Monthly Archives: March 2011

Calla Lily

Calla Lily

Briefly noted: I photographed this Calla Lily for suppleness and curvature, like a cello or a woman’s body, using a long (300mm) focal length stacked with 68mm of extension tubes.

Posted in Flowers, Photography

Ruth Glacier, Alaska

Ruth Glacier, Alaska

This is a shot of Ruth Glacier in the Alaska Range on the approach to Denali. The glacier stretches 50-100 miles into the distance, a great superhighway of rock and ice.

I shot it in the 1980s from a small airplane. I have a feeling that it would seem considerably diminished today.

I remember the feeling of the wind whipping through my hair, as I enjoyed the incredible landscape—the visual equivalent of heroic symphonic music.

The image was scanned from a 35mm Kodachrome slide.

Posted in Landscape, Photography

Reading a Kindle Book on Your iPhone or iPad

Amazon makes it very clear that no actual Kindle device is required; that you can download Kindle reader versions for your Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, or other mobile device for free—and then read Kindle books on your device-that-is-not-a-Kindle without having to actually buy a Kindle. However, the Amazon directions for how to do this aren’t very specific (or at least I haven’t been able to find clear directions). As a newbie Kindle e-Book publisher, I’ve been surprised at how many emails I’ve received from people wanting to read my Kindle e-Books on their iPhone or iPad—but unable to figure out how. It’s pretty easy. So here goes.

Eros: Sensual Portraits

First, with your iPhone or iPad go to the App Store and find the free Kindle app for your device (the easiest way to find it is to search for “Kindle” in the App Store). Install the Kindle app for your iPhone or iPad respectively (note, the Kindle apps are listed as published by AMZN Mobile LLC).

Open the Kindle app. Tap the Home button to go the main Kindle screen (if you are not already there). On the app’s Home screen you’ll see a little round i icon—for “Information”—on the lower right. Tap it. The Info menu will open.

On the Info menu, select Settings. The Settings menu will open. On the Settings menu, choose Register this device. When prompted, provide your Amazon login and password, and give the device a name you choose, for example “Harold Davis’s iPhone”.

Now that your device has been associated with Amazon account, assuming you have wireless connectivity you can buy a Kindle book, download it, and start reading it right away. To do this, go back to the Home screen, and tap Shop in Kindle Store in the upper right.

In addition, when you first buy a Kindle book—possible using your Mac or Windows PC—you can choose to download it to your iPhone or iPad using the drop-down Deliver to menu under the Buy Now button on the right side of the screen.

But suppose you’ve previously bought a Kindle book such as my Eros: Sensual Portraits and are trying to figure out how to get it over to your mobile device?

Make sure you are logged into your Amazon account. Click Your Account to manage your account. Scroll down to the Digital Content area and click Manage Your Kindle.

In the Manage Your Kindle window scroll down until you see Your Orders. Each Kindle order you’ve made is shown with a little plus icon next to it, as you can see in the figure.

Figure 1: Each of your Kindle orders are shown in the Your Kindle Orders list.

Click the plus icon to expand the Kindle order. You can now use the drop-down list to send your Kindle e-Book to any mobile device you have registered—such as your iPhone or iPad—as you can see in Figure 2.

Figure 2: When you expand an item in the list of Kindle e-Books you have ordered, you can send it to your iPhone or iPad.

Finally, I don’t like to run a story on my blog without a photo, and an iPhone photo seems appropriate to this one, so here’s a shot of mirrors and doors taken from the bathroom of our “family room” at Yosemite Lodge during our recent visit to the valley:

Doors and Mirrors

Posted in Software Reviews

Julian and Katie Rose

Julian and Katie Rose

Wherever you go, there you are. If you have an iPhone there you are with a fairly decent camera. A fairly decent camera with some interesting features. Great for photographing Julian and Katie Rose on our way down to the playground this evening.

