When volunteering to make fliers for garden cub events, I realized that I needed *a lot* better understanding of design principles, color theory and computer techniques. I am a huge fan of the golden age of posters and of the artistic capacity to find patterns and to abstract images.
I discovered an interesting way to use digital photographs for the latter. It just involves zooming in and then capturing the zoomed image separately. What is revealed is quite interesting to the artistic eye and shows us the qualities used by impressionists, how lights and darks work to provide depth and which colors are coordinating in an image. I can see how someone could use these effects to do illustrations, wallpapers, posters and so on.
This is fun to do with a distance view or one crowded with varying plant materials because by zooming in and panning around in the picture, you may discover details that have gone unnoticed by the casual eye. Volunteering to do something out of your normal capabilities can open so many new venues for exploration!
Here are some yard photos from October that I played around with using the zoom mode.
Swamp sunflowers catching the sun. Reminds me of a water color effect:
Veins of a canna leaf.
Speckles of silverberries, like tiny hammer marks:
Abstracted sunrise through the ash tree:
Play of sun and shadow through an elephant ear:
Close up of an orange zinnia. Shadowed edges are like orange bordered outlines of the shape.
