By Scott Shephard
To be "real" and "abstract" at the same time seems like a contradiction. But I think you are looking at an example. This flowering plant, which I photographed at Indian Canyons in southern California, is certainly real. What creates the abstraction has something to do with my use of focus and point of view and much to do with the fact that I've turned the photo into black and white.
I guess I like the ambiguity of the image. If I'm lucky, the ambiguity requires the viewer to impose meaning based on his or her own perceptions and experience. It's like life itself.
Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/4.0 ISO250 102mm
(For those who need something less ambiguous, I offer two other views of this plant.)
