Author Archives: Harold Davis

Matilija Poppies and Mallows

Jun

2017

You got to love the Matilija Poppy, a California native, with its wonderful huge yellow center and puffy white petals. The poppies are of the Romneya genus (so are neither Papaver nor Eschscholzia), and grow on bushes from mid-California south into Mexico. In this image, I combined a central Matilija Poppy with some humble mallows, arranged in a crescent shape to create a subconscious sense of a circular sweep in the photo.

Matilija Poppy and Mallows © Harold Davis

Posted in Flowers, Photography

Secret Garden

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

I composed this image to emphasize the arch within an arch effect. In post-production, I carried through on the same visual idea by adding an outer frame with slightly rounded corners.

Secret Garden © Harold Davis

Posted in France, Monochrome

Special Snowflake

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Gaillardia Seed Pod – LAB Inversion © Harold Davis

No, this is not really a snowflake at all. It’s a macro photo of the seed pod of a Gaillardia (“blanket flower”) [below] and the all 3-channels LAB inversion of the seed pod [above].

But I find myself intrigued that the term “special snowflake” has become one of political opprobrium, particularly when addressed from the radical right towards a sensitive liberal. Yes, I love snowflakes in their amazing crystalline structures, and isn’t it wonderful that each and every one is different. It’s hard not to admire the miraculous wonder of nature when you look closely at snowflakes, or even when you just watch the snow fall.

What a peculiar insult it is, as it is actually quite a compliment.

So call me a Special Snowflake. I won’t mind at all!

Gaillardia Seed Pod © Harold Davis

Posted in Photography

Ladybird Poppy

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 2 Comments

Yesterday was a cool Father’s Day. I woke to freshly brewed coffee and cards from the kids. Then I went with Phyllis, my own wonder woman, to see the new Wonder Woman movie in 3-D. When we got home, this Ladybird Poppy from our garden had a new blossom, and I photographed it while listening to the Beatles.

Papaver commutatum ‘Ladybird’ © Harold Davis

Posted in Flowers, Photography

This Father Gives Thanks

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

On this Father’s Day, I want to give thanks for the miracle that is Katie Rose, and for all my kids. Thanks for my family. And thanks to all fathers who are there for their kids!

Katie Rose at about two months © Harold Davis

Katie Rose is Nine © Harold Davis

Posted in Photography

Through a Window with Selective Focus

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

With this rainy day abstraction, I focused carefully on a window wet with the incoming rain, and not on the colorful town beyond. I used a moderate telephoto setting (112mm) and a fairly wide aperture (f/5.6) to further visually separate the window from the scenery behind. I was standing close to the window, and focusing almost as close as the lens could go (about 30cm).

The point was to create a painterly abstract, which comes through when the image is seen in a large size. However, to get a sense of the actual, literal vista and the colorful houses and vegetation in the out-of-focus areas it is best to view the image on a postage stamp scale from a distance, and to squint!

if you are interested in using your camera to create abstract or semi-abstract images, there are many interesting techniques that should be in your toolkit. This example demonstrates the power of selective focus. Besides throwing an image out of focus (entirely, or selectively, or focusing on the “wrong” thing) some of the other most useful camera abstraction techniques are intentional camera motion, long exposure capture of moving subjects, and in-camera multiple exposing.

This image was photographed from a hallway in my hotel in Cat Ba, Vietnam, during a brief but heavy tropical downpour.

Rainy Day Abstraction, Vietnam © Harold Davis

Posted in Abstractions

Succulents

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Photographed with my iPhone camera, and processed in DistressedFX, Mextures, ImageBlender, and Snapseed.

Succulents © Harold Davis

Posted in iPhone

Son Doong Cave

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

The interior landscape of Son Doong Cave is ethereal and fantastic. Keep in mind that this mystical landscape is cloaked in darkness. The camera sees far more than the naked eye.

Son Doong Cave © Harold Davis

Parting of the Veil © Harold Davis

Entrance to the Secret Valley © Harold Davis

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Vietnam

Darkness into Light

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

This spring I visited and spent a number of days and nights in the world’s largest cave, in the jungle mountains of central Vietnam. Fewer people have been to the cave than have been into space. This was a journey of 6,000 miles to the other side of the world, and an arduous trek through the jungle, down precipices, and across narrow and high bridges in the darkness with water gurgling far below.

For me, the appeal of visiting the world’s largest cave was less to do with the “cavey things”, or even the varied landscapes and portals of the cave, and more to do with where one begins to see the light. In other words, this was a spiritual quest as all journeys are, or should be.

A core component of my quest was to peer into darkness and distinguish the void from the light, to attempt to examine this darkness and light in the context of the basic structure of photography, which is also about darkness and light.

Stalactites, stalagmites, and other geological wonders of the speleology are fine in their place. This is a landscape that is quite difficult to photograph traditionally in the absolute darkness of the void, and in the absence of logical markers of scale that we see in a more normal landscape. A challenge is always intriguing, but difficulties aside, the speleological features don’t interest me photographically.

What does appeal to me is the cave as metaphor, and metaphorical experience. From darkness we are born, sometimes easily and sometimes with difficulty, and emerge from the cave naked into the light.

