Joergen Geerds

Recently I've been trying to combine my interest in night photography with my interest in panorama landscapes. Many photographers have access to PhotoShop CS3, which includes a reasonably good tool to automatically stitch individual frames into panoramas. Although panorama junkies often prefer to use more high-end stitching tools such as PTGui.

Today I stumbled across the site of Joergen Geerds, a New York photographer who specializes in panoramic photography, especially night panoramas of New York City.

(Upper West Side Backyards, by Joergen Geerds)

And in the interest of good karma, Joergen's site also includes a helpful description of his equipment and his working process.

Mark Jaremko: Night Photographers and the Critical Mass

Photo Lucidia Critical Mass is an annual photography contest where 175 finalists are selected to compete for one of three book awards. One of the interesting things about the Photo Lucidia programs is the calibre of the jurors. The Critical Mass finalists go on to be judged by 200 of the world's best editors, curators and professionals. Not only can you win a book deal, but you can get your work directly exposed to the biggies in the industry.

The list of this year's finalists has been announced. I noticed at least two night photographers in the list; one is Amanda Friedman (who I blogged about just last week), and the other is Bay Area night photographer Mark Jaremko.

(Photo by Mark Jaremko)

Mark's night photographs often focus on the details in the horizon. He's also a bit of an expert on the comparitive differences of digital cameras at night. When I wrote my long exposure review of the Canon 40D, he called me and immediately asked me to put my new camera in the refrigerator; take a 30-minute dark frame exposure; and send it to him. Regrettably, I never finished that experiment (Sorry, Mark). Mark has often presented this fascinating data some of The Nocturnes night photography workshops in San Francisco.

If there are any other night photographers on the list, please let me know and I'll post it, right here.

Amanda Friedman

While reading J. Wesley Brown's blog We Can Shoot Too, I came across the night photography of Amanda Friedman, an L.A.-based editorial photographer. Amanda seems to have an affinity for shooting in the fog at night, which has always been a favorite approach of mine. Keep an eye out for an interview with Amanda on Wesley Brown's blog in the near future.

("The Gorge #3, WA", by Amanda Friedman)

There's quite a bit of great night photography work on her site, so please take the time to check it out. Amanda also has her own blog, which features quite a bit of night landscape and fashion photography.

Gerald Forster: Nocturnal

One Bay Area night photographer, who I won't name at the moment, told me that he once placed an ad online for a male and female model to model nude for an outdoor night photography project. At some point in the middle of the shoot, the couple started getting freaky with each other. I don't know if they charged him extra for that. I doubt it because I think this was a T.F.P. arrangement. But I'm not sure.

And that digression brings me to Gerald Forster's new book, Nocturnal:

"In my latest art project Nocturnal I have created intimate, sexually charged scenarios between diverse couples within the context of elaborate and oddly disconcerting landscapes. Each photograph is a nuanced study in the divided nature of human intimacy..."

(Nocturnal #11, by Gerald Forster)

Nocturnal is available from Photo-Eye for $300, and includes one of three limited edition 8"x10" prints from the book.

J. Wesley Brown

J. Wesley Brown's website features color night photography. Some of his work has a nice Gregory Crewdson feel to it.

(Photo by J. Wesley Brown)

Photographing Fire Performers: Part 1 of 3

Last month I photographed three members of the Santa Cruz fire performance troupe Nocturnal Sunshine. The term "fire performers" includes fire spinners, fire dancers, fire swallowers and a host of other fire-based performance arts. Fire performance photography is be a great way to combine night photography with the chance to photograph people and take advantage of the beautiful ambient light from the fire performers' props. The fact that very few people seem to have seriously pursued fire performance photography is also a plus.

The California Bay Area is home to many fire performance groups. This may be because the Bay Area is also home to the annual Burning Man Festival, which features many professional and impromptu fire spinning events. Earlier this year I came across the work of two local fire performance photographers: Wildermar Horwart and Tristan Savatier. I soon started photographing some friends and co-workers who spun fire, then I worked up to public events, such as the Crucible Fire Festival, and eventually to private shoots with local professional troupes.

So, back to Nocturnal Sunshine... the photograph below was taken near the beach. For all of my shots, I used the ambient light from the poi for stationary shots, and added an off-camera flash covered with an amber gel for motion shots (the burning poi rarely give off enough light to shoot faster than about 1/30th of second). Below is an example of a stationary shot using only the light from the fire hoop.

