BetterPhoto Instructor Insights: Weblogs by William Neill

August 14, 2007

Pebbles

by William Neill

Pebbles
© William Neill
All rights reserved

Yesterday morning, I photographed these pebbles. I bought them several years ago from my local rock/landscaping yard when I was building my waterfall. When I bought them, they looked dull and dark gray. When I started washing them off, their colors and patterns came to life. They are sitting in my wheel barrow where I kept them wet as I photographed them with my tripod sitting on top of the wheel barrow.

PHOTO NOTE: Exposed at 1/4 sec at f/18, 400 ISO using a Canon 50mm macro lens. Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II. See Canon’s Explorers of Light and Printer Master web site.

Note from weblog administrator:

For more inspiring thoughts from Bill visit his Blog, Light on the Landscape.

William Neill's Photography is displayed at http://www.williamneill.com/homepage.html

Posted by Jim Miotke at 01:30 PM in Weblogs by William Neill | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 12, 2007

The Seed of an Idea

By William Neill

I have found that I have subjects I return to again and again. I have an ongoing interest in photographing the salsify seeds that are found in my area. Fortune had it that I have some growing on my property at my current location. So each year about this time, I starting watching the seed heads and wonder what I can do to go beyond past efforts.

Here are three images. The top two were taken on the same day two years ago, the third taken last week. While editing my images for various purposes, I often compare recent work with the best of past work on the same subject.

Maybe I’ve already made my “best” image of these seed heads, but I still keep trying in hopes of making the ultimate one! This type of analysis is an important skill in editing your work. I have favorite images in Yosemite that took many years of returning for the right light, and of refining the composition in response to post-exposure assessments. The seeds for visual ideas sometimes take years to grow!

Maybe this approach with help you too!