Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Photo Challenge: Challenger’s Choice (Abstraction)

22 September 2014

Lens:

1. Sky, iPhone 4s; Copyright © 2014 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved/Lens and Pens by Sally

2. Architectural Abstraction, iPhone 4s; Copyright © 2014 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved/Lens and Pens by Sally

3. Architectural Abstraction, iPhone 4s; Copyright © 2014 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved/Lens and Pens by Sally

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

Lately, nature has begun religiously to appear in my mind’s continuous slide show of abstractions. Mother Nature has become so much more than the sum of her parts.

We’re usually on the watch for the lilt of a songbird, bursts of colors from spring flowers, the beauty of winter’s bare trees, a moon’s performance, the foggy morning glaze. Or pan a garden for the flower that has bloomed, is budded or spent. Certainly, all of those slices of nature steal my attention. We tend to envision the natural world in its totality.

Since I’ve observed Mother Nature for all of my adult life, my attention is focused to scout for connections that provide alternatives to appreciate being among and with her. This journey allows me to notice combinations of variables that force discovery–discovery of tiny or larger epiphanies that attach themselves to a more discerning eye.

Because of this predilection, I’m spying more and more abstractions that lead to a different kind of love for the natural world. Usually, humans are resistant to the non-objective, non-representational. We like what we know, can explain, can understand. It’s not surprising that it took a VERY long time for Abstract Expressionism (at its height 1950s-1970s) to be accepted for its brilliant statement about art, creativity, life, and self-expression.

These notions were swirling through the synapses as I thought about the architectural abstractions that I uploaded in the Lens section. Recently, on a visit to Longwood Gardens I had both my iPhone 4s and Nikon DSLR. On photo shoots I am armed with both “cameras.” The two images below were too far away to capture with my iPhone.

I was struck by the designs and whimsy of the stone wall as it interacted with the nearby foliage. But it was the confluence of greens, grey blacks and tans reflected by the morning light that lured my eye.

Leaves and Stone, Nikon DSLR; Copyright © 2014 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved/Lens and Pens by Sally

Leaves and Stone, Nikon DSLR; Copyright © 2014 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved/Lens and Pens by Sally

While architectural human-made shapes (often sharp angled and edged lines of geometric forms) and nature-made ones (less structured, more amebic and amorphous) are usually quite different in aesthetic and practical designs. Historically, humans mimic nature all the time, but it’s never a task that is ever truly accomplished. I began to consider the commonality of our mutual ability to create the non-representational, the abstract.

In the course of everyday human nature and Mother nature are on a journey to interweave their sensibilities. Sometimes it is not simpatico. Sometimes it’s plain ludicrous. Knowing our role in the planet’s ills, I dream that we can live side-by-side in interdependence.

I am deeply concerned about the increase in tension that continues to build between human destruction of the natural environment and its effects upon our visual space and therefore our souls. In my lofty ideals these abstractions are symbolic to me; they show that the intersection of nature and human nature can find a path of least resistance.

Tip of the Day: The headline in Sunday’s New York Times read “At Climate Change March in New York, A Clarion Call for Action” (by Lisa W. Foderaro). See full article here. Oh, how I wanted to join the march, which is vital as a tool to answer and raise questions as well as provide the story as we know it. This People’s Climate March is probably the most important demonstrations on behalf of Mother Earth that has occurred in recent years.

The article explains, “The U.N. summit meeting this week is expected to create a framework for a potential global agreement on emissions late next year in Paris. The timing of the march was also significant in another regard. Last week, meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that this summer — the months of June, July and August — was the hottest on record for the globe, and that 2014 was on track to break the record for the hottest year, set in 2010. ‘Climate change is no longer an environmental issue; it’s an everybody issue,’ Sam Barratt, a campaign director for the online advocacy group Avaaz, which helped plan the march, said on Friday. ‘The number of natural disasters has increased and the science is so much more clear,’ he added. ‘This march has many messages, but the one that we’re seeing and hearing is the call for a renewable revolution.'”

This week’s attention to the global crisis is a critical step in the right direction, especially giving the community at large a voice. Hope that you will read the article.

View other entries to this week’s Challenger’s Choice:

http://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-photo-challenge-challengers-choice-animals/

http://streetsofsfphotos.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/blue-fog-3-photos/

http://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-photo-challenge-challengers-choice-street-photography/

http://irisgreenwald.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-photo-challenge-challengers-choice-abstraction/

http://amaltaas.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-photo-challenge-challengers-choice-abstractionbirds-and-sunrise/

http://patchworkponderings.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/phoneography-challengers-choice-night-photography/

http://completelydisappear.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/unnamed-art/

http://firebonnet.com/2014/09/22/phoneography-portrait-of-a-pixie/

http://ohmsweetohm.me/2014/09/22/architectural-abstraction/

http://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/phoneography-portrait-of-this-magic-moment/

http://decocraftsdigicrafts.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/phoneography-and-non-slr-challenge-abstraction/

http://austindetails.me/2014/09/22/seaglass/

http://nwframeofmind.com/2014/09/22/iphoneography-monday-9-22-14/

http://blogagaini.com/2014/09/23/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-photo-challenge/

http://artifactsandfictions.com/2014/09/23/light-and-dark-at-the-equinox/

http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-photo-your-choice/

http://allkindsaeverything.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/phoneography-and-non-slr-challenge-abstraction-2/

http://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/enjoying-new-zealands-small-town-architecture/

Note:

If you’d like to join the Photo Challenge, please click here for details. If you have any questions, please contact me. Below is a reminder of the monthly schedule with themes for upcoming Photo Challenges:

1st Monday: Nature.

2nd Monday: Macro.

3rd Monday: Black and White.

4th Monday Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Animals, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Objects, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

5th Monday: Editing and Processing with Various Apps Using Themes from the Fourth Week.

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