These Abstract Photos Will Make You See Natural Beauty in a New and Amazing Way

Photographer Thorsten Scheuermann spends a lot of time hiking through various national parks in the western US, capturing the incredible feats of nature on camera. His photos range from grand, sweeping vistas of deserts, river valleys and forests to classic “portrait” style images of trees, waterfalls and animals.

And sometimes, he goes for something a little different, framing the images in such a way that the less immediately noticeable, but no less beautiful, parts of the scenery get their own time in the spotlight.

Because of the way the photos are set up, the larger context is removed, and the viewer only sees the details, which now look like an abstract pattern of color, shape and texture. In this way, nature is presented in a beautiful new way that’s playful as well as mysterious. This is achieved by careful framing and cropping, and by eliminating any human presence or anything that can reference the scale of what you’re actually looking at. By removing size and location cues, we’re left with just the image, which might cover many square miles or only a few square inches, and we can simply absorb its beauty.

(via Thorsten Scheuermann)

“I love hiking in America’s National Parks,” Scheuermann says, “[I] enjoy capturing both grand vistas in beautiful light as well as intimate scenes just waiting to be discovered by visitors with an open mind and open eyes.”