I love to pan my camera on non-moving objects – like trees, flower gardens, meadows, even boats in a harbor. But one thing I’ve noticed is that in many of my favorite abstract/panned images, there is some depth expressed. I think it’s very helpful to have that depth -just a whoosh, where everything is in the same plane, just doesn’t have that depth and the resulting picture is a two dimensional abstract.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but as in real landscapes and scenes, I’m often trying to suggest the three dimensional attributes of the scene. To do that in this picture, I got up close to one aspen tree, placing it to the left to allow the other trees to balance that dominant one. With the other trees ‘behind’ the main tree, the near/far relationship establishes a suggestion of depth to the scene. The other, equally important element that is suggesting depth here is the light. The side light brought dimension to individual trees, showing their ’roundness’. The light and the near/far relationship combined to make this a picture I was very happy with. And, as the light falls off to darker areas in the background, you get even more depth. My goal was to have the viewer (you) feel like they were standing in this grove of trees, right next to me.
Thank you for the comments here, Katharina! I hope you continue to enjoy my postings. I’m just back from Morocco and off again in 5 days to Guatemala but will pick up posting again this week…
I wanted to write a small message in order to appreciate you for some of the lovely advice you are giving out on this site. My incredibly long internet look up has now been honored with awesome strategies to share with my family. I ‘d assume that many of us site visitors are truly endowed to live in a decent website with many perfect professionals with very beneficial strategies. I feel truly blessed to have encountered your webpage and look forward to really more thrilling minutes reading here. Thank you once again for all the details.
Really beautiful and obviously you have your tecnique mastered
Thanks, Rhoda – it does take practice and trial and ‘error’ but it’s all worth it in the end!
Brenda
Great shot! Nice to hear how you think about different aspects of abstract work – most people focus on form only in abstracts. A lot of 20th century painting intentionally compressed the image to create a more “austere” (or cold) look.
Sometimes having everything on the same plane works well but it’s nice to understand how to play with shapes on different planes as well.
Hi Bob – thanks for visiting and yes, I would agree it can work both ways – you certainly would know that with your pastels and your photographs! If we’re trying to show just the shapes of things, then a flatter image works better, I think.
excellent observation and illustration. I love abstracts, but they can seem cold and lacking in feeling. The use of depth is a great way of connecting with the viewer. I’m not sure if its relevant, but I’m sticking with my hot coffee!
Thanks, Walter! Coffee sounds good about now – I’m freezing in my office at the moment, even with the heat on. My mouse hand gets the coldest… and YOU are in Florida right now, right?!
Florida? I wish! No, I’m here on the edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. It is 21 degrees and getting colder. Yes, I’ll need more of that coffee! BTW, I just finished Richard Lynch’s Leveraging Layers course at Betterphoto.com. Great course. Now I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of Photoshop, although it is an endless nlearning curve. If you manage to respond to every comment o this blog, you will never even get to your desk. Maybe that is a good thing!
i’m eating homemade style vanilla ice cream out of the carton now. so yummy!
hmmm. if I did that well, I’d be wearing it on my hips!
we’re not worthy!!!!!! i’m gonna make you guys rich. start a website with video lessons. monthly access 12 bucks. members post pics and get to watch all the videos. you shooting in the field, how to handle scenes. how to edit etc. after 6 months of membership have a perk where you critique 5 photos or something like that. my man matt is helping people learn to draw this way http://www.drawing-tutorials-online.com/public/main.cfm i’ve had a bottle of wine but i think the ideas sound. the key is marketing, youtube, flickr, all those sites where people flock too already. as appreciation for your genius i will add your blog site to my email and all my posts in all the forums i frequent.
Thanks, Kalani – but shhh – keep the ideas a secret or everyone will be doing this – ha ha! Actually, the ideas are great and I’m working on some of those very ones as we speak, just need more time in a day/week/month to get it all finished!