Film lives on...

This is a great example of why I still shoot film sometimes, and why I pack a 4x5 view camera with all the stuff that has to go with it through airports, etc. A couple of weeks ago I was taking pictures of the Saint Mary's cathedral in Minnesota and a lady came in and told me that I ought to take a shot of the window. I looked at it and decided that I would have to come back when the sun was on that side of the building. So I came back the next morning and tried to take this shot with my super expensive Nikon D3. I could not get it. The shattered light was coming in the window, refracting off of the inside of the lens, and creating all kinds of funny light spots and flares in the image. So technically, it was a lens problem. Perhaps a fixed focal lens would have done it where my zoom wouldn't. Anyway, in frustration I went back to the car and got my old Graphix 4x5 press camera that is 50+ years old. I had taken five film holders with me for a total of ten shots, and I had used all but three of them on other shots. So I set up my camera, tried to compose the shot in an already dark room, and took three shots. I figured I needed around 60 seconds and I had no watch with me, so I used the timer on my D3 to time the first thirty seconds and then just counted off the other thirty. It was certainly not a very precise operation at all. The whole time I was trying to hurry because I was supposed to be driving to the airport. The final image that you see here was shot on Velvia 100 at F16 for about 60 seconds. I then scanned the slide on my Epson 4990 and voila! Thanks to the kind lady that gave me the suggestion.