David Wilson Presents ‘Night Light of the North Coast’ at the Garberville Library’s Lobby Art Gallery

David Wilson, a local photographer, provides us with a column about the beauties of North Coast Skies.

Ringed by trees, a giant catchment pond reflects the magnificent sky at Schackow Farm, Humboldt County, California. A crescent moon sinking in the west illuminated the far hills across the Eel River Valley. June, 2021.

I will be showing prints of my landscape astrophotography from November 11 through December 10 in the Lobby Art Gallery of the Garberville Library. The Opening for the show is on Saturday, November 11, at 5:00 PM. I will be there.

While I love to photograph in general, I have been drawn to the unique quality of light found at night almost since I began my photographic journey with a 35mm film camera given me by my folks for graduating from South Fork High School in 1985.

The Super Blood Flower Moon sets over Kneeland Road and the hills of Humboldt County, California. Finding it cloudy on the coast at 02:40 a.m., I knew I’d find a good view at this spot. I’d forgotten about that tower, though, much to my chagrin at the time. But it has grown on me since, and I find it adds to the otherworldliness here. The light streaks and flare on the left were from a car approaching along the curves. I stopped the shutter just before it topped that rise. 04:20 on May 26, 2021.

Throughout my career, I have returned to the night. An interesting feature of nighttime photography is that each night the light is different, for the brightest source of natural light – the moon – is brighter or darker every single night, and half the time it is not present at all. Objects in motion, from slow-moving pinpoint stars to passing cars, turn to streaks or distort into new shapes and forms. The night also allows me to add or paint with my own light in ways impossible during the day.

The International Space Station flies past as Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) hangs over the Eel River. I did not know the International Space Station was coming by at that time, but incredibly it flew by during the 30 seconds that my shutter was open. I didn’t even see it until after I took the photograph. Photographed July 18, 2020 in Humboldt County, California by David Wilson.

I am fascinated by a unique and interesting image, and I enjoy seeking them out in the starlight, with the ever-changing moon, and the unexpected pools and splashes of artificial light that mingle with the shadows in ways we never see in the daytime.

Where: Garberville Library, Lobby Art Gallery

When: November 11, 2022 through December 10, 2022

Opening Night: Saturday, November 11, 2022 at 5:00 PM.

To read previous entries of “Night Light of the North Coast,” click on David’s name above the article. To keep abreast of his most current photography or purchase a print, visit and contact him at his website mindscapefx.com or follow him on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx. David teaches Art 35 Digital Photography at College of the Redwoods.

A young cannabis plant reaches for the stars within a wire framework that will help support its branches as it grows. The ten-minute exposure allowed the stars to move within the frame as the world turned, exposing the Milky Way along the treetops. Humboldt County, California. June 28, 2021.

The core of the Milky Way galaxy rises in the night sky above the “All Happy Now” Earth Sculpture at Humboldt Botanical Gardens 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.