Night Photography blog by Andy Frazer

Bill Brandt's "A Night In London"

2011-10-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Bill Brandt's classic 1938 night photography book A Night In London is occasionally available on auctions for thousands of dollars. While I don't have a real copy of this book, I was recently given a PDF version that includes scans of all of the photographs in this book.

You can download the entire PDF book here.

Interview with Troy Paiva

2011-08-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

The fourth interview in this series is with Troy Paiva. Troy is well-known to many photographers through his monumental website Lost America, where he has been showing his night photography of abandoned buildings and junkyards for over ten years. Troy is also the author of Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West and Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. In this interview, he discusses his background in night photography, as well as the workshop series that he leads with Joe Reifer.

How’d you come up with the name Lost America?

That came about even before I started doing night photography. I had read a two-book series at the library back in the late '70s called "Lost America," about interesting and important buildings in US history that had been lost, either by demolition, dereliction or fire. They were cool books that fit right in with my nascent obsession with all things abandoned. I loved the aesthetic that the name conjured and filed it away in the back of my mind. When I started to photograph these subjects and needed to name the body of work something, it fit perfectly.

Wouldn't landscapes and cityscapes be easier for people to understand than junkyards and abandoned buildings?

I understood early on that shooting things that few people know exist, let alone think of photographing was a good way to get your work to stand apart from everyone else's. I don't really care about the masses, I'm not trying to be Thomas Kincaid here. It was never my intention to create this work for anyone other than me. I started out as a pure amateur in that regard. Even with all the publications, shows books, lectures and teaching, I still consider myself an amateur in spirit, because this work has always been personal, It's never been done with commercial intent.

Cockpit Shell - Green by Troy Paiva

So, what’s the whole back story behind Lost America?
The progression goes like this: I've been attracted to, and explored, abandoned places since I was a child. It started out on road-trip-based family vacations where we would just drive across the desert for days on end. We visited Bodie in 1973. This was before it was a well-known tourist spot. When we arrived you could just drive into the center of town and park. No one else was there, we had the whole place to ourselves and I wandered around in that town alone all afternoon. My impressionable thirteen year-old mind was blown that a whole city would just be discarded like that. I was totally hooked.

All us Paiva's love the open road. My brother Tom and I have both had long-distance driving jobs and our father was a pilot. We're descended from countless generations of fishermen, so helming vehicles across vast expanses, under huge skies is just built into our DNA. As a teenager my friends and I would take three-day, 1,500 mile drives into the southwest. I learned at a very early age that the journey was frequently more interesting than the destination. This driving obsession led me to lots of little traveled places in the middle of nowhere. Remember, this was the late '70s, when the last remote stretches of interstate were being opened, so there was lots of freshly abandoned stuff to see out there. By the time I had reached my late teens I was a full-blown road-tripping ghost-towner and ruins nerd.

Did Tom’s photography career have any influence on your photography?

In 1989 Tom was finishing up his photo degree at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I was 29 and deep into a career as an illustrator and designer for Galoob Toys. Painting and drawing for a living, I was searching for a way to create personal art as far removed from painting and drawing as I could.

One of Tom’s classes was Steve Harper’s semester-long night photography program. When I saw some of the work being done by Steve, Tom and some of the students like Tim Baskerville (eventual founder of “The Nocturnes”) and Lance Keimig (eventual author of Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark) I immediately saw night work’s potential for capturing the haunting souls of the ghost towns and junkyards of the West that I’d been drawn to since I was a child.

Steve let me audit a classroom lecture by Michael Kenna and tag along on some class shoots in the industrial section of San Francisco. I immediately jumped on the bandwagon, bought a junky old 35mm Canon FX, my first real camera, and started my photography career making 8-minute exposures of abandoned Route 66 buildings, under the full moon.

It didn’t take long for me to come around to the idea of adding light during the time exposures. I began experimenting with strobe and flashlights to add details to the shadow areas. For a long time I really did just sorta wing it, throwing light out there without a lot of thought.

Right before the turn of the century, I began to work with some early 3D modeling and rendering software. It was quickly apparent that effective lighting was the key to good 3D work and I concentrated on studying the nuances of artificial lighting and its effect on mood and emotion. It had an instant impact on my photographic lighting–it began to have intent and context.

"Trad'r Rix Tiki Island" by Troy Paiva

Who were the big influences on you at the beginning.

When I first started night photography and light painting back in early 90s, I was working at Galoob. Tom and I would hang out for hours, over pizza and beer, talking photography and all kinds of art. He was studying many photographers at the time and we talked about all of them. But O. Winston Link, Chip Simons and William Lesch, with their finely developed lighting aesthetics, were the ones that really stuck with me. They all had a strong impact on developing my own style.

O. Winston Link blew both our minds. Even as a non-photographer, his subjects: trains, cars and a sped up modern world fueled by postwar technology, all hit me right in the sweet-spot. Here was another layer of Lost America–a lost world of highballing locomotives, gravity feed gas pumps and drive-in theaters. More proof of concept for me. But then you dig into his process and that’s where his work really gets miraculous.

Photo by O. Winston Link

He did some really complicated setups.

Man, I’ll say. Working at night, with huge hardwired lighting arrays and several assistants, he'd freeze speeding trains in a massive burst of light, while including complexly lit foreground scenes. He'd use dozens of lights and miles of wire. His total control over the light was amazing. AND it was a one shot deal too, the next train was tomorrow night. The guy must have had brass ones.

And Chip Simons. Didn’t he photograph dogs?

Yeah. He did tons of magazine work back in the day, and most of it was lit in very colorful and creative ways. But I always come back to his goofy and lurid dog work. Playful without overstating the fact that it's playful. While the mechanics of how he lights, using traditional studio techniques brought outside, is totally different from my hand-held continuous-source light painting, I really keyed on the theatrical and surreal nature of his lighting. I loved the way he embraced imperfection and his use of location too. Chip's a funny guy, a pro's pro, with a career spanning decades.

Photo by Chip Simons

William Lesch’s photographs always appeared to be so simple, at first look. Then when I look at them more closely, I imagine tons of complex planning that must have gone into each shot.

Tom and I would sit there for hours deconstructing the light painted cacti in his book Expansions. Was it flashlights or strobe? Is it a double exposure with both dusk and night images? It made me see that any of those techniques could be used to achieve these mysterious-looking results. I just saw so much potential for putting these techniques in a totally different context.

Photo by William Lesch

What was your history at Galoob Toys?

I started in 1986 as a design department gopher. By the time the company was liquidated in '99 I was a project manager on a $50 million toy car line called Micro Machines.

Was there a connection with toys and night photography for you?

The first ten years I photographed the ghosts of these places and things, I made toys that glorified them. Closing the circle, I guess.

I was a good fit to work on Micro Machines because it was an area I was really knowledgeable about already. Along with literally hundreds of cars, I also designed a whole pile of playsets of car washes, gas stations and restaurants too. In many ways it fulfilled my childhood desire to be an architect, without requiring all that pesky engineering and math knowledge.

Does drawing and painting influence your photography?

EVERYTHING influences me. Painting, drawing, architecture, industrial design, movies, music. All these things influence everything I do, probably more than photography does.

Who are some of your favorites?

Storm Thorgerson, John Hench, Eero Saarinen, Raymond Loewy, Todd Schorr, Robert Williams, Roger Dean, I swear, I could list names all day long of influential artists I admire.

Click to see larger

I know some musicians have shown an interest in your work.

Quite a few, yeah. I have a friendly, symbiotic relationship with (Wall of Voodoo founder) Stan Ridgway. I've given him some CD cover images and he wrote the intro in my first book (Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West). Most of the musicians that approach me are American-roots-based and country artists. Not my bag (and they always seem disappointed when I tell them I'm really more of a Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa man), but I understand the perceived connection.

Sometimes I’m surprised that so many people find your photographs of junk so appealing.

I’m not surprised at all. Humans have always been romanced by ruins, how else do you explain the attraction of Machu Pichu, Angkor Wat, Pompeii or the Pyramids throughout history? The ruins I shoot are modern and less permanent than those classic locations, but the spirit behind why they are compelling to us is exactly the same.

You don’t see many people going out and photographing junk themselves.

Not true. There is a whole subculture of ruins photographers and urban exploration in America today that didn’t exist even 10 years ago. It’s way more popular than you give it credit for. I think it’s a generational thing, most people that do this are under the age of 30, and most over the age of 40 don’t really get it.

Eon 66 by Troy Paiva

Why is that?

The love of ruins has been largely missing from the American zeitgeist because we're such a young country–we haven't had any real ruins to call our own. But by the end of the 20th Century it changed, as technology and infrastructure evolved so quickly over the course of the last 50 years. Today, American kids seem to be obsessed with the ruins and decay of the "American Century." The whole UrbEx thing has become a pop-culture phenomenon. My god man, The Onion recently did a piece lampooning Detroit UE art. You know it’s hit the mainstream now!

A lot people say they love looking at night photographs, but are intimidated by the complexities of the process.

It’s OK to just look. Everyone doesn’t have to do night photography.

Even though most of the things that made night shooting technically difficult have been simplified by the invention of the DSLR and digital darkroom, you still have to go out and brave the elements. You still have to spend hours out there, just to get a couple of finished images. You still have to deal with cops and property owners. You still have to make the effort to find something interesting to shoot.

In today's sped-up O.C.D. culture, there are very few people with the patience to sit back and relax, spending 30 or 45 minutes doing a series of 4-minute exposures to get one shot. Everyone today wants to do everything with one click of the camera, one click of the mouse. This is why almost no one paints, or plays a musical instrument anymore. No one wants to put in the time to become really good at something. It's tragic, really.

You’ve always been an obsessive woodshedder, haven’t you?

Yeah, I've always been attracted to complex and difficult art projects and love disappearing into them. When I did that 3D work, I would spend 80 hours creating enormous set-piece images that pushed far beyond anything the designers of the program had in mind. In '04 and '05 I spent countless hours in my home studio, making music. I wrote, performed and recorded hundreds of songs. I'd sit there all night long, adjusting the snare drum sound to get it just right. Looking back at it, the amount of time I put into it was staggering. If I had been born 100 years earlier, I would have been that nut-job who made a ten-foot-tall Eiffel Tower model out of toothpicks. I just love getting so lost in the creative process that you lose all sense of time. You sit down to get to work at 8PM and what seems like a few minutes pass, only to look at the clock and see that it's 3AM already. Night shooting is another of those ways for me to get lost in the process.

Eightysixed by Troy Paiva

A lot of people said you were their inspiration for getting interested in night photography.

Well, that's deeply flattering and frankly, a little scary. Sometimes it feels like I accidentally started a sort of peaceful and artistic form of "Project Mayhem" in Fight Club. I started doing this because I didn't want to sit there night after night, watching TV, I wanted to do something that would make me feel alive and viscerally human. I wanted to work outside the realm of commonality. Now when I travel, there seems to be a cult of people doing this in every city I go to. It's spread like wildfire and now there are people doing it once or twice removed. They're doing it because they saw someone else doing it and have no idea that LostAmerica.com even exists. Similar to the Ed Norton character at the end of the film, it's all out of my control now and it makes me feel a little squirrelly.

So what do you think the attraction to night photography is for all these people?

In this rigidly controlled society, where most people willingly march in lock-step with everyone else, from cradle to grave, they are constantly being told what to think and how to think it. There are millions that long for something else. Something that they can do that rebels against this corporate-controlled hive mentality, something outside the norm that makes them feel empowered. Trespassing in the middle of the night to take pictures and make art depicting the fragility and failure of that corporate world, scratches that itch for them.

How important is the act of trespassing to you and your work?

For a lot of people, the thrill of trespassing is part of the pleasure of doing this kind of work. Many of the locations where I work can only be accessed by trespassing, so it will always be a part of the process, but the older I get the less exciting trespassing becomes.

Upstairs by Troy Paiva

Why’s that?

I would much rather have permission to shoot a site than not. It's just easier to work if you don't have to always be hiding or worrying if someone is seeing your lighting. Plus I want to publish the images and not worry about property owners coming after me, legally. I have seen other photographers get in hot water by showing work from places they've snuck into. I'm not interested in those kinds of "hire a lawyer" hassles.

When I first saw your website back in 1999, you said that almost everything was shot on the same type of film, usually at the same aperture and same exposure. Didn’t you find that process too limiting?

No. Steve Harper provided his students with detailed exposure and film syllabus for night shooting. He did all the hard work for us already, figuring out the reciprocity failure formulas and exposure data. I experimented with a lot of different films and exposures early on, but long before 1999, I’d figured out that Steve's "Moony 8" rule on tungsten film gave me the look and tone that I wanted. By working inside that simplified film/exposure framework I was able to expand its limitations in other ways: by lighting and subject.

What’s the “Moony 8” rule?

Kinda like the “Sunny 16” rule, only for night. For digital: Full moon, F/8, ISO 100, 4 minute exposure. You may need to adjust for conditions, but if you start with that, you’ll get a workable exposure.

Wouldn’t black-and-white film give you more of a mysterious look?

I've always been a colorist–most of my other artwork is very colorful, too. I knew early on that I wanted to work intensely with color, so I never went the B&W route. Besides, most of the historic fine-art night shooters were B&W shooters and I wanted to be different from them.

I’ve seen some of the cameras you used before you switched to digital. Some of them were one step away from ending up in the junkyard themselves.

I originally approached photography as a drawer and painter first. As such, it's always been about creating mood and atmosphere, an emotional response, rather than taking technically perfect pictures. That skronky, grainy, color shifted early work was all shot with junky old cameras, usually on out-dated film. Yeah, it was appallingly crude by today's standards, but the methodology of shooting with broken down equipment suited the broken down subjects.

The fact that all my early work looks so grainy, vignetted and color shifted, presaged today's iPhone "Hipstamatic" and toy camera craze, has amused me to no end. Nowadays I see people putting Holga lenses on $2000 digital bodies, so it's come full circle and people have embraced and understood the aesthetic. But yeah, back in the '90s and early '00s, I took a lot of flack from the rest of the night shooting community about my crappy gear.

Las Vegas Club by Troy Paiva

You never stuck me as someone who cared too much about taking flak from anyone.

Fair enough, but truthfully, by 2004 I was pretty frustrated by it myself. I had gone as far as I was going to go within the limitations of that gear, so I was more than ready to make the switch to a fancy new DSLR and concentrate more on the technical aspects of night shooting.

Is there enough urban exploration material in the Southwest to keep you busy?

Absolutely. More than I can cover in a lifetime of full moons.

Ever think of exploring more beyond the Southwest?

Sure, I'd like to shoot some of the rustbelt locations and Kirkbrides on the east coast. I'd love to shoot outside the US, in places like Buzludzha, Chernobyl or Gunkanjima. The list is endless, really. Ultimately though, I love the desert. The quality of light, the huge skies, the desolation. I will happily shoot other locations as they present themselves to me, but I will always come back to the desert.

Are we ever going to run out abandoned locations to shoot?

I get this question a lot. Locations inevitably come and go, but there will ALWAYS be other locations to shoot. I remember when the Rock-A-Hoola water park was renovated in the early '00s. I drove by it that first time thinking "Someday that place is gonna be abandoned and I'm gonna get to shoot it" and 8 years later, it came true. Mankind has built and abandoned more in the last 100 years than in all the rest of history, combined. We live in a golden age of ruins. As long as the human race continues this insane quest to reinvent and replace everything it makes, as quickly and as often as possible, there will always be places and things for me to shoot.

I know you’ve also worked at night in England and Singapore. How did you pull that off?

Yeah, I just went back to Singapore again, in early August, to be a judge on season 2 of "The Big Shot" reality show. In 2009 I was flown to London to give a lecture on my work for VIA-Verlag, a lighting design organization. I’ll go anywhere and lecture or take pictures if someone pays me to. In both cases I contacted local night photographers who took me shooting around their home turf on the one or two free nights I had there.

MS by Troy Paiva

Is shooting in the UK and Singapore anything like the U.S.?

My time in both places was very limited, so my comments are only generalizations, but both countries required a totally different style of shooting. It was summer in the UK, so there was only about five hours of darkness and it was always overcast and rainy. It was virtually impossible to escape the glow of sodium vapor and other man made light. Singapore too. Everything in that tiny, densely packed country seems to have four spotlights on it. In both countries I had a great time being treated to excellent hospitality by my guides, but the atmospheric conditions just didn’t lend themselves to moon-lit time exposure night shooting. I think this kinda relates to why I love, and will always come back to, the moonlit emptiness of the southwest.

