Harold Davis's Blog, page 13

Jackson Pollock wears army boots

Now that I have your attention, here are a few items from my calendar (along with a couple of new images). Note that I’ll be leaving for an extended photography trip to Japan in a little more than a week.

Framed © Harold DavisFor those of you in the Bay area, my exhibit Translucent Flora at the San Francisco Botanical Garden library is closing; Wednesday September 27, 2023 is the last day to view what has been an exciting opportunity for me to see so much of my printed botanical work in one place. Click here for more info. Note that all framed pieces are 20% off this week.We’ve had a cancellation (due to illness) in our fully-booked spring trip to Romantic Southwest France, and have a double room available for a couple (preferred) or a single. This is first come, first served. Click here for more info, here for the Prospectus and Itinerary (pdf), and here for the Reservation Form.The Art & Craft of Photography online conference is scheduled for November 8 and 9, 2023. The early-bird discount has been extended, so the tuition is $199 (rather than the $299 full tuition). In addition to the $100 savings, you’ll get a $50 gift certificate to RockyNook “while supplies last” (you can use it to buy one of my books!). Click here for more info and to register.We are considering scheduling an extended in-person Photographing Flowers for Transparency Masterclass in the autumn of 2024 in (or near) my home in Berkeley, California (across the Bay from San Francisco). Please contact us to be placed on the interest list for this workshop. Every Flower a New Dawn © Harold Davis

Jackson Pollack wears army boots

Now that I have your attention, here are a few items from my calendar (along with a couple of new images). Note that I’ll be leaving for an extended photography trip to Japan in a little more than a week.

Framed © Harold DavisFor those of you in the Bay area, my exhibit Translucent Flora at the San Francisco Botanical Garden library is closing; Wednesday September 27, 2023 is the last day to view what has been an exciting opportunity for me to see so much of my printed botanical work in one place. Click here for more info. Note that all framed pieces are 20% off this week.We’ve had a cancellation (due to illness) in our fully-booked spring trip to Romantic Southwest France, and have a double room available for a couple (preferred) or a single. This is first come, first served. Click here for more info, here for the Prospectus and Itinerary (pdf), and here for the Reservation Form.The Art & Craft of Photography online conference is scheduled for November 8 and 9, 2023. The early-bird discount has been extended, so the tuition is $199 (rather than the $299 full tuition). In addition to the $100 savings, you’ll get a $50 gift certificate to RockyNook “while supplies last” (you can use it to buy one of my books!). Click here for more info and to register.We are considering scheduling an extended in-person Photographing Flowers for Transparency Masterclass in the autumn of 2024 in (or near) my home in Berkeley, California (across the Bay from San Francisco). Please contact us to be placed on the interest list for this workshop. Every Flower a New Dawn © Harold Davis

Cloud Spiral

Yesterday was a day for meditation. First up: Gathering the raw materials (see image at bottom). With several bunches of alstroemeria (“Peruvian Lilies”), I harvested the petals from the blossoms, taking care to separate the flatter, outer petals from the thinner and narrower inner petals. These inner petals often have an appearance that reminds me of tiger stripes!

With the petals gathered, I next sat down at the light box for a long and calming interlude of careful petal placement. 

You can see more of my images along these lines in Petal Galaxy and Dancing with the Stars.

Cloud Spiral © Harold Davis Raw Materials © Harold Davis

Butterfly Ranunculus

I’ve been working to upgrade the plumbing at the backend of my website, not (I must say) particularly out of desire to do this kind of task. Although there is something pleasurable about lining up images and blocks of text online and getting everything just right. Kind of like designing a book. In addition, there is some pleasure in exercising the software muscles that I once used to make a living.

No, the reason here is that my web hosting company will be upgrading my MySQL database because the version I was running was coming to end of its service life—and WPEngine (the web host) is nothing if not a daemon for keeping backend software up to date. Furthermore, I’ll be in Japan when the “upgrade” was scheduled to happen—so this must be dealt with in the here and now, while I am here to deal with it!

So plumbing is a good operative word. Although this switch does allow me to get some things right, or new better and improved; for example, this updated category page of almost ten years of Best-ofs. But mostly it is that feature of modern, software-mediated life: running to stay in place.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to take some Zen breaks, in the case of the Butterfly Ranunculus image below while Phyllis was working on the typography of our new website. With this image, I was pleased to see the form of the image follow (not function) but the name of the flower; you can see why the varietal was thought to resemble the butterfly. Speaking of which, it is good to think of butterflies rising in flight from the chrysalis, just like my website has been forged anew!

