From time to time I enjoy photographing things at a magnified rate showing details that can often show a different view. The photo above is from a tropical hibiscus flower. I really like how colorful the photo is even though much of it is out of focus. That limited focus was intentional to show all of the hairs on each stigma which bring out interesting textures. The blurry background compliments these stigma providing some great contrasting colors brought out by the right lighting to highlight those colors. It can be a fun challenge to get a shot set up at this magnification determining what to focus on, how to compose the shot, and how to use existing lighting or add lighting in certain places. Once these are put together you can produce some interesting pictures.

While out enjoying a public garden I noticed this agave plant and was intrigued by the colorful margins outlining each leaf along with the sharp tip which produced a nice color gradient. Crouching down to find an interesting view to highlight these features I noticed something quickly scurry out of view. With a little patience, a spider slowly revealed itself among these sharp leaves. Clearly well protected. Once the spider was in sight I began snapping away, capturing the contrasting red leaf margins and the brown with green fuzzy spider among the nice green leaves of the agave. Sometimes there’s a nice bonus to add another element to a composition. In this case it changed what my focal subject was, making the agave secondary instead of the main subject. Being able to adapt to opportunities like this can be a positive thing and sometimes a distracting thing if you only have few moments to capture your subject with the perfect light.

Taking a stroll through some gardens revealed a mix of two colors of celosia. I liked the contrast of this red bloom surrounded by gold flowers and spent some time annoying others  as I blocked a nice portion of the path so I could find a composition to bring out these contrasting colors.

The photo below is of a kale leaf. I liked the texture of the ruffled edges along with the color of the leaf against the background. The background is actually a hibiscus flower which provided some great contrasting colors. The shadows created from having light coming from the side also create some interest for me. All of the characteristics cause me to want to explore the photo more. Paths created from all of the curves that are both in focus and out of focus in this leaf just ask to be visually followed up and down and to the right and left. There is no visible pattern to be found in the direction each turn takes.

These are considered abstract pictures for a reason. They can be interesting to one person while others find them distracting or lack enough to spend any time looking at. I enjoy looking at plants and other subjects from this perspective because I see things and learn about them in ways I would not have expected. Additionally, we don’t often seek out this level of detail which can be fascinating. Hopefully they are interesting and enjoyable to others as well.