Harold Davis's Blog, page 150

Harold Davis Photo wrongly attributed as Georgia O’Keeffe painting; special print offer

I am always amused, flattered, and slightly aghast when one of my photos turns up as a Georgia O’Keeffe painting. This happens most often with Kiss from a Rose (shown below). What brings this to mind is a review GEORGIA O’KEEFFE, MOTHER OF AMERICAN MODERNISM: LINE, COLOR, COMPOSITION MAY 8 – SEPTEMBER 13, 2015 of the current exhibition at the O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico brought to light by a routine Pixsy scan of the web. My image is the second reproduced in the review, under the text “A brilliant colorist, O’Keeffe created strong, vibrant works with colors that glow with energy and vitality.”

Kiss from a Rose © Harold Davis

In honor of this bone-headed confusion, I am offering a print special of my Kiss from a Rose, printed at roughly 11″ X 14″ on Moab Paper’s wonderful new Juniper Baryta. The price for the print is $250.00, which is a fraction of our normal studio retail print pricing.

The fine print: California residents add sales tax; shipping within the continental Unites States is $25; offer subject to withdrawal if we feel like it; contact us by phone or email with questions or to place an order; payment accepted via cash, check, or credit card.

Related story: When is a Harold Davis rose a Georgia O’Keeffe?

Steven Pressfield on Achieving Your Potential As a Photographer

I sent Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, a copy of my new book Achieving Your Potential As a Photographer: A Photographer’s Creative Companion and Workbook.

Steve wrote back, “Harold, many thanks for sending ‘Achieving Your Potential’ and for the very kind note re ‘The War of Art.’ It’s an honor (and a giggle) to have helped a long-time pro like yourself, if even a little. By the way, the book looks great. What an accomplishment! I salute you. You’re gonna help a lot of people with this one.”

Thank you Steve—for your great contribution to my creativity (and that of many others), and also for your kind words about my new book!

Maple Leaves

Maple Leaves © Harold Davis

Old Train Bridge

Old Train Bridge © Harold Davis

I photographed this old train bridge in Maine, with the idea of extending the apparent length of the bridge visually as far as I could. To achieve this goal in post-production I used a similar technique to that in World without End, namely compositing the background image with successively smaller versions of itself. In World without End, the endless doors yield ultimately at the single pixel level to a wall with my initials carved in it. In the current image, I pasted a silly selfie rather than my initials.

You can see what I mean in the screen capture below since you won’t be able to get close enough to see me via the image on your monitor. To see my selfie which is at the pixel level, you’d need a good print and a magnifying glass, or a high resolution file and a good monitor.

I fancy this fantasy makes me a little like a train, and I am mindful of a few of the Stephen King novels in which “Blaine the Train” and others of his ilk have rather nasty personalities. But bear with me: I promise to be a nice train!

Reflections in a Maine Pond

“To be calm, to be serene! There is the calmness of the lake when there is not a breath of wind. . . . So it is with us. Sometimes we are clarified and calmed healthily, as we never were before in our lives, not by an opiate, but by some unconscious obedience to the all-just laws, so that we become like a still lake of purest crystal and without an effort our depths are revealed to ourselves. All the world goes by us and is reflected in our deeps. Such clarity!”—from the journals of Henry David Thoreau

Reflections in a Maine Pond © Harold Davis

Spiral Inside the Pemaquid Lighthouse

Today I visited Pemaquid Point, Maine and its well-known lighthouse. This is still an operational lighthouse, run by the United States Coastguard. After I visited the top of the tower, the docent was kind enough to let me set my tripod up under the spiral stairs leading up, provided I didn’t block traffic. This was a simple, single exposure using my Nikon D810 and a Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 lens, for 30 seconds at f/22 and ISO 64, processed in Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), and Photoshop, and converted to black and white using Nik Silver Efex Pro and Photoshop.

Inside the Pemaquid Lighthouse © Harold Davis

Monhegan Island Storm

Monhegan Island is a small island twelve miles off the coast of Maine. There are a handful of year around residents who mostly fish for lobster, many artists who come here in the summer, and visitors like me who come for a brief respite from civilization. The island clings to the edge of the ocean, and the coast of the mainland is only a smudge at the edge of vision. Today a storm rolled in, and I photographed the outer edge of the island near Lobster Cove as waves crashed against the shore.

Monhegan Storm © Harold Davis

Lobsters for Dinner

They said, “Have as many lobsters as you want for dinner.” For a while all was lobster bibs, drawn butter, lobsters claws cracking, and the sounds of contented eating. When the sounds of shells cleared, I had eaten three.

Lobsters for Dinner © Harold Davis

Maine is, of course, beautiful in the lush (but brief) summertime—and in places very apt for iphoneography, like this shot in Camden Harbor via Waterlogue.

Camden Harbor © Harold Davis

Avena Herb Farm

My favorite field trip during the Flower Photography workshop I gave at Maine Media Workshops was to Avena Herb Farm in Rockport, Maine. Avena Botanicals has a wonderful garden for photography where they make herbal tinctures, potions and salves the old-fashioned way: by hand, from botanicals (which is what is shown in the photo). But most of all, this is a place of spiritual beauty and serenity. Well worth a visit any time you are in the area!

At Avena Herb Farm © Harold Davis

Hope is for hostages