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As soon as I pressed the shutter, I knew that I had my light placed wrong. But I like the effect a lot.
Amelie is a French woman I met at Starbucks. Not only is she beautiful, she was a lot of fun to work with. With any luck, I'll be able to think up some ideas so that I can do more portraits with her.
I've been wanting to do Effie's portrait for a long time. She has a personality much bigger than her ... we'll go ahead say 5'4" (163 cm) frame ... and an even bigger heart. So when she called and asked about having a session I said "hell yeah." Or something like that.
She was worried about looking like a "granny." She's of an age with Madonna (not exactly, but close enough), and frankly looks a helluva lot better to me.
More of Effie is of course at my Facebook page.
Another from my shoot with Lena. I enjoy working with her, because I never quite think I get what I'm looking for, then when I look at the shots later, I have a lot to work with.
More at BH Neely Photographer on Facebook.
I've taken dozens of pictures of this guy, who lives at the Thisio Metro Station. I never quite get what I'm looking for...I don't expect that I'll come to the same tragic end as Cpt. Ahab, but for now, he's my white whale.
Anyhoo, I got this fun shot of him waking up from a nap last February.
I thought that no place would have a sunset experience quite like this...until I found Utopia Cafe in Plaka, on Milos in the Cycladic Islands.
Yes, I've been working and reworking that joke for nearly two months trying to make it roll just right. It probably wasn't worth all that effort, but isn't that the way with puns?
Lena said, "Hey, let's do another shoot." I decided to keep it simple - mostly too lazy to set up the lights, and I have this great north-facing floor-to-ceiling window with semi-translucent sheers, so that was the light.
She works in an art supply store, and every time I go in, I feel like I know her. She has an easy, relaxed manner, so I attributed it to that. Then she put on this black dress that drapes like a toga, and I realize that she *is* Aphrodite, or Athena or any other statue from 2000-2500 years ago. It isn't often that you get to use the phrase "classic beauty" in its most literal sense.
When I've processed a few more, I'll add them to my Facebook page.
Geology fascinates me. It's one of the subjects I didn't study in college that I wish I had. The beauty of rock formations is nearly as pure as it can be, and every time you look at a cliff face, you're traveling in time. Millions of years ago, this cliff was solid. Probably seemed like it would never move. But now it has this hole big enough to drive a boat through and to see the next island to the north.
I've only just begun putting it together, but please visit my geology-themed album on Facebook.
I believe I've mentioned before how perfectly suited the Greek flag is to the country itself. This, in essence, *is* the Greek flag. I shot this one on a cruise to see the Blue Caves on Zakynthos, in the Ionian Sea.
For more from the cruise, have a look at the album at my Facebook page.
Here's one where film (or my knowledge of what to do with it) would have been far, far superior to digital. I like the look of this log, but the digital photo is way too crisp. In film, I'd have shot it with a Bergger, Efke or Foma product and processed it in something like Rodinal. Unless of course I already had Delta 100 loaded, which I would have processed in Microphen.
But I had a digital camera in my hand. So I made an effort at aging it. Clearly needs more work. Problem is, I don't think I'm even close to what I see in mind. What I see is something like a 1915-20 bridge between pictorialist and literalist photograph, where the details are a little soft, but recognizably photographic. When I get there, if I don't get frustrated and go on a hate-stupid-digital rant and threaten to throw away the computer and the D200 and shoot only LF wooden cameras with 100-year-old lenses, it should be a pretty satisfying moment.
I'm always impressed by photo sets of things that look like numbers or letter. I don't see them when I'm shooting, so it's nifty to see a skill like that. Doing a bit of wall studies while walking with family through Nafplion, I stumbled across a nice set of Roman numerals.
More of the wall studies are at my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/bhneely.
You could call this a rough draft of an HDR project I'm working on. It's the second-best shot I've ever made of the Bourtzi...the best being the project in the works. I've been trying to get something like this for a couple years now.
