A week ago, I read about a giant fireball visible up and down the West Coast — from the Bay Area north to Washington — as it streaked across the sky. My photo heart ached to have missed that one; I was probably watching Ted Lasso instead… or sitting alone with my thoughts. A month […]
Milky Way
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Milky Way Stargazing Season
Stargazing season is upon us, when the spectacular Milky Way is visible immediately after dark, soaring from horizon to horizon. Of course, one can watch the stars on any clear night and feel the immensity of space around us, but during the summer months, the Milky Way will make it worth the extra waiting for […]
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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 […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Fading but not Forgotten
I’ve come to embrace the unexpected when I photograph. I tell people when I go out that it’s always an experiment, but I think they think I’m kidding. In part I am, as I am pretty comfortable with my photography, but there’s also a lot of truth to it. It’s dark while I’m photographing; I […]
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North Coast Night Lights: Eel River Stargazer
Not far from anywhere on the North Coast the dark skies and solitude of nature quietly await. People travel great distances to come here to camp and hike in it, enjoying the beauty of our forests, beaches, rivers, and amazing night skies. It’s a wonderland to them, and here we are living right in it. […]
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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: 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: 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: Humboldt Moonset
When friends or family visit from afar my first wish is to share the natural beauty of our area with them, especially if they come from city lives insulated from nature. From the legendary forests of our towering redwoods to the beautiful beaches and rugged coastlines, the natural beauty of our area is its greatest […]