Harold Davis Tests Entrada Rag Textured, Here's What He Thinks...

©Harold Davis. All rights reserved.

Entrada Rag is the superb, acid-free paper that put the Moab Paper brand on the map some fifteen years ago. So as a Moab Master I was honored to be asked to evaluate and test Moab Entrada Rag Textured, the first addition ever to the Entrada Rag line, during the pre-production stage for the paper. It’s great news for photographers and artists that Moab Entrada Rag Textured is now generally available.

Like the original Entrada Rag Bright and Entrada Rag Natural papers, Entrada Rag Textured is of course acid-free. Also like Entrada Rag Natural, it is a 100% cotton paper that is somewhat warm-toned. This is a very thick sheet (300gsm) with a great sense of “hand” that is entirely OBA free, and (like the original Entrada Rag Natural) boasts an extraordinary tonal and dynamic range for a matte paper. Note that Entrada Rag Textured is single-sided, as opposed to Entrada Rag Bright and Natural, which come both in single-sided or double-sided versions. The tonality of Entrada Rag Textured is much like the creamy feeling of Entrada Rag Natural, rather than the very bright white of Entrada Rag Bright.

Entrada Rag Textured has become one of my favorite go-to printmaking substrates. © Harold Davis

As you might expect, the primary difference between Entrada Rag Textured and the original Entrada Rag Natural is, of course, the texture of the surface. But what you have here is an elegant, refined texture---not an over-the-top "watercolor" paper.

(Above) This image is a long exposure made from a moving Venetian vaporetti. In post-production I lightly texturized it. The blend of the texture and the Entrada Rag Texture helps create a unique and subtle effect. © Harold Davis

Just as the warm-toning of the Entrada Rag Natural paper is subtle, the texture that Entrada Rag Textured presents is also subtle. Photographs printed on Entrada Rag Textured will look like art, and the finished print will be a delight to handle as well as to look at. In other words, Entrada Rag Textured charts a middle "Goldilocks" course: textured, but not too textured. It is a paper that is indeed "just right", and makes the image look great, not a paper that is so "too-too" that the presentation becomes about the paper rather than the photo.

Of course, like any high-end specialty paper designed for modern photographic printing, Entrada Rag Textured is not one size fits all. It works better with some kinds of images than others. To get a sense of the kinds of images that really "marry" well with Entrada Rag Textured, and to learn what this paper does best, we made numerous test prints in my studio using my large format printer.

One thing I found is that this is a paper that really works well as part of the print presentation. In other words, I would never print right up to the bleed-line (edge) with Entrada Rag Textured. It makes much more visual sense to allow the paper to show around your image---and to strongly consider the imposition and spacing of the print on the paper as an integral part of printing-making with Entrada Rag Textured. Showing an inch or two (and sometimes more!) of Entrada Rag Textured around the borders of any image enhances the art print and gallery effect of this paper.

To emphasize the antique look in this print I added a border before printing it on Entrada Rag Textured. © Harold Davis

The combination of a moderate warm tone, refined texture, and high dynamic range is a pretty spectacular set of characteristics for any paper, and helps to make Entrada Rag Textured a winner that is appropriate for a wide range of images. Of course, it is not, never will be, and should not be used like you would use a more glossy photo paper (glossy papers with a more "photographic" finish of course have a great place of their own in the world). So in my experience, the images that work best with Entrada Rag Textured are artful, and intended as art (as opposed to, for example, journalistic-style imagery).

With monochromatic imagery, I would strongly consider toned or somewhat old-fashioned photos (as opposed to "straight" black and white) for Entrada Rag Textured.

The subtle mid-tones of this photo of a row of cypresses is a great match for the ability Entrada Rag Textured has to render subtle tonal gradations. © Harold Davis

With color imagery, I get great results essentially across the gamut of landscape photography, particularly in imagery where the real strength is in separation of mid-tones. My personal preference on Entrada Rag Textured is for color imagery that has elements that echo antiquity, and so lie in the cross-roads between modernism and older traditions of printmaking and art.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Entrada Textured Rag has become one of my "go-to" printmaking substrates. Combining high quality reproduction with a sensitive and sensuous surface that is entirely fiber, I expect to be making prints with Entrada Rag Textured for a long time to come.

