Abstract Photography.

Hello World. 

It has been such a long time since I posted, I'm sorry about that. I seem to have lost my way for a while. I think that's all I wish to say about  it. However, here I am again and buzzing with new ideas for this AND the next post.

There is a brief introduction about Abstract Photography below, (from Wikipedia) Should anyone want to read more about the subject, the link below is to Wikipedia's page about it. I've tested it and it worked. If it doesn't work for you, just copy and paste it into your browser.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_photography

"Abstract photography, sometimes called non-objective, experimental or conceptual photography, is a means of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the object world and that has been created through the use of photographic equipment, processes or materials. An abstract photograph may isolate a fragment of a natural scene in order to remove its inherent context from the viewer, it may be purposely staged to create a seemingly unreal appearance from real objects, or it may involve the use of color, light, shadow, texture, shape and /or form to convey a feeling, sensation or impression. The image may be produced using traditional photographic equipment like a camera, darkroom or computer, or it may be created without using a camera by directly manipulating film, paper or other photographic media, including digital presentations."

My works below, variously fulfill all the criteria as stated above. As the concept of "abstract" in art and photography, inherently implies non objective images. I decided to to make no comments about the work, just add titles to them. To talk about, or describe them defeats the whole idea of non objectivity. You are all invited to make your own minds up as to what the images may be. I will just add, that these images are in alphabetical order. That way, even I had no choice in placing favorites in certain places, or grouping them in colour order. 

So here we go, stepping into the realms of the imagination. Have fun.

Astral Garden

Captive Orb

Curls

Dada Caterpillar

Dance

Dappled Blue

Drama

Found in a Field

Graphic Grey

Highway

Spain

Kanji

Living Light

Memories of Thailand

On The Beach

Orange Flash

Sleepy Afternoon

Rare Arran Haggis

Red To Yellow

Remnants

Reproductive Organs

Rosy Glow

Starry Night

The Thing From Beyond

You Never Said

I shall make an effort to put the next post up in good time.

Be kind to each other.

Art Photography.

Hello everyone, yet another late blog post, still, here I am.

This post is a mixture of black and white, partially coloured black and white and colour photos. It all fits loosely under the umbrella title of "Art Photography". I'm putting the black and white ones first. As always, if I don't  think an image needs any comment from me, or even a title, I will simply let the shot speak for itself.
Off we go then...

The first one is a photo of  the newly refurbished, Halifax Piece Hall. It dates from 1779, when it was built as a Cloth Hall for the trading of ‘pieces’ of cloth, (a 30 yard length of woven woollen fabric produced on a handloom). It has a lot of shops on the galleries with more to come, and a great number of events are planned for it. There is an entrance in the building to the new library, (very impressive) and it's adjacent to the Square Chapel Arts Centre, also Calderdale Industrial Museum. If anyone whats to learn more about the Piece Hall, or see what it looks like now follow the link below.

http://www.thepiecehall.co.uk/heritage

Halifax Piece Hall.

Balustrades, Peoples Park.

Peoples Park decorative urn.

The next five photos are from a disused dyeworks mill. I featured it here in a past post. 

  http://gordonartphotoand3dsci-fi.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/urban-exploration_19.html

Mill chimney from 

boilerhouse side.

Inside the mill.

Roof of boilerhouse.

Inside boilerhouse looking 

towards Old Lane.

Governor on a working 

steam traction engine.

York Arms (pub) Staircase, York.

Now for the colour shots. This is a very diverse collection of photos which appealed to me at the time and still do. The first is a Morris Dancer from the Sutton Masque border style Morris team, from Cambridgeshire. I took it at this year's Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing weekend. For more information on Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing, the link is below.

For some reason, the server can't find it by clicking the link. I've been to the site and it is there, just copy and paste it into your browser. 

http://www.rushbearing.com/  

Sutton Masque dancer.

Below is a wonderful cloudscape I took at Hunstanton in Norfolk. The light at the coast in Norfolk is wonderful. It's an artists and photographers paradise.

Hunstanton cloudscape.

