Bill's Photos -- [return to previous page]

This photo always seems to surface whenever I am putting together a collection of my favorites from my photojournalism days.

The fire was at a car dealership. At the time I debated about using flash to fill-in the detail of the firemen, but I decided that the shiloutte would be more effective. A few minutes after this photo was made the roof caved in and both men lost their lives.
The Red-Tailed hawk was the lead shot from a photo layout on a man who captured the birds in the wild and trained them for hunting. I have always been fascinated by the steeley-eyed gaze of the bird.
I have always enjoyed photographing sports of all types. The buckeree (not to be confused with a buckaroo) was participating in a Little Britches Rodeo in Wichita.
While this is not a great basketball photo, I have always been proud of it. It meets my criteria for sports shots - - sharp, well composed, off-balance action, and limited depth-of-field to blur out the background.
The little boy, peeking thru the steering wheel and trying to push the peddles on the tractor, seemes to capture the wonder and curiousity of youth. The subject of this photo is my son who was about seven or eight at the time.

He had gone with me to a photo shoot and was playing on a tractor while I was photographing the people at the farm.
These two were supposed to be taking naps but instead were making shadow pictures on the wall, totally oblivious to me, just a few feet away down the hall, making photographs. One of the 'joys' of being a photographer is finding photo ops right under your nose. These are my kids and I did 'shoo' them back to their rooms after I finished making my photos.

Back when fish-eye lenses were new and untried, I tried them! The skydiver required the camera be attached to the wingstrut of the airplane and fired by me, in the back seat of the plane, by remote control. You can see the electrical cable which fired the camera, taped to the leading edge of the strut.
The golf shot was actually done for my high school yearbook and was taken on the football field, not even at a golf course. The lens gives the characteristic round appearance and I propped the ball up next to the lens, posed the golfers around it, and fired by remote control, just like the skydiver shot.
The shadows attracted my attention when the sun was low in the sky and the shadows were long. This time of day, just before sunset and just after sunrise, is often referred to as the 'golden hour' and is an excellent time to shoot because the quality and quantity of light vary from minute to minute.
The goulish looking guy was a publicity poster for a musical version of Count Dracula done in barbershop quartet style. 'Nuff said. (it was not a box-office smash). Strong top lighting was used to deepen his eye sockets and give him that evil look.