Happy Night Holidays

I've been working on some end-of-the-year and Christmas-stocking blog posts. But due to lots of seasonal obligations, I haven't been able to finish any of them.

(photo: Deborah Rourke)

Before anyone loses the post-Christmas spirit, I'd like to share this photograph with everyone. It was taken by Deborah Rourke. I was looking for a night photograph that captures the season spirit, without using the cliched photograph of a house overwhelmed by Christmas lights. I think this shot is wonderful because it has the traditional season icons of lights in the shape of a tree. Most importantly, it seems to capture the feeling of a comfortable home, but also a sense of isolation. I love that lone lightpost towards the end of the pier.

As for the holiday season blog posts that I've been working on, somehow I'll have to work them in to next year's non-seasonal posts. The next full moon is Wednesday, January 3rd. But I'll be traveling that week, so I probably won't shoot under the full moon in January (that just means I'll have to do at least one make-up shoot someother time in the year).

Setting Your Night Photography Goals

New Year’s is coming up very soon. It’s the time of year when many people set their resolutions for the upcoming year. But resolutions are just a wimpy form of proper personal goals. That’s why most people don’t follow through with them.

These are example of wimpy goals (Actually, they’re not even goals. They’re wishes):

“I’m going to get into shape this year”.

“I’m going to lose weight”.

These are not goals because the outcome is not defined in specifics. They’re also not measurable. They’re also not defined within a specific timeframe (they’re also usually not written down). If they don’t meet these three tests, they’re not good goals. That’s why they usually fail. Sorry for being so blunt.

Here’s another wimpy “goal”:

“I’m going to be a better photographer.”

This is kind of goal that comes from people who spend more time sitting around reading photography magazines than they spend shooting.

Now that I’ve got the Bah-Humbug stuff off my chest, let me come back down to Earth. Goal setting is simply one of the most powerful tools to help you accomplish things in life. Goal setting can make you into a better night photographer.

In Unlimited Power, Anthony Robbins presents some amazing evidence of long-term studies of people who live by goal-setting (you’ve probably seen Anthony Robbins on TV… He’s the giant guy with the huge white teeth who’s on informercials at 3 o’clock in the morning). In On Being A Photographer, David Hurn discusses the importance of designing a clearly-articulated “working plan” for photographers. In Letting Go of the Camera, Brooks Jensen talks about the importance of working towards clearly-defined, completable project goals. Jensen argues that if you don’t complete projects in the form of prints, a portfolio or a show, then you’re really just a a person who takes photographs, not a photographer.

(Anthony Robbins. This guy is *WAY* too wound up to be a
night photographer, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t
listen to what he says)

The gist of all of these books is that well-defined goals keep you focused on how to spend your time and energy, and they keep you moving towards one or more objectives. Well-defined goals must be written in terms of specific objectives (Bad: “I’m going to be a better night photographer”. Good: “I’m going to photograph at night at least once per month for the following year”); they must be constrained by a specific timeframe; and they must be measurable. For example, photographer’s goals might be defined in terms of photographing a specific set of locations, a specific number of times, over a specific period of time. They could be as simple as setting a goal of photographing one specific location that you’ve been putting off for the past five years.

(Goal #4: Spend one night in 2006 shooting Skaggs Island…
This one almost got me spending a night in jail)

Uber photographer/blogger Thomas Hawk has a great photography goal. It’s simple, clear, specific and measurable (knowing what I know about Thomas, he probably has even more specific goals, but this is all that he’s sharing with us):

“My statement as an artist is to outdo New York’s Little
Angel Angelo Rizzuto, who between 1952 and 1966 documented
New York City with over 60,000 photos.”

One of my goals for last year was to get my butt down to the abandoned army base Fort Ord (which I had been eyeing for seven years) and photograph it before it got demolished I gave myself until March 31, 2006 to complete this goal. In January, I contacted someone who seemed to be an expert on the area, got my butt down there, and spent a few afternoons shooting everything possible. Only a few months after I started visiting Fort Ord, the demolition seemed to move into high gear. By the end of this year, most of the base is now gone. Thank-you Anthony Robbins!

(Goal #13: Spend one night in 2006 photographingMare Island…
Three weeks after I wrote this goal, I got invited to join
The Nocturnes to swarm all over Mare Island shooting at night)

Another of my goals for 2006 was to complete a video interview with Steve Harper, and release the revised version of “Night of the Living Photographers”, as well as the entire interview of Steve, by the end of December. With less than two weeks left in December, the revised NOTLP was completed in October, and the entire interview video of Steve just went out to my staff of expert reviewers two days ago.

My point isn’t to drone on about all of the wonderful things I’ve accomplished in the past year. The truth is, most of them are only significant to me, and some of them I failed to accomplish. The point is that for me, working within a framework of year-by-year goals keeps me focused on working towards a few specific photography projects, and it prevents me from wasting my weekends thinking, “Hmm… what should I photograph today? Another cat?”

And if I haven’t put you all to sleep by now, I could share my photography goals for 2007. But then you’d probably never visit this blog again. It’s OK to keep your goals to yourself. The important thing is that you have them, that you use them, and that you stick to them.