(Rebecca with a Fire Hoop, by Andy Frazer)

I was able to pull this one off at 1/60th at f/1.8 at ISO 200. Below is more of a posed portrait shot of Briana using only the light from the caterpiller on her arms, which I shot at ISO 1600:

(Briana with the Fire Caterpiller, by Andy Frazer)

Below is a shot Julie with a fire umbrella (yeah, I'd never heard of a fire umbrella, either...). Like the earlier shot with the fire hoop, I was able to shoot this at ISO 200 because the umbrella gave off so much light (just count how many burning poi are on her umbrella), although I also added an off-camera flash to open up some of the shadows from the poi.

(Julie with the Fire Umbrella, by Andy Frazer)

The ladies of Nocturnal Sunshine were thoughtful enough to use a special mixture of fuel which burns brighter than normal fire spinning fuel, although it also burns out faster. Since the fuel burns out after about one minute, I found it necessary to shoot with auto exposure and continually check the viewfinder readout and the histogram while I was shooting (neither of which I normally do). When you're photographing people holding fast-burning fuel, you only have a few second to set-up, meter and fiddle with your exposure. Shooting the motion shots with the help of an off-camera flash was, in some ways, even more challenging.

If you enjoy the slow, peaceful pace of night photography, you might want to stick with abandoned buildings under a full moon, or even urban locations. But if you want to try something different, and if you're willing to run yourself ragged after one hour, take a stab at fire performance photography.

In my next blog post, I'll talk about shooting motion shots of fire spinners using an off-camera flash.

Lost America Lecture

Troy Paiva will be presenting a lecture of his recent night photography at the San Francisco City College (50 Phelan Ave, San Francisco, CA) on Monday, Oct 20th. The show begins at 6:30pm, and will be held in the Rosenberg Library, Building A-305.

(Necking, by Troy Paiva)

Troy will show many of his photographs, and will discuss, "light painting, abandoned locations and whatever else you want to talk about". The presentation is open to the public (otherwise, I wouldn't be telling you about it).

Tom Paiva Book Signing

Night photographer Tom Paiva will be at a book signing for "Art Deco San Franciso: The Architecture of Timothy Pflueger". The book was authored by Therese Poletti, and photographed by Tom. You may remember Tom as one of the instructors of The Nocturnes workshops, as well as the author/photographer of Industrial Night. The new book is not a night photography book, per se, but you will recognize Tom's signature name and immaculate compositions.

(Castro Street Theater, by Tom Paiva)

The free reception is at 5:30 pm at the American Institute of Architects, 130 Sutter Street, Suite 600, San Francisco.

There will also be a tour of some extant Pflueger buildings downtown at 4:00 pm with Poletti and Paiva. The tour meets at 140 New Montgomery, San Francisco, CA (aka, the "Telephone Building"), and will end at the reception. Cost is $15 for AIA members ; $20 nonmembers, with the proceeds going to the AIA.

Review: "Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration"

Many night photographers credit Troy Paiva’s light painting work as their introduction to night photography. Troy has been shooting abandoned towns and salvage yards under moon-lit skies for over nineteen years. After building a large following of admirers through his website Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West he published his first book, Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West, in 2003. Although this book filled a big void in the world of color photography books, and it included great textual descriptions of his explorations in the desert, many readers felt that the print quality did not do justice to Troy’s photographs.


Since 2003, Troy has switched from film to digital photography. Fueled by the new possibilities of the digital medium, and the great reception to his new work on the photo-sharing site Flickr.com, Troy released his second book Nignt Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration in mid-2008.

When I interviewed Troy in 2003 for my short documentary film Night of the Living Photographers, he told me that part of his fascination with abandoned locations was the reality that many of them ceased to exist soon after he visited them. We talked about how we were heading to a point where all of the good photo locations would be gone someday. Fortunately, photo-sharing sites such as Flickr have opened up the possibility of exploring many new, previously-unknown locations thanks to new limitless social networks. Many of those “new” locations are featured in this book.

