Monthly Archives: December 2014

Warm wishes for a joyous New Year!

December 31, 2014 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Warm wishes for a joyous New Year! Delve into your creative spirit in 2015…

Click here for a PDF version of this card. Click here for My Best of 2014.

Posted in Photography

Not a Through Tree

December 31, 2014 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

There are streets that are through, and streets that are not through. Then there are trees that are through, and trees that are, well, not through. I guess with this tree if you climb it, or enter a secret chamber hidden in the trunk, you don’t get to pass through into another magical world.

Not a Through Tree © Harold Davis

Captured using my iPhone off Arlington Ave in Berkeley, California.

Posted in iPhone

My Best of 2014

December 25, 2014 by Harold Davis | 11 Comments

2014 has been an exciting year for me photographically, from many viewpoints, including the geographic and chronological. When I am not suffering from temporal displacement syndrome (otherwise known as jet lag), being lost in time and space has its virtues for a photographer—since so much of photography is about time and geographic locale, and feeling disconnected from each allows for much fruitful meditation, as well as consideration of the differences between cultures.

Compiling my annual best list of photos is a difficult exercise, but it helps me put the year in perspective, and last year’s Best of 2013 has remained one of the most popular stories on my blog throughout the subsequent year.

You are welcome to comment at the end of this story; also, please feel free to add a link in your comment to your own Best of 2014 photos. Editing is one of the most important aspects of the craft of photography, and compiling your own annual best list is a great way to exercise your editing skills.

This is my year in pictures. I am going to start with some flowers because, at home or abroad, I always enjoy creating botanical imagery. Here are some of my personal favorite flowers from the year, with other subject matter and places following the botanicals:

White Poppy © Harold Davis

Tulips on White © Harold Davis

Tulip Panorama © Harold Davis

Tulips 1 © Harold Davis

Red Tulip, Giverny © Harold Davis

Into the Vortex of the Universe © Harold Davis

High-Key Tulips © Harold Davis

Flowering Quince © Harold Davis

Bounty of the Garden © Harold Davis

Alstromeria Ballet © Harold Davis

There’s a natural progression from photographing flowers to Paris in the spring. Rainbows seem a good place to start. I was lucky enough to be out on the Pont Solferino footbridge as a spring rainstorm was coming to an end, and to capture this double rainbow over Paris and the Seine River.

Double Rainbow over Paris © Harold Davis

Underneath the Pont Solferino there was action as well. I thought it looked like a stairway to heaven:

Pont Solferino © Harold Davis

On this trip to Paris my group stayed near the Seine, so photographing along the banks of the river and under the bridges was natural—generally using an exposure that played on time and motion. This one is a long exposure from Under the Pont de la Concorde:

Under the Pont de la Concorde © Harold Davis

Worth noting: for the first time, iPhone captures are creeping into my personal bests! I captured this image of Les Deux Magots, the famous St Germaine-des-Pres haunt of Hemingway and other literati back when one could afford to be bohemian in Paris, using my iPhone camera, and gleefully processed it using the latest apps to look old-fashioned to match the traditional costume of the waiter.

Les Deux Magots © Harold Davis

Back to the banks of the Seine River, in Behind the Wall I played with camera motion (rather than subject motion).

Behind the Wall © Harold Davis

Any way you slice it, Paris is a great city for night photography. I enjoyed the chance to shoot the skyline at dusk again from the Tour Montparnasse in Paris Sunset.

Paris Sunset © Harold Davis

Of course, the Pyramide in the central court of the Louvre is a wonderful subject for night photography, even if photographing Night at the Louvre does involve an occasional cat-and-mouse game with the tripod gendarmerie.

Pyramide © Harold Davis

You can see more of my Paris photography in the Paris category on my blog. I do also love to photograph the gardens that are a short excursion from Paris. An iPhone capture, and a more formal version, of one of the famous green bridges in Monet’s glorious garden at Giverny are shown below.

Giverny Waterlogue Watercolor © Harold Davis

Giverny © Harold Davis

Related stories: Giverny Waterlogue Watercolor; Giverny.

