"Night News" - an occasional missive from the darkness
Vol.13 No.3
"Fortunately, art is a community effort - a small but select community living in a spiritualized world, endeavoring to interpret the wars and the solitudes of the flesh." - Allen Ginsberg
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Continuing with this series of monthly communiqués, just to keep up with all the activivites surrrounding our year-long celebration, "TheNocturnes@20." You can view the complete schedule of events (starting wa-a-y back in January!) here. However, you'll probably want to see the current list of upcoming events - with more being added weekly - at this link.

So, on to some of the featured events and deadlines for June 2011 - let's have a look, shall we?
"From here to Venezuela . . . " Note that the Call for Entries to our latest onlne Exhibit of Night Photography: "All along the Lee Shore" has been extedned - to July 30. The title, of course comes
from the song, "Lee Shore" written by David Crosby, It's a beautiful, quiet piece evoking imagery of
the sea, sailing, and the "universality of all living things" - see video here - and for us, here at The Nocturnes, continues our study of music as muse. Also, we are looking for a non-virtual (i.e."bricks 'n' mortar") venue to exhibit the work in 2011 - part of the TheNocturnes@20 - any suggestions?
Check out the prospectus for this, our 24th online show!
The Night Skye, The Nocturnes, and Onsight, invite you to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Nocturnes together, at Mono Lake in California’s Eastern Sierra this June. This year we’re organizing a special program with introductory and advanced level Night Photography workshops, an afternoon program of seminars with many Night Photography Luminaries including Troy and Tom Paiva, Susanne Friedrich, Stu Jenks, Joe Reifer, Gabriel Biderman, Andy Frazer, Dan Squires and Al Hiltz. As always, there will be night photography at Mono Lake, Tioga Pass, and Bodie Ghost town. Details at The Night Skye Web site.
Now, in our best Gilda Radner voice - "What's all this we hear/see about 'Postcards from San Francisco?' - doesn't The City that Knows How, get enuf press?" A Night Re-Photography project, perhaps? Well, not exactly . . . A recent Tutoring session (one-nighter) provided to a student from Toronto, Canada, found us photographing at twilight (and later) at some of the most iconic San Francisco sites: near the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, at the lagoon at the Palace of Fine Arts, and finally at the bottom of the Lombard Street hill, aka "The Crookedest Street in the World." As Tim relates: "While these would not be my first choices of NPy subject matter, as it turns out, it was a lot of fun with some surprisingly good results!"
Which got us thinking about conducting small-scale, "one-nighter" Workshops that would concentrate on these oft-photographed sites and attempt to render them in something other than the usual snapshot-style (wide anlge / lots of blown-out streetlights / coal black skies / etc.) - something more like what one sees in photos done in the "The Nocturnes Style" - a term coined by one of the judges at last year's SF City Hall show. Well, the idea was postively received by the SF Recreation and Parks Dept, and a series of six "Postcards from San Francisco" is being offered as part of their Summer Program, starting June 9, 2011. Locations include the Palace of FIne Arts, Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, Treasure Island, and others - including a return to the legendary Sutro Baths Ruins (where it all began!) on the night of July's Full Moon. In the classroom portion of this workshop we will investigate historic reference points of these oft-photographed SF icons, and discuss technical considerations related to photographing the sites at night. Following this, we travel to the locations for some twilight work (many times the best alternative for low-light photography in heavily lit urban settings), continuing to photograph into the dark of night. Visit the SF Rec & Park site for details, registration.
Lance Keimig and Tim Baskerville lead an Urban NPy Workshop at RayKo Photo Center, in the South of Market area of San Francisco; June 18, 19, with a final critique on June 24. The emphasis of the class will be on evaluating existing lighting situations and exposing accordingly. Supplemental lighting possibilities will also be demonstrated. Digital, B&W, color negative and slide film will be discussed and compared. The course is suited for intermediate to professional photographers. After 2-nights of shooting in the field, students return to discuss and critique their work. Info - raykophoto.com

Finally, some 'teasers" for you to ponder: What location will the TheNocturnes@20 be showing nightwork at, in July and August? Also in July: What iconic Bay area landmark will witness an invasion of selected Nocturnes for a late-night amphibious rendezvous? More in July's NightNews!

"It was twenty years ago, today . . ."

Hope to see you at one or all of these events!

Susan Nichols
workshop [at] thenocturnes [dot] com
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"So, you really should VISIT more often . . ."

The Nocturnes family of Web sites:
http://www.thenocturnes.com
http://thenocturnes.blogspot.com
http://www.timbaskerville.com
http://www.thepanocturnists.com
http://www.mareislandhpf.org

http://www.saveoursail.com

http://www.studionocturne2011.com
http://www.flickr.com/groups/thenocturnes
http://www.flickr.com/groups/off-limits
http://www.meersfamily.org