Posted in iPhone, Katie Rose, Kids, Photography

Cheat Sheet: Digital Black & White

The idea behind our new Cheat Sheet series of e-Publications is that they will do three things for you in a simple and inexpensive way. Each Cheat Sheet takes a specific area of digital photography—this first one covers Black & White. If you need a refresher course, the Cheat Sheet will give you a quick overview of the topic. In the field—perhaps using the Kindle reader on your iPhone—the Cheat Sheet provides a checklist of things you should remember. Finally, you can use the links in the cheat sheet to find more information about the topic.

Each Cheat Sheet sells for 99 cents. You have to go to a Dollar Store to find anything else this cheap.

Cheat Sheet: Digital Black & White includes an example photo, a checklist, and commonly asked questions and answers.

Cheat Sheet: Digital Black & White

Here’s the product description on Amazon: Best-selling author and award-winning photographer Harold Davis gives you the low-down on creating great black and white images with a checklist and Q & A that you can take with you anywhere.

Each Harold Davis photography Cheat Sheet is intended to provide you succinct information about a specific topic when and where you need it. You can use this Cheat Sheet in several ways. The Cheat Sheet provides an overview of everything you need to know about a photographic topic if you need to refresh your memory. In addition, you can use a Cheat Sheet in the field as a check list to make sure you haven’t forgotten an important aspect of a specific kind of digital photography.

Each Cheat Sheet includes a photo case study, a checklist for use in the field, and the most common questions and answers regarding the specific photographic topic.

Compiled and written by master photographer and author Harold Davis, and extensively field-tested, you will find each Cheat Sheet an invaluable addition to your photographic arsenal.

Did you know that it’s easy to read a Kindle book on your Windows PC, Mac OS-X, iPad, or almost any other device? There’s no cost for downloading the readers for these platforms.

We’ve now published three straight-to-Kindle e-Books: Besides Cheat Sheet: Digital Black & White the photo love poem Eros: Sensual Portraits is our second straight-to-Kindle e-Book. The first one is DAM: Be the Boss of Your Photos.

Posted in Writing

83rd Birthday

83rd Birthday

My parents, Martin Davis and Virginia Davis, on the recent occasion of a family lunch to celebrate my Dad’s 83rd birthday, taken with my Nikon P7000. Nice soft light coming in from the window, and nice smiles from the birthday boy and bride mark a happy time over Dim Sum.

Posted in Kids, Photography

City as Landscape

City as Landscape

Briefly noted: From near West Point Inn on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais I watched the fog come over the city of San Francisco and the Marin Headlands, with each cloud almost a discrete layer.

Related image: Fog City.

Posted in Landscape, Monochrome, Photography, San Francisco Area

Eros: Sensual Portraits

Eros: Sensual Portraits

Everytime I post an image of an attractive woman on my blog I get emails asking whether my marriage is in trouble. I appreciate the concern, and thank you! But as Phyllis says, the fact that we can work together on a project like Eros: Sensual Portraits makes our marriage stronger.

For me, photographing an attractive model is not so very different from photographing flowers (for that matter, there are some pretty overtly sexy flowers like this poppy) or mountains, or clothed people, or any of the many things I like to make imagery from.

But I digress. Eros: Sensual Portraits is a Kindle book, available in electronic form from Amazon. Here’s more about the book:

The photos in “Eros: Sensual Portraits” are my favorite ones that I’ve made from sessions with professional models over the past year. It is my hope that these black and white images are seen as tasteful and respectful, even though they are unabashedly sensual and erotic. My idea is to celebrate the beauty of the models, and to create with photos and some words what amounts to a love poem.

The forces of eros and sensuality are part of what makes this world a fun and wonderful place to be. The beauty of the female human form can be presented in a way that is erotic without being blatant. In fact, it is well known that artfully decorating with attractive lingerie can be more arousing than full disclosure.

I hope you enjoy my love poem. It has certainly been fun to create!

Warning: Full frontal nudity. For adults only.

Here’s the link to Eros: Sensual Portraits on Amazon (it is only $2.99 to download).

