These images use both cutting edge photographic techniques, digital painting adapted from my background as a painter, and software post-production to create images that are unique and uniquely different. I want viewers to experience the fabric of reality a little differently after they have viewed my images. What is real, and what is not? The answer is not so apparent, and we are only as good as our fantasies.

Harold Davis featured on See.Me.

Curled Epiphany © Harold Davis

My new book Creative Garden Photography is due out from Rocky Nook towards the end of the summer 2020. The book features garden photography from around the world, some of my best flower images and how they were made, and techniques for use in the field (the garden), close-up, and botanicals in the studio (light box, on black, etc). Phyllis and I are working hard on writing and designing this book, and we think it will be very beautiful (as well as practical and useful).

Here are two versions of a light box composition that I just made!

Light Box Study – Untitled © Harold Davis

Light Box Study – Inversion © Harold Davis

It’s mid-January, and that means springtime in Berkeley. Witness two iPhone photographs: the soles of Phyllis’s gardening shoes with dirt contrasting to the treads, and the gate to a neighbor’s lush garden. I am really excited this year as we have many Papavers to plant, small-sized and straight from the nursery. Hopefully, they’ll be in bloom when I get back from the Camino de Santiago towards the end of May, and voilà! My models will await me. 

Garden Gate © Harold Davis

Planting Shoes © Harold Davis

Here are our front stairs from last year with plantings:

Home © Harold Davis

Click here for my Workshops & Events; here for my Best of 2019; here for my blog; and here for a link to my reflections on my life in and out of photography!

I’ve updated my self-selected 2019 Best of Harold Davis selection with a few new images. These were either photographed or processed after I initially compiled the list. Since the selection is chronological, based on the date posted to my Flickr account, the new entries are at the end of the story.

Check out my complete 2019 best, including Old Schoolhouse Trail shown below, by clicking here.

And, a Happy New Year to one and all! Can’t we work our best towards building a better, more serene, and lovely world in the year to come rather than striving to tear each other down?

Along the Old Schoolhouse Trail © Harold Davis

About the image: I photographed Along the Old Schoolhouse Trail along the eponymous trail in the coastal range mountains above Kensington, California. I was hiking with a friend on a somewhat foggy day in November. What caught my eye was the way the old California oak trees seemed almost to be dancing with one another, like spirits of the forest frozen in time. 

With my camera on tripod, I waited until the breeze had stilled and I could be sure there were no other hikers or dog walkers. I made three exposures with my Nikon D850 and my 28-300 “walk-around” general purpose lens at 190mm. Each exposure was at f/22 and ISO 64, with exposure times of 3, 6, and 10 seconds.

As an editorial observation, I’d note that the great technicians of the black-and-white analog darkroom knew how to control and extend dynamic range with great results. Some of the same creative ideas they used, and some new ones, are required to fulfill the vision of making exciting digital imagery that also prints well. The technical expertise required is no longer that of the wet darkroom.

Knowing how to proceed in the digital darkroom means knowing how to work with software files in Photoshop and other digital post-production tool sets. It takes no less skill than the wet darkroom did, but the skills required are certainly different. You have to know the technical side of cameras and photography, and also how to work with software.

Most images available as prints. Please inquire. © Harold Davis. All rights reserved.

Falling Snow © Harold Davis

Best wishes from my family to you and yours for a wondrous and happy holiday!

Yosemite Snowstorm © Harold Davis