Category Archives: Abstracts

Attempts made to break outside of my engineering mentality

Wabi-Sabi

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Spent Rose
Heatherwood Winter

Nothing is perfect … nothing is permanent … nothing is complete. Wabi-sabi is a characteristic concept of our Heatherwood garden. I find beauty in every aspect of imperfection throughout our garden. This spent rose was a beautiful red flower in its prime. The summer flower’s fleeting beauty transitioned to these stems and rose hips in the fall and winter. In nature the hips would release the seeds to the ground. Its life is incomplete as the seeds create new plants.

I admire the beauty of this rose stalk and hips every day as I sit and read and look out our family room window. They fascinate me. I do not have the heart or desire to prune the winter roses to make them look neat. I just simply enjoy them as they are. There is plenty of time to prune the roses before the spring growth.

Related Images:

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Summer Warmth

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Beebaum Multi-exposure
Fountainville, PA Garden

While searching through old images to help me come up with new ideas for enhancing our meadow for Heatherwood, I came upon several images of an arrangement of red and purple beebaum perennials. Aha! … the images blurred in my mind and I came up with the above abstract.

More practically, the image did give me an idea. We currently have red beebaums in the garden. They are relatively sparse and the tall blooms droop after a wind. The purple beebaum is a lower growing species and will prop the taller growing red blooms up as well as provide a nice complement shade to the arrangement.

Abstract Thinking

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“Rudbeckia Cezanne Style”
Heatherwood Meadow

As I was reviewing some of my past images, I saw this one and immediate thought of an Impressionistic painting. Topaz Impression and Cezanne came to my aid. Magic happens.

Below is the original image straight out of the camera.

“Original Image”

Creative or Crazy?

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Ground Cover Abstract
Heatherwood, Winter

Sometimes it feels good to get away from reality and let the imagination flow. Looking through some macro images I took yesterday I wondered what would happen if I would put a couple of ground cover photos together. I picked a close-up of a clump of blue fescue and a red-colored ice plant. One had a fine texture, one a smooth course texture. One was blue, one was red. I made a multi-image composite in Photoshop and was pleased with the results. I still felt playful and decided to add an impressionistic overlay patterned after Georgia O’Keefe … voila, the above image appeared. Am I creative or crazy? Maybe a little of both?

Related Images:

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French Tapestry

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Tri-color Sedum Abstract
Heatherwood, Fall

Strolling in our garden on a crisp frosty morning, I looked down and saw an interesting pattern on the ground. It reminded me of French tapestry wall coverings I had seen on some of the old historic homes on the East Coast. I took a little artistic liberty and enhanced the image with Topaz Impression to create this final image. Squint your eyes and think of some of those wall paper covered walls on those wonderful early 19th century historic homes.

For reference, below is the base image prior to adding the Topaz enhancement.

Related Images:

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Contrast

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Leaf in Snow Covered Grass
Heatherwood Autumn

We received a light covering of snow last night. Once the sun lit up the yard, I grabbed my camera and went out for a little walk before the snow melted.

Why did I take this image? The lone leaf was an anomaly in the snow covered grass. It created contrast. It was a contrast of color (orange vs white), size and shape (large oval vs lines and small crystals), temperature (warm vs cold), and texture (large semi-smooth vs small points and lines). Did I see a leaf or was it a lone colorful object in a sea of white spattered with green protrusions?

Go With the Flow

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“Rudbeckia & Grasses”
Heatherwood Garden

I saw these spent rudbeckias blowing against flowing grasses in our Heatherwood garden. I did not see the individual flowers or the grasses but instead visualized swirling orange, brown, and yellow colors and textures. When I reviewed several of the images I took, none seemed to catch the feeling that I had when I was out on my walk. Instead of moving on to other images, I decided to experiment a little by creating a multi-image blend in Photoshop. Voila … this is the result!

Abstract Thinking

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“Sunrise Through a Pear Tree”
Heatherwood Autumn

A walk through the garden on a autumn day is always full of color. Today, I was focusing on color and texture as I was walking around with my camera. Our flowering pear is at its peak of fall color. The early morning sun came out for a moment to backlight the tree in brilliant color. I decided to create an abstract texture using a nine-image multiple exposure.

Here’s to a bright and shiny new day!

Related Images:

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