Cave Shadows © Harold Davis

We struggle towards the light, and live with what we see in the shadows. At the other end another dark tunnel awaits, with who-knows-what on the other side.

Let There Be Light © Harold Davis

This is the story of our lives—with love, passion, and our journey from darkness to light. In the end, this reverses and we return to the void. At its best, a compelling image can help put us in touch with a piece of this journey. Always we must wonder: are we looking at reality, whatever that may be, or at a pale shadow, flickering on the walls of our cave?

Posted in Vietnam, Writing

Upcoming Flower Photography Workshops

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

We have two upcoming extended flower photography workshops this summer, one in Berkeley later this month, and one in Maine the first week of August:

Flower Photography Intensive: 4-Day Masterclass in Flower Photography—click here for details and registration, 4-day workshop in Berkeley, CA., June 22-25, 2017
Photographing Flowers for Transparency at Maine Media Workshop, July 31 – August 5, 2017; click here for details and registration.

Both workshops will be a great deal of fun, and cover my light box techniques as well as other topics (see the partial list below). If you are interested in my unique approaches, this is your chance: I do not expect to lead intensive flower photography workshops again for at least a year.

Flowering Dogwood & Friends © Harold Davis

Topics covered in each of these extended flower photography workshops will include:

Floral arrangement and composition
Botanical art in the digital era
Shooting florals in the field
Creative field techniques
Best practices in macro photography
Shooting flowers on a dark background
Shooting on a light box
Understanding high-key post-production
Working with Photoshop layers
High-key HDR
LAB color effects
Backgrounds and textures
Preparing to make floral pigment prints
Tips & techniques from Harold Davis
Implementing one’s own vision

Click here for current workshop offerings!

Kiss from a Rose © Harold Davis

Posted in Workshops

A Quartet of Peonies

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Posted in Flowers

Shameless Quote Department

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

“Harold Davis is the digital black and white equal of Ansel Adams’s traditional wet photography. Adams would be awed by Davis’s work. In The Photographer’s Black and White Handbook Davis presents a large number of his photographs, and virtually every one is a masterpiece, ready for gallery or museum exhibit.”—Seattle Book Review, rated five out of five stars and cross-posted in the San Francisco Book Review.

Click here for more “Shameless Quotes”, click here for monochromatic (black & white) images on my blog, and here for current workshop offerings.

Posted in Photography, Writing

Design for a Stained Glass Window Made of Flowers

Jun

2017

by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

To create this design for a stained glass window, I started by laying down a series of mallow blossoms in a loose spiral (the magenta flowers). Next, I filled in the reverse portion of the spiral with “two-week” iris blossoms, using the three-pronged stamen of the flower as a radial sub-pattern. Finally, I filled in most of the white spaces with “tiger-striped” petals from the alstromerias in our garden. Other than the alstromerias (“Peruvian Lilies”), the pattern is made up of California natives!

To reverse the pattern on a black background (below), I inverted the L-channel in LAB. As I’ll teach in my upcoming Flower Photography Intensive here in Berkeley and in Maine the first week of August, my technique is to then apply a curve adjustment to bring up the petals selectively. Next, I convert back to RGB, and selectively paste in the LAB three-channel inversion using the Exclusion blending mode.

Posted in Flowers, Photoshop Techniques

Church and Lighthouse on Gozo

May

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

This is a view of a church and lighthouse on Gozo, an island that is part of the Maltese archipelago of three islands. We photographed the view in the morning light before everything was too harsh. Gozo is a beautiful and laid back place where I think one could spend a fair amount of dreamy time wandering the cliffs above the Mediterranean. For some reason, there are a large number of out-of-scale and out-of-the-way big, fairly modern churches—like the one shown—in many places on Gozo.

I’m caught up in the rush of being home in California, photographing flowers, organizing future workshop and travel plans, and being with family. But I’m trying to go through my images from the past several months travel in Vietnam, France, Spain, and—yes!—Malta, and gradually process some of these images.

Special thanks to Paul, we could not have wished for a better photographic guide to Gozo. Gozo, the mythological Ogygia, home to Calypso in the Odyssey, is a place I really, really hope to visit again.

Posted in Landscape, Malta, Monochrome

Internship position available

May

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

We are looking for a hands-on intern with a serious interest in art and photography. The position will pay a modest stipend and/or garner academic credit (to be arranged depending on the individual situation). Please feel free to pass this post on if you know someone you think would be right!

Here’s are some more details:

Harold Davis Art & Photography, located in Berkeley, California, is the business arm representing Harold Davis, an internationally recognized artist and photographer whose work is exhibited, collected, and licensed widely. Harold Davis is an experienced and widely sought-after workshop leader, and the author of many books related to art and photography from publishers including Random House, Monacelli Press, and Focal Press. Our website is www.digitalfieldguide.com.

We seek an intern who is a self-starter, reliable, organized, and interested in hands-on art and photography. Primary duties will include assisting with printmaking, handmade artist book collation, work on studio design projects, and general studio duties. We are looking for an intern who can commit to ten hours per week. We are hoping that this internship will also qualify for academic credit, and to that end will supervise the interface between a creative project of the intern and real world implementation of said project.

Applicants should make contact by email with a resume, cover letter, brief statement of what they hope to get out of the internship, and (if available) a link to an online portfolio.