Happy Birthday to a Bay Area Icon!

North Tower, Detail - Image by Tim Baskerville

"When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you.
I'll take your part
When darkness comes
And pain is all around.
Like a bridge over troubled water."
(Lyrics by Paul Simon)

Today marks the 75th (Diamond ) Anniversary of the opening of that most famous - and most photographed! - of bridges: the Golden Gate Bridge!

Hope you enjoy all the festivities to be had this long weekend. Here's a great example - the California Historical Society has extended weekend hours to view the current exhibition: "A Wild Flight of the Imagination: The Story of the Golden Gate Bridge." Be sure to check out and download the lovely ebook they have produced!

"Shine on, you crazy diamond . . . "

A North Coast Nocturne

"Point Arena Lighthouse at Night" © 2011 Richard Skidmore

Just one more day (deadline is May 26) to register for a great 2-night Full Moon Night Photography Workshop, held up the Coast in Gualala, CA; June 3 and 4th. We meet early evening at Gualala Arts Center for brief lectures, before venturing out into the night to photograph historic Fort Ross (which we've acquired a permit to photograph at night on June 3) and Point Arena Lighthouse and The Sea Ranch (2nd night - June 4)

All the details are here.
 
BTW, we encourage attendees of the Workshop to submit work for an exhibit -  "A Little Night Music" - which we are presenting at Gualala Arts Center October 5-28, 2012 - see the details and registration form thru their site. 
 
Maybe it's time for a post-Memorial Day Holiday "two-day staycation" . . .
 
From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

Nocturne / Noir

Helen K. Garber's NoirFest Santa Monica is in full swing, starting this week (actually there was a big opening last Sat'dy night . . . well, we missed that one!) - with a full calendar of events running thru March 28, 2012. Included are a Spoken Word event tonight (!), a Film Screening of Farewell My Lovely (1975) on January 25, Wine Tasting on January 28, and our favorite: Night Photography at the Santa Monica Pier, February 4, 7, and 21, 2012 - part of a class offered by Otis College of Art & Design.

And like that . . . events throughout February and March, with a Closing Party on March 28th! All the details are at noirfestsm.com - The Inaugural Interactive Arts Festival Celebrating Noir as a Unifying Theme.

If you're in the neighborhood, you should try to make it to some part of this - it's an ambitious offering of complimentary events that Helen has delivered - all in the name of Noir!

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

(“The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.”)

Jaguars . . . on Mare Island?

Advance notice - this is NOT what we will be photographing at our next AlumNight on Mare Island - late February or early March!
(A while back, this was pointed out to me by some of the ‘usual suspects' of The Nocturnes. Recognize any of the locations? Is that Building 253 the cars are streaming into, at the 17 second mark? There's always someone making a film or commercial somewhere on the Island.)

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

How ya gonna keep 'em down on the Preserve? 

Hope you all enjoy the above image, taken a few nights before Christmas down on the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve. Some of the hardest-working, visionary voluteers on Mare Island have set the mile-long trail to the Spirit Ship aglow with festive lights of the Season. The lights will be on every evening 5-8pm, until New Year's Day - see their Web site for details!

Check out more work from this location, this Season - visit us on Facebook ("Downon the Preserve" album) - http://www.facebook.com/tim.baskerville

If you would like some music (Hey, it IS The Nocturnes!)to accompany the viewing of this image, visit The Nocturnes Blog for a special "20th" commemorative posting (just below this one!).

Enjoy this season of peace, warmth, remembrance, and kindness.

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

For Christmas - Nocturne No. 20

As we close out 2011, our 20th Anniversary year, for our customary Chistmas Nocturne, we find it apropos to feature a Nocturne composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1830 - No. 20 in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., Lento con gran espressione.


Performed here by Wladyslaw Szpilman at home, in Warsaw in 1997. (Cameraman Jaroslaw Mazur / Copyright 1998 by Andrzej Szpilman) Wladyslaw Szpilman (Wladek) played this music in the last live broadcast for the Polish Radio on 23.9.1939 . An hour later German bombs destroyed its power supply and Warsaw Radio was closed for the next 6 years. This Nocturne is featured in the Roman Polanski film The Pianist, and in its entirety, in the soundtrack. 

It's been a busy, heartening year with all "TheNocturnes@20" events! Enjoy this season of peace, warmth, remembrance, and kindness.

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

Yo - Hardly strictly . . .


Music video by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile & Aoife O'Donovan performing Here and Heaven from the Goat Rodeo Sessions


From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

"It was twenty years ago today . . ."

Hard to believe, but it's been twenty years since a small band of photographers presented their best work to an unsuspecting world in an auspicious exhibit simply titled "The Nocturnes." From those humble beginnings, the mission of The Nocturnes as a group - no, make that "a gathering" - of Night Photographers has been one of education, community building, and the showcasing of evocative nocturnal photography.

This exhibit, which opens at the Harvey Milk Photo Center, in San Francisco, is part of a year-long celebration of their 20th anniversary, and features (amongst others) the work of legendary Night Photographer/Educator and mentor, Steve Harper - as well as work by Harvey Milk Center Instructor and Director of The Nocturnes, Tim Baskerville.

November 9 to December 3, with a Opening Reception for the Artists on Nov. 9 from 6:30 to 9pm; 50 Scott. St at Duboce.

(From the desk of The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog

Taken this past weekend at Studio Nocturne 2011, Fort Mason Center, in San Francisco.

(From the desk of The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man)

A Call for Docentry . . .

We are just about ready for our Ninth Annual "Studio Nocturne" event (part of  SF Open Studios) held again at Fort Mason Center, Oct 22-23, 2011.

Did you know that we are looking for docents to help out (in 2 hour shifts, both days)? It's a fun, well attended social event and we need your help to keep things running smoothly and in a friendly, sociable manner.

We are trying to get people to commit to these 2 hour shifts:
11am - 1pm / 1 - 3pm / 2 - 4pm  or  4 - 6pm

Just let us know if you want to cover any of these, either day. Contact us directly at studio [at] thenocturnes [dot] com if you can free up some time this weekend, 

From all the artists participating in "Studio Nocturne" - http://www.studionocturne2011.com