2024
Total Solar Eclipse
In 2017, I had assumed that seeing an almost total solar eclipse from home was almost as good as seeing an actual total solar eclipse from somewhere else. I was wrong, and I was not going to make that mistake again. So I made plans early to be in the path of totality for the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse. I chose Ohio. I tempered my expectations with the knowledge that historically there was a good chance of clouds on that date, and it wasn’t until that very morning that weather forecasters finally gave some good news.
Venus, a tiny point of light, hangs below the eclipsed sun as a sudden twilight blankets the landscape mid-afternoon.
While I was well prepared for the mechanics of the event, I was not prepared for the emotions of witnessing such raw beauty. Pictures cannot convey what it felt like to see in the sky that ring of pure white light radiating outward from nothingness, as twilight fell all around.
Red solar prominences leap out from the hidden sun as beads of light breaking through the moon's valleys signal the end of totality
This was now my second solar eclipse in six months. I was sure it would not be my last.
colombia
This was my first trip to South America - and it did not disappoint. Colombia is a land bursting with biodiversity, whether brilliantly-plumed birds, rare plants, or unknown fruits. After a few days in the streets and museums of Bogotá, we headed to a rural region, where they grow coffee and make chocolate.
Stars glow in the early morning twilight above the plantation
We spent some time on a cacao plantation, and also in a small mountain town. All towns in this region seemed to follow the same plan, which consisted of a large central square with wide sidewalks, benches, and manicured shrubbery (and a bust of Simón Bolívar), with the church on one side, the police station on the other, and restaurants, and an occasional bank or pharmacy and the like lining the rest of the periphery. It was a place families would come to, to talk, to relax, to enjoy.
The church steeple rises high above this small rural town, as seen from a backstreet
Enjoying the evening, on a side street off the central square
Multiple exposure of a bird in flight as morning light streams across the mountain ridges
From this base camp we took a long Jeep ride up into the mountains for a hike high up in an alpine tundra.
This is where the frailejones grow, an incredibly slow-growing succulent that absorbs moisture from the passing clouds and returns it to the soil.
A shrine found along a steep forest trail
2023
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - Capitol Reef NATIONAL PARK, Utah
In October I completed a four-week residency at Capitol Reef National Park as this year’s night sky photographer. It was an amazing experience under some truly dark night skies. My first week was spent scouting suitable locations for night photography. First task was to find somewhere to shoot the Harvest Supermoon. The park’s remote Cathedral Valley provided just the scenery I was looking for.
Harvest supermoon rises
The next task was to find a great location to shoot the region’s most-anticipated event, the annular solar eclipse of October 14, 2023. While I had shot many lunar eclipses, this would be my first solar eclipse, and I knew I would only get one chance. I had to get it right.
After evaluating and discarding a number of locations, I settled on a remote location in the Lower South Desert where I could position myself so the sun would trace a path along the edge of a prominent rock formation, Jailhouse Rock.
I returned the day prior to the eclipse, and one backcountry permit and a short backpacking hike later, I was there. I spent the rest of the day evaluating the best locations to set up my tripods, and when to move to the next location, and marked them in the sand of the dry wash I would shoot from.
It was cold that night, which made it difficult to get more than a few hours’ sleep. In the morning I realized just how cold, when I discovered I had complimentary ice water.
It felt good to stand in the warm sun when it finally cleared the horizon. The moon touched the edge of the sun shortly after 9 am, steadily progressing until just a crescent sun was left.
Crescent sun prior to maximum eclipse
The period of maximum eclipse lasted for four and a half minutes, rendering the sun as a ring around the moon. Light cloud cover added drama to the resulting photograph. And by noon, three hours after it began, the eclipse was over. I was tired and worn out, but happy that I had gotten the shot. I took that night off and got a good night’s sleep.
A meteor flashes in the sky against the less-showy but still beautiful northern arm of the Milky Way
Capitol Reef National Park abounds in rugged beauty, most notably the eroded rock formations. I ended up shooting these same rock formations and their neighbors over four separate nights, finding different angles and perspectives.
