Long Exposures on a Rainy Night: Brooklyn Bridge Edition

Last night I took my Hasselblad and Toyo 45AII to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was cold and rainy, but my new camera bag made it much easier to carry all that gear.
Medium ALICE Pack

I remember using an ALICE (All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment) pack back in my military days and thought it just might make a good bag to carry my gear in. It’s actually perfect (and super cheap!). I put two lenses in two of the three outside pockets. The other pocket held my focusing loupe, light meter, and flash light. Inside my Toyo 45AII, five film holders, and my Hasselblad 501cm fit perfectly. Now I just need to find a better way to carry my tripod.

The bridge still had a good amount of pedestrian and bike traffic, but the rain held off most of the usual crowd. Using the 4×5 camera on the bridge was interesting. I had a lot of onlookers and people asking questions. I let a German family look through the ground glass and they got a kick out of that.

I developed the film last night in Kodak Xtol Developer 1+1 solution. I haven’t noticed much of a difference between undiluted Xtol solution and a 1+1 solution, so I’ve switched to using the 1+1 to make my developer soltion last twice as long.

Long Exposure of Flowing Traffic on Brooklyn Bridge, Fuji Neopan Acros 100

Long Exposure of Brooklyn Bridge Tower, Fuji Neopan Acros 100

There was a woman walking very slowly with an umbrella, so she did show up as a ghostly image on this exposure. I kind of like it.

Long Exposure of Brooklyn Bridge Tower in Mist, Fuji Neopan Acros 100

Same shot, but without the woman with the umbrella.

Long Exposure of Traffic Flowing on Water Street from the Brooklyn Bridge, Fuji Neopan Acros 100