Frank O'Neill

Half Dome
circular polarizer, 2 step & 1 1/2 step neutral density filter and a Cokin Sepia
Half Dome in Yosemite National State Park in CA. This shot was taken at an elevation almost equal to Half Dome it's self, 8848 feet (2696.9 m); the valley floor is at approximately 4000 feet (1220 m).
It was hot! Really hot and we drove our rental Mustang to the top of a near by mountain. I took over 30 rolls of film from this location and this shot was taken from a tripod with a circular polarizer, 2 step & 1 1/2 step neutral density filter and a Cokin Sepia toned filter. There was heat lightning flashing across the mountain and I wanted to darken the lens as much as I could to get a slow exposure to get the lightning on film. I did get it on several other shots but they never looked as good as this shot did.

Sun Bird
graduated blue filter on the bottom and a  graduated red filter on the top
Ocean City, NJ, near the bay. This was my last day of a week long trip to the beach and the weather had been very disappointing so I thought I'd jazz things up with a few filters and see what I could do. I took over 72 pictures at this spot and was about to pack it up, being very disappointed with the slow moving boat and the nuclear power plant billowing out smoke and waste in the background. Then I saw a seagull flying around near the water, I then asked my friend to chuck some food(French Fries) in the air to the bird. None of this worked to get the bird in the frame of the picture. Then I slapped the Slick tripod legs together and startled the bird and she started flying around and I quickly set up again and shot this picture.
This shot won 2nd place at the York Interstate Fair

Spider!
102 Close up X2
This picture was taken in Margate or Avalon NJ around 1987. I was staying with a friend down the shore and I spotted this guy(or girl?) outside the front door in a big web(very big), this sucker was about an inch in size! So I whipped out my camera.
How the shot was taken: I set up a flash off camera under the spider and a soft flash set to 3/4 power with a diffuser over top the spider. The shutter speed is unrecorded(maybe synched at 125) but the F stop was a good 5.6. I placed a 2X Cokin enlarging filter on the end of the lens. Most zoom lens that say macro really are not and special steps need to be taken in order to get really close up pictures of flowers and bugs. The camera was hand held and I held my breath for what seemed like forever. I made my friend wait until I was done taking pictures(he/she was in front of the door after all) and then we were able to get in.
This photo won 3rd place at the York Interstate Fair 9/2000.


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The photos shown on this page are the ownership of Photographer Frank O'Neill and are not to be distributed in any way which may or may not  violate his copyright without permission from Frank O'Neill