Harold Davis's Blog, page 42
December 25, 2020
Harold Davis—Best of 2020
Obviously, 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone. It was also not the year it started out being for me. Let me explain. In February and March I was first in Yosemite, teaching in a workshop. Next I was in Death Valley, followed by Escalante, Utah and the country around Moab.
I’d noted a news item about a novel disease in China, but didn’t think it would have very much applicability to my life and work. Oh, how oblivious we mortals can be!
My plans were to get home from the southwest, stay a few weeks, then head to Europe to lead a workshop in southwestern France followed by a stint walking as a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago. And so on.
Obviously, my travel plans did not come to pass. We’ve spent the rest of 2020 at home, sheltering-in-place. One of these days I hope to travel again. But in the meanwhile, 2020 has seen my own, personal artist-in-residency-at-home. Which has made for works capturing on a smaller scale than many of my best-of photographs from years gone by, but I think I found plenty to capture at home. On the whole, it has been a productive year for me.
My “Best Of” selections for prior years, going back to 2013, can be found here.
Hydrangea Blossoms and Rock Spiral © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Skim Ice on the Merced © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Tulip Fandango © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Folds in the Earth © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Zabriskie View © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Eye of the Tower © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Opening Train Bridge © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Power Lines © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Poppies from our Garden Path © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
White Papaver Nudicaule Inversion © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Parfait Mandala 1 © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Patterns in Glass 3 © Harold Davis
Egg White © Harold Davis
Nemesia and Gaillardia © Harold Davis
Duo © Harold Davis
Florabundance © Harold Davis
Honeysuckle © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Dried Blossoms © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Flowers from our Pandemic Garden © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Brookside-Snowball Dahlia © Harold Davis
Let the sunshine in © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Red Onion Slice © Harold Davis
Pear Slices © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
There’s always one in every barrel! © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Apple Slice Playdate © Harold Davis
Metamorphosis © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Spiral of Flower Karma © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Bottled Light Study © Harold Davis
White Dahlia Inversion © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Flowers are Multitudes © Harold Davis
Click here for the blog story!
Serendipity with Sunflowers Inversion © Harold Davis
Bike Rack © Harold Davis
I hope you’ve enjoyed my images and the associated blog stories. For convenience, I’ve included a link below the image where I’ve written about it in my blog.
Most images available as prints. Please inquire. As of today, we are still running our Pandemic Print special.
Check out my self-selected bests from previous years in Best Images Annuals!
December 23, 2020
Happy and Healthy Holiday Wishes
Happy & Healthy Holiday wishes! This year 2020 almost past surely wins an award for year most wished to be in the rear-view mirror. As we head into 2021 we are looking for health, peace, and serenity. Best wishes from our family to you and yours!
December 16, 2020
Piles of Petals Are Performative
Piles of flower petals are performative (and alliterative). I’ve fallen into the habit of keeping piles of natural objects, specifically bowls of flower petals in my work area. Gradually, they curl, and ultimately obtain the patina and wrinkles of flower-petal senescence.
Flowers are Multitudes Inversion © Harold Davis
To make these images, I started with a conventional structure (like a flower bed with a row of stems) in a garden. After this version was complete, I entered the “Jackson Pollack” phase: spreading dried petals to some extent randomly, and taking advantage of serendipity.
The version below on white is what came out of the camera in the original set of exposures, and the version above on black is an LAB L-channel inversion of the original, white version.
Flowers are Multitudes © Harold Davis
December 11, 2020
Watching a Mandala Video
I just watched the stop-motion videos that Phyllis made of making these two mandalas. How totally cool! Please consider joining us tomorrow, on Saturday December 12, 2020. We will (among other things) watch and talk about these videos of the making of the two mandala images shown below.
Mandala of Petals © Harold Davis
Stone Spiral Study Inversion © Harold Davis
December 7, 2020
Conversation about my photography with John Cornicello
Please consider joining me for a conversation about my photography with John Cornicello and Holger Mischke on Jan 7, 2021 at 10am PT. This is a free event. Click here for more information and the link to join.
December 6, 2020
Mandalas Simple and Complex
A mandala is a circular geometric pattern that symbolically can represent the entire universe. Sometimes, a mandala is meant to represent wholeness and life itself in relation to the infinite and the world that extends beyond and within minds and bodies.
