Ryan Cooley

Last March I blogged about Massachusetts night photographer student Cade Overton. Recently, I also came across another night photographer from Clark Uninversity, Ryan Cooley. Ryan's website has a great collection of night photography, commercial fashion photography and some good-old gritty, urban shots. I love this shot below, Natick Park-and-Ride, because at first it looks like a rather simple setup. But the more I look at I see and interesting pair of buildings, that cool, bare tree in the center, and very unimposing set of highway signs in the far right. The building on the left has an unusual, spooky lighting.

(Natick Park-and-Ride, by Ryan Cooley)

Take a few minutes and browse through some Ryan's website.

Anja

I love the night photograph below which was taken by a German photographer who goes by the name Anja (Flickr name =anja=). It seems to have a surreal Christmas Carol or fairy tale look to it.

A self-taught photographer, Anja says, "I love surreal and conceptual art and get my inspiration from everything around me."

(Winter Warmth 2, by Anja)

There's also another nice variation of the above image here.

Warren Bates: One Last Look

A few days ago I posted about the death of Las Vegas night photographer Warren Bates. Recently I took some time to look through Warren's website and carefully think about every photograph. With the explosion of the internet over the past ten years, I can't remember the last time that I took time to carefully look through anybody's photo website. When I find a new website these days, I usually glance through the thumbnails and carefully look at a few of the most promising photos.

Yesterday someone wrote to me and asked, "What will happen to his flickr stream? And what about his website?" I imagine that his Flickr stream will disappear when his pre-paid Pro Account expires, and his website will disappear when his web-hosting ISP account becomes due. So, please take the time now to carefully look through the galleries of Warren's website while it's still available.

Here are a few of my favorites from Warren's website.

(Photo by Warren Bates)

(Photo by Warren Bates)

(Photo by Warren Bates)

(Photo by Warren Bates)

You can read Warren's obituary in the San Jose Mercury News.

Warren Bates: Rest In Peace

I've just learned that night photographer Warren Bates was killed Friday night when his car was hit by a train a few miles outside of Amboy, CA. Although I never met Warren, I had many email discussions with him after he released his night photography website, Road to Zzyzx, ten years ago. I had just created my night photography website the same year. Back then, before Flickr and Facebook and digital SLR's, there were only a few night photography websites, and everyone knew each by email, if not in person.

(Bagdad, CA 2000. Photo by Warren Bates)

You can read the entire article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Rest in peace, Warren.

Gilbert Fastenakens

A recent post on the blog Hippolyte Bayard featured this great photographer from Belgium: Gilbert Fastenakens. Fastenakens' night photographs are dark, dreary and full of brick; just the way I like them. If you like either Brassai or Alan Delaney's London After Dark, then you might enjoy looking through Fastenakens' small website.

(Photo by Gilbert Fastenakens)

There's some minimal bio information about Fastenakens on Answers.com

Photographing the Aurora Borealis

Have you ever thought of visiting either the Arctic or Antarctic Circles to photograph the Aurora Borealis (or the Aurora Australis)? Do you think you can use your well-honed night photography to get the exposure right? It turns out that it's not that simple. The aurora are continually moving, and extending the length of your exposure only makes the detail in the aurora disappear. Your best bet is to learn some tricks from an expert.

(Photo by Mark Dubovoy)

In a recent post on Michael Reichmann's Luminous Landscape, Mark Dubovoy discusses his tricks Photographing the Aurora Borealis. In an earlier post, Reichmann also published a more comprehensive article by Ben Hattenbach and Henry Throop titled Hunting the Great Alaskan Aurora. Both are worthwhile reading.

If you're going to hassle with the long plane flights and endless hours in the cold, you might as well read the tricks before you go up (or down) there.