"Night News" - an occasional missive from the darkness
Vol.5 No.6
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"It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace.

"Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on . . . "

-"River" by Joni Mitchell (1971)
www.jonimitchell.com
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"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 (date unknown)
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(UC Berkeley Extension - Laguna Street Campus
1958 - 2003)

(NightTalk Vers 1.0 - the message Board of The Nocturnes
January 2001 - December 2003)
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Friends of The Nocturnes,

Two sources of community gone, on this last day of 2003 - one a cultural, architectural and educational landmark (since 1920, home of San Francisco State, even before UC Berkeley Extension's tenancy) - now a victim of a sour economy (and a University's short-sightedness); while the other is a victim of the darker side of technology (specifically, spam and hacker attacks). The good news is we are actively looking for a replacement message board (no doubt, residing on remote servers - so we give up a lot there ('gaining' ads and 'pop-ups' in the process - Oh, well!). On the other hand, the very idea of a UC Berkeley: "Laguna Street Campus" is now a part of history.

Welcome back to this special end-of-year edition of "Night News." The first section contained NEWS of EXHIBITS (recently past and current), WORKSHOP NEWS (a year-end wrap-up), BOOKS and ARTICLES NOTED (by those closest to The Nocturnes), and our NEWEST section, CALL FOR ENTRIES as well as our exhaustive LIBRARY NOTES. You should have received it about 10 days ago. If you didn't, there is a link to all issues of NightNews archived on the Web site, with a link provided below.

The second part, which you are now reading includes our ALUMNI NEWS section, a preview of the new year's WORKSHOPS, MUSICAL NOTES, and RELATED NEWS.


WORKSHOP NEWS - PREVIEW
Tom Paiva and Tim Baskerville conducted their first four-night San Francisco Workshop on September 5, 6, 7, and 13, 2003. With a full complement of attendees (10), this promises to be a great offering, each year. A repeat is planned for May, 2004 - visit www.thenocturnes.com/workshop.htm after the first of the year, for more details.

The Nocturnes march into the Southland - Tom and Tim are busy planning a Los Angeles Workshop - "LA Nocturne" - for the summer. And, Tim and I plan to conduct a Joshua Tree Workshop around Thanksgiving.

Also note that we are adding additional San Francisco Bay Area workshops for the new year, with new, special guest lecturers - so stay tuned . . . !

Returning to the topic of UC Berkeley for a moment - Tim's next 10-week course there starts Friday, April 9, 2004. Note that the new location for the course is UC's campus at 425 Market Street, in San Francisco. This might be an opportune chance to register and show the University that you support fine art education at UC Berkeley - visit http://www.unex.berkeley.edu/cat/013441.html and register online! One of the positive angles on the new location is that it places our classwork very close to the newly-refurbished Ferry Building and the Embarcadero, which dovetails nicely with our Embarcadero Nocturne CALL FOR ENTRIES (And yes it is coming . . . this year!)

The time to sign up for our return to Death Valley (in April) is NOW! After January 1st, check out the Web site for details - http://www.thenocturnes.com/workshop.htm. And have a look at - http://www.thenocturnes.com/deathvalley2002/index.htm - for some work done on those trips!


TYPOGRAPHICALLY CORRECT
The correct link for the brief history of UCBerkeley Extension, Laguna Campus (mentioned in the previous NightNews) is located at http://www.thenocturnes.com/pdf/ucx_daily_cal_080503.pdf


RELATED NEWS
This past year saw an important exhibition (February 8 - July 6, 2003) of Night Photography at Williams College Museum of Art, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The exhibit, "Wait until Dark," drawn from the Collection of Jay Richard DiBiaso featured work by Lewis Baltz, Jeff Brouws, Michael Kenna, Todd Hido, Richard Misrach, and other noted nocturnal luminaries. A lecture by Jeff Brouws, "Why the night? Photography after Dark" was also featured as part of the Exhibit. Oh! - those URLs are www.jeffbrouws.com and http://www.wcma.org/releases/03/03brouws.html - why not visit them?

