P#17: A Dramatic Shot of Half Dome Illustrates a Unique Perspective

Different Perspectives

Bill Neill: This shot is a picture of Half Dome. It was taken in Yosemite in 1990. A winter storm had just cleared off and the sky to the west, which is behind me, had opened up. I got down into the meadow with a lot of other photographers.

I was mostly attracted to the tree and the dark clouds behind it that set the scene with dramatic light. I like it because Half Dome and a sense of the valley is all visible there, but it's kind of a second note. The key note is the tree in the dramatic late afternoon light, a balanced half dome kind of in a diagonal position off to the side of the tree. (click the image for a larger version)

I never noticed it until seeing the photograph but they sort of have a similar shape to them as well, which is weird.

Audri Lanford: It's really interesting because this is such a great example of, we were talking earlier about how Half Dome has obviously been photographed a gazillion times. Yet this is a completely unique picture of it. The image is so gorgeous. The tree is just so striking -- the light is so beautiful.

Bill Neill: There were several other photographers I knew out there photographing at the same time. Their photographers are very different, their interpretations are not quite the same. Even faced with being in a group of photographers, it worked out well.

In Summary

Even with numerous photographers shooting the same thing, a shot of a landscape can still be unique. That's what Bill Neill proved with this beautiful shot of Half Dome.