12 Steps of Measurebator's Anonymous

This humorous message must have some relevance to night photography. That's why I'm posting it, here. It was posted to the DPReview Nikon SLR Lens Talk Forum by user LisaLisaB. She calls it the "12 Steps of Measurebator's Anonymous" ("measurebators" refers to people who are obsessed with pixel-peeping: analyzing the maximum resolution of digital photographs).

1. We admitted that we were powerless over pixel-peeping and that our photography had become unmanageable.

2. We came to believe that a power greater than MTF charts and 300% crops could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our attentions towards actually taking photographs.

4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of our all our lenses, and decided to use the ones WE like no matter what the pundits say.

5. Admitted to ourselves that spending more money on gear will NOT make us better photographers.

6. We were entirely ready to quit letting the lens snobs make our decisions for us.

7. Humbly take an honest look at the shortcomings in our photography and realize that our gear is not the problem--we are.

8. Made a list of all people we had harmed in photography forums by dispensing mostly useless advice about buying the latest and greatest.

9. Made direct amends to such people, except when to do so would injure their photography.

10. Continued to take personal inventory on the opinions we dispense to others, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through actual image making and post-processing to improve our conscious contact with the art of photography, praying only for the ability to improve our skills regardless of the gear we use.

12. Our photography having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we tried to carry this message to the pixel-peepers and measurebators who still suffer and to stamp out this disease wherever possible.

Tony Fouhse

I recently came across the website and blog of Canadian photographer Tony Fouhse. I love some of his personal work (especially Deep South), and his blog was so interesting that I read all of the previous posts within a few hours. But the rules of this blog are "night photography only". So I was relieved when I came across Tony's USER series (click User under the Personal pull-down menu), which are portraits of crack addicts taken at night on the corner of Murray and Cumberland Streets in Ottawa, Canada.

(Yvon, by Tony Fouhse)

Tony's images capture that careful balance of ambient background and artificial, key lighting which is so important to night portraiture. One of his blog entries shows some behind-the-scenes shots of how he sets up the lighting for these night shots.

Mare Island Nocturnes

Last month, Tim Baskerville hosted a Nocturnes AlumNight get-together for Bay Area night photographers at the decommissioned Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in Vallejo, CA. Over thirty photographers spread out over the island shooting historic buildings, cranes and drydocks until the wee hours of the morning.

(Mare Island Streetlight, by Andy Frazer)

You can see some of the most interesting shots from that night right here.

Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea

The Salton Sea has long been a favorite haunt of West Coast night photographers. On April 20th, KQED in San Francisco will be showing "Plagues and Pleasure of the Salton Sea" as part of their "Truly California: Our State, Our Stories" series:

Once known as the "California Riviera", the Salton Sea is now called one of America's worst ecological disasters: a fetid, stagnant, salty lake, coughing up dead fish and birds by the thousands. This documentary explores the economic, political and environmental issues that face the sea. Equally fascinating, it offers up an offbeat portrait of the eccentric and individualistic people who populate its shores. By Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer.

(The Gold Chair, by Troy Paiva)

See Troy Paiva's Salton Sea set on Flickr for more night photos of the Salton Sea.

The show will be aired on April 20th (6pm), 23rd (11pm) and 24th (4am). If you don't live in Northern California, check your local public television station to see if they'll be airing "Plagues and Pleasures...".

I noticed that the website dedicated to the documentary also has a Salton Sea Emporium, where you can buy various Salton Sea memorabilia, including a dead talapia, for $79.95.

Jarrett Murphy

While reading Miguel Garcia-Guzman's photography blog [EV +/-] Exposure Compensation, I came across the work of night photographer Jarrett Murphy. Jarrett is a recent graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. His night photography focuses on curves and shapes, giving an almost abstract view of color landscapes.

(Photo by Jarrett Murphy)

The [EV +/-] Exposure Compensation blog has a nice interview with Jarrett.

Cathy, Help Us Laugh This Week

Hey, it's almost tax day here in the USA. For many of us who don't make enough income from our night photography, we can't deduct the cost of our equipment from our taxes. But Cathy is here to help us laugh at it.


Click here if you have trouble seeing the above strip.

Michael Penn

Michael Penn (who goes by the name PhillyPenn on Flickr) has a great collection of urban photographs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, including this nice roof-top night shot of the top of an elevator.

(Elevator, by Michael Penn)

You can see more of Michael's night work here.