(Left) The rendering of the structure underneath the Art Deco Yaquina Bay Bridge in Oregon is a good fit for Entrada Rag Textured: the paper shows and holds details, even in the areas that are almost black. The paper handles ink well and doesn’t overload, even in very dark areas. © Harold Davis

Paper Curl and (those dreaded) Print Head Strikes

Written by Les Picker
Photography by Robert Boyer
 

Fine art printing today is far easier than even a decade ago. Still, newbies have a slew of things to think about as they climb the learning curve and gain experience. Color management, paper selection, printer dialogues, you name it and it's another item on the way to fine art printing mastery.

But how many of us think about the importance of flat paper? What does one do when fine art cut-sheet paper curls? Here I'm talking about curls that happen in boxes of sheet paper, not the curling that happens at the end of a roll of fine art roll paper (that's a separate discussion… stay tuned). This may sound like a trivial matter if you are new to printing, but when your print heads start striking those curled sheet edges, you'll be seeing dollar signs - big ones - popping up.

As a Moab Master, I thought I'd do a quick scan of some of my fellow Moab Masters to see how they handle keeping cut sheet paper flat. I also wanted to hear from the folks at Moab on how they take paper curl into consideration at the paper design and manufacturing stages.

Some Background

“What some people may not realize is that all paper is initially produced on a roll,” explains Marc Schotland, VP, Marketing for Legion Paper. “The curl is caused by the natural formation of the fibers pressed against the core of the roll.”

Once these jumbo rolls are produced, they are sent off to be coated. When the paper is coated, an anti-curl back-coat is applied to counteract the coated/printed side. These now-coated jumbo rolls are then sent off to be converted into sheets and mini-rolls (those 17”, 24” 44”, etc…).

“Obviously, the paper closest to the core will exhibit the most persistent curl memory,” Schotland continues. “But those sheets from the roll flatten over time as they are laid out on a flat surface so that the fibers will 'relax’ and modify their formation to match the flat surface”.

The problem arises when paper is kept unsealed in extreme humid conditions or fluctuating temperatures. The fibers will change formation again, sometimes even buckling if enough moisture gets into the paper.

Notes From the Real World

As a working pro myself, our studio sometimes experiences cut-sheet paper curl. We tend to go through our paper stock fairly quickly, between prints for clients and our fine art printing workshops, which minimizes the chance of curl.

Although we try to follow preventive measures to reduce curl, we're not always perfect. My assistant or I will leave a box opened overnight, or we will take out 10 sheets, only print five and then find the rest, slightly curled, two weeks later!

"In my experience, curl seems to happen with glossy and luster papers more than matte finished papers," says Jim Graham (www.jimgrahamphotography.com), a Moab Master and well-known East coast master photographer. I would agree with Jim. I have yet to have an issue with curl in matte papers even though they, too, are coated. But whatever the paper type, sheet curl can be frustrating, especially when you are under pressure to get a print done."

An Ounce of Prevention…

Based on this foray into paper curling in the box, here are some suggestions from my fellow Moab Masters, and from Moab itself, for how to keep paper flat.

“Always store paper horizontally, not vertically,” suggests Evan Parker, Moab Support Specialist.

Keep paper in the original plastic bag, in the original box. In our studio we also tape the plastic bag to seal it from the elements when not in use.

If you cannot remove the curl, use the platen gap settings on your printer to widen the gap between print heads and paper.

“Store your paper in a humidity-stable environment, out of direct sunlight, and away from heat or a/c registers,” Parker also suggests.

On some of our larger cut sheet papers, 13“x 19” and above, I also add a handy desiccator tin to the box or bag that the paper is stored in (available online). When the desiccator captures all the humidity it can, just pop it in a 300-degree oven for 3 hours (a toaster oven works great!).

… And a Pound of Cure

Even the best preventive program sometimes fails. What do the pros do when that happens?

“If it's just minor curl, I simply will invert the paper in the box and let its own weight flatten it,” Jim Graham tells us. “If it's a major curling issue I'll sandwich the paper, wrapped in archival paper, between books. And let the pressure of the books and their weight flatten out the curl.”

Moab's Evan Parker suggests we let the sheet sit out in our printing environment for 30–60 minutes to see if an environmental adjustment resolves the curl.

In our studio we'll try gently reversing the curl with cotton-gloved hands, so as to prevent oils from our hands from contaminating the paper. On occasion I use a tissue-paper covered empty paper tube to get the job done. Gentle is the operative word here.