What’s your typical night shooting trip like?

Ideally, I like to head out by myself with 3 or 4 days blocked out, with a general area to shoot in mind. I might do some research with Google Earth, or look up locations recommended to me, but I really like the freedom of going without any set plans or schedule.

I will establish a base camp in a cheap motel, usually in a small town, out in the middle of nowhere. I used to work out of a pick up with a camper shell. I'd sleep for a few hours in it, a few miles down a dirt road, or behind an abandoned mine–someplace far from paved roads. Over the years, I've found I do better work, and more of it, when I can get some sleep and a shower in an air-conditioned room. Yeah, I've stayed in some terrible dives, but it beats sleeping in an oven with no running water.

During the afternoon I'll drive out and start scouting locations. I'll stop when I find something interesting, walk around, take a few pictures, see if anyone notices me. I'll think about it in the context of night. Will the location be bathed in ugly sodium vapor streetlight? Will car headlights be a problem? Neighbors? If it's a business like a junkyard, I'll try to talk to the owner, show him some work and see if I can get in later that night. I'll continue on, compiling a list of possible locations, in a 50 or 100 mile stretch, until dark. Then I'll turn around and shoot my way back to the motel by 3 or 4 AM. Sleep 'til noon, grab a diner breakfast and repeat!

What’s the story behind Traveler’s Motel: 1957 Mercury?

Travelers was shot about 1AM, the last shot on a cold winter night at the Big M Auto dismantlers in Williams California. I was covered with mud and chilled to the bone and had one of those tubercular coughs that lasts all winter long. The conditions were miserable.

I used LED flashlight down the passenger side from the back of the car, just out of the frame. Getting some light on the ground was important there too, giving the left edge of the frame some context instead of the car just floating in black space. Then I crouched behind the car and used the LED on the motel sign, making sure to hit the further away top section a little more than the closer lower section, so the whole sign would look evenly lit. Coming round to the front, I popped a red-gelled strobe where the engine used to be, through the grille. There is also a snooted LED on the “M” logo and headlight from camera right. Note that I also just touched the broken headlight with light too, only enough to catch a glimpse of the dead wires in the socket, but not so much that it looked lit.

Traveler's Motel: 1957 Mercury by Troy Paiva

And one more. How did you set up Monte Carlo Moonrise

Capturing the rising moon requires working quickly–it moves its own diameter about every ten minutes. This was set up just as the moon was cresting enough to compose with, then I opened the lens and the moon rose into the shot. I had one chance to get it right.

This Chevy Monte Carlo was lit with lime- and green-gelled Stinger. The intensity of that light meant backing about 50 feet away from the car, softening and spreading its area of luminosity to cover the entire car without moving it. This gives a smooth, even look to the light it casts. Note that I lit from a low, shallow angle and included the foreground, again, to give the car a sense of place and weight I also used a tumbleweed as a gobo to cast a shadow on the rear fender. The red interior was done with an LED pointed at the camera from the far side of the car, blocked by the roof’s rear sail-panel. I rotated it around inside the car so the dirty glass would diffuse the light. In post, I used the clone tool to tidy up some slight lens flare and get rid of a distracting point of light on the horizon. There was a little dodging, to pull some details out of the moonlit background areas, too.

Monte Carlo Moonrise by Troy Paiva

There’s already a ton of night photography workshops out there, what made you and Joe Reifer decide to offer another one?

Yeah, you can't swing a dead cat these days without hitting someone that teaches a night photography workshop. Many of these workshops are taught by people that have been doing night photography for only a few years, since the switch to digital, when the technology opened up night photography to the masses.

See, it's easy to teach a night photography workshop because there's actually something to teach; equipment that people aren't familiar with, unusual exposure formulas and other hard factual data.

But it's difficult to find a night photography workshop that goes beyond the technical and dives into why you take photographs. Most of these other workshops just teach you how to take night photographs. Our workshop teaches you how to take good night photographs.

But what’s so unique about your workshop?

In a workshop scene filled with the same old city scenery and nature locations, the idea of doing a workshop in a functioning junkyard is totally unique. Especially one filled with movie prop vehicles, heavy equipment, aircraft parts and freeway signs. The owner even crushed a couple of cars for us as an afternoon matinee! Day or night, there is no other workshop like this on the market.

Isn’t three nights in a single location a bit restricting for some people?

No, three nights in Paul's Junkyard is less restricting than other workshops. The fact that 50% of our workshop attendees are repeat customers is a testament to that. Most workshop locations give you a handful of set ups, but with a huge junkyard filled with 100s of vehicles, structures and wildly varied debris, the subject-driven possibilities are literally endless.

At Paul's there's no down time driving from location to location. You can become immersed deep in the work and can be highly productive in a place that's totally off the map where only a handful of people have ever taken pictures. We had one student come home from one of our three-nighters with 47 amazing time exposures (David Evan's photos from the Paul's Junkyard workshops). Granted, he's an experienced night shooter working with multiple cameras, but try making a body of work that big and cool at any other night photography workshop!

Many workshop instructors are struggling to fill their workshops. Getting repeat customers is impressive.

Exactly. While September still has spots open, I was able to fill a private, alumni only workshop at Paul's for October in a couple of days. See, the alums already know. When you come to one of our workshops, it's just such a surreal and weirdly inspiring great time, you just gotta come do it again.

To get more information about the workshop at Paul's Scrapyard, check out their website.

Mare Island Night Photography Show

2011-07-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

Four of my night photographs will be included in the Mare Island Night Photography show which opens on August 3rd. The reception will be in two weeks, on Sunday, August 14th. Mare Island was the oldest Naval base on the West Coast. All of the photographs will feature the buildings, homes, cranes and dry docks of the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The show will be held in the museum, which is located in an amazing former ship building factory.

(B1-5, B1-6 by Andy Frazer)

Mare Island is now part of the city of Vallejo, California, just half an hour north of San Francisco and Oakland.

Details:
August 3 through September 15, 2011
Mare Island Historic Park Foundation Museum
1100 Railroad Avenue, Mare Island, Vallejo [map]
Reception:
Sunday, August 14 from 2 to 4 pm

The show will feature work from the following night photographers:

Harvey Abernathey
Tim Baskerville
Mike Browne
Tamara Danoyan
David Dasinger
Andy Frazer
Lenny Greenwald
Alan Grinberg
Ed Hamilton
Amy Heiden
Steve Jackson
Kim Kulish
G Dan Mitchell
Shawn Peterson
Joe Reifer
Deb Rourke
Greta & Manu Schnetzler
Marla Showfer
Richard Stough
Cassandra Wright

L.A. Night Photography Workshop - August 26-28, 2011

2011-06-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

Tom Paiva and I are excited to announce our second L.A. Night Photography Workshop will be held August 26-28, 2011. If you missed our workshop last October, this is your chance to work on your urban night photography at various locations throughout Los Angeles, California, including a trip to a special industrial site that is off-limits to the general public.


(Photo by Tom Paiva)

For more information, including times, dates, requirements, enrollment and photos from last year's workshop, please visit the LA Night Photography Workshop web site. You may notice that one change to this year's workshop features a snazzier web site designed by the very talented Susanne Friedrich at Red Princess Productions.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

You can also email me (andyfrazer [at] gorillasites [dot] com) with any questions about this workshop

Interview with Steve Harper: Part Two

2011-04-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is part two of my interview with legendary Bay Area night photography pioneer, Steve Harper. You want to read part one of our interview before reading part two.

Did you get any of the technical issues, such as film and developers, worked out before the class began?

By the time my first class began, there was sufficient time for me to experiment with both black and white and color films in a number of locations with varied ambient lighting to be able to give starting guidelines . During that period I photographed every night, if possible. I was also refining my film development and printing choices. By the time the semester started, I had done an in-house gallery showing of night photography prints which caused quite stir, not only in the photographic department, but throughout all departments at the Academy of Art.

Head,Valley of Fire, NV. Photo by Steve Harper

Back then it must have been very interesting for everyone to see night photographs for the first time.

The first class was quickly over-subscribed as were subsequent classes, which at times, led to teaching two classes each semester.

I'm surprised the class was so popular back during a time when there wasn’t a popular night photography canon of work to get people hooked.

I think what excited students initially was that they were seeing reality transformed as they had never seen it before - images that compressed the passage of time, the very alive atmosphere and motion into a single image. I believe that anyone who has photographed at night will tell you that excitement somehow continues, beginning with your initial attempt through to the final print of each image. Even with long experience,each final result contains a revelation.

As with any art, practice and study and intuition tend to focus and solidify one's personal expression. In my classes, students were taught to photograph in every stage of darkness - from city lights to total darkness - desert skies, lit only by the stars. From the beginning, I had considered performance in front of the camera and the adding of light as essential facets of the teaching of night photography. Students were encouraged to go out together and photograph every time they had the urge. Some locations were close by and were varied enough to reward frequent innovation. The Sutro Bath ruins and the China Basin Industrial Area, both at San Francisco's watery edges, were highly productive locations for photographing at night.

Every other week we met in class and critiqued all newly submitted work in depth, from the technical acumen to the varied ascetic viewpoints.

Speaking of "varied ascetic viewpoints", how did you come up with the idea of photographing yourself while you were asleep?
I had thought of photographing myself asleep in bed for a long time before I actually tried. It turned out to be a very technical experiment.

Photo by Steve Harper

I estimated/guessed using aperture f/22 for a four and one-half hour exposure. In addition, I attempted to match the inside light to the ambient light outside the windows by replacing the overhead light bulb with a five watt bulb, placing a 3" collar around the fixture plate, and capping the collar with five layers of tissue paper to further diffuse the light. I chose that bright pink bed cover precisely because of the color. In the initial thinking, I knew I should make this photograph on a night when I was very tired. As you can see by the poinsettia plant, it was winter, near Christmas, so it got dark early. I set the alarm to waken me after four and a half hours, and as I had hoped, slept through the whole exposure. Then I reset the alarm for three and a half hours and did it again. The four and a half hour exposure was the more successful of the two attempts.

The resulting image was from my first attempt. I did take the image again, replacing the five watt bulb with a blue one and using f/16 for three and one-half hours which caused a completely different sleep atmosphere.

Did the students have to present a portfolio or a show?

At the end of each semester, students were required to present a portfolio of their work. The portfolio could be of images outsiders might consider eclectic, i.e., a finished, matted print from each of the very varied assignments - or students could present a portfolio of prints made from images taken in a particular location or choice of lighting the student had concentrated upon intently.

In any event, by the time a student had gone through a full semester, having been exposed to nearly every degree of ambient lighting at night and seeing the experimentation of their fellow students, he/she could continue photographing and refining their vision in the lighting situation and location that was their personal choice.

Dome, Water Storage System, Death Valley. Photo by Steve Harper

Everybody seems to agree that your night photography courses laid the groundwork for the strong night photography community that still exists in the Bay Area.

I taught full semester night photography classes at the Academy of Art College for eleven years and did workshops for a number of years after that. All were fully subscribed so I introduced night photography to hundreds of students from all over the world. If you check Google "night photography classes and workshops" you can see how interest in night photography has spread and learning it is readily available internationally. Many of these classes and workshops are taught by my students - and now, by their students and their student's students. California remains a west coast center of dynamic study of night photography taught by such notables as Tim Baskerville, Tom Paiva, Troy Paiva, Joe Reifer and yourself. And Lance Keimig teaches in Boston, and does workshops internationally. He has written a definitive and comprehensive text book entitled "Night Photography - Finding Your Way In The Dark" which should be read by all night photographers, regardless of their experience. I have learned something new each time I have opened the book. I highly recommend it.

It’s amazing to see the rise in popularity of night photography over the past few years.

A lot of this impetus in night photography is due to the advent of the digital camera and the Flickr website. The digital camera has facilitated taking images at night. Research is not as necessary to begin photographing at night and progress and the creative processes are dependent primarily upon one's stamina and his/her innate talent - and the weather!

What do you think is the special appeal of the night to so many photographers?

As I wrote in the Forward to Lance Keimig's "Night Photography" book:

“What impels many of us to photograph at night is our fascination with the transformation of reality by the passage of time; the compression of time into a single image. Motion, atmospheric changes, the unexpected and the unexplained all etch themselves upon the image during the long exposure. The resulting image, at times touched with poetry, suggests another dimension or an altered reality - usually one that is more beautiful and more peaceful.

Lightning Storm, Mono Lake. Photo by Steve Harper

“At night, in remote areas, while standing alone and focusing upon nature during a long exposure, you become aware of the universality of all things. The Earth is constantly turning in relation to the stars and the planets. The atmosphere around you becomes palpable whether it is totally still or on the verge of a storm. These elements, beyond your control, will alter not only the mood of the image you are exposing but its design and, at times, its ultimate meaning. Depending upon the direction you are photographing, the stars and planets will etch themselves upon the image as spirals around the North Star inferring motion and infinity, or they will make diagonal lines that at times, point directly at what your camera is focusing upon. The atmosphere, either still or moving, will mysteriously amplify the mood.”

“With so many imponderables as a constant, night photography will perhaps always remain a subjective art allowing wide-ranging latitude for creative expression.”

Night photography is also a capricious, playful, off-the-wall playground for the mind. The creative imagination is less jaded, more experimental and many times, playful.”

How do you think the creative process has advanced along with the tremendous increase in the number of people taking on night photography? Or do you think that many people are just enamored with the ability to record a well-exposed shot at night?

I see a lot of images that I wish I had taken myself. And I see some that I do not think advance the creative and technical processes.

Altamont Pass, by Steve Harper

One of the things I’ve always liked about night photography is how it can transform some that looks ordinary during the day time, into something so surreal at night. Shooting abandoned buildings at night has always felt like combining an excellent subject and excellent process.

During the day we tend to drive past them with little more than a glance whether they be homes or buildings that produced something essential to society, or at least, something essential to the well-being of their neighbors. At night, they take on the spirit of what has been and is no longer. In the quietude, the fact that someone has spent their whole life there becomes more tangible. Consequently, such buildings in various states of abandonment and decay represent either sadness or progress, depending upon how it effects you.

When I look at photographs of abandoned homesteads in the desert, I always wonder about who lived there, and why they left.

A former student of mine, Kim Stringfellow, who now teaches at the University of California, San Diego, has done an intense study of areas where people have moved on and left their homes to chance and the environment. She has turned it into a recently published book, “Jackrabbit Homestead”.

Night People Looking Out Over the Pacific. Photo by Steve Harper

Are there any current photographers who impress you or are doing interesting work?

I think all of you who teach have reached a technical level so that the images must be respected and admired for that alone - but you do not reach the level of being a teacher of night photography without your own personal experiments and creative sense. I have come to admire your excellent sense of design and mastery of color.

Thanks, Steve. Are you just saying that because it’s my blog?

No. I also always watch Susanne Friedrich, Joe Reifer and Toby Keller because they experiment wildly as I tend to do and with a sense of humor, but the images are always iconic and technically acute. I admire Tom Paiva's research and mastery of the technical areas of night photography from the use of 8x10 film to his new, prized Sony digital camera [the Sony NEX-5, and consequently, his drawing the attention of commercial interest.

Lance Keimig has done very well introducing night photography to the community around Boston.

I greatly admire Lance Keimig. He is not only one of the very best teachers of night photography, he is the curator of Darkness, Darkness, a meaningful, traveling show featuring notable current night photographers. He also did a great job writing his book: "Night Photography - Finding Your Way In The Dark", which I highly recommend to night photographers, regardless of their experience. And close by, on Mare Island, we have Tim Baskerville's The Nocturnes . He has mastered the art of teaching, be it his legendary workshops in choice locations or at Bay Area colleges. Such organizational excellence has brought The Nocturnes to their upcoming 20th Anniversary and my congratulations!

Have you ever had any unusual adventures while shooting at night?

Usually I find the experience of photographing at night, the most profoundly peaceful part of my twenty-four hours, but there have been adventures that were somewhat unsettling.