The Parc de Sceaux is accessible from Paris via the RER (suburban railway). To understand the title of this image, Ghosts in the Enchanted Garden, you’ll need to look at it carefully!

Ghosts in the Enchanted Garden © Harold Davis

It was a great pleasure in May to begin to explore the southwest of France. This is a region I enjoyed immensely, for the scenery and history—and, no surprise, the food. I hope to be back. Here’s the Pont Valentre in Cahors photographed conventionally, and captured via my iPhone and processed using the iPhone Waterlogue app :

Valentre Bridge © Harold Davis

Pont Valentre via Waterlogue © Harold Davis

Related stories: Valentre Bridge and Impregnable.

Making my way to an overlook above a Bend in the Dordogne River on a misty day, I carefully shot the multiples needed to create a panorama.

Bend in the River © Harold Davis

Visiting Bourges, I was impressed with the still-unfinished grand cathedral, a World Heritage site and one of the most impressive examples of 13th century high Gothic style—but more impressed with the light on the cathedral as seen through my Window in Bourges!

Window in Bourges © Harold Davis

Related story: France category on my blog.

Back home, I photographed the sacred and the profane; namely, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, a restored temple to Henry Ford’s assembly line, and models in motion. I particularly enjoyed choreographing in-camera multiple exposure techniques with models to create striking, painterly effects.

Graced with Light at Grace Cathedral © Harold Davis

Ford Richmond Plant © Harold Davis

Tender Dance (via iPhone) © Harold Davis

Wheel of Life © Harold Davis

Falling © Harold Davis

Dance of the Seven Veils #2 © Harold Davis

Passion © Harold Davis

Les Desmoiselles © Harold Davis

What rough beast? © Harold Davis

Kali © Harold Davis

Gates after Rodin © Harold Davis

Over the summer I taught flower photography and digital black & white in Heidelberg, Germany. I had a great group of students, and a wonderful time getting to know Heidelberg and exploring the area.

The Old Bridge in Heidelberg was the first bridge across the Neckar River, and is still in much use today. It’s a great subject for black and white.

Alte Brucke, Heidelberg © Harold Davis

In contrast, the Great Hall at the old campus in Heidelberg is not much used except ceremonially; I was lucky to be able to take my time photographing in this historic place.

Great Hall, Heidelberg © Harold Davis

My hosts made sure I visited many local attractions, including Speyer cathedral in a city along the Rhine River not far from Heidelberg.

Speyer Cathedral (via iPhone) © Harold Davis

While I was in Germany, Germany won the World Cup. This iPhone still life composition of refracted wine glasses shows just a small bit of the celebrating that went on.

Wine Glasses © Harold Davis

My next trip was to New York for some meetings and appearances related to a photography trade show. I’m of the general opinion that life in New York City has some resemblance to a stage show. At the very least, New Yorkers are definitely into appearances—so when I was able to sneak away from business and practice my craft of photography in Central Park at night it was fitting that New York seemed to me to be a stage.

Bethesda Fountain © Harold Davis

In Barcelona, I shot straight up at the amazing ceiling of Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, and captured an almost endless internal spiral staircase in black and white.

Sagrada Familia © Harold Davis

Stair in the Sagrada © Harold Davis

Traffic and the lighting of a fountain on the Gran Via gave me a chance to practice photographing car trails at night in Barcelona, while the odd positioning of my hotel room gave a peculiar perspective for my 15mm lens in the crooked, old streets of the Gothic Quarter.

Gran Via © Harold Davis

Gotic Quarter © Harold Davis

In Morocco, I enjoyed photographing the great outdoor marketplace, the Jemaa-al-Fna, in Marrakech at night and the sand Kasbahs on the far side of the Atlas Mountains. When it rained in Rabat, my iPhone was ready to help me capture the view through the bus window.

Rain in Rabat © Harold Davis

Jemaa-al-Fna © Harold Davis

Market in Marrakech © Harold Davis

Castle Made of Sand © Harold Davis

Related stories: Jemaa-al-Fna; Market in Marrakech; Castle Made of Sand. After delays at Casablanca airport, I snapped an iPhone shot of leaving Morocco both lyrical and indicative of some travel fatigue.

