Enjoy!  Bill

Oaks and Fog, Ahwahnee Hills Regional Park, Ahwahnee, California 2012
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM,
1/125 second at f/16, ISO 100
Copyright © 2012 William Neill

Other Morning Light images:

Late Summer Meadow, Ahwahnee, California 2011

Spring Oak, Coarsegold, California 2011

Buckeye, Foothills of the Sierra Nevada, California 2011

Sunbeams and Forest, Sierra Nevada Foothills, California 2010

Autumn oak and snowstorm, Ahwahnee, California 2010

Waterfall and Sunbeam, Sierra Nevada Foothills, California 2011

Morning Fog and Oaks, Ahwanhnee, California 2011

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__2.0 sec at f / 19__ISO 100

I have been very overwhelmed with work and thus have a large backlog of images to process.  I made this image last month at Happy Isle in Yosemite, which is an amazing place anytime but especially during high water.  This subtle image is part of my ongoing efforts to reveal the Inner Yosemite!  I hope you enjoy it and also hope to post more new work soon.

New App – William Neill’s Yosemite Volume One

Enjoy!  Bill

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM___ISO 160

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM__1/3 sec at f / 19__ISO 200

I have lived in the Sierra for 33 years, and I have always been thrilled when seeing the first buckeyes popping out in early spring.  The leaves come out so fast that I have never caught that moment I have enjoyed for so many years.  The bare branches of these small trees often have wonderful patterns that I have photographed during the winter months.  See one such image on mine on the OP site:  The Digital Deluge.

I have been wanting to capture that sense of early spring that I have seen and felt every spring for so long.  The timing for this image was critical – early enough in the budding process to still see the branch patterns and also see the full, radiating shapes of the leaves.  On Tuesday morning, on my Morning Light run, I think I captured the moment.

Enjoy!  Bill

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

And come visit The William Neill Store!

Painted bark eucalyptus, the Hana Coast, Island of Maui, Hawai

John and I have been working on more scans from my 4×5 film archive.  It has been rewarding to finally make use of these images, but also frustrating to see how many good images are languishing in my filing cabinets.  I have also been placing new images on my Facebook Fan page.  I look forward to your comments here or on the Fan Page!

Enjoy,  Bill

PS  On March 10th, my next 4-Week BetterPhoto.com begins!
Inspiring Nature Photography: The Essentials
Key Features:
• Landscape Photography: focusing on the main ingredients
• Regarding Light: how to recognize good lighting conditions
• Using the Frame: how to compose an effective landscape image
• The Magic Element: expressing and sharing emotions in your work
For serious hobbyists, intermediates and advanced students.
Learn to use a fine quality of light.
How to apply interesting and dynamic image design.
Discover how emotional content can engage the viewer.
Sign up for this 4 week online course at BetterPhoto.com

Red Maples and forest, autumn, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

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

The bark of a Gumbo Limbo tree, Everglades National Park, Florida

The bark of a Gumbo Limbo tree, Everglades National Park, Florida

Photographed in 1992 with a Wista 4×5 Field Camera

John and I continue our efforts to scan film in my files. Here is an old favorite, never scanned or printed before.  I must credit Eliot Porter for the inspiration as I first learned of this tree and its amazing bark from a photograph of his.

I am starting to develop an idea for a new portfolio that includes my more abstract details of nature.

The 4×5 film was scanned using my Epson Perfection V750 Pro.

Enjoy,   Bill

William Neill Portfolios

Black oaks, autumn, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California 1984

For the month of September, I am offering a new Special Edition “Mini” Print from my Yosemite portfolio. I am releasing one image at a time as a “Featured Print” which you will be able to purchase directly from me!

This month’s Featured Print is “Black Oaks, autumn, Yosemite National Park, California 1984″ shown to the right.

This Special Edition image is an archival inkjet print, sized to 9″ x 7″ 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, but 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. And the best part…it’s only $40!

Click here to get your print!