What I did notice is that I had a number of people very interested in the thought process and the technical process of achieving the photograph.
So I thought I would take the time to put together a post that explored the inspiration and the technical side.
First and foremost, I owe my entire inspiration to Paul Caponigro. He was in that generation of Art Photographers after Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Paul Strand that really continued to define photography as an art. His image “Running White Deer” was the inspiration for the photograph I created.

I feel very deeply that photographers should have an education in Photographic History. We as the “new breed” of artists can only do what we do because we have seen what the “masters” have created before us. I hope that doesn’t come across as an arrogant statement. I myself will be the first to admit that even with 18 years of photographic experience, I know very little. In fact I feel like I’m just starting to develop my own voice.
But I do know that if it weren’t for the Caponigro’s, the Strand’s, the Weston’s and Adam’s I would still be years away from where I am now. So if you pick up anything from this blog post, please let it be that history is important for our growth.

OK… Let’s have a look at the image and where I started.

The original subject of Running White Deer was obviously White Deer. We don’t really have that great of an access to White Deer in the States. But while I was living in Austin and taking my afternoon walks on Town Lake, I noticed a few white dogs running along the limestone one day at Auditorium Shores right before dark.
It made me think, “Maybe there is something here…”  And so the idea formed that I would use white dogs instead of white deer. And Austin is weird anyway, so it all made sense… (or none at all – which was probably better).

I’d like to say that there was a lot of forethought put into the image, but when I came to Austin, I had yet to hear from anyone with a white dog to put in this image, or even book a model. And I was so thankful to have the dress on loan from La Chatuise and Elle Couture Designs for the shoot (which only came to me about 5 days before leaving as well!!!). And as the week progressed and more rain began to fall on Austin, it looked like the shoot was not going to happen. In fact the morning of the shoot I was very close to calling the whole thing off.

But, I knew that if I didn’t at least try, nothing would happen for sure, and I would be flying back to San Diego a couple days later even more depressed for lack of trying.

I met my assistant Chris Lin at Auditorium Shores and we quickly went through how the shoot would progress. It had been raining, so we needed to keep painter’s plastic down to keep the dress clean, I knew I would obviously have to remove it in Photoshop later.
We got the camera set-up on a ladder and gorilla pod (thanks to Nathan Johns). Chris Lin also grabbed that shot of me lining up the shot above and right.

So in the first shot, you can see it was very straightforward. Because I had to remove the plastic in post, that gave me some freedom to do some things I normally wouldn’t do, like have Chris Lin be in the photo holding the strobe to make our model Kareena stand out more than with natural lighting.

Chris Lin, the plastic and the additional strobe were easily removed by using an additional photograph that was taken after all the elements were removed, by using a Layer Mask and brushing them out. If you are unfamiliar with Layer Masks in Photoshop, I highly encourage you to learn about them. It is a very important skill to know, even if you consider yourself a “purist.”

Now with a clean slate I can focus on finishing off the theme of the image. Obviously we need the dogs to represent Paul Caponigro’s White Deer. Unfortunately due to rain, all the Craigslist ads, and flyers I handed out didn’t really result in any turnouts. So I waited and waited. And hoped and hoped that a cool dog would show up. Fortunately we had the most amazing White German Shepard walk up with her owner, at just the right time, with the right light. And the owner hadn’t seen any of our ads, and had no idea what we were doing! It was truly a blessing.
The Shepard had the most beautiful wolf-like appearance and fit perfectly with the haunting, and moody feel I wanted. Her owner must have thrown the ball 15 times while I just sat up on my ladder and snapped away in Burst Mode. Originally Caponigro used a 1 second exposure. But I found that dogs run faster than deer, and had to shorten my exposure to 1/20th of a second to get the right amount of blur in the camera.

The Palmer Event Center is a very cool building, however, I felt that a very stormy and grand sky would more fit the mood of the image. I was fortunate enough to have been in Telluride a month before and got a great panorama of the local mountains and passing storm that would fit perfectly into the picture.
The dogs were brought in one at a time, and placed exactly where they were in the original photographs. I wanted to try to stay as true to the original location and moment as possible, rather than just grabbing dogs and placing them where ever I felt was best. So when you look at the position of the dogs, it is actually where she was when the camera fired.

The next thing was to convert to Black and White and do tonal corrections with Curves and Levels to make the image really sing, as well as cleaning up some bare spots in the grass and getting rid of any signs of “Photoshopping.” (A paradox if there ever was one – using Photoshop to make it look like it wasn’t Photoshopped).

And this is the final image.

While this is not my typical style, I do believe that this is some of the finest work I’ve ever done. From a technical standpoint it really challenged me to think about how to accomplish such a complex image and make it simple for the viewer.

