Posts Tagged ‘Nature’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Calla Leaves, Ahwahnee, California 2011

Friday, January 28th, 2011

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!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Macro Photography, Nature's Design, Patterns of Nature, photography | 7 Comments »

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

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Impressions of Light, Inspiration, Landscape Photography, Nature, photography, Yosemite National Park | 43 Comments »

William Neill’s Yosemite: Volume One ebook is now available

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

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

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Landscape Photography, Macro Photography, Nature, photography, Yosemite National Park | 5 Comments »

A foggy trip to the Oregon coast.

Friday, July 16th, 2010

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

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Landscape Photography | 8 Comments »

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

Check out my One on One Private Workshops

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Inspiration, Macro Photography, Nature, Nature's Design, Patterns of Nature | 7 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »