John Guilford's Photo Gallery: Favorites

My personal favorites

All rights reserved. These images are not to be used or copied without my prior written permission.

Unless otherwise noted, through 2011 all pictures taken by me with a Nikon D70 camera.
Depending on the focal length, the lens is most likely either the Nikkor 18-70mm AF-S or the Sigma 70-300mm DG APO.
Starting in 2012, I switched to the Nikon D7000 with either the Nikon 18-105VR lens or the Nikon 70-300 VR lens.
In early 2013 I added the Nikon Micro 85mm lens.

Click on the image for a larger version.

Link back to main gallery page.

Ferienhaus Unterkircher
Date: 4-Jul-2012 Time: 2:29 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/8 ISO: 1000 Lens: 25mm		A chalet in the Austrian Alps near Heiligenblut, Austria. After crossing Grossglockner Pass in the Austrian Alps, we descended to Heiligenblut where I took a photo of this inn. This image has been post processed (in a manner sometimes called tilt-shift photography) to make it look more like a miniature model rather than the real place. For comparison, the unprocessed image can be seen here.

Hands and Dog(?)
I shot this picture for a competition with the theme "hands". For the lighting, I dug out my old slide projector (for the first time in decades). It was surprisingly hard to get good looking shadow puppets, at least for novices like ourselves. The subject of this shot made it a natural for conversion to B&W. Doing so allowed me to focus more on the texture of the hand and shadows.		Date: 09-Sep-2010 Time: 8:46:48 PM Exp: 1/6s @ f/9.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 95.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority Lighting: Kodak Carousel Slide Projector

Icicle
Date: 26-Dec-2008 Time: 7:18:13 PM Exp: 2.0s @ f/1.8 ISO: 200 Lens: 50.00mm Meter: Manual		We had an unusually cold and snowy end of December for the Pacific Northwest. Among other things, this allowed an icicle (quite a few, actually) to grow off my eave. This is a night shot with my Christmas lights showing in the background. The icicle itself was lit by my porch lights as well as a small table lamp I brought out, both using CF bulbs. Perhaps the more interesting effect is the shape of the blurred out Christmas lights. To get the star shaped bokeh, I used a lens with a wide aperture and placed a star shaped cardboard cutout in front of the lens. This had the effect of changing the shape of the blur from round to star shaped.

Happy New Years
The holiday season is a time to gather with family and celebrate. Here I photographed a champagne flute in front of my Christmas tree lights. I used a cardboard cutout in front of the lens to change the bokeh of the lens to little hearts. A half second time exposure blurred the bubble trails to show motion. Lighting of the glass was from a handheld flashlight.		Date: 24-Dec-2008 Time: 5:57:49 PM Exp: 1/2s @ f/1.8 ISO: 200 Lens: 50.00mm Meter: Manual

Skagit Eagle Taking Wing
Date: 21-Jan-2008 Time: 1:45:39 PM Exp: 1/200s @ f/10.0 ISO: 400 Lens: 270.00mm Meter: Manual		In the winter, eagles come down from Alaska to feed along river banks in the Northwest. A good place to see them is along the Skagit River in northwest Washington. On a rare cloudless day, I drove up there to do some eagle watching. I set up my camera and tripod while this bird was perched on the branch. I'd taken several shots and was waiting to see if he'd do anything. I didn't even have my eye to the viewfinder when he turned, spread his wings and took off. I quickly fired off three shots, and it wasn't until I reviewed the images later that I saw that I had gotten lucky with this one.

Drop of Cream
Despite looking like a hard-boiled egg, this is actually a drop of cream about to hit a pan of water. A high-speed flash was used to stop the motion. Nothing fancy was used to time the picture. I used a turkey baster with needle tip to create the drops and tripped the shutter by hand. It is surprisingly easy to get the timing right, though you may still take many shots to get a good one.		Date: 25-Dec-2007 Time: 5:21:23 PM Exp: 1/400s @ f/32.0 ISO: 640 Lens: 300.00mm Meter: Manual

Palouse River Trail
Date: 30-Oct-2005 Time: 11:39:38 AM Exp: 1/320s @ f/11.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 70.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		Between the towns of Pullman WA and Moscow ID, in the Palouse area of eastern Washington lies the Bill Chipman Palouse trail. It used to be an old, abandoned railway line before being converted to a trail in 1998. On an early summer morning, this was the view down the trail.

Teasel
The seed head of a teasel plant taken alongside the Bill Chipman Palouse Trail in Pullman, WA.		Date: 30-Oct-2005 Time: 11:21:22 AM Exp: 1/250s @ f/10.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 195.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Blackberry Leaf
Date: 25-Jan-2005 Time: 1:27:34 PM Exp: 1/100s @ f/5.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 70.00mm Meter: Program Normal		This is one of the first pictures I took with my DSLR. I was walking through the Narbeck Wetland Sanctuary next to where I work in Everett, WA. I saw a lone blackberry leaf that had so far survived through winter. I liked the color and back lighting and this is the result. This is one I printed up large, framed, and hung in my kitchen.