What: Creating Structure Using Forms and Patterns with Harold Davis | Benefits Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières).
When:Saturday February 26, 2022 at 11:00am PT. Duration between one and two hours, including Q&A
Where: Live webinar on your computer or mobile device from anywhere via Zoom. This is a benefit webinar, with pre-registration required using your Zoom account. A tuition payment of $19.95 is required for enrollment. All proceeds benefit Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières). The registration link is https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f2rskyGUT7iSXSC3Gd272g
Details: Of all the magical elixirs that make up a successful photograph, composition is perhaps the most fundamental, and at the same time the most elusive. What makes a composition “good”? It’s hard to define exactly, but we instinctively recognize good composition when we see it. There is an undeniable emotional response when a composition resonates with and complements the subject matter of an image.
But traditional attempts to define “good composition” and to pass on rules for good compositional construction are often doomed to failure. The truth is, there are no hard and fast rules. Rules eliminate experimentation and spontaneity which are crucial for creating compelling, dynamic, and exciting compositions. The best compositions contain an element of the unexpected. “Expect the unexpected!” is perhaps the only viable “rule” of composition. To create exciting compositions, you must have a willingness to embrace serendipity and change as part of your artistic practice. After all, composition is a process, not a result.
Edward Weston once wrote in his Daybooks that “to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.” To this, Ansel Adams added that “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”
To resolve these two semi-paradoxes, in this webinar Harold approaches composition as an instance of open-ended two-dimensional design. Photographic examples and “thought experiments” will start with simple shapes, such as lines and circles, and proceed through patterns and repetitions, and onwards to spirals, fractals, and abstractions. The webinar will present ideas from Harold’s new book Composition & Photography, and will be intended to provoke thought about composition basics.
The goal of this webinar is to enable individual integration of the process of composition into each participant’s creative practice.
The presentation will be followed by a Q&A.
Who should attend: Anyone who wants to find out more about creating images that work and about the creative process of composition in photography.
Number of Seats, Tuition, and Benefit: The tuition for this webinar is $19.95 and requires prior registration. All proceeds benefit Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), but the ticket price is not tax deductible. You must register via Zoom to be enrolled in this webinar! If you haven’t paid the tuition, you aren’t registered. Please contact us in advance with any questions.
The registration link is https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f2rskyGUT7iSXSC3Gd272g
About Harold Davis: Harold Davis is an internationally known photographer and a sought-after workshop leader. According to Popular Photography Magazine, “Harold Davis’s ethereal floral arrangements have a purity and translucence that borders on spiritual.” He is a Moab Master and a Zeiss Ambassador. He has exhibited widely and his prints are extensively collected. In 2022, several of his images were selected by the United States Post Office for use as postage stamps.
Rangefinder Magazine states that “Harold Davis is a force of nature—a man of astonishing eclectic skills and accomplishments.”
Harold Davis is a bestselling author of many books, including Composition & Photography, Creative Garden Photography and Creative Black and White, all from Rocky Nook.
Harold Davis’s website is digitalfieldguide.com.