What makes a photograph special isn’t always what was planned but what happens instead. Of course, sometimes what happens instead can make a mess of things. One has no choice in the matter, but it seems to me that if I’m open to the possibility that something unexpected can make the photo better then delightful […]
David Wilson
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North Coast Night Lights: A Humboldt Commute
I was where I wanted to be, out beneath the moonless night sky overlooking the Redwood Highway, watching others passing through the night on their separate journeys to their own destinations. What a wonderfully beautiful commute they had, I thought: redwood forests, clear air, the rivers, perhaps the rugged coast. Lucky we are to live […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Kneeland Road, One Year Later
Have you ever really thought about the difference between night and day? An interesting difference between day and night is that from one year to the next there are differences between night skies, but no differences between daytime skies. It may be a little odd-sounding if you haven’t thought of it, but it’s not strange […]
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North Coast Night Lights: A Milky Way Time-Lapse Medley
One can sit beneath the stars and watch them as they slowly traverse the skies; it merely requires your patience. But are we actually sensing them move? Or is it that our glance from time to time notes only that that the stars have changed position? Our perception moment by moment is that they are […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Eel River Overlook
The magic of the night was all around, so very quiet with only the sound of the redwood forest around us sighing in a light breeze and merging with the soft susurrus of the Eel River far below. From a protected hollow high above the river my companions and I looked out over a world […]
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North Coast Night Lights: The Survivor
The Survivor. The gnarled old pear tree was struggling to survive, hanging onto the edge of a dried embankment above a little dirt road when my family moved there over 40 years ago. It was small, not much taller than my dad, but already old, a twisted thing eking out a life on its own […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Guardian Giants on the Avenue
The full moon rose over the redwood forests of the Eel River valley, bathing the hillsides in its stark light. It flashed through the redwood tree branches beside me as I drove along the Avenue of the Giants, snaking along the river in and out of great stands of the giant trees. It was after […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Vista Point, Humboldt County
I am not a huge traveler but I’ve seen the marked exits up and down the state for Vista Point. It’s a geographical oddity somehow accessible from anywhere, and we are fortunate be home to the world-famous Vista Point here in Humboldt County. I headed out there alone late one night to see if strange […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Night Lights in the Fog
In which an expedition to photograph beneath the night skies encounters lemons in the form of a thick pea soup fog, so we make lemonade. We had hoped for a starry night and the Milky Way, but the lemonade turned out better than expected. In online photo circles, one will bump into other photographers through […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Eureka Slough Railroad Bridge
I remember when the rails in Humboldt County rumbled to the passage of great trains rolling regularly through the county. Looking back, I took far too little advantage of the photographic opportunities they afforded while their time and mine here overlapped. Now we have them in memory only, and photographing the remnants of their steel […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Memorial Day Flag
There will be many words written and sentiments expressed in honor of Memorial Day, but none will be as significant as the thoughts and feelings, wishes and prayers we hold within ourselves. One’s heart is a special place, and when we had our moments of silence this weekend it was in order to bring to […]