Two rather dramatic incidents were both at Olmstead Point on Tioga Pass in the Yosemite National Park. Both incidents happened late at night as I wanted to get star trails in the perceived images. One incident happened around 11:00 at night. I brought a friend with me this time! We parked in the Olmstead Point parking area and were in the process of taking the equipment out of the trunk and suddenly a rather piercing light appeared coming up Tioga Pass on our left. It was strange in that it bounced up and down as if a person in a hurry were carrying it. Then, just as it fully rounded the curve so that we were totally in it's sight, the light went out and we heard the sound of a cascade of falling rocks, as if the person had suddenly turned sideways up the cliff. We kept looking for a few nervous minutes - all around us - and never did see the light or the "person" again. Definitely no longer in a creative mood, we repacked the equipment and headed back down the mountain to the Aspen campground near Lee Vining and Mono Lake.

This rock at Olmstead Point in Yosemite National Park has come to be known in the night photography community as "Steve's Rock". Photo by Steve Harper.

Didn’t you get chased out by coyotes one time?

One time I was alone and intended to rephotograph what has become known as "Steve's Rock". While I was well into the taking the image, I heard the yelp of a coyote to my right and behind me. Shortly it was answered by another coyote to my left and behind me. Then they began creeping closer on each side, one yelling and the other answering, until it finally unnerved me so that I just picked up my camera while it was still on the tripod and hurried back down the glacial moraine to the car, resulting in some bizarre star and planet trails as the shutter remained open.

Is there anyone out there on the Internet you’d like to mention?

A lot of excellent photographers who are on Flickr have grabbed the generous hints and bits of information accompanying images posted by night photographers and are having a go at it. They readily produce images equal in quality to their excellent day time images. I highly recommend checking out Bob West, Lee McCain and Fort Photo.

Bob Fagella, by Steve Harper

Last question. You recently self-published a retrospective book of your night photography. At some point most photographers think of publishing a book. What made you decide to finally jump in and do it?

When you get on in age, you become concerned about what you are leaving of yourself. That concern is, of course, a primal urge that is very personal to one's self. Since Night Photography has been my primary expression for almost forty years and counting, I believe it most reflects who I am, how I think and how I see the world around me. Perhaps it reflects a fantasy world to most people because it comes from one who has gone through life, having always felt he is on the outside - looking in. But I believe the vision is more beautiful and more peaceful and that it considers the universality of all things.

You can order Steve's book here. You can see more of Steve Harper’s work on his website. You can also see an interview that I did with Steve on my short night photography documentary film which is available on YouTube (part1, part2, part3).

Photography Show in Memory of Warren Bates

2011-04-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

The Las Vegas Review Journal and the Left of Center Gallery are sponsoring a photography show in memory of night photographer Warren Bates who passed away in April, 2010. All proceeds of sales from the show will benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The show runs from April 9th through June 4th, 2011 at the Left of Center Gallery (2207 W Gowan Rd, N Las Vegas, NV).

Needles 66 by Warren Bates

Warren's sister, Susana, has created a wonderful website which includes details of the show. There is also an on-line auction for an original, signed, matted version of Warren's popular photograph "Baghdad". Sales of prints from the show are all tax-deductible.

Interview with Steve Harper: Part One

2011-03-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

Steve Harper has been a well-known figure in the Northern California night photography scene ever since he taught the first college-level course in night photography at the Academy of Art College in the 1970’s.Steve is one of the few people who have had the opportunity to have witnessed the progression of night photography from the early days of personal experimentation, through the rising popularity in the “film era”, up to the recent popularity of digital night photography.

Steve and I recently talked at length about the early days of modern night photography, and his thoughts about how night photography have changed over the past thirty years.

Steve,you started out on the “other side” of the camera, and somehow ended up as a night photographer.

I began my experimentations in photography based upon perceptions gained while standing in front of the cameras of Diane Arbus, Irving Penn, Howell Conant, Horst P Horst, Richard Avedon, et al, during the ten years I was a model and television actor with the Ford Men's Agency in New York City from 1959 to 1969.

That sounds like a great way to get started in photography.
Not all of my perceptions were of a technical nature, : )! - even so, with the patient teaching by some of the darkroom assistants to those photographers above and other kindly New York photographers, I began to learn and to build an editorial fashion portfolio, photographing my fellow Ford models before leaving for California in December, 1969.

Photo by Clifford Coffin

Was that a good move?

Having moved from the middle of Manhattan to the small, isolated northern California coastal village of Mendocino was a profound artistic experience also. The purity of nature and the atmospheres created by the magical coastal light literally changed my conceptions and the direction of my interest in photography.

„The purity of nature and the atmospheres created by the coastal light“??? What does that mean?

I had just arrived in Mendocino from the middle of Manhattan where I always felt that I was just an image - always on the outside looking in. Until I left New York, I remained overwhelmed and overpowered by its multifaceted immensity. The buildings blocked out the sky and the hordes of people rushing past were alien to me and the whole was so alien to my own concept of living that in 1963 I bought a farm in Northfield, Connecticut, a four hour drive away unless I violated the speed limits, yet, until December, 1969 I was still with the Ford Modeling Agency - a long, dispiriting commute.

Mendocino must have been quite a place back then.

In 1970, Mendocino was a run-down community of locals and artists. At that time, there were few if any tourists. I could walk out of the back of my house, cross the open lands, and sit on the coastline watching the weather patterns form and sweep across me. Some formations were poetic in their fragility and the way they were touched with light. Some were powerful, dark and threatening. All complimented and dramatized the magnificent beauty of the untouched coastline. And it felt natural and pure to me. It was there where it occurred to me that I was a minuscule, yet very meaningful part of the universality of all things - no longer just an image.
Shortly thereafter, I experienced my first realization of the myriad elements involved in taking an image in light so low, that it involved an extended exposure, resulting in the compression of time onto a single piece of film.

Helicopter Rising from Behind Greenbrae, by Steve Harper

So, you had this moment of clarity somewhere on the Mendocino coast?

No, I was in San Francisco to connect with a friend I had known in New York. I was watching the changing of the street windows at the I. Magnin department store across from Union Square. No spotlights were on - only small incandescent bulbs provided the subdued light. The mannequins stood there bald and totally nude. Then a couple of men began rushing in and out carrying articles of clothing for the mannequins. They just hung each article of clothing on the mannequins shoulders in readiness to dress them. What I realized was that the men hurrying in and out of the scene - and each of their furtive seeming movements - would register as a ghosts on film, creating scenes at different stages of dress and undress with multiple interpretations.

You never showed us that photograph.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me. But that scenario has stayed in my mind seemingly as clear as it was that very night.

How did all this lead to your involvement with the Academy of Art College?

Gene Dennis, who headed the photographic department at Macy's in New York hired me as a model for Macy's from one hour to full day bookings almost every week. He moved from New York to San Francisco and soon began teaching Fashion at the Academy of Art College. He knew of my interest in photography and mentioned me to Paul Raedeke, Dean of the College, who checked out my portfolios, which by then included images from Mendocino. He was particularly interested that I had stood on both sides of the camera, so he hired me to begin teaching a number of classes beginning in 1979: Natural Light, Art Appreciation, Environmental Portraiture, and Figure.

Walking Figure, Valley of the Fire, NV. Photo by Steve Harper

How did the Figure Photography course work out?

The difficulty of teaching figure Photography at a school in downtown San Francisco is that you are almost automatically confined to studio work only; however, I combined the Figure classes with my Night Photography Classes when we went on camping locations, such as the one to Mono Lake and Death Valley, or up the coast, north of Bodega Bay. Being out in the myriad choices of backgrounds offered by nature freed things up a bit insofar as student creativity. At the end of the Figure class nearly every student presented a Final Portfolio of images they had shot during those outside locations.

I had expected to have difficulty finding models for the class, but lucked out with both an outstanding male and female model who were free enough to go on those camping trips also.

Once you were at the Academy of Art College, why did you start a course in night photography?

Because of my interest and somewhat limited portfolio in night photography, Dean Raedeke also asked me to research and develop a structure for teaching night photography. My research evolved into the first college level semester offering of the subject of night photography. It was instantly popular with students and I taught night photography for two classes each semester, including the summer semester through 1990.

Persimmon Tree, by Steve Harper

How did you come up with the curriculum for that first night photography class?

When I was asked to teach night photography, it was near the starting date of the semester I was to begin teaching it. There was very little time to make an in depth search for guidelines as to how to begin. I did find Brassai's memorable atmospheric images of Paris, noting in particular how the misty air caught and augmented the ambient light. I also admired Jessie "Tarbox" Beal's New York street photographs for her similar approach. But I couldn’t find any images that were annotated with the times of the exposures, the apertures used, the type of film used, nor the film processing used, so I started from scratch.

Did you let the students shoot whatever they wanted? Or did you give them any structure?

Since night photography of its very nature is ultimately conceptual and conjectural, I felt that in order to teach it, there had to be some common denominators in order to "ground" it. To me, that meant, when photographing in color, the sky must be blue and the grass, green. Like most photographers who have a go at night photography, I started with daylight films, and even though some of the color shifts were interesting, the sky was an unrealistic green color. Then I tried Kodak's Ektacolor 160 Tungsten film which rendered everything at night a more natural color. And the sky was definitely blue. I had the film professionally developed successfully and it became the assigned color film.

Cloud Formation, Mono Lake. Photo by Steve Harper

Was it all about color film? Wasn’t black-and-white more popular in the 1970’s?

Yes. I had already used Kodak's Tri-X 400 black and white film at night with some success, I just needed to find a developer that reduced the contrast. I settled on Rodinal, using a strict regimen to further reduce grain and contrast.

Did you do all your shooting in downtown San Francisco?

Even though I could not find annotated images, there were further questions that needed to be settled before I wrote a syllabus and handed out exposure guidelines to my students. I decided rather quickly to teach night photography in all degrees and circumstances of the night. We would move progressively from photographing in the ambient light of urban situations - continually moving into locations with less and less ambient light.

Now you’re getting out into the boondocks.

That brought up the choice of locations to achieve such variance in exposures and that were sufficiently extensive so that fifteen students, or more, at times, did not get in each other's way and that each of them had a panoply of scenes to consider. I gave students guidelines for "city" images, fireworks, neon lights, etc. to experiment with on their on because if they made a mistake,they could readily correct it themselves without class involvement - except for critiques. As a class, we started in the China Basin Industrial area of San Francisco where the ambient lighting was considerably less and there were dramatic buildings, ships and the waterfront and plenty of room to move about.

"Self Portrait - Kief's Blanket - Sutro Baths", by Steve Harper

Did you take the students anywhere away from the downtown lights?

We went to the Sutro Baths ruins below the Cliff House on the Pacific coast. Sutro Baths ruins was a magical location because it was on multi-levels and there was a mixture of light predominated by the spot lights lights in the cliffs below the Cliff House which were mercury vapor. They lit the small islands close by. The street lights above were sodium vapor. But the main reason it was "magical" was that the exposures were truly time exposures - up to fifteen minutes, depending upon the aperture, the position of the moon and the ever-changing atmospheric conditions.

Other than the lights from the Cliff House restaurant, it can get very dark at Sutro.

We also went up the coast past Bodega Bay to a deserted beach. There was no lighting except for the moon and the stars. Students could do 45 minute exposures and begin to use star and planet trails as design elements.

Bodega Bay? That’s really getting away from San Francisco.

From there, we did annual week-long camping trips to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Mono Lake and Death Valley National Monument. These camping trips were scheduled so students could begin working three nights before the full moon, and the night of the full moon.

Pyramid Lake, by Steve Harper

Did you do the research yourself, or did you involve the class?

Naturally, at first, I had to photograph these locations myself so I could give students guidelines for shooting, but also to show them how each location was usually very different insofar as the variances in lighting, exposure times and atmospheric conditions.

You mentioned leading your students through China Basin, which used to be part of the harbor for San Francisco. Now it's best known as the location of the AT&T Park and it's quickly becoming yuppie-fied. What did China Basin look like back then?

China Basin Industrial Area began at the China Basin Building on Mission Creek and extended southward to he beginning of Potrero Hill. All buildings were unique and built for the purpose they served in supporting the San Francisco waterfront and the various shipping industries. To me, the most iconic of all the buildings was the Southern Pacific Train Garage.

Nearly all buildings were shuttered at night and many were empty in anticipation of the redevelopment plans underway for the whole of China Basin. The only lighting was from the glow of downtown San Francisco caught in the ever-changing atmosphere and from the street lights that were few and far between. There were many mysterious alleyways so one's creative imagination could run rampant. But the unique buildings and storage facilities were the main focus.

China Basin Building. Photo by Steve Harper

Was it safe to shoot down there?

It was very rare when I photographed in China Basin that I saw one other person, which increased the feeling of mystery.

Sounds like the perfect night photography location.

The first time I photographed the China Basin Building, 1979, I was suddenly surrounded by three police cars, lights flashing. As soon as I explained to them what I was doing and let them look through the view finder, we ended up as friends and any time I saw them from then on if I was with or without students, they waved and continued their routes. One policeman even posed for me, holding still for two minutes! as he guarded the piers that were awaiting the arrival of Queen Elizabeth's ship on a visit to San Francisco in 1984.

That area is completely different today.

I left the Academy of Art College in 1990 and I left San Francisco in 1994. I did not see the beginning of the tear down of those historic structures. When I came back to the Bay Area, I wanted to see the Giant's new ball park and, of course, drive through China Basin. I had not experienced the feeling before that the spirit of a a place could be made void by being usurped by a few bland, featureless buildings. Someone referred to them as "yuppie kennels"

Southern Pacific Rail Station, by Steve Harper

There was still a lot of open space when I last drove through. The land where the magnificent Southern Pacific Railroad Garage was empty at that time.

There’s no open space there, now.

It was a very sad passage.

Steve Harper at Mono Lake. Photo by Joe Reifer

I'll post Part Two of our interview next week.

In the meantime, you can see more of Steve Harper’s work on his website. You can also see an interview that I did with Steve on my short night photography documentary film which is available on YouTube (part1, part2, part3).

Interview with Joe Reifer - Part Two

2010-10-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

Last week I published the first part of my interview with Bay Area night photographer Joe Reifer. Here is part two of our interview.

I know you’ve invested a lot of time learning about the RAW processing work flow, and especially sharpening techniques.

Processing a RAW file to look good online is getting easier and easier. Printing is much more demanding. I use Lightroom for 80-90% of my workflow, and go to Photoshop to use masks and more detailed local adjustments. My processing goal is to create an image or print that has an open look, but still reads as night.

Photoshop is useful for stacking images for long star trails, and compositing images where the light painting wasn't quite right. Getting the shot right in the camera is ideal, but some of these techniques allow for greater productivity in the field. Troy Paiva and I talk about this balancing act in our workshops.

Photo by Joe Reifer

What was the biggest mistake you ever made while shooting?

A few years back I drove to the Mojave and shot a few hot nights in a junkyard, and didn't use in-camera noise reduction. The temperature was in the high-70's [Fahrenheit], and most exposures were in the 4-6 minute range. I didn't bring a laptop on this trip to review images. When I got home I loaded the images on to my computer, and it looked like someone poured salt into the sky there was so much noise.

When the temperature in the 50's or below, noise reduction is typically not necessary on a current dSLR with a CMOS sensor. You just end up cutting your productivity and battery life in half. When it's in the 60's, you may or may not need noise reduction. Depends on your camera and exposure length. If it's still 70 degrees at midnight you better be using noise reduction. The hotter the ambient temperature, the more noise.

That’s very interesting. I’ve never used in-camera noise reduction. But then, I’ve never shot in the desert. How does ICNR compare against post-processing NR such as Noise Ninja?

In-camera noise reduction offers better results than handling noise in post-processing. A few hot pixels are no big deal, but the white salt noise in images with a lot of sky are particularly problematic to remove in post. Any sort of noise reduction in post-processing is a trade off between loss of detail, and noise removal. The dark frame subtraction utilized in the camera does not have this compromise. Of course, in-camera noise reduction can cut your battery life and productivity in half unless you're shooting with multiple cameras.

So many people are suddenly interested in urban exploration. Do you thing that the recent popularity of UrbEx is a benefit to night photography of abandoned buildings? Or is it a going to create a problem?

I don't think the interest in UrbEx is sudden. People have been exploring ruins forever. What's relatively new is the huge amount of information available online. Instead of hitting the library for ghost town books and vintage maps before a trip, now we've got Google Earth on an iPhone.

Photo by Joe Reifer

We've seen what has happened at Byron Hot Springs just east of the Oakland area.

