Here are three version of a light box image of a white dahlia from my cutting garden, photographed back in June. The simple monochromatic conversion is shown on top. Next, you’ll see an L-channel LAB inversion of the black & white light box version. The color version of my image is shown at the bottom.
White Dahlia Inversion © Harold Davis
White Dahlia © Harold Davis
Brookside-Snowball Dahlia © Harold Davis
Related story: Dahlia Solos.
Happy to have fun playing with flowers on my light box. These recent compositions are partly made from”store bought” flowers, and partly from my garden’s flowers. We’re beginning to enter autumn here in coastal California, and it is looking like (at least in this location) we may be okay in terms of smoke and fire for the remainder of the season. Knock wood, of course—and since I have a little time this coming week I am looking forward to enjoying myself in the garden, and photographing on my light box.
Autumn Bouquet on Scanned Paper © Harold Davis
Flowers of Autumn © Harold Davis
For me, photographing flowers is a form of worship, and a way to be in touch with my own spirituality. This has ed to fairly straightforward photography. I use (carefully observed) morning sunlight. The camera is tripod mounted. I use a macro lens and extension tube, with the lens stropped down. Nearer my flower to thee!
Let the sunshine in © Harold Davis
Pom Pom Chrysanthemum Orange © Harold Davis
Pom Pom Chrysanthemum Purple © Harold Davis
The upper photo is an X-Ray of a bouquet of dahlias, nemesia, and kangaroo paw flowers. It was made in May, 2019 using medical x-ray equipment, and processed yesterday while waiting out the foul air in the Bay area in Photoshop from the DICOM file. More x-rays can be found here, and I’ve also posted a photo of a recent print of one of my favorite x-rays, of a sunflower, below.
X-Ray Bouquet of Dahlias, Nemesias, and Kangaroo Paw Flowers © Harold Davis
Print of ‘Sunflower X-Ray’ © Harold Davis
I arranged these dried blossoms on my light box in a pattern with an eye towards complementary colors. The background blue blossoms are Nemesias. interlaced with almost-orange-yellow Gaillardia petals, and thin crimson fringes from a flowering Monarda supplying an accent.
Dried Blossoms © Harold Davis
My Dahlia bed is starting to bloom, providing some very sweet subjects for solo flower portraits!
Brookside-Snowball Dahlia © Harold Davis
Dahlia ‘Southern Belle’ © Harold Davis
Dahlia ‘Flip-Flop’ © Harold Davis
It was great fun yesterday to construct and photograph this light box composition. The dahlias are the first from my new dahlia raised bed on the southwest side of the house, which is beginning to produce numerous flowers. I think the next crop of dahlias will be white!
Flowers from our Pandemic Garden © Harold Davis
Exposure data: Nikon D850, Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4, eight exposures at shutter speeds ranging from 6.0 seconds to 1/13 of a second, each exposure at f/16 and ISO 64, tripod mounted; exposures combined in Photoshop and adding to a scanned paper background.
Here’s a snapshot of a recently sold print of my black & white Sunflower X-Ray, hand printed on Moab Juniper Baryta paper. The border of the print looks a bit gray in this capture, but it is actually white!
Print of ‘Sunflower X-Ray’ © Harold Davis
It is funny how close and closer a flower, such as a Dahlia, can take on abstract appearance so the original flower shape becomes forgotten. So in this Dahlia I see distant mountains, or a mouth with teeth, or a deepening well, and so on, and patterns galore. Or, maybe that is just my visual imagination run riot! One needs to do something to entertain oneself during longish photo exposures.
Misty Mountains © Harold Davis
Exposure data (both): Nikon D850, 150mm f/2.8 Irix “Dragonfly” telephoto macro, 50mm extension tube, f/22 at ISO 64, tripod mounted; 20 seconds exposure duration (above) and 15 seconds exposure duration (below). Both images were lit using controlled sunlight (from the left side) via window shades.
Young Dahlia © Harold Davis
Sometimes single blossoms are the most elegant. This Honeysuckle (above) and Monarda (below) are from our garden. I photographed the blossoms on a light box, and other than layering-in bracketed high-key exposures, there was minimal post-production.
Honeysuckle © Harold Davis
Exposure data (Honeysuckle): Nikon D850, 85mm Nikor tilt-shift macro, five exposures at shutter speeds from one second to 15 seconds, each exposure at an effective aperture of f/64 and ISO 64; exposures combined in Photoshop.
Monarda © Harold Davis
Exposure data (Monarda): Nikon D850, 85mm Nikor tilt-shift macro, five exposures at shutter speeds from 1.3 seconds to 20 seconds, each exposure at an effective aperture of f/64 and ISO 64; exposures combined in Photoshop.
Our new book Creative Garden Photography has been at least ten years in the making from conception to finished production files. In this free webinar, on Sunday July 5, 2020 at 11am PT, Phyllis and I will be joined by Rocky Nook associate publisher Ted Waitt. We’ll take a look at the images in the book, the ideas behind the book, the techniques the book covers, some of the stories told in the book, book production, how the book design relates to garden design as well as photography, and answer questions from the audience. A discount code for book and eBook purchases from the publisher will be provided.
The webinar is free, but registration in advance is required. Click here to register for the Creative Garden Photography webinar.
We have a number of technique webinars coming up that I hope you’ll find useful. You can find the complete list of webinars by clicking here, and below. Recordings of our past webinars can be found in the Harold Davis Photography YouTube channel. You’ll also find live events (I don’t currently have any scheduled until 2021 due to the pandemic) on this page.
I am particularly excited to be sharing stories and images from the Camino de Santiago on Saturday, July 18. This is a free webinar, but requires registration. Click here for more info.
Giverny Afternoon © Harold Davis
Duo © Harold Davis
Sometimes my flowers come all in a group with no social distancing at all. Other times, my flowers come in twos and threes. Which do you like better?
Orange Triad © Harold Davis
Down a few blocks, and around the corner, some wonderful cactus flowers bloomed in a pot on the street. Walking with one of my sons we passed the flowers in the early evening. Cactus flowers tend to bloom and fade quickly, and are mostly heliotropic. The next morning I grabbed my camera and tripod, and headed over to photograph these luscious flowers. The light was little on the harsh side, or maybe a lot on the harsh side, but—news flash—the light you’ve got is the light you’ve got.
Cactus Flowers © Harold Davis
The inside of this single cactus blossom reminded me of a spiral, or perhaps a spiral galaxy!
Spiral Cactus Flower © Harold Davis
All the richness and wealth in the world cannot compare with the worth and beauty at the core of a single flower, and how the flower makes me feel!
Red Poppy © Harold Davis
Birds of Paradise in a Glass Vase © Harold Davis
Yesterday I photographed five Birds of Paradise flowers (Strelitzia reginae, a plant closely related to the banana incidentally) from our garden on a light box. Specifically, the flowers were upright in a vase and placed on one light box. A second light box was placed upright, perpendicularly to the first. You can see the set up in a iPhone capture my son Nicholas made for me, shown at the bottom of this story.
We’ve been having great fun and success with teaching Photographing Flowers for Transparency online using the webinar format. This doesn’t quite make up for not being able to have the live workshops, but it is something, and at least accessible to folks who can’t travel to my studio here in Berkeley.
You can find the recordings of our first four sessions on the Harold Davis Photography YouTube channel. The fifth class and last class in the series is coming up next week; here is the registration link for the live session.
Please also keep in mind our four-session Creativity Bootcamp: Awaken Your Inner Dragon scheduled for June. The class is limited to 12 participants so that we can get to know each other and have ample time for assignments and feedback. There are a few seats still available; here is the registration link.
