Monthly Archives: January 2018

Garden Photography – Capturing the Great Gardens of Maine

Dahlia Mandala © Harold Davis

This year, I’ll be teaching a week long course in garden photography at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine. The dates are August 5-11, 2018. Click here for a full workshop description, and for registration. Please consider joining me for a glorious week of photographing gardens and flowers!

Giverny © Harold Davis

The agenda of this workshop includes plentiful field sessions in a variety of kinds of gardens accessible to Maine Media in Rockport. August is a great time of year for flowers in bloom along the Maine coast! Classroom sessions will focus on specific areas of technique, and also the theory and practice of garden design in the context of photography, as well as working with individual participants to develop a cohesive and personal body of work. Click here for a full workshop description, and for registration.

Salutation to the Sun © Harold Davis

Posted in Workshops

Chasing Tales

Chasing Tales on Black © Harold Davis

The tip of one petal to the tail of the other. Chasing narratives. Chasing Tales. From the same petals: Studies in Petals.

Chasing Tales © Harold Davis

Posted in Photograms

Studies in Petals

Study in Petals on Black © Harold Davis

This is a mandala-shaped arrangement of petals on a light box around a central Proteus.

Study in Petals with Proteus Center © Harold Davis

Posted in Flowers, Photograms, Photography

Proteus

Proteus on Black © Harold Davis

Proteus Monochrome on Black © Harold Davis

Proteus Monochrome on White © Harold Davis

Proteus © Harold Davis

Related image: Osteospermum. Would you like to learn how to make images like this using a light box? We still have a few spaces left in our June session of Photographing Flowers for Transparency.

Posted in Flowers, Photography

Dark of the Moon Night Photography Workshop September 7-10, 2018

Limited space is still available for the Dark of the Moon Night Photography in the Eastern Sierra with Harold Davis and Steven Christenson. September 7-10, 2018. Meets in Lone Pine, CA. Space is limited. Registration and more info: https://www.meetup.com/Harold-Davis/events/244904313/

Click here to see some work from last year’s participants. Please consider joining us for a great time in the dark!

More info and registration via Meetup (limited space available).

Posted in Workshops

Take Home a Wimpy

Wimpy was a name of a chain of burger restaurants that were popular back in the day in England (I believe the Wimpy chain began life in South Africa). Wimpy burgers could aptly be described as deplorable. There really is no way around the poor quality of the food at a Wimpy.

Take Home a Wimpy © Harold Davis

I took this photo around 1968 in front of a Wimpy in London, England. In the rear is my mom Virginia and my dad Martin. In the middle row, from the left, my brother Nathan, Monica Hughes, and Steven Hughes. The front row has three younger Hughes children. The Hughes were a family we spent time with. I can be seen as a shadowy reflection in the plate glass window of the Wimpy taking the photo.

My father says that when he brought all these kids (my brother and I and the five Hughes children) inside the Wimpy for a treat he was asked if all seven children were his and my mom’s.

Of course, he said “Yes,” and enjoyed watching the jaws drop.

The apple, they say, doesn’t fall too far from the tree. I have enjoying taking my four kids to a playground with a couple of other friends of the children along, and replying in the affirmative when asked if they were all mine!

Posted in Photography

Self-Portrait of the Artist in the Disco Era

Self-Portrait of the Artist from the Disco Era © Harold Davis

Starting to scan some slides. This one is circa 1980.

Posted in Photography

Petal Fractals

Petal Fractal 101 Inversion © Harold Davis

Petal Fractal 101 © Harold Davis

Some related reading (helps to explain where I am coming from): On Art and Beauty.

Related images: Floral Mandala; Petals of the Rainbow; It starts with a photo; It starts with a petal and ends with a twist of fate.

Posted in Photography

A Sunset and Two Camellias

This year, 2018, has been a little sparse for me photographically so far (but see Red Tulips and New Year’s Day Design). I think of this as a “pause that refreshes” after the whirlwind that 2017 was for me, with some exciting plans for 2018!

