February 21, 2012

Post #100

Well, just found out that this would be my 100th post on my blog dedicated to the abstract in photography.
So let's put away with lens-testing or with a little out-of-focus play and celebrate this with a suitably abstract image, aptly named

Transfiguration:

Transfiguration 34422

Now with me being a lens-tester and all everybody expects me to shoot brick-walls, hehe! But there are much more interesting targets: Siemens-stars for lens-testing and reflectively tiled walls for self-portraits. Yes, believe it or not, this is a "selfy" :)
Had to do some tweaking of the contrast with curves and remove some distracting blotches. But other than that it's almost straight out of the camera.

February 11, 2012

Shadow of a Tree

Today the low winter sun was just in the right position to project the image of a tree onto a white wall. An interesting transformation of the living, growing tree into a flat two-toned abstract structure. Well, isn't photography all about making things flat and two-dimensional? Yes! And I could have drained the colors out of the image, too? Yes! But it would still be a sharp rendering of a tree in b&w (or any two-tonedness that you can do in post-processing). Further blurring could be applied etc., etc.
Personally I like and look for abstracts sooc (straight out of [the] camera), well perhaps not straight because with many abstracts out of the camera the need to do something regarding contrast and colors is often higher than with realistic images. So let's say I like "abstracts out of [the] camera" (aooc) ;-)
It challenges you to find or produce them in the field and not play around with too many tools in the post-processing software of your choice. Tools for me at least pose sooo many options that I can hardly decide which transformations are leading towards an interesting or even good image, and which are just leading to random deformations without any sense.

Shadow of a lonely Tree:
Shadow 34241
Interestingly, despite the transformation of the tree being quite stark (3D->2D, colors->two tones, sharp->blurred, full image->crop) it is still easy to recognize it for a tree. This is on one side testament to the capabilities of our brains and on the other hand is proof of the unique form of trees.

February 04, 2012

Sled dogs

Now that winter combines icy temperatures and bright sunshine, I'm thinking back to the sled dog race in January. Those dogs where so eager to "pull it off" that even after a few kilometers pulling us around the track they still strain against their harnesses to race another round.
Below is one of the teams waiting for the next lap.
Leitwolf 34127

Not much in this image qualifies it for a blog about "the abstract" in photography apart from the limited dof the f2.8 aperture produced. Which develops quite nicely along the figures standing in the background and shrouds them (and their distracting details) in a cloud of oof-smoothness. Focus on the sled dogs.