April is the cruelest month

Jeremy Likness
May 3
3 min read

(According to T. S. Eliot, although I disagree).

Whidbey Island

I've had a busy spring already. Due to a work summit I traveled to, my wife and I decided to spend some time in Langley on Whidbey Island in Washington. Although the light pollution was a bit high, I did manage to capture what looks like maybe a meteor (?) and some star trails.

Snow Moon

I've done a lot of moon photography lately, because it's always fun and interesting. I shot the snow moon (first full moon of February) for hours and was able to create my first "print series" showing it high in the sky but reflecting off the water to low behind a cloud as the fishing vessel Dauntless drifted by.

Interested in the series? Use the request form and we'll discuss what's possible!

One evening when I came home, I noticed a strange pattern of "stars" around the moon which turned out to be the planet Mars teaming up with Castor and Pollux. Before I could snap a picture, clouds blew in, but I enjoyed the shot anyway:

The moon with a pale halo behind clouds and a pattern of planets and stars above it. — Clouds? So what?

Seal Rock

I stopped by Seal Rock to catch a bird's eye view of Jupiter coming close to the moon.

A night scene of rocks in the ocean with a bright moon and Jupiter overhead — "Bird's Eye View"

I then returned to shoot a timelapse and some more photos. Here's a selfie of me moving around with a red headlamp on as Orion sets in the distance.

A night scene featuring prominent rocks rising out of the ocean with a blur of red light and motion in the forefront due to a long exposure — "Stand still!"

For more photos like this, check out the Seal Rock Gallery.

Here is a "behind the scenes" video:

Behind the scenes: Seal Rock shoot

It's Lenticular

Speaking of galleries, be sure to check out the Fire Rock Ocean Sky (FROS) gallery reopening coming up in June! The Great Opening Celebration will be on June 21st. I'll have several pieces there, including my new, first and only of its kind three-dimensional lenticular nebula print of Thor's Helmet. I even made a small video to show what it looks like:

A video walkthrough of a lenticular print

Prints in the Wild!

There are several places you can go to view my work. In addition to contacting me, The Pacific Maritime Heritage Center has two prints on display: the Devil's Den from inside the punchbowl, and a new revision of one of my most popular prints, the "Moon and Milk" shot I took from Cape Foulweather several years ago.

I entrusted a standout of the intense aurora activity around Yaquina Head Lighthouse during a geomagnetic storm to our wonderful Newport Chamber of Commerce. You can see the Lit House as soon as you step through the main door there.

Shout out to my physical therapist Claire Barton for not only being an awesome physical therapist that I highly recommend; but also finding space for me to hang the 213-megapixel halfmoon on brushed metal I call, "Stealing the Moon." It's one of those things that's better shown than explained. Here's a short video:

Fly the surface of the moon!

And here it is on display in her office!

The first pic shows how it's oriented - in the other two pictures I had it upside down.

I also have several pieces available for direct sale, which means the price may be substantially less than what is listed compared to when I'm showing in a gallery. As always, you can inquire with my request form, but here's what these prints look like on my mantle:

A row of metal prints above a mantle: lunar eclipse, lunar surface, bridge in aurora and a solar eclipse. — Above my mantle

If you're interested in any of these, the links to learn more are here:

The Lunar Clips, metal, 16" x 24"
Copernicus, metal, 12" x 24"
The Bright Perspective, metal, 40" x 30"
The Tail of Totality, metal, 16" x 24"

Painted Hills and Wine Down Ranch

My wife and I recently took a trip across the Cascades to the Prineville/Sisters area of Oregon. I have never been to that part of the state before, and it was amazingly beautiful. In addition to visiting the Painted Hills the first time...

A curved landscape in shades of tan and red.

We also stayed at Wine Down Ranch, which had plenty of dark skies as you can see in the Wine Down Ranch gallery. The best way to experience it, however, is to watch the video I made: