Harold Davis's Blog, page 80

A Creative Palette of Possibilities Webinar Recording and a Porcupine

I’ve been asked many times when this recording would be posted. Of course, the answer was, “When it is ready!” That time is now.

So I’m excited to let you know that here’s the link to the online recording of my recent webinar for Topaz Labs, A Creative Palette of Possibilities using Topaz with Harold Davis (that’s me!).

And, here’s the porcupine (that’s not me except on a very bad hair day!).

Porcupine © Harold Davis

Mandalas

A mandala is a circular pattern that in spiritual usage—principally in Hinduism and Buddhism—represents the universe. More secularly (but still with a soupçon of spirituality), the pattern of a mandala is circular and symmetrical, with repeating access points into the center of the construct. This geometric pattern can be held up as a metaphoric representation or the cosmos, or as a symbolic version of the macrocosm or universe at large.

Often I do not recognize the pattern of my own work until after a body of work has been well under way. It seems that over a few years I have been creating mandalas on the light box using flower petals, followed by an LAB L-channel inversion adjustment of the white background of the image to black.

Here are three of the many mandalas I have created using this set of techniques in the past few years!

Floral Mandala on Black © Harold Davis

Study in Petals on Black © Harold Davis

Low Geostationary and Decaying Orbits around the Clematis Inversion © Harold Davis

Klamath Bar

In the darkness before dawn we drove to the Klamath overlook, and brought out the cameras and tripods as the first light was hitting fog banks over the Klamath sandbar—a beautiful time to be in a beautiful place!

Klamath Bar © Harold Davis

Bridge of Light

Along the Oregon coast, hard by Heceta Head Lighthouse, we paused to photograph Cave Creek Bride, lit by crepuscular rays in the morning mist.

Too often in this life we see the darkness, not the light. But just as often around the corner there is a bridge built of light—to take one ahead as a vessel of lightness. Shadow and light alternate, but we should attempt to take the bridge of light when it is presented to us. Too often we pause in mediocrity, or stare blinded by the darkness, when our best selves are better blinded by the light.

Bridge of Light © Harold Davis

Endless Summer

The last few days on the Mendocino coast have been an endless summer with blue arcing skies, crisp waves, and orange sunsets. Today we headed north past the Lost Coast, and into the long forest of redwoods and fog. Tomorrow Oregon on this very cool road trip. 

Sunset and Waves © Harold Davis

Springtime in Paris for the Flaneur with Camera

We’ll always have Paris! You may not need me to remind you of the beauty of Paris, the City of Light. Perhaps this is a treasured memory for you. Along with the joy of strolling Paris city streets and visiting French gardens as a flaneur with a camera! But if you’ve never visited Paris with your camera, then Oh là là! You have a peak experience in store.

Paris Sunset © Harold Davis

Please consider joining me and a select group of photographers in Paris towards the end of April this coming year. If you know Paris, you know how special it is in the spring. If you haven’t ever visited Paris, you are in for a treat.

Giverny © Harold Davis

We will focus our lenses on the boulevards and springtime airs of Paris, gardens (the trip includes a special artist hours tour of Monet’s famous gardens at Giverny), Paris at night, and Paris in black and white. Paris as it ought to be seen, experienced, and photographed. We will be photography flaneurs in the best sense of both words with a small group of like-minded souls!

Rooftops of Paris © Harold Davis

We’d love to have you join us, and there are a few places left. But hotels in the time period are filling quickly, and we have booked into a boutique 4-star hotel in the prized 6th Arrondissement, only a couple of blocks from the Luxembourg Gardens. Accommodations are in fact limited. If you would like to come, please let us know as soon possible.

Click here for more information about this destination photography workshop. To reserve your spot, drop us an email letting us know you’d like to come and then complete the Reservation Form. Please feel free to contact us with any questions!

I hope to photograph Paris with you in the spring.

Luxembourg Gardens by Harold Davis

Devil’s Postpile

Deep in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, down the drainage of the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River from the Minarets, Mt Banner, and the Ritter Range, lies the formation of basalt pillars that is the basis for Devil’s Postpile National Monument. As it happens, a dead-end road leads from the ski resort town of Mammoth Lakes, over the Pacific Crest, and before the road ends at the Reds Meadow pack station passes within half a mile of Devil’s Postpile. 

Devil’s Postpile © Harold Davis

In September, on my way to the night photography workshop in Lone Pine, on a deliciously golden sunlit day, I took the time to travel over to Devil’s Postpile. With my camera on tripod, I made a series of abstract exposures, much more interested in the shapes of the formation than any larger sense of context.

Levitation and Meditation

Third I (Eye) © Harold Davis

Technique: in-camera multiple exposure, with five exposures each.

Model Credits: Amelia Simone (above) and Muirina Fae (below).

FAQ: Multiple Exposures of Models.

Online Gallery: Multiple Exposures.

Devotional Pose © Harold Davis

Bird of Paradise X-Ray

This is an x-ray photograph of a Strelitzia reginae, commonly known as the Bird of Paradise flower.

Bird of Paradise X-Ray © Harold Davis

More: X-Ray and Fusion X-Ray Gallery; FAQ: X-Ray Photos of Flowers; X-Ray Photography and the Inner Form of Beauty; Revealing the Unseen with X-Ray Photography of Flowers; X-Ray and “Fusion” X-Ray Images of Flowers.

Stories that weave through my blog

I’ve been writing this blog since 2005, which is to say over twelve years. Sometimes there’s more, and sometimes I have less to say, but the average is about ten stories a month. That’s quite a bit of material; back-of-the-envelope it comes to more than 1,400 stories.

Of course, some are more weighty than others. But it will probably come as no surprise that some stories are serial and sequential, and build on each other through an adventure or fraught life event. 

Kumano Sanzen Roppyaku Po © Harold Davis

The purpose of this meta-blog story is to point out a few of these embedded series, and to show you where you might start reading if you are interested.

The Birth of Katie Rose—My daughter was born very prematurely, and we didn’t know if she would survive. I photographed her in the NICU, and wrote about what was happening in real-time. You can start with First Look or The Birth of Katie Rose Davis (written after she came home and was out of danger).

Hands © Harold Davis

Hiking the Kumano Kodo—In 2013 I hiked the famous Kumano kodo pilgrimage trail in Japan. You can read about some of my adventures in Japan starting with Noriko Tries to Poison Me, and read about my hike starting with On the Kumano kodo.

Tree and Reflection, Nara © Harold Davis

Camino de Santiago—More recently, in the spring of 2018, I hiked a portion of this famous pilgrimage trail in Spain. My pilgrimage story starts with Beginning My Compostela.

Romanesque Bridge along the Camino © Harold Davis

Does the Wilderness Care About Me?—Back in 2005, I launched myself on an ill-prepared early season venture into the Ansel Adams Wilderness. I survived to tell the tale that starts in A Walk on the Wild Side.

Alone I Stand © Harold Davis

Vietnam—In 2017 I visited Vietnam with my longtime friend Eric. Our ostensible goal was to visit the largest cave in the world, Son Doong. Along the way, we saw many strange and wondrous things, starting with the Long Bien Bridge that was important during the American-Vietnamese war because it connects Hanoi by rail with the port of Haiphong.

Son Doong Cave © Harold Davis

Cuba—In 2009 I visited Cuba with a photography group. You can read some of my observations starting with Fifty Years after the Cuban Revolution.

On the Cover © Harold Davis