The Palace Theater at night, shot with efke film

I recently saw this fantastic photograph by Max Sinton on flickr. He used black and white efke 25 ISO film, and when I asked him how he got this tremendous shot, he told me that he shot at f/8 for approximately 45 seconds.

Now, I can’t afford to go to Paris and shoot in that same location.  Heck, I can’t even afford to go to Las Vegas and shoot that replica of the Eiffel Tower.  And I don’t own a Pentax K1000 – the camera Sinton used when he took this shot – and I don’t develop my own film.  That’s why I use McGreevy Pro Lab and Dwayne’s Photo and Film Rescue International.

But what I can do – or at least attempt to do – is to photograph some places in the Capital Region and get those stunning light trails in the same manner as Sinton did.

I’ve tried light trails in the Capital District before, mostly by using rolls of 25 ISO and 200 ISO Kodachrome.  But the reciprocity failure with both of those films was just painful.  The 200 produced more grain than a bowl of Product 19; photos from Kodachrome 25 ISO batch were almost like mud.

So maybe, just maybe, I can improve my fortune by using efke film instead of color slide film.

It’s a cool Sunday night, and I’ve set up my camera equipment at the intersection of Clinton and North Pearl Streets.  I wanted a shot of the Palace Theater at night.

Now one of the drawbacks of shooting the Palace Theater is that the building has a digital scrolling marquee, and depending on when you take the picture, you don’t know what will appear on the marquee – a concert, a sponsor’s ad, whatever.  That definitely distracts from the photo, as it removes the timeliness of the picture and automatically points out WHEN you took the shot.  And you can’t go in the building and ask them to turn off the scrolling digital marquees.   Management gets kinda bent about doing that.

But with a long exposure, and in black and white, I theorized that the marquees would blend into a field of white.  And if I exposed the film – at f/8 for 30 seconds – I might just have a shot at a great picture.

Tripod set up at the corner of Clinton Avenue and North Pearl Street.  Nikon F100 at the ready.  Mir-20H fisheye lens set to go.

Take the picture.

What do you think?  Does this photo have a chance in competition?  Did I get it right?

You tell me.  If you hate it, let me know why.  If you love it, let me know why.