I’ve been taking pictures since I was 13 years old. First with my fathers old Rolli 35 then over the years I upgraded to a wide range of different cameras. While enrolled as a communications and photography major at Adelphi University I shot a ton of creative images. One of my best friends Salmon Kramer and I used to photograph all around Garden City and the New York area with our 35mm film cameras and tripods. Shooting time exposures was one of our favorite types of photography. Time exposures means that the camera shutter is left open for an extended amount of time. By using a tripod the camera doesn’t move and if the item or building being photographed doesn’t move the result is a sharp image of the stationary object. What is fun about taking time exposures of the fact that the moving objects become blurry due to the movement and the stationary objects stay sharp.
While on vacation to Paris, France with my wife I decided to shoot some unique scenic. Even though my main source of money is wedding and corporate photography I have a love to travel and scenic photography. While we were in Paris we came across this beautiful shopping mall. I felt a time exposure with the lights of the cars streaking by would make a great shot. I set up my 35mm film camera on a tripod in the medium framed my image and did about a 2 minute exposure. Keep in mind that this was taken in the film days. Even though today 99% of the photos I take are with digital photography, I really believe that it’s film photography that proves a the skill of a photographer. “I really should start shooting some film, just for the love of it.”
With film you can’t look at the camera’s screen and check your image. As a matter of fact in this case I was not going to see the image until I returned to Los Angeles weeks later. Getting the overall exposure correct was not a problem for me. I knew what I was doing enough to get the perfect exposure. However, what I didn’t know what how the cars streaking past would expose the film. So in order to guarantee I would get the image I wanted. (Honestly, I didn’t know what image I wanted. I just knew I wanted it to be cool.) So I used a technique called testing and varying my exposures. I actually didn’t vary my exposures, I varied my settings. Let me explain, a one minute exposure at F11 is the same exposure as 2 minutes at F16. The only difference in the results would be the intensity of the lights from the streaking cars. So I played with my settings. 4 minutes at F22 might give me the results I desire, or maybe F32 at 4 minutes with a bump in the iso. I must have spent about 30 minutes standing there shooting different combinations of settings. This is the fun part of film photography. In the end I like what I got as a finished shot. As a matter of fact, the photography competition judges also liked my results because I won several contests with this shot.
Location: 99 RUE DE RIVOLI 75001 PARIS - FRANCE.