Goodbye Morocco © Harold Davis

Back home, I settled in to prove that one can make photos of the mundane as well as the marvelous; hence this image of a Venetian blind in my kitchen, drawn to allow bright sunlight to creep through.

Blind © Harold Davis

Giving a Waves workshop on Point Reyes, California in December I was lucky to find a break in relentless rains and a stunning day for photography along the open Pacific Ocean.

Waves © Harold Davis

Sunset at Point Reyes Head © Harold Davis

Storm at Sea © Harold Davis

Related story: Photographing Waves.

Coming a full circle, as almost befits a spiral, my last photo is of a Nautilus Shell, shot in my studio. Apart from the iPhone images, my photography has greatly benefited from a high-resolution full frame DSLR sensor paired with some excellent glass from my sponsor Zeiss. In the case of this Nautilus, I used the Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4.

Nautilus © Harold Davis

Related link: Monochrome category on my blog.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this story, please feel free to comment. Please also consider creating your own best-of list, it is a great way to learn more about your work, and to practice your editing skills!

Posted in Best Of, Photography

Falling Water

December 24, 2014 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Recent winter rainstorms have battered the San Francisco area in Northern California with much needed rain. In a break in the weather I decided to hike to Cataract Falls on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais. Usually when I visit this area following a heavy downpour the creek is running muddy and is heavy with run-off. This time, the rain had been persistent and long-lasting enough over many days that all the mud had run its course, and the creek was clear, with pure white cataracts. The lighting was bright and overcast, and made no significant shadows.

Falling Water #5 © Harold Davis

I set my tripod up beside the creek, on a spot where I could look up at the primary falls, and took a few establishing shots up the creek and down the creek. Then I stopped to simply be present in the magic of moment of time and place.

Falling Water #4 © Harold Davis

It came to me that I didn’t need to make another image of this waterfall as it stood in the reality of the world. Instead, I became interested in the ever-changed gesture of water that I saw, very simple, and always in black and white.

Falling Water #3 © Harold Davis

This kind of image is about the poetry of water in motion reduced to a minimum. Lengthening the exposure time—to a five to ten second duration—softens the water and allows the gesture the water is making to become the subject of the photo.

Falling Water #2 © Harold Davis

It’s not about a place, but is discovery of an archetype and an abstraction. As such, there’s a commonality in approach and technique to Photographing Waves.

Falling Water #1 © Harold Davis

Posted in Monochrome, Photography

Photographing Waves

December 22, 2014 by Harold Davis | 5 Comments

Waves are a fundamental form of the universe. Light and sound come in waves. Wave formation underlies much that we know, and don’t know, about the universe around us. As manifest in our earth’s ocean, with the forces of gravity, topography and tide made real, they are both orderly and chaotic. Waves have a certain regularity, but no two waves are alike.

Waves, South Beach, Pt Reyes © Harold Davis

I like to photograph waves because they are a fundamental form that underlies what we know as physical reality. A moving wave also gives the photographer the opportunity to exercise the important creative controls inherent in a camera: focus, aperture (depth-of-field), shutter speed (duration of the exposure) and sensitivity (ISO).

Sunset at Point Reyes Head © Harold Davis

Since waves are constantly in motion, what first comes to mind in terms of the camera’s controls is shutter speed. Shutter speed is badly named, because it refers to a duration of time, not a speed: the length of the exposure, in other words how long the photosensitive medium (the sensor) is exposed to light.

A long shutter speed in minutes causes waves to blur and become completely smooth. A very fast shutter speed, measured as a fraction of a second, such as 1/1000 of second, captures an instant of time, and stops the wave in its tracks in all its foaming glory in the moment before it peaks and crashes.

Storm at Sea © Harold Davis

In many ways the most interesting shutter speeds represent an intermediate duration of time: long enough for the wave to blur so that its underlying shape becomes apparent, but short enough to register some of the details of the wave in its progress to the shore. The length of these shutter speeds depends upon the speed of the wave, but tend to be longer than 1/30 of a second and faster than ten seconds.

Seascape © Harold Davis

The wave images shown here were made on the great beach of Point Reyes, California, walking south from the South Beach parking lot in the late afternoon and at sunset, during a workshop I was giving about Photographing Waves.

