Foggy Mountain Breakthrough

Photo by Jan Kohl

Foggy Mountain Breakthrough

The Western Maryland steam locomotive #734 was pulling an excursion freight on a chilly foggy autumn morning in Maryland, headed for Brushy Tunnel. As the locomotive rounded a corner at full steam, the sun broke through the clouds and fog and made a surreal photo opportunity, lighting up the steam, smoke, the fall colors of the trees, and just turning the scene into a beautiful panorama of the might of the locomotive and the majesty of nature. I recognized through the viewfinder that it was going to be an amazing photo. The scene was taken in fall 2012.

Post processing notes:

While the photo was amazing in its own right, it did certainly lend itself to assistance to make it appear as the eyes saw it. First it pulled it into ON1 Photo Raw and did several things...highlighted the fall trees (which were a bit dull in the original), improved the tone of the sunlight, and then clearing up a few things. I then pulled it into ON1 NoNoise AI and removed noise from the duller areas and smoke and improved the clarity of the trees. Finally I went back and adjusted the overall tone of the photo. It came out spectacular, and really very much like it appeared on that fall in 2012.