So, we guess the word is out on Night Photography, eh? Note that no fewer than four publications featuring articles on Night Photography hit the news stands this holiday season, many 'pitching' the relatively new "digital nocturne" (utilizing digital cameras for Night Photography). The UK publication, "Digital Photographer" (Issue #13) featured an article, "Night Shoots: Professional Advice on Painting with Light at Dawn, Dusk and Night." We thought that the most helpful tip in the article was in regard to the great "Film vs. Digital Question" and it goes something like this: "One of the appealing characteristics of film for night shots is it's reduced sensitivity with longer exposures and resilient highlight rendition - it's actually quite difficult to overexpose a night shot. Digital cameras are a little trickier. Their sensitivity to light remains linear with longer exposures, so you need to take just that little bit more care and not just leave the shutter open until you've had enough." The end of "F-8 and Wait" - we'll see . . . although, that is right in line with some of Tim and Tom's initial tests of the technology producing some exciting results.

Another British publication, "Outdoor Photography" (Issue #43, Dec. 2003) featured an article entitled "The Twilight Zone - How to add Light to Landscapes after Dark." Helpful hint: "Don't forget your 'torch'!"

Sky and Telescope's yearly guide, "SkyWatch '04: Your Annual Guide to the Night Sky" also had an article of interest: "How to Take Great Night-Sky Photos" with helpful hints about Night Photography, as well as a deeper look, month by month, into the night sky above us. For a glimpse into how the study of Astrophotography and Night Photography (as advanced by The Nocturnes) can complement each other, visit Alumnus Jerry Day's site - www.darkskydreams.com

Finally, yet another UK publication, "Digital Photography" (Issue #03, Nov. 2003) featured an article entitled "Night Fever" about . . . Guess What?


ALUMNI NEWS
Our next semi-annual AlumNight event at the San Francisco Photography Center is scheduled for Saturday, February 7, 2004 (also a full moon night) - RSVP workshop@thenocturnes.com us NOW. We gave up trying to schedule these events around the Winter Solstice - too many other end-of-year events to compete with! For this February event, we are hoping that Nocturne Andy Frazer will give us a preview of a documentary film about Night Photography that he is working on. What do you say, Andy?

Susanne Friedrich, in addition to the excellent work she recently did on the "Studio Nocturne' Web page - www.thenocturnes.com/studionocturne.htm - has agreed to work with us, crafting a new 'home page' (and a few others) for The Nocturnes. Look for the "new look" by Spring.

Tram Davis - see www.thenocturnes.com/studionocturne.htm - was one of three artists exhibiting in "Selected, Preferred, Chosen," running from November 22 through December 21 show at the Huntington Beach Art Center, in Southern California. Tram has shown work in a number of our online shows, and was an award winner in "TcoN" (The Color of Night), as well.

Web sites of Alumni mentioned in these last two year-end editions of NightNews:
Andy Frazer - www.gorillasites.com/nightphotos/
Mike Quinn - www.castrophoto.com - gallery
Howie Spielman - http://tristesse.com/%7Ehowie/Photos/NightTrails/index.html
Todd Friedlander - www.toddfriedlander.com
Tram Davies - www.tramdaviesphotography.com
Susanne Friedrich - www.sanneart.com
Jerry Day - www.darkskydreams.com


MUSICAL NOTES
Recent Acquisitions: AfterGlow, by Sarah McLaughlin. 2003 Arista Records #82876-50150-2-RE-1
UnEarthed [a new box set] by Johnny Cash, 2003 Lost Highway Records #B0000TLA9Q
Dream Factor, by Jack Casady. 2003 Eagle Records #ER 20008-2
O, by DamienRice. 2003 Vector Recording LLC # 48507-2
Chinatown, by The Be Good Tanyas. 2003 Nettwerk Productions #0-6700-30304-2-7
Let It Be . . . Naked (the long awaited 'de-PhilSpectored' version), by The Beatles. 2003 Apple Corps Ltd/Capital Records #CDP 7243-5-95713-2-4
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This concludes this final year-end edition of "Night News." As always, this and past issues of "Night News" are accessible at http://www.thenocturnes.com/nitenews.htm.

And, "when [you] find yourself in times of trouble" just remember: ". . . let's be careful out there."

Susan Nichols
nichols@thenocturnes.com
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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

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PO Box 29074
Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129
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