In the era of film we started with an Idea. Then with planning and selecting the best film, to create the look we wanted, we applied the best technique to create the image. I had been photographing the famous uncompleted interchange for the 101-280 freeways, in San Jose, California, for some time, back in the late 1970’s. I considered it a modern, free standing, concrete sculpture! At the same time I had been experimenting with push processing (using an independent lab) with Ektachrome high speed daylight and tungsten slide films to 1000 ASA. This increased the low light capability, but more exciting were the artistic results because of the enhanced grain! I had found the color equivalent of pushed Tri-X; I Loved it!
For this image idea I picked the Daylight Ektachrome because I knew that after the sun had set a long time exposure would create a purple sky for the background.
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H.S. Ektachrome Daylight film at 1000 ASA. Exposure: 30 seconds
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And, since the San Jose Airport was so near (the landing flight path had planes passing over the freeway) I positioned my camera to include enough sky to capture the landing lights of any small planes that flew by.
So, I set-up in the dark, camera on a tripod, that evening, and waited for a plane to venture into my field of view without too many cars driving by at the same time. A steady stream of car headlights, pointed towards my lens, for 30 seconds, was not pretty! It took a whole role of film (36 exposures) to get the one I liked. We were very frugal back then; my goal was to always get a great image (or several great images) on each roll of film!
Hope you enjoyed…’Til next week…as usual should you have questions please don’t hesitate to shout out.
Author: Jerry W. Venz, PPA Certified, Master Photographer, Craftsman
Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com
