Harold Davis's Blog, page 9

Photographing close to “home”

With so much rain the past week in the southwest of France, some of our photography has been close to “home”. These are iPhone captures. The top image is of bottles in Sarah’s kitchen, with an antique finish and vignetting added using Snapseed on my iPhone.

Bottles © Harold Davis

The window blind below is in my bathroom at the Mas de Garrigue. You can see the swimming pool as a hint of blue on the lower left. There is no post-processing on the image.

Window © Harold Davis

The final image (below) is of a light fixture on the ceiling of the living room at Noubar’s (this one is also straight from the camera).

Light © Harold Davis

Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d’Albi

Traveling with a great group and guide I was able to take the time to expose a fisheye image of the ceiling of the spectacular Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d’Albi.

Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d’Albi © Harold Davis

Little Venice

Take some nicely colored old buildings, add a canal or two and some reflections, and voila, you have a “little Venice”. Like the one shown belowm in Castres (in southwest France) or a district in Strasbourg.

Little Venice, Castres © Harold Davis

Arles Coliseum Steps

Yesterday evening I decided to leave my camera backpack in the room, and I headed out to explore Arles with one lens. This was my 35mm Zeiss f/1.4. 

Arles Coliseum Steps © Harold Davis

I set the lens wide open at f/1.4, cranked the ISO, put the camera on aperture priority, and decided to otherwise leave exposure alone. One lens and one aperture setting is sometimes a useful exercise. I had fun with my newfound “lightness of being” and, as you can see in this image, decided to play with depth-of-field.

Sometimes indeed less is more.

French Wisteria

There is something about the wisteria in the French spring that seems particularly stylish. Not that there is anything wrong with our wisteria at home. In fact, my garden has some lovely specimens that flower outrageously. But the French wisteria vines have a certain je ne sais quoi like so much that is French…don’t get me started. Perhaps it is the context: the upper image is an iPhone rendering of a semi-abandoned formal mansion, on a main straeet in Millau, France, with the wisteria decoratively framing the front gate. The lower image is a conventional photo of a wall in a small village. Even the wisteria knows how to decoratively drape itself!

Millau © Harold Davis Wall with Wisteria © Harold Davis

The Department of Wherever You Go, There You Are

Wherever you go, there you are. I embrace this solecism (or tongue-in-cheek tautology if one prefers). But I do wonder why so many hotel bathrooms have “infinite” mirrors. Both images are iPhone captures made with the iPhone 12 Pro native camera app. Upper image: Albi Bastides Hotel (Albi, France, 2024); lower image: Savoy Hotel (Trieste, Italy, 2022). Model for these selfies(as I suppose you suspect): yours truly.

Selfie in a bathroom in Albi © Harold Davis Mirror Selfie © Harold Davis

Shadow Selfie

I’ve been reading Josef Koudelka Next: A Visual Biography by Melissa Harris. I think there is a great deal to learn from Koudelka, but I have some misgivings about this book. For one thing, it is a bit gossipy, at least about the film photography world of the 1970s. For another, I think the book design is execrable. You can’t really see the Koudelka photos because they are reproduced basically in postage-stamp size.

The subtitle of the book is, after all, “A Visual Biography”. I think that the word “visual” does not mean what the creators of this book think that it means.

Koudelka is credited as co-designer, so apparently he signed off on the design. To see Koudelka’s photography you would really need to have one of his monographs open as you read this book. In fact, practically the only large size photos are of meta objects, such as Koudelka’s diaries, travel documents, and itineraries.

Shadow Selfie © Harold Davis

Shifting horizon lines to create a diagonal is one aspect of Koudelka’s compositions that I’ve enjoyed, and emulated in Shadow Selfie (above). However, as Koudelka put it, “geometry is not enough.”

Ranunculus

In the garden we now have a variety of ranunculus in bloom. These are a joy to photograph because every ranunculus is different. Just like people, no two are alike.

White Ranunculus © Harold Davis

It’s wonderful to enjoy the garden, our little piece of paradise, here in the California spring. But travel is coming up for me as well. Next week I leave for an extended trip to France and Ireland.

Ranunculus © Harold Davis

More recent work: Speaking Truth to Flower; Flower Magic; Eye of the Artist.

Speaking Truth to Flower

This is the time of year when my garden starts to come alive. Each day brings delight and new surprises, from the flocks of freesias and iris in the front garden to the poppies and anemones that are just starting to bloom.

Flowers from Our Garden © Harold Davis

My job is to be true to myself, and also speak truth to flower: meaning, to the best of my ability I try to render the essence of the flower, what makes it so special, and describe its beacon of beauty in a way that can be shared.

One Poppy © Harold Davis

From one day to the next I begin on the journey of floral interpretation. Sometimes the goal is an arrangement like a bouquet. Other times I am most interested in the characterization of the detailed folds and depths of the flower up close and personal. Always there is joy and radiance, and the hint of the numinous. Read more!

Ranunculus Study 1 © Harold Davis

Japan’s Art and Sacred Islands: Photography Journey with Harold Davis

When and where: November 6-19, 2024; the adventure begins in Osaka and ends in Kyoto, Japan.

Group Size: This is an exclusive, small photo workshop (non-photographer significant others are also
welcome) with very limited space availability. The minimum group size is six and the maximum is
twelve.

© Harold Davis

Details: Click here for the Prospectus and Itinerary, and here for the Reservation Form.

Description: Highlights of this absolutely unique photographic journey—designed by photographers
for photographers—start with night photography in the heart of 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 the spectacular bridges, crossing the inland sea to Japan’s smallest mainland island, Shikoku, with a stop along the way to photograph the famous tidal Naruto Whirlpools.

Our stay in remote Shikoku will include onsens, a back-stage visit to a Kabuki theater, and old vine
bridges in the mountainous back-country terrain of the Iya Valley. We will also visit Awagami Factory for a tour of their facilities and washi production, and then take part in a private paper-making workshop.

We will return to the Honshu mainland, spending one day each on the “art islands” of Teshima and
Naoshima. Next on our agenda is a visit to the storehouses and canals of the ancient merchant city of
Kurashiki. 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 with a final day for contemplation and exploration in Kyoto.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit 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. We will be guided by a wonderful bilingual guide, whose background in Japanese cultural traditions will enhance our enjoyment of the art and sacred islands of Japan.

© Harold Davis

More info: Please see the detailed Prospectus and Itinerary for more information. 

How to Register: Please send Harold an email expressing interest right away; a completed registration requires a $1000 deposit, the trip Reservation Form, and a copy of your currently valid passport page. 

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!