Photography is all about being in the right place at the right time. And to that I would add recognizing when that right time is. And having a camera set up, focused, and pointed in the right direction. I was fortunate to have done the preceding when I saw a bright white light visibly moving across the heavens. I believe that white light (seen below) is a Falcon 9 rocket which had been launched an hour and a half earlier.
Some treasures are hidden away in side canyons, but are there just the same if you take the time to look. Here I found gold in the moonlight.
Stars fade as dawn spreads across the desert
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The four weeks eventually came to an end. I headed east on the highway, the same highway I had used many times during my residency. Only this time, I would not be turning left or right to travel to remote regions of the park. This time, I was headed straight. I had one more night before I had to drive back to the airport in Salt Lake City, and I spent that night in the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness. Heavy cloud cover obscured the night sky, but made for an amazing sunrise.
Three of the five windows in Colonnade Arch (with the remaining two being in the roof) at dawn
I was packed up and ready to hike out, but pulled out the camera for one last photograph. I’m glad I did.
A window to the wilderness, through yet another arch
Artist in Residence - Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Caught in action (photo by Dani Goodman)
In August I completed a three-week residency at Shenandoah National Park.
Sunset near an overlook
The park’s best-known feature is Skyline Drive, which runs the length of the park for over 100 miles and is punctuated every few miles by overlooks of the mountains and valleys.
Sunrise along Skyline Drive
Sunsets and sunrises are amazing, but morning twilight is magical.
The park also has plenty of trails, including the renowned Appalachian Trail which runs through it…
… as well as beyond trails into the backcountry, where wonders can still be found.
Yes, Shenandoah is all this, but take another look once the day fades, and you may be surprised at what you find.
Along Skyline Drive at 3:40 am
A lone dead tree is silhouetted against an almost-full moon
A few early Perseid meteors over Skyline Drive (and lightning on the horizon)
Perseid meteor shower over Big Meadows
Towards the end of my residency, I spent a night camping on Blackrock Summit, which is topped with fractured volcanic rock. The sunset was amazing, but it was nothing compared to when the stars came out.
My camera and I worked late into the early morning hours, and then we were up again just a couple hours later to witness the morning twilight.
Light from the rising midnight moon paints the distant peak from behind
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Within the park boundaries can still be found remnants of the lives once lived there. One of these is the site of the abandoned Pocosin Mission from the turn of the last century, of which little now remains. These images were made in infrared light.
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abandoned in Pennsylvania
I took a trip to Pennsylvania to photograph some abandoned places. First was Yellow Dog Village, what remains of housing built by a mining company for its workers a little over a century ago. The last of the residents movied out a decade ago, with some houses standing vacant much longer. There were a few single family homes, but most were duplexes. Time had exposed the plaster and lath construction, as well as peeled back multiple layers of paint and wallpaper, like pages in a history book. Beyond the antiquated construction materials and floor plans, what I found fascinating were some of the things left behind. Bulky couches, chairs, and tables, of course, but more curious were other things: a piano, family photos, and even a Christmas tree still standing in the corner. These images were made in infrared light.
These colors don’t run, but they do disintegrate.
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I spent the night here, but not in one of the houses. Click on the images below …
A rainy morning
Next, it was back to the long-shuttered prison at Cresson, which I had visited several times last year. It was cold and windy, staying in the 20s the last day of my visit. A light snow flurry greeted me in the morning. These images were made in infrared light.
In the Visitor Building, in a chair bolted to the floor.
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Looking up
I figured now was a good time to start practicing photographing the sun (with a solar filter, of course), in preparation for the annular solar eclipse later this year.
Sunspots or freckles?
Clouds add a bit of mystery
2022
Historic Oakwood Cemetery
The angel stands in a corner of the cemetery, and is one of the more striking monuments. This day I chose to walk around to the back, which I had never done before, and discovered an entirely new view as she faced the morning sun.
A spot of morning light passed through the trees and played across a single cut rose, now somewhat withered and blackened. I was surprised to see how the rose appeared to radiate a rejuvenated glow in infrared light.