Night photography and UrbEx aren't what destroyed Byron Hot Springs. The spread of location information online leads to all sorts of people visiting a site: vandals, copper thieves, drunken teenagers.

Over the last 2 years I shot at a location with photographers Riki Feldmann and Stephen Walsh, who rarely post work online. I agreed not to post any photos of the site before it was torn down. Although there were signs of scrappers pulling metal out of a few places, there were few signs of any other vandalism. If location details and images had been posted online, the increased visitation may have been harmful to the site. More importantly, the artistic impact of the work would have been diluted.

The show of work from this location runs November 5-30th at the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, CA. The opening is on November 5th: Dark Resort: A Nocturnal Survey of Lake Berryessa in Transition.

A lot of urban explorers say they enjoy the adrenaline rush of sneaking into a location, and then trying not to get caught. Do you prefer to sneak in? Or get permission?

This question gets asked a lot. Permission is best if possible. Everything else requires some sort of risk assessment. I'm not doing this for the adrenaline rush. I just want to absorb the atmosphere and make some images.

Do you have any desire to go visit Detroit or anywhere in the Rust Belt?

I'm glad people are photographing Detroit so I can see it. I'm not interested in being a tourist somewhere for a few days and then presenting the images in the context of the rest of my night work. If I was going to photograph Detroit, I'd need to move there for a year. Photographing closer to home has helped me create a more cohesive body of work.

Julia Solis has been photographing Detroit for a long time, and bought a house there. Jeff Brouws is an interesting photographer who was based in San Francisco for a long time and then moved to the Rust Belt to photograph. His book Approaching Nowhere is amazing.

Some photographers get what I call Burtynsky-itis: the desire to photograph the biggest, most shocking and impressive example of a subject. I'm typically interested in more subtle subjects. I usually prefer to invite the viewer into the photograph instead of hitting them over the head with it.

Does the American Southwest have enough to keep you interested for a long time? Or would you like the chance to shoot somewhere else?

I'd like to do more exploring in Nevada, and do some work in Arizona and New Mexico. And there's still a lot more to shoot in the Mojave. Time and money are the limiters for most photographers getting to shoot in interesting places.

Photo by Joe Reifer

At this point, are you more interested in shooting new locations? What about revisiting old locations and reshooting them? And how important is the documentary aspect to your night photography work.

Documenting a location over time can often reveal some fascinating insights into the process of decay. A mix of new and old locations seems to work pretty well for planning each full moon. My work is documentary with a touch of the surreal. In Szarkowski's construct of Mirrors and Windows I'm mostly a window.

Any plans to publish a book?

I was very excited about the idea of print-on-demand, but got discouraged when I saw the printing quality, especially for night work. Night photography is very difficult to print because you're often dealing with a wide gamut of blue and cyan tones in the sky, and the tricky transition area of the dark zones into areas of black with no detail. I'll be keeping an eye on the technology as it improves.

In the mean time, folios might be an interesting alternative. Any of these options require packaging and marketing your work. That's not the reason I'm doing night photography. Time is limited. I'd much rather be out in the middle of the desert shooting rusty stuff under a full moon than engaging in endless self-promotion. If Gerhard Steidl calls me up, sure, I'll publish a book.

A lot of people get excited about night photography, they start producing some good work, then after a year of so, they burn out and we never hear from them again.

Same as any other hobby. People like trying new stuff. I do hear what you're saying about the attrition rate with night photography though. The basics of night photography are easy. Finding subjects to shoot, light painting, and making a consistent body of interesting work is not easy.

What about the cold? And the boredom? Some people have told me they didn’t realize how much time it took standing around in the dark with nothing to do.

Night photography isn't for everyone. Neither is mountain climbing. Or cricket.

Photo by Joe Reifer

You've already photographed some junkyards, plenty of abandoned buildings, and even an aircraft junkyard. What new challenges are you looking for?

Well, I've taken a few months off from shooting vehicles. I love old cars, but I don't consider myself a car photographer. I'm interested in looking at any sort of location, architecture, object, or place that is in the bardo state between abandoned and gone. What insights can we draw by studying a place during this transitional time between the end of one thing and the beginning of another thing.

Any plans for the upcoming year?

I'll be a guest instructor at the Nocturnes Death Valley workshop from November 19-21. Next Spring Troy Paiva and I will hopefully do another Pearsonville workshop. Photographers who are interested in workshops can sign up for the workshop notification list to make sure they don't miss out.

Beyond the shows and workshops, I'm trying to figure out how to cobble together a living teaching photography and Photoshop, and working part-time. But that's a rant for another day. I just want to go to cool places and take photos.

To see more of Joe's work, please visit his website. To learn more about the Pearsonville Workshops as well as some of Joe's other workshops, please visit the his workshop webpage.

Interview with Joe Reifer - Part One

2010-10-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Last month I changed the format of The Night Photography Blog. Beginning with Tom Paiva's interview last month, this blog will focus on interviews with people who have had a large impact on night photography. This month, I'm proud to present Bay Area photographer Joe Reifer. Since Joe and I have known each other for six years, we had a lot to talk about. So I've decided to present this interview in two parts. Part two will be published one week later.

For the past few years you've been teaching the Pearsonville Workshops with Troy Paiva. Even though the world is probably reaching a saturation point with photography workshops, the Pearsonville Workshops have usually had a waiting list.

The success of the Pearsonville workshops is due to the unique location, Troy's sizable fan base, and the quality of instruction. We've had a lot of photographers repeat the workshop multiple times, and recommend the Pearsonville experience to friends. Troy and I have both shot over 25 nights in this amazing junkyard, and we're still finding new material and perspectives. As photographers grow in their night photography and light painting skills, Pearsonville keeps offering up new challenges.

Pearsonville Scrapyard, Photo by Joe Reifer

Your shooting style is quite different from Troy's style. What's the advantage of having one workshop with two instructors with two different shooting styles?

Workshop participants have found our different styles to be very complementary. Troy is a master of lighting and color blending -- there's no better instructor for light painting. I focus more on using moonlight along with subtle flashlight fill-light. Our varied styles and interest are also an enriching part of the classroom and critique sessions. One workshop participant referred to us as the Siskel and Ebert of night photography.

How would you describe your night photography style?

My style is rooted in the documentary tradition. I'm interested in depicting ruins in the context of their surroundings. Spirit of place. The images allow space for the movement and mystery of night.

How has that changed over the past few years?

My style has been pretty consistent over the last 5 years, but it took a couple of years of intensive shooting and experimenting to get there. As my lighting skills have improved, I've been able to refine the subtle look of the lighting.

Photo by Joe Reifer

Night shooting time is precious. Does teaching cut into your night shooting time? Or does it provide an opportunity to shoot more?

Troy and I shoot for demonstration purposes at our workshops. Our focus is on helping the workshop participants with their composition and lighting techniques. We typically add an extra night to our desert trips in order to do our own shooting. Teaching workshops is really gratifying -- I love seeing light bulbs go off when people get it!

Your blog, Words, is a mix of night photography, daytime road trips through Nevada, and sometimes links to other photographers. But there’s something very cohesive about it. Do you have a grand plan for what you want to present on the blog?

Thanks. The grand plan is to have fun and keep a record of what I'm doing and thinking about. I learn a lot by writing these things down, and hope a few other people will also benefit.

What were you photographing before you got interested in night photography?

I shot a lot of events and portraits, street photography, and did a little bit of editorial work. I was working with small flashes and studio strobes before the whole Strobist phenomenon, and tried a one-night Nocturnes workshop as a way to add to my lighting skills. I was immediately hooked and have focused on night photography ever since.

I know you’ve always been a big fan of the desert. What sort of locations and situations do you look for when you’re shooting at night?

Out of the way places, little known historical sites, anything that's forgotten, crusty and has an air of mystery about it.

Photo by Joe Reifer

Do you agree that “location is everything“? Do you believe that successful vernacular night photography is possible?

You have to put your camera in front of something interesting. What qualifies as interesting is a very subjective question. The biggest or the most difficult to access locations aren't necessarily the most interesting. An abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere can have plenty of mystery and spirit of place.

When you say vernacular photography, do you mean photographs of every-day objects taken at night? I don't want to make a close-up photograph of an old oil can behind a gas station, I'd rather shoot a wide view of the scene with star trails.

Maybe “vernacular” was a bad choice of words. I was referring the more popular locations, such as the bunkers up at the Marin Headlands, or Sutro Baths in San Francisco.

I've enjoyed photographing well-known locations like the Sutro Baths and Wolf Ridge in the Headlands. The popularity and accessibility of these sites doesn't diminish the joy of being out under the moon. Photographing at night near urban areas is a much different dynamic than the quiet solitude of the desert.

A few questions always come up when people see a photographers work of abandoned buildings. Such as, why photograph abandoned buildings?

Ruins have been a fascinating subject throughout history. We're living in a time with a lot of ruins. Photographing abandoned places by moonlight is a way to open yourself up to the ineffable mysteries of being alive. Perhaps Jack Kerouac said it best: "I wrote the book because we're all gonna die." And I don't mean this quote to be taken in a morbid sense. Rather it's important during the brief time we're here to find something to open yourself up.

How do you find these places?

Finding locations can be done through online research, networking, books, and studying maps. Driving around on old roads that have been bypassed by the Interstate is a great way to find locations in the desert.

Photo by Joe Reifer

Do you prefer undiscovered locations over known locations?

There is almost no such thing as an undiscovered location, just varying levels of being known over time. I steer clear of the peak-bagging mentality of some UrbEx folks. I don't worry about my adventures being colored by what someone else is doing.

That being said, sites that receive too much attention from photographers are prone to having their artistic impact diluted when presented in the larger context of gallery shows and books.

You seem to have more than a passing interest in the history and impact of abandoned buildings. I remember we were at a bookstore at Fort Mason a few years ago and you picked David Darlington’s book The Mojave. It was all about history of small towns in the Mojave Desert. That sort of background must influence where you shoot and maybe even some sort of shooting style.

Darlington's Mojave book is fantastic. Photography is just one way to tell a story. Having some historical information about a site is a great way to enhance the creation and presentation of your work.

Most well-known artists have had a love for different types of art other than their specialty. Most of them said that the other arts had a big influence on the type of art that they were known for. I know you’re a big fan of music.

I played piano as a kid, guitar in high school, and upright bass for 12 years before giving up playing music for photography. I'm still a very active listener, and anyone who's taken a road trip with me knows that I have pretty eclectic musical taste. I'm especially fond of world music, free jazz, and krautrock. The soundtrack to a photography road trip puts you in a certain state of mind. The best shooting is a lot like the best playing: you create a space for something interesting to happen by being present at a certain time and space with your instrument or camera. Thinking gets turned off for a while and intuition takes over. That's when the magic happens.

I also know you’re a big fan of movies. I remember when you suggested I rent Antonioni’s “Red Desert” and Soderbergh’s film “Bubble” because of the great composition of the images, and also “Le Samourai” because of the great flow of images. I also liked your blog post “Road Movies for the Thinking Photographer” because they work so well with imagery that I have of driving through the desert.

I watch 2-3 movies per week. It's often a thought-provoking activity. I was so blown away by the reissue of Red Desert I watched it a second time and made screen captures to study some of the compositions. Even watching more passively can be a chance to absorb ideas about style and framing from the great directors.

When you've talked about your photographic influences, I've always remembered you talking about people who are not necessarily night photographers, such as Ed Ruscha. How have they influenced you work? Do they have a direct influence on your shooting style? Or do they just motivate you to get out there and shoot a completely different style?

Ruscha's low-budget photo books were way ahead of their time. Just like studying film or music, looking at paintings can be another influence. The best artists in any medium are able to absorb and blend influences in a way where they aren't readily apparent. The whole "influences" question can often lead to a reductive view of an artist's work.

Only looking at photos online can be a very restrictive exercise. My best advice to young photographers is to get a library card, and find out about interlibrary loan. My biggest inspirations have come from regularly sitting down with photo books from a wide variety of photographers. Recently, I've really enjoyed reading George Barnard's Photographic Views of Sherman's March, Lee Friedlander's America by Car, and Gerry Badger's The Pleasures of Good Photographs. There's a list of about 40 of my favorite photo books on Goodreads.

Photo by Joe Reifer

Do you think most of the current night photographers are producing fresh work? Or are they just re-shooting existing work?

When was the last time you saw a photographer in any area who was producing really fresh work? Breakout artists don't come along very often in any medium. If we're all working within known technical and stylistic tropes, then the subject material becomes even more important.

Trevor Paglen's night work is an interesting hybrid of night photography and surveillance that has broken some interesting ground. He's looking at the night sky in the context of observing spy satellites. Like the best night photography, Paglen's work suggests mystery with the added element of investigating military black ops.

The best night photographs I've seen in ages were at Nocturnes event where Lance Keimig did a slide show on little-known night photographers throughout history. The Vargas brothers were a revelation. These Peruvian photographers were doing long exposures with complex arrangements of figures and beautiful lighting almost 100 years ago.

Are there any current night photographers who you think are producing very interesting work right now?

There are certainly quite a few night photographers who are producing work of interesting locations. Although not a night photographer, Taryn Simon has taken the location is everything idea to new heights with her book An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar.

This is the end of the first part of our interview. Check back next week for part two.

SFAC Night/Light Photo Show

2010-09-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Arts Commission is hosting a night photography show called Night/Light on the ground floor of the San Francisco City Hall. The show includes night photography work from twenty five photographers, including myself. The show runs through January 14, 2011. Be warned that the city hall is only open on weekdays.

(Sunnyvale Dugout, by Andy Frazer)

You can read more information about the venue and the selected photographers on the Night/Light webpage.

Simon Cristen's Time Lapse Video

2010-09-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on my second night photographer interview. The next one will be with Joe Reifer. While you're waiting for that, please take the time to watch this time lapse video taken (mostly at night) by Bay Area photographer Simon Cristen.

(Screen shot from The Unseen Sea, by Simon Cristen)

I've been toying around with some night time lapse video lately, but Simon's work leaves me in the dust. I hope you enjoy it.

And if you haven't already read my first interview in this series, please check out the interview I did with LA photographer Tom Paiva last month.

Interview with Tom Paiva

2010-08-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

I recently decided to change the format of the Night Photography Blog. Instead of sharing links to interesting night photographers, workshops and shows, I’m going to focus on in-depth interviews with the photographers. The blog postings will be less frequent, but I hope you agree they’ll be more interesting

To start the new format, my first interview is with professional L.A. night photographer Tom Paiva. I first interviewed Tom six years ago when I made my night photography documentary film, "The Night of the Living Photographers "(parts one, two and three on YouTube). Tom specializes in architectural and industrial photography and shoots large format for his personal work.. You can see more of Tom’s work on his website.

Tom, how would you describe your background and night photography style?

I’ve been shooting at night for well over 25 years, and have tried most every type of camera, film, format and subject. My current style is a more precise, contemplative type of shooting, therefore why not shoot and get the biggest negative you can? I work with available light 99% of the time, and enjoy the bizarre mixture of artificial lights in our modern urban and industrial landscape.

(Twilight at Mare Island, by Tom Paiva)

Why do commercial work at night?

When I do commercial architectural and industrial work, most buildings look their best at twilight and at night, because the semi-darkness hides flaws, peeling paint, dirt and the like, that is revealed at mid-day. Also, modern buildings have a lot more creative lighting than just twenty years ago, which I like to accentuate.

Why use a large format camera?

All my commercial work is done in digital capture, but I still enjoy the color, texture and different artificial lights at night that are rendered very differently on film than digital. Commercial work is all about time and money and getting the job done well, as soon as possible. For my personal work, I have more of a choice of what, and how to shoot. Because of my careful placement of the camera for the best composition possible, and the perspective adjustments I use in almost every shot, the view camera gives me that option. It’s not an easy type of photography to do, but when everything comes together, the final image says it all. I also like to make large prints, and the large negative enables that with excellent tonality, color and sharpness. There’s virtually no film grain or noise in a 30x40 inch print from a 4x5 transparency.

The view camera uses a large negative to capture extremely high
resolution, along with the ability to correct for perspective while shooting.

What were you photographing before you got interested in night photography?

I was shooting most everything and especially liked close-up macro work, and like most amateurs, I enjoyed the landscape. I realized early on that shooting the right time of day can be the difference between a good shot and a great one. I also like the last few minutes of the daylight just before the sun sets. Twilight is still my favorite time of day.

