Harold Davis's Blog, page 167

My prints in a New York loft

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the New York loft apartment of a friend of mine who collects my prints. My prints were carefully selected and framed, tastefully arranged, and placed in positions that made sense in the context of the layout of the loft. Of course, I work frequently with my images and prints, but that doesn’t mean I really “see” them.

I know these snapshots are not great interior design photos, and that this is a lived-in space (which is a good thing!). But I think you’ll get the idea. What’s striking about seeing a substantial body of my work integrated into a living space is that there is kind of a glow—harmonious, serene and powerful—that emanates across my prints, regardless of the subject matter. One can have no idea of the power of the prints from looking at an online version of the image: they become so much more when they are made manifest as physical objects. Which is part of why I think it is so important for photographers to be closely involved in making their own prints.

Links to the images shown here as prints (from top to bottom): Star Magnolia Panorama (bedroom); Papaver and Iridicaea; Cherry Blossoms (two prints in the dressing area); Kira at Passy Station (over the dresser); Egg Yolk Separator, Story of O, and Lonely Islet (Dining area); White Irises; Temple Dragon.

Related story: Print prices to rise; special print offer.

A room with a view

When I travel I always try to select hotels that are likely to have interesting views, and to request a room with a view if possible. Of course, my idea of an interesting view doesn’t always coincide with the normal tourist vista! I do look around carefully to see what I might like to photograph when I get to my new “home away from home.” The photo below was taken out of the ninth floor window of my hotel room in Barcelona, Spain at the Avenida Palace Hotel facing south towards Montjuic. I like the collage of heating ducts as much as the details that show that the scene in is in Barcelona.

View of a Barcelona Roof © Harold Davis

Some other examples of my passion for photographing from (or of) hotel room windows include this view out a back window of the pre-renovation Hotel Lutece in Paris showing (once again) complicated duct work, this view of my window on the cathedral in Bourg, France, as much about the lighting as about the incredible church (the related iPhone capture shows a bit more of the room itself), this view down on the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona from the Hotel Espanya showing an unusual angle on the medieval section of town, and the view from my room over the Bay of Tangiers at night in Morocco shown below.

Bay of Tangiers at Night © Harold Davis

Working on the Kumano kodo portfolio prototype

My Kumano kodo portfolio of images from spiritual Japan has been a long time coming. We’re printing it on one long piece of Awagami Kozo washi, then scoring and folding it into a clam shell, fan-folded shape on a single long piece of paper. This has presented some technical software difficulties, as the paper length is greater than our Epson 9900 can handle using its native code.

Kumano kodo portfolio prototype © Harold Davos

The origami-like main portion of this portfolio includes thirteen images from my travel in Japan, as noted in one uncut but folded sixteen foot (about 5 meters) long piece.  The portfolio is wrapped in an additional image, a panoramic slip cover. Besides these fourteen images there is a descriptive booklet explaining the images; it all fits neatly in a  presentation box.

The Kumano kodo portfolio is being produced by hand in a small edition of twelve hand signed and numbered copies, along with four artist proofs. We have the first two copies already promised to collectors, and one copy available at $650. Please let us know if you’d like to reserve it. After the third copy is sold, the price of the edition rises to $1,150.

Wider view of the Jemaa-el-Fna (with Zeiss 15mm)

This wider view of the Jemaa-al-Fna, the central square in Marrakesh, Morocco, was shot with the Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 lens, allowing a very broad view of the square in all its extent, but minimizing optical distortion. The fence shown in the right foreground is on the balcony where my tripod perched. The image shows steam and smoke rising from the famous food stalls to the left in the square, where I had a glorious and fun meal seated at the impromptu counters.

Jemaa-al-Fna 2 © Harold Davis

ISO 51,200

Towards the bottom of one of the spires of Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain it is dim to the point of almost pitch blackness. Tripods are not allowed. So I did the best I could, and shot handheld upwards with the heck boosted out of the ISO (ISO stands for sensitivity to light, and in days gone by would have been noted as film speed). The ISO scale on my D810 tops out at 51,200—almost inconceivably high compared to the camera’s “native” ISO of 64. Sure, there’s a bit of noise, but on the whole the image at this preposterous level of sensitivity to light has quite a bit of quality and resolution. The last few years have surely heralded a revolution in the ability of the current generation of cameras to record extreme low light conditions.