Readers of Troy’s Flickr site Lost_America, will already be familiar with most of the photographs in Night Vision: automobile wrecking yards, abandoned resort hotels, abandoned train stations and Naval shipyards and, everyone’s favorite, airplane salvage yards. If you’re wondering, “Should I buy the book when the photographs are already online?” The answer is “yes”. Far superior to the first book, the print quality of Night Vision is excellent. The photographs are larger, and immaculately printed on a black background. Although Night Vision does not include the long writing that was present in the first book, each photograph includes informative captions.

If you already own Lost America, then you’ll be very impressed with Nignt Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. If you don’t own any of Paiva’s books, yet; then start with the second book.

BTW, Lost America is out of print. Remaining copies are going for as high as $116 on Amazon Marketplace.

Studio Nocturnes

The San Francisco conglomerate of night photographers, The Nocturnes, will be hosting Studio Nocturne once again as part of the San Francisco Open Studios. Studio Nocturne will offer work for sale by ten local night photographers at the historic Fort Mason. The roster of photographers will include Tim Baskerville, Rebecca Chang, Todd Friedlander, Mark Jaremko, Marilynne Morshead, Deborah Rourke, Greta & Manu Schnetzler, Lena Tsakmaki, John Vias and Roxanne Worthington.

(Photo by Tim Baskerville)

The gallery will be open from 11am-6pm on October 11 & 12 in Landmark Bldg A, at Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA (directions). Admission is free.

SanDisk Extreme III 8GB CF Cards: $4 each

Here's a deal that you should take a look at, especially if you're waiting-listed for the HD video-powered EOS 5D MkII (note: the Nikon D90 does not support CF memory).

Adorama is selling SanDisk Extreme III 8GB compact flash cards for $57 each. With the $40 manufacturer's rebate, that works out to only $17 each.

But, WAIT! THERE'S MORE...

If you read the rebate paperwork, Sandisk will pay a rebate of $160 (not $120) if you buy three of these cards at the same time. That means three of these cards will cost $171, minus the $160 rebate, for a total of $11 for three cards (that's 24GB of relatively fast memory!). I prefer to look at it as only $4 per card *. You can take a ton of night photographs in RAW mode with that much memory in your back pocket.


They also have similar deals on the 4GB and 16GB versions of this card, although they seem to be backordered on the 4GB and 16GB cards, right now.

* As you may have noticed, I'm a "round it off" kind of guy.

The Canon 5D MkII

Last week Canon announced the release of the EOS 5D MkII (daytime sample images are available here). Aside from the whopping 21 megapixel full-frame sensor, this new camera also offers very high ISO performance, as well as the ability to shoot HD video. While I regret to inform you that nobody sent me a pre-production loaner for evaluation, professional photographer Vincent LaForet was able to get his hands on one for two days.

(Photo by Canon, Inc.)

Although Vincent didn' t have the chance to test the long-exposure noise performance of the 5d MkII, he did get the chance to shoot some nighttime HD video under ambient street lights, and he posted some frame grabs from the video (here, here and here). Vincent has asked that nobody repost these images due to his agreement with Canon. So, you'll have click over to his blog to see them. And make sure you take the time to read his hands-on evaluation of this beast.

As you look at his shots, keep in mind that these are not 21 megapixel still photographs. These individual frames of HD video.

A Plea for Help: Since some of you will probably get your 5D MkII before I do*, I would be very interested posting any readers' long exposure tests at night. What I'd really to see is comparable frames taken under a clear, starlit sky with 5, 10 and 20-minute exposures at a low ISO. If you'd like to repeat the experiment at a higher ISO for comparative purposes, that would be even better.

* Since I don't have any immediate plans to order one, it goes without saying that some of you will definitely gets your before I do.

Thanks to Joe Reifer for pointing me to Vincent LaForet's blog.

Night News - September, 2008

September is the beginning of the "high season" for night photography here on the West Coast of the USA: the nights are getting longer and the night skies are clearing up along the coast. There are also a few night photography shows coming up.

Greta and Manu Schnetzler have a show called "Surreal Night" at the Sports Basement (1590 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA). The reception is Friday, September 5, 6-8pm.

(Photo by Manu Schnetzler)

Also, John Vias will have some of his night photographs included in the "Glimpes of Time" show at the Joyce Gordon Gallery (406 14th St, Oakland, CA) from September 5-29, 2008. The reception is September 5th from 5:30-830pm.

