Reply To: Please critque my photos.

[cameraclicker]

I think mostly what I’m going for with the pictures that I take is that I like taking photos of everyday objects and making them look interesting or not what they actually are. For instance, I like when people see my photos and ask “what’s that?”. Perhaps I didn’t upload the best photos to showcase that, but that is what I’m going for.  I am more drawn to abstract photos.

Spiral notebook, bottle dryer, metal table, bike chain, mesh, spaghetti and the drain all do that pretty well.

The macro world is full of shapes and things that are not immediately recognized due to their size when viewed through a macro lens.  You can get a similar effect with extension tubes but you have to have the lens even closer to your subject then.  Very short focal lengths of ultra wide angle lenses also offer some interesting effects and distortion at very close distances, though you have to watch live subjects.  I stuck a 16 mm lens in a 6 month old’s face on the weekend and she tried to grab it!  Dogs will stick their nose into a lens hood and get guck all over your lens if given a chance.

Enter “abstract” into the search engine on Flickr, you will get lots of interesting stuff to look at.  Lots look like someone went wild with magic markers, but some look like what you are doing.  Results might be better if you use  “abstract Canon” or “abstract Nikon” as the search string.