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Photography by David Wilson

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You are here: Home / About David Wilson

About David Wilson

About Me…

Stone stairs lead up and into an opening in a giant redwood.
This place you cannot find on a map nor reach on foot, but every bit of it is in Humboldt County, California.

I am a photographer in Humboldt County on California’s far North Coast. MindscapeFX is my business name, but I am just me. I’ve been photographing since the mid-1980’s, and I began showing my work in the late 1980’s. I currently sell my images locally and over the internet. I love most shooting artistic photographs in the dark of night, including time-lapse videos of the stars in motion, as well as creating interesting, usually surreal, digital photomontages with my photos. I will also do the odd commercial shoot (the odder the better) and other projects. I have collected awards locally and regionally for my photographic artwork.

I have been teaching at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, CA since 2008. I currently teach Art 35 Digital Photography in the Art Department. For eleven years there I also taught Photoshop, until Photoshop classes were no longer offered.

I contribute a periodic photo story called “North Coast Night Light” for the northern California online publication North Coast Journal, and for Redheaded Blackbelt and the Anderson Valley Advertiser, where it is called “Night Light of the North Coast.” My work has also appeared in other publications forgotten and lost in time and memory (but all deeply appreciated).

Perhaps my images and stories will help to enlighten those who have never seen the wonders all around us, and reacquaint those who might have forgotten and gotten absorbed in the race and lost their place in the mundane.

Prints and Inquiries

If you would like to purchase a print you may from within the galleries. Prints are shipped directly to you. Here is my Metal Print Price List.

To license an image, or have me make or photograph something for you, or otherwise contact me, let’s please start with the contact form on the Contact page.

Find more images of mine on Instagram and Facebook, and timelapse video on YouTube:

  • Instagram: @david_wilson_mfx
  • Facebook: facebook.com/DavidWilsonMFX
  • YouTube: youtube.com/@DavidWilson_mfx

Strip of images by David Wilson

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David’s Favorite Stories

Life-size wooden Santa window shops at christmas

Holiday Magic 2019

December 24, 2019 By DavidWilsonMFX Leave a Comment

Humboldt County, California. I’m used to odd things. I especially love when they visit me during the holidays, those special times when people want to do good things, and odd things find a welcome home. These times bring out the magical things; ...

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Fog filled expanse with Comet NEOWISE in the sky above

Comet NEOWISE Over California’s North Coast

July 20, 2020 By DavidWilsonMFX 2 Comments

Humboldt County, California If you have not seen Comet NEOWISE in the northwest skies after dark, then you really must treat yourself. It has rounded the sun in its orbit now, and the farther from the sun it travels the dimmer it will be. Though ...

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Visualize the Night

May 24, 2020 By DavidWilsonMFX Leave a Comment

Humboldt County, California “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 ...

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The Milky Way rises like mist behind growing cannabis buds in Humboldt County, California

’Tis the Cannabis Harvest Season

November 15, 2020 By DavidWilsonMFX Leave a Comment

Cannabis of Humboldt County The girls are all grown up, beautiful young blossoms in their prime. They’ve overcome tremendous obstacles in their young lives, and now they are ready to spread their wings and change the world. Where did the time ...

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"All Happy Now" Earth Sculpture beneath the Milky Way

“All Happy Now” Beneath the Milky Way

September 26, 2022 By DavidWilsonMFX 2 Comments

Humboldt County, California The “All Happy Now” earth sculpture by Peter Santino was completed in 2008, but I became aware of it only last semester when one of my students shared a photograph of it in class after an afternoon hike in the Humboldt ...

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4th & E Street, Eureka - a nighttime empty bench

Vacancy at 4th & E Streets, Eureka

January 9, 2020 By DavidWilsonMFX Leave a Comment

Humboldt County, California For years, driving by, I would see her lonely figure sitting on the bench. I never stopped, but in time I grew used to her presence there, and I would look to touch base visually when I passed. Huddled inward and ...

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Trinidad, Humboldt County, California in the moonlight.

Lost in Space (Big Dipper over Trinidad)

November 6, 2019 By DavidWilsonMFX 4 Comments

Humboldt County, California The planet hung silently in space. A tiny jewel in the blackness, it was a half-lit marble of greens and browns and blues and whites. But it was more than a planet, it was a life-bearing droplet, a little oasis of life ...

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The Arc of Night over Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

June 29, 2020 By DavidWilsonMFX Leave a Comment

Humboldt County, California It was approaching 12:30 a.m. at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park as the Core of our galaxy began to crest the redwoods beyond the meadow, anchoring the band of Milky Way that stretched across the sky from horizon to ...

