Harold Davis's Blog, page 93

Photographing Flowers for Transparency Video at SVA

If you are interested in my photographing flowers for transparency images and techniques, you might like a video of my presentation about a year ago on this topic at the School of Visual Arts in New York. By the way, I am working a book with the detailed workflow and techniques, the title is The Art of Photographing Flowers for Transparency.

The video is on YouTube, and embedded below. If you can’t see the video in this post, you can click this link to view it on YouTube.

Masters in Digital Photography: Photographing Flowers for Transparency with Harold Davis at the School of Visual Arts in New York

A Trio of Tulips (and Macro Lenses)

Phyllis came home with a beautiful bouquet of tulips, and this morning I photographed them on the kitchen table. Warm morning sunlight lit the flowers from behind with a glow. I could control the light using the adjustable blinds on the kitchen windows, and also by moving the placement of the flowers so they were in and out of sunbeams.

Inside the Tulip C © Harold Davis

This is the tale of some pretty flowers, nice natural ambient light, and three different 85mm lenses. To start with, I had my heavy-duty RRS tripod on the floor so I could bring the ballhead to the right height to get into the tulip blossoms from beneath. I mounted a 50mm extension tube with a tripod collar onto the ballhead. 

My first image, Inside the Tulip C (above), was made using my Zeiss Otus 85mm at f/16, focused as close as it could go on the extension tube.

Inside the Tulip B © Harold Davis

To make the next version, Inside the Tulip B (above), I swapped my 85mm Zeiss Otus for the 85mm Lensbaby Velvet and photographed wide-open (at f/1.8). Essentially, I was trading optical perfection for perfection in impressionismo! The Lensbaby Velvet makes a very different image stopped down (to f/16) in Inside the Tulip A (below)—note that the point of focus was the same for both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ versions. It’s worth mentioning that this lens has macro capabilities, so (combined with the extension tube) I was definitely working at a greater magnification ratio than in the ‘C’ version.

Inside the Tulip A © Harold Davis

Since I’d already had fun with two different 85mm lenses, I decided to try a third, my Nikkor 85mm tilt-shift macro. As I’ve noted before, this is a fully manual lens, without even automatic diaphragm control—you need to press a button to manually stop the lens down when you are ready to expose.

Combined with the extension tube with the macro capabilities of this lens you can really get pretty much into microscope territory. But is too much ever enough? I added a +4 close-up filter to the front of the lens, focused on the small central indent in the tulip petals, and stopped down to f/45 (as an “adjusted aperture” this records in EXIF data as f/64 by the way).

Tulip Petal © Harold Davis

Since this is a monochromatic image (in orange) and more about the patterns it presents than the coloration, I decided to try a black and white conversion, shown below.

Tulip Petal in Black and White © Harold Davis

All-in-all, a fun morning was spent photographing tulips up close and personal. There were some other things on my lists to accomplish, but I have learned (when I can) to relax, let go, and let art!

Garden Photography – Capturing the Great Gardens of Maine

Dahlia Mandala © Harold Davis

This year, I’ll be teaching a week long course in garden photography at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine. The dates are August 5-11, 2018. Click here for a full workshop description, and for registration. Please consider joining me for a glorious week of photographing gardens and flowers!

Giverny © Harold Davis

The agenda of this workshop includes plentiful field sessions in a variety of kinds of gardens accessible to Maine Media in Rockport. August is a great time of year for flowers in bloom along the Maine coast! Classroom sessions will focus on specific areas of technique, and also the theory and practice of garden design in the context of photography, as well as working with individual participants to develop a cohesive and personal body of work. Click here for a full workshop description, and for registration.

Salutation to the Sun © Harold Davis

Chasing Tales

Chasing Tales on Black © Harold Davis

The tip of one petal to the tail of the other. Chasing narratives. Chasing Tales. From the same petals: Studies in Petals.

Chasing Tales © Harold Davis

Studies in Petals

Study in Petals on Black © Harold Davis

This is a mandala-shaped arrangement of petals on a light box around a central Proteus.

Study in Petals with Proteus Center © Harold Davis

Proteus

Proteus on Black © Harold Davis

Proteus Monochrome on Black © Harold Davis

Proteus Monochrome on White © Harold Davis

Proteus © Harold Davis

Related image: Osteospermum. Would you like to learn how to make images like this using a light box? We still have a few spaces left in our June session of Photographing Flowers for Transparency.

Dark of the Moon Night Photography Workshop September 7-10, 2018

Limited space is still available for the Dark of the Moon Night Photography in the Eastern Sierra with Harold Davis and Steven Christenson. September 7-10, 2018. Meets in Lone Pine, CA. Space is limited. Registration and more info: https://www.meetup.com/Harold-Davis/events/244904313/

Click here to see some work from last year’s participants. Please consider joining us for a great time in the dark!

More info and registration via Meetup (limited space available).

Take Home a Wimpy

Wimpy was a name of a chain of burger restaurants that were popular back in the day in England (I believe the Wimpy chain began life in South Africa). Wimpy burgers could aptly be described as deplorable. There really is no way around the poor quality of the food at a Wimpy.

Take Home a Wimpy © Harold Davis

I took this photo around 1968 in front of a Wimpy in London, England. In the rear is my mom Virginia and my dad Martin. In the middle row, from the left, my brother Nathan, Monica Hughes, and Steven Hughes. The front row has three younger Hughes children. The Hughes were a family we spent time with. I can be seen as a shadowy reflection in the plate glass window of the Wimpy taking the photo.

My father says that when he brought all these kids (my brother and I and the five Hughes children) inside the Wimpy for a treat he was asked if all seven children were his and my mom’s.

Of course, he said “Yes,” and enjoyed watching the jaws drop.

The apple, they say, doesn’t fall too far from the tree. I have enjoying taking my four kids to a playground with a couple of other friends of the children along, and replying in the affirmative when asked if they were all mine!

Self-Portrait of the Artist in the Disco Era

Self-Portrait of the Artist from the Disco Era © Harold Davis

Starting to scan some slides. This one is circa 1980.

Petal Fractals

Petal Fractal 101 Inversion © Harold Davis

Petal Fractal 101 © Harold Davis

Some related reading (helps to explain where I am coming from): On Art and Beauty.

Related images: Floral Mandala; Petals of the Rainbow; It starts with a photo; It starts with a petal and ends with a twist of fate.