Today’s post is only Partially about abstracts, which is a favorite style for me.

Abstract photos com into existence in a variety of ways.

How we use light can change a nice straight forward photo into an abstract. Instead of straight on light, try side light, back light, top light and other angles. Unusual light Can add texture, and/or create shadows. It can alter color or obscure parts of the subject.

Differing your angles to the photo, can also abstract (as a verb) the dimensions or change curves or straight sides of a subject.

Some subjects are pretty abstract, in and of themselves. You can shoot them straight up with no unique angles, or light, and the subject itself still has an abstract “feel” to it.

Moving water, especially when our camera’s shutter speed is turned down, is a type of abstract. We do not see it that way via our naked eyes.

Be it fast or slow, it becomes an abstraction in so far as what we do see with the naked eye.

Colors reflecting into moving water, as is the case with the image below, creates and automatic abstract.

I could and have, spend hours working scenes like this,

The image below is that of a spider web with dew drops. The image was composed and captured as I oh so slowly worked my way around this web with my camera and tripod. It is an abstract in so far as the dewy web seems to be floating about in mid air.

A leaf with just a few drops made for a more simplistic shot. Images, including abstracts, need not always be complex in their composition.

The image below is what I consider to be a simplistic abstract because it is in fact clean and simple, but still an abstraction of how we normally look at things.

Lichen and rock. Easy as 1,2,3

A slight opening in the marsh, and a wading bird hunting or fishing.
This is not a real wildlife in actions shot, because of the surreal atmosphere of it all.

I ws certainly not chasing abstracts when I made this image, but nature has a way of giving us what we are not looking for.

I have shared this old studio image several times before. It is to me an abstract because of the discernable lack of understandable detail in and around the subject. This was done in a studio, with studio lights with a thin covering of color. The surreal lady, and the “flowing” color, make this for me, an abstract.

Can something as obvious as this partial moon during the night be called an abstract? That’s a close call but it does has an almost have s spooky surrealism to it.

Finally, once again abstracts are not about whether you recognize a subject, it is what angle did you take? Was your shutter speed in usually slow? Fast?

What will drive you towards abstracts, is what you see when you look. You will alter your shutter speed, composition, and depth of field to capture what you see with your eyes or your heart.

Have fun and may God truly bless you,
Wayne

Closing Statement

God does not serve me, I serve Him. In return for my faith and service, He frees me from the depths of Hell, and Blesses me, through Christ, and fills me with His Spirit, forever.

The Father, the Son, & the Holy Spirit.
Amen