The Coca-Cola “ghost sign” in Schenectady has been one of my photographic “go-to” test subjects, probably all the way back to my initial splitfilm experiments. And because one of those shots, Coca-Cola Relieves Fatigue Sold Everywhere 5c, won a ribbon five years ago at the New York State Fair, I’ve basically “retired” any of my Coca-Cola building shots from future competitions.
But that doesn’t mean that I can’t keep taking pictures of that building, if for no other reason than to test out my different films and exposures. Hell, I’ve shot the building with Revolog Tesla “electric strike” film, I’ve even turned the building into a Dream Window.
My recent run with infrared film has inspired me to see what a brickface would look like with Kodak HIE infrared. So I took a few shots. And I got this.
God freakin’ damn. That’s impressive. That’s some seriously nice detail in the brickface and in the worn grassy field.
Okay. Now let’s see what I can do with some regular print film.
Yeah, right. Regular print film. Funny.
I recently picked up a roll of Kodak 2254 super-slow print film. The ISO on this film? 1.5. Yep, I’m shooting with film that has the speed of a window shade. To make this work, I have to put the camera on a tripod and use a one-second shutter speed. And this film gives some seriously funky blue color shifts, so if I use this film, I have to make the color shifts work to my advantage and not detract from the picture.
Again, as much as I would love to enter these pictures in competition, I’m not going to. It’s one thing to go back to these places and capture images and experiment with film, but if I’ve already taken one ribbon for photographing this structure, there’s no reason for me to keep entering the picture. That’s not advancing my skills, it’s just falling back on crutches and tropes.
But even with all that, I can use these images and tests to build into the future.
Who knows? Maybe in 2015 or in 2016 I’ll enter a photo taken with Kodak 2254 film. Maybe this year I’ll enter an infrared picture into competition.
Trust me. You can’t win a World Series on Opening Day. But you sure as hell can use that Opening Day contest to build toward a goal.
That… and these pictures are kinda making me thirsty… 🙂
Chuck The Writer 
Interesting experiments. The detail on the super slow 2254 film is amazing.
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I know, right? This would be a great film to use in the fall when the foliage changes colors, I think!
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On a very, very calm day…
What was the original purpose of that film? Document reproduction?
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Apparently it was originally designed as duplication film. It’s also known as Kodak Vision 3 film.
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