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More of David's Favorite Photo Stories

  • Vacancy at 4th & E Streets, Eureka
  • Holiday Magic 2019
  • Lost in Space (Big Dipper over Trinidad)
  • Avenue of the Imagination
  • Eel River Overlook
  • The Survivor
  • Avenue of the Giants Guardians
  • Close Encounters on the Avenue
  • Musings at the Moonstone Cave
  • A Bit of Whimsy
  • Milky Way over South Fork Eel River

More of David's Favorite Stories

Instagram: @David_Wilson_MFX

david_wilson_mfx

Happy New Year 2023! May it be a damn sight bette Happy New Year 2023! 
May it be a damn sight better’n the last one. As always.
I long ago resolved not to do New Year’s Resolutions. 
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Model: Morrigan Crowl
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#happynewyear2023#goodbye2022#NewYearsEve#goddess#beauty#babe#moonlight#ocf#starlight#astrophotography#portrait#landscape#landscapeastrophotography#humboldtcounty#universetoday
#californiasky#moodygrams #california #californiadreaming #visitcalifornia #californialove#norcal #nightsky
Instagram post 17971118446796329 Instagram post 17971118446796329
The core of the Milky Way galaxy rises in the nigh The core of the Milky Way galaxy rises in the night sky above the “All Happy Now" Earth Sculpture at Humboldt Botanical Garden ( @humboldtbotanicalgarden ) in Humboldt County, California. Information on the sign reads, "Peter Santino's All Happy Now Earth Sculpture is the only one of its kind in North America. It is a merger of two ancient landscape architectural features, the ziggurat and the labyrinth. Based on a mathematical equation named Fermat's Spiral, the 100-foot diameter earth mound is covered with grass and features two non-intersecting quarter mile pathways which take the walker to the center and back down out the opposite side." Self portrait photograph by David Wilson. September 16, 2022. 

Find the whole story of this image on my web site mindscapefx.com.

Humboldt Botanical Garden is a world class botanical garden comprising 44 acres of diverse plant species, trails, greenhouses, and sculptures. It is about eight miles south of Eureka at 7707 Tompkins Hill Road, adjacent to College of the Redwoods, and is accessible from the college’s northern entrance on Tompkins Hill Road. 
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#starrynight#landscapephotography#milkyway#petersantino#allhappynow#nightscape#sculpture#earthsculpture#humboldtbotanicalgardens#collegeoftheredwoods#astrophotography #paintingwithlight #lightpainting #selfportrait #energy #magic#spiral#ziggurat
After IT happened, everything changed. These thi After IT happened, everything changed. 

These things happen.

Trinidad Harbor, Trinidad, Humboldt County, California. 
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#apocalypse#postapocalypse#postapocalyptic#apocalyptic#Pacifc#Pacificocean#harbor#safeharbor#fishingboats#pier#waterfall#Trinidad#trinidadharbor#humboldtcounty#seascape#landscape#nature#earthquake#aftermath#globalwarming
Mermaid encounter on the South Fork Eel River, in Mermaid encounter on the South Fork Eel River, in May 2022 (see previous 2 posts for others)...
Saw sasquatch too, but she had to keep moving and couldn’t stay for the shoot.
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makeup/model/stylist @_marynieto / @janes_reflection
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#Humboldtcounty#Eelriver#southforkeelriver#mermaid#sohum#southernhumboldt#magical#goddess#babe#beauty#beautiful#wilderness#travel#maiden#forest#mountains#river#swimming#model#nymph#woodnymph#goddesss#beauty#sasquatch
It's Mermaid season again. You've probably seen so It's Mermaid season again. You've probably seen some yourself recently. I met this Mermaid while hanging out on the South Fork Eel River at the end of May. She was very friendly. This is the best time of year to find Mermaids up the riverways ("riverways" ought to be a word). If Unicorns are magical, Mermaids are the Unicorns of magical creatures. 
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makeup/model/stylist @_marynieto / @janes_reflection
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#Humboldtcounty#Eelriver#southforkeelriver#mermaid#sohum#southernhumboldt#magical#goddess#babe#beauty#beautiful#wilderness#travel#maiden#forest#mountains#river#swimming#model#nymph
When the mind wanders… go with it, or you might When the mind wanders… go with it, or you might lose it. That’s what I did.

