Shadowy Abstracts

Photography is an art form that allows you to express yourself through the images you create.  While we tend to focus on light and how we use it to create images, we forget that the light is really nothing without the shadows.  The shadows are what define our subject.

The other day while cleaning up in my kitchen I noticed the shadows cast by a wine glass on the counter.  The bright sunlight pouring through the kitchen window created a shadowy abstract shape.

I decided to experiment with this observation by using different types of glasses and a white sheet of paper.  I found that by allowing the paper to curl upward toward the back, the shadows cast by the sunlight through the glasses created a series of distorted shadowy images, that seem to twist and turn depending on their placement.  The images presented here are examples of how light and shadows interact with each other within an image. 

All images shot using a Sony A7II camera using natural window light.                                       

 

Shadows

I saw a frightful shadow on the floor

And wondered if this thing was mine

Surely this frightful shape could not be mine

And then it moved and then I knew

That this frightful shape upon the floor was mine

So, join me and check out that shadow on your floor.  As a photographer I am always aware of shadows cast by what I am shooting - while a shadow has a shape it also changes as the light falling on it changes -and this sometimes creates shapes that seem alien to the image that is casting them. 

In this series of images - I have treated the image cast on the floor in sets of four panels -sort of like comic book panels each one relating to the next -as if they are telling a story. I leave it to the viewers imagination to supply the story -they are only my shadows but the story is your interpretation.