“I load each sheet individually into the printer with the flattest edge going down into the printer first,” explains Harold Davis (www.digitalfieldguide.com), a Moab Master from the West coast. “If the printhead seems to be striking one of the side edges of the paper, I'm not beyond opening up the printer door, which stops the printhead in its tracks, and gently smoothing the paper down. Then I'll close the print door, and printing will resume automatically.”

Still, no matter the printing challenge, we all know the value, and classic beauty, of the printed image. Moab Master Harold Davis summed it up best: “Sure, paper curl is a fact of life. But there's nothing like making hand-crafted, artisanal prints for satisfaction with one's work. Even though it is a digital world, you still make prints one-by-one, with one-off attention to sheet curl and many other issues.”

Les Picker is a Moab Master from Maryland. You can follow Les' blogs from his website: www.lesterpickerphoto.com

Achieving Your Potential As A Photographer

This workshop is for every photographer who wants to draw their line in the sand to become the best photographer and artist they can be. Using the exercises he developed for his highly-acclaimed Achieving Your Potential As a Photographer: A Photographer’s Creative Companion and Workbook, Harold Davis will work in a supportive group environment with each participant to help them discover their unique photographic potential.

The workshop will include group and individual exercises and assignments. There will be guided field sessions, and work in the classroom. Technical and practical skills and topics will be covered.

Each participant will come away from the workshop with real-world skills, an enhanced sense of their own creative strengths, and a detailed roadmap for how to best achieve their own creative potential. Besides learning a new way to view their own work, and the ability to benchmark goals for future progress, participants can expect to create a personalized workbook that will continue to help them reach these goals long after the workshop has ended.

This is a workshop intended for participants of all levels. It’s never too late to hone your skills, and to unleash the powerful and positive creative forces that are waiting to be discovered within each of us.

Register here.

Photographing Flowers for Transparency

Master photographer Harold Davis is well-known for his often imitated—but seldom equaled—digital images of luscious transparent and translucent flowers.

In this Maine Media 5-day workshop offering, Harold Davis shows the techniques he pioneered to create his floral masterpieces. Arrangement, composition, photography, and post-production will all be covered, as will Harold's special techniques for shooting on a light box. In addition, several sessions will explore field floral photography, and alternative techniques related to the studio photography of flowers. Harold will also show his spectacular botanical prints in the context of a discussion of the best way to create prints of floral imagery.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to enhance your floral photography by learning from Harold Davis, the best-selling author of award-winning Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Worlds with Harold Davis.

Topics covered in this workshop:

• Understanding transparency and translucency
• Introduction to floral arrangement and composition
• Botanical art in the digital era
• Shooting florals in the field
• Creative field techniques
• Best practices in macro photography
• Shooting flowers on a dark background
• Shooting on a light box
• Understanding high-key post-production
• Working with Photoshop layers
• High-key HDR
• LAB color effects
• Backgrounds and textures
• Preparing to make floral pigment prints
• Implementing one’s own vision

 Workshop participants will be given the opportunity to compose, photograph and post-process their own transparent floral images from beginning-to-end during the workshop.  Field and studio sessions will demonstrate creative techniques across the gamut of different kinds of flower photography, and allow plenty of time for individual image making. The emphasis of this workshop will be to support each participant, enabling their own unique vision and helping them to become the best flower photographer they can be.

Black and White Masterclass in Heidelberg

These are the wonderful participants in Harold Davis' Black and White Masterclass in Heidelberg, Germany. They all survived the record high temperatures, photographed in Heidelberg, and made and processed high dynamic range monochromatic images with a wide variety of styles and subject matter. Each participants print is made on Moab's new Juniper Baryta Rag. Thanks to the participants for showing off our paper and LifeFoto for the support in supplying the paper and printer!

Harold Davis Uses Moab Paper for Artisanal Inkjet Prints

Freedom Paper created an insightful blog post on Moab Master, Harold Davis, using Moab Paper for his own creative work. 

"To make photographic art, it’s not essential to print your own images. But to experience your full creative potential, you may want to – especially when you can easily order so many different types of Moab Paper and other top brands of inkjet photo papers from Freedom Paper.

For example, renowned photographer-artist-author-teacher Harold Davis can’t imagine letting someone else print his images. Printing is how he fully realizes the image he envisions before he even snaps the camera shutter or opens Photoshop.

Harold Davis signs the first copy of his fine-art portfolio, Botanique. The portfolio blends contemporary photography and printing techniques with old-world bookmaking methods. Photo courtesy of Harold Davis.