I’ll discuss an additional reason for this sparseness, and also outline some of my 2018 plans, below a few images I have made already this year. One is a sunset from Indian Rock looking out towards San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate. But instead of the expected landmarks, what you see are bare branches, with the sunset behind. The other two images are of camellias in our garden, photographed using the Lensbaby 85mm f/1.6. We have an old-fashioned camellia bush that always flowers right around my birthday in January (lucky me!).

Sunset in Winter © Harold Davis

Birthday Camellia © Harold Davis

Camellia © Harold Davis

In my New Year’s Greeting, I wrote “with the world standing on the knife’s edge of authoritarianism, it is important to remember that a kindly civilization that values people and their differences is ultimately better for everyone. To paraphrase John Donne, no one is an island apart, and when one person is diminished so are we all. For the sake of our children and our children’s children, we should not passively accept a world that is less than it can be.”

I believe this fairly anodyne message is worth repeating because it brought me hate emails, and folks who wanted off my email lists. So I am herewith doubling down. As a patriot, and someone who loves his country, I cannot be silent, because silence is being complicit and borders on collaboration. I am entitled to my viewpoint on the events of our times and the festering evil of our “not my President.” I am prepared to accept that there are divergent viewpoints, but if someone cannot accept mine then I don’t want them on my email lists or in my workshops.

Here are some of my plans for 2018: In April I will be leading a small group of photographers in the southwest of France. Following this destination workshop I am going to spend some time solo walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail. From Santiago de Compostela, I’ll head to Menorca as one of the Masters for PhotoPills Camp.

In June, I’ll be leading the only session of Photographing Flowers for Transparency in 2018 here in Berkeley, California (there are still a few spaces left).

In August, I’ll again to Maine to teach a week of garden photography at Maine Media, then to Germany to teach once more in beautiful Heidelberg.

Also please keep in mind the Dark of the Moon night photography workshop in the eastern Sierra (in September, with a few spaces left).

I also want to highlight my early November destination photo tour to the ancient country of Malta in the southern Mediterranean. 

My full upcoming Workshops & Events calendar can be found here.

Posted in Photography

Red Tulips

Flowers are beautiful, and the blossoms are always special! But sometimes the stems and leaves are what creates a special composition, and provides the underlying structure and musical harmony that makes it all possible.

Red Tulips © Harold Davis

Tulips on Black © Harold Davis

Some other images where the stems and leaves are vital to the composition: Salutation to the Sun; Tulips on White; Iris Friends; and last (but not least) Frilly Tulip (shown below, from early 2016 and never blogged).

Frilly Tulip © Harold Davis

Posted in Flowers

New Year’s Day Design

I spent part of my day on January 1, 2018 making a floral design on a light box while listening to Bob Dylan (still hard to think of him as a Nobel-prize laureate!). Phyllis helped me separate Alstromeria petals by color and shape, and I arranged the petals in concentric rings around an Asiatic Lily. This is somewhat the same idea as A Palette of Petals.

Ring Theory on Black © Harold Davis

Ring Theory on White © Harold Davis

Posted in Flowers

Registration is now open: Dark of the Moon Night Photography

Registration is now open for Dark of the Moon Night Photography in the Eastern Sierra with Harold Davis and Steven Christenson. September 7-10, 2018. Meets in Lone Pine, CA. Space is limited. Registration: https://www.meetup.com/Harold-Davis/events/244904313/

More info and registration via Meetup (enrollment is now open, but space is very limited!).

Posted in Workshops

Registration is now open: Photographing Flowers for Transparency with Harold Davis

Registration is now open for Photographing Flowers for Transparency with Harold Davis, June 23-24 2018, in Berkeley, CA. Space is limited. Registration via Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Harold-Davis/events/243890530/

This will be only session of the Photographing Flowers for Transparency with Harold Davis workshop in calendar 2018 anywhere in the world. Info and registration via Meetup (enrollment is now open, but space is very limited!).

Posted in Workshops