Harold Davis's Blog, page 186
March 11, 2014
Beneath the Berkeley Pier
The Berkeley, California Pier juts out 3,000 feet into San Francisco Bay. When originally constructed in the 1920s, the pier was over three miles long, and an integral part of the Lincoln Highway, the first highway across the country. There was a ferry terminal at the end of the pier. While the western end of the pier has deteriorated and fallen in the water, much of the diminution in the length of the pier comes land fill. In other words, there is much less of San Francisco Bay than there used to be.
Beneath the Berkeley Pier © Harold Davis
I have often shot the Berkeley Pier, with its wonderful views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, from the pier itself. For example, here’s one shot of the Berkeley Pier from a few years back.
Recently, it occurred to me that it might be possible to shoot the pier from below. Yesterday afternoon, I checked the tide tables for the Berkeley Marina, and arrived at the Berkeley Pier at low tide.
Beneath the Berkeley Pier in Black and White © Harold Davis
Getting beneath the pier felt kind of weird, almost as if I were descending to the underworld through a crack. The opening was about two feet high, so I really had to slither with my gear and tripod to fit through (alas, I am not as svelte as I used to be!).
Once under the pier, however, I was surprised at the spaciousness. Of course, this was low tide, but the pier construction extended back over something like a chamber carved out of landfill.
Everything was clammy and wet. I shared the space with scuttling crabs, seaweed, rats and assorted broken glass and garbage. As I made my time exposures, every once in a while a wave came through the pilings with a splash that got my attention—and had me ready to move quickly to protect my gear if necessary. I found a place to position the tripod legs between the rocks, and moving them made a squishy sound in the mud. Mentally, I vowed to wash everything washable as soon as I got home!
Exposure data: Shot with my Nikon D800 using a Zeiss APO Sonnar 135mm f/2 lens at 4 seconds, f/22 and ISO 50; circular polarizer; tripod mounted.
March 8, 2014
Photograph San Francisco in Black and White—also Workshop Updates
Please consider joining me the weekend of Saturday April 12 and Sunday April 13, 2014 for a black & white photographic tour of San Francisco. I like to think of this as the film noir workshop of San Francisco, although of course we will be working in digital. Click here for details, curriculum and registration.
Sunset on the Bay © Harold Davis
Depending on light, weather and group inclinations, we will shoot famous locations and those known only to locals, possibly including (but not limited to) the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, Fort Point, the Cable Car Museum, Urban Ore and Market Street at Night. We will photograph in the daytime, and include at least one night shoot (Saturday night). Classroom sessions will cover black and white conversion, monochromatic HDR, and creating high tonal-range imagery.
The workshop will be based in Berkeley, California (we will carpool to locations) and the tuition is $695 per person. Click here for details, curriculum and registration.
Cable Car Wheels © Harold Davis
Updates
My understanding based on email responses is that the Photographic Caravan to Spain and Morocco is almost full. However, we are taking firm registrations when we get completed applications and deposit checks—so if you are on the fence, send yours in now because there may still be a possibility of getting that last spot, and also we will be taking a waiting list.
Nearer to home, I am giving two extraordinary workshops on the coast of California you may wish to consider in August, 2014. I am very excited about both these workshops. Night Photography in the Big Sur Landscape is hosted by the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA the weekend of August 1-3 and Creative Landscape Photography on Point Reyes will take place at the historic and romantic Coastguard Boathouse the weekend of August 8-10 under the auspices of Point Reyes Field Seminars.
Perhaps needless to say, we do expect these workshops to be popular. To avoid disappointment, I urge you to register early.
Bixby Bridge by Starlight © Harold Davis
Here are the related Meetup groups for these workshops:
Night Photography in the Big Sur Landscape
Creative Landscape Photography on Point Reyes
Photographic Caravan to Spain and Morocco
If you are interested in flower photography, please keep in mind the Best of Botanicals National Juried Photography Exhibition partially benefiting the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. Related to this exhibition, I will be presenting and discussing my botanical prints on Saturday, June 7 (this event is free). Finally, I am pleased to offer my Photographing Flowers online course at $10 off the $59.99 price (use this link for the special discount).
Tulip Pano © Harold Davis
March 7, 2014
Mandalas from a Crystal Bowl
Wandering the crowded aisles of Berkeley’s Urban Ore—a somewhat dodgy cross between an upscale junkyard and a down-at-the-heels flea market with an added smidgen of green ideology—with my camera and Otus, I came across a beautiful cut crystal bowl in a locked cabinet. It was love at first sight. Finding the person with the key to unlock the cabinet and negotiating the price took a bit of time, but soon enough Otus and I were making our way home to photograph our new treasure.