Sutro Baths

Photographing Sutro Baths in San Francisco has always been a challenge for me. The remnants of Adolph Sutro's saltwater swimming pools can still be visited day and night. The cement foundation of the baths and some associated buildings are located right up against the seawall, just below the Cliff House restaurant. It's a photographer's dream. In fact, during the 1980's and '90's, it was one of the prime shooting locations for students of Steve Harper's classes at the Academy of Art College. I've tried to shoot at Sutro at night on five different occasions. Three of those occasions were ruined by bad weather. During the summer it's often cloudy, foggy, cold, damp and windy at night. It was only last year that I learned that the prime season for shooting at Sutro is the late Fall and early Winter. Most people who live in San Francisco already knew that, but I live forty miles south of the City.

("Sutro Hell", 2006)

I've only had two successful trips to Sutro at night. One was in October of 2005. The other was earlier this month (2006). On my last trip to Sutro I shot with Mark Jaremko. While Mark was conducting some side-by-side experiments to analyze dark frame subtraction on various high-end digital cameras, I spent most of the night reshooting a small cement staircase from different angles with a flashlight.

In the past, most of my gel-lighting night photography has been done with a hand-held flash. But over the past few months I've begun to really appreciate the advantages of working with a flashlight, instead of a flash. One advantage of the flashlight is that you can see how the angle of the light adds to or deletes the texture in the object (with a flash, I have to close my eyes and press the button, otherwise I'm blind for the next two or three minutes... I don't get to see the result until the exposure is complete). The other advantage of lighting with a flashlight is that I feel that I'm interacting with the subject. It's not quite as visceral as finger painting, but it's good enough to keep me entertained for the evening.

In the photograph above, the island in the distance is lit with the floodlights of the restaurant beyond the left frame. I lit the cement wall with a flashlight covered with a red gel. It took me a number of attempts before I found the best angle to point the flashlight in order to bring out the texture in the cement, without lighting up the standing area on top of the seawall. For me, the best part about using a flashlight in this shot was being able to control the amount of light on staircase in the upper-left.

The Holga Factor

It's easy to get caught on the "better equipment leads to better photographs" treadmill. Last weekend I was sorting out my camara closet. I may not have the best equipment, but I seem to have an awful lot of what I do have. Maybe I should think about upgrading my camera body? It works fine for me, but it is over four years old [sounds of shock fill the audience]. It's so old that readers don't even post messages to the DPReview forum about it anymore.

What's better than seeing an outstanding night photograph taken with a sub-$899 camera? The answer: seeing an outstanding night photograph taken with a sub-$20 camera!

(photo: Susanne Friedrich)

Joe Reifer posted this great shot of Sutro Baths taken by San Francisco night photographer Susanne Friedrich. As Joe points out, the Holga is a plastic medium format camera. The lenses quality is atrocious. That's why photographers love them.

William Gedney

A few years ago I came across the photography of William Gedney. Gedney worked from the 1950's through the 1980's traveling across the US photographing people in a name that reminded me of the FSA photographers during the Great Depression. Duke University has archived Gedney's photographs, which includes over 700 night photographs taken between 1954 and 1984.

(photo: William Gedney)

The Cross Country Night category also includes some additional shots of San Francisco. When I first visited this site a few years ago, the first San Francisco night photograph that I found was a shot of the coffee shop where fellow night photographer Mike Quinn had a permanent installation of his night photographs (strangely enough, I can't find that photograph on this website, anymore). Gedney considered calling his night series "The Single Future of the Night". The Duke university website also includes a lot of Gedney's personal writings.

Thanks to Consientious, once again, for reminding me about Gedney's website.

Jules Spinatsch

Jules Spinatsch has done some interesting work photographing snow at night. The project is called Snow Management, because it includes snowplows and snow-making machines that you find at ski resorts.

(photo: Jules Spinatsch)

Unfortunately, his work is presented in PDF format, not HTML, nor one of the HTML variants, such as PHP. PDF allows the artist to present his work looking more like a book, lets the reader print out the entire presentation, and prevents readers from downloading individual images. But it's also slow to download, and annoying to navigate through on a computer. But I give him credit for trying something different.

Found on Conscientious.

TOP Shows Us His Night Stuff

For years, Mike Johnston has been one of my A-list photography writers. For the past year he has been editing The Online Photographer, one of my three must-read daily photography blogs. My day doesn't get off to a good start if I can't read his blog while slurping down my morning coffee.

Today he shows us his night stuff.

(photo: Mike Johnston)

One of the great things about the internet is the ability to share photographs with photographers from all over the world. This means that we can see the world through their eyes. And it usually means that we can see the places that visit or where they live. Mike's shot is a great example of that. He lives in Wisconsin, and he gets snow. I live in California, and I don't get snow.

I wish I could photograph freshly-fallen snow at night. But, usually, I can't do that. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to see his freshly-fallen snow night photographs. Thanks for sharing it, Mike!

Anja Jensen

This morning, I was reading Joerg Colberg's wonderful photogrphy blog Conscientious, and I came across the German photographer Anja Jensen's work. Anja has done a lot of coreographed night photography which explores our sense of security (or lack of it, as Colberg points out).

(photo: Anja Jensen)

Her photographs are made to look like surveillance photographs, with carefully placed spotlights and some colored light thrown in for effect. Her website says that she used to work as a baggage screener at a local airport, so I guess she has a good sense of how pry into people's personal life with cameras.

In a way, I find her work slightly annoying. Primarily because it's an idea that I've been working on, myself. She beat me to it, and has a done a fine job of it. We'll see what I come up with now that I have to put my own twist on this idea.

Same Lighthouse... Different Angle

After posting my shot of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse Anniversary Lighting a few days ago, I also wanted to post a shot by a friend of mine, Roland Ruehl.

