I spent the darker months of 2025 making abstracts on color film through long exposures of neon and other colorful lights, and it was FUN. But I haven't really made any representational (non-abstract, recognizeable subject) long exposures in YEARS. I have a roll of film of planes taking off at SFO from some distance, but... It has been a while.
Yesterday, a clever friend send me his first, HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL, technically superb long exposures on film made with a grown-up camera. I oooh'd, aaah'd, and was delighted.
And then I thought: how can I do something like that, but less sensibly? I happen to have an absurdly large Lomo Instant Wide Glass camera weighing down a stack of books, and confirmed it has a BULB mode. I put batteries in it; it didn't work. I put new batteries in it, got a happy blue light, walked for blocks, set it up on a tripod, and then found it didn't work again: I HAD PUT MORE DEAD BATTERIES INTO IT. (D'oh!). I put everything away, charged two sets of batteries, bought a battery for the camera's remote control (in the lens cap!?!?), waited a couple days, and found myself ready to try again. For my first several frames, I dramatically overexposed the film, based on my experience of shooting ISO 200 for two seconds, yet somehow thinking that I should shoot for 30 seconds at ISO 800. (HAHAHAHAHAhahahahahwaaaaaah.)
Anyway: I figured it out. Maybe 8 seconds for distant traffic subjects is good. Streetcars are far more abstract than I realized, as are buses. The lights atop fire department vehicles are AWESOME, and now I'm at risk of loitering near my neighborhood firehouse for ART REASONS.
