Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__1.5 sec at f / 22__ISO 100

For the past couple of months, I have been watching this calla plant growing in my living/dining room area.  The light comes through two different windows to light the leaves to various effect.  This past Sunday, I finally saw a composition worth setting up for.  I hung up my black piece of velvet on the wall behind these leaves.  I left my camera set up and made frames when I saw interesting light. I downloaded the images, looked at the new images, and was not particularly inspired by the results.

Yesterday, four days later, I looked at the images again with Lightroom.  Then it hit me that there was real potential here, made several adjustments to this image, including converting the image to BW.  Bingo!  I polished up the file this morning in Photoshop this morning.  Here is the result!

Enjoy,  Bill

For more of my BW work, see my Meditations in Monochrome ebook!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__10.0 sec at f / 32__ISO 100

Last week, I traveled with my family on a camping trip to the Bandon area of the Oregon coast.  It was cold and windy, which not unusual and a refreshing break from the heat here.  If you’ve been to my Facebook page, I’ve already posted a very foggy image from the first evening there.  The next two evenings, I was on the main Bandon beach, photographing in the wind and fog.  Heaven!

For the image above, I used a Singh Ray Vari-ND to get more blurring action.  There were some subtle tones in the sky, but the monochrome evening lent itself to Black and White. John O’Conner did a wonderful job of doing the conversion and bringing out the textures in the surf and rocks that I wanted to show.

In case you missed it, here is the image from the first session.  More to come from this trip!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__15.0 sec at f / 32__ISO 100

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro__10.0 sec at f / 27__ISO 100

This last weekend, I was mowing my grass (electric mower, not gas!).  I noticed a mushroom and picked it.  Then I plucked out the stem so I could photograph the radiating pattern.  I tried various framing options including full mushroom and black background, partial mushroom in the frame, and filling the frame with the pattern with no black background.  As I photographed, it occurred to me that the composition would work well in B&W.  It also occurred to me that I might print this very large someday, and that I wanted a square format.  So made two frames, one with top half filling my frame, and one with the bottom half, then used photomerge in PS4 to create a higher res, square framed image.  The lighting is from my office window.  The file size with adjustment layers is 334 MB.  Here it is!  Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers,   Bill

Sign up now for one of my May online workshops!

Agave, Island of Maui, Hawaii

Here is a newly scanned 4×5 image of an agave taken on Maui in 1994.  We are working on both color and BW versions, and found many compelling directions.  Thanks to John O’Connor for the great scanning and PS work.  Stay tuned for more variations.  I think that there is an article to write about exploring many options with one image.

Thanks for joining me here,

Bill

EBOOKS NOW AVAILABLE!

Impressions of Light – Digital Edition

Landscapes of the Spirit – Digital Edition

Meditations in Monochrome – Digital Edition

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__1/90 sec at f / 16

Half Dome after winter storm, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California 2008

ORDER BY DEC 17 TO RECEIVE BY CHRISTMAS!
This month’s Featured Print is “Half Dome after winter storm, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California 2008” shown to the right.

The Special Edition photograph is an archival inkjet print, sized to 9″ x 6″ on Premium Satin Paper, matted and mounted to 11″x14″ on archival museum board. The print will be initialed by me, not signed. The series will be unlimited in quantity and numbered sequentially on the label.

With each collectible Special Edition released, you can build a fine art portfolio of my photographs at a very reasonable cost: $40 plus shipping and CA tax if applicable.

AS A SPECIAL HOLIDAY OFFER, ALL FOUR PREVIOUSLY-RELEASED FEATURED PRINTS ARE AVAILABLE NOW!  FOR MULTIPLE ORDERS, EMAIL ME FOR SHIPPING DISCOUNT.

Buy my Featured Prints here…

WILLIAM NEILL PHOTOGRAPHY STORE

Last holiday season, we offered a Deluxe Edition book of my Impressions of Light portfolio which was a successful release and is still available:

Impressions of Light – Deluxe Edition
Photographs by William Neill
Sadhna Press, 2008

Give me your feedback on this image, and keep an eye out for the new book!

Regards,  Bill

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__4.0 sec at f / 32

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mm f/2.8__1/3 sec at f / 13__ISO 200

As you can see, my new photoblog is up and running!

The blog now matches/blends in with the new web design.  My goals are the same -  to share my thoughts on landscape and nature photography in general, as well as sharing information specific to my own photography.  I will continue to include links to the work by other photographers I find inspiring, plus products and resources that I find useful.

Please update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc.

New Photoblog address: http://www.williamneill.com/blog/

The photo included was made in my backyard pond.  When I noticed the pattern that the pads form, I visualized a B&W photo.  This was unusual for me, but since John and I developed the Meditations in Monochrome ebook, I am “seeing” in B&W more often.  I also made dozens of color frames on Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday was especially good since it rained here!

I look forward to your comments and feedback.

Be sure to “follow” me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter too!