I know... "Dumbass!!"
If it was you, let me know.
The answer to the question is this: The camera is a Pentax SFXn. The reason the lights show up so brightly in contrast to everything else is because I used a very high aperture setting, F/22. This doesn't allow much light in. That combined with a long exposure (about 20 seconds) means that the bright lights register on the film, but the lower light areas don't register nearly as well.
In comparison, the same kind of shot with a more open aperture would look like this:
Not nearly as dramatic or interesting, right? This second shot was actually my first attempt at night photography. The better one up top was after looking at the results of this and trying for something a bit more interesting. Success, I feel.