(photo: Roland Ruehl)

Roland is the person who told me about the anniversary lighting event at Pigeon Point. It always pays to let all of your friends and coworkers know about your peculiar photography interests. You never know when one of them will tell you about an interesting event or location that you never knew about.

A Real Lighthouse Light

Once a year, Pigeon Point Lighthouse (just north of Santa Cruz, CA) turns off the fake lighthouse light (an airplane beacon) and turns on the real Fresnel lens for two hours to celebrate the anniversary of the original lighting over 140 years ago.

For the first five minutes, they hold the lens stationary so that all the photographers "can take their digital masterpieces before processing them on the computer in PhotoShop" (so said the announcer). After the first five minutes, they let the lens rotate at its normal speed.

(photo: Andy Frazer)

This is exactly what it looked like during the first five minutes. No star-effect filter, and no PhotoShop tricks. I never realized that a real lighthouse light was a collection of multiple beams. This was necessary because they couldn't make the huge lenses rotate very fast with the old machinery.

Despite my heroic efforts to bracket adequately within the five minute window, this shot (the brightest of the bunch) was still underexposed, so it's a bit grainy.

Thanks to Roland Ruehl for letting me know about this event.

Andrew Emond

Many night photographers are fascinated with abandoned buildings. In most cases, the bigger and more industrial-looking, the better. Ironically, one of the most popular geographical areas to be a night photographer, the San Francisco Bay Area, has a rather limited availability of big, abandoned industrial sites. Part of our problem in the Bay Area is the stratospheric property values. Nothing goes abandoned here for very long. It's not unheard of to bulldoze a historical property in order to turn a few bucks.

Of course, abandoned industrial sites are more common is places that used to host large industrial economic bases, such as the Great Lakes region in the United States and Canada. Andrew Emond is one photographer who is producing an amazing body of work photographing abandoned power plants and factories around America's Rust Belt (especially Buffalo, New York ) and southeastern Canada.

(photo: Andrew Emond)

The photograph above of a grain elevator in Montreal, is just one of many great night shots from Andrew's photoblog Worksongs. Worksongs is not exclusively night photographs. He's an urban explorer extraordinaire. Many of his shots are taken during the day, and many are deep underground where there's no light of day. But there are many night shots available on his site, such as the one above, all of which are well-executed.

It almost makes me want to pack up my tripod and cable release, and do a road trip up that part of the country(ies).

Night Photography Historians

Only one reader noticed an obvious historical inaccuracy in my previous post about Bill Brandt.

I incorrectly wrote that Brandt's nighttime images of the blacked out London during WWII were published in 1938. But only Fotoholik pointed out that WWII didn't start until 1939.

I looked into this a little further. Brandt's book A Night in London was published in 1938. But his photographs of London during the blackout were, obviously, not included in that book. St. Paul's Cathedral was taken in 1942. So, now the question is, in what book were his WWII photographs published? I don't know.

If anyone knows, please let me know.

Bill Brandt

It is part of the photographer’s job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time or of the traveler who enters a strange country. " -Bill Brandt, 1948

Many night photographers like to work in dark locations, far away from city street lights. Someday I hope to be so famous that I'll be able to call up the mayor of any city in the United States and request that they shut off the power to the entire city for a hours so that I can get that once-in-a-lifetime full moon illumination of downtown sites.

But until that happens, I'll have to be satisfied with the occasional city-wide power outage (which only seem to happen under stormy skies).

But, what if you had the opportunity to shoot downtown night after night with not artificial light?

(St Paul's Cathedral in the Moonlight. photo: Bill Brandt)

Bill Brandt had that opportunity in London during WWII. Brandt was German photographer who lived most of his life in Britain. He worked from the 1930's through the 1960's, producing some landmark work of British society and distored, black-and-white nudes. But his most interesting work was done at night under cover of the mandatory black-outs.

During WWII, radar was in its infancy, and satellite tracking systems such as GPS did not exist. Bombing pilots had to be able to see their targets, so the British government required all lights to be turned off at night. That included building lights, street lights, headlights and house lights. My grandmother remembered how the goverment even delivered thick, black curtains to everyone in London in order block the glow of gas lanterns inside the house. Imagine that: the entire city of London in total darkness... night after night.

Possibly inspired by Brassai's night photographs of Paris, Bill Brandt produced a series of seedy night photographs in A Night in London (1938), which can be had for little more than the price of a full-frame DSLR. A few years later, during WWII, Brandt seized the opportunity and produced some amazing photographs of bombed out London at night, such as St Paul's Cathedral in the Moonlight (above).

I've never seen a real copy of A Night in London. And the photo above is the only shot from the book that I've ever seen in reprint. If anyone has any links to more photos from this book (or, if anyone actually has this book), please let me know.

Practice Sometimes Pays Off

When I began focusing my attention on night photography six years ago, I vowed to go out shooting once every full moon. I figured that would get me out twelve times per year, or sixty times over the next five years. And I figured that sixty night photography excursions would make me into some hot stuff.

Then one day I compared my plan to that of some world-class artists. Picasso painted every day. Professional ballerinas practice every day, as do the musicians down in "the pit". PGA tour golfers go out and practice every day, even immediately after picking up their awards for winning a major tournament. Would Eddie Van Halen have gotten to where he is if he only practiced his arpeggio hammers and pull-offs once a month? Years ago I took a workshop on writing a novel. The instructor told us that if you can't commit to writing something every day, you didn't have a chance of ever getting published.

