Monthly Archives: October 2016

Hotel Room with a View

I like to photograph from my hotel room, and I make a point of requesting rooms with a view. Sometimes this works. There’s nothing particularly characteristic of Milan, Italy in these views from my hotel balcony in central Milan at the NH Milano President (basically a middle of the road business hotel), but it was fun photographing car light trails with the stationary trolley at night (bottom image), and when the rain made it too wet to go outside with the camera and tripod, the impressionistic iPhone image of Milan in the rain (upper image) was easy to make without getting too cold and wet!

Rainy Night © Harold Davis

Rainy Night © Harold Davis

Some other hotel rooms with a view: Positano Morning; Window in Bourges; Room with a View.

Via Verziere, Milan © Harold Davis

Via Verziere, Milan © Harold Davis

Posted in Digital Night, iPhone, Italy

Photographers! France! April!

We are looking for a (very) few good photographers (or a photographer and spouse) to join our small, exclusive group going to the southwest of France in April, 2017. Click here to download the day-by-day itinerary (PDF) if you are interested in the specifics (or just want to armchair travel!).

If you’d like to come, please drop us an email ASAP. The trip Prospectus can be found here, and the Reservation form is here.

Click here for our complete Workshops & Events listings.

Pont Neuf, Toulouse © Harold Davis

Pont Neuf, Toulouse © Harold Davis

Posted in Workshops

Morning Blue

The special characteristics of light at sunset—first the “golden hour,” followed by the “blue hour”—are well known to all serious landscape photographers. Indeed, the quality of the light and the emotional resonance of the views of this good earth as sunset commences, and for a while post-sunset, is clear to all romantic observers of every persuasion.

Morning Blue © Harold Davis

Morning Blue © Harold Davis

What is less well-known is that sunrise duplicates the same wonderful sequence, but in reverse. So shortly after dawn there is a blue period, followed by a time of golden lighting, and then daytime commences. For astronomical reasons, morning blues and golden hues tend to be shorter in duration than those in the evening—but they are no less potent and emotionally heart warming.

Click here for a related image, Dawn on Lake Como, and here for workshop opportunities to explore different and exotic sunrises and sunsets with your camera and me!

Posted in Italy, Landscape, Photography

Harold Davis Upcoming Workshops

I’m just back from a photographic trip to Italy. You can see a couple of the images I processed first by clicking Dawn on Lake Como, Tuscan Landscape, and Duomo di Pavia. Of course, there are many more images to follow—and I also scouted some very interesting places that give me ideas for future workshops!

In the meantime, I wanted to remind you about some of our upcoming workshop opportunities. I’ve pasted our workshop calendar through the first half of 2017 at the bottom of this post. I particularly want to call your attention to three upcoming workshops here in Berkeley, California: Advanced LAB Color Seminar (November 12); Black and White in San Francisco (weekend of November 19-20); and From iPhone to Art (weekend of January 28-29).

You can click on the links to learn more about the workshops, and to register (by RSVPing YES on Meetup after clicking through). Look forward to seeing you there for a creative and fun learning experience!

Dawn on Lake Como © Harold Davis

Dawn on Lake Como © Harold Davis

2016

2017

Castel Saint Angelo (iPhone image) © Harold Davis

Castel Saint Angelo (iPhone image) © Harold Davis

Posted in Workshops

Bramante Stairs

The Bramante Stairs is a double helix staircase, meaning it consists of two independent helical stairs in the same vertical space, allowing one person to ascend and another to descend, without ever meeting if they choose different helices. This spectacular staircase is found when leaving the Vatican Museum—the day I visited one of the helical stairs was closed to traffic, and the other was pretty busy.

Bramante Stairs (Looking Up) © Harold Davis

Bramante Stairs (Looking Up) © Harold Davis

Bramante Stair (Looking Down) © Harold Davis

Bramante Stairs (Looking Down) © Harold Davis

Related story: Sistine Chapel Ceiling.

Posted in Italy, Monochrome, Photography

Tuscan Field

This field has been plowed. It is autumn, and the land is bare, waiting in lengthy passivity for the new crops of spring to begin to show. The patterns in the furrows as rendered by the reflected light from sky and clouds make an austere composition, possibly with more depth than is apparent on the initial glance.

Tuscan Field © Harold Davis

Tuscan Field © Harold Davis

Posted in Italy, Monochrome, Photography

View from a San Gimignano Tower

I’ve just got home and am recovering from a 26-hour day of travel, and the nine hours of jet lag between the Bay area and Italy. That said, it was a great trip, and I am anticipating much fun as I begin to process my images from Italy. This one is another view from high up a San Gimignano tower as a storm gathered.

View from a San Gimignano Tower © Harold Davis

View from a San Gimignano Tower © Harold Davis

Posted in Italy

Rescued from the Mud

It’s my personality for my “eyes to be bigger than my stomach,” my artistic ego to be large, and my ability to say no to a possible photo nil regardless of potential consequences. In other words, one’s reach should be bigger than one’s grasp, or else what is a metaphor?

In any case, driving along a small Tuscan road in the late afternoon I saw a crumbling abandoned farmhouse in a bare field of Tuscan mud, down a long dirt and rock driveway. It would have been a long walk, and the drive way looked passable. So I turned my small rental car down the track.

