Last Saturday, I was at my son’s All Star soccer tournament in Madera, CA. In between games, I was walking around the park and found this tree trunk with great patterns. I used my iPhone 4s, and the quality of the captured file is stunning, surprising me even though I’ve had the phone since Oct. All post-processing was done in Lightroom 3.

ALSO:  I will be attending Photo LA on Sunday and part of Monday. My Impressions of Lights prints will be at the Susan Spiritus Gallery Booth B300. If you are in the area, come visit! http://www.photola.com/

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mm f/2.8__1/30 sec at f / 22__ISO 200

Practice, practice…

I’ve been very frustrated lately because I haven’t been able to get out of the office and up to Yosemite for waterfalls, reflections in the meadow, corn lilies in the high country.  Fortunately, my water lilies are in bloom and I check them out every day.  We had an amazing rain storm Tuesday night and the next morning, and so I took a lunch break on my patio.  My water lilies had been washed clean and were gleaming with water drops.  I used my trusty 90mm Tilt Shift lens, making two frames to merge into this square composition using Photo Merge in Photoshop CS5.  The storm was starting to clear, with the sun on the edge of a cloud which gives this image a fresh and sparkling mood.

So when I finally get up to Yosemite Valley next week, I’ll have had recent practice.  Practice seeing every day, get your camera out whenever and wherever you get inspired, and be ready for the next opportunity.  Oh yes, and it might just happen in your back yard!

Enjoy,  Bill

William Neill’s Yosemite Volume One

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__15.0 sec at f / 16__ISO 100

Last week, I was in Yosemite Valley delivering a print to The Ansel Adams Gallery. On my way home that afternoon, I stopped to check out Horsetail Falls.  Although I didn’t photograph, the falls was very full and gorgeous in shiny, Black and White lighting.  In fact, early March is my favorite time for Horsetail.  I am a bit sick of seeing orange waterfall images. Leaving Horsetail behind since clouds had muted the glowing water, I drove westward out of the Valley.  As I passed Bridal Veil, I spotted this intriguing pattern of snow and alluvial rocks along the river bank.  I pulled over, and spent the next hour or so watching the light change and trying to work out a good composition. One of the last things I tried was some pano frames.  Here is the results of two horizontal frames stitched together in Photoshop CS5.  The long narrow image shape worked well to emphasize the the layered look of moving water, rounded boulders and snow patterns.  Although it is probably hard to really see the full effect of this small rendition on the blog, I am pleased with it.  It is a continuation of my 34 years  seeking out images that show the subtle side of Yosemite.

Enjoy!  Bill

William Neill’s Yosemite: Volume One

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mm f/2.8__1/10 sec at f / 16__ISO 100

I have been watching my crop of sunflowers carefully now for several weeks, observing the flowers closely.  They say timing is everything, and yesterday morning I “harvested” this flower bringing it into my “studio” which in this case was the floor in my dining where there is great window light.   I am growing several species and wanted to catch this one while the strong spiral pattern was still visible.  All flowers are not created equal, so picking the right one is a highly selective process.

University of Cincinatti

This flower was placed in a cup full of water, and placed on top a piece of black velvet.  The lighting here is direct sunlight from one window.  The camera was aimed straight down at the flower.  I made two exposures using my Tilt Shift lens, first photographing one half and then shifting the lens to photograph the other half.  The two photos were merged using Photomerge in Photoshop CS5.

This approach gives me a square frame, which suits this round flower perfectly to me, and gives me a higher res file in case I need to do murals for my art consultant clients.   See photo one of my photos installed at the University of Cincinatti above.

Canon 90mm TS lens

If you haven’t used a TS lens before, I am attaching an iPhone snap I made showing the lateral, off axis shift that the lens can make.

I am also including another recent sunflower photo, made by the same technique.

