My special technique for the ‘Seeing Beyond’ portfolio

I am very excited about my new technique of taking images, the result of which reminds me of Mandalas.  The technique grew out of the question: How would this look if I rotate my camera around a center point? Utilizing the multiple exposure function of my camera, I take 10 images. With my understanding of geometry I have made a decision how to distribute them over the circle. The result is one image, which I edit in the usual way in Lightroom (there is no use of Photoshop). Despite the technique being clear-cut, the application requires practice and intuition due to the difficulty of previsualizing the final picture.

If there are lines in nature, I will have lines in the image. If one looks closely, the viewer will be able to discern ridge lines, shapes of mountains or other forms in nature that repeat.

Currently, I am not utilizing my tripod to stabilize the camera. After a year of hand-holding the camera because I was not aware of a head that could rotate around the axis of the lens, it feels inorganic to me now to do it any other way. This limits my ability, though, to take images with low amounts of light. It also requires me to have a feel for rotating the camera about equal angles between each exposure for which I have developed a sense by now.

Here is a series of images that show what I saw and the image resulting of the technique applied to the scene.

Technical information:

Currently, I shoot with a Nikon digital SLR and edit on an iMac using Lightroom for about 90% and Photoshop for about 10%. When taking pictures, my goal is to create as much as possible within the camera and to keep the use of editing software to a minimum. Any editing I do could have been done in a regular darkroomI do not own any plug-ins. Using a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 I print my images on a variety of papers, up to a size of 12 x 18 inches. For anything larger or special media, I use a professional print lab. I enjoy experimenting with different forms of presentation, especially those that have the image go all the way to the edge.