Workshop description: To resolve these two semi-paradoxes, in this hands-on workshop, we will approach composition as an instance of open-ended two-dimensional design. Photographic exercises will start with simple shapes, such as lines and circles, and proceed through patterns and repetitions, and onwards to spirals, fractals, and abstractions. Field sessions will take advantage of the “target-rich” mid-coast Maine scenery. Classroom discussions will be intended to provoke thought about composition basics and continue to enable individual integration of the process of composition into each participant’s creative practice. Space is limited in this small, in-person workshop.

Opportunities: Great Gardens of Japan Photography Tour (November 2026); Composition & Photography (Maine, August 2026); Base Camp Library Event (through June 14, 2026, click here for discount code info).

Would we get through the Brandenburg Tor? Would Checkpoint Charlie have been a better choice for the crossing? Would the Stasi be waiting for us?

I turned to Bernie. “Don’t be concerned,” I said. “That’s all on a different timeline. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.” Famous last words. Welcome to Biff’s world.

Original blog story with the image (2018); Inspiration: Bernie Gunther series.

• A 45–75+ minute photography class
• Q&A with the presenter
• Member-submitted image reviews, so you can see how the ideas apply to real photographs

• Buy 3 and save 20% with code BASECAMP20
• Buy 5 and save 30% with code BASECAMP30
• Buy 8 and save 35% with code BASECAMP35

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Base Camp Photo Club, and receive a fee for purchases.

I wanted to experiment with this “Lydith” effect, and to see how far I could take it. I added a variable extension tube (the Leica Macro-Adapter-M) between my camera (Leica 11MP) and the Lydith lens, and headed out to the garden at night with a tripod. I then practiced fairly long duration exposures (in the one to four second range) aimed at a color light source, focusing on optical refractions themselves rather than the light source.

The resulting abstract images, some shown here, are attractive, and are really about light itself. This is in keeping with one of the long-standing tenets of photography: the only thing you can capture as a matter of physics is light reflected or emitted by an object. You cannot capture the object itself. This kind of neo-Platonic paradox is referenced in the origins of the word photography. Its meaning is “to write with light.” 

My photography is my excuse for meditating in the garden, and the garden is my sanctuary. One does not really need an excuse to enter a sanctuary, but it helps to cloak my act of devotion with some veneer of practicality.

It is good to put aside the rush of modern life. Leave the cell phone outside the garden—unless you need it as a camera trigger, or to find your way through the maze of a large Japanese garden.

Forget about business, receivables, the needs of kids, the politics of empire. You are here in the garden. The flowers are expending their short lives in part to give one grace to enjoy. Water is flowing. Hummingbirds are engaging in their quick motions, using their long tongues to lap nectar. Within a blossom a bee is replete with pollen, its side panniers bulging.

All senses are occupied, but in a peaceful way. This may be my garden, but I am not the one controlling sun, wind, and weather. Clouds drift lazily overhead. The sun shifts the angles of shadows, casts heat, life, and life, and heliotropic flowers respond. Fragrance drifts on the breeze.  The time is yours, now, and forever, and no reason to fill this sweet ephemeral moment with the clamor of the monkey mind. The garden is exquisitely peaceful.

Sometimes it rains, and the joy, the pure joy as wetness abounds. Each moment is a passing world, and it is yours to enjoy in quiet contemplation.

When it is my garden, the pleasures are even more sweet. I am the steward. I know these rocks, these plants, these trees. Here is the maple I planted a quarter of a century ago when it was a small sapling. Here’s the cherry tree that I planted when my son was born.

I shape, comfort, and work with each square millimeter, trying to tease out the essence that the garden is showing me. It is pleasing that my garden is small in dimensions, so that my tasks are manageable, not grandiose, and not a chore.

Each new flower is a blessing, and I tend the plants helping the stressed and providing fertilizer and comfort to the green living beings.

In my small plot, I am benign gardening god, and my hands and touch are in the dirt and on every vista.

The world at large can be wondrous and magical, and I am fully at home as a pilgrim in the world. But astoundingly there is as much magic and whimsy in the near-at-hand, in my garden flowers, twigs, and other botanical ephemera.

I am enjoying at this time in the world not engaging too much beyond the borders of “my country” (within our garden gate). Next year, who knows? 

When and where: Online on Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 4pm PT (7pm ET). Click here for registration.

Cost: $25.00 (includes recording)

Description: In this presentation, Harold will delight your heart and mind with his intimate portraits of flowers. Along the way, he will share his passion for floral photography and the tools and techniques for creating effective macro compositions.

Click here for Info and Registration! Note: This is an affiliate link, and I will receive a portion of the fee.

Here’s my entire series of six miscellaneous United States postage stamps, shown on a page of the current USA Philatelic Magazine. The stamps are © USPS and the images are © Harold Davis. The 4-cent Angel’s Trumpets is new in 2026.

Originally designed for the Canon rangefinder, Nikon soon jumped into the fast lens arms race with their own fast lens, to be followed by Leica’s Noctilux 50mm f/0.95, which has gone through many iterations. Compared to my “Noct,” this lens is interpretative and far less clinical.

Time will tell, but I think I like my Dream Lens very much.

My lens has been refurbished and converted to the Leica M mount. It’s surprisingly short and wide in design, and mostly covers the lens release button on my Leica 11 MP (I can depress it, but it takes fingernails and a bit of dexterity).

A portrait shot into the Dream Lens (made with my macro probe) is shown below, along with two flower images shot with the lens wide open at f/0.95.

Monday, November 9 to Saturday, November 21, 2026 — 13 days and 12 nights

Click here for a detailed Itinerary, and here for the Reservation Form.

Overview: Gardens and gardening have been an important part of Japanese culture for more than one thousand years. In this exciting tour, noted photographer Harold Davis (author of Creative Garden Photography) and Japanese cultural ambassador Kana Hattori will lead us to explore the great gardens of Japan with our cameras. While this is primarily a photography tour, we will also learn about related Japanese horticultural traditions, including flower arranging (ikebana), growing bonsai, and visit the flower districts and plant nurseries that Japanese gardeners frequent. Click here for more information!

This tour is already filling up, so if you are interested please don’t wait. Click here for more information, Click here for a detailed Itinerary, and here for the Reservation Form.