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.