Harold Davis's Blog, page 3

Bamboo

In specifying Bamboo for our garden for our garden I learned a great deal about this marvelous plant. There are over 1,200 species of Bamboo. They grow by sending up new shoots, one of which is shown in close detail below, rather than by expanding existing growth. These new shoots climb towards the sky wonderfully quickly; you can see the growth from day-to-day. Since Bamboo can be aggressively invasive, care must be taken when planting them. Ours are in containers.

Bamboo © Harold Davis

Serenity and Off-the-Beaten-Track Japan Tour | $2,000 pp discount

In these troubled times I recommend our off-the-beaten track Japan tour in November to restore serenity and some sense of perspective in life. This is a great trip involving beauty, gardens, photography, culture, and the art islands of Japan.

We are offering a $2,000 per person discount on the published price of this destination photography workshop and tour.

Click here for a detailed Itinerary, and here for the Reservation Form.

Basin, Nara, Japan © Harold Davis

This photographic journey will take us to areas of Japan that Westerners often do not see, with an emphasis on photography and visual art at a pace specifically designed to enhance the photographic experience. Harold Davis will assist in group and personalized photographic teaching and artistic enhancement aimed at helping each participant achieve their creative visions. Our group will be guided by the esteemed Kana Hattori-san, whose bilingual abilities and background in Japanese cultural traditions will enhance our enjoyment of the art and sacred islands of Japan.

Peaceful (Shikoku) © Harold Davis

Highlights of this absolutely unique photographic journey—designed by photographers for photographers—start with photography in the heart of modern Osaka. From there, we will journey to Nara, to wander in the extensive gardens of the old imperial capital. The next leg of our adventure takes us over spectacular bridges, crossing the Seto Inland Sea to Japan’s smallest mainland island, Shikoku, with a stop along the way to photograph the famous tidal Naruto Whirlpools.

Korakuen Garden © Harold Davis

Our stay in remote Shikoku will include the fabulous Iya Onsen on a cliff high above the Iya River, exploring the river, and visiting old vine bridges in the mountainous back-country terrain. After Iya Onsen, we will visit the famous Awagami Factory for a hands-on washi paper-making workshop. Then, we will photograph Ritsurin Garden, a three-star Michelin great garden of Japan.

Next, we will return to the Honshu mainland, spending a day each on the “art islands” of Teshima and Naoshima. Our agenda includes a visit to the storehouses and canals of the ancient merchant city of Kurashiki. Traveling south, we will visit Korakuen Gardens in the morning, followed by a tour of Hiroshima Peace Park, and then spend two nights in a ryoken on the sacred island of Miyajima, famous for its torii gates.

The trip will end in Kyoto with a final day for contemplation and exploration.

Tree and Reflection, Nara © Harold Davis

A previous year’s guest wrote, “You guys did a fantastic job of putting together a rich, substantial, beautiful introduction to a cross section of Japanese history, culture, and beauty.”

Trip dates are Sunday, November 9 to Saturday, November 22, 2025 — 14 days and 13 nights.

The cost for the 2025 adventure is $12,975 per person, with a $1,680 single supplement (please see page 3 of the Itinerary for details regarding the single supplement. The extraordinary $2,000 per-person discount lowers the per-person price to $10,975.00. The fine print: the discount cannot be combined with any other offer; note that this discount offer will not last.

If you’d like to explore off-the-beaten track Japan with me, please drop me an email to confirm so we can hold your place. Then, print out and complete the Reservation Form, and send the completed form (or scan and email it), along with a $1,000 deposit check.

Please contact us with any questions. I hope you will consider joining me in Japan.

Click here for detailed Itinerary, and here for the Reservation Form.

Power to the Poppy

The poppies I planted in my garden in the autumn are blooming wonderfully. I’ve been enjoying photographing them, this year focusing on the core of the flower. The first image (below) shows a poppy core going to seed with the petals having fallen away. This reminds me of some kind of existential life force that populates the universe.

Poppy we hardly knew ye © Harold Davis

A more complete poppy core is shown below, against a luscious background that is almost fabric-like in its folds.

Red Velvet © Harold Davis

Altogether, each flower is different, with variations both overall (note the straight lines in the core about versus the not-quite-rectilinear lines in the core below).

Fierce Poppy © Harold Davis

For the most part, these flowers remind me of the life force. But sometimes, depending on the lights and shadows, there is darkness in the images, and the small space of the flowers becomes the vast contours of the universe.

Papaver Somniferum 1 © Harold Davis

Closer in (below), the core of this Papaver somniferum (“opium poppy”) looks like a planet surrounded by a night sky. Sweet dreams!

Papaver Somniferum 2 © Harold Davis

Presentation to the Royal Photographic Society

I’ll be presenting Photographing Flowers for Transparency on Saturday July 26, 2025 to the Royal Photographic Society via Zoom. The live event is open to the public with a small fee, although the time of the morning it is scheduled for is not that “user friendly” to those of us on the west coast of the U.S. (let’s hear it for Greenwich Mean Time, lol!). Click here for details and registration!

