Dave Hill Photo

Digital SLR magazine article

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:20:21 PST

I just got some copies of an article that Digital SLR magazine just did on the Adventure Series (March, 2010 issue). It looks great! It's a UK-based magazine, but should be available in bigger bookstores here in the states. They ran all 6 photos, along with an interview, composite breakdowns, and for the last shot in the series, about 8 of the raw files used in making it. Enjoy!

ps- I'm sorry I didn't make my December 09 release day for Part II of the series. Hopefully they will be done in March!

Twitter

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:21:12 PST

I can't believe i'm doing this.....

www.twitter.com/davehillphoto

Dr. Ralph H. Didier - 1927-2010

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:45:56 PST

My grandfather Ralph just passed away about an hour ago. He was a pastor almost his entire life (besides some time in the army). He spent 25 years as the founder and head of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Orange, CA. I was very lucky to have 30 years with him. From shooting guns and riding motorcycles in the desert as a kid, to trips to Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and Hawaii in later years, we had a lot of great times together. Some of my favorite memories were just sitting at the breakfast table with he and my grandma, discussing theology or the latest newspaper headlines. Ralph was such a unique mix of a rugged world traveler and of a tender, compassionate man, who loved his wife, family, and Jesus up to his last breath. He was truly an inspiration to me, and will be missed dearly. I love you Grandpa!

2009 - Leica M6 - Fuji Neopan 1600

Chad Brannon - 11.13.09

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:40:20 PST

Leica M6 - Fuji Acros 100
(i used lights on this one, I cheated. sorry.)

Key West, FL - 2am - 10.30.09

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:44:45 PST

Mamiya 7 - Fuji Acros 100

Tahoe Road Trip - 10.23.09

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:30:15 PST

Some friends and I drove to Lake Tahoe for the weekend. I documented....

Leica M6 - Fuji Acros 100 + 400

Petru, Ghian, Kris - Mojave Mineshaft

Petru, Ghian, Kris - Mojave Mineshaft Entrance

Food on the 395

Petru awake

Petru 15 minutes later

Taylor Creek Salmon viewing

Ghian and Ringo

Cliche trees

Tehachapi, CA - My 30th Birthday

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:20:51 PST

Demaree surprised me with an intro flying lesson for my 30th birthday at the Santa Monica Airport! Afterwards, we drove to Tehachapi, had some lunch, and drove around. Fun day!
30 sucks though.

Mamiya 7 - Fuji Acros 100

Girl on an Adventure - Part II "The Depths"

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:07:53 PDT

Arriving December 2009

Saddleback Butte and the San Grabriels - 10.4.09

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:19:27 PDT

Bronica SQ-Ai - 6x6 - Fuji Acros 100 and 400 - red filter on some

Bad Call 2

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:02:48 PDT

So I decided it would be cool to super-clamp my 5D2 to my motorcycle with a 15mm fisheye. It lasted the entire day with no problems (except that I probably need some sort of dampened camera mount to control the nasty jitter). Unfortunately while we were driving home on the freeway, I hit a decent size bump and "woosh!", the entire front element of the fisheye flew off behind us. What a waste.

Bye Bye Fisheye from Dave Hill on Vimeo.

Kris and Petru, Alejandro's, Carlsbad

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:28:12 PDT

Norco Rodeo

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:27:35 PDT

Dad

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:10:02 PDT

Airplane window

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:03:56 PDT

Why is it that I still get excited looking out the window in airplanes? If it's clear out, I spend most of every flight with my face mashed against the window. This past month, I flew to Orlando for a WWE shoot and then to Nashville, for my brother Brad's wedding. Both flights had some incredible views and I happened to have a pile of cameras in my lap (seriously, the people sitting next to me thought I was a little boy.) Here is a mixture of 35mm and 6x7 from the window of my Southwest airlines flights.

Click HERE for the gallery.

3D!

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:28:22 PDT

Some of you may have noticed the dual-camera setup in the Adventure series behind-the-scenes video. I bought a second 28mm lens and borrowed a friend's Canon 5D and shot the girl and her motorcycle with stereo cameras.

I was watching Spy Kids 3D a few months back, and thought to myself... that could easily be done with still photography! I went online to see that lots of people are already doing this, and there are some point and shoot cams that take stereo 3D images. But mostly the images are of still-life objects, so I decided to experiment with people for a few weeks until I got the distances down. After I felt somewhat confident, I busted out the rig for 1 of the 6 Adventure shots. I wish I had shot them all that way now!

So far, this is the only setup I've shot in 3D, and I haven't done the composite that way, just the original shot. (still trying to figure out how on earth to do a composite in 3D, even cloning out a pole in both shots looks awful in 3d)

Anyway, click HERE to see the image large! (you will need a pair of red/blue stereo glasses, or some colored gels)

Bad Call

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:09:57 PDT

So as I was flying back from my brother's wedding in Nashville this past Monday, I got some nice views of Lake Powell, AZ and Monument Valley, UT. It really made me want to go to the desert to shoot. When I got home I asked everyone I knew to see if they wanted to make a spontaneous trip. I had no takers. (Demaree was still in Nashville.)

So I decided I'd take the bike and head out solo. I chose Death Valley as the destination since it was supposed to be 122 degress and I thought it would be cool to experience such heat.... I was wrong.

The trip out, in the late evening, was actually very nice. I drove north of Baker, CA about 30 miles. I didn't pass anyone the entire way. I then took a 10 mile dirt road off the the southern end of Death Valley. (10miles off-road on a street motorcycle in July in Death Valley, by myself, probably wasn't too smart)

I set up camp, no one in site, and tried to sleep. It was a low of 94 degrees, and with a strong wind, it felt like I was sleeping next to a large heater. Awful. I sweat all night and didn't sleep a wink on my walmart cot. At least the stars and milky way were amazing. I got up to the sunrise 5 hours later at 5am.

The first few hours of daylight was pleasant. Only around 105 out, saw the dumont dunes, then made my way into the bottom of Death Valley. It was about 113-115 when I made it to the lowest spot. I really wanted to experience 122, but waiting another 5 hours until 3pm just didn't sound fun.

I made my way up and out of the park, and drove straight home. I began to get really tired and the 105-110 heat for 6-7 hours really wore me out. I only shot one roll of film, and was in a horrible mood when I finally got home the next day.

I learned my lesson. Riding motorcycles in the desert in July really isn't too fun. Ewan McGregor... I salute you!

Click HERE for a small gallery.

The Valley

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:22:17 PDT

A lot of people like to make fun of those who live in the San Fernando Valley (including myself a few years back), but now that I live here, I love it! So much closer to the desert, much less traffic, and amazing AC! The Westside is soooo 2003! haha. It was a nice hot day today, so I took the bike out to the mojave, and then spent the evening at the beach with Demaree.

New Website and Blog!

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:12:15 PDT

Wow. It's really been so long since I've updated my website. Thanks to Drew Wilson at valioinc.com, I have a new site with some great new functionality. Also, thanks to my wife for putting up with the many 15 hour days I've been spending trying to get this new work completed. I have spent the past year really trying to change my style. Of course some of the old classics are still up on the site, but I've now added a personal section, devoted to natural-light B/W shots. I also did some digital-composite personal projects as well, and had a blast in the process. It's nice to be able to shoot exactly what I want to shoot sometimes! Each image on the site now has info about the subject, film/camera info (b/w shots), and Google map links to where I shot the picture (or sometimes where the backgrounds were shot.)

Anyway, thanks for visiting the new site. I will be updating the images and this blog frequently, so stay tuned!

Dave