A discussion of a photo I would like to be able to do someday

There is quite a bit of discussion about the
Colorful Street by =widjita on deviantARTthis photo on the Strobist Flickr site, and I do not want to lose these references.

Technically, the photo is quite difficult to do but it does need a few elements that seem useful and transferable to nighttime photography.

Picture
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
Shutter Speed: 1/25 second
F Number: F/2.0
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 320
Date Picture Taken: Sep 15, 2008, 8:26:32 PM

The metadata shows that this was taken with a very long exposure. This was most likely because the flash would not have sufficient power to light anything beyond the subject, so the long exposure was needed for the ambient light to make the background work. I suspect this is the same thing as using a slow sync flash setting.

Because the photo is shot with a full frame camera, this increases the amount of bokeh at any given aperture. While there is much debate over the relative merits of Dx vs Fx size sensors, one advantage of larger sensors is often overlooked, and that is that there is more bokeh out of a larger sensor. The bokeh is a primary reason for the excellence of this image.

Also, you will notice that the bokeh on the lights is quite large. This is due in large part because the photo was shot with a 200mm/f2.0 lens. Not only does this lens give a lot of reach, but because it is zooming at such a length, it compresses the distance between subjects in the foreground vs objects in the background. In effect, this makes the lights in the background look bigger and closer, and therefore the bokeh looks larger.

It is also important to maximize bokeh that the relationship between the distance between the camera and subject is much closer than the distance between camera and background. Basically, to maximize bokeh, get closer to the subject and leave the background as far away as possible