Abstracts in Nature 1

I remember some of the first lessons I learned from my father about photography. While he was trying to share his hobby and his passion with me, he didn't just come out and say, 'Do this,' or, 'Don't do that,' or, 'This is wrong.'
What he did teach me is photography is about light and shadow, shape and form. It's a lesson I've tried to embrace and carry forward with me into my photography today.
Now, I don't know if I've got a specific "style" or any of those fancy buzz-words some photographers and artists like to use to describe their work. But, I do think I have a pretty good grasp of what I like, and don't like, about my work and about photography and art in general.
Take this image, for example. There wasn't a lot of forethought or planning that went in to it. I was driving back to my office today. As I've said before, I like taking alternative routes, not following the same path between points A and B. It gives me a chance to see things I might not otherwise see.
And this is a prime example of that. I'd actually stopped along a gravel road north of Girard to photograph a pipe gate in a barbed-wire fence. The pipe was painted a reddish, almost primer color which stood out nicely, I thought, against the lightly-clouded blue sky.
After I finished up shooting the gate, I was walking back to the truck when I saw this bush. Almost as an afterthought, I set the camera to wide-area focus and aperture-priority metering and dialed the exposure down a couple of clicks. Then, I just held the camera at arms length and fired off a few frames.
I didn't frame through the viewfinder. I just shot. Sometimes, I get the feeling I over-think images. And, when that happens, I'm not happy with the results about half the time. Sometimes, when I just shoot, the images turn out better than if I'd planned, prepared, sketched, etc., the image out in my mind before hand.
Sometimes, I just have to let my photography go and let the images happen. When I'm able to do that, I remember the passion I have for, and the love of, photography instilled in my all those years ago by my dad.