In Eastern religions, a mandala may represent paradise, deities, sacred spaces, or simply be used as an aid to meditation.
These kinds of designs are also significant in Jungian analysis. Carl Jung thought that mandalas offered a “safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness,” and found that the act of creating a mandalas had a calming, focusing effect on his patients’ psychological states.
My Mandalas are primarily created using flower petals on a light box, although I sometimes use other materials as well, and other backgrounds besides the light box. I consider the mandala a fundamental design shape, and am most interested in the form as an issue of formal design.
Please consider joining us for an exciting webinar on Saturday December 12, 2020 at 11am PT as I present and discuss a number of my mandala light box images, and show the process of creating these shapes. Click here for more information, here for registration, and here for our schedule of upcoming webinars.
Lodestar © Harold Davis
Spiral of Flower Karma © Harold Davis
Lady Pink Apple Slices with Lemons © Harold Davis
December 4, 2020
Sunflowers on Blue Velvet
It’s nice to pair a bouquet of yellow sunflowers with lush, blue velvet. The sunflower petals have been touched slightly with the Photoshop Oil Painting filter to add a little “van Gogh.” Is the subject of the photo the sunflowers or the blue velvet background? As is often the case, both are important.
Sunflowers on Blue Velvet © Harold Davis
December 1, 2020
Webinars nouveau est arrivé (Please check out our new webinars!)
Please consider our new slate of webinars, now scheduled through March, 2021 on Saturday mornings (Pacific Time), with (we hope) something for everyone:
Harnessing the Power of Composition in Your Photography | Saturday December 5, 2020 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Mandalas and Patterns on the Light Box | Saturday December 12, 2020 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Models in Stop-Motion: the Multiple Exposure Series [Free Webinar] | Saturday January 2, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. This is a FREE webinar, but seats are limited, and preregistration is required
Finding Meaning in Photography: Guy Tal and Michael Gordon [Benefits Project Coyote] | Saturday January 16, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. All proceeds from this webinar will benefit Project Coyote. Seats are limited, and preregistration is required
Photographing Flowers for Transparency | Part I (Introduction) | Saturday January 23, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Creative LAB Color Essentials with Harold Davis | Saturday January 30, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Processing Black & White: Landscape and Architecture | Saturday February 6, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Fruits and Vegetables on the Light Box | Saturday February 13, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Processing Black & White: Landscape and Architecture #2 | Saturday February 20, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Photographing Flowers for Transparency | Composition and Photography | Saturday February 27, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
The Black & White Still Life with Harold Davis | Saturday March 6, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Creating Artist Books and Portfolios | Saturday March 13, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
The Black & White Still Life #2 | Saturday March 27, 2021 at 11am PT click here for registration. Click here for more info. Seats are limited.
Camellia Blossom © Harold Davis
Click here for our Workshops & Events page, and here for our past webinar video recordings on YouTube.
November 30, 2020
Harnessing the Power of Composition Webinar on Saturday
Harnessing the Power of Composition in Your Photography is scheduled for this coming Saturday, December 5, 2020 at 11am PT. In this unique webinar: “Harold Davis shares his work across numerous genres of photography, and explains how he applies compositional excellence to enhance his work. He will provide specific information about how he approaches composition in different contexts, and discuss tips, techniques, and exercises to help you improve composition in your own work.”
Click here for more information about this webinar, and here to register. Also check out our extensive new listings of live webinars for the next few months!
Cayucos Pier © Harold Davis
November 22, 2020
Velvet Backgrounds
Good photographic composition demands paying attention to backgrounds as well as foregrounds. It’s a truism among photographic educators that beginners neglect backgrounds in favor of foregrounds. This is particularly the case with street photography; but really, it cuts across all genres of photography.
Recently, Phyllis helped me pick out a small “library” of colored velvet fabrics to use as still life backgrounds. These came from an online source, Prism Silks.
In starting to play with my new velvet backgrounds (I almost said “work” instead of “play,” but truly this is playing) I photographed and processed these images with the backgrounds in mind just as much as the flowers in the foregrounds. Instead of letting the velvet backgrounds be mostly unnoticeable, I intentionally accented the curves and folds in the drapery of the fabric.
What fun!
Lilies on Maroon Velvet © Harold Davis
Rose on Blue Velvet © Harold Davis
