Harold Davis's Blog, page 52

Announcing New Online Webinars: Black & White

We are pleased to announce a series of four live photography webinar sessions via Zoom. These webinars are all about black & white photography in the digital era. Registration is on a first come, first served basis. Here’s the schedule for the Creative Black & White Series with registration links:

            Part I | The Monochromatic Vision in the Digital World Tuesday May 12, 2020 at 10am PT click here for registration. Seats are limited. Click here for more details. FREE! 


            Part II |  Black and White Conversion Tuesday May 26, 2020 at 10am PT click here for registration. Seats are limited. Click here for more details.


            Part III | Creative Opportunities in Black and White Tuesday June 2, 2020 at 10am PT click here for registration. Seats are limited. Click here for more details.


            Part IV | Over to You, Critique and Review Tuesday June 2, 2020 at 10am PT click here for registration. Seats are limited. Click here for more details.

Click here for our current complete online webinar and course listings!

Along the Old Schoolhouse Trail © Harold Davis

Harold Davis is the author of highly-acclaimed books about black & white digital  photography, including Creative Black & White 2d Edition from Rocky Nook and The Photographer’s Black & White Handbook from Monacelli Press. Harold’s digital black and white work has been compared to that of Ansel Adams.

Nautilus in Black and White © Harold Davis

Photographing Flowers at Home

So I am sheltering in place at home, like many (or most) of us. In some alternative universe, my travel plans have proceeded, well, according to plan—and I would be in the midst of a long trip to Germany, France, and trekking along the Camino de Santiago. Since I seem unable to predict what groceries we will have tomorrow, or when there will be plentiful TP again, or indeed anything at all about the Zombie Apocalypse that is upon us, predicting when I will travel again with my camera seems a true exercise in futility.

For me, there is some good news in all the awful stuff going on. First, we remain very busy. Also, our four kids are actually happier on Zoom and at home than they were in school. In contrast to some parental angst I have been reading about being cooped up with one’s kids, they have been getting along very nicely together, and we all have been enjoying spending time together.

And the garden is going into full bloom! If I can’t photograph the world at large, I can have a great time photographing at home. Here are some of my floral images from recent days! No social distancing for these flowers. Which one is your favorite?

Poppies from our Garden Path © Harold Davis

Flowers as a Group © Harold Davis

Papaver Party © Harold Davis

Photo Challenge: How to Capture and Photograph Bottled Light

I will be leading a photography challenge on behalf of the Out of Chicago Live! World Online Photography Conference on Tuesday April 21 at 10AM PT. This is a free event, and anyone can watch the livestream using this link.

Seeing Rothko through a bottle.

PHOTO CHALLENGE

How to Capture and Photograph Bottled Light with Harold Davis

Tuesday, April 21st, 10am PT

How creative can get you get with colored liquid, sunshine, some glass bottles, and a camera? In this challenge, Harold will show you how he used these simple materials to come up with entire new worlds, recreations of Mark Rothko paintings, abstractions, highways at night, and much more! Even if you don’t have any food color sets around, you probably have colored liquid (soda pop, brandy, maple syrup, cherry juice, red wine, and blue Gatorade all work well). Be creative! What can you do while sheltering in place with these everyday materials?

Click  here   to watch the live stream at 10am Pacific Time on Tuesday, April 21st.

Harold Davis

Harold Davis is a bestselling author of many books, the developer of a unique technique for photographing flowers for transparency, a Moab Master, and a Zeiss Ambassador. He is an internationally known photographer and a sought-after workshop leader. To learn more about him, click here.

Out of Chicago LIVE! brings together over 70 world-class photographers online for one weekend to share with you what inspires them most. Be part of a very special event with 3 days of LIVE! instructor guided learning with 100+ interactive sessions, including panel discussions, tutorials, individual photo challenges and group image reviews. To learn more and register for the full conference and participate in all the challenges, click here.

Online Global Photography Conference Coming Up Soon

Please join me at the Out of Chicago LIVE! Online Global Photography Conference taking place April 24-26, 2020. Immerse yourself in photography inspiration with three days of live presentations and 100+ interactive sessions, including panel discussions, tutorials, individual photo challenges and group image reviews. Learn online face to face from over 60 world-class professional photographers that love to teach. For more information, visit www.outofchicago.com/live.

New Webinars Coming Soon to a Computer Near You

Painterly Floral Triptych © Harold Davis

Coming soon to a computer near you…click here to subscribe to our email list to receive notifications when these webinars are scheduled. Click here for our currently scheduled webinars now available for registration.