Do you remember when your night photography projects went from being just a passing interest, to something that you were passionate about?

When I was back in art school taking a class on night photography, I realized that the man-made world with it 24/7 energy (and lighting) was simply more interesting at night. I was able to get images shot at night that were so different than how most people shot them in the daytime. That got me excited. The work of Brassai shooting in Paris at night in the ‘30s also inspired me. He had a wonderful eye and a love of the night. Brassai was really the first person to do a study of the urban night and his landmark book, Paris de Nuit (Paris by Night), published in 1933 was the first book solely of night photographs. He photographed buildings and streets in all sorts of weather, but also shot many people, including workers, the wealthy elite and street walkers. I feel his night work is some of the best ever done. The mystery of a "film noir" type of lighting, typical in 1940’s movies, interested me, too.

Can you talk about your time in art school?

I enjoyed my time at the SF Academy of Art, but it was a lot of work, especially since I worked full time and went to school full time. The discipline of having to shoot, process and print weekly for several classes, whatever the subject or assignment, is excellent training to become a professional photographer. Some say it’s not worth committing to four years of college art school, but like any other discipline, it takes time to develop the work habits, techniques, and most important, "the eye" in how to see and make images that work. Good imagery is not 'snapped', but created with forethought. Art school also helps you develop a personal style, no matter if you are shooting reportage, food or fashion. That would be difficult to develop without the guidance of the college professors. Another aspect of art school is the constant viewing of others work, be it students or established photographers. I had three semesters of art history - including other disciplines such as painting, sculpture and architecture, along with photography. It is important to see what has come before.

How worthwhile is a fine art degree to someone who wants to make photography a profession?

You get what you what you put into college, no matter what you are studying, art or otherwise and I got a lot out of it because I applied myself. Many did the minimum to get by, but I’m sure they are not professional photographers today.

And you studied under Steve Harper back then.

Steve Harper is a talented teacher and a bit unorthodox in a positive way. Unknowing to us students, he stretched our capabilities with his assignments. I also had a class on Environmental Portraiture with him and he made me think outside the box. That’s why I think he enjoyed shooting at night--at the time, it just wasn't done.

You were also involved with formation of The Nocturnes.

It was the mid-90’s and the internet was in its infancy. Tim Baskerville, Lance Keimig and I were shooting both together and alone, but wanted a time and place to share our images and to find like-minded photographers. Going online was this new idea and has spread way beyond anything that we could have imagined. We thought we were working in a vacuum until we saw other photographer's work from Europe, Asia and around the world working similarly. TheNocturnes.com has pulled together literally thousands of photos and photographers worldwide to share our night vision. In the late ‘90s, I moved to L.A. and Lance moved to Boston, but the website is a way for all of us to stay connected, and we all still do our own night shooting.

You're a professional photographer. What sort of clients do you work for?

I have worked with many large industrial companies and organizations, such as BP, Mitsui MOL Shipping, the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Francisco. Most of my clients are medium-sized corporations that very few people have heard of in the oil, chemical and shipping industries.

(Co-Gen Power Plant, by Tom Paiva)

What sort of requirements do they have?

They want photographs that are technically correct, well composed images of their "widgets" and workers. Most of the work is very straightforward and needs to tell a story--their story. I always ask what the images will be for and what they want them to say. This may seem obvious, but a bit of technical background on the industrial plant is necessary when staging shoots.

Do they specifically want night photographs?

No one asks for night photography commercially. That is my choice, and I usually do it in addition to the day shots. People don't know to ask for night shots, because the average person does not know that they can be done. I tell clients, "If you can see it, I can shoot it". Virtually all of the industrial and night work on my website is shot on my own, after hours at various places that are almost impossible to get access to.

Most people are familiar with the work you've done of industrial sites along the West Coast, particularly large harbors such as Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Since I live on the west coast, why not shoot there? I have traveled all over the country on business, andalways have a tripod--even if I am going to shoot an aerial--just in case. Some of my best known night shots were done while on assignment for a client in another city. Getting access is the most difficult part. Security is very tight, and when asking for permission, they simply say, "No". You have to have a reason to be there. If I have to shoot a ship unloading cargo, why not stay later and shoot some at night? That is when I do my best work, and I can wander around with no pressure, usually without supervision. In the end, more often than not, they use the night shots for the print media.

(Port of Long Beach, by Tom Paiva)

Some photographers prefer to keep searching for new locations. But others often revisit previous locations and rework them.

I’m always looking for new locations, but also enjoy revisiting the 'regular locations'. I have a few places in the L.A. area where I can make a phone call and get access that night to do what I want. That’s a privilege that I don't take lightly, and never abuse.

How do you think your style has changed over the past few years?

My style has become more subtle, and I feel I have refined my art of composition to a high degree. Also, I find I enjoy the mixture of different types of light rather than fighting or balancing it. I make fewer images per night than I used to. Typically, I shoot 5-7 images instead of the 10-20+ I used to. In the end, I’ll get 4-5 images I am happy with for the night, virtually the same as what I got with smaller formats. I spend the time really looking for the right vantage point and the best light. Too many people use the 'machine-gun' approach to shooting. More is not always better.

I’m still trying to figure out how night photography fits into the world of fine art photography. Does it appeal to a wide audience, or a smaller, cutting-edge niche of people.

I wish my night photography would appeal to a very wide audience! I don't know if "cutting-edge" is the right word for night photography. Different, yes. Unfortunately, most people don't understand what I do in the industrial landscape and that it is an art form. I have a 'patron' who buys a few of my images now and then, but his wife does not like them in the house. They’re in his offices. Just today, I was showing my portfolio to an industrial client, showing mainly night work. They don't know what to say when they look at them. In the end, I’ll be doing a daytime aerial shoot for them. They had no use for night images of their plant.

Your brother, Troy Paiva, is well-known among the urban exploration crowd. You shoot industrial locations. He shoots ghost towns in the desert. You prefer large format film cameras. He shoots small-frame digital. I could probably go on forever. The only thing you two seem to have in common is that you often shoot at night.

We have more than that in common. We both come from a family of artists of some sort (on our mother's side) and we share those genes. We both also love the desert, and I get out there whenever I can, but rarely shoot at night out there anymore. Troy went night shooting with me back in the late 80s and, like me, fell in love with night photography.

His style of colored light painting has become very popular among night photographers.

Troy's work seems to appeal to the younger generation, with his cartoony, surreal colors. He has brought "painting with light" to a new level.

I remember looking through a box of your 16”x20”prints of your night photographs of the new Oakland Bay Bridge (Oakland-San Francisco, CA). Some of your shots were taken from the top of the new span, some were taken from the ground below the new span, and a few were taken from a platform below the new span.

I’ve been working on the Oakland Bay Bridge project for two years now, and there are two or three more years to go. I decided I wanted to shoot the Bay Bridge as an art project, not simply to document the nuts and bolts (they already have two photographers that do that.) It was a difficult pitch, as few understood what that meant.

(San Francisco Bay Bridge #1, by Tom Paiva)

How do you get access to those sorts of locations?

After a few months, I got access for one night (two hours) with two escorts, where I shot five 4x5 twilight and night views. All were a big hit when I made some 16x20 prints to show. I was lucky in that I found someone fairly early on in the maze of the bureaucracy that appreciated what I was intending to do. After a few escorted evenings, I was able to get a body of work for a corporate show where many of the management team saw them. It takes perseverance to take on a project like the Bay Bridge and the four state entities I have contracts with. Also, you have to know your craft to know you can do it. There’s no time for experimenting on a project like this, especially on the first two hour evening. You screw up on the first night, and it's all over.

Were you using the large format camera when you were on that platform under the bridge?

Yes, the Bay Bridge project is all shot in 4x5. I originally thought a big project should be shot with the big camera! In reality, I wanted the control of camera movements, as a major bridge is like a piece of architecture.

Is there a lot of room on this platform.

It's a steel mesh platform hanging from the bottom of the bridge. It has about a five-foot vertical clearance. My back ached after half an our there, because there is no where to sit or stand upright (you're taller than me and you would hate it.) I have to maneuver through a three-foot crawl space to get to the platform

I also remember your large format night photographs of a large factory in China. What was going on in that place? And how did you manage to get in there?

The state authorities commissioned me to shoot in China, based on my earlier work. I took the 4x5 to Shanghai, China to shoot the construction of the Bay Bridge's steel roadways, tower and cable manufacturing plants. They were made in a huge plant on an island in the Yangtze River that operated 24/7 with a workforce of 30,000. There really is no facility like that in the U.S. anymore. I was instructed to shoot in my own style, of what I thought was important and interesting, with some guidance, of course. It really was a dream job, as difficult as it was. I was there two weeks, at my day rate plus all expenses. The days were twelve hours long in very dirty environments. I also shot digital of the details, but it was the 4x5 work that motivated me. The digital work was used in brochures and such, but the 4x5 work has been in two shows.

(Shanghai #17, by Tom Paiva)

Do you ever shoot black-and-white at night? Or are you a color snob?

Color snob? Hardly, as I love black-and-white and respect the many photographers that shoot it. My work is more fitting for color, as I like to balance the tungsten, neon, mercury- and sodium-vapor lights. When I was talking with Michael Kenna about the problems of balancing industrial lighting, he jokingly said, "why not just shoot it in black-and-white?" Also, I haven't had a commercial job requested in black-and-white in twenty years and I don't have a wet darkroom any longer.

I heard an interesting story that you once told about the incandescent street lights in L.A.

A few years ago, I was at a cocktail party and when I asked this guy what he did for a living, he said he was with the LA City Lighting department. When the conversation went to the reasoning of mercury-vapor vs. sodium vapor street lighting, everyone else simply walked away. I mentioned that I knew of a tungsten streetlight (they are very rare in any city or town worldwide) on Sepulveda Boulevard, he said he was well aware of it and mentioned another one a mile north and two more in East L.A. Four for the whole city of L.A.! They’re in "acorn lamps", lamps that are strung across an intersection and hang in the middle. He told me they don't make a mercury- or sodium-vapor bulb that fits them. That was a weird esoteric encounter! And yes, I have shot under them, with tungsten film making the light perfectly white.

A lot of cities are switching from high-pressure sodium vapor street lights to LED.

The city of LA is changing the sodium-vapor and mercury-vapor streetlights at the rate of 1500 per day to LED. That will change night photography, as those lamps are daylight balanced. No more weird orange, green and blue cast. That will be good for some and bad for others.

Is anyone else shooting large format film at night?

There are a quite a few large format night photographers on Flickr. I like Thomas Birke's work, who shoots in cities all over the world with an 8x10 camera at night! That’s hard core, as you have to carry an 8x10 camera, film holders, film and at least one lens through security at the airports. Even I have not done that! I usually FedEx my film ahead to my hotel when shooting large format and send it back the same way, as the airlines have become so difficult lately.

What other photographers do you think are producing good work right now?

I’m a big fan of Edward Burtynsky, as he tells a great story in large format, and is quite methodical in his way of working. I’ve been to two of his shows, have three of his books and a 16x20 of one of his ship breaking series on my wall.

There's a very active community of night photographers in the San Francisco Bay Area. What's the night photography community like 400 miles south down in Southern California?

I don't really know if there is a community of night photographers in L.A. I am friends with Helen Garber, who shoots in a "LA Noir" style, all handheld digital black-and-white. I know one guy, John Smith, who shoots urban L.A. at night in 4x5 black and white. I met him when he and I were in a group show in L.A. Otherwise, I don't know anyone else who is that dedicated to night shooting.

The only night photographers from L.A. who I can think of, who have some recognition in the fine art world, are yourself, Helen Garber and Amanda Friedman. Where's all this L.A. creative genius that we all hear about?

There is tremendous genius here in L.A. when it comes to photography, but not specifically night shooting.

Did you ever meet Julius Shulman. He shot large format all over L.A. And he was no stranger to night photography.

I never met Julius Shulman, but I did hear him talk at a show opening of his ‘40s and ‘50s commercial work (now, as art) here in L.A. a few years ago. He was a character, for sure. He did night shooting, just like any architectural photographer has to, but I would not consider him a night photographer.

(Howard Hughes Center, by Tom Paiva)

I know that you like to perfect the shot while you're shooting, and you like to do as little in post-production (i.e., PhotoShop) as possible. You even use graduated filters! How long do you typically spend setting up for each shot?

I’m a very fast photographer. In the daytime, I can set up a 4x5 camera, choose the lens, meter, insert film and shoot in five minutes. Edward Weston bragged that he could do it in 2 minutes (in 8x10). For night shooting, it can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes all according to how complex the image is. I use flashlights (in the image, as pinpoints of light) to focus, and many times, you can't even see the subject on the ground glass. Polaroid helps, but I have been quite frugal with it, as my supply is limited and there is no more. Metering at night is the toughest for most novices, and that is where you have to improvise and use the years of experience.

(4x5 at work at a power plant)

Why’s that?

You cannot meter shadows at night with any meter.

Do you ever shoot digitally?

Yes, I shoot digitally, but mainly for commercial work. I just had my first digital image in a show in Santa Monica a few months ago. It was printed as a 16x20 of the Playa del Rey beach area at night. It was well received.

What is the role of PhotoShop in your workflow?

Workflow is such a digital age word! That applies more for digital capture in RAW imagery, which is what I shoot commercially. For my personal large format night work, PhotoShop is a tool, and I use it after scanning for density correction, color balancing, minor dodging and burning and dust removal. That's about it for the 4x5 scans. The original negative has so much latitude that it really does not take much to make a beautiful print. Any tool, such as PhotoShop, is an addition to what we can do, but I personally don't do anything fancy with it.

A lot of urban explorers say they enjoy the adrenaline rush of sneaking into a location, and then trying not to get caught.

First, I don't consider myself part of the UrbEx community. Years ago, I did sneak into all sorts of places to shoot, but as I get older, it is SO much easier to have permission and know you won't be mugged and if something happens, there is help nearby. In this post-911 time, security in places like chemical and power plants, and petroleum facilities is so tight, that you will get caught very quickly and they will prosecute. About seven years ago, while shooting with Lance Keimig in Lowell, MA, I climbed a 15 foot iron fence with spikes on top. We tossed our bags over then climbed. While straddling those spikes 15 feet up trying to swing my leg over very carefully, I told myself, “NO MORE!”, and have not done such crazy things since. I did get some great shots in that 100-year old rope factory, including a first place contest winner in a show. I'll leave the UrbEx excitement for the younger guys.

(Rope Factory, Lowell, MA, by Tom Paiva)

Your first book was Industrial Night (2002). How did that book come about? And how did you decide which photos and stories to include in the book?

That book came about from a portfolio review with a gallery in LA. The curator, George Neykov, said he really liked my night work, and could I call him in a week. I did, but found that he left. Figuring I had lost that lead, I forgot about it. Two weeks later, George called me and said he had a contact at a small publisher and was I interested in doing a book. George wound up doing all the editing and sequencing for the book which took several months. I gave George complete control of the images, as I was too close to them. It started out with about 3000 images, which I had to have printed--George hated viewing images on a monitor. There were many rounds of culling to the final 50 that are in the book. An artist friend of mine here in L.A. got me connected with the former editor of ArtWeek magazine who agreed to do the forward. I did the writing myself, with the help of Lee, my wife (an excellent writer) and a few others.

(Available at Amazon.com)

Are you going to do a second book?

Yes, I’m working on that now. The Bay Bridge project is a likely subject and I have had interest from two publishers. Funding is an issue in this economy and many book publishers are just trying to hang on. George has since moved to Paris, and the publisher, The Image Room, folded years ago.

I'm amazed that night photography has become so popular over the past few years.

It wasn’t that popular 20 years ago, but now the public is used to seeing it in publications everywhere. Also, digital has made it much easier to shoot at night, with the instant response of the monitor for density and color, and exposures in the seconds instead of minutes or even hours.

Do you think it will last?

I didn’t think it would last ten years ago, so I'm not the one to ask! People will always want to look at good imagery and night photography lends itself to beautiful, moody, powerful images.

In the past you've taught night photography along with Tim Baskerville (The Nocturnes) and Lance Keimig (Mono Lake Workshops), now you're teaching workshops in Los Angeles and teaching photography at the college level . What do you find interesting about teaching as opposed to shooting straight commercial assignments?

