A historic Humboldt County landmark glows beneath the Milky Way on a clear August night. The historic Benbow Inn keeps quiet watch along the South Fork Eel River, a century-old host lit in gold while the stars swing silently across the sky each ...
How I Became the Architect of My Own Educational AI
(Or: How I Went from Star Trek Chats to Designing an AI Learning Assistant with a Zeroth Law*) David Wilson • Art 35: Digital Photography, College of the Redwoods • May, 2025 (Updated 2/5/2026: MEA removed, see below) What happens when a ...
Redwood Sky Walk at Night: Capturing Eureka’s Illuminated Canopy
Humboldt County, California An extraordinary journey awaits you at Humboldt County's Redwood Sky Walk. Nestled amidst Humboldt's many breathtaking natural wonders lies a human-made marvel that promises a remarkable journey into one of Nature’s ...
Comet C/2023 A3 and Bioluminescence on California North Coast
Humboldt County, California The human family was treated during the month of October to comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), a visitor from the outer reaches of the solar system. Here in Humboldt County, it has graced the western skies after ...
Convergence at Vista Point
Humboldt County, California Beneath the majestic Milky Way, Vista Point scenic overlook along southbound US 101 lies among the Redwoods of Humboldt County, just south of Stafford, California. The primary image in this story was photographed ...
Redway Beach at Night – Starry Skies Over Humboldt’s Hidden Yosemite
Humboldt County, California The stars swung across the sky and the Earth revolved, but here all was quiet among the towering redwoods on the beautiful South Fork Eel River at Redway Beach in Redway, Humboldt County, California. “Where beauty meets ...
Three Broken Rock
Humboldt County, California Three Broken Rock is my name for this giant rock formation now, but I remember when it was one unbroken rock. Over the last forty-some years, I’ve watched it change. Location: You know that set of big rocks you can ...
Photography vs Synthography
Humboldt County, California AI-Generated Images are Here Artificial intelligence is changing the way we create images. AI-generated images can win photography competitions, and real photographs are mistaken for AI-generated images and ...
Snowing at the Carson Mansion
Humboldt County, California It hadn’t snowed this much in Eureka since 1989, thirty-four years before. It was the kind of event that sends photographers out in droves to capture unique images. Fortunately, I was first to go to the historic Carson ...
“All Happy Now” Beneath the Milky Way
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 ...
Milky Way Season Is Coming
Humboldt County, California I remember while camping with my folks as a kid how the Milky Way stretched so prominently across the night sky. It was a special feature of the night that I never saw from the bright lights of home, but it was always ...
The One that Got Away
Humboldt County, California Less than 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 ...
Stargazing Season: Milky Way & Perseid Meteors
Humboldt County, California. Stargazing season is upon us, when the spectacular Milky Way is visible immediately after dark, soaring from horizon to horizon, and the Perseid meteor shower peak is approaching. Of course, one can watch the stars on ...
Counter Culture to Canna Culture
Humboldt County, California. It’s the season for outdoor cannabis growing, and given that it’s also the season for the Milky Way, and I'm in Humboldt County, California, how could I not go out for some nighttime images of the new plants growing ...
Happy Endings at Vista Point
Humboldt County, California. After paying a second nighttime visit to this Vista Point in two years, I can safely say that a dull nocturnal moment rarely passes at this viewpoint looking up the Eel River valley. I had come to the spot precisely ...
Eclipse of the Super Flower Blood Moon
Humboldt County, California The full moon of May, 2021, called the flower moon, was a real doozy: it was a super moon, an eclipse, and a blood Moon — the first Super Blood Flower Moon into which I can ever remember having tuned. So how does it ...
iPhone 12 Pro Night Mode vs Nikon D750 & D850
Humboldt County, California Before I purchased an iPhone 12 Pro, I was curious about the “Night mode” Apple had introduced in the previous model — how good was it? How would it stack up against my Nikons for the kind of nighttime photography I ...
Great Conjunction: Saturn Overtakes Jupiter
Humboldt County, California Racing around the sun like slot cars on an elliptical track, Earth was on an inside line and coming around fast. Jupiter and Saturn were in view ahead. Jupiter was taking a much wider line, and Saturn was lazily ...
Late one Night at Cooks Valley Bridge
Humboldt County Line, California I had never met Lula when she approached me about making some photos of her in my nighttime style of photography. But I was game; placing a figure in an image inspires stories in the mind’s eye of the viewer, and ...
’Tis the Cannabis Harvest Season
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 ...
Strange Looks at Moonstone Beach Cave
Humboldt County, California A trip to the beach in search of night light yielded a few nighttime views to share from Humboldt’s beautiful Pacific coast. Though most poignant was an image of a dead ray lying on the beach, its tail in the still ...
Ray of Beauty at Moonstone Beach
Humboldt County, California. 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 ...
A Timelapse Trip: A Moonlit Meadow
Humboldt County, California A couple of stones’ throws north of the Humboldt-Mendocino county line in rural southern Humboldt County, California, I watched the moonlight wash away the Milky Way and bathe the land in its pale ...
Perseid Meteors 2020: A Comet’s Tale
Humboldt County, California 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 sun’s ...
Comet NEOWISE Over California’s North Coast
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 ...
