{"id":3600,"date":"2014-03-19T16:05:29","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T20:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nanosphoto.com\/blog\/?p=3600"},"modified":"2014-03-19T16:05:29","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T20:05:29","slug":"one-night-in-baltic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/one-night-in-baltic\/","title":{"rendered":"One night in Baltic"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last night I got word that Providence & Worcester train NR-2 would be making a right hand turn at Plainfield, heading for Willimantic, instead of their usual run down to Groton and along Amtrak’s Shore Line. \u00a0With the train’s change in plans, I also changed mine – originally I was set to meet up with a couple other photographers to light up NR-2’s trip south through Ledyard then move over to the Niantic River Bridge on the Shore Line. \u00a0Since I really had my heart set on shooting a freight, and with the change in plan of NR-2, I opted to change my plans and not meet up with the others – who ended up sticking around NAN last night.<\/span><\/p>\n

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After filling up the car in Willimantic – both with gas for the engine, and coffee for me – I made my way to Baltic to set up the shot I had in mind. \u00a0I really like shooting at the old feed store that is along the tracks in town – there’s some interesting angles possible there, and using the store with the old and faded\/rusty Blue Seal Feeds and Purina Feeds signs as props makes for some cool photos. \u00a0So I decided on setting up a simple three light setup – two Alien Bee B800s and a single Lumedyne 200 w\/s. \u00a0Using less lights keeps with what I’ve been trying to do more of lately with my night shots – preserve the shadows. \u00a0I’ve shied away from the more “traditional” method of evenly lighting everything in the scene – what some call the “daylight shot with a black sky” look. \u00a0I’ve been trying to preserve the “feel” of night in my photos – keeping as many shadows as possible, while also lighting the subject in a way that it doesn’t simply blend into the blackness.<\/p>\n

The other thing at play this evening was a field test for something I’ve been working on for a few months – a set of homemade radio triggers that set off the flashes when I shoot the camera. \u00a0I’ve had a few shots in mind that would need the triggers to reach close to a mile away from the camera – in order to do that with my current setup (Paul C. Buff CyberSync triggers), I would need to set up at least three repeater triggers to get the signal that far. \u00a0Doing something like that would be cost-prohibitive, since each receiver\/repeater costs about $70. \u00a0Instead, I came up with a custom design that gives me the range I need, while only sacrificing some sync speed (CyberSync triggers will work up to the camera’s sync speed of 1\/250 of a second, but mine will only work reliably up to 1\/125 – an acceptable difference for what I’m doing), and at a fraction of the price. \u00a0I plan on going into the specifics on the triggers in another, more technical post in the future – stay tuned for that. \u00a0Last night was simply the short-range field test of the triggers with a moving train – I have done static tests of the triggers at about 3\/4 of a mile, and they worked very reliably.<\/p>\n

So i got to Baltic, and set up my lights and camera – while I was setting up, I could hear NR-2 working Federal Paper a few miles east in Versailles. \u00a0And just as they were wrapping up their work, I completed my test shots of the lighting setup. \u00a0If you’re curious, here’s a map of where I placed the lights and camera, and what direction they were all facing. \u00a0Each “sun” icon is a flash, the camera is, well, the camera, and the little steam locomotive is the lead locomotive of NR-2<\/p>\n

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Click photo to see the interactive map on Google Maps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With everything set up, it was time to wait. \u00a0But it wasn’t that long of a wait before the crossing signals up the line activated and you could hear the GEs approaching. \u00a0After a couple warning flashes when they came into view, I bagged this shot of NR-2 passing by the old store in Baltic.<\/p>\n

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Providence & Worcester train NR-2 rolls by an old feed store in Baltic, Connecticut on the evening of March 18, 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With that in the camera, it was time to break everything down and head back home. \u00a0One shot, one kill…not a bad night. \u00a0And needless to say, the homemade triggers worked flawlessly! \u00a0Next up will be a shot with the flashes about a mile from the camera to really test their range…<\/p>\n

Thanks for looking!
\nTom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I got word that Providence & Worcester train NR-2 would be making a right hand turn at Plainfield, heading for Willimantic, instead of their usual run down to Groton and along Amtrak’s Shore Line. \u00a0With the train’s change in plans, I also changed mine – originally I was set to meet up with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3750,"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":[40,14,111,22,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-3600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-night-photography","8":"category-rail_photography","9":"tag-baltic","10":"tag-connecticut","11":"tag-night","12":"tag-nr-2","13":"tag-providence-worcester","14":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600","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=3600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}