After experimenting with many different papers, he became a fan of Moab paper and was named a Moab Master in 2012.  He prints some of his HDR (High Dynamic Range) images on Moab Slickrock Metallic inkjet paper and has created floral images such as “Peonies mon amour” on the Unryu paper that is part of Moab’s collection of Japanese Washi papers.

In addition to making individual prints, Harold Davis and his wife, graphic designer Phyllis Davis, have collaborated on a series of limited edition, handmade portfolio books. Their first book project, Botanique, was a Kickstarter-funded project that featured 21 original botanical art prints on archival vellum, Moab Moenkopi Unryu Washi, Moenkopi Kozo Washi, Moab Slickrock Metallic Pearl, and Colorado Fibergloss photographic paper. Each book was hand-cut and bound by hand. The book includes three panoramic-sized prints as foldouts and ships with a signed 9 x 12 inch print of Harold Davis’ popular image, “Red Peonies.”

The floral images in “Botanique” show what’s possible with the digital workflow and backlighting technique Harold Davis invented to create luminous translucent imagery. For the portfolio pages, Davis chose the Moab inkjet or art paper that best matched the boldness or delicacy of the image. Photo: ©Harold Davis

Harold and Phyllis are currently working on his next limited edition portfolio, “A Modern Pilgrimage: Kumano Kodo.” This collection will feature a series of 13 images including a 9 x 26 inch panorama printed on a 16 ½ foot long roll of Moab Moenkopi kozo washi. The paper will be folded and placed in a signed cover that is itself a mountain panorama of Japan.

Pages for the Kumano Kodo portfolio are printed on the roll and hand trimmed, scored, signed, and bound. Photo: ©Harold Davis

“One of the most important things a printmaker can do is match the surface of the paper with the image,” says Davis. “Some images go well with some papers, and look terrible on others.” He acknowledges that it takes a fair amount of trial and error to discover the right paper for your images. But this experimentation is integral to your ability to develop a body of work that is yours alone.

For the Star Magnolia spread in “Botanique,” Harold Davis chose Moab Moenkopi Unryu Washi paper. Photo: ©Harold Davis

In a post on his blog entitled, “Making the Artisanal Inkjet Print,” Davis notes that prints created using a high-end inkjet printer go by a variety of names, including: inkjet print, pigment print, giclée, and piezo print. Like many art gallerists and collectors, Davis favors the term “pigment print.”

He attributes the widespread confusion of terminology to the incredible diversity of uses of inkjet technology: “You can buy inkjet prints at Costco, where they are honestly labeled. You can buy the somewhat pretentiously named giclee prints from companies that reproduce art. Or you can collect one-off artisanal pigment prints from a solo artist like me who makes the prints one at a time in his studio.”

While Costco, giclée printmakers, and solo artists may all use the same make and model of wide-format inkjet photo printer, the difference between a mass-produced decorative print and an artisanal inkjet print is about much more than what printer was used. Harold points out that three photographers can use the exact same cameras and produce results that are vastly different in artistic style and technical quality. Solo artists who own wide-format printers tend to craft artisanal prints one at a time and fuss over every detail.

“Quality in digital printmaking really comes down to know the quirks of the printer, understanding how to get the most out of digital workflow, how the technology is used, the vision behind the printmaking, and the care and time that is spent on each individual image,” explains Davis. “Just as much craft, skill, and artistry go into making a good artisanal digital inkjet print as ever went into a print made in the chemical darkroom.”

“If you include output file preparation, printing, and post-printing issues, an average print might take five to ten hours,” says Davis. “Sometimes I print an image 20 times until it is right and I get that one great print.”

For example, learning how to make perfect prints on specialty papers such as Moab’s Moenkopi Washi papers may require adjusting the pressure your printer exerts on the papers so they feed through the printer properly. The surface of the Slickrock Metallic paper is quite delicate and can be easily scratched. Yet the polyester content of the metallic inkjet paper makes it difficult to cut, even with the printer’s onboard cutter.

“A relatively unusual image is going to marry nicely with Slickrock Silver,” said Davis. “You have to be going for something that’s not a classic look.” Plus, you have to be aware of how the print will be lit. The colors in the image may look different when the print is viewed from different angles.

