Category Archives: Flowers

A Palette of Petals

Dec

2017

On Christmas Day, the guests had left. The presents were unwrapped and enjoyed. OK, I admit I’d heard the yodeling pickle (a gag gift that Julian got for Mathew) one too many times. The chocolate coins had been unwrapped and demolished. The kids headed for their headsets and computer games of galactic conquest.

Floral Mandala on Black © Harold Davis

In the peace that descended, I got out my light box and placed it on a low table in the living room. Phyllis helped me work through two bunches of Alstromeria, gently taking the petals off the flowers, and separating the petals into four categories.

Floral Mandala on White © Harold Davis

With my “palette of petals,” I arranged the mandala shape shown here. Nicky and Mathew helped me carefully lift the light box to the floor. With the added height I was now able to obtain, I photographed the composition with my Zeiss 55mm Otus using my Nikon D850, and processed a blend of photos for high-key HDR. The white floral mandala that resulted is shown immediately above.

Taking the image on white, I used an L-channel inversion in Photoshop’s LAB color to place the mandala on a black background, as shown at the beginning of this story.

Happy holidays to one and all, and may good will reign privately and publicly!

Also posted in Photography

Amaryllis Unfurling

Dec

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

I photographed this white Amaryllis unfurling using dappled and diffused sunlight for illumination, and a black velvet cloth for the background.

Amaryllis Unfurling © Harold Davis

The image is comprised of three exposures, each using the Lensbaby 85mm f/1.6 and an extension tube, with my camera mounted on a tripod. I varied the aperture (and adjusted the shutter speed to compensate) to take advantage of the different effects this lens has depending upon how wide open or shut down it is. The exposure at f/1.6 yielded the bright sunlit areas on the upper right, the exposure at f/4 covers most of the mid-tones, and the exposure at f/16 sharpened the inner unfurling.

Also posted in Monochrome, Photography

Mottled-leaf Paphiopedilum

Dec

2017

by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

This is an image of an orchid I made today with a new lens, the 85mm f/1.8 Lensbaby Velvet. This is a lens designed to create a glowing effect in the center, hence it has applications for portraiture. Since the lens is also fairly capable in terms of close-ups (it focuses to 1/2 life size), it also seems like an optic that has potential with botanical art. In any case, it is quite a bit of fun to play with!

Mottled-leaf Paphiopedilum © Harold Davis

I haven’t had fun with anything Lensbaby in quite a while (since 2010), but back in the day I used older Lensbaby optics quite a bit. You can check some of these out by clicking here.

Also posted in Lensbaby, Photography

Two new rose roses

Nov

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Rose Rose 2 © Harold Davis

Rose Rose 3 © Harold Davis

Click here for the original Rose Rose in Rose and in Black and White!

Announcing a new session of Photographing Flowers for Transparency—June 23-24, 2018

Oct

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

We’re pleased to announce by popular demand a new session of Harold’s acclaimed Photographing Flowers for Transparency weekend workshop, to be held in Berkeley, CA Saturday and Sunday June 23 and 24, 2018. Enrollment is limited. Registration opens Jan 1, 2018 on a first-come-first-served basis.

Click here for more information about this workshop, here for the Photographing Flowers for Transparency FAQ, and here for Harold’s upcoming event, workshop, and destination photo tour schedule. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

The Photographing Flowers for Transparency workshop is a great deal of fun, and covers Harold’s light box techniques as well as related topics (see the partial list below). If you are interested in Harold’s unique approaches, this is the best way to learn. Each participant will produce their own fully processed images following Harold’s lectures and demonstrations, and with Harold’s personal hands-on supervision.

Flowering Dogwood & Friends © Harold Davis

Topics covered in the Photographing Flowers for Transparency Workshop include:

Floral arrangement and composition
Botanical art in the digital era
Shooting on a light box
Understanding high-key post-production
Working with Photoshop layers
High-key HDR
LAB color effects
Backgrounds and textures
Preparing to make floral pigment prints
Tips & techniques from Harold Davis
Implementing one’s own vision

Flowers at School © Harold Davis

Here are what some participants in Harold’s recent Photographing Flowers for Transparency workshops have said:

“Harold is unmatchable! An honor to be able to be able to have him as a mentor…. for photography and for life.”
“AWESOME!!! Harold has a great teaching style, and it was great to learn some new shooting and post-processing techniques.”
“Excellent!!! Recommend to anyone who wants to take their flower art to the next level.”
“Amazing teacher! Patient, knowledgeable, thoughtful and sharing, easy to learn from. Looking forward to many more workshops with Harold! What a total gem… “

Floral Composition © Harold Davis

From Harold’s introductory note to workshop participants:

My belief is that folks learn most when they are hands-on, and having fun. So we will be doing a great deal of flower arrangement and flower photography—and I think along with new ways of seeing, you will learn some techniques, and ways of using your camera, that may not have occurred to you before.

These new approaches are great with flower photography, but also go way beyond floral subject matter, and are really applicable to many kinds of photography.

Besides floral photography, floral arrangement, working on a light box, and various kinds of special lighting effects, we will be exploring high-key HDR, post-production in Photoshop, backgrounds and textures, and LAB color, and much more. As you can see, it will be a very special, busy, and creative weekend!

Kiss from a Rose © Harold Davis

Also posted in Workshops

A Tale of Two Flowers

Oct

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Some flowers were naughty and some were nice. The question was, would the naughty flowers find their inner goodness and be willing to wilt to save the innocent blossom? Would the madness of the revolting peasants—truly deplorable this time—prevail, or would society pull back from the brink of chaos? Stay tuned, and put your money on the Dahlia or the Sunflower.

