New Adventures In Abstract - Colours In Water & Oil

Guwahati

Doing the photos of the Pine Needles for “ A Matter Of Perspective II ” got me thinking about doing abstracts. This concept is completely the opposite to wildlife in so many ways and is such a new way of looking at photography for someone who has been photographing wildlife. We chase subjects when doing wildlife photography well, abstract works with not having any. It’s a total flip conceptually and hence super intriguing all right. What I find most interesting about these kinds of images is how my mind keeps looking for the familiarity of an identifiable subject or protagonist when confronted with abstract images and since there are none, my mind inadvertently attaches relatable attributes to elements that my eyes see as possibilities for the identification. It’s like how you see familiar shapes in clouds when you stare at the sky for too long. Is it the image or my mind? It’s the mind trying to make sence. Seeing the colour orange triggers the thought of the fruit although there’s none around. With no other reference points for identification, that’s where the ball settles and it’s ridiculously fun. An abstract image can weave a totally different story for every observer and I think that I may have just found a new rabbit hole to venture into with the short lens. Guess we’ll have to see where this goes.

I went with Liquids to make these images. It was a whole new definition to the concept of making images for me cause I literally had to get the ingredients together in a little pot which would be the scene instead of transporting myself to a possible scene. The target was to watch and photograph the liquids as they mixed. I used food dyes, water and oil in a baking dish which had a leaf underneath it as the background while the perspectives were captured from up top. I let the leaf dry out over the days that I did these to provide for a changing background and I think that it was a huge help in bringing a little variety to the images. I was also pretty careful in picking relatable colours that would provide for fun reference points for my mind when looking at the final products. The colourfull food dyes aren’t equally thick unless you mix em together and the colours have a tendency to slide under each other slowly in the beginning and this makes for different layers of translucent colour mixing and blending together slowly. It’s a game of layers where the oil sits on top and forms interesting translucent bubbles. Under the oil, the colours blend and mix slowly forming interesting shapes and forms. These where photographed out in the sun and as with all photography, light and shadow influenced the outcome on the perspective. The trick here was to learn to keep my shadows away from the scene as much as possible and try to capture the best lit clear bits of the scene or introduce shadow as an effect which was totally a new thing for me.

I had to do these at small F numbers as I don’t own a tripod yet but the process I think finally opened up the thought of getting one and experimenting with longer exposures on differently lit scenes like these. I used a glass bowl which could have been lit from the bottom and longer exposures would surely bring interesting changes to the perspectives. Not using the leaf and having the background a lot lower is also an interesting option which would allow for interesting highlight play. Wildlife doesn’t require many of these tools and techniques but then I did get the shorter lens to experiment with after all. There are a few more ideas that I need to run through first before making investments though. Oh I can feel the Gear Acquisition Syndrome coming on already. Damn it !

Abstracts are the unifying genre in imagery if you think about it. Abstract images could be a part of anything from landscapes to wildlife and even astrophotography. Many accepted standards like structure and sharpness lose their importance with abstracts. This genre gives the creator a lot more freedom with exposure, saturation and colour detail. Despite all of this playroom though, it’s not easy to find candidates for abstract images. You have to visualize something in your head and get led by that thought to construct the image intentionally. Shooting random stuff and calling it abstract doesn’t work cause the intent shows very clearly. To me, the thing with abstract images is that they make you think almost instantly. It’s the play on the almost recognizable shapes and forms which almost are but yet aren’t. It’s the abstract image’s ability to make the viewers brain ponder on what’s shown that makes these images unique. Just blurring random stuff out of an image won’t necessarily have that result. 

These images kinda take me back to the days of discovering psycadelic music. Those were good times when I was starting to figure out the guitar. There was a reason Pink Floyd and then Tool were such good live acts. The use of this kind of imagery worked well with their music and live sets. That music ( not just lyrics ) has surprises and needs personal interpretation. There was a time when lava lamps were a common thing for the same reason. I still own two although seldom plugged in anymore to be honest. Screen savers came along at some point and kinda made the whole thing generic, unimaginative and predictable  but thought out abstract works cause it tingles the brain and grabs your attention in it’s original way. Nature doesn’t follow predictable math like the algorithm of the generic, pseudo abstract stuff on cheap screen savers that ruined the party of abstract imagery. Nature accommodates for off tempos and off elements which are the little surprises at the actual heart of abstract imagery and sound. Well, I’ve taken my first steps down a rabbit hole it seems and after a very long time. Let’s see where it’s headed.