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Merperson: Mary Nieto, @_marynieto . Makeup/model/stylist @janes_reflection . I had the mermaid tail.
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#mermaid#humboldtcounty#rain#crystalball#lensball#composite#dof#dephoffield#wet#refraction#spectrum#sphere#river#eelriver#southforkeelriver#sohum#southernhumboldt#benbow#benbowsra#rainbow#rainbows#motion#shutterspeed#prism#refraction#prism#roygbiv#spectrum#visiblespectrum#water#rain#droplet#droplets
What are you looking at? This is a straight photo What are you looking at? 
This is a straight photograph, no compositing; just edited for tonal range/contrast like any photo. Except, what IS it? Take a guess.  Try it! If you guess right, you get to feel *so* smug. How often does THAT happen? Of course, if you look at the hashtags before you guess, you wouldn’t feel so smug, no… you’d have an empty feeling. Try it!
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#whatintheworld#rainbow#shower#showers#rainbow#rainbows#motion#shutterspeed#prism#refraction#prism#roygbiv#spectrum#visiblespectrum#water#rain#droplet#droplets
FIRE HAZARD — this was nearly instantaneous. Cr FIRE HAZARD — this was nearly instantaneous.  Crystal Balls in the sun are FIRE HAZARDS! Don’t set it down in the sun outside OR in the house. 
When you set your crystal ball down in the sun, it is just like a magnifying glass — FIRE! Be careful, because anywhere you set it down in the sun, it will burn the surface it is on, whether outside or indoors on a shelf.

It’ll burn your hand as you hold it in the sun, too — it got me a little, but I was fast.

This was an old tinder dry redwood board.

I wonder how many accidental fires start with a crystal ball carelessly set down in the sun…

The moral: when you have hot balls, be careful!
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#firehazard#crystalball#lensball#magnifyingglass#solarpower#solar#solarenergy#heat#hot#fire#forestfire#housefire#firedanger#firestarter#survival#tinder#redwood#fuel#firehazardreduction
Shot in the dark. What in the World? That used to Shot in the dark. What in the World?
That used to be the title of a column in “National Geographic World” magazine; I loved the magazine and that section growing up. Those were often macro shots, nearly unrecognizable close-ups of usually familiar objects. This isn’t quite the same, but still… what in the world is going on here? I’m not telling, except maybe in the comments. 
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Nikon D850
14mm lens
ISO 64
f/6.3
Shutter: 13 min, 33 sec (13:33)
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#roomba#robot#lightpainting#paintingwithlight#longexposure#latenight#nikon#humboldtcounty#mapping#AI#artificialintelligence#lightstreaks#irobot#roombaj7plus
Chess. . . Technical spoilers: Single exposure li Chess. 
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Technical spoilers:
Single exposure light painting, no compositing. This is a chess board I made in high school in... I forgot which grade it was. Somehow the checkerboard pattern seems attractive in a surrealistic sort of way to me, and painting it in with light using my flashlight shining, alternately, through Red plastic, then Green, then Blue, added to the surreal quality of it. My idea was two environments: Blue vs Warm, the black pieces on the blue side, and the white pieces on the warm side, separated not only by the colors, but by virtue of the fact that the white pieces were only in focus within the crystal ball. The color variations are the result of the different colored light (from the plastic filters) painted into the scene at different times during the exposure. For some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about "Queen's Gambit".
Nikon D850
60mm f/2.8 macro lens
ISO 64
f/3.0
118 seconds (it took that long to paint it in).

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. #chess#lightpainting#paintingwithlight#RGB#colortheory#additivecolor#Nikon#D850#longexposure#chessmen#chesspieces#crystalball#lensball #humboldtcounty#queensgambit
A bud growing at Sol Spirit Retreats, which offers A bud growing at Sol Spirit Retreats, which offers cannabis tours and a glamping experience outside of Willow Creek, California. July 25, 2020.

