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.

That being said, I’d like to take the time to say “Thank You” to a number of people that made my trip, and the soon to come photos, possible.

First and formost I’d like to thank Huong and Ben Crouch, (pictured above), my clients in Houston for having me photograph their wedding. That extends to the Crouch and Nguyen families for their hospitality. The Nguyen’s were so accommodating and looking out for anything we needed. And the Crouch’s, for whom this is my second wedding (I photographed Meg’s wedding to Don Lichay on July 17, 2004), are a family full of love. And I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Thank you to Maria Bernal and her husband Eric for putting me up in their house in Austin for the week. They were incredible hosts and took care of every need I had while in town. Eric is a rediculously great guy who bent over backwards for me when I needed help. And Maria has always been there for me as a friend/mentor, and this trip was no different.

Thank you to Chris Lin who not only second shot for me in Houston, but also assisted me with three of my conceptual fine art bridal shots in Austin. He was outstanding as a technical and lighting advisor, worked like a madman to help me get the shots and had the endurance to go Friday, Saturday and Sunday on just few hours of sleep. If you are a photographer in Austin, Chris is the man and you should grab him up quick.

Thank you to Gina at La Chatuise Couture and Lori at Elle Couture Designs for the dresses. I’m very honored to have them on loan for my shoots.

Thank you to Edythe Blackwell at BWC Photo Imaging for the insanely fast turnaround of the 20×40 canvas of the above image. Edythe, I will be ordering another print from you for my next print comp.

Thank you to Carissa at Flora and Fauna for the bouquets, (cross your fingers Carissa).

Thank you to my models; Jessa, Kareena and Max. I put them through freezing cold tempertures, long wait times and situations that often made no sense at the time. The girls were troopers the whole time.

Thank you to Mike, Trevin and the whole bunch at Spider House for letting me take over and do a full photoshoot in front of their bar.

Thank you to Nathan Johns for loaning out his ladder and Gorilla Pod.

Thank you to Sarah Limerick for letting me use her Montero while in Austin.

Last but not least are two special women in San Diego, my Mom has been there from the start and has always will be a great source of support.
And my Dear Friend, Marne who was always there by phone or text message for inspiration when the road got rough.

On a final note, I had the privilege to see Maria kick off her speaking tour at the Austin PPA meeting while in town. She said something that really stuck with me: No one accomplishes anything solely by themselves, and that she is where she is now because of the people she has around her, she then thanked her hair and make-up artists, model, and her core group of photographer friends at the end.
This has rung with me all week long. In my 18 years of photography, I’m confident that I’m doing the best work ever, and I owe it all to these people… Thank you all, from the bottom, to the very top of my heart.

William Bay is a Thank you, thank you, thank you..

This is the kind of slideshow that all my clients receive. (but much higher quality, and on DVD).

Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

William Bay is a Mike and Erin’s Wedding on YouTube.

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.

When it came time to building a professional level site (this one) I ended up looking at ModX. For what it was worth it was a very rich content management system, but I found that it took a lot of time to learn the system, and in some circumstances even learning a new code structure. And the blogging software was rather clunky.

And now I find myself jumping ship back to the familiar platform of WordPress. But this time in a much more robust application than before, and I couldn’t be more happy. Along with the thousands of available plugins to make it super powerful, the interface is just simple enough to do no more than what you really need to do.

For other WordPress users here is a short list of some of the useful plugins I am currently using:

• Skype Online Status: Display’s when I am online on Skype and allows Skype users to directly start chatting with me.
• Google XML Sitemaps: Essential tool for SEO geeks like me. Automatically rebuilds your Google Sitemap with every new blog post.
• Clean Notifications: By Mike Davidson who’s blog I read. Makes the email notifications very pretty.

These are just a few, but they make the experience of blogging and adding new pages so nice.
I hope that you enjoy navigating and viewing the site as much as I enjoy writing and updating in it.

William Bay is a Ahh… A breathe of fresh air.

It started off a little hairy, I was actually late to my own wedding! I had to stop at a country store on my way out for gas since I was on empty. It hadn’t occurred to me until after I got back in my X-terra that I hadn’t turned off the ignition while filling gas!!! Holy Moly!
I can hear the sherriff informing Heather now: “I’m sorry to regret that your fiance will not be able to make it to your wedding because he blew up due to his own stupidity.”

Once I got out there things calmed down a bit and the small ceremony got underway. It was so beautifu. Heather looked awesome! My mom and sister were there, Heather’s parents were there. Chris, my best friend, officiated the ceremony.

I’ve posted a few of the best photos here, they were all taken by Heather Van Gaale (the other Heather in my life). The other 200 of the good ones are here.

William Bay is a Our Wedding.

After being gone for a year in Thailand, and living in Austin for another 18 months I recognized I missed it.

In that light I’ve decided to throw my hat back into the ring and dust off the camera, and possibly document some of those Saturdays.

William Bay is a A New Beginning.