William Neill's Yosemite: Volume One

I am pleased to announce the publication of my latest ebook, William Neill’s Yosemite: Volume One. I have compiled 52 of my favorite images created using film cameras. The majority of the photographs were made with my 4×5 view camera, and the exposure dates range from 1977 to 2005. I have lived and photographed in the Yosemite area since 1977, and so it is rewarding to have finally produced a portfolio of my favorite images. The book was designed in Adobe InDesign with file sizes that have been optimized to preserve the high-resolution image files. The quality of the images vividly comes to life on the computer monitor and you can zoom in closely to examine details within each photograph.

William Neill’s Yosemite: Volume One is delivered as a PDF file. Each image is presented on a single page, and so is optimized for viewing the individual images clearly. When you click on each image, you will be taken to a secondary Photo Notes page that includes camera and lens info, my commentary on the making of each photograph, as well as notes on the location of where each image was made. The ebook also offers interaction between each image and the Photo Notes section at the back of the book. When viewing the Photographic Notes, simply click on the photograph’s thumbnail, and you are linked back to that image in the PDF.

Half Dome and Elm tree, winter, Yosemite National Park, California 1990

My new ebook can be easily viewed on an Apple iPad, iPod, iPhone or any other device that can view PDF’s using an excellent app called Good Reader. I have seen my ebooks on an iPad, and the quality of each image and text is excellent.

To purchase this Digital Edition book, visit my ebook store here:  William Neill’s Yosemite: Volume One.

Half Dome and Tenaya Canyon at sunset from Washburn Point, Yosemite National Park, California 1996

Black Oaks, Autumn, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California 1984

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__2.0 sec at f / 32__ISO 100

Life is full of lessons.  When I went to Yosemite Valley a few weeks ago, as with every spring for 33 years, I tried to create a new dogwood images.  I always gravitate to the same tree where I have made my best dogwood images.  I call it my Home Tree.  I tried a few frames of this tree again, but realized that my past images were better.  So I moved on.  Upriver, near Pohono Bridge, I worked along the river bank, looking for a “dogwood and river rapids” image.  Here is one I made in 1988, but this season at this same location, the dogwood were too sparse:  Dogwoods on the Merced River, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California 1988.  Again, I tried a few frames anyway then headed upstream to another location where I have rarely photographed.  Unfortunately, I was running short on time since I needed to meet up with my 9 year old son Ravi’s Yosemite field trip group.  The first composition I tried was the one below.  The branches were graceful and full of blossoms.  The wind was light and there was little movement in the branches.  The water was high so the river was mostly dark with a few curving breaks of whitewater.  I am pleased with the image, but it is not up there with my best.

Finally, I spotted a dogwood tree next to the river that had a broken branch dangling in the rapid water.  The blossoms danced to the movement of the river like so many dancing fairies.  My first instinct was to use a fast shutter speed, so that the dogwood would be sharp.  Even if I could freeze the action of the tree, the river rapids would look stiff and unnatural.  So I turned my aperture down to f/32 to see what kind of impressionistic effect I could capture by allowing the blossoms to dance their dance and for the river to blur softly in the background.  Since only parts of the whole branches were being shaken by the strongly flowing river, this image has an intriguing blend of sharpness and softness.  I feel that the BW treatment adds to the delicate effect.

Lesson:  I find it important to visit locations where I feel at home.  In this case, it was my dogwood Home Tree, and in general, the stretch of dogwood trees below Pohono Bridge.  But in order to continue my own creative growth, and to raise the bar on my work, I needs to push myself to seek new views, new angles.  Each time I hope to better my best!

Let me know your thoughts about these two images.

Cheers,   Bill

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__1/3 sec at f / 32__ISO 200

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mm f/2.8__1.5 sec at f / 13__ISO 100

I am posting one of the waterfall photographs that I took on Mother’s Day in Yosemite.  It was raining as I photographed.  Using my Tilt Shift lens, I exposed three frames that I later stitched together using Photoshop CS5.  You might also enjoy seeing other panos in my Panoramic Portfolio on my web site.

This weekend, I photographed my irises and fields of lupine.  Hope to post some of them soon!

Cheers,

Bill

The WilliamNeill.com Store

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__1/2 sec at f / 6.7__ISO 100

I continue to edit my Cally Lily images.  I made a few new Impressions of Light images.  Here is one of them.  Would love to hear your comments!

Cheers,   Bill

I haven’t had time to fully edit my Yosemite images from last weekend.  Soon, I hope!