Eros: Sensual Portraits is our second straight-to-Kindle e-Book. The first one is DAM: Be the Boss of Your Photos.

By the way, it’s easy to read a Kindle book on your Windows PC, Mac OS-X, iPad, or almost any other device. There’s no cost for downloading the readers for these platforms.

Posted in Bemusements, Models, Writing

Sunshine on a Rainy Day

Sunshine on a Rainy Day

Briefly noted: Out shooting waterdrops during a break in the rainy weather we’ve had recently. Liquid sunshine in a drop!

EXIF data: 200mm f/4 macro, 36mm extension tube, +4 close-up filter, 0.3 of a second at f/36 and ISO 200, tripod mounted.

Posted in Photography, Water Drops

Roundtrip in Black and White

Old Tree - Black and White

This is a photo of a tree beside Route 120 near China Camp on the way to Yosemite. I shot the photo on a gray day, and underexposed by about 2 f-stops to exaggerate the dark feeling of the branches. Here’s the exposure data: 95mm, 1/800 of a second at f/14 and ISO 200, hand held.

My first step in processing this image was—somewhat paradoxically—to tease the colors out of the RAW file, with these results:

Old Tree

This is an interesting and unusual result in its own right. It pleased me next—and I could use the comparison in a current project I am working on—to “roundtrip” the image back to monochromatic.

I haven’t posted the RAW file as part of this story, but believe me it is far less inspiring than either processed version I am showing. As a matter of fact, I usually don’t show my RAW files—as opposed to my processed versions my original files are mostly a private matter.

Which do you like better, the color or the black and white version?

Posted in Landscape, Monochrome, Photography

Using Email to Find an Audience

My new Photo.net column explains how to use email to find an audience for your photos.

Got Mail?
Here’s the article description:

Harold’s new series of columns on Finding an Audience for Your Photography will cover many topics focused around expanding your fan base, marketing potential and money-making opportunities. This month’s installment covers email marketing. For Harold, email is of crucial importance because it allows him to communicate directly with people who are interested in his work and let them know about things that are important in real time. Better yet, his email list works hand and glove with his other marketing endeavors. Harold’s experience in this arena should help to give you a jump start on building your own list and sending out your own emails. Why not get started today?

Read Using Email to Find an Audience or see more of my articles on Photo.net.

About the image: This photo shows the old-fashioned cubbies used to sort mail for guests I found in the lobby of the Hotel Nacional in Havana, Cuba.

Posted in Writing

iPhone Syllogism

Oxymoron

If the best camera to use is the one I have with me, and I always have my iPhone with me, then many times my iPhone will be the best camera for me to use.

The truth of this syllogism seems borne out in this iPhone camera HDR shot of an RV with sunbathers painted on its back and sides parked in the snow-bound Tuolomne Grove lot above Crane Flat in Yosemite National Park—shot while the kids enjoyed a hyperactive snowball fight! A quick take on a visual oxymoron with the only, and best, camera I had available.

Posted in Bemusements, iPhone, Photography

Yosemite Falls Rainbow

Yosemite Falls Rainbow

Walking over to Yosemite Falls in the morning there was darkness and light. I was ready when the rainbow came out. I had my polarizer already on. I used a fast shutter speed and underexposed to emphasize the chiaroscuro effect.

The funny thing is that post-processing echoed conditions of this shoot. I layered in multiple RAW versions by the chiaroscuro light of my headlamp as the kids slept. I suppose I really should profile the combination of an LED headlamp and my laptop!

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Yosemite

Twig

Twig

Along the banks of the Merced today while the children played I photographed water drops.

In this one, you can see the beginnings of spring. The water drop is on a new shoot, and a new blossom is reflected within it.

Posted in Photography, Water Drops

Jade Forest

Jade Forest

Briefly noted: I am not escaping into the water worlds and forests of drops; rather, I am taking the boys to Yosemite for a few days. The girls stay behind and keep the home fires burning. Back soon.

Other drops, same plant: Serendipity Rules.

Posted in Photography, Water Drops