I decided that if I wanted to really improve at night photography, I had to get out there and shoot more than once a month. In fact, I realized it's also better to experiment with new lighting techniques and new equipment in between the full moons, when shooting time is a premium.

(Peterson Field, Sunnyvale)

When I get restless on a weeknight, and when I only have about one hour of free time, I often go down to the only marginally-interesting location near my home. It's a recreation field next to a local middle school (often refered to as a junior high school in some parts of the country). It's big enough to get away from direct streetlight, and the old dugouts and bleachers are better than nothing to photograph. Add to the fact that it may get bulldozed to make room for townhomes, I feel like I can't take enough photographs of this place.

(Peterson Field, Sunnyvale)

I've probably got more digital photographs of Peterson Field than anyone else. Not only have I been able to practice some things that would have otherwise wasted my precious full moon shooting time, but sometimes I actually get a shot that I really like.

The shot with the orange sky was taken during a short break between the rain. I was sitting home drooling over other night photographers' websites, and I was getting restless. It was also a few months after I started shooting with my first digital camera. I just wanted to shoot something other than the recycling bins in my backyard. Small puffy clouds were racing overhead, and I tried to not let the poison of the sodium vapor light bother me. And I got lucky. A large version of that shot hung in the Sunnyvale Public Safety Office for over a year. It also hung in the hallway of my previous employer for half a year (it would still be there if the company hadn't gone out of business).

The shot of the inside of the dugout was taken a few months ago when, as usual, I got restless one weeknight. I had been thinking about working more with a bare flashlight instead of a gel-covered flash, and I just wanted to experiment with a few lighting angles. I took about fifteen shots in just over an hour. Two night photographers, whose opinions I greatly respect, each told me they though it was one of the best shots I'd ever taken.

So whenever I think about how I've consistently been shooting that whopping twelve times per year, I just ask myself what's my excuse for not shooting those other 355 nights that year?

The Mother Road

U.S. Route 66 seems to have captured the imagination of many night photographers.

On Wednesday, November 8 at 9:00pm, KTEH in San Francisco is going to air the film "The Mother Road", which celebrates Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. If you don't live in the San Francisco Bay Area, "check your local listings", as they say.

Vegas Valley Book Fair

Bay Area night photographer Troy Paiva will be participating in the fifth annual Vegas Valley Book Festival this weekend. They will be (their quotes) "celebrating the written, spoken and illustrated word. Located in the heart of the downtown Las Vegas Arts District, this free literary and arts event includes two full days of readings, book discussions, workshops, and spoken word performances." Other writers scheduled to be there include Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), Chuck Klosterman (Columnist with SPIN, Esquire etc.) and many other writers and artists not named Chuck.

(photo: Troy Paiva)

On saturday the 4th, Troy will be part of a panel discussion where they'll be talking about "American Icons, Language and Landscape." He will also be doing a digital slide presentation, too.

231 W. Charleston #110 from 3-4:30. Click here for more (but minimal) information.

And while he's in Las Vegas, he'll also be giving a presentation/lecture at the Las Vegas Art Institute on Friday, November 3rd, from 3 to 4:30PM. He'll be doing a digital slide presentation and talking about his technique, locations and whatever else you want to talk about.

The Art Institute of Las Vegas
2350 Corporate Circle
Henderson, Nevada

All you Las Vegas night shooters are invited to stop by and say "Hello".

Flash? Or no Flash?

Although most night photographs spend most of their time shooting old buildings, beaches and smokestacks, sooner or later we'll all be in the position where we need to photograph people at night. Sometimes it's just for a snapshot, other times it may be art. The million dollar question becomes, "Should I use a flash?"

On one hand, a flash solves two of the biggest problems at night: it provides lots of light, and lets you work at a faster shutter speed. On the other hand, reckless use of a flash washes out everyone's features, and sometimes makes the subjects' eye bright red. It's a question that we all ask ourselves everytime we push that ON button on the back of the flash.

This morning, a coworker sent me the below photograph. It's one of the best side-by-side examples that I've ever seen of the difference shooting with flash, and without flash:

(photo: Unknown "artist" from MyConfinedSpace.com....sorry!)

Happy Hallowe'en!

Troy Paiva Show at Montclair Gallery

Troy Paiva is on a roll this month. In addition to his participation in the group show at Mae's Coffee House in Berkeley, he will also be part of the group show "Wheels" at the Montclair Gallery in Oakland, CA (1986 Mountain Boulevard).

(photo: Troy Paiva)

The "Wheels" show opens October 28th from 3-5pm, and runs through December 2. The theme is automotive photography. Troy's work will include his great night photography of battered cars littered in junkyards.

Studio Nocturne - This Weekend

Today I stopped by Studio Nocturne at Fort Mason in San Francisco, CA. Thirteen photographers associated with The Nocturnes were displaying and selling their artwork as part of the larger San Francisco Open Studios.

(Marina Room, Studio Nocturne)

It's always fun to hookup with artists who share the same passion that you do. Along with some night photographers whom I shoot with almost every month, it's also a great chance to visit some other photographers whom I only see once a year (that "once a year" usually refers to the Studio Nocturne weekend).

The weather was beautiful, and Fort Mason is conveniently located next to the Marina district of San Francisco. If you get there around noon, you can beat the larger crowds that usually arrive later in the afternoon.

Last Reminder for Studio Nocturne

If you're in the Bay Area, dont' forget to stop by at Studio Nocturne at Bldg A, Fort Mason, Saturday and Sunday (Oct 21st and 22nd) to see thirteen Bay Area night photographers display their work. All of the artists will have some work available for purchase.