Flowers Party Too! © Harold Davis

Description: In this detailed presentation, Harold Davis shows his stunning floral imagery and explains in detail his process for light box photography. Botanical composition, exposure, and post-production are explained.

Harold says: “Light box photography is a joy on its own, and is a great form of photography to practice at home with relatively minimal investment in equipment. In addition, techniques that can be learned from light box photography cut across myriad aspects of photography—such as exposure and composition—and will enrich all aspects of your photographic practice.”

Click here for details and registration!

Scenes from my garden

It’s my enchanted, secret garden. I’ve been having a great deal of fun planning, planting, and enjoying our new garden in what was formerly a waste-land of a backyard. Here are a few snapshots.

© Harold Davis © Harold Davis © Harold Davis © Harold Davis © Harold Davis © Harold Davis © Harold Davis © Harold Davis © Harold Davis © Harold Davis In my garden © Harold Davis

More Poppies Galore

Chicken egg. Chicken egg. Egg chicken. Egg chicken.

I am often asked which came first, the gardening or the flower photography. I think the answer is neither: it started for me with a love of flowers, botanical art, and imagery of nature. Over the years, I have learned to hone my craft, and make work in the genre that would appeal to me even if I hadn’t made it!

This feels a little bifurcated: the person who edits (and often and hopefully) appreciates my work is not the same person who makes the art. But as the song goes, I have two lovers, and both of them are me!

More Poppies Galore © Harold Davis

Actually, gardening and floral photography are a “circle unbroken” for me. Each feeds the other. The flowers in More Poppies Galore (above) are from my garden. Like the flowers shown in Recent Work (in my garden), I could not have these Papavers to photograph without growing them myself.

Recent Work (in my garden)

My garden is in full bloom, and the new enchanted garden is exciting. The whole ensemble is so peaceful and serene that it is a little hard to motivate myself to do much, other than tending the garden. At the same time, my models are blooming, and I don’t want to miss photographing the glorious turns of the flowering seasons! Right now the poppies and ranunculus are in full bloom. Next week, who knows?

We are all in this together © Harold Davis This too shall pass © Harold Davis Poppies Galore! © Harold Davis

Shown below: using the remote tether on my Leica M11P for a “selfie” in the garden. A friend of mine refered to my “obvious contentment,” which “seems to come in equal parts from the environment you created and capturing and communicating the environment digitally.”

In my garden © Harold Davis In my garden 2 © Harold Davis

One week only: $2,000 off Japan photo tour

One week only! Spring is Blooming Sale

Art & Garden Photography Tour of Japan: Take $2,000 off per person ($4,000 per couple) until April 2, 2025.

Click here for a detailed Itinerary, and here for the Reservation Form. To take advantage of this offer, email us right away. Please contact us if you have any questions. 

 

Backyard Garden Progress

We’re making serious progress on our backyard garden project. The demolition stage is completely finished. The “hardscaping” is mostly done, and the rock “fountain” installed and working (the rocks around the base still need some arrangement). We’ve positioned (but not yet planted) specimen trees—Japanese maples, an Italian lemon tree, a decorative willow, and a very beautiful magnolia.

I’m very excited to get the specimens planted soon, and to carefully and deliberately start filling in some of the blank spaces on this new canvas!

Garden Progress (Buddha) © Harold Davis Garden Progress (Hardscape) © Harold Davis

White on White

Why, you might ask, did I photograph this white camellia blossom in a white dish on a black background in color rather than in black and white? Great question! These days, I often make the decision to choose monochrome or color early, starting with my choice of camera (Monochrom M11 for black and white, Leica M11P for color). Of course, there’s nothing to stop me from changing my mind “down the road” in post-production; I’ve often photographed in color and later created a monochromatic version in Photoshop.

White on White © Harold Davis

In my book Creative Black & White I explain that subject matter that is largely without color often makes for good monochromatic imagery. Using this frame of reference, the White on White would seem to be a good candidate for monochrome. Why did I choose otherwise by eschewing the Leica Monochrom camera (and monochromatic conversion later in the process)?

Every photo represents an idea. Sometimes the idea is interesting or experimental. The idea can be visual, experiential, theoretical, personal, or some combination of these. A banal and boring idea leads to a banal and boring photo, and an interesting idea may lead to an interesting photo, even if the viewer cannot easily identify the idea behind the image.

The idea that White on White represents is one of subtlety; indeed, it is about a kind of subtlety itself: exploring the different and subtle gradations of “color” that make up black and white. This is an idea that I felt could best be explored in color (although I have at other times explored this idea in black and white).

The monochromatic choice (same basic idea but using grayscale): Egg and Egg White.