Abstract Delights: Fun With Light and Color

[Clix Pix]

I love to shoot macro and closeups, especially experimenting with the play of light, especially with color, as well as coming up with abstract views of an often everyday, ordinary subject.... Now that colder weather is setting in I'll be back to doing more of this type of thing, and already just in the month of November I've done quite a few and decided it would be fun to share some of my favorites. Some will have already made their appearance in my 52-Week project thread or in one of the weekly Collective Shoot threads.

Kicking this off with an image I'd recently shared in the current CS...... Mike Buckley again suggested that this deserved its own thread -- thank you for the compliment and the idea, Mike! After looking at the abstracts and macros I've pulled together just from November, I daresay he's right! So here's a sampling:

1

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2

I like playing with light, seeing the different ways it can affect a subject and result in an interesting image:

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3

Sometimes Mother Nature cheerfully offers up an irresistible image, such as this crazy-quilt pattern of colors and shapes. Wouldn't it make a fun jigsaw puzzle?

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4

Had a bit of fun with this one, taking the image as it had been originally and then playing with filters to come up with this interesting design:

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5

Playing with light fascinates me, and I never quite know what I'll get:

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6

More experimenting with light and color:

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7

Reflections can sure produce interesting results!

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8

Wrapping up with an echo of the blue and yellow theme which kicked off the thread and this post:

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[Mike Buckley]

This is such a wonderful series! Such strong and varied images!

I always limit myself to nominating just one image for display at a time on the home page to give others plenty of opportunity to make their nominations. One of my nominations is already displayed and I'm especially glad about that. Otherwise, I would feel compelled to nominate one of these photos and then be faced with the difficult task of deciding which one of these marvelous images to nominate.

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you so much, Mike! That is a very nice compliment. Actually, I have never had an image displayed on the front page, although from time to time I have nominated others'.....

 

[gchappel]

Connie, beautiful interesting images. I was so glad you used one of my favorite words for photography- playing. My best images come from playing.
I love abstracts, and really enjoyed looking at these. Time to warm up your printer
gary

 

[Terri French]

These are really beautiful, Connie!! I just nominated the one with the water reflections for the front page. I hope it gets placed there.

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you, Gary and Terri! One thing I love about shooting abstracts is that one can simply experiment, play around, see what looks interesting and what doesn't.....and let the internal creativity emerge, if it is going to do so. Occasionally nothing works, and that's fine, I go for some other approach. Sometimes I just grab an object and maybe another object or a backdrop or some new photographic device that I've gotten and just put it all together and pick up the camera, look through the EVF, adjust settings and see what happens..... sometimes there are lots of surprises! I rarely print my images, most of them never go beyond the computer....

Thank you, Terri, for nominating one of the images for the front page! If that comes to pass, I will really be blown away.... The front page of Nikon Cafe represents this site to all visitors and indeed should showcase members' best and most intriguing, interesting work. For any of my images to ever be among them would be a true honor, indeed.

 

[gchappel]

Connie, you should try a couple of prints. Probably because I am an old fart that grew up in a wet darkroom, we only had the print. To me, an image still isn't complete until it is a print. I just like to look at one, hold it, study it. Once printed you almost have to look at it for a while, heck it is sitting there. I almost never go back to my images stored on my computer, but I do go through drawers full of prints.
Getting a really decent print is easy, just push a button. But, like almost anything else in photography, getting a really really good print is hard.
Your work deserves to be seen, and hanging on your walls.
gary

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you again, Gary! I do have some early B&W prints on my walls -- (ah, the blood, sweat and tears hunched over a hot enlarger and then the chemical trays and water bath to emerge from the darkroom with successful prints!), but nothing recent, nothing since my move into digital photography. My current printer is more an everyday one so if I were to have any of my images printed, I'd go to a professional lab where they have the right equipment for that. A few times in the past I did use Mpix for printing calendars that I gave to friends and family at Christmas, but that hasn't happened for a long time now.

 

[Commodorefirst]

Nicely done, image number has been nominated for feature, should see it up tomorrow.

 

[Richard_M]

These are great Connie

I love the variety and colour selections, well done!

 

[Clix Pix]

Nicely done, image number has been nominated for feature, should see it up tomorrow.

Thanks so much, Wade! I'm tickled silly! This will be the first time an image of mine has been on our front page! Wow.... Many thanks to Terri for having appreciated what she was seeing and subsequently nominating it!

 

[Clix Pix]

These are great Connie

I love the variety and colour selections, well done!

Thanks so much, Richard! There is just something special about working with closeups and macros, isn't there, and a while back I realized that I could go beyond the expected and explore other worlds......

 

[Mitchell]

Connie, I really like #1. You composed the image nicely. The colors and depth are really captivating!

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you, Mitch! Number 1 is one of my favorites, too! The metal Slinky.....a brushed-metal dish.....some fairy lights and my beloved 90mm macro! I had a lot of fun with this, trying the subject from different angles and and seeing how the lighting affected the overall composition. I love experimenting with this kind of stuff!

 

[gnagel]

Congrats on the feature! You’ve shared a nice set of photographs and I think the picture with the reflections is a stunning one.

Glenn

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you, Glenn! The reflections photo came about while I was using the Bazooka (200-600mm) to shoot birds on the lake.....a couple of times they drifted off too far away and while waiting for them to reappear closer to me, I idly looked around with the lens, saw this reflection and clicked the shutter button. Later, in editing, I looked at it again and found it rather fascinating so went ahead and edited it.... When it came time to share the photos I'd shot during Week 48 of my 52-week project, this one didn't make the cut, but later when looking through my files for November for the abstracts I'd shot this past month, it definitely was one to consider for sharing. Glad I did!

 

[Mike Buckley]

When it came time to share the photos I'd shot during Week 48 of my 52-week project, this one didn't make the cut

Probably not one of your best decisions.

 

[Clix Pix]

Oh, I dunno.....this way it's getting seen by a a much greater, larger audience than it might have in that post in my 52-Week project thread! . I always try to have some variety in the images that I put into each week's post, so because I had shot a bunch of abstracts and a few birds that week I chose a couple of abstracts plus something else, plus the birds.... I'm really glad that I stuck that one abstract into the CS, prompting you to make that nice compliment and suggestion, which is what reminded me that yes, it would be nice to pull together an entire thread of some of my most interesting abstracts that I shot in November. This time that particular image didn't get left out, got its opportunity for viewers to gaze at it......

Oh, by the way, Mike -- image number 4 was shot with my iPhone when I was in Microcenter and a Mac Pro caught my eye. Took a few shots. Later, at home, in the computer, I decided that this would be a good image to experiment with in the Boris FX Optics program, so I messed around in there with various presets to see what would be interesting..... LOL! I like that software a lot and it has been useful at times for my abstracts, just as you'd suggested. I haven't quite figured out the program which comes along with it, Sapphire, but I'm thinking it may be meant only for video projects. So far I haven't used it since I don't do video.

 

[Mike Buckley]

I was in Microcenter

You are aware that Microcenter sells PCs, right? We wouldn't want you to become infected.

 

[Mike Buckley]

I haven't quite figured out the program which comes along with it, Sapphir

I'm not even sure it's the actual program and instead might be an advertisement for it. That shows you how little I've investigated it.