I'll be hanging out there all day Saturday. I'll even be "guarding the door" (actually, I'll be a greeter, just like at Wal-Mart). So, come by and say "Hello". Fort Mason is a very picturesque location on the Bay. Greens Restaurant is less than one hundred yards away, and admission is Free.

Perpendicularity

Another talented Bay Area night photographer, Joe Reifer, recently launched his personal blog Perpendicularity.

I've been shooting at night with Joe for almost two years. Last year, Joe was instrumental in bringing together many old and new night photographers in the Bay Area. Some of these photographers brought a level of enthusiasm to the party that really seems to have invigorated the Bay Area night photography community.

(Unauthorized photo of Joe Reifer, by Susanna Friedrich)

A few months after I first met Joe, he arranged for a few of us to have the opportunity to photograph Preston Castle at night. Not only had I never shot there before, but I had never even heard of Preston Castle. I also thank Joe for introducing me to my favorite online photo-sharing site (Flickr!), my favorite digital processing lab for inexpensive proofs (WHCC), and for giving me advice that ultimately saved me $150 when I bought a new flash last summer. If I keep going, he'll probably get a big head. So I'll stop right here with the accolades.

(Preston Castle photo: Andy Frazer. Million thanks: Joe Reifer)

Perpendicularity will cover many topics in addition to photography: including music, techie toys and, knowing Joe, camera equipment. But knowing Joe's passion for night photography, I'm sure there will be plenty of nocturnal news, too.

Joe will also be participating in Studio Nocturne this weekend at Fort Mason, in San Francisco, CA. Studio Nocturne will include night photography by thirteen photographers. I will not be displaying any of my work at Studio Nocturne, but I will be hanging around on Saturday (October 21). Admission is free.

Troy Paiva Show at Mae's Coffeehouse

Troy Paiva will be showing some of his new night work of the airplane graveyards at Mae's Coffeehouse in Berkeley, CA (2117 Shattuck Rd) as part of the "Oh, The Places You'll Go" show.

(photo: Troy Paiva)

The show will also feature work from Don Alderon, Juri Koll, Khalil Robinson, Jill Schneider and Ketan Anajara. The opening is Thursday, October 12 at 6pm.

Juliane Eirich

When I was reading one of my favorite photography blogs, Conscientious, this morning, I came across the German photographer Juliane Eirich. She has a lot of night photography under her Architecture and Landscapes links.

(photo Juliane Eirich)

Joerg Colberg, the editor of Conscientious, wrote "Unlike many other night-time photographers, she doesn't go for illumiated scenes - which then often just look gimmicky. But, instead, looks for something else."

Putting aside his comment about "looking gimmicky", I have to disagree with his second comment. Actually, the majority of her night shots were taken in illuminated scenes. The Night in Bavaria Trees seems to be the exception, rather than the rule. Still, the Schools and Construction Sites galleries display the popular trend in German photography which includes very simple, straight-forward scenes, often devoid of people.

Correction: Joerg told me that his comment about "illuminated scenes" refered to neon lights and spotlights, not ambient nighttime lighting.

SF Open Studios

It's October! And October is the month for San Francisco Open Studios. This is when thousands of artists of all media in San Francisco open their homes and their galleries to the public. It's a great way to discover new art talent, and view many different artists on the same day.

(Studio Nocturne, 2004)

Open Studios is organized by weekend. Each participating artist is usually assigned one weekend slot to open their gallery. Of particular interest to night photographers, and collectors of night photographs, will be Weekend #3 (Oct 21 & 22), when 13 Bay Area night photographers will display their work at Studio Nocturne.

Studio Nocturne will be located in Bldg A at Fort Mason. Admission is free.

In the "Holy Cow" Category

With digital technology moving at the speed of Moore's Law, every so often you hear about some new digital gizmo that makes you think "Holy Cow! I need this for night photography!". Here are two things I spotted in the announcements from Photokina in Cologne, Germany over the past few days.

#1: There's nothing worse than changing a piece of equipment in the dark, such as a flash card, and then losing it. Well, according the nice people at DPReview.com, SanDisk has announced a pair of new high-speed Extreme III compact flash cards capable of storing up to 16GB! At the speed I shoot night photographs, I could probably work for two weeks on just one of those cards. Of course, it probably costs more than my camera did when the camera was new. Maybe someday it will get down to the $49.99 price point.

#2: Most 35mm-class photographers drool over the quality of medium format images. But medium format digital backs are currently suffering from 1). sticker shock, and 2). only limited offerings can support the long exposures required by that most elite group of fine art photographers: the night shooters. Phase One MF backs seem to be able to handle problem #2. And now, according to the equally nice people at the Luminous Landscape, the new Phase One Plus backs can support exposure times of one hour at 15C, and 4-5 hours at 0C. There's no word on who's going to provide the battery that lasts 4-5 hours at 0C, but if you can afford the $20k+ price tag for the digital back, you can probably afford $30 for a three-pronged 100-foot extension cord at Home Depot. On the other hand, 0C (that's 32F for our American visitors...) might be too cold to shoot at night anyway, so it might be a moot point.

Another Night Photography Blog???

It's true! After hosting the world's premier on-line resource for night photography for ten years, The Nocturnes now have their own night photography blog.

