Abstract photos and some of the techniques I use to make them.

I like making unusual abstract photos. Some of the techniques I used for these were found in photography books and magazines, I am always looking for something new to try. Most people use their cameras to take photos of nice scenery or friends and family but it's worth looking for subjects that will make more unusual photos.

Water ripples make interesting abstract. I live near the sea, the best place is a harbour, where the gentle ripples reflect colours of boats. A telephoto lens is good to crop in tight on a small area. These photos show the colours you can get.

This one was taken on a pond in a park, the deep green colours are reflections from tree leaves

If you can't get to water outside, use a bowl of water inside. This is a green bowl filled with water and soap bubbles. I used manual focus to put the lens out of focus and this is what the reflections look like.

Another technique I like is moving the camera during the exposure. You need an exposure long enough to move the camera, so use a small aperture in a dark area, like the woods and experiment. For this one of trees in a forest, I started moving the camera down slowly and pressed the shutter, keeping the camera moving during the exposure.

For these two, I kept the camera still and zoomed the lens out during the exposure.

This is an ordinary photo of tree branches covered in snow against a blue sky. To make it look like this, I just inverted the colours.

Christmas lights can be used to make interesting colourful abstracts. I placed the lights on a black cloth on the ground in a dark room. I stood over the lights and moved the camera around during a 5 second exposure

This one was taken of a row of colourful Christmas street lights at night. I moved the camera slowly during a 1 second exposure.

This is a spinning saucepan lid. I span the lid as fast as I could on the floor and took the photo while it was spinning. The red colour was added later.

If you are on a boring car or train journey, point the cameras outside, keep it near the window to reduce reflections and take a long exposure. It really gives a good impression of speed.

Keep looking for unusual subjects. I found this in a burnt out fire and took the wood home to get a good close up photo.

This long grass looked a nice colour but it was a dull day, so I moved the camera during the exposure to get this effect.

Walking down the road, these amazing rainbow colours from an oil spill caught my attention.

I noticed this cobweb in my garden one morning. The photo looked a bit dull, so I put the lens out of focus and the water droplets looked more interesting. Inverting the colours makes it even more abstract.

Hope you like the photos and make some of your own. Keep looking for those unusual subjects that most people never notice.

To get some of these effects, like inverting colours and adding colour tints, I use Adobe photoshop elements but there are some good free programs, like Paint.NET that can also be used.