I warned you all earlier today that I was doing some experimentation in macro photography. What I may not have mentioned is that I was also playing a bit with abstracts. So, without further ado, here are my first couple of tries at this. While I’d love you all to be gentle, I’d actually appreciate the hard truth, so I can improve in this new endeavor. So far, I’m digging the opportunity to look a little differently at the world around me, so I’ll probably do more of this soon.
Excellent minimalist work!!!! other side of your talent.. 🙂
Hmmmm. Minimalism! Now THERE is another style of photography I’ve always wanted to try, Oscar, especially architectural type minimalism.
Dude, I actually cursed at you when I opened up this page. I know you’re looking for some hard critiques, but I really have nothing but good things to say about these images. I love the square crops and the abstract nature and colour of these shots is outstanding. If there is one thing I might change, it’s the depth of field in the last shot…could maybe use a couple millimetres more detail, but that’s just personal preference. Really well done, man. I’d love to see more like this.
I am so envious of these shots. I agree with Heath, and think the last shot could use a bit more dof, but love how these turned out. These make me want that Tamron 90mm even more now!
Hey, Chris. Thanks! That Tamron is a great lens, especially when you consider how inexpensive it is. I also love how much smaller and lighter it is than the Nokkor 105mm macro, which I had also owned, briefly, several years ago.
I absolutely LOVE these! Nothing more inspiring than being able to see the world from a unique perspective and depth of field. Thanks for sharing!
Hey guys! Thanks. I’ll have to try closing down the aperture a bit more to see if I like it with more depth. Good idea.
Jacques, my only critique is, “I hate you.” These are wonderful. I agree with Heath. A little more depth might be nice, but I think these would look great on 20×20 canvases.
Hey, Bob! Hmmmm? 20×20 canvases. I love that idea!! You just gave me a great idea for gifet I wanted to give my daughter, after she asked me for a photograph for her room of a sea turtle, her favorite animal. I also wonder how those might look in black and white, though I do love the color.
Both are great Jacques. Really like the tiny DOF and the single bold colour. Well worth continuing the series with other bold colours.
I’m with the group Jacques, these are amazing! The minimalist subject with the saturated colors is just beautiful. Actually, more dof and you might give too much away as to what the subject is. I like it narrow like this! Awesome!
Love it. I want to see more. Big departure from your oeuvre. My only suggestion is try pushing even further in abstraction. The yellow is more successful on a purly abstract level. Green is somewhat recognizable as a leaf. Both are very aesthetically beautiful.
I love the softness and the bokeh. Great work, Jacques !
I like the images, Jacques, but I don’t think you did it all with just the macro lens, I’d appreciate it if you would give us a run down of what you did in post processing.
Hi Wayne. Actually, what you see is pretty much what you get. I did very little in post-processing, other than to crop the image to a square format (I’m a freak for that format). They way I got this to look like it did waste set my macro lens (the fantastic Tamron 90mm SP AF f/2.8) macro to 1:1 (meaning that I would be able to shoot life-size) and slid the object in as close to my lens as needed to keep onlynthe very tip ofnthe object sharp. Keeping the aperture wide open, which at 1:1 is, sadly, on f/5.6, and shot my brackets. While I did not need HDR for this shot, I ended up masking some parts of the HDR in to the average exposure bracket to darken select parts of the green plant. Next time I do this, I’ll snap an image of the camera in position, with a shot of the D700 viewfinder in live-view mode, so you get an idea of what this looks like. Hope that helps.
Thanks, Jacques. Maybe I need to follow your lead, and just start practicing with my macro lens. Looking forward to seeing your next work.
You’re showing us a totally different side of your photographic character here, Jacques. These are fabulous! I like abstracts and these two are wonderful examples.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Scott Wood and Chris Nitz, Heath O'Fee. Heath O'Fee said: Check out some amazing abstract macro work from my man @fotofreq http://bit.ly/gmVCG7 Jacques is an extremely versatile photographer. […]
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