Bill Atkinson, dies at 74

[digitaldog]

Very sad news to report. Bill Atkinson, a pioneering early Apple engineer, dies at 74. Bill was a fabulous photographer, color geek, and a friend. His contributions to the Macintosh and all of computer technology were exceptional. He was a very kind and generous man who would always answer questions on any topic. His Photo book, “Within The Stone,” was groundbreaking in its printing technique. Unless you are lucky enough to see it in person, the quality of both the photography and printing is indescribable. RIP Bill, you will be missed.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/06/07/bill-atkinson-pioneering-early-apple-engineer-dies-at-74?utm_medium=rss

Bills work can be seen here: https://billatkinson.com

[Rob C]

Thank you for the information, sad as it is.

Yes, looking through his website the photography is beautiful - as, to me, is the look of the website design itself. How nice it must be to have those skills.

I notice the information in the site says that the work is on film: do you know if he used digital cameras later on too, or if he wasn’t very much interested in them as tools?

His name was familiar to me, and I think that might be because of exposure here, during Michael’s tenure as head of LuLa, that gave me the initial introduction to his work. Again, sad to see good people pass on.

Rob C

[digitaldog]

Bill used a Betterlight scanning back, too.

Bill began photographing polished rocks in 1999, using a Hasselblad 205FCC camera, a 135mm Zeiss Makro-Planar lens mounted on bellows, Broncolor studio strobes equipped with diffusers and polarizing filters, and Fujichrome Velvia film. He scanned the resulting transparencies on a Heidelberg Tango drum scanner.
To achieve finer image detail and more accurate color, Bill now photographs polished rocks with a BetterLight Super 6K-2 large-format scanning digital camera; Altman Star Par CDM lighting fixtures equipped with heat shields, diffusers, and polarizing filters; and a 120mm Schneider Makro-Symmar HM lens mounted on a Nikon Multiphot stand, to which he has added a sliding head from a Polaroid MP4 macro system.

To capture colors accurately, Bill gray-balances the BetterLight camera with a digital gray card, and creates custom ICC camera profiles using a GretagMacbeth Color Checker DC target and digital camera profiling software. To preserve these colors as he works with the photographs, Bill calibrates and makes accurate profiles for each of his computer displays and printers.

[Chris Kern]

Bills work can be seen here: https://billatkinson.com

Thanks for posting this link.  Some exceptional work there—and it was very generous of him to allow visitors to his site to download high-resolution copies of his images:

For those interested in printing at home, high-resolution images are available for download directly from the Gallery page. Simply click on any image you like to open the full view, then use the download button in the top-right corner to save it to your device.

I didn't know Atkinson personally, but I was aware he was a member of the entourage that accompanied Steve Jobs to Xerox PARC in 1979, where they were introduced to the ideas that led to the software design of the Apple Lisa and Macintosh computers, and which were subsequently adopted by all the other platforms we use today for end-user computing.  I wasn't aware of his lifelong interest in photography, or that aspect of his obviously considerable talents.

The New York Times has published an obituary by (retired) technology reporter John Markoff that understandably focuses primarily on his contributions to modern computing software.

[langier]

May Bill's memory be eternal!

Years ago, he figured out how to control the Epson 7600/9600 printers to tame their output and made WYSIWYG color output then gave out the profiles for free. That was just the start... his work helped tame the next generation of Epson Printers and laid the foundation for me and others enjoying inkjet printing. He was among many including the late Bruce Frasier, George Lepp, Mac Holbrook, Andrew Rodney and many others who continue to share the knowledge.

I was fortunate to meet him at our ASMP NorCal meetings a few times and learn the basics of producing canvas and gallery-wrap printing which still serves me well. He was very generous in the sharing of his experience, expertise and skills hopefully, we can do the same with those walking in our footsteps.

[ned]

I’m sad to hear this news. One of his interviews with Michael on this site—about how he cut his mats and framed his images—was my introduction to matting my own prints. I’ll always be grateful for him sharing that knowledge. Just last year, I stumbled upon one of his prints for sale locally. I snapped it up, and it now hangs in my living room.

Rest in peace, Bill.