Ocean And Sky #13677

The Story

This colorful abstract art is a combination of both liquid and solid, photographed outside on a sunny day in micro. You’re looking through the liquid part which is cooking oil and water in a clear glass baking pan. Sitting in the hot direct sun, the pan was elevated a few inches, and underneath lies the solid part: an old blue and white shirt that was slid under.

You can try a number of colorful or patterned things to use to make an abstract this way. Gift wrapping paper, a paisley pattern, a polychrome blouse, the sky’s the limit! However, not everything works well. There’s a lot of hit or miss to making this little bit of photographic wildness, and it’s mostly miss.

Wet, vibrant, and vivid, this picture in blue and white was one of the more satisfying abstract experiments done that day. Another abstract favorite came out well too, the companion photograph called Today’s Forecast #13054 in blue and yellow.

Why the title Ocean And Sky? Blue for the ocean meeting the white of the sky, despite the picture being orientated horizontally. Abstract art is like instrumental music…you can call it anything you’d like!

Shooting Abstract Photography At A Distance

A little behind the scenes stuff here. I used an old spy lens, a 55mm Nikon designed and made in the 1960s to photograph documents for microfilm. There really are no digital tricks to this picture, but it was taken in one go using a modern digital camera. You could shoot it on film if you liked. Of course, a lowered down tripod and ball head were used.

The picture was made outside in the bright sun using a 45-foot tether cable connecting the camera to the computer back inside. I’d shoot a series then check the progress on the computer screen, back and forth. It was a little painstaking and slow, not to mention more than a little footwork. But it was the best way to adjust the progress and see if the experiments were making something artful.

And I should mention it was plenty of fun to do!

Location: the home studio in Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania. Picture and text © Andrew Dierks