My camera was on a tripod: even if the waves are in constant motion your camera doesn’t have to be. Each image is a “confection”: a composite, since I always bracket my exposures and capture every piece of an image that I think I might need. There’s always time enough when I am at my computer to figure out how to put the pieces together!

Posted in Photography, Point Reyes

Waterdrops via Otus 85

December 21, 2014 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

I shot this image with my new Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 lens during a break in the rainy weather. To get closer to the waterdrops, I added a 36mm extension tube. The exposure data was 1/15 of a second, f/7.1 and ISO 100, with the camera on a tripod. I like the brightness of the way the lens renders, as well as the sharp detail of the in-focus blade of grass with waterdrops and the attractive bokeh of the out-of-focus areas.

Waterdrops via Otus 85 © Harold Davis

A waterdrop functions like a fisheye lens, and shows an almost 360 degree view of the miniature world around it. If you look closely at the waterdrops in this photo, you’ll see I am reflected while taking the photo along with Otus 85, as well as a street sign. More interestingly, the first waterdrop reflects an image of the next waterdrop in the row; presumably, this is an infinite chain, like looking in a mirror reflecting a mirror, but at a very small size.

Posted in Water Drops

Flash Craftsy Sale

December 20, 2014 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Photographing Flowers is the acclaimed online Craftsy course with Harold Davis. Sign up with a special 50% off today for yourself or as a gift!

ALL Craftsy classes (choose from an extensive catalog) for just $19.99 or less now through December 25th, 2014. Click here to take advantage of this special flash sale.

Posted in Photography

Seasons Greetings: Graced with Light!

December 17, 2014 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Best wishes of the season from myself, Phyllis and our whole family!

Click here for a PDF version of this card.

Posted in Photography

Katie Rose, Photographer

December 16, 2014 by Harold Davis | 3 Comments

Mommy was very tired. Mommy gets up most days at 5:30 am to get the four kids to school, ferries them to karate, and works hard too. So Mommy went upstairs for a short nap.

Katie Rose, now six years old, knew Mommy needed her nap. When she was a little younger, Katie might have kept her mom from napping so she could play with her. If Katie had been sleepy, too, she would have snuggled in for a nap herself with mommy and her favorite blanket.

But neither of these were the case. Katie Rose had an idea of what to do. Once her mommy had fallen sound asleep, she went and gathered all her stuffed animals (a/k/a “stuffies”) and brought them en masse up to her mom’s bedroom.

Next, she went hunting for her mom’s iPhone. She found it in a side pocket of her mom’s purse. Heading back upstairs with the iPhone, she proceeded to arrange her stuffies in situ for portraiture, and used the iPhone camera to make a series of about 24 photos, ten of which you see here.

No adults intervened, or were even aware of what Katie Rose was doing until after her mom woke up, when Katie Rose showed her the photos on her Mommy’s iPhone.

This is a true story, and Katie Rose’s very first copyright notices. There will be a limited edition of prints (just kidding!).

Posted in Katie Rose

Ruined Kasbah

December 11, 2014 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

According to our guide Abdul, the indigenous construction in Morocco is very environmentally friendly: made of earth and sand, when it is no longer used it gradually decays back to the soil from which it was made. Many structures in fact are crumbling, such as this Kasbah in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

After settling into our hotel, and a good meal at a restaurant nearby that included both camel and pigeon, I went exploring for night photography with a friend. Stepping into abandoned ruins, this ancient Kasbah struck stark silhouettes, partly enhanced by ambient light from the town, against a backdrop of the bright stars of the sub-Saharan night. Indeed, it was crumbling back into the earth from which it was made!

Exposure information: Nikon D810, Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 lens, tripod mounted; two combined exposures at f/5.6 and ISO 200, exposure times one minute and 2.5 minutes.

Posted in Monochrome

Terraces in Portugal

December 10, 2014 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

In the Upper Douro Valley of Portugal the grapes are grown that become the famous port wine that has made Oporto, Portugal’s second city on the banks of the Douro River where it meets the Atlantic, a commercial center since time immemorial. The vines are grown on steep terraces, created over the centuries by hand. This area is a World Heritage Site, and looking at the immensity of the labor involved in this landscape one can surely understand why.

