Category Archives: Abstracts

Attempts made to break outside of my engineering mentality

Feeling Versus Reality

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Pond Abstract
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

I always have been drawn to the work impressionistic painters. When viewing their work I tend to walk away with a deeper feeling than I do with other forms of painting. As I photograph, many times I will focus on a scene and think this spot would be a great spot to set up an easel if I were a painter. I squint and try to envision how an impressionistic painter would attempt to create their art piece. Today, I decided to play with one of my images and try to create an impressionistic feeling.

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A Different Way of Looking at Things

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Tricolor Beech and Linden
Heatherwood Garden

Too often we get trapped looking at something from only one way. Yesterday I was creating early summer images around the garden. I was intrigued with the multicolored leaves of our Tricolor Beech tree. I took several images of the leaves. The linden tree provided a soft background. As I took my last image of the leaves, I looked through them and saw a unique perspective of the linden tree. The pink of the beech framed the green-toned details of the linden. I created additional images from this second perspective. Sitting at my computer I could not make up my mind what image I liked the best. Why not combine them together into one image. I feel that the combined multi-exposure is better than either of the separate images.

This lesson can be applied to solving most issues. One does not necessarily need to choose between two good solutions. Many times a combined solution is the best.

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Let Your Imagination Loose

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Waterfall Abstract
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Sitting by the waterfall, I continued to play with long exposures. I was looking for interesting vignettes that I could isolate with my telephoto lens. I created several images of this rock with the water flowing around its edges. By itself, it was interesting but not eye stopping. Later when reviewing my images of the morning’s session, something caught my eye. I squinted and saw a face with long white hair sweeping down along each side. The more I looked at it, the more my imagination wandered.

Can you see it ???

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What to Do When You Get Into a Rut

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Waterfall Abstract
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

I was sitting by our pond having a morning cup of coffee with Mary. I had my camera in my lap and was looking up at our little waterfall. I have taken hundreds of images of the waterfall from every angle that I can think of. What could I do to create something different? I was working with long exposures and my hand slipped. I was getting ready to delete the image, when I thought maybe I could play around with a little in-camera motion. After a few tries, this is what I came up with.

Lesson learned: Stop, take the time to play. Something good usually comes out of it!

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Time to Paint

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Framed Waterfall
Heatherwood Spring

This vignette of Heatherwood’s waterfall framed by a Shin Deshojo Japanese maple and a Norway Spruce is one of my favorites. Most every time I walk by with my camera (or iPhone), I stop and create an image. A little side path provides a little peak from the main pathway. In spring and fall the scene is the most dramatic with the contrasting colors of the Japanese maple.

When I was editing this image, I felt like doing something a little different. I thought I would take the opportunity to practice a little photographic painting. Topaz Impression software and my imagination merged together to create this image.

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Cornelian Cherry Abstract

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Cornelian Cherry Dogwood Abstract
Heatherwood Spring

Here is another abstract illustrating just how cloudy my mind gets at times. It feels good to just take a break from making standard images. The idea for this image came as I was looking for a good photo for our Cornelian cherry dogwood in bloom. I had one that was just so-so that provided a nice contrast of the yellow blooms against a dark blue spruce in the shade. I also had an interesting multi exposure abstract of the blooms of the dogwood. I put them together creating the above image. Magic!

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Winter Garden #9

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Spent Hosta Leaves
Heatherwood Winter

During my winter walks in our garden, I constantly look down at my feet. Interesting patterns frequently emerge from fallen leaves and spent perennials. These spent hosta leaves topped with fallen crabapple leaves caught my attention. My first thought was that I should really clean up the mess. I turned my head and then thought that this was an interesting pattern of leaves that would make a nice image.

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Winter Garden #5

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Abstract Art in the Garden
Heatherwood Winter

Garden art is all around me as I walk through Heatherwood. I just need to discover a way to display it. I saw this combination of ornamental grasses in the foreground, red twig dogwoods in the mid ground, and yellow twig dogwoods in the background peeking through the red twigs. I thought of an abstract watercolor painting of beige, red, and yellow brush strokes. I played with a series of multiple exposures and “voila”, an abstract painting appeared.

Have a happy day!

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Patterns in Stone

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Pahoehoe Lava Sculpture
Kilauea Lava Flow, Hawaii

Pahoehoe lava flows and cools slowly. It forms ropey type patterns as it cools. Walking over the Kilauea lava flows provides an infinite source of vignettes for creating images. My mind wanders as it gazes over the terrain. I discover pattern after pattern. Each one is unique and my imagination goes wild. I get lost and lose track of time. Each time I have walked the flows with travel partners, they have patiently(?) waited for me with stern faces by the car ready to drive to the next stop.

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