At the Historic Lynwood Theatre

The image of movie-goers at Bainbridge Island's annual film festival is one of 42 portraits featured in "An Island in Time" (Timely Publications, $29.95). The book is Joel Sackett's exploration of his adopted home and community of neighbors, whose own words, as recorded by Candace Jagel, reveal a rich variety of perspectives on the same place. Sackett's book is at once a photographic journal and a unique portrait of the island at the start of the millennium. Sackett recalls how he made this picture:

For the fifth annual Celluloid Bainbridge Film Festival at the Historic Lynwood Theatre, the star attraction was the 3-D science-fiction classic "It Came From Outer Space." The 1953 film was introduced by island resident Russ Johnson, who co-starred in the movie as the county lineman kidnapped by aliens. But he is probably best known for his role as the professor in the 1960s TV series "Gilligan's Island."

Just before the start of the movie, as people in the audience put on their 3-D glasses, I hopped up onto the stage and asked everyone to hold still for a 2-second exposure. I said that in the old days, subjects routinely held still for long exposures, and the results were often eerie, which would be just fine for this shot. Technically, I was shooting on the edge of failure, so I was surprised that it turned out this well.