As we all navigate the pandemic as best we can, staying positive is one of the greater challenges. To break the insidiously lurking "everyday is Blursday" feeling, I needed a new photographic outlet not involving an international flight. Full disclosure, I stole this idea from the Dutch photographer, Maarten Rots, at maartenrots.nl, and set about to shoot abstracts locally...very locally.

The rules of the game were that they all had to be shot in the house utilizing only things I saw every day. Unlike Maarten's home, there are little in the way of slashing shadows and brightly colored interiors in our home, so other avenues would have to serve.

I had recently acquired a used copy of  the venerable Nikon 200mm Micro. After searching the big photography houses first to no avail, I finally found one available, online, at Glazers Camera in Seattle. In fact, they had two. When it arrived, it was in pristine shape. The plastic Manual/Auto ring, that is typically broken, was perfect and it appeared that someone had bought the lens years ago, and forgot it was in the cupboard. And, there was almost no scoring on the lens mount. Final score -  Bill: 1, Pandemic: nil

It was an easy choice to use the opportunity to get acquainted with the new lens shooting macros, as well as refreshing my skills with in-camera multiple exposures. The results can be seen on the posted gallery cleverly titled Housebound Abstracts. 

I have had great fun, especially when family and friends try to guess how and where the images were made. I will continue to add to the collection and hope to expand on these and other techniques. As my Whidbey Island friend Jan wrote, "It is amazing what you can find right under your nose, if you just look."

Give it a go!