(Photo by John Vias)

There are more night photography shows coming up, including one in Texas! I'll have more information on that in my next post.

By the way, I'm still working on my review of Troy Paiva's latest book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. If you can't wait, here's the synopsis: It's absolutely stunning, and it's a must-have for any enthusiast of night photography. If you loved Troy's first book, you'll be amazed at the second book. So go buy it, even before you see my in-depth review.

And if that's enough, you should also buy a copy of Jill Waterman's Night and Low-Light Photography, which includes some of my color night photography from the past few years.

Night and Low-Light Photography

This has been a busy summer for night photography books. First, Troy Paiva's long-awaited second book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration comes out. Next, Jill Waterman's new book Night and Low-Light Photography was released early this month. The subtitle "Professional techniques from experts for artistic and commercial success" sums it up quite well, although they could also add "includes lots of beautiful photographs".


As the Introduction says,

In Night & Low Light Photography, author Jill Waterman looks at the work of 30 top professionals, examining their real-life projects as well as their tips, techniques, and unique approaches.

The result is a beautiful yet practical compendium covering every aspect of night and low-light photography–digital and film capture in all formats, color and black & white, commercial and fine art. The moon and stars, weather conditions, atmospheric effects, cityscapes, industrial light, night events, night landscapes.

All this and more is presented in a lavishly illustrated, one-volume resource–an indispensable guide for those seeking insight, inspiration and provocation in making pictures at night.

Well, that certainly sounds better than anything I could have written. I'm especially proud to have been included in the thirty photographers whose work and techniques have been included in this great book (shameless self-promotion #1). If you're familiar with night photography, you'll probably recognize many of the contributors to this book; which includes Tim Baskerville, Tom Paiva, Lance Keimig, Troy Paiva, Steve Harper and many others. In fact, you can also hear many of those photographers speak about their work in my documentary film on night photography (shameless self-promotion #2).

(Warming Hut, by Andy Frazer)

There is a comprehensive website with more information about this book, including contributors' portfolios, a featured artist, and blog.

Published by Amphoto Books, the book is 208 high-quality pages of great reading and looking. You can buy your copy right now from Amazon, or many other locations.

Fort Ord: There Go The TOADS

The decommissioned US Army base of Fort Ord has been a popular site for Northern California night photographers for the past few years. Fort Ord was also included in Troy Paiva's recent book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. The 3300 acres has been in a mixed state of neglect and redevelopment (with the developers usually winning) ever since I first ventured there two years ago.

(7th Division Light Fighters, by Andy Frazer)

Earlier this week the US Army completed the final transfer of jurisdiction of the land over to the Fort Ord Reuse Authority. This means that redevelopment of the remaining TOADS (Temporary, Obsolete, Abandoned or Derelect Structures) is going to move forward quickly.

(Photo by Basim Jaber)

KQED has a podcast interview with the Lia Mettee-McCutchon, Fearless Leader of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, discussing the implications of this change of authority (sorry, there's no detailed list of which buildings will get demolished when).

Coincidentally, just last weekend some Bay Area night photographers (including Joe Reifer and Steve Anderson and Troy Paiva) descended upon Fort Ord during the August full moon.

(Recling, by Joe Reifer)

Here are few other notable NP's of Fort Ord:

(Observation Tower, by Steve Anderson)

(Cyclops, by Troy Paiva)

Juan Alberto Barria... and more news

Juan Alberto Barria took this dramatic shot in Rosario, Argentina of the Rosario Victoria Bridge.

(Rosario de Noche, by Juan Alberto Barria)

Urban night photographs taken in fog often have an eery, noir look. I imagine the reason we don't see a lot of foggy night photographs is that few people want to be out shooting in that sort of weather. That's too bad, because it produces worthwhile photographs. One of the interesting aspects of this photograph is that it appears to have been taken from a boat in the water (it wasn't). Somehow, this makes it more intriguing to the viewer.

Other NPy News... I'm working on a review of Troy Paiva's second book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. I hope to post it by the end of the week.

Night Photography/Light Painting Workshop

Troy Paiva, better known to many as Lost America, and Joe Reifer, are offering a workshop on night photography and light painting at the Pearsonville Junkyard October 11th and 12th. This is not a hop-the-fence event. Troy and Joe have secured permission to shoot this junkyard. The workshop will be based in Ridgecrest, CA, about 15 miles from the junkyard.

