Tom Hoydic Photography

05/25/2026

As we honor and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom and democracy, we also extend our sincerest gratitude to all living veterans and those currently serving.

04/22/2026

Celebrate the majesty, power and beauty of our Mother Earth on her special day.

Saint Mary Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana.

04/17/2026

Dear friends and followers of Tom Hoydic Photography.

Recently, I have joined a new, international group of photographers, amateur to professional, who share a love and passion for photographic image making. It's called Glass.photo.

Glass was launched by two photographers from Amsterdam, a photographer from Lisbon, and another from the USA. They went global in 2021.

Since Glass is an independent company, and because there is a charge for use of the platform it attracts serious photographers. It is free of ads, invasive data tracking and engagement algorithms.

I am looking forward to this new association.

Over the last week or so, I have been collecting, formatting and uploading images that represent some of my most recent work. I invite all my friends and followers to check it out.

The following links will take you directly to my images:

https://glass.photo/tomh
https://glass.photo/tomh/series

I hope you enjoy the imagery. While you are on the site, I encourage you to explore. There are some incredible images and some very talented photographers from around the globe.

Tom Hoydic. Professional photographer and photo educator, retired. My early years behind the camera were spent shooting planes, trains and automobiles. Photogra…

04/09/2026

Been exploring light painting recently. In previous images, I would intentionally move the camera during exposure. Thought I'd switch things up and move the light source this time. Getting some interesting results.

03/21/2026

Welcome Spring! We've had a very cold winter here in St. Augustine at Tom Hoydic Photography, South. Certainly, not a good thing if you're a northerner seeking respite from an even more brutal winter up north. But if you're a local photographer, it was a great opportunity to get in some serious studio time. The frigid winds and freezing temperatures made it easy to resist the urge to hang out at the beach.
Over winter, I've launched two new series to complement my ongoing "Digital Alchemy" series - "Middle Earth" and "Expressions In Light". Here are a few samples.

03/12/2026

I’ve built several pinhole cameras over the years and the imagery they produce can be be extraordinary. This one takes the cake.

https://www.facebook.com/share/18Guh6AUJk/?mibextid=wwXIfr

In 2012, photography student Regina Valkenborgh placed a small homemade pinhole camera on the rooftop of Bayfordbury Observatory while experimenting with solargraphy a method used to record the path of the Sun across the sky over long periods of time.

The camera, made from a simple drinks can, was meant to stay there for a short project. But it was accidentally forgotten and remained in place for more than eight years.

When it was finally rediscovered in 2020, the photographic paper inside revealed something incredible: thousands of glowing arcs tracing the daily journey of the Sun. Each bright curve represents one day, while the changing heights of the arcs reveal the shift of seasons — higher paths during summer and lower ones in winter. Breaks in the lines even show days when clouds blocked the sunlight.

What started as a small student experiment unexpectedly turned into one of the longest photographic exposures ever captured, beautifully recording years of Earth’s motion around the Sun in a single image.

Source: University of Hertfordshire, Smithsonian Magazine.

03/03/2026

My attempt at capturing the lunar eclipse this morning was a bust. Haze and fog at the western horizon. I did manage to catch a glimpse of it as I was driving to my chosen location.
The sunrise was awesome, though, as was the sea fog that began moving in about 20 minutes after the sun rose. The wind picked up, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees in minutes and everything immediately became wet including the photographer.
These four shots were taken in chronological order covering about 5-10 minutes as the sea fog moving in from the ENE.

03/02/2026

PHOTOGRAPHERS! Get ready for a very unique astrological event on Tuesday March 3rd: A sun-up/moon-set occurrence during a lunar eclipse. The moon is positioned roughly 180 degrees opposite the Sun in the sky. This opposition causes the Moon to rise at sunset and set at sunrise. This will be happening during a total lunar eclipse, and it's called a selenelion.
I've been busy today scouting locations to photograph the event. Found a very high dune walkover about 30 minutes south with ocean to the east and no visible structures to the west. Here in NE Florida the sun will break the horizon at 6:48am at 97º which is just S of E, and the moon will be setting at 277º just N of W (a 180º difference) at 6:50am. SO COOL. 🌞🌎🌑 March's full moon is called a Worm Moon meant to refer to the coming of spring and the reappearance of worms.

Key Details:
Full Moon: The Earth is between the Sun and Moon (Lunar Eclipse).
Syzygy: An alignment of three celestial bodies, which occurs during this opposition.
Selenelion: A rare, seemingly impossible occurrence where both the rising sun and setting eclipsed moon are visible simultaneously due to atmospheric refraction.
NASA Science (.gov)

02/04/2026

WIth the frigid weather lately it's been a while since I've biked down to the pier for the farmers market. Took the opportunity to mess around with a new iPhone app called "Slow Shutter". Surprisingly, for $2.99 it's pretty capable and nicely designed. Controls are fairly intuitive, easy to access and it provides a 4K file in Apple's raw HEIC format. Very convenient to be able to get a slow shutter effect in broad daylight without needing ND filters. Haven't tested extensively but at first glance blurrs seem cleaner and smoother than Apple's native Live Photo/Slow Shutter feature.

01/08/2026

Happy 2026