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Last Saturday, the Gorillasites Night Photography Blog was included in one of the most prestigious photography sites in the blogosphere: Mike Johnston's excellent The Online Photographer. This is a great honor, because Mike is very well-regarded among photography collectors, printers and both film and digital shooters. In the past he was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Photo Techniques, and for years he edited the Sunday Morning Photographer column on the Luminous Landscape website.
"One of Brassai's great strengths was as a photographer of the night, both figuratively and literally. Which seems as good a way as any to seque to Andy Frazer's night photography blog. Andy describes it as a niche within a niche, but it's a rich subject, as many photographers (Michael Kenna is one who comes to mind) have learned. If the subject appeals to you, don't miss The Nocturnes Gallery either." - Mike Johnston
Along with his vast experience in photography, and a sharp wit with the written word, he also has impecable taste in tripods (a very amusing a link, that I don't seem to be able to find, right now). Mike is to be one of the few photographers who appreciate the value of the Slik AF210 (now, AF2100) pistol-grip head.
Over the past weekend, Mike's link has increased my web traffic by 11X! Thanks, Mike!
For night photographers who have migrated from film to digital, the Canon CMOS sensors seem to produce much less noise during long exposures than the CCD sensors sold by Nikon and other non-Canon manufacturers. I've seen many examples of this phenomenon among 35mm nocturnal types. However, I've never met a night photographer, yet, who shoots with a medium-format digital back. There are two reasons for this. First, is the astronomical cost of medium format digital backs (typically, $10,000 - $30,000 each). Second, most medium format digital backs use CCD sensors are might not perform well for long exposures at night.
For the past few years, Michael Reichmann has been publishing hands-on (and, often, winter gloves-on) reviews of the latest medium format digital cameras. In his most recent review, he looks at the 39MP Leaf Aptus back, which sounds like the best commercially-available, medium format digital back available (today). One of the most interesting things that he found with this back is it's ability to take very clean, very long exposures at night, even though it has a CCD sensor. He has included a ten-minute night landscape that appears to be completely noise-free.
 (photo: Michael Reichmann)
Now, only one reason remains for me not to migrate to a medium format digital back for night photography :-)
Thanks to Joe Reifer for pointing out this article.
Last year I finished the first revision on a short documentary film on night photography. The Night of the Living Photographers included spotlight segments on five nocturnal-types: Troy Paiva, Lance Keimig, Larrie Thompson, Howie Spielman and Tom Paiva. Two weeks ago, Tim Baskerville arranged for me to meet once again with Steve Harper and interview him for the next version of the film. Steve Harper is now retired from teaching and, unfortunately, retired from photography for health reasons. So it was an honor to have the opportunity to meet with him again.  (Left to right: myself, Tim Baskerville, Steve Harper)
We recorded almost two hours of great material (which I'll be slogging through for at least a month) sitting on beautiful plantation-name furniture on the front deck of the former commander's house at Mare Island. Steve was probably the only college-level teacher of night photography back in the 1970's and 80's when half of the battle involved figuring out which films and developers could handle the long exposures required for night photography. Not only was Steve a good friend of night photography master Michael Kenna, but I learned that in his younger days Steve worked in New York with Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon. For you digital youngin's who have never stuck your fingers in a bath of developer, it was great to hear Steve's excitement about how the digital revolution is making it so much easier for photographers to get acquainted with night photography. It will be a few months before I'm ready to release the next version of the film which will include Steve's material. You'll hear about it first, here on the GSNP Blog.
A few days ago I mentioned the latest Nocturnes on-line photography contest. Although I missed the deadline for this contest, I've participated in many of the Nocturnes contests in the past. They're a great way to get your work judged up against many other night photographers, and to get your work "out there" and be seen by more people.  (photo: Andy Frazer)
Above is a photograph that I took at China Camp State Park back in 2002. This was the first time that I shot with a digital camera at night. It was also my first photograph that placed in one of the Nocturnes competitions. Back then, DSLR's were a novelty, especially at night. But on a Nocturnes workshop as long as two years ago, it seemed that more than half of the photographers were shooting digital. It will be interesting to see how many photographers are shooting digital at the Mono Lake Workshop next month.
Tim Baskerville of The Nocturnes just released the names of the winners in the Nocturnes 2006 Biennial on-line night photography contest, which was judged by Lance Keimig. The winner this time was Tom Morrow, of San Carlos, CA.  (photo: Tom Morrow)
As usual, there were a lot of great entries from other photographers. If you've got the time, I really suggest that you browse through all of the entries from the past contests, too. It's a great way to sample a lot of different night photographers, including many who... gasp!... don't even have a website. If you missed this contest, you can get in on the next one. Just visit the Nocturnes website and email either Tim or Susan to get on their e-mail list. They'll keep you informed of future contests which are, typically, twice per year.
The 6th International Photographic Art Exposition (aka, PhotoSF) will be July 21-23 at the Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason, CA. This is basically an excuse for some of the biggest photo gallerists to set up booths and show and sell their collections. I have attended each of the past three years and, although it's not dedicated to night photography, I have really enjoyed the show. In fact, I've had more fun at PhotoSF than any photography museum show I can think of. PhotoSF is not one of those Art & Wine Festivals where any photographer with a few hundred bucks can sell prints of Big Sur, Yosemite and the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead, it's both mid-end and high-end galleries with boxes of prints of all of the "Masters", as well as up-and-coming photographers. Also, many well-known photographers are also in attendance promoting their latest books. In past years, I've met Michael Kenna, Todd Hido, Kim Weston, Bill Schwab, Brian Kelly, and a few others (whose names I can't remember). Remember: it's better than any Art & Wine Festival, and there are more photographers represented than in any museum.  (I can't remember the photographer's name)At PhotoSF 2003, Mike Quinn (second from the left) and your humble host (far right) stopped by the booth of the Photography Room and met with well-known night photographers Brian Kelly (far left) and Bill Schwab (second from the right). Mike is holding Brian's book, and I'm holding Bill's book. It's confusing, I know, but we were all hamming it up. Brian is the author/photographer of "Grand Rapids: Night After Night", and Bill is the author/photographer of "Gathering Calm".
Mike Quinn, by the way, is wonderful night photographer. But he doesn't have a website, so I can't give you a link to his great work.
Last year, I got so jazzed up after attending PhotoSF, that I went down the road and had one of the most productive shooting nights of the year. The following photograph was taken that night near Crissy Field, in San Francisco:
 (photo: Andy Frazer)
I plan to be at PhotoSF next Saturday, July 22. If you're planning on attending on the 22nd, let me know and we can meet up (andyfrazer [at] gorillasites [dot] com).
Although I have one night photograph in the "Hill Community" show at Farley's Coffee Shop in San Francisco, most of the other photographs in the show are daytime photos. But there are some other night photographers. One night photographer, whom I had never met before this show, is Jamie Jones.  (photo: Jamie Jones)
Jamie lives in San Francisco and is obviously more familiar than I am with the gritty neighborhoods around Potrero Hill. This worked to her advantage. While I was shooting quiet, peaceful residential neighborhoods for the show, Jamie was shooting grimy industrial sites and creepy neighborhoods: perfect subjects for night photography! Since we both shot at night and in black-and-white, you can see our photographs displayed right next to each other on the wall to the left of the front door at Farley's :-) You can contact Jamie at sfbikerchick [at] yahoo.com.
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