simple is beautiful
Night Photography blog by Andy Frazer: December 2007
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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Shawn Peterson

A few months ago I met Shawn Peterson, another Bay Area night photographer. We shot together, at a Nocturnes meet-up at Mare Island, and a month later at Sutro Baths in San Francisco.

(Photo by Shawn Peterson)

These cranes are, obviously, designed to load and unload cargo from ships. It's still possible to get relatively close to photography them. But that's liable to change as the former shipyard succumbs to development.

In a future post, I'll include more of Shawn's photographs from Sutro Baths.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Lane Hartwell: Best of Wired's 2007

Lane Hartwell's photographs of Burning Man were selected by Wired Magazine as one of their ten best photograph galleries of 2007.

(Hortense by Lane Hartwell)

Says Wired...

"Lane Hartwell snuck out some spectacular shots that really captured the essence of the art exhibits there. Her night photographs and aerial shots from the Playa are some of the best we've seen anywhere."

I know that Lane worked really hard at "B.M." this year and almost burned herself out doing that. Thankfully, she survived and brought back some great photographs.

Yeaaa for Lane!

Friday, December 21, 2007

Night Photography Blog Christmas Give-Away

Although I'm a bit late for Christmas, the Night Photography Blog is giving away a copy of Alex Larg's book Night Shots (Pro-Lighting Series). I bought this book about five or six years ago. Although I found it very useful when I was beginning night photography, I feel that I really need to make more room on my photography bookshelf (shelves).



I'll give it away (including postage) to one lucky blog reader out in internet-land. If you're interested, please send an email (andyfrazer [at] gorillasites [dot] com) with the string "NIGHT SHOTS" in the title. On New Year's Day, I'll have one of the neighborhood kids (and we have plenty of them) randomly choose one name out of a hat. If you win, I'll then contact you asking for a mailing address. There's no need to send me your mailing address unless you win. And, once again, I'll even pick up the cost of the postage.

There's no catch. It's just that I need to get rid of some books, and I can't be bothered putting it on e-Bay just to make a few dollars profit. I'd rather give it away to someone who would really want it.

I'll probably be giving away a few more books in the future.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

James Rotz

James Rotz is an Indiana-based photographer. There's lots of suburban night photographer in his Regions project.

(Photo by James Rotz)

The image above not only includes the popular night photography motif of a smokestack with a flowing stream of steam (ouch, that sounds awkward...), but I love how the smokestack is placed right up against the residential houses. I assume the smokestack is from a nuclear plant, but who knows for sure?

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Mark Jaremko

Bay Area night photographer Mark Jaremko has two photographs on display at 111 Minna Gallery this month in San Francisco for the Artspan Selections2007 exhibit. Selections is a biennial juried competition where close to 400 artists applied and they picked 20 artists in total. Only three photographers made it into the exhibit. And, get this... they were all Nocturnes folks, Mark Jaremko, Lena Tsakmaki and Rebecca Chang.

(Nightscapes, 2 of 17, by Mark Jaremko)

The show runs for the month of December and 111 Minna Gallery.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Canon 1Ds MkIII, by Phil Holland

Phil Holland has posted a review of the Canon 1Ds MkIII. This is Canon's new high-end 21MP professional body.

Although Phil's review isn't focused on night photographer (like most professional photographers, he's too busy earning a living, so he probably doesn't have time to stand around in the dark for hours like many of us), he has posted some night shots taken with the 1Ds MkIII, including this 100% crop of a star trail taken at ISO 100 for 30 minutes. Notice the amazing low level of noise for a 30-minute exposure.

(100% crop, 30 minutes, ISO 100.
Photo by Phil Holland)

Phil has also posted a 1-minute night time urban scene, along with some 100% crops, which show the amazing amount of detail recorded by the 1Ds MkIII.

Don't hold your breath waiting for me to review this camera. At $8,000 a pop, this puppy is way out of my league. But I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two of my Bay Area cohorts get their hands on one in the near future.

Note: I tried to contact Phil to find out if the above 30-minute shot was done with in-camera noise reduction, or not. Unfortunately, I haven't heard back from Phil, yet.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Craig Reynolds

Craig Reynolds has some nice night photography in the II, III and IIII sections of his Portfolio.

(Photo by Craig Reynolds)

Via Exposure Compensation.