Tag: impressionism

A Saturday Abstraction

Explore the concept of abstraction in photography and how it transforms our perception of natural beauty in its capture of mood.

In photography, we all tend to lean toward the representation of something we see in the world around us. In some way, many of us may be impatient painters of the scene or landscape that we enjoy seeing. Even though I enjoy taking a slightly different look at my environment, the same holds true for the vast majority of my work. That said, there are lots of moments when I see something not quit so representational.

Here’s one such moment…

Oxbow Impression of Autumn

This image from the autumn season of 2017 is certainly representational in one aspect. After all, it is a reflection of the mix of colors in the foliage in the rippled water of the Nashua river. At the same time, it gives a sense of impressionism in that it invites us to not look for the sharp detail, but rather the mood that we encounter in the colors and textures. Not quite as abstract as I’ve gone in some of my photography, but maybe a little bit and enough for this Saturday?

Impression of a Boat

The joy of photography lies in spontaneous discoveries. The author shares an experience capturing a boat’s reflection during a Bar Harbor evening walk, emphasizing the importance of different perspectives. They used a long exposure technique to create an impressionistic image, resulting in a striking visual while adjusting for exposure highlights.

Some of the fun about photography for me lies in those moments of discovery; something you notice out of the corner of your eye, as you’re walking past it. Over the years, I have developed a habit of not just looking ahead for those epic landscapes that appear in front of us, but also exploring all 360 degrees and what might be visible both high and low.

Changing our perspective might include getting to a different vantage point to get a new view that has not been captured by every other photographer. Today is one of those moments…

Impression of a Boat

This shot came about during an evening walkabout after dinner along the waterfront of Bar Harbor. There was an epic sunset coming up ahead of us, which was sure to present a wonderful shot opportunity. As we’re walking I noticed this reflection with a slight bit of motion in the water due to a very light breeze.

What this scene asked from me was a bit of an impressionist interpretation, so I went for a long exposure of 0.6 seconds while holding the camera as still as I could; it took a couple of attempts, but this was the result. The image needed a bit of exposure adjustment to reduce the impact of the white highlights and very little else.

Impression of a Boat

As I’m going through the images from last year’s photography trip to Acadia National Park and surroundings, it’s fun to see some of the moments that were captured away from the main events of the trip. Yes, there was lots of stunning scenery, cute animals and grand vistas, but that shouldn’t take away from those times when the eye catches a slightly different moment.

The moment shared here was from when we wandered around the docks of Bar Harbor in preparation of capturing the amazing sunset that presented itself there. Out of the corner of my left eye, I noticed this reflection of a boat that had lots of interesting light on it.

Impression of a Boat

The first thing you may notice is that the image is not tack-sharp, which is what we often look for in our photography. That was my intent, as I wanted to soften the image in camera to get an effect of becoming an impressionist image. I shot this with the Canon EOS R5 using a Canon RF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens at 0.6s, F7.1 at 125 ISO; there was a lot of light there, which is why I dropped the ISO and the longer exposure allowed the rippling of the water to have this effect.

Processing was done in Luminar Neo to add a bit of warmth with the Instant Result preset and followed up by work in Photoshop to reduce the impact of the brighter white part of the reflection near the top of the image.