Thu - September 6, 2007

Shipwreck and painting with light

I took some pictures at Ft Steven's state park this morning about an hour before sunrise.

The ship is the Peter Iredale, a 278' sailing vessel, it's been on the beach since 1906 when it was caught by a bit of unexpected weather and current while waiting for a Columbia River Bar Pilot to come navigate it into the river. you can read more about it here (pretty interesting!)

Enjoy!

These are all between 30 and 60 second exposures with the foreground light provided by me waiving around my D cell maglight. :-)



I'm actually in this next one, I was walking around shining the light on the dunes (makes those cross light patterns), but it was too dark and I was moving too fast to show up in the image. Cool huh?



It was starting to get too light by the time I did one, so I had to combine two images, one exposed for the sky and another exposed for the ship (but still lit by the flashlight)


~Bill

Posted at 10:39 AM    

Wed - May 30, 2007

Summer's here!

It's over 80 degrees out there and, like it or not, the bugs are coming out!

Lots of blog posts on the way and the next newsletter too. I've been so busy I haven't been keeping up with this end of things!

~Bill

Posted at 12:28 PM    

Thu - April 5, 2007

Craig

Three years ago I took a weekend photography workshop in Seattle taught by Craig Tanner. I was hoping to expand my knowledge and further my pursuit of being a professional photographer. It turned out to be so much more than that, Craig was a firehose of information and inspiration. I literally learned more about the craft of photography in two days than I had in 15 years of hobby and self study. Since then I've connected with Craig a few times and we've become friends. Last week I attended his Next Step workshop in Savannah Georgia. This workshop had nothing to do with the craft of photography and everything to do with growing and expanding as both a photographer and a human being.

You can learn a lot about photography, photoshop and creativity by visiting The Radiant Vista

Thanks Craig, I'm looking forward to the next time. ;-)

Would you take a workshop led by this guy?

Posted at 04:00 PM    

Tue - April 3, 2007

Connections

In Savannah, a lot of our workshop was about making connects. I met this couple who were on vacation from Atlanta on their way back to the hotel (from the bar I'm guessing), they were so nice and I had to get a shot of them. Hopefully they'll remember to email me so I can send it to them. :-)

~Bill

Posted at 06:41 PM    

Fri - March 30, 2007

Breaking the rules

I'm halfway through the second day of my 'Expanding Creativity' workshop in Savannah Georgia. One of yesterday's workshop assignments was 'Breaking the Rules'. 3 basic rules of photography are:

1. don't center the subject
2. Fill the frame, don't leave too much negative space
3. keep the subject sharp

The constraints were:

1. Time, we had an hour
2. Location, we had to stay on the grounds of the Savannah Best Western

You heard that right... we had to take creative rule breaking pictures in basically the most boring space in the downtown savannah area. I was actually excited for the challenge... Here is what I got:

Centered Subject:



Not Sharp, this one's my favorite:



Negative Space:



More tomorrow!

~Bill

Posted at 05:13 PM    

Wed - March 28, 2007

From my yard

Yesterday morning was so pretty. A sunny spring morning after a night of rain can't be beat!

Posted at 08:00 AM    

Thu - March 15, 2007

Fun Times in Lynnwood

I got together yesterday with a bunch of local photographers up at the Alderwood mall. We all participate on the same industry forum, so it was nice to put faces to them! After our social hour at the Mcgrath's Fish House we went outside to do some shooting. :-)

A local photographer, Nancy Cassell, and her husband volunteered to play the bride and groom and we had another local couple that posed for some engagement style shots. Victoria G . took the initiative of getting all these models lined up for us and that was awesome of her!

Here are a few of the shots I got while we were goofing around the mall parking area... ;-)

















Much fun! :-)

~Bill

Posted at 09:57 AM    

Sat - February 10, 2007

OSPW - Day 1

I'm down in central CA at a photographer's conference for the weekend and I had a blast yesterday using my big lens (300mm f2.8, normally a sports only affair) to shoot Brittney and Chris, our models for the day. We were at the Robert Hall Winery and it's a gorgeous setting with great wine to boot! I was focused on learning from the big name pros leading the workshop and I didn't shoot much... But I got a couple. :-)

Until tomorrow! ~Bill

Posted at 03:06 PM    

Sun - February 4, 2007

Portland Day 2

Early morning walk around Portland yesterday. :-)

The sun was just rising as I got into town:


Signs, signs, everywhere signs...





Cheers! ~Bill

Posted at 12:57 PM    

Fri - February 2, 2007

GOYA - Portland Day 1

I just made a new blog category called GOYA. I'm borrowing that acronym from a cool music photographer, teacher and all around crazy guy, Zack Arias . It stands for Get Off Your Ass (and shoot). Basically a challenge he put out to other photographers to go out and take cool pictures... of whatever. Get back in touch with why we do this... Being a pro photographer means spending a lot of time not taking pictures, running a business, processing orders, whatever.... GOYA = have fun, take pictures.

Here's what I got today. The first image is from the ditch along side Highway 26 in Oregon between Portland and Hilllsboro, the building on the right is where I am right now! There is an internet cafe in the corner closet to the camera. :-)

Rose Hips in the roadside ditch:




Nowhere to go....



Where we're staying:




Until tomorrow... ~Bill

Posted at 01:40 PM