TonesW Photography

05/20/2026

After going out all night for a Milky Way workshop with Abe Blair last night, I couldn’t resist editing a couple of panos and a single light-painted frame… before I passed out! 😅

It was in the upper 30s, and the wind was very strong!

For the Tahoe City panorama, I ended up cleaning the lens after each panel, because the waves kept spraying us with water.

It was quite the adventure!

The panoramas are vertical frames (panels) stitched together. So for example, the full resolution version of the Tahoe City panorama is 11,000x4935 pixels. FB will never show you that kind of quality.

05/20/2024

I finally managed to make my aurora time-lapse!
Here’s a still photo, and a short movie featuring 53 photos, of the aurora over Mt. Rose, Saturday, May 11, 1:40 - 2:12am.

Canon 1DX Mark III, EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM
16mm, 30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800
Frames edited in Lightroom.
Time-lapse video created in iMovie for MacBook Pro; final movie with royalty-free Hans Zimmer audio and titles created with iMovie for iPhone.

Here’s the photo I intended to include with the movie….

02/16/2024

This keeps coming back to me....
All of the many marvelous things that came together to even put me in the position to capture this, and to not even realize what I had caught until the teams pointed out to me what actually happened here, and how insanely fleeting that moment was....
In a way, it's a reflection of life.
There are forks in the road. As Yogi Berra said, when you come to the fork, take it!! (Yogi was so much more than his quotes, by the way.)
I would say that the successes I've had in life have amounted to merely a few crossroad moments... but they have made all the difference. There's a lot of hard work, and preparation, and you don't even know what you're preparing for... but there will be choices. Keep pushing!

For the uninitiated, Wan Hoo had added an extra layer of top armor to defend against Shatter's piercing hammer, but after dozens of unrelenting attacks, Shatter pierced not only the armor, but the insulation on a power cable; which created an arcing event between the bots and the arena floor, and the Killsaw, both of which are grounded. This has become one of my favorite photos ever.
This moment lasted perhaps only a few milliseconds! 😈

11/17/2023

This is why we can’t have nice things….

It has been brought to my attention that the recent drone video I posted *may* have included maybe 10 seconds of potential illegal activity, perfectly harmless, not intentional… but could possibly result in a $20K fine from an aggressive government agency.

05/31/2023

05/23/2023

My best Friday April 7 photos from RoboGames 2023.
With the main arena finished, the action really took off, literally!
Good times were had by all.
😎🤖⚡️💥🔥🚀😈

05/23/2023

Here are my top 80 from the first day (Thursday) of RoboGames 2023!
Since it took most of the day to finish the main arena, these photos mostly focus on Bot Bash Party Service and the lower weight class battles they officiated (Thank you Zach!), as well as a little of the many other exhibits.

(80 photos, because that's Facebook's limit.)

04/12/2023

Recently got back from RoboGames 2023. What a blast!
Several of my photos are already out there, but this is my first RG2023 post on this page. Plenty more to come. Enjoy!

Chair! Chair! Chair! 🤣

03/25/2023

300 followers?! Thank you very much! 😌🙏🏻
I certainly haven’t done enough to deserve it lately, but stay tuned. I’m about to have a life again.
😏🤖🌅🎶⛷️🥾