Objects in Motion

The October assignment in my still-life photo project for this year was “Objects in Motion”…

…and let me tell you, it brought an interesting experience.

The theme felt intriguing but challenging. I had some ideas — like capturing small tin balls hanging on ropes that swing and collide with one another — you know that design? But I didn’t have the objects and couldn’t manage to create anything. I didn’t use the time I had and lacked motivation. Everything felt wrong.

So eventually, because I didn’t want to skip this entirely, I took a transparent plastic bottle, set a nice textured background against a table and rolled the bottle across the table while using different shutter speeds to capture the movement.

Everything went wrong again. No capture looked worth keeping, and when I saw the background on my PC screen, its blotchiness looked horrible.

Yet the month was over and I had nothing else to work with, so I chose one of the photos, deleted the rest, and started playing with some creative adjustments. I even asked my AI “friend” Claude for ideas on how to process such a seemingly uneditable photo. The suggested options were interesting but not quite applicable to that particular photo. In hindsight, I should have shared the original photo along with my questions — that might have helped Claude target the ideas better. One suggestion fitted my vision though — creating a triptych with vibrant colours.

That led me to finalize the image in a way I find bold and utterly unexpected.

I really like it. Three vertical columns – one stark black and white, one electric blue, one deep red, each containing those web-like patterns that seem to whirl and flow. The columns remain open at the top, as if the energy might escape or continue beyond the frame. I find it playful and visually striking, and the abstraction would never let you guess where it started from.

As you can see, my despair turned into a lesson once again. Never give up — show up with openness to ideas and inspiration, and only then you can get somewhere.

The assignment for November featured “Limited Colour Palette”, which I’ll be sharing next time…