In some situations, you’ll want to deliberately merge separate elements—sometimes for humor, other times for abstraction. The goal of a successful “merger” is to cause the viewer a momentary sense of disorientation.
When we lived in France, Céline would babysit our two daughters. Céline was also interested in modeling, but on our first outing together it did nothing but rain most of the afternoon. So I asked Céline to stand with her arms outstretched, touching the car’s roof, and shot a rather abstract image of her through the rain-soaked glass. After taking several shots, one of which appears first, the idea came to me: What if Céline moved a wee bit to her left? I might be able to deliberately merge drops of rain over her eyes—and, as luck would have it, I was able to do just that. As the second image shows, my daughters’ babysitter was indeed someone you wouldn’t want to mess with!
Nikkor 35–70mm lens at 35mm, f/8 for 1/30 sec., ISO 100