I will be presenting Photography as Poetry at the Alamo Danville Artists’ Society [ADAS] on Tuesday, March 10 2020 at 7:30 PM. My presentation is free, and open to the public. More information below, or click here for details.

What: Artist, Photographer, and Writer Harold Davis presents Photography as Poetry

When: Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 7:30pm

Description: Davis’s extraordinary imagery builds on the masterworks of the past while embracing revolutionary innovations in photography. He puts it this way: “I believe that advances in the technology and craft of digital photography have created an entirely new medium. My years of contemplation opened my eyes and my heart, and taught me to see more deeply. I use this alchemy of wonder to combine the traditions of painting and photography with new technology.”

The topic of his presentation is “Photography As Poetry”:

“Photography is narrative, and some photographs are prose while others are poetry. In this presentation, artist and photographer Harold Davis examines how we create imagery that conveys powerful emotion and meditative healing in the context of the rush of modern life, and along the way how his life as a photographer has connected with art and poetics.”

More info: adas4art.org/monthly-meeting

So there were four of us, or six if you count me, myself, and I: also my old friend Eric, my German friend and colleague in x-ray photographics Julian, and Loki the Australian sheep dog. We happy few drove in Eric’s Blue Ganesh, an off-road modified high-clearance Toyota 4-Runner with under-armor plates, video front and aft, a pop-top sleeper, a snorkel like an elephant trunk, and a hobbit-like stove pipe bringing up the rear. You’d have to see this vehicle to believe it.

Eric, who had just completed a certificate course in off-road driving, was of course at the wheel. A fact I was glad about as the off-road trail I had picked turned radically into a stone and mud obstacle course, and Eric proved the usefulness of having a split differential. Who knew that each wheel functioning on its own could make such a difference when climbing a wall of rocks?

At the end of the bone-jolting ride a short walk led up and over and through the kind of stone maze that I love to traverse, and at the end of the walk there was Tower Arch, photographed here looking back through the opening west at near sunset using a horizontal fisheye.

View through Tower Arch © Harold Davis

Exposure data: Nikon D850, Nikkor 8-15mm fisheye at 15mm, eight exposures from 1/60 of a second to 2.5 seconds, each exposure at f/29 and ISO 62; tripod mounted. Exposures combined and processed using Nik HDR Efex Pro and Photoshop.

View from Deadhorse Point © Harold Davis

Starting in Yosemite at the Out of Yosemite photo conference, we headed for Death Valley. We were in Death Valley for a few days. While there, we photographed Zabriskie Point at sunset and sunrise, and many other places in Death Valley National Park.

Then we headed east, where the whirlwind photography highlights included Sunset Point in Bryce Canyon at sunset, slot canyons along the Grand Staircase in Escalante, Deadhorse Point in Canyonlands National Park, and Island in the Sky at golden hour.

Yesterday saw some action in the Needles section of Canyonlands and in the back country of Arches National Park.

We’re headed back west and home now, with a few stops along the way.

This has been a veritable whirlwind of photographic fun, and I am looking forward to having the time to process many of the images I have made. When does one ever really have the time to do this in the rush of photography commissions, book writing, life, and family? (Also known as the “digital photographer’s lament”!).

On a completely different note, I’m looking forward very much to being home, and to spending some time with my family!

Zabriskie Sunrise © Harold Davis

Near Tehachapi, on the main road up from Bakersfield to Mojave, I saw the light was getting good as golden hour, still early with winter long nights, quickly approached. I swung into active-photographer mode, managed to execute a u-turn across the four-lane, semi-truck heavy traffic, and found an interesting little side road. This tree in the beautiful, glowing light was my (possibly just) reward.

Near Tehachapi © Harold Davis

Photographed with my Nikon D850,  Zeiss 21mm Distagon, seven exposures from 1/100 of a second to one second, each exposure at f/22 and ISO 64, all exposures tripod mounted; exposures processed on the fly in my motel room in Mojave using Nik HDR Efex Pro, Photoshop, Nik Color Efex Pro, and Topaz Simplify.

The wind was kicking up dust devils as we neared the old mining town of Trona, east of the Sierra in California, and en route to Death Valley. These train cars, sitting empty and forlorn on a siding seemed melancholy to me, the story of someone or something whom life has passed by.

Trains on a Siding near Trona © Harold Davis

Related image: Poem of the Road.