Abstract

[Mike Buckley]

Anyone wanna guess what the subject is? (Not that it matters; that's the beauty of abstracts.)

[NorthernFocus]

Not a clue

[Wavelength]

A piece of cactus in a kaleidoscope?
Nice indeed

[ShaneS]

I'm going to go with ice on some sort of garden trellis/fence but I can't figure out how you would get that into your studio???? I'm trying to get two for two here so I hope I'm close

[Rita]

I'm guessing pieces of fabric sewn together. But in reality I really haven't a clue.

[Stagecoach]

It's a macro shot of a piece of fabric from the dress of a rather old Christmas tree fairy

[Wavelength]

or a leather bag

[Bobobird]

Cool shot.

Will go with "does it matter?"

[steve norris]

Stunningly simple whatever it is - thanks for posting it.

This is one of mine ........

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks to everyone for your interest!

Will go with "does it matter?"

That's actually my choice, as implied in my first post.

Rita's guess that it is pieces of fabric sewn together is the closest in the sense that this is bubble wrap. The purple areas are the pieces of plastic holding the bubbles together.

Not that anyone is keeping track, but Shane has now gone from batting 1.000 to batting .500.

I photographed the clear plastic exactly as I photograph clear glass using a black background.

I'm glad to see that some people felt this is a macro shot, as I also believe it exhibits those characteristics. One of the nice characteristics of an abstract is that we often have no idea what size the subject is, so apparently that's true in this case. The bubbles (the black circles in the photo) are 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) in diameter. This photo was taken using a 35mm lens mounted on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor.

The photo began as a total failure. That's because I had imagined lots of colorful prismatic diffraction created by the wrinkles in the plastic. Unfortunately, apparently plastic or at least this kind of plastic doesn't cause that diffraction. The image didn't work for me in color (which was almost nearly black-and-white) or in a black-and-white conversion, so I changed the color balance. For whatever reason, adding the dimension of strong color brought out the detail and interest for me.

Ironically, this bubble wrap came in a box from B&H containing some equipment that I ordered for my makeshift studio. Three items in the box costing a total of only $55 were used to make this photo and will save me countless hours of time and frustration in the future. I wish I had looked for them over a year ago.

[FrankMi]

Fascinating, but OK Mike, now I am puzzled. How did you keep the bubbles from being popped long enough to get the image? If there is one thing that can change a perfectly sane, mature adult into a child, it's bubble wrap!

[Mike Buckley]

You apparently know me better than you think, Frank. When I was about 5 or 6 years old, all of our sofas and chairs were made of plastic because they were inexpensive and practical. When I was on the sofa using a sharp pencil, I accidentally poked a hole in it. It made such a fascinating noise that I couldn't stop doing it. I felt awful about poking holes in the sofa but just loved the sound.

Similarly, I had all this bubble wrap lying on the floor yesterday and accidentally stepped on it as I was getting out of my chair. The bubbles are so large that they made the biggest (best) sound I have ever heard from bubble wrap. The loud bang actually scared my wife. Believe me when I say I was tempted to pop a lot more bubbles and didn't only because the desire to photograph them was even more compelling.

I'll be happy to send some of it to you once I'm done.

[ShaneS]

Not that anyone is keeping track, but Shane has now gone from batting 1.000 to batting .500.

Darn! This one had me puzzled but the fact that no one else guessed the subject matter makes me feel just a bit better

It is a very interesting abstract Mike - keep the guessing games coming I need to work on my average.