(photo: Tim Baskerville)

For years Tim has been actively teaching college-level night photography courses and workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Los Angeles, the eastern Sierras, Joshua Tree National Park, Cape Cod, and even Ireland. In addition to organizing numerous public exhibitions of night photography, and hosting the best on-line resource of night photography material, he has now joined the blogosphere. So, now he's all set.

In fact, last July Tim was kind enough to arrange for me to videotape a meeting with pioneering night photographer Steve Harper. This material will be available next month in the next installment of my night photography documentary film The Night of the Living Photographers

Along with the Nighthawks and this blog, the night photography universe has three blogs.

Thomas Weinberger

Although many "day photographers" have never tried shooting at night, most night photographers do a lot of productive shooting during the day. It's just that we don't share as many of our day photography on the internet. Although I'm always looking for subjects that would make great night photographs, it's not unusual to find a particular location that looks better during the day. And sometimes, I can't decide if it looks better during the day, or if it looks better during the night.

How is one supposed to resolve such Earth-shattering questions without sending humanity, as we know it, on a downward spiral from which it will never recover?

(photo: Thomas Weinberger)

Thomas Weinberger has one answer. Using a large-format camera, he exposes each negative twice from the same angle: one exposure during the day, and one exposure during the night. This gives his images an eerie effect that looks like a night photograph... but doesn't... sort of.

Thanks to Conscientious for the link.

The Ultimate Junkyard

Night photographers love abandoned places full of junk. One of the most intriguing junkyards are the airplane "graveyards" in Arizona and the Mojave Desert.

(photo: Joe Reifer)

Earlier this month, while many other Nocturnes were sneaking through an overgrown abandoned Naval base and evading security guards in the middle of the night, Joe Reifer and Troy Paiva did some shooting at the airplane salvage yard in the Mojave. A short review of this trip is available on Mike Johnston's The Online Photographer, along with links to each of Troy's and Joe's photographs from this trip.

(photo: Troy Paiva)

I was planning on publishing this article yesterday, but Mike beat me to it. That's OK, though, because his blog really is one of the most important photography sites on the internet. If you're not already reading TOLP, as he likes to call it, you should be.

Burning Man... Where's the Art?

Every year, tens of thousands of people converge on a desert in northwest Nevada for the annual Burning Man festival. Featuring huge combustible sculptures, bright lights and music, the event attracts a particularly large proportion of artists and artsy types. Naturally, you would expect that all that artistic talent feeding off each others' mojos in such a visually-appealing location would create some great photographs, right?

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case.

For years, I've combed through hundreds (no, thousands) of Burning Man photographs on the internet, looked at many photographs that my friends brough back, and I even visited (with disbelief) an exhibit of Burning Man prints hosted by a group that was very closely associated with the central coven of B.M. organizers. With the exception of some of Susanne Friedrich's daytime portraits, I feel very safe to say that most of the canon of Burning Man photos out there are nothing more than snapshots. Some of them are very nice snapshots, but they ain't art. Maybe there is too much artistic mojo at that place? Or, maybe, they're having too much fun doing other things to create art. But if there's good work out there, they're doing a good job of hiding it.

So, now that I've probably offended ten percent of the population of San Francisco, I want to say that I was eagerly looking forward to seeing what Bay Area night photographer Lane Hartwell was going to return with from this year's Burning Man.

(photo: Lane Hartwell)

We were not disappointed. These were my two favorite photographs of Lane's from Burning Man. What strikes me the most about these two is that it seems that she stepped back and carefully thought about both of them. The above shot says to me that it was taken in a very special place. The shot below says to me that there was something magical going on out there.

Snapshots, as a point of comparison, don't say anything other than "I was there".

(photo: Lane Hartwell)

I'd like to add that I have nothing against Burning Man. It's seems like a great event, and I wish I could attend some year. And I have nothing against the gizillion people who have taken photographs at Burning Man and posted them on the internet or put them out for public display. But if you know of a cache of any other really good BM photos, let me know. I really would love to see them.

Adding Revelation

Ken Tanaka has an interesting essay on the wonderful Online Photographer blog titled What the Photographer Adds is Revelation. His point is that a photograph of a man-made object can add interest above and beyond the intent of the original designer/architect/artist if the photographer interprets the building through a different frame of reference, or different lighting.

I think his point about shooting a common-place object under different lighting is one of the key values of night photography. There are probably more daytime photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge than we'll ever need (until it starts to fall apart), but a photograph of (even) the Golden Gate Bridge at night adds a completely new perspective to an old subject.

(photo: Andy Frazer)

Some people might disagree that we already have too many night photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge. That may be so. But if I was under the gun to make an interesting photograph of something that's been done to death before, I would still opt to shoot it at night.

David Fokos

If you attended PhotoSF last month in San Francisco, you probably noticed the huge 36" and 48" b/w night photographs of David Fokos. David says that he uses long exposures to filter out the "visual noise" of everyday life.

(photo: David Fokos)

You can read more about his philosophy of long exposures here.

(photo: David Fokos)

Noise Reduction in Post-Processing

A few weeks ago, Joe Reifer published the results of some Canon 5D in-camera noise reduction tests that he had done.

While the 5D, and many other DSLR's, can remove long exposure noise by using an in-camera dark frame, it's also possible to perform a similar process in post-processing (i.e., in PhotoShop). This is especially useful if your DSLR does not have the ability to do in-camera noise reduction.

Back in 2004, Jeff Medkeff published an article titled "Using Image Calibration to Reduce Noise in Digital Images". Along with his great explanation of the different types of noise in digital images, he gives a very clear outline of how to photograph a dark frame in the field, and how to use the dark frame to remove digital noise using PhotoShop. Since my DSLR doesn't support in-camera noise reduction, I've been using this technique for the past year, and it has worked great.

