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 'Cascade' stop reading now!

I always like to challenge myself in my photography. Especially with triptychs, it can be extremely difficult disassembling an image and then reassembling it back together with a completely new concept and vision.

Constructing ‘Cascade’ (and I really do mean ‘constructing’ as it felt like a building project at times) really kicked my creative juices into overdrive!

Paper Trails

I’d been playing with paper in a previous photo shoot – check out the Exposed on ‘Astral Plane’ and ‘Mystique’ – and decided to revisit my colourful selection to see if I could come up with something slightly different. In ‘Astral Plane’ and ‘Mystique’ I’d used a slow, circular motion with the camera, generating very smooth and flowing shapes.

Now I wanted to highlight the more angular and jagged edges of the paper, so moved my camera in a more linear and jerky style.

This is the original, source image for ‘Cascade’. I’d managed to capture a really zigzag, geometric feel and achieved what I was after. However, only the right two thirds of the image were usable (the far left was pretty indistinct and didn’t contain much interest).

Not to be deterred by this limiting factor, I set about deciding how I was going to crop the image to construct my triptych. In the end, I kept the crops pretty straightforward, conservative even. They all ended up being vertical cuts of varying lengths and all in the same area of the photo.

Putting it all Together

What do I do next? I sat at the computer looking at these for a long time. Sometimes I just need a bit of time and space to truly absorb what I’m seeing and allow my subconscious to take hold of and embrace the connections.

The more I looked, the more I started to imagine a series of steps cascading downwards. The challenge then became how to position and orientate the panels so that I could maximise their descent.

I put my construction hat on and got to work. The series of images below present how I put it all together. You can see I only kept one panel in its original orientation and rotated and flipped the other two.

My triptych staircase finally took shape. I thoroughly enjoyed assembling the panels, although I must confess to a degree of bewilderment and indecision at the outset. Ultimately, I’d solved my construction conundrum and could happily cast my eyes up and down my zany, abstract staircase.

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 '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.