William Hood [wmhoodphoto]
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Bill HoodBIOGRAPHY
I began to seriously take pictures in 1988 when I "discovered" amateur astronomy. Astrophotography now usually referred to as "astroimaging" is a highly technical endeavor regardless of the chosen capture media--film or digital CCD. Each deep space image requires many minutes, even hours of exposure for the image to build up. This requires a sturdy telescope mount and an accurate "guiding" system to track the object while the Earth rotates. Once the image is captured it needs to be coaxed from the raw file or film frame to bring out the wonderful detail and colors. Very time consuming but extremely rewarding. Some of the best "amateur" work these days is being done by artists such as Rob Gendler, Billy Sally Fletcher, and Tony Hallas to name a few.
Over the years, I've been honored to have many images published in magazines such as "Astronomy" and "Sky Telescope". My astro work was even showcased in an article in the Ukraine publication of "Digital Photo". However, since I live in a suburb of Los Angeles, I have to drive over 100 miles to get to a site dark enough to capture the deep space images, and because of my teaching responsibilities it makes it difficult these days to get out there as much as I'd like. Most of my current photography centers around my other passions such as, snowboarding, hiking vacations with my girlfriend and action shots of the college men's baseball team where I assist. I also post an almost daily image on my Facebook page listed under "Bill Hood". Feel free to contact me with questions or comments, technical and otherwise.
Country: US