Since I've been talking in another thread about how we can learn from the competitions I thought I'd post up the other pictures I took for the 'Shadows' competition. Warts and all... I hope it illustrates at least the workings of my mind in approaching the competition !

I'd already worked out that I wanted a picture of somebody on a bike, from above, such that the shadow was a stronger image than the real object. I set off for Bournemouth on a sunny day to take that picture. I was convinced that I'd be able to get the picture I wanted by looking down from the pier as the many cyclists went underneath on the beach-side road. On that I was conpletely wrong, since the roadway doesn't actually go under the pier at all...

Having parked on the cliff-top at the Boscombe end I stayed above the beach and tried a few shots of passing people and bikes. Here's a 'contact sheet' exactly as shown on screen (before the 'auto-levels' that is always needed on these shots):

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/contacts1.jpg

It was becoming apparent that the scene was too cluttered (the stripes on the road), and that bikes move much too fast to get the shots I wanted. From those about the only one with any promise was 3251, but that would need a lot of cropping:

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/beachshadowbike.jpg

and maybe:
http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/beachshadows1.jpg

I didn't feel this was getting there, so I walked further along towards the pier:

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/contacts2.jpg

This is where the Gatso picture came from, for the first the timing was off, but the second got the blurred car in the right place. Shame about the manhole cover:

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/Gatso.jpg

I now felt as if I was getting somewhere, and had tuned in to looking at just shadows.

A bit further along is the Russell-Coates Gallery, which has a garden with lots of spiky plants and some sculptures:

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/contacts3.jpg

Now this felt good. Getting down low and moving about gave some very interesting shadows. This is where 'Palm' (which upon closer examination is probably a Yucca) came from, but a couple of other possibilities too:

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/gardenshadows1.jpg

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/GardenArt.jpg

The last one reminded me of the jagged pieces left after the fall of the WTC.

From there to the pier. Having discovered that the road doesn't go under the pier I simply went out on the pier instead. By looking as if I was focussing on the distant view I found that people simply walked in front of the camera without a second glance at me. If you try this, don't look at them but appear to wait for them to get out of the way, just take the picture anyway...

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/contacts5.jpg

After a few tryouts I'd found a composition with the distant cliff-line coming down to the sea and the boards making a nice centre to the picture. I saw the 'Holding Hands' couple approaching, in this case I held the camera pointed at the view, but watched them without looking through the camera, using the boards on the pier as a guide to when they'd be in the right place:

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/HoldingHands.jpg

And one more for luck - I liked the way the couple looked in the picture but couldn't tell whether I'd got the shadow right... so not for the competition but one I like anyway:

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/piershadow1.jpg




http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/gatso.jpg
So that was the walk to the pier, at which point I went into the centre to find a sandwich. The trip back to the car to follow later today...http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/gatso.jpg

:thumb: Nice one Ricardo. It's interesting to read your thought processes.

Second part. I ate my sandwich in the park, and spent some time just watching people and shadows...

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/contacts6.jpg

I spent a little while sidetracked by a leafy arbour that looked good through the camera, but failed to translate to anything useful afterwards. Then I started playing with the shadow of trees. This one was promising, but the people in the background didn't quite work:

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/bournepouthparktree.jpg

Likewise this one didn't gel. I'd deliberately done it with the 'horizon' in the middle, such that the foliage and the shadow had similar weight. I think it would be much better without the distant couple, but I wasn't going to aske them to move...

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/bournemouthparkgirl.jpg

And finally the walk back along the cliff, with a few half-hearted bike shots and another attempt at the Gatso now the sun had moved round. Then fortuitously I went through a little garden with the spheres. The first one (vertical shot) worked straight away, the other two were for insurance. On none of those three shots did I notice the cigarette end that I had to clone out - maybe I was tired... This really reminded me of the Moon, in fact I nearly entitled it Fallen Moon, but then I though that might be a bit odd.

http://www.thegaddfamily.co.uk/Other%20Pictures/Images/SphereV.jpg

All in all a very successful walk, I don't recall ever getting such a high keep to discard ratio before. Maybe that's because I was trying for one particular type of picture.

I never did get the bike shadow picture that I wanted though.