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?

More Learning

Well, I have to say that doing the tutorial lessons with Jason Horejs is working well, somewhat.  The assignments do require that I buy his book which I have not done yet.  But otherwise I am learning at least a few things.  One of those things is about branding and all that goes with that topic.  So far, I am learning that people need to be able to look at my work and recognize that it is mine.  So what sets me apart from others?  Right off hand I would say that it is my abstracts.  Especially the kaleidoscopes.  That has me thinking that maybe I need to totally remake this blog and the page two section of this blog which is all graphics.  I am just not sure yet how to do that so that it is better, easier to use, and more organized.  It will take a whole lot of time and work because I have very few of the photos on my computer anymore.  They are all on flash drives and CD's.  In the meantime, I am still at work creating new abstracts and taking more and more photos.  I am learning more and more about my Canon EOS Rebel T3i also.  I think I finally know how to change the shutter speed AND the aperture.  That really had me baffled for awhile.

Also, now that I am on Flickr I have been doing some interesting searching using town names of places where I have lived throughout my life.  In doing this, so far, I have met a new friend who went to the same high school as I graduated from, only several years apart so we did not know each other back then.  How interesting!  And how interesting to find photographs from the places I have lived on Flickr!  

Last week, we got a bunch of fresh produce and as I was cooking some fresh from the garden cabbage, I took these photos.  Tonight I also did a few abstracts as well of both the cabbage and some clover that I photographed last month.  Also in the photos this time are some other fresh veggies.

These colorful designs below are from the clover, which, by the way, is actually lavender.  But somehow with the extension tubes on my camera, this is the color they turned out.

On these two below I tried something I had never done before.  I took the original pattern design and then used the color fill in color changer mode, clicked on one small area and this is how it turned out.  Then I added a new color for the final design.

Obviously this must be the cucumber kaleidoscope.  What fascinates me here is how deep this looks.  It is almost 3D.

These below are the green beans in kaleidoscope and patterns.  Very unique, I think.

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.