Enjoy,

Bill

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mm f/2.8__1/3 sec at f / 19__ISO 100

iPhone 3GS___1/6400 sec at f / 2.8__ISO 64

Last Monday, my kids went back to school. My 13 year old daughter started 8th grade, and I have the morning run, taking her to her new school which is 20 minutes away from my house. I will be making the drive nearly every weekday until next June. Seeing the I will be driving through beautiful Sierra Nevada foothills, and I am always looking for great light and new photographs, I might as well work on a new theme. I plan on calling the portfolio Morning Light.

For nearly five years, I drove into Yosemite Valley from El Portal to go to work at The Ansel Adams Gallery. And back down the canyon again at the end of the day. What a blessing. I remember that I had no problem getting up early to make that drive, so that I would have time to photograph if so inspired. Well, I won’t have that option on this “morning run,” since we have to leave the house by 7:30, but on my return home, I will have time to photograph.

The photograph here was made with my iPhone – three frames stitched together in Photoshop – on my drive home. This view looks east towards the Ansel Adams Wilderness and the Sierra crest. On this first day of school, I had left my 1DS Mark III behind, unfortunately. I won’t make that mistake again. However, with the extra quality from three iPhone files stitched in PS, and the wonderful Noise Reduction in Lightroom 3, the file would make a very good small print. From now on, my camera bag will be packed when I go to bed, and ready for my morning shuttle service, and my search for morning light.

Let’s see what I can come up with over the next ten months. I’ll keep you posted!

William Neill’s New E-Book: YOSEMITE: VOLUME ONE

Please check out my web site for information on online and private workshops, posters, books and ebooks, and list of galleries that represent my fine art prints.

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

Earlier this week, I received three calla lilies to photograph.  For three days, I left them in a corner of my dining room where I have found magic light in the past (see blog post from October 2009).  I hung my every-ready black velvet on a chair behind the blossoms.  On the second day, the early morning sun glanced across this one flow.  Aiming downward, I needed f/32 and a little lens tilt to hold sharpness in the vase and flower.

Due to the wide contrast, I bracketed seven exposures that were one stop apart.  This image was made with six of those frames using Photomatix by my assistant John.  The exposure blend enabled us to show fine separation of tones in the white, nice shading in the green stems but left the background black.

I made about 700 exposures in various light, including some blurs and many 7-frame brackets, so I still have much editing to do.

Until I can polish up some more selects, I hope you enjoy this one.  Let me know your thoughts!

Cheers,  Bill

Sign up now for one of my May online workshops! It’s not too late!

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

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mm f/2.8__2.0 sec at f / 13__ISO 100

I made this image yesterday on my patio.  The water reflects my ochre-colored wall.  I have been watching the light for when the stones and water were in shadow but the wall remained lit.  I was trying to find a good composition with a single frame but it wasn’t working.  So, used the shift function of my Tilt Shift lens as well as the forward tilt for increased depth of field.  I made one exposure with the shift all the way to the left, and then “shifted” the lens all the way to the right while making sure I had enough overlap for PhotoMerge in PS4 to create the pano.  I selected the best two images in Lightroom, then used LR’s Photo menu to “send” the two files to PS4 for merging.

BTW, I used my Canon TS-E90mm f/2.8 for this image, combined with my Canon 2X Extender to create a 180mm TS lens!

Enjoy,  Bill

William Neill Portfolios

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__1/500 sec at f / 2.8

Last week, I was busy getting my kids to bed when I noticed a glow outside.  Ran upstairs to grab my camera, stepped out my second floor office door, and made this image.  I was almost too late, and only managed to click off 12 frames.  I am not sure what I had missed, but I am pleased with this photograph!  I am reminded of some of Eliot Porter’s sunset cloud photos.  See the link below.  I often prefer the later stages of sunset, with darker colors and a more moody quality.  Still, it is better to catch the whole show to have more choices!

Sunset Clouds, New Mexico by Eliot Porter

Enjoy!  Let me know your thoughts…

Bill

EBOOKS AVAILABLE!

Impressions of Light – Digital Edition

Landscapes of the Spirit – Digital Edition

Meditations in Monochrome – Digital Edition