As an industrial and commercial photographer for many years I have photographed many interesting subjects and some unbelievably boring one too, but I have always wanted to create my own images. This how I experimented and generated an image.

I got this idea from capturing some close up images of condensation on the inside of a bottle. I just needed a lot more condensation to play with.

So with one pyrex glass bowl, some boiling water and some cling film I had an abundance of condensation – photo-1. I used a standard 50mm lens with a 12mm extension tube between the camera and the lens – photo-2. In photo-3 you can see that this creates a very narrow field of focus, however the areas that are out of focus are just as interesting as the one that is in focus.

In Photoshop, I created a 4 x size blank canvas. I dragged the image into one corner then flipped it horizontally the vertically to create a kaleidoscopic effect – photo-4

This process was repeated in photo-5.

Although this image looks very monochrome it is still a colour file. So just as an experiment, I increased the saturation and changed the colours – photo-6

With photo-7 all I have done is throw everything out of focus to create these amazing circular rings. Who would have thought a completely out of focus image could be so visually interesting!

This was all photographed in the conservatory and lit by sunlight with some very basic equipment.

Forbes Stephenson

[Click on photograph for enlarged image – Ed]