Impressions of Light – Deluxe Edition

Impressions of Light – Digital Edition

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mm f/2.8__f / 32__ISO 100

Here is another image in my new Cally Lily series, this one from the third day of this setup.  As with the previous image, this photograph was made with Photomatix, this time with seven exposures.  The morning sun is coming through my window from the upper left hand corner.  I first saw this lighting effect on the previous morning, unplanned and unexpected, but I was so revved up I blew the composition.  So I noted the time in the EXIF data and returned to try again the next morning.  I didn’t move the large blossom, but needed to create better spacing between it and the small flower.

John and I have been using Adobe Photoshop CS5 for about one week, including HDR Pro.  I think it has great potential but we haven’t fully explored it yet.  More on that later…

I look forward to your comments.  Let me know which one you prefer!

Cheers,

Bill

One-on-One Workshops

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mmf/2.8+2x Extender__1.5 sec at f / 2.8__ISO 100

Yesterday afternoon, and early this morning, I took about 550 frames of my purple plum trees which are in bloom.  I know about quality over quantity, but this is what happens when I get excited making Impressions of Light images!

I have barely started editing, but found this one to share.  Below you can see the setup I used for both the ice image, and this blur!  Ironic somehow…  For the blossom images, I added the Singh Ray Vari-ND filter, which I’ve used often for my Impressions images.  It allowed me to use the widest aperture for shallow depth of field, but still use a slow shutter speed.

In the next few days, I will edit and upload more new images to share.  For more Impressions of Light images, see my ebook:

Impressions of Light

Taken with my iPhone

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mmf/2.8+2x Extender__1.5 sec at f / 19__ISO 100

On Sunday morning, I discovered these great ice patterns in my bucket of landscape pebbles.  The “bucket” is a rectangular cement mixing bucket which I bought when I was building my waterfall feature on my back patio 9 years ago.  At the time, I noticed how vivid the stones were when wet, and started an ongoing series of the wet stone details.  Last year, I sold a 5×8 foot print of one of those!  Then, in winter I’ve noticed the bucket, filled with rainwater, will freeze over on cold, clear nights.  So now I also have a collection of ice pattern images!

If you are disappointed in learning that I didn’t make this image of a natural scene, I have my misgivings too.  For various reasons however, not least of which is that I am busy “surviving” in this economy and raising two children, this is where I find the most inspiration these days – in my back yard!

This photograph was made with my 90mm TS lens plus 2x Extender, camera turned horizontally, with front tilt near max to obtain full sharp across the ice.  I created five frames using the lens’s Shift function with incremental turns from far left to far, then stitched together with PS4’s Photomerge.  Even with the five background layers flattened, the final file is over 300MB.  Not quite as big as some of my 4×5 layered master files (which can be up to 1GB), but still very high res!  One has to enlarge the image in PS, or else print it at least 24″ to fully appreciate the intricate filigree patterns in the ice.

Other Bucket images:

Stones

Stones and Reflections

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mm f/2.8__1/180 sec at f / 2.8__ISO 400

New photo! I made this image yesterday evening.  My purple plums are just started blooming, so out comes the camera!  I used my Canon 90mm TS lens with two Canon 2x extenders.  It’s a bit like have a Lensbaby, and I could play around with focus point and blurring the background.  The image was made from two exposures blended – one “sharp” and the other complete soft focus.

Enjoy!   Bill

There are several purple plum images in my Impressions of Light ebook:  Impressions of Light.  Download it now for only $15.00.

Painted bark eucalyptus, the Hana Coast, Island of Maui, Hawai

John and I have been working on more scans from my 4×5 film archive.  It has been rewarding to finally make use of these images, but also frustrating to see how many good images are languishing in my filing cabinets.  I have also been placing new images on my Facebook Fan page.  I look forward to your comments here or on the Fan Page!

Enjoy,  Bill

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Red Maples and forest, autumn, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Here is another image from Monday morning.  I took seven frames, each one stop difference, and my assistant John assembled them using Lightroom and Photomatix’s Lightroom plugin (http://www.hdrsoft.com/).  This was taken with my Canon 16-35mm as the sun rose through the fog.  The tree behind the big oak were heavily tilted due to the convergence caused by aiming upward with 22mm of focal length!  I raced back to my car (yes, I should have had my camera bag next to me!) to get my 24mm Tilt Shift lens, which I used in the previously posted image.  To correct for the distortion of the trees, I asked John to straighten up the trees.  Instead of using Photoshop’s Lens Correction tool, he used the Crop tool, with Perspective box checked.  John writes about using this tool in this blog post, at the bottom of the page:  Breaking the Funk/Meditations on a Moment Blog.

Let me know if you have a favorite between the two Sunrise Fog images!

Bill

ONE ON ONE WORKSHOPS