Sunset from Navajo Point, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Arriving at the south rim of the Grand Canyon just at sunset, we stopped at Navajo Point. I made this image using three captures combined in Photoshop, all captures tripod mounted at ISO 100 and f/11. The exposure times were .25 of a second, .3 of a second, and 1/6 of a second.

One of the tough things about the Grand Canyon is knowing how to frame this huge and wide “hole in the ground.” Certainly, a panorama is a good possibility, but if you don’t go that route you need to make a composition that is attractive to the eye and has some boundaries. I tried to achieve that here, using a moderate wide angle and the glimpse of the Colorado River to create a meandering path for the eye to wander.

One easy thing: there’s no “canyon conundrum” here. Highly saturated colors are quite distinct in the image, as they were “being there.”

We were planning to camp, but by the time I finished photography it was pitch dark, and there were no spaces in the park campground. Leaving the park, the kids began to understand the meaning of “tourist trap” as we got the last available room just outside the park boundary on the way back towards Flagstaff.

Purple Cactus Flower B, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

The problem was that, with Katie Rose, we were now six and our vehicles only fit five. I flew into Phoenix with Julian and Nicky over their spring break. The plan was to visit with Phyllis’s mom, and then drive home in the van that had belonged to her dad, Ken Hopper. Phyllis’s mom was generously giving us the van. The boys and I would camp and photograph on the way home.

Once home, the van would become our people mover and ark, and would provide space for the entire menagerie that is my family.

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Near Phoenix, the cactus flowers were in bloom. I’m told that these particular purple flowers can only be seen a few days a year. I photographed them in the late afternoon light while the boys played with their grandma.

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Stochastic Printing, photo by Harold Davis.

Hi-Lites Magazine, published by the Lithographers Club of Chicago to aid growth and knowledge for the printing industry, is running my Papaver and Shadow as the cover of the current issue. The cover demonstrates the use of stochastic printing. It also features a subtle spot varnish on my flower, but not the rest of the image.

Stochastic printing, also called Frequency Modulation (FM) screening, uses dots that are all the same size but varies their density to create an image that is closer to continuous tone than conventional halftone processes. The distribution of the density of the dots is to some degree random, hence the reference to a stochastic process.

There are some significant advantages to stochastic printing compared to conventional printing. However, stochastic printing relies on extremely meticulous press work, and can in some situations show too much detail; for example, flesh tones can show imperfections. The process works best with imagery that starts with a very high native resolution.

I think my image looks great on this cover!

Related story: Hexachrome Color.