I may have sounded like a sore loser because I didn’t place in the PPSDC Print Competition the other night.
But I am so proud of this photo nonetheless. It represents something that I planned and really thought out for many months and it still took a lot of good luck and faith, I believe I achieved very close to what was in my head when the idea came to me.

Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to use the comment form below.

William Bay is a Untouchable. Aka: Paul Caponigro’s Bride.

Last night was the bi-monthly Professional Photographers of San Diego County print competition night. I had entered a photo I took while in Telluride, CO a couple weeks ago. If you follow the blog, you might have seen another version of it in another post.
Well it received a “Merit” last night at the competition, which means that it scored at least an “80″ from the judges on the panel. And believe me… These guys are TOUGH! The judging is the same level as the national PPA judging, so now I have a good idea of how tough things will be when I start entering on the National Level.
What’s great is that my Merit goes towards becoming Photographer of the Year. That may be a bit of a stretch right now, but as I get better, maybe a possibility.

Here’s the image. The title is “Riding the Storm Out Together” Let me know what you think.

Let Me Tell You About Texas Radio and the Big Beat…

I will be heading back to Austin for a week! I’m so excited for a number of reasons:

• November is my favorite time of year in Austin
• My photo BFF Maria Bernal is doing a studio fashion lighting demonstration at the Austin PPA
• I’ll be shooting a wedding in Houston for Huong and Ben on the 21st (Ben is the brother of one of my Brides from way back in 2003! – How Cool is that?!!!!)
• I’ll be shooting a big range of stuff during the week, from holiday family photos to a nude commission, to some conceptual/arty Bridal photos I want to submit to Grace Ormonde magazine. Whew boy, my compact flash cards are gonna get a workout!!! I’m shooting everyday I’m in Texas except one!!!
• I’m gonna get to hang out with some of my 512 area code friends and hang at some of my old haunts like Spiderhouse.
• Texas Barbecue!!! Say no more!

Amazing Dresses

I am super blessed to have on loan to me while in Austin, two AMAZING Bridal gowns designed by La Chatuise Couture for my Grace Ormonde shoot. The dresses (below) have been loaned to me by Lori Davis at Elle Couture Designs in Costa Mesa. Elle Couture is the exclusive representatives for the La Chatuise line for Southern California. So I am tremendously grateful for them to loan out these dresses.

What do you think of these dresses? Are they HAWT or what?

William Bay is a Print Merit, Austin Next Week, and Amazing Dresses.

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.

It was my first show, and was initially a bit nervous. But my assistant Esther and I ended up having a great time there. We met some very pretty brides to be. And I really felt that we stood out from the rest of the photographers.

We met some really cool vendors as well. Brandy Pellegrino is a Boudoir only photographer, who I had met at the last PPSDC event. She recommended I do the show too. And Phi from Finicky Flowers is a sweetheart, with brilliant floral designs.

I had a free engagement session up for grabs, which I will be announcing this Friday.
And I took a picture of the booth with my iPhone. It’s not the best resolution, but what do you think?

William Bay is a Pala Bridal Show.

I’ve spent the last few days in a fury of preparing prints, scheduling rental equipment, and general craziness getting ready for the upcoming Pala Casino Bridal expo on Sunday. As I was selecting prints, I came across an image from a wedding I did a few years back here in San Diego for Cameryn & John (above left). It had a great view of the foothills around the Ramona area, but the sky was completely blown out. I thought that it would be a great image if I could do something about the sky.

That’s when I remembered that I had a super intense glowing sunset shot from the same wedding (above right), and if I could get that great image I needed.

So into Photoshop I went. Now, it’s important to know how light works, how it falls off and gets reflected and refracted in the real world. And in this photo I was dealing with a strong directional light from the right, as well as a mountain in the background that fell off due to the strong light as well as some atmospheric haze.
What I did to compensate for that is created a white gradient come up from the mountain and fading into the sky and desaturated the sky so it was not too powerful.

The resulting picture looks very natural, and retains the character of that beautiful afternoon we took those photos. I will also be blowing up this picture to 20″x40″, mounting it on Masonite, and using it in the back of my booth over all the other photos.

If you are up in the Fallbrook area on Sunday, come see me at the Pala Casino at the Bridal show. I am in booth 60 near the Fashion Show. Come say “Hi” and see the above print.

William Bay is a Before and After for the Pala Bridal show.

Wow… It has really been a very eventful couple of weeks.

• My divorce to Heather became finalized on July 15th, which was to be our 2 year anniversary.
• My week long trip to San Diego for my birthday became a moving trip in the Nth hour.
• And on my drive out, I climbed the 12,000 ft Sierra Blanca in New Mexico which turned out to be the most physically challenging thing I have ever done.

And upon arrival, my dear friend, Marne, had arranged for me to photograph two of the most warm spirited and incredible people, as they came together as man and wife during a very intimate ceremony at Swami’s Beach in Encinitas.

