John Enman
Sometimes we need to think up a reason to get out with our cameras. This past week I have been lazy. I would look out my windows at the sunny blue skies and the melting snow as I sat relaxing with my cat Pippin sleeping on my lap and think that I really should do something.
With that lazy thought in mind I could see shadows from the wood railing on the snow covered deck. Now there’s a project that will be fun: I’ll wander my yard and photograph shadows.
So that’s what I did on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I’d wait till after noon when the shadows were the longest and wander my yard with my camera for just short of an hour each day.
The yard in front of my house is bushy. I have many lilacs that shield me from the road that goes by my home and when the weather is warm I can sit on my front porch and not be seen by anything or anyone that passes.
Along with the lilacs, Oregon grape and other plants, there is an odd variety of odd items that I have found and placed about. Chains, parts of bicycles, pots (some broken) wheels of all sorts and sizes, unusable chairs, pieces of glass, old window frames and pottery. Unusable old shovels, weird wrought iron stuff, all sorts of things hanging from bushes and trees and there is even a couple of old vintage film projectors. I find things that I like and “plant” ‘em in my garden. There is so much more than flowers to photograph.
So I mounted my 70-180 mm macro lens on my camera and went to see what interesting things there were to point my camera at.
Shadows are everywhere, but getting an interesting photograph isn’t as easy as pointing and shooting. Each subject became a study of what angle gave the most interesting shadow. With my camera on its manual mode I was constantly changing the settings. If my subject had movement I needed a fast shutter speed. If there was clutter in the background I needed a wide aperture. Sometimes my subject needed a slow shutter and small apertures of F8 or even F16. My pant knees got wet and icy snow dropped down my neck.
My yard buddy, Bailin the cat, as always, followed me everywhere and chased off any feral cat that came near. There are three feral cats living on my porch and when I come home and stop my car at the gate they and Bailin always come to meet me. I’ll say that along with my many shadow photos there are many of Bailin.
I know that many of my shadow shots didn’t work. But I just try to see what does, an under exposed background, glowing light-filled icicles or just shadows on the snow. Some photos work and many don’t. Nevertheless, I have a good time walking around the subject-filled garden in any weather. It’s a photographer’s garden with lots of stuff to photograph.
I have now loaded all my shadow images on my computer, selected one for this article and some will become calendar photos during the next nine months of 2024.
For next week I might venture a little bit further for my photos. I have a trip to Vancouver planned for the first weekend in April. But for now I’ll stick close to home and be as creative as possible in an environment that I know so well.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
