Acknowledgments

This book is the outcome of years spent wandering and pondering outdoors at night in the wilderness. It would not exist without the generous help and support of many kind, knowledgeable, and creative people along the way. They have shared and greatly contributed to my journey; venturing into wild places with me, and helping me understand so many aspects of astronomy, photography, nature, and life.

In particular, I’d like to thank the following people: my parents for instilling in me their love of nature, science, photography, and exploration, and my siblings—Jennifer, Peter and Steve—for their patience and expertise in photography, astronomy, and art; Scott Freeman, for his intrepid friendship through countless trail and off-trail miles under less-than-ideal conditions; Tom Dunford, for many backcountry adventures and for introducing me to some of my first astronomical experiences; Michael Brint and David Marcey, for wrangling up many a photographic opportunity; David Larson, for sharing his deep knowledge of the Minnesota outdoors and for leading sailboat trips into the night; Kelsey Larson and Joey Wishart, for their unquenchable enthusiasm for tropical late-night expeditions.

I would especially like to acknowledge and highlight Babak Tafreshi’s pioneering leadership in the field of landscape astrophotography. His work and the organization he founded in 2007, “The World At Night,” twanight.org, have been a primary source of inspiration and wanderlust for me since its inception. I also wish to extend my deep appreciation to Babak for not only writing the Foreword to this book, but for reading the complete manuscript with painstaking thoroughness, correcting my errors, making countless crucial suggestions and, finally, for our treasured ongoing collaborations.

I also wish to specifically acknowledge the photographic genius of Bryan Peterson; for introducing me to my camera’s light meter and manual exposure mode many years ago, enlightening me with his “bee” model for photographic exposure, generously sharing innumerable tips and secrets, and for educating and motivating me under any circumstance with his uniquely upbeat perspective on all things photographic.

Many thanks go out to my photography friends for all their advice and guidance, particularly Steve Hallmark, Tim Keagy, Matthew Moses, Jerry Thoreson, and Robert Folsom; as well as to Craig Carey for his timely advice and encouragement during the initial stages of this project.

I would also like to extend my deep appreciation to the wonderfully creative folks at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area for their friendship, support, and collegiality; specifically, Robert Cromwell, Sheila Braden, Rasza Cruz, Ken Low, Kate Eschelbach, Anthony Bevilacqua, and Robert Taylor.

My great thanks go to all the contributors to this book who kindly shared their work: Anthony Ayiomamitis, Alex Cherney, Alex Conu, Ben Cooper, Mike Crawford, Alan Dyer, Uli Fehr, Scott Freeman, Steve Hallmark, P-M Heden, Grant Kaye, Jan Koeman, Craig Lent, Donald Lubowich, Martin McKenna, Philippe Mollet, Bernd Pröschold, Gyorgy Soponyai, Babak Tafreshi, Yuichi Takasaka, Tunc Tezel, Cristina Tinta, Vaibhav Tripathi, Zhou Yannen, Steed Yu, Oshin Zakarian, and Caren Zhao. Your wonderful spirit of collaboration is deeply appreciated.

I would particularly like to express my profound gratitude to the distinguished guests who graciously agreed to share their images: Anthony Ayiomamitis, Royce Bair, Alex Cherney, Steven Christenson, Alan Dyer, John Goldsmith, Phil Hart, Lance Keimig, David Kingham, Dora Miller, Marc Muench, Ian Norman, Wally Pacholka, Bryan Peterson, Tony Prower, Babak Tafreshi, Yuichi Takasaka, Brenda Tharp, and Andy Williams. It is an honor to include your work herein.

I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the support of all my colleagues at Routledge, Taylor & Francis, and Focal Press, particularly Kimberly Duncan-Moody for accepting the original book proposal and giving me this opportunity of a lifetime, Anna Valutkevich for her insightful suggestions and comments on early versions of the manuscript, Galen Glaze for his support and guidance, and Judith Newlin for her stalwart support and encouragement.

I wish to thank my tireless proofreaders: Jennifer Larson, Matthew Moses, and Scott Freeman, for their valuable efforts at proofreading portions of this manuscript. Your comments and corrections were an enormous help—thank you!

I would also like to thank all of you who have attended my field and online classes and workshops—education is truly a two-way street. I have learned something from each and every one of you, and appreciate our time together.

This section would be incomplete without a special note of appreciation for all of the anonymous acquaintances I have met out in the field, in remote locations, often in the dark but always in good humor.

Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Kirsten, for her enduring love, her friendship, and support; and for always cheerfully heading out the door with me precisely when everyone else is heading back inside.