Weekly Abstract and Experimental Thread #22 (8-19-2025)

The weekly Abstract and Experimental thread
This weekly thread, starting on a Tuesday, allows us to showcase our abstract and experimental photos and get some feedback.
Opening up discussions, not only on content, style, composition & techniques, but also on the creativity of the image.

It’s easy to participate
Post an image with a title and description. To make it easier to view in the forum, all comments should include the original title and at least one of the original images as a quote.

Thread Guidelines:
This weekly thread is for sharing and developing abstract and experimental photography skills.
We want to see wild, creative photography.
Give your entry a clear title and mention the technique used.
Provide constructive feedback on others’ images.
Try to go beyond simple praise or dismissal and explain why you like it, or what caught your eye.
”Likes” are encouraged too.
Negative feedback and suggestions are also OK (be polite, honest, and constructive).
Giving feedback is just as important as receiving feedback, both help to improve our artistic and technical skills.

What is an abstract or experimental photo?
Different ways to see and investigate the world around us. Abstract photography reduces a subject to shapes, tones or colors making it unrecognizable. Abstract subjects are everywhere.

Experimentation might include, Stereo/3D, Infrared, dragged shutter, zone plate, motion, fluorescence, multiple exposure, birefringence, ultra violet, optical including adapted lenses, tri color, fractals, manipulated Polaroids, pinhole, Kirlian (bioelectrography) and many other methods. Experimentation can be for artistic expression or pure science. It is often more difficult than standard types of photography. This is fine, we aren't expecting perfection. Every experiment enhances knowledge. Your idea can help others explore the universe around them. We love experimentation. You can explain your process or keep it a secret.

This will be a looser collection of photos compared to other weekly threads. This is good. It will be a place to get away from standard animals, babies & sunset photos. We don't hate animals, babies or sunsets. Show us your creative abstract and experimental images. Don't worry, if you are unsure, if the image fits the category. Just post it. This is supposed to be fun.

Thanks for looking and participating,
barondla

This is a photo taken by UV light. All visible and infrared light was removed with a special filter stack. UV light is only 3% of total daylight. So, exposures are long. This was taken with a Kolari Vision full spectrum modified Pentax K-1. Most lenses are bad for UV transmission. Multicoatings, thick glass elements, and large numbers of elements cause problems. Nikon and Pentax have made special UV lenses with quartz elements. They are $5k up used. Many people use enlarging lenses. This was taken with a Vivitar 105 enlarging lens.

This photo was posted 2 years ago in the "anyone shooting UV?" thread.
If you have any other questions ask away.
thanks for looking and participating,
barondla

An experimental abstract of a clear beachball with stripes, being kicked towards me by grandson on a balcony. Slow shutter and a little lens zoom. Varying the shutter speeds and zoom yielded a batch of interesting images.

Golden hour sandfly swarm

Birefringence

"Epsomite crystals are birefringent because they crystallize in the orthorhombic crystal system, which is optically anisotropic and exhibits double refraction. Birefringence occurs when polarized light passes through the crystal, splitting into two rays traveling at different speeds and angles."
"The test is usually done by placing the sample between two polarizers with a light source on the far side. The polarizer (photo filter) nearest the light is called "the polarizer" because it polarizes the light source. The polarizer after the sample is called the analyzer because it measures how the sample changed the polarization."
"The basic idea is that if you cross two polarizers no light will get through. However, stress in the sample produces birefringence (retardation) by the stress-optic effect."(Mike Albert/researchgate)

The color effect is quite reduced in the case of epsomite, so I applied a color and saturation enhancement technique to highlight the phenomenon for those interested.

Very creative. The stripes really pop out. Love the sense of movement. Image brings the fun.
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

Your sandfly abstract is a great idea. The golden hour light is fantastic and adds a lot to the picture.
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

Superb birefringence image. I've seen this with plastic, but didn't know it also appears in crystal. Your enhancement technique reveals amazing colors.
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

Starry night

Yes, an interesting shot.
Birefringence is one of the features of a standard petrological microscope. Rocks are prepared as thin sections of a standard 30 micron thickness, glued onto glass slides, and viewed with polarised light. When the analyser is slotted in, the birefrigence colours fall within a certain range depending on the particular minerals in question and so is used as an identification characteristic. As I remember, all rock forming minerals (except totally opaque ones) exhibit birefringence to some degree.

Three-layer composite with a flying saucer thrown in:

Sigma SD1 Full Spectrum shot of our street, tending to the "Aerochrome" look:

I like the darker golden hue of this image. Nice variation between focused "stars" and out of focus. Gives variety and depth to the image. Excellent use of a large telephoto lens
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

Amazing rock can be cut into such thin pieces and then analyzed using birefringence and a microscope.
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

Cracking composite. The saucer is a nice and important addition. An excellent "what if" image.
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

Like the image and the technique. Very dramatic and it definitely grabs the viewers attention. Is this one of the Sigmas that can be used converted to full spectrum by removing the internal filter/dust guard? Did you use a filter on the lens to get the Aerochrome look and was any channel swapping required in post processing? Looking forward to more.
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

The preparation technique involves cutting a slice, maybe 3-5 mm thick with a bench top rock saw, then glueing it onto the glass slide, then grinding it down to the required thickness (usually judged I think by the birefringence colours of any quartz present). I've seen this demonstrated many years ago, but I never had to prepare my own slides. The polarised images of different rocks are amazing and hugely variable, and can tell us lots about the conditions of formation as well as just what minerals are present. Sadly I don't have any images of 'my own' rocks from all those years ago.

Never occured to me to grind the rock down to reach such thin specimens.
Thanks for the info,
barondla

Nice shot with gentle colours
You can see the frequency that they beat their wings quite well here.
This one, in the middle, looks like it made 3, more or less, complete beats within your exposure time of 1/200s
So that would be 600 beats a second (Hz) or 36000 rpm!
The mathematicians here can correct that, if I got it wrong :-)

Yes you got it right! (from a backyard mathematician 😉 - although technically rpm is revolutions...)

I noticed that in quite a few places and was nearly going to mention it in my OP. I guess it is relative to their size.

Of course if we woke up and saw the moon so close things would be somewhat chaotic. But I can't help thinking how cool it would be to see it so big in real life - gravitational effects would be off the charts though...