An odd thing happened while out sifting through the coastal night light for a compelling image. The waxing crescent moon had already set and the night was dark. My brother Seth and I walked without lights through the night along the beach, each step something of a leap of faith as only faint differences in […]
David Wilson
David Wilson is a Humboldt-grown photographer. His longtime love is creating nighttime images and he enjoys finding and using unique light. David received his Art degree with an emphasis in photography from Humboldt State University. He currently teaches photography in the Art Department at College of the Redwoods.
Posted inLife + Outdoors
North Coast Night Lights: Ray of Beauty at Moonstone Beach
An odd thing happened while out sifting through the coastal night light for a compelling image. The waxing crescent moon had already set and the night was dark. My brother Seth and I walked without lights through the night along the beach, each step something of a leap of faith as only faint differences in […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
North Coast Night Lights: Visualize the Stars
“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need — roads.” – Doc, Back to the Future II. One of the more challenging visualizations for me is to imagine looking at the Solar System from a point above it in outer space, far enough out that the Sun is but a bright point of light below. With […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Bridges of Humboldt County
Between Loleta and Ferndale, and a little to the west, the Eel River broadens and wraps itself around Cock Robin Island before depositing its fresh water into the Pacific Ocean. The island itself contains private property but connecting it to the mainland on the north side is one of Humboldt’s unique bridges, the publicly accessible […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Perseid Meteors 2020
Currently speeding out from the sun after its last visit to the solar system’s inner reaches in 1992, Comet Swift-Tuttle leaves a trail of debris in its path. Comets are made of frozen gasses, dust and rock; as the sun’s energy warms and sublimates the frozen gasses, some of its solids are blown off into […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Perseid Meteors 2020: A comet’s tale
Currently speeding out from the sun after its last visit to the solar system’s inner reaches in 1992, Comet Swift-Tuttle leaves a trail of debris in its path. Comets are made of frozen gasses, dust and rock; as the sun’s energy warms and sublimates the frozen gasses, some of its solids are blown off into […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Raptors at Chapman’sGem and Mineral
Since childhood, dinosaurs have held a fascination for me. If dinosaurs roamed the earth today, my photo stories would probably be about them or, perhaps more likely, about dinosaurs at night. Alas, they are exceedingly rare and opportunities to photograph them are few and far between. Until recently, I’ve had more luck photographing meteors. I […]
Posted inNews
North Coast Night Lights: Raptors at Chapman’s Gem and Mineral
Since childhood, dinosaurs have held a fascination for me. If dinosaurs roamed the earth today, my photo stories would probably be about them or, perhaps more likely, about dinosaurs at night. Alas, they are an exceedingly rare breed and the opportunities to photograph them, or even to see them at all, are few and far […]
Posted inNews
North Coast Night Lights: Lone Oak and Country Road
In the still of the night, on a ridge top beside a quiet country road, an old oak tree enjoys a long view of valleys and sky. What changes it must have seen as the years turned and the seasons slipped by, day by day and night by night. Most of us will see the […]
Posted inNews
North Coast Night Lights: Comet Hyakutake
Gradually, particle by particle, it grew in size. Through the eons its body filled out, increasing mass infinitesimally with each random mote and flake that settled onto its surface. In its youth it had prowled the blackness of space on the shadowy fringes of a huge vortex. With others of its kind, it had drifted […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Snow Moon over Carson Mansion
As one of the most photographed Victorian buildings in California, if not the United States, the Carson Mansion has crept beyond Humboldt’s borders to seep into our popular culture. Certainly it has added its unique presence to the horror genre; I’ve periodically encountered the mansion’s distinctive form as the architectural basis of haunted houses in […]
Posted inNews
North Coast Night Lights: Portrait of ‘Himslef,’ the Mysterious Stranger
You know that not everything you believe can be true, and not everything that’s true can be believed. And whether or not something written is true may well depend on your point of view. Where this story falls, as I relate it to you, is somewhere on the continuum. Were you to file it under […]