Creative Black and White


            Part I | The Monochromatic Vision in the Digital World [Free]


            Part II |  Black and White Conversion


            Part III | Creative Opportunities in Black and White


            Part IV | Over to You, Critique and Review


All Things Photographic | Q&A Session with Harold and Phyllis and Guest panelist Mark Brokering [Free]


Creative Expression with Your iPhone


The Business of Art and Photography


            Part I | The View from the Gallery | Panel TBD [Free]


            Part II | The Art of Publishing and Publishing Art | Panel TBD [Free]


            Part III | Understanding Copyright and IP | Guest panelist Attorney David Deal and TBD

                             [Free]


            Part IV | Building a Platform as an Artist

Ten things to make me happy come the Zombie Apocalypse

Toilet paper. Who really cares? I don’t. Folks will generally find a way to clean their you-know-whats. Feel superior (but still kindly and compassionate) to folks obsessing about TP.
In a Zombie Apocalypse you don’t have to drive the kids to school, or pick them up.
There’s no need to get dressed for meetings during a Zombie Apocalypse, at least below the waist. You can wear your bedroom slippers all day, if you’d like.
A Zombie Apocalypse is a great time to finish all those creative projects you have on hold.
Staying at home is good for gardening, and for flower photography.
Coffee. We have a blend from Scarlet City Roasting that is guaranteed to see us through the Zombie Apocalypse.
Keto-friendly chocolate. I have a box of very low carb chocolate bars coming from the Good Chocolate Company. This delicious chocolate is actually pretty good for you even if you are staying away from sugar. Discount code: STAYHOMEWITHCHOCOLATE.
I know we won’t go nuts because we get nuts delivered quickly and in certified gluten-free style from Nuts.com.
All the inspirational musicians playing from home on YouTube every day. Particularly Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Cleaner air. This is a wonderful thing, and should make us all plan to have cleaner air without a pandemic.

Okay, so there are actually eleven things: last, but hardly least, staying home and spending time with my wonderful family!

Point Bonita Lighthouse © Harold Davis

Under the Yaquina Bay Bridge

Under the Yaquina Bay Bridge has become, somewhat to my surprise, one of my iconic images in the sense that there have been quite a few prints sales, image licenses and so on. Thanks to all who have made this image a success! Here’s the original blog story from 2016. In answer to the question posed in that story, the marketplace has voted pretty overwhelmingly for the black & white version.

Under the Yaquina Bay Bridge © Harold Davis

Water Drops in the Morning

It rained overnight. In the morning the sun came out. I was up early with camera and macro lens, crawling on my belly to seek out nature’s most unfathomably beautiful gems: water drops in the garden.

Water Drops on a Young Columbine at Sunrise © Harold Davis

Morning Jewel © Harold Davis

Spring of our Discontent

White Papaver Nudicaule Inversion © Harold Davis

This is the spring of our discontent. Or at least the spring of isolating in place. As long as we are on Shakespeare near-quotations, “Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”

In that spirit, keeping to our quarantined state has given me time to pursue projects I have long been putting off, like mastering video creation and leading remote webinars.

My garden is in glorious April bloom, and I have flowers to photograph. Like the white Papaver nudicaule (Icelandic poppy) shown in this story.

White Papaver Nudicaule © Harold Davis

To make the image on white, I cut the flower and placed it on my light box. Making the exposure, I decided not to use a macro lens. I picked a great piece of glass, my Zeiss 135mm f/2 moderate telephoto lens. I have used this lens for this kind of composition with success before, for example in Matilija Poppies and Mallows. I added a 12mm extension tube between the lens and camera so I could focus closer.

I made six exposures with the camera on the tripod at shutter speeds between 1/13 of a second and 2.5 seconds. Each exposure was at f/22 and ISO 64. I processing the captures as a high-key layer stack in Photoshop.

With the final version on white processed, I decided to see what would happen using creative LAB color techniques, specifically an L-channel inversion. Since the L-channel inversion swaps white for blacks and black for whites, to some extent it will leave a fairly neutral mid-gray (such as this flower’s petals) close to untouched, while swapping the background colors.

I was pleasantly surprised at the results of the LAB L-channel swap (shown at the top of this story), followed by a few additional Photoshop tweaks.

Enjoy this time, and use it for staying creative!

New free session: Intro to Photography Flowers for Transparency

By popular demand, we have scheduled a second free session of Photographing Flowers for Transparency | Part 1: Introduction because the first session filled up right away to the capacity of our Zoom Webinar account. As requested, you will be able to attend this new introductory session prior to attending Photographing Flowers for Transparency | Part 2: Floral Arrangement and Exposing on April 16. Here are the second session details.

Harold Davis is proud to present a live webinar! Stay healthy, be creative, make art, and be mighty!

What: Photographing Flowers for Transparency | Part 1: Introduction

When (second session):  Photographing Flowers for Transparency | Part 1: Introduction Saturday April 11, 2020 at 2PM PT FREE, click here for advance registration (required). Seats are limited.

Where: On your computer or mobile device from anywhere via Zoom.

Tuition and Registration:  This is a free webinar, but advance registration is required. Seats are limited.

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 will be explained. There will be time for Q&A.

Touching Petals in the Garden of Social Distancing © Harold Davis

About Harold Davis: Harold Davis is a bestselling author of many books, including Creative Garden Photography from Rocky Nook, which can now be pre-ordered. He is the developer of a unique technique for photographing flowers for transparency, a Moab Master, and a Zeiss Ambassador. He is an internationally known photographer and a sought-after workshop leader. His website is www.digitalfieldguide.com.