Landscape,  Lens-Artists,  Nature and wildlife,  Photographic techniques

Gallery: photographing texture

May 10, 2026 / 57 Comments

Surfaces reveal so much. The marks painters make reveal so much about their work and themselves; their sense of proportion, line, and rhythm is more telling than their signature. Looking at the surfaces of nature may offer equivalent revelations. What do these shapes and patterns reveal about the world and their creator? Surfaces hide so much.

John Paul Caponigro, photographer

A photograph is a two-dimensional artefact, whether digital or printed. Yet its apparently flat surface can reveal three-dimensional textures, especially when we get the lighting right. Texture is most clearly seen when hit by lighting at an angle, bringing out areas of light and shade. Flat lighting, on the other hand, can conceal texture. Contrasting colours help, but the light is (almost) everything!

For Anne’s Lens Artist challenge this week I have, as I often do, trawled the archives. I found examples of texture in a variety of surfaces so have arranged my galleries accordingly. While humans have always created textures, for instance in their art, their buildings and their clothing, for this exercise I have focused only on naturally occurring textures.

Click on any image in my galleries to open a captioned slideshow (apologies, the captions may not appear if viewing on a phone)

Textures of wood
Textures of rock and stone
Textures of plants
Animal textures

57 Comments

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