Spoiler Alert!  In my 'Exposed' series of articles I reveal some of the secrets behind how I created my images.  If you don't want to know how I made 'Solar Flare' stop reading now!

I always like to keep a selection of the images I take from a photo shoot. Firstly, I’ll choose the ‘best one’ which I’ll ultimately spend time on crafting and finessing into the final abstract or triptych.

Secondly, I’ll keep a set of images which are similar to the one I chose, just to give me more scope and flexibility if I want to explore making a triptych from multiple sources.

Finally, I’ll keep some totally ‘miscellaneous’ shots – ones which bear no resemblance to what I’ve actually chosen to work on, but which I think may have some potential down the line, even if I can’t envisage an immediate future for them.

‘Solar Flare’ originates from one of these random, miscellaneous images.

Just Like a Magpie!

Maybe I’m a bit like a bird which is attracted to shiny objects! I do tend to go searching for things and places which have interesting and eye-catching reflective surfaces.

The inside of my clothes dryer is one such location.

On this particular photo shoot, I was mostly concentrating on capturing the peculiar patterns and fantastical reflections in the curving stainless steel. Almost all of the shots were static, like the one below.

In fact, this image became the source image for the triptych ‘Deus Ex Machina’. Nearing the end of the shoot I figured I probably had enough of these static images to play with, so decided to finish off with a few flourishes. I set a slightly slower shutter speed and began moving the camera in large circular gestures, just to see what would happen and to satisfy my curiosity.

Upon reviewing the images, most of my “let’s see what happens when I go rogue in a clothes dryer” shots were pretty dire! However, one stood out and I decided to keep it for a rainy day.

Hot Stuff

Several months went by before I took another look and really began to think about what I could do with this shot. I really enjoyed the sense of motion and turbulence, and I imagined an inherent radiance and glow.

Wanting to intensify this feeling, I decided to warm up the colours even more.

Now I was visualising a massive sun with its huge molten tendrils outstretched into the vastness of space.

Experimenting with orientation, I rotated the image 180 degrees to see if I could mimic the sun even more.

While I preferred this orientation, I still felt I could do more, so decided to make the vertical triptych cuts. As they stood, the triptych format wasn’t adding anything to the image. Further tweaking was required…

After much playing and careful evaluation, this is the final arrangement I decided upon. All of the panels have been moved and/or rotated to provide an even greater sense of giant flares being hurled out into space. The central core of the sun is also now situated more in the middle of the triptych to establish balance.

I’m very thankful I kept this shot. It wasn’t one in the original photo shoot which I was particularly ‘serious’ about, but rather, on a whim I tossed it in at the end of a more systematic process and application. It’s shown me the value of keeping an open mind for all of my images and not to discount anything because it wasn’t part of a particular, planned approach.

Sometimes it’s best think tangentally and go wild in a clothes dryer!

Jane Trotter is an abstract photographer living in Dunedin, New Zealand. Reimagining everyday objects found around the home, Jane transforms them into colourful and dramatic pieces of contemporary art. Her Fine Art Prints are available in sizes A4 to A1.

Spoiler Alert!  In my 'Exposed' series of articles I reveal some of the secrets behind how I created my images.  If you don't want to know how I made 'Back in the Fold' stop reading now!

With today’s abundance of technology and amazing gadgets, it’s easy to forget about the humble piece of paper! Despite having a cell phone, I still use a good, old-fashioned diary to write down all of my daily tasks and appointments; I still write little reminder notes to myself and leave them on the kitchen table if there’s a small, miscellaneous thing I need to do. Thank goodness we don’t yet live in a paperless society – if we did, I’d never have had the pleasure of creating ‘Back in the Fold’.

Ever Versatile Card and Paper

Anything and everything are fair game for my photography and pieces of card and paper are no exception.

This multi-coloured paper was originally wrapped around some beautiful flowers which my husband bought for me. Once the flowers were spent, I kept the paper, thinking it might come in handy for a photo shoot one day. What attracted me the most was the interplay of green and pink – I liked how the colours complemented each other.

This must have been stewing in my subconscious for a while because after a few weeks I remembered I had some green card which was the same colour as the green side of the paper. I grabbed it and decided I would combine this with the paper’s pink side. Now, having two flat pieces of card and paper is not very exciting. So, I got creative, cutting and folding sections of the card to make it more three-dimensional.

So far so good. Taking advantage of a beautiful sunny and windless day, I ventured outside and placed my props on top of our picnic table. Of course, shadows now came into play with the bright sunlight. That was perfect. I had great fun experimenting by placing the card on subtly different angles to see what effect that would have with the shadow lines.

After reviewing my images from the shoot, I finally selected this one. With a few tweaks to improve the colours and contrast, the final version became ‘Runaway Construction’.

A Triptych Touch

For a few years, that’s how the image remained. But I can’t resist keeping my triptych fingers off my images for long. With its strong geometric shapes and interplay of lines, ‘Runaway Construction’ fitted the bill perfectly for some additional triptych tinkering.

The first crop was pretty straightforward. I’d need something solid for the bottom panel.

For the top panel I wanted to include as much of the intricate shadow effects as possible.

As it turned out, there was a degree of overlap within the panels. I’m definitely not averse to doing this if it’s employed for sound compositional reasons.

However, two panels do not a triptych make! There was really only one viable choice – to create a mirror image of the top section using a ‘T cut’ construction.

I must confess, I was a little dubious as to whether this would work as there was the potential for the triptych to be unbalanced. There’d be nothing supporting the bottom of the top right panel. However, when I saw the final result, I was thrilled. With daredevil, gravity-defying poise and balance, the whole image seems to remain ‘standing’. To this day, I haven’t been able to work out why! But sometimes, a little mystery in life’s a good thing…

‘Back in the Fold’ is not my only triptych using paper as the source material. If you’d like to see another example, please visit ‘Exposed #8’ on ‘Astral Plane and ‘Mystique’.

Jane Trotter is an abstract photographer living in Dunedin, New Zealand. Reimagining everyday objects found around the home, Jane transforms them into colourful and dramatic pieces of contemporary art. Her Fine Art Prints are available in sizes A4 to A1.