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Lake mattamuskeet, nc
It was reported that there was a chance the Leonids, typically not a strong meteor shower, could put on a brief display of hundreds of meteors an hour prior to moonrise. So, I headed east, away from lights, to Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. It is the largest natural freshwater lake in North Carolina, and it is bisected by a causeway that provided me access. As it turned out, the meteors were rather disappointing. (I captured six over four hours.) But what I gained instead was the opportunity to shoot in the twilight, as well as under the rising moon.
Birds flock towards their roosts in the glow of evening twilight
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Total Lunar Eclipse
Tuesday, November 8. 2022: this was the third lunar eclipse within a year, and the second to reach totality in Raleigh, NC. I shot this while sitting on a concrete bridge abutment on a lake near my home. The moon turned a gorgeous red, and slowly sank in the predawn hours, before finally fading away in the growing twilight.
Entering the Earth’s shadow
Just prior to totality
In totality
Washington State
It was my first trip to the Pacific Northwest, and sea stacks, remnants of what once was land, were top of my list of things I wanted to see. These magnificent monoliths - some close to shore, others now far out in the ocean - did not disappoint.
Heavy cloud cover gave way on the horizon just enough for a dramatic display of colors of sunset
More than just rocks, their forms suggested fanciful interpretations. Images in the following gallery were shot in infrared light. Click on them to see the full images.
With the region’s towering forests, though, come the risk of forest fires. Nothing is without cost.
Smoke from active regional forest fires fills the valley and obscures the view (North Cascades National Park, WA)
In addition to creating beautiful landscape images, infrared photography has another useful quality: the ability to cut through smoke and smog. The two photos of the scene below were taken within minutes of each other, one with visible light, and the other with infrared light. No special processing was done to either image, other than balancing the exposures. While there is still some smoky haze in the infrared image, the difference is remarkable.
Visible light spectrum
Near-infrared spectrum
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Return to Cresson Prison, PA
I decided on a return visit in the summer, trading the wool and down of my first trip for T-shirt and shorts. Since I had already “seen everything” on my first trip, this visit I was able to spend more time exploring specific subjects in depth, without feeling the need to hurry on to the next location. I surprised myself at what I was able to find that I had “missed” the first time. All of these images were made in infrared light.
Inner gate stands open
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When an opportunity presented itself to shoot there the following month at night, I took it. This afforded some interesting opportunities under the stars, and in the darkness.
Milky Way peeks out from behind clouds over the former sanatorium’s Administration building
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Wyoming & south dakota
After a close encounter with the total lunar eclipse at Devils Tower, Wyoming, the next stop was the Black Hills of South Dakota.
In infrared morning light
There had been distant thunder when I started the hike, and by the time I reached the Cathedral Spires formations, it was raining steadily. The rain was supplemented by hail as I sheltered as best I could between two tall rocks, with the rain forming rivulets in the muddy ground, and the hail bouncing off my umbrella hat. The hail almost looked like snow as it accumulated on the ground. After a prolonged wait the weather started to clear, and I proceeded on up the slope for a better vantage point for the sunset and coming night. On the hike out, the rising moon backlit the towering spires. I decided I could stay a little longer and captured about half an hour rotation of the heavens.
From there it was on to Badlands National Park, truly a wondrous place. I captured the image below after a storm as the evening light danced across the prairie, touching here and there, ever moving, ever changing. I chased the light until it was hidden behind thick clouds on the horizon, my shoes and socks thoroughly soaked by the wet grass. But it was worth it.
Badlands in infrared light
The last night I spent backpacking on the prairie. As the evening clouds cleared, and the Milky Way rose that night, it was tinted by green, red, and orange airglow. In all the years I have photographed the Milky Way, never have I captured it bathed in such a rainbow of colors.
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cresson Prison
This Pennsylvania prison began life over 100 years ago as a TB sanatorium, then was converted to an institution for the mentally ill, and finally a prison. It was shut down nine years ago. Over the passing years, time, decay, and vandals have taken their toll. These images were made in infrared light.
Freedom beyond
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Oaky Grove Church
A rare snowfall was a perfect excuse to head out early one morning to shoot a long-shuttered 19th-century church in Wake County, NC. This image was made in infrared light.
No trespassing.