Commercial assignments are frequently like anyone's work. Does Tiger Woods play golf on his day off? Probably not. With my personal work, I shoot what I feel and what excites me. With teaching, I like being around other photographers who are willing to learn and experiment and try new things. With all the years of experience I have, I feel it is my duty to pass it on to the next generation of photographers.

What was it like teaching photography at the junior college level?

The top 10% of the students were very creative and engaged. They applied themselves, just as I did when I went to art school. I went to art school when I was in my thirties, so I was more focused (no pun intended). The bottom third had to be babysat. They did almost nothing all semester and I found that part depressing.

What do you have planned for the upcoming year?

I am sailing on a iron ore ship across the Great Lakes to the Atlantic to shoot stock. It is at my own expense, but I think I will sell images afterward. That's what it's like being an entrepreneur. I hope to teach again in the spring (cutbacks laid off about 15% of teachers this semester).

One last question, Tom. Since you know all of the creative people in Los Angeles, can you introduce me to Kat Von D the next time I come down there?

Who? Okay, I Googled her. Yikes, not in my circle of friends!

Tom and I will be leading a three-evening night photography workshop on Oct 1-3, 2010, in Los Angeles. Please visit our workshop webpage for more information.

Tom Paiva is a professional, freelance photographer based in California where he has had his business for over 15 years. He specializes in large format photography of industrial and maritime settings, as well as architecture and interiors.

Tom has over 70 cover images for various Trade Magazines to his credit.

He has published a book, Industrial Night, containing 46 color images of industrial settings at night.

His long term passion is night photography and he loves to create images of urban settings and moonlit landscapes on film.

Tom Paiva: International Photography Award

2010-08-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

LA night photographer, and founding member of The Nocturnes, Tom Paiva was a winner in the recent International Photography Awards, sponsored by the Lucie Foundation. Tom received third place in the Industrial Category, with five of his images from the Bay Bridge reconstruction project.

(Twilight in the Fog, by Tom Paiva)

You can see all five of Tom's entries here.

If you'd like learn some of Tom's tricks for shooting at night, Tom and I will be leading a night photography workshop in Los Angeles, CA on October 1-3, 2010.

Noel Kerns

2010-08-15T21:35:00.001-07:00

Noel Kerns is a Texas-based night photographer. If you've been following Noel's Flickr photostream, you'll immediately know him as the guy who does all the night photography of the Texas ghost towns and abandoned Texas gas stations and packing plants. Noel's work runs the gamut of colored gel light painting, soft white light painting, and ambient moon light.

"One of the things I enjoy most about photographing under a full moon are all the latent details, those things which reveal themselves to you only when you let the moonlight take the time to tell the story."

Wow. After pursuing night photography for twelve years, why couldn't I have come up with a killer quote like that?

The shot below is one my favorites because it blends the ambient glow of HPS from a nearby town, with just a touch of hand-held lighting.

(Tres Trees, by Noel Kerns)

You can see even more of Noel's photography on his website.

L.A. Night Photography Workshop

2010-08-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

(Photo by Tom Paiva)

L.A. Night Photography Workshop

With Tom Paiva and Andy Frazer

If you have ever wanted to improve your night photography skills, or have the opportunity to explore some great locations in Los Angeles at night, now is your chance.

Veteran night photographers Tom Paiva and Andy Frazer will be leading a night photography workshop in Los Angeles from Friday, Oct. 1 through Sunday, Oct 3. 2010. This workshop will include classroom instruction followed by instructor-led photo shoots at different locations each evening. One evening will include a special opportunity to photograph inside a large, petroleum transfer facility which is off-limits to the general public.

We have a lot more information, including location, schedule, instructors backgrounds, and registration on our website.

"LEDs lead the charge of the lights brigade in L.A."

2010-08-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

LA night photographer Tom Paiva sent me a link to the following article that appeared in the L.A. Times a few months ago. Many cities in the United States are replacing their high-pressure sodium vapor street lights with LED lights. The primary motivation is to save electricity and money.

This will have interesting implications for urban night photographers who generally hate the narrow-band pinkish-orange light from high-pressure sodium vapor lights. I've usually resorted to converting HPS-illuminated scenes to black-and-white. But some photographers, such as Tom, and taken the challenge of trying to work with it and color-correcting it in the darkroom.

Here is the link to the article from the L.A. Times.

(Photo by Tom Paiva)

Book Signing with Lance Keimig

2010-08-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

Long-time night photographer Lance Keimig's new book Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is finally out. I've been looking forward to reading this book ever since I reviewed two preliminary chapters of the book almost one year ago. Lance's book is published by Focal Press, and is currently available directly from his website.

For night photographers in the San Francisco Bay Area, Lance will be discussing the process of writing the book and demonstrating some of his techniques on Wednesday, September 1st at 6:00pm at Mare Island. Following the lecture, join Lance Keimig and Tim Baskerville for a night shoot of the historic island.

Registration is mandatory. Please read the entire description of the event, and remember to sign up, at The Nocturnes website.

Lance was also featured in my short night photography documentary film The Night of the Living Photographers (parts 1, 2 and 3 on YouTube). If you'd like to get more of Lance's great teaching time, check out his Mono Lake Workshop at (you guessed it) Mono Lake, CA between August 22-25, 2010.

Philip Dembinski

2010-07-31T09:24:00.001-07:00

Chicago photographer Philip Dembinski has a lot of nice night work in his Nothing Just Happens gallery. Check out his entire website for more photos. He writes, "I am interested in both finding and creating scenes that evoke feelings relating to desire, beauty, conflict, and tension. My artistic inspiration stems greatly from 20th century American realist paintings as well as cinema in general. "

(Morning Encounter, by Philip Dembinski)

I also like this shot, Momentarily Unaware:

(Photo by Philip Dembinski)

Los Angeles Night Photography Workshop

2010-07-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

If you have ever thought of taking a night photography workshop in Los Angeles, now is your chance. In October, professional photographer Tom Paiva and myself will be leading a night photography workshop for three evenings around downtown Los Angeles. This workshop will include classroom instruction, held in Culver City, and three evenings of instructor-lead shooting. One of those evenings will include special access to an amazing industrial location that is off-limits to the general public.

Tom is one of the few people in the world who has specialized in large-format night photography. Attendees will get a rare chance to see many of Tom's stunning large format prints.

(Photo by Tom Paiva)

We will post the details of this workshop very soon. In the meantime, if you're interested in this opportunity feel free to contact either Tom or myself by email to get on our mailing list for this workshop.

Q and A with Joe Reifer and Troy Paiva

2010-07-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

Blake Andrews recently did an extensive, and very illuminating, web interview with night photographers Joe Reifer and Troy Paiva. They casually discuss their different approaches to night photography, the state of UrbEx photography and their relationship to the fine art intelligentsia. This is a great read, even if you think you know everything about these two photographers.

(Photo by Troy Paiva)

And if that isn't enough, Dave Warner at LensFlare35 has a video/audio interview with Troy. There's a 39-minute interview with photos, as well as a 75-minute audio interview podcast.

(Photo by Joe Reifer)

Blake's photography blog includes Q&A sessions with many other photographers. After you get done reading about Troy and Joe, browse through his blog and look for some other great interviews.

Alexander Gronsky

2010-07-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

Alexander Gronsky's Endless Night series (from the main website, click Artwork, then click Endless Night) examines the Russian town of Murmansk during the long winter night:

Murmansk is the world's biggest town behind the Arctic Circle. Each winter its 300,000 inhabitants experience the night that lasts for two months.

(Photo by Alexander Gronsky)

There are seventeen photos in this series. Make sure you wait long enough for the remaining photographs to appear by hovering your mouse over the bottom thumbnail in the column of photographs.

There's also some beautiful snowy landscape photos in his The Edge series.

Also, check out the interesting BBC photo essay about the garages of Murmansk.

Ricky Adam

2010-06-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

I love night photographs that look like a scene out of a film noir movie. I recently came across Ricky Adam's work on Flickr (website, Flickr). Ricky is an Irish photographer, who seems to shot a lot in northern England. He is currently a staff photographer at Dig BMX Magazine. Ricky's first book 'Urbanite' will be released by Myopic Eye Press. The book is a result of a long term project with photographs taken in various locations around the globe documenting people moving through cities.

("From the Streets of Leeds", by Ricky Adam)

There's also some more great night portraits from Leeds here and here and here (the last shot reminds me of Alan Delaney's great book of black-and-white night photographs of London: London After Dark).

Condensation from Nile Canyon

2010-06-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break this week from posting news and pointers to other photographs' work. I don't expect to get much night photography done this summer due to a combination of late sunsets and the seasonal marine layer of clouds that hugs the Northern California coast during the summer. But that doesn't mean I won't be out once or twice a month trying to do something productive.

Speaking of crummy weather, I took this shot at a railroad museum last January. It was a spectacular night for shooting: clear skies and full moon. But this location was in a narrow valley with a river flowing along the bottom. Around midnight the dreaded condensation came in. I thought this shot was ruined due to the condensation on the filter in front of my lens, but after some adjustments in PhotoShop, including a funky Holga-style border, I like the way it came out.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Awoiska van der Molen

2010-06-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

While reading another great photography blog Hippolyte Bayard, I came across the work of Dutch photographer Awoiska van der Molen. The blogger, whose name I have yet to figure out, wrote:

Some days ago one reader left a comment on the post about Gilbert Fastenaekens, pointing out the similar b&w line of work shown by Dutch artist Awoiska van der Molen, where dark alleys and empty corners are filled with some presence that indeed remebers the urban mysteries by the Belgian photographer I recently praised here.

I also blogged about Gilbert Fastenaekens' night photography a few months ago, which I also found through the Hippolyte Bayard blog. Both photographers are well worth investigating.

(Photo by Awoiska van der Molen)

If you're looking for a weekly dose of great photography, take some time to visit the blog Hippolyte Bayard.

Night Photography Workshops

2010-06-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

There are a few night photography workshops in California coming up in the next few months.

Troy Paiva and Joe Reifer are hosting a pair of their famous light painting workshops on September 23-25 and October 21-23 in the Pearsonville Junkyard. Information, registration and waiting list sign-up is available here.

(Photo by Joe Reifer)

For those of you who would prefer to stay close to the San Francisco Bay Area, Tim Baskerville will be leading a Nocturnes night photography workshop in San Francisco on July 22, 23 and 25 at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. See the Nocturnes workshop webpage for information and registration.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Marcuss Claesson

2010-06-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

Swedish photography Marcus Claesson (Flickr and personal website and blog) has been one of my favorite photographers on Flickr. Although most of his work includes moody landscapes and daytime shots of urban locations, he also shoots quite a bit of night photography.

As I already mentioned, "moodiness" is the word that comes to my mind when I look at all of his photographs. After looking through his Nocturnes set, take a look at his daytime landscapes, as well. Even his street photography has that moody quality that sets so many night photographs apart from daytime work.

(Hood Games, by Marcus Claesson)

Ryan Cooley

2010-05-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

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)

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

Warren Bates: Rest In Peace

2010-05-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Max Lyons

2010-04-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

We've recently seen quite a few night photographers use multi-frame panoramas in their work. One of the best resources for panoramic photographers is Max Lyons' panorama image gallery and forums. Max is also the author of the great PTAssembler panorama stitching software, as well as the ImageStacker software which is great for creating long stair trails.

So, what happens when you combine a panoramic set of images, with stacked star trails, along with night photography? Max produced this stunning shot from Great Falls in (I assume) Montana:

(Great Falls Startrails, by Max Lyons)

If you have any serious interest in panoramic photography, I would definitely suggest checking out the forums on Max's site.

Step-by-step through a complex light painting setup

2010-04-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

Joe Reifer has posted an excellent step-by-step guide to scouting out and light painting a composition from last month's Pearsonville Night Photography Workshop. Anyone who has never tried a complicated light painting composition should read Joe's guide. He makes a few very important points that many photographer's are not aware of:

(Photo by Joe Reifer)

First, it's important to scout out your locations before it gets dark. Troy Paiva taught me this lesson many years ago, and I've found it to be one of the most important lessons I've ever learned. There's only so much you can scout out in the dark, even if you think you've got perfect night vision.

Second, it's important to get a base exposure before spinning and twirling your flashlights, strobes and glow sticks. Not only does the base exposure let you set the correct exposure for the background, but it gives you a better idea of how to implement your light painting.

Third, you many have to light the scene many times from different locations in order to get the perfect result. Just because the final result looks simple, it doesn't mean that it was simple to implement.

If you enjoy Joe's guide, you should consider immersing yourself in one of Joe and Troy's three-day night photography workshops (the April 2010 workshop is sold-out, but you can get on the waiting list for the Fall 2010 workshops).

Eyjafjallajökull

2010-04-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano (named after the neighboring glacier of Eyjafjallajokull) is erupting for the second time in one month. It has melted so much ice from the glacier that flood waters have forced hundreds of people to evacuate nearby villages. The ash plume has canceled thousands of flights in and out of the Great Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia. As you'd expect, night photographers couldn't be more excited.

(Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP/Getty Images)

The Boston Globe's The Big Picture has more spectacular photographs of the volcano and the resulting damage.

Our Fourth Anniversary

2010-04-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

The Night Photography Blog has published over 350 posts about night photography since April 12, 2006. I started this blog as a means to share the what-we-did and where-we-went news among a small group of Bay Area night photographers, most who traced their start back to workshops and presentation by The Nocturnes. Back then, some of the most interesting news revolved around which digital cameras can take a worthwhile night photograph, and who is part of this exclusive "club". Today, there are many digital cameras capable of shooting ten-minute exposures, and night photography "meet-ups" regularly attract dozens of participants. At this point in time, I don't think it's even worth posting long exposure tests of new cameras. Most DSLR's will do a great job in the "golden window" of two to four minutes.

So what's worth reporting these days when it's easy to find many great photographers with blogs (start with Joe Reifer's blog) and hundreds of night photography FlickrStreams (start with Troy Paiva's site or Mike Howes' site if you're new to this)? At this point, I think the most important prospects are to identify who is doing the work that is "fresh" (to use Robert Adams' term) and interesting.

This is how I was shooting when I started this blog in 2006. Back then, I thought this was pretty cool.

This is how I was shooting a few years later. I think all that blog writing paid off :-)

If you have any suggestions for photographers who should be spotlighted in this blog, please drop an email or leave a comment in this section.

Earth Hour 2010

2010-04-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

For the past three years, people all over the world have been observing Earth Hour on one Saturday evening in March. For one hour, beginning at 8:30PM local time in each time zone, governments, businesses and individuals turn off as many electrical appliances as possible. The Boston Globe has collected some of the most interesting photographs of some major cities before and during Earth Hour.

Check out the Globe's collection of Earth Hour photographs. With the exception of the first photograph, you can compare the "before" and "during" photographs (all taken at night!) by clicking on the photographs.

(Overview of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon with lights on and off to mark Earth Hour 2010. Photo by Ringo Ma, via WWF)

Night Photography Documentary Film - Now on YouTube

2010-03-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

Six years ago I produced a short documentary film on night photography. The title, Night of the Living Photographers, seemed clever at the time. Six years later, with titles and credits already made, I really wish I had come up with a better title. This film, the first of its kind, was originally hosted on Studentfilms.com, an early video-hosting service that predated YouTube. But the world has changed. Studentfilms doesn't host films anymore, and YouTube has become the most popular site for that sort of thing.

Last weekend, I took a big jump into the second decade of the 21st century, and re-hosted the film on YouTube. You can watch part one, part two and part three and listen to rocking soundtrack for free.

(Bodie 2004, the shot that I used in the film)

Along with the original interviews with Howie Spielman, Troy Paiva, Larrie Thomson, Lance Keimeg and Tom Paiva, the latest version (I hesitate to call it the "director's cut") includes a great interview with night photography pioneer Steve Harper (the interview was conducted by Tim Baskerville of The Nocturnes).

(Bodie 2006, the shot that I wished I had used in the film)

I hope you enjoy it. And please let me know what you think. I'm always kicking around the idea of doing a "Part II" featuring a few new photographers, and I'm always looking for ideas how to make the new version more interesting.

Cade Overton

2010-03-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

Cade Overton is a Massachusetts (USA) photographer who has been shooting black-and-white urban night photographs of the city of Worcester. Cade began this project when he was a student of Stephen DiRado at Clark University (Stephen is a great photographer, and has been a great supported of this blog). Cade told me that all of his exposures range between 10-20 minutes, and all were shot on film with a Rolleiflex camera.

