Night Photography: A random night turned into one of my favorite shots

Cinestill

It started with a day of going to new diners. I thought with the potential of some neon and stuff it'd be good to try out some cinestill 800t. I hadn't shot it in a while, for me personally its extremely specific for subject matter, so it ends up being a fridge sitter for most.

Fun part was I was using my Mamiya 6 Automat, a favorite of mine to this day. Folders are magical.

I managed to get through most of the roll. I had one shot, but decided against just burning it to have the roll done. Normally around that time i would just burn it just to have the roll done, it was a little scary to keep the roll in cam too long, theres a chance I had a slight light leak in the bellows or something, so i try to get through rolls within a day. But it felt wrong just to shoot nothing for this roll.

Why not just go out for a bit

This day was pretty open, I didn't have much going on after dinner, so I just relaxed at home, watched a movie. After recharging for a bit, I was thinking about that roll and what I could do with my saturday night. It was looking over and seeing my cable release that brought about the idea to go out and shoot. I hadn't used a cable release before, and unfortunately kind of hate my tripod (it's way too bulky), but figured eh why not I'll just drive out and do a late night tripod shoot just to have some fun.

Short stint

So in hindsight, I realize I was maybe not very prepared for this idea. I had never done a late night shoot on film and I didn't have a lightmeter (the automat is fully mechanical). I found a spot near a bridge, and got out with tripod and camera in hand before I realized these two facts, but figured I'm already here and I want to finish this roll anyway so I guess we're winging it.


I'll use this moment to say that im not the hugest fan of the phone lightmeter apps, they work somewhat but it just doesnt fit for me I cant get rid of the unsurety lingering. Anyways, I setup my tripod on the bridge, got my app on, watched a quick youtube video for guessing long exposures and just timed and guessed off of that knowledge. I know now that I should have also factored in reciprocity failure, but at the time I didn't even know that was a thing. After that one shot left up to chance, I headed home. The thought process was at least I got to go and try something, if it ends up not turning out, its still better than just a burnt frame on a roll.

Revelations

The photo turned out even better than I could have imagined, and all due to just a "throwaway" shot. After getting this one back, I've made it an overall point not to burn frames if I can help it, and to sometimes just go for a shot just for the fun of it. I think it's pretty easy to get into the mindset that every frame has to be a banger in your mind otherwise its a waste (the price of film definitely helps push this mindset as well). But, its important to let the creativity flow through you. There's a chance that this bridge photo ended up a bust, but it still would have been helpful in terms of my growth regardless.