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#MilkyWay #starrynight #nightphotography #astrophotography #norcal#skyline#glamping#glamp#camp#camping #californiasky#activenorcal #Humboldt #humboldtcounty #nightphotography #hottie #california #299 #highway299 #silhouette #universetoday #cannabis #canna #marijuana #dank #buds #outdoor #homegrown #solspiritretreats #southforktrinity #trinitycounty
HOMO COVIDUS, the COVID MAN A new species of human HOMO COVIDUS, the COVID MAN
A new species of human has evolved in response to changes in the environment. Twilight Zonian in appearance, this species walks the world nearly faceless, peering over, and seen through, a mask that erases half of the face. 
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#Man #COVID #COVID19 #N95 #portrait, #Photoshop, #LightroomClassic #Nikon #D850 #Covidmoment  #humboldtcounty #homocovidus #twilightzone #twilightzonian#covid_19#covidman
Streaking between Freshwater Lagoon and the Pacifi Streaking between Freshwater Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean, car lights along US Highway 101 illuminate the scene on the coast of Humboldt County, northern California. A fishing boat's flood light can be seen on the horizon right of center. July 28, 2021.
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I posted the uncropped version of this a few days ago, but I dislike the way Instagram’s format cramps horizontal shots into such a narrow space. If only the app allowed for tilting a device (phone, iPad) sideways, then we could see horizontal photos in all their glory. How odd for a “photo sharing” app to make it so difficult to enjoy anything but vertical and square crops. #instagramsuggestion : allow rotating the device to view photos horizontally. I don’t favor this crop, but it fills Instagram’s ultralimited space better than the uncropped version. 
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#Freshwaterlagoon#freshwater#lagoon#orick#ocean#pacific#pacificocean#beach#coast#MilkyWay#starrynight#nightphotography#astrophotography#norcal#californiasky#activenorcal#Humboldt#humboldtcounty#nightphotography#hottie#california#101#US101#highway101#redwoodhighway#fishingboat #oceanfishing#reflection#silhouette#universetoday
A remote river valley and its skyline rest beneath A remote river valley and its skyline rest beneath the stars on the California north coast in Humboldt County. The very core of our galaxy rests above the ridge line. The warm glow is from a nearby habitation. July 13, 2021..
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#forest#skyline#silhouette#fog#river#mountains#mountain#nightlife#glow#MilkyWay#nightphotography#astrophotography#norcal#californiasky#activenorcal#Humboldt#humboldtcounty#norcalpulse#nightphotography#californiadreaming#hottie#california#californialove#countrylife
Streaking between Freshwater Lagoon and the Pacifi Streaking between Freshwater Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean, car lights along US Highway 101 illuminate the scene on the coast of Humboldt County, northern California. A fishing boat's flood light can be seen on the horizon right of center. July 28, 2021.
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#Freshwaterlagoon#orick#lagoon#ocean#pacific#pacificocean#beach#coast#MilkyWay#nightphotography#astrophotography#norcal#californiasky#activenorcal#Humboldt#humboldtcounty#norcalpulse#nightphotography#californiadreaming#hottie#california#californialove#countrylife#101#US101#highway101#redwoodhighway#fishing#fishingboat #oceanfishing
The Milky Way and skyline reflect in a great water The Milky Way and skyline reflect in a great water catchment pond at Schackow Farms ( @schackowfarms ). 

The distant hills were illuminated by a crescent moon in the western sky (to the right of the frame). Humboldt County, California. June, 2021.
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#canna#cannabis#ganja#marijuana#spliff#farm#farmlife#MilkyWay#nightphotography#astrophotography#norcal#californiasky#activenorcal#Humboldt#humboldtcounty#norcalpulse#californiadreaming#hottie#california#californialove#Humboldtshooters#humboldtcountyofficial#countrylife
A young cannabis plant reaches for the stars withi A young cannabis plant reaches for the stars within a wire framework that will help support its branches as it grows. A long exposure allowed the stars to move across the sky as the world turned, exposing the Milky Way along the treetops. Humboldt County, California. June 28, 2021. 

Watch for an upcoming “Night Light” story about the changes in marijuana culture from “pot growing” to “cannabis cultivation.” It’s a weird topic for my night photo story series, but I will do it in a weird way. I have these photos and I have to write *something* when I share ‘em!

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#canna#cannabis#americascannabisheartland #marijuana#farm#farmlife#MilkyWay#startrails #nightphotography#astrophotography#norcal#californiasky#activenorcal#Humboldt#humboldtcounty#norcalpulse#nightphotography#californiadreaming#hottie#california#californialove#Humboldtshooters#humboldtcountyofficial#countrylife
The Eel River valley rests in darkness beneath the The Eel River valley rests in darkness beneath the night sky in this view across the southbound lanes of US 101 from the Vista Point south of Stafford, Humboldt County, CA. June 6, 2021.

It was another good night photographing with @rjf_photo .
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#US101#highway101#redwoodhighway#101#vista#vistapoint#highway#freeway##redwood#redwoods#eelriver#MilkyWay#nightphotography#astrophotography#norcal#californiasky#activenorcal#Humboldt#humboldtcounty#nightphotography#californiadreaming#hottie#california#californialove#Humboldtshooters#humboldtcountyofficial#avenueofthegiants#countryroad#travel
The Super Blood Flower Moon total lunar eclipse fr The Super Blood Flower Moon total lunar eclipse from Kneeland Road. It was fogged over down where I was, so I had to head up the hill. Above the fog, higher clouds threatened, but they thinned out just enough to get this...

I got up at 02:40 that morning to shoot this -- brutal! This was at about 04:20.
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Unnecessary technical details that might spoil the magic, so don’t read them if you don’t want to:
This ended up having to be a two-shot composite. The moon was too bright in this scene — even eclipsed as it was — and was totally washed out when exposed for the landscape like this. To my naked eye, the moon looked like this, but the camera couldn’t capture both it and the landscape in a single exposure. So I took another, darker, exposure for the moon, and used that instead of the too-bright moon.

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#bloodmoon#flowermoon#fullmoon#eclipse#lunareclipse#totaleclipse#totallunareclipse#moon#MilkyWay#nightphotography#astrophotography#norcal#californiasky#activenorcal#Humboldt#humboldtcounty#norcalpulse#nightphotography#californiadreaming#california#californialove#Humboldtshooters#humboldtcountyofficial#kneeland#countryroad#countrylife#hottie
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