Here I am, once again, parked on the banks of the Sacandaga River. Here I am, poised and ready for one of the few times when the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railroad journeys from Corinth to Hadley – and, in doing so, crosses the Sacandaga.
Yeah, I know I blogged about taking photos at the bridge last week.
But this is different. See … the cell phone photo was my backup plan.
This is my target shot.
Follow me on this.
Last summer, I took sixteen photographs of the Hamilton College Chapel, and later turned that into a photo collage called The Congregation of Carissima, and the artwork made the walls of the New York State Fair’s photography competition.
Now this was captured with one roll of Chinese “Lucky” film, which both describes the ability to capture anything on it AND the fact that it didn’t disintegrate in the camera. That 220 film had plenty of light leaks, which I guess enhanced this picture’s details.
But I want more than this. I don’t want to risk this planned shot with one roll of Chinese B&W film.
No sirree. I’m going for the gusto.
The plan is to photograph the Sacandaga River, the railroad bridge, the Hadley Parabolic (“Bow”) Bridge in the distance, and hopefully – if all goes well – the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson train as it passes over the tracks.
I’ve tried this capture before, but that was before the Pentacon Six TL had its nasty “sticky shutter” syndrome fixed.
This time, I’ve got a perfectly functional Pentracon properly prepared and packed with Portra photography pfilm. Oops. Too much alliteration.
Anyways … this will be a new experiment. I’m going to try this by shooting the crossing with digital AND with film.
Yep, I’m using the Nikon Df and my Pentacon Six TL cameras – and thanks to that P6-NEF lens adapter my girlfriend got me for Christmas last year, I have an idea.
The plan is to shoot all the photos with my Meyer Optik Görlitz Orestegor 300mm f/5.6 telephoto lens. You know. The big lens I nicknamed Johnny Wadd. I’ll start by shooting the bridge and the water while using my Nikon Df camera through the lens.
This is tricky. See, the Meyer Optik Görlitz lens does NOT have a zoom feature. It’s essentially a 300mm prime lens. So what I’m doing is taking a picture … adjusting the angle a smidge … taking another picture … adjusting the angle a smidge …
Until I have approximately 37 photos of the scene.
You can see the assemblage here in the attached image.
Not bad. A nice little assemblage. Each “photo” was reduced to approximately 5 inches in height, and layering all the photos gives me a 24 x 48 raw canvas.
Okay. Detach the Nikon Df. Attach the Pentacon Six TL before the train arrives, and …
Wait. The Pentacon’s not connecting to the lens. What in the name of George Eastman is going on here?
I can’t have this happen. No way, no now. Not now. The train’s on its way and it’s not going to wait for me. Trains don’t wait for railfans.
And at that moment, I realized – when I disconnected the Nikon Df from the lens, I accidentally left the P6-NEF converter on the lens body. Oopsie.
Okay. Quick disconnect, put that lens adapter in my coat pocket, and then the Pentacon Six TL snugged in like a puzzle piece. And I’ve got a pack of Kodak Portra 800 color film – my fastest color roll film – in the camera body.
I then tilted the Johnny Wadd lens to a “Dutch angle” – a 45-degree alignment, so that the completed film shots will show as a diamond-shaped capture. Similar to the shots I took at the harness track earlier this year.
The train is on its way. I’ll only get a couple of shots as it passes, so I have to make them count. No re-do’s.
It’s getting darker. Way dark. I’m working with ISO 800 film, but if it gets any darker outside, I’m essentially shooting into blackness. And I can’t crank the ISO up on film. My only option after this is to open the lens up to its full f/5.6 aperture, and just extend the shutter speed.
I can go down to one second of exposure if necessary. That may be my only option.
Then … at about 4:55 p.m … the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson train arrived.
Now I had already captured a digital photo from my cell phone camera …
But I know I can do better. And I will do better. A few shots of the locomotive. A few shots of the boxcar. A few shots of the Pullman car.
And at the twelfth shot … the Pentacon Six TL locked. This means my roll is complete.
Take this roll back to the pro lab.
Last night … I received word from McGreevy Pro Lab (my pro lab of choice) that the Kodak Portra 800 produced acceptable images. This is what I want.
Now … let’s see if this works.
Of the twelve images captured on the roll, I was able to source three captures – essentially the longest one-second exposure from each bracketed capture.
Scanned each image into the computer, removed some aberrations, layered them onto my 37-image Nikon Df photo assemblage …
And …
And …
Would you excuse me for … oh .. .just a moment? Thank you.
SWEET TAP DANCING JESUS, IT WORKED!!!
Okay, I’m back.
Sorry, I had to do that.
But … wow. I’ve mixed film shots from two different film formulations before, but I’ve NEVER mixed film and digital in the same capture. Not until now. And the three film captures lined up just the way I wanted.
Yeah. This is exactly the image I imagined.
And this is going into the short pile for 2026. For sure.
For sure.
For damn sure.
Chuck The Writer 