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!

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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__TS-E90mm f/2.8__6.0 sec at f / 22__ISO 100

I have a small pond adjacent to my backyard patio, and the lilies are in bloom!  I made this image on Sunday, using two frames stitched together in Photoshop CS5.  To fulfill my concept, I cut the flower, then placed it in a small bowl of water which in turn was placed on black velvet.  Aiming straight down, I “shifted” my Canon TS 90mm lens to include two halves of the flower in two separate exposures.  This techniques allows me to create a square format with Photomerge, which suits this flower shape to me.  It also gives me a bigger file:  PS Image Size reads this file as 206 MB.

Enjoy, and let me know your thoughts,   Bill

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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

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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!

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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

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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

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

Here is another pier photograph from La Jolla.  This was my first session photographing the pier, and my previous post was taken at sunset on the same day.  For this image, I used my Singh Ray Vari-ND filter to extend the length of the exposure.  I waited for a wave to wash up near my tripod, and then watched for the reflection to develop as the surf pulled back.

Let me know your thoughts on this image, and which Scripts Pier image you like the best.  I prefer the sunset image, but still love them both!

Cheers,   Bill

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Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__76.0 sec at f / 22__ISO 100

Last week, my family and I enjoyed a vacation at the beach.  We stayed in La Jolla, a place I’ve been visiting since I was a small kid.  Spent one day at Seaworld, and another day at the beach.

I’ve noticed the Scripps Pier for years, and I’ve enjoyed other photographer’s images of piers.  But I’d never photographed one before, so this was my main focus on this trip.  I photographed at sunrise and sunset.  Here is one image I made, when it was nearly dark.  I got to the point where my meter would not give me a reading at my desired aperture of f/22 or f/32.  I could shoot with a wider aperture, but I would have lost good sharpness on the pier posts.  I quickly extrapolated a good exposure, took out my iphone to use its timer.  Started the exposure (with a cable release of course) and started the stop watch.  f/22 at 76 secs.  Focal length was 70mm.

I hope you enjoy this image!  Let me know your thoughts…

Bill

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