Monthly Archives: June 2009

Pencil Shavings

June 29, 2009 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Pencil Shaving I, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

The shavings from a sharpened pencil, shown above and below, were almost discarded, but made an interesting pattern.

A little moisture made the shavings slightly transparent, and I photographed them on a light box for transparency using my 200mm macro lens augmented with a 36mm extension tube.

I couldn’t resist inverting the images and extending the spiral in Photoshop. This one really needs to be seen larger.

View this image larger.

Posted in Bemusements, Photography, Photoshop Techniques

More Grills Gone Wild

June 26, 2009 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

More Grills Gone Wild, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

In case the first Grills Gone Wild wasn’t enough…

Posted in Bemusements, Photography

Grills Gone Wild

June 24, 2009 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Grills Gone Wild, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is an abstraction based on the car grill shown below and Chrome, seen in my Car Show story.

I used the same digital darkroom techniques I used in my Oakland series.

View this image larger.

Posted in Photography

Eye

June 23, 2009 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Eye Study 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I keep trying to emulate Escher’s Eye. Which, as I might have expected, is harder than meets the, er, eye.

By the way, this lovely eye, sans the flower or skull, belongs to “Big Katie.” Who is only “big” in comparison to our little Katie Rose, whom she is helping us take care of this summer.

View this image larger.

Posted in Bemusements, Photography

Car Show

June 22, 2009 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Chrome, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

On Saturday I took Julian to the Classic Car Show on the Tiburon waterfront. It was lots of fun, and I enjoyed photographing the patterns and reflections in some of these chrome monsters, er, beautiful old machines. I wouldn’t be too surprised if I come up with some abstractions from the reflections when I have the time!

View this image larger.

Posted in Bemusements, Patterns, Photography

Lines

June 21, 2009 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Hill, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I’ve been thinking about lines in composition, and black & white. Here are two examples where both visual effects come into play.

Above: A fence divides the water utility (EBMUD) lands from the public park in East Bay, and a path follows the fence up the hill. You actually have to payan annual fee to hike on the EBMUD land, and they have their own private force policing this.

Below: How often do you see a sunset in black and white? It’s like seeing flowers in monochrome.

Watching this sunset fron the end of Point Reyes, I was surprised how contrast increased as the sunset progressed, and I realized there really is a simple compositional story here.

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Posted in Landscape, Photography, Point Reyes, Tilden Park

Self Portrait

June 19, 2009 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Self Portrait, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Inspired by Eye, a mezzotint by M.C. Escher, I created this self portrait with purple Clematis blossoms reflected in my eyes.

Phyllis persuaded me to put a flower rather than a skull in my pupils. You do have to look at the image in a larger size to see the flower.

Posted in Bemusements, Photography

Interstitial

June 18, 2009 by Harold Davis | 2 Comments

Interstitial, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I combined six different captures of these tiny water drops caught in a spider’s web to capture the range of light coming from behind the leaves that the web rested on. The effect reminds me of a Gustav Klimt painting.

Exposure data: 200mm f/4 macro lens, 66mm of combined extension tubes, six combined exposures at shutter speeds from 2 seconds to 15 seconds duration, f/32 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.

Recent water drop stories: Variegated Gladiolas; Papaver Drops; Water Drops category on Photoblog 2.0; my Water Drops set on Flickr.

Posted in Photography, Water Drops

Peek-a-boo

June 17, 2009 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Peek-a-boo. Where’s Katie? There’s Katie Rose!

Posted in Katie Rose, Kids

New Harold Davis Photo.Net Column

June 16, 2009 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

My new column, Focusing on What Matters, in my Becoming a More Creative Photographer series on Photo.Net is now online. Enjoy!

Previous article in the series: Expecting the Unexpected.

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Briefly noted: I took this shot of roses in our garden yesterday, June 15, to honor the fourth annual Nature Photography Day.

Posted in Photography, Writing

Point Reyes Twilight

June 14, 2009 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Point Reyes Twilight, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

In the LCD, this twilight view of Point Reyes looked like grey mush. Probably the fault of the auto white balance setting. Back home, I adjusted the color temperature to make the scene look more like its natural colors, and multi-RAW processed the image for a painterly effect.

22mm (33mm in 35mm terms); 8 seconds at f/4 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Point Reyes

Nigella Verso Reverso

June 11, 2009 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Nigella Verso Reverso, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is the Love-in-the-mist flower, Nigella damascena, recto and verso, on black.

Posted in Photography

Coming into Zion

June 10, 2009 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Coming into Zion, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Looking down at Zion Canyon, Utah in the bright spring sunshine, it was clear to me that I couldn’t create a single exposure that would capture the dynamic range from the deep, black shadows in the foreground to the white clouds in the background. So I made a number of different exposures at a constant aperture, bracketing the shutter speeds, and combined the different exposures by hand in Photoshop to create a single image with greater dynamic range than any one of the individual captures.

It was hard to concentrate on image making with the boys running around like maniacs on a rock platform with an unfenced thousand-foot exposure, but as you can see I managed.

22mm, three captures at shutter speeds between 1/200 of a second and 1/50 of a second; each capture at f/10 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Zion

Nigella Recto and Verso

June 8, 2009 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Nigella Recto, photo by Harold Davis.

This is the front and back (recto above, and verso below) of a small flower with an incredibly complex structure, a Negilla. The common name, which should be said mit feeling, is Love-in-the-mist.

I had absolutely no idea of photographing this flower from the back. But after photographing the front from the top down, I turned the flower over and saw that underneath it was more colorful, and even more complex, than from the front.

View this image larger.

By the way, you may be interested to see some of my work for sale, reproduced on canvas, as giclee prints on photo paper, or as giclee prints on Arch paper at PosterCartel.

Posted in Flowers, Photography

Katie Rose Swinging

June 7, 2009 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Katie Rose Swinging, photo by Harold Davis.

Katie Rose’s core muscle strength has improved to the point that she can enjoy swinging. Today was the first time she was able to hold herself upright in the swing at the playground—you can see she did so with great joy!

Posted in Katie Rose, Kids, Photography