Crystal Mandala 1 © Harold Davis
I photographed my crystal bowl straight down using a light box and a bracketed high-key sequence of exposures. This is the technique I developed to capture flowers for transparency (actually, for translucency), and as I note in my presentation on the subject the technique produces interesting results with many subjects in addition to flowers. In this case, the high key HDR approach emphasized the contrast between the edge lines of the bowl and the negative spaces created by the transparent glass.
Crystal Mandala 2 © Harold Davis
My next step playing in Photoshop was to invert the essentially monochromatic image, transforming black lines on a white background to black lines on a white background. It’s hard to get me going on this kind of thing without wanting to play in Photoshop, so I started using LAB adjustments. How do you make a mandala from a crystal bowl?
Red Crystal Mandala © Harold Davis
In this case, in addition to LAB inversions and equalizations, I used Nik Color Efex filters, direct painting on layers, layers, layer masks, and repeated application of some of the oddball blending modes such as Difference. Play around long enough in Photoshop and you never know what you will find!
Holographic Mandala © Harold Davis
With this imagery it was visually important to me to “square the circle” with a square crop. With some of the Crystal Mandalas, like the Holographic Mandala, there is almost a three dimensional look—part of the image jumps off the plane. In contrast, with Mandala Inside, the effects create an outer translucent shell or layer, with an inner core that is much bolder and more defined.
Mandala Inside © Harold Davis
These could be small virtual worlds, and have become something completely unrelated to the original sequence of photos. When I first looked in my crystal bowl, I did not know where it would take me!
March 5, 2014
Best Of Botanicals: National Juried Photography Exhibition
Best Of Botanicals: National Juried Photography Exhibition
A Benefit for San Francisco Botanical Garden
Call for entries. Entries are due: April 3, 2014
From classical to contemporary, from desert to rain forest, from bud to decay, the natural form of flowers and plants has been contemplated by artists, philosophers, scientists . . . and everyone.
This is PHOTO’s second benefit for the San Francisco Botanical Garden. A percentage of sales will go to support the work of the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park.
PHOTO is part of Oakland Art Murmur located in Oakland’s Uptown Arts District. The exhibit will be seen by thousands of visitors during the June and July First Friday art walks, and during regular hours for the duration of the show.
Best of Show Award: $1000
Harold Davis will speak on “Making the Botanical Photo: The Digital Print As an Artifact” on June 7. He is the recipient of many photo awards, a Moab Printmaking Master, and the author of numerous bestselling photography books, including “Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Worlds.” Click here for more information about this presentation.
Exhibit dates: May 22 – July 12
Click here for the complete Call for Entries, click here for exhibition info, here to enter work for the juried exhibition, and click here to view the PDF card for this event!
Three Flowers for Phyllis © Harold Davis
March 1, 2014
Photographic Caravan to Spain and Morocco
I am very, very excited to announce that registration is now open for the Photographic Caravan to Spain and Morocco in November, 2014. In a nutshell, we will start photographing in Barcelona, drive down the Costa del Sol, and spend some time photographing the fabulous Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Next, we’ll ferry past the Rock of Gibralter to North Africa, where we’ll explore Tangier, Rabat and linger in Marrakech. For me, I am totally thrilled about what comes next: crossing the Atlas Mountains to spend some time exploring, luxury camping, and photographing the Sahara itself. We’ll make our way back via the imperial Morrocan cities of Fez and Meknes to Casablanca. From Casablanca, the group will fly to Lisbon (the cost of this flight is included), where we will spend a day exploring.
This will be us!
It’s my great pleasure to co-lead this destination photography workshop with distinguished commercial and stock shooter Bill Bachmann. Although we agree about many things, Bill has a different approach to photography than mine, and different areas of expertise—this means you will have the opportunity to learn two different skill sets from both of us.
The Photographic Caravan to Spain and Morocco is 18 days and 17 nights. Accomodations are at 4-star hotels (except the luxury camping in the desert part). Many meals are included. At $5,695 per person double occupany (the single supplement is $695), I think this is a GREAT deal. Bill in particular has worked very hard to get the best prices possible, and we both have tried to plan things so the trip will include those destinations that will be very unique and special with photographers in mind. Please note that trans-Atlantic airfare to Europe is not included in this cost, although we are working to arrange a lowcost airfare for those who want to travel with the group from Newark to Barcelona, and back from Lisbon to Newark (you are of course free to make your own arrangements and meet the group in Barcelona).
If this destination photography workshop interests you, I suggest you RUN not WALK to get your deposit and paperwork in. My guess is that between Bill’s followers and mine we will fill up pretty quickly (applications will be taken on a first come, first served basis). What you have to do is fill out the application form, and send it, along with a check for $500, to Bill. It’s pretty straightforward. The link is below. We won’t deposit the checks unless there is sufficient enrollment to run the Photographic Caravan. By all means, also drop me an email if you decide to enroll so I know you will be coming.
