This exercise for photographing your shadow from Alessandra Cave's book Shooting with Soul is one of my personal favorite things to do. The one thing that I will now try, that I hadn't considered before, is to incorporate an interesting surrounding and texture with the shadow. In the past, I generally went for a clean surface for the shadow along with the elemental focus of the photo. Below, Alessandra's photo is gorgeous and also cool because it combines another of my faves- spelling out a word with objects.
Instructions
1. Find an interesting location to capture your shadow.
2. Choose a light-colored, clean background for better contrast with your shadow.
3. Play with architectural lines, color, interesting surfaces, patterns, and textures.
4. Observe the light. When the sun is very low in the sky—either in the early morning or the late afternoon—you will cast more interesting, softer, and longer shadows. Around midday, when the sun is directly overhead, your shadows will be harder and shorter.
Techniques:
• Turn off your flash. You need the contrast between the light and dark when capturing interesting shadows.
• Use a tripod or prop the camera on a secure surface to free your hands and body for interesting posing.
• Use a self-timer or remote so you can jump, wave, etc. (Hint: Your tripod will most likely also show up in the photo unless you can place it behind or away from the light source.)
SHOT IDEAS
• For an interesting variation, photograph your shadow cast onto a wall instead of on the ground.
• Take a picture of your shadow with an interesting or unusual pose.
• Interact with your environment: Take a photo of a shadow of you touching, holding, or pointing at something around you.
-----------------------
More about the Quarry photography book:
Shooting with Soul: 44 Photography Exercises Exploring Life, Beauty and Self-Expression - From film to Smartphones, capture images using cameras from yesterday and today.
by Alessandra Cave
Shooting with Soul is glorious and beautiful book for anyone who loves to take pictures. Whether you are an aspirational photographer, artist, creative mom, or blogger, you will enjoy expanding your understanding of this medium by exploring 44 weeks of unique and reflective prompts and exercises aimed to demystify seemingly “techie” topics and enhance your creative self-expression. No matter what camera you own, an SLR, point and shoot, or even a camera phone, this book offers tips and methods for any device that snaps a photo.
New technology is making it easier to share photography, and interest in photos is being fueled by the popularity of photo-based apps and social networking sites such as Pinterest, Instagram, Hipstamatic, Flickr, and tumblr blogs. Sharing photos with friends and family has become as easy as pushing a button, however, finding the right photos to take and coming up with creative concepts for jaw-dropping photos remains something that needs to be explored and fostered.
Shooting with Soul teaches successful photography methods through an approach that is very much like journaling. By putting deep thought and feeling into the process, and into the exercises, which focus on personal exploration and autobiographical information, you will become able to create images that are infused with soul and that connect you with your viewers more deeply, whether they are friends and family, a professional art audience, or followers of a blog or website.
She currently lives in San Francisco and splits her time between commercial and editorial photography assignments, teaching workshops at creative retreats, and raising her amazing daughter, who is her biggest creative achievement to date.
Alessandra holds a Master in Arts degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design, but she considers herself completely self-taught when it comes to photography. A former contributor to Shutter Sisters, the widely acclaimed photo-blog celebrating women photographers, Alessandra is passionate about inspiring and empowering women to pick up the camera and follow their creative dreams. Her work has been featured extensively around the world-wide-web, as well as in national and international publications, such as:
The Beauty of Different, Nine to Five,
Artful Blogging,
Somerset Studio and
Mingle. You can follow her work and journey at
www.alessandracave.com.
I have the book and really enjoy the exercises. I have hated taking pictures of myself in the past, but she is helping me overcome that and to celebrate those pictures instead.
Posted by: Judy Hudgins | June 25, 2014 at 07:05 AM