I took the following photo on my phone a few days after I'd bought it. I was in Leeds, Yorkshire, when I saw this building. It has mirrored windows, so you are looking at a reflection of the building behind me as I took the shot. I thought it was a sensational but didn't have a camera, just my mobile. It was my first Smartphone, I didn't expect much from a phone camera (8MP in this case) but was very impressed with the result. 

The Bourse is an office and retail complex, it was sold for £8m to Paloma Real Estate Fund in 2016.

 

The Bourse, City of Leeds.

If you look very closely at most flowers, they are incredibly complex and beautiful. Quite a lot of the photographs I've taken of flowers, look like abstract art. The next two images are good examples of this.

Close-up of a nasturtium flower.

Centre of a begonia flower.

Below is a photo of a Ganoderma applanatum, or Artists Bracket fungi. It's a very common perennial bracket fungus. The underside is white and can be scratched with a sharp point to leave brown marks and so produce artistic images - hence the common name. It releases spores in their billions. The brown colour below it, is a dense brown dust of them. It's a very tough fungi, it you tap it, it sounds and feels like wood.

Ganoderma applanatum -

Artists Bracket fungi.

Canalside Tree.

Seedpods.

York Art Gallery entrance at night.

Walking round York one night, I spotted the shop window display below. It's quite surreal and far too good to miss taking a photo of.

Window Display. 

Or is this a Dragonfly?

Thanks for that Peter.

Soda bubbles in a plastic cup.

Rain drops on a Raft Spider's web.

Back to the dyehouse above for this next shot. I was inside the mill, looking back at the way I had climbed in.

Viewpoint.

Now for the final shot. Anne and I went to the Halifax Agricultural Show in August. it was very enjoyable, especially the showjumping sheep, which was fantastic. they were so well trained  and it was a LOT of fun.

As we were leaving, I spotted the two sheep below. It was another of those too good to miss photos. This photograph had to be either the opening of closing image. It's a nice finish to this post.

Ahhh...

I'm determined to get my next blog post mounted here in about 4 weeks. I already have an idea as to what it will contain. Well, until the next time, goodby.

Be kind to each other. 

Gordon.

Reflections of Towns.

Hello world.
It has been such a long time since I did a post that I feel guilty. Far too much for my comfort has been going on that kept me away from this blog. I have high hopes of doing a second post very soon after this one. Keep popping back.

In the last week of January this year, I passed a shop window that had a nice painting in it. It was a mass produced one but I thought it might be useful as inspiration. Looking at the photo I took on one of our computers at home, I realised I had unexpectedly taken a shot that was FAR better than I could have hoped for. (I'll point the photo out when we get to it in the blog). The following Sunday, on a grey, cold afternoon, I got the bus to Halifax for a photo shoot session based on that one shot, the week before. I was going to take photos of reflections in shop windows.

The results were so good that I decided make a book of the images. That book inspired me to go to Huddersfield town centre on a Sunday and take a set of reflections in windows there. I spent quite some time at Huddersfield University, taking photos of the reflections in their modern buildings and of the buildings themselves. It was a warm sunny day, very unusual for the time of year. Students were sat on the grass in the campus in small groups, talking or reading. In some ways, this set of photos were more striking that the Halifax ones. The images below are a mixture of Halifax and Huddersfield photos. I'm not going to say where each photo was taken. I'd rather let the images speak for themselves. I did nothing to these images except adjust the contrast and levels. Otherwise, they are just as I saw them.

So, are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.

The above image is the one which gave 

me the idea of taking photos of reflections.

That's the end of this post, I took over 8o photos on both shoots and used about 60 photos in each one. I have the ones for the Huddersfield ready to print, then I'll make a  book with them. I showed the Halifax book to a friend of ours, she loved it. Then she pointed out that it was possible to walk through the Halifax Building Society Complex and that they had left an old building standing. They have built a huge glass fronted unit round it. It's lit up all the time and seems to serve as a refreshment area for staff. The following Sunday, I spent a very happy hour taking photos of the complex. It will by the third book in my "Reflections" series.

If anyone is inspired to go and take photos of reflections, Sunday is the best day. It's always quiet on Sundays, you don't get the public taking a look at you, then at what you are taking shots of, then waking between you and it. Sometimes they even stand and look in the window. Grrrr! Be patient with them, they can't help it.

Summer is coming, it's time to dust off the cameras.
Gordon.