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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
The Arc of Night over Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
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 ...
Visualize the Night
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 ...
Vacancy at 4th & E Streets, Eureka
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 ...
Holiday Magic 2019
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; ...
Lost in Space (Big Dipper over Trinidad)
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 ...
Avenue of the Imagination
Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt County, California Imagine, if you will, a journey down an Avenue through corridors of towering redwoods. Between them the stars hang motionless in the sky, while streaking past beneath you fly the yellow dashes of ...
Eel River Overlook
Humboldt County, California From a protected hollow high above the river my companions and I looked out over a world bathed in starlight, the galactic core of our galaxy reaching upward from the southern horizon and complementing the curve of ...
The Survivor
Ancient Pear Tree in Humboldt County 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 ...
Avenue of the Giants Guardians
Humboldt County, California 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 ...
Close Encounters on the Avenue
Humboldt County, California The Avenue of the Giants is as beautiful a drive as you will find. The groves along its 36-mile course line the Avenue with some of the grandest examples of the tallest trees on Earth, the California coast ...
Musings at the Moonstone Cave
Humboldt County, California We stood in the mouth of the cavern, looking out through a great broken crack in the blackness into the night as if through a window into another world. It fired our imaginations, conjuring mysteries in the night. ...
A Bit of Whimsy
Humboldt County, California It’s not for everyone to take the world seriously all of the time, though some people probably need to, at least a little bit. But I don’t think I’m one of them. I surmise folks like that need people like me to keep ...
Milky Way over South Fork Eel River
Humboldt County, California The word “photography” literally means “light painting,” and there is something about taking that idea and actually adding my own strokes of light that appeals to me. Nighttime gives me the opportunity to make images ...
