JPG Magazine: Stories: Photo Essay: Darkness, Diner, Dim Light

Darkness, Diner, Dim Light

By Joli Buchanan

24 June 2008

I ventured into town at 2am for a stroll down the main street, a little window shopping & some wee morning captures using available light in one of America's best little small towns.

I chose the 200 block of South Chestnut Street where there is a historic diner, a side shop connected to the diner and an antique shop located next to each other.

Behind my right shoulder (approximately 1,000 feet) there is an intersection with a stop, caution & go light and two street lamps; adding some of the reflected spots of light you see in the bottom corners of the diner photos.

What a fun window shop at 2am in a sleepy small town where most everyone turns in by 9pm! Due to this, I was able to avoid streaming headlights into my long exposure experiments, but still pick up on some of the interesting available lights in the area.

All pictures in this photo essay are taken through the window fronts with the one exception obviously being the daytime capture of the 200 block of South Chestnut which I have included for the sake of showing this area to you and also the awnings and lack of street lights. This spot is very dark at 2am.

I used a Pentax P3 with Kodak Ultramax ISO 400. My lens was a Kiro Precision 30-80mm. I did not push the film in development. The shutter reading are listed below and note that I have developed a habit I would like to somehow break of holding my breath whenever my shutter is open.

The P3 has a 'B' setting (bulb setting) that leaves the shutter open as long as you are holding down the cable release. The B setting, I used in all captures for the experiment.

ANTIQUE SHOP--There were two lamps, an old rusted railing and a bouquet of roses I could see from the street. Focusing in on some of the colors of the various items gave some interesting effects. The aged glass in the windows also added to a softened capture and almost dreamy effect.

#1: f 3.5; 1 minute exposure

#2: f 5.6; 2 min

#3: f 3.5; 5 min

LARRISON'S DINER -- Larrison's is a historic diner dating to the 1930's. The location was originally a grocery store and the owner, Ed Auffenberg, decided to put in a grill & sell burgers by the sack full. Though Larrison's expanded into an adjacent building in the 80s, the diner is still in line of the 1930's tradition and serving up burgers, hand-cut fries and thick frothy milkshakes.

A generation gap leaves Larrison's up for "conditional" sale, conditional that you keep the tradition going. Liz and Kevin Larrison, the brother and sister team, welcome any serious inquiries from families or interested parties wanting to get into a successful diner business.

If you or someone you know might be interested in owning a successful diner in a wonderful Hoosier small town check out their website: www.larrisons.com

#1: f 5.6; 1 minute exposure

#2: f 3.5; 4 min

#3: f 3.5; 3 min

#4: f 3.5; 5 min