Aircraft Boneyards

Somehow I once again ended up browsing through Troy Paiva's and Joe Reifer's night photographs of the airplane boneyards in southern California. I know many night photographers who point to these photographs as the original inspiration for getting interested in night photography. When I was in the De Anza Film Program working on my night photography documentary film Night of the Living Photographers many years ago, I showed an early version of the film to the class. After the lecture, there were more people asking me about my film than any of the other films shown that night. But the only thing that everyone was asking about was Troy's photographs of the airplane boneyards. Check them out for yourself:

Troy's Aircraft Boneyards and Joe's Aviation Warehouse.

Clipped and Headless, by Troy Paiva

Astrid Kruse Jensen

Take a look at Astrid Kruse Jensen's work, especially Imaginary Realities. Astrid is a Dutch photographer who works at night. His photographs definitely try to tell a story in the style of Edward Hopper.

(Photo by Astrid Kruse Jensen)

Seen on Raul Gutierrez's blog Heading East.

Battery Mendell, Marin Headlands

Last weekend was the best full moon cloud cover that I've seen in the past ten years. Night photographers who work in the California desert seem to get lucky with this sort of sky very often. But closer to the Pacific Ocean, this sort of high, streaking clouds is quite uncommon.

(Battery Mendell, by Andy Frazer)

Taken at Battery Mendell, one of numerous Civil War-era bunkers in the Marin Headlands region just north of San Francisco, CA.

I have more shots from this evening on my Flickr stream.

Jim Patterson

For the past year I've been following the work of Santa Cruz-based photographer Jim Patterson. Jim specializes in long exposure photography of the California coastline, usually during sunrises and sunsets. And after sunset, it's only natural that he's going to get the night photography bug. While watching every photograph that he uploaded to his Flickr stream, I saw the following gem: a panoramic night photograph of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf.

(Photo by Jim Patterson)

Like most panoramas, you really need to see this one big to appreciate it.

There are a number of reasons why I like this photograph. Aside from the great combination of street lights and dawn peeking out above the horizon, the Santa Cruz Wharf is the one big object that stands out every time I visit Santa Cruz. But I've always found it difficult to photograph: it's long and wide and lacks interesting detail (like most piers in the U.S.). But Jim's photograph works so well because it captures the light and, more important, that feeling of being by the coast at that special time of day.

If you're a fan of Michael Kenna's style of black-and-white photography, you should take some time to look through the rest of Jim's work. Here's a sample:

(Photo by Jim Patterson)