Feathers, Shells, and Water Bottles--Say What???

My granddaughter, who is now 12 years old, continually brings me different things to add to my photography portfolio.  Her's too, because she is learning photography from me, and let me tell you that she has a real eye for the art.  This time she brought quail feathers that she got while cleaning at some older couple's home as part of a youth group project.  A few days later she brought two halves of what looks like a clam shell.  Since I haven't looked it up and I am not an expert on these things, I simply call it a mollusk shell.  Where do water bottles fit into this?  Well, let's just say that at first, her turquoise water bottle she was drinking from ended up being a beautiful background for the quail feathers.  But eventually the bottle ended up offering some very interesting macro shots itself.

For the following photos, I used my Canon Rebel EOS T3i with and without my 5 extension tubes.  When I used the extension tubes the images are very, very close and almost have the quality of having looked through a microscope at times.  When I didn't use the extension tubes, you can tell that the images are just close ups, but not extremely close up.  I believe the feathers turned out very beautifully, while the shells are also very pretty.  But when you see what happened with the water bottle, you may be very surprised.

Understand that I did no editing of any kind other than to place my watermark on these copies.  Here are the photos.

You can see in some of the above photos the turquoise showing through from the water bottle.  How to photograph the feathers was at first a problem as I could not really think of any possible way to lay them on a surface and end up with a good photo.  However, I did have a small cut flower vase with an empty green floral sponge inside.  That became the holder for the feathers and also provided a greenish background in some of the photos.

I am really going to have to research mollusk shells to find out what the fossilized circles are on the outside of the shell. To do these photos with the marbles was actually my granddaughter's idea and I was really glad she came up with it.

Okay, so now what is so special about a turquoise water bottle anyway?  Well, when the bottle has its own designs on the side, and it is about half filled with water, and when light hits that bottle in certain ways while it is on its side on a table, you end up with lots of various abstract results.

I really was pleasantly surprised at the bokeh that appeared in this shot above.  I have found that I can create interesting bokeh when light is reflecting off just about anything, as long as whatever that "anything" is turns out to be shiny.

Now I am on the hunt for other interesting objects that can end up either as still life or abstract photography.  Since the water bottle was more accident than anything else, it gives me inspiration that there could be any number of objects around the house, yard, or even at garage sales, that could end up in my portfolio.  What do you think?  Got any ideas of your own?

The World of Abstract Photography

My work has a name and I didn't even know it!!!

Click HERE for more information about abstract photography.

I feel invigorated today because what I enjoy most in photography and can do easiest from home finally has a name.  While I enjoy abstract painting, it never even occurred to me that there is an art form called abstract photography until today!  A friend mentioned something I did a few weeks ago as being abstract, but even then it just did not click.  That is until today.  So this has been my focus all morning.

Previously I have battled in my mind about what to call my work.  I have been calling it graphic design, although, I suppose that technically it does not belong in that category since it isn't done like what most people consider to be graphic design.  That name just did not even "feel" right when I used it.  While this all makes me feel quite stupid, realizing that I do have a legitimate niche in the photography world makes up for that.  In addition to this, having a name for what I do opens the door to finding out how to actually maybe making a real living with what I do.  Or at least to be able to provide for more gear.

As I have been searching online for more and more information and examples of abstract photography, I came across this tutorial series for creating abstract photographs.  Although I have already blogged about this topic, (the link at the beginning of this post has several good articles I found earlier today) when I found this tutorial, I had to share.