Late Night Maintenance on the Cumbres and Toltec

This picture is of the inside the maintenance shop for the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway in Chama, NM.  The 488 had just returned from its daily run bringing tourists over Cumbres pass and was about to be serviced in the Chama shop.  It had departed that morning from Antonito, CO bringing a half-dozen cars 64 miles through the mountains.  Since the 488 would be returning to Antonito in the morning, it was to be kept hot after the service is done so that a fire wouldn’t have to be recreated.

In this picture, they were just about to move it inside of the shop to start the nightly lubrication needed to keep the old engines in good working order.  A companion picture – my “Jiffy Lube” shot was posted earlier.  It can be found here:  I’d Like Your 29.99 Oil Change Special, Please

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 40mm.  ISO 100, f/9, 3 shots bracketed +/- 2 stops and merged to an HDR with LR/Enfuse.

Could you imagine the look on the highly paid technician at Jiffy Lube when this guy pulls in?

I’ve got another railroad picture for you today.. this time, it’s in the shops in Chama, NM.  This is the Cumbres and Toltec shop where they give each engine a once-over before sending it out for another passenger excursion over the mountains.  Number 488 (shown here) had just been moved into the shops and the mechanics were starting to do their maintenance.

The RV park where we were staying was right next door to the train yard.  We had just pulled into Chama an hour earlier .  As we were getting settled in, we heard the unmistakeable whistle from a steam train.  Dad and I hustled over to the yard and I started taking night pictures of this engine and several others.  Normally, night pictures are best about 30 minutes after sunset – this was about three hours after sunset.  We made do with very long exposures, selectively lighting things with a lantern, and getting shots in the lighted area of the shop.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 40mm  ISO 100, f/9, 13 sec.

When I flew into Boston, I got there right before dusk.  As I was leaving the airport – I saw the most spectacular sunset shaping up.  I got parked near the North End and sprinted to the first reasonably good photo location – right in the middle of a bouncy iron bridge.  It was over in about 5 minutes – and I made my way to the North End for dinner.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200 f/4L @ 149mm.  ISO 800, f/9.0, 1/40 sec.

One of my favorite places to go in the Boston area is the North End.  This is an Italian enclave where there are so many restaurants packed so close together that you can smell the garlic walking down the street.  Until recently, it was virtually cut off from Boston by the freeways.  Now that the Big Dig is complete, it’s pretty easy to get to from anywhere in downtown.  This ‘building billboard’ was shot just moments after dusk when the sky still had some color.  It’s really the best time to shoot at night – because once it gets completely dark, most things lose their color.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 24-105 f/4L @ 98mm.  ISO 1600, f/4, 1/60 sec.

Fast action sports at night are a bugger to shoot – this being no exception.  Every Sunday, Whistler puts on the Fire and Ice extravaganza – an hour of fireworks both of the pyrotechnic and skiing variety.  The culmination of the show is a big ring of fire that the ski instructors jump through.  This shot is one of the guys in the show throwing something very Johnny Mosley-esque.

How do you shoot something like this?  Big lens, high ISO, and a BIIIG flash.  Be sure and pre-focus, and keep your fingers crossed.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200 f/4L + 1.4x Extender @ 189mm  ISO 3200, f/5.6, 1/200 sec.

Since I’m here – I thought it would be good to post one from here.  No – it wasn’t taken on this trip, but does it matter?  I don’t actually have any camera gear along this trip – except for a little Canon G9 which hasn’t left my briefcase.  This one was taken in March when I was in town to shoot the spring wildflowers.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200 f/4L @ 70mm  ISO 400, f/8.0, 3.2 sec.

I love taking night shots – it’s a technical challenge and good ones really look impressive.  The best ones are taken about an hour after dusk when there is still some color in the sky.  Since it was a family trip rather than a photography trip – I was deep into a bowl of seafood risotto at the perfect time.  Still – the shot came off well.  It’s the very well-known harbor of Vernazza in the Cinque Terre area of Italy.

Vital Stats: Canon 350D w/Canon 10-22mm @ 10mm  ISO 100, f/10.0, 20 sec.

This image was from our attempts to get some video in the harbor just across from the San Diego airport.  Once the sun went down, the lights from the city made the most beautiful color swatches across the harbor – and I quickly reverted from video back to stills and started shooting.  I’ve got a great looking panoramic from this same shoot – which I’ll post at some point in the future.

One major technical challenge to this shot was not getting too much motion blur on the boats.  It’s a four second exposure – it has to be really calm before a boat won’t move during the four seconds the shutter is open.  I got lucky with this one – most of the other shots are pretty blurry due to waves.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200 f/4L @ 70mm ISO 400, f/8, 4 sec.

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This is the covered bridge over Fitzsimmons Creek in Whistler, BC.  It’s right in the middle of Rebagliati Park – dedicated to Whistler’s very own gold medalist (snowboard in Nagano).  I think we made about three dozen trips across this bridge over the weekend – it was the shortcut to Whistler Villiage.  I was playing with the low-light capabilities of the 5D Mark II when I took this shot.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 24-105mm f/4L @ 24mm.  ISO 4000, f/4, 1/20 sec.

This farm was supposed to be gone four years ago.  It’s zoned to be a “Med Tech Campus” – but year after year, the farmer replants his crops showing that he’s going to be around for another year.  With a ‘sold’ sign out this year, we thought it was really the end.  The economic slowdown apparently has some side benefits – it’s still a farm.

This shot is a long exposure night shot taken well after dark – probably about 10 PM.

Vital Stats: Canon 350D w/Canon 50mm 1.8II.  ISO 100, f/1.8, 30 sec.