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

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.

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__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__4.0 sec at f / 32

Last week, my family and I traveled to the Monterey coast for a short vacation.  I returned to one of my favorite subjects there – the endangered Monterey Pines.  Very fortunately, there was  thick fog that makes this subject so appealing to me.  This image is made of three frames, Merged to Panoramic in Photoshop.

We have many more images to edit and process, so stay tuned for more.

One thing I did learn – I am out of practice!  I made so many mistakes.  Sometimes it feels like the movie Groundhog Day – making the same mistakes over and over.  Got to get out to photograph more often!

Ride the Light,  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__TS-E90mm f/2.8 + Canon2x Extender__6.0 sec at f / 27__ISO 100

In my backyard, I have a rectangular bucket full of Mexican Pebbles I bought many years ago from the local landscaping supplier.  I washed them down and set up to make a pano detail of them.  I aimed to the left for the first frame, then used the Shift function of my Tilt Shift lens, recomposing to include the stones in the right side of the bucket without moving the camera or tripod.  I imported the resulting images into Lightroom, and inspected all the pairs I made to find the best and sharpest ones.  I selected those two, then used Photo>Edit In>Merge to Panorama in PS.  Here is the result.

Enjoy,  Bill

New William Neill Web Site!

EBOOKS NOW AVAILABLE!

Impressions of Light – Digital Edition

Landscapes of the Spirit – Digital Edition

Meditations in Monochrome – Digital Edition