This HDR monochrome image of a workshop at the Fort Ross Historic Park takes full advantage of the qualities of Moab Slickrock Metallic Silver 300 paper. Photo: ©Harold Davis

Davis has been crafting his own art prints and art books for about 10 years, drawing upon his years of experience as a accomplished painter, commercial photographer, and author of dozens of books on technical subjects.

In the 1980s, Harold Davis spent a lot of time in darkrooms while supporting himself as a commercial photographer. He made his own color and black-and-white prints, and worked closely with lithographers. He says, “Making prints has always been a part of my story as a professional photographer.”

In the 1990s, Davis got married and left New York. He held a number of different jobs and started writing a series of computer-related books. When his publisher asked him to write a book on digital photography in 2004, Davis picked up a digital SLR for the first time and discovered that with a digital camera, Photoshop, and other software, he could combine his love of painting with his love of photography.  He considers his current Photography 2.0 career vastly different from his Photography 1.0 career in the 1980s.

Harold Davis’ talent as a painter is evident in this beautifully rendered photograph of the Jamaa-el-Fnaa marketplace in Marakesh, Morocco. It was printed on Moab’s new Juniper Baryta Rag 305 paper. Photo: © Harold Davis

Harold Davis describes his current work as “Digital paintings that use photographs as the medium.” With this unique style, Davis is at the forefront of an emerging art movement in which creative photographers can do far more than capture an elusive moment in time. Thanks to Photoshop (which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary), photographic artists such as Harold Davis can now create images that depict almost any type of scene or subject they can envision in their mind’s eye.

In this multiple exposure image, Harold Davis envisions image “Hekatonkheires” the three mythical Greek gods of violent storms and hurricanes. The artisanal pigment print takes full advantage of the qualities of Moab Slickrock Metallic Pearl 360 paper. Photo: ©Harold Davis

His collectors agree that Davis is doing important work. One individual who has collected Harold Davis’ work for more than five years says he is increasingly excited about the possibilities created by Harold’s unusual and effective use of technology in support of the classical tenets of photographic art: “I would compare his work to Ansel Adams’ and Edward Weston’s work during the crucial 1930s and 1940s time frame.”

To inspire other creative souls who want to push the boundaries of what’s possible with photography today, Harold Davis conducts workshops and posts instructional webinars. Some of the photography books he has written include:

• Monochromatic HDR Photography
• Creating HDR Photos
• Photographing FlowersPhotographing Waterdrops
• Creative Black & White
• Creative Lighting
• Creative Landscapes
• Creative Close-ups

In his award-winning photography book, “The Way of the Digital Photographer,” Davis emphasizes that previsualizing an image should not only include how a shot is composed and lit but also how it will be processed in Photoshop and printed.

His next book, which Focal Press has scheduled for publication in August, 2015, is entitled “Achieving Your Potential as a Photographer.” The book’s subtitle is “A Photographer’s Creative Companion and Workbook.” The book presents an organized and cohesive plan for kickstarting creativity, and then taking the resulting work into the real world. The concepts are accompanied by a workbook with exercises you can use to put them into everyday practice.

When Harold Davis was selected as a Moab Master, Marc Schotland, vice president of marketing and global development for Legion Paper said, “Harold is a renowned photographer, artist and author who offers a unique vision and voice to the Moab Masters program. Harold’s meticulous printing skills are present in every print he produces, and we’re thrilled that he chooses Moab as the paper to support his images.”

Freedom Paper is proud to offer an excellent selection of Moab paper and Moab Chinle archival boxes and portfolios for protecting and presenting your work. We also sell a sampler pack that includes 2 sheets of 16 different types of Moab photo and art papers.

We encourage all photographers to continue to experiment and see what’s possible with Photography 2.0."

Making the Artisanal Inkjet Print

Moab Master, Harold Davis, was recently asked by an art gallerist he works with to help educate some clients regarding his printmaking. Essentially the issues come down to exploring how his prints differ from mass-produced inkjet prints, since largely the same equipment is used. In contrast to those you get from Costco or giclees from an art reproduction company, Harold's prints require a great deal of hand labor. Harold's FAQ: Prints by Harold Davis covers much of this ground, and the following discussion helps put things in perspective.

Harold Davis answers many questions frequently asked by printmakers such as:

What printer do you use? How long does it take you to make a print? Are your prints limited editions? Do you hand sign your prints? Is a certificate of authenticity available? And our personal favorite: What papers do you use?

Discover Harold's printmaking insight and perspective. 

