August 15, 2020
The Great Starry Way continues with my dark sky park number 10, Bryce Canyon National Park. Much like Cedar Breaks the previous night, this park also boasts a high altitude and pure deep, unadulterated darkness. Though I was skeptical that a sky could come close to last night’s, Bryce Canyon Read more…
August 11, 2020
After a long day of exploring Long Island’s largest decaying state asylum, we headed to the Island’s end with hopes to catch some kind of meteor shower activity. The night was an exploration of light–first from the beautiful Montauk Lighthouse. But a haze of cloud cover thwarted our plans initially… Read more…
July 24, 2020
My trip to Virginia’s dark sky parks was a good effort, but cloud cover was a big issue. In the brief sliver of time when the clouds opened up at James River State Park, I did mange some shots. Then the rain came again, bringing me back to my tent Read more…
July 21, 2020
If the weather cooperates in the evening, I will shoot at all of Virginia’s dark sky parks by the end of my trip. But that’s a big “if.” The mountains are tempestuous, already thwarting my first evening of camping. Though I am not proud of being in this motel room Read more…
July 1, 2020
Where once my couch housed my behind for a good portion of the week, today brought an old cemetery, an abandoned asylum and, in the evening, an astroshoot. Now if only of my vegan food leads would be successful (Damn Corona!), the day might have been the perfect combination of Read more…
October 19, 2019
{It’s My Party 🎉, Part 2} Geauga Observatory Park is an IDA-certified International Dark Sky Park a quick hour from Cleveland. One of 56 dark sky parks in the country, it is my 3rd I have visited in an astrophotography capacity. Not bad considering it was less than a year Read more…
September 22, 2019
In finally looking through all the Milky Way shots from my summer vacation, I am bummed I live in such a light-polluted area. Though plenty of the shots have creeping invasive light sources, they’re nothing compared to New York City’s bright lights. And now I am hooked on capturing the Read more…
August 27, 2019
Animals, Asian Cuisines & Fusions, Beautiful Places Far Away, Eating Out, Nature, Photography, Wanderlust
The day would start in a place far from where it would end, in West Palm Beach’s budding downtown–within its brightly colored murals and instagram opportunities, its hip eateries. In the span of just a few hours I was within Florida’s “Prairie”–its cowboy apparel stores, fields of grazing cows who Read more…
August 24, 2019
Just one look, as the song goes. A glance up at the sky in the secluded Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon, Florida and I knew it’d be another fruitful night shoot. Above me, the most clear, dark skies to my memory. When I saw the Milky Way again, the Read more…
August 19, 2019
Animals, Arts & Crafts, Beautiful Places Far Away, Bucket List, Eating Out, Nature, Photography, Wanderlust
Real quick: I photographed the gosh darned Milky Way 🌌 last night. I needed to say that first as it would not have happened if the earlier parts of the day played out differently. So the 2-hour traffic delay on the I-75, the extended shelling expedition at Bowman’s Beach, losing track Read more…
August 14, 2019
At some point, as I sat in the vacant astronomy field across the street, the traffic in the parking lot of the public stargazing field of Cherry Spring State Park died down. There was darkness above, yes, but it was blanketed by a murky sheet of heavy overcast. Underneath it Read more…
August 6, 2019
With a few successful astrophotography shoots under my belt, mostly dealing with composition, I was ready to attempt to capture the : ::motion:: : of the sky–stars that shoot. The Perseid Meteor Shower, an annual display of displaced comet debris, offered such an opportunity. So I’d be packing up my Read more…
July 6, 2019
What do you get when you photograph the exteriors of abandoned places after nautical twilight? You get a photographic mash-up: Astro-UrbEx! Which has like no google search results, so maybe I coined it? Also, you get mosquito bites and you get very scared… a lot. Given these thrills I am Read more…
June 27, 2019
Socrates Sculpture Park is a free waterfront art space with great views of Manhattan. Gosh, that’s a lot of nice things in one sentence. Even nicer, the rippling fabric of the current exhibit, Chronos Cosmos: Deep Time, Open Space, which was like a star filter for the daytime sky. Close Read more…
April 23, 2019
Terlingua is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. So I’ll let the pictures show you why. It’s “up my alley” (as my Dad says) in so many ways. My accommodations… a tipi at Buzzard’s Roost. My tipi: La Luna Inside, way too much animal for a vegan. The Read more…
This would be my 24th National Park. 24 out of 61. Big Bend National Park lies right at the US-Mexico border, bordered by the glorious Rio Grande of Duran Duran fame. I was slightly bummed that the day would–and into the evening–would be mostly cloudy. I looked forward to shooting Read more…
April 19, 2019
My second astrophotography excursion would be in Western Texas, within the deepest and darkest sky of the state–inside Big Bend National Park. As important as packing is some advance research regarding dark sky conditions at the time of my visit. I am sharing my resources here to help make the Read more…
April 6, 2019
So much is, whether we acknowledge it or not. Whether we know it or not. As we carry on as the terrestrials we are, there above us… infinitely more. Tonight I pointed my camera upward in an attempt to take a piece of that more, a dress rehearsal in advance Read more…
March 12, 2019
With a trip to Western Texas’ s deep, dark sky in April, I am determined to have success in my first official attempt at photographing… through the night with the light from above. That means immersion and practice now. Immersion. 🌌 Besides taking a series of classes that will culminate Read more…
November 30, 2018
[That’s not me; that’s Henry Thoreau, one of my favorite men in history.] Either stop or slow down. But don’t go. The F train views, 87.5 feet from ground level. The highest elevated train IN THE WORLD. Sometimes the litter is a Millennium Falcon. My Bridge Take-out Thursday Top Thai Read more…
November 12, 2018
The Great Jack-o-Lantern Blaze has been a popular Halloween event since 2005 (!), though I just learned of it this Halloween season. It is just the most wonderful kind of whimsy–thousands of pumpkins… hand carved and ablaze within Van Cortland Manor‘s grounds in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Add spectacular lighting within Read more…
August 31, 2010
I’ve spent all week so far setting up my fifth grade classroom and haven’t cooked a darn thing. I entered my classroom mid-year this past January and didn’t have the opportunity to imprint the room with any of my own pizazz. But this year! Vintage fabric is strewn about and Read more…