Click here to learn all about the Photographic Caravan to Spain and Morocco in terms of destinations, plans, details and what is included in the price. I think you’ll be amazed at this fabulous itinerary
If you are interested in enrolling, please click here for the registration form and mailing instructions.
Do feel free to email me if you have any questions. As I’ve said, I am incredibly excited about this, and look forward to having you join me on a photographic adventure of a lifetime.
February 26, 2014
Flowers Squared
I have been thinking about square compositions, for example, with these Nautilus Shells. So why not create some square versions of my light box flowers? This is actually harder from a composition viewpoint than it might seem, but here are a few I have come up with!
Tulips 3 Squared © Harold Davis
Tulips 4 Squared © Harold Davis
Tulips 5 Squared © Harold Davis
February 20, 2014
Today’s Nautilus
I’ve been photographing split Nautilus shells yesterday and today, these make such lovely spirals. Check out the monochrome version first:
Nautilus February 20 2014 © Harold Davis
It’s hard to think of another still life subject that is as classical and inspiring as the chambered Nautilus. I am looking forward to photographing a whole shell that hasn’t been split in the next few days. Here’s my recent color version:
Nautilus February 20 2014 © Harold Davis
Do you prefer today’s Nautilus in black and white or color?
Related story: Nautilus by Halves.
February 19, 2014
Nautilus by Halves
To make this image, I photographed two split halves of a Nautilus shell on a mirror placed on a black velvet background. I lit the composition using natural light and a silver metallic reflector. The wonderful bright and luminescent quality of the shell in contrast to the black background is partly due to the lens I used, my Zeiss Otus 1.4/55mm.
Nautilus by Halves © Harold Davis
I really enjoy photographing shells with spirals, such as this image of my Nautilus in Black and White and this Architectonica. If shell spirals intrigue you, also check out this playful version, Spirals!
February 16, 2014
Otus and me
I shot this photo of tulips in a crowd with my new Otus. Otus’s more formal designation is the Otus 1.4/55, and is, in the words of the manufacturer Zeiss, quite possibly the absolute best lens in the world today. According to Dxo Labs, on a full frame DSLR, the Carl Zeiss Otus 1.4/55 “is categorically the highest performing standard-type prime in our database.”
Tulips in a Crowd © Harold Davis
Subjectively, Otus is a big honking prime lens with a smooth-as-velvet manual focus—and a wonderful, bright and cheery quality when you look or photograph through it. As I noted in The Way of the Digital Photographer, a lens is to a photographer as a paintbrush is to a painter. I am lucky to be friends with Otus, and to have Otus as my photographic “paintbrush.” Thank you, Zeiss, for the honor!
Click the image or on this link to view it larger.
February 15, 2014
Current Harold Davis Photo Workshop offerings
I have only two spots left in the Photographing Flowers for Transparency workshop this coming weekend (Feb 22-23, 2014) here in Berkeley, California. This is an opportunity to photograph your own light box composition and process it for translucency from beginning to end with my assistance.
Achieving Your Potential as a Digital Photographer is an opportunity for ongoing mentoring limited to 12 photographers. The initial meeting is the weekend of March 15-16, 2014. I have very limited space availability remaining. Admission is by portfolio review only, please click here for instructions about how to submit a portfolio.
Poppies Galore © Harold Davis
I am extremely excited about my upcoming Black & White workshop. If you are interested in shooting black and white with me in the Bay area on the weekend of April 12-13, and learning my techniques for processing digital black and white, please consider joining me.
Mastering Creative Photoshop, to be given May 31 – June 1, is a chance to learn my ideas about the way of the digital photographer, and the “secret sauce” that makes my Photoshop post-production “play-flow” unique.
Workbench © Harold Davis
Maybe you don’t want to go as far as Heidelberg, Germany to take a workshop with me, but if you do (or if you are based in Europe) there is still some room in my Creative Flower Photography (June 27-30) and Creative Black & White and HDR (July 4-7) workshops at the Heidelberg Summer School of Photography.
Also please note my free presentation at Photo Oakland on Saturday, June 7 at 4PM. In this event, I will show my botanical prints and talk about how they were made.
My Photographing Flowers online course now has almost 1,000 students and many exciting projects. Use this special link to take $10 off the normal price of $59.99 for the course, with 2.5 hours of HD video and a number of interactive features.
Questions? Wondering if a particular workshop is appropriate for your level? Don’t hesitate to drop me an email. As always, you can find current information about my technique workshops and destination photography trips on my Workshops & Events page.
Grace Cathedral © Harold Davis
