Night News An Occcasional Missive from the Darkness
Vol.8 No.2, December 31, 2006

"Cloudy . . .
My thoughts are scattered and they're cloudy,
They have no borders, no boundaries.
They echo and they swell
From Tolstoy to Tinker Bell.
Down from Berkeley to Carmel.
Got some pictures in my pocket and a lot of time to kill."

Friends of The Nocturnes,

"Well, the year 2006 is behind us now - and what a year it was, for The Nocturnes! As we celebrated our 15th year of creating, promoting, and building community in Night Photography. As we have pointed out - it has been 15 years since the original exhibit 'The Nocturnes' and 10 years since the launch of TheNocturnes.com - for more anniversaries, see "The Nocturnes by the Numbers" at www.thenocturnes.com/anniversary.html. Throughout 2006, we were all duly impressed with the outpouring of support by and for you, the Night Photography (NPy) community! From our annual AlumNight event (held for the first time on Mare Island, our new home base) early in the year, to the BIG (some 40 attendees) NPy Conference, co-sponsored with TheNightskye.com, up at Mono Lake in August (NPy legend Steve Harper was even able to attend!), and all our usual treks (Rush Ranch, Death Valley, etc.) - it was a great time to create NPy, and just reflect on what we have accomplished, and also what we want to do in the new year.

"2006 saw the launch of SteveHarperPhotography.com, as well as a long overdue spot in The Nocturnes online Gallery. The Year also saw the birth (in some cases, rebirth) of a number of NPy Blogs - tho' in true Blog fashion, they are not limited to the topic of NPy, as you'll see when you visit: Andy Frazer's NPy Blog (http://gorillasites.blogspot.com/), Joe Reifer's Blog (http://www.joereifer.com/words/), and [drumroll here, please!] The Nocturnes Night Photography Blog (http://thenocturnes.blogspot.com/) - actually, it is Tim's venue, to unveil the customary rants, ramblings, raves, and faves. Recent posts on our NPy Blog have included: discussions (and links) re: recent (at least to us) noir films, an award (with lyrics included) for "The Most Energetic Twenty Seconds Witnessed in a Pop Record" (METS-WIPR). As well as a heat-warming story about a horse, darling of the slow-growth movement, who stood still for many years in a pasture in Tiburon. All this is in keeping with the stated purpose of The Nocturnes NPY Blog: ". . . to manage the many newsworthy items regarding (or not . . . ) Night Photography, which we uncover or happen onto, to introduce news items (and people!) of note that might not readily "fit" into the day-to-day information workflow of The Nocturnes Web site, and to broaden our scope to matters of community, politics, the environment, spirituality, and art in general - always, with a "nod" to Night Photography and the obvious musical references/preferences - it IS The Nocturnes, after all."

"In Fall 2006, The Nocturnes returned to RayKo Photo Center, South of Market (where our Workshop Series was started) for a three-night Workshop - Tim Baskerville is slated to conduct a repeat Workshop in April of this New Year. BTW, our Workshop schedule for 2007 is now on The Nocturnes Web site - www.thenocturnes.com/workshops.html - offerings starting up soon include: a 7-week course at College of Marin, as well as our annual Spring Workshop with Tim and Adam Moore. Autumn (the 'high season' for NPy in the Bay Area) of last year saw Tim's U.C. Berkeley Extension course being held at East Bay locations, including the Berkeley Campus. Moving about the darkened campus (site of so much cultural, political, and architectural history) at night inspired some fantastic new work from the class and according to Tim: "the U.C. Berkeley campus location seems to have reinvigorated me (and the course), a bit." We hope to add this venue to our list of usual suspects for 2007 - stay tuned!

"And, what of 2007? Well, the deadline for submissions to our first online exhibit of the New Year has been extended to February 28, 2007. As you can probably tell by the title, The Nocturnes: Not Ready to Make Nice (TNNRTMN) promises to be our most political show, to date. Why not "cast your vote" by submitting work - the prospectus is at http://www.thenocturnes.com/forms/entryform_notready.htm? Incidentally, we will be posting a full schedule of Call for Entries (not just one show at a time) in the coming months, so you will have more advance notice of these offerings.

"Plans are underway for a new addition to our Online Gallery. Many times we've been asked how people (from all over the globe) can become more actively involved in our online Gallery - unfortunately, that section of the Web site is now at capacity (filled with all the supportive folks who were "there in the early days" of The Nocturnes and our various endeavors. A number of interested parties have offered to pay for inclusion on the site, as it's a major portal for Night Photography, Night Photographers and all those interested in viewing, collecting, or just learning more about Night Photography; and it typically ranks very high in Google "night photography" searches. So, we've decided to open up a second Gallery and host interested artists' work on a fee-based system (i.e. for a price!). This will be an annual fee (details TBA), collected mostly to offset the production labor, site management, and increased bandwidth needed for such a service. We will keep you posted on this service - look for a mid-year launch of The Nocturnes Gallery II.

"More good news, also in response to your requests (most recently at events on Mare Island and down in Death Valley) - effective immediately, all Alumni of The Nocturnes Workshop series are eligible for a 50% discount on all our Workshops, including the various treks we make to California's desert south - we're taking a hit, offering this deep discount on the road trips (with their increased expenses), but hope that the continuing interest (and numbers!) of Alumni in these trips will make up for that! Note that this does NOT apply to semester length or other term courses at the various universities offering our courses and workshops (where we have no control over the tuition charged), or at the various "benefit" workshops we do, like Angel Island Photo Camp (benefiting Angel Island Foundation), Mare Island (benefiting the Mare Island Historical Park Foundation), or Rush Ranch (for the Rush Ranch Educational Council). Perhaps this is the year you'll take that road trip with us, eh?

"Look for more exhibitions (and New Work!) of San Francisco's Historic Streetcars by Tim Baskerville in the new year. In the here and now, Tim is showing work and offering prints for sale, from the series, "Interiors: the F-Market Line" at RayKo Photo Center, and at the Fort Mason Foundation Administration offices (Fort Mason Center) from January 2 - February 16, 2007. A very nice article on Tim and the work was published in the Center's monthly calendar/newsletter, and appears online at http://www.fortmason.org/features/2007/01/feature07.shtml. Also, a preview (the show includes 42 pieces) can be found at www.timbaskerville.com - with a much awaited "purchase' link, where you can order prints of the work online.

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" This concludes this edition of "Night News." As always, this and past issues of "Night News" are accessible at http://www.thenocturnes.com/newsletter/newsarchive.htm We look forward to your interest and participation in these events; and, remember, even if you've a lot of time to kill: '. . . let's be careful out there.' "

Susan Nichols

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"It's been ages since you visited any of us . . . "
The Nocturnes family of Web sites:
http://www.thenocturnes.com
http://www.timbaskerville.com
http://www.meersfamily.org