It's great to see some people are still doing great work on film.

(Photo by Cade Overton)

Cade also maintains a photo blog which includes a lot of nice landscapes of Massachusetts, as well as some portraits and some work from Iceland.

David Gong Show: Cranston, Rhode Island

2010-03-18T15:53:00.000-07:00

David Gong (judyboy on Flickr) is currently displaying a show of sixty of his night photographs at the Central Library (140 Sockanosset Cross Rd) in Cranston, Rhode Island (USA). The show will continue through March 31, 2010. David has been actively photographing the Rhode Island area at night since 2005.

(Photo by David Gong)

Chilean Earthquake

2010-03-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

The image below comes from The Big Picture, the Boston Globes blog of great news photographs. It was published in their March 9 feature "Chile, nine days later".

Soldiers stand guard on a street in Constitucion town March 6, 2010.
(REUTERS/Carlos Vera)

Mare Island Nocturnes

2010-03-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

Last month Tim Baskerville hosted another Nocturnes alumni and guest shoot at the decommissioned Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, CA. About thirty photographers attended the event. You can see a forty of the evening's photographs on Flickriver.

(Drydock, by Hunter Luisi)

Nils Klinger

2010-02-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

Nils Klinger has documented green fields at night in typical German documentary style.

(Photo by Nils Klinger)

Seen on Hippolyte Bayard

A New Light Painting Workshop: Big M

2010-02-25T08:48:00.001-08:00

Mike Hows and Aaron Siladi have announced a new one-night light painting workshop to be held at Big M Automotive on Saturday, March 27th. Big M is an automotive yard near Williams, CA, which specializes in rare and classic Murcurys and Plymouths from the mid to late 1950's and early 1960's. It is less than two hours north of the San Francisco Bay Area.

You can read more details about the workshop and the Big M automotive yard right here.

Keith Carter

2010-02-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

While reading Brooks Jensen's "new" blog, I was introduced to the work of Keith Carter. Keith is on the faculty of the Lamar University in Beaumont, TX. He has a project called Nocturnes, which features black-and-white, contrasty photographs taken (obviously) at night.

(Photo by Keith Carter)

Most of his work uses dreamy soft focus around the edges. I encourage to browse through "regular" (daytime) photographs, as well. Keith's website also includes a video interview, as well as all of his books (including a twenty five-year monograph).

Pietro Masturzo - World Press Photo Winner for 2010

2010-02-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

Pietro Masturzo's night photograph below was the winner of this year's World Press Photo contest. This photograph pictures women shooting in protest in Tehran on June 24th.

From the World Press Photo page:

The winning photograph is part of a story depicting the nights
following the contested presidential elections in when people
shouted their dissent from roofs and balconies, after daytime
protests in the streets.

(Photo by Pietro Masturzo)

Peitro's home page also has more great night shots of rooftops in Tehran.

Read more about this photograph and the accompanying story. You can also listen to a recording of Pietro's reaction to hearing that he was the winner.

Day of Remembrance

2010-02-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

For the past three years I have been photographing the Day of Remembrance ceremony in San Jose, California's Japantown. This ceremony commemorates the anniversary of Executive Order 9066 that led to the forced incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent (two-thirds of whom were American citizens). The photo below was taken at night during the candlelight march through San Jose's Japantown.

(Day of Remembrance Candlelight March, by Andy Frazer)

You can read more about the 2010 San Jose Day of Remembrance ceremony on the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee's newsletter.

Kevin Cooley

2010-02-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

Kevin Cooley is a commercial photographer who has done a lot of night photography in his personal work. His Iceland project looks at the quality of light at night during the shortest days of the year. His Lights Edge project is a study of flares shot into the sky at night, and his Nacthflug project is a study of urban scenes that include a myriad of trails of airplanes in the night sky. On the surface, these may not sound very interesting, but if you take a look at his website I think you'll be surprised.

(Photo by Kevin Cooley)

I learned about Kevin through the Strobist website, which features Kevin's promotional video. The author poses an interesting question, "Why doesn't every photographer have a promo video like that?"

Blake Gordon

2010-02-01T16:28:00.001-08:00

Take a look at Blake Gordon's Reality TV series. Although Blake is not primarily a night photographer, he takes advantage of the night environment to provide more depth and variety to his project.

(Death Valley National Park, by Blake Gordon)

Seen in Joerg Colberg's Conscientious blog.

Terence Chang

2010-01-31T01:00:00.000-08:00

Terence Chang (Exxonvaldez on Flickr) took this stunning shot of the Pacific fog crawling over Sausalito. He said was standing nearby shooting before the fog came in. As he was hiking back to his car, the view below began to unfold, so he started shooting until his batteries were exhausted. The fog around the Golden Gate is sometimes spectacular to watch. But once it has come in, it's often as thick as pea soup. Terence was fortunate enough to see it with this translucent quality under a great full moon.

(Photo by Terence Chang)

Some of Terence's photographs are available for sale at his Imagekind site.

A Milestone: 500 Unique Visitors Per Day

2010-01-26T21:29:00.001-08:00

Thanks to the nice folks at StatCounter.com, I've learned that The Night Photography Blog has reached a milestone. The week of January 18, 2010 was the first time that this site has averaged over 500 unique visitors per day. Not too bad for a blog that's focused on something as nichey (niche-like?) as night photography, eh?

(Marin Headlands, below Battery Spencer, by Andy Frazer)

Thanks to everyone who reads this blog, puts it in your RSS reader, and comments on my posting.

Wayne Jiang

2010-01-24T01:00:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago I came across an article in the San Jose Metro Magazine about local artist Wayne Jiang. Wayne has painted an impressive collection of night paintings, most of them from my stomping grounds of San Jose, CA. I've always been interested in seeing how other night photographers interpret the same location that I've photographed or visited. But to see this in a different media is amazing.

("Nightlights" - painting by Wayne Jiang)

One of the amazing things about Wayne's paintings, aside from the top-notch technique and craftsmanship, is that he seems to be exploring many of the same themes that you see in the better night photographs. For lack of better imagination on my own part, I'll just quote Tim Baskerville: "Surrealism, the mystery of place, solitude, and a heightened sense of the nature of things."

("Babe's Mufflers" - Painting by Wayne Jiang)

Unfortunately, the Metro article about Wayne is not on-line yet.

Wayne's Jiang's work is on exhibit at History San Jose through May 30, 2010.

Panocturnists

2010-01-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I ran across the panoramic photography of Max Lyons and Brad Templeton. After experimenting during the day on some local fields, beaches and office buildings, and set off try shooting panoramas at night. Begining panorama photographers make the mistake of creating gee-whiz super long photographs for no reason other than to prove they can make super long photographs. But the best panorama photography serves much more than that. It seems to present an angle of view that is superior to what you can do with a camera with a standard 3:2, 4:3 or 1:1 aspect ratio. Panorama photography lends itself well to night photography because it's the intersection of two unusual segments of photography, so a pan-nocturnal photograph should be ultra-unusual. That doesn't mean that it's not crap. Hopefully, it does allow for opening up of new territory.

For the past year I've made a commitment to shoot some panos on every night photography trip. Night panos present an additional challenge compared to normal night photography. If each exposure requires a long exposure of five or ten minutes, then lighting (and weather) conditions can change between exposures. In fact, if you're shooting at the beach, the tide can even come in or go out. But new challenges mean new opportunities

("Crissy Field Pano", by Andy Frazer)

Tim Baskerville has also begun a section within The Nocturnes site dedicated to panoramic night photography.

For some other examples of great night photographs, check out Joe Reifer's Mad Mouse Rollercoaster, and Aaron Hobson's website. For some outstanding daytime pano photography, you really need to see Nuri Bilge Ceylen's site

Upcoming Workshops in Texas

2010-01-14T09:13:00.000-08:00

Maybe I should have waited a few days before writing posts about the night photography workshops in Pearsonville, CA, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Pittsburgh, PA. For those of you in the great state of Texas who may be feeling left out, Noel Kerns will be conducting a night photography and light painting workshop in Brownwood, TX on February 26th & 27th.

(Photo by Noel Kerns)

There's more information here. For examples of what you might find in Brownwood, TX, take a look at Noel's Flickr set.

Upcoming workshops by The Nocturnes

2010-01-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

In addition to the night photography workshops offered by Troy Paiva, Joe Reifer and Gabriel Biederman; there are also two night photography programs offered by Tim Baskerville in February and March.

(Photo by Tim Baskerville)

Tim will be teaching the seven week course 'Night Photography' at the College of Marin, Kentfield, CA campus starting February 5, 2010. It is designed for new-comers and as a follow-up to people who have taken the Nocturnes workshop. Details are here.

Tim will also be offering another San Francisco Full Moon Nightphotography Workshop on Friday-Sunday March 26-28, 2010. Details are here.

More Night Photography Workshops

2010-01-10T01:00:00.001-08:00

The recent Pearsonville Night Photography Workshops, hosted by Troy Paiva and Joe Reifer, have become so popular that Troy and Joe have added an additional workshop this Spring. There will now be workshops in both March (27th-29th) and April (24th-26th), 2010, both held in the Pearsonville Junkyard near Ridgecrest, CA. There are two spots available in the March workshop, and only a few spots left in the April workshop. There's more information available on the dedicated website.

(Photo by Joe Reifer)

For those of you who prefer an urban setting, Gabriel Biderman is offering a two night workshop in Pittsburgh on January 30-31st.

(Photo by Gabriel Biderman)

Mike Marfell

2010-01-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

I first met Bay Area night photographer Mike Marfell at a Nocturnes shoot at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard organized by Tim Baskerville. Mike introduced himself to me, then promptly disappeared for the evening with another group of photographers. It turned out that we live fairly close to each other in the South Bay, so we've since shot together many times in the past year. Mike was originally turned on to night photography after seeing some of Troy Paiva's night photography on the internet.

This shot was taken at Battery Mendell in the Marin Headlands. In the distance is the Golden Gate Bridge and the northwest skyline of San Francisco.

Basim Jaber

2009-12-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

I first met Bay Area night photographer Basim Jaber two years ago when he introduced me to a great little abandoned microwave relay station south of San Jose, CA. Basim has a knack for discovering many new night locations in the San Jose area, and the little relay station was easily accessible, fun to shoot, and located on the top of a hill with a clear view of the moon. Sadly, after only a few visits, it was demolished by the owner.

The photograph below was taken near one of the many active communication towers that surround Santa Clara Valley.

(Information Superhighway, by Basim Jaber)

You can see more Basim's photos on his Flickrstream.

Jack Delano: New Bedford, MA

2009-12-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Jack Delano (wikipedia) was part of the Farm Security Administration photography team during the 1940's. This photograph is dated January, 1941 and may have been taken when Delano was associated with the Office of War Information. I don't really understand how the FSA and OWI were related (it's not clear from Wikipedia, so that must mean that nobody knows *). I love black-and-white photographs taken on a foggy night. The only reason that I don't take any myself, is that we never seem to get fog at night around San Jose, CA. In the past ten years that I've been interested in night photography, I only remember one per-midnight evening when we had fog.

I found this photograph on the Shorpy website, which is a collection of great old photographs, most of them from the public domain.

(Foggy Night in New Bedford, MA, by Jack Delano)

* Note: That comment was intended as a joke. Please don't post comments about how something doesn't exist just because it's not in Wikipedia.

Hunters of Greenland

2009-12-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

The NYTimes had a very nice photo-essay titled Hunters of Greenland. It included this nice night photograph by Ragnar Axelsson:

The Northern Lights glow above Tinnittaqilaaq village. The Inuit, whose cultural and spiritual beliefs are deeply intertwined with nature, believe the lights are souls waiting to be reborn.

(Photo by Ragnar Axelsson)

Interview on CaliberSF

2009-12-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

Last week Julie Michelle posted an interview with me on the San Francisco street photography blog CaliberSF. The main purpose of the interview was to talk about a portrait project that I'm working on where I photograph Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated in the US internment camps during WWII. But since most of my photography over the past ten years has been night photography, we also talked about one of my favorite photographs of Sutro Baths in San Francisco, CA.

(Sutro Baths, by Andy Frazer)

Here's a screen shot of the whole interview:

Aircraft Boneyards

2009-11-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

Somehow I once again ended up browsing through Troy Paiva's and Joe Reifer's night photographs of the airplane boneyards in southern California. I know many night photographers who point to these photographs as the original inspiration for getting interested in night photography. When I was in the De Anza Film Program working on my night photography documentary film Night of the Living Photographers many years ago, I showed an early version of the film to the class. After the lecture, there were more people asking me about my film than any of the other films shown that night. But the only thing that everyone was asking about was Troy's photographs of the airplane boneyards. Check them out for yourself:

Troy's Aircraft Boneyards and Joe's Aviation Warehouse.

Clipped and Headless, by Troy Paiva

Astrid Kruse Jensen

2009-11-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Take a look at Astrid Kruse Jensen's work, especially Imaginary Realities. Astrid is a Dutch photographer who works at night. His photographs definitely try to tell a story in the style of Edward Hopper.

(Photo by Astrid Kruse Jensen)

Seen on Raul Gutierrez's blog Heading East.

Battery Mendell, Marin Headlands

2009-11-08T09:19:00.001-08:00

Last weekend was the best full moon cloud cover that I've seen in the past ten years. Night photographers who work in the California desert seem to get lucky with this sort of sky very often. But closer to the Pacific Ocean, this sort of high, streaking clouds is quite uncommon.

(Battery Mendell, by Andy Frazer)

Taken at Battery Mendell, one of numerous Civil War-era bunkers in the Marin Headlands region just north of San Francisco, CA.

I have more shots from this evening on my Flickr stream.

Jim Patterson

2009-11-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

For the past year I've been following the work of Santa Cruz-based photographer Jim Patterson. Jim specializes in long exposure photography of the California coastline, usually during sunrises and sunsets. And after sunset, it's only natural that he's going to get the night photography bug. While watching every photograph that he uploaded to his Flickr stream, I saw the following gem: a panoramic night photograph of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf.

(Photo by Jim Patterson)

Like most panoramas, you really need to see this one big to appreciate it.

There are a number of reasons why I like this photograph. Aside from the great combination of street lights and dawn peeking out above the horizon, the Santa Cruz Wharf is the one big object that stands out every time I visit Santa Cruz. But I've always found it difficult to photograph: it's long and wide and lacks interesting detail (like most piers in the U.S.). But Jim's photograph works so well because it captures the light and, more important, that feeling of being by the coast at that special time of day.

If you're a fan of Michael Kenna's style of black-and-white photography, you should take some time to look through the rest of Jim's work. Here's a sample:

(Photo by Jim Patterson)

Mark Jaremko

2009-10-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

Bay Area night photographer Mark Jaremko has three great newsbits this week.

Mark recently achieved one of the milestones that most photographers strive for. He sold one of his photographs to a major art museum. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston recently purchased Mark's photograph Moon Rising, which is being included in their current show Moon, which runs through January 10th.

(Moon Rising, by Mark Jaremko)

Mark will also have an exhibition for his show Nightscapes at Houston, TX's John Cleary Gallery from Oct 24th - Nov 28th. The reception will be Saturday, Oct 24th from 6:00-8:00pm. On top of that, Kenneth Baker interviewed Mark for an article in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning.

If you're in the Houston area, try to check out both the gallery show, as well as the MFAH show.

Edgar Martins

2009-10-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

Edgar Martins has some interesting night photographs taken along Portuguese beaches. See his Accidental Theorist portfolio. Although there's an unmistakable similarity to Michael Kenna's black-and-white beach work, Martins shoots in color and records the sky as jet black. I think the black sky effect is very compelling.

(Photo by Edgar Martins)

I couldn't figure out how to extract a direct link to Martins' photographs. So here's the step-by-step recipe to find them: Go his website -> click on the "P" -> click PHOTOGRAPHY -> click ACCIDENTAL THEORIST -> click the white PHOTOS box.

Seen in J. Wesley Browns' We Can Shoot Too blog.

Richard Vantielcke

2009-10-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

Paris-based photographer Richard Vantielcke sent me a link to some of his recent night photography. Richard says, "My work focuses on the use of light and shadow to sublimate everyday scenes to something more graphic. Lately, obscurity and night ambiance have becomed my best inspiration for my photographs."

