I'd driven down Sepulveda Blvd. numerous times, passing underneath this freeway junction of the 105 which connects to the 405, which is right behind LAX, and I decided to come back and shoot it w/Rollei Infrared, and take along w/my son JB, so we went back on a sunday and took a 'swing' at it.  JB wants to be a photographer and I was having fun having him along with me, but I'd forgotten about the fact that we were shooting under a freeway, right behind the airport, and I was quickly reminded of where we were by some serious 'stares' from the passing Airport Police.

     Having my son w/me, I'd considered just leaving rather than expose him to any acrimony, and I told my son why we needed to leave, and being a very precocious 9 yrs old, he said  'it was no big deal', so we stayed and shot.  Actually the police drove by, but never approached us, it seemed like they sensed it was 'father and son' spending time together, and after the initial stares, I believe there was some exhange between the airport police over the radios, and I got the feeling after a while that they did not consider us anything other than what we were, in any event, after approx. 20 minutes, they started to ignore us.

     I don't consider Rollei Infrared as an infrared film like Kodak Hie was a true infrared film, it was no where as fast as  Kodak Hie, even though the original ISO rating was 400(wishful thinking), in fact they changed the rating to 200ISO, and this is a bit closer to the films true speed.  Actually, I believe Rollei Infrared is simply about a stop faster than the original Maco infrared.

     From shooting this film, I have 2 concerns about it, it's consistency from batch to batch, and it's ability to keep its sensitivity to infrared over time(I freeze what I don't use, immediately after purchase).  Using an 89B filter, and bracketing between F6.3-F11 w/a shutter speed of 1/30, and then having the film souped in Xtol for 14 min. @70deg. seems to cover all the above concerns.  I shoot infrared film one way, on completely clear and sunny days w/no haze, this is because I don't bother using a meter, and I don't want to gamble w/an expensive film like this on overcast/wet/hazy days.

    If I were shooting w/the old Maco Infrared, the only thing I'd change from the above would be the shutter speed(to 1/15), shooting w/Kodak Hie, I'd be between F7.2-F11 @ 1/125 which never failed to produce the kind of results I prefer w/the faster Kodak film.

    At some point I'll be experimenting w/combining my Rollei film w/my portrait lenses in an effort to see if I can duplicate, after a fashion, the look of Kodak Hie, although I gotta tell you, I just love the sharp aspect of the Rollei film on the right subject matter w/my sharper lenses, I mean sharp for me, not supersharp like from the APO Wondergons that I don't shoot with.

    I had fun w/this shot, and my son wanted to fire the shutter for this shot, which he did, so you could say this is also his shot.  I had my cameras, and he had his camera, and many of the folks driving by were smiling at us from their cars as I was explaining to him what/how/why we were shooting the way we were shooting.  We took the shot between passing cars.

    Take care