Many long years ago as a school student, my art teacher called me aside at the end of the year and informed me that he was going to give me two bonus marks for my final assessment. I think this was for the benefit of both of us, for me it meant a pass and for him, none of the class failed.

We both realised that art was not one of my strongest subjects so we parted our ways, probably pleased to see the last of each other. I moved on to the science subjects of chemistry and physics where everything was real and meaningful and there wasn’t a need to use one’s imagination in order to be creative. I still remember every action had an equal and opposite reaction. Well my reaction was to clap my hands and rid myself of the artistic world in which I was practically a failure.

It was around that same time that I took up photography, a hobby that included the physics of light and the chemistry of film development. I was happy.  Over the last 50 years I’ve slowly come to realise that photography and art go hand in hand to some extent but realism and photo-journalism had been my thing in the past. Everything sharp and accurate, that’s the way the brain worked, until recently. Great cameras, fabulous lenses with incredible optics, all in the quest for the pin sharp image.

Occasionally something would go wrong. The shutter speed was too slow, the lens didn’t focus where I wanted, or the camera moved when it shouldn’t. Those images would be blurred and useless but somehow they had some appeal. Little did I know that the dormant and artistic right side of the brain was showing signs of awakening.

It was only recently that I decided to undertake a course in Impressionist Photography run by one of my Facebook friends, Eva Polak, a New Zealander who specialises in this form of artistic photography. With great enthusiasm, I have discovered a new and refreshing dimension of photography, one that I’m sure will remain with me.

Learning the distinction between abstract and impressionism took a little while but once I got the feel of it, the creative juices began to flow. For me that’s a big achievement when I think back to my school days and that drawing stick figures was about the limit of my artistic ability.

Here are some of my recent and not so recent images that have now seen the light of day thanks to Eva and her course. All images were totally created in-camera except the last two abstract images that were produced from regular images but using editing software to create the effect.

Red Barn

Dawn

Tram Stop

Innocence

Behind Bars

Baby Face

Take Off

Dazzled

Sparkling Melbourne

Whirlwind

Firefly