These are the kinds of fantasies we amuse ourselves with as we wait for sixty second exposure to conclude, camera on tripod, hardly daring to breath!

Sunflower Central © Harold Davis

Dahlia in Scarlet © Harold Davis

Also posted in Photography

Light Box Floral Composition with Sunflowers, Irises, Alstromerias, and Glads

Sep

2017

by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

I’ve been taking advantage of my interlude at home (being at home for me has become increasingly rare in recent years and hence an unexpected pleasure) to photograph flowers on the light box. It’s fun doing this surrounded by family, as in “Don’t move, Daddy’s exposing!”

I photographed this relatively complex composition using my Photographing Flowers for Transparency set of techniques in two panels, with six exposures each. In post-production, first I combined the exposures, then I put the two panels together to create the composition.

Floral Composition © Harold Davis

I used an LAB color invert adjustment, and some fairly simple LAB tweaks, to created an inverted version of the original composition, on a black background rather than on white.

Floral Composition Inversion © Harold Davis

What do I do when I am at home fooling around with flowers? Here are some other recent stories: Black Dahlia; Rose Rose in Rose and Black and White; Pretty in Pink; and Flowers for Kwangsik. Also check out Of Beauty and Art, The Long and Winding Road Takes the Path Less Traveled; and an announcement of an upcoming exhibition of my work (opening November 9, 2017).

Black Dahlia

Sep

2017

by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Two Dahlias in black and white, photographed on the light box (above) and as an extreme macro (below).

Black Dahlia © Harold Davis

Dahlia Doodles © Harold Davis

Also posted in Monochrome, Photography

Rose Rose in Rose and in Black and White

Sep

2017

by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Patterns in these roses intrigued me, and I decide to photograph up close. My “Georgia O’Keeffe” red rose was something of a stylistic inspiration.

Rose Rose © Harold Davis

I started with a macro lens and an extension tube. This worked pretty well, but I soon decided I wanted a little more flexibility, of the sort you can can get with a focusing bellows. Who knew that my old Nikon PB-6 bellows on a rail still worked just fine? There’s nothing really changed about this photographic appliance with the advent of digital, and I have kept mine all these years.

White Rose with a Pink Blush © Harold Davis

I found the PB-6 bellows in a box named “Macro Things”—a surprisingly accurate categorization. After cleaning a little dust from the flanges, I attached the bellows to a tripod, a macro lens to the front, and my D810 to the rear.

By the Light of the Rose © Harold Davis

This session with my roses was so much fun! I couldn’t resist converting some of the images to black and white!

Rose Rose in Black and White © Harold Davis

By the Light of the Rose in Black & White © Harold Davis

Which rose do you like best?

Also posted in Monochrome, Photography

Pretty in Pink

Sep

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

The upper image shows Anemones and Alstromerias (“Peruvian lilies”) from my garden, both pink flowers, and if you look carefully, two butterflies as well. I used a slightly modified technique for Pretty in Pink when I photographed it the other day, compared to my orthodox Photographing Flowers for Transparency approach, because I photographed the composition in three separate batches (anemones, alstromerias, and butterflies) and then combined the sections in post-production—which is also the approach I took with Practicum Perluciditatem, shown at the bottom of this story, although the visual point of the image (made back in 2015) is quite different since it is really about translucency.

Pretty in Pink © Harold Davis

Practicum Perluciditatem © Harold Davis

Flowers for Kwangsik

Sep

2017

by Harold Davis | 2 Comments

Kwangsik came from Korea to attend our San Francisco in Black & White workshop this past weekend. On Friday, by special arrangement, he spent some time with me going over my Photographing Flowers for Transparency technique. This is the composition I set up for him on the light box to use as an exposure and processing demonstration.

Welcome Home Flowers

Sep

2017

by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

It’s great to come home to tulips and lobelias from the garden to photograph. Thank you Phyllis! Not to mention such a lovely, warm, and wonderful family.

I photographed the tulips and lobelias on a white light box, then added the virtual antique frame and panel effect in post-production.

Here are some other flower compositions I’ve done this year. In the press of travel excitements and engagements—Vietnam, France, Malta, Romania, and more so far—it has been hard to find the time to post them up until now. Please let me know which is your favorite and what you think of the treatments! Prints of these images are available by request, please let me know if you are interested.

One quarter (un-rotated) of the Garland image is shown in Tulips and a Clematis Vine. Here’s the top image I made today on white without the virtual frame:

Also posted in Photography

Demonstration Flower Projects

Aug

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Here are two of the images I used to demonstrate capture and post-production at my recent Photographing Flowers for Transparency course at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine.

When I give the Photographing Flowers for Transparency workshop, I start by explaining the theory and practice of this kind of light box photography. I usually note that floral arrangement is a key issue. When we get down to the actual work, I ask each participant to pick a flower in turn, which I then arrange in a composition for us all practice photographing and processing—which is the genesis of the composition below!

Also posted in Photography

White Rose

Aug

2017

by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

I love to photograph white roses from my garden. This one is a John F. Kennedy Hybrid Tea Rose. For me, the white rose represents peace and simplicity. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the white rose was the emblem of a group that resisted the Nazis. Perhaps it would be a good time to revive this symbolism. Here are some other photos of the white rose on my blog: White Rose Blushing and White Rose.

I Heart Dahlias

Aug

2017

by Harold Davis | 1 Comment

Today my class went to photograph a Dahlia Farm. I love these flowers because each one is unique, and because they are so colorful (even when I do convert to monochrome, see the image below!).