Erin and Mike are two of the coolest people I have met. Both incredibly warm souls that wanted most to share their union with their closest friends and family before they moved back to Europe. Their ceremony was led by their yoga instructor, Tim from the Ashtanga Yoga Center in Carlsbad, who spoke about Ashtanga as having eight limbs to master, but in his own philosophy, marriage was like a ninth limb, in that it was above and beyond all that was needed or desired to be achieved during our time on this planet.
The thirty or so witnesses gathered in a semi circle facing the beach, listening to Tim’s delivery in deep thought, and then to Erin and Mike share their vows to each other, with emotion and happiness.

One of my favorite moments of the entire day was after the ceremony, as Erin and Mike walked towards the point alone, I snuck up behind them and popped a couple shots off. It was then that I noticed a tandem surfing couple take off on a wave, and as the man lifted his partner, the significance of man and woman as partners came to life in a visual metaphor right in front of me. The male surfer held his partner at chest height just as she swept her body up into a swan dive position. I grabbed the shot, while the newlyweds in front of me looked on. It was one of those gifts from the higher powers. I’ve included a photo above, if you look at the inset, you can make out the dark figures riding the wave with the woman’s arms and legs pointing up to the line on the horizon.

At the reception Erin and Mike were reunited with everyone to enjoy Peruvian and South American food and wine at Casa Q’ero in Leucadia. The night lasted until 11pm when they cut their vegan carrot cake.

Mike and Erin, thank you for allowing me to share such a beautiful time with you, your family and your friends. Congratulations and I wish you only happiness, strength and flexibility in your journey of the Ninth Limb, aka Marriage.

And a big thanks to Patrick and April at Casa Q’ero for making sure I was fed and hydrated, and to the rest of the staff also, for tolerating me and my camera in the kitchen.

William Bay is a A Welcome Back to San Diego Wedding – Erin & Mike’s Beach Wedding.

I’m really excited to unveil the “Print of the Year Club” for all my wedding clients.

If you have known me for anytime, you know I have a huge passion for Fine Art and Landscape photography. Well, each year every one of my wedding clients  will receive a FREE 10×15 print (5×15 or 8.5×15 in the case of panoramas), matted and signed by me. This is merely a constant “Thank You” for choosing me to document your wedding.The best part is, the clients get to vote for the winner! I will post 5 pictures and everyone will vote for which print gets to be the print of the year!

The first one will begin this November, and the prints will be sent out to arrive in December, so please make sure I have your latest address. All past wedding clients are eligible (even those first ones that I shot for $600), and all future clients are automatically enrolled too.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

William Bay is a Wedding Client Print Club.

Friday:

I was very excited to start heading out to Krause Springs, where myself and some fellow photographers from an online photo group were going to get together and do a TTD (Trash The Dress) session with a couple models for portfolio type work, and just to have fun and meet each other.

On my way out for a pre-trip errand, I noticed that I missed a call. I check the voice mail, and chills begin running down my spine. The voice on the message said, ” Hello William, This is Grace Ormonde… Give me a call back. I’d like to talk to you.”

It was all I could do to keep the car on the road! For those that don’t know, Grace Ormonde is the woman behind Grace Ormonde’s Wedding Style, a high-style wedding magazine. I had submitted a wedding I had photographed a few months to just get a gauge for where my photography matched up to everyone else that was submitting. And she just called me… I had to collect myself for a few minutes, and then made the call back.

We talked for at least twenty minutes about the funny post I wrote about my odds of getting published with her, how much she loved my fine art portrait work, and that she wants to see my next submission.
*Note: Some of the work below may be part of that next submission

After I got off the phone, I had to call my photo BFF here in town Maria Bernal and I made her guess who I just talked to… She wasn’t very good at that game, I had to tell her. I could barely walk my knees were so weak! I also called my Mom, and I posted to my Flickr group of wedding photographers.

And I was still excited about camping and the TTD session!

I am the first one out to Krause Springs since it’s just a short 40 minutes from Austin, and Laura Burlton and her family were coming from Houston. The others weren’t coming until Saturday. I set up my own camp, and then began a recon mission and found some amazing places to photograph.
Laura and her family arrived, and I went to meet her and Alex her husband and two little girls. We got their camp all set up and then ran down to jump in the swimming hole to cool off.

And then…

I jumped into the swimming hole with my keys and my iPhone still in my pockets!!!

I did not realize this for 10 minutes!At which point I could only hope that it would dry out and work again.

After speaking to Grace Ormonde, there was not much that could have dampened my high, but drowning a phone that I had paid $400 for came really close.

Saturday:

After a great nights sleep in my tent, I woke up with the sun. Laura had slipped off and came back with some coffee to share. Our model Seasha (who Laura and myself both know separately) arrived shortly after with her wee ones, and one more photographer from the group, Nana Aikins, showed up, and we went off to shoot.