Butterfly Ranunculus © Harold Davis

Is this me?

I am very pleased with a new portrait of me made by Nan Phelps. This is a square image created on black-and-white film using a medium format camera, so you can see a bit of the film grain.

Is this me? It’s always an interesting and intense experience for a photographer to themselves be photographed. But with that in mind, I think this portrait gives a pretty good sense of who I am at this point in my life.

Harold Davis by Nan Phelps

Shadowland

Shadows can play a big role in monochromatic photography. If you are interested in making compelling black and white images consider the important role that shadows play in this kind of artistic expression. As two cases in point, the top image is of the shadow of a gang way in Rockport Harbor, Maine, and the bottom image shows angle and architectural details of a church in rural Iowa. 

I made the top image will leading a workshop on Photographic Composition at Maine Media Workshops; the rural church in Iowa was one of the subjects I found while dropping my son off in Grinnell, Iowa for his first day of college.

Gangway Shadow, Maine © Harold Davis

Hickory Grove Church, Iowa © Harold Davis

Online Conference: The Art & Craft of Photography

RockyNook is sponsoring an online conference, The Art & Craft of Photography, on November 8 and November 9, 2023. I am one of the featured speakers. Note that an early-bird special price applies through September 15, 2023. Click here for info and registration.

This is a new online conference featuring the world’s most inspiring photographers and educators presenting two sessions each: one on the art and one on the craft of photography.

10 Speakers2 Days20 Sessions2 Tracks90 Days of Access to Video Recordings of All Sessions

Please also keep in mind Photographing Flowers for Transparency Live Webinar Masterclass on Thursday, September 14, 2023 @ 10am PT. This Masterclass is sponsored by RockyNook (there is a charge for registration, and an early-bird special until September 1, 2023). Click here for registration!

Jewel of the Prairie

On my way back from teaching Composition & Photography in Maine, I met Phyllis and our son Mathew in Iowa, where we spent the better part of a week while Mathew attended an early orientation program at college. We stayed in a loft apartment in downtown Grinnell, a small city with the motto “Jewel of the Prairie,” and enjoyed our time there immensely. But, as always, it is great to be home!

Grinnell, Iowa © Harold Davis

The photo above shows the main street in Grinnell. Our loft was located in the historic buildings on the right side. The photo below is of a cartouche and round stained glass window in the “jewel box” bank building designed by Louis Sullivan. 

Cartouche, Merchants National Bank © Harold Davis

Silo © Harold Davis

What’s the Maine Thing?

When I was young, my parents, my brother and I traveled with Raymond Smullyan. Raymond was a mathematician, logician, writer, classical musician, and—most important from my child’s eyes perspective—a magician who was adept at slight of hand. He’d spent time performing on the stage, where he was known as “Five-Aces Merlin.” 

In small seaside villages in Greece, Raymond, with his flowing beard and long white hair, would pull coins from the ears of fishermen. His patter was quite convincing, and at least some of the locals grew afraid of Raymond as a “real” magician.

In the long and otherwise boring car rides through the Scottish highlands, Raymond would entertain and tease to the point of torment us kids with his “What is the main thing to do in Scotland?” joke. We’d beg Raymond for the answer to this riddle, which after endless delays, equivocations, and shaggy dog stories was always (to our disgust) that the main thing to do in Scotland was the main thing to do in Scotland.

So, I’m excited that in a week I’ll be leaving for Maine, where once again I’ll be teaching at Maine Media in Rockport. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting inspiring students, and once again exploring mid-coast Maine, a beautiful and interesting part of the world. I guess the main thing to do in Maine is to enjoy Maine; and also, for me, to make photographs of Maine the way I see it. Of course, another “Maine thing” is to enjoy lobster rolls!

Monhegan Storm © Harold Davis

Inside the Pemaquid Lighthouse © Harold Davis

Penobscot Crossing © Harold Davis

Train Bridge, Maine © Harold Davis

Reflections in a Maine Pond © Harold Davis

Pretty in Pink

With all the fuss about the recent Barbie movie, I decided to photograph a field of flowers in the key of pink. As pink as all these flowers could be, however, my sunny sunflowers insisted on peering through!

Sunflowers in the Pink © Harold Davis