("Long on the Roof", by Troy Paiva)

You can read more about this workshop on Joe Reifer's blog, or Troy's FlickrStream. I imagine that Troy will also bring along signed copies of his latest book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration.

Stephen Freskos

Stephen Freskos (who goes by the Flickr name freeside510), along with Bay Area night photographer Scott Haefner, recently photographed an unidentified, abandoned rocket test facility one night on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay Area. I think the abstract shapes (that you can only find in military-related facilities) look great in the shot below. It reminds me of the scenes from War of the Worlds when the Martians send those long "snooper" probes into the basement to look for Earthlings.

(Appendage, by Stephen Freskos)

Stephen has always been drawn to secretive and old places, and has been visiting abandonments and off-limits places since he was 13 years old. His fascination with graffiti has taken him to roof tops, drains and abandoned buildings all over the states and some foreign
countries.

Stephen says, "I realized how much beautiful and unique stuff I was seeing in these places and finally combined my exploration with my latent photography urges. Now every weekend I'm shooting and going to further and further lengths and occasional legal risks to photograph abandoned places."

"Darkness, Darkness" shots

Flickr user AntyDiluvian has posted some shots of the "Darkness, Darkness" exhibit's new home at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (Boston, MA, USA). Unfortunately, the show is only open to the general public during specific time slots when curated by Lance Keimig (it's not unfortunate that Lance is the curator, on the contrary, but it is unfortunate that there are only limited time slots for public viewing).

(Photo by AntyDiluvian)

As the photographer explains, "If you're at the BCEC on business (attending a convention, for example), you can see this exhibit any time between now and August 31, 2008, when it closes. If you're not here on business, you can only see it on the night of Thursday, August 28, from 5-9 pm."

Two Shows This Friday: Joe Reifer and Troy Paiva

For San Francisco Bay fine art photography fans, two of our local night photographers are each having independent shows/signings this Friday night (August 1st).

Joe Reifer will have the reception for his show Toy Camera Dreams with Robert Holmgren at Lucky Ju Ju's vintage pinball arcade (713 Santa Clara Ave, Alameda, CA) on August 1st from 7-10pm. Although most of us know Joe as a night photographer, this show will feature his daytime toy camera work which, I believe, will consist of 35mm film shot in a 6x6 Holga and cross-processed in some sort of out-of-spec color chemistry. Robert Holmgren's work, I believe, consists of monochrome Holga photography. Although I'm familiar with both of their work on the internet, I'm looking forward to seeing both sets of work in real prints. The entire show runs from August 1st-30th.

(Oscar, by Joe Reifer)

On the same evening, just across the Oakland Bay Bridge, Troy Paiva will have a book-signing and slide show for his second book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration at 111 Minna Gallery (111 Minna, San Francisco, CA). The book-signing will be from 7-9pm.

(Cover of Troy Paiva's latest book: Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration)

Here's the best news. If you noticed that both shows are on the same night at approximately the same time, you're right. This means you only have to make one excuse to your spouse to get out of the house, and you can hit two receptions and see a total of three great photographers all in one swoop across the San Francisco Bay! What a great way to spend a Friday evening.

I will attend both receptions. If you see me there, please stop by and introduce yourself. I'd really like to know who is reading this out in the blogosphere.

Flavia Sollner

Flavia Sollner is a German-born photographer who works in London, UK and Oslo, Norway. Her portfolio of night photography includes work that is mysterious and seems to include more dark space than lighting. She writes:

"It is the underlying, the hidden emotions that interest me. The Fear, deep rooted in us all, Anxiety and Paranoia - the real and the imaginary - buried deep within."

("The Tail of Our Purloined Breath", by Flavia Sollner)

There's definitely a difference between Flavia's work and most of the contemporary night photography that we see in galleries and on the internet today. Most of today's work seems to focus on heavy, careful lighting, whereas Flavia's work seems to focus on the lack of lighting across the frame.

OK, that description may not make sense, but it's the best I can think of right now. What do you think? Can anyone explain this more eloquently?

Found in Jorg Colberg's Conscientious blog.

