This image is a pretty straightforward x-ray of a rather small Dahlia blossom. Julian and I made the exposure last week at his radiology practice near Heidelberg. In post-production, I converted to LAB color. Next, I used a series of curve adjustments to equalize the various densities in the image. Long live the Dahlia!
Dahlia X-Ray © Harold Davis
As summer becomes full and the days of July rush by, the dahlias are in bloom. Each dalia is different, a unique world unto itself. Some of them remind me of deep sea creatures, strangely beached into the garden.
Do Flowers Come from the Sea? © Harold Davis
For me, the question with dahlias in their infinite variety and explosion of color is where to begin—and how can I ever stop photographing them?
Dahlia Daze © Harold Davis
Dahlias in a Tray © Harold Davis
Inversion: Do Flowers Come from the Sea? © Harold Davis
It seems there are many ways to create art with dahlias, starting with a photo (click here for a keyword search on my website). However you count the ways, I love them one and all! Dahlias have zest, and they give me zest for living.
In the pre-dawn cool I walked around the house and down to our dahlia bed in the side yard. There was one perfect white blossom. I cropped it, and placed it in a vase, ready for its turn as a star in front of my camera after breakfast. I tried the traditional poses, and laid it flat on the light box, but when all is said and done this somewhat unconventional side view of petals works best for me.
Perfect Dahlia Day © Harold Davis
Dahlias are, of course, a favorite flower of mine to photograph. Click here for more.
Here are three version of a light box image of a white dahlia from my cutting garden, photographed back in June. The simple monochromatic conversion is shown on top. Next, you’ll see an L-channel LAB inversion of the black & white light box version. The color version of my image is shown at the bottom.
White Dahlia Inversion © Harold Davis
White Dahlia © Harold Davis
Brookside-Snowball Dahlia © Harold Davis
Related story: Dahlia Solos.
My Dahlia bed is starting to bloom, providing some very sweet subjects for solo flower portraits!
Brookside-Snowball Dahlia © Harold Davis
Dahlia ‘Southern Belle’ © Harold Davis
Dahlia ‘Flip-Flop’ © Harold Davis
It is funny how close and closer a flower, such as a Dahlia, can take on abstract appearance so the original flower shape becomes forgotten. So in this Dahlia I see distant mountains, or a mouth with teeth, or a deepening well, and so on, and patterns galore. Or, maybe that is just my visual imagination run riot! One needs to do something to entertain oneself during longish photo exposures.
Misty Mountains © Harold Davis
Exposure data (both): Nikon D850, 150mm f/2.8 Irix “Dragonfly” telephoto macro, 50mm extension tube, f/22 at ISO 64, tripod mounted; 20 seconds exposure duration (above) and 15 seconds exposure duration (below). Both images were lit using controlled sunlight (from the left side) via window shades.
Young Dahlia © Harold Davis
Eye Dahlia © Harold Davis
Sometimes individual flowers call out to me as so unique that I need to photograph them on their own. This rather small dahlia, photographed at the Endless Summer Dahlia Farm, made me think it I had an eye with a pupil in the center. I used my 50mm Zeiss macro with a 24mm extension tube, both on my tripod, to get close while rendering the detail well.
The Endless Summer Dahlia Farm, in Rockport, Maine, is an incredible place run by nice folks with very exceptional dahlias. Here are a few, photographed the other day.
Dahlia at the Endless Summer Farm © Harold Davis
Orange Dahlia © Harold Davis
Dahlia Fusion X-Ray Inversion © Harold Davis
Dahlia Fusion X-Ray © Harold Davis
This Dahlia was photographed on a light box for transparency, then captured via x-ray photography. The two capture techniques were combined in Photoshop. In the upper version, there is also an L-channel inversion in LAB color.
I worked with my friend Julian Kopke, who is a medical doctor, radiologist, and a physicist to create these images.
This technique is also shown here, and with a Sunflower.
Two Dahlias in black and white, photographed on the light box (above) and as an extreme macro (below).
Black Dahlia © Harold Davis
Dahlia Doodles © Harold Davis
Today my class went to photograph a Dahlia Farm. I love these flowers because each one is unique, and because they are so colorful (even when I do convert to monochrome, see the image below!).
Pink Dahlia © Harold Davis
Variegated Dahlia © Harold Davis
White Dahlia © Harold Davis
In what is almost a starfish of the land, this purple Dahlia is wonderfully asymmetric and spiral-like. Related image: Dahlia.
Purple Dahlia © Harold Davis
Yesterday I photographed my dahlias on a literal table (the term “table-top photography” can sometimes be a bit figurative), using sunlight, a telephoto macro lens, and a low-to-the-ground tripod to make portraits of the petals.
Dahlia Petals Purple © Harold Davis
Dahlia Petals Red Yellow © Harold Davis
Dance of the Seven Dahlia Petals © Harold Davis
Are you an experienced photographer who enjoys photographing flowers? If so, you might consider my Flower Photography Intensive: 4-Day Masterclass in Flower Photography, scheduled for June 2017 in Berkeley, CA. We will explore some of the advanced nuances of light box photography for floral transparency, and work on flower photography in the field and studio. Click here for more information and registration.
It’s great to be home and back with my family. I got back late last night, and spent the day catching up with correspondence and projects, and getting reacquainted with some deadlines. But I did take a little time out to photograph some beautiful dahlias.
Dahlia © Harold Davis
The flower shown here was photographed on a black velvet background with my Nikon D810, the 85mm f/1.4 Zeiss Otus with a 12mm extension tube, at one second, f/16, ISO 64, using a tripod. The flower was illuminated with natural light, meaning cloudy but bright sunlight. I processed the image in Adobe Camera RAW, and made a few adjustments in Photoshop.
The basis for this image is a photo I made today during a field trip with my Creative Flower Photography workshop here in Rockport, Maine at the Maine Media Workshops. We paid a visit to the wonderful Endless Summer Dahlia Farm, which markets tubers (bulbs) to “dahlia addicts” across the country. What a great privilege to be able to photograph in this stunning and serene place!
Mandahlia: Dahlia Mandala © Harold Davis
