Main Street At Night, April 1966
Here's some more night photography, from the same fellow who took that nice Skull Rock photo a while ago.
The long exposure makes every lightbulb glow like a small sun - if you stood too close to the bigger lights, you'd sizzle like a slug under a magnifying glass. Even though it's only April, it must be a warm evening; the girl on the bench to the right is wearing shorts.
I like the way people disappear when you leave the shutter open for a few seconds. Because I don't like people, and they don't like me. Maybe if I bathed more. Anyway, doesn't Main Street look great here? If you go into the Crystal Arcade, you'll be nuked like a Dodger Dog.
10 comments:
Yay, more great night pics! Thanks, Major! And yeah, the Crystal Arcade does look a little too bright and possibly dangerous.
Looking down Main Street USA; that is so realistic that my feet hurt.
Good stuff, Thanks.
Can I set a long exposure on my digital camera and make the all people go away? If so - I'm all over that!
Mmmm, Dodger Dogs - I'm hungry!
Great post Major, thanks!
my night photos never turned out like this....thanks for sharing these!
maybe now that i have a digital camera i will try it again ;)
Oh no! First we are stunned into stupefied horror by pictures of Freedomland, and then, when we run for safety to the most reassuring and comforting place we know, Main Street U.S.A., the Major uses his supernatural powers to make us disappear! A foul and dastardly plot, indeed! Main Street without people! It's like Snow White without her dwarfs! Lady and the Tramp without their spaghetti Pollyanna without her locket! The jungle without its cruise! ..... Actually it looks quite nice! I wonder if the Major could make the people in my neighborhood disappear. It never hurts to ask.
When I was a castmember, one of my favorite times was at the end of my shift, walking down Main Street. I was dead tired, having worked until 3:00 a.m. (Yes, that's correct!) but I would ALWAYS pause and look; just look...and thank Walk for creating this Park.
Nice pics, I still have SkullRock on my desktop.
Thank you Major.
JG
I've always loved time exposure photography, and Disneyland at night is a wonderful subject. It's always fun to see the Park fully lit but with no visible people, and I like to imagine that I have it all to myself, although I never take the fantasy far enough to figure out how I'm going to operate the attractions alone. Maybe my wife and I can take turns...
I especially like the last photo, even thought the focus is a bit soft. There's something about the way Main Street is bathed in a warm, incandescent glow while Sleeping Beauty Castle pops out in the distance in a kaleidoscope - scratch that - carousel of color. Was this shot on Kodachrome stock?
I once shot a series of time exposure slides at WDW's Magic Kingdom, mostly of the 1994 re-do of Tomorrowland. An Italian guest walked up to me and my tripod and wanted to buy a copy of one of my pictures because he was convinced that he was in it. I tried to explain to him that no, he wouldn't be visible in a 20-second exposure shot at f22 on Ektachrome 100 stock, and even if he were, I couldn't legally sell it to him because I didn't have a commercial permit from WDW. Although his English was very good, his understanding of photographic principles and the law was not, and after calling me an idiot, he stormed off. The photos came out really nicely - and you can't see him in a single one. Another Park all to myself...
Chuck, yes the slides are Kodachrome! I would love to somehow explore Disneyland at night, sort of a Twilight Zone thing with all the lights on and ambient music playing, but no people at all!
Did that Italian guy intend to give you money so that you would send him a print later? Too bad he didn't understand, but what can ya do.
That was my understanding, that he wanted me to send him something later. He even pulled out his wallet and began suggesting prices, starting at $10 and working his way up. I just couldn't get him to understand I couldn't give him what he wanted, even if I had wanted to.
Today, I probably would have refused his money, taken his e-mail, and sent him a scan of the photos later, both to make the guy happy and to prove to him he wasn't in the picture, but this was back in '98, so digital photography was uncommon and expensive. At the time, I did have access through work to professional-grade film scanners, so I could have conceivably done it even then, but I never thought of it.
I hope I didn't ruin his day and make a potential friend into one of those knee-jerk America-haters, or jerk American knee-haters, or any other kind of hater. Haters are no fun. Hatters, on the other hand, are all right - especially if they're mad. It's amazing how one little letter can make all the difference. Man, I love playing with this language!
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