Harold Davis's Blog, page 200

Sacré Coeur Passage

La Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmartre sits high on a hill overlooking Paris. Controversial from long before the start of construction, the design of Sacré Coeur was a response to the supposed “moral decline” of France in the century following the French revolution, with the more proximate cause the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

If this defeat represented divine punishment, as asserted by Bishop Fournier, then Sacré Coeur was an iconic response by the hard right-wing allied with monarchists and the Catholic church to the democratic rabble of Paris and the commune. This was not the first, nor the last, time that the forces of repression and the church were on the same side against their common enemy, the people when empowered—but it still was a bitter pill for some to swallow standing tall above the city of light.

Sacré Coeur Passage © Harold Davis

Visited by millions of people a year, Sacré Coeur gets surprisingly little traffic up in the passage that circles the grand dome.  Perhaps the narrow and twisting stairs—all 280 of them—inhibit guests. The views are superb, as you can see in another image of mine from the dome that includes that other Parisian icon, the Eiffel tower.

Up in the passage around the dome of Sacré Coeur, the “rabble” has had its revenge. On the one hand, it is sad to see the elegant surfaces defaced by layer upon layer of graffiti and a general patina of neglect over time. On the other hand, this defilement—at least in part a deliberate statement—stands as mute testament to the true sentiments of many of those who visit: as much as a holy temple, Sacré Coeur is a political symbol created by those who would keep the people in their place.

Patina of Time © Harold Davis

Exposure data, Sacré Coeur Passage: 22mm, eight exposures at shutter speeds between 1/20 of a second and 3 seconds, each exposure at f/22 and ISO 200, tripod mounted; exposures processed in Nik HDr Efex Pro and Photoshop, and converted to monochromatic using Photoshop, Topaz Adjust, and Nik Silver Efex Pro; Patina of Time: 82mm, seven exposures at shutter speeds between 1/30 of a second and 1.3 seconds, each exposure at f/22 and ISO 200, tripod mounted; exposures processed in Nik HDr Efex Pro and Photoshop, and converted to monochromatic using Photoshop, Topaz Adjust, and Nik Silver Efex Pro

Does a sunset need color?

Photographing from Hawk Hill was truly one of those great moments in the life of a photographer. In front, the extra-large June “super moon” cleared the city of San Francisco and the Golden Gate as a bank of fog added picturesque accents. Behind, the sun was going down in a profusion of layered mist that made the Marin Headlands glow and appear to be a spiritual landscape. The air was warm and almost tropically balmy, in an exposed location that usually bears the brunt of Mark Twain’s famous quip about never finding a winter as cold as summer in San Francisco.

Sunset in the Headlands © Harold Davis

Does a sunset need color? Most people I’ve shown it to like the way I processed this image of a sunset, but I have heard the viewpoint that without color it “isn’t really a sunset.” Of course, it is an image of sunset, albeit reproduced in high-dynamic range black and white—as if one had sketched the sunset in pencil, or with black ink, rather than using color paints.

Is this any way to treat a sunset? What do you think?

Exposure data: 200mm, five exposures at shutter speeds from 1/50 of a second to 1/1250 of a second, each exposure at f/6.3 and ISO 200, tripod mounted; exposures combined and processed using Photoshop CC, Nik HDR Efex Pro, Nik Color Efex Pro, and the Topaz plug-in; converted to monochromatic using Photoshop adjustment layers and Nik Silver Efex Pro.

New Harold Davis Photonet column: Placing a Flower Photo on a Background

Please check out my new column on Photo.net, Placing a Flower Photo on a Background. Stay tuned for the sequel, coming next month to Photo.net, explaining how to add a texture to a flower photo to get painterly effects.

Have you ever wanted to turn your flower photos into fine art design pieces? With a little bit of Photoshop know-how, a few inexpensive tools, and the techniques explained in this column, it’s easy to create unique art imagery, guided only by your vision and creativity. Read more.

You may not be aware of the extensive archive of my columns available on Photo.net on a wide variety of topics related to creativity, photography, Photoshop techniques, and marketing your photography. Links to this material can be found below the image.

Cherry Dance © Harold Davis

Photo.net columns by Harold Davis

Placing a Flower Photo on a Background, June 2013
A Spiral Model of Creativity, Aug 21, 2009
Advanced Photoshop Tutorial: Hand HDR, Aug 21, 2009
Aging Photos Roundup, Sep 13, 2010
Becoming Composition Conscious, Jul 08, 2009
Becoming a More Creative Photographer, Apr 20, 2009
Converting to Black and White, Feb 17, 2010
Creating HDR Images by Hand: Part I, Dec 09, 2009
Creating HDR Images by Hand: Part II, Jan 14, 2010
Creating Photo Books, Nov 02, 2010
Creating a Photo Book Proposal, Dec 07, 2010
Creativity in the Photoshop Darkroom, Dec 15, 2009
Expecting the Unexpected, May 18, 2009
Finding an Audience for Your Photos, Jan 19, 2011
Focusing on What Matters, Jun 09, 2009
HDR in Adobe Photoshop CS5, Jun 28, 2010
Harnessing the Power of Flickr, Apr 17, 2011
Harold Davis Column, Aug 21, 2009
Intro to Compositing, Jun 02, 2010
Inverting Backgrounds with LAB, Apr 28, 2010
Knowing When to Quit, Aug 21, 2009
Making Colors Pop in Photoshop, Oct 08, 2010
Making the Unseen Visible, Aug 11, 2009
Multi-RAW Processing, Sep 15, 2009
Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Review, May 12, 2010
Setting Limits, Aug 21, 2009
Sharpening in LAB Color, Feb 03, 2010
Using Email to Find an Audience, Mar 11, 2011
Using Image Apply Image, Aug 05, 2010
Using LAB Color Adjustments, Mar 17, 2010
Using Twitter to Find an Audience for Your Photos, Jun 09, 2011