Before long, it became clear that this might not be such a good idea. The track was deeply rutted, filled with running water, and muddy. I finally got to a place where it looked like I might turn around with care. I edged up the side of a bank, it turned out to be mud, and I was stuck. I could not rock my way out.

What to do? I called the emergency number that the rental car agency provided (although I had no idea how I’d describe where I was if they really could send assistance). It took a while to make my way through the menu system (I pressed 1 to indicate it was a roadside emergency!). Finally I got through to someone, who said an English speaker would call me back. I waited.

In the distance I saw two couples on motorcycles. I waved my hands, jumped up and down, and yelled for help. They cycled out to me, cursing the mud and water. Two of them helped me rock the car back and forth, and got me unstuck. I backed up all the way to the country road.

They spoke no English, and were obviously not pleased with getting their kit muddy, but they rescued me and were kind and gracious about it, and were true good Samaritans. For this I am grateful.

The Rescuers © Harold Davis

The Rescuers © Harold Davis

Posted in Photography

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Visiting the Vatican Museum is an affair of moving with and through crowds. Most are in densely packed “schools of fish” (in tour groups). Others lumber slowly, couples or small family groups, perhaps with a grandparent and a toddler with stroller in tow.

Sistine Chapel Ceiling © Harold Davis

Sistine Chapel Ceiling © Harold Davis

My friend remarked that the Sistine Chapel—packed wall-to-wall with people—seemed more like a Turkish Bath than a holy place of worship. As I snaked my way through the packed masses and towards the Uscita, I held my camera flat on the top of my head, and snapped the image you see.

Posted in Italy, Photography

Il Campo, Siena

Il Campo is the central square in Siena, Italy—famous for its horse races, as a hang-out spot, and as a demonstration of the civic power of the historic republic of Siena. I visited Il Campo many years ago when I was a college kid to hang out, and not much has changed in all the intervening years. The surrounding restaurants and shops are louder and glitzier, and the crowds larger and more prosperous, but of course the architecture doesn’t change.

Il Campo, Siena © Harold Davis

Il Campo, Siena © Harold Davis

Speaking of architecture, I climbed the campanile tower above Il Campo to make this photo, all 330 stairs, no tripod or camera bag allowed. My fisheye lens was in my pocket, and when I reached the top and caught my breath I switched it on the camera, and held it out as over the brink as I could to make the image.

Posted in Italy

Clerestory Window

This large clerestory window in the Duomo in Trento, Italy struck me as quite like a mandala with bright, overcast light shining through. I underexposed the image to emphasize the effect. The only possibly discordant element is the small eagle, perhaps Hapsburg, in the center of the piece.

Clerestory Window © Harold Davis

Clerestory Window © Harold Davis

Posted in Italy

Autumn on the Slopes of Tuscany

Who knew you could ski in Tuscany (at least in the winter)? I photographed these beautiful autumn trees on the upper slopes of Monte Amiata. This is the dominate peak in southern Tuscany at about 5,700 feet (1,700 meters). Under the trees are chair lifts and dozens of hotels, chalets, and the appurtenances of the ski trade—all a little run down, as if skiing in Tuscany is like skiing in the Poconos. These days, it isn’t such a stretch to get to the Dolomites.

© Harold Davis

Autumn on the Slopes of Tuscany © Harold Davis

Posted in Italy, Landscape

Guitar Solo

From the tower hanging above the central piazza in the Tuscan hill town of Montepulciano, I heard lucid guitar chords rising on the wind. I looked down to find the musician. The solo guitarist in the words of singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell, “played real good…for free.”

Guitar Solo © Harold Davis

Guitar Solo © Harold Davis

Posted in Photography

Tuscan Landscape

Rising not quite with the sun, on my way over to the breakfast room, I saw the landscape below with patches of fog, a veritable pattern of lights and darks, layers and counter-layers.

Tuscan Landscape © Harold Davis

Tuscan Landscape © Harold Davis

Posted in Italy, Landscape, Photography

San Gimignano in the Rain

Today was a long day! I left Milan in the morning, walked across the street to the train station, and took the express to Florence. In Florence I took a taxi to the rental car agency, Europcar, and found myself behind the wheel in Italy. It’s always a blast to figure out the new systems of each car, like, why is the bluetooth-phone interface talking to me in Spanish? Doesn’t it know this is Italy, and I am American.

© Harold Davis

San Gimignano in the Rain © Harold Davis

After I arrived at the Cesani Agriturismo, an organic farm with wine and olive oil, and a few bedrooms, the rain began coming down. Mindful of Ansel Adams’s famous dictum, that if you aren’t out in the rain you can’t capture the clearing storm, I got in the car and headed a few miles down the road to San Gimignano, famous for its towers.

Climbing the highest tower of all the San Gimignano towers, I heard thunder peeling, and watched the storm front rush towards me. I wasn’t surprised when the guard told me to come down and once, and they closed the tower. Rain poured down in sheets. I consoled myself with a Tuscan meal of bean soup with toast, wild boar chops, and a delicious desert.

More adventures getting back to my room, with flooded roads, fog in the headlamps, and generally treacherous conditions. But obviously I made it to write this story.

Posted in Italy