I shot this image handheld across the valley of a river a tributary to the Douro River on a late autumn day with quickly shifting cloud cover. Of course, this is a composition of patterns on a large scale. Abstractly, one could almost be looking at sine waves rather than stone terraces. Look closely, and you can see the staircases used to navigate from one level to the next.

But the eye needs some relief, so when I chose the portion of this vast landscape to render I let a road curve and meander through the frame from left to right, and balanced the road with a bright spot of light coming through the clouds, and coming down from the upper right.

Here’s the color version of the photo:

Terraces, Upper Douro Valley, Portugal © Harold Davis

Posted in Landscape, Monochrome, Portugal

Kumano Portfolio: A Work in Progress

December 9, 2014 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

My Kumano kodo Portfolio is a handmade labor of love and a work in progress. But we’re making great progress! This portfolio is designed to showcase in form and content my photos of the Kumano kodo pilgrimage trail on the Kii peninsula in Japan, sacred to Shugendo Buddhism.

Here are some shots from the first prototype, soon to be renamed AP (artist proof) #1. Incidentally, the portfolio edition consists of 12 signed and numbered portfolios plus four artists proofs. Each portfolio is created by folding a single 4 meter long sheet of Awagami Kozo washi, so there are no fasteners, only folds. See Working on the Kumano kodo prototype for some more info about this unique artist-created artifact. Each portfolio is signed and numbered, with my Japanese chop hand-applied, on the title page.

This photo shows the spread in the center of the portfolio:

Here’s one of the long, long sheets of Kozo coming out of the printer:

A single one of the sheets in a roll before it is scored and folded:

Scoring the sheet of Kozo by hand with the waste paper shown:

Two more spreads from “inside” the portfolio, one in color and one in black & white:

The entire folded sheet of Kozo fits into a kind of outer sleeve with a panoramic print of the view from one of the sacred passes along the Kumano kodo. The sleeve is scored with flaps, and is also signed and numbered. We’re still working on a couple of variations, but this is the cover of one of the sleeves we are considering:

So far, numbers 1-4 of the portfolio are spoken for. Numbers 5 and 6 are on offer for $1,150 each. If you’d like one, we can offer a modest pre-publication discount, as well as thanks for contacting me directly.

Posted in Photography

Market in Marrakesh

December 9, 2014 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

This is an image made after dusk with a long (300mm) lens from above the Jemaa-al-Fna in Marrakesh, Morocco. I used five exposures at shutter speeds from 3/5 of a second to 5 seconds with the camera on my tripod, and combined the exposures using Nik’s HDR Efex Pro plugin in Photoshop and also with hand-layering.

Related images: You can get a better idea of my position in making this image from Jemaa-al-Fna and Wider View of the Jemaa-al-Fna.

Posted in Photography

Panorama from Morocco

December 8, 2014 by Harold Davis | 3 Comments

This is a thirty-image panorama I shot in Boulmane Dades, an oasis in trans-Atlas Morocco, at sunset. Each image was 36 MP, so the entire panorama made for a very big file indeed. This version is reduced in size so that it can be viewed!

If the panorama doesn’t start moving automatically, you can move it with your mouse (or a gesture) to see all of it! Stop the motion by clicking in the image area; double-click to open it larger in its own window.

Posted in Photography

My prints in a New York loft

December 5, 2014 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the New York loft apartment of a friend of mine who collects my prints. My prints were carefully selected and framed, tastefully arranged, and placed in positions that made sense in the context of the layout of the loft. Of course, I work frequently with my images and prints, but that doesn’t mean I really “see” them.

I know these snapshots are not great interior design photos, and that this is a lived-in space (which is a good thing!). But I think you’ll get the idea. What’s striking about seeing a substantial body of my work integrated into a living space is that there is kind of a glow—harmonious, serene and powerful—that emanates across my prints, regardless of the subject matter. One can have no idea of the power of the prints from looking at an online version of the image: they become so much more when they are made manifest as physical objects. Which is part of why I think it is so important for photographers to be closely involved in making their own prints.