Photographing Flowers for Transparency

Master photographer Harold Davis is well-known for his often imitated—but seldom equaled—digital images of luscious transparent and translucent flowers.

In a unique 5-day workshop offering at Maine Media Workshops+College, Harold Davis shows the techniques he pioneered to create his floral masterpieces. Arrangement, composition, photography, and post-production will all be covered, as will Harold's special techniques for shooting on a light box. In addition, several sessions will explore field floral photography, and alternative techniques related to the studio photography of flowers. Harold will also show his spectacular botanical prints in the context of a discussion of the best way to create prints of floral imagery.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to enhance your floral photography by learning from Harold Davis, the best-selling author of award-winning Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Worlds with Harold Davis.

Workshop participants will be given the opportunity to compose, photograph and post-process their own transparent floral images from beginning-to-end during the workshop.  Field and studio sessions will demonstrate creative techniques across the gamut of different kinds of flower photography, and allow plenty of time for individual image making. The emphasis of this workshop will be to support each participant, enabling their own unique vision and helping them to become the best flower photographer they can be.

Harold Davis: An Eclectic Collection

Moab Master, Harold Davis, is very excited to be exhibiting at Arts & Friends, a photography gallery in Heidelberg, Germany. The show, Harold Davis: An Eclectic Collection, will display two large prints, one on Slickrock Silver and Metallic Pearl. There are roughly twenty other prints in the show of varying sizes, printed on Awagami Kozo Washi, Slickrock Pearl and Lasal Exhibition Luster. All the prints are monochromatic. The exhibit runs from October 18 through November 16, 2014.

Looking to Mount your Slickrock Silver?

Moab's new Slickrock Metallic Silver created a jaw-dropping repsonse from our audience. The only greater response we recieved was towards the Slickrock Metallic Silver face-mounted to Acrylic. This has stirred up a tremendous amount of interest in Slickrock Silver. The image above is an image by Harold Davis done by Lamin-8. 

The process requires 3 components to our prints: Slickrock Metallic Silver, an adhesive film and the acrylic. 

Our recommendation? 

For laminating use a high grade clear adhesive film from MacTa

For the acrylic use a high grade plexi glass.  Ensure that the plexi glass does not contain any gas as once the print is sealed it will look to escape and create bubbles in the print.  Here are some grades we suggest from Acrylite here and here. 

PhotoPlus Day 1 Highlights

What a whirlwind of a day! The show was packed. Slickrock Metallic Silver almost stole the show, but it had some stiff competition with the Moab Master presentations at the far end of the booth. Large 40x60 prints on the Silver from Harold Davis and Jim LaSala truly showed the impressive caliber of this amazing paper.

And those who were able to see the five Moab Master presentations got a real treat with insights into NASA, Haiti, Cuba, African wildlife and fashion. Live Slickrock printing demos on the new Canon Pixma PRO-1 rounded out the day.

The line-up tomorrow is equally impressive:

11:00am Michael Zide Through A Photographer’s Eyes
12:00pm Jody Dole Renowned image maker and digital photographer pioneer
3:00pm Ryszard Horowitz Capturing nonexistent world

Star-studded speaker line-up at PhotoPlusExpo

Get ready to be dazzled (and informed) by some of the biggest names in photography. We're pretty stoked to announce the photographers who will be giving short presentations in the Moab booth (#750) during the upcoming PhotoPlusExpo show in NYC.

Like all things Moab, we are taking a slightly different approach to these presentation: We've simply asked the speakers to talk about themselves and their work - no sales pitch. Some will be conducting hands-on printing workshops while others will be providing an intimate discussion on their work. Harold Davis will even be giving away copies of his new book!

We're still hammering out the exact times, but the confirmed line up will include Andy Biggs, Barbara Bordnick, Harold Davis, Jody Dole, Robert Farber, Jim Graham, Ryszard Horowitz, Douglas Kirkland, Jim LaSala, Michael Soluri, Salvatore Vasapolli and Michael Zide.

As you can see, all the photographers are at the peak of their game, each having made a huge impact on the photo industry. Expect every presentation to be a keynote event.

Springtime in Paris (A photo workshop)

As summer comes to a close we're already skipping past winter and looking forward to Spring. Paris holds a special place in the heart of this writer so we're especially pleased to announce this photo workshop in Paris led by Moab Master, educator, author and all-around cool guy, Harold Davis.

