Variety is the spice of life, and it is certainly part of what I enjoy about photography. Having a camera is an excuse for being anywhere and examining anything. Those of you who follow my blog or my photostream on Flickr will know that my subjects range from kids and flowers through the night landscape. I'm also intrigued with the...

Winter morning in Yosemite dawned cold with flakes of snow and remnant fog, but the promise of a possible clear day with blue skies. Provided you carefully archive your files, digital means never having to say you're done. This image is a re-processed version of Golden Wonder with the saturation taken down a bit. Indomitable, photo by Harold Davis. View...

"Holy Stacking Star Trails, Batman!"...As many of you know, I've been shooting and then stacking star trails lately. The idea is to take numerous "shorter" exposures that include the night sky, rather than one longer exposure. The shorter exposures are then composited together (they are "stacked" one on top of other). A set of exposures that can be composited together...

Katie Rose was sleeping upstairs. The room was dark, except for a low-watt lamp that illuminated part of her face. I shot this handheld, high ISO (ISO 1,600) photo in low light conditions to take advantage of the wonderful chiaroscuro light (not to mention the angelic baby). Chiaroscuro refers to a lighting situation in which there is an extreme contrast...

On our way home from a sunset-to-night hike on the Tomales Point fork of Point Reyes, Mark and I stopped at the wreck of the Point Reyes fishing trawler. Many people like to photograph this trawler, which is easily accessible outside of Inverness, California. Between Earth and Sky, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger. The week before, at...

This is a photograph of Bodie Mercantile, the old general store in the ghost town of Bodie. In creating this image, I wanted to be very sure that I exposed the scene in such a way that it looked like night. In other words, if you open an exposure up enough, no matter how dim the lighting is, you risk...

Tioga Pass is the highest car crossing of the High Sierra. I always find the view down towards Owens Valley, Mono Lake, and the high desert awe inspiring. Tioga Pass Road at Night, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger. For this photo, I stopped at one of the first overlooks. The moon was brightly lighting the far side...

Katie Rose's theoretical due date was a few days ago even though she was actually born in mid May. Happy Birthday Katie Rose! Katie Rose in a Pink Dress, photo by Harold Davis. The pink dress was a gift for Katie Rose from her great aunt Adelaide. Phyllis wanted a photo of Katie Rose wearing the dress to send to...

On my way across the Tioga Pass road I stopped at Olmstead Point. I made my way out a few hundred yards, and distanced myself from the road, parking lot, and people. Then I laid my head on a rock pillow and watched the clouds hurry past. After a while, I got up refreshed and pulled out my camera and...

When you use Photoshop, nothing is more important than the ability to make selections. As a simple example, when you want to make a composite by moving a person from one background onto another, you need a way to select the person---in other words, to tell Photoshop which pixels you want to move. Besides this kind of large-scale selection, selection...