Nocturnes Show in Berkeley - July 19th

There will be a show of night photography from Berkeley, CA at The Lightroom (2263 Fifth St, Berkeley, CA) from July 14 through August 22. This show was organized by Tim Baskerville, founder of The Nocturnes. It includes work by Joe Reifer, Denise Fuson, Sherry Glassman, Mark Jaremko, Charity Vargas and John Vias.

(Fishhouse, by Joe Reifer)

Instead of trying to describe this show in my customary disconnected blather, please jump to the more complete description of this show over at Joe Reifer's Blog. You can see a preview of the show here. If you can make it, make sure you look for Joe's photograph of the giant bunny rabbit topiary.

More important, the reception will be Saturday, July 19th from 2-6pm. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make the reception that day.

Simon Menner

German photographer Simon Menner has some great night photography in his Transitland Wide set.

(Photo by Simon Menner)

These images of huge ocean liners remind me of the work of three San Francisco Bay Area night photographers' work of the S. S. Independence (Troy Paiva, Scott Haefner and Jon Haeber).

Found in Jörg Colberg's Conscientious Blog.

Bob West

Bob West hails from Ontario, Canada shoots along the the icy shore of Blenheim, Lake Erie, apparently even during the winter. The colored glow over the horizon is from Cleveland, Ohio (USA). Notice the chunks of ice in the foreground that moved during the exposure.

(Photo by Bob West)

You can see more of Bob's night photography on his Flickr site.

Tom Paiva Show at Topanga Canyon Gallery

LA night photographer Tom Paiva will be included in the show The Emerging Landscape at the Topanga Canyon Gallery (Topanga, CA) along with seven other photographers, which runs from July 1st through July 27th.

Eight photographers interpret the urban landscape. This diverse group of photographers utilize a variety of photographic mediums to delve into the landscape of our environment. Images in both b/w and color, digital and traditional techniques, abstract and realistic will explore from the industrial heart of our world to the wasteland deserts we occupy sparingly.

Tom was a co-founder of The Nocturnes, has published a large-format book Industrial Night, and has over 70 cover images for various trade magazines to his credit. He is also featured in the night photography documentary film Night of the Living Photographers.


The reception for the artists is July 12th from 4-8pm.

Stephen DiRado

Worchester, MA photographer, Stephen DiRado, is the Photography Program Director/Studio Lecturer in Photography in the Clark University Visual & Performing Arts Department. I originally came across his work through his amazing portraits of sunbathers at Bell Pond and 80's-cool Mall Series. It was only later than I learned he also did night photography, which can be found in his Environments series.

(Photo by Stephen DiRado)

There's more of night photography in his Celestial portfolio.

Charity Vargas Show

Bay Area night photographer Charity Vargas will have some of her night photography included in a group show at the Rayko Photo Center (428 Third Street, San Francisco, CA). The show, titled Landscape, other views outside convention, will open June 11th from 6-8pm.

(Bay School, Building #35, 2006 by Charity Vargas)

You can see more of Charity's night photographs of the San Francisco Presidio on her website.

Fulvio Bortolozzo

Italian night photographer Fulvio Bortolozzo has updated his website with the photographs that were featured in the show S/Guardi E Ri/Guardi North-East, which was on display through May 11 in Biella, Italy.

Don't feel bad if you missed this show. I didn't get to see it, either :-)

(PRAY Stabilimento in riqualificazione, by Fulvio Bortolozzo)

Lance Keimig: Upcoming Workshops

Boston night photographer Lance Keimig has announced four workshops in the next few months: two in Boston, one in California, and one in Texas.

First, the eight-week course on photography workshop will be held at the New England School of Photography beginning June 23. Second, there's a night photography camp out on Lovell's Island (in the Boston Harbor) on July 18. Third, if you want to shoot in California, there's the Finding Your Way in the Dark: Digital Night Photography from Capture to Print at Mono Lake, Yosemite and Bodie Ghost Town on August 14-17. And if you'd rather shoot in Texas, there's the Finding Your Way in the Dark: Digital Night Photography from Capture to Print at the Big Bend National Park and Terlingua Ghost Town from October 11-14.

(Arch at Mono Lake, by Lance Keimig)

Lance was one of my first night photography instructors when I took The Nocturnes workshop in San Francisco six years ago. I've also attended his Mono Lake workshop twice in the past four years. I won't be able to attend the workshop this year, but I expect that everyone will have a great time. Lance was also featured in my short documentary film about night photography: The Night of the Living Photographers, which you can view on-line for free.

