Astrophotographer Stan Honda offering a Night Sky Photography Workshop at Haleakalā National Park
HALEAKALĀ NATIONAL PARK, MAUI, HAWAI’I, March 7th, 2019 – Astrophotographer Stan Honda is an experienced photojournalist who now works with natural landscapes — usually night time panoramas — that fuse sky and earth. While spending the month of March in this volcanic wonderland, Honda will hold a night photography workshop that is free and open to the public. This workshop will benefit from both his extensive experience photographing the National Parks, as well as his own creative scouting of the park during his residency.
Honda’s workshop will take place on March 23rd, starting at 5 PM from the Haleakalā Park Headquarters Visitors Center, and he will share his knowledge and creative approach with photographers of all skill levels. The event is free to the public and is sponsored in part with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Participants will need to call 808-572-4425 beforehand to register for the workshop.
Honda has long wanted to work extensively at Haleakalā and believes the volcanic island park is an ideal location for dark sky photography. Honda is a passionate defender of the increasingly rarer night sky light that is provided by starlight and the moon. “No one can travel back in time and photograph the ancient night sky. But it is possible to photograph an area such as Haleakalā today and say, “This is the sky that could be seen 100 or more years ago and with careful preservation, the same vista will be seen 100 years or more from now.”
Honda is a New York-based photographer who worked as a photojournalist for 34 years, most recently for Agence France-Presse (AFP), the French news agency. For 16 years at AFP he photographed news and sports in New York City and around the U.S., including the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the aftermath; post-war Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
“We are pleased to again partner with the National Parks Arts Foundation and Mr. Honda as he experiences the beauty, solitude, and wilderness that has inspired generations of artists who have explored Haleakalā,” said superintendent Natalie Gates.
Haleakalā National Park supports Native Hawaiian sites, stories, and traditions; and protects diverse ecosystems which are home to species found nowhere else on earth.
The National Parks Arts Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to the promotion of the National Parks through creating dynamic opportunities for artworks that are based in our natural and historic heritage. All NPAF programs are made possible through the philanthropic support of donors of all sorts ranging from corporate sponsors, small businesses, and art patrons and citizen-lovers of the parks.