I’ll be appearing at Black Oak Books in the Berkeley gourmet ghetto on Saturday, December 6 2008 at 7PM. Please join me.

Image shown in the poster: Spirals.

Noted photographer and writer Harold Davis presents his work in an informal context. He’ll read from his books and show photographic prints, talk about photography and life, and answer questions.

Harold Davis is a professional photographer and writer whose work has been widely published and collected. His most recent books are The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite & the High Sierra (Countryman/WW Norton), Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers (O’Reilly Media), and 100 Views of the Golden Gate (Wilderness Press). Harold’s current artistic interests include night photography, the use of color in composition, and creative post-processing of digital imagery.

Black Oak Books 1491 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709 (510) 486-0698

Back by popular demand! Harold Davis presents his work and demystifies night photography. If you missed the last Harold Davis night photo webcast, here’s your chance. If you attended the last webcast, we’ve got new and improved audio, and here’s your chance to ask anything you’ve thought of since last time.

Secrets of Digital Night Photography Webcast

When: Tuesday, December 2 at 11AM Pacific Time
Where: At your computer anywhere
Cost: It’s free!
Registration: Registration is limited. Here’s the link for pre-registration

Update: View the replay on YouTube.

From time to time I repost from my archives. This is a reposting of images and a story originally published in July 2006.

The force that through the green fuse, photo by Harold Davis. View this photograph larger.

I get asked all the time how I make my water drop photos. For example:

I’ve seen many of your photographs and am really impressed with all the water drops. I’d like to know how you do it, and specifically what lens you use.

There really is no one answer to this question. Water drop photography is macro photography with some subject-matter specific difficulties. Macro photography in and of itself is one of the most technically difficult kinds of photography because once you get really close to a small object inherently shallow depth-of-field, precise focus, and motion—even the slightest motion—are all issues that can defeat a photograph, no matter how beautiful it would be otherwise.

What makes water drop photography a bit more difficult than run-of-the-mill photography of very small subjects is the extreme reflectivity of a water drop and the fact that a water drop is in almost constant motion (read more about these issues here).

In this story, I’ll address the equipment I use—and tackle some of the other technical issues related to water drop photography in future stories.

I use Nikon digital SLR equipment, right now a Nikon D200 body. As far as I am concerned, there’s no saying this is any better than any other brand, it is just what I happen to use. (For example, Canon is probably just as good.)

It’s also worth saying upfront that one can take perfectly good macro photographs with relatively primitive equipment provided the camera has a macro mode. For example, check out this photo of wedding rings that I took with a Canon Powershot G3. To get good results, you do need to be sure you are using a tripod, and know how to get the maximum depth-of-field from the camera.

My macro lens are a Nikon 200mm f/4 (used with the photograph above), a Nikon 105mm f/2.8 (the older, non-VR model), and a Sigma 50mm f/2.8. I often use Kenko extension tubes (I have two sets) with these lenses. I prefer these to the Nikon extension tubes because they retain automatic exposure in Aperture-preferred mode. Besides the extension tubes, I have close-up filters for these lenses, a lens reversal mount for the 105mm lens, and a Nikon PK-6 bellows.

I always focus macro lenses manually, and I use a magnifying eye piece for added precision.

I sometimes handhold macro shots with extension tubes and/or close-up lens and a VR (vibration reduction, also called image stabilization) zoom lens, like my 18-200mm Nikon zoom. (Here’s a photo taken with this technique.)

But most of the time I use one of my macro lenses, and these are invariably tripod shots, most often at the maximum possible depth-of-field, using mirror lock-up and the Nikon MC-36 remote to trigger the shutter.

I think my tripod is probably my most important piece of equipment. It is likely to outlast my D200, and probably most of the lenses I currently use as well. My tripod is a carbon-fiber Gitzo MK-2, which combines light weight with strength and agility.

To strobe or not to strobe, that is the question. Using flash as a light source with water drops replaces the natural light source with that created by the strobe (read more about this). When I do use flash with water drops, I use the Nikon wireless R1 close-up kit, which includes two Nikon wireless remote SB-R200 units. I also sometimes use a SU-800 unit connected via wireless to supply additional ambient light.

Leaving the hardware of photography aside for a second, my title for the photograph that started this story is “The force that through the green fuse,” after the Dylan Thomas poem. Here’s the first stanza of the poem:

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

My point being: that at its best, photography of water drops, like all good art, is about the creative life force, the urges that make us live, breath, yearn and die. A powerful force runs through each water drop, but all too soon (from the photographer’s viewpoint) each drop ends in falling or evaporation, with new worlds to live or die wherever one’s lens is pointed next. Water drop photography is about capturing the brief life of an ephemeral and tiny world.

When Stars Wake, photo by Harold Davis.

As twilight fades to true night the stars wake. First, a few stars start to appear as pin pricks of light on a somewhat luminous background. As dark blue begins to fade to the black of night, a five minute exposure like this one will make the stars manifest themselves, trails and all.

[Nikon D300, 12-24mm zoom lens at 22mm (33mm in 35mm terms), 300 seconds at f/16 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]