"Night News" - an occasional missive from the darkness
Vol.1 No.2
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"That does not prevent me from having a
terrible need of - shall I say the
word? - of religion. Then I go out at
night to paint the stars . . . "

-Vincent van Gogh
Arles
28 September 1888
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"Photo District News" (http://www.pdn-pix.com/hotlist.html) named The Nocturnes as their Webmasters Choice (with a short, playful review) for the month of February and are providing a place for us in their archive of Key Links for professinal photographers. TheNocturnes.com is happy to reciprocate the link. (Thru a dark link, gladly . . .?)

During the past few years, hosting The Nocturnes Web site, a lot of work from remote locations around the world has come to my attention, and as an editor for Netscape's Mozilla.org Open Directory Project (see http://directory.mozilla.org - CLICK! thru to Arts/Photography/Night Photography), I come in contact with even more interesting Web sites from around the globe, suggested by fellow editors and vistors. One recent encounter - the "Night Moscow" web page by Alexander Hodakov/Agency of Professional Photography - is worth a visit (either at the Mozilla address above or thru The Nocturnes at http://www.thenocturnes.com/owlinks.htm). beautiful color, and sharp, sharp images render these scenes in Russia with a sense of vibrancy and peaceful stillness both, somehow, at the same time. A welcome link.

More "Blue" moons! The first full moon of March (Full Crow Moon) is on March 2nd and the second Blue Moon of the New Year (it's a blue, blue moon) is on the 31st. The Spring series of Full Moon Night Photography Workshops (see http://www.thenocturnes.com/workshop.htm for more info, dates, pricing, etc.) at RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco starts with the waning Blue Moon of March (dates are April 2, 3,and 10). There is now an online form (http://www.thenocturnes.com/workform.htm) to print and fill out for registration for the workshops. As he did last year, Guest Lecturer Troy Paiva (http://www.designshed.com) no doubt will continue to make appearances, with regularity - like the elusive full moons he chases around exotic desert climes.

Starting with the 1st workshop of this series, we will offer participants a space on The Nocturnes Web site to exhibit some of the work they do in Workshops. This seems a great way to continue the educational experience, as well as to "keep in touch." Workshop attendees will be encouraged to post work (one of their best "shots," to start) along with comments, anecdotes, statistics (such as exposure info, etc), lessons learned, etc.; so that other (past/present/future) Workshop participants can learn from the mutual experience. Because of its experimental nature, much of the praxis of Night Photography entails documenting and analyzing what you do, ideally over a period of time. For what seemed ages, I know I had to "re-learn" certain techniques and info each time I went out, due to a lack of documented experience (both in general and from my own specific endeavors). That is where The Nocturnes and these Workshops come in. As a resource center for night photography AND photographers, we are considering "putting up" on the Web, some kind of an online tutorial in Night Photography in the future, partly in response to the numerous requests we get world-wide for information about nocturnal techniques. Tho' I don't believe an online experience can take the place of being out in the night air - the sense of solitude, danger, beauty and timelessness - perhaps it can serve as an adjunct (via email, limited access Web pages, the posting of JPG images back and forth, etc.) to the real workshop or for distance learning beyond the actual workshop, etc. What do you think? - feedback from all reading this is extremely welcome.

Preliminary work on the new GALLERY section of the site is underway. Basically, we are going to a single online gallery page (with thumbnail images representing artists' work) that will direct visitors to various "rooms" in the gallery, each with work by an individual artist. We will soon have more interesting NEW work by NEW members of The Nocturnes. Look for this around mid-April.

If you haven't visited the BACKLIST section already - please do so. It is the start of an extensive list of texts, monographs, etc. dealing with night photography. Another BACKLIST page that lists various general works, novels, poetry, related scientific works, etc of nocturnal nature is under development now. And a list of helpful magazine and newspaper articles, as well as essays from other sources will soon be linked to the Night Photography BACKLIST. If any of you have any ideas re: this or can cite publication/issue/date/etc of related Night Photography information - email that info (from any of the email-forms of the web site or to basket@thenocturnes.com) OR snail mail a photo copy to: Pacific Media Arts, Inc., PO Box 590161, San Francisco, CA 94159. I am investigating the copyright issues involved, IF we can even post this information to The Nocturnes "Resource Center." In the meantime, snail mail your favorite nocturnal tidbits, words of wisdom, articles, etc. to the address above.

Keep checking http://www.thenocturnes.com/entries for more information about the online exhibition, "Studio Nocturne" as it is posted.

As always, this and past issues of "Night News" are accessible at http://www.thenocturnes.com/nitenews.htm

It's been a cold, wet winter here, may we all be blessed with fruitful nights, as Spring comes to our locales.

And just get out there.

Tim Baskerville
basket@thenocturnes.com

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"So, you really should VISIT more often . . . "
http://www.thenocturnes.com