"Aspects of Noise Reduction in RAW Data"

Night photographers are often concerned about digital noise when shooting long exposures. New cameras are able to exposure beyond ten minutes without producing unacceptable amounts of noise. Some high-end DSLR's have been reported to be able to shoot over one hour. But noise is still there, and both in-camera and post-processing noise reduction techniques are always of interest in night photography.

And then there's thermal noise. While most modern DSLR's can control that magenta or blue amplifier glows, noise still increases in warm weather. It's always there. The question is, "How much can you tolerate or control?"

If you can't read enough about digital noise, check out Emil Martinec's great article "Aspects of Noise Reduction in RAW Data". This is some pretty technical stuff. But it makes great reading if you have the time to read through it slowly.

Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration

Bay Area night photographer Troy Paiva released his first book of night photography, Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West, five years ago. Since then, Troy has continued photographing abandoned sites across California, Nevada and Arizona. He has also migrated his photo technique from film to digital, and continues to be active in the online night photography community (see his Flickrstream here).

(Photo by Troy Paiva)

Troy's second book, Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration, will be released in early June. It will be available from Amazon (you can pre-order it now). His first book is now sold-out. So if you're at all interested in night photography, I recommend ordering your copy of Night Vision as soon as possible.

You can also see an interview with Troy in my 2004 documentary film about night photography: The Night of the Living Photographers (yes, you can watch it for free).

Lynn Saville

In 1997 Lynn Saville published her night photography in Aquainted with the Light. This summer, Lynn has a solo exhibition of night photography at the Montgomery Museum of Art (Montgomery, Alabama). The show is called NIGHT/SHIFT and is on view from April through August, 2008.

(Erie Lackanawan #18, by Lynn Saville)

From the Montgomery Museum's website: "Lynn Saville, a native of North Carolina who now lives and works in New York City, has braved the mysterious darkness and captured oddly enchanted images for us to inspect and enjoy. Working with a large-format camera, she has produced both color and black and white prints that transport us vicariously into places where we might not feel safe to go in person, at night, alone."

The reception for the artist is Thursday, July 10th 6 - 8 pm

Stu Jenks: "I Quit"

Ever since I first ventured into night photography nine years ago, Stu Jenks has been one of the biggest influences on me. To me, Stu's work captures the spiritual world of night photography: ghosts of Native Americans dancing fire circles in the south-west American desert. That may not be what Stu is trying to capture, but that's what it says to me.

A few days ago, Stu announced quite unambiguously on his blog, "I quit".

(Owls Head, Arizona by Stu Jenks)

There's no doubt that he's really pissed off. He says he's giving up trying to make a living selling fine art prints and selling the rights to his work (at least, I think that's what he's saying). He explains his disappointment with the art market and the photography profession, among other things. I told Stu that, in some ways, I agree with him. I understand how difficult it can be to make a living from photography these days. I've seen some very good professional photographers struggle to continue getting work. But I don't want Stu to quit.

Take a few minutes to read his post. There's a lot to it. He's a gifted photographer, musician and writer. He doesn't ramble. You should also read his follow-up post, "I'm Not Suicidal"

One-Night Night Photography Workshop

Tim Baskerville of The Nocturnes is offering a one-night workshop on night photography on May 17th at Rush Ranch in Salano County, just a few miles northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area. If you'd like to dip your feet into the night photography world, but don't feel ready for a three-night workshop, then the Rush Ranch workshop might be just what you've been looking for. I attended the workshop four years ago, and had a great time.

(Rush Ranch Windmill, by Andy Frazer)

Rush Ranch is operated by the Solano Land Trust. It is not open to the public at night.

Land trusts are a wonderful concept. They collect donations, pool everyone's money together, then purchase land to keep it out of development. They may also purchase easements which allow the owners to keep the land, but prevent anyone in the future from ever developing it. The Nature Conservancy is, by far, the largest in the world. Here in California, many of the county parks, and some state parks, were acquired by land trusts. I support the Penninsula Open Space Trust, which has acquired many of the former ranches in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County.

P.S. Don't miss yesterday's post on Frank Relle.