If anyone would like to do some experiments to compare in-camera noise reduction against this post-processing approach, I'd love to hear what you learn.

William Fraser

Who is William Fraser? Although he's no relative of mine (my last name is spelled with a "z", not an "s"), we both share an interest in night photography. Or, maybe I should say, "shared" an interest in night photography.

(photo: William Fraser)

William Fraser took one of the earliest night photographs that I found for my night photography documentary film. The above photograph, A Wet Night: Columbus Circle, was taken around 1897 or 1898. Aside from being one of earliest artful night photographs, I love this image because it captures the cold, damp feel of the night (and it predates Brassai's brilliant foggy Parisian night work by 30 years).

I have no information on the size of the print, nor the medium he used to photograph it. If anyone can point me to any information about William Fraser, I would appreciate it.

"Summer Nights" Reception Party is Tonight!

Just a reminder that the reception party for the "Summer Nights" show of night photography at the Blue Plum Gallery (41 Arkansas St) in San Francisco is tonight (Saturday, August 19th) at 7pm. The show runs through the end of August, and includes work by Marc Babsin, Tim Baskerville, Andy Frazer, Susanne Friedrich, Mark Interrante, Mark Jaremko and Michael Koerner.

(Collapsed carport in an abandoned Naval base)

Night Photography Show in San Mateo, CA

A few Bay Area night photographers have a show of their work at the San Mateo City Hall ( 330 West 20th Avenue, San Mateo, CA) through Sept 6, 2006. City Hall is only open 9-5 Monday through Friday (which SF_Buckaroo pointed out is a bit ironic for a night photography show).

(photo: Lane Hartwell)

The show features work from Todd Friedlander, Lane Hartwell, Mark Jaremko, Joe Reifer, Greta Schnetzler and John Vias.

Support your local city government (and night photographers) and drop by.

Meteors

One aspect of night photography that never fails to surprise me is how unexpected things show up in your photographs after you've finished shooting, returned home, and either downloaded or processed your shots. These gremlins find their way into your shots because it's so difficult to see clearly through the viewfinder at night. One friend of mine had a reputation for unexpectedly capturing orange construction cones in his shots. Sometimes this phenomenon can ruin a shot. Other times, something unexpected can improve a shot.

(photo: Andy Frazer)

Last week I was south of Mono Lake in a burned out forest of Jeffrey pines shooting star trails. I remember seeing at least three or four shooting starts per night, but none of them were either within range of my camera, nor appearing while I had my shutter open. In fact, when I was at Olmstead Point, I had just finished a twelve-minute exposure when an awesome meteor skipped and streaked across the sky right in front of my lens. I missed that one by about ten seconds.

But, this morning I was looking through some of my photographs from the weekend and I noticed that one of them had caught a shooting star. That was the first time it ever happened for me!

(close-up of the previous shot)

With more than 30 people shooting over four nights, I wonder if any other photographers are going to discover shooting starts in their shots?

In-Camera Noise Reduction

Night photographers seem to be fascinated with how different digital cameras perform under long exposures. The goal has always been to find how long the camera can shoot before it introduces noise. In fact, I jumped over to the Dark Side four years ago with the D60 because it seemed to be the first digital SLR that could shoot clean images longer than 30 seconds. Today, the D60's four-minute limit pales in comparison with it's successors.

There seem to be six popular approaches to solving the problem of long exposure digital noise.

1. Keep the exposures short.
2. Keep the camera as cool as possible without freezing it.
3. Use noise reduction post-procssing software, such as Noise Ninja.
4. Use in-camera dark frame subtraction
5. Use dark frame subtraction in post-processing
6. Keep buying the latest and greatest cameras.

(photo: Joe Reifer)

At the Night Photography Conference at Mono Lake last week, Joe Reifer and Mark Jaremko conducted some long exposure tests with the Canon EOS 5D and the 1DsMk2.

Joe has posted some interesting findings of the 5D noise reduction on the Nocturnes Message Board. We can only hope that a 1DsMk2 report will be forthcoming, too.

Night Photography Conference at Mono Lake

I've just returned from the Night Photography Conference at Mono Lake for large format photographers, environmental nude photographers and, obviously, night photographers. This workshop was hosted by Lance Keimig, Tim Baskerville and Tom Paiva, and marked the 15th anniversary of "The Nocturnes" night photography exhibit in San Francisco in 1991.

Over the past four days and nights, more than 30 photographers enjoyed some great workshops, presentations and slide shows, as well as took time to photograph the tufas at Mono Lake, Olmstead Point in Yosemite, the remains of a recent forest fire south of Mono Lake, and a nearby ranch. But the high point for many people was shooting at Bodie Ghost Town under a full moon.

(photo: Joe Reifer)

We also enjoyed a luncheon in honor of Steve Harper, the first person to teach a college-level course in night photography. Steve gave us a great slide show of his night photography work, much of which was done back in the 1970's and 80's. He also talked about much of his ground-breaking work to characterize different films and development processes (that's chemical development... this was before digital cameras and PhotoShop) for night photography.

Aside from the great weather, there were only a few minor problems. One photographer got his huge truck stuck in some sand at 2AM (AAA told him to call back at 8AM, after the sun came up). A second photographer left his cellphone at Bodie (and also suffered a minor bout with food poisoning). And one seasoned photographer (who should have known better) showed up with a digital camera and no battery recharger! I'll probably think of a few more incidents tomorrow, but right now I'm dead tired after suffering from four days of sleep deprivation, and then driving into the sun for the seven hours.