Inside the Sagrada Familia Spire © Harold Davis

Here’s the complete exposure information: Nikon D810, 28-300mm Nikkor zoom lens at 122mm, 1/8 of a second using Vibration Reduction (VR) at f/16 and ISO 51,200, handheld. Note that I needed to stop the lens down (to f/16) to get enough depth-of-field to keep the spirals in focus, which is part of what compelled me to boost the ISO so maniacally.

The Photoshop Doctor is in: take two webinars and call me in the morning

Stymied by the nuts-and-bolts of creative photography and post-production in Photoshop? Try my webinars for a different approach to jump start your success. Unlimited access to these recordings is $19.95 each. Here’s a comment after watching Photoshop Layers 101:

“Watching Harold work on his imagery, as he would in ‘real-life’, has helped me lock-in techniques that I had read about, but were only theoretical to me. It’s great to have multiple delivery channels for Harold’s information, and I now feel confident I can succeed.”

Click here to see more feedback about these webinars!

We currently have seven webinar recordings available:

Converting to Black & White with Photoshop and Nik Silver Efex
Painting in Transparency Using a High-Key Layer Stack Webinar Recording
Using Backgrounds and Textures Webinar recording
Selective Sharpening with LAB Color with Harold Davis
Photoshop Layers 101 Webinar Recording
Creative Use of LAB Color Webinar Recording
Making Memorable Travel Photos

Travels with Samantha

I’m normally a map, or a map-and-compass, kind of guy. But when I rented my car in Portugal I also rented a navigation system. Getting lost in obscure foreign parts where I didn’t speak the language was definitely getting old.

The man who set up the navigation system for me at Europacar wanted to know whether I wanted British or American English, and also whether I wanted the Jack or Samantha voice. I picked Samantha.

In some respects, Sam is a navigational prodigy, getting me places on a wing and a prayer that I would never have accomplished on my own. For example, the route Sam took me on to the door of my hotel in the historic district of Porto involved several one-way alleys, numerous roundabouts, the lower deck of the famous bridge in Porto, and—strangely—a vacant lot.

Porto at Night © Harold Davis

When she’s good, Sam is very, very good—but the price for her help is that she wants control. Occasionally she also gets things wrong, directing me up roads closed to traffic, or alleys that are only intended for foot traffic. In these cases, she gets repetitive, and there is clearly a shrillness to the directions, as if she’s asking, “Why can’t you even follow simple instructions?”

She’s also not very sympathetic to the stops I make for photography. She calculates an arrival time for each destination. Apparently, my photographic stops throw this off. “Recalculating,” she announces, and you can almost see the virtual eyeball rolling. “You are now fifteen minutes later than the original time-to-destination.” It certainly sounds like she gets more annoyed the more photographic stops I make.

Once today I reached a new highway that wasn’t in Sam’s database. Her display showed me and the car rolling across open fields, and her directions to correct my course were increasingly implausible, until at last the real world and her maps coincided again, and there was peace in the relationship once more.

Like any neurotic relationship there are communication problems, and as I mentioned, a battle for control. But I’ve grown accustomed to the strident, dulcet tones of my Samantha, telling me she is recalibrating, and to go right in 100 meters on a street whose name in Portuguese she has totally mangled—or often, turn in 250 meters on “Road” with no other name. It’s relaxing knowing I can blunder anyplace in this country, more or less, and Sam will get me to where I need to go no matter how lost I am.

Rats at Mafra

The imperial palace at Mafra, Portugal was built on a huge scale with loot from the Brazil colony. Everything is super-sized: room after room with billiard table, deer antlers, and last but surely not least the library. This is the largest library of leather-bound books in the world, and it is never done. As fast as they prepare new volumes, the rats of Mafra eat older books.

Library at Mafra © Harold Davis

Incidentally, this is the place where each of five guards told me I couldn’t use my tripod, even though I showed no sign of using it. I guess they had nothing to do in the vastness, and couldn’t very well start gnawing leather-bound volumes.

Leaving Morocco

The Royal Air Maroc plane to Lisbon was late to leave, as expected. Still, it was a relief to leave the chaos of Casablanca as we said goodbye to Morocco. Surely an adventure with many images to process, and much to digest. I captured this image on my iPhone, and processed it with Waterlogue.

Leaving Morocco © Harold Davis

Satellite Dishes in the Medina

I am told that about half the households in Morocco have Internet access, mostly via satellite dish like these shown in this photo of the ancient Medina in Fez. These dishes also transmit sports, and no doubt the Al Jazeera news channel.

Satellite Dishes in the Medina, Fez © Harold Davis