A lot of his night work has a very film noir look to it.

(Photo by Richard Vantielcke)

And here's a shot that reminds of the 1922 film Nosferatu.

(Photo by Richard Vantielcke)

The New Oakland Bay Bridge

2009-09-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have five major bridges. Although the Golden Gate Bridge is the most famous, the longest bridge is actually the two spans known as the Oakland Bay Bridge. The Oakland Bay Bridge is currently undergoing replacement. Last month, the bridge was closed for the three-day weekend to allow the construction crew time to replace one of the spans.

(Photo by Tom Paiva)

Los Angeles photographer Tom Paiva has been hired to document this multi-year project to retrofit the bridge. During the closure last month, Tom had access to Yerba Buena Island (the island that connects to the two spans in the middle of the San Francisco Bay) to photograph the project.

"The Bay Bridge is an ongoing project that I have been working on for about a year, including a trip to Shanghai, China for the tower fabrication portion.

It was my choice to shoot in 4x5. I felt that a monumental project deserves a monumental format that makes wonderful large prints. Because of the format, exposure times range between 1 minute for twilight and 15-20 minutes for the night shots. No additional lighting is used in these views. Typically, I use transparency film for twilight and color negative for the night shots, which handles the high contrast better." - Tom Paiva

You can see more of Tom's shots of the retrofit here.

Photographing the International Space Station

2009-09-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

During the last full moon cycle I dragged a few friends to one of the lesser-known beaches in the Marin Headlands, called Kirby Cove. This black sand beach faces the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge, and includes one of many Civil War-era cement bunkers that are found throughout the Headlands. Once it got dark we quickly realized that black sand may not be the most interesting subject for a night photograph. A few minutes later we had taken all of the postcard shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, and we were desperately waiting for the full moon to rise. With nothing else to shoot, I started to take a long exposure of star trails by shooting sequential thirty second exposures.

(ISS passing over the Golden Gate, Photo by Andy Frazer)

As soon as I opened the shutter a bright object appeared over the horizon. At first we thought it was yet another airplane approaching SFO or Oakland airports. But when we noticed it had none of the telltale signs of an aircraft (red and green wing lights, or any sort of flashing light), we realized it was a satellite. And it was bright; slightly brighter than Jupiter, which we could see to the southeast over San Francisco.

The only satellite that competes with Jupiter and Venus is the International Space Station. The next day I checked the satellite prediction/tracking website Heavens Above and confirmed that what we say was the ISS. If I had known it was going to be flying through the middle of my shot, I would have taken one long exposure, instead of a stack of shorter exposures (notice the breaks in the path of the satellite).

If you'd like to read about some of the best locations to photograph the Golden Gate Bridge, check out the Open Source Photo Guide for the GGB that I authored.

Jamey Stillings

2009-09-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Tim Baskerville at The Nocturnes Blog pointed us to the beautiful night photography work of Jamey Stillings, who photographed the progress of the Colorado River Bridge, Hoover Dam Bypass Project. I guess that's abbreviated as CRBHDBP.

(Photo by Jamey Stillings)

To see his work on the CRBHDBP, go to his website, click on PROJECTS (at the very bottom of the page), then select Colorado River Bridge.

One Exposure: Night Photography

2009-09-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled across an on-line, juried, pay-to-contribute gallery called One Exposure. Basically, it's a juried showcase for photographs. They have a gallery of night photographs which is worth browsing (don't forget to click the NEXT button at the bottom to view additional pages). If you're interested in participating, make sure you read the FAQ's. I didn't make the effort to sort out all the reasons why you should become a paying member, much less the difference between the different levels of membership. But this arrangement might be of interest to some people.

(Twin Light by Mauro Mendula)

This brings up an interesting question about the difference between free photo sites (such as Flickr) and pay-to-contribute juried sites such as OneExposure. Anyone who has browsed sites such as Flickr, Zooomr or SmugMug knows that quantity does not equal quality. There's a ton of junk out there. But these sites also give you the tools to sort through the junk and find the high quality work. For example, on Flickr you can limit your browsing to "contacts" whose work you respect. There's also third-party tools such as FlickRiver which sort photographs based on Flickr's secret "Interestingness" formulas.

Then there's juried sites. For many years The Nocturnes has been hosting juried competitions of night photography for a nominal fee. The galleries are free to browse, and they often include some interesting new photographers. For example, The Nocturnes is currently collecting entries for a contest of night panoramas.

Although I don't plan to pay to contribute to One Exposure, their galleries are also free to browse, and there are some good photographs in there.

More NPy Workshops Than You Can Shake A Stick At

2009-09-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

Here in Northern California, Fall is known as the high season of Night Photography. Not only are the nights getting longer, but along the coast the night weather actually gets better because it's not unusual for the summer skies to be completely overcast up here. For anyone interested in getting started with night photography, or if you'd like to improve your craft, there's at least five night photography workshops on the calendar.

(Typical California summer night sky. Photo by Andy Frazer)

First, Troy Paiva and Joe Reifer are leading a one-night workshop at the Big M Automotive yard (Williams, CA) on Saturday, September 5th. But that's already sold out. So, moving on...

Second, the same Paiva-Reifer team are leading another waiting-list-as-usual light painting workshop at the Pearsonville Salvage Yard October 3-4 in Ridgecrest, CA. But that's already sold out, as well. At least they're creating a waiting list for the next one.

Third, Mark Jaremko and Tim Baskerville of The Nocturnes are leading a one-night workshop in San Francisco on September 26th which is geared towards digital shooting and digital post-processing. Tim has been teaching night workshops for over ten years. And Mark Jaremko knows probably more about the digital technical side of night photography than anyone I know.

Fourth, and for those East Coast shooters, Gabriel Biderman is leading a night photography workshop in the New York Catskills on October 31, 2009. Two years ago, Joe Reifer and I shot with Gabriel up at Sutro Baths in San Francisco. If you're in New York or Vermont and you'd like to get into night photography, this is a great opportunity.

(Bodie Outhose, by Andy Frazer)

Fifth, night photography tour master Lance Keimig is leading another Night Photography - Digital Workflow workshop in the Mono Lake, CA area on October 1-4th. This trip includes one night shooting at Bodie ghost town, and one in Yosemite (as well as one at Mono Lake). In the past, I've attended two of Lance's workshops at Mono Lake. The landscape up there is nothing short of spectacular, and it deserves to be photographed at night.

As usual, if you sign up for any of these workshops, tell them you heard about it from me!

Night Photography Show - Alameda, CA

2009-09-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

Bay Area night photographers Troy Paiva, Mike Hows and Joe Reifer will have a reception for their latest night photography show Big M Automotive: Classic Cars Dismantled this Friday, September 4th at the Lucky JuJu's Pinball Arcade in Alameda, CA. The reception runs from 7-10pm, but the show will remain open to the public from September 4 - September 30, 2009.

(Photo by Mike Hows)

The photographs on display were taken at the Big M Automative yard near Williams, CA. This salvage yard specializes in 1950's Mercury's. Joe Reifer has been arranging photography shows at this venue annually for quite a few years. Have fun playing vintage pinball machines and meet lots of other cool Bay Area photographers. I will also be there, so please stop by and say hello.

Joe and Troy are also hosting a one-night photography workshop at the Big M the following evening. The workshop is already full, but you can contact Joe to get on the waiting list of that workshop, as well as future workshops.

Lucky JuJu's is located at 713 Santa Clara Ave in Alameda, CA (map). For more information on the show, check out the press release.

David Shalliol

2009-08-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

Chicago-based photographer David Shalliol's has done an interesting project called Isolated Buildings. It includes some great night photographs of buildings that are standing with no immediate neighbors. It's a great study of neighborhood transformation. The project statement (on the right side of the linked page above) includes some interesting thoughts that are relevant to urban exploration.

(Photo by David Shalliol)

There are seven other night photographs throughout the project page. But take time to look through all of the photographs. The daytime photographs are equally compelling.

There's also some night photography in his Five versus Five project, which includes some great work of basketball hoops in decaying neighborhoods.

Thomas Kneubühler

2009-08-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kneubuhler is a Swiss-born photographer working in Montreal. For his project Electric Mountains he used a Sinar 4"x5" to photograph ski resorts that are lit up at night for night skiing.

(Photo by Thomas Kneubuhler)

David Black

2009-08-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

David Black has been a professional sports photographer for almost thirty years. After photographing numerous Olympics and other major pro sports events, he recently moved from sports photography into light painting. On his interview with TheNightWriterz he describes it as the perfect merger between photography, graphic design and oil painting. You can see examples of his lighting painting (he calls it "LightPainting"... one word, all caps) here.

Make sure you listen to David's podcast interview with TheNightWriterz.

(Summer's End, by David Black)

Also, check out David's book Workshop at the Ranch, which is a training manual for his workshops.

Haircuts by Flashlight

2009-08-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

Seen in Lens, the NYTimes photography blog:

(Photo by David Goldman/Associated Press)

"Sgt Joshua Engbrecht, 28, of Riverside, CA, left, and Pfc. Jack Shortridge, 21, of Long Beach, CA, ... give each other haircuts under the stars in the Wardak Province in Afghanistan"

Mike Hows

2009-08-16T01:00:00.001-07:00

Bay Area night photographer Mike Hows has recently make a huge number of trips to the desert to photograph abandoned towns and many automobile wrecking yards from California, Nevada and Arizona. I've been shooting regularly with Mike for the past two years. Along with impressive ability to negotiate with private landowners (some of them armed), his dedication to shooting and improving his craft has never ceased to be inspiring. Some of his most recent work is available online from July and August.

(Photo by Mike Hows)

Some of Mike's work will be on display along with Troy Paiva and Joe Reifer at the Lucky Ju Ju gallery in Alameda, CA in September. The reception is Friday, September 4th.

Podcasts: Joe Reifer and Troy Paiva

2009-08-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Joe Reifer just informed me that he was featured in an interview podcast with Night Writerz: a new podcast service focused on night photography. Each podcast is thirty minutes long. After the first five minutes of news updates, the remaining time is focused on the interviews. This time slot seems to be just right to let the interviewees discuss their motivation and thoughts about how they developed their technique, and why they chose their particular working style.

Follow the link above to access the series of podcasts from iTunes. If you're still digging for more after listening to Joe's interview, you can listen to an earlier episode with Troy Paiva. You can also watch a video interview I did with Troy Paiva five years in Night of the Living Photographers.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

2009-08-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is a combination beachfront amusement park and convention center located in Santa Cruz, CA. Built in 1915, it is California's oldest amusement park, and one of only two seaside amusement parks on the West Coast. It's not unusual to have sunny days and overcast nights during the summer. Fortunately for photographers, the light from the amusement park provides plenty of diffused light for photography along the beach.

The last Friday night of July was no exception. Mild weather and an outdoor rock concert in the background makes for a casual night of shooting.

(Lifeguard Stand, by Andy Frazer)

Mark Brautigam

2009-08-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

Wisconsin photographer Mark Brautigam took this great night shot in Aurora, WI. It's part of his "Wisconsin" series. I love the cold, desolate background behind the house. You can almost feel the cold of the snow.

("Aurora, WI" by Mark Brautigam)

Edgar Martins (Getting Someone to Hold Still for Thirty Minutes)

2009-07-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons you rarely seen people in long exposure night photography is because people who move during a long exposure either become blurry, or they disappear. Edgar Martins, who has recently achieved temporary fame through controversy, wanted to include a person in his long exposure night photographs of Portuguese beaches.

Although mannequins have recently been spotted posing at various Bay Area night photography locations. But Martins chose a more novel approach. He hired a living statue street performer (they're those people who stand perfectly still on the street corner for half an hour and try to collect donations from tourists... if you've never seen one, stop by Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco on any weekend day).

(Untitled from the series "Accidental Theorist", by Edgar Martins)

Read how he did it. Scroll down to the Accidental Tourist and read the description below the photograph. (via)

Steve Anderson

2009-07-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

Monterey-based night photographer Steve Anderson took this great shot of the Moss Landing power plant under a full moon. Notice the warm glow inside the steam strails.

(Full Moon Stacks, by Steve Anderson)

Steve has also created a great collection of work from the decommissioned army base Fort Ord.

Anak Krakatau at Night

2009-07-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

Anak Krakatau is an off-shoot from the famous Krakatoa volcano that gave us the biggest volcanic explosion in modern history. Anak Krakatau surfaced from under the ocean in 1927, and has been belching fire and smoke continuously since earlier this year.

Marco Fulle, of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, took this great photograph of "Anak" from the nearby island of Rakata. Notice the stars of the Big Dipper just above the volcano.

(Photo by Marco Fulle)

You can see more of Marco's photographs of Anak K. right here.

Found in Astronomy Photo of the Day.

Julius Shulman (1910-2009)

2009-07-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

Modernist architectural photographer extraordinaire, and part-time night photographer, Julius Shulman (Wikipedia) passed away last night in Los Angeles at age 98. Shulman is often credited with creating the allure of the Southern California lifestyle.

Below is his most famous photograph (a night photograph, no less), Case Study House No.22:

(Photo by Julius Shulman)

I've always had a soft spot for Julius Shulman. When I first became serious about my photography, I shot primarily daytime photographs on black-and-white infrared film. At that time, Shulman was the only big-name photographer known to me who had praised infrared photography. I had one of his books where he suggested that photographers had not yet exploited the full potential of infrared film for architectural photography. He instantly became my here. About five years later my focus switched from daytime infrared to night photography. As you can see above, Shulman was also doing some great night work.

So, here's to the only photographer I knew of who had his feet in both of the photography styles that I loved.

Most of Shulman's photographs reside in the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Here is his obituary, as well as a video where he talks about the photograph above. Here's a wonderful photograph of Shulman at work.

Odds and Ends: Reviews, Shows and Workshops

2009-07-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

Some night photography odds and ends:

(Photo by Mike Hows)

1. Troy Paiva and Joe Reifer will be hosting a ONE-NIGHT light painting workshop at the Big M Automotive yard in Williams, CA on Saturday, September 5th. This is different than their weekend workshops which are held at the Pearsonville Junkyard. See Joe's blog for more information.

2. Troy and Joe will join Mike Hows for a night photography show of their Big M Automotive work at Lucky Ju Ju Pinball Art Gallery in Alameda, CA. The reception will be Friday, September 4th. Lucky Ju Ju's is a great place to hang out and play some vintage pinball machines. See Joe's blog for more information.

3. Nocturne's founder Tim Baskerville has written an eloquent review of Lynn Saville's latest book Night Shift on The Nocturnes Blog.

4. Tim will also be hosting another San Francisco Bay Area Nocturnes Workshop on September 3-5th, along with a followup meeting on the 12th.

5. The deadline for entries in the Nocturnes' Pannocturnist photo contest is July 31st!

6. If you haven't noticed, the sun began setting earlier about one week ago. Longer nights are on their way!

More Night Photography Workshops

2009-07-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

For those of you who missed Troy Paiva's and Joe Reifer's light painting workshop at the Pearsonville Junkyard last March, there's going to be another one in October. And there's one opening available for any up-and-coming advanced light painters. If you get it, tell them you heard it here.

Check out some of their past students' work on Flickr.

They're also planning a one-night workshop in Northern California in September. Check out Joe's blog for more details.

Museum of Contemporary Photography

2009-07-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

The Chicago-based Museum of Contemporary Photography has put their collection of 8500 photographs on-line at their newly-revamped website. The photographs don't seem to be tagged for easy searching, but you can search by words in the titles, as well as by photographer.

(Night Bathing, by Louise Dahl-Wolfe)

The advanced search feature is even less interesting: search by, among other things, "culture", "collector" or "place collected". Although searching for "night" in the title does return some interesting material.

(Hot Shot Eastbound, Laeger, West Virginia, by O. Winston Link)

Neverland at Night

2009-07-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

With all of the attention on Michael Jackson's recent passing, I thought it would be a good time to draw your attention to the gutsy night photography of Jon Haeber and Scott Haefner who have each visited Neverland multiple times under the cover of darkness.

("Farewell MJ", by Jon Haebner)

Jon also has a write-up of his trips to Neverland on his great UrbEx blog Bearings.

It may be worth pointing out that Neverland is NOT, and never was, open to the public. Especially at night. So don't get any crazy ideas and try to sneak in there over the long weekend :-)