This is from a session I did with her when she was visiting over Christmas time. I couldn’t be prouder of my lil sis, or the result I got last night.

William Bay is a A Very Special Award of Merit.

This first image was taken from this really great engagement session here in San Diego.
The other image was from a wedding in Ramona a few years back.

Another photographer who I really admire gave me some encouraging words after the competition and reminded me that my clients paid me for my creativity, they loved the photographs, and I get to do what I love and grow and stretch my creativity.

I guess that was the best lesson in photography I learned that night.

William Bay is a Photographic Humble Pie.

I’ve obviously been spending quite a bit of time around La Jolla and Windansea lately. It’s hard to blame a fella when there is amazing rock formations and tide changes to photograph all day long. And in all honesty, I’ve been like a kid with a new toy since I got my Neutral Density filters.

Here’s one at Big Rock, which is south of Windansea. When I was about 17 I ended up on the rock to the left while surfing one day. I quit surfing for good.

But then I started again. What can I say? I love surfing as much as I love Photography.

William Bay is a Big Rock at Low Tide | San Diego Fine Art Photography.

There were those that were out chasing deals today. I am very Thankful that on this beautiful day after Thanksgiving, I was not one of them.
I was out, practicing my skills and spending a day photographing some really great clients Eric and Erinn for their Engagement Session. We started in Imperial Beach in the morning, took a break at mid-day and met later on at the La Jolla Reefs area for the golden hour.

After we wrapped up I grabbed this shot of the Windansea Shack and the Agave spire in the sunset.

I love San Diego.

William Bay is a Black Friday Sunset.

I love winter time in San Diego. The sun gets low enough in the sky for the full day, and I can photograph almost all day long if I want to. The above photo was taken at about three o’clock in the afternoon at Windansea Beach. The rich surfing history has always made it one of my favorite beaches in San Diego. The palm-frond shack behind me has been there since the 40′s and has always fascinated me for the brotherhood that surfers share. Some surfer built a shelter for his brothers to gather and story-tell about travels and life, waves ridden and poundings received.

This is more Neutral Density compositing I’m working with. The first photograph was 15 seconds long which allowed the waves to blur out into a hazy soup, and the clouds moved slightly as well. The second photograph was 1/15th of a second, and I didn’t have a beautiful model to stick in the photo today, so I stepped in.

I need to check my lens and see if I broke it.

William Bay is a Self-Portrait, Windansea.

I’ve had an idea I’ve been toying with in my head for awhile, and I wanted to try it in real world application. Yesterday was a gorgeous day here in San Diego, perfect for a day of fun experimentations. I grabbed my big tripod and headed out to Sunset Cliffs to play in the afternoon light.

My experiment was with Neutral Density Filters. ND Filters (for short) are simply filters that block a certain amount of light while taking a photograph. That allows the photographer to make very long exposures during the day which could be used to indicate a passage of time.

As you can see in these shots I used the ocean to show that passage of time. Both pictures are 20 seconds long. With such long exposures the ocean takes on a blurry, hazy, ghost like appearance which can be very cool. A friend of mine, Cole Thompson, is a master at this technique and has an impressive collection of coastal photographs that put these two pictures to shame.

One of the reasons I started playing around with this is because I’ve wanted to begin incorporating this technique into portrait work.
You might ask: “How can I take pictures of people with 20-30 second exposures?”
Easy! I take two pictures. One with the ND Filters on, and one without, and combine them later using masking techniques in Photoshop.
As you can see in the photo below; I took a picture of this Fisherman named John without the ND Filters at 1/45th of a second. And when he stepped away to bait his hook out of view, I took another exposure at 20 seconds.
With a little Photoshop work, we now have a fun photograph that would not necessarily be possible otherwise.

I’m really looking forward to using this technique on everything from family portraits to my own style of fine art environmental portrait work for individuals, and who knows… Maybe even weddings that take place on the beach, or formals after the wedding. The sky is certainly the limit.

William Bay is a Fun With Photography.

I’ll be covering a lot of information about blogging in general, how to get started, the benefits to WordPress as your blogging and website engine, search engine optimization, and quite a bit more.

I will also provide a critique and comment period on the attendees websites and how they can improve their site, blog and search engine rankings with easy tweaks.

Whether you are a wedding photographer, portrait photographer or anything else, you won’t want to miss out on this event.

To register, go over to the PPSDC website and pay online. Space is limited and we expect to have a full house. So sign up early.

The cost is $25 for PPSDC members.
And $35 for Non-members

William Bay is a Come See Me Talk About WordPress.

A few weeks back I was looking through the Museum Of Photographic Arts website to see what was new, and to see how much it would be to get a membership again.

While on the site I saw one of my old photos from my very first wedding!

The picture (left) was from my good friend Rocio’s wedding, and it was of her Bridesmaid walking down the aisle of the MOPA Film Theatre in a hot red, strapless dress. I never blogged the wedding, cause I wasn’t blogging back then. But maybe I should go back and blog a few of them.

The quality of the picture they had wasn’t the best, so I wrote to speak to the Event Coordinator about getting them some new photos and meeting.

Melissa Pfeifer and I finally had a chance to meet, and she told me about all the cool things that were going on at MOPA, and how the wedding division called Picture Perfect Events was doing. I showed her some of the work I’ve been up to over the past few years and she seemed genuinely impressed with it. And I’m always happy for that.
Seriously, though MOPA has one of the best locations for wedding receptions in San Diego. If you’re looking for something modern and centrally located, MOPA is your spot. So go call Melissa now and let her know I told you about it.

You know… It was really great to go back to MOPA again. When I was in high school, learning photography, the bookstore inside the Museum was where I spent my weekends when I wasn’t actually out photographing (or surfing). It’s been a treasure for me for a good portion of my life, and I’m very thankful to Arthur Olman for opening those doors so many years ago.

Melissa,
If you read this, I’ll send you those files soon. Oh… Did you see what I was telling you about in that Ansel Adams print?

~Sorry guys, I told Melissa a little known secret about one of Ansel Adams photos. (Maybe one day I’ll write a post about it ).

William Bay is a MOPA & My Very First Wedding.

On the way back I grabbed a sunset in the Imperial Valley, and a Sun/Moonrise on the I-10 coming back into Texas.

It was a bitter sweet trip, but I hope you enjoy the photos.

William Bay is a The San Diego Trip.