Simple Photography Tips - Look until you see

Five simple photography tips on Looking until you see - how to use for great Abstract photographs Camera and Phone-Camera

• Have a coffee and look, until the scenes unfold

• Let your eyes scan the scene

• don't forget the scenic background details

• Play with depth of field

• Be careful of unwanted light

  
  

In my previous simple photography tips© blog, I referred to writing one linked to the same place, and I quote from it: "So we sat and sipped, and looked at the scene, and we gradually noticed more and more things. There's a series of photographs for another blog, taken directly as a result of sitting, looking and seeing from the coffee guy's chairs".

Image One - It might not be a work of art (I'd slurped it already) but it tasted great

This is that blog.

So there we were, sitting sipping splendid coffee, my mind was on these blogs, and my strapline - "look until you see". So that's what I did, and here are some of the results.

Tucked in between the wall of the Església de Santa Maria la Major and the back of the market stand selling the sardines and pickles shown in the other blog, was a sort of stone seat. As you can see from Images Two and Three, the 'sort of' is quite right, it's a cover for some form of ventilation (perhaps the church crypt?), that doubles as a seat/bench.

Yes it's pretty boring, un-noticeable you might say, and indeed it took me a while before I saw it waving at me.

Image Two, ventilation cover cum seat

Image Three, ventilation cover cum seat

There's actually quite a lot you can do with it, the images here focus on the patterns in the limestone where it's been polished. There's the white calcite veining providing all sorts of patterns to enjoy experimenting with, the scratching from years of use, and the cracks in the surface.

One simple photographic tip© is to be aware of the way the light plays on the surface. Learn to use it to positive effect, and beware of the negative. I'd suggest that it doesn't benefit Image Seven, because the intense white is too much of a contrast to the rest of the image.

Image Four, ventilation cover cum seat, cum work of art

Image Five, ventilation cover cum seat, cum work of art

Image Six, ventilation cover cum seat, cum work of art

Image Seven, ventilation cover cum seat, cum work of art

Image Eight - ventilation cover cum seat, cum work of art

Now you will find that unless you give sufficient time to look and see, you will miss stuff. I was aware of time slipping by as we had another location to go to, and my wife would perhaps get bored with me photographing a bit of ventilation cover.

So I failed to see much of what was on offer. Image Eight, is a crop from one of the earlier images, and if you look long enough you'll see a number of different photographic opportunities.

A little exercise here for you; spend time looking at this image and seeing what you could do if you were there, how about getting in close and putting the broken corner onto an intersecting third, with the interest that comes from a smooth upper surface, and two textured.

This really is something to learn from, so much abstract opportunity for great photo-art. Apply it when you can.