The nine day photo tour (April 26-May 4, 2014) is packed with activities and excursions with an itinerary that begins the moment you land in the City of Lights. In addition to learning about light, night photography and composition, you'll gain exclusive access to the city including an after-hours tour through Monet's famous garden at Giverny.

It's best summed up by a participant from last year's workshop, "Had an awesome time with Harold, Mark, and the workshop participants.  Itching to go back.  If you’re a photographer, Paris at night is a ‘Must Do!’.  Put it on your bucket list ‘cause you may not see this in Heaven.”

The workshop is filling up, so register now.

Click here for the full itinerary.

"Botanique": Harold Davis's Oragami in a Box

A mysteriousl package arrived in our office the other day.  After carefully unwrapping the paper, the most beautiful portfolio of images was unveiled.  Botanique, is a project conceived, designed, and fabricated by Moab Master and master photographer Harold Davis and well-known book designer Phyllis Davis.

Botanique is such a gorgeous collection of images, meticulously printed on a variety of Moab papers, that it's hard to describe in words. So, we'll use both pictures and words.

Acclaimed as “origami in a box”, Botanique is a hand-made, limited edition artist book that astutely blends old craft and cutting edge new technologies to create an exquisite limited edition art book and art object that is completely unique.  Holding a print of a delicate floral image printed on Moenkopi Unryu felt as though I was holding the actual flower. The portfolio shipped with white cotton gloves, which reinforced the book's museum-quality.

Originally (and successfully) funded and crowd-sourced via a Kickstarter project, Botanique contains twenty-one luscious floral prints that emerge delicately and seductively from the hand-assembled presentation box. 

Botanique has been hand printed on an Epson 9900 StylusPro printer using archival Ultrachrome inks. Within the book there are twenty-one prints on archival substrates including archival vellum, Moenkopi Unryu Washi, Moenkopi Kozo Washi, Moab Slickrock Matallic Pearl ,and Colorado Fiber Gloss photographic paper. Each book is hand-cut, and hand-assembled in the artist’s studio. Bonus features include three foldout prints in over-sized panoramic format.

The books have sold so well, that there are only two remaining.  Each book is hand-signed and numbered by the artist, and presented in an archival box measuring approximately 9.25″ X 12.5″ X 1″ deep.

Meet author Harold Davis

Meet photographer, author and Moab Master, Harold Davis on Tuesday, September 11th at Calumet NYC as he discusses key topics from his new book: Creating HDR Photos.  

Harold will present his latest work and reveal the secrets behind his award-winning images. You'll also be able to see Harold's images printed on large 44" prints using the new Slickrock Metallic Pearl 260.

In Creating HDR Photos, bestselling author Harold Davis covers the complete HDR workflow, from choosing the subjects that work best for HDR through processing RAW files to unlock the dynamic power of HDR.

In this seminar you’ll learn how to photograph multiple exposures and blend them into a single HDR image using various software programs. Best of all, you will find out how to control the style of your HDR images, from subtle to hyper-real, using a range of photographic and post-processing techniques. 

Tuesday, September 11 (6-8pm)

Calumet New York
22 W. 22nd Street
New York, New York 10010
212.989.8500

H.D.R. Photography for the Realist (NYT Article)

Moab Master, Harold Davis, talk about HDR Photography in today's issue of the New York Times.

Click here to read the article.

Tips on taking better flower photos

"Flowers are one of the most photographed subjects on the planet, which makes taking a compelling photo of them that much more difficult. Experienced pro, Harold Davis shared a few strategies with [POP Photo] about getting the best out of your floral photos."

Read the full story here.

Harold Davis becomes a Moab Master

We are excited to announce the addition of photographer Harold Davis to our Moab Masters program. Harold is a renowned photographer, artist and author who offers a unique vision and voice to the Moab Masters program.

Harold’s meticulous printing skills are present in every print he produces, and we’re thrilled that he chooses Moab as the paper to support his images.

“I adore working with the hand-crafted Moab substrates, and in particular I am infatuated with Slickrock Metallic for much of my printmaking. It is bold and dramatic, and at the same time paradoxically subtle. In my monochromatic imagery I strive to extend the dynamic range, and Slickrock supports this with a multidimensional look. Slickrock prints show an incredible range of tonality in both color and black & white. It's also particularly interesting the way the metallic pearl transposes for white---one impact is that Slickrock prints shift in their presentation of negative space as the light they are viewed with also shifts. Highly recommended!”

Click here to view Harold's Moab Master gallery