Happy Fisheye Family

Every once in a while a photographic gadget comes along that is simply so silly, and such a kluge, that I have to try it! After all, photography is about having fun, and not just about making “serious” images. In that spirit, I ordered a set of auxillary lens for the camera in my iPhone from the always-fun Photojojo.

Mathew with iPhone Fisheye © Harold Davis

The set of lens arrived via UPS in an envelope with a plastic dinosaur. I’m not sure what message the dinosaur was intended to send, but it was kind of fun—part of the point of the affair. The set comes with a telephoto lens, a wide-angle lens that unscrews to reveal also an extreme macro lens, and a fisheye lens. Note that the zoom facility within the iPhone itself is purely digital, and doesn’t provide any optical differentiation; hence, the desirability of a set of auxiliary lenses that do work optically.

Katie Rose with iPhone Fisheye © Harold Davis

The way this accessory lens set attaches to the iPhone is that you stick a magnetic disk that has glue on one side onto your iPhone around the camera optics. If the idea of gluing something to your iPhone gives you the creeps, then this isn’t for you!

Phyllis with iPhone Fisheye © Harold Davis

Each lens is magnetized and snaps onto the magnetic side of the disk. This works reasonably well. So far, I’ve had most fun with the fisheye lens, shown in these images. The kids wanted their iPhone fisheye picture taken while they mugged for the camera, and I used a tripod to make a self-portrait.

Who knew that the audio cable of an iPhone can also double as a cable release? Well, maybe you do, but I didn’t. To make this trick work, with the camera app active and the ear buds plugged in, press the “up” volume button on the ear buds wire (indicated by the + symbol).

Well, if this all sounds pretty jerry-rigged, it is truly not the sturdiest setup in town. But it is fun while it lasts, and look at it this way: they laughed when Leica first introduced the 35mm camera, and also called it a “toy.” In photography, toys have a way of sometimes outlasting “serious” gear.

Self Portrait with iPhone Fisheye © Harold Davis

Wonder whether I’ll be using these photos as blackmail when my kids are older? Me too. Here are some other fisheye shots of Katie Rose and the family from a few years back, shot with a conventional camera and the Nikon 10.5mm digital fisheye.

What’s behind the door?

Walking back to the hotel from Les Invalides I stopped to put on my macro lens and photograph this incredible door knocker. I think this was on the Rue de Varenne. I got the one shot you see here, then a soldier with an automatic rifle guarding the building told me in no uncertain terms that photography was not allowed.

Door Knocker in Paris © Harold Davis

What lies behind the door?

Through a Window Lightly

I love to shoot through window glass when it is wet or has been raining. This transcends nationality, location—or anything else. As an artist, my imperative is to see beauty, and it is often to be found through a window lightly.

La Loire © Harold Davis

The shot above is through a very old leaded glass window looking out on a rainy day from a tower in the Chateau d’Amboise towards the Loire. Below, you’ll see a more abstract composition from my home, discussed on my blog in an earlier story, Patterns on my windows.

Steamed Window Glyph © Harold Davis

iPhonographie de Paris

Click here for information about the iPhonography de Paris portfolio. © Harold Davis. All rights reserved. Shot and processed on my iPhone 5.

iPhonography de Paris

An iPhone in Paris

I like to say that the best camera to use is the one you have with you. I’ll swear that photographers, and not cameras, make photos! So my iPhone camera is always with me—and it is fun to use it to photograph and process with immediacy.

Moonight on the Seine © Harold Davis

I shot this view in Paris of the Seine River by moonlight looking towards the Ile de la Citie from the Passerelle des Artes using my iPhone 5 and the Slow Shutter Cam app.  I processed the image on my iPhone using Snapseed, Plastic Bullet and Lo-Mob. I particularly like the tied-off barges along the quai on the right.

Coming and Going

The entrance to the Chateau de Nazelles is shown in this image, photographed coming in through the tunnel beneath the primary structure. This kind of image is simply not possible to create without using HDR techniques, and it is a pleasure to present it in High Dynamic Range monochromatic. Today, the Chateau is a very nice bed and breakfast.

Chateau de Nazelles 2 © Harold Davis

A companion photo, blogged in an earlier story and shown below, presents the backwards view to this image. In other words, it is shot looking back at the camera position of this photo, as though one were leaving rather than entering the compound.

Chateau de Nazelles 1 by Harold Davis