Sandscape 3

Sandscape 3

Playing with sand is nice, playing with sand and a camera is great, and playing with sand, a camera and editing software is even better... Now this pic is admittedly staged and overstyled. It looks like one of those polished eye candies from Instagram, and that's exactly where I put it. Overstyled or not, I enjoy exploring the realm of sand-photography, even if it means going over the top once in a while. The interplay of light, texture, erosion and color. In this case four little mollusks are featured, each with a unique color and perfectly spiraled shape. In time, they will be part of the sand they're floating on now, further enriching its diversity and depth of color... because that's one great myth about sand: that is monotone. It most definitely is not, as Dr Gary Greenberg beautifully reveals in his close up photography of sand.

Warp 5

Warp 5

Took and slightly manipulated this pic today in the completely soaked garden of Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden. Pebbles & Clouds would be an apt title, and it fits nicely into my "warped surroundings and reflections" series. Again, as I noted earlier, the central idea of these disorienting pictures is to fold dimensions, amalgamate elements, and achieve painting-like qualities from an otherwise ordinary scene. Or in other words, to transform a mostly unnoticed reflection into an otherworldly realm. To me, photography, or visual art for that matter, is not so much about technique or object.. it is about vision.

Sandscape 2

Sandscape 2

Another one in my sandscape series. Only a gradient to black was added to get more articulation. More to come...

Warped Duck

Warped Duck

Using very simple means, this pic shows just how easy it is to turn a simple photograph into an abstract painting-like reality. In fact, often it is playing around with natural images like this (a colorful and non suspecting duck floating quietly in a pond) that triggers a starting point for my paintings.. where is the tipping point toward abstraction? What makes an image move? What has become of the duck..?

Sandscape

Sandscape

Beach! Great artist's duo Water & Wind are never finished sculpting this work of sand art lining the edge of a continent. Who knows, I might do a little series of sandscapes... This one is slightly filtered to show more shine and shadow.

Make Sense?

Like I mentioned in my post Winter Warp some days ago, I am preparing a photo series around the idea of "warped surroundings and reflections". Of course, one aspect of the magic of photography is the freezing of time, another is the warping of space or folding of dimensions. What I am trying to achieve with a pic like this, is to draw the viewer into a somewhat omnipresent position... a viewpoint from which one does not specifically look AT something from a defined perspective, but where the viewing and the viewed become a singularity. Meaning, you are everywhere in this image, and the orientation of reality within the image changes according to what part you're looking at, and what dimensional interpretation your eyes are projecting on it. Make sense?

Winter Warp

Winter Warp

To continue the "winter theme" for a bit, this photo I took a while ago I call 'Winter Warp'. It's part of a new series I'm trying to develop around the idea of "warped surroundings and reflections"... using the power of perspective, folding a perfectly ordinary scene into a non-linear reality that appears to be more than 3D. Celebrating the freedom of disorientation and amalgamating wood, water and what have you into a painting-like structure where separation and distance are transcended.. More to come.