This shot was taken in a store in Port Carling, Muskoka, when I was in northern Ontario at the invitation of the Canadian Tourism Commission three years ago. It was late September, but the Christmas decorations were in store windows throughout the state.
I asked permission to use my camera to shoot this window display and I was using a Canon EOS 3000, a film camera, at the time. It was a few months before I bought my Pentax K100D and in retrospect, I think I would have got a better result if I'd been shooting with a digital camera.
Why? Simply because I would have reviewed the shot on the LCD screen (which is not possible on a film camera) and tinkered with the settings if I wasn't happy with the result.
Yes, it was a challenging shot to take, because the window was in shadow, while the cars outside, on the main street, were in bright sunlight. I still like the shot, because it is a cross between inside-looking-out and outside-looking-in. It takes a few seconds to work out which aspect is which.
In the first version (above), I guess you have to look closely to ascertain that the silhouettes are not real people. In the second version (below) it is patently obvious that the figures are scale models. But that's the joy of a real photographic challenge. If the light isn't quite what you expect, use it to your advantage, by thinking about a change of composition.
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