We photographed for about an hour (photos below) and it began to rain. I hadn’t put my rain fly on the tent the night before, and when I got back I had a soaked sleeping back and a puddle on the downhill side of my tent.

The four of us gathered under a metal cover and drank beer as a lightning storm began to pass through (no one said it was smart). We polished off 4 beers each, while the kids played in the mud puddles, and then decided it was time for a BBQ lunch at Opie’s Barbecue in Spicewood. It rained while we ate delicious brisket and sausage and chicken.

Then it was time for another round of photos in a different dress. We had another model lined up, as well as a couple other photographer friends that had planned to come out, but the rain ruled them out. Our afternoon session was a lot of fun.

Nana had to leave a little early, and when we wrapped up photographing Seasha invited us over to her house where she found us places to sleep, I threw together a big stockpot of chicken soup and we all sat around, chatted, looked at some of the photos, and enjoyed everyones company until we all fell asleep.

Sunday:

Sunday was a lazy day. We all had to leave, but we delayed that as long as we could. After a delicious egg and sausage scramble that Seasha whipped up, we all went down to her parents pool, and watched the kids swim and play. Slowly, we all got ready and headed off to our separate lives once again.

I had a great time, with some great people.
I took part in a kick butt TTD session.
I lost my phone, but not before Grace Ormonde called me.
This weekend may have been my strangest/weirdest/funnest ever!

Enjoy the photos.

William Bay is a A Weird, Watery Weekend!.

The last time it rained while I was at a wedding, I was in a little town called San Juanico in Baja California on a surf trip. San Juanico is just a dusty, and dirty fishing village about 800 miles south of San Diego, and is renowned for it’s very long right hand point break. The break is called Scorpion Bay and has attracted a small American ex-pat community. On this particular trip I was honored to be invited to attend the wedding reception for one of the surfer ex-pats and a local girl roughly half his age.

The day of the reception was hot and lazy, just like all the other days in San Juanico, but the breeze off the ocean helped – so did beer. I made my way from the camp, down the lunar dust dirt road, right along the point where you can look over the 50 or so concrete block houses and corrugated roofs that made up the town. They all seemed to be held together with mortar, wire and will. On the right was the bay which was usually teeming with whales or dolphins and surf, today there was neither, so no one was missing anything as a result of the wedding.

I was greeted with smiles, open arms, and a Tecate at the home of the bride’s parents. Everyone was pitching in, preparing for the new couple to arrive. I kept asking in my broken Spanish if I could help with something.
“Necisitas ayuda?” I would ask various people.
“No, no. Sienta te, toma una cervesa. Relaja” They would all say.

So I spoke with some of the other surfers, learned a little bit about the town and history. Tried to talk with the family occasionally and took the advice. I relaxed, drank beer and ate carne asada.

The evening came and the bride and groom made their entrance. This was a poor town, but they went all out with the dress, and I think there were a few broken hearts that day, she was beautiful! The band struck up and people started to party and offer felicidades. It was still hot and people sweated while they danced and moved around under the tent even as the sun made it’s way past the glowing Mexican Pacific.

Then, just as the couple started their first dance, and without any sign of warning, the heavens opened up and dumped buckets of rain right on top of the town!

We all looked at each other for a short astonished moment, then our collective gaze turned back to the bride and groom still mid-dance. They seemed so much more vibrant and alive and in love with each other than before, if that was even possible.

The band began playing louder and more powerfully. The beer and tequila began flowing more freely. Dozens of guests, from the young pretty nińas, to the old leather skinned abuelos began dancing and shouting and hollering. Members of the brides extended family ran into the house and came back out with large glass jars and lifted them into the sky to collect the rain which had then turned into a deluge.

It took some investigation by all of us surfers to understand why the rain had made everyone so loco and happy and excited. We finally got word that San Juanico was in the middle of a three year long drought! And the marriage has now become a blessing to not only the families, but now the entire community. The people collecting rain in jars planned to pass the water down to future generations!

I thought of that couple from San Juanico this weekend as I stood at Chris Elders’s side during his wedding. Standing in line with his brother-in-law Chris and Derrick, the other groomsmen, I could see outside the church that it had begun to rain heavily. In that moment I knew that the rain was a powerful binding force, that was beyond my understanding, but it was clear that it would hold a great symbolism for both couples forever.

I looked back over to Chris and his beautiful new wife, Jacqueline, at the altar, and couldn’t help but think about the stories that probably still circulate in that little town about the wedding that ended the drought.

And then I thought that we would talk about Jacqueline and Chris’ wedding day too.  We would all have our own touching moments and stories. And, while the rain did not end a drought it was most certainly a blessing upon both families.

P.S. I would like to give Jason and Andrew of Table 4 Photography props for doing such an amazing job. The photo of Jacq and Chris above was taken by them.

William Bay is a Rain, A Blessing For Weddings.