Fresh Ground Photography

Getting Abstract

Living in lockdown has meant that I haven’t been able to get out and use my camera in the same ways that I was doing a few months ago. That’s not to say that I haven’t been taking photographs.

Spring is here and the trees are coming into leaf. The new growth has a beautiful translucent green … so I decided to take some photographs based on colour rather than just a subject and its background.

I knew that I’d be isolating for a number of weeks so I packed two lenses (50mm and a 300mm) and my laptop and hunkered down. I’m lucky in that I’m weathering the lockdown restrictions in a lovely wooded valley. I fitted the telephoto lens to my SLR and sat outside in the afternoon sunshine.

I wanted to get shades of green rather than specific images but I’m just not sure how successful I’ve been. I’m quite happy with the results although I’m not entirely satisfied. However, it has been refreshing to concentrate on a different aspect of photography.

The main part of my uncertainty is how much should I have focused. Should I have blurred the images on purpose? Should I have used an effect in Photoshop or Lightroom to make the images less distinct? I’m not sure. My concern is that the final images could be too sludgy and indistinct.

This is a topic that I’d like to return to. On reflection, when I attempt this again (and I will) I will make sure that I choose subjects that have a strong definition, a greater contrast, to their surroundings. And maybe I should defocus the camera … to record the simple blocks of colour rather than the textures of structures.

We shall see.

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