I'm going post a link to some of the photographs once they get uploaded, and a Flickr tag is agreed upon.

Alcatraz "Night" Photography Trip

Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto, CA, is hosting a photography workshop on Alcatraz on October 10, 2006. The brochure mentions an opportunity to do night photography on Alcatraz. However, the trip only lasts until 9:00pm, so it's not clear how much night photography you'll be able to do before the last ferry boat leaves the island.

Also, the brochure mentions an "82% full moon". But according to the US Naval Observatory website, moonrise is at precisely 9:00pm that night. So, it's not clear to me how much of the moon you'll see until you get back on the ferry boat.

I won't be able to make this trip. But if anyone out there makes it, please send me a link to your best night shots and I'll post them on this blog.

(Thanks to Joe Reifer for pointing out the late moonrise schedule).

Mark Jaremko

Another Bay Area night photographer, Mark Jaremko, recently updated his website of night photographs. Like all night photographers, Mark is a great person to shoot with, and regularly produces some beautiful work. Mark likes to work on the "bleeding edge" of 35mm digital technology which gives him the ability to create super high resolution prints. It's always good to know someone who is taking higher resolution images than you are. It keeps your mind busy planning your "toy path" for the next few years.

(photo: Mark Jaremko)

In October, Mark will be participating in the Nocturnes gallery at the San Francisco Open Studios once again. He is also participitating in the Canvas Gallery's Open Studios preview running right now.

Canvas Gallery: John Vias

In October, a number of Nocturnes will participate in San Francisco Open Studios and display their work at the Fort Mason Center. This month, the Canvas Gallery in San Francisco will host a preview exhibition for this year's SF Open Studios. Night photographer John Vias will be one of the eight artists who was chosen for this show!

(photo: John Vias)

The show runs through August 20th. Unfortunately, due to a screwup on my part, I'm posting this after the reception. But you can still stop by and see the show. Canvas is located at 1200 - 9th Ave (at Lincoln), San Francisco, across the street from Golden Gate Park in the Sunset District.

"Summer Nights" Content

Tim Baskerville has posted an on-line gallery of the photographs that are included in the "Summer Nights" show at the Blue Plum Gallery (41 Arkansas St, San Francisco) through the month of August.

(photo: Mark Jaremko)

Obviuosly, the real prints look much better than the thumbnails. So, plan on coming to the reception/party on August 19th at 7pm.

"Summer Nights" at the Blue Plum Gallery

Seven photographers will be displaying night photographs at the Blue Plum Gallery (41 Arkansas St) in San Francisco from July 28 through the end of August. The show will include work by Marc Babsin, Tim Baskerville, Andy Frazer, Susanne Friedrich, Mark Interrante, Mark Jaremko and Michael Koerner.

(photo: Andy Frazer)

I dropped off my photographs this morning, and I was very impressed with the location: high ceilings, long walls and lots of floorspace. Unfortunately, I was one of the first people to drop off work and I had to rush back to my day gig, so I didn't have a chance to see what the other artists will be exhibiting.

The reception party will be Saturday night, August 19th at 7pm.

Susanne Friedrich

I've been shooting at night with Susanne Friedrich for about four years. I first met her on an overnight trip to Angel Island, sponsored by the Nocturnes. While most of the photographers were showing off their Hassleblad's and high-end 35mm cameras, Susanne was carrying around a pair of $20 Holgas (medium format "toy" cameras) wrapped up with electrical tape. Looking through a Holga lens is a bit like looking through the bottom of a glass Coke bottle. Their manufacturing defects are their charm.

(photo: Susanne Friedrich)

Although Susanne uses a Hasselblad for her professional work, she often uses the Holgas to create some beautiful night photographs with a pictorialist.

(photo: Susanne Friedrich)

Susanne is a professional portrait photographer and web designer. She has designed websites for many night photographers, including the Nocturnes and Lance Keimig's TheNightSkye.

How To Light Paint

Troy Paiva first got me interested in night light painting seven years ago. One of the most prolific light painters who credit Troy as an influence is Larrie Thomson of Canada. Today, I came across the following magazine article by Seam McCormick, who credits Larrie Thomson not only for his inspiration, but for actually taking him along on a night shooting trip and showing him how to do it (he also thanks Troy in the article for creating this niche artform).

(photo: Sean McCormick)

If you've never tried light painting at night, this article will be especially helpful because Sean explains exactly how many flashes he fired at each point in the subject (note: the article describes how he photographed an old truck and an old building, not the bridge ab0ve).

How to Be Creative

A few months ago I read an interesting article in Lenswork Magazine. The article was titled "How to Be Creative". It was written by work-at-home marketing/PR guywho is using his blog, The Gaping Void, to promote a small South African winery called Stormhoek.

(copyright Hugh MacLeod)

Aside from his interesting ideas about creativity, and how to reconcile your art with your "day gig", I found his whole blog and some of his marketing ideas to be fascinating. In fact, his ideas were the main reason that I began this blog. One of his beliefs is to give information away on a regular basis in order to build trust from your audience. That's why the creativity article is on-line, in its entirety.

(copyright Hugh MacLeod)

I would recomend any artist (even the most elite of artists: the night photographers) to read this article, and take some time to browse through Hugh's blog (and, just maybe, try his client's wine).