Posts Tagged ‘nature patterns’

My Favorite Images of 2010

Saturday, January 8th, 2011

I am finally posting a selection of my favorite photographs from 2010. Maybe I’ll have to follow the trend and pick the top ten.

Please let me know which ones are your favs!  Thanks to all of you who have followed my ongoing adventures in creative photography.

Happy New Year,  Bill


Salsify Seeds, 2010


Ice, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Stones and reflections, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Valley Oak and fog, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Valley Oaks and fog at sunrise, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Plum Blossom, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Plum Blossom #2, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Sunrise at Scripps Pier, La Jolla, California 2010


Twilight, Scripps Pier, La Jolla, California 2010


Twilight at Scripps Pier, La Jolla, California 2010


Three Calla Lilies, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Two Calla Lilies, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Dogwood Branches over the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, 2010


Dogwood Branch, Merced River, Yosemite National Park, 2010


Lily, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Pier Pilings and Fog, Coquille River, Bandon, Oregon 2010


Pier Pilings in the Coquille River, Bandon, Oregon 2010


Pier Pilings, Coquille River, Bandon, Oregon 2010


Rock formation and driftwood, Bandon, Oregon 2010


Two Lilies, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Sunflower Impression, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Sunflower, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Four Oaks, Coarsegold, California 2010


Sunbeams and Forest, Sierra Nevada Foothills, California 2010


Grasses and Raindrops, Siesta Lake, Yosemite National Park, California 2010


Aspen, Conway Summit, California 2010


Aspen and Sierra Nevada Mountains, Conway Summit, California 2010


Sunrise Storm Clouds, Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve, California 2010


Pinecones, Mono Lake Tufa
State Natural Reserve, California 2010


Sunrise surf, Carmel, California 2010


Rocks and Surf, Carmel, California 2010


Rock Formations and surf, Pt. Lobos State Reserve, California 2010


Winter Hills, Diablo Mountains, Pacheco Pass, California 2010


Cows and Winter Hills, Diablo Mountains, Pacheco Pass, California 2010


Autumn oak and snowstorm, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Oaks in autumn snowstorm, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Autumn oaks and snowflakes, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Calla Leaf, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Pine forest in fog, Ahwahnee, California 2010


Oak forest in fog, Ahwahnee, California 2010

Sunflowers

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

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

Lily Flower

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

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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Black oak leaves, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite National Park 1983

Friday, May 28th, 2010

BLACK OAK LEAVES, EL CAPITAN MEADOW, YOSEMTIE VALLEY 1983

John and I have been working on my next ebook, which is a collection of my Yosemite photographs.  This image is one of my favorite Yosemite images, but it has sadly languished in terms of printing it because the original film was lost about twenty years ago.  The Cibachrome lab I used lost it.  I never had a proper scan made of the film as high res film scanning was not commonly available back then.   And don’t get me started on “lost film” stories.  I have far too many…

However, I have an exhibit coming up this summer at The Ansel Adams Gallery from  7/07 to 8/17/2010 so this will be a golden opportunity to print and exhibit this image.  For the digital file shown here, I scanned an 8×10 Cibachrome.  Not an ideal method, but I can make a very clean 16×20 print from that file.

By the way, this photograph was made with my Wista 4×5 Metal Field Camera in January, 1983.

In my Yosemite: The Promise of Wildness book, I included this photo and wrote these words about the making of it:

“This young oak stands a few feet from the main road leaving Yosemite Valley.  Millions of visitors race by it each year.  Despite its incongruous location, the tree conveyed a sense of wildness to me.  I had had a bad day at work [The Ansel Adams Gallery] and was heading home.  Needing something to calm my frustrated disposition,  I stopped for a walk along the meadow’s edge.  Having had the time to slow down and relax, I looked up from my ruminations and was struck with the beauty of these leaves.  With my attitude adjustment complete, I exposed my favorite image of Yosemite!”

Enjoy,  Bill

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Yosemite Waterfalls

Monday, May 17th, 2010

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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