headed west.<\/p>\n
We got to Baltic and started setting up – and while setting up we heard over the scanner that they were working in Versailles, giving us even more time to work the kinks out. \u00a0As it turned out, just the opposite happened…<\/p>\n
After experimenting for a while, we found out that the amount of time that each camera “thinks” prior to opening the shutter differs slightly between the two cameras – my 50D and Nick’s XTi. \u00a0But I came up with a workaround so we could both get shots. \u00a0So now came the waiting.<\/p>\n
And wait we did – that was actually the highlight of the evening. \u00a0Some good conversation ensued for a while, then we noticed that the scanner was silent. \u00a0That could only mean NR4X was on their way.<\/p>\n
With the train apparently heading towards us, I figured we should do another test shot to make sure we’re good to go. \u00a0Just then something caught my eye, then panic set in. \u00a0What caught my eye was the light stand with the Lumedyne head 10 feet in the air \u00a0tipping over towards the tracks! \u00a0Oh shit!!!<\/p>\n
Well, it hit pretty hard, and bent the reflector fairly significantly, but what I was more concerned with was the flashtube itself. \u00a0When I picked up the head off of the ground, I noticed it was missing. \u00a0A quick look around, and I found it laying by the tracks – and it looked to be in one piece! \u00a0OK, all might not be lost. \u00a0While putting the tube back in the head, I had Nick get his reflector so I could get it back in the air. \u00a0All the while, the train came into view in the distance.<\/p>\n
With everything back together, I hoisted it back up to the right hight and did a test shot – nothing. \u00a0And the train kept getting closer. \u00a0Bringing the head back down, I tried the manual trigger button on the back of the head – only a slight tick happened, but no flash. \u00a0Then I noticed that the tube itself was broken, so I was only hearing the trigger relay firing. \u00a0Crap! \u00a0Then with some rather loud\u00a0expletives\u00a0shouted, we called it a night.<\/p>\n
I managed to bend the reflector back into shape, and Nick lent me his flash tube so I could use it down here in NJ. \u00a0But I had a chance to head over to B&H in NYC last night to get a new tube (and a sand bag to weigh down the light stand). \u00a0So we’re back in business.<\/p>\n
Thanks for looking! You ever have “one of those days” before where things just didn’t go right from the start? \u00a0Well, I had “one of those nights” last week. \u00a0I found out that the Providence & Worcester would be running an NR-4X to Willimantic under cover of darkness on Thursday night, so I planned on chasing and shooting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,2],"tags":[40,14,269,104,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-1364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-night-photography","7":"category-rail_photography","8":"tag-baltic","9":"tag-connecticut","10":"tag-nr-4x","11":"tag-plainfield","12":"tag-providence-worcester","13":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTom <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"